Chapter 50
ALEX
After the meeting ended, I sat on the veranda with the Knights surrounding me.
Marcello was on my right, complaining about how I wouldn’t let him leave the wheelchair.
He hated feeling helpless, but it was time he let someone take care of him.
Sonny was on my left, flirting and trying to steal my attention from Marcello.
We ate family-style, everything from gourmet Kobe beef sliders to skewered steak and lobster rolls. Marcello couldn’t reach the plate at the center of the table without straining. So I leaned forward and grabbed the plate.
When I looked up, the Knights on the other side of the table stared at me.
Drake licked his lips, his eyes traveling between my mouth and cleavage.
He shoved his hand through his dark hair, sweeping it off his forehead.
The tech billionaire always wore expensive suits that clung to his body like armor.
However, I laughed when I noticed a blue T-shirt beneath his unbuttoned Oxford. It had the Superman logo on it. His eyes followed mine, and then he rolled his shoulders like he knew I thought he was a hot nerd.
Cole sat beside Drake, holding my gaze with a look that made my skin sizzle.
You could tell Cole had spent his entire life in military school.
Arms corded with muscle, he had bands of dark tattoos wrapped around his biceps.
He never wore suits, not unless required.
Dressed in black cargo pants and a tight T-shirt, he looked drool-worthy.
“What are you two staring at?” I asked them with a taunting smirk.
Drake returned my expression, while Cole just stared at me with fascination.
I clutched the plate of burgers and pulled it toward me.
I had the attention of every man at the table, which made my skin tingle.
The Knights were good-looking, blue-blooded men.
It was like their parents had filled out a form and checked off all the right boxes, maybe even offered sacrifices to their gilded gods.
“Why are you all staring at me like I’m your lunch?”
“Might want to fix your shirt, queenie ,” Finn Cormac said with a wink.
Sonny’s younger brother looked like him in every way. Tall, handsome, and with the same sun-kissed skin as if he’d spent all day on a yacht. The same wide green irises and surfer blond hair. Except Finn had a little more muscle, broader in the shoulders.
“Or don’t,” Sonny added with laughter in his voice. “I prefer this view.”
“Your nipple is showing,” Drake said.
“Oh, my God.” I stuffed my boob back into my low-cut shirt and shielded my face with my hand.
Marcello reached over and squeezed my boob playfully.
I swatted at his hand and laughed. “Jerk.”
“I can touch you now, can’t I?”
I turned in my chair. “Not if you start with the possessive bullshit like Luca.”
“I’m hungry,” he said, tipping his head at the burgers. “You gonna feed me?”
I pressed my lips together. “What happened to I can do everything by myself?”
“C’mon, princess.” He wet his full, sexy lips with his tongue. “I’m starved.”
“For attention,” I shot back as I lifted a slider from the plate.
As I bent over to put the burger between Marcello’s teeth, Sonny’s hand glided down my backside, all the way down my thigh.
“Sonny,” I groaned. “Control yourself.”
“Impossible with your ass in my face,” he quipped. “Consider yourself lucky I didn’t take a bite out of this sexy ass.”
“You did last year,” Callum Cormac chimed. “Fucking sicko.”
I glanced over at them. “What are you talking about?”
Drake’s eyebrows lifted. “You don’t remember what happened in the temple?”
“I’ve had two dreams recently, but could only see Luca and Marcello.”
“We were all there,” Sonny assured me.
I sat in my chair and looked at Sonny. “What happened in that room?”
Sonny slid his hand up my thigh with an evil expression on his handsome face. “How about we show you?”
My heart pounded so hard as I looked into his emerald irises that I couldn’t breathe.
I felt like I would spontaneously combust surrounded by these hot men.
It didn’t help that Sonny was invading my personal space with his delicious scent, trailing his fingers up my leg like he’d done it hundreds of times.
I shoved his hand off my leg. “Luca was in the room with us. I’m mad at him. But I’m not doing anything without him here.”
“Such loyalty to a man who treats you like dirt,” Sonny mused.
“I don’t expect any of you to understand my relationship with Luca.”
I grabbed another burger and fed Marcello. He bit into the burger, and I ate the other half, staring into his adorable but sad blue irises as we chewed our food.
“Feed me next,” Sonny begged.
I laughed. “Not a chance in hell.”
“I got a thousand dollars on them fucking by the end of lunch,” Callum said as he dropped a stack of hundred-dollar bills on the table.
“I got five on it,” Cole chimed. He removed his ATM card from his wallet and added it to the pile.
Sonny threw his Black Amex card on the table on top of Cole’s card. “I’ll take that bet.”
“Nah,” Drake said as he reached into his pocket. “I have a better bet. Ten thousand says she picks Marcello over Luca.”
“Cheap asshole,” Bastian growled with dissatisfaction. “Pony up a hundred grand if you want to make it a gentleman’s bet.”
“I’m not cheap,” Drake said in his defense, removing the checkbook from the inner pocket of his suit jacket. “Double it, and we’ve got a deal.”
“Done,” Bastian said without hesitation.
“Count me in.” Damian glanced at his watch, then pulled out his wallet. “My money is on Luca.”
“Me too,” Bastian said with an apologetic look at Marcello.
“Fuck both of you,” Marcello shot back.
Bastian shrugged while Damian gave him a seriously bone-chilling smirk that screamed, I eat children’s souls for breakfast .
I glanced over at them, still leaning on the arm of Marcello’s wheelchair. “Are you guys betting on who I’m going to marry? This is ridiculous.”
“We bet on everything,” Finn said. “We even bet on Marcello’s chances of getting you back to Devil’s Creek.”
“Who won that bet?”
Bastian and Damian raised their hands.
“I said you’d at least kick him in the balls before he got you on the plane,” Sonny said. “You disappointed me, Little Wellington.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, I was planning to use my Taser on him.”
“Yeah, but you had to use it for me to win,” Sonny pointed out.
“Whatever. I would have run if Marcello hadn’t lied and said my grandfather was in danger. And Pops corroborated his bullshit story.”
“Please,” Marcello groaned. “You wouldn’t have gotten far before I dragged your ass back here.”
“Wellington is one slick old man.” Sonny rubbed his hands together and smirked. “He knows how to get shit done.”
“You guys are morons with too much time on your hands,” I countered. “And for the record, I’m not fucking Marcello by the end of lunch.”
“How about after lunch?” Drake joked.
“I got ten on that,” Finn said between bites of his burger.
“All of you are pigs,” I muttered. “Stop taking bets on me.”
“Look,” Sonny said with a cheeky smile. “I’d gladly let you shoot me if it means getting spoon-fed and bathed by your fine ass.”
“I second that,” Cole added with a wink. “Make it a flesh wound, okay?”
“Pussy,” Sonny said with laughter in his tone. “Fucking flesh wound? Take it like a man, Marshall.”
The rest of the guys echoed their agreement.
“No one is shooting anyone.” I shook my head and laughed. “Don’t get yourselves shot hoping I’ll be your nurse.”
“Sonny’s jealous about the lingerie you wear for me when you’re changing my bandages,” Marcello said with an evil smirk.
“That was one time. I was trying to cheer you up because you were such a grouch.”
He smiled. “It worked. There wasn’t a single part of my body that wasn’t happy to see you.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re so bad, Marcello.”
He licked his lips. “Nah, not as bad as our queen.”
“Do they know about that night?”
The night I begged you to make me come…
Marcello nodded. “We don’t have secrets.”
I covered my face with my hand and sighed. “Is nothing sacred in this town?”
“Nope.” Sonny slid his arm behind my back and pulled me closer to him. “You’d better get used to us in your business. We know everything about you.”
“So I guess my grandfather’s announcement wasn’t all that shocking to you guys.”
“No, not really,” Sonny admitted.
“We saw it coming,” Drake said. “Luca’s fucked this up for years. It was only a matter of time before Arlo or Carl enforced the Charter.”
I glanced at Marcello. “What about you?”
Marcello shrugged his broad shoulders against the chair. “Not really. I think it shocked Luca the most. He’s always thought it was his right to lead the Knights. I don’t think he’s ever considered the possibility of losing control.”
“What did my grandfather mean when he said I must choose who stays and goes?” I said to no one in particular.
An eerie silence fell over the group.
“One of you better open your mouth,” I snapped. “If you want me to be your queen, start talking. I don’t care about the rules.”
“You choose us at Legare ,” Marcello told me.
I angled my body to look at him. “Like in the dream I had?”
“That happened, Alex. You can’t trust your memories, but it wasn’t a dream.”
“I only remember choosing you.”
The patio door slid open, and Kali’s voice filled the air. “Hey, boys… and queen bee.”
“Here comes trouble,” Sonny said with a smile trained on Kali.
With her long, blonde locks and pretty features, she beamed like a ray of light. My new friend sauntered to my side of the table, wearing a bikini beneath her pale blue dress that complemented her skin.
Kali bent down to hug me. “How have you been, girl? I bet this group of degenerates has been keeping you busy. They’re a handful, am I right?”
“Who are you calling a degenerate?” Sonny asked as she dipped her head down to kiss his cheek.
“All of you,” She ran her hand through his perfectly styled hair. “But you especially, Sonny Mac.”