Chapter 29
Gabriella
The next morning I found myself back at the kitchen table, surrounded by members of the club and their old ladies.
And yet I was barely even present in the room. My thoughts were focused on the muscular, tattooed, bearded man who seemed to dominate the space.
I’d woken up twice throughout the night, masturbating both times. And then again this morning, completely unable to get any sort of control over my body.
When he’d entered the kitchen ten minutes after me, his hair still wet from the shower, I’d felt my cheeks instantly flame, unable to meet his eyes as memories of my night flashed behind my lids, recalling every explicit detail and scenario I’d imagined him in.
In the cold light of day, when my hormones were not so rampant, I was mortified. And slightly ashamed. And embarrassed that he might have heard me.
But also hoping that he had heard me. Wishing desperately that he’d not only heard me but that he’d been affected by it, too. That he—
“Gabby?” Rachel laughed, clicking her fingers in front of my face. “Earth to Gabby.”
“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head, my eyes flicking to Vienna for a split second—immediately wishing they hadn’t.
He was glaring at me with a look that was impossible to read, but one that set me ablaze, nonetheless.
My thighs clenched with that one look, and I was straight back in that bedroom again. Straight back to wishing—
“Oh my God, you’ve gone again,” Rachel said.
“Sorry, sorry.” I gave her a sheepish smile. “What did you say?”
“For the sixth time,” she said, shooting Dante a knowing wink. “I asked what your plans were for the day, but I see you had more interesting things on your mind. Where were you? Anywhere interesting?”
Her smirk was almost sinful, and I knew that she knew exactly where my thoughts had been.
“I—”
“Leave the girl alone, Rachel,” one of The Birds muttered. I really needed to learn their names.
“My kitchen, my rules, Nicole.”
“It’s Emma.”
“Eh, I had a fifty-fifty shot,” she shrugged.
Then she placed her chin on the palm of her hand and looked at me expectantly. “Well?”
I was barely able to meet her eyes, either.
Not just because of where my thoughts had been, but also because of what I had witnessed between her and Dante last night.
“Nothing interesting,” I muttered back, looking down and staring at my cup of tea.
“Uh huh,” she said. “I believe that as much as I believe the sky is nuclear green.”
“Rachel, we’re off out,” Heather called from the doorway, shrugging Axel into his coat.
Rachel was out of her seat in a second, crouching down low in front of her son.
“Are you going out with Heather today?” she beamed up, pulling up his zipper.
“Hepper,” Axel mimicked back.
“You be a good boy today, you hear?” she said, and every word she spoke was accompanied by sign language, which I knew was for Bee’s benefit.
“Have you got your tablet?” she asked Bee, who was standing slightly behind Heather.
“Yes, Mummy,” I heard her reply—but only just. Her voice was a barely-there whisper.
“Liam is going to ride with you,” Dante informed Heather, his voice telling her that there was no room for arguing.
But Heather bristled and argued anyway.
“I don’t need a guard, Dante,” she said, as though she were insulted at the thought.
“Be grateful I’m even letting you out,” Dante snapped back. “Especially with my kids.”
“You’re not even letting us out of the village!”
“It’s out of the compound, isn’t it? You take Bee to school, Axel to get ice cream, and then you’re right back here. It shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
“This place feels more like a prison every single day.”
“Do you want to be unemployed?” Dante said.
Heather wisely kept her mouth shut after that.
“Right. Well,” Rachel said, standing up and clapping her hands. “That’s made things sufficiently awkward for just about everyone involved. You get going, Heather. Call me from the car. And call me again once you’ve dropped Bee off.”
“Rachel, we’ve done this journey—”
“A million times, I know, I know. But for my peace of mind, Heather.”
“Fine,” she relented, rolling her eyes.
“I’m busy in the office today, Gabby,” Rachel told me as Heather left. “We have a surprise inspection from the taxman, so I’m just making sure everything is in order.”
“Surprise inspection?” I asked.
“Ugh,” Rachel rolled her eyes and flopped into the seat next to me. “Did you ever have any dealings with Officer Bradley?”
I frowned, trying to recall the name. “I don’t think so. But then again, the women under the Riders weren’t quite involved as they are here, so I can’t say for sure that this officer Bradley wasn’t around.”
“Oh, he would have been around, trust me. He’s a complete cunt, and he hates me with a passion.”
“Shocker,” Vienna muttered in the background.
Rachel threw a bread roll at him without even glancing in his direction.
“He knows he hasn’t got anything on us. So every now and then we’re hit with surprise investigations—the taxman, environmental health, the school board, social services.
All boring, mundane things. The garage and all the other shops here are legitimate businesses, and Dante isn’t dumb enough to have the other money laundered through these, so it’s a waste of time but… ”
Her words trailed off, but I couldn’t focus on them. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in what she had to say. It was the fact that she was talking to me, testing me, speaking to me so casually about their businesses.
I don’t think she even realised what she’d done when she mentioned money laundering. But I had, and it meant the fucking world to me. Because it was a sign that she saw me as one of her own.
An old lady.
Someone who belonged.
“Don’t forget we have therapy at two,” Dante reminded her, placing a kiss on her forehead.
“Oh, wait,” she said, snatching up a piece of toast and running out the door after him. “Did you do the homework she set us?”
“Yep,” Dante replied smugly in the hallway, shrugging into his presidential cut.
“Can I see it?”
“Nope.”
“I didn’t have time to do mine! Just let me see your answers so I know how much effort to put into it.”
“You’re not copying my answers, Rachel,” he laughed. “You can just go into that office and explain to Doctor Ashleigh how you’re not as committed to this as I am.”
“But that’s not fair!”
She ran after him as he opened the door, and their words became muffled until drifting away completely.
And before long, it was just me and Vienna alone in the kitchen.