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She rolls her eyes. “It didn’t take long either. Ashton sayswecan’t keep our hands off each other. Well, ditto baby, with more besides. Ashton broke several hearts the day she married Ryder and I’m guessing there were a few bikers none too pleased, either.”
We reach an area where normal looking houses form a street of sorts and I note the pretty white wooden paint and roses climbing around the door. There are white picket fences and a clean and tidy lawn out front, and I gasp, “What is this place?”
“It’s where the families live. The old ladies and the kids.”
Bonnie explains, “Old Lady means wife in Biker speak. Both Ashton and me are old ladies and you will be too if you marry, Sinner.”
Marry Jonny! For some reason, that makes my heart flutter because I never believed Jonny would want to marry me. That I would be eating his dust if he ever found out I was pregnant. Now I feel like a fool and as we stop outside a freshly painted house, the tears in my eyes are telling me that I hope he has enough forgiveness in his heart for me because it immediately feels as if I’m coming home.
CHAPTER28
JONNY
We meet in Ryder’s office, and as I head inside, Brewer chucks me a beer. “Take a seat, Jonny.” He says, shifting on the couch. Ryder is sitting behind his desk with his feet on it, his chair angled back while he holds a beer. Snake is leaning forward on his seat by the wall, dangling the beer between his legs, and I’m instantly aware this isn’t a casual debrief. There is something super-charging the atmosphere and I don’t like it at all.
“We need to talk about the Dark Lords.”
I figured he’d want to debrief on the last mission they sent me on because I went straight to Heaven from the mafia mansion I was undercover in.
“What do you want to know?”
I take a swig of the cool beer and Ryder drawls, “We are all aware the Ortegas were caught up in that shit courtesy of Matasso and his son Mario. You would hope that following their deaths, the Dark Lord’s shit died with them.”
“Part of it, I’m guessing, but they were a small branch of that organization.” I add.
Ryder shrugs. “They ran their own sick society and called it The Dark Lords. They were never part of the inner circle though, just hovering on the edge, waiting to be granted access.”
“So, what are you saying?” I stare at him with interest, and he flicks a look at Snake who growls, “This just isn’t going away. What’s the plan?”
Ryder sets the bottle down and sighs. “When Baron asked me to send an operative, I figured it would be an in and out job. A one off even. He needed to settle an old debt and this Dark Lord’s shit got in the way of that. I took a call from him while you were visiting your folks and he’s concerned.”
“Then it must be bad.”
Snake whistles. “If Baron’s concerned, something big is going down.”
Ryder nods, tapping his finger on the desk, which is always a sign he’s thinking hard. None of us interrupt him, and then he leans back and shakes his head. “Giselle Matasso is currently visiting her family before heading back to the Hamptons to begin her new life. A curious detour that has me wondering.”
“Don Vieri?” Snake says with interest, and Ryder nods.
“Her grandfather started the Dark Lord’s society when he was in high school. I doubt he even knew how powerful it would become and, like most beasts, it’s turning on his successor.”
“So, what’re you saying?” Brewer is alert and taking everything in and Ryder shrugs. “I’m not certain, but word on the street is the Dark Lords want to clean up their act and having mafia involved isn’t good for their respectability.”
He fixes me with his usual dark glare.
“You worked for them. Did you discover anything that could help us?”
I consider it carefully because my mission was purely to infiltrate the Ortega family and watch events unfold and report back. I was assigned as a guard to Flora Corlietti. The woman Domenico Ortega fell in love with who was linked to Matasso and his son. She was innocent, but I watched the sick rituals that Mario carried out in the name of the Dark Lords and hoped it had ended with their deaths.
I tell them everything I know, which isn’t much as it happens. However, when I get to the part where Jared Kensington arranged for his own daughter to head into the lion’s den, Ryder sits up and takes notice.
“Jared Kensington.” he says thoughtfully.
“Baron knows him well. His own daughter is now married to Matteo Ortega, which makes me wonder.”
“Why distance your organization from mafia and yet marry your only daughter into it?” I add, and Ryder nods thoughtfully.
“It appears the mafia are fighting back. Word on the streets is the Vieris are pissed they are being side-lined by the billionaires. A hostile takeover of the organization that was founded by Don Vieri senior himself. This could get messy and hit the headlines because their membership includes some of the most wealthy and influential people in this great country. It’s a scandal waiting to explode and all because they are now fighting among themselves.”
