Page 10 of Hidden

It was mainly due to the fact that Steph wanted to soften the compound a little, bring in some animals, liven the place up. And Dante thought that idea was shite.

That was the long and short of it, anyway.

Steph hadn’t taken too kindly to the rejection and had made it her mission to torment him on the daily.

“Look,” Monster said sheepishly. “I told her to lighten up with all those plastic animals…”

“Well, she didn’t fucking listen!” Dante barked. “She’s got Rachel on her side now and—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can’t put Rachel’s actions on me, brother. I’m not taking responsibility for her.”

“Dante doesn’t take responsibility for her,” I chuckled back.

“Sorry, do you have an old lady?” Dante hissed, snapping his head in my direction.

“Having no old lady makes me a neutral party. I take no sides, only facts. Monster, has Steph been ordering torment tools on Amazon again?”

“I swear I banned her card!” Monster rushed out.

“Can we circle back to these hang-arounds,” Ant piped back up. “Because I asked one of them to sort out the new patches for the Descendants, and he more or less told me to go fuck myself.”

“Did you do it?” I asked.

“Do what?”

“Fuck yourself? Because it’s bad enough dealing with Dante’s boner over these plastic animals Snow White is throwing around the place. The man practically spends his days salivating. I can’t be dealing with your anger boner as well.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked, the entire room growing silent as they stared at me in bewilderment.

I simply grinned until Ant shook his head and continued.

“And don’t get me started on those fuck head nephews we’ve got living with us. I’m one more smart remark away from…”

I drifted off then, listening to the conversations around me, but not actively participating. Ant was determined to get the Descendants back up and running, but I’d lived that life already.

Besides… thinking of the Descendants too much made me think about her. And whenever I thought about her, all I could think about was the stupid, pointless, waste of my nights. The stalking habit I couldn’t quit.

A therapist would have a field day with me.

A therapist had already had a field day with me. Until doctor Ashleigh asked me to stop attending Dante and Rachel’s weekly couple’s counselling because I was, and I quote, “making everything worse.”

Which I found rather rude.

Eventually, Dante made the decision that Ant could whip the hang-arounds into shape, putting him in charge of getting them ready for prospect status, or getting them the fuck out of here. And one way they earned prospect status was by doing whatever Ant demanded with the Descendants.

God help those lads, because the sadistic grin that crept across Ant’s face sent a chill down my spine. I knew what the bloke was capable of.

“Right, lads,” Dante said, leaning back in his chair with a smoke between his teeth, bringing the lighter up to his face. He paused for a moment to light up, and then looked around us, taking a deep draw. “We need to get serious about assigning a new treasurer. Hacksaw here has been doing a brilliant job as both secretary and treasurer for a fair few months now, but it’s time we lightened his burden. I know we all miss Shark, and I know it’ll hurt Jenna when she finds out, but…” his words drifted off, but we all knew what he meant.

Shark had been murdered after he and Rachel had been attacked. Jenna, his old lady, had been left to raise their one-year-old by herself, and she wasn’t taking to it well.

“Would anyone like to volunteer for the role? Not you Vienna!” Dante hissed at me, seeing me raise my hand in the air.

“And why the fuck not?” I replied. “I’m great with numbers. I can handle the books easily.”

“Last time you tried to handle the books, Gemma and Imogen nearly castrated you.”

“Gemma and Imogen had no business being in the garage during business hours, for one. And two—”