Page 45

Rachel

“Are you ready for our adventure?” I asked Bee, who was sitting at the dining table eating her breakfast – well, her second breakfast, considering she had already polished off mine.

“My nanny says I’m not allowed,” she muttered, her eyes low and her lips pulling down at the corners.

I approached her and crouched down at the side of her, brushing her hair out of her face and behind her ears. “Your nanny isn’t the only one in charge here. If I say we’re going out, then we’re going out.”

“She’ll be mad.”

I paused. “Does your nanny get mad at you a lot?”

“Sometimes,” she mumbled, her little foot kicking off the table leg. “She says I’m not easy. She gets frustrated.”

An icy fist clenched its way around my heart. It was one thing to lose your temper or get frustrated. It was another thing completely to get so frustrated that you lashed out at the child and had them believing they weren’t easy to deal with.

“Sometimes adults say silly things, and we should ignore those silly things, even if they hurt sometimes. Don’t worry about your nanny. You finish off your breakfast, and I’ll go speak to her. Where is she?”

“Bar,” she mumbled, and then grinned at me. “Thank you, Rachel.”

I gave her a small wink and pushed myself to my feet and went to find Big Mama.

She wasn’t in the bar, but I heard thunderous feet upstairs, followed by shouts of anger with a hint of fear.

I climbed the stairs and leant on the banister at the top, watching her frantically pouring water onto the burning clothes.

“Need a hand?” I called to her.

“Did you do this?” She hissed, whipping around, when she heard my voice.

“Me? What possible reason could I have for wanting to burn…? What do you have there?” I said, straining to look in the bath and faked a shocked gasp. “Oh dear, are they Dante’s clothes? Hmm, he’s not going to be a happy camper, is he?”

“He’ll whip the skin from your back when he finds out.”

I lifted one of my shoulders in a shrug. “Ahh, well, he wouldn’t be the first.”

“I don’t think you understand the gravity of what you’ve done. This,” she whipped up a charred leather jacket and marched at me, branding it in my face. “This was given to him by Bee’s mother when they were married.”

“Doesn’t look as though it has the club patch on it. Can’t be that important.”

“Bee’s mother gave him it!” She repeated.

I gave her a blank look and shrugged again – even I was getting sick of the amount of shrugging I had done this morning. “But it's not his patch – lucky him. He can always buy another shitty leather jacket.”

“But it won’t have the sentimental value behind it!”

“So?”

“What do you mean ‘so’? Are you that uncaring?”

“Memories should be in the mind, not the possessions. He’ll get over it.”

“And what if your little stunt had burnt the house down? Then what?”

“I don’t really like to play what ifs, but I’ll humour you this once. If the house had burnt down, then one – it would have been funny and two – he’ll have understood how my mother feels.”

“I heard about that.” she pulled back slightly, her lips twisting. “I can’t say I agree with what he did, but Dante… He doesn’t always think things through. He lets his emotions get the better of him sometimes.”

“Funny how you can excuse an entire house burning down – a house that was filled with a lifetime of memories and sentimental belongings. But you can’t excuse a harmless bonfire in the bath. It’s not like, ha-ha funny, but more… funny weird… you need to reevaluate that moral compass of yours.”

“Do you know what? I’m not dealing with this. Clean up your own fucking mess, and God help you when Dante gets home.”

“Yeah…” I said, drawing out the word as I sucked in my breath. “I’m not cleaning that up. I’ve got my own bath; it makes no difference to me if that one stays like that forever. I’m taking Bee out anyway, so looks like Dante won’t have a sparring partner when he gets home.”

“Excuse me?”

“Did I mumble?”

“You’re not taking Bee anywhere.”

“I am, though. That’s the thing.”

“Over my dead body.”

“Bit dramatic, but feel free to jump in the bath with those clothes. I’d only planned on the one fire today, but I can make an exception since it’s you.”

“Dante said—”

“You’ve really got to stop mentioning him.

I don’t give a fuck what Dante says, does, thinks or feels.

The sooner everyone realises that, the happier we’re all going to be.

I’ve made a promise to her, and I intend to stick to it.

Unless you’re going to personally pin me to the wall like our Lord and saviour, there’s not really much you can do about it. ”

“Macbeth!” she called, her face like thunder. I burst out laughing, shaking my head at her.

“I called it the minute I saw you. Hiding behind the muscles of your son.”

“Macbeth!” she screeched louder. He poked his head out of his bedroom door, looking back and forth between his mother and me.

“I don’t like the look of this,” he muttered.

“Would you kindly inform our guest that she won’t be taking Bee out of this house now, or any other time, for that matter?”

“And would you kindly inform your mother that she doesn’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do?”

He sighed, closing his bedroom door and came towards us. “Why are you dragging me into this?”

“I’m not dragging you into anything, but I don’t mind sitting back and enjoying the view,” I said, eyeing him up and down.

He was an extremely good-looking man – he was slightly smaller than Dante, but his muscles were just as big and defined.

There was just something about him that was lacking – a quality about him that wasn’t there.

When Dante entered a room, he owned the entire space.

Macbeth wasn’t easy to miss, but he didn’t have the presence that made you feel as though the entire air had been sucked out of the room.

Dante had an air of imminent danger, as though he could kill you ten different ways without breaking a sweat.

And whilst Macbeth was certainly intimidating with his height, his scary tattoos, and scars, he just didn’t have the aura around him that said his soul belonged to the devil.

“Behave yourself,” he grinned at me.

“Yes sir,” I said, standing tall and saluting him. He laughed and looked back at his raging mother.

“Look… Wasn’t she one of those… fancy nanny things?”

“An au pair. Yes, I was.”

“There we are then. She knows what she’s doing. Let her take the kid. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Dante said they both had to stay here,” she said, almost stomping her foot in frustration.

“Then let Dante deal with it when he gets back. If he wanted to keep her under lock and key, he should do it himself. I’m certainly not going to keep her prisoner. Leave her be. It will do Dante the world of good if we all stopped pretending his word is law.”

“Macbeth, you are my favourite. Finally, someone who speaks a bit of sense!”

“She’s not taking her—”

“Oh, for fuck's sake, mother!” Macbeth hissed at her. “What was the fucking point in Dante spending an absolute fortune installing cameras all over the bloody village? If they’re that useless, we can’t even let Bee go for a walk with her, then what’s the point?

Dante can’t come storming in here saying that Rachel is his new old lady and then not even let her spend time with the kid.

If he’s got a problem, he can speak to me.

I’m gonna walk them out. I’m late for church, anyway.

Come on,” he directed to me, and I grabbed him, linking my arm with his.

“S’later big mama. Don’t scrub the bath too hard now, you hear?” and allowed Macbeth to lead me away with a triumphant glare over my shoulder.

“You really shouldn’t poke her like that,” he smiled as we walked down the stairs together. “She tells Dante everything.”

“I can list a dozen things I care more about than Dante’s opinion. I could probably do two dozen if I really thought about it.”

“You really don’t like him, do you?” He said with an amused shake of his head.

“I don’t care either way. I nothing the man.”

“You… ‘nothing’ him?”

“Yep. Nothing. He’s not important enough for me to feel anything. He’s not on my radar. I don’t love him. I don’t care enough to hate him. I nothing him. No love, no hate, no dislike, nothing. He’s not that important to me. Is that clear enough for you?”

“Crystal. Ouch, by the way. Can I be there when you tell him that?”

“Ooh, you cruel man,” I grinned back at him. “You don’t seem to like him much either. What’s the story there?”

He paused a moment. “Let me ask you something first, please. What do you know about him?”

“Nothing, and I’ve no intention of learning anything either. So don’t start with any tales of how he’s big and dangerous and how I should be listening to his every command, because it’ll fall on deaf ears.”

“Hey,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender. “Don’t shoot the messenger. If you want to play games with him, I’ll cheer you on from the sidelines. But I’d look into his past, Rachel, and really think it through before you provoke him any further.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Uhm, death? I’m serious, Rachel,” he said when I laughed at him.

“Dante isn’t going to kill me. Honestly, everyone in this place is so dramatic. You know there’s a middle ground, right? It doesn’t always have to be death this, and murder that.”

“Not in Dante’s world. This isn’t a normal, law-abiding community.

You should know that by now. We do things our own way and Dante…

Well, Dante is the future leader for a reason.

He doesn’t take kindly to what he would see as betrayal or weakness.

And you constantly disrespecting him would be seen as weakness. ”

“Then he needs to sit down and have a conversation with his ego. I think it will do him good to be knocked down a peg or two.”

“Just know I’m writing ‘I told you so’ on your gravestone. And I’m not visiting you, nor bringing you flowers. You can have an ugly grave.”

“Noted. I’m not a fan of flowers, anyway.”

“You’re not listening to a word I say, are you?” He asked with a small grin.

“Sure I am! And for the sake of peace and harmony around here, I’ll do my best to be nicer to Dante. How’s that sound?” He nodded, even though we both knew it was a complete lie and I had no intention of being nice to Dante any time soon.

“So… Before I dive into the history between you and Dante, can I ask you about my clothes?”

“Err… They’re fine? Is this a trap? I feel like it’s a trap. No, you don’t look fat.”

“Not the clothes I’m wearing, dummy! But thank you… I’m on about the ones from America. You were going to sort it with Mrs Geller?”

“I gave her an address.”

“This address?” I said, eyeing him with suspicion.

“Why wouldn’t I?” He replied, looking at me as though I had grown two heads.

“Well, what’s taking so long?”

“You realise America is on the other side of the world, right? Including the time it takes them to return home, pack up your shit, and get it posted. It’s gonna be a while. Go spend Dante’s money if you want more clothes. Lord knows he’s got more than enough.”

“I don’t want to spend Dante’s money!”

“Spend your own, in that case. Surely you got paid from your fancy nanny job?”

“I did.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

The problem was, I didn’t want to waste my savings on clothes when I would need them to start afresh. “Bit hard to go shopping when I’m not allowed to leave.”

“It’s 2024, order online. Sounds like you just want to be a martyr. There are options.”

“Brilliant. Thank you.”

“Listen, you can be miserable and spend some money, getting yourself some nice clothes or whatever you want. Or you can be really miserable and do nothing. You’re stuck here, but it's up to you to make the best of your situation.”

“Hmm, maybe. So, are you going to tell me what the deal is between you two?” I asked, changing the topic.

“Can’t. Club meeting.” he winked at me and then began walking away.

“Bastard! Hey,” I called out. “Before you go. What’s your mum's real name?”

“Katherine. My dad calls her Kitty. She hates that.”

“I love that.”

“I knew you would.”

“Macbeth, I see a friendship forming that could land us both in trouble.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” he winked at me again, and the evil streak in me had an idea forming.

“I’m good at secrets. But for now, I’ll settle on owing you a debt and taking Bee out of here before she goes thinking I’m letting her down too.”

“Have fun.” he stepped out of the way to let me pass. As I brushed past him, he grabbed my arm and whispered down my ear. “And make no mistake, I will be calling in on you to repay that debt sooner or later. Enjoy your day,” he said, his voice returning to normal as he released my arm.

I stiffened.

I fucking hated being grabbed. Dante had done it once too often, and it was something Alex used to do all the time. People assumed because I was short, they could manhandle me and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

That’s not how things would be here.

“Consider the debt repaid as of now for not retaliating. Grab my arm like that again, I’ll rip yours from the socket and beat you to death with it,” I said in a cold voice, looking up at him from under my lashes.

I didn’t wait for a response. I pushed the rest of the way past him, nudging him with my shoulder as I did so, making sure a big smile was on my face by the time I got to Bee.

“I thought you had changed your mind!” Her entire face lit up when she saw me.

“Now, why would I do that? Are you ready?” I held out my hand to her. “Let’s go on that adventure.”