CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
-:- MAV -:-
Mav: Good morning. I’ll be over this evening and I’ll bring food.
Blake: Morning. OK, that will be good. I’m going to be home by 6.
Mav: OK. Have a good day and stay out of trouble [winking emoji]
Blake: Wow, I don’t get into trouble, it’s your skank that keeps causing trouble.
Mav: She's gone never, never to return. See you later, honeybee.
Blake: Honeybee?
I don’t bother replying to the last message because I’m going to be calling Blake any kind of endearment I can think of. But I’m also setting my phone to show My Blake from this point forward.
“Mav, are you ready to take the twins?”
Turning I give Mia a nod and follow her out of the clubhouse to the SUV where she has both the boys in their car seats. They look like butter wouldn’t melt at the moment, but anyone that knows them, knows it’ll not last. They’ll be up to no good as soon as Mia turns her back.
Pulling up outside school, I help Mia get the boys out of the vehicle but I’m not going inside. I’ll leave her to deal with signing them in and then leaving them, and if she cries I’m gonna be more than a little pissed because these boys are damn hooligans and she’s no reason to feel bad about leaving them. They more than likely will have the place under siege in an hour.
Fifteen minutes later Mia walks out of the building and climbs into the SUV, all without a word. I jump into the driver’s seat and look over at her, but for once see she’s not crying and has a small smile on her face.
“What?” I ask, because something is going on.
“I bribed them,” giggling more to herself than me, “I told them if they behaved and I didn’t have to come over to school all week they could have their own dirt bikes. I saw them and they were called Renegade MK250’s, kid’s electric dirt bikes, and I showed the twins the picture so they knew what they would miss out on. That will keep them from being assholes all week. Oh, they have training wheels on them too.”
“Does Pres know about these bikes?” I ask because I am not sure if he would want them on electric bikes, even if they have balancing wheels.
“No, why do I have to tell him everything? Honestly, he has enough to do without thinking about what I’m doing all the time.” Mia sniffs as she looks out the side window before ignoring any of my attempts to speak to her.
Walking into the clubhouse kitchen I grab a coffee, and one for Mia who has taken a seat at her usual table. Sybil is sitting with Summer and they both get to gossiping. I leave them to it because I don’t want to be involved in anything that any of the women may get up to.
Taking a seat at a table a few away I take out my phone and send a text to Blake.
Mav: Hope you are not too busy, and having a good day.
I don’t expect a reply, so I’m surprised when my phone pings and I see a message.
My Blake: I’m having my break. It’s been busy but I’ve been in the shop serving customers. [smiling emoji]
Mav: Oh, is that good then?
My Blake: Better than emptying the dishwasher all day.
Mav: Yeah, I suppose it would be. You have any preference to what you want to eat tonight?
My Blake: No, anything is fine.
Mav: Anything?
My Blake: I have to go, CUL8R [heart emoji]
“What are you grinning about?”
Looking up I shrug my shoulders because I’m not telling any of the brothers what I’m saying to my woman. Wings takes a seat and gives me another questioning look but doesn’t follow through with the question itself.
“Why are you not busy?” I ask as I change the subject.
“Pres is wanting everyone out of his office while he speaks to one of his informants. I reckon something is about to go down with that Milanas. I hope Vitale catches him, then we can sneak in and grab the fucker right from under his nose.”
“That’s what he wants, teach this fucker he has to pay for his crimes, and to piss off Vitale of course.” Both of us chuckle but turn when we hear a female voice.
“Oh, we can piss off Vitale don’t you worry about that.”
“Hi, Nell, follow me and we’ll go somewhere private to talk,” Mia quickly says, taking Summer from Sybil and speaking over her shoulder to Amelia behind the kitchen island,“ Can you bring us refreshments please, Amelia?”
Amelia’s eyebrows shoot up to her hairline in surprise, and I’m waiting for the sassy response, but she smiles sweetly and replies, “Yes of course I can, I’ll be along in a few minutes.”
Sybil gives Amelia a small nod as she follows Mia and Nell out of the kitchen. I turn and look at Graham who was behind Nell, but he throws himself into a seat grinning.
“What the fuck is going on?” Wings asks.
“You don’t know anything about women do you?” Graham smirks at Wings.
Wings snaps back at Graham, and I keep my mouth firmly closed as I hear. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, anyone can tell Amelia is going to make a tray of drinks and snacks. Then she’s going to take them into Mia and Nell. Once in with them Sybil will appear to look after Summer while Nell and Mia have some peace. But that places Amelia and Sybil in the mix knowing exactly what is going on.” Graham stands from his seat and walks into the kitchen, serves himself a coffee before coming back and looking at Wings, who is sitting with a stunned look on his face.
Wings doesn’t say a word before walking away from the table, out of the kitchen. I wait to see if he’s coming back, but when he doesn’t reappear in a few minutes I shrug and give Graham my attention.
“So, what’s going on with Nell and Mia?”
“Mia wants Nell to be in her girl gang although she isn’t a club member. Nell is a good one to have in any gang if you need your back covered, but more than that they both get on well, and Nell needs female friends. She never leaves the property, but needs more than what she is doing. Too much goes on at times and I know she’s a tough cookie but she is a woman, and needs some softness in her life.” Graham places his chin in the palm of his hand while he rests his elbow on the table.
“Not sure you can say Mia brings softness, Graham. She’s a tough one all of her own.” I watch Amelia carry a tray out of the kitchen, and think Graham had it right from the look on Amelia’s face.
Wings walks back into the kitchen with a laptop. Taking a seat at the table next to us he opens it and taps in commands. I lean over and see his monitor is showing the inside of the playroom where Mia, Nell, Amelia, Sybil and Summer are situated.
“Yeah, yeah, shut it,” Wings snaps.
“Oh, are you using one of your bugs? I want to learn this shit, you gotta teach me Wings,” Graham all but whines.
“I’ll teach you. I’ll come over to you to do it. Will give me a break from here, but I want to give the cells a check over while I’m there.”
“Why do you want to check the cells, Wings?” Graham gives him a shocked look.
“Last time I was in the cells I thought they could do with extra cameras to monitor them, and the hallway. They could do with auto lockdown too. That way if anybody like the FBI tried to get in they’d lockdown tight and do it with a flick of a button from the office, your phone, tablet or laptop.”
“Come over, and we’ll discuss it with Nell, Tank and Richie. I think it’s a good idea, but I know Nell has never agreed to have anyone outside of us know our security measures.”
“I’ll come over. Show you all what I have in mind. So, tell us what happened with Nell and the Mafia evening.” Wings eyes are sparkling with anticipation.
Axel walks into the kitchen and heads right to our table, taking a seat and waiting for whatever we are talking about. Shrugging, Graham starts the story.
“Well, Nell looked awesome even though she is my sister, I have to admit she looked outstanding. I gave Vitale the dressing down to keep his hands to himself or I’d chop the fuckers off. He was amused, rather than upset mind you, which pissed me, Tank and Richie off. Nell however, lifted the split in her long dress and guess what we saw?” We all shake our heads that we don’t know what they saw, and he chuckles continuing, “She has a holster and a gun strapped to her thigh. I know she’s not going to be taken by surprise, and she’ll take no shit no matter who tries to dish it out.
“Well, we all get a call from herself saying pick her up, and we’d all been waiting for it, because you know this is Nell we are talking about. She didn’t want to go to this fancy-ass shindig anyway, well that’s what she called it.”
“Wait, you all were waiting for her to call you, to pick her up? Rather than Vitale bringing her back?” Wings looks astonished. Me, I’m not sure much surprises me anymore, especially when a female is involved. I’ve come to the conclusion they are far more versatile than us men.
“Yeah, we knew she’d either get pissed off by someone, or she’d piss them off. Turned out a bit of both. Seems Vitale has had a woman on the side for quite some time, and she thought she was going to be the Donna to his Don, well seems not! But, of course, that didn’t go down well when Vitale walked in with Nell on his arm, and her looking a million bucks too.”
“Oh, please say the bitch had the nerve to say something to Nell…” Wings grins and lets out a chuckle, along with Axel I might add. Axel has one shit-eating grin on his face anticipating what happened next.
“Well, the stupid bitch strutted up to Nell and asked if she was Vitale’s new whore. Now, you all know Nell and that she has a short fuse at times. It seemed her fuse was extra short with her not even wanting to be at this shindig to start with. She from somewhere whipped out a knife and held it to the bitch’s throat before anyone could do jackshit, and purred, ‘You wanna die? Nobody speaks to me like that and lives, so you want to apologize quickly or should I shove this knife into your throat and end you now? ’ I would have given anything to have been there and seen that,” Graham chuckles.
“What did Vitale do?” I ask, because what the fuck do you do with a date that makes an entrance like that?
“He grinned and stated so everyone could hear, ‘This is what my woman looks like, and don’t you all forget it. She’ll gut you like a fish she’s about to cook and then lick her fingers.’ Now, Nell wasn’t so happy with that description, she shoves the woman hard, who falls on her ass screaming. People rush forward, and Vitale puts himself between Nell and everyone else. While his back is turned Nell does her disappearing act and we eventually find her walking home in her heels and evening gown.”
“Fuck me,” Axel mumbles, but he still has that damn grin on his face, “So what happened after?”
“Well, Nell told Vitale to fuck off to his whore of the month and she hasn’t spoken to him since. He however, keeps sending flowers, chocolates, jewelry and other shit, which Nell immediately sends back with a notelet she had Tank make that has a photograph of her holding up her middle finger.”
Now, we all break down into hysterical laughter but if anyone knows Nell, they know this story is as true as the sun will rise in the morning. I can’t wait to see what happens eventually between Vitale and Nell. But, if Nell ever becomes the Donna of the Mafia they will know they’ve got her, and she’ll rule with an iron fist and a cellar full of gators.