Chapter 5
Luca
Ishould’ve been able to sleep last night. I shouldn’t have been tossing and turning listening to Ford walking around the place. As the sun rises, I climb out of bed and dress. Victoria is out for the count and my son is snuggled in his crib.
I heard Ford go downstairs an hour ago but haven’t heard him return to his room. Grabbing my phone and my keys, I lean over the bed and press a kiss on the top of Tor’s head.
The smell of stale beer hangs in the air as I make my way down the stairs. Ford is sat in the kitchen, staring at nothing.
I pour myself a coffee and join him at the table. “Can’t sleep?”
I grab a cigarette from a pack that’s been left on the table and roll it between my fingers. I understand why Dad picked up this habit when he quit smoking. I still need something to do with my hands.
“I couldn’t settle. Don’t know the fuck why.”
“It’s probably the adrenaline because you’re free.”
He nods.
“I’m so fuckin’ sorry, Ford. You were alive all this time and we…”
He cuts me off. “You didn’t know. You warned us what could happen when we wanted to patch into the club and unfortunately it happened to me.”
He isn’t wrong but it still doesn’t sit right.
“Even so, I should’ve made sure. Got to your body somehow before the funeral.”
He flinches and asks, “I had a funeral? My mom…”
I nod. “She held your funeral after the police announced you were a wrong time, wrong place, tragedy. The club stayed away, but we went and paid our respects to whoever the fuck is eternally resting in your grave. Even the dog laid on the grave and refused to move.”
He laughs but it’s as dead as we thought him to be. “If I had have died that night, I’m glad the dog would’ve missed me.”
I hear what he’s saying but I make sure he knows, “We all did, brother. The place hasn’t been the same since.”
I tap the cigarette on the table and say, “After everything you’ve been through, you’re gonna need time to process but I wanna know if you want out. I’ll understand if you want to walk away.”
“I knew if you found out I was alive, you’d come find me and you did. You told me to trust you, to trust the patch and I did. It’s all I had most days. I’m a Lost Soul. I’m not going anywhere.”
I can’t help but smile. Tor says it’s rare when I do so I’m glad Ford’s the only fucker around to see it.
“I won’t make the offer again, so be sure, brother.
It’s fucked up but let this make you stronger.
Let it keep your eyes open wider and your senses sharper.
You’ve seen how bad a plan can turn out, learn from it and I will too.
I have done already.” With Ford adamant he wants to remain a Lost Soul, I tell him, “We’ve got her. ”
His brows pinch together in confusion. “Her?”
Smirking, I clarify, “Effie. She’s upstairs. She’s how we knew you were still alive. She tried using it to save her life.”
“Of course she did. Is she alive?”
I snort. “Yeah. I came close to putting her in the ground but at the last minute I thought you were the one who deserved the pleasure of snuffing her out.”
I watch him closely. There’s not a single part of him that flinches at the thought taking out Effie Rathbone. But I still say, “If that’s something you don’t want to do, I’ll happily take it on for you.”
A darkness washes over him, and he leans forward on the table. “I’ll do it. I’ll show her why she made a huge mistake.”
I lock down my smirk. I wouldn’t have thought any less of him, this time, but it soothes me that he wants this.
“Let me know when, and she’s gone,” I promise.
Light footsteps catch my attention, and Tor walks in with River. I lean back in my chair and claim her kiss as she leans over and presses her lips to mine.
“How long have you two been up?” she asks as I pull out a chair for her.
She sits down as I ask, “Is he due a feed?” She nods and I rise, heading to the counter to make my son’s bottle.
“He looks like you, Victoria,” Ford murmurs.
“Really? You think? Everyone keeps saying he’s the spit of Luca.”
“His dark hair, maybe, but his eyes are yours.”
“I think he has Luca’s eyes.”
“Nah, he’s got your eyes, for sure.”
As I shake the bottle mixing the formula with hot water, I see Tor smiling down at River in her arms.
“Here, you haven’t had a cuddle yet. You should meet him properly. You’re going to be a big part of his life, after all.”
Ford freezes. “I’m covered in bruises, I’ll scare him.”
“No bruising scares my son, brother,” I grunt.
The moment he has River in his arms, it’s the first time I see him relaxing. Tor crosses the kitchen and takes River’s bottle from me. She tests it on her wrist and runs it under the cold water for a minute.
“Doesn’t it scare you that the worst out there could one day get to him?” Ford murmurs.
Normally I’d take offence but he’s coming from a vulnerable place right now.
It’s Tor who takes her seat back at the table and says, “Ever since I gave birth, everything scares me when it comes to him. Sometimes in the night I’ll get up, terrified he’s stopped breathing.
I’ll stand there in the dark, watching, waiting for his chest to rise and fall. I’m scared every second of every day.”
“How do you deal with that?”
She smiles her beautiful fucking smile. “Because it’s my love for him that will keep him safe.
Because there is a club, you included, that will surround him all his life.
There’s no doubt my son will know violence and heartache as he grows up in this world, but it’s us who will show him how it can make him stronger.
” She leans over and strokes River’s cheek.
“Your mom must’ve thought the same as me because she raised you.
You’ve seen violence, but you sit here today, more aware of the world, and you’re stronger.
I see it, Ford. You’ll change after your experience, it's only natural, but it doesn’t mean your changes will be a bad thing. ”
Sighing, he says, “You’re too nice for this world.”
Her smile turns to smirk. “That’s why the Lord made Luca my soulmate. We’ve always gotta maintain an equal balance in nature.”
I hold down my laugh and clear my throat.
“I’m meeting with Darius today. I’ll be leaving soon…”
“I need to see my mom before I’m seen in public. If anyone were to see me and it gets back to her, I’d…”
I cut him off. “That’s fine. Do what you need to do.”
He passes River back to Tor and stands. “I’ll go see my mom, fuck knows what I’m going to tell her, then we’ll deal with Effie and then we can move on.”
A bar called Eights is where Darious and I usually meet and it’s a dive. It’s dodgy as fuck but strangely comforting. We could meet at the clubhouse or at Darius’s, but I want to be seen in all the wrong places. We’ve been in the city for a while, but I want to be seen as a normal fixture.
“Good news about Ford. I can’t say I saw that coming.”
Meeting with Darius isn’t a chore for me. I wouldn’t go out of my way to call him a friend, but out of everyone I’m acquainted with, I don’t mind him the most.
I snort. “Neither did I. And when Effie’s gone, it won’t happen again.”
“How will the club explain it? Him coming back from the dead, I mean.”
“His mom is the only one he cares about, anyone else can fuck off.”
“He was declared dead, Luca. It’s hard in this day to live as a dead man.”
Pope had been legally dead for a long while before his real death and he did fine. If you count him not leaving the clubhouse.
“He’ll sort it out when he has to.”
“So what’s next for the club?” he asks, and I narrow my eyes.
“Why’d you want to know?”
His laughter fills the smoky air. “I’m just asking, Luc. Shit, paranoid much?”
“With Effie soon to be out of the picture, the city is mine and through me, yours. And I want to talk to you about the Dog’s Blood Crew.”
He pins his stare on me. “Yeah, what about us?”
“What would you think about your crew patching into the club?”
His brow arches and he blows out a long breath. “The crew goes back three generations, there’s a lot of history. I’m not so sure it would go down well.”
“The thing with history is that it entails looking back and I’m not looking anywhere but forward. I’m focused on the future and the future only. Us united under the patch, we’d be fuckin’ untouchable.”
“We’re already untouchable as allies,” he argues.
“True, but it will never be as strong as sharing the patch.”
He lights a cigarette. “And if it’s a no, will that be a problem for us in your future?”
“Fuck no. But you know as well as I do, I can’t allow your crew to grow any larger. I can’t have your crew growing stronger than my club.”
“I’m not sure I’d see that day.” He nods, his thoughts a million miles away. “There are sons…”
I cut him off, “What? Join because their dads did? You’ve said it yourself, guys in your crew joined because they didn’t know any other way, that they joined to make easy money. They could do that under the patch and we both know it.”
“We make money now with you.”
“Not as much as you would if you patched in,” I retort.
“What happens if some patch into your club and the ones who don’t, fight against it?”
I sigh. He’s just as cautious as I am, and it’s annoying.
“You know what would happen. They’d become a problem to us.” I change my tactic. “You tried getting out before, this could be your chance.”
He snorts. “I came back because I ain’t no good at anything else, and I don’t think I’d be any good at taking orders. I wouldn’t even be your second, you have Angel for that.”
“I’m an asshole but I have respect for anyone wearing the patch, Darius.”
“Do they know that?” He laughs. I don’t. “Look, this city has a long history of gangs, and we’ve gotten rid of most of them. But they’ll rise up again one day. Knowing my crew as well as I do, I know they won’t go for it.”
Leaving it for another time, I say, “That’s that, then.”
I finish my beer and look around the bar. Men with depression written all over their faces slouch at tables, nursing their drinks. I look away in disgust and knock back my drink.
“Amelia has been on at me to invite you and Victoria over for dinner.”
“Do I look like I do dinner dates?” I snort.
“Not particularly, but your old lady does.”
The fucker’s right. Tor will want me to accept the invite and for her and only her, I say, “Fine. Have Amelia reach out to Tor. They can arrange it.”
It wouldn’t hurt for Tor to have a friend here in the city. As long as that friend doesn’t do anything to betray my old lady. Besides, Amelia comes from a world of wealth and that never hurts to have in your corner.
“The club’s having a party this Saturday, your crew should stop by.”
I slide off of my stool and toss cash down on the bar to cover our drinks.
“You’re leaving me feeling uneasy.”
I smirk. “Don’t take it personally, Dar, I have that effect on most people.”
I rest my hand on his shoulder. “I’ll catch you at the party, if you’re feeling better.”
My laughter trails behind me as I leave. My plan to have the Dog’s Blood Crew patch in didn’t go as planned, but I didn’t think it would anyway. The seed has been planted, and I’ll wait it out and see how it grows.