Page 54 of Bane's Beginning

Kick. Kick. Kick.

“Stop crying, Cazzo!” (Fuck.) He screamed, turning his aggression to a weeping Serena. She had been begging him over and over to stop. I lay there crumbled in a ball, gasping for air. As he pointed his gun to her head, I fought to stand up.

“Matteo, please,” I pleaded.

“What, is she important to you? Maybe I should stick a bullet in her head to teach you a lesson,” he laughed darkly.

“No,” I lied. “I barely know her. You’d just be killing an innocent pregnant woman and her baby. Just like our baby.”

His eyes fell at my words as he dropped his gun and turned around. He grabbed me into his arms and held me.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant? I would have gone easier on you,” he said with a returned softness in his voice. His words disgusted me. He beat me before I could get the words out to him, but that didn’t matter now. What mattered was getting him out of this house and away from Serena.

“Please,” I whispered. “Just leave her alone.”

“Okay,” he said, letting out a deep breath. “It’s time to come home, Mia dea.”(My goddess.)

He pulled me towards the door and Serena screamed, “Thea, no!” But it was too late as we made our exit out of the house. He ushered me into his car and quickly shut the door. I recognized the driver as someone that I had seen from my summer before. I didn’t say a word.

“Thea? Like Athena herself,” he chuckled. “I always knew.”

I ignored his words and shut my eyes. All I could feel was the pain as the driver started the car. I felt us pull out of the driveway and that’s the last thing I remembered before it went all dark.

Chapter 27: Maverick

My brothers and I were on our way back to the clubhouse from the drop. Fucking Matteo Santoro didn’t even show, and Luca was pissed. There was no explanation on why he didn’t come, but that didn’t matter in the long run of things. We still got our guns, but they lost our cooperation. I told Luca that he would be the only Santoro we’d work with unless his father wanted to come out of retirement. He was pissed, but understanding.

In this business, it was all about trust. Too much was on the line when it came to organized crime, which is why you had to be careful with who you worked with. We didn’t get this far as a club by letting motherfuckers walk all over us and disrespect us, and we weren’t about to start letting that happen now.

Riding in our typical formation, we continued down the highway. To my left, I saw Ares veer off to the shoulder, and I quickly followed along with Crash and a few of my other brothers who would go with him for the drops.

“What’s wrong?” I asked Ares, and I saw him put his phone to his ear.

“Serena’s been calling my phone back to back,” he said. “She might be in labor.”

“About a month too soon for that,” Crash said, dismounting his bike and walking over to us.

“What?” Ares said into the phone. “Babe, slow down. Where is Thea? What do you mean someone took her?”

I felt my heartbeat pick up as I tried to get closer to him. He held out his hand to stop me.

“Babe? Serena? Can you hear me?”

He quickly hung up his phone and I saw something I’ve never seen in the guy, fear.

“What’s going on?”

He went to mount his bike, and we all did the same.

“Someone broke into my house and took Thea,” he said with the panic evident in his voice. “Serena was trying to tell me what happened and she started hyperventilating, and then I think she fell. We have to get over there.”

“Let’s go,” I said, starting my bike. “I’ll call an ambulance on the way.”

We took off in a frenzy down the highway. I was pushing the hell out of my bike. Fuck, I wasn’t expecting the Sons to attack so soon. If they took Thea or hurt her, I would desecrate every last one of those motherfuckers until there wasn’t anything left.

Before we got to the exit to his house, I saw Ares take the one before it and mouthed the word ‘hospital.’ I shook my head as I gestured for the boys to follow. We pulled into the parking lot at New Haven General and quickly dismounted our bikes.

“What’s going on?” I asked Ares as we followed him inside.