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“It’s not her, brother.” Reno turned at the sound of Hal’s low moan. “She wouldn’t have been driving, and if you have the stomach to look long enough, victim’s definitely a dude. Besides, I’m still betting on Pinky’s plant of that locater device.” Then he lifted his chin to where Diego was returning from talking to the State Trooper. “D’s coming. Let’s hope he’s got something for us.”
Hal felt a deadly calm come over him as he prepared for the worst. He had always known that there would come a day when he would have to stand in judgement for his sins. But losing her—losing Valentina— was a cost that Hal was not ready or willing to pay. Hal forced his mind to clear, allowed his inner soldier to take over and readied his body to do battle.
“What do we know?” Hal asked Diego.
“That’s the Lincoln Town Car for sure, and the poor charred up bastard is Salvatore Tettorio. By some fucking miracle his wallet was recovered. He was the only one they found in the car. Heard that from a patrol officer. Trooper in charge is a real bona-fide prick. Not gonna let us by the blockade.” Diego scrubbed a hand over his face and looked at Reno. “The dickhead’s badge number is 4857. Get Jules on this now.”
Reno threw his cigarette on the ground, pulled out his cell and walked away.
Diego looked at Hal in commiseration. “Sucks, don’t it?”
“What?” Hal growled.
“Being in love.”
Hal fixed Diego with his best blank stare. But try as he might, Hal couldn’t stop that flash of intense yearning that lit up his eyes when he thought about Valentina. “Not gonna lie to you, brother. Won’t deny that what I feel for her is incredibly insane. Powerful in a way that I ain’t ever felt before—just thinking about her makes my nuts ache and my heart feel like it’s about to explode. So yeah, if that’s love, if that’s how it feels to be in love, then it’s painful as hell.” Hal straight up admitted. Then he cast a speculative eye at Diego. “But what the hell would you know about that? You and your woman and those two little girls of yours? The way Raine looks at you—the way you look at her? That’s just damn perfect. You two got it all figured out.” Hal snorted. “With all due respect, VP, you don’t know jack about what I’m feeling.”
Diego arched his brow sardonically. “Yeah? That’s how you see it? Well, brother, the thing between me and Raine happened before your time with the club, so I guess I can see where you might be confused about that shit. But let me tell you, falling in love with that woman—letting myself feel that—not fucking easy. And I bet if you asked her, my woman would tell you that meeting me was both the best and the worst thing that ever happened to her.” Diego rubbed a hand over his jaw. “The first time I ever laid eyes on Raine, I was holding a gun on her sister, Claire. The next time I saw Raine she was bruised and bloodied from head to toe and throwing her guts up in a toilet. She was in that pathetic state because she got the shit beat out of her getting money to pay off a debt to the club that she didn’t even fucking owe. Then I almost lost her to my best friend, because I left her on her own for too damn long. And because I’m a real special kind of asshole—and this causes me nothing but shame to say it— when I found out Raine was pregnant with my baby, I punched a hole in the wall two inches above her head and told her she was on her own and good luck with that.”
“For real?” Hal was astounded.
“For too fucking real,” Diego told him with regret. “And I’ve spent every minute of the last five years trying to make up for the messed-up shit I pulled on her. I thank god every day that she saw something in me worth having. Raine’s not only the mother of my children, she’s the love of my goddamn life.”
Go figure some shit out.Hal had heard part of this story from his sister, but only the part that concerned Glory. He hadn’t known half that shit that D had just told him. In a weird, fucked up way, it gave Hal hope.
“Respect, man, for making it all work out. You got yourself one damn beautiful family. I just hope I get that same chance to give Valentina the life she deserves.” Hal looked down at his feet and cleared his throat before he went on. “Never felt like this before—never knew I had this kind of feeling in me. I think about her all the time— all the goddamn time. Icraveher.I think about kissing Valentina even more than I think about fucking her, and I think about fucking hera lot.” Hal looked at Diego with naked honesty in his eyes. “That knife play and kinked out sex shit I used to need to get off? That’s over—it’s done. Just holding Valentina’s goddamn hand makes me hard. I told her that I don’t dogentlebut that was a damn lie because with her gentle is all I fucking want to be, and I’m scared to death that I can’t be that guy.”
Hal paused and lit up another one of the cigarettes that he had been chain smoking for the last fifteen minutes.
“I watch her fuckingsleep; do you believe that shit? I know her body better than I know my own. Bitch’s second toe is longer than her big toe. And her little toe is practically non-existent. Her left ankle is a little smaller than her right. Same with her tits. She has seven beauty marks altogether. Two on the lobe of her right ear, one on her left shoulder and four that circled her left nipple like a tiny constellation.I watch her sleep.” Hal ground out those heartfelt words, then he looked at Diego with eyes filled with pure misery.
“I hear ya, brother. And I feel your pain,” Diego told him. “The worst part of loving someone is that there will always be things that you can’t protect her from…and some of those things will be you and your own bad damn decision-making. There will be things that will hurt her that’ll be beyond your control and things that you’ll have to stand by and watch happen. The roughest is when you do something to hurt her yourself, though. It feels like the worst kind of knife wound straight to your heart to see your woman cry because you couldn’t stop yourself from being a complete asshole. It’s a shit-storm of emotion that can drive you crazy, but you have to take all that in stride. You have to take the bad part if you want the good part that goes with.”
“Yeah?” Hal snorted. “And what’s that? What’s the good part?”
“That’s easy, brother. It’s all the rest of it. Because once you get past the bad, nothing short of heaven is waiting.” Diego grinned and clapped Hal on the shoulder.
“Fuck this.” Hal couldn’t stand the thought of waiting any longer. “We’ve already lost too much damn time talking. I’m taking the bike up the median. Let someone—anyone—try and stop me.”
Diego shook his head in disapproval. “I ain’t gonna let you do that, brother. It’s a bad idea.”
“You don’t think I can outrun them?” Hal challenged as he pulled on his riding gloves.
“I think there’s a good chance your bike can’t fly over another roadblock, and we don’t know what’s up ahead. That pretty blade that Derringer supplied you with? My guess is it’s beyond the five-and-a-half-inch legal limit. So, if they do catch you, and you can be sure Badge Number 4857 will make it his business to make sure that happens— off you go cuffed and stuffed facing a weapons charge and an obstruction charge— and we might as well add in a resisting arrest and assault on a police officer charge—cause we both know you ain’t gonna make it easy. So, they’re gonna haul your big ass off, and since it’s Friday you’re gonna be in jail all damn weekend with your woman waiting on you to find her. To make matters even worse, we’re in the jurisdiction of Judge Carmichael.”
“Who the fuck is that?”
“She’s the judge who had to reduce the charges on Jules when he got into a brawl in a bar not far from here. Cost the club a boat load of bribes and markers to get him out of some serious shit. Judge Abigail Carmichael was the presiding and when she saw the charges levied, she went bullshit. Being a smart woman, she knew she had been handed a backdoor deal. The club paid up the maximum in fines and left with a clear warning from Carmichael to stay out of her district. She has been a pain in the ass ever since. We can’t drive through her county without getting pulled over for some bullshit reason. Brothers avoid it like the plague.”
“I’m just gonna have to take my chances. The longer we wait…” Hal shook his head. “…I ain’t gonna even say it.”
“I get it.” Diego agreed. “But if Rooster wants that money, you know he’s gonna keep the women alive at least until tomorrow. We haven’t even confirmed that Valentina and Gia are together yet. Too many damn unknowns to go off half-cocked. I don’t like this—not even a little fucking bit. Give it just a couple of more minutes, then you do what you gotta do. Club’s got your back, that’s not even a question. If it was my woman, I’d do the same. My guess is Jules gets the FBI in on this one, pronto.”
“The Feds?”
“TheFull-Blooded Italian. What we need here is some divine intervention,” Diego told him with a small grin. “Jules learns fast and my guess is he put Father Mike on this one.” Then lifted his chin. “Here comes Reno. Let’s hear the brother out.”
Reno slapped Hal on the shoulder. “We’re good to go. Officer Dickwad ain’t too happy about it. But he got the call, and he’s letting us through. Let’s ride.”
