Jett

17 - This has to be a sick joke!

Jett

This has to be a fuckin.g joke!

The whole MC has been invited to the Vidal wedding.

Are they fuckin.g serious?

They expect me to sit there in that damn Church and watch my woman marry another man?

What the fuc.k does Draven Vidal think will happen if I attend?

Because I’m telling you now, there is no way on this earth I’ll sit there and let it happen. I’ll blow the whole fuckin’ Church to smithereens first!

Cunt even wants us all there in suits. Fuckin.g suits! The last time I wore a suit was at Willow and Nova’s weddings. I didn’t even wear one for Ghost’s wedding!

Prez forced us all to buy brand-new suits for this one, though. I ended up with this dark gray bullshit suit. I look fuckin’ stupid in it. I feel unfuckincomfortable. My chest is too fuckin.g big for this jacket, and that’s a damn fact. If I’d shopped around, I could have found one that would fit. But I didn’t, I just grabbed the first one that looked my size.

I told the Prez I wouldn’t go, that I couldn’t care less who went, but he wasn’t to expect me to go. Shepard told me that I didn’t have a damn choice, and I better show up, or he’d break my neck.

I mean, what the fuc.k is he trying to do to me?

And since when do Mafia bosses ask bikers to attend the wedding of their sisters if not to punish the guy who loves her in the worst way?

Yeah, yeah, I said I loved her because I do. I have never ever been in love or anything before. But the more time I spent with Maria on the nights I snuck over there, the more I fell for her, and I know she feels the same. I could see it in her eyes. I felt her heart beating in time with mine.

They have no idea what it will do to me to watch Maria marry someone else. It’ll kill me inside. Because once Maria is married to him, there’s no way she’ll ever be mine again. Maria told me as much the other night. Being the good – almost innocent – Italian girl she is, Maria will be faithful to a man she’d rather die than have touch her once she’s married.

Then there’s the fact each time Maria sees me, she makes me promise that once the baby is born, I’ll take care of it. I’ve been thinking a lot all night about what that means, and to tell you the truth, I’m terrified she's going to hurt herself to get out of this marriage, just as Avery hurt herself when she thought Ghost had been taken from her.

I tried to explain my fears to Hammer this morning. He told me to mind my own business and that I didn’t know what I was talking about. If anything happens to Maria because he didn’t heed my warning, I’ll fuckin.g kill him!

I feel like a fuckin.g fool in this suit, and I can’t seem to make myself leave the clubhouse. I should have left ten minutes ago, but this cold beer is just too good to leave. Nobody else is here, but a couple of prospects manning the gate for security; every Brother and his Old Lady have already gone to the Church. Even those without women left ages ago.

My dad has already called me twice to tell me to get a move on. But all I want right now is to break some fucker.s face! Maybe that will make me feel better.

“Don’t you know turning down a wedding invite is rude?”

Vidal.

What the hell does he want?

How the fuc.k did he even get in here?

The bastard could have snuck up on me and killed me!

Damn prospects!

“What do you want, Draven?”

Fuc.k the respect, he doesn't deserve any. I don't even look at him. He isn’t worth looking at. I’ll end up punching him, and fighting a man like Vidal is not in my favor right now. The man’s a cage fighter, a ruthless killer, and I’ve been drinking. It might be just the two of us here, but I ain’t sure either of us would walk out alive should it come to it. The guy might be built bigger than I am, but I’m not stupid when it comes down to it, and I’m in just the right frame of mind right now to kill a damn army! All he has to do is fuckin.g try me.

Shi.t, I’ve never been any good with loss. I couldn’t cope when Celia – the woman who gave birth to me – took Nova and left me behind. The loss of my sister destroyed the little boy I once was. It turned me into this brutal fighting, killing machine.

I couldn’t cope when my grandfather, Apollo, the President of this club before my father, died. I was so angry for so long that I almost lost myself to grief.

Losing Maria and the baby?

Nobody is fuckin’ safe from me right now, including this motherfucke.r!

“Mind if I join you?”

“Free country.” I shrug.

Vidal takes the stool beside me at the bar, entwining his fingers in front of himself like he’s Lord of the fuckin’ underworld.

“I came here because I want to know why my brother has been badgering me about you for the past month. He seems to think I’m making a huge mistake where Maria is concerned. The same mistake I made with Avery. So, I wanna know what you think.”

“Why, Draven? It’s not like I have anything to say that you’ll listen to.”

“That’s not what my brother seems to think. Tell me why my sister wants to be with you so much. Tell me why you want to be with her? You don’t even know each other.”

What the hell am I supposed to tell him?

I can’t tell him I’ve been sneaking into his house for the best part of a week to fuc.k his sister. He’ll blow my fuckin’ head off before I’ve finished the sentence.

Regardless, I’ll tell him what I think of his sister.

I lean over the bar and grab two glasses and a bottle of whiskey from underneath the counter. I pour us both three fingers and slide a drink over to him.

“You wanna know why, Draven? I’ll tell you. She’s amazing. I’ve never been able to talk to a woman the way I can talk to Maria. That first night, we connected in a way I didn’t even know was possible. We talked for hours about nothing and everything all at once.

“She makes me smile, makes me laugh. Just being near Maria makes me a better man. I don’t give a shi.t what you think of me, it’s irrelevant. But I’ll give respect where respect is due and tell you that you did a good job raising her the way you have because she is so special, Draven. So damn special.”

I can sense him smiling.

Bigheaded cunt.

“She’s pregnant with my kid. Neither of us expected it, but it happened. Maria came to find me and tell me because she wanted to do the right thing. She’s a good girl, Draven.”

“You don’t need to tell me that.” He tells me in an annoyed manner.

I ignore him and carry on.

“Maria wanted us to get married for the baby, but I would be a liar if I said I felt nothing for her and I just wanted to be with her for the kid. She means everything to me. I don’t understand how it happened, but she had me from the moment I first laid eyes on her. That kid inside of her is half me, half Maria. I want to be a father to my child, Draven. You must understand that?”

“I know you’ve been sneaking over the wall of my house to see her,” Fuc.k! “That isn’t a blind spot, I saw you each and every time.”

“Why didn’t you stop me if you wanted me away from her so badly?”

And why aren’t I dead already?

“Because I heard you talking one night. I’m not sure if it was the first time you’d snuck in or what, but I charged up those stairs, ready to blow your brains out right in front of Maria.”

I don’t say anything; I don’t even move a muscle in my face because there’s no need for me to act tough in front of this man right now. I want to hear why he didn’t stop me from sneaking into his house.

“I heard the way Maria cried to you. I won’t lie, it brought back memories of my mother and hearing her cry. I was angry with you, with myself, but I figured I’d let you both get it out of your systems. I also figured it would sting you more to know you’d never have her again after today.

“Then Hammer told me how much I was so obviously hurting Maria because she’d fallen in love with you. I spoke to her last night, and I saw how in love with you she is. What I want to know is if you have fallen for her, too?”

I look at him for a moment, sizing him up. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I am no liar. That’s why I nod my head in honesty.

“I have. I know you’re all about respect, Draven, and I have respect for you. But when it comes to Maria, I can’t stay away from her. Maria did something to me, something I swore I’d never let any woman do. She made me fall in love with her, and I can’t shake it. She’s beautiful, smart, the mother of my child. The thought of her marrying some other guy, having him raise my kid as his own, knowing he’ll have his grubby hands all over Maria...” I grit my teeth in anger.

I take a deep breath and center myself.

“Having to watch it from afar. I don’t know, man,” I shake my head. “Feels like the worst kind of punishment.”

“If I wanted to punish you for touching my sister, believe me, it wouldn’t be this way. Trust me; I would hurt you in ways even a biker hasn’t heard of.” He knocks back his whiskey, sets the glass on the bar, and gets out of his seat. “The wedding starts in thirty minutes. I expect to see you there. Show me that you’re a real man, Jett. One last test.” With that, he slaps me on the back and walks away from me.

Be a man?

Be a fuckin' man?

One last cunting test!

What else am I supposed to do, stop the wedding?

Have three hundred or more Italian mobsters plow me with bullets?

I can’t attend this damn wedding; it all but killed me watching Maria getting ready this morning. Yeah, I snuck over the damn wall that Draven Vidal now knows about, and I watched Maria in her room and all the women rushing around her. One doing her hair, another doing her makeup, one doing her fingernails, another doing her toenails, and the whole time she stared off into space. She didn’t want to be there, and she doesn’t want to marry that motherfucke.r.

But what can I do about it?

I have nothing to offer Vidal in exchange for his sister’s hand in marriage.

But am I really gonna sit here and let the mother of my child marry someone else?

What the fuc.k is wrong with me?

I’ve never in my life just given up like this, and I damn well won’t start now.

No. Maria is mine, and I’m going to get my woman back or die trying.