Sanctum: A Motorcycle Club Romance Novel (4 page)

“
No. I took the long way
down and around from Eagleton. I just got into town this morning,
”
she said.

Henry nodded.
“
Talk
to Drake downstairs. He has connections to a realtor here in town. He can
probably arrange a house for you to stay in until we can get you settled
somewhere permanent.
” 
He
looked at her with a questioning eyebrow.
“
Assuming,
that is, that you aren’t planning on running off again as soon as I solve your
little problem?
”

Maggie immediately opened her mouth to
spew out the knee-jerk, anti-authoritative bile that often passed as
conversation between her and her father, but she stopped herself. She knew she
was in no position to give attitude, no matter how badly she wanted to do it.
And the truth was, she hadn’t planned her future at all, because she still
wasn’t
sure she was going to have one.

She swallowed her words and simply nodded
at her father.
“
That sounds fine.
Thank you.
”

Henry nodded.
“We’ll
get this taken care of. If these people are as
dangerous as you say, and if I
’
m
going to protect you properly, I need your promise that you’ll leave that
rebellious bullshit at the front door. I
’
m
in charge here, and you’ll do as I say, when I say it. You
’
re
my daughter, and I won’t leave you with the wolves, but I’ll be damned if you
’
re
going to abandon your family, come crawling back for help, and put them in
danger because you
’
re
too proud to shut up and listen once in a while. I call the shots, or you can
hit the road and take your chances on your own again. Is that clear?
”

Even as part of her was screaming that she
had made a huge mistake, Maggie nodded again. Her pride wasn’t worth her life.
“
Yes.
Understood.
”

“
Good,
”
said Henry. He stood up from the chair, and on
instinct Maggie stood up with him.
“
Go
downstairs and talk to Drake. We
’
ll
get this taken care of.
”

Maggie waited for a moment, feeling
hesitant. Should she hug him? Shake his hand? There was no protocol for this
awkward moment. Henry cleared his throat and walked over to open the conference
room door for her, more or less showing her out. Maggie flushed with a bit of
embarrassment as she grabbed her purse and sunglasses and left the room. Henry
didn’t follow, but closed the door behind her, staying in the conference room
alone.

Someone had started up the jukebox in the
den, and a few more unfamiliar members joined Tommy and Beck at the bar. When
she came down the stairs, Tommy shouted her name happily and grabbed a beer,
cracking it open on the side of the counter.
“I can’t
believe you
’
re back!
”
he said as he handed it to her.

His kindness immediately took some of the
edge off her nerves. She took a seat at the bar and for a split second, she
felt welcome.
“Can’t
believe it myself,
”
said Maggie as she clinked her bottle against his in a
friendly cheers. She took a few grateful, deep swigs and tried to gather her
senses. When she realized her hands were shaking again, she put the bottle down
on the counter and shoved them into her pockets nonchalantly.
“
Henry
said I need to talk to Drake
…”

“
Well, if it ain’t my
lucky day!
”
said the one at the pool
table. He had begun a new cigarette, and patted his table partner on the
shoulder as he walked over with a cocky stride. His greasy blonde hair was done
up in a bun on top of his head. Toned, tanned arms showcased a wide array of
colorful old-school tattoos. He was attractive in his own way, but something in
his mannerisms made Maggie
’
s
skin crawl. 
“’
Cuz
you are about the finest looking bitch I’ve seen in this place in a
long ass
time.
”

The look on Tommy
’
s
face was priceless.
“
Dude,”
he
said, dragging the word out.

“
What?
”
said Drake. Then he yelped loudly when he felt Beck
’
s
meaty hand whack the back of the head mercilessly.
“
What
the fuck, man?!
”

“
That is
Maggie
Oliver
, you shithead!
”
said Beck without an ounce of humor.
“
As
in, your president
’
s
daughter?
”

The cigarette tumbled from Drake
’
s
lips as his jaw dropped. His eyes went wide.
“
Oh,
oh shit! Fuck me, man, I didn’t know
…
fuck,
please don’t tell your old man
…
I
didn’t mean any disrespect.
”

“
Oh? Do the other
‘
bitches
’
typically find that kind of talk respectful?
”
said Maggie with a hint of a smirk as she took a swig
of her beer.

“You
’
re
a goddamn moron, Drake,
”
said
Tommy, laughing.
“Henry
’
s
gonna kill you.
”

“
Hey, it was an honest
mistake! I’ve never met her before, Jesus! And you
’
re
one to talk about being a moron, Castillo.
”
Drake
leaned far over the bar and smacked Tommy the way Beck had smacked him. Maggie
just laughed and rolled her eyes at their boyish display and finished her beer
with a grateful breath.

“
Henry said you could find
me a house to stay in while I settle back into town,
”
said
Maggie.

“
Oh, no doubt,
”
said Drake as he straightened his shirt and cut. He
bent and picked his still-burning smoke off the ground and took a drag.
“
I
can definitely do that for you. Lemme make a few calls while Tommy gets you
another beer.
”

Tommy was two steps ahead of him and had
already put an open bottle on the counter in front of her. She tipped it to
Drake and said thanks, watching him pull out his phone and scoot off into the
quiet hallway.

“
He the new resident
‘
hook-up
artist
’
?”
said
Maggie to Beck. It seemed every new generation of the Black Dogs brought in
variations of the same types of men, and the hook-up artist was a valuable one.
The club always found itself in need of random skills and tools, and a good
hook-up artist acted like a spider in the middle of a web of connections,
brokering beneficial relationships between groups who would otherwise never
meet.

Beck looked at Drake and nodded.
“
Best
one we’ve had in a long time. That little shit
’
s
running so many deals, we can barely keep up with him.
”

“
He looks like he needs a
shower.
”

“
He probably does,
”
said Beck, and clinked her beer bottle with his as she
laughed.

After a few minutes, Maggie actually felt
a little like herself again as she sat at the bar, shooting the shit with Tommy
and Beck. For the first time in years, she felt safe. It was almost like she
had never left.

She listened to Tommy telling a story about
his wonderfully colorful
abuela
when
they heard the sound of the clubhouse door open and shut. Heavy footsteps came
down the hallway. She didn’t think much of it until one of the members at the
pool table behind her shouted,
“
Hey,
Jase! Time to defend your championship, bro!
”

Maggie felt her throat seize up and almost
choked on the swallow of beer she was halfway into when she heard his name. She
found her composure before she could make a complete ass of herself and gulped
it down, turning to face the doorway.

And there he was: Jase Campbell, all
six-foot-one of him. He had been painfully attractive before, and had only
become more-so as a fully grown man. He had shaved his jet black hair on the
sides and kept it long on top, giving him the appearance of somehow being
clean-cut and dangerous all at the same time. He had always been
broad-shouldered, but in the years since she had seen him, he had clearly been
hitting the gym hard. His arms and chest were huge, his waist whittled neatly
beneath his MC cut. And, as the men who joined the MC were wont to do, he had
abandoned the scruff in his early twenties and grown himself a dark beard and
moustache combination. He stood straight like a soldier, always standing out of
the crowd
—
even when that crowd consisted
of other alpha males like himself. Power seemed to flow off him like an
invisible aura.

Even her best dreams couldn’t do justice
to the reality of the man that Jase was. Maggie felt her stomach drop somewhere
near her ankles as she looked at him for the first time in almost
five-and-a-half years.

 Jase, the man she had loved.  The man who
had first loved her.

The man she had abandoned.

She couldn’t bring herself to do or say
anything in that moment, and no one else in the room seemed to realize she had
stopped breathing. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. She had promised
herself she would play this cool, but her heart was pounding in her chest like
a bird trying to escape from a cage.

Jase didn’t notice her, not right away. He
was looking at the man who had challenged him, smiling. His whole face lit up
when he smiled. He took a few steps into the den before he finally looked over
to the bar and saw her sitting there with a beer in her hand as if she had
never left in the first place.

As soon as he saw her, he stopped dead in
his tracks. The smile fell from his face, and in its place a red-tinted
darkness began to brew. He stared at her as if he was looking at a ghost and
she could see his chest heaving as his breaths came shorter and shorter.

“
Jase, look who it is!
”
said Tommy.
“
Maggie
’
s
back!
” 
He might have been oblivious, but even the cheer in
his voice couldn’t mask the tension building in the room.

Maggie stood up carefully from the
barstool and put her beer on the counter. She said nothing, made no motion
towards him. She only met his eyes and waited.

Everyone had stopped what they were doing
and watched Maggie and Jase with curious eyes. Maggie wondered if the way she
felt today was what it felt like to be famous: everyone constantly staring,
watching everywhere you went, waiting for you to fuck up
…
.
waiting for you to scream.  Maggie withered beneath their collective gaze.

“Yeah,”
said Jase suddenly. His
baritone voice sent shivers down Maggie
’
s
spine. She did her best not to let it show.
“
So
she is.
” 
After a pause, he took three hard steps towards the
bar and came to stand right in front of Maggie. She only came up to his
shoulders. She forgot what it felt like to feel so small next to a man, and it
wasn’t just his size that made her feel that way. The smell of his musk sent
overwhelming waves of memories through her mind.