Vidal! (Snakes Henchmen MC 6)

She looks at me and smiles. “I'm fine.”

She really doesn't look fine. In fact, she seems far from it. I get out of my seat on the love couch and take a seat beside Willow on the sofa. She groans in pain when I rub the bottom of her back. “You're not fine are you?”

She shakes her head with her eyes closed. She's starting to sweat, and she's gritting her teeth. Nova takes Willow's hand. “Will, it's time. You've been trying to hold on all night, but you can't anymore. Little man is ready to come say hello.”

“But I promised,” Willow sucks back a sob. “I have to be at the wedding.” I rub circles into her back. I read somewhere that it can help to ease contractions.

“You could still be there, Will. Look what happened with Connor. You were home eight hours after he was born.”

I didn't even know you could do that! I like the idea of that. If nothing is wrong with my baby and me after I give birth, then I want to go home quickly. I'll talk to my doctor about it at my next appointment.

“Yes, but there's no saying things will go smoothly this time.”

“Look,” I look at Nova and how annoyed she already is, and I wonder why she's always so tense. She has no patience at all with anyone. “This is your third baby, he should walk out,” Everyone laugh, but I don't. “You'll be fine. If it is that you have to stay in the hospital, then Draven and Marnie will understand.”

“Of course, we will,” I smile at Willow. Her eyes are full of tears. I know how this feels right now when you're scared.

“Hammer wanted to be there for Draven,”

“Willow?” We all look at Maria as she crouches down in front of Willow. I'm not sure she should be crouching when she's this pregnant. If she's anything like me, she'll find it hard to get back up. I only have a big belly. Maria seems to have gained quite a bit of weight with this baby. No, that is not a bad thing, she's very beautiful. I just don't want her to hurt herself. “Everything is going to be perfect. Curtis is ready to meet his mommy and daddy. No matter what happens, you have to think of you and the baby. Hammer can still be there for Draven. He can stand up with him, and once the vows are over, he'll come right back to you.”

Willow nods her head and starts breathing harshly between her teeth. “I think it's time to call Hammer and get Willow to the hospital.” Nova nods at me.

It isn't long before the big man arrives and rushes his wife away.

“Well,” Brooke bumps shoulders with me. “This is a night we won't forget in a hurry.”

“You can say that again.” Avery laughs, and we all laugh with her.

I've got to admit that tonight has been fun. I've enjoyed being with everyone; it was just what I needed. Now, I need to get some beauty sleep for tomorrow; I marry the man of my dreams!

Chapter Twenty-Five

Draven

Looking good, Boss.”

“Thanks, Tony.”

I'm in a small room down the hall from the huge ballroom Marnie, and I are getting married in. We've both done the church wedding thing, both of us marrying the wrong people. Neither of us wanted to go there again. The elders wanted me to marry in church. Fuck the elders. I've warned those fuckers before what happens when you mess with me. I don't give a shit what anybody else wants, nor what's expected of me, all that matters to me is Marnie.

In the eyes of those around us, getting married in a church would have made this wedding perfect. I have standards to set, an image to uphold. We talked about it for a while, and I could see Marnie didn't want the big wedding in a church again, which was fine by me because I don't want that shit either. I want Marnie to be happy, that's why I told her that we could get married here at home.

Our house is pretty big, too big sometimes, and there is plenty of room big enough to hold our wedding. Many people have commented today how romantic it is that Marnie and I are getting married here. My elderly aunts especially, which had me smiling because I thought those would be the people to complain. But now, apparently, the ballroom is utterly romantic.

Why do I have a ballroom in my house? I had it build for Maria.

When I took custody of Maria, she was a frightened little thing. Didn't understand where our parents were. She'd not long gotten out of the hospital after the accident, one in which our father caused, not long after our mother died. On Maria's thirteenth birthday of all days!

I thought I'd lose my little sister that day.

I tried to make her birthday special for her, inviting all her little friends from school to the huge party I threw for her. She was missing our mother, had not long told our uncle that she saw Joseph kill her. A lot of shit went down during that time. Joseph should have been killed for what he did to my mother, but my uncle, even if there was no love lost between the two of them, wouldn't allow his death with no proof of my mother being murdered. Coroner reported that my mother died from a heart attack, so I knew I'd never get the proof I needed.

Joseph wasn't supposed to be there that night, but he turned up looking for Maria. Cunt thought he still had a right to be her father. He had no fucking right. I wasn't the Don back then, but I'd made a deal with my uncle who was. Keep Joseph Vidal away from my sister, get me full custody, and I wouldn't lay a hand on the bastard who killed my mother unless we found proof. I'd also be there at his disposal whenever and wherever he wanted.

However, there Joseph was chasing Maria as she screamed her fucking head off in fear. Seconds it took me to chase after them, and my fucking heart was in my throat! It took even less time for her to fall forty-foot over a banister. My heart sank, and I thought my life would end. Maria lay there motionless, arms and legs bent in all sorts of positions, blood pouring from the back of her head.

Weeks Maria was in the hospital, half of them on a damn ventilator. Crushed is not the word for how I felt. I swore then and there that I would kill that motherfucker, even if it did take me ten years to do it. I also swore to Maria that I'd make sure she had the ballroom of her dreams, a place she could dance to her heart’s content. She's always loved to dance, and I would have given her anything she wanted just to see her smile.

The room is never really used anymore for anything, but it has been decorated to perfection for this wedding. Flowers, lanterns, doves, my girl walking down the aisle where I'll be waiting for her.

“Second time lucky, huh?” I ask jokingly.

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“Difference this time is, Marnie is an amazing woman who loves you for who you are inside. Not the man the rest of us see, but the man you allow only her, Maria, and Avery to see. The man I know you are inside.” Cheesy fucker.

I know I can be myself around Tony, just as I know I can around Hammer, yet they don't see the man I truly am. They know he's there inside of me somewhere, but I don't let him out in front of them. If I did, I know they wouldn't judge me.

Tony has been in my life the whole of it, wiseguys come and go, bit like poor old Roderick, but men like Tony are one in a million. As close to me as a brother. If there's anyone I can put my life in the hands of, apart from my actual brother, it's Tony.

You'd think I would have been pissed at the fact he had a thing for my little sister. I could see it every time he looked at her. However, out of respect for me, he never made a pass at her, never so much as looked at her the wrong way.

Of course, I spoke to him about it, and he told me that he'd never do anything to cross me. Good man. I could have killed him for so much as thinking about her, she's eleven years his junior, but I like the fucker too much. As long as he never said or did anything to her, there was no reason for me to off him.

I did think about marrying Maria off to Tony when the whole Jett thing first started. I knew she'd be as safe with him as she is with me. However, I choose a different man, one nearer her age, one whom I did not think of as a brother. It was a bad idea, and Tony told me as much many time. We both knew where Maria's heart lay. I knew that forcing her into an unwanted arranged marriage was not what was best for her.

Just as it wasn't best for Avery when I forced her to watch as I beat the living hell out of Ghost and ordered his damn club to kill him or I'd end the lot of them. It took my brother finding out whom he was to me, him asking me for one thing while making me see what I was doing to Avery for me to back down and allow her to be with Ghost.