She leaned toward me. “Exactly. See, you left and went off to college and forgot all about this place, so you’re not very familiar with their name. But I am. We all are. Those who stuck around and kept coming back to visit watched how the Steel Scorpions grew to prominence in this area. They’re popular. Any shop you walk into, if you drop their name? They’re going to know who you’re talking about. And if you say their name? Most people will smile because that’s the impact they’ve left on the community.”
I furrowed my brow. “Really?”
She nodded as she leaned back once more. “Really, really. So, this Bender guy might not be as dangerous as your former boss has painted him to be. You know, if you were concerned about that.”
Honestly? I hadn’t been concerned about that. But I wasn't about to tell my sister that.
“Fuck Mr. Romano,” I murmured.
Nadia raised her glass in the air. “Here, here. Let’s drink to him getting the worst case of diarrhea ever with no Pepto Bismol in sight.”
“Here, here!” I exclaimed as I clinked my glass against hers.
We fell apart giggling before we finished our smoothies. Then, we curled up underneath a blanket she had tossed over the back of the couch and turned on the television. We found a Friends marathon on and settled in for an evening of binge-watching the show for the third time, but as I sat there my mind wandered.
If the club isn’t bad, then why did the police treat them that way?
If the club isn’t bad, then why did Mr. Romano warn me about them?
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe my sister; it was just that I knew there were missing pieces of the puzzle that didn’t make any sense. Sure, cops were pretty much dirty all the fucking time, but a news station? A small local news station? Would a club go so far as to pay a new station off so that they didn’t run stories on them? Nothing lined up. Nothing about what Nadia told me versus what I had encountered versus my time with Bender lined up. It left me with more questions than answers. It left me with a curiosity I couldn't satiate while sitting on that couch watching reruns of my sister’s favorite sitcom.
And as if I somehow needed proof that Nadia and I were practically twins, she took my hand. “Aria, despite the shit our father got himself involved in, he was still a good man and an amazing father to us.”
I smiled as tears crested my eyes once more. “Yeah, he really was. He was a great man.”
“So, let that be your real-life experience when dealing with men like Bender. With men like the Steel Scorpions. Don’t let other people’s opinions of them override what you’ve experienced with them. Okay? Promise me that.”
I looked over at her. “I promise.”
She smiled. “Good. Now, I’m going to get us a pizza ordered for dinner. You want some of those cinnamon ball things they have?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course, I want an order. All to myself, too.”
She pulled out her phone. “One large Hawaiian pizza and two orders of cinnamon balls, coming right up.”
Then, as we both leaned back into the couch cushions, snuggling together while she placed our delivery order, my mind wandered.
And it wandered all the way back to Bender and the kiss that still tingled my lips as I thought about it.
THIRTEEN
BENDER
I watched her back out down the alleyway and I didn’t take my eyes off her until she was out of sight. I listened while her engine wheezed and groaned its way down the road, as if the damned thing were on its last legs. I made a mental note to get Viper to take a look at it. He knew a shit ton about cars because of the stuff he used to do with his father growing up.
And as my cell phone burned against my body, I revved the engine of my bike.
“Time to go home,” I murmured.
I’d make her wait for a couple of days before I reached out to her. You know, make her stew a bit. Make her question things before my magical text reached her phone. However, I found it hard not to think about her. My mind stayed preoccupied as I soared toward my apartment. I parked my bike and made my way up the steps, trying not to disturb the couple living across the hall from me that always fought like cats and dogs.
Before having the kind of sex that could make anyone around them jealous.
“Do whatcha gotta do, I guess,” I murmured.
I shoved my shoulder into the sticky door and slammed through into my musty apartment. The damned thing deserved to be burned to the ground, but it didn’t cost me shit and it was big. I mean, fucking massive. Almost eleven-hundred square feet with two bedrooms that each had their own bathrooms.
The owners of the complex just didn’t give a shit about cleaning things up in between tenants.
