BANE: A Devils' Due MC Romance Novel (15 page)

“Bullshit!” He was livid.  “Loco... those Guidos are damn pussies!  They’re not even soldiers.  They’re like farmers and fishermen and shit!  We can take ‘em out!  There’s no need to surrender the girl!”

“Take them out with what, Bane?” Loco confronted him.  “We have fourteen active members.  They have more than a hundred footmen in four states, ready to come here when the Don gives the order.  We can be ballsy about this matter, but where will that bring us?  We don’t have the numbers.  Learn how to fucking count!”

“That’s a load of crap, Loco, and ‘ya know it!” Bane shot back.  “The club’s supposed to protect family, and the girl’s Renzo’s daughter!”

“And Renzo’s a rat!” Loco reminded him.  “He was stripped of his membership before he died, right?  He’s no longer a brother... and she... she’s no longer family.  We have no duty to protect her.”

“No longer family?” Bane repeated, as if he couldn’t believe his president’s words.

“Hey man... you know the code.  You know the rules... brothers and family... that’s what we’re about... that’s
all
we’re about.”

Bane charged towards me.  He shoved his brothers who were beside me.  They fell back from the force of his push, releasing their hold.  Bane then wrapped his massive arm over my body, pulling me away from them, telling everyone in the room that he would protect me, that they would have to go through him before they could snatch me once again.

“Bane... this is an exercise in futility,” Loco told him.  “You know you can’t keep us away from her.  I mean, dude... we’re brothers... we don’t have to be like this, come on!”

“No harm will come to her!” Bane screamed.  “I promised her old man!”

“Your promises to a rat mean nothing, Bane.”

“She’s just a little girl!”

“And she isn’t our problem.  I told you.  She isn’t family.”

Just as I was about to abandon all hope, he did something that I would never forget for as long as I lived...

Bane held my hand and drew it close to his chest.  Then he scoured for something in his pocket, searching frantically until he found what he was looking for.  He pulled out his hand and clutched my fingers.  He inserted a ring on my thumb.  The band was so big that it kept slipping off.

But it was beautiful.  White gold or sparkling silver, I couldn’t really tell.  But the purple stones that surrounded it would’ve made me breathless were it not for the direness of the situation we were in.

I wondered, though, why did he have a ring like that?  Where did he get it?  And most importantly, why did he give it to me?

With eyes wide open in utter shock and with my mouth agape, I looked at him.  His stern face was still transfixed on the president he was defying.

“What’s the meaning of this, Bane?” Loco asked him with equal astonishment.

“You keep saying she ain’t family,” Bane replied.  “Well... she’s family
now.”

My eyes widened even more as I felt like my jaw dropped to the floor.

“What... What do you mean?” Loco wondered, his mouth was beginning to twist into an awkward grin.

“You know what I mean,” Bane answered sternly.  “The girl’s
my
ol’ lady.  She’s family now.”

Wild murmurs echoed all over the lobby.  The patches conferred with one another.  The women whispered their curses and their rage and their consternation.  And Loco...

He started to laugh, hysterically, almost maniacally.

“Well, that changes everything, doesn’t it?” he said.  “Alright then... the girl stays!”

The mumblings got louder.  Soon enough, the entire lobby was buzzing with what seemed like a thousand conversations about the same subject.

“Talk about a fucking game changer!” Loco yelled as he continued to titter.

I wasn’t asleep yet when the door opened.

Bane went in.  He didn’t knock like he used to.  He just went straight inside and sat on the bed where I lied.

He noticed how surprised I was with his sudden entrance.

“Knockin’ would’ve just raised some suspicion,” he said with a little bit of irateness. “Lovers ain’t supposed to be that formal.”

“I... I understand,” I told him.  I pulled up the blanket to cover my body.  I was just wearing a shirt... one of his white shirts... and nothing else underneath except my knickers.

“I have to bunk here tonight... and every fucking night from hereon in,” he continued.

“Y-You will?” I asked nervously, staggered by what he said.

“If I’ll sleep on the couch, they’ll just think that you kicked me out of the room,” he explained.  “They’ll just laugh at me and think that I’m drowning in pussy whip.  Bad for my cred.”

“I... understand,” I let him know once more.

He didn’t say another word after that.  He just sat there, staring blankly at the wall in front of him.  He was thinking... about what, I didn’t really know.  What transpired earlier, most probably?  How we were supposed to pretend to be a couple?  How our roles should be defined and carried out?

“So, how should this go?” I asked after many minutes of quietness, playing with the ring he gave me as it spun around my thumb.

“The way it should go, kid,” he said without turning around to look at me.  “The same way them other boys keep their relationships with their ol’ ladies.”

“And how is that?” I wanted to know.  I may be familiar with their ways, but I was never made aware of those little details.

“Simple, really.  You be the good gal you’re supposed to be... and I’ll be the asshole who’d go home late at night, expectin’ to be served.”

His straightforward reply made me quaff.

“S-Served?” I didn’t even mean to repeat that word.  It just escaped my mouth.

“Yeah!” he confirmed.  “Like... I dunno... getting me some beer or massaging my feet or some other shit...”

I heaved a sigh of relief, comforted that such was the extent of the
service
I was expected to do.

Then the door’s hinges creaked.  Someone was about to enter the room.

Immediately, Bane lunged towards me, pinning me on the bed with his muscular and heavy body.  His strapping chest pressed against my breasts... his fingers clasped my hands and pinioned them above my head... and his lips...

His lips touched mine... with steadfast compulsion that caught me by surprise.

My eyes broadened as my knees - and every part of my body - weakened.  A storm of sensations swirled in my gut.  His kiss was sloppy, wet, unrefined.  Wittingly or unwittingly, his tongue dangled from his mouth, slurping my lips with ungraceful motions.

Nothing about that moment was elegant.

But for all its fleeting ungainliness... I found it bizarrely beautiful.

“Boss?”  A man’s voice called out from the other side of the door as it opened.  The prospect’s. 

Bane didn’t release me from his hold.  He waited until the visitor entered the room.

“What?” he asked with feigned vexation as he heard the prospect’s footsteps walk into the chamber.  It was only then when his lips - warm and soft and reassuring as they were - abandoned my mouth, though my body was still squashed underneath his mammoth form.

“Uhm... uhhh...” the prospect was overwhelmed with discomfort, it seemed, thinking that he has interrupted a patch’s private moments with his ol’ lady.

“Jesus Christ, Bumbux!” Bane yelled at him.  “‘Ya already caused me some blue balls, might as well tell me why!”

“Uhm... Loco just got back, Boss,” the prospect said.  “He wants to talk to you.”

“Tell ‘im I’m coming over in a few minutes,” Bane instructed him.

The prospect nodded and hurriedly left, closing the door on his way out.

“Holy hell!  Remind me to put a sign on the door,” he groaned.  “People should be reminded how to knock, for fuck’s sake!”

“Y-Yeah,” I mumbled my agreement.

“We can’t go on like this, thinkin’ that people would just walk in anytime they damn please,” he continued.

“U-Uhuh,” I concurred once more, more difficultly than before.

“As if it ain’t hard enough to pretend while they’re there... now, we have to pretend even when the fucking door is closed,” he added.

“Y-Yes,” I struggled to answer.

He looked at me again.  As his face turned, his lips brushed against mine... something he instantly noticed.  He pulled back his head to give me some space.

“What’s wrong with ‘ya, kid?” he asked with concern.  “You sound like you have a bad case of diarrhea.”

“C-Can’t... Can’t... Can’t breathe...” I muttered, my eyes darted down to his torso that was squashing my body with his weight.

“Oh shit!” he roared as he realized how he was crushing me.  He got up and I quickly.  “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“It’s... It’s okay,” I said as I tried to catch my breath.  It was late when I realized that the blanket has fallen off, exposing my underwear.  He swiftly turned to face the door when he saw me looking at him while he was gawking at my legs.

“I... I have to meet Prez,” he told me as he proceeded to the door.  “I’ll be back soon, though.  Not that I want to, but I have to.  God damn it!  This shtick’s fucking crazy!”

I could understand his frustration.  He never planned on going this far when they took me that night.  For them - he and Trevor, at least - it was just about a promise they made to my father.  It wasn’t supposed to be like this, with the entire club denouncing me and with Bane having to pretend to desire me enough to take me as his ol’ lady.

As he left the room, I pondered on that thought some more.

Why did he go to that extent, anyway?

Was it out of honor?  To keep a pledge that he made to a dying man he once called his brother?  Trevor made the same vow... but he has given up on me when their president decided to turn me over to the Italians.

But Bane...

He never gave up.

He persisted.

He fought for me when everyone wanted me gone.  He went against his club just to protect me.  And yesterday, he risked his own life just to keep me safe.

Why?

Was he a more honorable man than his vice president?

Or was it because of something else... a reason I have yet to discover... a side of him that I have yet to fully comprehend?