Page 59 of King
“I love them, thank you,” I told him with a smile, stepping aside to let him come in. He slipped his cut off and carefully draped it over the back of one of my side chairs, then lowered himself to one end of the couch when I gestured for him to sit down. I set the vase on the coffee table, and I tried not to stare at the play of muscles bunching in his thick thighs as hesettled himself. He was dressed in dark-washed jeans and a dark red button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up on his forearms giving me just a hint of the ink tattooed on his arm.. The fabric stretched tight across his broad shoulders as he shifted on the cushion, and I subtly wiped the corner of my mouth in case I was drooling.
After a moment of awkward silence, I sat on the other end of the couch and suggested we decide what to order. It didn’t take long for us to settle for Chinese food from the little place a few blocks away. We had both eaten there before, and quickly ordered our favorite dishes to be delivered.
We made small talk for about twenty minutes while we waited for the food to be delivered, mostly about Hunter and Mia and their plans for the rest of the summer. We also touched briefly on the wedding, which was taking place tomorrow.
“Since it’s a small, informal ceremony, Abby didn’t want to mess with having a rehearsal dinner tonight. They aren’t doing a big reception either, but all the guests are invited to dinner at an Italian restaurant after the ceremony,” he said.
“I saw your dad yesterday afternoon. He got a haircut and even trimmed up his beard for the occasion. He’s so proud to be officiating the ceremony.”
Dante snorted and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, the old man gets a huge kick out of a man named Sinner being ordained to perform marriages. He went online and got one of those officiant certificates so he could perform Jagger’s wedding to Molly. His dad was an actual preacher. A real hardnosed fire and brimstone Bible thumper, from what my dad’s told me over the years. I think Sinner feels like he’s giving his old man a great big ‘fuck you’ by getting ordained, too.”
I snorted a laugh when a thought occurred to me. “Wait a minute, your name is Dante, Pop’s real name is Virgil, and your club is the 5thCircle Guardians? Good Lord, somebody had a thing for Dante’s Inferno,” I snorted, not even trying to hide my laughter.
“Yeah, that’s Sinner’s doing,” He chuckled as he relaxed into the corner of the couch. “His dad thought Sinner would be going straight to hell when he got involved with an MC back in the day. The tough old bastard disowned him for it, unless my dad repented for his sinful ways. He didn’t, and Viking gave him the nickname of Sinner. My dad has a twisted sense of humor, so when he established his own club a few years later, he decided to play off his given name and named the club after the 5thCircle of Hell. When I came along, he convinced my mom to give me the name Dante.”
“Oh my God, I can just see Pop doing that.”
“The whole religious symbolism gets worse. My sister’s name was Beatrice – also from Dante’s Inferno. She hated it and went by BeBe instead. And my half-brother Ace’s mom named him Jude, short for Judas. I’m not sure if she sensed something was off with him, or if he’s just trying to live up to the name his mom saddled him with.”
“Pop has told me a little about him. It sounds like it’s been…challenging at times,” I said, trying to be diplomatic. Actually, it sounded like Ace was a colossal asshole, and that was being generous. He’d been in and out of jail for years and had been a source of pain and disappointment for Pop, as well as his late wife Frankie, who’d apparently done her best to treat Ace like he was one of her own.
“Ace is more than challenging, sugar. I can’t stand the bastard, and most of the MC feels the same way. He hasn’tviolated the bylaws so we can’t kick him out, but I keep hoping he’ll quit on his own one of these days.”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
Dante just shrugged. “Well, it is what it is. He had a shitty start in life, but he hasn’t done a damn thing to make it better. He’s the result of a relationship my dad had with a club girl around the time he’d met my mom. The club girl,Roxie,had been pissed when Sinner tossed her over in favor of my mom and had left town without telling him about Ace. Fast forward seventeen years, and Ace showed up on our doorstep one day, with a letter from his recently deceased mother, telling Sinner that he was Ace’s dad. A DNA test proved it, and the next thing I knew, I had a slightly older brother who hated me and my family.”
“That’s awful,” I commiserated, feeling equal parts sorry for a young Ace, as well as for the rest of the Morgan clan.
“My mom was amazing, and opened up our home to Ace, who was a mouthy little shit with a huge chip on his shoulder. He’s been in and out of prison since then, staying out of trouble just long enough to knock up a stripper who OD’d when Lucky was little. Ace was back behind bars by that point, so Sinner and my mom raised Lucky for the most part. Once Mom got too sick to keep up with a teenaged boy, Lucky came to live with me and my boys. Ace has never been an actual father to him at all.”
“That’s probably a good thing,” I observed, “especially if he’s that bad. Lucky was better off with the rest of you, I’m sure.” I took a sip of my iced tea, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat as I thought about the childhood Lucky could have been subjected to with his dad.
“Yeah, Lucky can be a pain in my ass, but he’s turned out to be a good man, and I’m proud to have had a hand in that.”
He chuckled then and told me about theDating for Dummiesbook that Lucky had snuck in and placed on his desk.
“Oh my God, you’re kidding,” I gasped between giggles.
“No. Trick and Jag were in on it, too, from what I can tell. Half the MC has been giving me advice on how to win you over. Most of it shitty advice, but they’ve tried.”
I was still laughing over some of their suggestions when the doorbell rang, announcing the arrival of our food. We ended up eating in the living room, each of us sitting on either end of the couch, with the white food containers spread out on the coffee table. While we ate, we chatted about various members of the MC, and I told him a little about the graphic design work that I did.
“So, what did you do before you became the president?” I asked between bites of fried rice.
“I ran The Inferno Bar that Jag manages now. I opened the place for the MC when the boys were toddlers and ran it until Sinner stepped down as president about ten years ago. Then I was voted in to replace him. Now I spend my days overseeing the various club-owned businesses and trying to keep the club brothers in line. It’s like trying to herd cats sometimes,” he said with a shake of his head, popping the last of his eggroll into his mouth. He set his empty plate on the coffee table then looked at me.
“Now, tell me more about your job. How long have you worked – “
Dante stopped speaking when his cell phone rang, his jaw hardening as he glanced over toward his cut laying on the back of the chair.
“I’m sorry, sugar, but that’s the club’s ringtone. They all know I didn’t want to be disturbed, so this must be important.”
“Not a problem. I’ll just clean up our dinner mess.” I pulled away and stood up as the ringing stopped, then started up again almost immediately. Dante grabbed the phone out of his cut, and I hurried into the kitchen to give him some privacy.
