“Can I come back in yet? I’m sorry—” Bambi didn’t get to finish his sentence. I picked up an ashtray off the bar and threw it with all my strength. Pivot ducked just in time, and it smashed off the wall next to Bambi. He quickly scurried back out the door.
“Told you,” Vienna hissed at Pivot. “That’swhy you duck.”
“We’re done,” I said, locking eyes with Dante as I said the words. If I was called under oath, I’d tell them all I was directing my words to the entire club and ending the lesson. But he knew the truth.
I was talking about him.
Us.
The contract would keep him under control, but the real Dante was always hidden under there and he would never change.Iwould never change. And that’s why we would never work. I couldn’t live in this toxic hell the rest of my life.
“If you want to know sign, you can approach me individually. After all, in six months Bee will be living with me, and we’ll have lovely conversations together. You guys can continue to do whatever it is that you’ve prioritised over her so far. She’ll finally be with someone who cares.”
I turned and walked away before we could say anything else.
Chapter 25
Rachel
I spent the rest of my morning avoiding Dante, which was surprisingly easy to do.
He went on a brick run—which I’m guessing was still code for drugs. He then held Church with the rest of the guys to discuss the current truce with the Rough Riders. I was surprised to hear there was a truce, especially with what had gone down eighteen months ago and considering who their new leader was. But apparently things had been relatively quiet with them, so I didn’t bother asking.
I made everyone lunch and bonded with Heather a bit. Dante didn’t return home, and I heard from Jenna that they were on their weekly bike ride.
Which all meant my morning passed relatively quietly, and definitely more peacefully than I had been expecting.
All that ended when I was putting Axel down for his afternoon nap and heard the back door slam downstairs.
“Rachel!” Dante called, making me cringe when I saw Axel stir in his sleep. “Rachel!” He shouted louder, and I had to drawon every ounce of inner strength I possessed not to scream back at him.
I quietly backed out of the room, closing the door quietly behind me and stomped to the top of the stairs.
“Are you fucking stupid or something?” I snapped at him when I saw him making his way up the stairs.
“Depends who you ask. I’m guessing by the look on your face that you’re one of those people who think I am, yeah,” he said, an adorable lop-sided grin on his face.
I hated his stupid fucking grin. When he looked like that, so carefree and at ease, he was at his most charming… and most dangerous, because it made it impossible to resist him.
“You know your son is asleep up here, right? Do you have to act like a bull in a china shop?”
“Lighten up, Rachel. We’re going out, come on.” He nodded his head in the direction of the door and started walking away.
“Err… Again, I’ll repeat. Your son is asleep up here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Heather is here,” he said, as though I was stupid.
“Yeah, and Axel has known her for all of five minutes. He won’t like waking up to find I’m not here.”
He sighed heavily. “You’re being dramatic. He was perfectly fine waking up the other morning without you.”
“You really think bringing up the night you kidnapped my child is a good idea right now? Yeah, that’s a great way to convince me to go anywhere with you.”
“Come on,” he said, suddenly grinning again. “You can even use this time as your allotted hour a day with me. Just think, get it out of the way now, and you get the whole rest of the day to yourself. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
It did sound pretty good, actually. I could put Axel to bed and then spend some time trying to talk to Bee. Maybe even seeKitty. And then an early night without being harassed by Dante all evening.
“Fine,” I sighed. “Where are we going?” I asked as I began climbing down the stairs.
