Page 46 of Bane's Beginning

“Let’s just meet the Santoros tomorrow and see how it goes,” I said. “We’ll tell Luca that we are only working with him and this is temporary and that he needs to send that fucker back overseas ASAP before we do.”

My brothers nodded their heads.

“What about Thea?” Ares asked.

“What about her?” I sighed. “I’ll talk to her, but did you see her face? It’s like she already had her mind made up that we were all pieces of shit. No changing that.”

“C’mon,” Crash said. “That chick is definitely ol’ lady material. She’s been busting everyone’s balls since the moment she got here, and did you see the way she handled the club girls?”

Crash was right. The more I got to know Thea, the more I thought she’d make a great ol’ lady. She’s so fucking tough it’s almost scary. Last week, Pearls had tried to sit in my lap at the bar again and Thea grabbed her by her fake ass hair extensions and pulled her off of me and told her that she’d beat her face in if she tried that shit again. Then she planted a big-ass sexy kiss on my lips and told them to consider if my dick was good enough to get their ass beat over, and if it was, to meet her outside. Shit was so sexy and further proof that she can keep the club girls in order when we’re away. Since then, all of them were beginning to respect her as a permanent place at the club, but now I wasn’t so sure.

“That’s ultimately up to her,” I responded. “She has to want to be my ol’ lady. I can’t force her.”

“Damn straight you can’t,” Ares said, and I responded with an annoyed look. “But I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job explaining what this club means to her. Maybe someone should do that?”

“Like who?”

“Your ma’,” Ares said as if I should have already known that. “She did it for Serena when things got bad between us. Maybe she can do it for Thea, too.”

I nodded my head. He was spot on. When Serena thought about leaving Ares and the club to go back home, Ma’ was the only one who was able to talk her down. Some women-to-women shit. I decided that I’d give her a call before I talked to Thea.

***

THEA

I ignored the looks I got from everyone around the clubhouse as I ran to my room. Slamming yet another door, I crawled into my bed and let the tears fall. Grabbing my phone, I called the one person I knew who could make me feel better.

“Hey kid,” the voice of my best friend said through the phone.

Through deep breaths and heaps of tears, I recounted the evening’s events.

“He’s in New Mexico?”

“I don’t know,” I cried. “I need to leave but I can’t.”

“Hold on,” Chase said and let out a deep breath. “How do you know he’s even still looking for you? What if you’re about to throw everything you’re creating here away based on a feeling.”

I huffed. I knew why he thought that Matteo might not still be looking for me. I was too scared to talk about what had happened right before Flynn had saved me, so no one knew except for me and Rosalind, the maid who I convinced to bring me a pregnancy test from the store.

“I know he is,” I said, timidly.

“But how? It’s been two years since you’ve heard from him.”

“Just trust me, Chase,” I replied. “He’s looking for me.”

“If that’s the case, then you need to tell your brother and the club. They can protect you!”

I laughed.

“The club is a bunch of criminals! Who’s to say they won’t sell me out for a couple of million dollars or something? I can’t trust them.”

“Thea,” he said with a pause. “They love you, Davien, Serena, Anna, hell, I think even Maverick, too. It’s okay to let people in.”

I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what to say. I let him carry on talking for a while before I found a reason to get off the phone. After another crying spell, I finally fell asleep.

Chapter 24: Maverick

“Gentleman,” a thick Italian accent greeted my brothers and me. We were in South End at a seedy bar called The Port. Crash, Ares and I were sitting around the VIP section of the bar that was set up more like a lounge.