Everything moved at a fast pace when it came to Rachel. A day ago, I had thrown her out. An hour later, I was kidnapped. A few hours after that, I was fucking her brains out. Which I repeated this morning. And now, I was ready to drive her mother home and go for a normal day out with my old lady and my daughter.
It was enough to make my own head spin, never mind anyone else’s. It was impossible to keep up with, and yet I wouldn’t wish to go through this with anyone else other than her.
Rachel was my sickness, my poison, and my cure, all in one.
Scary fucking thoughts.
I had never wanted to give a woman this much power over me. But Rachel had taken my mild curiosity towards her and turned it into a full-blown obsession without even trying.
“Ready?” she asked curtly. “Or are you just going to stand there looking useless? Bee is waiting for us.”
I grabbed her arm as she went to walk away and twisted her back around to face me. “Oi. Don't take it out on me. It wasn't my suggestion that your mother go to live with this Iris person. I didn't even know she existed until precisely five minutes ago. For once, I am innocent.”
“I—,” whatever she was going to say was forgotten as she closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “I know, Dante. I know. I’m sorry.”
“I think that’s the first time you’ve apologised.”
“Don’t get used to it,” she managed a small smile. “It's just hard to hear her name and not have some sort of reaction. But I don't want her to ruin our day. This is about you, me, and Bee. Forget you ever heard of Iris.”
“But you'll tell me later?” I asked, not letting go of her wrist as I scanned her face for any clues. Typical Rachel, she brought the walls up as soon as she realised.
“I'll tell you later,” she nodded before smiling brightly up at me.
Fuckoff, Rachel. That might have fooled me once, but I know you better now.
That smile was masking, if ever I’ve seen it.
“Err, Boss?” A voice came from behind me.
“What's up, Monster?” I replied without turning around. I was still watching Rachel to see any signs of her slipping and letting that Alcatraz guard down.
“I heard you were looking for James or Shawn…?”
“Yeah?”
“No can do, Boss. They went out on a run this morning. Crash's orders.”
“On a run where?” I said, turning around and giving him my full attention.
“Well… Mac was supposed to—”
“To do the bricks,” I finished for him, the penny finally dropping. My dad had tried to make Macbeth feel more involved with the day to day running of the club. It hadn’t escaped our notice that he was spending more and more time inLeeds city centre, and so Crash had just assumed that Mac would be more inclined to want to do the drug distribution, since that’s where our biggest street sales came from.
We had been fucking blind to what was right under our noses.
“I assume ‘bricks’ means coke?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah.”
“Right,” she nodded. “So it’s important. Looks like we’re taking Rebecca home.”
“Rachel—” I began, but she held a hand up to silence me.
“Don’t bother,” she said shortly.
“Just let me explain—”
She laughed, interrupting me. The laugh alone was enough to make my stomach flip with excitement.
