Rome: A Marked Men Novel (18 page)

crisis.

“Cora.” I put my head down over his heart and tried to calm down. “Don’t worry, Half-Pint, we got

this.”

And then he was asleep and I was left wondering how such an obviously imperfect guy had invaded my

world so thoroughly and how right Rowdy had been,
sideways
. Everything was most definitely sideways

and right now I had no clue which way was up.

CHAPTER 8

Rome

I was sprawled out under the pool table, trying to get the stupid thing level, when several pairs of worn

motorcycle boots were suddenly the only things I could see through the legs I had jacked up off the floor. It

was early afternoon, so the bar was dead and Brite had taken off to run some errands. I guess that left me

sort of in charge, and if a bunch of bikers were going to show up and trash all the hard work I had put in to

this place over the last few weeks, it was going to get unpleasant really fast. I took a quick count, noting

that there appeared to be five of them, before I slid out from under the table and wiped my hands down on

my jeans.

Bikers looked like bikers, but these guys were clearly the top branch of the club. I knew badass when I

saw it, could feel the
don’t fuck with me
coming off this crew. These guys were no prospects, no sidewalk

bikers looking for a little action. These dudes were the real deal, and if they wanted a piece of me, I was

going to have to work way harder at staying alive than I had the last time I tangled with a bunch of bikers.

The guy that was clearly the leader of the crew took a step toward me and I had to stiffen up to avoid

taking an automatic step back. I lifted the eyebrow with the scar in it and crossed my arms over my chest. I

could do badass as well as the next guy if I had to.

“You Archer?”

I nodded slightly and kept an eye on the other four guys who spread out to flank the man talking to me.

“Brite told me some of the newbies came in here and fucked shit up. Tried to start some business with

you and then looked like little punks when you finished it. That true?”

I just nodded again. I wasn’t sure what this was all about, and I didn’t know if more detail would help

or hurt my case at this point in time.

The guy shared a look with one of the other guys over my shoulder and moved to pull up the edge of

his sleeve. I blinked in surprise when I noticed he had the exact same tattoo Brite wore on his forearm.

“Brothers-in-arms, kiddo. That shit don’t fly with me and it don’t fly with the Sons of Sorrow. The club

knows the Bar is off-limits and that anyone who did service deserves respect. That little ass-wipe is getting

his rocker cut off. We will not have prospects or anyone around us who can’t abide by the rules and show

proper respect.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what getting a rocker cut off meant, but it sounded like it was all in my favor, so I

nodded once more and pushed off the table.

“Thanks. I’m just glad nobody got hurt any worse or the bar didn’t end up even more trashed.”

“Brite likes you. Thinks you’re a good kid with a lot of potential. That means you’re good people in my

book. We look out for good people.”

I wasn’t sure if that was entirely true. I knew from Cora that Asa was still in a cast from a beat-down by

a Southern chapter of the SoS, but I guess as long as they didn’t want to start anything up with me, I

couldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. I shook the guy’s hand but didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until every

last one of them trekked back out the front door. I went up the bar to where Darcy had stuck her head out

of the kitchen to keep an eye on things.

“That was intense.”

She nodded and handed me a glass of water from the other side of the bar. “Brite ran around with them

when he got back after his first deployment. He was into all kinds of bad stuff. That was why wife number

one left.”

“I could see that. Those are some scary-ass dudes.”

“Brite was just as scary. Still can be when he puts his mind to it. You’re lucky you remind him so much

of himself when he was around your age.”

I was starting to agree with her. I was thinking more and more that even though I was at some serious

loose ends, I really was a lucky guy. I liked hanging out in the bar and all my diligent work had it looking

less like a hole in the wall and more like an actual, respectable establishment. I was learning the regulars,

learning their stories, and it made me feel less alone the longer I spent here. I had spent the last week with

Cora, either at her place or mine, and the more time I spent in her company, the harder it was to want to be

away from her.

She let me take her out to dinner and a movie and we ended the night back at my place. The following

night she surprised me by showing up at the bar and demanding that I let
her
take me out. I had never in

my life had that happen before, but I let her have her way because she was so damn cute and I could tell

underneath her usually sassy attitude she was really freaking out about the unprotected-sex thing. I probably

should be more concerned about it than I was, but I made sure I was prepared now and I just tried to do my

best to stay calm about it since she seemed to be worried about it enough for the both of us.

My brother was not stoked at the newest development in my love life and I had been subjected to no

less than five lectures from him, Nash, Shaw, Ayden, and Rowdy; even Asa had given me the what for

about all the bad things that would befall me should I leave her high and dry or decide that her big mouth

was too much to handle. I was sure Jet would have gotten in on the
rake Rome over the coals
action as well

if he had been in town. I didn’t even want to know what would happen if they found out she was worried

about a possible unplanned pregnancy.

I really liked spending time with her. She was spunky, said what was on her mind, and had no trouble

letting me know if I was drifting off on her, getting too lost in my own head. We didn’t see eye to eye on a

lot of things, but she made me want to laugh, and looking at her made me smile. Not to mention I couldn’t

keep my hands and mouth off of her. She was just so sweet and so easy to get to respond. I had never been

with anyone like her before. She was all glittery and shiny, so I had no difficulty finding her in the dark that

sometimes clouded my vision, and so far I had been lucky. With her sprawled on top of me, I somehow

managed to sleep through the night. Not a single nightmare, no incidents of waking up to bloodcurdling

screams. It was a really nice change of pace and reason alone to keep her around.

I was going to ask Darcy if she would make me something to snack on for dinner before I headed over

to the shop to grab Cora for the night, when the chair next to me suddenly pulled out and was occupied by

the last person I would’ve expected to see in the bar. Eyes that matched my own looked back at me and it

floored me how old my dad looked after nearly a year of no contact. We had similar dark hair and the same

blue eyes; his were paler, more like Rule’s, and he was tall and broad, but not nearly as tall as I was. He was

always a sturdy, steady guy, but clearly since the last time I had been home, things had taken a toll on him.

He looked almost as much like a stranger to me as I thought I would look to him after all this time. Today

was apparently my day for unwanted visitors.

“What are you doing here?”

He sighed and asked Darcy for a cup of coffee. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

“That’s all you have to say to me after ignoring me and your mother for a year?”

“How did you know where to find me?” I lifted an eyebrow and then answered my own question.

“Shaw. That little girl can’t stop trying to pull this family together.”

“Rome.” He sighed so heavily I felt it weigh across my own shoulders. I had always wanted to make my

folks proud of me. They had never really been excited about my choice to enlist when I was younger, but

as time went on they grew to understand my motivation, my drive to help others, be active in making the

world a safer place for my brothers and for them. It bothered me to see the disappointment in his eyes and

marked on his face.

“This has to stop at some point. I fought to bring Rule back into the fold, told your mother it was this

family or I was done. I’m not going to let another one of my boys go, not without one hell of a fight. I let

you stew, let you and Rule act like it was a personal affront we never talked about Remy as a family, but the

time for that is done. We need to figure out how to move forward from this point on. End of story.”

I felt like a little kid getting scolded for getting his clothes dirty while out playing. I rubbed a hard hand

across the back of my neck and looked down at the bar I still needed to strip and refinish.

“It’s more than just Remy and the secrets. It’s the way Mom treated Rule, it’s the way everyone just let

Remy use Shaw. It’s the fact I don’t feel at all like the same guy I was when I left last time. I don’t know

how to fit into this family anymore. I don’t know what role I’m supposed to be filling.”

I didn’t have the nerve or the right words to try to explain to him that I didn’t know how I would make

it through having him and Mom look at me like they didn’t know who I was anymore. Disappointment I

could handle, dismissal I could not, so instead I was hiding and avoiding it altogether.

He swore softly and reached out to clap me on the shoulder. “There is no fitting in. You’re our son, no

matter what; that role is yours until the end of time. That’s what I finally had to get across to your mother

about Rule and what we should have let Remy know before it was too late. We take you any way you

come, Rome, even if it isn’t the same way you always were. The life you lived, son, that changes a man. I

understand that and so does your mother.”

He cleared his throat and pushed the bar stool back so that he was standing next to me.

“Come to brunch on Sunday. Shaw said you’re seeing one of her girlfriends, bring her along. I work

very hard every week to make sure your brother and that girl of his know how much I love them. We all

owe Shaw more than we can ever repay as a family. She’s done more for both those boys than we can

probably imagine. Come spend time with your family, Rome.”

He didn’t give me a chance to say “we’ll see” or “no thanks”; he just turned around and went back the

way he came. Being an Archer was never exactly easy, but it was like a badge of honor to be one and

survive it. I really wished I could just slide behind that bar and mix a drink, but I was doing a pretty solid

job of staying sober and just beating back all the crazy stuff going on in my head with force of will alone. I

didn’t want to mess that up just because I was being a sissy and couldn’t handle getting told off by my dad.

It was hard to keep my head buried in the sand when he had single-handedly just annihilated all my

misplaced fears about going home and facing them.

I asked Darcy for that sandwich finally and went to finish getting the pool table leveled. Brite was back

by the time I was done and headed out. I told him about the guys from the Sons of Sorrow and he just

snorted and told me the kid that attacked me was nothing but a young prick. He told me that I better watch

my back, because getting a rocker stripped from a biker’s cut was apparently a really big deal and the

scrawny guy was likely to be pissed as all hell that it was happening. It meant there was no way in hell he

was ever going to be a member of any motorcycle club, at least not here in Denver, and likely anywhere

else. I blew the warning off, figuring it was all said and done, and besides, I was used to watching my six

anyway.

What wasn’t as easy to blow off was the conversation that he leveled at me after Darcy ratted me out

about the awkward conversation she had witnessed between me and my dad. I was on my way out the door

to get my little punk-rock pixie, but he followed me out to where the Harley was parked. I threw a leg over

the bike and looked up at him.

“What’s up?”

He ran a hand down the length of his beard, a gesture I was getting used to. It typically meant he was

going to say something to me that he really wanted me to hear.

“Your old man came by looking for you today?”

I nodded. “He found me.”

He crossed his thick arms over his burly chest and tilted his chin down at me.

“You know that Darce and I have a girl?”

I shook my head in the negative. Neither had ever mentioned a daughter to me.

“She’s younger than you. Just turned twenty and is a handful and a half. She didn’t take it well when

her mom and I split. I can barely get her to spend five minutes alone in the same room with me before she’s

at my throat about this or that.”

I picked the bike up off the stand and balanced the heavy weight between my legs.

“That sucks, but what does it have to do with me?”

“Nothing. I just know as a parent, we make mistakes. We aren’t perfect but that doesn’t mean we don’t