“I don’t know what came over me,” she said as the room had slowed down a little, but all was still not right in the world. Lorna sat on the couch that hadn’t been touched by whatever she’d used to make this mess.
“Damn, girl. This is what came over you,” he said as he held up the rose tequila and turned the bottle in his hands as he inspected the contents inside. “Were you trying to kill yourself?”
She looked at the 250 oz bottle and was amazed herself at how much was missing. “That wasn’t my plan, no.”
“It’s a wonder you didn’t die with all that in your stomach.” Frankie looked like he was ashamed, and that made her want to cry even more. What in the world was happening to her?
“I won’t do this again. Sometimes it’s hard with how much my life has changed, but I don’t want to let you guys down again.”
If anything, he looked worse. She decided that looking somewhere other than at the brother who used to think so much of her would be a better idea than kicking herself when she was down and damn near out.
“Hold on,” Frankie said as he walked out the door.
She wondered what he was going to get. He was the sneaky one of the bunch. If anyone wanted to know anything, he was the person to go to. She didn’t know how he did it… maybe he had a calming way about him that made people want to confide in him or maybe he just looked through people’s shit until he dug up the information. It was probably a bit of both, but he was everyone’s keeper of secrets, and that was definitely the way he liked it.
He came in the door and sat on the couch next to her. “I know you’ve been beating yourself up about the whole Lucca thing.”
“Frankie, I don’t want to talk about this with you.” It was enough that the room hadn’t really stopped spinning, and now she had to deal with the disappointment that was clearly in her brother’s eyes. She wanted to be left alone to deal with the betrayal of the man she was coming to have strong feelings for, but that was at war with the guilt she felt. Top that big bowl of confusion with the grief of losing her favorite cousin that was her protector, sound board, and friend, and she was ready to crack.
“You’ve got to talk about it with someone. Tonight at dinner was the first time I’ve seen you stand up for yourself since you got here a month ago. You’ve always been the gentle one, but you’ve never been a doormat. The problem is you feel guilty.” Her brother was not the shee shee woo woo person in any circumstance; he was more like the guy who told you how it was straight up with no chaser. Usually she loved that about him, but right now it felt like slivers of glass on a third degree burn, and she wasn’t as emotionally equipped to deal with that kind of pain.
“Frankie, stop it,” she whispered because his words felt like physical punches and she didn’t know if she could take him beating her from the outside while she did the same thing to her insides.
“Okay, look. I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows this other guy who is blackmailing Pop. I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought, but Pop’s been acting weird. Not his usual weird, but it’s deeper, and something wasn’t sitting right with me.” He pulled out a DVD and handed it to her. “I paid a lot of money to get this DVD, and what’s on there isn’t pretty. It’s damn near horrifying, but I want you to see it.”
She took the disc and turned it over in her hands. Could she handle anything horrifying? No. The thought of there being baby kittens that just couldn’t reach the milk bowl was too stressful for her to deal with. If she could just get herself to tell Frankie that she didn’t want to see it. He was right; she had always been the one to stand up for what she thought was right, and she was the squeaky wheel that would crank up the noise until she was heard and the problem was solved. That person was on vacation she hoped because she liked that person and hoped she was going to see her again eventually.
“It’s going to change your life. It changed the way I see a lot of things. It’s disappointing, and when I look at you and what you’ve been through, it breaks my heart. Someone has been feeding you a line of horse shit, and I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you who it is. Look at me.” Frankie was hardly ever this serious, so she looked at him just so she could see what he was talking about, and hopefully he’d just go away and leave her sit in her funk and cry.
“You haven’t done anything wrong. So pick that head up and bring me back my sister. It’s hard on all of us losing Lucca, but losing you while you’re still here is more than I could take sitting down. I pulled a lot of strings to bring you back to the land of the living, so now you have to do your part.”
Frankie stood up and kissed her on the forehead before he walked over to her phone.
“Hey, he texted you back,” he said scrolling through her phone.
“What are you doing looking at my texts?” She got up and walked over to him gingerly. You would think that he would be kind knowing how much she’d had to drink, but he wasn’t that concerned about that, apparently.
“I’ve fucking told you to put a lock on your fucking phone. You live in a house full of criminals for god’s sake.” Frankie’s trademark grin was back. He loved to give people shit, and normally she loved to take it. He was such a character.
“Who texted back? I didn’t text anyone.” She got up to retrieve her phone from her brother’s hand as he scrolled and read through her text messages.
“Yes you did. You are rough with your drunk text. You really let him have it.” Frankie was playing keep away with her phone, and that wasn’t really fair because she was practically handicapped with her drunkenness.
“Stop reading that.” She stretched and tried to get her phone, but he was easily keeping it away from her.
He threw her phone on the bed, and although the smile remained on his face, he looked a bit more somber when he looked at her. “Look at the DVD before you look at your texts. Okay?”
She gave him a semi shrug because she wanted him to leave not really because she was going to do what he said. How was it fair that he’d read the messages and she couldn’t? Damn was she so lame that her baby brother could tell her what to do? She’d do whatever the hell she wanted to do while she was locked up in maximum security.
“I mean it. You are the only person that I would actually trust to keep her word.” He looked so sincere, and she knew that she’d always been very good with her word before and wouldn’t break the trust her brother had in her. It was the least she could do. Damn it, she wanted to see who had texted her back, and she wanted to see what she’d said, but she gave her word and that had always meant a lot to her.
“I promise to look at the video before I read the text, but I have to tell you that I don’t have a lot of reserve. Is this going to hurt me?” The fear crept into her just thinking about what could be on the DVD waiting to devastate her even more than she already was.
“Yes… but it’s going to help you too.” Frankie left, and she stared at the disc in her hands like it had the weight of the world on it. Knowing who had given it to her and what it was about, it probably did.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Aiden Barnes had been having the worst life possible before he met up with the woman who made him think there was a chance his luck was turning toward the better. His one idea to see her father had come out of the blue when he couldn’t think of anything else to do. It was a ballsy move if he said so himself. He sat and thought about how he could’ve made it work out better.
It had taken some time and a lot of money and persuasion to get even the phone number of a guy who knew someone who could get him an audience that high in the Giovanni Family. Then after all the cat and mouse chase he’d been ushered in like he was, well if not royalty, not the enemy. There was a chance that this could have all been a set up and they had a pair of cement shoes that they were going to fit him with when he entered the door, but he needed information, and he was going to get it. If it came down to it being something else, he’d have to deal with that when the time came.
It was only Antonio Giovanni and himself in a large room that looked like it had gold lining the walls and mirrors for ceilings. He could see where his Lorna’s taste in design came from. He told his story from the top. How he’d met his daughter and that she meant so much to him that he’d not done the job he was sent to do but worked with Lucca to get to the bottom of the problem. He also told him how his crew had sent someone else to do the job it was taking him too long to do, followed him by the GPS they’d placed to track him on his bike, and killed Lucca when they were going to exchange a bracelet so he could show the father Lorna was alive and well.
He sometimes remembered what happened next like it was on a loop in his mind.
***
The man had power, and he knew it. He sat staring at him like he was less than a man, and for that Aiden wouldn’t bend. It had been said that Antonio Giovanni could bring tears to a grown man’s eyes, but Aiden had the fear knocked out of him long ago and would show none now.
“Are you Italian?” Antonio asked as he looked Aiden up and down.
“No. I’m not.” Aiden didn’t mind a bit of a stare down with the man who held the key to him seeing Lorna. They both knew he wasn’t Italian so there must have been a reason for that question.
“Lorna’s mother and I have always wanted to see her settle down with a good Italian boy. Someone we know… who works with me. It’s clear to me that you aren’t any of those things.” Her father was good at letting his desires be known, but the decision was ultimately up to Lorna.
“So you’re saying that you wanted your daughter to marry someone from your organization? That may make him Italian, but he would be no better than me… or you for that matter.”
Antonio sat up in his chair and glared at Aiden. It was good that the man could hear an insult when it was distributed. Aiden just hoped the man could see that he could match wits with the best of them because he was definitely outnumbered.
“We buried my right hand man and Lorna’s cousin last week, and here you stand wanting more from me and my family?” The man was having a hard time keeping his cool, and that was understandable; Aiden just hoped that he could keep it together enough to really hear what he was saying.
The man wanted a fight, and Aiden could understand him being angry. A good fight always worked some of the tension out, but the man had to know this wasn’t his fight.
“Sir, I understand that you’re upset, but I was trying hard to work out another alternative for this situation.”
“I’m aware of all you tried to do, boy, but it didn’t work, and the result is the same as if you just walked in and killed Lucca. You think you’re forgiven? You turned my daughter against me and took Lucca… I should have your balls cut off as we speak.” Antonio looked away like he couldn’t stand the sight of him any longer.
Aiden knew that there was a possibility that he’d never see the light of day again. He’d come to terms with that as he was frisked by the door by a man who had more visible guns on his person than a regular gun closet would hold.
“With all respect, I didn’t mean to come in here and upset you. I only want to talk to your daughter for a few minutes and give her back her bracelet. I’ve gone by her house and her store, and both seemed to be closed down. I really didn’t want to come here, but I had no choice.”
“We all have choices to make. Sometimes you make the right ones… and other times you don’t.” Antonio still didn’t look his way, but he took in a deep breath and let it out with a loud sigh. “She’s getting married within the month to someone more suitable than you. Keep the trinket. Her new husband will get her another one.”
Aiden had been dismissed. He’d known about that possibility as well, but he had to try.
“In case you didn’t realize, that was me telling you to fuck off,” Antonio said as he stood by his chair.
Aiden wouldn’t ever let a man like that see how much something he said or the fact that he was withholding his daughter hurt because once you showed your belly to the enemy, you should just hand over the knife to gut you as well. Aiden backed toward the door noticing that it was now opened and three armed men surrounded it.
“What do you want us to do with him, boss?” asked the man with the thick neck and gun drawn already. These men were blood thirsty; it must have been a slow week or maybe they were just wanting to get some revenge on the guy who was sent there to kill Lucca.
“Just get him the fuck out of here and onto his dirty little bike…” Antonio looked Aiden up and down like he was trying to come to grips with something, and the room was filled with silence that was pregnant with anticipation. “…and let him go. Unharmed.”
The man with the gun drawn had a smile on his face that made Aiden wonder if this was the guy who was going to get the unreleased wrath that was bubbling under the surface. Aiden would be happy with a good fight.
“Hey!” barked Antonio, “Unharmed, untouched, unpunched. Walk him out and leave him out there without a scratch… you hear me?”
“Yes, boss,” said the guy who looked hungry to fight.
Aiden should have been happy that he’d live to see another day but he was a bit perturbed that one, Lorna may be getting married, two, he wasn’t any closer to seeing her than he was before he decided on this dumbass idea, and three he really wanted to fuck one of these losers up. They were all bad asses when they had a gun, but Aiden was born and raised in the street. Fighting was a way of life, and he loved to use his skills, especially when he had so much rage and nowhere for it to go. He walked out the door, but he turned around to see a weird look on the man’s face. It wasn’t like he had time to figure it out before hungry guy told him to move. He walked out of the establishment thinking about his next move.
***
His cell phone vibrated, and he frowned at it. Who would be texting him at this time of night? He’d kept the throw away phone in case Lorna wanted to call him, but it had been about 3 weeks since he’d visited Antonio and a month since he’d seen Lorna, so getting something from her now on a random Thursday seemed unlikely. It was probably the company telling him that his minutes were up or he had to renew something. Rolling over in bed, he picked up the cell and saw that he indeed had a text.
889-555-4256 - You are a low down dirty asshole. I wish I’d never met you. Not only did you kill my cousin, but you stole from me. Was anything that you said to me true? There is no honor among thieves. My Papa told me that, but I believed in you more. I just wanted to take a minute to tell you that you suck and karma is a bitch. I hope all the bitches you’re fucking give you all kinds of STD’s. Fuck you.
He sold drugs for a while in the beginning of his time here at the club and he could never understand how these people craved and hungered for something so desperately. Unfortunately, now he knew. Aiden hungered for Lorna like a drug addict. That had to be the case when this nasty text calling him names and wishing diseases on him made him happier than a druggie that scored a free duffle bag full dope. The fact that she was mad and thinking about other women pissed her off even more gave him hope. Wow. What a sick fuck he was.
He looked at the text over and over again, even sitting up in bed to make sure that he was awake. There were so many things that he’d wanted to address with her, like the fact that he’d been holding her bracelet the whole time because he wanted to return it to her personally. It was like Lorna just fell off the face of the earth, and after he talked to her dad, he still couldn’t find hide nor hair of her. Her house still wasn’t lived in, and her shop was still closed down. Maybe the father was telling the truth about the wedding too.
Aiden - Did you finalized the plans for your wedding?
Lorna - What wedding? Don’t think I don’t know how this whole change the subject thing goes. That is my number one tactic. Try again dick face.
Aiden – I’m going to call you. Pick up.
Lorna – You’d better not call me. I’ll ask the questions. You just want to get me all wound up but that magic cock you�
�ve been spreading all over town won’t work for me.
Aiden wondered what she’d heard about him and he also wondered what made her text him today.
Aiden – I understand that you’re upset, but you didn’t hear me out about Lucca. I didn’t kill him.
Aiden sat there like a junkie watching his phone and waiting for the next text, but it never came. Hours passed, and he held on to the phone like he was an idiot. What if something were wrong with her, and he didn’t check. He wasn’t going to call because she asked him not to, but it was hard just sitting here. Placing the phone back down, he tried to get comfortable on the bed.
“Fuck that,” he said to the empty room. If he wanted to see what was going on he was going to have to return to her town. Maverick was setting up shop so they could do business in the urban area where Lorna lived. Apparently it had a lot of untapped resources that the guys had found while doing intel for the job he didn’t quite finish. He picked up his other cell, the one he used regularly, and called Maverick.
Insatiable - Devil's Stepbrothers MC Page 16
