Didn't exactly have the closest relationship with them, but I sure as shit didn't want them dead either. Virgin, well, all he had was me. Life was easier - and harder - that way.
"What about Rip's girl?" I asked, sharing a look with Virgin.
"She's new," he said, shrugging. "New new like... the past two months new. Unless the prez is hiding behind dumpsters, don't figure she's in any kind of danger."
"The fuck are we supposed to do with this information?" I wondered aloud, shaking my head, wanting a drink. Or fifty. But needing a clear head right now.
"Protect your family. Watch your backs. The fuck else can you do?"
I sighed out a breath, reaching for a napkin left on the bar, and snagging a pen out of a holder by the register. Which was stupidly within reach. "This is me. Don't program me. Don't put my name on this sheet of paper. But if you hear anything worth knowing, let me know too. Give me yours, and I can do the same." At his raised brow look, clearly not trusting me, I shrugged. "We might not be club brothers anymore, D, but we're brothers still. We look out for one another when we can. Least we can do is make sure none of us get dead because we're being butthurt about not sharing booze and clubwhores every weekend anymore."
At that, D nodded, ripping off the top of the napkin to scribble his number on before passing it to me.
"It was nice seeing you guys," he said, voice sincere as Virgin and I moved to stand to leave. "Glad you found your feet. Never met two men more born to be bikers than you. It's good you found another brotherhood."
"Take care of that family of yours," I told him, clamping a hand on his shoulder before heading out with Virgin.
We weren't two feet onto the sidewalk before he let out a strange, choked laugh.
"What?"
"Fucking left the brotherhood because he wanted someone to make him chicken noodle soup and tuck him in at night. The fuck kind of biker is that?"
Virgin, well, he'd never known the touch of soft in his hard life. He never had a mother. His grandmother was off her rocker. The only women in the club were there to spread legs or suck cocks. No one had ever tucked him in or made him soup or given a shit if he was sick or hurt.
He couldn't fathom the appeal.
And while my experiences with maternal figures weren't much better, I knew a bit more soft. I could see why D chose that over us telling him to stop being such a pussy.
"Different strokes," I said, shrugging it off, knowing it would do no good to try to explain it to him. He simply wouldn't understand.
"You gotta call your Ma and Dante. Give them a heads up."
My Ma, well, she would never uproot her life because some threat was coming her way. She wasn't the type. She'd grab her sledgehammer and wait up all night for trouble to come knocking, then whack it over the head, drag it into the kitchen to her meat slicer she'd saved for six months to buy, and make a motherfucking hero out of it, all the while scolding it for making her fuck up her manicure.
Dante was hardly more than a kid still, but smart and quick and known for stirring up shit. Was kicked out of four high schools by his sophomore year.
They would be okay if I gave them a warning.
Not that I thought there was danger there for them.
D had been in the club for most of his youth. We had fewer years in. By the time we landed there, I was too old to need to be shipped off to my Ma's house to be watched. So no one, save for maybe Virgin and D and Chuck, even knew we were in contact.
And no one knew I had a brother except Virgin.
I didn't want questions about when I was gonna bring him in, get him in the lifestyle.
It might have worked out for me, but I wanted something else for Dante. Even if he seemed hellbent on finding his own sort of trouble.
I reached for my phone as we walked down the block, planning to grab a couple slices before we got a cab back to the ferry.
"No, Ma. For crissakes, I know. Yeah, got it. This isn't the first... no, I'm not talkin' back," I said, shaking my head at Virgin who was all white teeth at my phone call that was supposed to last two minutes, but was well over the twenty-minute mark. I had to choke down my pizza in between answers as she lectured me. "Virgin is right here with me, Ma," I said, smiling when his face when mortified at having to be on the receiving end of what I was dealing with. It was almost worth listening to this woman rant at me for close to half an hour. "Yeah, here you go," I said, slamming the cell into his chest when he tried to back away.