Round two, ding, ding, ding.
“Rachel,” Dante said, slowing down his jog the closer he got to me.
“Where’s Bee?” I asked, hating myself for having left her yet again.
“I told my mother to make sure she eats and gets to church. Which is where youshould—”
“I heard, Dante,” I said, not turning around. I crossed my arms over my chest and rubbed my arms. “The club is on lockdown. I’m making my way back in a minute.”
“Aren’t you going to ask why?”
“I know why. It’s pretty obvious. Macbeth is with the Riders. Which means they must be going ahead with their plan, with or without Callum. I’m assuming he’s still in the garage?”
“Yep.”
“So, they’ll be coming for him, then.”
“And you. Which is why we need to get you—”
“I told you this would happen, didn’t I?” I snapped, finally turning around to face him. “I fucking warned you that I had a bad feeling.”
“Congratulations, Rachel,” he muttered dryly. “You’re psychic.”
“Don’t come with sarcasm! I told you I didn’t want to be around for this. I told you I didn’t want Bee around whilst a war was taking place. If you had just listened, maybe we could have left and—”
“And what? Abandoned my brothers? They’ve already had one of us abandon them this week. I’d rather not be the second.”
“Oh, my God!” I all but roared my frustration. “This ridiculous loyalty is going to get people killed. You realise that don’t you? Callum, Macbeth, and I guarantee someone from this club is going to end up dead when all is said and done. And for what? Bragging rights? To say you’re the strongest dicks on motorbikes? It’s pathetic!”
“You don’t even realise what you’ve got! This so-called pathetic club is doing all of this to keep you safe!”
I scoffed loudly and rolled my eyes. “No. Keeping me safe comes second to proving yourselves against the Riders!”
“Proving ourselves to keep you safe! The outcome is the fucking same! You can’t even appreciate what this ‘pathetic’ club is willing to do for you!”
“And you won’t be around long enough to appreciate anything if you keep willingly walking into fucking wars over things that don’t matter!”
“We’re not walking into a war! War was coming whether we wanted it or not. We can either hide, or we can meet it head on, armed and prepared!”
“Dante,” I said, stepping closer to him, softening my voice. “I… For fuck’s sake,” I hissed, running my hands down my face in frustration. I genuinely did not want another screaming match, so I had to be the one to get my temper under control and try a different tactic. “I’m not trying to argue with you. Please listen to me. I love how loyal you are. I love that you put everyone before yourself. Please understand that when I say I don’t want this, I’m not saying I don’t want you. I do. I want you. I told you this yesterday when you returned, and I meant it. I want us and Bee to be safe!”
“We’re offering you safety,” he said, his own voice softening. His hand came up, grabbing a lock of my hair and twirling it around his fingers. “I know this is a lot. I know it’s overwhelming. I get it. You’ve had to deal with a lot since arriving here. I understand your thought process, I really do. But you need to trust me when I say that you are safe, and we will continue to keep you safe. This isn’t forever.”
“It certainly feels that way.”
“Better days are coming. Days where it will be endless trips with Bee. Days where we do nothing but lie in bed together and think about nothing other than our pleasure. Where we order takeout and be couch potatoes. But that’s in the future. In order to secure that future, we need to do this. We can’t let the Riders go unchallenged. You might not understand it, but it’s the way things are. If we don’t rise to them, they’ll destroy everything. You think avoiding the war is the answer, but you couldn’t be more wrong. I wish things were different, but if we back down, we’re seen as weak. If we back down, there will be no future with us, because there will be no me. They’ll kill me instantly at the first opportunity, because they know there will be no retribution.”
“They’re going to try to kill you, anyway. Why else would they be coming here? We’re not going to come out of this war unscathed.”
“I know,” he said quietly, resting his forehead against mine. “Believe me. I fucking know.”
“How can you be so sure that Macbeth was working alone? How can you be so sure that someone else isn’t going to betray you?”
“You haven’t been here long enough to understand how deep loyalty goes. I know it’s hard to tell you one thing whenall you’ve witnessed is another, but loyalty runs through our veins. Macbeth was a one off. It's rare for anyone to betray their club—”
“And yet Vienna’s entire job here is to speak to rats,” I pointed out, pulling away from him. “You’re too blind by your own loyalty to see the contradiction.”
He shook his head at me. “This club has been running for decades, and Macbeth is the only one who has ever turned his back on his brothers. It doesn’t happen, Rachel. Yes, other clubs have rats, but they’re usually planted by us, or low-ranking members that have no impact, anyway.”
