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“Okay, you’re going to have to take the attitude several fucking notches down. Whatever happened in the past has nothing to do with me. I just ordered the pizza. If you didn’t want to accept the order, you didn’t have to.”

“I saw the name on the account. I was interested who this Rachel was. You’re not a patch on my Megan.”

“Weird thing to say about your own daughter. Do you often compare how attractive she is to other women? Because there’s a name for men that are attracted to their children.”

He let out an amused huff of breath. “You’ve got the same attitude as him. I’ll give you that.”

“And you’ve got this way off the mark. Wrong brother. I’m not here because of Macbeth. So regardless of what happened between him and Megan, it has nothing to do with me.”

“You’re with Dante?”

“Penny dropped, love?” I mimicked.

“Give over,” he scoffed. “He hasn’t had anyone round here since that woman of his up and killed herself.”

“Until me,” I said firmly, refusing to rise to his words about Laura.

“You’re the new old lady I’ve heard people whispering about…?” he asked, his face paling. “I assumed that was just a rumour.”

“Do I look like a rumour?”

“You look doomed. God help you,” he whispered, shoving the pizza towards me.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Take the pizza. Forget I said anything.”

“No. Come on. What’s the problem with Dante? Why would I be doomed?”

“Take the pizza, lady. And if you’ve got any sense about you, you’ll get the hell out of here whilst you’ve still got the chance. You don’t know what he did to that poor lass.”

“He didn’t do anything to her. What happened to Laura was an accident.”

“That what he told you, is it? We’ve all heard the stories. ”

“Are you for real right now?” I said with a small laugh.

“You won’t believe rumours about me existing, but you’ll believe gossip about someone else’s relationship?

Be so fucking for real right now. You have no idea what you’re talking about, and I’d suggest holding your tongue next time you want to slag off Dante for something he didn’t do. ”

“Officer Bradley told us all about the new old lady. I didn’t believe it.

I didn’t think Dante would be that stupid to bring in a new woman.

Not after the uproar when we all found out what happened to the last one.

But seeing you now, it looks as though you’re right up his alley,” he sneered once more, taking in my red hair, and my tight-fitting top.

“Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you. When you finally come to your senses, it’ll be too late. Don’t come crying to me.”

Oh, sure. I was really planning on crying to a complete fucking stranger. Ignorant, arrogant ass.

“Right—” I began, my anger flaring, only to be interrupted by a deep, angry voice that had me jumping a foot into the air.

“Is there a problem?” Dante said, emerging from the shadows at the side of the house.

“No problem at all,” the delivery guy rushed to answer.

“Is that so?” he replied in the same deadpan voice that sent an icy shiver down my spine.

“Dante, it’s nothing. We were just talking.”

“So, I heard,” his eyes never left the delivery driver.

I looked at Dante's face, devoid of all emotion, and knew this situation could quickly get out of hand. “You see, I was fine with you saying shit about me. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before.

But then you had to disrespect Rachel. I saw the way you looked at her, as though she was beneath you. I heard the things you said to her.”

“Dante, it doesn’t matter. I’ve heard worse.”

“Not here, you haven’t,” he snapped at me, his eyes flashing with anger.

“None of my brothers would so much as dare. No one will ever speak to my old lady like that.” His hands shot out in a flash, grabbing hold of the front of the guy's shirt, causing the pizza to drop to the floor, and hauled him up to his tiptoes until they were nose to nose. “They certainly wouldn’t put any ideas in her head about what happened with Laura.”

“Dante,” I said firmly. “Put him down. There are more important things happening right now. ”

Dante’s response was to fling his head back and slam it forward, head-butting the poor guy and sending him flying to the door. Dante was on him in an instant, grabbing hold of his face and forcing him to look at me as blood trickled from the guy’s nose.

“Apologise to her, and you can be on your way.”

“I’m sorry,” he rushed out. “If you want to be stupid and stay here, that’s your choice.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Dante clicked his tongue. I’m ashamed to admit that sound sent a burst of heat rushing through my body. I needed to figure out how to make him do that towards me. Preferably in bed.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Listen, I was only human, and that noise was fucking sexy .

“We started off so strong, and then you had to ruin it.”

“Dante,” came the sound of his mother. She must have heard all the commotion, and the nosy bitch couldn’t help herself but come and take a look.

Soon got over your pity party, didn’t you Kitty? Bit of drama and you come running, practically frothing at the mouth with excitement.

“You know we’re on lockdown. Let the man go. You have a responsibility to your club.”

“It’s shoot on sight, isn’t it?” Dante smirked.

“So shoot him,” Kitty shrugged. “But this isn’t helping anyone.”

“You got lucky,” Dante growled, shoving the man backwards as he let go of his shirt.

Fucking whipped mama’s boy!

It took every ounce of strength I possessed not to vocalise that thought.

“This is what I get for trying to help,” the man on the floor huffed. I mentally cringed, knowing he wasn’t going to hold his tongue like I had, and knew this wasn’t going to end well. “What do I care if she ends up dead like the others? It’ll be one less whore in—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence. Dante’s foot came out and connected with his face with a crack that echoed into the night, making me cringe in sympathy. He kicked him with such force, the man’s body skidded a foot across the gravel before landing in an unconscious heap .

“Feel proud of yourself, do you?” I said, my voice devoid of emotion as I looked at the crumpled mess of the man.

“Rachel—”

“No,” I shook my head in disappointment. “Take the pizza to Bee. I’m done.” I went to walk away, but he grabbed my arm.

“Rache—”

“No! Don’t ‘Rachel’ me as though I’m being fucking unreasonable!

” I snapped, shaking my arm out of his grip.

“All I wanted was a fun day out with you and Bee! I said nothing when you made me drive my mother home. I said nothing when you cut our day short. But I’m saying something now!

You just can’t help yourself, can you? All you had to do was ignore the obvious attempt at him trying to get a rise out of you.

All you had to do was pay the guy and come and have a nice meal with your family.

It’s not fucking difficult. But no, that manly pride had to come rearing its ugly head and now there’s an unconscious man in our driveway.

It’s pathetic. There’s something fucking evil in you, Dante.

Something that forces you to sabotage every good thing in your life! ”

“There’s something evil in me ?” He said, almost sounding offended. “That’s a bit rich coming from you, isn’t it?”

“I’m not arguing with you. Take the pizza to your daughter. She’s hungry. Try to nurture the only remaining good thing you have in your life, eh?” And with one last disgusted look at him, I turned and walked away.