Chapter 14
Dante
The signing went better than expected.
I half expected Rachel to back out, or to find some way to manipulate the situation to her advantage.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by how calmly she approached the whole thing.
She threw herself into the drafting process with an enthusiasm that both puzzled and amused me.
She asked for certain points to be added, or other points to be worded differently for better understanding.
In her words, ‘there’s no room for ambiguity here’, she was taking this as seriously as she could.
There were even a few amendments we hadn’t discussed earlier, such as demanding that I not get involved with sin activities.
She was even laughing with the lawyer on one or two occasions.
It was easy to see that the lawyer was charmed by her.
And I could hardly blame him. This was the Rachel I had met in the diner all those years ago.
The one with the air of innocence around her.
The Rachel that had a calming presence. The one that looked as though she was confident, and yet at the same time, in need of protection.
She played the role well. She laughed at all the right moments, batting her eyelashes at him as she touched his arm. He was hooked, just as I had been.
I knew now it was all an illusion, but it was what had originally drawn me to her.
The only niggle was towards the end. After nearly two hours of drafts, changing the wording, and minor disagreements over amendments, the lawyer asked if there was anything else we would like to add, as the contract could not be altered afterwards.
I saw Rachel hesitate and bite down on her lip. Her eyes clouded over, and her mouth opened, looking as though she wanted to say something. But instead, she had clamped her lips together and murmured her agreement, snatching the pen up and signing before she had the chance to change her mind.
Why would she hesitate? She had already made additional points without a single argument from me. So why did she suddenly feel as though she couldn’t ask for what she wanted?
I didn’t like feeling as though she was hiding something, but at the same time, I didn’t want to press the matter when it could very well be my own paranoia.
I had a feeling it was to do with her boss. She was insane if she thought I didn’t know about their dates. I knew when, I knew where, and I knew how often.
Bambi—one of the new prospects—had been assigned with watching her for the past four months.
He lost two of his fingers when he took two weeks to get back to us.
He said he was scared to tell us about Axel.
That feeble excuse hadn’t been enough to save him the punishment.
One lost finger for every week he delayed information.
Vienna pinned his hand to the table, and I sliced them off before he even knew what was happening.
Hacksaw then took over, and spent weeks following Rachel, learning her routine, who her friends were, and installing software on her phone that allowed me to spy on everything. Every message, every photo taken, every Google search.
Everything.
Finding out she had dated her boss was the least of my worries when my own flesh and blood was sequestered away.
It pained me on a level I never knew I possessed to know she had wilfully hidden my son from me.
And then pained me even further having to bide my time whilst we put all the pieces into place to manipulate her into returning home.
It had been Ant’s idea to strike on Axel’s birthday.
We knew from her texts that she was planning a party, and we figured she would be stressed enough to let her guard down.
The original plan was to strike when she was at the bakery collecting Axel’s birthday cake. But then it occurred to me how fun it would be to toy with her.
There was a painting hanging in her hallway.
It was an ugly fucking painting, with splashes of colour here, there, and everywhere.
The painting was so busy and chaotic that she hadn’t even noticed that Hacksaw had cut a hole in the top corner and planted a tiny camera.
It was through that camera that I had been able to watch her reaction to receiving the birthday card.
It was also through the many other cameras that we decided not to kill the nanny.
Karen had been good to my son. You hear some horrific stories about staff abusing children when the parents were away, but that woman had treated him with nothing but kindness and affection. I was glad Axel was young because her absence would have left a hole in his life otherwise.
Just like you forced Rachel to do with that American kid. Just like the hole you forced Bee to have when you kicked Rachel out of your lives.
Yeah, well. I was a hypocrite sometimes. I could see that.
“How are you feeling about this, brother?” Vienna asked as Rachel walked out with the lawyer.
“It’s better than nothing, I suppose.”
“I think it's doomed to fail,” he said with a lopsided grin. “But fuck me, it’s going to be fun to watch you both try.”
“Thanks for that.”
“No, thank you. I’m going to make a pretty penny out of this when I take bets with the rest of the club. I might even call a Church meeting and make the bet a mandatory thing.”
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“As your vice president, my place is by your side, with front row tickets to all the drama. Would you like me to sleep at the end of your bed so you don’t get up to no hanky panky?”
“Hanky panky?” I laughed, turning my head in his direction.
“You know… bumping uglies, hiding the sausage, the old horizontal dance. Unless you were never horizontal? Is Rachel a cowgirl type of woman? I’m gonna ask her what her favourite position is so I can get my references and jokes in order.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort.” I grabbed him by the neck of his cut before he could take another step.
Axel crawled over to us and brought me one of the fire trucks from the toy box. I bent low and scooped him up into my arms. “Can you say dada? Da-da.”
He said nothing.
“I don’t think he likes you. Give him here,” Vienna said, snatching him away from me. “Can you say Vienna? You’re gonna wanna say Vienna, kiddo. I know where all the treats are, and I’ll share them with you if you say my name before your dad’s.”
“You know he’s one, right?”
“And?”
“So he can’t understand your blackmail?”
“Okay, I see what you’re saying,” he nodded and then looked back at Axel. “Can you say Vienna?” he said, emphasising the syllables, his voice high pitched and baby-like. “Vienna is the best-a.”
“He can’t say Vienna,” Rachel came into the kitchen, using the same elongated version of his name. “But he can probably say wanker,” she stretched that word out too.
Vienna stuck his finger up at her and then walked out of the kitchen after handing Axel to me.
“So…” I said.
“So… When does Bee get home?”
“Soon. How about you go and see Jenna? I’m sure she’d love to show the baby off to someone who hasn’t already seen him for a change.”
“That sounds good,” she nodded. “What will you do?”
“Me? I’m about to find a therapist that won’t report us both to the authorities and have us committed for life.”
“Good luck with that.”