Haven: Renegade Saints MC by Ellen Harper Page A

won’t keep you out all night. I just need some company.”
     
    “You’re so fuckin’ needy, Max,” Paul grumbled. He hung up the phone after telling me that he’d meet me in downtown Marquette in about an hour.
     
    I swallowed hard. It was only a little after noon, and there was no fucking way I was going home, not for a few hours. Last night had been one of the most incredible fucks of my life, but being around Tori was really stressing me out. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her when she’d told me about changing her number so many times, but it seemed unlikely that Silas was really as smart as she made him out to be. In the few times I’d seen him around town, he always seemed so fucking slow and dull-witted. I’d never thought of him as really dangerous before. When he and Tori were together, I barely saw her. Kristoff always took it real personally, but I knew now that Silas had likely worked hard to keep her away from the only family she had.
     
    Thinking about that made me want to hunt him down like a dog and punch the shit out of him. He was such an asshole, thinking he could get away with treating Tori the way he had.
     
    I need a fuckin’ drink , I thought sourly. I need to stop fuckin’ thinking about this shit over and over .
     
    I pointed my car in the direction of The Rusty Bucket and pressed hard on the gas. Ever since I’d patched in with the Renegade Saints, I didn’t have much use for bars. After all, we had a killer setup in our clubhouse. But sometimes, times like today, I couldn’t stand the idea of being around everyone.
     
    The Rusty Bucket was good for days like these. The people who staffed the bar were old, the kind of people who didn’t pay attention to anything, and the whole bar smelled like mildew and stale beer. I’d heard it was a good place to pick up coke once, and I wouldn’t have exactly disbelieved it. My drug days were long behind me, but still, it was the kind of bar where one could feel truly anonymous.
     
    “Give me a lager and a shot of whiskey,” I said to the aging bartender who took my order. She grinned at me with yellowing teeth. She was attractive for being in her mid-fifties, but she still dressed like a young bar wench, and I wondered when she’d last looked in a mirror.
     
    “Got it, handsome,” she said, batting her eyelashes at me. When she was out of sight, I rolled my eyes. At least I wouldn’t be tempted to pick up any girls tonight.
     
    Something was really bothering me, and I was starting to figure out that it didn’t have anything to do with Kristoff, or Tori. It had to do with Silas. I didn’t know much about him, aside from what Tori had told me, but he didn’t seem like the type of asshole who made a habit out of bothering women. In fact, he seemed like a fucking outcast from society in general. He and Tori had been together for years—what exactly had he been trying to do with her?
     
    “Yo.” Paul’s familiar voice made me whirl around. “What’s up, man?” I stood up and we hugged, clapping a hand on each other’s back.
     
    “Not a thing,” I lied. “Just been to see Maria.”
     
    “Oh yeah?” Paul raised his eyebrows. “She still as fine as ever?”
     
    I laughed. “It ain’t like that anymore,” I told him flatly. “That ship sailed a long time ago.”
     
    Paul nodded. “I gotcha,” he said. “So…what was the deal?”
     
    I sighed. I didn’t want to tell him about the note that I’d found at Kristoff’s house, not until I knew who was behind it. This whole thing was such a mess that I couldn’t really make heads or tails of it. I had no idea how much the other guys knew, if anything.
     
    “Nothing,” I replied. “Just a social visit.”
     
    Paul nodded. He looked down at my hands. “Did I miss something?” He pointed to the ring. “What happened?”
     
    Shit. There goes that one . “I got married,” I said with a grin. “You remember Kristoff’s daughter,