15. Hollywood
15
HOLLYWOOD
W hen she didn’t immediately reply back, I thought I’d fucked up. No one liked an unsolicited dick pic, even if said dick had been called aesthetically perfect. I walked into the clubhouse with a lump in my gut, wondering what retaliation would look like once she got here.
“Hey ya, Hollywood,” Chelsea said, walking up to me so she could throw an arm around my waist.
“Hiya, Chels.” I promptly detached myself from her and moved away. “You doing okay?”
“Better now that you’re here.” She gave me a big smile and batted her pretty doe eyes, the way she did when she wanted to drag me to one of the back rooms. Hollywood of yesteryear would have already had his pants halfway down to his ankles, but I’d learned there was something better out there, something more potent and powerful than an empty connection with her. I wanted that with V.
“Well, aren’t you a charmer?” I smiled and walked toward the meeting room on the right. “See ya around.”
“Hollywood,” she whined, and I turned around to face her. “You’re not really going along with that bitch, are you?”
“Bitch?” I raised my eyebrows and took a step toward her. “You mean V?”
She grinned and wrapped her index fingers in my belt loops, trying to pull my hips toward her. “Yeah. Who cares what she thinks anyway, right?”
Fire erupted in my gut at the fucked-up way Chelsea spoke about the MC princess. Even if I wasn’t in this random situationship with her, she was still my best friend’s sister. I wouldn’t let anyone talk shit about her, especially not a jealous hang-around.
“I care,” I said. “And the next time you talk about her like that will be the last time I talk to you.”
Chelsea furrowed her brows, seemingly hurt. “Are you serious? What are you like ... in love with the cunt or something?”
That’s it.
I didn’t say anything else, just rolled my eyes and headed toward the meeting room for church, taking up my spot in my normal corner. Had Chelsea always been such a self-righteous bitch? Or was this a new development based on the fact that I wasn’t interested in her anymore? Hang-arounds didn’t hold the same position in the club as the old ladies or the princesses. She was lucky I didn’t have her banned from showing up here.
My phone buzzed, so I reached into my pocket to retrieve it, biting my bottom lip when I had a video response from V. I made sure the sound was turned all the way down before I pressed play.
Holy fucking hell.
She’d returned the favor. My pulse kicked up a notch when she ran her soapy tattooed fingers over her amazing tits, blood shooting down to my cock when she rubbed in between her legs. If I focused hard enough, I could almost taste her on my tongue, and when she threw her head back in a euphoric display of her orgasm, I damn near came in my pants like a teenager.
“You and V make out all right?” KC said, coming to stand next to me.
I quickly turned my screen off and glanced up at him with wide eyes, heat rushing through my face and into my neck.
“What?” I blurted much louder than I intended.
“Yesterday,” KC said. “Wheels told me you volunteered for a shift to guard her again. Everything go okay?”
“Oh.” I cleared my throat and nodded, swallowing down the rotten images of what V and I had really made out last night. “Yeah. It was fine.”
KC furrowed his brows and lit a cigarette. “You okay?”
“Peachy keen, jelly bean.”
If he was going to reply, he got distracted when Bear walked up to us and rubbed his hands over his face. KC looked about the same as he always did—a big smile for everyone, happiness radiating out of his pores, the attitude of a man that had married the epitome of sunshine. Bear, on the other hand, had deep purple bags under his eyes and the twinge of panic at the corner of his mouth while he lit a cigarette before letting the smoke out on a deep sigh. He never smoked, so to see him this stressed out yanked on my heart.
“Hey, brother,” I said, grabbing his shoulder. “You all right?”
“Yeah, fucking great.” He shook his head and inhaled deeper. “Just watching my whole fucking life go up in flames.”
“Hey,” KC cut in. “You don’t know if your pops is going to go along with it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe he’ll marry the Caputi wench instead.”
Bear narrowed his eyes. “You think I want a stepmother that’s only two years older than me?”
Damn, he knew how old Julia was? What other research did he do about her? He must have been thinking about this since it happened.
“It’s fine,” Bear said, shaking his head and stabbing out his cigarette in the ashtray next to us. “My life was never mine anyway.”
“Don’t be like that,” I said, hating that my brother and best friend was hurting so much. I didn’t want to say my next words, but when I patched myself into this club ten years ago, I’d sworn to do anything to protect it. If marrying Julia Caputi spared him this misery, I’d bend over backward to make it happen. “I’ll do it, okay? Just tell Leo you’re not available and?—”
“No,” Bear cut in. “No fucking way.”
“What?” That surprised me. “Why?”
He let out a breath through his nose and gave my shoulder a firm, reassuring squeeze. “It’s not your burden to bear, okay?”
I started to argue I would take on any burden if it meant he’d suffer less for it, but I never got the chance. Aris banged his rings on the table to open up the floor for session.
“All right, you motherfuckers. Listen up.” The veep ran through the list of charity drives that were coming in the next few weeks, including the huge one on St. Patty’s Day. “That also happens to be the time the Beacon will be completed, so keep an eye out for news there.”
Slip spoke next, running down the schedule for the next few runs. “KC, Hollywood, Picasso, Lore, and Coins—you’re with me down to Asheville in four days. The cartel is meeting us to drop off a big shipment. We need a lot of muscle to haul it back.”
“Six people on a run?” Doc said after letting out a whistle. “That’s like ringing the dinner bell, isn’t it?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Slip said, rubbing over his bald head. “The cartel isn’t like the Canadians. They’re not interested in small transactions. They deal in millions, and I’m not taking any chances.”
“It’ll be fine,” Aris added. “I guaranteed we’d bring backup as part of the deal when I made it.”
Doc crossed his arms and sat back in his seat but didn’t argue. He wasn’t someone who kept his opinion to himself, so he must have felt okay with Aris’s explanation. I swallowed against a dry throat, unsure if I found any comfort in it myself, but I was just a peon—what the fuck did I know?
“We have bigger things to discuss,” Crow said, bringing everyone back on topic. Bear shifted his weight next to me as he waited for his father to drop the hammer. “Leo Caputi has offered a deal in exchange for truce.”
The room fell silent, the rest of the brothers waiting to see what he wanted.
“I haven’t spoken to him myself,” the prez explained, “but if we agree, I’ll head there as soon as I can to formalize everything.”
“What’s he want?” Wheels asked, his dark eyes serious as he glanced at Crow.
“A marriage,” Bear said. “He wants to join our families.”
“Aren’t we already?” Castor said, nodding to KC. “Isn’t Alba a?—”
“Alba is a Montgomery,” KC snapped, yanking down the neck of his shirt to show the Sunshine tattoo on his collarbone. “She claims no heritage from that piece of shit family and never will.”
Two years ago, while KC and Alba were dating, she had learned her mother was Benito Caputi’s daughter, long thought dead. Turned out Alba was the love child of Aris and Alessandra Caputi. After she found out she was pregnant, Alessandra faked her death, hid on Rose territory, and changed her name to Penny Wright. Even though one side of her family came from the Caputis, Alba didn’t consider herself one of them. She was a Rose, end of story.
“If we want him to trust we’re serious about ending this, then we need to show it.” Bear cleared his throat and ran a hand back through his hair. “He wants me to marry his sister, Julia.”
Crow winced and pinched the bridge of his nose, the added gray in his hair indicating how rough this year had been for him, for us all. As the patriarch of this found family, the crown would always lay heavier on his head.
“How does Julia feel about this?” Lore asked from a few feet to my left, itching at his eye patch.
“About as great as you’d expect,” Saint explained. “But she hates her aunt more than that, so she’ll agree.”
“ I haven’t agreed,” Crow snarled. “I don’t like being told what to do, especially not by that Caputi piece of shit.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Bear added, shaking his head with his hands on his hips. “But what’s our other choice? We could bomb one of their clubs to draw them out, maybe send them on a wild goose chase to God knows where.”
Thor shifted at that, probably remembering when he’d had to follow Selene up to Buffalo to keep her from becoming Caputi cannon fodder. She’d killed a rat in the process, so it wasn’t a complete loss, but she still had a limp from where she’d gotten shot in the leg, and probably always would.
“We could raid their houses,” Doc said, leaning forward on his elbows. “Bring them to the barn, take care of them all in one night.”
“You leave a void that big and something worse is going to fill it,” Aris said, pursing his lips.
“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Doc reasoned.
“No,” Crow said. “I don’t like it, but I also don’t like the thought of my son living with one of those treacherous snakes for the rest of his life.”
“Isn’t that my choice?” Bear took a few steps forward, shoving his hands into his pockets as he glanced around at our brothers. “Don’t I get a say in whether I put my future on the line for the club?”
“I won’t lay that at your feet, son,” Crow said.
Bear glanced at Slip. “Last year, you stepped in front of a bullet for me.”
Slip adjusted his hips in his seat, crossing his arms before shifting his sky-blue eyes to the table. “It’s my job.”
“And you.” Bear turned to Doc. “How many horrible things have you done for this club? How stained are your hands?”
“It’s not permanent,” Doc said. “I don’t see it that way, and I never have.”
“Hollywood,” Bear shifted his attention to me. “How many times have you been shot defending our family?”
“Three,” I said. “Three times.”
“He almost died protecting my sister.” Bear glanced back to his father. “Is my future not an adequate payment for his safety? If it means that this ends, that no other Caputi spills a drop of Rose blood, isn’t it worth it?”
Crow took a deep breath and ran a hand over his mouth, staring up at his son with that infamous Montgomery fire behind his eyes.
“I won’t ask you to do that,” Crow said.
“No one is asking. I’m telling you.” Bear let out a harsh sigh and shook his head, his dark curls glimmering in the overhead light. “If you expect me to take this club over one day, then I have to be willing to give up the same thing I’d ask from anyone else.”
Whoops came from all the brothers, a round of hollers echoing over that.
“Besides,” I said, “Julia Caputi’s pretty hot.”
“That’s my future wife you’re talking about there,” Bear snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at me. “Watch your fucking mouth.”
I clapped and howled like a wolf baying at the moon. The sound came from my soul, and others joined it with their own applause or shouts of excitement.
“All right, knock it off,” Aris said, banging his rings on the table again to get our attention refocused.
“Let’s pause this for now,” Crow said, giving his son an indignant side-eye. “I want to hear updates about Gabriella. I’m not in favor of Doc’s mass execution idea, but I also don’t want her to blindside us again.”
“She’s struggling,” Saint said. “Some of Benito’s brothers are making things difficult. If there were a right time to invade from the inside, now is it.”
“Will his brothers be a problem for Leo?” Slip asked.
“Julia seems to think she can win them over,” Saint continued. “She said they don’t want the power; they just don’t think Gabriella is capable of maintaining order.”
“How do we know we can trust Julia?” Lore spoke up. “If she’s related to Leo, she’s as much of a liability.”
I understood why Lore thought so poorly of Leo and Julia, and I didn’t blame him. I’d been shot by the bastard’s cronies, so Lord knew, I sympathized. But this was bigger than an eye or a bullet to the chest. This was future generations of Roses and Caputis growing up and knowing peace. This was the end to a blood feud that had plagued us for decades.
Crow met Saint’s gaze, and the quiet brother shrugged, as if suggesting he didn’t have an opinion about whatever the president had silently asked him.
“Julia Caputi has been sending us information for over two years,” Crow said. “She’s Saint’s leak.”
The room went silent again, and this time, my heart pounded in my chest at the realization.
“It’s a long story,” Saint explained. “A few years back, I met her during one of my Christmas visits to the orphanage. I didn’t know who she was at first, and she didn’t use her real name, but we got to talking. She’s a nice girl, even if she is a firecracker. If she didn’t have such a shitty last name, we’d have no problem with her. Six months after that, I found her beamer in a ditch outside Fairfax. She was almost dead. Her boyfriend in the passenger seat had a bullet wound in his head. If it wasn’t for me taking her to the hospital, she woulda died right then and there.”
Leo’s words went through my head.
“She hates the Roses for killing our brother, but she hates Gabriella even more.”
I wondered if Gabriella had anything to do with her boyfriend’s death.
“A couple months later,” Saint continued, “it was me almost getting shot on Caputi territory when I was trying to get intel.”
Fuck, I remember that.
“I was caught, trapped in a room, waiting for the fuckers to smoke me out. I shoulda died. She found me and made sure I got free.” He ran a finger over his brow and blew out a disbelieving breath. “I can’t say why fate put us in each other’s paths so many times, but when the universe speaks, I listen.” Saint waited for the murmurs from the crowd to die down before continuing. “Trust me on this, she wants Gabriella gone as much as us.”
“Let’s play this low-key,” Crow said. “Take it slow, and keep me updated on anything new.”
Saint nodded and retreated back to his corner.
“There’s one more thing,” Coins said, rubbing at his gray beard. “Detective Jordan has been poking around. I think I had a tail the other day.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Aris said. “I’m stepping in pig shit everywhere I go.”
“Do we think she has anything?” Crow looked at Castor and Switch, our IT geniuses. They had the inside track to anything the Feds might secure. I didn’t understand how they did it, and I never asked because I didn’t want to understand it, but Castor and Switch usually knew what the pigs had before they did.
“I haven’t seen anything new,” Castor said. “But that doesn’t mean they aren’t searching.”
“Keep an eye on them,” Crow ordered before nodding at Aris.
“All right,” Aris said, pushing to his feet. “That’s all for tonight.”
“Pollux is getting out in a few weeks,” Castor said, holding up his hands. “When he does, we’re heading to the Viper to celebrate. Everyone’s invited. I’m letting you know now so you can clear your fucking schedules. You all better be there!”
“First round’s on Castor!” I shouted over his voice, and everyone whooped in response.
“What the fuck, man?” Castor pretended to punch me in the gut, but I laughed and threw my arm over his shoulders, tugging him in for a playful hug. “Fuck off.”
He shoved me away with a chuckle as we walked into the front room. I immediately caught V’s gaze at the bar, where she talked with Ru, Alba, and Selene. She smiled and waved before returning to her conversation. Like a moth to a flame, I saddled up beside her and reached across the bar for a shot glass and the bottle of whiskey, pouring myself a drink.
“Hiya, Hollywood,” she said and pursed her lips with a hint of mischief playing in her eyes.
“Hi, V.” I mocked her teasing tone, hoping she got the message. I didn’t want to stay at the clubhouse, especially with the way Chelsea burned holes into my back with her gaze. “Are you ready to get out of here?”
“Hmm,” she said, looking at her friends. Alba, Ru, and Selene huddled together and giggled at a video on a phone, completely unaware of V’s sudden shift in interest. “Do you think you’ve behaved enough to leave so soon?”
“Nope,” I said, leaning into the role-play and bending down so I could whisper the next part next to her ear. “I’ve been so bad. I deserve to be punished.”
She made a deep, wicked sound that sent chills down my spine and back up again.
“I want you to break my streak,” I murmured low enough no one else would hear it. “I want you to break my streak tonight, and then I want to tell everyone about it tomorrow.”
V met my gaze with a soft violet one of her own, seeming to verify I meant what I said.
“I don’t ...” She cleared her throat, and a sinking feeling ran through my gut. “I don’t think we should say anything to anyone ... not yet.”
I furrowed my brows. “Why not?”
Did she not trust me?
“It’s just so new,” she said, giving me a small smile. “Can we keep it a secret a little longer?”
I swallowed down the shame that came with the thought that she still didn’t want anyone to know about this amazing thing we created, but I relegated that to the recesses of my heart.
It doesn’t mean anything. This doesn’t mean anything.
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Okay.” She downed the rest of her shot, grabbed her jacket, and pushed off the stool. “See you ladies tomorrow.” She gave her friends a goodbye wave before heading toward the door. Like the lost puppy I was, I followed closely behind.
I had a moment to make eye contact with a very curious Ru behind the bar before the door shut between us.