FULL NOVELXO Chapter 20 ~ Is This Flirting?
Maddox’s POV ~
I walked into the dining hall.. amid happy chatter.. I smiled at everyone.. grateful for the camaraderie of my club.. We are coming together as a cohesive family unit.
Delilah looked beautiful.. and I find myself more and more attracted to her. I asked Steele if she is our mate.. but he just hums. Prick! Delaney has teased me since yesterday with knowing what she knows.. and not telling me.. I keep telling myself she wouldn’t be teasing me if it wasn’t true.. Then I remember all the Goddess awful pranks she pulled on me when I was little!
Twenty days. That’s how long before I know. I find myself praying every night that the Goddess makes it so.. or praying my sister isn’t playing a cruel joke. She wouldn’t. Right? Would she?
I stood.. coincidentally, at the same time Delilah did… She grinned and winked.. She winked! She fucking winked! and said “See y’all later.. I’m headed to the diner.”
I stood a good half minute before I responded “Take Hunter with you today.” She laughed “No can do.. Hunter wants to be here when you interrogate that bastard. I will be okay. I’m always alert. Besides.. the guy that’s after me.. is in your cells.”
Delaney laughed “She has a point.” I sighed “Okay. Call.. text.. or link.. if anything feels off.. or suspicious.” She saluted and scooted out the door.
I said “Well. Let’s go interrogate that bastard.” And we all laughed all the way to the cells. Walking in.. Tammy whined “Venom.. you know me. Why are you doing this?” Delaney looks at her and smirks “Yes, Tammy. We ALL know you.. Which is exactly WHY we are doing it!” Causing all of us to laugh again.
I had had the guy moved to isolation.. I was prepared to make him hurt. He was chained to a chair.. and one hand to the table. Leaving a hand loose gave him a false sense of security..
I sat down across from him.. “You killed one of mine.. How do you justify it?” He shrugged and smirked “Casualty of war.” I snatched him up by the throat and Delaney said “Don’t kill him yet. He’s been told to give us a message.. but not to do it easily. His job is to rile you up before dropping his little bombshell.”
I dropped him back in his seat.. “Oh! Okay then.. Rile away.” The guy was staring wide eyed at me and I asked “Oh.. that? That’s pretty cool, right? We only found out recently.. it’s part of her gift. She can tell what you’re thinking by your body language. Now.. get to riling.. I don’t have all day.”
The guy looked at me and said “I thought you’d be bigger.” I laughed and told him “No.. you didn’t. You actually prayed I would be smaller.”
Delaney glared at the guy “You know how big of a mistake you’ve made, don’t you..? Throwing your lot in with a man who beat his wife to death.. right in front of her children… leaving his five year old son without a mother.. That’s the man you’re backing.. “
He snarled “You stole the kid! Kidnapping him.” I stood and growled.. “Well, congratulations! You’ve fucking riled me!” The bastard grinned and said “Now he knows. That growl confirmed it.” I snapped his neck.
Delaney said “Umm. Shouldn’t we have tried to figure out what he meant by now he knows?” I said “He meant Marcus..” I looked at Venom “In his right eye, you’re going to find a government issue camera contact. Marcus knows I am wolf.”
Venom cursed “Mother fucking Unger. The only good thing is they are connected somehow…like we thought.”
I said “Let’s get that contact to Gizmo to make sure it’s disconnected. I don’t want him hearing or seeing anything else.” Delaney stopped me “Check Tammy.. or Eric.. No.. both. They are all connected.. or Thor wouldn’t have had Henri.. nor would Unger have handed over the guy’s military jackets.. or the files on Delilah and her dad going to Unger. It’s like a triad of assholes.. all set on taking us down. Now that Thor is no longer in the game.. a new player is recruited.. one that believes he’s got a dog in this hunt.”
Venom kisses her “You are so fucking smart! Let’s get those two checked.. just to make sure.” Two guards went to their cells and Tammy was the only one..
Delaney laughed “Was it worth it? Seriously.. you were near death when Delilah found you. You nearly fucking died from the beating you apparently volunteered for.. then to allow them to brand ‘Whore’ into your forehead..”
They heard a loud gasp and Delaney laughed “Oh.. you didn’t know that’s what was on your forehead? She didn’t know, Venom.. Bet she would have thought twice about betraying a biker club..”
They all went to the clubhouse to meet up with Gizmo and Geek.. to show them the camera contacts and see if the original shipment serial numbers could be traced. If they can figure out where they came from.. they can trace where they went.
Snake mentioned “We need to figure out where Marcus went after he was released. They couldn’t find a trace of him.. like he vanished?”
I looked at him.. then at Venom “What if he vanished.. in like a certain four week timeframe.. long enough for the three venomous bites of an Alpha wolf… and a week to build to the shift?”
Venom said “That actually would make sense.. Cabot and Dylan are both Alpha wolves… Marcus wasn’t seen anywhere.. but if he was on pack territory.. he wouldn’t be.. He could have.. and probably did.. gather information on us from Dylan and Jessalyn!”
Gizmo grins “The puzzle is coming together. We still have an odd piece out… Over five years ago.. a little girl lost her mother to a silver bullet.. seven months later.. her father was taken from her. Only to find out her father wasn’t dead.. her stepmother wasn’t her stepmother and they had plotted against her.. without her knowing why. Where does she fit? Her father was held at an MC… by the very much alive first husband. Why her? Why Delilah?”
Delaney said “Three people know the why. Two are in custody and the third is in intensive care. I vote we wait until Henri is on his feet to confront them.. It will only be a few more days.”
I had already discussed this.. so I was definitely on board. Like Delilah said “The looks on their faces would be priceless.” I smiled.. Delilah fills my mind before I even think about it. I told them “I vote we wait. The looks on their faces should be caught on camera! I wonder who the first one is who will be thrown under the bus.”
Hunter laughed “We all know Tammy going to feel those wheels before anyone else.” We all laughed because it was too easy.. Tammy was too gullible.
We talked about delving further into the murder of Delilah’s mother, Calypso.. and into what had been given to Henri the night he was taken.. It had made him practically catatonic and mimicking death.
Delaney said “Only two things can do that to a wolf.. “ She took off running.. so, we followed her. Because.. well.. she looked like she knew what she was doing.
She stopped us outside the ICU and ran to draw some blood.. Running the blood through analysis she found wolfsbane and verbena in his system. Then she gave him a shot of something.. and met us back in the hallway.
“He was full of toxins.. I gave him the antidote.. Amadeus will be much stronger by tomorrow. I will start weaning him off the coma drugs. Delilah will be so happy! But that’s how they did it. They injected him with wolfsbane and verbena.”
I asked Hunter to try and find where they may have gotten ahold of something like that. That was and is supposed to be kept from human hands.
At dinner, Delaney told Delilah what she had found in regards to her father.. and that she had already started weaning him off his medication. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged and thanked Delaney, over and over.
I can’t seem to take my eyes off her. Beginning to feel a bit stalkerish.. but then, I catch her glancing at me from the sides of her eyes.. and blushing. Is this flirting? Is that what we’re doing?