Chapter Seven Thea
After church, my brother came over to me and told me that he had a room for me. He took me up the stairs and down the hall to the room and gave me a key.
“When you’re inside, keep it locked. Don’t want nobody bothering you.”
“Okay,” I said timidly.
He looked at me and sighed like he wanted to say more but didn’t know what to say.
“Dinner will be in an hour or so. I’ll come get you.”
I nodded and made my way inside, being sure to lock the door behind me. The room was surprisingly nice. It had a modern feel and a clean smell. There were a few dressers, a bed with nightstands and a door that led to a private bathroom.
I dropped my bags by the dresser and started digging around for a towel.
Before I could get in the shower, my phone rang and I saw Chase’s name flash across my screen.
“Hey, Chase,” I said into the phone.
“Hey, kid. How are you doing?”
I let out a sigh. “Well, seeing my brother didn’t go as expected. Not sure if he’s going to send me back to California or let me stick around.”
“I’m sorry that things aren’t going well. I’m sure he’ll change his mind if you just talk to him.”
“And say what?” I scoffed. “I have nowhere to go, no money, and the mafia is looking for me? Yeah, that’ll go nicely. I’m sure he’d love to have me around his fiancée and baby.”
“I’m sorry, did you just say his fiancée and baby?”
His voice sounded surprised and I didn’t blame him.
I spent the next few minutes clueing Chase in on all of the recent events, including the guy at the bar, who I know now is called Bane.
He took everything in and didn’t say much, which made me nervous.
One thing about Chase, he’s always got something to say.
“Holy shit, kid. Your brother is going to flip the fuck out.”
“I know,” I said sheepishly. “It’s not like either of us knew, though.”
“Take it from someone whose best friend was boning their sister behind his back, it’s not something that you think rationally about when you first hear it. It doesn’t get more disrespectful than that.”
I sighed. I didn’t need the reminder of Marcus and Bridgette’s betrayal. I was still getting over what happened and her smug face when I questioned her about it.
I met Bridgette when we went to study abroad in Italy our second semester of freshman year.
I realized that she liked to party and so did I, so that’s exactly what we did.
We always snuck out and away from our group any chance we could.
To avoid getting in trouble, we had gotten local fake IDs from some shady guy we met out one night and used them to get into places.
People asked fewer questions when you weren’t American.
To everyone who met us in Italy, she was Bianca Moretti and I was Francesca Moretti.
Thank god for that, because when we got caught up with the wrong people and finally got out, we were able to escape and do our best to pretend like nothing happened.
Once I returned to the States two months after she did, she hugged me and cried and it all became water under the bridge because I cared about her. She then introduced me to her brother Chase and his friend Marcus, and two years had passed since then.
“Are you still there?” Chase asked, breaking my train of thought.
“Yeah. Sorry. I’m about to jump in the shower. Call you tomorrow?”
“Sure, kid. Take care of yourself.”
“You too.” I smiled and ended the call. He always called me kid even though we were about the same age. Chase and Marcus are just one year older than Bridgette and I, but you’d think Chase was an old man with the way he lets his demons portray himself.
After I took a shower, I got into bed to take a breather. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.
“And what did I do to deserve to be in the presence of such beautiful women,” said a man as he walked up to me and Bridgette at the bar.
We decided after class to get drinks at an upscale restaurant by the shore.
It was called Ristorante sull’Oceano, or Oceanside restaurant in English.
The entire place was encased in glass and gave a perfect view of the ocean waves crashing against the rocky shoreline.
Bridgette had a taste for expensive older men, which was half the reason we were at this place.
I didn’t care, though, seeing as the bill was going on her parent’s card.
This man was exactly Bridgette’s type. He was tall, with a cleanly lined beard and tan skin.
His thick Italian accent further amplified his sex appeal.
One thing I took note of was the two other men who were standing on the sidelines watching like they were his bodyguards.
Men like him didn’t travel without protection.
“Hi, I’m Bianca,” Bridgette said, batting her eyelashes at him and extending her hand.
He accepted and placed a gentle kiss on the top and she gave him a sheepish grin. He then looked up at me and said, “And you are?”
“Francesca,” I said bluntly.
He took note of my uninterest and turned back to Bianca.
“My name is Matteo Santoro. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
A chill jumped down my spine when Matteo and I made eye contact again. Something told me that meeting this man was never supposed to happen.
I jumped awake at the sound of someone pounding on my door. “Hey, girl hey! Dinner’s ready,” I heard a voice that I immediately recognized as Anna’s say.
***
MAVERICK
I was standing in the kitchen watching Serena and Ma make dinner.
Every Sunday we have what we call family day where we invite old timers, ol’ ladies and kids to come out and just spend time together at the clubhouse.
After the drama that went down earlier and Ares popping his top, a lot of people went home, except the regulars and a few of their ol’ ladies.
My Ma stuck around, too, which wasn’t surprising.
The woman loved drama and gossiping, but she always said that you can run a house properly if you don’t know everyone’s secrets.
Before I was voted in as president, she was working alongside my pops to make sure shit was straight back home while we were out on club business.
That was the job of the ol’ ladies, to hold everything down at home, and if and when I finally got one, she would do the same.
Circuit and Ares walked in and took seats at the kitchen bar. Fuck, I knew what I needed to do, but it didn’t mean I wanted to do it. Call me a pussy, but I thought it might be better to tell Ares I fucked his little sister next to his ol’ lady who can calm him down.
“Circuit, you can stop running that name of the girl from last night,” I said, testing the waters. When I had woken up this morning, I called Circuit and gave him India’s name in hopes he could help me track her down.
“What? Are you sure? Crash and Hollywood wouldn’t shut the fuck up about the girl who did the dash on you this morning,” he said laughing his ass off.
“Yeah. Really funny, asshole,” I grumbled.
“Oh, yeah. I heard about that too. How's your pride feeling?” Ares said with a smirk. Thank fuck he was taking the bait.
“About that, I was meaning to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“About the girl,” I said. “I found her.”
“Oh. That’s cool man. When?”
“This afternoon,” I said. I looked at Ma and Serena. Both of them looked horrified. “It was Thea.”
Ares jumped out of his seat and pushed me up against the fridge. Its insides rattled as cereal boxes fell everywhere.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying, brother?”
“Yeah, I am,” I said, pushing him off of me. “I didn’t fucking know when I took her home from Jynx.”
“She’s only 21, you asshole!”
“Last night, she said she was 26 and from Chicago, even had a fake ID,” I spit back at him. “I wouldn’t have done it if I knew she was your sister!”
“What happened?” Crash walked in with Hollywood and asked as they saw me and Ares getting into it.
“Prez fucked Ares’ sister,” Circuit said still laughing his ass off.
“Oh, shit. That was fast. Didn’t she just get here?” Crash said, joining Circuit in his laughter.
Ares jumped at me again, but Hollywood pulled him back.
“It was last night,” I growled. “The only reason I’m telling you is because I don’t keep secrets from my brothers and she said some shit that I thought you should know.”
For a second, it looked like Ares might not try and kick my ass again. He yanked away from Hollywood’s grip.
“What did she say?”
“Said that she was going through a bad breakup and that the guy wouldn’t leave her alone,” I said and leaned against the counter, crossing my arms. “I don’t know how much of it is true, seeing that she lied about almost everything she said last night.”
Ares looked lost in thought, but I could tell he calmed down a lot. He took a seat back at the bar and looked back at me.
“Why would she need to lie about her age to get into a bar? She’s an adult.”
“I don’t know, man. But something tells me she came looking for you for more than just a change of scenery.”
“She mentioned something to us, too,” Serena said from the stove. “Said that her boyfriend and best friend were hooking up behind her back and that she had caught them.”
Ares mumbled some curse words. “That doesn’t change shit. I don’t give a fuck about some stupid college kid drama.”
“And you,” he said as he got up and got into my face again. “Stay the fuck away from my sister. You’re not going to treat her like a club girl until you get bored and move on! She’s not even your type.”
I heard the boys mumble in agreement.
“She did not look like that last night. She was wearing a fuck ton of makeup and a tight ass leather dress, no offense,” I said, lifting my hands in surrender.
“Look, take it as you want. I’m not going to just fuck her for the fun of it, but I just thought you should know there might be more behind her showing up. ”
Ares just continued to look lost in thought.
“Prez is right, man,” Circuit chimed in. “Take it from someone who spends most of their time looking for missing people, adults only use fakes when they don’t want to be found.”
I nodded in agreement.