Chapter 39
Rachel
It was late when we got back to the clubhouse, and I was feeling more than a little emotionally drained.
I fucking hated to see my dad cry, and I hated it even more that I was the cause of it.
I thought I had given my parents enough stress when I was a teenager, and yet here I was, making their lives even more difficult when they were in their golden years.
Imagine going on a world cruise—something that many people could only ever dream of doing—and yet you don’t even know where your only child is, or whether or not they were safe.
Even though my dad had assured me it wasn’t a big deal, I knew it would have hung over him like a dark cloud.
Their relationship had seemed strained, and I didn’t like thinking I was the cause of it.
Even before my dad had awkwardly walked in on me and my mum arguing, their relationship was a far cry from the one I had seen when my dad was first released from prison.
My dad had done so much for me, giving away his freedom to ensure I was happy and safe. He deserved so much better.
At least the kids seemed happy around them, though. My mum had been decent for a change and held her tongue. She had even told me I was doing a good job with them. I knew it was killing her not to ask me about Bee being mute, but I was grateful that she decided to behave herself and not pry.
And, in the interest of being honest, I got a sick thrill out of not giving her the answers she was looking for.
And then she had to go and fucking ruin everything.
I had ended up taking the kids to the park myself, not wanting to disappoint them any further. I saw a flicker of disappointment in Bee’s eyes, but it was soon replaced when I told her this would be Axel’s very first time on the swings, and that she could push him if she liked.
The park had been a hit, and I had even heard Bee giggling a few times whilst playing with her brother.
The sound was like music to my ears, and it strengthened my resolve to get her talking again. Her voice was still in there somewhere, we just had to work through her trauma together.
It would be a battle, but it would be the most rewarding fucking battle we could ever fight.
That evening, after giving the kids a quick meal and tucking them into bed, I went back downstairs looking for Dante, wanting to get our obligatory hour over and done with.
I was exhausted. Between therapy, being snapped at by Dante earlier, and my parents, the thought of an awkward evening ahead made every step I took weigh heavy on me.
I was practically dragging my feet by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, wanting to take myself to bed and ignore the rest of the world.
However, as the saying goes, Mama didn’t raise no bitch.
My mother didn’t really raise me at all, but still… I wasn’t going to chicken out at the first hurdle.
I took a quick look around the house, not seeing Dante anywhere, so I headed to the bar. As soon as I stepped through the archway, I saw him and Vienna quietly arguing in the corner.
The bar was busy tonight. It seemed as though every member of the club was here, excluding Mama, of course.
The music was loud, but not loud enough that conversations couldn’t be had.
I saw Shark and Ant at the pool table. Hacksaw and Chris were sitting in one of the booths, their heads close together as they discussed something.
Bambi, Greg, and Pivot were by the doors, keeping lookout, and Sunshine and Tools were playing darts.
There were some campaigners lingering here and there, and a couple of the club whores cheering on the different games like perfect, perky teenagers.
They were full of shit. I had seen Shark at that pool table many times. He may be a decent rider, but he couldn’t aim those balls for shit. There was no way any performance he put on deserved that level of enthusiasm.
Vienna would love to live in my head right now. The jokes he would make over Shark’s ball performance would be relentless.
“Rachel!” I heard Jenna call over the noise of the bar. I spun around to see her sat at one of the booths with the rest of the old ladies. I raised my hand to wave at her and they all burst out laughing.
“Why the fuck are you waving at us? Come and join us!” Gemma yelled over.
Dante turned his head when he heard my name called and gave me a questioning look, as though he were pondering my next move.
He knew this was awkward for me, considering half the bar had slagged me off not long ago, but I wasn’t one to hide in the shadows.
I had a long few months ahead of me, so it was best to make my presence known.
“We were beginning to think you were avoiding us,” Imogen frowned at me as I walked over. Jenna all but shoved The Birds over to make room for me, and I shot her a grateful smile as I slid in next to her.
“I wasn’t avoiding you. I just didn’t know if any of you would want to talk to me.”
“Since when has that stopped you?” Gemma asked with a small laugh.
“Oh, it wouldn’t ordinarily. It's that—”
“Contract,” she finished for me with a nod. I snapped my head to Jenna, who shrugged at me.
“Oh, come on! That’s the most exciting thing I’ve heard all week! You’re mad if you thought I wasn’t going to tell them. Sometimes all this quiet makes me miss the war.”
“Jenna!” Imogen snapped.
“What?” she said innocently, her eyes growing wide.
I kicked her under the table and nodded my head in Trent’s direction, who was sitting at the opposite end of the bar, his eyes glued to a sheet of paper. I knew they were coming up to the weekly bike ride, so I guess he was doing his job as road runner and planning their route.
“I’m not going to apologise! I know Trent lost his dad, and that’s incredibly sad. But you’ve got to admit, it’s been dull as fuck around here. I’m waiting on Rachel throwing something at Dante to liven things back up.”
“You’ll be waiting at least six months,” I grinned at her, both of us ignoring the scowl still on Imogen’s face. “Hey, do you think it would count if you threw something, but I was the one controlling your arm?”
“We could give it a go!” she laughed back.
“And you’ll both end up with your arms snapped. Why poke the bear?”
“Because it’s fun, ” Jenna huffed back at The Birds. I still didn’t know which woman was which. Since I had been away, they had seemed to merge into one entity in my mind.
Before The Birds could start clucking at us any further, I changed the topic, nodding my heads towards Dante and Vienna. “What’s going on over there, anyway?”
“Oh, same old, same old,” Steph muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Vienna is drinking too much, as per usual. Dante went out back for a second and came back in to find Vienna with his head under the beer tap. Dante snuck up on him and held his nose, making him choke, and they’ve been bickering ever since. ”
“They’re like a little old married couple,” Jenna said.
“If anyone needs a fucking contract, it’s them two,” I agreed, shaking my head.
“Anyone up for making this interesting?” Steph asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.
“What do you mean?” I replied. Without even realising it, all the old ladies, myself included, had shuffled forward, our heads lowered until we were all bent over the table, hanging on Steph’s every word as though she was about to reveal vital world secrets.
“I’ve got these,” she grinned, reaching into her bag and pulling out a handful of items.
“Are they…”
“Yes, they are. These are all the animals Dante has collected over the past few weeks. I say we order a shit load of shots, and then start throwing them. For every one you manage to land in Vienna’s beard, you take a shot. For every one you miss, you take two shots. Let’s liven this place up.”
Twenty minutes later, we were ready to go.
Not a single old lady had needed any more convincing. I immediately ran over to Dante and ordered thirty shots, ignoring his raised eyebrows and looks of suspicion. As soon as he brought them over to the table, we all fell into a hushed silence, hiding our stash of plastic animals.
He warned us to be on our best behaviour and then once he walked away, we all took a shot for Dutch courage, and we were ready to go.
I didn’t know what I expected from the night—but it sure as hell wasn’t a roomful of women weaponising plastic zoo animals
“I’m going first,” I said, grabbing a small glass in preparation and then looked over my shoulder, seeing where Vienna was.
When he shouted at Shark to bring him a beer, I swung my arm and threw the animal, hitting him on his shoulder.
“Shit,” I hissed, spinning back around. The other old ladies looked anywhere but at Vienna as I quickly downed my shot, trying my best not to laugh.
“I don’t think he noticed. My turn,” Jenna said, grabbing her animal.
She downed her shot first, then stood up on the seat and quickly threw it, smacking off the bottles above the bar.
She scrambled back down, knocking the empty shot glasses over, and once again, we all quickly turned away, smothering our laughs.
“Dante, do we have ghosts?” We heard Vienna ask, and I can’t even begin to describe the noise that came snorting out of my nose as I tried not to laugh.
“Yeah, Vienna,” Dante muttered dryly. “Macbeth is roaming the fucking halls of the bar, just looking for ways to spook you.”
“Why me? Rachel is the one that killed the fucker!” He hissed, pointing in my direction.
I was going to retaliate, but then I saw Jenna with her head in her shirt smothering her laugh, and I almost broke. I leaned against her shoulder, chuckling quietly, and waited for the next old lady to take her turn.
“Me,” Steph said, and before we could even turn in her direction, she had launched her animal. I spun around just in time to see it smack Vienna on the cheek.
“Fucking hell,” I spluttered, bringing my drink to my face to hide my giggles.
“Right! Something just fucking hit me!”
“ I’m going to hit you,” Dante hissed back, but he shot a suspicious glare in our direction when he said it. Probably because every single one of us was snorting or giggling like schoolgirls.
“Oh, oh, I get it,” Vienna said loudly, nodding his head. His chest puffed out and he tutted in our direction. “Right. I’m on to you.” He moved to the seat around the edge of the bar, keeping one eye on us.
“What are you doing?” I whispered to Jenna.
“Texting Shark. We need a distraction. Gemma, you ready?” She asked, lifting her eyes away from her phone to see Gemma holding her animal between her thumb and index finger.
I looked over my shoulder to see Shark stand up and stumble, banging into Ant, who shoved him back. Shark exaggerated the shove and went flying into the pool table, sending the balls scattering.
“What the fuck!” Ant barked at him.
Never one to miss the opportunity to throw sarcastic comments at his brothers, Vienna spun around, giving Gemma the perfect opportunity to throw her animal. She took her shot, landing in the middle of Vienna’s beard.
“Goal!” she yelled, jumping to her feet, causing everyone to snap around and look at us. She grinned at them and downed her two shots, not bothering to explain.
Jade, Tool’s old lady, took her shot, landing it in Vienna’s pint. Sasha hit his hand, and The Birds both got his legs. Each time it was with a distraction or when Vienna was too oblivious to notice.
“How many shots are left?” I asked.
“Eighteen,” Jade replied after a quick round up, separating the empty glasses from the full.
“Right. Two each. Down them now, pick up whatever animals are left and throw them full fucking force. Spread out around the bar, covering all angles. I’ll give you the signal.”
The other old ladies nodded, and after downing their shots, we all moved into position.
When every old lady was in place, I caught their eye and nodded. “Hey, Vienna?”
“Not interested, Rach—” He didn’t finish. Animals came flying from all directions. A bunch landed in his beard, some of them hit his face, an entire pile came raining down on his back, and one of them hit him straight in the eye.
I lost it with the one in his eye. I fell into Dante, laughing my heart out. He grabbed hold of me to steady me as I doubled over, seeing more animals being thrown in Vienna’s direction.
“What the fuck is going on?” Dante asked, a small laugh of disbelief coming from him when Vienne started squealing.
“Riley!” Vienna yelled, bringing his hands up to shield his face as more animals came flying at him. “Riley. Make peace! Make fucking peace! Do your bloody job! Riley!”
“You made this war, mate. I’m not getting involved.”
“I trusted you,” Vienna muttered.
And then he started choking as a well-timed hippo from me hit him straight in the mouth.