Rome: A Marked Men Novel (33 page)

me about it. I cleared my throat and leaned a hip on the pool table. I met his gaze because that’s what you

did when you were trying to be on the level with a man that not only offered you his respect, but also his

protection and approval. The gray wasn’t going to suck me under, not when I had so much color in me

because of Cora.

“Most of the time I’m straight. Had a few bad months, almost blew it with the best thing to ever happen

to me, pre- or postwar. Brite made me feel like shit, gave me Neil’s number, and told me to go talk to him.

When I can’t get out from under it on my own, I do. Otherwise that best thing takes all kinds of care of me

and nothing in this world could matter more for me to keep an eye on my back.”

Torch laughed and nodded in agreement.

“I had one of those once. Was too much of a stubborn idiot to hold on to it. You got a girl that stays by

you when you wake up in the middle of the night shaking, covered in sweat, and not knowing where you

are, that’s a girl you don’t ever let go of.”

I could do him one better and say that I had a girl who not only stayed but generally put me back to bed

by sucking me off or riding me until I couldn’t see straight, but I doubted Cora would appreciate the

baddest-of-the-bad biker club in the union having that much info on our sex life.

“I have no intention of letting her go, or of letting some little punk with a grudge get anywhere near her,

or me, for that matter. It all needs to be put to bed, and the sooner the better.”

“We are on the same page. Anything else comes up, you call me not the cops.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about having his number in my phone, but I also didn’t think telling him that

was a good idea. I programmed it in and pushed off the table, when he stopped me with a hand on my

shoulder.

“We were all you at one point in time, kid. Dismissed, lost, and trying to figure out what was next. For

some of us, what was next came out of the blue. The open road, the brotherhood, the family, it was like

being back in but on our own terms and fighting for things that mattered here.” He thumped a hand over his

chest where his biker heart was covered by a leather cut. “Some of us found it in the love of a good woman

and making a family; others, like Brite, found what was next by helping the most lost of us onto a better

path. Whatever your next is, kid, it’ll find you or you’ll find it. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

With that profound bit of advice, he and all his seriously threatening and intimidating cohorts made

their way back out of the bar. I took a minute to gather my thoughts, to ponder the dramatic ways my life

had turned on its head in the last few months, and made my way back to where my brother was waiting

nervously at the bar.

“Everything okay?”

Typically I would have just brushed it off, told him it was my problem and that I would handle it. I was

the big brother, the protector, but I was starting to see that all the things I had used to define myself for so

long needed to be tweaked, needed to be redefined, as life moved forward, as I wasn’t the same guy I had

been when we were kids.

“Nobody seems to know where the punk with the grudge is at. Torch and the club said he has

connections, could be armed, and he is good and pissed that picking that fight with me got him eighty-

sixed. They want me to watch my back, and Torch was concerned that with all the stuff going on up here, I

might not be able to give the situation the attention it deserves.” I tapped my temple with two fingers and he

frowned at me.

“Are you? Okay to keep an eye on yourself, I mean?”

“I think so. Protecting myself and survival is second nature to me.”

“If you need anything from me, from the guys, you know all you have to do is ask, right?”

“I know. Just keep an eye on my girl. I don’t want her to worry, not with the baby and not with her

acting all twisted up over that e-mail from her ex.”

I saw Rule’s pale eyes go diamond hard and his tattooed hands curled into fists on the top of the bar.

“That asshole had the nerve to e-mail her after all this time?”

I dipped my chin in agreement and cocked my elbows to lean back against the bar. I didn’t want to

appear too eager to hear what he had to say about Cora’s ex, but information was power, and the more I

had the more I could break through that shroud of fear I saw in her multihued gaze every time I brought up

the L-word.

“I guess his old lady was stepping out on him with another one of the artists at the shop. He apparently

had a revelation that all the crap he shoveled Cora’s way might just have made him a douche bag, so now

he’s all fired up to make amends. She says it’s all water under the bridge, but sometimes she shuts up and I

can tell she’s somewhere else, but she doesn’t say anything to me about it.”

He let loose a litany of swearwords and his hands clenched and unclenched.

“That guy did a number on her, Rome.” He sighed and motioned for Asa to bring him another beer.

“When Phil came back to the shop after going to New York and told us we were getting a new shop

manager, none of us knew how to take it. But then Cora showed up and it was clear she needed someone to

save her. She was wasting away. I mean she is tiny as it is, but she obviously wasn’t eating, wasn’t sleeping.

She was quiet, withdrawn. We tried to joke with her, tried to shake her out of it, but nothing worked. She

was heartbroken. I’ve never seen anything like it. She wasn’t just some chick that was sad because she got

dumped … she was dying from it.” He blew out a breath and slowly shook his head from side to side.

“Rowdy always said she took it so hard because her dad was always gone and Jimmy was her only

constant in life. I don’t know if that’s the case, but I do know that guy hurt her in a way I would like to skin

him alive and let fire ants eat him from the inside out just to teach him a lesson. No man should do that to a

woman that loves him, even if he isn’t in love with her anymore.”

I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like the sound of any of that at all.

“What snapped her out of it? What kept her from just fading away?”

His mouth turned into a wry grin and he bit down on his lip ring. “Remy died.”

I blinked in surprise.

“Remy died and I went off the deep end and she waded in to save me. She was so focused on me and

my mess I think she forgot that she was suffering herself. Day by day she got better and held on to me with

both hands. I was operating from a really bad place, but I stayed just on this side of redeemable because of

Cora. She’s more than a big-sister figure, she’s my voice of reason.”

I barked out a laugh. “Tinker Bell.”

“Definitely Tinker Bell, but a Tinker Bell that can flay you with her sharp-ass tongue and put you in

your place with a simple look. Don’t let that guy get his hooks back into her, Rome. That’s bad news all

around.”

I grunted. “You’ve met Cora, Rule. She’s going to do whatever it is she’s going to do. All I can do is

hope what we have going for us is enough to make him getting anything into her an option that isn’t on the

table.”

We shared a knowing look.

“Sucks.”

“Definitely sucks.”

We lapsed into an uncomfortable silence as the jukebox shifted from the Rolling Stones to the Clash. I

walked back behind the bar to help Asa with the dishes and to have something to do with my hands.

“You like it here, Rome? You want to stay here and run this place or are you just doing it because you

don’t know what else to do?”

Rule’s question made me take a second and think of an answer that worked.

“A little bit of both. I like it here; I like the clientele and the regulars, I like that I get to make my own

hours and that I put this place back together board by board. But I don’t have a clue what’s next for me,

what I should or shouldn’t be doing with all the years of training I have. For now this feels right and I can’t

ask for more than that.”

“Whatever you do, whoever you want to be in the long run, Rome, I am so fucking glad you came back

home in one piece. I missed you, we missed you. Even when you were being a royal pain in the ass.

Knowing you’re here, that I can call you, that you have my back even when you’re pissed at me, you don’t

understand how much I need that.”

And there it was. My brother still needed me. Yes, he had Shaw to take care of him. Yes, he had

become enough of a badass, and enough of an adult to protect himself from most things, but he still needed

me to have his back. He needed me to be the guy who looked at him and always saw the guy who lived his

life on his own terms, made his own rules, and didn’t judge him for it. That was a redefinition of my

relationship with my brother I had no trouble filling. I was working my way toward that with my parents as

well. I was starting to figure out I could just be Rome, nothing more and nothing less.

“I missed your punk ass, too, and I am sincerely sorry it took me such a long time to get my head out of

my ass.”

He nodded, finished his beer, and went home to his girl. It was an interesting evening, to say the least,

and after the cryptic warning from Torch and the club, I stayed until closing with Asa and watched him

leave with not one but two of the pretty coeds. I wanted to make sure everyone got out of the parking lot

safe and sound and that no one was lurking around. The guy had game like I had never seen before and I

probably would have felt a twinge of jealousy had I not been going to my house, where a very sexy pixie

was no doubt passed out in my bed, where she waited for me to get home.

Nash’s muscle car was gone when I got to the Victorian, but the Cooper was parked in its spot. I was

getting tired of playing ring-around-the-apartments with her. I wanted one place to call our own, but after

Rule’s revelations about her and her ex tonight, I was starting to wonder if her inability to meet me in the

middle on a place had more behind it. I grabbed a beer out of the fridge and thought I would snag a shower

and crawl into bed next to her, but when I pushed open the door to my room, I was surprised to find the

light on the nightstand on and the bed empty. I frowned and set the beer down while kicking off my boots

and pulling my shirt off over my head.

I was worried that maybe she wasn’t feeling so great. So far she had been lucky and morning sickness

wasn’t something she really had to deal with unless she got superemotional. She was tired a lot and hadn’t

asked me to go get her pickles and ice cream in the middle of the night or anything, so I just assumed it

would be smooth sailing for the duration of her pregnancy. I tapped on the door with a knuckle and called

her name.

“You all right, Half-Pint?”

The knob turned easily under my hand and I walked in the bathroom. She was naked, all tattooed and

bejeweled skin, staring in the big mirror that hung over the vanity. Her blond hair was sticking up all over

her head like she had been woken from sleep by something and she was biting down on her lower lip. She

was perfect. Everything about her was just absolutely fucking perfect. I braced my arms over my head on

the doorframe and watched her watch me. Her eyes did that slow roll over my chest, across my stomach,

and stopped on the front of my pants the way she liked to do. I needed to remember to always come home

and take my shirt off … it really did make it hard for her to think.

“Look.” She turned to face me, and I think she wanted me to look at something besides her perky

breasts and the delicate junction between her legs, but I was a guy and she was naked, so she was out of

luck.

“Look at what?” I wanted to snatch her up and take her to bed. I wanted to lick every single one of

those jewels that decorated her rib cage and trace the line of the lilies all the way up her side with my teeth.

“Look at our baby.” She flattened both her hands on the very slight swell in her stomach. She was so

tiny that the barest bulge did indeed have her looking more rounded out than she had a day or so ago. She

was just too cute with those big eyes so full of wonder. “I passed out a few hours ago and rolled over on

my stomach, which sucks when you aren’t there to act as a pillow, by the way, when this woke me up. I’ve

never had a belly in my life and now I do and there is a supersmall person in there. It’s unbelievable.” She

just sounded in awe, and I wouldn’t have traded this moment for all the assuredness or foresight in the

entire world.

I pushed off the doorway and stalked toward her. I got so close that I was towering over her, staring

down at her, and she just continued to watch me. I saw her suck in a breath and let it out slowly as I sank to

my knees in front of her. I put my hands on her hips and pulled her to my face so I could put my mouth on

the soft skin right above her belly button. I heard her gasp softly and twine her fingers loosely in my hair. I

let my fingers dig into the sweet curve of her hips.