An Outlaw Wedding (11 page)

“Man,
if you keep checking him out he’s going to come over here and slap that
expression off your face.”

Nico
looked at Lucas
and glowered. He hadn’t told anyone his intentions of proposing to Alexis. It
wasn’t because he was afraid, but that he just didn’t know how to go about
telling anyone. Besides, these assholes drank too much, and he wasn’t sure one
of them wouldn’t blurt it out in front of her in one of their drunken stupors.
Lucas set the weight on the ground and rested his elbows on his knees. He
stared at
Nico
with this indistinguishable expression
on his face.

“Everything
good?”
Lucas asked and breathed out roughly. Sweat dripped down his face and bare
chest. “Ever since Alexis came back you’ve been acting fucking weird, man.”

Nico
looked away
from his brother and at Brick again, and saw that the other biker was staring
right at him. The man was a beast even though he was in his sixties. He worked
out just as hard and fiercely as
Nico
and the younger
guys did, but what they lacked was that Brick had this deadly intent that came
through his eyes like a knife to the jugular. The other original members were
old as fuck, too, but they were the meanest, toughest motherfuckers around. The
scar on Brick’s face made the other man look like he’d have no problem taking
someone down without even breaking a sweat, and that wasn’t just an assumption.
Brick didn’t have a conscience when it meant taking care of club business, but
that was what The Grizzlies needed, and why Brick was the muscle of the MC.

“Come
here.”
Nico
stood and gestured for Lucas to follow
him. They made their way into the locker room, and
Nico
made sure they were alone before he grabbed his gym bag and pulled out the
small black velvet box from inside of it.

“Whoa,
is that what I think it is?” Lucas
asked,
his eyes
wide. He moved closer and looked down at it.

“Yeah,
and I’m trying to get big enough balls to bring this up to Brick.”

Lucas
shook his head. “Man, you need steel balls that are the size of your head to
ask Brick to marry his daughter.” Lucas took a step back, as if he didn’t want
to be near it.

Nico
popped the lid
open and showed off the one-carat solitaire inside.

Lucas
whistled low under his breath and moved closer to look at it. “Damn, that must
have cost some change.” Lucas grabbed the box and lifted it higher to his face.

“Yeah,
I’ve been saving for a few years, just putting some cash away here and there
until the time was right.”

“And
the time is right now?” Lucas asked without taking his eyes away from the ring.

“The
time was right from the moment I saw her, but obviously I wanted to wait.” He
laced those words heavily with sarcasm, and Lucas flipped him off.

“I
know you guys aren’t going to break up or anything, and have been together for
a long fucking time, but you’re both only twenty-two.” Lucas closed the box and
handed it back to
Nico
. “You got a long time to
decide if this is what you want.”

“You
don’t think I should propose?”
Nico
asked with a bite
in his voice. He respected his brother’s opinion, but no one would sway him
from doing what he really wanted.

“Fuck
no, I am not saying that. I think Alexis is a cool ass girl, and the two of you
have been going at it for like six years. I am just saying really make sure you
want to do this.” Lucas shrugged. “You know I love Alexis like a sister, and
will support you, but what if Brick says fuck off when you tell him you want to
marry her?”

Now
it was
Nico’s
turn to shrug. “Listen, I respect the
fuck out of Brick and his opinion of me, but I love Alexis more than anything
else, and I won’t let anyone stop me from being with her.” The sound of the
locker room door opening and slamming shut had him and Lucas glancing over at
it. Brick stood on the other side, his gaze right on
Nico
,
and this annoyed expression on his face.

“Lucas,
give us a minute,” Brick said in that harsh, stone-hard voice of his.

His
brother gave him a sympathetic look and ducked out of the room, leaving him
alone with a very intimidating biker. There weren’t a lot of things that could
crack
Nico’s
hard composure, but having the Sergeant
at Arms staring him down, and making it known that he knew what the fuck was
going on, was a pretty good foundation shaker.

“I
assume you heard all of that.”
Nico
didn’t phrase it
like a question.

“I
heard enough to know what the fuck is going on.” Brick took a step closer, his
voice low and intimidating.

Nico
might not take
shit from anyone, and could hold his own, but this was Brick, a male to be
fucking reckoned with.
Nico
stood his ground and
lifted the black box up. He popped the lid and showed the ring to Brick. The
bear shifter didn’t show any expression as he stared at the ring.

“You
talk to my daughter about this?”

“We
have talked about it, but it was just talk. She doesn’t know I want to propose,
or that I had planned on talking to you—asking your permission for her hand.”

Brick
looked at
Nico
, and although the man was about forty
years his senior, they were the same height and build. “You guys have been
together for a long time.”

“Yes,
sir, we have.”
Nico
never addressed anyone with a
formal title like that, but right now he wasn’t speaking to one of his MC
brothers
, a bear shifter, or the Sergeant at Arms. Right now
he was speaking to the father of the woman he loved and wanted to marry.

“And
you love my girl.” Brick stated it as a fact.

“Yeah,
I do.”

“And
you’ll protect her with your life? Take a fucking bullet for her and take out
anyone that means to harm her?”

“With my last breath.”
Nico
said that with so much determination that Brick nodded
and grunted in response.

“God, because I don’t want some pussy
man trying to be with my daughter.”

“Brick,
she’s my world, and has been since I was little. I’d do anything for her, and
before I put the question of marriage to her, I wanted to make sure you were
okay with it.”

Brick
stayed silent, and his scar seemed even more pronounced the longer he stayed
silent. “I know you want to say more than just that, son.” Brick crossed his
arms over his sweaty, bare chest, and his muscles strained forward. Yeah, even
just standing there he could be one intimidating asshole.

“She’s
going to be mine whether you give us permission or not. I love her, she loves
me, and if she says yes, and you say no, I’ll still make her my wife.”

Brick
didn’t respond for several seconds, but
Nico
didn’t
waver from his stare. “You got some balls there, boy.” He narrowed his eyes at
Nico
and then dropped his arms. “I should kick your ass on
the grounds that you think you can come in here and talk to me that way.” There
was this uncomfortable and tense moment between them. “With that said,
ain’t
no one going to take my daughter from me that I don’t
approve of, you
hear
me, boy?”

Yeah,
Nico
figured Brick would give him shit. It didn’t
matter that
Nico
had been with Alexis this whole
time, and that he had never once done anything to fuck it up. Brick, as well as
all the Grizzly bikers with daughters and old ladies, was overprotective to the
nth degree. But then again if and when
Nico
ever had
a daughter he assumed he’d be the same way.

“I
don’t mean any disrespect, but you had to see this coming. I’ve been with
Alexis for six fucking years—”

“Watch
your fucking mouth, kid.”

“You
had to know I’d want her as my old lady for life.”

Brick
stayed silent for a second, and then exhaled and ran a hand over his jaw. His
scar stood out even more as he glowered even harder, but then he seemed to
relax. “Yeah, I guess I was expecting it, and am surprised you lasted this
long. And actually I was wondering when you’d get around to bringing this up to
me.” Brick grinned, but
Nico
supposed it wasn’t an easygoing
one. It was more of a growl/grimace type of smile, but
Nico
would take it.

He
exhaled and held his hand out for Brick to take, but the biker surprised the
hell out of him by pulling him in and clapping him on the back. It was a hug …
sort of, but that was saying a lot about Brick and his acceptance of it.

“We
have always been family,
Nico
, but now I’m your
father-in-law, and that means if you fuck with my daughter’s heart the club
won’t stop me, nor will Jagger, from kicking your ass to next Sunday.” Brick
clapped him on the shoulder again and grinned down at him. “Don’t screw this up
just because you have that ring on her finger.”

“Never.
I’ve been
waiting for this moment my whole life.”

****

Alexis
sat next to Stinger as he was teaching her the accounts receivable. The club
owned a bar in Steel Corner. It didn’t support the club, but it helped with a
small and steady cash flow. They had a lot of the money tied up in smaller
business throughout town, even some around the country. There were also funds
that came through, and she knew they were blanketed with different companies
that probably didn’t exist. The money either came from firearms, drugs, or was
being earned by helping The Brothers of Menace in their endeavors. Being
Nico’s
old lady meant she was thick in the club, but was
not privy to the workings of how the club ran or stayed afloat. Even though she
was born into this lifestyle, and had a father that was at the head of the MC
table, the club made sure to keep family sheltered from what happened. But
Alexis preferred it that way anyway. She had tried calling Dakota to set up a
double date kind of thing, but found out from his father that he had gone on a
run and wouldn’t be back for a week. That was for the best anyway, because
although she hadn’t asked
Nico
about his feelings on
Dakota, and the fact it had been years since the altercation, she wasn’t all
about stirring shit again.

“Hey.”
Tarren
leaned against the doorframe and smiled.

Tawny,
Tarren’s
sister who was a few years younger than
Tarren
, pushed her way past her sister and placed a greasy
bag on the desk in front of Alexis. She wrinkled her nose.
“For
the guys working on the bike.
They specifically asked for the greasiest,
nastiest thing I could scrounge up. Tell them
it’s
burgers and fries from Dino’s.” With that Tawny turned and left and climbed
right into a bright red Mustang. The guy in the driver’s seat had so many
tattoos and piercings that it was hard to even distinguish what in the hell he
looked like.

“Ugh, her new boy-toy.”

“I
bet your dad’s real pleased about that.”

“You
should have seen his face when he caught them all but screwing in that douche’s
car.”

“And
this would be my cue to leave. No way am I hearing about Dallas’s kids and that
shit. No fucking way,” Stinger said and grabbed the bag after he stood. He left
them alone in the office, and as soon as the door shut behind him they burst
out laughing.

“You’d
think the way these old men act when sex is being talked about that they were
virgins back in the day or something,”
Tarren
said
and moved into the room, and sat down in the chair across from Alexis.

“Yeah,
but I think hearing about the kids by the men they consider brothers having sex
and all that probably crosses the line for them,” Alexis said, and they both
started laughing again.

“So,
I feel like it’s been forever since we actually talked, even though we did when
you first got back.”

I
know. I’m sorry I’ve just been swamped with all this information from my mom
and Stinger, and I want to make sure I get it all right,” She said and leaned
back in her chair as she stared at
Tarren
.

“I
know, girl. I just miss you.”
Tarren
reached across
the table and picked up one of the invoices. She knitted her brows as she read
it. “Is this for guns?” She held the invoice out.

“Who
knows what any of this stuff is really for, if you get my drift.”

Tarren
nodded and
dropped the paper on the table. “Yeah, I am sure there is more illegal money
floating around than the legal kind.”

They
were silent for a few moments, and then
Tarren
exhaled.
“So, I have been meaning to tell you—”

“Do
I need to be sitting down for this?” Alexis grinned, because she already was,
but the tone of
Tarren’s
voice told her that whatever
she was going to say was probably a shocker.