Chapter 9 #2
Once I had an in to her life, I couldn’t find the strength to turn away. Those cameras became my sole focus, and I couldn’t get enough of watching her on the screen. I saw everything. And it was fucking perfection.
But nothing, nothing , compared to seeing her face to face again.
I had wondered for months how I would react to seeing her again, and I had almost convinced myself that I wouldn’t have a response. That she wouldn’t call to me as much as she once had. That I had managed to rid her poison from my system.
I had watched her so much, surely I had grown immune to her spell? I was overfamiliar with her now.
Two minutes in her company, and I was fucked. It was almost embarrassing how easily my resolve crumbled when I had her in front of me.
She was it .
There was no other way to describe it.
She was it for me, and there would never be a day I didn’t respond. It was her posture, her smell, the way she carried herself, the way she scowled… hell, even her violence was perfection to me.
It was almost as though muscle memory kicked in, and my body was desperate to feel hers mould against mine. Despite the size difference, we fit together perfectly.
It actually annoyed me more than I’d like to admit that she seemed completely unaffected and had no response to me whatsoever.
If she was feeling anything other than pissed off, she was doing a damned good job of hiding it.
The only other hint of feeling I got from her was boredom.
I had an ego as much as any other man, and her dismissal was the bruising of a lifetime.
Mimicking her stance, I folded my own arms before I responded to her question. “It depends on where you stand in my life.”
“Nowhere. I’m here for my son, and that’s it. I’ll be leaving when I’ve got him back. So, back to my original question. Where is he?”
“He’s with Jenna.”
“Great. A three-word answer that didn’t need me coming back here to listen, but we got there in the end. I take it she still lives in the same place?” She said, one foot already out the door.
“She does. But don’t go in there all guns blazing. Jenna has a child of her own now. She doesn’t need your shit.”
“Does she?” Rachel breathed, a genuine happiness falling over her face.
Why did she always show genuine emotion to other people, and I got the fucking blank mime?
Shit still had the ability to piss me right off.
I nodded. “He’s only a few months old. We call him T-Rex, since he’s already a biter.”
“And what’s his actual name?”
“How the fuck would I know?” I shrugged.
“Typical Dante,” she said, rolling her eyes at me and went to leave again. “Oh, before I go. How is Bee?”
“She’s fine. She’s…” I paused for a moment, wondering how to put into words the changes in my daughter. Eventually, I sighed before saying: “She’s different, but she’s fine. You can see her, if you’d like?”
“Thanks,” she smiled sadly. “But no thanks. I don’t plan on staying any longer than necessary, and I think me seeing her will do more damage than good.” She turned away again.
I didn’t want to do this, but since she was so insistent on leaving, I had to call on my contingency plan.
“Rachel,” I called out after her. “Just so you know, if you take Axel, you’ll leave me with no choice but to take this to the courts.”
“Be my fucking guest,” she laughed, as though it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. “There’s not a court in this land who will grant you custody.”
“No?” I took a few steps closer to her. I saw her composure fumble, but she was quick to put her mask back in place.
“No,” she said firmly. “They wouldn’t.”
“Let’s compare, shall we?” I stepped closer, noticing the way she swallowed heavily.
“You, hiding under a fake name. Your dad was arrested for murder, but there are major doubts that he was the culprit, and you yourself are the prime suspect. Officer Bradley already suspects you of the murders of Ben and Macbeth. And there’s actual evidence you murdered Macbeth. Don’t forget that.”
“Finished?” She asked, a bored expression on her face.
“Not quite. There’s also the fact that you’re also emotionally unstable—a fact to which every member of this club will attest to. Everyone here has a story about your infamous temper. And then there’s the fact that you abandoned your stepchild.”
She had given no response to any of my other points, but as soon as I brought up leaving Bee behind, she gasped as though I had slapped her. “I did not—”
“Semantics,” I brushed her words away. “It’s all about what the court believes. And if that wasn’t enough, then how about this?” I walked away to retrieve a folder from the cabinet and placed it in her hands. “Have a read through.”
She scowled at me before snatching the document up and began flicking through it, her eyes widening as she did so. “You cannot be fucking serious.”
“Oh, but I am. Believe it or not, I came prepared to play dirty. You take Axel away from me, and that file you’re holding goes straight to the police. And there are backups. That one is yours to keep,” I grinned at her.
She looked back at the document, and I had to bite my inner cheek to stop from laughing. I knew the contents well. I could recite them in my sleep.
There were a few images from the clubhouse cameras, showing her getting drunk with me. I knew she recognised that night the moment the scowl on her forehead deepened. It was the night she had confessed to murdering Alex, and allowing her dad to take the blame for it.
There were also pictures taken from security footage, showing her riding through the club grounds on a motorbike, firing a gun at whoever was in her way.
I fucking loved that photo. Another was a picture of the knife she had used to slice open Ben’s stomach, with her fingerprints clearly dusted and Ben’s blood still on the blade.
“You kept this?”
“Collateral damage, darlin’. And then let’s add in the dead woman in Scotland.
How many people do you think saw you go in and out of her front door?
There’s a reason we came in through the back.
Did you see our motorbikes around? And just in case no one saw you, we had a prospect stick around and take photos of you leaving.
They’ll be emailed to me shortly. Vienna will be in the middle of speaking to that prospect right now, telling him to make an anonymous call to the police.
He’ll spin some story about his girlfriend not showing up for their date last night, and what do you think the police will find when they visit her house?
Poor, dead Scottish bitch, and poor Rachel as the last person to have been seen leaving her house. ”
“You son of a—”
“And then finally, just to add insult to injury, there’re the dozens of speeding tickets you no doubt got from racing to Leeds.
That’s pretty damning. Were you speeding from the scene of the crime, Rachel?
Oh, but it’s Lisa, isn’t it? Why are you hiding under a false name, Lisa ?
Is it because you’re hiding the fact you murdered a bunch of men?
See how the case against you getting custody is beginning to take shape? ”
“You’re a cunt,” she seethed, her entire body tense.
“Yep. But I’m a cunt without so much as a speeding ticket to my name.
A cunt that has his own house. A cunt that has two steady businesses and a thriving support system.
A cunt that has the power of persuasion, and half of the Leeds legal team in his back pocket.
I might have a reputation, Rachel, but there’s not a single crime they can pin on me.
Just suspicions and hearsay. When you look at it in black and white, who would you give a child to? ”
“Not fucking you,” she spat.
“But certainly not you, either. If by some chance the courts don’t give me custody of Axel, then he goes into the system.
I don’t think either of us wants that to happen.
I mean, I’d get him back easily. But you’d never know that, because you’d be rotting in a jail cell with monthly visits. If you’re lucky enough to get them.”
She looked at me with such defiance and hatred, and the only response I had was from my cock as it hardened. Rachel always had that effect on me, but seeing her rendered speechless, and knowing I held all the cards, all the power, made me harder than I could remember.
It was nice to finally silence that fucking smart mouth of hers.
It took all the strength I possessed not to pull her into my arms and plant a victory kiss on her lips.
“I won’t go down without a fight, Dante. You know that.”
“I love it when you talk dirty,” I laughed at her, and how she restrained herself from hitting me was beyond me. Her fingers tightened on the folder she was holding, crumpling it in her fist, and her entire body tensed up, ready to strike.
She wisely held back, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.
“I’m not asking you to fight. You’ll lose, and what’s the fun in that? I’ve got a proposition for you instead.”
She narrowed her eyes into slits and glared at me. “What proposition?”
“Six months. That’s all I’m asking for.”
“Six months to do what? I won’t be without Axel for six months and—”
“I’m not asking you to be without Axel, for fuck's sake,” I snapped. “Although it would only be fair, considering I’ve been without him for an entire year.”
“Consequence of your own actions,” she shrugged.
“And doing the same to you would be a consequence of your actions. But that’s not what I had in mind. Instead, I want you to live here as my old lady for six months.”
“No,” she said firmly, shaking her head, her face paling even further.
“Sorry, did I give you the impression that this was a fucking negotiation? The way I see it, you can’t afford to say no.
You give me six months. You don’t complain, you don’t threaten to leave, and you perform your old lady duties.
If you do that, I might consider giving you our son back.
You fail and I’ll see you imprisoned, and with that rap sheet of yours, you’re looking at life. ”
“You know, I could always flee to somewhere with no extradition…”
“Oh, yeah?” I challenged. “And what would your options be? The Middle East? I’m sure with your attitude, living in the Middle East will go splendidly.”
“I didn’t fucking say the Middle East, did I?” she said through clenched teeth.
“So where then?”
“I’m hardly going to tell you that, am I? Besides, I’ve hidden before. I’ve got pretty good at it.”
“And I’ve found you before. I’ll find you again.
But…” I added as she opened her mouth to respond.
“I’m willing to play along with your delusions.
You go ahead and run. If none of this has been convincing enough for you, how about this?
If you somehow manage to flee this country, taking my son with you, then your parents will be the one to pay the price.
And I won’t make it a painless death either, Rachel.
I’ll make them pay, and pay heavily, for every one of your crimes. ”
I could tell by the flicker of panic in her eyes that she believed every word of my threats — as she should.
“You agreed to be my old lady once, Rachel, and you’ll do it again. I’m asking for six months, and that’s it.”
“I fucking hate you.”
I shrugged off her words. “Makes no difference to me. You’re my old lady.
As far as bikers are concerned, agreeing to be someone’s old lady is as sacred as marriage, and I don’t remember signing the divorce papers to let you go and setting you free.
So if you know what’s good for you, you’ll spend the next six months learning to love, honour, and obey, and then we’ll discuss that freedom you want so badly. ”
“You want love?” she hissed. “I’ll love when I’ve destroyed everything you own. I’ll honour my commitment when I’ve wiped out the rest of the King family, and I’ll obey my vow to see you cold in the ground.”
She was fucking glorious.
Every angry, venom-laced word she spat at me was like nectar. I lapped it up, craving it like a literal fucking drug.
What the fuck did that say about me?
“Those are some big words from a woman who went running the minute things got tough.”
“That’s some fake ass dismissal from a guy who cried that he loved me and begged me not to leave.”
Jesus. How was it possible to crave someone so badly, and yet want to gut them where they stood at the same time?
The reactions Rachel brought out of me were nothing but extreme. One second I wanted to fuck her, the next I could gladly squeeze her neck until the last breath left her body.
The thought of doing both at the same time didn’t exactly fill me with disgust, either.
And by the look in Rachel’s eyes, she felt the exact same way.
“That was then. I know what you’re capable of now. Believe me, I know better than to ever fall for the illusion again. All I want from you is my son. You can feel free to fuck off and leave him here, otherwise you can agree to my terms. It’s as simple as that.”