“I’m sorry,” he rushed out. “If you want to be stupid and stay here, that’s your choice.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Dante clicked his tongue. I’m ashamed to admit that sound sent a burst of heat rushing through my body. I needed to figure out how to make him do that towards me. Preferably in bed.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Listen, I was only human, and that noise was fuckingsexy.
“We started off so strong, and then you had to ruin it.”
“Dante,” came the sound of his mother. She must have heard all the commotion, and the nosy bitch couldn’t help herself but come and take a look.
Soon got over your pity party, didn’t you Kitty? Bit of drama and you come running, practically frothing at the mouth with excitement.
“You know we’re on lockdown. Let the man go. You have a responsibility to your club.”
“It’s shoot on sight, isn’t it?” Dante smirked.
“So shoot him,” Kitty shrugged. “But this isn’t helping anyone.”
“You got lucky,” Dante growled, shoving the man backwards as he let go of his shirt.
Fucking whipped mama’s boy!
It took every ounce of strength I possessed not to vocalise that thought.
“This is what I get for trying to help,” the man on the floor huffed. I mentally cringed, knowing he wasn’t going to hold his tongue like I had, and knew this wasn’t going to end well. “What do I care if she ends up dead like the others? It’ll be one less whore in—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence. Dante’s foot came out and connected with his face with a crack that echoed into the night, making me cringe in sympathy. He kicked him with such force, the man’s body skidded a foot across the gravel before landing in an unconscious heap.
“Feel proud of yourself, do you?” I said, my voice devoid of emotion as I looked at the crumpled mess of the man.
“Rachel—”
“No,” I shook my head in disappointment. “Take the pizza to Bee. I’m done.” I went to walk away, but he grabbed my arm.
“Rache—”
“No! Don’t ‘Rachel’ me as though I’m being fucking unreasonable!” I snapped, shaking my arm out of his grip. “All I wanted was a fun day out with you and Bee! I said nothing when you made me drive my mother home. I said nothing when you cut our day short. But I’m saying something now! You just can’t help yourself, can you? All you had to do was ignore theobviousattempt at him trying to get a rise out of you. All you had to do was pay the guy and come and have a nice meal with your family. It’s not fucking difficult. But no, that manly pride had to come rearing its ugly head and now there’s an unconscious man in our driveway. It’s pathetic. There’s something fucking evil in you, Dante. Something that forces you to sabotage every good thing in your life!”
“There’s something evil inme?” He said, almost sounding offended. “That’s a bit rich coming from you, isn’t it?”
“I’m not arguing with you. Take the pizza to your daughter. She’s hungry. Try to nurture the only remaining good thing you have in your life, eh?” And with one last disgusted look at him, I turned and walked away.
Chapter 24
Rachel
I didn’t know where I was headed. All I knew was that I had to get away from Dante before we ended up in yet another argument.
I didn’t want to live this way for the rest of my life. Sure, arguing with Dante was fun, and it was even more fun making up. But this couldn’t be it. Not forever. What sort of relationship was it if we couldn’t have one conversation without it turning into a massive argument?
I really was trying to keep a cool head, but it was proving more and more difficult the longer I was around him.
And maybe that’s what the problem was. Dante and I were too similar. We were both hot-headed and had a temper that could make the devil himself cringe. The only way it would work is if one of us changed. But why should someone have to change their entire being? When does it become obvious that two people just aren’t meant to be together?
Part of me believed it was the trauma talking. I had never had a relationship that wasn’t evil to its core, so I had a hard time believing that this one would be any different. Maybe I was subconsciously sabotaging it.
It was in the back of my mind that Katherine had said the club was on lockdown once again, and so I headed to the park with the intention of circling back once I had taken a moment to cool down, when I heard footsteps rushing to catch up with me.
