Chapter 24 Maverick
“Gentleman,” a thick Italian accent greeted my brothers and me. We were in South End at a seedy bar called The Port. Crash, Ares and I were sitting around the VIP section of the bar that was set up more like a lounge.
Luca Santoro was an Italian through and through. He was a smooth talker and a rich playboy as one would expect, but he was a great businessman and became a friend of the club once he took over his father’s gun trading in the U.S.
Beside Luca was Matteo, who looked like him but a few years younger. He also had a darker exterior as if he wanted to let us know he wasn’t interested in making friends.
Good. Me either, fucker.
“Luca,” I greeted him. “Nice to see you. Have a seat.”
Taking their seats, a waiter quickly rushed over and got their order. I couldn’t miss the strange way Matteo was staring at Ares, as if he was trying to figure something out. I don’t think Ares missed it either, but he kept his composure.
“So,” Luca broke the silence. “This is my brother Matteo. As Crash told you, Margo is about to fucking pop and I’m going to be taking some time off. Should be only a few months, but in the meantime, he’ll be overseeing our U.S. affairs.”
“You know we don’t like working with new people,” I said, looking over at Matteo who was still staring at Ares. I took a sip of my draft and placed it back on the table as I leaned back into my seat. This fucker was weirding me the fuck out.
“I know, I know, but these are special circumstances,” he said, throwing up his hands. “Ares, my friend, you’re about to be a father as well, no?”
Ares nodded, and I realized he was joining into the weird ass staring that was going on.
“Then you must know what it’s like,” he said, smiling. “My wife is my sole reason for my existence, and I want to make sure she is comfortable and supported during these times.”
Not that I was going soft for the man, but I could understand where he was coming from, as well.
When I wasn’t around Thea, I was finding myself thinking about her more and more.
I fucking hated how we left things last night, but club business comes first and I didn’t want to have to deal with that on top of this, too.
“Fine,” I replied. “But as long as this is temporary. I’m sure we can manage. He is your brother after all.”
I smiled and grabbed my beer to take another drink. Luca looked up at his brother and caught the strange way he was looking at Ares. Fucker still hadn’t even said anything to us. Luca cleared his throat and Matteo shifted his eyes to me and then back to Ares.
“Sorry, do I know you from somewhere?” His accent was much thicker than his brother’s, probably since he spent a lot more time in Italy.
“No, you don’t,” Luca interrupted. The two shared a strange look between themselves. “Anyways. Everything's in order for tomorrow. Same location. Same time. See you bright and early, gentlemen.”
The Santoros announced their departure and left the bar moments later. We decided to stick around for another.
“Fucking weirdo,” Ares grumbled and we all laughed. Yeah, he fucking was. What was with all that staring shit anyway?
“Let’s just be glad we don’t have to work with him too long,” I said, shaking my head. “Crash, you feel good about this?”
“Yeah,” he said, gulping down his beer. “Dudes a fucking psycho, that’s for sure, but I got something for froggy motherfuckers who feel jumpy. You feel me?”
“I think we’ll all go to the first drop just to make sure it goes okay,” I said. “I got a bad feeling about this guy, but let’s hope my gut is wrong. We don’t need to start shit with the Santoros on top of the Sons. You feel me?”
If it’s not one thing, it’s another, but that’s just outlaw life.
Though I tried to push it back, I couldn’t help thinking about my girl back home.
I was hoping my Ma and the other girls had gotten through to her.
It had only been one night, and I already missed the fuck out of waking up next to her in my bed.
***
THEA
I woke up cold and embarrassed. I had tried to reach for Maverick in my sleep and hit my arm on my desk.
Grimacing in pain, I remembered that I had slept in my room instead of Maverick’s.
I sat there in the silence of the afternoon for a few moments.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I knew that even if I tried to, I wouldn’t be allowed to leave.
Maverick had said the night before, and I knew this time he meant business.
I finally decided to get up and take a shower so I could make my way downstairs to eat. As I headed down, I smelled food and for a moment, I thought it might have been Sunday again. It wasn’t, thankfully.
“Thea,” Serena called out to me seated at the kitchen table. “I’m glad you’re finally awake. I thought you might have been dead the way you slept all day.”
I gave her a forced smile. Also in the kitchen was Anna, Cherry, Alice and Grace. I had a strong intuition that I was about to be interventioned by the Ol’ Ladies Club. Fuck.
“No, I was just really tired,” I said. “You cook?”
“No, that was me,” Jane said from the fridge. Double fuck. As always, she looked beautiful. Her long blonde hair was draped across her shoulders, and she was wearing a tattered Iron Maiden T-shirt and skinny jeans along with an expensive looking pair of heels.
“Hi,” I said. “It’s good to see you again.”
She closed the refrigerator door with a beer in her hand and walked over to me and gave me a hug, squeezing me tighter than I wanted.
“Good to see you, too,” she said, flashing me a bright smile. “Get food and come sit.”
Of course, I listened. Taking a seat by Anna, I started eating my food, trying not to draw attention to myself.
“How are you feeling, hon?” Jane asked.
“I’m okay,” I accidentally said, a little too forced and she gave me a knowing look.
Taking a long sip of her beer, she said, “You don’t have to lie, hon. We’ve all been there. Well, except our baby, Anna.”
They all murmured agreements, except Anna who flipped Jane off. I laughed at their teasing.
“You decide what you’re going to do yet?”
“Do I really have a choice?”
“Fair,” she laughed. “You may be stuck here right now, but you do have a choice in choosing to be with Maverick or not. He wouldn’t make that choice for you.”
“He would if he wasn’t the president,” Alice chuckled. “That boy is so headstrong and I’ve seen and heard about the way he looks at you.”
“He’s a goner,” Serena chirped and I had to fight back my smile. Was it so easy for others to see?
“Now you’re not dumb,” Jane said, bluntly. “You know why we are here.”
“To convince me to stay,” I said.
“Well, not exactly,” she said as she bit the skin on her lip. “You’ve been here for quite some time now, but no one’s ever really told you much about the club. Granted, something tells me you don’t ask many questions either.”
She was right. During my time with Matteo, I knew it was a bad idea to question a man, especially one that had shady dealings, so most of the time I didn’t ask any questions about the club, even to the other girls.
“That’s beside the point,” she added. “Your brother also has kept you away from a lot of it, as well. But, now that you’ve secured a place here, you have a right to know about some of the stuff that goes on.”
I went to interrupt, but Grace stopped me.
“Just hear us out before you go make a decision you regret.”
Choosing to not say anything, I just nodded in agreement.
“It’s easy to think the boys are just a bunch of criminals,” she said, and I grimaced as I heard what I said shot back at me.
“We’ve all thought that at some point, too.
But they are so much more than just outlaws.
They’re brothers who take care of their own.
Their families, their friends, and their women. ”
She smiled and the girls nodded in agreement.
“But, what the club does and represents is crime,” I said.
“That’s true,” Grace added. “It started that way, but it’s not going that way. Most of the business the boys do is legit. At least here in this chapter. Other chapters are at different stages, but fundamentally they are the same.”
“Exactly,” Alice agreed.
“How did it start?”
Jane smiled and said, “Teller always says it's because of me, but I call bullshit.”
“It was for you, Ms. Golden Pussy,” Alice said and we all laughed as Jane rolled her eyes.
“Teller and I have known each other since we were babies, believe it or not,” she said.
“His parents and my parents were best friends when we were in elementary school. But when his mom died, I didn’t see him again until we were sophomores in high school.
He was different, came riding in from the trailer park on a motorcycle with Pops, Old School and Sheriff right beside him.
They quickly became the school’s mysterious bad boys, while I was the popular head cheerleader.
He was different when he came back, though. We were different. Teller and I used to argue a lot, but no matter what we’d say to each other or what jock I was dating at the time, we’d always find ourselves banging like rabbits in the parking lot.”
We all laughed imagining them as teenagers.
Jane proceeded to tell me about how after Teller’s dad had died, some strange men had busted into his trailer while they were there one night and informed him that his dad’s debt had carried on to him.
Teller worked hard for the mobsters and eventually paid it off while learning the skills of the trade.
While she left for college, he and the other guys came up with the idea to establish the club.
As the club made more illegal money, they needed more diverse ways to clean it, so they started establishing legit businesses and slowly started building this empire. Somehow those businesses got successful and that’s when they didn’t have to lean on illegal activities as much.