Page 3 of King

I stayed silent, waiting for Wizard’s response.

“He’s tight with Onyx.”

Onyx, who managed our tattoo shop, Hellbound Studio, was Pierce’s nephew—the son of his much younger brother, which meant he and Matteo were probably close in age. “Bridget,” I guessed, referring to Pierce’s daughter. It would explain why Onyx never mentioned his friendship with the kid. Why would he? Before now, it meant nothing to the rest of us.

“Yup. When Matteo’s dad was murdered, his mom decided she’d had enough of the New York life. They moved to Georgia when Matteo was ten. He’s still close to the family and visits Enzo regularly, but Bridget is like a second mother to him. He’s been around clubs his entire life. It was Mac who taught him to ride. Met Onyx when he worked at Silver Ink, before he took over managing Hellbound.”

I understood the connection now, and even why he didn’t want to be an Iron Rogue, or a Silver Saint, and why he was interested in patching with the Hounds of Hellfire. But Wizard’s earlier comment still hadn’t been explained. “You said this was good for us?”

Wizard smirked and lifted his feet, then his eyes went from the desk to my face and he put them back on the ground. “Well, first, Nic DeLuca now sees our relationship as an alliance and made it clear that he’d have our backs if needed.”

Relaxing back in my chair, I shook my head. “Sounds like that’s exactly what this kid didn’t want. Patching into a club because of his family’s connection or influence. And I’m not gonna hide it. Would be unfair to him if we did.”

“My thought, too,” Wizard agreed. “But I figured I’d point it out because the connection is still a perk. That isn’t what I meant when I said having him prospect and patch with us will be good for us. Remember I said he’s tight with Onyx?”

“So?” Ash broke in, sounding impatient.

I didn’t blame him. My years in intelligence and being the VP, then prez of the club had given me incredible patience, but even I was getting irritated with Wizard’s long-winded explanation…even if everything he’d said so far had been necessary information.

“Matteo was an apprentice at a tattoo shop in Atlanta. Want to guess what his waiting list is like?”

I had a feeling I knew where this was going and agreed with Wizard, Matteo could be a great addition to the Hounds of Hellfire.

“How long?” Ace piped up.

“Six months.”

“Holy shit,” Ash muttered.

“Is he interested in working at Hellbound?” I wasn’t about to make it a condition for him to prospect. That would be like buying his loyalty. However, our best two artists after Onyx had both left recently, and we hadn’t found anyone who could even come close to replacing them.

“Onyx told me he’d already talked Matteo into considering switching to our studio. After Matteo agreed to apply, knowing that he wanted to join an MC, Onyx suggested he consider becoming a prospect for us.”

I scratched the back of my head and exhaled slowly, contemplating all the information I’d just absorbed. Eventually, I made order of the chaos in my mind. “Bring him in to meet me. We’ll hash it all out, then I’ll make a decision.”

Wizard pushed to his feet. “Will do,” he agreed before strolling out of my office.

“If he’s as good as Wizard is making him out to be, gonna have to hire even more staff,” Ash mused. He handled the legal shit for everyone we employed, so I wasn’t surprised that’s where his mind had gone.

“Might even need to expand,” Ace said thoughtfully.

Then he and Ash stood and walked out of my office, deep in discussion.

Nothing was gonna happen until I met the kid, but that wasn’t stopping them from making all kinds of plans.

Putting it all out of my mind, I focused on more important club business until after midnight. Calling Cerberus, I waited until he was at my side before we walked out of my office and down the hall to the back of the clubhouse. I didn’t live in the dorm-like rooms in the clubhouse, but I didn’t have far to go to get home. Pierce had built a house as an extension on the back of the club. I’d taken it over when he retired and moved out. It was the best of both worlds—close to the club but I had plenty of privacy.

Not that I had any reason for it. I’d never had a woman in my house. Honestly, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even felt the least bit of interest in one. Which didn’t really matter. I was too fucking busy to deal with the bullshit that came with a relationship.

1

STELLA

Rolling over for about the hundredth time since I went to bed, I grabbed my cell from the nightstand and glared at the screen. I had plenty of notifications, but none were from my dad. “Dammit.”

With how I was raised, I wasn’t one to panic. But I was definitely headed in that direction this morning.

My childhood wasn’t like other kids. My parents’ divorce was probably the most normal thing about it, except for the lack of animosity between my mom and dad. She’d gotten tired of the toll his job had taken on our small family, and he didn’t blame her for wanting to walk away. Which had been tough to explain to my friends since I couldn’t talk about my dad’s job with anyone.

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