Page 68 of Delirium
“Uh,” I murmured, looking at Zoe. “I’m going to put you on a speaker now. I’m sitting here with Zoe. She’s one of the Club members. She’s like a sister to me.”
I pressed the button for speaker and placed the phone on the table, waiting for Alessia to talk.
“Hi, Zoe,” she greeted her. “Look, girls, we gotta get together one of these days. These men are killing me. The level of testosterone in my house is insane. The fact that I’m carrying a male child is not helping. But, back to the point.” I laughed at her blabbering. “Then he packs his bag and tells me he’ll fix it. He goes straight to Santa Monica, and what does he do today?” Please don’t tell me that he and Storm stabbed each other. “He got drunk. He went there to fix this shit and now he’s drunk, texting me, calling me, and I can’t help him. He doesn’t want to go with Storm. By the way, woman,” she exclaimed. “That is one hot piece of ass.”
I started laughing along with Zoe.
“But the reason why I’m calling is because both of their phones have died, and I need to tell my idiotic husband that I still love him and that he should come back home.”
“Oh,” I murmured. “So, you want me to go to them?”
“Yep. Find them and bring them home. I figured you would be the person to do this, since he’s threatening Storm right now and I don’t want Storm to kick his ass. You get it, no?”
I did get it. “Where are they, do you know?”
“Some bar called Luminosity,” she said. “I’ve no idea.”
“I know where that is,” Zoe said. “I can take you there.”
“Perfect,” Alessia said. “And, Ophelia,” she continued. “I wouldn’t mind us being sisters-in-law, or whatever the fuck is the name, in-laws? I don’t know. But I want our kids to have a choice.”
“Me too.”
“And if they do end up being together, well, better for us. I don’t think that Nico planned to have you as an in-law though.” She laughed. “Serves him right for making that stupid pact.”
She had a point there.
“I’ll call you once I get there,” I said, already getting up from the chair. Zoe followed suit, leaving behind the sandwich she was eating.
“Thank you, Phee,” Alessia said. “I owe you one.”
“Nah, don’t even mention it. I’ll talk to you later.”
I pressed the red button on the phone and took it from the desk, ready to leave.
“Are you sure you know where it is?” I asked Zoe as we started walking toward the entrance.
“Oh, yeah.” She chuckled. “Storm took him to one of our bars. I’m not surprised to be honest. That place is full of bikers. If our Italian boy is there, and alive, that only means that they’re okay with each other. Trust me, Storm is safe. Italian stallion—he won’t be if he tries to do something.”
That’s exactly what I was afraid of.
15
STORM
I couldn’t rememberthe last time I got extremely drunk, and looking at Nico and listening to his blabbering reminded me why. It wasn’t pretty, and it definitely didn’t feel very well the next day, when my body rebelled against the alcohol still living in my bloodstream.
“And then,” he murmured, thankfully still sitting on the stool at the bar. “Then I told her I should let her go, you know,” he said, looking at the empty whiskey glass in his hand. “But she didn’t let me. She basically told me to stop being a pussy, and here we are. I’m her pussy now. Pussy whipped.”
It sounded as if he saidpushy whipped, but that was beside the point.
Ophelia texted me earlier, and just as I was reading the message, my phone decided to die and the bar didn’t have a charger. Nico’s wife called him earlier, but between him slurring, telling her he loved her and that he was sorry, his phone died as well.
So here we were, me babysitting a grown-ass man who couldn’t handle his alcohol, apologizing for the pact we’d made, as if he was the only one in that equation. At least we found a way to avoid the wrath waiting for both of us at home. We found a solution just before he got smashed.
“Nico,” I murmured. “As much as I love listening to your love story, I think we should get going. I need to get back to Ophelia.”
“Ah, Ophelia.” He smiled. “That woman is amazing. Don’t tell her,” he looked at me, his eyes half-lidded, “but I’m fucking scared of her, eh. When she told me she would skin me alive, I actually believed her.” I would believe her too. “Once, I saw a grown-ass man cry because they told him he had to deal with her. Imagine!” He laughed. “He was crying because he was afraid of her. And now I want to cry because she would definitely stab me the next time she sees me.”
