Page 14 of Waiting Game

Robbie puffed his chest, “nah, I’m just not stupid enough to get married. I’ve got enough women telling me what to do.”

“Yeah,” Antoni scoffed, “like your mum.”

Angel covered his mouth and Dimitri laughed drunkenly in Robbie’s face as it grew a strawberry pink from shame.

“So have you finally figured out what you’re going to do about these fucking Bikies?” Robbie spat back at Antoni, crossing his arms.

“Nope,” I pushed him out of the way to take my shot, “no work talk tonight.”

I knew that Antoni was stressed enough as it was about the situation with the Redliners, and he didn’t need Robbie in his ear pretending as if he could do better. The guy had been killing himself with worry, especially about Rome and Lilith’s.

He was worried that now that their relationship was public and everyone knew about the wedding, that the Redliners would take our feud out on her. Of course, Rome could handle herself, but we couldn’t be sure of the lengths these guys would go to get at Antoni.

We had all been taking shifts, sitting outside of Lilith’s Club and keeping an eye - because Rome was too proud to accept any formal protection. With everything that was going on I was kind of glad that I didn’t have anyone in my life that could be used against me.

I was alone.

But because of the way that I lived, it was a good thing.

That meant that no one else would hurt because of me.

4

Chapter 4

Valerie

Three trains departed the airport before I had the courage to get on one.

I found myself sitting outside the terminal at the airport for much longer than normal, biting at my fingernails with my luggage by my feet. The longer that I sat there, the more side-glances I received from airport security. When the next train to the city pulled up, I took a deep breath and finally stepped inside.

It was getting late, and it was time for the bachelorette party.

As much as I knew it would be full of people that I had spent a decade trying to avoid, I still didn’t want to offend Rome.

When I got to the city, I checked into my hotel and got dressed quickly.

It was the first time I had gotten so dressed up in a long time, and I looked foreign even to myself as I checked one last time in the mirror. I barely wore my hair down anymore, and usually kept the curls contained in a tight bun, but tonight I let them loose. My dress was old and a bit faded, it had sat in the back of my closet for a long time. Now that I was no longer stick thin, and my hips and thighs had filled out some, the dress rose a little higher on my legs than I liked. But really, it was still the nicest dress that I had.

I took the tram from my hotel to near the club - Lilith’s, which Rome owned.

When I got there, there was no line or other customers, which only made me more nervous. I had hoped that it would be so packed with strangers that I would be able to blend in, but obviously not.

I climbed the steep stairs slowly, my heart banging in my chest.

The music was playing at a low volume, and the bright lights were on.

My eyes scanned the club for a familiar face, and I quickly recognised a head of long blonde hair. I went up behind her and poked her in the ribs.

She flung around with a frown on her face.

“Valerie!” Zarina yelled, pulling me in tightly against her chest.

Even though I was the older sister, Zarina had grown significantly taller than me - which wasn’t helped by her impossibly high heels. She wore a strappy, black crop top and jeans with more rips than material, and I looked her up and down.

When did she become an adult?

The guilt panged in my stomach as I realised just how much I had been missing.

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