Untitled Book 2 (32 page)

I swallow hard. Fuck, I'm about to rob a house while an innocent woman sits there talking to Faye, the nun.

We get out of the car and Vinnie grabs my hand. “Don't panic, okay? We're just going to go in and out.”

“And if she sees us?”

“We'll worry about it then.”

Great.

Vinnie opens the door, and we both tiptoe inside. The first thing I hear is Faye's louder-than-usual laugh. We turn left, and head up the stairs, looking around frantically for the attic entrance. We find it to the right, an opening with a handle on the ceiling. Vinnie pulls the handle, and stairs appear, reaching the floor. It makes a bit of a noise, and I'm scared the lady heard, but then I hear Faye singing some sort of church song, probably trying to cover any sounds. We climb the stairs into the attic, and I look around for the chest. When I find it, I tap Vinnie on the shoulder. He opens the chest, grabs the box inside, and we get the hell out of there.

*  *  *

When Vinnie hands me an envelope addressed to me, I run my finger over my name, written in my father's handwriting. He found it inside the box with the ledger. My father left a letter for me, and I don't know what to think about it. Alone, I sit down on our bed and rip it open.

Shayla,

If you're reading this, it means that things got out of hand. I'm sorry, my beautiful girl, that you were dragged into this, and that you will have to pay for my mistakes. Just know that I love you, and you are without a doubt the best thing that ever happened to me.

Stay strong,

Love, Dad.

I place the letter on the bed and close my eyes. He knew this would happen to me; he knew they would come after me, but I guess there's nothing he could have done about it—or maybe there was, I don't know. Either way, he's gone now, and I need to remember him for the good things he did for me, not the bad. It's hard to stay angry at the dead. Vinnie comes into the room, wraps me in his arms, and I know that I'm safe.

I don't have to hide anymore.

*  *  *

The agent walks into the interview room, looking over at Vinnie, Sin, Faye, and me.

“Agent Higgs,” I say, nodding my head in welcome.

“Here's a group of people I never thought I'd see in here,” she says in a dry tone, then looks to me. “Thank you all for coming. I hear you have something for me, Shayla.”

Faye shows her the ledger but doesn't hand it over. “There are some things we want discussed and signed by you before we hand this over.”

The ledger contains a lot of information that any criminal could use to his or her advantage. Names. Dates. Information on members of the Mafia. Basically if you wanted to blackmail someone, everything you need is in these documents, along with enough evidence to put a lot of people behind bars. It's like a little black book of criminal activity.

“Faye Black, your reputation precedes you,” the agent says, her dark eyes revealing nothing. “This is going to be painful, isn't it?”

“You have no idea,” Faye says, placing a piece of paper down on the table. “Let's begin.”

Three months later

I
LOOK
at the
SOLD
sign on the two-story house and feel a sense of pride. Shay is going to love this house, I know it. It's only a five-minute drive from the clubhouse and has four big rooms and two bathrooms. She never asked to move out of the clubhouse, and I know if I wanted to stay there, she would have without complaint. Just another reason that I love her. She never guilts me into anything, or tries to get her way—she just lets me make my own decisions and lets me know that she will be here by my side no matter what. After thinking it over for the last few months, I realized that a baby can't grow up in the clubhouse. The baby needs their own home, a quiet place with just his or her mother and father. Don't get me wrong, we'll still be at the clubhouse a lot, just like everyone else, but this way we also have our own private sanctuary, a place that is ours and only ours. I ride back to the clubhouse, finding Shay outside with Colt.

“I have a surprise for you,” I tell her, smiling. “You have to come with me.”

“What is it?” she asks, glancing around. “Where is it?”

I simply smile and take her hand, leading her out the front, where I tie a blindfold around her eyes, then put her in the car. She asks me a million questions on the drive to the house, but I tell her nothing except that she needs to be patient. I park in our new driveway, walk around to her door, and help her out, making sure she can't peek. I walk her to the front of the house, then stand in front of her. Just before I take the blindfold off, I say, “I've thought about this for a few months now, and this is what I want too. Okay? So don't question it. I love you, Shay.”

She opens her eyes and looks at the huge house in front of her, and then the
SOLD
sign.

“Oh my god,” she whispers, tears filling her eyes. Everything makes her cry nowadays with all the hormones. “But, Vinnie, I thought—”

“Things change,” I say, resting my hand on her stomach. My tattooed knuckles look out of place against her pink floral dress.

“You bought this for us?” she asks, looking shocked. “Vinnie, I don't even know what to say.”

I take her hand, palm up, and place the key in it. “Should we go have a look at our new house?”

She nods and kisses me, a tear dripping down her cheek.

“Don't cry, Shay,” I tell her, kissing away the tear. She's crying because I bought her a house; I'm sure she's happy, but it makes me a little sad, because she probably wasn't sure this day would come, that we'd probably live in the clubhouse forever because that's the place that I considered home. Home is wherever she is though, and it's not like I'll lose the clubhouse. I'll just have two homes now, and I'm perfectly content with that. Making her happy makes me happy, because she does everything in her power to make me happy too. That's what love
is. We explore the house from bottom to top, and just watching the way her eyes are lit up lets me know I made the right choice. Sure, I'd stay in the clubhouse forever and be happy about it, but I know she wouldn't be. I'm not going to be that selfish, and being so close to the clubhouse is having the best of both worlds.

“When do we move in?” she asks, hugging me from behind.

“Whenever you want to,” I tell her, turning and wrapping her in my arms. “We can go furniture shopping tomorrow if you want, so maybe think about what you need, what colors and stuff, and then we can go have a look.”

“That sounds perfect, Vinnie,” she says, looking up at me. “I know you did this for me and the baby, and thank you.”

A kiss, and then she's gone to see what exactly we'll need for the place. I watch her, remembering this moment. With members of the Kings arrested, Shay is safe once again.

And I just know that everything is going to be okay.

*  *  *

Two weeks later, we have a housewarming party. Everyone comes to see the new place, including Talon and Tia, bringing presents even though I told the women not to bother. Shay cooked a huge meal for everyone—my favorite of course, lasagna and chicken, but also ribs, garlic bread, and salad. She did some fancy platter as well, with cheese, salami, crackers, carrots, celery, pickles, and different dips.

“The house is beautiful,” Faye says to me, looking around animatedly.

“Why are you pretending you haven't been here already?” I ask, lips twitching in amusement.

“Because everyone else hasn't been here yet,” she whispers to me. “I don't want them to feel left out.”

“Why? It's not like we invited you, you just showed up.”

We hadn't told anyone where the house was, we were waiting to surprise them all, so imagine our surprise when Faye rocks up at the front door. The woman has no boundaries whatsoever. She's lucky we love her, and that she's the president's wife, or I wouldn't put up with half her shit. Who am I kidding—yes, I would. The woman is worth her weight in gold, but there are times she can be frustrating as fuck.

She elbows me playfully in the ribs. “I wanted to help Shay choose the colors for the house. So yes, I followed you back to the house, what's the big deal? If you can't stalk your family, then who can you stalk?”

“Preferably no one.”

She waves her hand in the air. “Where's the fun in that?”

“You're insane.”

“You love it.”

“I hear you want to work with the feds to bring down more bad guys,” I say to her, after Sin had a talk to me about it yesterday.

He's not happy.

“I do,” she says, nodding. “I think it will be a good experience, and I can help bring down the real corrupt assholes. The world needs people like me.”

“You realize we kind of are the bad guys, right?” I say, raising my brows.

She waves her hand again. “You're all the best men I know. And with me working with the feds, I will make sure nothing ever touches you.”

“That sounds a bit corrupt,” I tease, making her shrug.

“Loyalty and family first.”

“Always,” I reply, my tone sobering.

“Remember when you had a thing for Allie?” she blurts out, wincing. “I accidentally brought that up with Shay once, but I didn't say her name. Isn't that an awkward story?”

I stare at her, blink, then say one word. “Sin!”

*  *  *

After dinner, I stand, getting everyone's attention.

“Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for coming. You know you're all the family I never had, and yeah . . . fuck, I'm not going to get all mushy and shit, but I'm thankful for each and every one of you.”

“Uncle Vinnie swore,” I hear Clover whisper to Faye.

“I know,” Faye whispers back.

I turn to Shay and pull the box out of my pocket. My hands start to shake. Fuck. Am I doing this? Proposing? Another thing I never thought I'd do. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Say the fuckin' words, Vinnie.

“Shay, will you marry me?” I ask, opening the box, showing her the giant diamond.

Eyes wide, she looks at the ring, then back up to me. She then looks around at everyone at the table.

“Vinnie,” she says quietly, clearing her throat. “No, I won't marry you.”

Wait, what?

The table has gone deathly silent.

She quickly explains, “You don't care about marriage, I know this, it means nothing to you. Just a piece of paper, you said. I
know that you're doing this because you love me so much, but I'm saying no because I love you just as much, and I don't need for us to be married to be happy. You've given me this beautiful home, even though I know you'd be just as happy at the clubhouse. You don't have to give any more, Vinnie.”

She stands up and wraps her arms around me. “The fact that you'd do this for me means more to me than anything, but I can't accept, Vinnie. I love you so damn much, and I know you love me. I don't need for you to propose to prove that. Although the fact that you did just makes me love you even more.”

I lift her chin with my fingers and kiss her deeply.

Everyone at the table claps.

“That was the most romantic proposal rejection I've ever seen,” I hear Faye say.

“I'm sorry I said no in front of everyone,” Shay says, cringing. “I just couldn't say yes, Vinnie, when I know this isn't really what you want. You've already given me two of the three things you said you'd never give, so this time it's me who's going to give up something.”

“Fuck, I love you,” I say, kissing her again, and kind of wishing everyone would go home now so I can carry her up to our bed and have my way with her.

“I love you more,” she says, smiling at me, the happiness in her eyes proof that I'm not as bad of a man as I thought I was.

In fact, I might even be one of the good ones.