Page 17 of Salvation

“Finished?” She asked, a bored expression on her face.

“Not quite. There’s also the fact that you’re also emotionally unstable—a fact to which every member of this club will attest to. Everyone here has a story about your infamous temper. And then there’s the fact that you abandoned your stepchild.”

She had given no response to any of my other points, but as soon as I brought up leaving Bee behind, she gasped as though I had slapped her. “I did not—”

“Semantics,” I brushed her words away. “It’s all about what the court believes. And if that wasn’t enough, then how about this?” I walked away to retrieve a folder from the cabinet and placed it in her hands. “Have a read through.”

She scowled at me before snatching the document up and began flicking through it, her eyes widening as she did so. “You cannot be fucking serious.”

“Oh, but I am. Believe it or not, I came prepared to play dirty. You take Axel away from me, and that file you’re holding goes straight to the police. And there are backups. That one is yours to keep,” I grinned at her.

She looked back at the document, and I had to bite my inner cheek to stop from laughing. I knew the contents well. I could recite them in my sleep.

There were a few images from the clubhouse cameras, showing her getting drunk with me. I knew she recognised that night the moment the scowl on her forehead deepened. It was the night she had confessed to murdering Alex, and allowing her dad to take the blame for it.

There were also pictures taken from security footage, showing her riding through the club grounds on a motorbike, firing a gun at whoever was in her way. I fucking loved that photo. Another was a picture of the knife she had used to slice open Ben’s stomach, with her fingerprints clearly dusted and Ben’s blood still on the blade.

“You kept this?”

“Collateral damage, darlin’. And then let’s add in the dead woman in Scotland. How many people do you think saw you go in and out of her front door? There’s a reason we came in through the back. Did you see our motorbikes around? And just in case no one saw you, we had a prospect stick around and take photos of you leaving. They’ll be emailed to me shortly. Vienna will be in the middle of speaking to that prospect right now, telling him to make an anonymous call to the police. He’ll spin some story about his girlfriend not showing up for their date last night, and what do you think the police will find when they visit her house? Poor, dead Scottish bitch, and poor Rachel as the last person to have been seen leaving her house.”

“You son of a—”

“And then finally, just to add insult to injury, there’re the dozens of speeding tickets you no doubt got from racing to Leeds. That’s pretty damning. Were you speeding from the scene of the crime, Rachel? Oh, but it’s Lisa, isn’t it? Why are you hiding under a false name,Lisa? Is it because you’re hiding the fact you murdered a bunch of men? See how the case against you getting custody is beginning to take shape?”

“You’re a cunt,” she seethed, her entire body tense.

“Yep. But I’m a cunt without so much as a speeding ticket to my name. A cunt that has his own house. A cunt that has two steady businesses and a thriving support system. A cunt that has the power of persuasion, and half of the Leeds legal team in his back pocket. I might have a reputation, Rachel, but there’s not a single crime they can pin on me. Just suspicions and hearsay. When you look at it in black and white, who would you give a child to?”

“Not fucking you,” she spat.

“But certainly not you, either. If by some chance the courts don’t give me custody of Axel, then he goes into the system. I don’t think either of us wants that to happen. I mean, I’d get him back easily. But you’d never know that, because you’d be rotting in a jail cell with monthly visits.Ifyou’re lucky enough to get them.”

She looked at me with such defiance and hatred, and the only response I had was from my cock as it hardened. Rachel always had that effect on me, but seeing her rendered speechless, and knowing I held all the cards, all the power, made me harder than I could remember.

It was nice to finally silence that fucking smart mouth of hers.

It took all the strength I possessed not to pull her into my arms and plant a victory kiss on her lips.

“I won’t go down without a fight, Dante. You know that.”

“I love it when you talk dirty,” I laughed at her, and how she restrained herself from hitting me was beyond me. Her fingers tightened on the folder she was holding, crumpling it in her fist, and her entire body tensed up, ready to strike.

She wisely held back, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.

“I’m not asking you to fight. You’ll lose, and what’s the fun in that? I’ve got a proposition for you instead.”

She narrowed her eyes into slits and glared at me. “What proposition?”

“Six months. That’s all I’m asking for.”

“Six months to do what? I won’t be without Axel for six months and—”

“I’m not asking you to be without Axel, for fuck's sake,” I snapped. “Although it would only be fair, considering I’ve been without him for an entire year.”

“Consequence of your own actions,” she shrugged.

“And doing the same to you would be a consequence ofyouractions. But that’s not what I had in mind. Instead, I want you to live here as my old lady for six months.”

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