Legend (Requiem MC #6)

Chapter Fourteen It’s In The Name

Glory

After he dried me off, I was so weak and limp that Legend had to practically dress me. I have to admit it was sort of fun and kind of sexy too. I’d never had a man dress me before. I suppose we would be sharing many firsts now…together. I shook like a leaf though when he slowly and sensually slipped my panties up along my bare thighs then snapped the waistband. The bra part had been fun too. He kept teasing me by sliding the lace cups back and forth over my sensitized nipples until I told him if he did it one more time, we would not be going to breakfast. No. He would be too busy attending to my body all over again.

Laughing, he finally stopped playing with me. I have to admit when he finally started to behave, I already wanted him. Like to have him…all over again! What the hell kind of craziness was that?

I asked him several times while he was looking for my clothing and then dressing me if we could just go back to sleep. The bed just looked so inviting. All I wanted was to be wrapped up in his warm arms and snooze. Like spend the whole day there. He thought I was joking. I wasn’t. The man had made such thorough love to me that I was simply exhausted.

Then after the night we had, the morning shower, then all the fun of dressing – I had wondered – was this what it was like to be in love? Or at least for us, it was. Ok, sign me up for some more. Well, after I get some rest, then sign me up. I snickered.

Legend walked me out the door and asked, “Something funny?”

I shrugged. I wasn't gonna tell him what I was really thinking. How I wanted him to do me all over again. “I’m nothing but walking jelly and I have to wonder why you’re just full of energy.”

“I’m a doctor, Glory.”

I shook my head as he took my hand in his. “What does that have to do with it?”

Walking me down the hall, he answered, “We learn to go for long periods of time without sleep. You know 24 or even 28 hour shifts. I used to work for two days straight sometimes. Besides, we just got a good night’s sleep.”

I shook my head. “So says you. Another reason they call you Legend, I suppose.”

He chuckled as we showed up in the main room and he told me, “I called myself that, sweetness. It translates to my real Italian name and it wasn’t about greatness.”

“So? You were spot on with it,” I retorted with a laugh.

We paused when we saw his two giant cousins over at a table having coffee.

They looked calm and watchful as they held mugs in their beefy hands. Both of them smiled hugely at Legend as they raised their coffee mugs up at him.

I smiled at them then gazed around. It looked like breakfast was almost over. Turning to Legend, I said, “I’ll get us a plateful and we can sit with the big guys. Go ahead and join them, k?” I headed to the buffet our club had set up while Legend went over to join his cousins.

I wouldn’t have a problem knowing what Legend would eat. I knew what he liked for breakfast. Well, I knew all the foods he liked for lunch and dinner too. His favorite drink, his favorite beer. His favorite dessert. What he liked as snacks...all of it. As I made our, ‘ to be shared’ plate, I had enough self respect to feel a little shame about this fact. Stalker much? I asked myself honestly. Yes, I had stalkered a lot . As a psychologist, I know now what it all meant and how serious my crush became. Not that I would have gone ballistic or something…I paused.

Well, he never brought a woman here, so I would never know if I would have become dangerous. I admit if he had brought dates here…well, I woulda been tossed in juvie for assault at the very least. I smirked to myself. No, he was mine…always been mine. That had been my mantra for years. When you start something at the acute and painful age of fifteen? Yeah, fifteen. It had been a little difficult to break the habit at that age. One that I would have never admitted it to being…a habit.

I never matured about wanting Legend till I turned twenty but all I did was re-categorize it as being in love. I tried to set it aside and I even went off to college, away from him to get my degree. Then during that time, I worked it out in my mind as being just a childhood crush. Until I came home on breaks…then it would rise back up in me as soon as I saw him again. But as incredibly insane as it was… it never faded away. I never grew out of it. My degree never even helped me to logic my way out of it.

Honestly, I had to ask…Was I really sorry about all the snooping, the stalking, the pining away for one lone man? I paused to place a few pieces of bacon on top of the scrambled eggs on our plate and then scoffed. “Nah, not sorry.”

“Talking to yourself, sis?”

Looking up, I saw Justice standing there, smiling at me.

He and Redemption weren't as annoying as the twins but Justice had his moments.

I shook my head. “Yes.”

“You know that’s the first sign of someone losing it, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Not necessarily, Mr. Attorney. You seem to forget I majored in psychology. Normal people can talk out loud and to themselves and it is perfectly sane.”

In a defensive manner, he raised his hands at me. “I’m just teasing you. I actually wanted to ask you about this trip you two are taking.”

I added toast and a few orange slices to the plate then asked, “What do you want to know?”

“You two are going in that limo, correct?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Ok, I sort of wanted to suggest that. Going on bikes would have been insane.” Justice nodded. “But I wanted you to also have someone from the Requiem to go along with you.”

I raised my head to look at him. “Like who?”

“Maybe Duke and Steel,” he suggested.

I blinked at him. “Two of the largest guys in the club?”

Nodding, he replied, “They’re Enforcer Lieutenants. This is what they do, Glory. It is what they trained for.”

“Duke’s not so fond of me,” I muttered.

“So?” Justice shrugged. “Your smart mouth has alienated several members from your presence. So that’s not a big deal.”

“My smart mouth?” I snickered as I grabbed silverware and napkins.

“Yeah, that mouth and your temper. And with your psychology degree, you will have to at least admit to the temper.”

I rolled my eyes. “People need to toughen up around here. This is an MC, ya know?”

He laughed and grabbed a piece of bacon from the buffet pan. “Oh? I never noticed. But this isn’t about a popularity contest, sis.” He munched on the bacon.

“Then what is it about, bro ?”

“Ok, so you don’t see how dangerous all of this is?”

“Dear brother.” I tisked. “I was kidnapped by an evil FBI agent upon orders from a madwoman, so they could literally get her free to go on and slaughter all of the Texas Walkers. Which by the way are her biological family members.” I slowly shook my head. “Isn’t danger our family code or something?”

Justice nodded his head. “Ok, ok. I get your point. But you and Legend are going to visit one of the most notorious mafia families in the South. That’s what it is about.”

“We have those two large Italian brutes for protection,” I argued as I motioned my head to where Legend sat with them.

“We want our guys there too,” he replied.

“Our guys?”

Nodding, he looked serious now. “Do you want me to call Dad in on this?”

I picked the plate full of food up again and exclaimed in disgust, “Seriously? You would tattle?” I snorted. “I thought you grew out of that shit, Justice. Remember the phase you went through? When you said you were just being true to your name. Telling on your brothers constantly until they tied you to a post out back.” I laughed. “You tattled so much that they got really mad. They were painted up like Indians and howling.”

He shook his head. “Come on now, I grew out of that. I always knew they were heathens. But I see some of us do not grow out of things. Like you for instance. You refuse to listen to anyone but yourself. If you will remember, Liberty and I wanted a guard on you whenever you went out. You refused while talking about all the defensive training you had… then we almost lost you when Deacon had you napped.”

He just had to bring that up, didn’t he? I scoffed. “Pettiness does not become you, councilor.”

Justice chuckled at my snide remark. “I swear you missed your calling, sis. No one can argue like you. Even I could never stand up to you in a court of law. You sure you don’t wanna go to law school?”

He’d told me this before, wanting me to be a lawyer. Yeah, I could win arguments, but not because of an education. It was simply because I could be an overbearing bitch. I smirked at him.

Smirking back, Justice moved over to the coffee machine as he informed me, “I’m going to get you and Legend some coffee.”

I was beginning to wonder what this was really about. I bit at my lip as I waited for him. Then when he came back over with two mugs, I asked, “Why?”

“Just as extra…” He walked ahead of me, then added, “...protection.”

I slowly shook my head and followed him. If it was this important, I suppose I would agree to it. I didn’t think we would be in danger from Legend’s family but whatever. If a group of large Russians working for Deacon approached us on the road…Would they see Duke and Steel along with Tito and Rocky…Then turn tail and run? I hardly thought so, but if this would make my brothers feel better, then so be it.

I set the full plate then the silverware down on the table.

Legend looked up at me to smile warmly then he glanced over at Justice. “Hey.”

“Morning, Legend,” Justice greeted him as he set his mug down in front of him.

“Thanks man.” Legend nodded at him as he picked it up. “I needed coffee.”

I sat down and motioned for Justice to have a seat.

He paused.

Oh, no. If my brother wanted to push the enforcer thing, he needed to explain it to these men. “Sit, Justice,” I ordered.

At my tone, the two big Italians looked over at me.

I stared back at them and grinned. “Yep, female, bossy and opinionated.”

“Si, and it is a good thing that you are also molto bello,” Rocky said as he laughed.

“Si, very beautiful,” Tito agreed. “Fitting for an Italian princess.”

Rocky nodded.

I set my napkin into my lap and looked up at him. “Princess?”

“Oh, yes,” Rocky said. “Giovanni is considered a prince by his family.”

I swung my gaze over to Legend. “What are they talking about?”

Shaking his head, he shrugged. “I’m thinking they are joking.” He then spoke to the pair of big guys in Italian.

As they carried on in this foreign language, I felt lost. But I was suddenly hungry so I began eating.

Legend laughed at whatever it was they were going on about. Then his smile faded as he told them something.

I nudged him with my shoulder. Then I raised my fork up and offered him some bacon “What’s going on?”

He bit the bacon off from the fork then chewed.

“His father is already planning your wedding,” Justice said.

I paused with my fork in mid air to turn my head and stare at him. “What?”

Nodding, Justice said, “Yes, it seems he has been calling you princess and he is how did you put it, Tito?”

“Smitten,” Tito replied. “With you.”

“Wait, since when do you speak Italian?” Legend asked Justice.

“I took a language course in school, Legend. But I admit, Italian and French were my faves. So I kept up with speaking and listening to them on my phone or laptop.”

“Never mind that,” I said. “Justice has always been weirdly intelligent. What is this about our wedding?”

Rocky now looked alarmed. “Oh, don’t tell on us. Per favore? I don’t think Stephano would be happy that we said something.”

“Nah, tattling is Justice’s thing, not mine.” I gave Justice a wink.

Justice wobbled his head at me sarcastically. “Yes, yes…ha-ha.”

I again looked back at Legend’s large cousins. “Besides, Giovanni and I aren’t even engaged yet.”

“Damn…” Legend grinned at me as he grabbed his fork and scooped up some eggs from our plate. “Say that name again.”

Very confused, I paused to ask, “What?”

“You said my real name.” He grabbed a piece of toast and bit into it.

“Giovanni?” I asked.

He slowly nodded his head. “Hmmm-hmm. Wow.”

Tito and Rocky both chuckled.

“Bene, Gio,” Tito said as he shook his head. “That is your name.”

Legend got busy eating another piece of bacon so he didn’t answer.

“Here in the Requiem, he is known as Legend,” I told them.

“Si, Descalia.” Rocky nodded. “We are all Legends.”

“I had wondered about his legal name from time to time,” I admitted. Boy, did I. The truth was, I had asked him more than a dozen times over the years. I never got the truth. I would make up names for him in my head and they just never seemed to fit. I can say that I never envisioned an Italian name. Thinking of him as Giovanni was sort of sexy, but to me he would always be just Legend.”

“How can you not know his name?” Tito asked as he looked confused.

“We have road names, Tito,” Legend explained. “You know for the MC?”

“Oh si, I’ve been watching that biker show,” Tito said. “You got Lil Killer, Happy, Jax and the Pimp.”

We all looked over at him.

Legend burst into laughter as did Justice.

I coughed as I almost choked on my coffee.

Legend turned to me concerned as he patted my back.

I raised my hand. “I’m okay.” I chuckled.

“He kept his real name a secret for all this time actually,” Justice spoke up.

The two bodyguards looked at him then over at Legend.

“So, you hid your real name?” Tito asked.

“Perché dovresti farlo?” Rocky said.

I nudged Justice with my elbow.

Turning to look at me, he translated it, “He said, why would you do that?”

Legend took a sip of his coffee, then set his cup down. “To protect everyone,” he said.

His two cousins stared at him then gave him slow nods.

Tito looked over at me and asked, “You love him?”

I paused for a second at the brash way he just came out and asked such a personal question. I kind of liked it though because it was more my style. Just tell it true. “Since I was fifteen,” I answered.

“Ohhh.” Rocky looked amused. “A crush, no?”

“A crush, yes.” I laughed. “One that never went away.”

“Bene, he is a Legend though.” Tito shrugged as if that said it all.

“Si, so you could not help yourself,” Rocky agreed as he wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

I burst into laughter. I loved the way they just said whatever they thought. No real filter. A lot like me actually. But it was so true, I could not resist him. The play on the name was funny too.

The two of them laughed with me.

“So, you are his cousins?” I asked.

“We are,” Rocky replied. “Our mother is Stephano’s sister.”

“We are not big on business or making deals,” Tito added.

Rocky shook his head at him and added, “No, but we are great at breaking bones.”

“So we became family bodyguards,” Tito explained.

“It is a life’s work and an honor,” Rocky nodded. “And we would be honored if you would allow us to escort you to NOLA.”

I glanced at Justice then looked back over at the two large Italians. “Yes, we will, but Justice has a request.”

All eyes turned to him.

Poor Justice was in mid sip of his coffee as he stared back at them.

I giggled and bit into an orange slice.

Justice was in the spotlight now.