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Axel immediately ran over to his pile of bikes and cars stashed in the corner, and Bee came towards me, putting her tablet down on the table in front of me with the wordsgood morningwritten on it.

“Good morning to you too, rockstar,” I grinned at her. “And Gabby was here because—”

“Actually, more importantly, why are you always here?” Rachel interrupted. “Why has this house suddenly become the sleepover club? There’s the house at the end of the road that you’re all supposed to use. Why have you taken over one of my guest rooms?”

“Well, considering you skinned a man alive in that house, it’s sort of lost its appeal,” I muttered back.

“The location wasn’t important. I can assure you, I’m perfectly capable of skinning a man alive inthishouse, too. Especially men that give their cuts away.”

“I gave her my spare. My main one is just there,” I said, thumbing over my shoulder in the direction of the bar.

“So why was she here?” Dante repeated.

Rachel flopped down next to me, throwing a bag of potatoes on the table, smirking to herself as she sliced through them with the potato peeler.

“She just needed a breather, brother. That’s all.”

“She got back okay. Hacksaw saw her trip the cameras late last night.”

“Good,” I muttered, not saying anything else.

Because she hadn’t texted me to say she arrived safe and sound. She hadn’t spoken to me at all since last night.

Yet another slap in the fucking face.

Just as Dante looked as though he was about to say something else, the kitchen exploded with life.

Monster came rushing in with his old lady, Steph, who was grinning from ear to ear, earning herself a nasty glare from Dante.

Ant came in with Gemma, the pair of them bickering about the garage, closely followed by Tools, who told them it was none of their business what happened in his domain.

The poultry twins and their old ladies, Nicole and Emma, came in next, but whatever they were saying was drowned out by Riley calling over to Dante.

“Hey, boss, have we heard anything from Bambi or Waltzer lately?”

Bambi was an old prospect of ours. Long story short, he covered a crime for Rachel and earned himself a fully patched membership in return for a lengthy prison sentence, where he served as a mole.

Waltzer was a NOMAD, who had long since been one of our prison spies, and currently teaching Bambi all the tricks to surviving.

“Not for a few weeks now, why?” Dante replied, keeping a wary eye on Steph, who was smirking slyly at him.

For months now, Steph and Dante had been in a battle over plastic animals. He wouldn’t let her buy real animals, so she covered the entire compound in tiny fake plastic ones.

Dante had hired a team of men and paid them an eye watering amount to remove them all. And we were all waiting for Steph’s next move.

“I just think it’s weird that we haven’t heard, that’s all.”

“For God’s sake, Riley,” Rachel snapped. “We’ve enough trouble here as it is, let’s not go looking for more, eh?”

“You’re doing that wrong, you know,” Monster told her, sliding into the chair next to her. “You’re supposed to—”

“I think I know how to peel a potato,” she hissed, lifting her arm high in the air when he tried to take the tool out of her hands.

“You’re taking too much skin off them!”

Rachel let out a dry laugh. “Again, I don’t think you need to tell me about skin, Monster, thanks.”

She didn’t even look up as she said it, just kept dragging the peeler down the side of the potato in her hand with the same steady, methodical rhythm she’d been using since she sat down. Thin strips of skin curled away beneath the blade, dropping into the bowl like it were the most normal thing in the world, like she weren’t sitting there casually referencing one of the most fucked up things to have happened in this club.