Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
VIKING
Piggy narrows his eyes at me. No doubt he’s pissed as fuck that I let his sister be taken by the Front Mob Family, but he doesn’t know she willingly walked away from me and climbed into the back seat.
A goddamn willing participant.
“You got something you wanna say?” I demand.
He shakes his head once, not saying anything, but I can feel his questioning gaze focused on me. This fucking asshole. I’m ready to demand he say something, whatever is on his mind. I’m ready to hear it.
So fucking ready.
But he doesn’t speak, and a few moments later, Bullet and Ivy join us. The others are going to be muscle, guards, but aren’t going to attend the meeting—specifically Goose, Maverick, and Lightning.
“Ready?” Bullet asks, then shifts his focus to Piggy.
We had church last night, and there wasn’t anything said about what the plan was for this meeting other than having lookouts and hearing terms, along with talking about what we would do in the future when it came to the Front Mob Family and if we wanted to continue working with them.
Nothing was truly decided.
Just talks, and then we all kind of agreed that we would see what Lorenzo said today. So, here we fucking are, standing outside the clubhouse, ready to climb onto our bikes with no real plan in place other than to hear Lorenzo out.
And Lorenzo, for all we know, gave the go-ahead for this shit to go down and kidnap Lainey in the first place.
“I guess as ready as we’ll ever be,” Piggy grinds out.
I can see the stress clearly expressed on his face. I feel bad, but not bad enough to admit I let her walk away. At least not yet. I want to know what the fuck is going on at this meeting before I admit to a damn thing.
I fucking refuse to throw myself under the bus here if I don’t have to. And I know that sounds like a cop-out, but at the same time, I’m not a fucking idiot. I’m not going to have a whole complete breakdown with someone in my club over something that may or may not even matter.
Bullet knows what he needs to know, and he’s my president, so he’s the only one who needs to know everything anyway. We all start to head toward our bikes when I feel fingers clamp down around my shoulder, jerking back slightly and halting my movements.
Turning my head, I look behind me at Bullet. He holds me back while the rest of the guys straddle their bikes. Spinning around so I can face him, I tilt my head back slightly and look at him, waiting for whatever it is that’s on his mind.
“I know you’re pissed, but are you sure you don’t want to have a different conversation, like one that involves a claim?” he asks.
I am pissed, but mostly at myself. There are a lot of things I could and should have done, but none of that matters, so there’s no reason to dwell on it. Instead, I jerk my chin toward Bullet, then take one step backward. The sound of the dirt and loose gravel crunches beneath my feet.
“Don’t go there,” I call out before I turn around and head straight for my bike.
Thankfully, Bullet leaves it at that, because he doesn’t have a choice, seeing as how I drown his voice out with the sound of my bike’s engine. I take off, the bike roars, and the rest of the men follow behind me.
They were waiting for me.
Although this isn’t some kind of elaborate plan where I needed to map anything out. Still, being the road captain, I’m in front and leading the way. Bullet is close to me, though, and together, we all make our way straight for Lainey.
Lorenzo, always the goddamn flair for the dramatics, has us meet at a restaurant. When we arrive, I notice that there are only a few cars in the parking lot, which surprises me because the last couple of times we’ve had a meeting with him, the place was packed.
Parking my bike, I kill the engine before I disengage. Instead of running inside the way I want to, I stand beside my bike as everyone else finds parking and joins me. We don’t say anything immediately.
“This is weird,” I state when nobody makes a move to go inside or speaks.
“It is,” Bullet mutters. “No doubt they’ve got surveillance everywhere. Just be on alert for whatever is going to go down. We already know they have guns, though I assume every fucking person within a mile vicinity has a gun,” he states.
Then, without a word, he takes a step forward. Piggy, Ivy, and I follow behind him. I know that the only reason I’m allowed inside for this shit is that it was me who was in charge of her, and I let her get taken.
I’m sure there is going to be some sort of humiliation tactic when it comes to me being there. I have no doubt about that. The thing is, nobody in that room or walking up to it beside me can ever make me feel as badly as I already do about this situation.
The door to the restaurant opens before any of us can even reach for the handle. I watch as a woman wearing a short black skirt and a white button-down shirt tucked into the waist opens the door. Her high heels click on the concrete as she moves to hold it open for us.
“Please come inside. They’re waiting for you,” she murmurs.
If I weren’t focused on walking in there and what the fuck is coming next, I would look at this woman, because she’s absolutely stunning. But my focus is straight ahead, and I don’t have time to check her out.
Bullet breezes past her without saying a word, Ivy next, then Piggy, before I bring up the rear.
She moves behind me, closing the door, then I hear the dead bolt click into place.
So we’re here alone. If the empty restaurant didn’t give it away, the bitch behind me locking the door sure as fuck did.
In the middle of the restaurant, like a true mob boss, sits Lorenzo at a big rectangular table. It kind of appears as though they’ve pushed together about four tables, but who the fuck knows?
On one side of him sits Paul, on the other an older guy in a suit. Lining the wall behind them, with a door being the only separating factor, are shoulder-to-shoulder guards. They’re dressed in suits, their focus sharp, their jaws set.
They think of themselves as badasses, which is cute. Because I know my brothers and I don’t think of ourselves as anything—we just are. That’s what separates the men from the boys in these types of situations.
“Please, sit, join me,” Lorenzo calls out.
My lips twitch into a smirk because this guy is just too fucking much. I honestly don’t hate it when it comes from him. I enjoy him, and he’s built a great organization. They’re really one of the best and most feared. They are good to have as partners, but hell as enemies.
We’ve cut out the middleman and work directly with him now, but we’d wanted to go legit and were trying to get out of working with them altogether at one point. Obviously, that hasn’t happened and won’t be happening anytime soon.
“The chef is going to bring out some food. For now, have some bread,” Lorenzo offers, holding his hand out to show the several baskets of bread on the table in front of him.
I try as hard as I can not to look at Paul, but fail. Bullet tugs the chair out in front of Lorenzo, Ivy sits on his right in front of the other older man in a suit, Piggy sits directly in front of Paul, and I sink down beside him, my gaze very much connected to his.
Paul’s lips twitch into a smirk, no doubt recognizing me from in front of Lainey’s place last night.
My focus never leaves him. I can’t look anywhere else. He sits across from me, his smile smug and his eyes dancing. I’m ready to fucking kill him right here and now, then ask questions later. I don’t, but I’m ready.
Sucking in a breath, I hold it as I bite back the anger and attempt to gain control over myself and my reactions. Letting my breath out slowly, I clear my throat and shift in my seat, focusing my gaze on Lorenzo.
“Okay,” he calls out, clapping his hands together.
“It seems Paul has jumped the gun a bit. You know how young men get excited and can’t wait for protocol.
I need to preface this meeting with that.
I didn’t authorize the ambush last night, but it seems as if all will be handled before this meeting is over. ”
Interesting.
Handled.
I’ll handle something all fucking right.
Taking calming breaths, I try not to completely lose my shit, at least not yet.
I’m sure something else will come up, and I’ll be able to do that.
I can’t imagine this meeting is going to go off without a hitch, and hopefully, I’ll be able to take a swing or two at Paul before it’s done and over with.
There is a moment of silence in which Ivy reaches for the bread, but nobody else does. We’re all waiting for Bullet to speak first, even though I’m sure Piggy has plenty to say, considering this meeting is literally about his sister.
“Paul didn’t just jump the gun, Lorenzo. You know that,” Bullet begins. “Now we need to have a serious discussion about this shit right here. Lainey was and is under our protection, which means she’s club property. Kidnapping her, that’s punishable by death.”
And I know he knows, because his own kid pulled this fucking shit a few years ago. He ended up dead, but that’s a story for a whole other fucking day.
Lorenzo reaches for a piece of bread, then brings it to the small plate in front of him and dips it in the bowl of oil, balsamic, and spices before shoving the whole thing in his mouth. I watch him chew, knowing he’s doing that so he doesn’t say some fly shit.
“He didn’t jump the gun, yet he did,” Lorenzo says. “And this time, there was no kidnapping.”
Fuck.
Well, I guess it had to come out. Bullet sucks air between his teeth, leaning back in his seat slightly. Piggy growls next to me, no doubt ready to shove his fist down any one of these assholes’ throats at any given second.
“Surrounding a man, three to one, is not what I would call willing. Even if she got into that car without being dragged.”
“Noooo,” Lorenzo calls out. “That is not okay.”
I watch as his gaze narrows as it shifts to the side, looking at Paul. That makes my lips curve up into a smirk. Fucker. Then something happens. That door behind Lorenzo opens, and out walks Lainey.
It’s Paul’s turn to smirk. There, standing just a few feet away from me, is Lainey-Rose. Her hair is pulled back and in a bun at the crown of her head. I frown at the sight of her blond curls being pinned back.
I don’t like that shit at all.
She’s wearing makeup, much more than I’ve ever seen her wear, even more than she was wearing at Piggy’s wedding. She’s got a black dress on that hugs her curves a bit too tightly in my opinion.
And she appears taller, so I assume she’s wearing heels.
I like absolutely nothing about this, except I do want to fuck her.
I want to hitch the skirt of that dress up and slam her ass on the edge of the table.
Then I want to fuck her right here and now in front of everyone, hard and fast until she screams my name.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen.