“And took her for himself.”
“Something like that. She’s crazy about him, apparently.”
“Is she now. He drugging her or something?”
“Don’t let him hear you talking like that, Logan. From all accounts he freakin’ worships the ground she walks on, and if he catches you even looking in her direction…”
He lets that sentence trail off, he doesn’t have to finish it. We all know what Vanni would do if he caught anyone checking out his girl.
“She looks younger than him. She’s just a kid.”
“She’s old enough. Logan, I’m serious. You can’t be seen talking to her, so if she comes to you again…”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. She’s off limits.”
And she is. Now. Before I knew who she was I was thinking about seeing how far I could take it. One night, two, maybe three if I’m sticking around ‘til Tuesday. But she’s Vanni Colletti’s girl. She’s untouchable.
It’s back to plan A, to those cheap whores and bitches. Fucking them won’t get me killed. Just looking at Piper will.
Piper
I don’t feel like a bride should probably feel the night before her wedding. I was brought up in a family where weddings were huge occasions, the kind of celebration that brought everyone together; temporarily healed rifts. And the kind of rifts my family had, well, if you knew that you’d know how important weddings could be, acting as a kind of no-man’s-land, a neutral zone. But those rifts never healed permanently. They were always sorted. Always dealt with. Always. No exceptions. Not yet…
“You sleeping in my bed tonight, baby girl?” Vanni whispers in my ear, and I breathe in deep as his warm breath hits that space just below my ear. “Or you going all traditional and sleeping alone?”
“Never alone.” I smile, and his face breaks into a grin. “And do you want to tell me anything that’s traditional about our wedding?”
“You’ll be wearing white,” he murmurs, his grin widening, and I laugh as he kisses me, his hand falling onto my ass.
“I gotta go pee, Van.”
“Go out here. I can watch.”
“Then you’ll want to fuck.”
“Then I’ll want to fuck... man, you know me so well.”
He takes my hand and we head round the back of the house, it’s quiet there. We’re alone, although, there are times when Vanni doesn’t care who’s watching. And times when he’s fiercely private. Tonight, I don’t think he has a preference.
As I wriggle out of my jeans, slipping my boots back on – I know that’s one thing he does want – he crouches down in front of an old discarded crate and sets up a few lines of coke, snorting a couple as I squat to pee.
“Some there for you too, baby.” He rises to his feet and lights up a joint as I finish up, wiping myself with the handkerchief he hands me before I squat back down and take that hit of pure white powder. Vanni doesn’t deal in shit, only the best for him. He prides himself on the fact his club deals only in the highest quality coke, it’s how he makes so much money. And drugs, that’s only the tip of the iceberg as far as his business dealings go, I’m guessing. He doesn’t talk to me much about that side of things. He tells me what I need to know, which is very little. And I know my place.
“Come here, baby girl.”
I stand up, quickly wiping my nose with my forearm as I sashay toward him, naked from the waist down, bar those boots, the way he’s looking at me, and the effects of the coke making me feel insanely horny. And then he reaches out and grabs my hand, yanking me toward him, swinging me around and slamming me back against the wall, his mouth on mine in a ferocious kiss that swipes the breath right out of me. And I don’t even have time to catch it before he’s plunged his fingers inside me, and I cry out in pain, but that only lasts the briefest of seconds as he finds that place within me that makes me forget everything else, except this.
“Pretend you said no,” he murmurs, his mouth still touching mine, his fingers still inside me. “Pretend you don’t want this.”
I’m not new to this game, even though it’s one of his more twisted, fucked up ones. I said he doesn’t need permission, but the one thing Vanni has never done is take me when I don’t want him to, and I trust that he never would. He just likes to play messed-up shit sometimes. And I know, as a woman, that using rape as a game is so utterly wrong, it makes me sick to my stomach because it’s… I can control this. He lets me. If I say no he’ll drop this game, move onto something else. But I can control it.
“I don’t want this,” I whisper, but when he looks at me he knows, whether I really mean that or whether I’m accepting his game. He knows, it’s the latter.
“Then let’s play, baby girl.”
Let’s play. A dangerous, dangerous game…
Logan
“Is he gonna be OK? Dragon, I mean. You gonna be all right keeping an eye on him?”
“I’m not babysitting him, if that’s what you mean. And it was your idea to leave him here, but, hey, if you don’t think he’s ready to handle this yet, pull him. Leave someone else. Shit, I could do it on my own, I’m only driving the truck back to California.”
“Two people are better than one, Logan. It’s safer. Those weapons Vanni’s having delivered, we’re not just talking a few hand pistols here, he knows some real dangerous people over in Europe.”
“I can handle it alone, Bullet. Jesus, you know the shit I’ve been through, you think this scares me? This is nothing compared to what I saw out there… It’s freakin’ kindergarten crap.”
“Just take the second man, all right? Let’s not mess this up. ‘Cause I ain’t in no mood to face the wrath of Vanni Colletti.”
“He’s got plenty of distractions.”
“Takes more than a piece of tight young ass to distract Vanni. He could have his dick rammed right inside her and still know if someone’s fucked up somewhere.”
“You seen her?”
“Who?”
“Vanni’s girl.”
“Piper? Yeah. I seen her. Not my type, but if she wasn’t marrying that crazy motherfucker…” He shrugs, “I’d probably do her.”
“Probably?” I laugh, ‘cause I can’t believe he used the word probably. “Man, Della’s really got a screw on your balls, huh?”
“Ready to tighten the second she suspects I’m even thinking about another woman. And if Vanni catches you even thinking about Piper…”
“Yeah, yeah, I already had that conversation with Dragon.”
“Listen to the kid. He’s Vanni’s cousin, he knows better than anyone what that brother’s capable of… Hey… did you hear that?”
We stop walking, both of us standing perfectly still as we try to make out a faint noise nearby, I think it’s coming from the back of the house, it’s hard to tell, the noise of the party is still everywhere.
“Could be someone trying to break in,” Bullet says, sliding a hand round behind him to make sure his gun’s in place.
“Nah. Vanni’s got cameras everywhere, and those freakin’ devil dogs of his…”
“We should check it out anyway. Just in case.”
We walk slowly around the side of the house, and it’s clear now, what that sound is. What’s happening.
“Jesus Christ, Bullet, is he…?”
“Keep it down, OK? We don’t know it’s him.”
“Doesn’t matter who the fuck it is, that’s wrong, man.”
Bullet edges a little further forward, and then he looks back at me. “Yeah, it’s Vanni. It’s just him and Piper, it’s fine.”
“That doesn’t sound like fine, what the fuck’s he doing to her?”
I squint slightly as I try to focus on what’s happening. She’s half-naked, backed up against the wall, and she’s fighting him, but he’s winning, and I watch as he rams his dick into her, over and over again, he’s getting off on that shit, big time. He’s one sick motherfucker. And I don’t feel good about this.
“She don’t look like she wants that, B
ullet.”
“Leave it, Logan. The last thing you do – the last thing anyone does – is get involved with Vanni’s messed-up shit.”
“You’re just letting him get away with that?”
“Walk away, Logan. Don’t fucking go there. Come on.”
“Jesus… And she’s still gonna marry the guy?”
“I said, leave it. OK? It ain’t our business. Besides, you know the kinda crap that goes on in our own clubhouse, don’t pretend we treat our women like princesses. You don’t give a shit about any of ‘em.”
“I don’t take without permission, either.”
“Well don’t that make you the good guy, huh?”
“Piss off, Bullet. Shit! I’m gonna go get wasted. This whole freakin’ set-up is fucking twisted, man.”
And I’ve seen some seriously twisted shit in my time. I’ve seen torture and pain, I’ve inflicted things on others that I thought had desensitized me to anything. I’ve killed, I’ve seen people close to me die for no reason, I’ve seen lives taken and wasted and I’ve dealt with it. I had to. But the one thing I have never done is take a woman when she didn’t want me. Never. So I guess I’m not really as emotionless as I thought I was. And that scares the shit outta me.
Three
Vanni
I’m watching them, all of them, knowing that those who hadn’t seen Piper before this weekend, they’re all wondering how I got myself a girl like her, but it’s simple, really. I didn’t cast no magic spell, I didn’t force her to sleep with me, I was just in the right place, at the right time. I tell people I found her, but she really found me. And she has no idea that I know who she is. Where she came from. The family she’s connected to. I know all that shit, I don’t get involved with people I know nothing about, least of all a girl I let share my bed; a girl who’s about to become my biker queen. So I know, who she really is. Why she needs me. And if that day comes, if it happens, if it calls for me to be the man she needs me to be, I’ll do it in a fucking heartbeat. Because I love her. And no fucker’s gonna hurt my girl. She isn’t going back there, and if they want a fight, I’m ready. If they want her, they can come find her, I’ll be waiting. I’ll be fucking waiting…
Piper
He wants me to be beautiful today. He wants to make every man out there wish they were him, that’s what he told me, as he fucked me, not half an hour ago. Before he went outside to wait for me. And as I stand in front of the mirror and look at my reflection, I smile. My world was messed-up before, and it’s never going to change, not if I marry Vanni Colletti. And I’m going to marry him, because I fell in love with him, eventually. When I stopped being scared. When I realized I had no other choice but to be with him.
“You look like the beautiful bride Vanni don’t deserve.”
I turn around as Della Hawkins comes back into the room. She’s been helping me get ready this afternoon, and although she hasn’t said it out loud, I’m not sure she likes me all that much. But, in every other way, she’s a straight talker, and I like those kind of people. I grew up surrounded by whispered secrets and closed doors I was never allowed behind; kept away from the shit that I now know was going on. Because, once I finally found out who my family really were, what I’d been born into, I understood, why doors were closed and secrets whispered; why my father and my various uncles would sometimes just disappear for hours or days, sometimes weeks. Why we’d sometimes have to move away, for a while, hide out in one of the many houses I soon learned were owned by my family. Straight-talking? No. I heard none of that. All me and my cousins got were the lies and the cover stories. We knew what we needed to know, and that was never very much. We knew the kind of world we lived in, but we were protected from the worst of it. Until I overheard something I wasn’t supposed to. That’s when everything changed…
“He deserves me, Della.”
She walks over to me and fixes the string of daisies in my hair so they sit perfectly amongst the newly-styled waves that hang down my back. “You taming the monster, huh?”
“He isn’t a monster.”
“He has a reputation, darlin’, and I know you ain’t naïve enough to ignore that. You know who Vanni Colletti is. You know what he’s done. They’re all bad men, sweetheart. Believe me, I’ve been with Bullet a long time, I seen enough shit to know these brothers don’t do good. And Vanni, he’s the worst.”
“What are you trying to do here, Della?”
Because if she thinks I’m in any way new to being around bad men, she is wrong. So fucking wrong.
“Just making you aware of what you’re getting yourself into, sugar. ‘Cause you ain’t just marrying into the club, you’re marrying the club. This is all Vanni Colletti knows, the Death Knights and their fucked up ways. And you seem way too pretty for that; too good for him.”
“You don’t know who I am.”
“No.” She cups my cheek and gives me a smile, one that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “I don’t. Does he?”
“He knows I love him.”
“Then let’s hope that’s enough, huh?” She steps back from me and crosses her arms against her chest as she scans the length of my body. “He choose that dress for you?”
I turn back around and look in the mirror. This dress isn’t your average wedding dress. It’s a short, white, ass-skimming bandeau dress. Slutty, my Aunt Gina would’ve called it. She’d say I looked like a cheap tart, someone who should be plying their trade out on the streets of Jersey. But here, in this world, it’s the perfect wedding dress.
“No, he didn’t. He hasn’t even seen it yet.” I guess we actually did keep some tradition going, then. “But he’ll like it.”
“Oh, they’ll all like it, honey. You got those beautiful legs of yours on show, your perfect tits hoisted to heaven… Vanni ain’t gonna be the only brother with a hard-on when you walk down that makeshift aisle.”
She’s making me sound like the cheapest of club girls, and it isn’t like that. Maybe I wasn’t this person when I first met Vanni, maybe he did, to some extent, turn me into who I am now, but I’m not stupid. I’m not naïve. And Vanni, he wouldn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to do, but women like Della, they’re always going to find that hard to believe.
“I’d better get out there.” I take a deep breath and turn back around. “I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
Della walks back over to me, once more reaching out to cup my cheek, that vague smile back on her face. “You really are one pretty, pretty girl. We can only hope you stay that way.”
I frown as she turns and leaves the room, and I feel a weird and unsettling sensation kick up in the pit of my stomach, but I try and batter that down by remembering how much Vanni loves me. He told me, he loves me, that he would never let anyone hurt me. I’m marrying a man who would kill for me, and the reality of that is that, one day, he might have to…
Logan
Shit! I haven’t seen a woman look so freakin’ incredible in a long time, not since… No, Jesus! What the fuck? I haven’t thought about that crap in years, since I promised myself that was over. Done. Since I put myself through hell to make sure I forgot.
“I hope she knows what she’s just done,” Bullet says, leaning back in his chair as he swallows down a long draft of beer. “She’s club queen now, and that comes with responsibilities.”
“Huh?” I’m too distracted by Vanni, the way his hand on her ass is sending out that message to every other brother here tonight – look by all means, but touch, and you’ll regret it.
“Piper. She’s just married the big guy, she don’t get to just sit back and do nothing now. She gotta look after him.”
“And does that include letting him take what the fuck he wants without asking first?”
“Jesus, Logan, are you still on that? Since when did you turn into Mr. Nice Guy?”
“That was wrong, Bullet. What he did to her.”
“Couldn’ta bothered her that much. She still married him.” He jerks his beer bottle in the
direction of Vanni and Piper. They’re now making out like freakin’ teenagers, not giving a crap who’s watching, and I don’t know why I’m so fucking bothered by someone else’s shit, I just am. It bothers me, what I saw yesterday. “And you don’t know her, man. She might like that kinda messed-up stuff. Just ‘cause she’s all pretty and that, don’t mean she don’t like to get all fucked up sometimes.”
I lean forward and take a drink of whiskey straight from the bottle, feeling it warm my gut in an instant, but it just fuels my confusion. This weekend’s been a mind-fuck, so far, for reasons I can’t even begin to explain. And that don’t sit right with me.
“Anyway, I thought you weren’t ever gonna let a woman get to you again?”
I look at Bullet. “Don’t fucking go there, Bullet. I mean it.”
He finishes his beer and throws the empty bottle to the ground, reaching into the cooler by his side for a fresh one. “You’ve been acting real weird ever since we got here, y’know that?”
“I hate this shit, that’s why.”
“You need to get laid.”
“I plan on it.” I look back over at Piper, my stomach turning at the way she’s looking at Vanni. Like the devoted wife she’s become. The property she’ll forever be.
“Choose carefully, Logan.”
I look at Bullet again, downing another mouthful of whiskey, desperate for the alcohol hit to take hold, I need that, man, do I. “What d’you think I’m gonna do, exactly?”
“She don’t need saving, brother.”
I think she does. But it’s not my job to do that. I’m no knight in shining armor, I’m a Death Knight now. The man I used to be, he doesn’t exist anymore, he’s gone. I left him in the deserts and the war-torn towns and villages he was sent to because he had to change. And I came back the man I am now – someone cold, emotionless; alone. Always alone. Someone who’s immune to all the shit that almost destroyed him before. So I can’t go there again, I won’t go there again, that was a promise I made to myself. “I know.”
Protection (Death Knights MC Series Book 1) Page 3