Deliverance (The Maverick Defense #1) by L.A. Cotton, Jenny Siegel Page A

fresh wave of guilt because I hadn’t been there for her, at the end or in the years since I left prison.
    After Dad’s visit, the one where he’d pretty much told me not to return to Chancing, well… Lex and I had planned and schemed about life after we were released. It was a given that he would join his dad and brother in their private military company, Maverick Defense. When the day came for my release, Lex and his older brother, Aidan, were waiting for me at the prison gates. Lex leaned against a black Jeep wearing the biggest smile possible, and it almost made up for the fact my own family wasn’t waiting for me. Lex was as good as family.
    Once we arrived back at the house, Lex and I collapsed on a chair each while Mikey headed straight for the kitchen. Bottles rattled as he yanked open the fridge and reappeared with a beer for each of us. Flopping down on the sofa, he propped his feet up on the coffee table and tipped his bottle in our direction.
    “What do you want to do about the house then?” Mikey asked out of nowhere.
    “What?” I straightened and stared at him from across the room.
    “It’s ours. Mom left it to both of us.” He shrugged, and I continued to stare at him, unable to comprehend the way his brain worked.
    “Seriously? What the fuck, Mikey? We just buried her.”
    “Sorry. I’m only asking,” he grumbled and picked up the remote control, flicking on the sports channel. I glared at him, and he concentrated on the TV and ignored me. Lex shifted in his seat and leaned forward.
    “So … Shakers tonight?” He looked back and forth between the two of us.
    Mikey groaned and tipped his head backward. “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said, staring at the ceiling.
    “Why not? A night of mindless drinking, and Lex can get his kicks watching some washed-up chick dance on a podium then come home and jerk off.” I grinned and ducked out the way when he threw a cushion in my direction.
    “Fuck off.” But he was smiling at my honest assumption.

    Holy fuck, why did I agree to this? Mikey said coming to Shakers was a bad fucking idea, but Lex had insisted. He seemed genuinely excited about going, and while I just wanted to go home and sit in the yard in a lawn chair and get trashed, I felt I owed him. After all, I’d dragged him back with me to this hellhole for a funeral of a woman he’d never met. Lex only knew her through the endless stories I used to tell him when we were inside or stationed out in the desert somewhere, craving a bit normality.
    From the minute we walked into Shakers, I felt uneasy. It was dressed up to be something special, but if you looked hard enough, it was your typical seedy club, dark and dingy with lots of dark corners to conceal any number of vices. I was on alert the whole time, and I wasn’t the only one. The way Lex’s body tensed as we made our way from the bar to the table to the right of the stage gave away that he was feeling it too. It didn’t help that I couldn’t make out where the exits were, black curtains hung over every doorway and some were tied back with red cord. The place was a health and safety hazard, and I prayed to God that there wasn’t a fire. The only thing identifying what I assumed was exits were the big, bulky security men standing guard.
    Mikey trailed behind us, not happy about being here. He’d tried to talk us out of coming, and while I knew the kind of entertainment Shakers provided wasn’t Mikey’s type of thing, I didn’t understand why he was so against us going. Now, I knew why. I wished I’d fucking listened. As confident as I was in Lex and my talent for fighting or talking our way out of dangerous situations, I didn’t want to find out if we could manage it tonight.
    When I noticed the girl in the red stand, straighten her dress, and smooth down her hair, I hadn’t paid much attention, just taken another drink of my beer and resumed scanning the dimly lit room. But then she turned and headed for the