Piper
I feel like he can smell it on me; the betrayal. The guilt. The disrespect, because what Vanni’s doing for me… In the cold light of day do I regret what we did? Do I wish Logan hadn’t touched me, hadn’t made me act on something I should’ve left well alone? Yes. I wish he hadn’t touched me, but he did. And I want to regret it, I do, but I don’t. I don’t.
“You going to the clubhouse today?”
Vanni looks up from his paper and throws me a smile, and there it is. A flicker of guilt…no. That wasn’t guilt, it’s fear.
“In a while. Thought you might want to come with me, get outta this place for a while.”
“Is that OK? I mean, is it…?”
“You’ll be fine, Piper. Right now I feel safer having you with me than leaving you here, even with Logan watching over you.”
“Why? Have you heard something?”
I can’t stop a surge of panic rising up within me, my heart’s racing.
“Come here. Come on.”
He puts the paper down and pulls me astride him, kissing me gently, he does that, sometimes; kisses me gently and belies everything I first thought he was. He’s proving himself to be a very different man to the one I first met, a better man. A kinder man, when he’s with me, and yet, that’s pushing me toward Logan. And that confuses me so much, I don’t understand why I’m doing this shit, it’s crazy and dangerous and I feel like I’m hurtling toward something I can’t control anymore.
“I told you to trust me, baby, OK? That’s all you gotta do. Trust me.”
I smile, and I hope it’s genuine enough for him to believe but he seems fine. I think we’re good. “I trust you.”
He slides his hands up under my skirt, pushes my underwear aside and unzips himself, raising my hips up slightly before lowering me back down onto him, and I close my eyes as he sinks into me. It’s a calming feeling, having him inside me, it’s a reminder of why I had to find someone like him; my soldier. Except, Logan’s a soldier, too. A real soldier. Logan’s a man who could protect me just as much as Vanni can, but I married Vanni. I love Vanni. I’m Mrs. Vanni Colletti, wife of a notorious biker gang leader. I’m his old lady. I’m his. So I need to forget Logan Sandero; forget what we did, what I still want him to do, I need to forget that. For both our sakes.
Logan
She walks into the clubhouse like she’s been a part of this place forever, all long blonde hair and never-ending legs, her beautiful face all smiles as she clings onto Vanni’s waist. I didn’t know she’d be coming here today, I thought I’d be going to her, and the change of plan throws me slightly. Does Vanni suspect something? No. If he suspected I’d even looked at Piper the wrong way I wouldn’t still be standing here.
I keep watching as Vanni kisses her, her crazy-sexy body pressed against his as he winds his fingers in her hair, man, he’s making sure we all get the message. We can look, but we touch, and we pay.
Too late, I’ve already touched, I’ve fucked her, been so deep inside her I didn’t ever want to come back out.
“Church. Now.”
His voice booms out around the busy clubhouse and Bullet jerks his head toward the chapel. Vanni issues an order, we all jump, that’s the way this shit works.
He closes the door behind him and waits until we’ve all sat down before he takes Bullet’s place at the head of the table.
“Good work last night, by the way. We all pulled together and we saw those fuckers off. But we still need to keep an eye on them, make sure they don’t take advantage of that second chance I’m giving them, ‘cause if I hadn’t been feeling so generous they’d already know what it feels like to fuck with me. Last night they got my good side.”
And that was fucked up enough, from what Bullet’s told me. Vanni made sure their men paid, some of them with injuries so brutal no-one’s sure if they’ll ever fully recover, but he took no lives, apparently. That’s his good side. Maim, but don’t kill. He saves that for when he’s really pissed.
“But my good side, it isn’t making an appearance for this new fight we got coming.”
He sits back in his chair and swings his feet up onto the table, flipping a cigarette between his teeth. He looks ridiculously relaxed for a man who’s about to tell us we’re going to war with the Cabbetto family.
“My wife’s life is being threatened. ‘Cause she accidently overheard something she shouldn’t have. Details of a massacre – a hit that could, if it happens, see hundreds of people killed in cold blood all because someone dared to wrong Francesco Cabbetto. Anyone heard of him?”
He waits while everyone looks at each other, eyeing each and every one of us as some of my brothers here show signs of knowing just who Vanni’s talking about, and others who look slightly confused.
“Francesco ‘Frankie’ Cabbetto, head of one of the most notorious gangland families on the east coast. And Piper – she’s his only daughter. And what she overheard that day – when her daddy and his men found out she knew what they were planning, they needed her silenced. And I don’t know why he didn’t kill her there and then, maybe he had an attack of conscience, I mean, this was his own daughter we’re talking about here. But instead of killing her straightaway, he had her watched over by his right-hand man, Marco ‘Mad Dog’ Vierra. A man who raped her, a man who beat her, just for the hell of it, and her daddy, he did nothing to stop that. He only cared that all the time his lieutenant was violating his little girl, she wasn’t talking. But she threatened to, ‘cause Piper, she’s not stupid. She knew she was never gonna get out of that alive. They were gonna kill her anyway, whether she talked or not, so she threatened to talk. And then she ran. Managed to get hold of her momma’s sleeping pills, slipped a handful of them into Vierra’s nightly brandy, the one he drank every evening as he sat in the corner of her room and watched her sleep; made sure she went nowhere. She slipped them into his drink and waited ‘til that fucker was snoring like the filthy pig he is, and then she ran. And she found me, ‘cause she needed protecting. She found me, and I am gonna do everything in my fucking power to make sure she stays safe. By taking out the men who want to kill her.”
“Jesus, Vanni…” Bullet drags a hand back through his hair as he lets out a heavy sigh. He’s not the only one. I mean, this club, it’s faced some twisted, fucked up bastards in its time, but this is on a whole other level, we’ve never faced this type of enemy before – an unknown quantity. “You know what you could be getting into here?”
Vanni leans forward, clasping his hands together as he glares at Bullet. “I don’t want my wife dead, Bullet, so yes, I know exactly what I’m getting into here.”
Bullet leans back in his seat and turns to look at me, raising his eyebrows, what the fuck’s he want me to do?
“You know about this?”
“I told Logan because I needed him to know what he was facing, in case anything happened while I wasn’t there, at home, with Piper. And I told him to keep it to himself until everyone else needed to know. Now you need to know.”
He sits back, picks up the gavel to his right and turns it over and over in his hand.
“They’re getting closer, Frankie Cabbetto’s men.”
I feel my stomach dip and I drop my gaze, focusing on my clasped hands. “And Frankie himself?”
“He’s not with them, as far as I can gather. Which isn’t unusual. He won’t want to dirty his own hands with this, he’ll have given that job to someone else.”
“How many men are we talking about here?” Dragon asks, and I quickly glance up at our newest member. Vanni’s cousin. And there’s a slight hint of something verging on fear in his expression, but it’s also obvious he’s trying to hide it.
“Five. That’s what I’ve been told. Vierra’s one of them, so I’m guessing he’s the one who’s been tasked with finishing the job.”
“Does it matter how many men there are? Huh?”
Vanni’s head shoots around to look at me, his eyes darkening, I mean, come on, I’m daring to question him again. “No, Logan, you’re right. It doesn’t matter how many men Cabbetto’s sent to find Piper ‘cause the second we show our hand, it’s game on. We hit them they’re gonna hit back twice as hard, you all ready for that?” He stands up and starts pacing the floor, dragging deep on his cigarette. “You better be. All of you.” He stops pacing and rests his hands palms-down on the table. “I’m not actually giving anyone a choice here. We’re taking on the Cabbetto family.” He looks over at Bullet. “Get back in touch with Herb, and tell Jonjo’s brothers to stay put in Glendale. We need as many men as possible. I’ve gotta send some of my own back to Nevada, I got business going down there I can’t let slide. But Piper – she’s my priority now. So I’m staying here.”
I drop my head and close my eyes, just for a second. And I take that second to breathe, to take stock of the shit I’ve got myself into, and then I just hope that Vanni’s too distracted by what’s going on with the Cabbetto family to even suspect that I’ve slept with Piper. That I’ll sleep with Piper again ‘cause, Jesus, I can’t leave shit alone. I can’t. I should. But I can’t…
Piper
“What you doing out here? I thought Vanni told you to stay put, inside.”
I look up to see Della approaching. “I’ve hardly gone walkabout, I’m just outside the back door. I needed some air, that’s all.”
She offers me a cigarette, which I decline.
“They still in the chapel?”
Della nods and lights up as she leans back against the wall beside me. “Looks pretty heated in there, too, from what I saw when I walked past just now. Any idea what they might be talking about?”
I know she’s looking at me, but I keep my head down. “Vanni doesn’t tell me anything, Della.”
“Nothing?”
This time I look up, my eyes locking on hers, I’m really not in the mood for her shit today. “Nothing.”
“Unless it concerns you, huh?”
“You got something to say to me, Della, then say it, and quit with the crap.”
She smiles a smile that goes nowhere near her eyes, it’s cold. There’s no warmth there at all.
“You still can’t bring yourself to even give me a chance, can you?”
“There’s no rule says I gotta like everyone who walks through these doors. I’m just saying that there are girls here who’ve put time into this club, girls I call family, ‘cause that’s what this club is. Family.”
“And she’s a part of it now, Della, so shut your goddamn mouth before I do that for you.”
She takes one last drag on her cigarette and throws it down at Vanni’s feet, stubbing it out with the spiked heel of her boot before she turns and heads back inside.
“Smart-assed bitch. Bullet needs to pull her into line.”
“I can handle that shit myself, Vanni.”
“I know you can, darlin’. She just winds me up sometimes, is all.”
“And it takes a lot to wind you up, right?”
I smile, and he throws me a grin back, his hand sliding onto my hip as he pulls me toward him. “How about I get me some winding down now, huh?”
“If that’s what you want…”
I feel his fingers inside me before I have a chance to get any more words out.
“It’s what I want, baby girl. Jesus, you are so freakin’ wet…”
I throw my head back as his lips land at the base of my throat, clench my muscles tight as he thrusts deeper into me, moving inside me until he finds that spot, that place that hits me right at my very core, and I almost crumble in his arms as a rush of white-hot pain spreads through my body. I cry out, he wants me to cry out, he likes to hear me come, and right now he’s getting exactly what he wants. It keeps him happy, stops him from thinking about things he doesn’t need to know. My guilty secret? My ultimate betrayal? Sleeping with one of his brothers…
“Jesus fucking Christ!” His mouth rests against mine as he breathes the words out, and then he laughs, that low, dirty laugh that sends my stomach on a circuit of somersaults because, despite what happened with Logan – despite what I still want to happen, again, with Logan – I do love this man. I do. I’m just not sure what kind of love it really is, but I can’t let myself dwell on that. “You really are gonna kill me, baby.”
“I hope not.” I smile again, cupping his cheek as I pull back slightly to look at him – this strangely handsome man with the deeply dark soul. “I need you very much alive.”
He returns my smile, dropping a hand to my ass as he kisses me; as he lifts me up and rams his rock-hard cock into me with a force that literally takes my breath away.
This is my life now.
This is what I, ultimately, chose.
I settled for this, over certain death.
I settled…
Logan
The last thing I want to do is watch Vanni and Piper together, but the second I stumbled across them there in the back yard, his hand almost wrist-deep inside her soft, warm pussy I couldn’t look away. So like some kind of Peeping Tom I dodged behind one of the dumpsters out back and watched them. Fucking. And it shouldn’t bother me, I mean, who the hell is Piper Colletti to me? She’s a risk, a mistake I really can’t afford to make again, and yet, as he lifts her up and slams into her like she’s nothing more than some twisted sex-doll, I know she’s a mistake I’m gonna keep on making. For now, anyway. Until it becomes too dangerous.
I drop my gaze as Vanni pulls out of her, he’s obviously got what he came for. And when I look up he’s gone, back inside, I’m assuming. And she’s still there, leaning back against the wall, her eyes staring out ahead of her, an almost blank expression on her face. But as much as I want to go straight to her I wait a few minutes, just in case Vanni comes back out. And then I go over.
“You all right?”
My appearance startles her slightly, her expression a little wary as I lean back against the wall beside her. “I’m fine. Thank you. And you shouldn’t be out here.”
“I’m only having a smoke, Piper.”
“They introduced a no smoking policy inside the clubhouse now, have they? Is that what that meeting was about in there, huh?”
I look at her, right into her eyes, and there’s an element of fear in there. She’s nervous around me, understandably so, now. After what we did.
“That meeting in there was about you, Piper.”
“Me? I don’t… I don’t understand… No, Jesus, Logan, no.” She shakes her head, and that fear in her eyes, it’s intensified now. It’s so obvious I almost recoil, man, she’s fucking terrified! “My dad… does he know…?”
“Go talk to Vanni.”
“I’m talking to you.”
“And I’ve said too much. I shouldn’t be telling you anything, that’s Vanni’s place.”
I’m right. It is. And me saying what I’ve already said, that could land me in big trouble, I’ve overstepped a mark. Jesus… I’ve overstepped a bigger mark than telling her something I shouldn’t.
“And don’t tell him I said anything, OK? If he thinks I’m taking it upon myself to tell you shit… Just, ask him what that meeting was about. He’s gonna tell you, ‘cause you need to know…”
She doesn’t stop to listen to the end of that sentence, she’s back inside before I can get the rest of it out, and I close my eyes and take a long, deep breath, enjoying the solitude, the relative peace, which is interrupted by my phone ringing. And I consider ignoring it, ‘cause the caller ID’s coming up unknown and I don’t usually answer those. But it’s a local number, and I know most of the people around here, so I take a chance and answer this call.
“What?”
If I don’t know who they are they don’t get the polite greeting. They’re lucky to get one at all, in fact, I’m not sure why I spoke first in this case. It’s Piper, man, she’s got my head so fucked up.
“Logan? Is that… is that you?”
That voice – it’s a shock, hearing it again. I’d never wanted to hear it again, and it makes me feel physically sick, I mean, Jesus! What the fuck is happening here?
“How’d you get this number?”
There’s a brief silence down the line, I can hear her breathing, but if she doesn’t answer my fucking question…
“I asked around, told people you were my cousin… I need to see you, Logan.”
I end the call, tucking my phone back into my pocket, ignoring it as it rings out again.
She has no business calling me.
She has no business asking me for shit.
She killed me, that cheating, lying bitch, she killed me. She killed us, so she has no business contacting me, she’s outta her goddamn freakin’ mind if she thinks this is happening. It’s not, happening. I promised myself no woman would ever kick me down so low again, and that promise? I’m keeping it.