“Sounds good to me,” Vienna said, looking at the rest of the table. The men murmured their agreement.
“Then it’s decided. We’ll start with our family members. Ant’s two lads, cousins, nephews… whatever. They’ll be the first members of the new Descendants, and depending how it goes, we’ll expand.”
We spent the next ten minutes discussing the finer details until, eventually, Pivot raised his hand.
“Pivot?” I asked, the gavel in my hand.
“Rachel—”
“Shit,” I interrupted.
“She’ll have our balls if we’re late,” Doc huffed.
Yeah, she would. And I’d let her — as long as she stayed long enough to do it.
“Are we really doing this? School? I’m in my fifties…” Ant frowned.
“It makes her happy. Just… fuck me, just go along with it and don’t piss her off. I’ve enough on my plate without her going all feral because a few of you didn’t listen to her.”
“She’s feral anyway,” Chicken scoffed.
“I’m telling her you said that,” Vienna hissed, just as I threw my lighter at him.
“Meeting adjourned. Let’s go to school.”
Chapter 24
Rachel
“Okay, listen up, because I don’t want to be here all day.” I glared at the club—men and old ladies—who were barely listening to a word I said.
I drummed my fingernails on the bar, waiting for them to pay attention, but most of them talked amongst themselves.
Treat them like Axel. Patience. Endless fucking patience. Do not lose your temper. Not in front of Dante. Count to ten.
Although, I had a feeling counting to ten wouldn’t be anywhere near high enough to cope with the blood pressure these idiots gave me.
I got to seven before I called it quits.
These people were not Axel—thank fuck—and they did not respond to patience. They responded to power.
Reaching out for the bell hanging over the bar, I rang it as loud as I could. “Oi!” I shouted, grinning at some of the grimaces people had on their faces. “Oh, don’t start! I couldn’t give a fuck if some of you have sore heads—I mean you, Vienna,” I muttered without even looking his way. “I have you all for an hour, and I expect you to pay attention to every single second. If you’re notgoing to take it seriously, you can fuck off now. Otherwise, drop whatever is in your hands and prepare tolearn.”
I heard Dante chuckle at the side of me, but I refused to look in his direction. I couldn’t get his words out of my head from last night, and I had woken up this morning alone, feeling like a fucking fool.
He had already taken Axel downstairs and given him his breakfast, as well as seeing Bee to school. I told him he should have woken me, but he shot me a withering look and said he wanted to let me sleep, since I couldn’t stop talking about how tired I was. And I didn’t want it to affect my attitude, did I?
I didn’t dignify that with an answer.
He had paid Heather extra to stay and watch Axel for us and then called a club meeting so I could finally put my plan in motion and teach them all some sign language.
I was grateful that he was actually listening to me for a change. But he wasn’t exactly making my job easier being so close to me all the bloody time.
“Over there,” I snapped at him, pointing at the rest of the club.
“Excuse me?” He laughed.
“You heard me. You’re not the club leader right now. You’re a student, just like everyone else. And you can sit with the rest of the willing students. Over there, please.”
