Chapter 19 #2
“Will you swing by Tiarnán’s shop once you’re done with everything?” Storm asks, leaning against the wall. “I don’t have to be there, and I’d rather have her find decent holsters. While he’s making them for her, I’ll ask Arsenal to bring her a few firearm options.”
“Yeah, send me the address. Is he expecting us?” I ask.
Storm always seems to know people in whatever city we’re in. It’s why he’s the one who scouts out what we need, whether it be online or in person. He simply is better at talking to people.
“He is. Someone recommended him to me, and he does good work,” he says simply.
“Alright then,” Lore says, refusing to ask who his source is.
“See you later,” Marie says with a small smile.
“You got everything, Sugar?” Ransom asks, brow raising.
“I have my stun gun and my actual gun,” she snorts. “Am I missing something, or do you just want a proper goodbye.”
“That last one sounds about right,” he smirks, edging me to the side as he pulls her into his arms.
“You’re going to fuck up her lipstick,” I remind him.
“It’s smudgeproof,” she replies before he kisses her hard enough to test it.
Ransom retreats after and checks her lips, grinning as he finds she’s right.
“Women are magical,” he says, making Marie preen for him.
“Marie is magical,” I agree, opening the front door. “Does anyone else need to say goodbye?”
“Bye, Kitty,” Storm chuckles, letting me escape with Lore and Marie as she giggles.
“Ridiculous,” I grumble, though I’m smiling as well.
Lore’s face is already covered with a dark balaclava, his amused eyes the only thing I can see as he walks down the stairs.
“You love it,” he says under his breath.
Lore is going to do the masked, mysterious, and alpha of few words thing today.
Settling on our bikes, I hand Marie her helmet when one of the kids calls out to me.
“Hey mister!” he says, stopping in front of me.
“Hey,” I say, keeping my face uncovered to talk to him.
“What happened to all the bikes from before? It was real loud that day, and my parents grumbled about it,” he says, rolling his eyes.
Marie leans her head against my back, and I can only imagine that she’s hiding a smile.
“Those are the guys from our club,” I explain. “They’re not often in town, though. Let your parents know we’re sorry about the noise. It’s hard to keep that many bikes quiet on a street like this.”
“I didn’t mind,” he shrugs. “Nothing exciting happens on this street.”
“Sometimes, that’s not a bad thing,” Marie says.
“Enjoy your park turf wars, getting up early to play, and being a kid,” I add. “You’ll be an adult before you know it.”
Lore hasn’t said a word, and I wonder if this is one of the kids who he ran into once.
“You heard about that, huh?” the boy asks, biting his lip. “My mom wasn’t very happy that we didn’t want to share.”
“On the flip side, are the other kids the ones edging you out?” Marie asks.
“Ugh, yes. See? You get it.”
“I do,” she says. “Find a way to coexist, or be the ones who claim the yard before they do. There’s no other way around it.”
Lore and I share a glance, and I can tell by the possessiveness in his eyes that he wants to get her pregnant too. I need to know how we’re going to make this happen.
He’s petty enough to want the first kid to be his.
“We’ll see you around,” I tell him. “I’m taking Marie on a date.”
“Both of you?” the kid asks, lips pursed.
“That’s what packs do,” I say simply. “We learned how to share.”
I leave him with that as I turn on the bike, slowly walking it out of the parking spot with Marie holding tightly. The restaurant isn’t far, and the sun is shining brightly. It’s as if the world was unhappy while my omega was gone.
Sappy? Probably, but that’s how I feel. The three of us walk into the restaurant, though Lore pulls his face covering down so he doesn’t scare anyone. Honestly, his beard is taking over his whole damn face.
I don’t expect many people to recognize him as a dead man walking.
“Table for two, please under Wilder. We have a reservation,” I say.
Mama Antonia’s is an Italian restaurant that also serves as a mafia front. While I could have chosen to have my meeting here, I don’t know Antonia well enough to ask her.
My connection is with Cian, so I’ll stick with what I know.
The well dressed beta in front of me has long, dark hair that does nothing for me, not even when she bats her dark eyes at me.
Marie reaches up and pulls off her bandana, having forgotten it, and fluffs her hair almost absently. It draws the beta’s eyes to her, and she deflates as she sees she has zero chance with me.
“Right this way, sir,” she says politely, taking us to a table.
My hand sits on the small of Marie’s back possessively as we walk, and I help her sit down once we’re at our table.
“It smells amazing,” she says once the host leaves us to seat Lore.
“I’ve heard good things,” I admit. “I asked Cian for a restaurant recommendation. He said this is one of his favorites.”
“You seem to be getting along,” she says coyly.
I watch as she slides her jacket off, carefully placing it behind her seat.
“I want to be able to stay in Minneapolis, so I’m willing to play the game,” I sigh. “He’s gonna be pissed at me too.”
“He won’t,” she says. “The mafia understands why certain things need to be done and why details are revealed on a need to know basis. He’ll deal.”
“Look at you,” I tease her. “For the girl who insists on being outside that world, you still have a lot of knowledge of it.”
“I never wanted to,” she sighs. “I picked up some things, but I think Tommy’s attitude scared me so much, it put me off.”
A waiter comes to take our orders, and Marie orders the special without hesitation. It’s some kind of Italian clam soup, and I have to admit that does sound good. I order the lasagna and water for the table, and the waiter nods, stepping away to continue with his day.
The restaurant is beginning to fill up, and I notice that Marie looked anxiously around until she found Lore. Once she did, her entire body relaxed.
“He’s not going anywhere,” I murmur, taking her hand.
“I get it though. He doesn't know it, but I woke up last night, looking for him in bed. He was in between you and Storm. Once I saw him, I went back to sleep. It didn’t matter to my brain that we all went to bed together, I still had a moment of panic.”
“Exactly,” she sighs. “I hate this feeling. It’s like I’ll never be normal again.”
“I know we just told a little boy that normalcy isn’t a terrible thing, but I’m going to offer a different perspective,” I say.
“Our normal will always change, because of our positions in the club. We may do our best to minimize the risk, but it’ll always be there in some way.
Your bond with Lore? It’s an example of how fate wants to tie you even closer to us so we’ll always be able to keep you. ”
“That’s dangerously close to an alpha bark,” she says, rolling her eyes.
“I mean, you could have rejected him and been done with it. Storm lifted the bark,” I say.
“Ugh, your logic sucks, Wilder,” she laughs. “Lore is under my skin, and in my heart. There’s nothing I can do to kick him out. After knowing what life is like without him? No fucking thank you.”
It’s loud enough in the restaurant that no one can hear her, and she’s also speaking so only I can hear her.
“Then consider us yours,” I say. “We’re a package deal, whenever you want us. We haven’t made life easy—”
“You’re kidding, right?” Marie asks. “The house, my nest, and bending over backward to stay in Minneapolis alone; I would say my life is definitely changing.”
“We’d want to do that either way,” I reply.
“When we bought the house, we knew there would be things we wanted to do to upgrade the house. Our idea of making things easier is giving you a place in both our club and our lives. You should be able to move in the world and know you can take care of yourself. Not because we aren’t there to snap necks, but because you’re a force to be reckoned with. ”
“I don’t see myself the way you do,” she admits. “I don’t enjoy using a gun.”
“How about a knife?” a blue haired woman asks, dropping into a free chair.
We’re in a corner of the restaurant, and this table just happens to have three chairs. I didn’t think anything of it, but now I narrow my eyes.
“I heard you were here, and wanted to drop by,” the woman says.
“Hello, Cerenity,” Marie murmurs, lips twitching. “Are you stalking me?”
“No, not exactly. I was driving by and saw a couple of motorcycles outside. They were too nice for one to belong to Jasper’s brother, so I took a chance it might be you,” she says.
I have a feeling I may know who this is just by the sound of her voice, and I wait to see if I’m right.
“Cerenity, this is Wilder. She’s bonded to my idiot brother,” she says finally.
Yep, I clocked that.
“I’m sorry to hear,” I say, making Cerenity snort.
“So why are you talking guns?”
“She’s wearing one now, and you can’t take a knife to a gun fight,” I explain. “Sometimes, you have to be willing to play dirtier than everyone else in the room.”
“I’ll agree with that,” Cerenity says. “I may prefer hand to hand, but I do know how to shoot a gun.”
Marie looks around nervously and Cerenity shakes her head.
“Everyone who eats here is mafia,” she explains.
“If they’re not, they know whose establishment this is.
Antonia has the best Italian food I’ve ever had, though she fights for that honor with another restaurant in town.
We won’t talk about that, or I’ll get thrown out.
I wanted to see how you were. You’re not taking calls. ”
“I went out of town again,” Marie explains.
“You don’t have to work?” Cerenity asks, surprised.
“She’s on leave,” I say. “Marie also doesn’t have to work unless she wants to.”
“Cute,” Cerenity mutters. “Where’d you go?”
“I went to design a motorcycle,” Marie explains, eyes sparkling with excitement.
I’m going to be really pissed if Marie has her parade rained on. Instead Cerenity hums under her breath.