“Guy’s a fucking wanker for sure.” He pulls out one of the empty chairs and sits down between Milly and Ruby. “He’s worse than my ma, always bitching at me to sit down and put my leg up. If I want to be mothered, I’ve got enough fucking family to call for that shit.”
“Careful there. You’re sitting next to a mama who’ll probably start in on you if you aren’t too careful,” Abigailteases, to which Milly rolls her eyes before looking at me with a shake of her head.
“Oh, I know who I’m sitting by.” His tone has me quick to look at him, noticing him leaning over his chair rail to look at my girl. “Lassie, you got a mean hook.” She tosses him a laugh, and he takes it as bait. “It’s hot.”
I almost spit my beer out at his words. “Dude.” I shake my head. “Not her.” The guy can pull that Irish swagger with any other woman here, just not the one next to me.
“Why not?” Ruby asks with a smirk, pointing her beer at Milly. “How did you put it, Brooklyn? ‘No ring means it doesn’t mean a thing.’”
I glare at her, but she just grins widely as Abigail smirks and Milly nods, egging her on.
“Damn, you named her?” Mickey asks me, knowing the rule: you name it, you keep it.
“Not me. Club did. Or I guessshedid, with all her correcting.” I lean forward, putting my beer on the table as I pull off my pinkie ring. I grab her hand and jam it on. “There, now it means something.” I sit back in my chair, grabbing my beer as I go. “Happy now?”
She looks it over, and I notice a certain woman keeping her mouth shut. Actually, Ruby’s jaw is wide open in shock. Doubt she expected me to ever get an old lady, or even put a ring on it. I know I wasn’t expecting it, but I’ll be damned if anyone else is going to claim my woman.
“It’s a bit big.” She shakes her hand, and it slides around her finger.
“Deal with it,” I grunt.
“Don’t I always,baby?” she sasses me with a twinkle in her eye, and I adjust myself. Girl knows how to make me hard from a damn look. If that ain’t a reason to lock her down as my old lady, I don’t know what is.
I raise my beer, smiling as I shake my head and take a swig. “You’re going to be the death of me, woman.”
“Yeah, but what a way to go,” Mickey mutters, and I can’t help but agree.
“Brooklyn,” Chains hollers at her. “You got visitors.”
I should have known it wouldn’t be long before I was inundated with the mafia. Just figured it wouldn’t be seconds after claiming my old lady.
Milly stands quickly, throwing her arms around her brother Tommy, fussing over him while ushering him to our table. As they get close, I stand and hold out my hand for the guy, which he takes. Don’t know the rest, but this one earns my respect. If he hadn’t jumped in front of me, I’d be dead. Instead, he’s the one with a bandage on his neck where the bullet got him.
Domino was the one to quickly assess and patch him up, then get him the fuck out of there while I went and hunted the man who’d caused all this pain. Fucker was a coward in the end. Locked himself in his office, thinking he was unreachable. But a few selective explosives blew the door. I didn’t give the bastard time to talk, something I already knew he loved to do. I just shot him between the eyes as soon as he came into view. No doubt the fucker had a grand speech to give to reason with me, but his death was sanctioned by the Reaper himself. I was just there to collect.
“Stop pestering, woman. I’m fine. You really think our big bro would let me out of the house—hell, my bed—ifI wasn’t well enough to drink a beer without someone fussing over me?”
“Yes,” Milly says easily, and her brothers chuckle at it. All but Tommy, who rolls his eyes.
“Whatever,” he grumbles as he looks about, then all but dead stops when he sees Ruby. “Well, hello again, beautiful,” he singsongs, drawing out his words before whistling. Now it’s the brothers rolling their eyes.
Ruby doesn’t shy away from the look, giving him her own once-over. “Hello again to you too. Always was a sucker for a guy with an accent.”
“Oi, what the fuck about me?” Mickey protests.
She waves him off. “You had your chance. You went for the sister.” She nods toward my girl. “Should have taken your shot a bit earlier. Especially after you saw her full-on ownership of Bass when he came home.”
Girl’s not wrong. Even if I didn’t just put a ring on it, Milly and I claimed each other the second our lips touched in front of God and country yesterday.
Mickey shrugs it off as he leans back in his chair, propping his leg up. General would be so proud. “Eh, it could have gone either way. Nothing is final, not even in death.”
He holds Ruby’s stare for a second before he gets up and moves on. She follows him with her eyes for half a beat. “What the hell do you think that was about?”
“Who the fuck knows? Guy’s Irish. They’re all nuts in the head over there,” Tommy cuts in, quick to pull her attention back to him.
“Says the mafia boy.” She smirks at him, knowing full well who he is and how much trouble this would have causedif things hadn’t gone differently. Mafia and bikers don’t mix as a general rule. Mostly because we’re fighting for territory and business. But it looks like the Leone family and the Hounds might just be starting a new budding friendship. Or as budding as one can get when the littlest Leone is now involved in the club, and to protect her, you must protect the club.
“Oh yeah, I’m nuts too.” He waggles his eyebrows to emphasize the point, pulling a bubble of laughter from both Ruby and Abigail. He leans across the table, as close as he can get to Ruby with a table between them. “But I’ll admit it to your face.”
