Valor

Chapter 9

Maverick

I'm sitting in my office in the club, sorting through paperwork from out distributors and partners. Maybe it's because I'm the oldest, or maybe it's because I am the only one who cares, but I am in charge of the club. Kai and Dame help out with the dealings we do, and Onyx helps me as best as he can, but the legal side of our club is all on me.

Do we have enough liquor for the weekend?

Are we charging too much of an entrance fee?

Those thoughts are what occupy my mind on a normal Tuesday, unlike Onyx and Kai's who are out searching for and leads on Gregory Brands. It still seems surreal that this douche has a bounty on my head, and even more surreal that a hitman stopped by to let me know about it. When I first saw Lilah walk into this office, I was not expecting what she told us. It shocked me to my core and fed the beast inside me that has vowed to protect my brothers against every threat.

My phone pings and I drop the papers in my hands to grab it.

Onyx: Dead end. Be at the club in 5.

I groan internally. It's never been this difficult to get a lead on something, but Brands has covered his tracks recently. That doesn't stop him from getting bolder though. He had his men attack me at the club which means he really is serious about seeing me dead.

After a few more moments of signing papers and transferring money, I hear the distinctive stomps of men climbing the stairs to my office. I don't need to check security to know that its my brothers, so I put down my work and lean back in my chair as they all barge in mumbling, angrier than I thought they would be.

Onyx and Kai are having a heated conversation about tracking down more leads, but my sights are on Dame who has his switchblade out and is staring at it like he can embue it with poison. Worse, like he has a specific victim in mind. I thought taking Lilah home would give him a little bit of peace, but I guess our little firecracker got her claws in his before that could happen.

When did she become ours?

No matter how hard I try to fight it, I know deep down in my bones that that woman belongs to me. I don't really know her and frankly I don't care to. All I care about is to possess her, to own her. I know Kai feels the same way as me and one look in Dame's direction shows me we are all in the same boat. The one one I can't place is Onyx. He is very closed off with his emotions and though we are the closest of the four, he has yet to tell me much about what Lilah's abrupt disruption in our lives has brought him.

Onyx is the first to speak, "Brands is like a ghost. I swear, he's got men across the city, but none have seen that slimy fucker in two weeks. He knows we'll be coming for him."

"If Mav hadn't fucked that girl..." Kai mutters under his breath.

I roll my eyes. I would snark something at him if I wasn't so preoccupied with all the other shit in my life. Kai is only three years younger than me, but sometimes he acts like a child. Maybe it's just the big brother in me, but Kai's crazy doesn't match his childlike demenour.

He's not wrong about the girl though. I got drunk one night, met this girl at the club, fucked her, then just like usual kicked her ass out. Onyx is the only one who has ever had any form of a real relationship since living this life. The rest of us either don't want it or know it's not worth the pain that is would eventually cause.

I guess that girl didn't know shit, because she came back for days, begging to see me, and when I finally told her to 'fuck off' she ran back to daddy to complain. Imagine my fucking surprise when I found out that daddy was Gregory fucking Brands. I guess killing me is his way of avenging his precious angel.