CHAPTER ELEVEN
CAPONE
You know you’ve reached an all-time low when you start using your niece and nephews as an excuse to spend time with a girl you should be pretending doesn’t exist, but after spending the weekend alone in my apartment, trolling her TikTok videos like a creep, I couldn’t seem to help myself.
Monday came and before I could think better of it, I devised a plan to spend more time with Tara by using Sophia as my decoy. I knew she was pissed about how I reacted when I dropped her off on Friday, and I figured that’s why Maverick told me to take the weekend off, so I came prepared with a jar of Nutella.
However, I didn’t expect her to cave so easily or look at me the way she did.
I’m not an expert at reading people, but I know when a girl looks at a guy the way Tara looked at me, it can be dangerous for everyone involved. There was curiosity in those hazel eyes of hers, and a longing for something she shouldn’t want. I know, because if I held a mirror up to my face, I’d see the same things reflected in my own eyes.
Maybe it was the two days I spent apart from her that sent every fuck flying out the window, but I didn’t seem to care.
We dropped her car at the clubhouse, and before anyone could question if I lost my mind, I drove my Suburban the fuck out of there. The bike seemed to upset whatever was going on with her leg, and I couldn’t strap Sophia’s car seat to the back of my Harley.
We were almost at my apartment when she dropped a bomb on me, revealing that Mark cornered her at school.
“Apparently he and Claudia broke up,” she said. “I’m not sure I’m buying it though. They were all over each other during homeroom.”
My fingers instantly tightened around the steering wheel. The thought of that little punk cozying up to her ignited something ugly inside of me.
“And he felt the need to inform you of the development?”
The words came out harsher than I intended. It wasn’t her fault Mark was such an entitled little cunt. She pulled her lip between her teeth, contemplating her response, and that only fueled my anger more.
“That, and he thought he should tell me that he isn’t a fan of me spending time with you.” She turned in the passenger seat to stare at me, but I kept my eyes on the road until she opened her mouth again and I swerved onto the shoulder.
“He thinks I’m going to revenge fuck you.”
“Jesus Christ, Tara.” I growled as I tried to regain control of the truck. She cursed in front of me a lot, and it didn’t affect me, but hearing her say the word fuck, in the context of which she said it, sent me over the edge. I tampered down the part of me that felt victorious over Mark’s assumption. It wasn’t a win. The plan wasn’t to make the kid jealous. I was the roadblock. The guy standing in the way from him trying to reclaim Tara. “Did you tell him that’s not the case? I mean how long were you with him? Doesn’t he know about the lockdowns and shit?”
She laughed. “You should see your face. You look like you’re about to throw up.”
“Tara this isn’t funny,” I hissed.
The smile fell from her face, and she pursed her lips.
“You’re right. It’s never funny when a guy is repulsed by the thought of screwing you.” She crossed her arms against her chest and diverted her attention out the passenger window. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him think it for too long. I just got caught up in how it felt to have him be jealous over the idea of another guy wanting me.”
I couldn’t tell her the only thing repulsive about any of this was the fact I liked the idea of it too. I should’ve let the conversation die, but I’m a stupid motherfucker.
“Look at me,” I demanded, and she slowly slid her gaze toward me. “You could search the whole fucking world, and you wouldn’t find a single man who doesn’t think you’re the most beautiful thing he laid eyes on. If you were a little older, or I was a little younger…” My voice trailed, and I swallowed down the words I knew I couldn’t share.
Until that moment, my thoughts were mostly PG. Sure there were moments when I slipped and stared a little too long at her body, specifically her tits, and that tight, round ass that when perched over her center console sent my dick into disarray.
But I never let it get to the point where I imagined what it would be like to fuck her.
She’d be tight as hell, and it would hurt her at first, but once I got her nice and primed, it would be fucking amazing. I’d teach her everything she needed to know and enjoy every fucking moment of watching her discover what pleased her sexually.
We’d go all night. Her stamina would be fueled on curiosity, and mine would be fueled on the sweet sounds she’d make when she came.
And she’d come.
She’d come hard, fast, and frequent. It’d be messy as fuck, and I’d love every goddamn minute.
“You don’t have to lie to me, Capone. Even if my dad wasn’t the president of your club, I know you’d never go for a girl like me. I’m an inexperienced virgin, and you’re…well, you’re you. But Mark doesn’t know that.”
The more she spoke, the more damage she did. I wanted to shake her and tell her that taking her virginity would be a fucking privilege, and it only made me want her more.
Lucky for me, my sister called just then, informing me that she and Sophia were already at my apartment. All thoughts of Tara’s virginity were squashed, and the rest of that afternoon was spent watching The Little Mermaid and eating pizza. If Tara was still bothered by our conversation, she didn’t show it. When it was time to take Sophia home, things got a little complicated. She didn’t want to leave. I wound up bribing her with ice cream and promising her she could come on Thursday when I watched the boys.
Tuesday afternoon I suckered Tara into another trip to Walmart. With the boys coming on Thursday, I needed all the fixings for an epic Nerf gun battle. Two wagons full of guns and a basket of foam bullets would do the trick. What I didn’t anticipate is that Tara would grab a third wagon and insist I buy some things for my apartment, like two throw blankets for the bean bag chairs and a candle I will never light.
“You really need a couch,” she said when I handed the cashier my credit card. “Pots and pans wouldn’t hurt either. Then you could make me homemade pizza.”
“Sorry, princess, but pizza isn’t made in a pot, and I don’t have room for a pizza oven.”
“I’m sure a regular oven will work just fine.”
She had me there, and oddly enough, I wanted to cook for her.
“Next week, I’ll make you pizza.”
My chest tightened when she grinned at me, and I took her home before I made any more promises I shouldn’t.
The next day was uneventful until she got out of school, and I spotted Mark trailing behind her like a lost fucking puppy. It took everything in me not to march across the lot and carry her to my bike. I followed her to the clubhouse, where Holly was waiting outside the H & M trailer holding an envelope. She rushed to Tara, and demanded I go inside to get Maverick.
I didn’t know what the urgency was, but I did as I was told, interrupting a heated conversation between Ghost and Maverick. The tension within the club was obvious, but no one felt it was necessary to keep me in the loop, and I didn’t ask any questions. For the first time since I got my patch, I was perfectly okay with being kept in the dark.
I followed Maverick, and we joined Holly and Tara in the common room.
“Go on open it,” Holly encouraged, clasping her hands together as she smiled at Maverick. “It’s our baby’s first college acceptance letter.”
For some reason that shocked me. Don’t get me wrong, I knew she was a senior and that she’d be graduating in a couple of months, but she didn’t talk about her plans for what happened afterwards.
“Which school?” Maverick asked.
“New York,” Holly responded.
Something I couldn’t quite place twisted inside of me.
“I didn’t know you were planning to go away to college,” I blurted. Everyone’s eyes swung toward me, but mine remained pinned to Tara.
“I applied to a few local colleges, but Staten Island has a great nursing program.”
“It’s her number one choice,” Maverick grunted, crossing his arms against his chest. I tore my eyes away from Tara to look at him. “I already called Wolf, and told him if she decides to go there he better have a spare room ready.”
I swallowed thickly.
“Good idea. Better she stay with people you know than in a dorm.”
Holly laughed.
“The spare room is for us when we visit her. She wants the full dorm experience, don’t you, Tara?”
“Yeah,” Tara agreed, but there was something off about her. She grabbed her side and slowly lowered herself into a chair. Alarm bells rang inside my head, and I turned to Holly and Maverick, waiting for either of them to react, but they both seemed oblivious to it. I wondered if they knew how many times her leg gave out and if she told them about the bump on her hip.
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense. Open it,” Maverick said.
Tara’s eyes found mine once again, and she reached into the back pocket of her jeans for her phone.
“Can you video me opening it? I want to post my blind reaction to TikTok.”
I took the phone from her, but I didn’t rush to open the camera app. I was too concerned with the pain that flashed across her face, but it seemed to vanish as quickly as it appeared. Her parents were staring at me, waiting for me to get my act together, so I started recording. She tore through the envelope, and pulled out the letter, her eyes scanning it for only a second before a grin spread across her face.
“I was accepted!”
Holly threw her arms around Tara instantly, and Maverick stood still as a statue, watching as the mother daughter duo happily embraced. When they finally broke apart, Tara got up and hurried to her father, hugging him tightly. But the man looked completely devastated.
He didn’t want to let her go, and oddly enough, neither did I. New York was like ten hours away from here. That was entirely too far.
But I kept that shit to myself, and when her dad released his hold on her, I offered her my congratulations. To celebrate, the Burnside clan decided to go to Sally’s for dinner, and Maverick invited me to join them. My first instinct was to decline, but one look into Tara’s pleading eyes, and I was sucked in.
So there we were, Maverick, Holly, Tara, the two boys, and me, all gathered around a table like one big happy family. It should’ve been awkward, but it wasn’t. Maverick ordered us a bucket of beer, and the ale loosened me up a bit. At one point I even draped my arm around the back of Tara’s chair. When the dinner was done, Tara went home with her parents, and I went back to the clubhouse where I found Hawk, Wiz, and Mamba playing cards.
“Look who decided to show his face,” Wiz taunted. “How is the Gymboree treating you?”
I ignored him and took a seat next to Hawk.
“You want in?” He asked, tipping his chin toward the pile of money in the middle of the table. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a fifty. Mamba dealt me in, and I lost my money within five minutes. It was pathetic.
“Leftie said you went to dinner with Maverick, and the family,” Hawk prompted as he collected his winnings from the pot.
“Yeah, Tara got accepted to some college in New York and they were celebrating,” I supplied.
“I didn’t know she was planning on going away to school.”
“That makes two of us,” I muttered.
“Maverick mention anything about the club to you?” Wiz asked.
“Nah,” I answered. “He was too busy trying to pretend he wasn’t miserable at the prospect of Tara moving away.” I glanced around the table, trying to decipher the expressions on their faces. “Is something going on that I should know about?”
“Something is definitely going on,” Mamba grunted. “But no one seems to know what it is except for Shady and Ghost.”
I didn’t know what to make of that, but unlike my brothers I had faith that Maverick would clue us all in when he felt it was time. I hung out for a little while longer, then my phone dinged with a notification. It wasn’t a text message, or an NFL alert. No, it was TikTok, notifying me that Tara posted a new video. Stupidly, I opened the app and watched the edited video of Tara opening her acceptance letter in front of Hawk.
“You going to continue to deny your attraction toward her?”
“Fuck off,” I growled.
He laughed at me, then before he retired for the night he whispered, “The crime isn’t in the attraction, it’s in the execution.”
Again, the words fucking haunted me. Even now, I can’t stop hearing them play over in my head.
“Take cover, Uncle G!”
Easier said than done when you’re six three and there’s nothing but a couple of bean bag chairs to hide behind. I pull my t-shirt over my head, and roll onto my back, waving my shirt like a white flag.
“I surrender,” I call back to Vito. “It’s over, kid. They won.”
I like to think we put up a good fight, but the truth is the little ones killed us, and them pairing up with Sophia and Tara—well, that didn’t help us either.
“What happened to whole ‘never give up, never back down’ speech?” Tara taunts from the other end of the living room where her, Sophia, and Carmine are locked and loaded.
“That was two hours ago,” I sit up, and pull my t-shirt back on. Pushing my arms through the sleeves, I find Tara’s eyes from across the room. “And it wasn’t supposed to be four against two.”
“Does that mean we win?” Sophia asks, pushing the goggles she stole from her brother on top of her messy curls.
Fuck, she’s adorable.
“Yes,” Tara says, lowering her Nerf gun to the floor. “We’re the champs!” She wraps her arms around Sophia, giving her an affectionate hug. “I told you we were going crush them. They never stood a chance.”
“That’s because girls rule, and boys drool.”
“Hey,” Carmine argues. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have won. The two of you couldn’t shoot Uncle G.”
“Actually, I got a couple of clear shots,” Tara says, and I roll my eyes.
Technically she isn’t lying. The girl shot me in the dick three times and nearly took out my left nut.
Vito tosses his gun on the floor, fixing me with a glare.
“You let them win,” he accuses. “Next time I want to be on Tara’s team. You can have Sophia.” He takes off for the kitchen sulking as he climbs on top of a stool and helps himself to the multitude of snacks I bought.
I turn back to Gianluca, Carmine, and Antonio as they ransack what’s left of my apartment.
“They’re like three tiny tornadoes,” Tara marvels.
My gaze cuts to her, and I stare as she smiles at my nephews who are ten seconds away from putting a hole in one of my walls. After a moment she glances back at me.
“You know what we forgot to get from Walmart?”
“No, but I reckon you’re going to tell me.”
“A broom.” She tucks her hair behind her ears and starts to pick up the little blue bullets that decorate the carpet.
“Leave it,” I say. “I’ll clean up when they leave.”
She ignores me like the brat she is and continues to scamper around the living room collecting little foam bullets. Rather than fight with her, I keep my mouth shut and let her do her thing, giving myself a moment to appreciate the view. I’ve been a fucking boy scout all day, ignoring the way the leggings she’s wearing showcase her toned legs, and because her nipples aren’t playing peekaboo today, I’ve managed to avoid staring at her rack too.
My phone chimes with a text, and I reluctantly tear my gaze away from Tara’s ass to read the message my sister sent.
“Looks like the party is over, kids. Your moms are on their way to pick you hellions up.”
A relieved breath escapes me as I set the phone down on the floor next to me. I love these kids, but, man, I was ready to tap out an hour ago. Two of them wouldn’t have been that bad. Three or more is overachieving and I’m not about that life.
“But we didn’t do the TikTok!” Sophia protests as she hops down from the stool and runs straight for Tara. “You was gonna make me TikTok famous.”
Tara laughs as she fixes Sophia’s ponytail.
“I’m still trying to be TikTok famous myself.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“I’d say your damn near there.”
Her eyes flit to me. “Have you been looking at my TikTok?”
I shrug. “I was bored.”
“Well, I’m glad I could entertain you.”
“You know I may have gotten on your case about your obsession with the phone, but I’m starting to see how much work you put into all those videos.”
“A person can make a full-time job out of it.”
“But not you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I didn’t realize you wanted to be a nurse.”
“Oh,” she murmurs. “Well, it’s an option.”
“So then why apply to a school that is known for their nursing program if it’s only an option?”
She stops picking up the bullets and sighs. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Go for it.”
“Mark is going to Rutgers. He got a full scholarship to play football.”
“Is that supposed to impress me?”
“No, but him deciding to go to school in New Jersey had a lot to do with me applying to school in Staten Island. I didn’t want to seem like I was following him, so I chose a school forty minutes away.”
“So you don’t want to be a nurse?”
“I don’t know what I want.” She pushes her hair away from her face and tucks it behind her ears. “I have time to figure it out. But even if I decide not to go into nursing, I think going away to college would be good for me. A new beginning where no one knows I’m…what did you call it…biker royalty.”
I suspect it’s normal not to know what you want out of life. After all, I’m twenty-seven, and I still don’t have anything figured out.
She kicks my legs apart and moves to stand between them. Towering over me she crosses her arms under her tits and cocks her head to the side.
“You’re not going to say anything, are you?”
Even with my niece running circles around us, I can’t help but wonder what she’d do if I grabbed her hips and pulled her onto my lap. She’d fit perfectly, there isn’t a doubt in my mind.
“And risk you telling everyone my mother breastfed me until I was three? Nah.”
She laughs, stepping over my legs to sit on the floor beside me.
“You really need a couch.”
“So pick one out and order it for me. I’ll give you my credit card.”
Her gaze snaps to me as I fold my arms behind my head and lean against the bean bag. “Are you serious?”
Before I can answer, Vito interrupts.
“Uncle G what’s the password for the WiFi, my YouTube isn’t working.”
“Sixty-nine, sixty-nine,” my namesake, Gianluca, reveals as he rushes over to us. He shoots me a toothless grin as he rocks back on his heels. “Uncle G says that’s his favorite number.”
It’s my favorite position too.
I glare at the little terror giving up all my secrets for about a second before turning my attention back to Tara. I won’t pretend that I don’t like the blush that stains her cheeks. I like it a fuck ton actually and my mind starts to run off the rails, entering dangerous territory. I start to wonder just how far Tara’s gone with that little douchebag, Mark. Even if she let him go down on her, I doubt she got the full experience. That fucker probably couldn’t find her clit if it had a neon sign illuminating it for him.
Sophia plops down on my lap, completely breaking my train of thought when she almost crushes my balls.
“Can we do the TikTok now? Pretty please with a cherry on top?”
Tara grabs her phone and inches closer to me, tugging Sophia between us.
“Okay, but only because you added the cherry.” She hands Sophia the phone and shows her how to scroll through the videos. “Which trend do you want to try?”
While the two of them decide on that, I pull out my own phone and open the same app. It doesn’t take me long to navigate it. I click on the tab that reads following and a bunch of Tara’s videos pop up. I watch her do her make up for about ten seconds in one, and dance to some god-awful tune in another.
“What’s this little number next to the triangle?” I ask.
“That’s the number of views the video has,” she says.
I hum at that. Some of them have over a hundred thousand. I click on the one with the most, and my jaw clenches at the sight of her with Mark. The last time I looked at her profile, I didn’t scroll all the way down, so I missed some of these.
Clicking one of the videos I didn’t watch, I grind my teeth when Tara appears on the screen with Mark, each of them holding tortillas in their hand. He takes a drink of water, and she slaps him on the cheek with the tortilla.
I smile.
I like this one.
She takes a sip of water next, and he hits her with the fucking tortilla. I tear my gaze away from the screen and glare at Tara.
“I really thought I had a chance with that one going viral. The tortilla challenge was all the rage for a while.”
“Delete that.”
She scoffs. “Why? It’s got the most views.”
“For one, that prick is in it, and he’s hitting you with a fucking tortilla. Did your father see this?”
A giggle slips past her lips. “Of course he did. If you scroll down a couple of more videos, you’ll find one of him and I doing it too. I beat him.”
I can’t imagine Maverick participating in such a ridiculous thing, much less hitting his daughter with a fucking tortilla, but I scroll and just like Tara said, there’s a video of him and her slapping each other with the tortillas. He breaks first, sputtering water from his mouth and nose after his daughter whacks him.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present our fearless leader.
The president of the Satan’s Knights.
A TikTok sensation.
“Want to give it a go? See if I can get more views with you than I did with Mark or my dad?”
My eyes lift from the screen.
“I’m not hitting you in the face with a tortilla.”
“Can we do it?” Sophia asks.
“No,” I answer. “No one is hitting anyone with tortillas. I don’t even have tortillas.”
“We can Doordash them,” Tara suggests.
Before I can tell her no, the doorbell rings. I toss my phone onto the floor and hoist myself up. Realizing it’s probably my sisters coming to collect their spawn, I hurry to the door. It takes fifteen minutes for them to collect all their belongings and say goodbye six times. Sophia throws a tantrum because we didn’t smack her with tortillas, and I promise to have a Mexican fiesta next week with all the kids. When they finally leave, I throw myself on the floor next to Tara, and hand her my credit card.
“Order a couch.”
“You can’t just order a couch online, Capone. Don’t you want to test it out.”
“I’ll test it out when it gets delivered.” I turn to face her. She looks as tired as I feel. “You hungry? I can order some real food.”
“Oh, you mean, you’re done feeding me things filled with red dye?”
“Yeah, I’m moving onto processed foods. How do you feel about McDonalds?”
She giggles as she scoots closer to me. “Thanks, but I’m not really hungry.” Stretching her arm across my body, she tugs one of the throws we bought at the store and drapes it across her body.
“Are you cold?”
“A little.”
The right thing to do would be to turn up the heat or offer her a sweatshirt. Maybe even take her home. Do I do any of those things? Absolutely not.
“C’mere,” I say, spreading my arms wide. She stares at me blankly for about a second, then curls into my side and lays her head on top of my chest. My arms wind around her, and I suck in a breath.
Why does she have to fit so perfectly in my arms?
She throws her leg over my thigh, and I bite back a grown.
Way too perfect.
“I should take you home,” I murmur as my throat goes dry, and I pull her even closer.
“Not yet.”
“Tara…”
“I just want to stay like this for a few minutes.”
I don’t argue even though I’m not sure I can handle a few minutes without wanting a thousand more, and when she falls asleep, I close my eyes and fall right along with her.