Page 52

Rachel

The party got more and more wild, eventually ending in a fight between Doc and Sunshine, which caused Mama to trigger her bitch mode and start screaming at everyone.

Dante had pissed her off by picking her up and carrying her out of the room, before launching at Sunshine and planting a punch to his jaw, earning him a thump in return.

Every biker was scrapping on the floor, whilst I sat on the sofa, a sleeping Bee on my knees.

I stroked her hair, silently watching my man as he took off his shirt and drunkenly entered a wrestling competition with the rest of the lads.

It ended when Vienna jumped on the bar, thinking he was the fucking Rock, attempting to body slam someone.

He was up there for all of a split second before he fell straight back off again, sending a bunch of pint glasses crashing to the floor.

He landed on top of them, slicing his back open.

Imogen put her foot down and called an end to the fighting, and Mama rang the bell, signalling the party was over.

She was met with nothing but arguments, but she was in her element, screaming over them as she demanded everyone get out and that she wouldn’t be serving any more drinks.

“You’re a shit bartender, anyway!” Crash shouted above everyone, grabbing a bottle of vodka and ran around filling everyone’s glass up.

It didn’t matter if their glass was empty, or still half full of some other liquid.

They were getting a hefty pour of the vodka before he moved on to the next one, spilling half the contents onto the floor.

Dante came over to me, swaying slightly.

“You alright there, big guy?” I smiled up at him. He grinned down at me and nodded at Bee.

“She okay? ”

“Happy as can be,” I said, looking down at the beautiful child in my arms. “Although I think she’ll be happier in her bed. It’s getting a bit rowdy down here.”

He nodded and bent down low to scoop Bee into his arms. I followed him out of the room, waving at a paralytic Jenna. She waved back, her movements unsteady and winked at me.

We took Bee up the stairs and into her room. I pulled back the covers as Dante laid her on the bed, and we removed one of her shoes each before we pulled the covers over her and tucked her in.

We each gave her a kiss on her forehead and turned the lights out as we left the room.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I said to Dante, grabbing hold of his waist and spinning him in the direction of the bedroom as he attempted to go back down the stairs. “You’ve had enough for one night.”

I wrapped my arms around him, huffing slightly as he threw an arm around my shoulders, knocking the breath out of me with the weight of it.

I pushed him down on the bed and bent down to scoop his legs up. “Don’t make this fucking easy on me or anything, will you?” I breathed, having to use all my strength to heave his legs up onto the bed. His snores were the only answer I got.

“Fucking lightweight.” I smiled down at him before shedding my own clothes and climbing into bed next to him.

I woke a few hours later, my head feeling heavy and fuzzy, and my mouth feeling as though as I had been chewing on sandpaper.

I reached for Dante, only to find the space where I had left him completely empty.

“Dante?” I called out, my voice dry and hoarse. I climbed out of bed, picking his t-shirt off the floor as I did so and shrugged it on. It absolutely drowned me, ending at my knees and I immediately felt warmer, being able to smell his leathery scent on my skin .

I left the room and wandered the hallway down to Bee’s room. I pushed open the door as silently as I could and found Dante exactly where I knew he would be.

He was dozing in a chair next to Bee’s bed, his head resting on his fist, his elbow on the arm of the chair.

Of course, he couldn’t leave his daughter on her first night back at home, despite the fact that she was currently sound asleep, not a care in the world.

I walked over to him, my eyes adjusting to the darkness as I did so, and noticed he was still shirtless, and a knife was resting on his knee. He opened one eye as I approached and slowly stretched his legs.

“What are you doing, Rachel?” He whispered, closing both of his eyes again.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, sitting on the other arm of the chair. I sunk my hand into his hair and massaged his scalp.

“Sleeping,” he mumbled back.

“I can see that. But why are you sleeping in this uncomfortable chair and not our bed?”

“I can’t leave her,” he said, reaching out his arm to wrap around me and pulled me onto his lap, careful to move the knife out of the way.

“What’s going on in here?” I asked, tapping his temple. “Talk to me.”

“She was crying. I came rushing in, but she was still fast asleep. I calmed her down, and tucked her teddy in next to her, but the second I went to leave the room, I couldn’t do it.

It’s the fucking guilt, Rachel. It’s eating away at me.

She was never supposed to get hurt. I was supposed to protect her. ”

“Hey,” I said, scooting closer to him and wrapped my spare arm around his neck. “Stop feeling guilty over the actions of other people. You’ve done everything you can to keep her safe. It’s not your fault Macbeth was psychotic.”

He just reached up and squeezed my hand in response.

“If you don’t want to leave her, why don’t you bring her into our bed? At least then you can be comfortable whilst keeping her close.”

“I was going to, but then I remembered she hasn’t had pain medication since the party, and I didn’t want to risk waking her up and having her crying again by moving her. ”

“Okay,” I nodded and climbed off Dante’s knee.

“Where are you going?” He asked as I walked out the bedroom door. I came back a minute later with the blanket off our bed. I dumped it on Dante and went back to our room to get another chair, dragging it next to him, careful not to make too much noise.

I climbed on the chair, sitting sideways with my legs over the arm of it, and my back resting against the other arm, my head on Dante’s shoulder.

“You don’t have to stay here with me, you know?” He said, pulling the blanket over the both of us.

“I know I don’t. I want to. I’m your old lady, Dante.

Bee is as much mine as she is yours. We will protect her together.

And if anyone breaks in, I'll make sure the bad guys don't kidnap you again.

Clearly, I'm the winner at the kidnap game. You got stabbed during your kidnap, and you got stabbed during mine. Whereas I got a whole new family.”

He kissed the top of my head with a small puff of laughter, and we settled down together.

“Are you nervous about tomorrow?” He asked me.

“No. It's just routine tests. I wish you could come with me, though.”

“I have to be close by for Zach’s meeting,” he said apologetically.

“I know. I get it. Hopefully, this is the end of it all, and life can return to normal.”

“Here, here. Get some sleep, Darlin’. Tomorrow is a busy day.”