Sacred Vow (Angels Halo MC Next Gen #5) - Terri Anne Browning Page 0,45
“I’ll let you know. The less time I have to think about all the crap that has been going on lately, the better.”
“Just don’t burn yourself out,” my best friend warned. “I need you around for at least the rest of my life. Don’t make any of us have to live without you. Do you hear me?”
I kissed her cheek one more time before opening the door. “I hear you, sexy.”
Closing the door behind me, I walked back to where Maverick was waiting on his motorcycle. “Are we going straight to work?” he asked when I reached him.
I gave him a quick kiss before stepping back. “I don’t want things to pile up. And you need to take care of your clients. Slacker.”
He grabbed me by the hips before I could get too far away and pulled me back. “Babe, if there was a choice between you and doing ink, it would always be you.” His kiss was a gentle caress of his lips over mine, making my head swim as I sank against his chest and kissed him back.
Lifting his head, he tapped me playfully on the ass. “Go on. I’ll be right behind you.”
I blinked up at him, trying to get my brain to clear. “I love you.”
“I know, baby.” He traced his thumb over my bottom lip. “I love you.”
Seventeen
Maverick
Everyone was tense when Uncle Bash called church the next morning. I arrived at the clubhouse barely half an hour after I’d gotten the text from him, the parking lot already overflowing with the others’ bikes. After what happened the day before, I knew our security level was red, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if my uncle announced we were going on lockdown for a while.
Pocketing my keys, I walked into the building behind my fellow MC brothers. The others were already sitting in the common room where there were couches, chairs, and pool tables, and several televisions were mounted on the walls. I’d grown up in this clubhouse. It was a second home to me. Hell, I might have spent more time playing there than I had at my parents’ house over the years.
“Mav, over here,” Kingston called, and I moved through the still-growing crowd of brothers to where he was standing with Jack and Elias.
“How’s River?” the three of them asked, almost in unison.
“She’s fine. I left her sleeping at home since there was no school today.” I would have rather brought her with me, or at least dropped her off at Uncle Bash’s house so she wouldn’t be left alone, but she’d whined and pouted when I’d tried to wake her up. Unable to leave without knowing she was protected, I’d set my Glock on the bedside table and made her promise to use it if she needed to. Gun safety was something every kid in our family learned at an early age, so I knew she could and would use it without hesitation.
But knowing Ramirez was out there, trying to take out someone I cared about and didn’t care who got caught in the cross fire, made me anxious to get back to River.
Max walked over to us, his dark hair falling over his forehead as he eyed me hard. “How’s my cousin?”
“Good, man. Tired but good.”
He gave a nod, but he seemed distracted as his eyes scanned around the room. “Ryan arrived last night. He’s still here, along with his mom and about twenty guards.”
“Fuck,” we all grumbled.
The MC worked for the Vitucci family, doing protection runs from the West Coast all the way to New York. Drugs. Guns. Even willing women at times. They had strip clubs all over the States, and sometimes they had girls who wanted—or needed—a change of scenery for whatever reason. Vitucci wanted to make sure each girl was relocated safely.
But just because we worked for them from time to time didn’t make them our boss. We had our own work that needed our attention without having to babysit them when they came to visit.
“He wants to leave five of them here to watch over Nova,” Max informed us, his jaw clenching. “Like we can’t take care of one of our own.”
“Now that we know there’s someone after Nova, we won’t let her go anywhere unprotected,” Jack told him. “We can work in shifts. Take her to school, stay with her all day if we have to, and then drop her off at home. Whatever it takes, man. She will be safe.”