Page 75 of The Fates We Tame

As I enter, King is talking to Niro, who is sitting back in his chair without a care in the world. “You wanna tell me why there are Sicilians outside the door asking to speak to you?”

Niro shrugs. “Saw them at the rehab center. The twins. They were visiting someone. We were visiting someone. They said I could fuck them.”

Catalina huffs. “They said, ‘Fuck you.’”

“Same thing,” Niro says.

“Did you kill any of them?” King asks.

Niro screws up his face in disgust. “What kind of question is that?”

Spark places his elbows on the table. “You forgotten how many people you killed for no reason in the past?”

Niro pulls his phone out of his cut pocket and pretends to flip through it for something. “Thirty-eight who fucking deserved it. Nineteen who were dubious. Only one I think probably was innocent, but who knows. He could have grown up to be the next Hitler and I did the world a favor.” Then he puts his phone down.

Halo hides his grin behind his hand.

“So why are they here asking for you?” Clutch asks.

Niro pauses for a second. I sense his conflict. He wants to be loyal to the club, but he also made a promise to me.

And given Sophia’s father is outside the door, the truth is going to be revealed real soon.

King notices I’ve joined them. “This better not be about your fucking wife.”

“My wife is Sophia Viscuso, Vincenzo’s youngest daughter.”

“Fuck me,” King curses.

Saint rubs a hand over his jaw. “Is that why you insisted on keeping things informal at the wedding? Why you only used first names?”

I nod. “It was.”

King forms a tight fist, then releases it. “So, this is just an internal family thing? Wait, why did he ask for Niro and not you or his daughter?”

“I asked Niro to help break us out of the center when we realized her father intended to marry her to the head of another family in Sicily, and given how I felt about her and she felt about me, we weren’t prepared to let that happen,” I say. “We overheard her brothers, the twins, discussing it. They were making plans to transport her via private jet to Sicily.”

“You can’t chase your wife all the way to Italy.” King’s volume increases with every word.

“I’ll chase her to the ends of the goddamn earth if I have to.” The words don’t feel like a lie. They don’t feel like an act. Now that trouble is at our door, that someone wants to take Sophia from me, I’m faced with the knowledge that I’ll die to stop them.

King shakes his head. “We aren’t getting involved with the fucking Cosa Nostra, Switch. Not for you nor the woman you barely know outside. If your fucking bitch brought trouble to our door, she needs to fix it herself,” King says.

My hand automatically closes into a fist, but I rein in my temper. “Don’t speak about my wife like that.” I look around the room, and then I find my voice. “I’m guessing that at some point over the past ten years, I’ve earned the patch of medic. I’m guessing I’ve kept some of you alive either by my own hands or until we could get you to a hospital. Clutch?”

Clutch nods. “Bunch of times. Got shot when they came after Gwen, and you patched me up.”

“Saved my fucking life when I came off my bike trying to get to Catalina,” Niro says.

Vex sits, his arms folded. “Saved me twice. Thank you, brother.”

I look at King. “And you?”

He folds his arms across his chest. “Stitched me up too many times to remember, but you saved my life when the fucking Brotherhood broke into my house and shot me.”

Halo stands. “You saved Ari and Lola’s life, and that’s how we all ended up here.”

“Well, then. I’m calling in those tickets. If I ever saved your life or the life of someone you loved and you said you’d pay me back one day, I’m claiming it now. I need Sophia. Can’t fucking explain it. Feel like she’s been put in my path to bring me back here. Seeing Catalina, Rae, and Saint here gives me faith that the club knows how to have a brother’s back, even when the circumstances make no sense.”