4. Mills
Chapter four
Mills
“Look, I’m just saying, why can’t she come over here? Why can’t she come visit? Listen to some music. Dance.”
“You just want to get her drunk, Ranger, so you can kiss her again.” I keep putting the finishing touches on the cupcakes and stand back to admire my work.
It’s Ianto’s birthday, and the boys are here. Most of them are drunk already, but not us. Ianto will appreciate the effort I’ve gone to. The cupcakes are chocolate covered in green icing with a white chocolate corpse, lots of raspberry blood, and a dark chocolate knife. They are cute as fuck.
The music is thumping through the house, and I can hear the boys having a great time.
Ranger climbs up on the bench, glaring at me. “It’s not that I want to get her drunk. I just hate seeing her sad, and she never has any fun.”
“She has fun,” I say absently, checking the cupcakes with the skull designs. Perfect. We both know I’m lying. There is nothing more heartbreaking than Aurelia Raines.
“She lives in that fucking mansion alone, Mills. No staff, no family, no friends. No one visits her.”
“You spend a lot of time watching her when you should be minding your own business. We have problems in house,” I hiss.
Ranger snarls and brushes his auburn hair back. “It’s not right, Mills, and you know it. The bond goes both ways, ‘brother’.” The way he snarls that word at me draws my attention. “I can feel how much you want her.”
I sigh and stomp over to him, leaning against his side so my mouth is by his ear. “You’re going to want to shut the fuck up. If Zaden hears you, it’s not going to be good.”
“Admit it, then,” Ranger snarls. “Admit you hate seeing her like that. Tell me every time we have one of these parties, you don’t think of her and wish you were there instead of here.”
“We are an outlaw motorcycle gang. We are a pack on top of that. She needs someone who is going to take her to fancy restaurants. She doesn’t need a bunch of thugs who drink too much, party hard, and ride harder. Lia is something special, Ranger.” I pause. “Besides, after what happened last week, with Peter Lucy letting us know we have a leak and needing to shift our entire base of operations, I don’t think it’s a good time. Whoever ratted out our business to the cops was someone on the inside.”
“You sound like Zaden. That was really good. You had all his inflections down perfectly. The thing is, Mills, I’m getting sick of hearing it. She needs us.”
I open my mouth to argue, but the feelings I’ve developed for our mysterious neighbour have woven throughout my entire being, and I can’t find any words to argue.
With a growl, I step back and return to my cakes, but my eyes turn to the window. Lia’s mansion is a black, shadowy shape. Only three lights are on, the downstairs and two upstairs.
There is no sound coming from her home. No sign of anyone at all.
She is all alone. Achingly alone.
I turn my attention back to the cupcakes. But the satisfaction is lost.
“Ranger, we need to be worried about keeping the club safe. If they find out we’re rebirthing bikes and cars, that puts the entire revenue for this chapter at risk. It’s not an easy task to move a shit tonne of stolen bikes and cars without being seen. And we’ve got a leak. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it.” I pause, inhaling and exhaling again. “Go away. Please,” I stress.
He hops off the bench and, with another over-exaggerated sigh, dances over to me, kisses my nape, and disappears out of my kitchen.
I stop and brace my hands on the island, hanging my head as Rangers’ words go round and round.
“Fuck it.”
I grab a container and pack up ten cupcakes, wincing a little at the morbid designs, and then I slip out of the house and walk the short distance between our properties. There used to be a fence made of shrubs, but Zaden’s dad and our ex president cut them down just before we moved in.
Unlike our wild garden, Lia’s is carefully manicured. All the plants maintained to be below chest height and all designed for its flowering beauty rather than any real practical reason.
Lia rarely comes out to the gardens, though. She seems to hate them for some reason .
I go around the back, past all the rows and rows of high windows, until I find the laundry door. I carefully set the cakes down and pull out my lock picks.
It takes me a minute, but then I’m in.
I tread carefully through the dark of her house. Slipping past paintings of celebrities and the famous Raines sisters. There are vases sitting on wood thrones, china with elaborate paintings, golden cats, and artwork worth more than I have in my bank account.
And I know she cares for it as little as I do.
The kitchen is different. It’s not the old historic mansion with its thick rugs and polished wood furniture. The kitchen is a dream. It’s got all the modern appliances, space to cook for a hundred or more guests. It’s huge and clean, and the light shining out of it calls to me.
I slip in, but she’s not here.
I glance back over my shoulder, looking at the stairs. She must be up there. I’m both disappointed and relieved.
The counter is cold under my hand, but still, I slide it along the surface, indulging for a minute in a fantasy where she is standing beside me, laughing as I feed her frosting. Ranger is happily watching us, teasing. Zaden walks in, Ianto and Valen behind him, and instead of censure, I see happiness.
This beta could be ours.
That thought rips my illusions away. China Raines, Lia’s mother, made it very clear when we moved in that we were not for her daughter. We are scum, and we were to stay far away.
Of course, things have changed since then. But for Zaden, he and China are of one mind.
Lia is too good for us.
I wish I could believe it the way he does. Oh, I know she’s too good, but I don’t think we’re that bad for her.
I think she could be happy with us. Certainly happier than in here.
I arrange the cupcakes on the island. I step back, lean forward and adjust one, and then turn and silently go back the way I came.
“Hello?”
I stop, frozen. I turn back to her and find her slim body weaving back towards the light. Her hair is a golden halo around her. Her ass gently cupped in a pair of far too short shorts. They make me want to rush her into the nearest surface just so I can get those curves in my damn hands before I die.
“Oh, wow!” Lia’s gentle enthusiasm is infectious, and I want more than anything to go watch her discover my presents. There’s a pause. “They’re beautiful,” she says in awe .
I bite my lip and watch in silence as she vanishes into the kitchen. As soon as she disappears from my line of sight, I recall where I’m supposed to be and turn and slip from her home.
No music or laughter comes from the Raines mansion. Nor signs of people or family. No cars, no bikes, no people at all. But I hope I’ve made her lonely night a little less lonely.
It makes it easier to sleep.