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“I told Ace to let us know his decision by noon tomorrow.”
The door opens and a bodyguard comes in looking panicked. “Boss, the girls have gone out alone. Were they supposed to?” he asks.
“What are you talking about?” snaps Michael marching for the stairs. I follow, and so does the guard. “Of course, they’re not. It’s late.”
“They took the Bugatti too,” he adds.
I whizz around to look at him and he stumbles to a stop. “They took the fucking Bugatti?” I yell, and he nods. “They’ll kill themselves. Ella’s driving is atrocious. How the fuck did they get out without someone seeing?”
“We didn’t realise they weren’t allowed out, boss. By the time we’d asked one another, they were gone.”
I take deep breaths to calm myself. “You all better go and look for them. I want them found.” I pull out my mobile and check the tracker app. It shows them both as being home. I groan. “They’ve left their phones here.”
“I’ll get onto the chief superintendent. He’ll have a patrol car pick them up in no time,” says Michael.
Chapter Seventeen
PIPER
“Are you sure about this?” Ella asks, glancing at the rundown bar.
I nod. “The guys always come here when they need headspace. Hulk will want to be away from Ace after everything that's gone down tonight.”
“It looks like a pretty rough place to hide out. Maybe we should’ve bought a bodyguard.”
“I’ll be ten minutes. I just need him to hear me out.”
Ella caught me sneaking out the house and offered to drive me. Turns out she quite likes adventure despite her hiding away from the world for the last few months.
I open the door to the bar and am immediately hit with the smell of beer and smoke. Despite smoking being banned in all UK public places, this bar is the kind that breaks the rules. I glance around and my eyes fall on Hulk. He’s leaning against the bar, and a female is kissing her way up his neck. The bar owner, Tony, smiles when he sees me. He’s used to me coming here to track down club members, especially Hulk.
Ella takes a seat at the bar, and Tony gets her a drink. I tap the female on the shoulder and politely ask her to get lost. “What the fuck are you doing here?” growls Hulk. His eyes are filled with hate, and I recoil slightly.
“I had to explain,” I begin. Hulk grabs my upper arm and shoves me towards the exit. Ella stands with a look of panic on her face, but I hold up my free hand.
“I’m okay. Stay here. Tony, look after her,” I order.
Hulk pushes me out into the street and releases my arm. “Don’t come in here again,” he yells, pointing his finger in my face. “I can’t even look at you right now. You make me sick.”
“I’ll keep coming back until you listen to me, Hulk.”
“I don’t want to listen to your bullshit excuses, Piper. If you keep following me, I’ll do something I’ll regret. Don’t push me on this.” He goes back inside, and despite his warning, I follow.
“You weren’t ready for a baby and all of responsibility that came with that,” I tell his retreating form.
Hulk spins back around and pushes his face close to mine. “You didn’t give me a chance to decide that.”
“I asked if you ever wanted kids. Do you remember that? You said no. You said you didn’t want that kind of life. How could I tell you after that? I felt like I was trapping you,” I say, desperate for him to understand.
“I wouldn’t have said any of that if you’d have told me. I would’ve given it a go. I would’ve stepped up,” he hisses.
“And you would’ve hated me for forcing you to live a life that you didn’t want, Hulk. I’ve loved you for so long, and I’ve spent years letting you come and go from my life. I couldn’t do that to a kid. You’d have gotten bored. You’d eventually have cheated on me. I had to make the right decision for both of us.”
“You’re wrong. I would’ve done the right thing. You shouldn’t have made that decision without me. I may have fucked up over and over, but one thing I always knew,” he pauses and presses his lips together in a hard line, “was that we would have married one day. We were always going to be together when the time was right.”
“Always on your terms,” I mutter. “Everything is always on your terms and when you’re ready. Well, guess what, I got sick of waiting. Sick of trying. Sick of being the second choice. I deserve better.”
“And you think he’ll treat you better because he buys you clothes or flies you to romantic hotspots?” He shakes his head, giving a cold, empty laugh. “He’s no better than me, Piper. Ask him about Italy, about Aurora.”
