Page 82 of The Vow

“Greta, hook me up. I got to save my baby brother.”

Greta gawped. “You sure? I’ve never done-”

“He’s going to die if we don’t do this now, right?”

“Right,” Jared confirmed quietly, his eyes flicking between hisPrez and Carmelo.

“He’s family, right, we share the same blood, which is what he needs?”

Lena touched Colt’s knee, her face wet with tears, her eyebrows pinched together. Colt put one hand over Lena’s and one over Carmelo’s.

Greta cleared her throat. “Do you know your blood type, Colt?”

“No, but if I’m his brother it should be fine-”

“Technically yes… but, it’s a risk.”

“We take it,” Colt said, and looked determinedly at Carmelo. Carmelo felt it. The thing he’d been missing all his life. The warmth, the solidarity, but more than that. The love. He felt the gentle, soft love of Lena, ripping her wedding dress to save him, and the harder, brotherly love of Colt, willing to pour his own blood from his body into Carmelo’s. “Right, brother?” Colt asked.

“Right,” Carmelo breathed, pain of every type possible choking his throat.

Colt scooted closer to Carmelo. “Then fucking hook me up and get him fixed, I’ll drain all my blood into him. My heart will pump for the both of us, Greta, I’m not losing my brother on the same day I found him. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal, Prez.”

“If it becomes too dangerous for Colt… let me go-” Carmelo rasped, surprised at how hard it suddenly felt to talk.

Colt shook his head and put his other hand on Carmelo’s forehead while Greta found a vein in the crook of Colt’s elbow, and slid a needle in. Colt didn’t flinch, didn’t even blink, he was staring at the man lying on the floor bleeding out in front of him. “This isn’t the Titanic sinking brother, I promise you this now, there is room on this fucking wooden door panel for both of us, and I am never letting go.”

Carmelo

“Well fuck me, we actuallyarebreaking bread and exchanging fucking Christmas cards with the Zakarian Syndicate!” Carmelo exclaimed, looking around.

Jovan sat on one of the fold out chairs, having an in depth conversation with Jared while holding a plate piled high with BBQ meats, coleslaw, potato salad and beans. Jared clearly reached the apex of his story, gesticulating wildly and Jovan tipped his head back and laughed heartily, looking happier than Carmelo had ever seen the usually sour-faced man.

Rafe sat at one of the tables in the eating area, one of the Zakarian women straddling his lap, grinding subtly against Rafe’s fully clothed body while he devoured her ample, on display boobs. He grabbed a handful of the signature long, dark glossy hair of the woman and she giggled and her grinding became much more noticeable.

Camilla was sipping a glass of red wine while chatting to Blue, the former Prez of the Black Coyotes MC, and now the leader of the Gangs Division of the local Organized Crime FBI unit. Blue held the wine glass up to the light and made a comment about how the wine residue clung to the glass, Camilla took a sniff of her own glass and nodded thoughtfully, as if they were at a civilized wine tasting soiree and Blue was the head sommelier.

Colt grinned as he beckoned Carmelo and Lena out of the clubhouse bar area and further into the garden. “Oh yeah, we’re all one big happy fucking family now.”

“Lena!” A squeal of delight came from off to the side somewhere.

And Lena’s hand was ripped out of Carmelo’s by the force of a small but mighty leap of someone at Lena.

“Oof!” Lena exclaimed as the air was knocked out of her but Lena clasped onto the person who’d jumped into her arms and smiled widely.

“Pina!” Lena hugged her sister tightly. “I hope you’ve been good! I missed you!”

Pina let go of her sister and looked at her fondly, before throwing a warm enough glance at Carmelo.

“I’ve been good enough,” Pina said with a flick of her eyebrows. Carmelo chuckled and shook his head, God help whoever took on Pina. “And how was your honeymoon? I saw the pics you sent but, did you have a good time? Tell me everything!”

Lena laughed, tossing her cascade of long black hair over her shoulder. “Really great, I played lots of tennis-”

“Fuck the tennis Lena, I’m talking about… you know…” And Pina tried to link arms and steer Lena away from Carmelo.

He wasn’t having any of that at this stage in the evening. “Hey, hey, who said you could coerce my wife into giving up all our secrets?”

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