Chapter 9
Vienna
Now
“With all due respect, brother, you look like shit,” Greg told me, slapping a hand on my shoulder.
For a second, I let a smile play on my lips. A small, secret smile of the night before. And then the mask came back into place, and Vienna reigned supreme.
“The disrespect in this place is getting out of hand. Dante!” I yelled, interrupting his bickering with Rachel. “Dante, where’s the suggestion box? I need to make an entry!”
“An entry for what?” he sighed, sounding at the end of his tether.
“About how we deal with the disrespect running rampant in this club. It’s tearing us apart. I want to put a formal suggestion that all such cases should be met with swift punishment.”
“You burnt the suggestion box, Ven,” Rachel said. “You literally danced around the fire giggling like a fucking maniac, and then dumped the ashes in Monster’s pint.”
“Are you sure about that?” I frowned back. “It doesn’t sound like something I’d do.”
“Not unhinged enough for you?” she called back before dismissing me, pulling Dante through the door to continue their argument.
“Looks like that was a no,” Greg laughed.
“Don’t you have some sort of spell to cast, Malfoy?” I barked at him, referencing the nickname Rachel had once given him.
“And don’t you have a song to be performing?” he responded, ignoring my insult. “Why are you sulking at the bar?”
“I’m having a pre-show drink whilst my starring lady gets ready for her big entrance. No one is sulking.”
“If you say so,” he muttered, walking away from me.
Jeez, when did having a drink at ten in the morning become a crime?
At that moment, Dante came storming back into the bar, making a beeline straight for me.
“That woman,” he hissed, shaking his head.
“Mama’s ghost haunting you?” I asked.
“What? No,” he shook his head, giving me a funny look. “Fucking Rachel. God knows what’s pissed her off this morning, but I’m paying the price for it.”
His phone buzzed in his hand, and he looked down at it with a growl, furiously typing out a response. “Case in point,” he said, briefly shaking the phone at me.
“Let me see,” I said, reaching for the phone, only for him to pull it out of my reach.
“You’re not looking at my messages again, Vienna.”
“What a bizarre thing to lie about. Of course I’m going to look. I can’t help if I don’t know what’s happening.”
“I’m never listening to your advice again, anyway,” he shot back.
That was hurtful.
Okay, yes. I may or may not have convinced him once to buy Rachel flowers.
But that was a normal thing for a man to give his wife.
How was I supposed to know she was going to take offence and throw them at him?
I mean, yes, I had sprinkled them with sneezing powder, but that was a complete overreaction.
“She slapped me with those flowers, Vienna,” Dante growled, knowing exactly where my mind was going.
“And that was unfortunate. But all in all, it was a grand plan. I stand by that.”
“And I stand by the fact that you’re a disaster.”
“Stop being silly, Dante. Give me the phone.”
“No,” he snapped, pulling it out of my reach when I grabbed for it. “You want to talk about disrespect in this club? Look at yourself. Have you never heard of boundaries?”
“Boundaries? What are you talking about, boundaries? That's hurt my feelings, Dante.”
“I have a life outside of you, you know? I don’t have to share every moment.”
“And that's acceptable, but this,” I said, snatching the phone out of his hand and waving it at him. “This isn't a separate life. This is a secret. From your Vice President, no less! I raised you better than this. Boundaries,” I repeated, shaking my head at the ridiculousness.
And then I unlocked his screen with my fingerprint I'd added to his phone's security months ago.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he muttered when he realised what I’d done.
“It’s for security, Dante. What if you were murdered, and the police had access to your phone? I’d like to think a decent friend would be willing to swoop in and delete your porn history before your fetishes became public knowledge. I’m that friend.”
“I’d like to delete you,” he said under his breath, but wisely realised the battle was over and left me to rifle through his phone, reading every message.
But what I read punched me in the gut.
“You’re arguing about me?” I asked, the humour slipping before I could stop it.
“Look—” he began.
“Why is Rachel so invested in Gabriella?” I demanded. “What am I missing here?”
“She’s not invested.”
“The fuck she is. Ever since she found out about her—which was way before Axel was born, might I add—she’s been nothing short of obsessed with bringing her back to me, as she puts it.”
“She just wants you happy, Ven. We all do.”
“And why is that causing issues in lover’s paradise?”
Dante sighed heavily. “Look… she heard about Church yesterday and… she’s seen Gabriella in town. She’s tried to speak to her on many occasions. There’s no love lost between them, not after what Rachel did to her brother, but… She cares, Vienna. That’s all it is.”
“Nothing I’m hearing is new information. She’s told me all of this herself. Why has it caused an argument?”
“She had a bruise,” Dante said quietly, cutting through all the bullshit. And just like that, the noise of the room disappeared.
“When?” I demanded.
“A few days ago. On her face,” he added when I opened my mouth. “Not quite a black eye, but her cheek was definitely bruised.”
My hand clenched around the phone, almost crushing it in my grip, my breathing picking up speed.
“And why is Rachel mad about that?”
“She wants to stage a rescue. She wants us to go and kidnap her and force her to stay here—she learned from the best, eh?” he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he attempted to make a joke. But I didn’t reply. I wasn’t capable of replying.
She had a bruise on her face…
“We’re dealing with it, Vienna. I promise.
I’ve already got Hacksaw and Riley scoping the place out.
Once they come back with intel, we’ll figure out how to get eyes inside that place.
We’ll find out what’s happening, and then we make a plan.
Nothing has changed since Church. I promise.
Just… just get through this show with Bee.
Hacksaw should be back by then, and we’ll figure things out. ”
I nodded to show agreement, not quite trusting my voice to speak.
“You know we can’t force her out of there. We’ve tried before. She begged to be returned. If you want us to go get her right this fucking second, just say the word and we’ll go… I just figured we needed to be smart about this.”
“No. No, you’re right,” I said, barely able to make out the words coming out of my mouth.
He was hurting her. And I hadn’t seen a thing. She hadn’t come to me. My mind was racing with a million questions.
Why would she stay with someone who hurt her? Why was it so easy for her to walk away from me, but she stayed with someone like that?
What did she see in him that she hadn’t seen in me?
Where had it all gone wrong?
Because she knew. She had to know. She had to know that no matter what had happened between us, I would be there for her if she needed me. Surely the years of watching her, waiting for our signal, waiting for her to prove she was still safe, had proved that to her?
So why hadn’t she come to me now that she was hurting?
What the fuck was happening in the Rider’s compound?
“We’ll get this sorted, Vienna. I promise,” Dante repeated, slapping me on the shoulder as he walked away and left me to my thoughts.
And deep down, I knew he was right.
I knew that he would have my back, no matter how we approached this. And so I trusted him, just as I always had. We would get to the bottom of this. But we would do so in a way that didn’t endanger everyone.
In the meantime, I would finish this show, and then I’d go back to my spot outside her window.
And I’d get some fucking answers.