“Where you going?”
“I need a minute, is all.”
“Want me to find you a willing…?”
“Jesus Christ, what are you? My pimp?”
“Just trying to help.” Bullet shrugs and rips the top off his fresh bottle of beer. “I can get Della on the case. I mean, you’re one good-looking son-of-a-bitch, surely there’s gotta be at least one girl here who’s happy to suck your dick and fuck that miserable face away.”
“Nice.”
“Just trying to help, brother.”
I walk away, bringing the whiskey with me, swigging it as I head toward the quieter part of the grounds, the edge of the gardens surrounding the house. I can still see everything that’s going on, I just don’t have to be a part of it. But as I reach a small terraced area I realize I’m not the only one who’s seeking a little time out. And when I see who it is, I know I should just turn and walk away, but I don’t do that. I should, but I don’t.
“Hey. Congratulations and all.”
She looks up at me, and she smiles. “Thanks.” Then she drops her gaze, her eyes falling onto the thin gold wedding band on her left ring finger.
“He’s a lucky man.”
She doesn’t say anything to that, she doesn’t even look up, and I think again about walking away, but again I don’t. Instead I sit down beside her on the wooden bench, two huge patio heaters on either side providing some warmth on a surprisingly cool Nevada evening.
“I’m Logan, by the way.”
She raises her head and she looks at me, and again I notice how blue her eyes are. She reminds me a little of… no, she doesn’t. I’m just letting the whiskey and this shitty weekend fuck with my head. “Which chapter you part of?”
“Burbank.”
“You always been a biker?”
I shake my head, and it’s my turn to drop my gaze because that is one conversation I don’t want to start. “Not always… Listen, Piper, can I ask you something?”
I’m crossing a line here, I’m doing so many things wrong, just by being here, alone, with Vanni’s bride of less than three hours. But I can’t say nothing, I can’t do it. And I’m not a good man, I’m not, not anymore, but this – I can’t let this go.
“Vanni he – does he treat you OK?”
I look up, and her eyes meet mine, her expression confused and slightly guarded. “It’s none of your business how Vanni treats me.”
“Does he hurt you?”
“What the hell has that got to do with you?”
“I saw you, last night. Round the back of the house. I saw what he did to you…”
She stares at me, her expression one of anger now, she’s pissed. But I don’t give a shit. “You were fucking spying on us?”
“We heard you, Piper. We heard you protesting, saw you fighting him off, saw him sticking his dick inside you when you were telling him no…”
“Jesus Christ! I wanted that, OK?”
“What? No, you didn’t…”
“I wanted it. It was a game. I wanted him, to fuck me, and you had no business watching us like that.”
“From what I can gather, sweetheart, your new husband don’t always mind an audience.”
“Yeah. I don’t have to listen to this.”
She stands up and makes to leave, but I reach out and grab her wrist, pulling her back down beside me.
“Do you have any idea what Vanni would do to you if he saw you touch me like that? If he even knew you were here with me, alone?”
“Probably stamp on my balls and put a bullet through the back of my knee, it’s his trademark.”
“You’re joking about it?”
“I’m not joking about anything, darlin’. You’re the one making light of something as vile as rape.”
“And there’s nothing worse than a hypocritical outlaw biker.”
“I don’t treat my women like shit, Piper. I don’t take without permission.”
“And neither does Vanni. I told you, what you saw, that was nothing more than a sick and twisted role play game, and I regret it. All right? I shouldn’t have done it, not when…”
She trails off and her eyes drop back down to her clasped hands.
“Not when what, Piper?”
Her head shoots back up and her eyes are clouded with anger now. I can’t see nothing else in there. “What are you doing here? Huh? Why are you so bothered about how Vanni treats me?”
“I don’t know, OK? I don’t know why I fucking care, I haven’t cared about shit for a long time.”
“Then get up and walk away. Like I said, it’s none of your business.”
“You always been a biker whore?”
The slap across my face is hard, but not surprising, considering. I should’ve expected it.
“Fuck you!”
“You really like the rough stuff, huh?”
She stands up and shakes her head, and all I can do is stare at her tits spilling out of that curve-hugging wedding dress that I suspect Vanni’s already hitched high above her beautiful thighs. “He’d kill you, if he knew what you were saying to me.”
“I know.”
“So why are you taking that risk?”
“Because I’m intrigued as to why you like to play those kinda games. What goes through your head, huh? When he’s doing that to you?”
“Like I said, he’d kill you.”
“You love him? I mean, really love him?”
She doesn’t answer me, and I wasn’t expecting her to, and she’s right. Vanni would kill me without hesitation if he’d heard the way I’d just spoken to his old lady. He’d shoot me down and throw me to his rabid dogs, but she isn’t gonna tell him shit. I know she isn’t. I could see it in her eyes, right there. She knows she wouldn’t remain unpunished, if he found out she’d been alone with me, even if it was only for these few, brief minutes. He wouldn’t kill her, but he’d hurt her, and she knows that. I also know that she’s no stranger to the bad in life. There was a darkness in her eyes, a fleeting second when I saw it, when she silently gave it away – she’s no stranger to darkness. I just don’t know where that darkness lived; who inflicted it on her.
“Where’d you come from, huh? Why’d you need Vanni so bad?”
“It doesn’t matter where I came from.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“And what makes you think I need Vanni for anything?”
“Why else would you marry that crazy asshole?”
“Ever heard of love, Logan?”
I scoff quietly, ‘cause she’s got no fucking idea… “You fell in love with a man who can kill without hesitation.”
“He’s never killed without good reason.”
The way she said that – I don’t know. There’s something going on. Something deeper. An underlying reason why she’s really here. “Is that what you need, huh? A man who can kill without hesitation?”
“You need to stop this, now.”
“Where’d you come from, Piper?”
She turns on her stripper heels and I watch as her beautiful ass walks away from me, back to her husband, and I sit back on the bench, close my eyes and let out a long, frustrated sigh. Man, that was fucking weird, on so many levels. And that girl, there’s more to her than just this lost woman that Vanni found and brought home to make his wife. She’s trying to make it sound that simple, but it isn’t. I know it isn’t. And I wonder how much Vanni actually knows about her. He’s not a stupid man, despite all his messed-up ways he’s one of the most astute, intelligent men I’ve ever met, which only makes him twice as dangerous. And I don’t think he’d just move this woman – this stranger – into his home without knowing who she really is. Where she came from. So he knows. But whether she knows that…
He knows where she came from.
He knows who she is.
And I’m gonna find out, too.
Vanni
“Where you been, baby girl?”
I came outta the house, after making a few phone calls –
my wedding day don’t mean I get time off, business carries on, I don’t have time to sit back and forget about it – and she wasn’t there.
“I was about to come looking for you.” I slide a hand round onto her ass and I squeeze it, pushing her against me. “So, where you been?”
“I was looking at tattoo designs.”
“Oh yeah? You want some more ink, huh?” I lightly run my fingers over the tattoo she had done when she first came here. One of my cousin’s finest designs, a half sleeve of black and red roses, blood-drenched thorns, and my name wound around the stem. She’s forever branded as mine now. I’m there, under her skin, a permanent mark she sees every day. Because she needs to know, that she’s mine, now.
“I’m thinking about it.”
I let my hand drop, slide it slowly up under her dress, and she isn’t wearing panties, I told her not to. I like it, when she wears no panties. “You see Dragon? When you were over in his trailer?”
She nods, because she knows I’ll check, I’ll ask him if she was there. And it’s not that I don’t trust her. I do. It’s every other fucker I don’t trust.
“You happy, baby?”
She’s wet, and she moans quietly as I finger her gently, I don’t care that we’re out here, that we’re not somewhere more private, they can all fucking watch.
“You know I am,” she breathes, and that breath hitches slightly as my thumb presses against her clit.
“I need to hear you say the words, darlin’.”
“I’m happy,” she murmurs, her fingers sliding into my hair as I kiss her; as I continue to finger-fuck her to heaven ‘til she comes in my arms, her quiet sighs sinking into me, her mouth still touching mine.
“OK, baby girl, that’s good. That’s really good.”
I pull my fingers out of her, wiping them on my jeans, and I look at her. My beautiful bride, her pretty face all flushed, her perfect lips slightly parted and I watch as she carefully repositions her dress back down over her thighs. I’m gonna rip that dress from her shit-hot body in a little while and take her nine ways ‘til freakin’ Sunday, and we aren’t gonna come up for air ‘til I’m done; ‘til she can’t take no more. But I know my girl, and she can take a lot.
From mafia princess to outlaw biker queen, that’s who Piper Sloane really is. Piper Maria Cabbetto was born and brought up within one of the biggest, most important gangland families on the East Coast. She’s using her mother’s maiden name, y’see. She got rid of the Cabbetto surname the second she ran, ‘cause she had to run. I made it my job to find out, to know why she was in my bar that night. And I found out that Piper, she was a princess all right. A real daddy’s girl. She could do no wrong in Francesco ‘Frankie’ Cabbetto’s eyes. But then, one day, she overheard something his little girl was never supposed to hear. Up until then she’d been protected from the worst of what Frankie and his “family” got up to; the bad shit they carried out, she’d been protected, from the worst of it, although, she isn’t a stupid girl. I doubt she thought her world was all rainbows and unicorns. But she heard some real bad shit, that day. And that meant daddy didn’t want his princess protected no more, he wanted her watched; kept an eye on. And that job was given to Marco ‘Mad Dog’ Vierra, Frankie’s lieutenant. A man thirty years Piper’s senior. A man who was assigned to make sure Piper kept her mouth shut, stayed silent, said nothing. A man who’s crazier than me, yeah, I know all about the Cabbetto family. And I know that, whatever methods Vierra used to make sure Piper didn’t go running to the cops, they saw her run to me, instead. But they’re looking for her, I know that, too. Francesco has his soldiers on the hunt, for his princess. And this time, they’ll kill her.
But she found me. His princess is now my queen. And nobody’s gonna hurt her now.
Nobody is gonna fucking hurt her…
Piper
We won’t be hanging around this party for much longer. I can see it in his eyes, my new husband, he wants to play, away from the crowd. Tonight he wants privacy. Vanni Colletti. The man I can never leave, not now. Not that I want to, I love him, in my own fucked up way. And the fact that asshole – that stranger, I can’t even remember his name, but he doesn’t know me. He might think he knows Vanni, but he knows nothing about me.
“OK, baby girl. I gotta go finish up some business, but then it’s just you and me. All right?”
I nod, and he frowns slightly, his hand against my cheek bringing my face forward, and he kisses me.
“Everything OK here, Piper?”
“Everything’s fine.”
“You sure?”
I nod again, but he doesn’t move, his hand remains on my cheek, his eyes boring into mine.
“You wouldn’t lie to me now, baby? Would you?”
That question; the way he asks it, it sends a cold shiver up my spine, but I just smile and slide my fingers between his. It’s time to bring out the doe-eyes, play the subservient new wife. “I’m just a little tired.”
“Been a long day, huh?” He smiles, pressing his hand just a touch harder against my cheek. “Go inside and get ready for me, OK? ‘Cause when I get upstairs I want you naked, and I want you waiting, for me. We need some alone time, right?”
He kisses me, his hand dropping to my ass, giving it a firm smack before he backs away, flipping a cigarette into his mouth as he walks off toward his office.
I head back to the house. My home. My prison? And I don’t even know why these thoughts are invading my head, it’s my wedding day. The happiest day of my life, right? It’s not the wedding I ever expected I’d have. It’s not the wedding my mom and me used to sit and plan when I was just a little girl. That was all big white dresses and a dozen bridesmaids; a huge Italian supper and dancing well into the night as hundreds of guests enjoyed my family’s extravagance. I never, for one minute, ever thought I’d get married in an ass-skimming skin-tight dress to an outlaw biker. A dangerous man. But I know all about dangerous men. And everything’s different now. All those plans I once had, they disappeared the day I started running.
I walk around the back of the house, onto the terrace that leads into the kitchen, and even here there are people everywhere, kicking back, smoking and drinking and I lean back against the wall and light up a cigarette. Vanni won’t want to sleep tonight. He’ll want to fuck, and I know he’s taken something, I could see it in his eyes. He never touches the really hard stuff, the heroin and the crystal meth, he leaves that well alone. He likes to stay in control, so that shit, it’s nothing more than a commodity. It’s his business. But a few lines of coke, some uppers, the odd joint, he’s fine with that. We all are. So tonight, he’ll be awake for a long time yet. He may never sleep, it’s not unusual for him to stay awake for days at a time. Like I said, he likes to be in control.
I take a drag on my cigarette and smile as Vulture, Vanni’s Road Captain, leans back against the wall beside me. Men he knows and trusts, Vanni’s fine with them talking to me, because he knows they know what’ll happen if they put one foot out of line. Vanni doesn’t do second chances. But those he’s less familiar with, that’s a problem.
“Vanni still in his office?” I ask as Vulture offers me another cigarette, which I decline.
“Almost done.” He looks at me, narrowing his eyes slightly. “You need something, huh?”
“What you got?”
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small plastic bag containing a couple of tiny, oval-shaped pills. “These should see you OK.”
I take them from him, balling the bag up into my fist. “Thanks. I just need a little hit, something to keep me awake.”
“They’ll do the job.” He takes a drag on his cigarette and stares out ahead of him. “You’re just what Vanni needed, y’know?”
“I am?”
Vulture turns to look at me again, the corner of his mouth twisting up into a slight smirk. “Yeah. I mean, he’s never really been one for relationships, he never wanted the distraction some old ladies turn into. But you don’t seem that t
ype.”
“Am I taking that as a compliment?” I smile, and he laughs, stubbing his cigarette out on the wall behind him.
“It was meant as one. But don’t tell him I said that, all right? I know he don’t mind some of us talking to you, but I still don’t want to risk him kicking my ass.”
I laugh too, and I watch as Vulture strides over to a group of Vanni’s club brothers, and I turn my head and look inside. It’s quiet in there. Vanni doesn’t mind an open house on weekends like this, but I’m glad people seem to have remained outside. I could actually do with a little bit of peace, just until Vanni gets back.
I head into the kitchen, pull the door to behind me, and I pour myself a shot of whiskey that I swallow down in one mouthful, along with one of those pills Vulture just gave me.
“You really aren’t a good girl, huh?”
I swing around, and he’s there behind me, that asshole stranger who doesn’t even take a slap across the face as a hint that I’d rather he left me alone. For his own safety, as well as mine. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
“I shouldn’t be talking to you, but I’m OK to be in here.” He leans back against the counter and crosses his arms, shooting me a way too cocky smirk.
“You shouldn’t be here, with me.”
“I just said that.”
“So… leave. Vanni’ll be back soon.”
“You just taken something there?”
He jerks his head in the direction of the packet lying on the counter top. “Nothing for you to be concerned about.”
“Need something to keep you awake, huh? So you and your new man can fuck the night away?”
“Are you still here?”
“Does he like you high? The sex better that way, huh?”
I’m fucking angry now, he has no right to speak to me like this, and I have no idea why he’s doing it. But I want him to stop. “Can you go now? Please?”
He pulls himself away from the counter and lets his arms drop as he shrugs. “You enjoy your wedding night, y’hear? Maybe see you around.”
Protection (Death Knights MC Series Book 1) Page 4
