Legend (Requiem MC #6)

Chapter Two LifeDeath

Glory

All I could do was to stare at Legend. For one, the kiss he gave me had been a true shocker. For this man to kiss me was what I’d wanted for a long time. Then this arrival of persons unknown just took that moment away. I saw the shock on Legend’s face as he slowly shook his head.

“So does that mean you want us to turn them away?” Zed asked him.

Legend stared down at the phone in his hand then he looked up at him. “No, let the limo in. But tell the guards that they are not allowed inside the building until I go out to greet them.” He handed the cell back to Zed then he stepped forward toward the front doors.

“Oh, noooo!” I exclaimed as I grabbed his arm. “Nope. You are going to tell me who’s out there.”

Legend let out a sigh and said, “Probably my dad and my oldest brother?”

Upon hearing this, my mouth popped open in shock. He had never had any family come here. He also never talked about his family at all. At least not with me.

He nodded. “I don’t want to bother the newlyweds with this. So, I’ll take Zed with me.”

“And you will take me as well,” I replied. “I also represent this family.”

He opened his mouth to argue.

I placed my fingers over his lips. “I won’t ask why you suddenly have a family we never knew about because I can see you aren’t happy about this visit. But I am coming with you.”

He again looked unhappy about this but he had no reply as he turned and followed Zed out the door.

I followed him. You bet your ass I did. For all the time Legend had been in our MC and our family, he never mentioned his biological family. He had told me once – when I asked him about this subject – that he only had a couple of true relatives to speak of. Were his dad and brother these true relatives?

By the reluctant and annoyed expression on his face, I truly doubted that. He didn’t look happy at all.

We all went outside and walked over to the limo with Legend. Halting, we waited for the car door to open.

We did not have to wait long as the door swung open. Out stepped an older man in an expensive suit. He had gray at his temples and he was older but he looked to be in great physical shape.

When he stepped closer, I actually gasped. If there were an image of Legend as an older man, this guy would reflect that. I had to assume this was Legend’s dad.

His eyes zeroed in on one person…Legend. Stepping closer, he seemed to look him over from head to toe. “You have grown up, Giovanni.”

Legend said nothing.

“Giovanni?” I asked.

The older man swung his hawk-like gaze over to me. “Is this your woman, Gio?”

Glaring at him, I squared my shoulders and replied, “You can ask me questions directly, ya know. No need to talk over me.”

He stared at me then laughed. “You do not look Italian but your attitude surely sounds Italian.”

I blinked at him then glanced over at Legend.

He pushed his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Glory, meet my dad…Stephano Descalia, known to his family and friends as—”

“Bad Moon Descalia.”

We all looked over to see my brother Justice standing on the steps. “He’s known to the press by that name too,” Justice stated as he came over and stared at Legend’s father. “The Dark Legend.” He looked over at Legend and exclaimed in surprise as he concluded, “That’s where you got your road name!”

Legend gave him a nod. “Descalia roughly translates to Legend in English.”

“Wow…” Justice shook his head as he stared at Legend. “I would never have guessed this at all. Dad told me he knew your real name and about your family but that it didn’t matter. He said we were your true family. But you are actually a Descalia? Like part of the Mafia family?”

I’d heard enough of this. Justice made it sound like Legend was like a freak or something. “Why are you talking to him like that, Justice? Why does it matter who his family is?”

“Because it does, my dear,” Stephano Descalia corrected me. “No matter what a person does or accomplishes in life, they cannot erase their bloodline. That would be impossible.” He then gave Justice a small smile. “Justice here is very familiar to me. In fact, my whole family knows of him.”

Zed looked puzzled as he looked back and forth at father and son. “Legend, our Doc, is part of the mafia? And you, Justice, know his family? I am totally lost here.”

“Right?” I exclaimed. “You took the words right outta my mouth, Uncle Zed.” It was one thing for Legend to hide this from us but it was an entirely different matter that Justice knew this Descalia family too.

Justice looked troubled as he tried to explain how he knew these two men, “Stephano here and his oldest son, Luca were involved in a trial I consulted for. Mind you, I wasn’t the leading attorney or anything, but it was a huge case.”

“It’s a good thing we didn’t have you knocked off then, wasn’t it, Mr. Justice?”

We all looked over at another man who stepped out of the limo now. He also looked a lot like Legend but he was younger than Stephano. He was smiling and he didn’t look angry like Stephano did.

“Luca,” Legend whispered.

“Yeah, baby bro.” Luca smiled at him. “Long time no see.” He reached out and patted Legend’s shoulder. “Like it’s been years.”

“Ten years, 5 days and 22 hours,” Legend’s dad, Stephano stated. “Since he left his family home and did not return.”

“Wow,” Justice said. “This news is shocking, I gotta admit. But my sister is right. Legend is part of our family and has been for quite some time.”

“Si, he hid himself well.” Stephano nodded. “I did find his medical school records but by that time, he had graduated.”

“Hell, yeah. A doctor no less, Pops,” Luca boasted as he kept his grin.

Stephano did not smile as he nodded.

I immediately gathered that Stephano wasn’t as proud as Luca was about Legend being an MD.

“Well, I suppose we should all go inside,” Zed suggested. “We can talk about whatever this is inside.”

Stephano looked over at Legend to ask, “Are we welcomed?”

Legend shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not my place to say.”

“The hell it isn’t,” I said. “Legend is a part of the club as well as a family member.” I stared at Legend. “If you want them to leave, then they should leave.”

“That would be fine normally,” Luca said. “And something I would have expected after he’s been missing for ten years, but we have something to discuss that is a matter of…Vita o morte.” He looked over at me and my confused expression, then translated it, “Life or death.”

Stephano glanced at him then looked up at Legend. “He is correct. We did come to see you, Gio for famiglia reasons yes, but we felt the need to find you for more than just a reunion. è una questione importante. A real concern. You might be interested in this person who started poking into who you are. A very dangerous man from what we found. He is into unscrupulous endeavors that even we do not partake in. From what we found when we investigated him, this is a man who has no scruples.”

“Holy shit…” I stared at him in dismay. I knew who he meant. This was not good news. “Deacon?” I gasped.

Luca and Stephano looked over at me then they both nodded.

“Crap,” I muttered.

“The man is insane,” Stephano added. “Comes out of nowhere. No fear of us, or your MC. He had questions about Giovanni.”

“Giovanni?” Justice asked as he looked confused.

Luca chuckled and looked over at his brother. “What name do you go by here?”

“Legend,” he said.

“Oh, very clever.” Luca nodded, then he looked up at me. “Allow me to introduce you all…Your MC doctor, Legend is Giovanni Cassio Descalia. His mother is Alessandra Gespie Descalia. You have already met his father, Stephano. But he has a large family despite living his life as a supposed orphan. His brothers are Romeo, Amadeo, Dante and me.”

“Don’t forget his cousins,” a loud voice called.

Suddenly, two very large men appeared from around the other side of the limousine. They both grinned at Legend. They were wearing suits and they had some large bellies under their jackets.

“Little Gio!” one of them exclaimed loudly as he went over and grabbed Legend up into a big bear hug. “We missed you, ragazzo!”

Legend actually laughed as the large man nearly hugged the stuffings out of him. “Rocky!”

Rocky was so big and beefy that he made a very tall Legend look almost small. Finally, he set him down as he laughed heartily. “You okay there, kid?”

Now the other guy came up. “He ain’t no kid anymore, Rocky. You grew up, little Legend.”

Legend smiled and grabbed his hand to shake it. “You and Rocky haven’t changed a bit, Tito.”

Tito snorted. “We gained some pounds though. Sophia still makes the best lasagna in the USA.”

Legend chuckled. “You know it. Best I ever had.” He smiled and looked happy for the first time during this visit. “Not to mention her cannelloni, homemade pasta and her Alfredo.”

“Dang, young’n. You are making me hungry,” Rocky teased.

“Molto bello.” Tito nodded. “The best. When she found out we were coming here, she told me to give you a message.”

Legend slowly shook his head and said, “I can’t wait for this.”

“She said that you’d better come see her,” Tito told him. “If not, she will come looking for you.”

“Of course,” Rocky added with a nod of his head. “Tito and I were not going to argue that she hasn’t left the estate in more than a decade.”

Tito nodded. “Nah, we wouldn’t dare tell her that. She would rant about our being disrespectful. We’ve been chased out of the kitchen with her brandishing a rolling pin before, ya know.”

“Never mind that.” Rocky scoffed as he snickered. “The frying pan bit was much scarier.”

Tito agreed, “Bene, that woman can be a true fright.”

The two large men both laughed loudly again.

Legend actually chuckled now as his eyes sparkled with amusement.

I wondered about this. Legend hadn’t smiled or looked happy to see his father or brother. Yet, he seemed to really like these two men.

Justice looked over at me and mouthed, “You are much scarier.” He then gave me a grin.

I crossed my arms over my chest and stared back at him. I had chased most of my brothers around with various weapons at different times in our lives. Baseball bat, tennis racket and even one of my shoes. They all knew better than to go up against me.

“Let’s go inside,” Zed suggested. “We can sit down at a table, away from the main reception.”

“Reception?” Stephano asked.

“Yes, two of my brothers got married earlier today,” Justice told them. “Let’s go. We can talk about this over drinks.” He waved everyone inside as he walked ahead.

Now both big men turned to look at Stephano and Luca. Their expressions had changed from jubilant to serious as they stepped back and looked around. The transformation was quite startling as they again looked like two Italian thugs. Very dangerous and protective.

Luca looked back over at them as he laughed. “Bene, you two jokers are a pair. Now you are gonna act like you gotta job to do.”

The pair of guards who were Legend’s cousins kept stoic as they stood on either side of Stephano. They did not alter their expressions now.

Heading away, they all went up the steps.

I grabbed Legend’s hand before he could leave. “This is going to be really interesting.”

Legend shook his head. “Interesting? No, it’s gonna be a pain in the ass.”

I smiled at him. “You’ve got a lot of splainin to do, Ricky.”

“You don’t have a few days free, do ya?” he asked. “Cause it might take that long to explain this mess to you.”

“You still don’t get it, do you, Legend?” I asked as we paused at the doors.

Looking over at me, he gazed into my eyes.

“I’m not backing down this time,” I told him. “I got more than a few days for you. You won’t be getting rid of me, like you’ve been trying to do for all this time.”

“I never wanted to do that,” he denied.

“Maybe, but you did it anyway,” I accused. “And I don’t care who your family is or where you came from. I only care who you are to me and that you will be with me, wherever you’re going.”

“Well, I hope you mean that. Cuz, we are about to go down that rabbit hole, babe.”

We went up the steps and went inside.

Looking around, we saw the group was in fact at one of the main tables.

The room had cleared out some by now. Music blared and a few of the MC brothers were laughing while talking.

I didn’t see the newlyweds. Smiling, I figured they were gone for the night. That was great. They didn’t need to focus on anything else except for their wedding night.

We all sat down at a table. All except for Rocky and Tito. They stood behind where Luca and Stephano sat.

I now knew I was looking at a pair of deadly Italian bodyguards. Like they had in goodfellas or the Sopranos. I also had to accept the fact that they guarded actual mobsters. Then this realization grew as I had to conclude that the man I loved was a member of a mafia family. An unwilling member for sure, but as I’d known for all my life, blood is thicker. I did think of one odd coincidence here though. My father had left his family and made his own. Now, I find out that the man I fell in love with had done almost the same thing. Remarkable.