Page 64 of Maverick
You didn’t lie to Prez.
You didn’t lie in Church.
I’d done both by omitting the truth about her. I could throw Shadow and Chaos under the bus, tell him they knew and told me not to tell him, but the truth was, this was on me. I’d made that decision, and I needed to cop it.
“Your woman is Ironborne?” he asked, his temper masked in confusion, before he turned to Mannix. “Is this true?”
Mannix nodded. “Tavi has never truly been Ironborne, only born into the legacy. Trust me, she’s tried to free herself from it for as long as I can remember.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Is this why you’ve been sneaking around, ignoring calls?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore, Prez. She’s gone, left me with a flimsy note.”
Reaper didn’t look convinced, but it was Mannix’s expression that stole over my chest, making it hard to breathe.
“A note? She wouldn’t end things in a note. She’s not like that. Can I read it?”
I nodded, slowly, unsure of what else I could do. At this point, we may as well put it up on the screen and show the entire fucking clubhouse.
Mannix sighed, before he frowned again. “She may have written this note, Maverick, but she didn’t do it with malice in mind.”
“How so?” Reaper asked, suddenly rising from his seat.
“She mentions Van, but without you, or my help, she couldn’t truly protect him. She hasn’t come to me, which means there’s only one thing she could do. She bargained with the devil, and judging by the way she signed off this note, I can tell you that’s exactly what she’s done.”
“Explain,” Reaper demanded.
“She signed off Octavia Bainbridge,” he answered, as if it were obvious.
“That’s her name.”
“But she doesn’t go by Bainbridge. She’s only just found out he married her without her knowledge, but she’s never been a Bainbridge, ever. Remember, in Australia, you don’t legally have to change your name when you marry. You have to make the choice to. Since she never knew, she never had her name changed. But aside from that, she’d never use Octavia to sign a note. I don’t think she’s ever used Octavia as her name. She’s always been Tavi, since she was a kid.”
“What does that mean?” I begged of him.
“It means…she left you a clue as to where she had gone. She either thought she had to do this because there were eyes inside this club and it needed to look real, and she left this clue for you, or he manipulated her, threatened the club, or even Van, and she had to return, but she wanted you to know where she’d gone.”
I hated this motherfucker more than I could fathom. He’d taken her from me. Used the club, me, or Van, maybe all of them, to take her back. Fuck this fucker was going to be dead, but notquickly. No…I couldn’t have that. In fact, I may just kill him, revive him, and kill him over and over again until I was satisfied.
Not that I think I could ever be satisfied with his death. Nothing could satisfy me with the level of hatred I had for this motherfucker.
“She wouldn’t take Van back to him,” Mannix stated. “Is he still here?”
I turned to Trojan. “Look up the surveillance from when she left.”
He nodded, tapping away at the computer. Reaper hadn’t said a word. That was worrying in itself, but my mind was on Tavi. Why hadn’t she come to me with this? I would have protected her. The entire fucking club would have. She was the VP’s ol’ lady.
No…she wasn’t. I’d never claimed her. Fuck. Still, my brothers wouldn’t let me down if I asked it of them. I knew that, and yet, I’d kept her my dirty little secret.
The door to Chapel opened and I looked over at Animal, who had a crying Lani with him, then my eyes shot down to Van, clutching at her leg. When he saw me, he cried out and raised his arms for me to pick him up.
Immediately I bent and scooped him into my arms, feeling his little arms wrap around my neck tightly. “Explain…now.”
Lani sobbed and held out a letter. “She asked me…she told me there was a reason, and she would explain when it was time. I didn’t…I didn’t know, Dad, I promise.”
“From the top, Lani.”
Animal stepped forward. “Seems your woman asked Lani to watch over Van for a bit, said she had to take care of something, and Van needed to stay here, but she had to keep it secret. Lani promised her. Then this letter came, and she thought it may be for Mari, because it’s from a lawyer, and she figured Parker wasgoing to be an asshole so she intercepted it. But, it’s not for Mari. It’s for you.”
