Devil's Prey(26)

Mags' pale green eyes focused on his before she shook her head. "They  didn't pimp me out to the WKs though either. They died trying to defend  my honor. Your mother? I have absolutely no qualms with putting a bullet  in the bitch's head myself. Hell, we can even have a drink and toast to  the good old days afterward.

"I simply adore nostalgia, reminiscing and memories about the way shit  used to be when we were young, wild and free. Before fate decided to  butt fuck us gently with a chainsaw, putting a major fuckin' monkey  wrench in our plans to spend our adolescent years like most of the lucky  dipshits in our useless Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and ‘let me take a  selfie' Facebook generation."

Raz laughed out loud. "Are you always this charming?"

"Not usually," Mags deadpanned. "But since I've been pleasantly fucked  six ways to Sunday, my humor has a tendency to make an appearance."

"I just might get along with the new you."

They chuckled together before Max sliced them with a look that halted their casual back and forth banter.

"I have an idea-why don't I put you in charge?"

She shook her head. "No, this is your plan, remember? I thought you were  some big, badass alpha male but Rasmus is right, you've turned into a  major fuckin' pussy. I better check my pants just to make sure you  didn't steal mine. What the fuck is wrong with you, Max? This isn't the  time for getting drunk, long commiserating conversations or feeling  guilty. Your mother knew who Dimitri was and as far as I'm concerned,  she dug her own grave. If this is our plan then we own it-right here,  right fucking now. If you wanna waffle, you can do that all you want but  this girl is gettin' the fuck outta dodge. I didn't get away from the  Knights just to be murdered by some pedophile Russian psychopath. If  that's how you wanna go out, be my motherfuckin' guest but I didn't sign  up for this shit!"

She turned to flounce off when the first stray bullet came through the front door and shattered the liquor bottle in her hand.

Rasmus turned toward Max but he didn't think-he only reacted. Quickly,  he rushed over to Mags, grabbed her the by waist and they all ran up the  stairs as one bullet turned into a fucking drive-by hail from various  caliber weapons.

"Get her to the safe room, Raz. I'll be right there!" he shouted and  tossed Mags in his direction before he scrambled to his bedroom and the  safe he kept in his walk-in closet.

The bullets continued to turn his house into cottage cheese but he  wasn't stupid. They couldn't keep at it for long. Serenity Village was a  quiet, peaceful community and the chances someone had already dialed  nine-one-one was unquestionable at this point.

Of course that didn't mean Dimitri wouldn't send any of his crazier,  kamikaze soldiers inside to make sure they'd completed the job-whether  the cops were on their way or not. Most of them were disposable; lowly  paid and tuned up on cocaine and methamphetamine when they weren't in  the gym ruining their bodies with steroid-abuse.

Max dialed the combination and as soon as it clicked open, he grabbed  both of his nine-millimeter Glock pistols, checked they were loaded and  stuffed them into a duffel bag full of cash he kept on hand at all  times. It was just enough money to get away-fifty thousand or so in  small bills-but nothing to actually live on for any length of time.

At this point, he knew his bank accounts were compromised. Dimitri  wasn't stupid and he would put men outside of each and every branch of  Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase in the Tri-Towns area if he had to. He  wouldn't be able to get any money until he was out of the state.

Fuck! This wasn't how the operation was supposed to go down at all but  it looked like this was the way it would happen after all.

Despite all the shit his mother had put him through, he could never hate  her. She still had given birth to him and most of all, she'd chosen to  take him with her. She could have left him behind like she did Edward  but he'd always been her baby boy. Born last and nearly two hours after  his brother had screamed his way into the world.

Deep down, he knew he hated the wrong people. Edward and Sean didn't  have anything to do with how fucked up his life had turned out. If they  knew of his existence, they would take him in without a single thought.  At least the motorcycle clubs got one thing right. They truly did  believe in brotherhood. It wasn't just some empty slogan they preached  without follow-through. It was more than he'd ever had with Koslakov and  being part of his so-called family.         

     



 

Not knowing whether your mentor would kiss or kill you every time you  paid him a visit wasn't only disconcerting, it was no way to fucking  live. He felt bad about deceiving Mags this whole time with some made up  story about how they would kill Angelo Abandonato but the truth was  he'd had it with being alone.

Max couldn't trust a single whore tied to Koslakov and that left only  one option: his brother's girl. Or rather the only woman in his Edward's  life-other than his wife-he seemed to care about. It was easy to track  her down. Magnolia Reynolds wasn't exactly a secret in certain parts of  the underworld; plenty of people knew about her past and what the White  Knights had done to her. They also knew she would be getting freedom  sooner or later especially if someone had an offer tempting enough for  the WKs to let her go early.

The stolen drugs had been tricky. Eventually, they would be missed but  Dimitri had been so focused on the plan of murdering Abandonato, the  heroin Max stole from the most recent shipment that came into the  country wasn't the first thought on his mind. Of course he'd gone  through his men, tortured and murdered a few until someone had spilled  the info about Max being the last trusted person seen with the shipment  containers. It wouldn't have taken Dimitri long to put two and two  together and know he'd been had.

The jig was up and if Max wanted to stay alive, he no longer had a  choice. He would have to go back to his past and the woman who'd started  this whole, sick act of perversion, pain and murder rolling in the  first place. The person responsible for the reason the vast majority of  his thirty years on this hellish earth had been a nightmare most would  find too hard to believe.

Mila had been a whore and deep down she always would be one. She didn't  even care about her own offspring; they certainly weren't more important  than keeping herself in a lifestyle she'd easily become accustomed to.  He had to take the blinders off and realize his mother would never  change.

"Hey, Maxwell, Dimitri sends his regards-"

The fucker never had enough time to finish his sentence as Max turned  around and fired. The bullet hit his left eye and the beast fell to the  ground. He quickly dispatched the two that followed him into the room  but not before one got a shot off, which grazed his arm.

Fuck! That hurt. The bullet had strayed right past him, embedding itself  into the bathroom wall but it had also taken part of his shirt and skin  with it.

He stood and hoisted the duffel bag on his shoulder as he listened for a  moment. The silence was so loud, it had become white noise unto itself.  He couldn't hear anything and then the frantic sounds of concerned  neighbors and emergency vehicles in the distance hit him like a rush of  blood to the head.

Double fuck!

No way were Raz, Mags and him going to make it out of that house, not  without giving police statements and wasting precious time and energy.  They needed to get gone right then and there but despite being on the  run, their getaway would obviously be delayed by an hour, maybe two if  they were unlucky.

Life sucked and the worst part was shit had just got real and would get worse before it came even close to getting better.





Part Two





Bonnie & Clyde '14





Three Months Later





Chapter Thirteen





Magnolia





I sat on the deck of the super yacht, ironically named Yayo, and  concentrated on a acquiring a killer tan. The weather here was better  than in most parts of the country this early in Autumn but out on the  water, it was absolutely paradise.

Although our target lived in Palm Beach County, Max and I naturally  gravitated toward Miami Beach and made it our temporary home due to the  high influx of seasonal residents and constant year-round tourism. We  could easily disappear into the various communities that dotted the city  and it truly was refreshing to get away.

The best part of all? I hadn't murdered anyone in almost three and half  months and to me, that was heaven. I may have never known peace before  but I knew it now and I realized I would never be able to go back to how  I'd lived before. Not that Max expected me to but for the first time in  my life, there was no pressure to be anyone else other than the person I  truly was.

Raz had fled the country shortly after the whole incident in Birch Tree.  It should have been a huge story but with the Saints controlling the  Sheriff's Department, the media received very little information other  than a "home invasion gone wrong" and "mistaken identities." The story  was hot for about a week but we were gone as soon as Max was released  after several hours of questioning.