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“You guys realise you’re not the royal family, don’t you? In fact, I don’t think even they have this many protocols in place.”

“I also don’t think the royal family bounces their enemy's heads off the pavements like it was a basketball, but I’ve seen Dante do that.”

“What a delightful, delightful man. I’ll tell you what, I’ll do you a deal,” I said as he held open the gate to the park for me. “You can text Dante right now and tell him you’ve found me, and that you’ll keep an eye on me until he turns up.”

“Why would I text—”

“The act is over, Shark. I know he’s told you to keep an eye on me. Tell him you’re keeping an eye. In return, you answer a few questions I have. And you have to answer honestly.”

“What kind of questions?” He asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Deal or no deal?”

He sighed heavily. “Fine.”

“Text away.” I waved at his phone and waited until he had nodded.

“He said he’ll be here soon.”

“You best talk fast, then.”

We both sat down on a bench at the edge of the railings, and I shouted to Bee to be careful. She went squealing off to the slides, and I whipped around to face Shark.

“What happened to Bee’s mother?”

“We’re jumping straight in, are we?”

“Time is of the essence.”

“She died.”

“How?”

“An accident.” He said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees and kept his eyes on Bee the entire time he spoke.

“What type of accident?”

“A fatal one.”

“Shark, I will jump up from this seat and run as fast as my legs can carry me. How pissed do you think Dante will be, then? Answer the questions properly.”

“A motorcycle accident.”

“Huh,” I said, my eyes widening with surprise. “She wasn’t an experienced rider?”

“She was. She was practically born with a bike between her legs. But she wasn’t in the right frame of mind when she climbed that bike. Bee was only a few months old if I remember right, and Laura – that’s Bee’s mum.”

“Yeah, I got that,” I snapped, rolling my eyes.

“Anyway, Laura and Dante had been arguing. She came flying out of the clubhouse and said she needed to get away. She didn’t have her leathers on, no helmet, nothing.

Dante chased her, more out of anger to start with.

We all followed. But it went from anger to genuine concern real quick.

She lost control, like we all knew she would. ”

“What were they arguing about?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you telling the truth?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He was still looking at Bee. He had yet to move a muscle other than follow her with his eyes.

“Hmm. Fair enough. Did they argue often?”

“Fairly often. I’ve heard whispers that maybe she was depressed, especially after having Bee. She didn’t bond with her very well. She said having the baby prevented her from having a life. You’d have to ask Dante about that, though. He doesn’t discuss it much.”

“I’ve more chance of spontaneously combusting right here, right now, than getting any sort of answers from him.” I paused for a moment and then asked my next question. “Has he had any other old ladies since?”

“No. Believe it or not, declaring someone your old lady is a huge commitment. It’s not something you’d do for everyone you’ve shagged.”

“So why did he say that about me when he doesn’t even know me?”

He shrugged. “Again, you’d have to ask Dante.”

“This is like having a conversation with an AI. Are you programmed with just a few replies and that’s your default or something?”

“What do you want from me, woman? I don’t live inside Dante’s head.” He gave me a nasty side eye, but he soon went back to looking at where Bee was.

“Are you afraid to look at me?”

“I’m not getting drawn into your games.”

“I’m not playing any games.”

He scoffed in response. “You have trouble written all over you. No disrespect, but you smell of drama. I can practically see little shivers of delight running through you at the thought of angering Dante. I’m not getting involved.

He said to keep an eye on you, and that’s all I’m doing.

You seem nice enough, Rachel, but I’m not looking for any drama. ”

I simply smiled. “How long have you been here, Shark?”

“A while.”

“How’d you get your name? You got a nasty bite? Like to eat humans? You climb in the bathtub and thrash about whilst your old lady chucks you chunks of meat?”

He gave me a bizarre look and shook his head. “I make the food for poker night.”

“Excuse me?”

“The food. I do charcuterie boards.”

I actually laughed out loud at that. “If I had a thousand guesses, I never would have guessed that.”

“My mother did them. Not as a profession or anything, she just liked to feed everyone all the damn time. The first poker night I joined, Macbeth threw a packet of crisps on the table that he had stuffed down the front of his trousers, and Vienna brought beers. Two of them he drank on the way there. Dante said he ate earlier, and the other guys weren’t much better.

There was nothing more than scraps on the table.

They spent the entire night getting drunk, growing hangrier and hangrier, until Dante punched Macbeth in the face because Dante wanted pizza, but Macbeth had slept with the delivery guy's daughter, and he refused to deliver to anyone even vaguely related to the family.

So I went out and bought some stuff, whipped up a quick snack, and the job's been mine ever since.”

“That’s strangely cute.” I laughed.

“Daddy!” Bee screeched, running out of the gates. I noticed Shark stiffen and slide further down the bench away from me.

I turned around and my breath caught in my throat as Dante picked Bee up and spun her around.

The sun was behind him, casting a glow around his massive frame.

He grinned at her, a genuine grin that lit up his entire face as he looked down at the tiny child in his arms. She gave him a cuddle, her arms barely reaching around his chest.

Fucking behemoth. I spun back around, refusing to look at him.

“Rachel!” Bee shouted. “Daddy’s here!”

“Yeah, Rachel,” he repeated, a note of humour in his voice. “Daddy’s here.” He placed Bee on the floor, and she went charging back into the park. Shark stood, nodded at Dante, and followed Bee, offering to take her to the monkey bars.

“You,” Dante hissed from behind me, bending low to speak directly into my ear. “Get up and come with me.”