Page 16 of Hidden

Nothing to do with me, but I had been dragged here anyway. My dad hadn’t elaborated much. He’d simply told my brother Damien and me to come with him and listen carefully.

Apparently, I was the only one taking that instruction seriously.

The second we arrived, Damien disappeared to see if he could find Laura—the girl already being groomed to become Dante’s old lady. Personally, I thought he was playing with fire, but I’d be damned if I was going to stop him.

Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

Every now and then, raised voices drifted out from inside the clubhouse, but it was impossible to tell whether they belonged to my father or if it was just another drunken idiot on a Friday night.

So I stayed where I’d been told to stand, scanning the compound for anything interesting—anything I could report back to my dad later.

Or better yet, something juicy enough to satisfy Natalie.

Ever since last year in the park, she’d become weirdly obsessed with the Devils. It said a lot about her personality that she was obsessed with the very boys who had threatened us. But that was Natalie to a T. Weird, but she was mine.

Looking around, squinting against the darkness, I sighed heavily, slumping back against the wall.

I wasn’t going to find anything. Anyone of any importance was behind these walls, inside the clubhouse. The only people roaming about were prospects, hang-arounds, or the Descendants.

I’d been seeing more and more of them since that day in the park. I don’t know if it’s because I now recognised more of their faces, or if I was in fact like Natalie, and something drew me to them. Either way, they were becoming impossible to ignore.

They were becoming bigger, something more important, something with more of a presence in this city. And something inside me wanted to be a part of that, even if it was just from the sidelines, silently watching.

Whilst Macbeth was their official leader, Dante had already established himself in our school as the figurehead. He ran secret recruitment meetings, pulled some minor pranks to initiate new members, and they were even seen sporting cuts with their own earned patches. They were definitely miles ahead of our own youth division—the Junior Riders.

I’d never admit this to Natalie, but the Descendants definitely intrigued me. Especially that blonde menace who was always so loud and annoying. As much as I wanted to dislike him, I found myself laughing each and every time I saw him.

Hearing the rumble of engines, I pushed myself further against the wall, concealed in the darkness, watching as two more motorbikes pulled up and parked outside the clubhouse.

They didn’t take their helmets off as they walked in, but I saw a brief glimpse ofMen of Mayhemon one of their cuts, and instantly shuddered, recognising that patch as the one given to murderers.

They said it was given in honour. That they had killed defending the club. But murder was still murder and wasn’t anything to be celebrated as far as I was concerned.

My mum told me that was a child’s perspective, and the world wasn’t that black and white in reality. But she was currently drunk more than she was sober, so I didn’t give her words much merit.

That was the curse of this club. Everything was too… available. Even for an old lady. I could see it already. The abundance of alcohol, the steady flow of drugs passing from one hand to another. It was easy to see how someone could become addicted to that lifestyle.

I didn’t blame my mum. Not entirely. But I was fed up. And, if I was honest, I resented her.

Just as I was growing fed up, a muttered curse came from my left, and a small figure fell from the shadows, tripping over their own feet.

Poking my head around the corner, allowing my hair to drop over my face to conceal me, I stood with bated breath, waiting and listening.

“Mum, comeon!” he huffed, stomping back into the shadows and coming back out with his arm wrapped around the waist of an older blonde woman.

“Luke,” she slurred, her footsteps stumbling in the night. “My Luke. Always so serious.”

“Warrior will be serious, too, if he sees you in this state again.”

“Warrior,” she scoffed, tripping over her own feet once more. Luke fought to keep her upright, wincing as she stepped on his toes. “Warrior can’t stay mad at me for long. He always comes back.”

“You shouldn’twanthim to come back, Mum. You know this.”

“What do you know?” she scoffed again. “Pussy is power, son. It always has been. And mine is the most prized pussy.” Her eyes could barely stay focused, and even in the darkness I could see how blown-out her pupils were.

“Sure it is,” he replied without a shred of sarcasm in his voice. He tightened his arm around her and wrapped one of her arms over his shoulders.

They continued to walk down the street, and I wasted not a second, pushing myself off the wall to follow them.