Page 32

Rachel

“Fucking move!” I yelled at my mother over the roar of the flames, shoving her even further to the floor.

“Crawl on your belly and get to the front door!” She fell to her stomach with such dramatics, I was half tempted to kick her to get some sense into her.

“You realise these are actual fucking flames, mother?”

“What’s happening?”

“Your house is on fire! Are you thick? Get out of the goddamn house before you get us both killed!”

“I can’t go out with those animals out there?” She croaked back, tears streaming down her face.

“It’s the animals or the flames. Take your pick. I’m going!” Breathing was getting difficult, and I was either going to have to drag her out of here kicking and screaming, or she was going to die. It was as simple as that.

“What do they want?”

“They won’t hurt you! Just fucking move!”

“Friends of yours, are they?”

“Do you want to sit here and discuss all of my failures and die together, or do you want to at least try? So help me, I will leave you in here if you don’t move,” I spun on my ass and kicked her thigh, nudging her along the floor.

At that moment, there was a huge crash as the fire licked through the kitchen, shattering the glass oven, and melted the wood of the cabinets. My mother finally took that as her cue to move, and began crawling through the house, coughing the entire time.

I got down low to my belly and crawled along the floor, squinting through the black smoke to make sure I was following my mother.

She slowed down, her breath coming out in heaving gasps, and it took all my strength to keep pushing her, to encourage her to move. “Come on, Mum. We have to get out of here, we have to. No-one deserves to die like this.”

“I can’t,” she spluttered, her arms shaking under the weight of her body. Tears were streaming down her face, smudging with the black of the smoke clinging to her skin.

“You can, Mum, you can. The door is right there, and then we’ll be okay.”

“Rachel,” she coughed, but I saw her nod and she mustered the strength to keep pushing.

“I’m here, Mum. I’m right behind you. Don’t worry about me. You’re doing amazing. You can do this. Just a few more seconds and you’ll be out. Keep going. Think of Dad. He needs you to stay strong.”

She nodded once more and picked up her pace, heading for the safety of the outside.

But encouraging her had zapped all my strength. She started gaining distance and my vision blurred as my eyes teared up, the thick smoke clogging up my breaths, feeling as though the flames were in my throat. I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my mouth, but it was too little, too late.

I started choking, feeling the roaring heat of the fire as it closed around me. If I didn’t get out of here within the next minute, the entrance would be completely blocked off.

I screamed inwardly, forcing myself to remember who the fuck I was.

I would not come this far just to die like this.

I pushed myself to my elbows and dragged myself out of there, my hands black with the smoke.

I screamed as my hand reached out and touched the metal of the door arch, feeling as though I had reached into hell itself.

I gritted my teeth and heaved myself forward, doing my best to ignore the searing pain in my palms.

Just when I thought I wasn’t going to make it, I felt the coolness of the doorstep and, with a sob of relief; I got to my knees and tumbled out of the fire, landing flat on my stomach on the gravel path.

I coughed with relief, trying to rid my lungs of the smoke that was still choking me.

And that’s when I saw two huge boots stomp in front of my face as two hands clamped around my neck and hauled me to my feet.

Spit flew from my mouth as the hands squeezed around my throat, choking me even further as they lifted me off the ground. I tried to speak, but nothing came out other than wet sounding gargles. I tried kicking, tried clawing at the hands around me, but it was useless.

Dante growled low in his throat, slamming me against the brick wall so hard the rough stone ripped open my bare back.

The force of hitting the wall had my head flinging forward, cutting off the tiny bit of air I had left.

My eyes widened, my teeth bit my tongue, and my legs flopped underneath me as my spine went into shock through pure, painful trauma.

I was completely helpless to do anything as my body spasmed, rejecting what had happened to it. I willed my legs to work, to kick against the wall and propel myself out of Dante’s vice, but nothing worked.

“Dante,” I breathed, vaguely registering the screams of my mother in the background. “Don’t do this.”

“Do what?” He barked at me.

“Don’t hurt my moth—”

“I couldn’t give a fuck about your mother.”

“Dante,” I choked, every word agonising. “She’s screaming. Leave her alone.”

“No-one is fucking touching her. She’s screaming because she’s upset. I’m not going to hurt those who are not out to cause me hurt. And you,” he hissed, slamming me against the wall again. “Are out to cause hurt.”

“Dante…” I wheezed, closing my eyes against the pain.

“Shut the fuck up,” he roared at me, making me flinch as his spit hit my face. “You want to be counting yourself lucky I’m not throwing you back in there. But mark my words, you ever try to leave again, I will kill you with my bare hands.”

“Fuck you,” I said weakly, using the last of my strength to spit at his face. “I’ll gladly throw myself back in the flames if it means I get to escape you.” My voice sounded weak and pitiful. The smoke had made it hoarse, and I barely recognised the sound leaving my mouth.

“You’re being dramatic. You haven’t even given it a chance. You haven’t given me a chance.”

“You’re being dramatic!” I tried to yell back, but it came out as a sad little croak. “You don’t even know me, yet you’ve just burnt my mother’s house to the ground.”

“I know enough to know that you belong to me.” He brought his face close to mine and murmured against my cheek.

“I’ve gone easy on you so far, and you were too fucking stubborn to see it.

And now you’ll never know what you were missing out on, because from this moment on, you will follow my every command, or face the consequences. ”

“Bring it on,” I breathed, trying to swallow against his painful grip.

“I will make every day of your life a living hell. You can break my body, but you’ll never break my spirit.

I promise you, Dante. You, your parents, your brother, your club, your daughter—” my words were cut off with a gargle as he pressed his nose against mine and growled at me.

“Choose your next words very carefully, Rachel.”

“Burn in hell.” I hissed back.

“I swear—” he didn’t finish what he had to say. I gathered whatever moisture was left in my mouth and spat in his face.

“Fuck you, Dante.”

The next thing I knew, Dante threw me away from him, sending me skidding across the grass.

I howled as I placed my hands in front to steady myself and ripped open the burns from the door.

I landed on my face, my cheek ripping open as I flew across the floor.

“Asshole,” I panted, getting to my knees and coughing, barely able to breathe through the pain.

“Vienna!” He barked. “Get her back to the club and out of my sight before I do something I regret.”

“You don’t regret any of this so far?” I spluttered, my body dry heaving.

“Consider this mercy compared to what I want to do. I shouldn’t be showing you remorse at all.”

“You don’t have a remorseful bone in your body,” I spat on the ground next to his boots.

Dante gave me a filthy look, looking as though he wanted to stomp my head into the ground.

He clenched his fist and stormed off, taking long, angry strides towards his bike, and went roaring off into the night.

I closed my eyes and took some deep breaths, grateful that he was gone, that I was safe from him.

Vienna stormed over and hauled me to my feet, oblivious to the searing pain in my back that had me screaming.

“Get your fucking hands off me,” I roared, my body coming to life as I fought to get away from him.

He didn’t break his stride. He simply hauled me into his arms, my agonising back pressed against his chest, his arms tight around my stomach.

I strained with all my might, clawing at his arms.

“Get off me! I swear to fucking God, I will—”

“Nice to meet you, Rachel. I’m Vienna,” he said pleasantly, laughing at my feeble attempt to get away.

I twisted my head and sank my teeth into his bicep, but he simply removed one of his arms from around my waist and slapped me around the face – not hard.

It was as though he was waving away a pesky fly.

“I hate the lot of you,” I said on a sob.

“That’s not fair. Shark is a lovely man. He doesn’t deserve your hate.”

“Fuck Shark.”

“Okey dokey,” he laughed, and then started hauling me towards his bike. I dug my heels into the ground, my bare feet dragging, slicing them open too. His arms tightened around my waist, oblivious to the damage he was doing to me.

“So they are friends of yours,” my mother said coldly as we passed her.

“Look at me, mother. Just fucking look. Does this look like I have any fucking choice?”

“Play nice,” Vienna murmured in my ear. “We’ll all be one big, happy family soon enough once Rachel and the big man tie the knot, won't we, Rachel?” He crushed me further to his body and spun me around so he could pin me to his side. My mother just shook her head sadly.

“Mother,” I attempted weakly, but she held her hands up to stop me.

“Even after your dad’s sacrifice, you couldn’t get your life together.”

“You’re not seeing me. You never saw me. You’re supposed to help me. I don’t want to be with these people.”

“Rachel…” she paused, looking at me with pity. “There’s obviously a history here. People don’t just burn houses down for no reason.”

“You’re still going to blame me?”

“Who else should I blame? You brought your shit to my door. You caused this. Even after everything that’s happened, you’re still dancing with the devil.”

“Maybe I am the devil,” I said back, my tone flat and emotionless. When would I ever learn? My mother was never going to help me. She didn’t care. She thought the worst, because she only ever saw the worst. I didn’t fit in with her life.

“Maybe. You know what you’re getting yourself into here, don’t you?

” She raised her voice, directing her question towards Vienna.

“She killed her last boyfriend in cold blood. No-one is safe around, Rachel. Her dad even took the blame for her, landing himself life in prison, and she still behaves this way.”

“Mother, shut up,” I warned. “The club can find out for themselves exactly what they’ve done and how they’ve destroyed their own lives.

Get me the fuck out of here,” I croaked at Vienna and walked away.

I was surprised he let me go willingly. But I didn’t question it.

I guessed he figured I was too damaged to get too far away from him.

“You’re a match made in hell, the pair of you! Especially if this is how your new man behaves!”

“I won’t bother inviting you to the wedding then,” I called over my shoulder, a pit of dread forming in my stomach.

I had really done it this time.

I was truly, truly alone.

I never should have come back here.

My mother was never a safe space. She was never an ally. She was never a parent. I was an inconvenience to her, and I was no more alone now than I ever was. She had proven to me once again that as far as she was concerned, her daughter had died the night she murdered another man.