Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Royal
Ican see the fear in her eyes, and it’s fucking killing me. I want to hold her, soothe away the fear, reassure her that she’s safe and I’ll protect her. I’m also conscious that Grinder is here, and he’d fucking bust a nut if he knew what was going on in my head. So, I check myself and hold steady.
“You’re cold,” I voice when I see that she’s shivering.
Only to be expected as she’s soaked to the skin.
The thin strapless dress she’s wearing clarifies that she’s been out partying.
I quickly shrug out of my cut and flop it over the back of the chair, before unzipping the Saint’s hoodie that I’m wearing and slipping that off too.
“Here, put this on.” I lay it over her shoulders, tugging it tightly together at the front.
She’s tiny compared to me, so it wraps all the way around her, which will not only give her warmth, but will stop me from glaring at the outline of her hard nipples, tits and curves as the wet fabric clings to her like a second skin.
“Now,” I say once I have no distractions.
“Tell us what’s got you so scared that you’d risk your brother’s wrath by turning up here? ”
“He chased me.”
“Who did?” I bark harsher than I should. I’m not mad at her, but at the fucker who was after her.
She looks up at me with glassy eyes, and I fall into Prez mode. I fire instructions to Grinder.
“Get Banshee, Nytro and Scotty to check the perimeter, see if anyone is hanging around outside waiting for her to leave here.”
Grinder hesitates for a moment or two. I can tell he struggles with the idea of leaving his sister, but I give him a quick reassuring nod of the head, to which he responds.
“On it, and I’ll get Forger to check the security cameras to see if they picked up anything.” With that, he turns and hurries towards the door.
“If there is, get him to enhance the images, see if we can get an ID on this fucker,” I shout after him before the door swings shut behind him, leaving me alone with Gio.
I pop my ass onto the edge of the desk so I’m facing where she sits, cold and fearful.
“Now, start at the beginning and tell me exactly what happened.”
Giorgia takes a deep breath before she begins to recount how her evening had started off being out with girlfriends.
“When it came time to make my way back home, the cab waiting time was crazy, so I decided it would be quicker to take the bus,” she explains.
“Gio,” I click my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “I know the city isn’t the crime capital of the world, but still. No woman shouldn’t be walking around late at night, especially on her own.”
“Don’t reprimand me,” she drops her gaze to her hands that are resting in her lap.
“Believe me, I know I made the wrong choice. I should have stayed and waited for a cab.” A huge shudder takes over her body, so I drop down into a crouch in front of her and place a hand on each of her upper arms. Slowly, I stroke, in an attempt to generate some warmth into her.
“You’re safe here, Gio. I ain’t going to let anything happen to you.” I slide my hands down her arms and bring them to rest on top of her hands, still sitting in her lap. She raises her gaze to mine, and as I look into her beautiful eyes, I add, “I promise.”
The way she looks at me, if she wasn’t Grinder’s little sister, I might have acted inappropriately.
I swear I can see a fire in her eyes. The same heat that I’ve been trying to discount since that day, three years ago, when I’d given her a ride home from the clubhouse.
My skin tingles where our hands touch, and it’s at that point I realize our hands are now palm to palm, our fingers laced together like lovers.
I pull back tersely to break the inappropriate joining, only to find that I immediately miss the connection.
“So, what happened then?” I ask, pushing back up to full height and going back to resting against the desk. The space between us needed to stop me from putting my hands on her again.
“I heard voices,” she goes on to explain, shaking her hands out, making me wonder if she felt the sensation too.
“Then what sounded like a hurt animal. I should have just kept on walking.” She shakes her head at this point; it’s like she’s reprimanding herself.
“But I couldn’t ignore it, so I walked a little further into the alley, and that’s when I saw them. ”
“Them?” I question. “How many were they?”
“Two, I think. Plus, the man kneeling on the ground; his hands were clasped together as if in prayer.”
“What exactly did you stumble across, Gio?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but it escalated fast. Before I knew it, they were punching and kicking him, his cries…
” her eyes wide, meet mine and once again they are glazed with fear.
“I wanted to stop them; I did. Instead, I turned to leave. I kicked a bottle, the noise of it smashing alerted them of my presence.” Deep heaving sobs spill from between her lips as she tries to continue.
“I’ll never forget the fear in that poor man’s eyes. ” She cries.
“Hey, hey,” I coo, dropping onto my knees in front of her, bringing her against my chest. I cup the back of her head with one hand while with the other I wrap around her shoulders, holding her close to me.
“They saw me,” she cries into my chest. “One of them looked me in the eye. He recognized me, Noah.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Just before the gunshot, he called out my name,” she whimpers. “They killed him.”
“Fuck,” I hiss out between my teeth. “Did you recognize the man who called out to you?”
She stiffens, pushes against my chest with both hands, forcing me to loosen my hold on her, and she falls back into the chair.
“Gio? Do you know who it was?” Avoiding my gaze, now firmly focused on a random spot on the far wall, she mumbles out an unconvincing no. “Giorgia?”
I get the feeling that she’s holding back from me, but why? I’m not sure. I take hold of her chin and tilt it until she has no alternative but to look me in the eye.
“Why would you protect him, Gio?” I ask. “They committed a murder.” Still, I get nothing. She just glares at me tight-lipped. “Giorgia,” I growl at her, circling her wrist with my tattooed hand. “Tell me now why you won’t give this asshole up, or I swear to God…”
“I’m not protecting anyone,” she spits out at me, “don’t know who it was.” Shaking her hand free from my hold. The heavy knock at the door disrupts us from talking further as Grinder pushes open the door and enters the room.
If Grinder noticed the tension between Gio and me when he walked back in, he sure as hell mentioned nothing. We both move outside the room and out of earshot of Gio so we can talk in private.
“No sign of anyone outside, but we’ve got a couple of images that Forger is working on.” Grinder brings me up to speed. “He’s pretty sure that with what he does have, if he hacks into the police database and the dude has any kind of criminal record, he’ll have a name within the next hour.”
“Good,” I nod. I want a name so I can find this fucker and make sure he’s no longer a threat. I fill him in on what Gio has witnessed and that they know who she is.
“Royal,” he pleads. “She can’t go home, not until I’m sure she’s going to be safe.”
“I agree. What if she moves back to your ma’s for a while?”
“I was thinking the same, but if they know who she is, then it won’t be hard for them to trace her back to where my ma lives, will it?”
“Fuck, you’re right. Is there anywhere your ma can hang out, just until we know more about this fucker?
” I ask. Keeping Grinders ma safe is paramount too.
She’s been like a second mom to me, and I don’t even want to comprehend how devastating losing her would be for Grinder and Giorgia, so I’m damn sure going to do everything I can to prevent that.
“Her sister, Aunt Maria, lives in Philly. She’s been talking about going to visit.”
“Perfect. Now, what about Gio?”
“The only place we can ensure her safety is here, but the only rooms we have free are the rutting rooms, and there’s no fucking way I’m letting her stay in one of those.
Not with what’s gone on in them.” He looks at me, I can see exactly what’s going on in his head and can predict exactly what’s coming next.
“The only place she’d be safe and away from the rest of the brothers that I’d give my life for, but I’ll be fucked if I’ll trust them around my sister, is your quarters. ”
“And where the fuck am I supposed to stay?” I snigger. “You gonna give up your gaff?”
“Shit no. She’ll have to move in with you. The couch will be perfect for her to crash on, or we could squeeze a cot in there somewhere. It’s not like you haven’t got plenty of floor space.” Grinder continues in his attempt to convince me. “You do have the biggest living quarters.”
“Are you serious?” I choke out. I can’t deny that his points to the argument aren’t correct in a lot of ways.
The president’s quarters are the most protected part of the clubhouse, because none of them would enter my private space unless given permission.
They would also guard it, and me as their leader, with their lives.
Yet the thought of having Gio in such proximity is going to test my resilience to the max.
Temptation that I’m not wholly convinced I’m going to be able to resist. Especially after what nearly went down not more than a few minutes ago.
“Who else can I trust her with, Royal? When you look at Gio, all you see is the kid who was a pain in the ass when we were growing up. Hell, you’ve always been like family to us, looked on her like a sister,” Grinder continued to put forward his reasoning.
“Those assholes just see a young pussy ripe for fucking. I can’t be sure they’d heed my warnings, and I’d hate to kill a brother because they couldn’t keep their dick in their pants. ”