Chapter Fourteen – Mike
Viper and Maddox invited me over for a workout session. It was something we used to do together a lot when we had to live together, way back when I was Lola’s bodyguard and she was nothing more than the Luciano’s newest pet serial killer.
Times had changed, definitely.
The Lucianos had a great workout room, full of machines and weights of all kinds. Viper didn’t work out nearly as much as me and Maddox, but my brother still took good care of himself.
I’d heard from Laina. She’d given me and Fang the rundown on what happened—Jason was Kieran and Tessa’s father, and he was now hesitant to help Tessa after finding out the extent of her crimes against her own brother.
It was a line in the sand I understood; I would never, ever do anything that would harm a hair on Viper’s head, and he would show me the same respect.
Without family, what did you have? Nothing. You had nothing, and you were no one.
Maddox was busy busting out some chest presses, while Viper was bent over doing curls. I was on the treadmill getting some cardio in.
Viper spoke, “So, how are things going with Laina?” I didn’t keep my brother completely in the loop when it came to us, but he knew the basics: that I’d tried to keep myself away from her, and that I’d failed spectacularly and now couldn’t picture my life without her.
I’d gone from bodyguard to simp really fast, and you know what? I didn’t care.
“Good,” I said. They knew things were a little crazy with Tessa and all that, so I didn’t bother bringing her up.
“I bet it’s nice having her back in the city,” my brother commented. “Driving to and from ACU must’ve been so annoying.”
“Not really. I didn’t mind it.”
Maddox finished his set and hooked the bar on its prongs, sitting up and wiping at the sweat that had gathered on his forehead.
The man was half-covered in tattoos. My brother only had ones of snakes all over his body, but Maddox’s designs did not discriminate.
“I think what he’s trying to ask is—” A dark smirk tugged at his mouth. “—how’s the fucking?”
Viper shook his head. “I was not trying to ask that.”
I glared at Maddox, who only shrugged. “What? It’s a legitimate question.
If she’s anything like Lola, which I’m pretty damn sure she is, nothing can beat the fucking.
” He then asked a question only he would have the balls to ask me: “You get over your hang up about sharing? Trust me, bud, it’s way better once you get over that hump, right, Viper? ”
My brother was not so pleased with what Maddox had said, and I recalled a time when I was laid up in a bed, practically dying, when Viper and the others had fought over Lola. If my memory served, he’d told me Maddox had nearly shot him.
Yeah, Maddox might act now like everything was fine, but it wasn’t always that way. It’d taken them years to reach this point. This thing with Laina was still new, comparatively.
When I finally spoke, all I said was, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”
Maddox groaned. “You’re no fucking fun at all. Thought maybe since you’re now getting laid on the regular, that stick up your ass wouldn’t be so big.”
I hit the end button on the treadmill and openly glared. Viper, on the other hand, only shook his head. “Just because I don’t want to discuss our sex life doesn’t mean—”
“There’s nothing wrong with talking about it, is there? Viper, tell your brother he needs to pull that stick out of his ass if he knows what’s good for him, otherwise Laina will dump him for someone better.”
I grunted. Laina would never. Or, at least, I didn’t think she would ever. If, by some chance, she did want to break things off with me, I genuinely did not know how I would survive. She filled a hole in me I didn’t know existed until recently, and that hole would only grow if she left.
No, I couldn’t let her go. Not ever. She’d become a part of me. I needed her.
Viper did not say what Maddox had instructed him to, instead he muttered, “I need something to drink. Anybody want anything?”
I took that as an opportunity to step off the treadmill and say, “I’ll go with you. Need some water.” Mostly so it would get me out of this conversation and away from Maddox’s dangerously curious mind.
We went downstairs, to the kitchen, where Viper pulled out an energy drink, and I got myself some water. We each took long swigs of our chosen drink, and after a while, my brother asked, “Seriously, though, you happy?”
Setting down the water on the counter, I didn’t have to waste too much time thinking about how to answer. The answer was right there on the tip of my tongue instantly. “I am.” Still not super thrilled with sharing her long-term, but… well, I’d proved to both myself and to her that I could.
It wasn’t so bad, sharing her with Fang, though I’d never say that out loud.
Viper patted my arm. “That’s good. I was worried about you for a while.
You liked to play it silent and tough, but deep down you’re just a teddy bear that needs some love.
” He could hardly get it out before he busted out laughing.
“Sorry, man. Been listening to Lola too much. She’s happy for you, too.
We all are. It’s been a long time coming. ”
“Thanks.”
“Is Fang still as weird as he used to be?”
“Weirder. Laina brings it out of him. I think she enjoys it.”
My brother chuckled. “She’d have to, I imagine. What about that Kieran guy?”
I had a lot to say about that one, none of which came out immediately. I’d had a lot of time to think about what Kieran did and how, if it had been me, I would have done things differently. Laina didn’t hate him for what he did to her, but that didn’t stop me from disliking the guy for it.
He fucking kidnapped her and kept her for two whole years. How did something like that just get washed under the bridge and forgotten?
At least he was taking things slow with her. At least he hadn’t jumped right back into his old habits the moment he’d told her who he really was. Small mercies.
“Kieran is,” I spoke after a long while, “Kieran.”
“Yeah, Lola said if she ever dumps him, he’s on her list.” He did not need to elaborate what list that was; Lola only kept a single list, and that was the list of men she’d like to kill.
She might’ve been this city’s Bloody Queen now, but she was still the Night Slayer, the serial killer who went after bad men.
Men who liked to prey on drunk women, one of which happened to be Richard Luciano’s youngest son. But that was ancient history where we were concerned now.
“I don’t think Laina ever will,” I said, speaking the truth I felt in my soul. I might not have liked Kieran, but Laina sure as hell did. She had no qualms about what he did to her or the lengths he’d go to in order to prove his devotion to her.
I loved Laina, but it took a certain kind of person to be able to look at someone like Kieran and say, ‘Yes, I want him.’
My brother was about to say something else, but my phone rang right then, so I pulled it out of my pocket, and once I saw Laina’s name on the screen, I hit the button and brought it to my ear. “Laina. Everything okay?”
“Everything is great. Dad just got home from the doctor’s appointment. I have the doctor’s name. I want to check him out and make sure he’s on the up-and-up.”
“I’m at the Luciano house now. Send me what you have and I’ll tell Sylvester.”
“Perfect,” she beamed on the other line, oddly happy, considering. The girl hadn’t been truly happy since Tessa had made her return. “We still on for dinner later?”
“Yeah, I’ll pick you up at five.”
“Great.” After we exchanged goodbyes, the call ended and she texted me the doctor’s information. A quick search online showed he was, in fact, a doctor in the city, but that didn’t mean a thing.
So many people in this damned city were corrupt.
The politicians, the police; why wouldn’t doctors also be included in that number?
Tessa had money. Surely she’d squirrelled some away when she was with Vance.
She definitely could have enough to pay off a doctor and get him to lie on any sort of test.
Speaking of the devil himself, Sylvester strolled into the kitchen right then, carrying a file.
He spotted me and Viper instantly. “Big Mike,” he said.
“I was hoping you were still here. You want to take a look at this before I have Lola send it all to your girl?” The suit-wearing man tossed the file onto the counter near me, and I grabbed it and flipped it open.
“What’s this?” I asked, flipping through the papers in the file. Pictures, some fuzzy, some not so fuzzy. A small house. An old truck. And then a person. Who? Jason, who we now knew as Jason Miller.
“Was able to dig some stuff up once we got his last name,” Sylvester said, running a hand through his blond hair as he watched me go through the file. Viper stood beside me, peering around me, just to be nosey.
“Summarize it for me,” I told him.
“Jason Miller made a name for himself out in Montana. Small town. Apparently he moved in and helped turn the town’s prospects around.
The town had a bit of a gang problem, which he helped stop by basically taking over the gang and helping its members find real employment and providing a social safety net in the form of a family.
He’s been in scuffles with the police a few times, got arrested here and there, but nothing ever stuck.
Everyone there knows who he is, and they stay out of his business, knowing he’s got a mini-army behind him. ”
Hmm. Not what I would have guessed, but then again, I didn’t put that much thought behind it.
“It’s probably not what you want to hear, but he doesn’t sound like a bad guy,” Sylvester said what I was thinking.
That was what I was worried about. If he was a bad guy, we could have fixed him like we fixed all our other problems—we could’ve killed him. Killed him and ended it just like that. But, of course, Jason had to be in an apparent league of his own, which meant I didn’t know how we’d deal with him.
Maybe we wouldn’t. It sounded as though Jason was hesitant to continue helping Tessa now that he knew the full truth.
I shut the file and pushed it back toward him. “Laina just called. She got the doctor’s name.”
Sylvester nodded once. “Send it to me. I’ll see what I can do.” He picked up the folder and turned around, exiting the kitchen and thereby leaving Viper and I to our drinks.
Beside me, my brother asked, “Does that change anything? I mean, we could still get rid of the guy, couldn’t we?”
We could, but… somehow I knew Laina would never go for that, and if I went behind her back and rid the city of Jason for her without asking, she’d get pissed. She might not ever forgive me, and that thought terrified me more than I would ever admit.
No. Laina was everything to me. We were on the same team. Unless she told me to put a bullet in Jason’s head, I’d have to hold back. Besides…
If I knew Laina like I thought I did, I was pretty damn sure killing the guy was the last thing she wanted to do.