Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
RAFE
Standing outside Adelina’s door, I braced both hands on the wall on either side and hung my head.
It was wrong.
Me. This situation. This whole thing. But definitely me.
And everything Mass had me doing in this MC involved me chasing after my niece. Including today, and the reason I was here.
“Show her around a gun, Rafe,” Mass had said. “Make sure she can take care of herself if necessary.”
I had known her since she was a baby, so the fact that she was transforming day by day into a woman I wrongly desired had me needing someone who could beat some sense into me. But I didn’t know anyone here. Not in the way that I could confess to the wrongness of what I had been feeling.
I raised my hand and knocked on the door, then returned to a parade-rest position. I found comfort and the will to do what had to be done when I stuck with Marine customs.
The door flew open at the same time Adelina said, “What?”
Her voice dripped with venom like her hair dripped with water, trickling down her skin. But as soon as she saw me, the pissed-off-as-fuck around her eyes softened.
“Oh.” Her eyes roamed down my body like she was expecting Sas. “It’s just you.”
“Expecting someone else?” I asked, and a yawn slipped out on the tail end of the question.
Still holding a towel up to cover the front of her clearly naked body, Adelina furrowed her brows. “You look like shit.”
“Didn’t sleep.”
“Then why are you here, wearing leather like you’re?—”
“Ready to ride? I am.”
She turned her back to me, leaving the door open.
“Get dressed.”
Adelina scoffed and glanced over her shoulder. “You’re ordering me around now too?”
“If need be.” The words came out strained as I got a full glimpse of her newly inked belladonna, revealed by the towel draping down her bare back. The flowers themselves scared the fuck outta me, because I’d always believed Adelina’s grandmother would slip some in my wine. But they did something for Adelina.
Or maybe I could just drink her poison down and still be addicted.
She wasn’t the pure little angel Massimo thought she was, and I doubted she needed me to show her around a gun. But still, here I was, waiting like a good soldier.
And drooling over her.
The dark tattoo lines peeked over the crest of her shoulder blade. I hoped she didn’t wear a dress with a low-cut back for the wedding, because her father would see it immediately. Her mother might faint. Her grandmother, if she were still alive, might keel over from a heart attack.
She could take out the Parisi family in one fell swoop, but what had Massimo expected from her when he sent her into a motorcycle club? All the men we’d met were tatted, and I was no exception. Massimo and most of the capos were tatted too, so why did I know beyond any doubt that such a simple defiance would cause so much angst?
She was only doing things that brought her closer to the guys, but she didn’t see how they all leered at her, like they wanted to sink their teeth into her creamy skin. Graff was just the first one who had.
Adelina bent over the dresser and pulled out some clothes. “Where are we going?”
“For a ride.”
She scoffed. “That much is obvious, Rafe.”
“You’ll see.” I held my position, the muscles in my arms tensing to keep me from rushing over and ripping off her towel.
Stop it! She’s your niece.
She slammed the drawer shut, and I flinched at the loud bang.
“Come in and close the door so I can get dressed,” she said.
“Um, maybe I should wait outside.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Rafe. I’ll step in the bathroom.”
I started to shake my head, but it turned into a full-blown bodily shudder.
“Rafe?” Adelina raised her eyebrows.
Just the way she said my name sent a shiver down my spine, and my jeans grew tight again. My damn cock didn’t care how wrong this craving for her was.
“You shouldn’t answer the door like that,” I said on a husky breath.
She snorted. “Maybe you shouldn’t be knocking before nine in the morning. Anyway, are you here to police me too?”
“If I have to.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“Your father did.”
“Fuck him.”
Why did I respect her just a little more for those two simple, vicious words?
“You don’t mean that,” I said, desperately trying to stay in my lane.
Without removing the towel, she dragged on a pair of yoga pants. “Do you know that he wants me to spy?”
I whipped my head to one side then the other to see if anyone could overhear, then growled, “Don’t say that.”
“I bet he wants you to do the same thing,” she continued without acknowledging my warning. “Papà’s just trying to make rats of us both.”
She pulled a tank top over her head, letting the towel puddle at her feet. I marched into her room, kicking the door closed and grabbed her by the wrist.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Her eyes darted from my hand to my face and back.
“Keep you safe.” It’s what I always did. “The MC has to be monitoring us. Sas certainly doesn’t have any brotherly love for outsiders like me. The last thing we want is for him not to trust you.”
“Let go of me,” whined Adelina.
I didn’t hurt her but dropped her arm, anyway. “Mass doesn’t intend for us to be rats.”
She jutted out her chin. “It’s what the results will be.”
“I don’t give a shit,” I hissed. “We’re la Famiglia.”
“Until we were fucking sold, Rafe.” She placed her fist into my chest and shoved. It did nothing to move me but seemed to give her a little vindication for her rage. “Regardless of what Massimo Parisi says, we’re MC now.”
I gritted his teeth, fighting the inferno blazing inside.
“He’s asked you to spy too, didn’t he?” she said after a second.
Asked? I nearly laughed. My brother never asked anything of me. That proved how na?ve Adelina was.
“Ordered,” I corrected.
“Well”—she planted a hand on her hip—“what are you going to do?”
I looked around her bedroom. “I’m working on it.”
She grabbed a pair of socks from the drawer and her thigh-high boots then went to the bed. “What exactly are you working on?”
“Shit,” I barked, turning to pace. I had no fucking clue what I was going to do, but the need to follow orders ran in my blood after being in war zones galore. What was the old saying about doing and dying? I was doing both here.
One zipper ripped up, then the other. “What kind of shit?”
“You don’t need to know that.” I wrapped my hands around the back of my neck and dug my fingers into the knotted muscles.
“Why not?” Her voice had turned sweet now.
But I wouldn’t fall victim to her coaxing. “Because I said so.”
“Your because I said so bullshit isn’t going to work on me, Rafe. I’m not a child.”
“I know!” How could I not fucking know when I looked at her now?
“Then why won’t you tell me?” she demanded.
I turned on my heel. “Because.”
She crossed her arms, pushing her breasts together and deepening her cleavage. “You’re stalling.”
Through my clenched teeth, I said, “Because it’s not safe, Adelina. And if you can’t think about keeping yourself safe, then think about your sister.”
It was a low blow, but Adelina shut her mouth for once. No comeback. No witty remark. However, her cheeks tinged red like I had slapped her, and I fought the urge to apologize. I didn’t want to hurt her.
“Get your jacket,” I ordered, stepping away from her.
She lifted her gaze, fury burning deep. I would pay for treating her like this, but I couldn’t complain too much. I was going to pay regardless with the boner that wouldn’t stop whenever Adelina was nearby.
“Meet me at my bike.” I grabbed the doorknob.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise. For your safety.” I stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me, holding the doorknob in place so she couldn’t immediately follow me out. I needed a wall between us.
Some space too.
When I was sure she wasn’t following me, I walked away from the door and toward my bike. I considered if it would’ve been better to lock her inside and leave her to rot, but if she was with me, then she wasn’t with Sas. And the other guys couldn’t get to her. She needed space between her and the men.
Twenty minutes later—because it was just like Adelina to take her sweet time—she stepped out of the warehouse doors, shielding her eyes from the sun. I was leaning on the seat of my motorcycle, annoyed to have been waiting so long.
The annoyance, however, flickered out like an extinguished candle when Adelina smiled at me. It was dazzling and bright. Massimo had complained about how much her braces had cost, but now her teeth were straight and so fucking bright. It added to her perfection.
I stood and crossed to the trash by the front door. She didn’t move as I approached, and I had to lean around her to toss in the empty can of Monster I’d just slammed.
Appraising the black leather jacket she’d gotten before leaving Vegas, I asked, “No pink today?”
Her smile dimmed. “You saw me yesterday?”
“I think the space station might have seen you.”
“Yeah, well, excuse me for trying to bring style to this place.” She rolled her eyes, but her voice didn’t have the same bite that she used with Sas. “Are you going to tell me now where we’re going?”
“You’ll see when we get there.” I swung my leg over my bike and sank down on the seat.
Not a moment later, Adelina mounted up behind me. Her front pressed into my back, and her legs widened, her thighs resting against my hips. The ghost of her hot breath tickled my neck, and her fresh scent intoxicated me.
I turned the motor over on the bike and pushed forward before she even had her arms looped around my midsection. They quickly fell into place. I needed to ride, craved the open air and wind in my face. Her scent no longer clouded my mind as we tore off down the road, meeting the LA smog and scent of concrete and tar.
Every smell and sensation came back to me as soon as I parked our bike outside another warehouse only a few miles from the clubhouse. A lot of the warehouses around here weren’t used for storage but more recreational things or housing. Apparently, LA had gotten too expensive.
Adelina had her head tilted back when she slid off the bike, taking in everything. We were the only ones on a motorcycle here. A bunch of tricked out trucks and muscle cars were scattered in the parking lot, many lifted with an American flag sticker on the back window. Gun racks waited in some of the back seats.
It was a surprise we couldn’t hear automatic gunfire out here.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“A gun range.” I led her inside.
“Why?”
“I’m teaching you how to shoot.”
She gave me a blank look. “You think the MC will let me carry around a gun.”
“Bou does,” I said. “Though none of the other ol’ ladies do.”
“Don’t call me an ol’ lady,” she snapped.
“What would you prefer I call you?” My question was mostly meant for me alone, to remind myself that she would be Sas’s wife.
“Whore,” she said in a small voice.
I stopped her before we entered. “You’re not a whore, Adelina.”
Her lips were pinched in a frown, and her eyebrows were drawn together. She was thinking hard, and I was scared of what might be running through her brain. She was a lot more complicated than the kid I used to know. Then again, I was more complicated than I had been when I went off to the Marines and tried not to come back.
We had both changed, and I needed to remind myself of that.
“Adelina,” I said gently when she didn’t respond to me.
“Can we just get this over with?” she asked, waving her hand to the check-in desk and the guns and bullets in the glass cases.
The man at the desk watched us carefully, and we could quite possibly be the best entertainment he had all day. He dragged his eyes over her, and I bit back a retort at him for looking at her like that. However, I was sure I had been looking at her with the same hunger.
“Why are you acting like this?” I hissed at her.
“Like what?” she asked, working her jaw.
We exchanged wordless conversation when our eyes met. She knew what I wanted to say because she knew exactly what she was doing—acting like a brat.
“You’re the one who wants me to shoot.” She waved her hands in a grandiose motion toward the guy and the counter. “Let’s get on with it.”
“You don’t want to?” I asked, holding my hands behind my back. I couldn’t trust myself not to reach out and touch her.
“It’s not like I’m going to get the chance to use it,” she said.
“And if you did have the chance, or if you were cornered by someone in the club, would you take the chance?” I asked.
She hesitated.
I fucking knew she was too close to Sas and Graff and maybe even more of the bikers. She didn’t understand how much danger she was in with every last person in that warehouse packing like they were.
“Come on.” I jerked my head over to the shoot range check-in desk and got us started with the paperwork.
Once we had a lane, I loaded my gun.
Adelina stood off to the side, arms crossed. She frowned as I checked the magazine and then the safety. I had already checked everything this morning but repeated the process now. I always went through the S.A.F.E. and A.C.T.T. steps every time guns were involved. I’d seen one of my soldiers put a bullet through his left eye, and that was enough of a cautionary tale.
Adelina chewed her thumbnail, acting squeamish and jumpy. We hadn’t even started, but she flinched at the guns around us. You would think with her presence in the Mafia, growing up around guns, that she would be more comfortable. But even though her father, grandfather, and the capos carried, she had never been asked to hold a gun. Let alone shoot one.
I slid the magazine back into the gun and loaded the chamber. Being doubly certain, I checked the safety—engaged.
“Here.” I offered her the gun.
Adelina shook her head. “No.”
“Yes.” I moved closer to her. “You need to learn how.”
“I don’t think I?—”
“Stop acting like it’s going to bite you.” I grabbed her wrist and pressed the gun into her palm. “You need to learn.”
When I let go, her hand flopped. The gun nearly slid out of her grasp before she tightened her hold, squeezing the trigger.
“Finger off the trigger!” I snapped. Thankfully, the safety was in place, or she would’ve blown off my foot.
“It’s heavier than I thought it would be,” she mumbled.
I nodded. “Hold it with both hands.”
“Why? You don’t.”
“I’m stronger than you. And used to holding a gun.”
She pouted at that, but she put both of her hands on the gun without questioning me further. Baby steps.
“Now, come here.” I pointed to the mark on the floor. “Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.” I grabbed her hips without thinking and squared her off with the target.
“Ow. Is that really necessary?” she asked, wincing.
“To get a good shot, yes.”
“I have fresh ink where you placed your mit.” She held her side.
“Ah, hell. Sorry.” I’d totally forgotten about the tattoo... or put it out of my mind.
Adelina jutted her lower lip and blinked up at me. “You know I won’t be able to hit the broad side of a high-rise.”
“Not with that attitude.” I couldn’t let her get under my skin.
“I have no depth perception, Rafe. Papà wouldn’t even let me drive the car after scraped the underside trying to park.”
“Fine.” I grabbed the gun out of her hands and placed it on the table in our lane. “Face me.”
She did, biting her lower lip.
I fought off a growl as well as the urge to yank it from between her teeth. “Close your right eye.”
Once she did, I lifted my hand, holding two fingers in front of my nose. “Okay. Now touch my fingers with your left hand.”
Adelina reached forward, quickly touching the tip of her pointer finger to mine, then yanked her hand back like she’d been burned.
“And with your right hand,” I ordered.
Again, she repeated the motion. This time, I felt the burn too.
“Good,” I said, ignoring the zing of electricity up my arm. I dropped my hand to my side. “Now close the other eye. Right one open.”
I repeated the small test again, and without even the smallest hesitation, she passed. If she really had no depth perception, she would’ve stopped short or pushed my hand hard. And if she couldn’t aim, she would have missed the touch altogether.
“You’ll be fine,” I said. “Pick up the gun.”
Her lips pulled down in a frown, but she stood square with the target, shoulder-width apart, and on the mark. She looked awkward, but it was probably how her hips were angled off to one side.
She stood like a ballerina about to leap and twirl instead of someone about to fire a gun. All the ballroom dance lessons she’d taken at her mother’s insistence did her no favors now. She was too used to trying to take up the space with her waltz and tango.
“Tighten it up. You need to be leaner with a gun. Everything about how you stand, where you aim, and where you look needs to be focused on your target.” I placed my hands on her hips, lower this time, to help position her body. The curve of her body fit so well in my hands. Her narrow waist and full ass.
Cursing myself, I held back my wandering fingers and steered her hips perpendicular to the long path with the paper target at the other end.
“Grip the gun. Pointer finger off the trigger and resting along the trigger guard. Here.” I fixed her finger into the correct position.
Then, with her hands clasped to the gun, I raised her hands and shoulders until the muzzle was pointed down the lane. Her body was coiled tightly, near trembling. I swore her bottom lip quivered, but I stopped myself before I let my attention fall to her mouth.
“You don’t look happy,” she commented.
“I wish Massimo would’ve taught you this,” I muttered.
“Not sure he would be very happy with you teaching me.” She shifted her hips in front of me, brushing the front of my pants.
Twisting my hips away, I gritted out, “No, he wouldn’t.”
Massimo wasn’t here and seeing how I was tripping over my own feet with his daughter, but I wasn’t sure that would be his main objection. While I didn’t want Adelina getting herself killed, he didn’t want to lose one of his plants.
“Information is power,” our Papà always said, and Massimo had learned that lesson well. just wanted to make sure
Adelina’s hands shook, and I placed mine against her forearm. The trembling only increased.
“Are you scared?” I didn’t add of me . Of course, it wasn’t me.
“I have a weapon of mass destruction in my hand.” There was my little drama queen.
“It’s a gun, not a nuclear bomb,” I said.
“Still—”
“Still,” I cut her off, “you’re neck deep in organized crime. The time to be scared is long since gone.”
Fear made her eyes wet, giving her a childlike look—the same big, brown-eyed look she’d given me, her uncle, all her life. Open and trusting, and I was a fucking bastard for the urges going on in my mind and body.
“You’re fine,” I said, more to myself than to her. I grabbed her eye and ear protection. “You won’t be able to hear me, so pay attention to my signals.”
She gave a tentative nod.
“When I move my thumb sideways, that means release the safety. Like this”—I moved it in the other direction—“you put the safety back on. Two thumbs up, and you can fire.”
“O-okay,” she said.
I strapped on the eye protection and popped on the headphones. She grimaced, and I pulled her hair out of the headphones.
Her silky locks tumbled around her shoulders, cascading down her back. Adelina flipped her gaze up to me, watching me openly, and I cleared my throat and backed away.
No one knew us here, but I couldn’t—wouldn’t do that to my niece.
But when I looked back at her, I lost all sense of blood relations. I was in fucking trouble.
I motioned for her to remove the safety, stepping away from her. Then, I put my goggles and earmuffs in place and gave her two thumbs up.
Adelina pulled the trigger once and then screamed.
She staggered back a step, flailing, the gun nearly pointed at herself. I ran to her side, looking for blood.
Nothing.
She just startled herself with the recoil.
I pulled her earmuffs away and said, “You’re okay. That’s why the stance is important. Now, try again.”
When she focused again and fired, a smile spread on her lips. I gave her another thumbs up to have her continue.
As the magazine emptied, my mind swam. Muffled gunshots. The desert and the bombs exploding nearby, the sounds dampened because so many explosions had deadened my sense of hearing. I gasped for breath, opened my eyes, and shook the demons away.
I would never be in the Marines again. Not in the Middle East with my gear packed onto my back as we raided buildings looking for terrorists. My throat closed as remembered flashes flickered behind my closed eyes—car bombs, guns firing in tight spaces, kids throwing homemade explosives and toddling off on their skinny legs.
My breathing ragged, I peeled my eyes open and tried to focus on Adelina. I couldn’t let those memories consume me.
Adelina ripped her earmuffs off. “Okay, where’s the safety?” she asked, swinging the gun at me.
I danced out of the way of the barrel, grabbed her hands, and placed her thumb on the knob above the grip.
She brushed her thumb over it and set it back into place.
Adelina let out a shaky breath, a smile curling on her lips. “I hit the target.”
I hadn’t even noticed. I squinted down the lane and then nodded. She had just barely nicked the corner of the outline of a man. Twice. On opposite sides. It would just be a few scratches, but I guessed she needed to get used to the thought of firing a gun.
“Good job,” I said.
Adelina beamed, and my heart skipped a beat.
“Let’s do it again,” she said in a giddy tone, raising the gun without hesitation. I began to slip away from her, but she said, “Don’t go. I need you.”
I stilled, not wanting to be in this tight space with her and my failing willpower. “Adelina, you’ll?—”
“You helped me out with the shooting,” she added. “I can’t do this without you, Rafe.”
She could. She was stronger than she knew.
Still, I couldn’t deny her. I had never been able to, so I stepped behind her again, and she leaned back into me. Her dark hair spilled down her back, and I pressed my nose into her hair and took a deep strawberry-scented whiff. I looped my arms around her body and gave her a squeeze, then let go.
She ground her ass against my crotch and fired again.
I pulled my motorcycle up to the front of the clubhouse and turned off the motor, but Adelina didn’t move. Her head fit perfectly into the crook of my neck. Her hair danced out and tickled my nose. I caught a few strands between my teeth, holding them. When she pulled back, I released.
She slowly climbed off my bike, rubbing her thighs and arms.
The motion must’ve just been a fidget, but I asked anyway, “Are you sore?”
“I was more tense than I thought,” she admitted. “While shooting, and... in general, I guess.”
With our fucked-up situation, that made sense. “We all have been.”
“Even you?”
I nodded. “Even me.”
She was watching me under her dark eyelashes, like she couldn’t tell if I was being real or patronizing her. “Thanks for taking me today.”
“Of course,” I said, but my next words cut off as Adelina planted a lingering kiss on my cheek.
Fire burned deep inside of me, and I twisted my head before she pulled away, meeting her lips with mine. A sharp inhale through her nose echoed in my ears, but hesitantly, she returned the kiss. Our lips danced. Then our tongues.
When had I parted my lips to deepen the kiss? I didn’t know. Couldn’t find it in me to care as I grazed my teeth over her bottom lip, wanting to taste more of her. Her hands lifted ever-so-slowly, and her touch was light and trembling on my jawline, then around the back of my neck.
Breaking the kiss, I swore, “Shit!”
I jumped off my bike, steadying my motorcycle. My movement had been so abrupt she stumbled back a step, and I caught her before she fell. A bolt of electricity zapped my system, and the energy charged every cell in my body. I should’ve let her go, but I couldn’t convince my hands to release her.
“Rafe?” My name on her breathy exhale did things to me that would ensure my soul would burn in hell.
“You’re my niece,” I mumbled with nothing else to say and set her at arms’ length.
Adelina whipped her arm from my grasp and then stomped inside, slamming the door shut behind her.
“Shit,” I muttered again then ran after her, terrified of what she would do next.
Would she call and tell Massimo? I had to stop her before she did that. Or maybe she would tell Sas and the MC? Someone would have my dick on a stick and over a pyre for kissing my own goddamn niece. If not the motorcycle club, then surely my brother.
Her father.
“Fuck me!”
When I burst in, Adelina was bent over a table in the common room of the clubhouse between Graff and Sas as they drank beers. I halted, my feet glued to the floor, and all three of them stopped to look at me.
Suddenly, she turned to Graff and touched her cheek with her pointer finger. She smiled, and it looked so... natural. Then, my niece lifted those dark brown eyes to meet mine, and it slipped into a devious smirk.
Graff said something to Sas, who shrugged and then took a swig of beer. Sas peeled up, not giving his future bride the time of day. Without a word, he marched toward the back of the clubhouse, in the same direction Adelina had followed him the day before.
Did the man really not understand the prize he had sitting in front of him?
Next thing I knew, Graff leaned in to kiss Adelina on the cheek. A red blush covered her face at the same time I felt mine combust too.