Maddog (Black Reign MC 10)

Maddog (Black Reign MC 10)
Marteeka Karland
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Copyright ©2025 Marteeka Karland

Jax

“Let me get this straight.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to stave off the headache threatening to split my skull open. Funny how that worked when I talked to Holly. “You’re voluntarily going to a country with a level four travel advisory. Unarmed. With a bunch of college students. With no security to speak of. Have I got that right?” I tried to keep my voice low and even, to fight my way through the rage that she’d be so cavalier with her life.

“Sweet God, could you be a bigger buzzkill.” Holly, ever the little ray of sarcastic sunshine, sounded like she was exasperated with me. Or, quite possibly, like she thought I was being unreasonable.

“Answer the question, Holly.” If I let her distract me, she’d talk her way around my directness and hang up before I could forbid her from going. Not that it was going to help. Holly always did what she wanted. Usually, only her mother was able to talk sense into her.

“You do realize you’re not the boss of me. Right?”

“I realize that, when you’re considering putting your life in danger for no good fuckin’ reason, someone has to rein you in. I’m surprised Wrath even considered letting you go, much less given his blessing.” The silence on the other end was deafening. “You didn’t tell him.” It wasn’t a question.

“Again, not your business, Jax. This is my life and I’m living it. If I get into trouble, I’ll accept the consequences.”

“Even if it cost you your life?” I tried to go for a matter-of-fact tone, but my words came out a low growl.

“Even if it cost me my life.”

Neither of us spoke for long moments, the silence so long I was afraid the call had dropped. Then she sighed.

“Look, Jax. I’ve got a sat phone. Even if there’s no cell coverage where we’re at, Shotgun will be able to see where I am. He and Esther are great with that shit. If we get into trouble, I can call him. They can either send someone to come get me, or let me work it out myself. I’m only agreeing to any of this so my mom doesn’t worry.”

“Did you at least tell Celeste? Because I don’t see your mother letting you do something like this at all.”

“No one lets me do anything, Jax.” Her tone was hard and firm. She was barely out of her teens yet I’d never met anyone more firmly in control of her life. Which was to say she lived in utter chaos most of the time and that was exactly the way she liked it. “But yes. I told her what I was doing. She’s not happy about it, but she knows she can’t talk me out of it.”

“Did you ever stop to think how your mother and father would feel if you got hurt or killed? I realize it could happen anywhere, but by going to Columbia increases those chances exponentially over anywhere in the U.S. She almost lost you once and gave everything she had to keep you alive. Don’t you think you’re being incredibly selfish?” I winced. Yeah, this wasn’t my finest moment. Had I been trying to push her away I couldn’t have done a better job.

“Go fuck yourself, Jax.” She disconnected the call.

“Motherfuck!” I hissed the expletive under my breath. I knew better. I fucking knew better. The best way to get Holly to do anything other than what you wanted her to do, was to tell her she had to do it. Pushing her into doing what you wanted was even worse. Trying to lay a guilt trip on her? Yeah. I’d just guaranteed Holly was heading straight to Columbia on a humanitarian aid expedition.

I pressed her contact and waited for her to answer the Facetime call. She let it go to voicemail once so I tried again. She picked up this time and… yeah. She hated me right now.

“Got nothin’ else to say to you, asshole.” I recognized that mulish look on her face. She thought I was going to try to talk her out of going again, but I knew better than that.

“Can you give me two days, Holly? Two days and I’ll go with you. You can still do what you do with your college friends, but I can make sure you’re safe.”

“We’ve got plenty of security. There’s no need for that.”

“Holly. Two days.”

She shrugged one delicate shoulder, a look of indifference and disinterest on her face. “Sorry, Jax. I don’t make the schedule. Plane leaves tomorrow morning at six.”

I wanted to throttle the younger woman. She was constantly bucking me, doing exactly the opposite of what I wanted her to do. To be fair, I was twelve years older than she was and had decided she’d be mine long before I should have. I’d been sixteen when she came to the compound with Wrath and Celeste. She’d been a precocious but sickly child of four. She’d survived leukemia like a champ, never letting anything get to her. No matter how sick I’d seen her get from the chemo, the girl had no quit in her. I knew because I’d been with her for the last few treatments. Which she’d not appreciated. I’d insisted because she’d been so mad at me she hadn’t focused on all the needles and unpleasantness. I’d been happy to take her wrath then, even if what remained of the kid in me had been slightly hurt that she hadn’t accepted me as her protector.

Even when she was so young, I’d been drawn to her. She was this little pixie who’d absolutely cut you if you displeased her but needed someone looking after her. I’d taken that task on my own, growing into a man protecting the girl until she’d started becoming a woman. The plain truth was, it scared me the first time I caught sight of her in a bikini at the pool. Freaked me the absolute fuck out. Once I’d come to terms with my feelings for Holly, I’d inserted myself into her life but kept playing the part of mean and annoying older brother. Why? Because I knew if she learned to stand up to me, she always would. And if she could stand up to me, she could stand up to anyone.

“Holly, I’m half the fuckin’ world away right now. All I’m asking for is two fuckin’ days. It’s the right thing to do and you know it. I may be a bastard, but I would never let anything happen to you.”

Her expression didn’t change. “I don’t need your protection, Jax. Shotgun and Esther have my back. I’ll be fine. Besides, the father of one of the students going is a senator. They always have security.”

“And their priority will be the senator’s kid. They won’t give two shits about you or the others.”

“And if you were with me, you’d give a shit about the others?” Oh, the sarcasm was strong with this one…

“Of course not. But I’d care about you. I’d be the one protecting you and I’d do it with my life.”

She snorted, scowling at me over the video. “Dramatic much?”

“Holly --”

“No. You listen to me! Nothing’s going to happen. And if it does, I’ll deal. I don’t want or need your help, Jax.”

“You’re wrong there, baby. You need all my help you can get. But I’m telling you right now, if you don’t wait for me, when I find you, I will turn you over my knee and blister your bare ass until you don’t sit for a fuckin’ week.”

Oh, that got her attention.