Page 11 of The Vow

“Hey, pig, got a special golden coin for your piggy bank, huh?” Colt smiled and nodded at the medal on Carmelo’s chest, coming in closer to flick it playfully with his finger, before giving Carmelo a fist bump and a side hug.

Despite his mood, Carmelo smiled. “Yeah, not that it matters really-”

“Hey, it matters,” Colt corrected him, frowning.

Carmelo tried to sound nonchalant. “Not to my family anyway-”

“That Italian chick you’re fucking, she come?”

Blue looked up. “Pig’s dating someone, like properly?”

Carmelo didn’t love that even Blue was shocked by this. “Yeah, I was, actually, a family friend’s daughter, did the best eggplant parmigiana this side of the Atlantic-”

“That’s why you got fat then,” Blue teased. Carmelo ignored him, he knew he wasn’t fat.

“Good fuck?” Colt asked crudely.

Carmelo could have sworn he heard his frustrated cock whine with agony. “Well, you called last night and interrupted, so… I have no idea, and probably won’t be finding out any time soon, we kind of… broke it off.” Carmelo sighed suddenly, remembering last night.

Colt grunted. “I knew she was too vanilla for you, pig. You ain’t no cinnamon roll-”

“I could be.”

“Pffft,” Colt guffawed. “Nah, as Nix always says, you can’t straighten out a kink, brother.”

Carmelo grunted. Nix was one of the recent ex-con, tattooed additions to the club and had about as many kinks as a twisted old garden hose.

Colt flashed a half-smile at Carmelo. “I came, by the way, your medal ceremony, I was there-”

“You… you did?”

“Yeah, snuck in the back, watched you go up on the stage, shake that old guy’s hand… nearly trip down the steps but style it out as a casual extra step-”

“Ha, fuck!” Carmelo laughed, feeling a shot of warmth hit his body.

“Alright, alright, can you two ever shut up? Fuck, you’re like those boys in that Top Gun film, Maverick and Goose-”

“Huh, talk to me Goose-” Colt began, but Blue shut him down.

“Now isn’t the time for fucking about. We are meeting the Mayor, and then we are meeting some pretty big players and we’ve basically got to agree to whatever their demands are-”

Colt rolled his eyes. “Well that’s fucking cryptic and sounds like a shit position for me to come to the table with.”

Blue checked his phone. “Mayor Harris is already in the conference room with them-”

“Conference room?” Carmelo wrinkled his nose.

“-she says to make our way up and she’ll come out and brief us on the way in-”

“Hell, I didn’t practice my ‘world peace’ speech.” Colt attempted to joke, but Carmelo caught the concerned pinch in his face. Carmelo had to admit, Colt was walking into a lion’s den here, with the only instructions to agree to whatever demands are made.

They went up in the elevator, a pregnant silence hung in the air between them all. Carmelo sure as hell wasn’t going to attempt to lighten the mood in there, he kept his head down. Then Blue nodded his head one way and they set off down the corridor in that direction.

Mayor Harris was waiting for them, dressed in her usual gray trouser suit. Short hair, no nonsense shoes. “Good, you made it.”

She didn’t mess about. Straight to business. “So, it’s the Zakarian Syndicate.” Carmelo felt Colt tense up beside him. “The head of the family, Jovan, came to me with a proposal, a good one, but it needs your cooperation…”

“Are we discussing it or am I here to just say yes and look the part of a tough MC Prez in my leather jacket?” Colt mocked.

---