Page 5 of Healed

“Fine!” hissed the one I could hear properly.

And then I was being dragged downstairs, my head hitting every concrete step along the way.

Bastards.

I must have blacked out somewhere along the way, because the next thing I knew, two soft, scarred hands were clutching my cut and shaking me awake.

“Vienna? Vienna!”

“Rachel, fuck off!” I hissed back.

“Vienna, pay attention! Where is my daughter? Where is Gabriella?”

My lips curled into a smile at the mention of her name, and the pain disappeared. A vision of her flashed behind my eyes.

She was smiling and happy, her head thrown back with her laughter. Her eyes were shining brightly, and I got lost in them, drowning in them.

My lids lowered, and a heavy, relieved sigh left me.

I followed her into the darkness.

I’d follow her anywhere.

Chapter 3

Gabriella

“Whoops. That was a close one,” Dante chuckled, not sounding at all sorry or concerned.

I shot him a nasty glance, my heart hammering against my ribs. My palms were sweating—hell, every part of me was sweating—and I felt the familiar tingle of a mild panic attack creeping beneath my skin.

If someone had told me this time last week that I’d have been in a car with Dante, racing to my clubhouse at a speed that made me wish I believed in a God just so I had someone to pray to, I’d have laughed in their face.

But here I was, frantically gripping my seat and praying anyway, just in case there was a God who fancied a new member of his congregation.

“You cannot be serious,” Dante laughed, casting his eyes in my direction. “You’re a fucking Rider. You should be used to this.”

“Oi, oi, oi!” I hissed. “Less of the character analysis and more concentration! Eyes on the road, Vin Diesel.”

“I’ve been driving since before—”

“Spare me the lecture,” I interrupted, swallowing heavily. “You drive bikes, Dante. Just you concentrate on driving this beast, and let me concentrate on my prayers. It starts with ‘Our Father who art in heaven’, right?”

“Please,” Dante scoffed. “I’m not going to crash. I’m a much safer driver than Vienna, and you got in his car plenty of times.”

“We weren’t exactly driving most of the time, thank you very much,” I muttered through clenched teeth.

Dante took a corner at a speed that defied belief, and as the tyres screeched across the road, I brought my fist to my mouth to swallow down the bile that raced up my throat with equal speed.

“Yeah, I heard all about the ‘mobile shagging wagon’—his words, not mine.”

“Just… fucking hell, Dante!” I screamed. Literally screamed as he rounded another corner like a maniac. I swear, the left two wheels came off the floor. “You’re ten times the size of me! You can’t take corners like that, you’ll tip us over!”

“Like what… like this?” he said, screeching around another turning. I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped the seat even tighter.

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,” I whispered under my breath.

“I can hear that.”