Chapter 20
Gabriella
Before
Darren may just be the most boring man in existence.
I loved the club life. I was groomed to love it, so I hadn’t been left with much of a choice. But fuck me… there was more to living than bikes and memberships.
All evening, all he had spoken about were his wishes, his potential, how he was being put forth for prospect status next year. I don’t think he’d asked a single question about me—not even a simple, “hey, how are ya?”
But, I thought bitterly, that hardly mattered. The important thing wasn’t getting to know me. It was the fact that I was the president’s daughter.
At eighteen, Darren had aged out of the Juniors, but hadn’t proven himself to my dad yet.
Usually, if you spent enough time in the Junior division, you were able to bypass prospect status entirely.
But my dad had been more and more strict on that score as of late, and rarely did anyone graduate without that prospect patch.
“Are you having a good time?” he asked me, his eyes focused on nothing but my legs in my skirt.
We started off this date in the clubhouse, but things soon turned…
aggressive there. It was the same deal every Friday night.
Darren had offered to take me for a drive, and now here we were, in one of the rougher areas of Leeds, the heart of Rider territory, walking around with our hands entwined.
As though we were young lovers with the world at our fingertips.
“It’s been nice,” I said as politely as I could. “But I think we should be getting back soon.”
“How come you’ve never dated?”
“Excuse me?” I asked, stopping dead still, my arm cracking as he continued walking, pulling me forward. “I’ve dated.”
“Not one of the lads, you haven’t,” he replied, looking down at me.
He smiled, but it was a smile that filled me with dread.
He was too sure of himself. Too cocky. That wasn’t a natural smile.
There was something wrong with it, I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
“I just think it’s strange you’ve never shown any interest.”
“I’m sixteen… What interest was I supposed to be showing?” I said with a small laugh in an attempt to lighten the mood and brush off his investigation.
“Aren’t sixteen-year-olds supposed to be raging with hormones? I know I was.”
“Maybe I’m a late developer. Besides, are you really complaining that I haven’t dated the entire Junior division, instead of celebrating that you were my first and only choice?”
I mentally patted myself on the back for my quick thinking on that one. These men were egotistical and proud. All I had to do was say the right words, soothe and stroke his pride, and then never speak to him again once he dropped me off home.
He didn’t reply to me, but he continued walking, and I dutifully followed along, casting nervous glances at him. As we passed under a streetlamp, the orange glow cast over his face, sending a shiver down my spine.
“Cold?” he chuckled, releasing my hand and wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I froze, my body instantly tensing up, which made him laugh even harder. “Relax, Gabby. We can go back if you want.”
“If you’re sure you don’t mind?” I asked, praying that the desperate tone in my voice wasn’t easily heard.
“Sure… for a price.”
“A price?”
“Kiss me,” he said, surprising me by spinning around and grabbing my waist. My feet came off the floor as he picked me up and turned us, sitting me on a nearby wall and stepping between my legs.
It had only been a second, and everything had changed.
I felt trapped.
“If I’m your first and only choice,” he muttered, a mocking tone to the words. “Then you should have no problem kissing me.”
“Is this usually how you get girls to kiss you?” I said back, proud that my voice came out loud and clear. “No romance, no build up, just straight up demands?”
“It is when I feel like the girls bullshitting me.”
His face grew darker.
I hadn’t been stroking his ego at all.
I had been naively fanning the flames of his anger.
“Kiss me, princess,” he breathed, lowering his head to mine, his words a whisper against my lips.
My heart raced. And not in the way it had when…
No. I wouldn’t think of that.
I wouldn’t think of the morning after the funeral. When it had just been me and Luke.
We had fallen asleep in the grass, and when we woke up, there was something different… something unspoken.
He had lowered his head to mine, just like Darren was doing. But my reaction had been completely different. My palms had grown sweaty, my heart racing. I felt dizzy and delirious.
And then his phone had rung, and he’d pulled away from me.
He hadn’t been the same since then.
We still had our late-night texting sessions. But they had dwindled to once a week. Whenever he saw me at school, he gave me a courtesy nod, and that was it.
The boy who had once climbed monkey bars and barked at Macbeth in the park had disappeared into something else.
He was lost in the throes of the club and the Descendants.
Sixteen and already trying to prove he was a man.
I’d stopped reaching out to him as much, and he hadn’t made the effort, either.
“Relax, Gabby. I’m not keeping you prisoner,” Darren said, snapping me back to reality. “Just kiss me. Put your money where your mouth is, and prove to me I’m your first and only choice.”
He did not give me the chance to prove anything.
His lips crashed to mine, and my very first kiss was snatched away from me by someone with no permission to take it.
Shock had me freezing. Panic had me responding.
And then instinct had me retaliating.
Sinking my teeth into his lower lip, I bit down at the same time my knee came up, hitting between his legs.
He doubled over in pain, and I wasted not a single second. Shoving him with all my might, I hopped down off the wall, and took off running, too scared to spare even the slightest of glances behind me.
“Please, please, please,” I muttered, digging my phone out of the ridiculously small bag Natalie had allowed me to borrow for the night.
My heels clacked on the floor as the dialling tone sounded in my ears. My breath puffed out, my thighs burned, and there was no disguising the sound of running coming from behind me.
“Luke here, international man of mystery, absolute sensational looking beast, glory to mankind. How may I be of assistance?” came his voice, a voice that was almost drowned out by all the music and laughter in the background.
“Luke…”
“Gabby? What’s wrong?” he demanded, all playfulness gone from his tone.
“I… I’m on a date and…”
“Where are you?” All noise was gone now. There was nothing but the deafening silence on the other end of the phone.
“I don’t know. He drove me here. He—”
“Has he hurt you?”
“N-no…” I stammered, rushing to the back of the nearest building and crouching behind the bins. “He did kiss me, though. I didn’t want him to, and I—”
“Where are you?” he barked, his voice making me jump. “Describe your surroundings.”
“I don’t… We were in Leeds. Rider territory. He took me to the park near the abandoned church. We were walking along the trail and—”
“Where have you run to?” he asked, and my ears pricked as I detected the sound of two bike engines turning over.
“How did you—?”
“Not important. Listen to me, Gabby. Where have you run to?”
“I’m at the back of Sainsbury’s,” I whispered. “The one—”
“I know where you mean. Stay right fucking there. Yeah, mate,” he said, clearly speaking to someone else. “Fucking dog-shit alley of all places. Gabby?” he said softer, speaking to me again. “Stay put. We’ll be ten minutes.”
“Seven,” I heard Dante laugh in the background before the phone disconnected.
Seven minutes to the almost exact second, I heard the rumble of the motorbikes, and sent a silent prayer to whoever had been watching over me.
Darren had run past this alleyway a few minutes ago, and instinct told me he wouldn’t be long before he checked down here. He knew I couldn’t have got far, and since I wasn’t ahead of him, I must have hidden. He would be looking for me.
Pushing myself to my feet, I smoothed down my skirt, ran my hands through my hair, and wet my finger to swipe away the smudged mascara under my eyes.
Just as I took a step forward, a hand clamped over my mouth, silencing my scream, and a menacing voice whispered in my ear: “Found you.”
I fought against him, but he removed his hand almost as quickly as he had put it on me, and stepped back with a grin.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Gabby. Fucking hell,” he laughed. “You really are a dumb kid, aren’t you?”
“Darren—”
I screamed once more as a fist came out of nowhere, slamming into the side of Darren’s face. I saw the flash of blonde hair, but then a strong hand grabbed my elbow and pulled me backwards, keeping me out of harm's way.
The crack of Luke’s second punch echoed through the alley.
Darren stumbled backwards, swearing, clutching his face as Luke stepped between us.
For a split second, I barely recognised him.
His helmet was gone, his hair windswept, chest rising and falling as he stared Darren down with an expression I had never seen before.
Gone was the playful banter. Gone was the cheerful, happy-go-lucky boy.
And in its place was something furious. Something frightening. And something kind of hot.
God help me.
“You touch her again,” Luke said, his voice low and steady, “and I’ll break your fucking hands.”
Darren spat blood onto the pavement and laughed. “She’s a Rider. I’m entitled to touch whatever, and wherever on her body that I want.”
“Wrong,” Luke hissed, swinging at him once more.
Darren dodged that punch and danced back, out of Luke’s reach. “You’re in the wrong territory, Devil.”
Luke didn’t move. “So do something about it.”
Darren lunged.
The two of them collided hard, slamming into the side of the brick wall. It wasn’t graceful or controlled. This was two teenagers, scrapping as though their lives depended on it.
Luke landed the first proper punch, catching Darren across the cheek.