Page 5

Dante

“Beth, where the fuck have they gone?” I all but shouted at her as I came back to the dining room to find her gone.

“There was no stopping them, Dante. I’m sorry! I tried but—”

“How long?” I interrupted, ripping my phone back out of my back pocket.

If my mother had just fucking accepted that I was bringing her back, instead of asking a million fucking questions, I wouldn’t have been so long.

Sometimes she forgot that she was just an old lady, and she didn’t actually have any input on what any member of the club did.

She also forgets I’m a grown man, and who and when I decide to fuck someone is none of her business.

I told her I was bringing back someone who would be a mother for Bee, and that should have been the end of it. The child needed a mother. Isn’t that what she was always saying to me whenever word got back to her that I had been with one of the club whores?

There would be absolute hell to pay if she fucked this up for me. She had been perfect.

“Maybe five minutes? Dante, I really am sorry I—”

“It’s fine!” I barked at her, cutting her off with a wave.

I’d deal with her failures later. I dialled my dad back, mentally calculating how long it took to get to the airport.

“Yeah, Pops, listen,” I said as soon as he answered the phone, cutting off any chit chat.

“Get that useless brother of mine and the rest of the lads together. Meet me at Greasy.”

“When?”

“Five minutes ago.”

“Right. Get away from you, did she, son?”

“A little cat-and-mouse chase never hurt anyone.”

“Apart from the mouse.”

“The mouse shouldn’t have been stupid enough to run away.”

“Dante… You sure about this? If this gets reported—”

“I’ll worry about that later. I’m not going to harm her.”

Yet.

I heard him sigh down the phone. “I’ll get the lads together. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Things might get messy. The man she’s with… he’s got his eye on her. He’s not letting her go without a fight.”

“Messy is the club’s motto. Don’t worry about it. See you in a minute.”

He hung up without saying goodbye, and I made my way outside the Greasy Spoon, heading straight for my bike. I threw my leg over it and started the engine. The rest of the lads wouldn’t stop, they would follow my lead, and the quicker I was ready, the quicker we could get going.

I was about to catch my mouse. Let the fun begin.