Page 19 of Lucian

At least no one noticed when he had touched her earlier. It almost felt like a compulsion. Lucian seen that name tattooed on her hip as she passed him and he couldn’t help but touch it, wanting to know who it belonged to, and why she had it.

But touching her … touching her skin had sent the oddest sensation flying over his own flesh.

Lucian didn’t trust himself to keep looking at her after that.

“Yeah?” he asked, turning to his father.

“What is wrong with you?” Antony demanded lowly, leaning close to his son so no one else could hear.

Great, his father noticed his distraction. Lucian wasn’t looking forward to explaining that later. At least the conversation between them and the VP seemed to have turned a corner for their benefit.

The only thing Lucian could do was play off his mood. “Nothing. I need to piss.”

Antony frowned. “Go, then. Gio, go with your brother.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Lucian muttered.

“I don’t trust these people, Lucian. Take your brother.”

Arguing was pointless. When Lucian asked for directions to the bathroom, he was pleased to see one of the men point in the same general direction Jordyn had disappeared to. Strangely, Lucian felt like he needed to make sure she was okay.

Lucian ignored the gazes of MC members watching him and his brother as they passed, finding a darkened hallway that led to many backroom areas. With only sheer curtains hanging in front of some of the rooms where inside shoddy couches and silver poles equipped the spaces, it was obvious what it was used for.

The bathroom was an easy enough find.

Lucian washed his hands, refusing to even go near the dirty urinals. He’d hold his piss for days if he had to before he’d use those. Just being in this place made him feel disgusting.

“What do you think?” Gio asked, glancing back towards the bathroom door.

It wasn’t uncommon for Lucian’s brothers to look to him for an opinion first and test out the waters by seeing what he thought of a situation. Lucian typically had a better inside view of people around him, even if he didn’t know them all that well. Maybe it was because he understood body language, or read into simple things that others would overlook, but he was nearly always right in his assumptions. It sucked for the people who thought they could hide something from him, but it worked to Lucian’s benefit.

It saved his life on more than one occasion, too.

“Nothing too important. I think Ron handles a lot of these men and their business because their boss is too busy doing whatever he’s doing to manage it himself. At the same time, these men are afraid of their boss, but not Ron. They do respect Ron. Will’s obviously hiding because the officials are hot on his ass. Coming here will only help if Will Vetta actually believes we’re dangerous and capable of following through with our threats. I don’t know that he does.”

“And Dad?”

“Angry,” Lucian answered honestly. “Probably will be for days. Lay off the liquor for a while so he doesn’t have something close to focus it on.”

In typical Gio fashion, he rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Seriously, don’t give him something else to be pissed off about right now, Gio. These fucking cafones in here are more than enough.”

Gio nodded towards the sink. “You done?”

“Yeah.”

Outside of the bathroom, Lucian took note of the EXIT sign flickering with faint life at the end of the darkened hallway. The metal door it hung over was jammed open with what looked like a phonebook, keeping it from closing and locking, probably. Lucian was curious if that was where Jordyn had gone earlier.

“What are you looking at?” Gio asked.

Even with his brother’s question, Lucian was sure there was noise coming from outside that door.

“Do you hear that, Gio?”

“Hear what?”

Lucian jerked his thumb towards the exit door. “Listen, man.”