If I were standing, my legs would be weak. The guy’s pulling out all the stops, and I still don’t know if I want to call him mine.
But if he keeps this up, I justmight.
Chapter 21—Domino
“How long you in town for, Tommy?” I take a swig of my beer as I eye the mobster, but also my boys. The night is just getting started, even though it seems like we’ve been out all night.
Viv’s fight ended just before eight. By the time I let the mother chapter know what was going on and got our brother taken to a morgue that will do him right for his funeral, it was just after eleven. That was about an hour ago.
One thing you can guarantee about bikers: No matter where in the world we are, we don’t really get going till closer to midnight. Call it the witching hour or whatever, but Hounds are night owls. Well, to be fair, not all of us party every night. Sure, the young ones and those new to the life do. But some of us—and yeah, myself included—only hang late a few times a week. Just whatever we’re feeling in the moment, really.
“How long are you?” I didn’t expect the non-reply, much less to have the question thrown back at me.
“Wait, what?” Viv moves on my lap quickly, and I wince because of course I have a chub from her sitting on me. Every time she wiggles a little, my dick increases in size. But the twist she just did? Not a fun wiggle.
I grunt in pain. Tommy chuckles. Asshole.
“You’re not staying?” This from Mack with a raised eyebrow.
Igrab my beer and use it to cover me while I look around to see if anyone close heard. No one seems to be paying attention, but I’m not about to let anything slip out that might make people act differently.
“I’m not from here. Main boss told me to come. If he wants me somewhere else, I go. That’s how it works.”
Not really, but I hope they don’t know that. Or at least drop the topic. I give Tommy a pointed look, and despite the small smile, at least he nods once in surrender.
“I’ll stay till this is sorted and I can guarantee my fighters are safe,” he finally answers. “Now tell me, is this against Menace only, or are others being targeted?”
I lean forward, resting one forearm on the table, bringing Viv closer to the table as the other two lean in too. This isn’t a secret, but I’m not airing stuff for any of the vamps or guests a brother brought in to hear.
“What we’ve found so far is that Viv’s the only one with a stalker. My guys asked around tonight, and no one else has had anything like what she’s been getting.”
“Mack said it was pictures. Was it more?” Tommy eyes his man before looking back at me.
I’m not sure how those two are connected, but there’s got to be a story there. I highly doubt the tale starts with a mafia kingpin and an underground fight liaison walking into a bar. Something tells me they have a history that might go back years.
“The pictures were the first thing we noticed. Had our guys do some checking on them, but nothing came back initially. No fingerprints or shadow in the background we could focus on. But what we found was that a date was onevery picture, starting three months back. Each picture had one, but one date was missing: the one of Viv’s last fight.”
Tommy nods, as if understanding it all so quickly. And maybe he does. The guy has to be smart to work in the mafia. Even if he wasn’t the brother of the head of the family, I doubt he’d have his own little carved-out piece of the pie, so to speak, if he wasn’t at least able to get some shit done.
“Anything special about that night?” Tommy looks at Mack, who sits back in his chair and rubs a hand over his mouth as he thinks.
“Last fight was with Dozer. Our girl had an escort for the night, some rich prick who liked to have courtside seats. But other than a few extra minutes shaking hands at the end of her win, I don’t recall anything out of the ordinary.”
I grunt. “Getting drugged is that common for you?” I say into my beer before taking a swig.
“Huh?”
“What?”
Both Tommy and Mack speak at once, and I pull my drink down and look at the confusion and anger on their faces before I turn to Viv. Who’s conveniently looking up at the ceiling tile and drinking her beer. All of it. The whole sixteen ounces.
“Shit.” I set my beer on the table with enough force that a bit sloshes over the side onto my hand. I shake it off and look back at the two men. “Viv didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?” Mack growls like any of us bikers would upon hearing news like this about our old ladies. Or a family member. “Viv, what the fuck is he talking about? You got drugged and didn’t tell me?”
With a roll of her eyes, she puts her empty drink down and gives Mack a look that I’ve seen on Ruby when she’s addressing her dad. One she’s used on some of the brothers as well. Even me. It’s a look you don’t want to be on the other end of.
Not that Mack seems to care, as he just glares harder at her.
