22. Rachel #2
“You did.” I squinted at her. “What’s the proposition? And why do we have to have this conversation after I’ve had a hellishly long day in court and have been stuck in traffic for ninety minutes?”
She blinked at me. “You must really love Rex if you put up with that commute.”
For some reason, that had my cheeks burning with color. “I do love him.”
Grunting, Giulia said, “I’m supposed to commute soon.”
“You are?”
“Uh huh. If I want to do my apprenticeship.”
“Oh, the piercing thing.” I hummed. “Would you do my daith piercing?”
“I thought you were going to be dismissive.”
“Why would I?” I arched a brow at her. “Well, would you?”
“Would I what?”
“Do my goddamn daith piercing?”
“You get migraines?”
“I do.”
“After ninety minutes stuck in traffic, can’t say I blame your head for rebelling. Anyways, yeah, I’ll do it but it might not be for a while. What with the baby.”
I shrugged. “I’d prefer you to do it.”
“Indy’s current piercer is good,” she said honestly.
“I’d prefer you to do it,” I repeated.
Giulia’s smile was hesitant, but I saw that my loyalty pleased her.
If I had to have a needle stuck into me, I’d prefer it to be by someone who’d already had my back rather than a stranger.
If that made me insane that I’d prefer to have Giulia armed with said piercing needle, then so be it.
“Speaking of, I figured out a solution for your problem with Nyx.”
“What problem?”
“Your concern that he’ll stray after you give birth.”
She grimaced. “I trust him.”
I did too. At least, I trusted his cock. But his cock wasn’t the part of his body that would get his ass sent up.
Still, I couldn’t tell her that. Which made me feel bad. Goddammit.
And that grimace told me that she wanted to believe it but didn’t feel like she could.
This was a mess.
Giulia was intuitive enough to have picked up on the fact that Nyx had hours unaccounted for—
“Kendra didn’t leave.”
Ah.
Shit.
And she’d left the same night that Nyx had been gone.
Giulia didn’t know his ass had been in jail.
“Where did she go?” I queried.
“Don’t know, don’t care. But she’s back.”
“She’s braver than me. Especially now you’ve taken command over your gag reflex.”
Her lips twitched but she only asked, “What’s the solution?”
“You don’t really think he’d cheat on you, do you?“
“You’re the one who brought this up.”
“True. It was just an idea though.”
“When Kendra left that night, I tried to call Nyx but he didn’t answer.”
Fuck.
“Probably on club business.”
Her cheeks blew out as she released a deep exhalation. “Yeah. You’re right. What’s the solution?”
“Have him get another cock piercing near your due date.”
Eyes widening, her smirk made a slow appearance. “What a brilliant idea.”
“Is Indy’s piercer a woman?”
“Sadly, yes. But Indy’ll know a dude—”
“You think he’ll be upset about having a guy pierce him?”
She smirked. “I think he deserves to be as uncomfortable as possible.”
I really knew far too much about their relationship.
“He might not have done anything.”
“He’s Nyx. He’ll have done something,” she dismissed, “even if it isn’t dicking down my arch-nemesis.”
“Nah, Kendra’s not your arch-nemesis. She’s just a whore.” I felt bad for saying that about Bear’s daughter but even Bear had admitted she was alien spawn. “Not worthy of arch-nemesis status.”
Giulia’s eyes twinkled. “You’re right.”
“I often am.”
She snorted.
“Go on then, hit me with the proposition,” I said as I trudged over to fill up my water bottle from the refrigerator door then picked up one of the tubs of ice cream Hunter had sent me from the freezer. Because I was feeling generous, and guilty, I stated, “Pick your poison.”
“Vanilla.” At my arched brow, she said smugly, “My taste in ice cream is the only boring thing about me.”
Snickering, I grabbed us both a tub, picked up two spoons, and joined her at my kitchen table.
For a blunt woman, she suddenly stopped being able to maintain eye contact with me.
Swirling the spoon around the tub of ice cream once she’d opened it, she muttered, “I hate asking for shit like this.”
“What do you need? A loan?”
Her head reared back at that. “Dude, my man’s worth a fortune. I don’t need dollars. I need a godmother for this kid of mine.”
My mouth gaped. “You want me to be a godmother?”
She shrugged. “I like you. I’ve seen Rain around the clubhouse, and as much as he sniffs around the whores, he’s always respectful. My kid, if anything happens to his dad and me, will be a hellion. You raised a Sinners’ brat and made him normal. I want that for my baby. I want the best.”
There was a compliment in there, I figured, still... “Axel raised him—”
“You dealt with the teenage years. You’re alive so you survived it.” Giulia bit her lip. “Well? Will you do it?”
My mouth worked, and my lips rounded as I started to figure out a way to get out of being asked—much as I’d done with Scott—but nobody was more stunned than me when I rasped, “Okay. But you can’t die until they’re seventeen at least.”
Giulia beamed at me. “I have no intention of dying ever. So we’re all good.
But just in case some cunt clubwhore gets me in the back, I wanted to make sure I had shit arranged.
” She slapped her hands against the table.
“Nyx’s getting another couple piercings and you agreed to be my baby’s godmother. This is a good fucking day.”
I cringed. “A couple piercings?”
“He has a Jacob’s ladder to midway down his shaft but—”
I held up a hand. “Do I need to know?”
“Shouldn’t have asked.”
“I was only asking if he needed more than one. You don’t know if he actually needs punishing,” I pointed out, even though he definitely deserved something.
“And I’ll say it again—he’s Nyx. He’ll have done something to deserve it. Don’t you worry. Like I was saying, I want his Jacob’s ladder extended.”
My nose crinkled. “TMI.”
“Get used to it. We overshare. A lot.”
“I’ll remind you of that when Amara starts talking about Hawk’s cock.”
She smirked. “Amara guards Hawk and Quin’s dicks zealously. She never talks about them. She’s too possessive.”
I huffed as I dug my spoon into the tub of ice cream. “No fair.”
“Life ain’t fair. Did you hear about the party?”
“The party? No.” Confused, I asked, “When?”
“Tonight. Impromptu welcome home party for Rex. I’m surprised he didn’t say anything.” She cast me a look. “Unless he doesn’t think you’d want to go…”
I thought about the day I’d had, the work still left to do before I could even think about sleep, and I almost groaned.
Silently, I ate a couple more spoonfuls of ice cream.
“You know you need to go, don’t you?” Giulia asked softly.
“Yeah,” I said on a sigh because she was right. “I know I need to.”
“Hey.”
I peered at her. “What?”
“This doesn’t have to be like how Rene did things.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rene was, well, she didn’t have a career, did she? No shade to her, she was awesome—from what I remember, at least. But, like, the MC was her world. It isn’t yours. Nor is it mine or any of the Posse’s now. You don’t have to run things like she did, you know, with your nose buried in everything.”
“I don’t?”
“No. That’s what the Posse is for. I mean, you’ll be like Rex’s First Lady, but I’m the Second Lady, yeah? Then there’s all the Old Ladies—they’re not cats like the old guard. We’re in this together.”
Blinking, I nodded at her. “You’re right.” My mouth worked a second as a weight drifted from my shoulders that I hadn’t even known was there. “You’re right,” I repeated.
She smiled. “My job isn’t as important as yours—”
“Don’t put yourself down,” I immediately chided.
Her smile quirked up into a grin. “I wasn’t, but I don’t keep our dudes out of jail so I don’t think I’m putting myself down, just being a realist. Anyways, you can rely on me to tell you when you need to do stuff.”
“Like with tonight’s party?”
She nodded. “Like with tonight’s party. I figure this is the first time the Sinners will even know you two are an item. It’s not like it’s obvious. Sure, it might be the worst kept secret, but tonight would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled.
“I know you’re exhausted,” she said commiseratively.
“I really am.”
“But we changed the clubhouse now. There’s a room off the bar where we can hang out after you do the rounds.”
I yawned. “I think I should take a nap.”
“I’ll wake you up so you have time to get ready.” She hesitated. “Rex really didn’t tell you about this?”
“No. He’s…” It was easier than I would have thought to admit to her, “I asked him to brand me but he’s not sure.”
Her brow furrowed. “Has to be because he knows you’re not a fan of the club because that man is deee-voted to you.” She coughed. “Hopelessly devoted, in fact.”
I blinked.
Was that a Grease reference?
“It’s not that I’m not a fan of the club. It’s just that they’re hard work. They do stupid shit and I have to get them out of it.”
Case in point, Nyx.
Case in point, goddamn Harlow.
“Understandable. You know you can’t get branded until after the baby, right?”
“Yeah, but I-I wanted him to know that I wanted that.” Glumly, I dug out some more ice cream. “He has a ring though.”
“How do you know that?”
“Long story short, Lily found it. Don’t ask how.”
“I won’t. Though I want to know at some point.”
I wafted my spoon at her.
“So you’re too good to brand,” she mused.
The phrasing put me on edge. “I’m not too good for the Sinners. I wasn’t born into the club like you but I was definitely bred there.”
“No need to get snippy,” she chided. “If you acted like you were too good for the Sinners, do you think I’d have asked you to be the godmother for my kid?”
“Honestly? I don’t even think about the logic behind your actions, Giulia.”
A cackle escaped her. “You’re a smart woman.”
“That I am,” I drawled.
“Tonight’s a first step, then, isn’t it?”
“A first step to what?”
“Proving to Rex that his wife can be his Old Lady and that his Old Lady can be his wife.” She rubbed her hands together. “Go nap. I’ll be up forty minutes before Nyx comes to collect me.”
I didn’t question the fact Nyx would be doing that when it was a short walk to the compound, just surprised us both by yawning again. Big enough that it cracked my jaw.
“You’re still early days into the pregnancy, honey. You’ll be exhausted faster than usual.” She shooed me. “Leave the ice cream, I’ll clear up. Just catch some Zs.”
I figured it was a testament to how tired I actually was that I obeyed.