Chapter Fourteen
Pacino
Standing in front of my brothers like I am makes me anxious. I called Scotty to stay with Phoebe and Sarah before getting a ride to my place to get my bike and calling Jethro for an emergency meeting. But this is beyond just me at this point.
“What’s up?” Zep asks, taking his seat.
I can’t sit. I have to stay standing because I can’t stop moving. This whole situation has me restless, and I never thought I’d have to deal with my family ever again.
Everyone sits and stares at me with expectations. I never do this. I’m the one called for help, not the one asking for it.
It’s very uncomfortable, and I don’t care for it.
Here goes nothing. “I need…” I have to stop and take a deep breath as I swallow my pride. This has never been my strong suit. Even before Jo, asking for help was weak. And I wasn’t weak. “…help.”
As I sit there, feeling like the world might open up and swallow me whole, I try to recall the last time I managed to ask for help. Aside from childhood, I’m not sure I ever have.
I learned early on from my fucking father that asking for assistance was a weakness. A way to become indebted to others. If I don’t, though, Phoebe might end up dead for no reason other than getting my attention. And regardless of what I told Ryan, I can’t stomach the thought of that.
“What’s going on?” Jethro asks. “Did you finally figure out who owns all the shell companies? Do you know who’s trying to hurt the baker?”
The baker. I almost laugh. That’s all she should be to me, but she’s not. She’s everything and more, and that’s what makes this even scarier.
No one knows about my past besides Capone, and he only knows because he was there. Our families were once friendly, but like the Daredevils and the Venom, they turned into rivals. And it’s the exact reason I sided with the Grecos over my own fucking family.
“Have you heard of the Archioni family? From Vegas?” I ask.
Everyone but Capone shakes their heads no, and I know he understands. He knows what’s going on.
“No, why?” Jethro asks.
“The head of the Archioni family is Benito Vega,” I say, waiting for them to put it together. When no one reacts, I sigh. “And Benito is my father.”
“I thought you were from Reno,” Zep says, his brows furrowed as he frowns at me.
“I was born there. But my father… he took over the head of the family when Marlo Archioni died.”
Rooster holds a hand up. “Wait, you’re from the… mob? Like, the real mob?”
“And you chose to come here and join a motorcycle club?” Penn asks.
“My father’s a son of a bitch I wanted to kill but wasn’t allowed to. He double crossed me, and I left without ever looking back.”
Leaning forward, Jethro blinks at me. “I don’t think I quite understand. What does that have to do with anything?”
“My father wants me back. At least to talk, but I know what he wants. They targeted Phoebe. Just to get my attention because they knew conventional methods wouldn’t work.”
“They did recon,” Capone says. “Realized someone from your company dated an employee at the bakery. Doesn’t take a genius to make that plan, and we both know the rest of your family ain’t intellects.”
Jethro waves a hand in the air. “What do you mean when you say they want you back?”
Sighing, Capone looks at me, and I know he’s suspected this longer than I have. And he knows something I don’t. When the SUV looked like something from our past, he probably started asking around. He has connections I don’t.
“Word on the street is that he wants Pacino back in Vegas. There’s talk about a re-org about to happen, and Benito’s sick,” Capone says.
“How do you know this?” Zep asks. “Pacino didn’t, and it’s his family.”
“We know each other,” I say. “From back in the day. Our families are… They know each other.”
Capone snorts and crosses his arms over his chest. “Called my brother when we saw the second SUV. Then I heard Ryan was in town, but then I got the message for the meeting. Figured Pacino was already aware his brother showed up here.”
My father being sick makes me more than a little happy. After everything that’s happened, I plan to throw a party on his fucking grave. “What illness?” I ask.
“Lung cancer. My brother saw him with oxygen a couple weeks ago.”
“I hope it’s fucking painful.”
No one has ever betrayed me like my own family. After what they did, I won’t even attend their funerals. I’ll make a trip to spit and piss on their graves after the fact, though.
“What do you need from us?” Jethro asks.
“More protection for Phoebe. Especially at the bakery. My brother’s the one who broke in, and he’s been casing out the place. Then he showed up today, scaring Sarah.”
“What do you think they’ll do if they get ahold of Phoebe?”
I don’t have to think about it. I know. I know because I’ve already lived it. “They’ll kill her.”
“Are you sure?” Kannon asks. “If she was a means to get your attention, won’t they leave her alone now? What good would it be to hurt her?”
“He’s sure,” Capone says. “They’ll fucking kill her without a second thought.”
Swallowing, I know I have to come clean to them. To tell them what I’ve been trying to ignore for a week now. I swore I’d never be Zep, but I fell right into the same fucking trap he did.
“They know the best way to hurt me is to go through women I care about,” I say, clearing my throat. “And I care about Phoebe. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.”
I can’t make eye contact with anyone as the confession settles among the room. Who would have thought? The grumpy asshole who needed to fuck Queenie to get human affection has started falling for the overly cheerful baker with a past much darker than I ever imagined.
“You care about her?” Jethro asks.
“We’ve been… She’s not just a guest in my house,” I say.
What exactly we are and what I feel isn’t clear yet, but I know I need her. She brings something to my life I didn’t know I wanted, and now that I’ve gotten a taste of her bright side, I can’t live without it. She’s like the fucking sun.
“I knew you hadn’t been at Velvet in a while,” Penn says, and I can hear the smirk on his face. “Tell me she’s a closeted freak. She looks like it.”
Grabbing his shirt, I yank him up from his seat and glare at him. “Don’t fucking talk about her like that ever again.”
“Woah, man, I was half-kidding. I mean, she does have that look about her, but I didn’t mean anything bad by it,” he says, his hands in the air.
I toss him back into his chair and run my hands through my hair. I’ve already lost the love of my life because of my father. I can’t lose Phoebe, too.
Holy shit. I’m comparing Phoebe to Joanna?
How did this happen? It hasn’t been very long. It’s not enough time.
“Pacino?” Capone asks. “What’s going on?”
I can’t breathe. Turning to him, I just gape. How do I explain this?
“You’re thinking about Jo, aren’t you?”
“No.”
“You’re thinking about Jo, and you’re realizing that Phoebe means as much to you as she did.”
Swallowing, I lean forward and rest my weight on the table. “Fuck me.”
“What the hell is going on?” Kannon asks.
“No, I can’t. It’s not possible. I can’t be falling in fucking love with her,” I mutter. “How the fuck did this happen?”
“Who’s Joanna?” Zep asks.
Capone nods at me. “No one we need to worry about right now. Let’s make a plan. No one gets to Phoebe.”
Well, this is a turn I didn’t expect, but at least I have the support of my brothers.