Chapter 128 Second
Dante POV
We sat in a booth in the corner, the lights low and drinks across the table.
We ordered a few appetizers to snack on but we focused most of our attention on ordering more rounds of booze. I drank scotch, like always.
Isabella had a glass of wine and Mike grabbed a handful of chips before he dropped them on his plate. He was the only crew member that was married and his black wedding ring sat on his left hand, he wore it everywhere he went except when he was on the job.
“isabella, I don’t mean to sound rude, but what the hell do you see in this guy?”
“I keep wondering the same thing.” Lucas sat on the other side of him grinning at me because he enjoyed pissing me off.
“You’ve got a beautiful woman with a killer smile, and then you’ve got Dante who looks like a hulk.”
Rex was about to drink from his drink but stopped himself because a laugh escaped his throat. “Shit, he does look like a hulk.”
I kept a straight face, not amused by any of this. “Maybe I like hulk.” Isabella moved her hand to my thigh under the table and pressed up against me, displaying that playfulness in her eyes that I loved. “He’s definitely hard like one.” She moved her hand across my chest over my t-shirt.
I loved it when she touched me regardless of the context.
“Does he talk when you guys are alone?”
Lucas asked. “Because I’ve barely heard him say a few sentences without the words kill and blood in them.”
“Or pussy,” Mike added.
“Yeah,” Lucas added. “It’s either sex or murder with this guy.”
I didn’t tell them to knock it off because that made me look like a pussy. I just let the jokes fly not caring what Isabella thought of them.
They weren’t saying anything she didn’t already know. I’d killed as many people as I’d fucked.
“He says a lot of things,” Isabella said. “He makes me food because I don’t know how to cook and he enjoys my artwork then he tells me I’m beautiful first thing in the morning and he tells me he loves me.”
The guys immediately blanched at that last comment, all shocked.
Rex was shocked the most but I didn’t care that she shared that information with all of them. I had nothing to be ashamed of. I loved a woman and I wasn’t afraid to say it.
Men who didn’t wear their hearts on their sleeves were the ones who had something
to be ashamed of.
A truly strong man wasn’t afraid of anything not even his feelings.
Isabella turned quiet picking up on the tension that settled in the room. She pulled her hand away like she regretted what she said the moment it came out of her mouth.
Mike turned to me, his shock slowly fading away before a grin formed on his face. “Dante is whipped…”
“You’re one to talk,” I shot back but he shrugged. “Yeah, but we established that years ago didn’t think this would ever happen to you.”
“That makes two of us.” My arm moved around Isabella shoulders, and I pulled her into my side. “But it has and this woman makes me happy. So you guys can go ahead and tease me about it, but you’re wasting your time
because I don’t give a shit.
When this little get-together is over, I’m going
to head home with my woman and forget this conversation ever happened.
I’ll be too busy with her to think about you.”
Max chuckled before he drank his beer.
“Alright, we’ll stop talking shit.”
“So, this is serious, then?” Lucas asked. “Is she your second?”
A second meant if something happened to me, the rest of them were responsible for taking care of her as long as they lived. Mike wife was his second and it was understood we would all look out for her if he died and if it ever came down to choosing him or her, we would always save the woman over the man.
Mike was the only one with a second since the rest of us had been more interested in whores and easy lays than long-term relationships. “Yes, she is.”
Rex smile fell and he turned serious. Lucas and Mike both had the same expression, understanding the significance of what I said.
There was a time when I wanted nothing more than to kill Isabella. Now I wanted to protect her from everything in this world, protect her even if I wasn’t living anymore. I wanted the guys to treat her the way we treated Mike wife, with nothing but the utmost respect and protectiveness. “I’m glad we got that straightened out.”
I drove back to my place with Isabella sitting on the middle seat beside me.
She slipped off her heels because they were killing her feet and my arm was draped over her shoulders and she rested her body against mine.
I’d given her my jacket because she was cold like I knew she would be and the baggy leather surrounded her, hiding her curves in that skintight black dress. Of course everyone stared at her because of the hot piece of ass that she was, but once my gaze landed on them, they didn’t make the mistake of
looking at her again.
“Can I ask you something?” Her legs were crossed and her hand rested on my thigh as we kept the music off and drove in silence.
I wasn’t angry about anything the guys had said. Everything exchanged in the conversation was true. I was just quiet and brooding because that was how I always was, naturally cold and aggressive. “Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Ask if you can ask, you know I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
She rested her cheek against my chest. “What does it mean to be your second?”
“Do you know what next of kin means?”
“Yes.”
“It’s like that. You’re my second, meaning you’re the most important person to me and If I die, it’s their job to look after you as long as one of them is still living and if we’re ever in a bad situation and they can only save one of us,
they’re supposed to save you and let me die.”
She stilled against me, absorbing my words like a sponge that just soaked up its full capacity of water.
“mike has a wife, so she’s his second and If he ever goes on a job and doesn’t come back, we’ll always look after her and we’ll protect her with our lives and die for her if we have to. She’s a pretty cool chick, so I don’t mind.”
“I don’t know what to say…”
“There’s no reason to say anything those guys are my family, even when they’re assholes. I know I can always count on them. It gives me peace of mind knowing they’ll look after you if I’m not around.”