Chapter 11
Gabriella
I woke the next day with shame immediately washing over me.
I was in the room of the woman who had murdered my brother. Sleeping next to her was the man who had murdered my father. And right next door to me was the man who had murdered my mother.
And here I was, taking refuge behind their walls, relying on them for my safety and protection, when these were the people who had hurt me the most.
All night I had been plagued with memories of my family. It was impossible not to remember Damien when surrounded by the belongings of his murderer.
This room was rich with Rachel—her clothes still hung in the closet, her skincare products still on the table.
It felt like yet another betrayal to my family.
They chose this life, Gabby. They chose war. You cannot blame anyone else except the people responsible.
And whilst I knew that was true, I still couldn’t help but shoulder the guilt.
What sort of person did it make me? To want to be friends with Rachel? To want to be a part of the camaraderie I could see here? To want the man I still loved, despite what he had done?
Somewhere in the middle of the night, it had dawned on me that I’d been left to cry on my own for hours. And rather than being upset by that, I’d cried even harder out of sheer relief.
No one was on a schedule to keep an eye on me. Shadows of Nico’s guards were not creeping under my door. There were no locks keeping me in. Nobody came to check if I was still here or whether I had run.
I was being left to make choices. For the first time in a long time, every decision was my own.
I’d cried tears of pure happiness. And then cried some more, feeling selfish for being happy when my happiness had come with such sacrifices.
Suffice to say, when I woke, I wasn’t in the best of moods. My eyes felt like sandpaper and were bloodshot to boot. My throat felt like razor blades, and I had a pounding headache that made me feel borderline feral.
Judging by the noises I could hear downstairs, it sounded like everyone else’s day was well underway, and it was the last thing I wanted to deal with.
A quick glance at the clock told me it was well past lunchtime, and it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the club entered their clubhouse, and I would be thrown into the lion’s den.
I couldn’t think of anything worse, yet I was aware I couldn’t hide in this room for the rest of my life—I’d just escaped that existence.
I wasn’t about to force myself to relive it in a new location.
So with my feet feeling like concrete bricks, something I had to reluctantly force to move, I quickly hopped in a shower, brushed my teeth, and made my way downstairs.
“New,” a babbling voice said to me, stopping me in my tracks. I looked down to see the most beautiful blonde-haired toddler, with bright green eyes and a dimple in either of his cheeks. “New,” he repeated.
“Yo, Axe-man,” Dante called from the kitchen. “Come get your toast.”
“New,” the toddler called back, still staring at me with that unnerving, unblinking way.
I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t do anything. Because when I looked down at this child, my heart was trapped in a vice-grip.
Was this what our baby would have looked like? Would he have inherited his father’s blonde hair? Would he have my brown eyes? Or would his father’s blue genetics have won?
I’d never know.
“Axe-man!” Dante called again, a bit more firmly this time.
“New,” he said for the third time, but this time he accompanied it by raising his hands and showing me a toy car clutched tightly in his chubby fist.
Funnily enough, that’s what broke me.
I sank down to my knees, gasping in delight. “Wow!” I breathed, tentatively touching the toy, whilst at the same time letting him know I wasn’t going to be taking it from him. “This is amazing. Is this yours?”
“Mine,” he grinned back. “Mine car.”
“You must be a very special boy to have such a wonderful car like that. Did—”
“Who gave the kid a car again?” Vienna boomed from behind me, almost making me fall over with fright.
I’d just about steadied myself when I saw him pick Axel up, flip him upside down, and then held him by his hips, bringing their faces close together.
“Where’s your bike, Axolotl?”
Axel squealed with delight and clutched Vienna’s face, giving him a gummy smile complete with drool. And then he proceeded to spit all over Vienna’s face in what I assume was an attempt to kiss him.
“Ahh, we’ve engaged in war, have we?” Vienna grinned, flipping Axel over his shoulder.
Axel shrieked, looking absolutely manic as Vienna spun him around, bits of drool flying from his mouth as he giggled and babbled his delight.
“Yo, Mother!” Vienna announced, zooming Axel into the kitchen. “Where’s his bike?”
“For goodness’ sake, if the boy wants a car, let him play with the bloody car. What’s it got to do with you?”
I walked into the kitchen to hear Vienna gasp. “I am his uncle.”
“And?” Rachel replied.
“So don’t I get a say?”
“Frankly no. You shouldn’t even be out of bed. Haven’t I already sent you back upstairs twice today?”
“Who died and made you the boss of me?”
“Kitty,” Rachel shot back instantly. “I distinctly remember reading it in her will: take care of the unstable, bearded one.”
“Ahh, Kitty,” Vienna sighed wistfully, placing Axel back on his feet. “She always knew how to melt me.”
Axel went toddling off to the corner, where an older looking man sat with a small black-haired girl who was playing with some horses. She grinned when she saw him approach and held her hand out to him.
Axel smashed his car over the horse’s head and sat on the man’s knee.
“… Doc said—”
“I don’t care,” Vienna shrugged. I brought my attention back to the conversation. “I’m not letting that psychopath anywhere near me. I was in pain all night because of his butchering you know? And where were you, Dante? Did you come and kiss me better?”
Dante pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s been a long day already, Vienna. Why do you have to make things worse?”
“Oh, that’s lovely that, isn’t it? I basically had Doc doing his best Jack the Ripper impersonation on me, and you’re all taking his side. Gabby, come and tell them how unreasonable they’re being.”
I jumped at the mention of my name and then flinched as three pairs of eyes turned in my direction.
And I had no idea what to say.
I saw this as the opening it was. Vienna didn’t want to make a big deal out of my arrival, and he was giving me the opportunity to seamlessly slip in with the banter… and yet I was lost. My tongue felt heavy and thick, and I had no idea what to say to these people.
“I—”
“I think coffee is a good shout,” the older man from the corner announced, placing Axel on the floor next to his sister and getting to his feet. “Vienna, go and do something useful and put the kettle on.”
“And now I’m a scullery maid,” Vienna hissed. “I basically died and—”
“And the coffee won’t make itself. Move,” he grinned, pulling the chair out from underneath Vienna and holding it out to me.
I murmured my thanks and he shot me a small wink in response.
Call me crazy, but I could have sworn I heard Vienna all but growl at that.
Rachel must have noticed too, because she smirked, her eyes darting back and forth. “Did you sleep okay?” she asked me.
“Best in a long time,” I replied, looking everywhere but at her.
“Good. Let me know if you need anything. That’s my dad, by the way,” she said, throwing a piece of bread at the man behind me.
“Chris,” he said, extending his hand to me.
My eyes cast over his leather cut, and he laughed, clearly reading the confusion.
“Honorary member, I assure you. I don’t do much other than babysit the kids and kick all their asses at poker night.”
“Hey, that’s unfair,” Vienna announced, placing a cup in front of me. I looked down to see a pale-coloured tea. “You did that one shift in the café… was it four months ago now, Divorce?”
“Divorce?” I asked.
“What the fuck is this?” Chris grimaced, looking down at my tea. “Fuck sake, lad. You can’t serve her that, it’s piss water.”
He went to take my cup away, and Vienna’s hand snatched around his wrist. “Milky tea, lukewarm water, three sugars, just how she likes it.”
I chuckled softly, wrapping my hands around the cup and pulling it away from both of the men. “He’s right. I know it’s awful but,” I inhaled deeply, closing my eyes as the heat transferred through my hands. “It’s exactly how I like it.”
I opened my eyes and met Vienna’s blue ones, staring at me with an intensity that took my breath away.
“It’s a good job you’re pretty, princess, because that brew might be one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever witnessed.”
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
“I’d sooner die,” Vienna shuddered.
“Oh, yeah? What if I did this?” I asked, taking a mouthful of the so-called ‘disgusting’ drink, and then lowering my lips to his.
The warm liquid slipped from my lips, and I used my tongue to transfer it to Vienna’s mouth, licking away any spilled drops.
His tongue met my own, wrapping around mine, dancing with it, tasting what I offered.
I opened my mouth wider as Vienna’s grip on me tightened, almost spitting the rest of the tea in his mouth.
He sucked my lower lip into his mouth, biting down gently, and then licked the remainder of the tea from my lips. “I guess I could get used to it after all.”
And then his hand was gripping the back of my head, his kisses becoming feverish, his other hand lowering and lowering…
“Gabby?” I jumped, snapping back into the present and out of my memories to see Rachel looking at me.
My cheeks flamed, my breath caught, and I had to clear my throat before even attempting to speak. One quick glance at Vienna showed his own breathing had quickened, his eyes burning with intensity, and the grip on his brew threatening to shatter the cup.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“The ladies of Sin are meeting this evening. I asked if you wanted to join?”
“Say no, Gabby,” Dante answered. “Trust me.”
“What’s the ladies of Sin?”
“Bad news, that’s what it is.”
“Fuck off, Dante,” Rachel scoffed. “It’s the old ladies club. We...”
I didn’t hear the rest of what she had to say. My body froze at the mention of ‘old ladies’.
Is that what they all thought I was? Vienna’s old lady?
Is that what I wanted to be?
I dared to peek another look at him, and once more he was staring at me—in fact, I didn’t doubt that he hadn’t taken his eyes off me for a second.
“… Imogen is in charge of drinks.”
“No,” Dante groaned. “Why is it Imogen’s turn?”
“Because it was Jade’s turn last week. You know we rotate.”
“Yeah, and Jade chooses nice drinks like cocktails. Things I can water down, and you’ll never know the difference. Imogen chooses whiskey and vodka, straight from the bottle.”
Rachel grinned widely. “She actually brought her own this time.”
“Brilliant,” Dante muttered. “Bringing her own booze into my bar. That’s not insulting at all.”
“Oh, I think you’ll be very familiar with the booze she’s bringing.”
Dante looked at her suspiciously. “Rachel.”
“Yes, Dante?” she replied innocently, her eyes wide, blinking slowly.
“What is Imogen bringing?”
“Well… remember that tradition Warrior had of giving out whiskey for wedding favours?”
“Yeeees?”
“And remember how Trent was saying he was going through Zach’s belongings the other week?”
“Dear God.”
“They found Zach’s stash?” Vienna asked, looking elated.
“Imogen found the stash. Which means it’s ours.”
“No. Hell fucking no,” Vienna said, shaking his head. “We’ve been looking for that since we were kids. Me, Dante, Chris, and Trent. I don’t hear Rachel in that list.”
“Sucks to suck,” she shrugged. “You didn’t look hard enough.”
“We tore the fucking clubhouse apart! Dante, tell her!”
“You got the last lot!” Rachel said. “I’ve heard all the stories about how you and Dante stole Crash’s wedding whiskey, ending with Chris needing his stomach pumped and you throwing up in Kitty’s wardrobe.”
“Yeah, but we were teenagers. That was a lifetime ago. You can’t take a decade-long treasure hunt from us.”
“I can, I will, and I have. Tough titties.”
She got up from her seat, holding her hand out to her children, and then left the room, followed by Vienna running after her, muttering his protests.
And from there, the day just got more and more hectic.
Within minutes more and more people crowded into the kitchen. There were too many faces, too many introductions, and too many names for me to remember. And each of them made themselves at home, wandering about the clubhouse without a care in the world.
Nobody spoke much to me, but I didn’t speak to them, either. I simply observed and wondered if I would ever feel the same ease they all seemed to have.