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I don’t have much more resistance left in me.
CHAPTER14
MAVERICK
I’m getting ready for poker night tonight at the club. I slick my hair back and finish combing out my beard before spraying on some Sauvage. Slipping into my gray dress shirt, I button it up, leaving the top three undone before rolling up my sleeves.
The ink covering my forearms is present and showing. A mix of skulls, some smiling and some screaming intertwined with vines as if they are trapped until they stop right at my wrists.
I grab my rings off the countertop and put each one on before looking at myself in the mirror.
Good enough. It’s just a fucking card game and even if I dip my dick into Lincoln tonight, I don’t need to look put together in order for that to happen.
Leaving my bedroom behind me, I enter the hallway and stop at October’s room and thwack my knuckles against the frame. The rings cause the sound to be louder than if my fingers were bare.
“Come in,” I hear her yell from her bathroom, and I peer in and see her brushing some black shit across her eyes. Looks like an inkpot, but as she turns to me, I notice it’s an odd-shaped triangle coming toward the end. I think they call the shit wings or something. It looks good, but she always looks good. A natural beauty that still amazes me, considering I look average. How is she my female carbon copy?
“Hey, old man. What’s up?” She turns back around and looks straight into the mirror. It’s been two weeks since I drew the hard line in the sand, and October hasn’t been trying to push over it. She’s been her typical outgoing self, but no more innuendos. No touches. Nothing. I would be lying if I say I don’t miss it. If I haven’t been silently holding my breath, just waiting for her to do something.
“I’m heading out. Poker with the guys. You all good here?” I lean against the door frame, folding my arms against my chest so I can peer at her, but mostly so I can keep my fucking hands to myself. Resist the temptation of bending her over the sink, pulling her head back by her hair, and fucking myself into her body as we watch ourselves in the mirror. She’d tremble, gripping for purchase on anything she could find before giving up and pushing her palms against the glass to brace herself.
“Yep, sure am. I’ve gotta finish getting ready, and then I’m heading out also.”
“Alright, well, you and Justina be careful, and let me know if you need anything. I’ll have my phone on.” I move to turn around and head back out when the next words to leave her mouth stop me in my tracks.
“Oh, I’m not going out with Just. I have a date tonight, but I’ll let you know if I’m not coming home tonight, so you don’t worry.” It’s the way she says it so nonchalantly that has me taking a deep breath. I know when she’s spurring me on, and this isn’t it. She’s being sincere and I think that’s what has the lead ball in my gut feeling even heavier.
“Well, be careful, and please keep your phone on. I hope you have a good time, and remember you don't have to do anything you don’t want to do. Love ya, wildcat.” I don’t wait for a response and just walk away, heading down the stairs and out the door until I slide into the driver's seat of my car.
I hit the contact on my console and let the ring echo throughout the car until a voice gruffer than my own comes on the line, “Maverick Davis, to what do I owe the pleasure of your call?”
I roll my eyes because this guy is nothing but a little shit, but he’s a smart little shit. Logan Walker has been the same private investigator that Clark and I have both been using for years. I remember we picked him up, slinking around as a teenager, and now look at the fucker. Thriving fucking business.
“My kid has a date tonight. I need someone to keep an eye out on her and give me updates. Don’t engage, just keep me plugged in so I can make sure she’s good.”
“Ain’t she in her twenties? You plan on cutting the purse strings any time soon or just gonna keep her tucked into your pocket.” This annoyingly smug bastard.
“I don’t pay you for your smartass mouth, Walker. Just do it,” I bark out, already feeling my stress levels rising.
“Roger that. Charging you extra for your rude attitude, though. You can make it up to me by setting me up with Wilde brothers at the club for a scene.” I roll my eyes but agree before hanging up so I can call Clark. I need to fucking rant at him, and he sure the fuck can listen to it since I dealt with his crisis of conscience with Caroline.
We talk for the twenty minutes it takes me to reach the parking garage next to my business, and it’s not until Clark says, “Well, all I’m hearing is you want me to convince you why not to do it, but Mav, you won’t get that here. I’m not anymore of a paragon of propriety than you are. She’s an adult, older even than Caroline, and you are younger than me. The age difference isn’t even as vast and sounds to me like October is of sound mind. I mean Christ, I forced Caroline’s hand. The entire situation is different. Either fucking give in and maybe find some fucking happiness for once instead of just being content, or let her fucking go. To be frank, shit or get the hell off the pot.”
I hate him. I don’t, but it felt good to think it for a split second. I know that everything he’s said is true, but my own mother’s words play on repeat in my head.
You’ll never be anything but a deviant turning all into sin. Nothing you ever do will be right. This is my punishment; I just know it. You will be the ruin of everything you touch. Mark my words.
“I hear you. Fuck, I hear you, but you know my hang-ups. You coming to poker tonight?” I change the subject, but he tells me deftly that he won’t be attending tonight, which causes me to sigh. He could have kicked my ass verbally in person also, and I’m nothing, if not a fucking masochist.
* * *
We’re all gathered around the table in the poker room of Opal, and I keep glancing at my phone that I’ve left face up, impatiently waiting for an update. I know October left the house in her car and didn’t get picked up. I don’t know whether to be annoyed because the man couldn’t even pick her up, or grateful that she’s got her own car and isn’t dependent on someone bringing her home.
“You might as well fold now. You’re so distracted taking your money is becoming entirely too easy,” Lincoln says from my right side, and the other assholes I call my friends laugh along with him.
I flip them off right before my phone goes off.
Walker: Hello, Daddy. You can chill on sprouting any more gray hair. She just walked into Onyx and is sitting at one of the booths in the west corner with her date. I’ll keep eyes on her in case she takes off, but I don’t think she will leave with him.
