Chapter 7
Rachel
I opened my eyes, feeling as though I was a teenager again, having drunk far more than necessary. My tongue felt fuzzy, my vision was hazy, and I couldn’t remember why the fuck I was lying on a carpet.
What on earth did I get up to last night? I’ve got to stop drinking!
Only… I didn’t remember drinking at all. I hadn’t touched a drop since Axel was born. Babysitters were few and far between, and even though Hayley had invited me to have a drink a few times, I much preferred being home with my little man than forking out a fortune for people to watch him for me.
It was one thing for Karen to watch him during the day. I had to work. But my nights were reserved for my son.
I rolled onto my back, immediately hating myself as my hazy vision made it seem as though the ceiling was rushing down to greet me. I tilted my head to the side, swallowing down the vomit that threatened to choke me.
Why did that seem familiar?
I wasn’t the type of woman to get blackout drunk, so there was hardly a massive catalogue of memories where I choked on my own vomit, but there was one memory beating at the doors of the fog. I just couldn’t pull it forward enough to focus on it.
I brought my knees up, resting my feet flat on the carpet and raised my hands to my head, shielding out any light in the room and exhaled sharply, wracking my brain for any memory it wanted to give me.
Where the fuck was I? What were my last movements?
I was with Axel, but that was hardly a fucking revelation. I was either with my child, or I was at work. I had been to work yesterday, and I left early for Axel’s party… but then what?
Another wave of nausea hit me, only this time there was no stopping it. I had just enough energy to throw my body to the side, hurling the contents of my stomach onto the carpet.
At least you won’t be taking a trip to the hospital this time, Rachel!
And that one sentence was enough to have it all come flooding back. Remembering choking on my vomit on Dante’s bathroom floor was all the reminder I needed that Dante had done this to me.
Dante had been one step ahead of me. He was here, waiting for me. And fucking Vienna had drugged me.
And now they had my son.
Unlucky for him, I was one step ahead of him in this round, because this wasn’t my first time being drugged.
Alex had used roofies on me enough times for me to recognise what my body was currently withdrawing from.
The confusion, the sore head, the nausea, dizziness, heavy tongue and lack of control over my limbs.
They were all familiar to me. And if I remembered correctly, the side effects lasted around twelve hours.
I narrowed my eyes into slits, scanning the room for a clock and quickly saw that it was a few minutes past two.
I pushed myself to my hands and knees, and rocked backwards, hauling myself up so I was sitting on my bent legs, my feet under my ass, my hands on my knees, and mentally calculated the timeline.
I’d arrived at Hayley’s between four and five.
It was still pitch black outside, so the clock had to be showing a.m., not p.m. Even if Dante hadn’t set off to Leeds straight away, more than enough time had passed that he was definitely back at the club by now.
It would take me a minimum of four hours to get there, and I had to go back home first to get my car.
Which also meant that Dante had time to hide Axel. He knew I would come after him, and he knew I wouldn’t be far behind. It would be a small miracle if Axel was at the clubhouse waiting for me — if the clubhouse had even been rebuilt yet.
“Argh!” I screamed out loud, fisting my hair in frustration before I punched the carpet, immediately regretting my outburst as pain flared up my arm and sent a jolt of shock ricocheting through my pounding head.
I took a couple of deep breaths, forcing a calm I didn’t really feel into my body before I pushed myself to my feet—only to go falling back to the floor with a scream, scrambling backwards until I felt the sofa behind me, and used the arm of it to pull myself to my feet with shaky legs.
Oh, God… Hayley…
I spun around and emptied the contents of my stomach once more when I saw her.
Her glassy eyes stared past me, mouth slack, a pool of congealed blood darkening the carpet beside her, and half the contents of her skull were on the floor next to her.
I closed my eyes tight, desperately trying to ignore the image of the flies dancing around in her brain matter, greedily ingesting their next meal.
This is all my fucking fault. She deserved so much better than this…
Hayley had never harmed a soul in her life. She was the sweetest, most wonderful woman, and because she had made one foolish mistake, she paid the price with her life.
However, even though it made me feel like a heartless cunt, I couldn’t afford to care about her right now. Because the one person I loved more than anything was currently in the hands of a man who would do anything he could to keep him from me.
Would he, though?
Well… Maybe not. But he would put stipulations in place, and I didn’t need to hear them to know I wouldn’t fucking like them.
And like a lightbulb going off in my foggy brain, I suddenly remembered the scrap of paper given to me by Frank.
I bit my lip, my eyes glancing at the clock once more as I noted the late hour. But Frank had said anytime, hadn’t he? And I had little other choice. My legs were still shaky. I could barely support myself, let alone walk to my house to get my car keys.
Before I could doubt myself any further, I stumbled over to Hayley’s corpse, catching myself a few times as I almost fell over.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to her as I sank to my knees at her side, and rolled her over so I could search her jean pockets, quickly finding the phone I was looking for.
I crawled back over the carpet to the front door, remembering that was where I had left my backpack, and dug around until my fingers wrapped around the envelope Frank had given me.
With shaky hands, I typed in the number, counting the rings, praying to a God I didn’t even believe in that Frank had found the time to put the SIM card into a device.
“Hello?” came the groggy voice after what felt like a million rings, when in actual fact, it was around five. “Rachel?”
“Frank,” I sobbed with relief, with fear, with every damn emotion under the sun. “Frank, it all went fucking wrong. Dante… he… they… were waiting. They were already here.”
Get a fucking grip of yourself, woman! Since when have you ever allowed anyone to see you cry? Straighten your goddamn spine, sniff back those useless tears, and get your head in the fucking game!
I was right. Of course I was.
I furiously wiped away at the tears with the back of my hand and finally ripped off the pathetic black wig.
“We’re on our way, Rachel. Don’t move a muscle. We’re coming for you, sweetheart, we promise. Is Axel okay?”
“They took him,” I said, my voice devoid of emotion. “I need you to take me home, and then I’m going to Leeds. I’m getting my son back, and I’ll put a bullet in every single fucking one of them, if that’s what it takes.”