Chapter 8

Vivian was scolding him for staying away from the office all day. He had been drinking but no amount of whiskey or wine would make him as drunk as he wanted to be.

“I need time to process everything that happened,” he drawled. If there was one thing the alcohol in his system was doing right it was the blurring of his vision. Her face swam in his sight.

“I understand, honey,” she smiled sweetly. “But you might want to process a lot faster. You may need to kill her again.”

He blinked and regretfully her face became clearer. He couldn’t bare to look into her cold eyes. But it wasn’t only her eyes that bothered him now, it was her words. “What did you just say?”

She dropped her hand from his neck to his chin. Now the sharp edge of her sweet smile was clearer. “Margaret Storm is alive to take everything we have worked so hard to take.”

He couldn’t breathe as her words began to make meaning in his alcohol-infused brain. “She’s alive? S-She’s…She can’t be.”

The slightest pressure of her fingers in his jaw turned his head until he was looking right at the bar where Maggie sat stiffly. His heart dropped. She was…she was a ghost…she was alive!

Vivian held Maggie’s gaze as she rose on her tiptoes to speak into his ear. “You know what to do, honey.”

Lance didn’t. 

His Maggie.

She looked so fiercely sexy in that red dress. It’s an illusion! His mind screamed but that illusion was rising from the bar stool now, her eyes accused him with sadness in them. His body began to tremble.

“If you don’t, the boys will take care of her.”

Maggie felt the shift in the air when all of a sudden bouncers began to appear from various corners of the room among the crowd, Ezekiel was one of them. She should have known someone was going to give her away. Her vision dimmed. It felt like a dream only that it wasn’t. It was a trap. Her surprise visit was a trap. The bouncers were coming for her now, they would kill her again.

As swift as lightning she climbed the bar stool and hopped over the bar counter.

“Hey!” people screamed.

She didn’t care. Survival was all she had in mind when she pushed the barmen serving drinks.

"Get the fuck out of my way!"

“Don’t let her get away! Get her!”

The bouncers pushed through the thick crowd, people stumbled left and right in a futile effort to move out of their way as they tried desperately to catch her.

“Geez watch where you are going!”

Blood rushed through Maggie’s ear as she pushed a door open. It led to the kitchen and the working staff were surprised to see the blur of a running woman as she tore wildly through the kitchen maze.

The staff jumped out of her way gasping in surprise only to scream when 8 bouncers came barreling through.

“Don’t let her get away!” they screamed.

Maggie’s heart pounded in her chest as she ran toward another door. When she opened it, she almost ran into a couple making out. They jumped out of her way and she made her way toward the parking lot hoping to find Caleb waiting there but there was no Caleb. 

He left without her. She should have known. It was an ambush and like a fool she walked right into it.

Her breaths were coming in short hard puffs as she searched the plate numbers looking for a familiar one. When the back door of the kitchen opened and the bouncers began to pour out of it, she knew she didn’t have the luxury of time for that anymore. If she wanted to stay alive she would have to somehow outrun those bouncers with her heeled shoes and they were threatening to break.

But she had to give it a try. Survival was all that mattered. She would never let herself become their victim again. Her eyes suddenly watered as she ran into the streets with the bouncers still chasing after her.

Vivian knew she was dead. Above the din of conversation and music in the club she had heard snippets of their conversation which wasn’t easy since her powers were still so weak.

“You may have to kill her again.”

“Lady watch where you’re going!” someone suddenly pushed her and she stumbled into an alley. Even that was not enough to get the men to stop chasing her. Her ankles slipped twice in her rush. The alley was dark and wet and smelled of alcohol and vomit. She was now past the Phoenix’s Claws and was coming out of the other end of the district when she ran head-first into a solid chest.

“Get out of my way!” she cried trying to push past.

“Hey take it easy…wait it’s you again!”

At the sound of that voice, she looked up and relief washed through her. She never thought she would be seeing him so soon let alone be happy to see him at all.

“Asher!” Her whole body shook with relief.

“What’s after you?” he looked behind her. The bouncers were yet to catch up.

Maggie held tightly to his shirt and tugged desperately. “You’ve got to help me, Asher. Take me out of here I beg you! I’ll pay you!”

He would have loved to argue about her unethical methods of getting people to help her but when he saw the tears streaming down her face whatever he had to say lodged in his throat. “Come with me.”

She held the hand he offered tightly and kept up with him when he ran to another club where a large male and a female were guarding the door. While he spoke to them Maggie could not help looking back. Her pursuers were nowhere in sight but any minute now…

“Let’s go.”

Asher led her to a small littered parking lot to his bike and without handing her the helmet swung her on it.

“Hold on.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. Maggie held on to his midsection like her life depended on it. Hot tears fell on her cheeks and through her tears, as Asher zoomed past the alley she saw the men just getting to the alley. They watched as Asher zoomed off with her on the bike. Their yell of “Fuck!” hung in the air like a heavy cloud of doom.

Within minutes they were flashing across town, away from the busy streets into the outer part of town.

Asher half turned his head to Maggie. “For someone who is not a damsel in distress you sure do get in a lot of trouble.”

When her response was to bury her face into his back to howl her eyes out he realized she wasn’t in the mood for jokes. Maybe this was what occupied her mind earlier that day when she wanted to leave. He was suddenly curious to know what it was.

Against his better judgment, he steered the motorcycle off the 16th exit into the woods and headed for his territory. It was late at night but his pack would still be up and moving. He still had the pending issue of his actions last night. Now, foolish man that he was, he was bringing the bane of his problems back.

**

“What do you mean you lost her you incompetent fools!” Lance raged at the men who flinched. The veins on his neck were rigid.

“She left our territory boss, we couldn’t go further.”

He slammed his fist into the leather counter in the VIP exclusive lounge and the conversations in the room stopped. Even the stripper dancing suggestively around a pole stopped dancing. Lance realized they were all staring at him. It made him even angrier.

“Out! Every one of you get out!”

They scurried out of the room wondering what was up with him. Vivian was the only one remaining in the room and she was nursing a glass of gin and tonic.

“Vivian.”

She rolled her eyes before looking at him. “Where was that energy when we needed it? She got away while you were staring like a besotted fool. She came here to surprise you. Do you know what this means? She has come to fight for what’s hers.” She stood up and walked toward him raising one hand to caress his face. “Baby I don’t have to tell you what becomes of you. Of us. Of our baby when she comes back asking for war.”

“Give me time,” he said squeezing his eyes. “I just need time.”

“There’s not enough of that to throw around. Hurry up.” As she walked out of the room she threw a droll stare over her shoulder in his direction. “And just so you know, I’m not giving up another child for you so you can take your time finishing her. Be quick.”