Chapter 36 #2
“Okay,” Dante nodded. “That’s okay.” He looked up, catching Rachel’s eye, and nodded again.
“So, me and a few of my friends are going to go get your mummy now. We’re going to leave you here with Bee, Rachel, and Gabriella. Is that okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Is there anything from your house you want, darling?” Vienna asked. “Your favourite toy, or a blanket?”
I love him.
“My unicorn teddy,” Kourtney replied, looking sad, yet her eyes brightening.
“I’ll bring it to you personally, you have my word,” Vienna said, bowing down low to the floor, making Kourtney chuckle.
Bee let go of her shoulders, only to grab a tablet off her knee and write: My uncle Vienna. He’s silly.
“Less of the silly, you,” Vienna told her, ruffling her hair. “Right, we’re leaving now. Can you hold down the fort for me, Bee, and make sure everyone behaves? Including that mother of yours?”
Bee smiled and drew “No ” on her tablet.
Vienna just laughed. “Attagirl.”
And then he looked at me, our eyes locking.
“Do what you need to do,” I said.
He nodded once and then left.
I returned my attention to the table to see Bee erasing her tablet screen. Kourtney frowned at Bee’s actions, and as Dante stood up, Rachel slipped into the seat and explained.
“Bee sometimes has difficulty with her words. We use sign language to talk to her, but she finds writing things down easy as well. Do you know sign language?”
Kourtney seemed to brighten now they were discussing safer topics, and we soon drifted into a pleasant conversation away from scary men and the consequences they brought with them.
A few hours later, we had moved to the living room, and both girls were asleep, cuddled up on the sofa, when mine and Rachel’s phones buzzed.
Rachel was added to the group chat The Core Four.
“For fuck’s sake,” Rachel hissed.
Vienna: one of you come outside.
Rachel looked at me. “You go,” she said. “Bee will panic if she wakes and I’m not here.”
“Well,” I said, waving the phone at her. “You have the Core Four chat if needed.”
“That man and his group chats will be the death of me,” she muttered as I was leaving.
I laughed, shaking my head, and then made my way outside to see Vienna leaning against a wall, and Hacksaw, Chris and Trent dragging a body into the garage.
“Taken care of business?” I asked, noting that he was, once again, covered in dried blood.
His lips twisted as he noticed me staring. “None of it is mine this time. At least, not much of it.”
“Did you find the mum?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Dante brought her back separately. We took one of the vans and a car. He didn’t want her in the van with that piece of shit for obvious reasons.
He’s taken her into the club through the kitchen entrance.
He’s going to get her cleaned up, ask her a few questions and then reunite her with her kid. ”
He was speaking so casually, but I saw the pain he was trying to hide. “Come on,” I said, wrapping my arm around his waist.
“Where are we going?”
“You’re going for a bath and bed. They can deal with that,” I said, tipping my head back to gesture towards the men with the body. “You’re no good to anyone in this state.”
He allowed me to guide him through the house, waving at Rachel in the front room as we climbed the stairs. I quickly pointed in the direction of the kitchen, so she knew where Dante was and then continued helping Vienna.
With our roles reversed, I ran him a bath and gently eased him into the water, inspecting his stitches and monitoring his breathing.
“Should I get Doc and—Vienna!” I squealed as he seized hold of my waist and pulled me into the bath, sitting me on his lap.
“This is all I need.”
“But Doc—”
“No Doc. No treatment, no fussing. Just this,” he said, and something in his tone made my voice catch.
“Okay,” I said softly, relaxing my body and letting him pull me close.
“That’s better,” he breathed, wrapping his arms around me and laying us back.
“You need to be resting,” I whispered into his chest.
“I rest better with you near me,” he said.
I wasn’t about to argue with that.
A shiver ran through him, and I went to sit up in an attempt to turn the hot tap back on, but he tightened his grip, refusing to let me go.
“Vienna? Talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“I’m just having a bit of difficulty separating things,” he admitted.
“Separating what?”
“You and her,” he said quietly. “I see you in that kid. I saw you in the mother. It’s just… it’s taking a lot to process, Gabby. That’s all.”
“Luke,” I breathed, holding him tighter than before. We let the silence wash over us as the water soothed his aching bones.
After a few minutes, he began to speak again.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened.”
“No?” I said, drawing gentle circles on his chest.
“No. Twice a year, we do this big charity run. Members from all the charters gather here—mainly Easter and Christmas—and we drive through the entire city collecting presents and money, which we then take to the children’s unit at the hospital.”
I knew all this. I had even designed one of Vienna’s costumes way back when. But I left him to talk, sensing he needed to.