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Toni laughed and held her hand up for Zach to high-five. As their palms slapped together, Mav made a mock vomit noise. They’d started this little hand-slap routine a few weeks ago, and it was as dumb as it was juvenile.
“Hey, Toni,” he said, not feeling very playful anymore. “Sorry I bailed on you guys last night. Didn’t mean for you to go to any trouble on my account. Won’t happen again, sweet stuff.”
Wiggling herself out of Zach’s hold, she rose and planted a kiss on Mav’s cheek. Sweetness and sunshine with a backbone of pure steel. That’s what Toni was. “No worries, Mav.” She glanced back at her man. “I was just worried about you. You’ve been off since…well, you know. Where’d you end up last night anyway?”
Where had he been? At a strip club, conducting an experiment of sorts. A very failed experiment consisting of him leaving ten minutes after arriving.
When he only shrugged, Toni nodded and gave him a smile. “I’ll let you boys talk. Shell’s supposedly here somewhere with Beth, so I’m going to track them down.”
She started to walk away but Zach snagged her hand, reeled her close, and laid a kiss on her that had her breathless and swaying when he was finished. “I won’t be long, babe. We got a sunset to see.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” She nodded, her eyes glassy, and stumbled toward the back of the clubhouse.
“So, how you feeling, man?” Zach asked when his eyes were no longer glued to his woman’s ass.
“Good.” Mav drained his beer and set the bottle down. “Great actually. Been three days since I’ve taken any of that pain shit. Even dropped the Motrin.”
“That’s fucking great.” Zach ran a hand through his perfect blond hair. The hair that helped craft his nickname. He was a dead-ringer for Zack Morris, the teen heartthrob from the nineties show Saved by the Bell. Zach hated the meaning behind the name at first, but even he couldn’t deny the striking resemblance. He was a jacked version of Mark Paul Gosselaar for sure.
“Yeah. What are you up to tomorrow? I’m meeting with Rip about some ink.”
Zach fell silent then said, “For your arm?”
For his arm. It nearly killed him when that brand was destroyed. The physical pain had been so intense the only thing that got him through was Stephanie’s beautiful gaze locked with his, but the pain of losing something so meaningful to him ached ten times worse.
“Yeah, I’m not getting inked tomorrow, just meeting with Rip to see what my options are with the skin graft and scarring.”
“Shit, man. I’ve got personal training sessions all day. Let me see what I can move around.” Zach owned the only gym in town, and while he had a great team working for him and barely had to show his face, he loved the place and still took on quite a few clients.
“Nah, man, don’t fuck with your schedule. I’m good. Not like I haven’t been there before.”
They both laughed. Mav had so much ink he was running low on space for new tats.
“You sure?” Zach asked.
“Maverick!” Copper bellowed from the clubhouse side of the building. “Get your scrawny fucking ass in here. Pronto!”
“Uh oh.” Zach coughed in the shittiest attempt at not laughing. “Daddy’s pissed. What’d you do? Have a girl in your room with the door closed?”
“Fuck off.”
“Toni left the extra food in the fridge for you.”
Christ, she was a sweetheart.
“Good woman you got there, Z.”
“Fuckin’ know it, brother.”
“Still think I can get her to ditch you for me.”
“Never gonna happen.” It’d been a running joke since the two got together. Mav would die before making a move on the woman, and Zach knew it. But he was still a possessive monster when it came to his ol’ lady, and Mav jumped on every opportunity to get under his brother’s skin.
Maverick smirked then slapped Zach on the back. He moseyed on over to Copper’s office. “What’s up, Prez,” he asked as he stepped through the door.
Seated behind his desk, Copper’s scowl was fiercer than usual. Good thing Mav didn’t scare easily. He might be inclined to slink out of the office otherwise. “Looking a little tense, Cop. You need me to rub your feet or some shit?”
“No, I don’t need you to rub my damn feet. I need you to take this one up to your room.” Cop gestured with his head as he spoke, and it was then Maverick noticed Carli standing against the wall, a hopeful smile on her heavily made-up face. “Take her to your room and fuck her until she’s too tired to bring her bullshit into my office.”
The smile took a dive off Carli’s face, and her expression hardened.
Shit.
That girl could throw a fit like no other. And if she did so in Copper’s office, there’d be hell to pay for both Carli and Maverick. Even though he was clueless as to the bullshit Copper mentioned.
