He glances at the five men I brought with me, including Nico, Caputo, Francesco and two others.
“You’re not scared of us, are you?”Blade asks in his calm, deep voice.
Before I can answer, my sister Isabella comes out too, squeezing between the two men and smiling at me.But her eyes are wary.
“Stop being such hard asses and invite them in,” she tells Rogue and Blade, then waves at Nico, who waves right back like they’re teenagers and this isn’t a serious meeting.
“Come on in,” Rogue says and stands aside to clear the way through the wide-open door.
Isabella is looking at Goldie now, the expression in her eyes undecipherable.There’s sadness there, but also some kind of joy and a lot of happy disbelief as she locks eyes with me.Maybe even some pity.
“It’s good to see you again, Matteo,” she says.“I didn’t think I would so soon.”
“I didn’t either,” I say.“Things are moving faster than I expected.”
Goldie squeezes my arm tighter.It feels like a warning of some sort, but she doesn’t look scared when I glance at her.She looks angry at me.But I didn’t come here to figure out what women are thinking.I was never very good at that anyway.
I take Goldie’s hand and peel it off my arm.
“This is my sister, Isabella,” I tell her then turn to my sister.“And this is Gianna Codelli.”
Gianna offers my sister her hand, but Isabella just pulls her into a huge hug, muttering something in her ear that I can’t quite figure out.Goldie looks surprised at this welcome, but happy too.And that’s good enough for me.
“Get to know each other,” I tell them then turn to Rogue and Blade.“And I’d like a word.”
“OK, follow us,” Rogue says, and Gianna does look after me, but not in a way that makes me think I can’t leave her alone with my sister.
Rogue leads the way through a packed barroom filled with tables and sofas and even a pool table at the back.Everything looks much cleaner and more well-kept than I’d expect to see in a biker club—Goldie wasn’t wrong, those places are usually not the kind of places you want to visit.And the men and women in here all look a lot more well-kept than I’d expect bikers to be too.
A blonde and a guy with glasses, who looks like he’d be more comfortable in an office if it weren’t for his bulky muscles, follow us through this main room.On the way there we pass the only guy who truly looks like he belongs in an outlaw biker gang.His arms, neck and even parts of his face are covered in tattoos and he’s giving me a very icy glare, with clear warnings that I better behave or else, but he doesn’t follow us.
I tell Nico, Francesco, and the other two to watch over Goldie, and only take Caputo with me as we follow Rogue down a narrow hallway and into a conference room of sorts.The table in here looks like it can seat twelve and the whiteboard covered by photos, maps, scribbled notes, and surveillance photos tells me that this is where they do most of their work.From the photos it looks like they’re running surveillance on some sort of a high-end operation.The photos are mostly of cars with black tinted windows and fit guys with shades.With any luck it’s Hydra, the group that Moretti is in bed with.
Rogue takes a seat at the head of the table and motions for the rest of us to sit too.Caputo remains standing just behind my chair.
“So, you sounded very cryptic about the reason for this visit on the phone,” Rogue says to me after I take a seat a few chairs down from him.“But I gather you want our help with something.”
The last time I had any real face-to-face with this guy was back when he was still in high school—one of my sisters’ classmates and the boyfriend of her best friend Angel.Up close and in full light, I can see that he’s aged quite a bit since then.Not so much in terms of wrinkles or grey hair, more by way of the look in his eyes.He’s seen some shit and done some shit and that’s exactly the kind of allies I need in my war.
“As you’ve doubtlessly already realized, I’m back with an army to take back everything Dante Moretti took from my family,” I say and watch his face closely.It doesn’t change.He knew about it.I doubt a lot of what happens in this city escapes his notice.
“We don’t have a fight with Dante Moretti,” the platinum blonde woman says.She looks like some Viking shield maiden, right down to her angelic face.“And I don’t think we’re in a position to start any new wars.”
This last was meant for Rogue and Blade, who are still looking at me with completely unreadable expressions on their faces.
“Our Sarge, Alice speaks sense,” Rogue finally says.“We’re stretched very thin right now.”
I haven’t even made my ask yet and here they are, already refusing to help me.I suppose it’s better this way.It saves me the trouble of actually having to ask.My family’s history with this biker club is not a good one.Apart from their vice-president taking my sister for his own, the second to last time I’ve ever seen Blade was when me, my father and my brother beat him up to take Bella away from him.But the last time I saw him, I freed him from Dante’s dungeon and helped him rescue Bella too.So there’s that.
“I’d think that after Moretti abducted one of your own, you’d be in some sort of fight with him,” I say, looking over the room.
“Not the kind you want,” Alice mutters.I choose to ignore that.
“But it’s not just Moretti,” I say.“He’s partnered up with an organization called Hydra.They were actually the ones who wanted Blade here.”
That finally gets some kind of reaction out of Rogue.Surprise, I’d say.
“And I just saw Moretti talking to Hydra a few nights ago,” I add.“I don’t think they’ve given up.”
