Chapter 18
Gabriella
Somewhere in the middle of the night, I became aware of movement in my room.
I was still in a half-dazed state, half of my brain stuck in my dream, remembering Vienna climbing on the tables, his own tail betraying him, causing him to trip over and face plant into one of the booths, and the other half of my brain waking up, alerting me to the danger.
Back at the Riders clubhouse, I’d have been awake the second the door handle twisted. But here? Here I had already let my guard down, and hadn’t even noticed the intrusion until it was too late.
Just as I went to open my eyes, a hand slapped over my mouth and a female face swam before my tired eyes.
“Wake up,” Rachel grinned at me, her features coming into focus.
Well, as best they could. She was swaying from the effort of leaning over me, and was getting too distracted by the giggles coming from the other person next to me.
“Rise and shine,” Steph sang. I turned my head to see her climbing into bed next to me, her eyes drunken and vacant, but shining brightly.
She brought her face close to mine as Rachel wandered around the room.
“Shhhhhh!” Steph hissed at me, her nose touching my own.
“I didn’t say anyth—”
Her hand came over my eyes.
“Oh, well, that’s silenced me. Brilliant job.”
“Where are your shoes?” Rachel called out, banging into the table and sending everything scattering off the top of it.
I didn’t see it, but I cringed behind Steph’s hand, hearing everything hitting the floor.
“Shhhhhhh!” Rachel laughed, slapping the corner of the table.
“Shhhh!” Steph giggled back, taking her hand off my eyes.
“What are you two doing here?” I asked, but they both ignored me.
Steph climbed off the bed, her arms extended in front of her as she navigated the dark room.
“Careful—” I called out, just a second too late. She smacked into Rachel, the two of them falling to the floor in a drunken heap.
“Can I—”
“Shhhh!” Steph hissed at me.
“But—”
“This is a secret mission! It’s imperative that you be quiet!” Rachel barked.
And then she threw a slipper at my head.
“Right,” I whispered, leaning over the bottom of the bed to glare down at the idiots on my floor. “I understand you want me to be quiet. But why? What are we up to?”
“What are we… shoes!” Steph boomed.
“Shoes!” Rachel cackled back. “She needs her shoooooooes.” The pair of them then proceeded to crawl around my floor, calling out to my shoes.
“I don’t need my shooooooes,” I mimicked. “I need you two to tell me what we’re—whoa!” I stumbled back on the bed as Rachel’s face popped up directly in front of me.
“We’re going to pay Vienna a visit,” she grinned.
A strange, almost terrifying grin.
And I had a feeling that whatever she had planned for Vienna, he wasn’t going to enjoy.
“I really don’t think we should be doing this,” I said ten minutes later when we were standing outside Vienna’s bedroom.
“Shh!” Rachel hissed, stumbling against the wall and then giggling manically as she slipped down it, falling onto her ass.
It had taken me ages to wrangle them both together. Every time I got one under control, the other wandered off to cause more mischief. Vienna’s room was next door to mine, and yet walking the few steps from my door to his had given me more bruises than one of my worst nights with Nico.
“You both remember that he was attacked only last night, right? I—”
“Shhh,” Steph mumbled, attempting to bring her fingers to my lips to silence me. Instead, she slapped me in the mouth, her hand dragging down my chin, making my bottom lip pop.
I was getting really fucking sick and tired of being shushed.
“Open the door, Gabby,” Rachel muttered from her place on the floor, flapping her arm about in the air and reaching out for nothing.
“For goodness’ sake,” I hissed, bending down to help her up.
Except when I grabbed hold of her hand, bringing my other hand under her armpit to pull her up, Steph—for some inexplicable reason—decided to scream.
“Pile on!”
And then she jumped on my back, sending all three of us flying forward.
I ended up having to use Vienna’s door to steady us, someone twisted the handle—I suspect Rachel based purely on the victory whoop—and we went tumbling into his room.
“Are you two for fucking real?” I hissed at them, pushing myself to my feet.
Vienna snored in front of me, and Rachel kicked my ankles—hard, might I add—and swooped my feet out from under me, knocking me back down onto my ass.
“Shhhhh!” she said, climbing onto my lap until she was straddling me. “We have to be quiet.”
“Look,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. Rachel’s face was scarily close to mine now. “We’ve had our fun, but I really think we should go back to bed now. Doesn’t bed sound amazing? Soft sheets, dreams, somewhere to sleep off the booze. Let’s g—”
“We’re doing this,” Rachel hiccupped, and then climbed off me and reached into her sin cut.
“Is that…? Oh, no,” I gasped, scrambling to my feet.
“Oh, yes,” she grinned.
“You are not tasering Vienna.”
She ignored me, walking over to the bed just as Steph pulled back the covers.
How Vienna didn’t wake up, I’ll never know. Steph wasn’t exactly gentle, and none of us were quiet.
But sleep he did. I had to assume he was under some heavy painkillers, maybe even some sleep medication, but still… we were like a herd of animals.
“You do it,” Rachel giggled, handing the taser to Steph.
Steph pushed her hand back. “I’m not doing it. Dante said if I fuck up again, I’m going on probation.”
“Pft,” Rachel scoffed, and then blew a raspberry in Steph’s face. “Since when were you scared of Dante?”
“Since when were you afraid of Vienna?” Steph shot right back.
“I’m not scared of Vienna.”
“You do it then.”
“No, you do it.” Rachel waved the taser in Steph’s face.
“You’re going to end up tasering each other if you don’t make a decision soon,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Vienna snored loudly, and both women turned their heads in my direction to glare at me.
“I know, I know,” I said, shaking my head. “Shhh. I heard you the first million times.”
“On three?” Rachel suggested.
“On three,” Steph grinned, covering Rachel’s hands with her own.
I watched as they giggled and then tested the taser, letting it crackle in the air, and then looked at each other with wide-eyed amazement.
“One,” Rachel whispered. At least, she attempted to whisper.
“Two,” Steph whispered back.
“Ladies,” Vienna said suddenly, opening his eyes. “I’m awa—”
Rachel screamed. Steph slapped him. Both of them stumbled and jumped a mile into the air.
And, out of sheer panic, Rachel pressed the button and applied the taser to Vienna’s boxer-clad balls.
Still screaming, she dropped the taser.
Steph tried to run from the room and smacked into the doorframe.
Vienna curled into a ball, grasping his genitals and yelling at all of us.
And me? I stood in the doorway and just laughed.
Because what else was I supposed to do?
“What the fuck is going on in here?” Dante suddenly boomed from behind me.
“She did it!” Steph muttered from the floor, pointing towards the window.
Rachel attempted to crawl under the bed, forgetting that it was a divan bed and there was no space, so she just ended up with her ass and legs in the air as she tried to bury herself.
Vienna remained curled on the bed.
“Do you have an answer for this?” Dante glared at me.
“I... no,” I said simply. “I have no fucking idea.”
“Thought as much,” he muttered, striding into the room and scooping his old lady over his shoulder.
“She still has the taser, Dante,” I warned him, watching her wave it around.
“Cheers for that,” he said, snatching the taser out of her hands and slapping it into mine.
“What about her?” I asked, pointing down to Steph.
“Snow White? She’s not my responsibility.”
“You’re just going to leave her here?”
“She doesn’t seem to mind,” he grinned.
I looked down at Steph to see that she had crawled into the foetal position and was quietly snoring.
“See you in the morning, princess,” Dante said to me, and then slapped Rachel’s ass.
“You called her a princess. Am I a princess, Dante?” Rachel asked him, trying to use his back to push herself up. She failed twice, slapping back down against him.
“You’re a fucking nightmare,” I heard him reply as he walked down the hall.
Once I heard his door shut, I crossed the room and looked down at Vienna.
“You were pretending to be asleep, weren’t you?”
“Of course I was!” he snapped back. “How could anyone sleep through that?”
“What did you think was going to happen?” I laughed down at him, seeing him still clutching himself. “You heard me say taser!”
“Obviously I fucking didn’t! And I don’t know… maybe a little orgy if I was particularly lucky.”
“When have you ever been that lucky?” I asked, laughing even harder.
“I was just beaten almost half to death! I figured I was due some luck.”
“That was your mistake then, wasn’t it?”
“Uh-huh,” he said, looking up at me with sad, big eyes, his bottom lip protruding out. “Will you make it better?” he deliberately made his voice all soft and sweet.
“Goodnight, Vienna.”
“But—”
“Goodniiiight,” I said, singing the last bit of the word.
I nudged Steph awake and somehow managed to convince her to come with me.
She stumbled into my room, spread out on top of the covers like a starfish, and started snoring again almost instantly.
Sighing heavily, I pushed her onto her side to make sure she didn’t choke on any potential vomit, grabbed one of my pillows from behind her head, and made my way downstairs, curling up on the sofa.