“Thanks, dude. It’s just…” he paused and his voice took on a new tone, “I appreciate everything you and Fin have done for me. I’ve never had people care for me that much,” Brant stopped and I heard him clear his throat. This kid was proof the cycle could be broken.
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful complaining. I get out of the hospital and you and Fin bring me here for a party to celebrate my birthday. Everyone was here. Never had a party before, then you tell me I can move into your condo in a couple weeks after I don’t need someone to help me as much, add in the job of working for all you guys around the businesses to that, like what you were doing was an everyday thing. So yeah, I don’t want you to think I’m whining, but seriously, dude, you have to help me, get her to stop,” he finished on plea.
“I will talk with her, but I will remind you about that day. When she told you that you could stay and they would help you until you moved into the condo, I told you it was a spider web. If I recall, you even laughed at me.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. She just came in so here she is,” Brant said before I could stop him.
“Anthony?”
“Yeah, Ma, it’s me.”
“Do you need something?” she asked.
“No, but Brant does. Can you please stop treating him like he is five? The boy turned eighteen last week, he doesn’t need you to tie his shoes.”
“Yes, he does,” she said.
“Christ, are you tying his shoes too?”
“What is it your sisters say? Oh wait, duh,” she said and the happiness in her voice made me smile, “that’s it. He can hardly bend with his ribs so I do help him. It’s nice to be needed again.” Well shit, the softness in her voice palpable.
“Alright, Ma. But will you try to lighten up a little, Brant’s not used to it,” I said, I may give her a hard time for always butting in to my life, but she does everything with the best intentions.
“I’ll try, Anthony. It’s nice having a child around to take care of again. And if there is ever been one who needs a mother, it is that boy.” The woman’s heart was nothing if big, “Ms. Marshall came by yesterday to check on him. I don’t know why, not like I haven’t raised four children to adulthood. She did want me to remind you that she would also need to check out your condo when Brant is ready to move in. And, Anthony, I’ve never been prouder of you than I am now with what you and Fin have done for this boy,” she said and heard her sniffle, which was my cue to wrap up this conversation. Because Sonia Roark on a good day was formidable, a crying one could have you doing things to make her happy so she would stop.
“Thanks, Ma, I had good examples. I need to get back to work so tell Brant we will check in later with him. Love ya, Ma.”
“Love you too, son,” she said and I hung up as Kink walked in with the other Ops behind him.
“Gotta tell you, man, your place is upscale. Thanks for letting us crash there,” Kink said.
I looked at my watch, then back to him, “One in the afternoon, didn’t you say you would be in here bright and early.”
“Don’t bust my balls, fucker. We just got in last night, besides, I had something to take care of this morning before coming in. Now, I know you and Fin have a plan,” the men moved and began to take seats, “why don’t you share it with us so we can all be on the same page.”
“Okay, let me call Fin up and we’ll catch you up,” I said and picked up the phone.
Fin
“You look like shit, man,” Kink said as I walked in Tony’s office, wiping the sweat off my chest and arms.
“You have no idea. Fuck, I thought I was staying in pretty good shape until I hit the ring to spar. Gonna have to schedule time in there,” I said, setting the towel down and pulling the shirt I brought with me over my head.
“Yeah, you didn’t even see us when we came in. At first I had to do a double take to make sure that was you in the ring. When did you start letting bitches in the gym?” Kink smirked, “‘cause got to tell ya, from what we watched, she was holding her own against you.”
“That would be Mel,” Tony said.
“Yeah, I was skeptical at first when she asked to help, but thought what the hell, I could pull my punches and kicks so not to hurt her. She’s Brook’s guard and I wanted to see if she could handle herself.” In the time Mel had been around, she’d put two of the guys on their asses, which made me feel less apprehensive about allowing a female into my gym.
“Fuck, the bitch can help me anytime,” Maxi snorted and the others agreed.
“Dude, I just hired her. No way are you taking her away from here,” Tony said.
“Whatever, bro, no woman can pass on the Maxi, they all want to wear me against their skin,” Maxi started laughing and everyone stared at him, even me.
“Seriously, will you quit talking about yourself in third person and that shit wasn’t even funny. Bitches don’t think your joking about their monthly bleeding is funny either,” Raven said.
“Geez, wonder why you two don’t have a woman,” Poke joked and we all laughed. It felt good to laugh too.
The past week had been filled with training, running leads, to the point when Tony and I got home we were exhausted. Other than the night we claimed Brook as ours, and yeah it was a claiming, it had been hit and miss with the loving. When we’d hit the sheets a couple times during the week, I’d been in the middle of feeling her up and I dozed off, only to wake later with my dick so damn hard I could literally pound nails with it. Then I’d lay in bed, watching her sleep, and think of how warm her pussy would be if I spread her legs and planted my cock deep. But she’d snore lightly and I couldn’t bring myself to wake her. And sitting in a room with a bunch of men was no time to get a raging hard-on.
“He’s back. Where’d you go?” Easy asked, elbowing me, causing me to look around to the six sets of eyes watching me.
“I’d say he was thinking about fuckin’, only time a man gets that look on his face,” Kink said and I knew I had zoned out. I just prayed it didn’t happen at the fight with Hector.
All the shit was pissing me off and every time we’d figured one thing out, another would jump out to take its place. I wanted to get to know our woman and learn the different sounds she made when I touched her skin, laved her nipples or the way she hummed when I fucked her breasts and she would lick the head of my dick as I pushed through the cavern I made by pushing her breasts tight together. Fuck, that wasn’t helping, I reached down and adjusted myself. My ass would be glad when this shit was taken care of because I needed to spend time with our woman.
“Fin, do you need a minute to take care of that?” Tony laughed, jerking his head to reference my dick as it tested my workout shorts material. Fucking embarrassing in a room full of men.
“Fuck you, man. You can’t tell me this past week hasn’t been hell. Fly by sex is not cutting it. Just got with her and we have spent more time hunting down Manny, Hector’s fucking brother, than we have spending with Brook.” Getting mad was helping my raging hard-on so I continued, “When I fight Hector, I am going to punch that bastard for every second he has kept me from her.”
“Well, hit him an extra few times for me too,” Tony said, then Kink chuckled.
Tony and I both glared at him, “Damn, you two are whipped already, it is almost as bad as those two are,” he said and pointed at Poke and Easy.
“What the fuck, brother? We didn’t ride across country to have our balls busted,” Easy said and shot daggers at Kink who cocked an eyebrow at his brother.
I’d witness firsthand the comradery of these men when Tony and I visited with them. And to know they rode across country to give back up to us when it wasn’t their fight, showed just how committed they were to each other. It was humbling to me to be considered a part of their family.
“I want to say thanks, guys, for supporting us and making the trip with Kink,” I said and they nodded.
“We take care of family, whether it’s family by blood or circumstance. No differenc
e,” Raven answered.
“Does that mean Fin’s sister is a no touch?” Maxi asked. “Heard she was a fucking knock out.”
That was the icebreaker. The room got quiet and all eyes were focused on me. When I looked at Tony, he was fighting laughter. My eyes land on Kink and he wasn’t even trying to hide his amusement at his Ops brother’s question. They were expecting me to go off on Maxi for the comment on Mia. Nope, I was saving all my temper for the man I was going to fight. There were other ways to get even.
“Almost forgot, our moms and Ms. Maddie will need to have protection too. Since Tony’s men are spread out, maybe Maxi could hang with them.”
“I think that is a great idea, Fin,” Kink said and smirked. “Maxi, we won’t send you by yourself,” Kink said while the man in question looked between us.
“I’ll do duty with Maxi,” Numbers chimed in.
“I can handle a bunch of women by myself, especially mothers, they love me,” Maxi said confidently.
“Let me go take a shower and we can head out and get something to eat, then take you guys by our parents’ houses so Maxi and Numbers can meet them before they have to guard them,” I said and stood. “Sounds good” was a collective response as the other men stood also.
As we headed out the door, Poke leaned into Kink, “Their moms are the two women who had us over for dinner the last time we came here with you, right? That was before Freedom and Tony’s mom was the one who kept trying to get Easy and I to come back for dinner again before we left because she had some ‘nice girls’ she wanted us to meet?”
Kink laughed, “That, my brother, would be correct.”
“Fuck, Maxi, you and Numbers might have the hardest assignment of all of us,” Easy said as we reached the gym.
I headed for the showers more relaxed than I had been prior to everything.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tony
We were standing in the gym waiting for Fin to finish in the shower as Reed and Jet walked in.
“Hey, boss, we were just coming to give you an update,” Jet had said as Fin walked toward us.
“Hope you got something new. We were headed to Slinging Ink so you might as well come with us, that way we can all hear at once and no repeating required,” and we nodded, all in agreement.
It had to be one of the rare times that no one was in a chair when we walked into Slinging Ink. Mike and the others were gathered around the front desk, looking toward us when we entered.
“This, guys, is what we call slackers,” Fin said, his arm making a waving motion referring to his brothers.
“Hey, dickhead, we have been busting our asses all day. First fucking break we’ve had and since Mike didn’t make it in till this afternoon, it threw us behind.”
“Shut up, Falon. What the fuck are you, the time police?” Mike said and I watched as his eyes cut to Kink. That was strange.
“Well it works out good for all then. Jet has an update. The shop being empty is just a bonus,” I said, then nodded for Jet.
“First up, Hector. Mace has been his shadow and Hector has shown up at the gym every day,” Jet looked at Fin, “the inside eyes showed him sparring. Don’t ask,” Jet chuckled, then continued looking back to Fin. “A couple new moves but nothing you won’t be able to handle. He leaves there and spends the rest of his days at an apartment over on Hudson St. Some woman lets him in and I might add that Mace noted I think his exact words were ‘Dogs lick their asses but even they wouldn’t lick that chick’s face.’” Everyone laughed, then Jet continued.
“Second, Harm’s been looking for Martina. Still no sign of her. He tracked her to a party of sorts at a warehouse. One of those, anything goes as long as the drugs last parties. She was there by one guy’s account but got a call and left in a hurry. Not sure how reliable that was considering the source. Harm never picked up her trail after that so he worked on her phone records. Whoever called her, it was from a burner phone.
“Taylor has been trying to find an association between Hector and any cop at the precinct. No luck yet there. But as he moved through every snitch the cops use, thanks to Mace’s skills obtaining names, word is Hector is in for some bank with Diablo, which kind of locks Brant’s story up.”
“What kind of bank we talking about?” I asked.
“Fifty G’s, and the talk is Martina used whatever out of Hector’s supply to sell. Seems he not only runs the illegal fights, he makes drugs available to the spectators who attend. He’d evidently be able to cover the loss and this Diablo guy never knew what was going down. But three months ago, Hector made a bad bet on a kid he had supposedly trained. They were holding what they call an unknown fight. Anyone there can come forward and take on the fighter. Bets are placed and if you win, you get a cut of the take. Depending on the number in attendance and who, the bets fluctuate but since the fights have been taking place, no one has walked away with less the ten thousand.”
“Fuck, around here people would do a hit in front of the police station for that kind of cash,” Fin said and everyone nodded.
“So how does that affect Hector and his boy he put in the ring,” my guys were good. The pieces of the puzzle were moving into place.
“Well, he bet on his boy, supposedly trained him and the kid was good. He won every time he stepped in the ring, except that night. Some guy from the city stepped up, unknown, never in the circuits, no one there knew him or had recognized him from around. He walked in the ring and the fight started. The guy Taylor talked to said it was the most brutal fight he’d seen. The unknown used boxing, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu with skill that would have taken years to master. He beat Hector’s boy so bad the blood on the mat was more than he had seen after a firefight when he was in the military. When Hector’s boy lay unconscious, the unknown was announced as winner and collected his seventy thousand in his cut, never looking back. And Hector was then out the money he bet on his boy, putting him in another spot since it was the proceed money from the drugs, placing him in debt and unable to cover what Martina had used. The attendance is expected to rival anything at the other fights for yours and Hector’s. So odds are that is why he challenged you, Fin. Fin O’Malley in a bare knuckle, no rules fight will leave some serious cash floating that night.”
“What happened to Hector’s boy?” Kink asked.
“He was dropped off in front of the hospital ER and I mean, literally, as in pushed out of a moving car. Car had no plates and the driver was masked so nothing there either. The kid died before they could even get him stabilized.
“Lastly, there is not a whisper on the wind of Manny’s whereabouts. They are still digging,” Jet finished the update and I heard a few damns said when he was done. But at least we had more answers as to what was going on.
Fin
“Hey, sweetheart. We just pulled in at my parents’ house so they could see Kink and meet his guys. Won’t be too long here but we thought you would want to see Kink and meet the guys too so was thinking we could pick up some food and have them over for dinner?”
“Oh…um…sure. I would love to see Kink.”
“Is something wrong? You okay?” I asked, I wanted her to feel like it was her home too and just not show up with a group of men. Her pause had me worried that she might feel shy about meeting so many men for the first time. Especially since she was new to the relationship, she could be uncomfortable about the ménage.
“Fine, bring them, it will be super.”
Super. “Baby girl, these men are from the Ops Warriors, if you are worried about the three of us being a shock to them, don’t be. Remember we told you about them. Ménages are the normal for these guys.”
“Really, Fin, it’s all good. Bring them. Looking forward to meeting them. And seeing Kink.”
“Okay, will see you in a few, sweetheart,” we said our goodbyes and I hung up, still not sure as to why she sounded so strange.
“Problem with your woman already?” Kink snickered as he walked up.
“Like yo
u would know. I don’t see you locked down?”
“Yep, and the reason is right there. Watching them two should have been a clue for the rest of us but nope, the brothers are dropping like flies,” Kink said and chin pointed to Poke and Easy standing by their bikes, cellphone on speaker since we could hear the woman’s voice answering to whatever they were saying to her.
“Geez, Kink, if I get that henpecked by a bitch kick my ass,” Raven said loud enough it drew Poke’s and Easy’s attention to us.
“Raven, Freedom heard that. Said you four better be good or she was going to kick your asses when we get back.”
“There you go,” Kink said and we started laughing. When we got ourselves under control and turned to walk toward the front door, it was open with Tony’s dad, Brant, who was smiling and looking the best I’d seen him, even with the healing bruises on his face, and my dad filling the doorway. Huge smiles spread across their faces, telling us they had been standing there long enough to hear what had been said.
“Kevin, good to see you, son,” Reilly, my dad, said and grabbed Kink in a bear hug with Anthony Sr., Tony’s dad, following suit. Kink had pretty much lived at our houses growing up and as he hugged them back, the bond that was forged with them showed on their faces.
“Now introduce us to your friends. We’ve met Eric and Colton,” Anthony Sr. said and Poke and Easy moved in and shook hands with the dads and Brant, who they met at my gym the time before when they’d accompanied Kink home.
Tony and I stood by and watched as Kink introduced each man and as he said their given names, he then gave the names they go by in the club.
“Mr. O’Malley, Mr. Roark, and Brant, this is Tom, he goes by Raven, then beside him is Steve, he goes by Numbers, and last there is Ted, he goes by Maxi.” When Kink finished, handshakes were exchanged.
“We know you men like going by your club names. We’ll try to remember that but our wives, well,” my dad paused and looked at Anthony Sr. who grinned at him, “let’s just say it won’t take you long to catch on.”
Vengeance: MMA/Ink Romance (KO Ink Book 1) Page 19