Chapter Sixteen
Noise. Buzzing. I pulled the duvet over my head. It stopped. For a moment. And then started again.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled the bedcovers tighter round my head. But the phone didn’t stop. It better be fucking important, whoever was on the other side of that fucking phone. Relenting, I reached out and grabbed the handset off the table beside the bed.
Security Sam.
“What?”
“The Hand. They’ve just been in the hospital.”
“Lovely. Someone injured? Might get rid of them.”
“No, Reap. Grim was there. Not just any of them. Not just a prospect. Grim.”
“He look ok?”
“Yeah. Yeah. He was talking to Dr Mercer.”
I sat up. Cold air rushed at my chest.
“Talking to her?” I said the words slowly like I was turning them over in my head. “Talking, how?”
“I dunno. Like he was stood in front of her and their lips were moving. You know, one at a time. Like a conversation.”
I made a mental note to kick that fucker’s arse the next time I saw him for his fucking cheek.
“What did it look like?”
“What d’you mean?”
I was too fucking tired for this shit.
“Did it look friendly?”
“No. Not if a panic attack is normal after a friendly conversation.”
“Who?”
“The doc, of course.”
“Is she ok?” My heart felt like someone had just fired a defib straight into my chest.
“Yeah. Yeah. Recovered quick. I watched her go about her day again.”
“And you couldn’t have led with this?”
“I…I just thought you wanted intel on the Hand. Or the Notorious. Or any of the other clubs. I didn’t realise the doc who was here the other night was important.”
“No mate. Not important at all.” I scrubbed my hand over my face, my beard scratching at my own skin. “Ok. Where is she now?”
“Dunno. I haven’t been keeping tabs.”
“Well, I want tabs keeping, Sam. I want your security guys knowing where she is every minute of every shift.”
There was a pause on the line, and I knew a prospect was making a tough call between his club and his job. I just hoped he made the fucking right one.
“Yeah,” he said eventually, his voice quieter. “I’ll have the guys watching her. There’ll be a few places we’ll lose her. You know toilets, locker room that sort of thing,” he added quickly when he heard me inhale, “but we’ll keep eyes on her.”
“Good. Now, can you get me that CCTV footage?”
“Why?”
Fuck this one was a slow cunt.
“Because I want to wank over it.” Silence. Fuck’s sake. “Because I want to see if we can see what Grim was saying to her. Could be important.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I can record it off the screen on my phone.”
“Aye. That’ll do. Anything else you need to tell me?”
“No Reap. Just that.”
“Good.”
I ended the call and lay back against the pillows, pulling the duvet up to my chin to keep the cold air out.
The heating wouldn’t click on till later, and even then, I’d probably already switched it off.
Fucking energy prices were through the roof again and if it was a choice between weed or heating, I knew what got me to sleep better.
There was at least another couple of hours before I needed to be down at the clubhouse.
Yet another war room discussion, only this time it was with last night’s intel.
I’d fed back to Indie the moment my meeting with Ash had finished.
He’d put comms out straight away to anyone with an Ol’ lady to keep them close while we figured out what to do.
But the real planning was down at the Dog in a couple of hours.
I closed my eyes. The Hand had moved on Sophie quicker than I’d ever expected.
They couldn’t know our connection. Their interest in her could only be to do with her father.
Something to blackmail him with. Ash had told me someone was selling secrets to the cops, and our enemies were getting info from them.
I just didn’t know how I was going to protect her and the club.
*****
The smell of bacon greeted me as I yanked open the doors to the pub, and my stomach already started to answer.
“Mam’s in the kitchen,” Fury grunted, barely lifting his eyes from the huge white stottie he was just positioning in front of his face.
“Thought we had eyes on every club woman?” I retorted too sharply.
“How fucking long have you been patched in?” The trajectory of the bacon sandwich to his mouth paused. “And you haven’t learned that nothing any of us says will stop Mamma Dot doing whatever Mamma Dot wants to do?”
Fury shrugged, not interested in any answer I could give before ramming as much of the stottie into his mouth as possible.
“She’s got a sarnie waiting for ya,” he said, voice muffled with bacon and the words barely intelligible.
“You took your fucking time,” Indie grumbled as I pushed into the kitchen.
“Leave him be. Your sarnie’s over there, son.”
“We need to get started,” Indie complained but shut up quickly when Mamma Dot threw him a look.
“Boys gotta eat. Besides. You can’t plan on an empty stomach.”
Indie rolled his eyes at me and then shoved his cup under the coffee machine and stuffed in a pod. Soon coffee mingled with the smell of bacon, creating the perfect storm.
“Hurry up and eat, and then get upstairs, Reap.”
I nodded, my mouth already stuffed full. This wouldn’t last two minutes.
There were only a few of us in church. Officers or brothers we trusted.
I glanced around the table. We’d become the old guard.
I didn’t know when. But at some point, we were the longest serving members.
The others before us now dead. Indie, Fury.
Demon. Magnet. Barry the Blade, the Twins, and me. We were now the originals.
“First the women,” Indie started.
“We’ve got cameras on everyone’s house, Indie,” Fury spoke up first. “I’ve got the funeral home covered in cameras and alarms, Ciara is being babysat by Demon every fucking night she works…”
“And drinking all our cut of the profits…” Barry the Blade complained from across the table.
“Don’t know what else I’m supposed to fucking do while I watch women take their clothes off every night.” Demon smirked.
“Fucking stay at home. There’s security all over that place now. More when Tyne Thunder become Kings’ prospects.”
“Nee way, mate. They’ve already tried getting to her once. I’ll fucking kill any fucker who even looks at her the wrong way.”
“That’s what we’re all afraid of,” Indie waded in. “What about Alice?”
“Fury’s put up cameras in the vets. Arsehole boss has paid for all the work and we can watch from our phones. She’s still further away than we’d like, but at least there’s two of us to man-mark her.”
Magnet scoffed; the muffled laugh, badly disguised as a cough, sounded more like he’d just choked on something.
“Good. Emmie is still a little out on a limb, but we’ll make sure Security Sam has a word with his team and keep eyes on her.”
The table nodded, and I joined in, a slight pull on my stomach. With eyes on Emmie, there wouldn’t be much on Sophie. But Soph wasn’t mine, and so demanding she was protected too wasn’t as easy.
“Suzy?” Indie turned to Magnet.
“At home. Supposed to be bed resting but doing everything she can to be fucking here at every opportunity.” Magnet pulled his hand across his face.
“I’ll talk to her. Club order to stay at home and away from this place until we’re free of the Hand.”
“Thanks, Indie.”
“What about Mamma Dot and Grace?” I asked.
“If anyone wants to volunteer as tribute to tell Mamma Dot what to do, go for it,” Indie answered, the rest of the men around the table breaking into deep chuckles.
“But seriously. Fury, you’re going to need to deal with that one.
I need your mam to stay home. Can Jake help with keeping watch on her? ”
Fury shrugged, the look on his face darkening. “Don’t want to ask Jake for a favour,” he answered petulantly, like he was ten years old again.
“Aye. Hardly a favour though, is it? It’s his mother too.”
Fury nodded but said no more.
“And what about Grace?” Barry the Blade asked.
Indie swallowed, a sudden wave of tension on his face.
“I dunno. If I could convince her to come home, I can only bring her here. But up there she’s so far away, and with the tidal times we won’t always be able to reach her if we need to.”
“Do the Hand even know where she is?”
“No. But some of the other clubs might.”
“The distance will help,” I added. “It’s not ideal.”
“And Tori?” Magnet asked, the table falling into silence.
Indie nipped at his nose. “I don’t fucking want her back here. But we need eyes on her somehow.”
“Could another member have her at theirs?” Magnet asked.
The table moved. Heads shaking. Shoulders moving as some erupted into deep chuckles.
“She’d fucking love that. She’d finally bag herself another patch,” Chaos answered.
“Hey, here’s a thought. There’s two of you. You’ve got a spare between you. I vote you take her,” Fury laughed.
“No fucking way.”
“Aye, aye. Alright. We could assign her to the prospects. They can work together to look after her and earn their fucking patches. The first one to shag her is out,” Indie smiled, probably for the first time in weeks.
The room laughed again and then almost simultaneously raised their hands.
“Well, at least that’s Tori fucking under some sort of control,” I grumbled.
“What about the Hand, Indie?” Baz asked, the atmosphere changing quicker than a switch.
“I’m working on it,” Indie answered.
“We really need to know what you’re working on, Indie. Doesn’t come much more club business than that.”
Indie was quiet for a moment, his gaze moving round the table, watching every one of us. When he spoke again, his tone was measured. Careful.
“This is where I need you all to really trust me. I can’t tell you what I’m working on. I don’t know yet whether it is going to work. But when I need you to know, I’ll tell you. For now, though, I just need your trust.”
Brothers at that table glanced at each other, and for a moment, no one moved or said anything. Then, slowly, there was a nod. And then another. I watched Indie’s shoulders slump. The tiniest of movements, his face betraying nothing. He glanced at me, his eyes meeting mine and then drifting away.
And I had no fucking clue what he was up to either.