Page 34

Rachel

When I woke the next morning, Bee was still fast asleep. The doctor had come around in the middle of the night to check her over whilst the nurses changed her dressing. The poor thing had been in a lot of pain, so he had administered her some more pain relief and ordered her to get lots of rest.

I asked when she would be allowed to come home, and the doctors told me it wouldn’t be too long.

Because the burns were not deep, she wouldn’t need a skin graft, and there was no obvious damage to her nerves.

They were more concerned about infection and pain management at this point.

And these were things we could absolutely manage at home once the initial observation period was over.

She would just need to come back for regular check-ups to ensure she was healing okay.

I thanked them, and let Dante know. We both agreed the sooner we could bring Bee home, the better.

She would recover much better being in familiar surroundings.

Obviously, we couldn’t return to the clubhouse until the extent of the damage had been assessed, and the repairs were complete, but Dante had his main home in the village.

It was rarely used, and he told me Vienna and Hacksaw were currently staying there, but it was plenty big enough to house all of us.

It’s where his mum and dad had raised him and Macbeth when his grandad was the leader of the club.

When Crash took over as president, they had an extension built onto the pub, so it could accommodate the large family, and they all started spending more and more time there, that the main house became less and less important.

Dante had texted me to let me know he was bringing his parents to come and visit Bee, as well as some of the lads to take over guarding the hospital.

I wasn’t quite ready to face Mama yet. If she hadn’t left Bee alone, then she wouldn’t have been caught in the fire.

She knew we were on lockdown, and after the argument with the pizza delivery man, she had been told to watch Bee.

She had failed her, and right now, I wasn’t ready to face that.

I’d say something I wouldn’t regret, but that would get me in a lot of shit.

So, I had agreed to go home with Trent and Chris, get a change of clothes and a shower from Jenna, and come back to the hospital when Crash and Mama were ready to leave.

I knew Dante and I were partly responsible, as we had both walked away from Bee.

But we had entrusted her care to Mama, and we should have been able to rely on her to keep an eye on Bee.

She shouldn’t have been letting her wander off by herself, especially as the club had been on lockdown at the time.

We’re about five minutes away , came the text from Dante, causing my phone to buzz on the table.

Okay. Do you want me to head down to reception now?

What’s Bee doing?

She’s still asleep.

Tell Trent to stay up there with Bee. You come down.

I don’t want to see her, Dante.

I know.

She’s really sorry, Rachel.

You’re not replying, but trust me, she’s punishing herself more than you could ever punish her.

I highly fucking doubted that.

I put my phone in my pocket, informed Trent I was going downstairs and would be back soon and then left before I bumped into Crash and Kitty on their way up. I waited in the smoking area outside, and texted Dante to let him know where I was.

“Hey,” he said, his hands in his pockets, making his way over to me.

“They’ve already gone upstairs,” he said, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it up.

He took one long draw before offering it to me, holding it between his index and middle finger near my lips.

I leant forward and took a deep draw, expelling it with a deep breath.

“Better?” He asked.

“No. I haven’t smoked in years.”

“Well, it is a disgusting habit,” he grinned, sitting next to me on the bench. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit. My arms hurt, my head hurts, my throat hurts… but most importantly, my fucking heart hurts. How is it fair that she’s up there in so much pain? She had nothing to do with any of this.”

“I know, darlin’,” he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “This has Macbeth written all over it. There’s no way the Riders could have got access to the clubhouse to plant those explosives. The cameras would have caught them. Mac must have been sneakily planting them for weeks.”

“Which means he’s been close enough to home to detonate them.”

“That’s what I thought, too. We’ve checked the entire grounds, and Vienna is still there with the other lads scouting the place. There’s no sign of him anywhere. But he’s close by, I can fucking sense it,” he muttered, taking another long draw of his cigarette.

“He must have known Bee would be in the house, though. Why would he risk hurting her?”

“Because Mac doesn’t care about anyone other than himself. He’s made that very fucking clear.”

“I suppose…” I said, dropping my head to look at the floor. “God, this is all so fucked up.”

“Hey,” he said, reaching under my chin so he could gently lift my head up to look at him. “It is fucked up. But its temporary. This won’t last forever. I’ll do everything in my power, whatever it takes, to ensure this is over as quickly as possible, okay?”

I nodded and returned the small kiss he gave me. I knew he meant it, but a small voice inside couldn’t stop the doubt.

Some things were just out of his control. Including the evil, sadistic streak that lived in people.

I knew only too well what it was like to be on the receiving end of that.