Choices: Cimaruta MC Chicago Series, #1

By Natalie Arthur

Luciana

Women on an MC council? It's unheard of until now. Love at first sight? That's a new one for me too. I was convinced I didn't need someone to make me happy.

Then I slammed into Rónán.

Literally.

In an instant, he turned my world upside down. But can he handle the MC life?

 

Rónán

My life was going the way I planned it. Then the most beautiful woman stepped into my path and changed my life forever. I know she's keeping things from me. And that's okay…for now.

Because she's mine.

She just doesn't know it yet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Natalie Arthur
• Release date: Jan 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224587469

Book preview

Chapter One

Rónán

The earliest memories I have are from back in Ireland. I was born in Galway and raised on the largest of the Aran Islands, Inishmore—or in my native language, Inis Mór. My parents and grandparents still live there. I have three older brothers—Keegan, Aodhán, and Fintan. We’re all one year apart. My parents took the 'Irish twins' idea to the extreme.

My da’s name is Ardghal and my mam’s name is Niamh. They have a love story that rivals the most magical fairytales. They were both born in Galway on the same day, at the same hospital. My da is five minutes older than my mam. To hear my grandas and nanas talk about it, they were destined to be together from the beginning. Their families lived next door to each other and their mothers have been best friends their whole lives. Even now, when we go home to visit, my nanas are always together. My parents have never dated anyone but each other. They were sixteen when they had Keegan—that was twenty-six years ago.

My da is into fitness and eating right, and he shared his passion with all of us at an early age. It’s not only what you eat, but the amount that you eat. We were still allowed to eat sweets because he believes you shouldn’t deprive yourself of things. But you don’t want to overdo it. That’s why I went into Exercise Science, to help people find the best way to be healthy. Some don't know that you can’t just exercise or just eat right. Finding the balance between the two is the key.

Both my parents have degrees in business, and they own one of the three restaurants on the island. We see them at least twice a year. They come to Chicago for the holidays, and we fly home in the spring.

My brothers and I moved to Chicago about six years ago, but it got too expensive for us to stay in the city. So we moved out to Crystal Lake. Keegan thought it would be cool to live in Crystal Lake—he’s a huge fan of the Friday the 13th movies.

After a year of working crappy jobs, I applied and was accepted into the combined Bachelors/Master’s program in Exercise Science at Wolf University. Which means that in five short years, I would graduate with a Master’s degree. This is my fifth year.

So if you get hired at Magic Nights, will you keep working with us after graduation? my oldest brother, Keegan, asks me.

Yeah, probably. I don’t plan to stop dancing for a while. It’s going to take some time to build a clientele that will pay enough to live on.

He nods at me. That’s cool. I like that we’re all going to be working together. Kind of like when we were back home working at the restaurant.

Thinking of home always makes me smile. Growing up, we all worked at our restaurant. It was truly a family-run place. When we decided to move, my parents were sad, but said that they understood we needed to get out on our own and find our path.

Since we wanted to stay in Illinois for the foreseeable future, my brothers and I started talking about buying a house together. We were all tired of the commute into the city—me for school, Keegan and Aodhán for work. Finn was the only one who didn’t have to commute. Six months ago we found the perfect place. It’s a beautiful Victorian-style house in Evanston with a view of Lake Michigan. It has a big backyard with a deck, and the plan is to install an in-ground pool this summer. We each have our own bedrooms with attached bathrooms, but we share the rest of the house. There’s even three extra bedrooms for our parents and grandparents so they can visit whenever they want.

Our parents were just here, and they loved the house. Their visits always go by so fast. But they need to return home to the restaurant. For the first part of their visit, they closed the restaurant, then their chef took care of it for the last week and a half.

All three of my brothers work for Magic Nights Chicago. It’s a male entertainment company. Keegan and Aodhán have been with them for five years now. Finn started about three months ago, after we moved to Evanston. I’ve done some private shows with them as a freelancer because I had been holding out on actually applying. But since I haven’t found a job in my field, I finally applied last month and now I’m just waiting to hear back from them.

Until they make their decision, Magic Nights is allowing me to continue doing private shows with the guys. So that's what we're doing Friday night—it’s a bachelorette party. They're a lot of fun, and they also feed us.

But first I need to get through this week. Walking to my first class, I see a group of students standing around, and one girl in particular catches my eye. Holy hell, she’s gorgeous. I’ve never seen her around campus before. I stop so suddenly that Aodhán bumps into me. He’s been taking classes in finance for the last couple of years.

Whoa, what the fuck, little brother? He laughs.

Huh? Oh sorry. I tripped, I lie.

You know I saw you looking at those girls, right? He’s all-out laughing at me now. Yeah, you tripped. Dumbass.

Shut up. I laugh. And there’s three guys there too. What if I was looking at them? Two of them are huge.

Really? The guys caught your eye? Shut the fuck up. Which girl is the one that made you ‘trip’? He laughs.

He even uses air quotes. Asshole.

The one with the long curly hair—shit, there’s two of them. The taller one, I say, squinting my eyes to look at her more closely.

Aodhán smiles at me and nods. So go talk to her.

I can’t, I need to get to class, I say, looking at my watch. Dammit. Well now that I know she goes here, I’ll find her again.

Luciana

My papà is the president of the Cimaruta Motorcycle Club here in Chicago, Illinois. We are the mother chapter—which means we're the original club. My grandfathers started this club when they moved here with their families from Europe. My papà’s is from Florence, Italy, and my mam’s from Galway, Ireland.

My mam’s best friend growing up in Ireland was Gráinne O’Connor, now Mancini. They reconnected three years ago, here in Chicago. The last time they had seen each other was when they were teenagers back in Ireland. She's married to Enea Mancini who is the head of the Chicago Mafia. Yep, Mafia.

Now that they’ve reconnected, my papà met Enea, and they decided to go into business together. Both of our families have been transitioning from being involved in illegal activities to running legitimate businesses. The Mancinis own several restaurants, clubs, and a hotel called The Legacy.

A big reason my papà decided to go into business with Enea is because they have the same values. Family is super important to both of them, and that drives them to want to change. Our first endeavor together is a nightclub called Luminescence. The Mancinis own it right now, but we are buying half of it. It was originally a regular dance club. Now that we're partners, we've changed it to be a male entertainment club.

We own Magic Nights Chicago—actually, my grandparents own it. It’s an all-male entertainment company, and it was started when my older brothers Celestino and Francesco turned eighteen. They wanted to dance, and my parents figured since they were dead set on doing it, they would do it for a company we owned. Since then, it's grown to having twenty dancers. When we started Magic Nights, we were just starting to step away from the old (illegal) ways. Which is why it’s still registered under my grandparents.

When you say 'motorcycle club' people automatically think 'criminals.' When my grandfathers came here from Italy and Ireland, they were doing illegal things—running guns and drugs. But in the last few years, my papà has worked hard at changing the way our club works. A few of our chapter clubs have followed our lead by bringing women onto their councils. Some are resisting the change, which is okay as long as they respect the clubs that want to make the change. It’s not a requirement. My papà started by putting my mam on the council. When my brothers turned eighteen, they started prospecting, and when Isabella and I turned eighteen, we were allowed to prospect too.

Because we are part of the MC council, my mam, Isabella and I have bodyguards. They’re more like family, but if anything happens, they’re here to protect us. My mam has Azrael, Isabella has Ombra, and I have Amante.

My fraternal twin sister, Isabella, and I started college when we were seventeen. Unfortunately, we're not geniuses, we just have late birthdays. Celestino and Francesco are also fraternal twins and are one year older than us. They’re in college too and think they’re the shit. Spoiler alert—they’re not. Isabella is studying to be a lawyer. She's still deciding if she wants to go into criminal or real estate law. I’m still trying to figure out if I want to get my Master’s degree, which would be in photography. I'm also doing a minor in finance.

On our very first day of classes, we met a great group of friends. There’s Quinn, Moira, Evangeline, Clara and Owen. Owen is a photography major like me, so we’ve had all the same classes.

How was your weekend? Quinn asks.

Every day, we meet at our regular spot before our first class.

Same as every weekend. I tried to outrun Amante on my bike. I snicker. Amante is standing next to me shaking his head while he smiles.

I guess you didn’t win because he’s still here, Clara teases.

I got away for a bit, then… I trail off.

Um, earth to Ana! Quinn laughs.

Oh sorry. I totally forgot what I was going to say.

I don’t blame you. He’s fucking hot. Moira chuckles.

What are you talking about? I can feel my cheeks heating up. It was a guy that made me lose my train of thought. He was gorgeous. But I don’t want them to know that. They’ll never let it go.

Moira snorts. "Don’t act like you weren’t looking at him. Because he was definitely watching you."

You’re crazy. Like certifiably crazy.

You know we all saw you two making eyes at each other just now, right? Bella says.

Why? Why do they all have to know me so damn well? Instead of answering them, I roll my eyes and start walking to class. Amante and Owen come up beside me.

You know, it would be a good thing for you to find someone, Owen says.

I sigh at him. I don’t think it’ll ever happen. There’s always the initial attraction and then—poof. Just cause he's good looking doesn’t mean he’s a good person.

Owen stays quiet—they all know the bad luck I’ve had with guys. I don’t see the point in trying anymore and I definitely don’t need a man to make my life complete.

I majored in photography because there’s so much ugliness in this world. But through the lens of my camera, I can capture its beauty and share it with anyone who wants to see it. Some days I get on my bike—with Amante following, of course—and just ride, only stopping when I see something I want to photograph. It’s calming and helps me center myself to face the world again.

Owen and I use the club's monthly barbecues to practice our photography skills. It also provides us with a lot of pictures to use for school projects.

Speaking of taking pictures—I would love to take pictures of him, clothing optional. Shit. I can’t stop thinking about my mystery man. I can still hear my friends laughing. They’re so mean.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen you stop for a man, Bella says to me.

Shush. I didn’t stop for him. He just caught me off guard.

My twin knows me better than anyone, so I know she doesn’t believe me. But she’s smart enough to drop it.

Chapter Two

Luciana

This weekend we’re having our monthly barbecue. One of the requirements to be part of the Cimaruta family is to attend the barbecues. Council members of chapter clubs that live in the US have to attend every barbecue, and the ones that live abroad are required to attend at least two a year. Our club pays for half the airfare, or if they choose to drive, half their gas and lodging along the way. Their club covers the other half. Regular members are required to come to at least six functions if they live in the US, and at least one if they live abroad.

When members can’t make it to the barbecues, we use Script. It’s a video-chat program that Sebastiano Mancini created. It allows us to livestream with a secure feed so they can still participate.

We hold all get-togethers on our property because we have the space for it. Also, we don't have to worry about security, versus having it at a venue. If the chapter clubs bring their families, they have the option to stay on the property, or at the hotels and motels that surround it.

This weekend is one of the mandatory barbecues because we have two new chapters coming to patch in. One is from Italy—Il Protettori, and one from England—the Feral Raptors.

Our group of friends have been allowed to come to our barbecues for the last two years. They’re now part of the family, so we don’t have to hide this part of our lives from them anymore. Well, there are a few things I still can’t discuss with them, but they know and respect that.

When the Mancini family arrives, I introduce them to my friends. This is the first time the Mancinis are joining us for our barbecue weekend.

Sebastiano