Page 12 of Playful Summer

“Okay, I think we have everything. We can head home.”

“Are we going to fit? Some of us can wait here for you to make a trip and come back. Because I don’t think we’re going to fit.” Lorenzo laughs.

“I mean, I suppose I could hang onto the roof.” Eros laughs.

“Dork. How far is your house from here? I don’t mind waiting,” Isabella says as she rolls her eyes at Eros.

“Yeah, it might be easier if we go and come back. Our place is only fifteen minutes away, so it won’t take long.”

Enea tells each of them who stays and who goes. I’m beginning to think he’s the leader of the family. I head to the house in the first run, and Giovanna jumps in with us.

“I’ll leave you at the house with the girls and go back for the others,” Paxton says to me.

“Okay. They all seem really nice, is Enea the head of your family?” I ask Giovanna.

“Kind of. He’s the head of the Mancinis. Giacomo is the head of his family. There are two others, Panagiotis Nikolaidis and Zeus Athanasiou. Those are the four heads of the Lake Renegade family,” she explains.

“You make them sound like the mafia.” I laugh.

They both laugh, but I’m getting a weird feeling from them. What are they hiding?

Paxton

This is going to be so much easier when I can tell Piper about my Lake Renegade family. I’m not sure how she’ll react, but at least then she’ll know. It sucks keeping things from her. Whenwe get to the house, I drop the girls off and head back to pick up the rest of the guys.

“So Piper seems like a nice girl,” Enea says to me.

“She is. Now I get it when my brothers found their person and how they felt around them. I can’t do anything when she’s around. I just want to follow her everywhere. And now with this situation? I want to wrap her in bubble wrap and take her everywhere with me.”

Enea laughs. “We’ve all been there. I still want to wrap my wife in bubble wrap. I know you want to ask if you can tell Piper. So ask.”

I take a deep breath. “I would like to tell her about all of you.”

“Are you sure she’s your forever?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay. Let me talk to Giacomo. As for Panagiotis and Zeus, you’ll need to ask them when they come for Rhett’s wedding.”

“Thank you. I’m excited for her to meet everyone. I just hate that you had to come and help us deal with this psycho.”

“Seems to be what we attract in our family.” He chuckles. “But we’ll get through it.”

“Thank you, Enea. I appreciate how fast you all came to help. I wish you could’ve seen him today. He was so damn delusional. I’ve never seen anyone like him.”

“I’m pretty sure Bastian and Franco got some information on him. We’ll figure this out.”

“I’m just afraid that he’s crazy enough to hurt her.”

“That’s always something to worry about. But let’s hope that he’s not that crazy.”

I nod and park at home. We head inside and everyone gathers in the living room. Enea stands up and smiles at Piper.

“Piper—first of all, we are happy to welcome you into our family. And because you’re part of our family, you should know who we are. There are four main families that live in LakeRenegade. My parents and my wife’s parents founded Lake Renegade, we are the Chicago Mafia. Giacomo’s papà and his wife’s father founded the Cimaruta MC. Almost ten years ago, we decided to come together and change our ways. We own businesses, help our town, and the city of Chicago. It hasn’t been an easy change, but it’s been a necessary one. You’ll meet more of the Nikolaidis and Athanasiou families at Rhett and Emiko’s wedding. Their story is theirs to tell. But Paxton asked me if he could tell you about us. So now you know. It’s not an easy life, but it’s our life. And now it’s part of your life.”

“Thank you for telling me. I have so many questions. First, what is a MC?” Piper asks.

Everyone chuckles.

---