CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The North End clubhouse looked normal from the road.
That frightened Drew more than flames would have.
Bikes lined the yard. Lights burned behind the downstairs windows. The old sign over the workshop still leaned three degrees to the left because nobody had bothered fixing it in twelve years.
Home.
With a hostage inside.
Drew parked two streets away.
"No army," he said.
Michael remained in the second car with Daniel, Ben and Sam.
Gareth had been left at the Hornsea house under protest and medication.
Owen sat beside Drew, shoulder strapped tight.
Leah was in the back.
"Pete asked for Michael," Michael said through the open window.
"Which is why you're not walking in."
"He'll know."
"Let him."
Daniel looked at Drew.
"You want me with you?"
Drew almost laughed.
Nine years ago the answer would have been automatic.
Now he did not know what the question meant.
"No."
Daniel nodded once.
That somehow made it worse.
Drew, Leah and Owen walked the last two streets.
Nobody stopped them at the gate.
Inside the main room, eighteen North End members stood in a loose semicircle.
Pete Lawson sat in Gareth's chair.
Amy sat beside him with her wrists untied.
That mattered.
Pete had not hurt her.
Yet.
He wore a square silver ring on his right hand.
Mick Pike's ring.
Owen swore.
Pete lifted the hand.
"Always wondered when one of you would notice."
Drew looked at Amy.
"You okay?"
She nodded quickly.
Pete smiled.
"I'm not Venn."
Leah said, "Congratulations on clearing an extremely low bar."
Several men looked at her with open hatred.
Pete's smile disappeared.
"She shouldn't be here."
Drew said, "She is."
"A copper in our clubhouse. After everything?"
"Half the police in this story seem to have keys anyway."
No one laughed.
Drew looked around the room.
Men he had known for years would not meet his eyes.
Pete had done more than take Amy.
He had called a vote without calling it one.
"What's he told you?" Drew asked.
One of the younger members, Kieran, answered.
"That Gareth sold routes. That you knew. That you're working with police."
"First one's true. Second isn't. Third depends which police."
Murmurs.
Pete leaned back.
"Listen to him. Daniel comes back from the dead and suddenly Drew thinks rules are optional."
Drew's eyes locked on him.
"You knew Daniel was alive too?"
Pete's expression gave the answer away.
Leah saw it.
"There," she said quietly.
Pete looked at her.
"What?"
"You reacted before he finished."
"Fuck off."
"You knew."
Drew walked closer.
"How long?"
Pete stood.
"Long enough."
"You were the man with Venn at Paull."
Silence.
Amy looked at Pete.
He did not deny it.
Owen's good hand closed into a fist.
"You took her?"
"I moved her. Venn took her. There's a difference."
"Not to her."
Pete's voice hardened.
"Gareth was feeding information to Daniel. Venn knew somebody in the club was doing it. If I hadn't helped, Hale would have sent people who didn't care whether Amy came home."
Leah laughed without humour.
"Everyone in this conspiracy thinks betrayal becomes noble if they say it was protective."
Pete looked at her.
"Your father invented that trick."
Drew said, "The ring."
Pete rubbed his thumb over it.
"Mick gave it to me before the funeral."
Gareth had been wrong.
"He was already dead."
"He gave it to me the week before he died. Told me if anything happened, take the one from his hand too. Fake one went in the coffin."
Leah stepped forward.
"What's on the back?"
Pete smiled.
"That's why Michael wants it, isn't it?"
"Box number."
Pete's eyes confirmed it.
Drew looked at Amy again.
"Let her walk over here."
"Bring Quinn."
"No."
"Then she stays."
Amy said, "Pete, I'm not staying anywhere."
He looked at her, annoyed rather than cruel.
"Amy--"
She stood.
One of Pete's men moved.
Amy grabbed the pint glass from the table and smashed it into his face.
Chaos arrived immediately.
Owen laughed and hit the next man one-handed.
Drew crossed the room toward Pete.
Nobody drew a gun at first.
That saved lives.
It became a club fight instead of a massacre.
Fists. Chairs. Boots. Years of loyalties being renegotiated through violence.
Leah dragged Amy behind the bar and kicked a man in the knee when he followed.
"You police?" Amy shouted.
"Today? Unclear."
Drew caught Pete near the pool table.
Pete swung first.
He was older but still heavy, still strong.
Drew blocked one punch and took the second on the jaw.
The room tilted.
Pete grabbed his jacket.
"You think Daniel's your brother after nine years working against this club?"
Drew drove him back into the table.
"You don't get to talk about brothers."
Pete's head snapped backward.
The ring flashed on his hand.
Drew grabbed the wrist.
Pete reached inside his cut.
Gun.
Leah shouted.
A shot fired.
Everyone froze.
Pete stared down.
Blood spread across his side.
The gun in his own hand had discharged during the struggle.
Drew stepped back.
Pete folded against the pool table.
Leah reached him first.
"Pressure here."
Pete laughed weakly.
"Copper saving me. That's embarrassing."
"Try not to die from shame."
She looked at Drew.
"Ambulance."
One of the members hesitated.
Drew shouted, "Call it."
The room obeyed.
Pete's hand closed around Drew's wrist.
"Hale's coming."
"When?"
"Soon. Venn knows about the box."
"How?"
Pete coughed.
"Because I told him."
Owen moved toward him.
Drew stopped him.
"Why?"
Pete looked around the clubhouse.
"Mick built this place. Gareth turned it into a delivery company with guns. Daniel turned it into bait. You brought a policewoman into this club and slept with her under our roof."
Leah glanced at Drew.
"Apparently everybody knows."
"Not helping."
Pete continued.
"I wanted the old club back. Hale promised North End would own the coast once Redmile was gone."
Drew almost felt sorry for him.
"Hale doesn't leave partners."
"I know that now."
He pulled the silver ring from his finger.
Blood slicked the metal.
He pressed it into Drew's palm.
"Four-one-seven."
Leah heard.
"Storage box 417?"
Pete nodded.
"Kingston Private Vaults. Old town. Mick paid twenty years in advance."
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Pete's eyes widened.
"Too fast."
Leah went to the window.
The first vehicle turned into the road.
Not an ambulance.
Police.
Then another.
Then a black Range Rover.
Venn.
Drew looked at the room.
Eighteen club members. Amy. Leah. Owen. Pete bleeding on the floor.
Every exit visible from the yard.
Pete gave a broken laugh.
"Told you."
A loudspeaker crackled outside.
"Drew Sayer. Leah Quinn. Come out unarmed."
Leah looked through the blind.
"Real uniforms this time. Marked firearms unit."
"Can you trust them?"
"Not with Hale commanding it."
Amy pointed toward the workshop.
"Old drain."
Owen looked at her.
"What drain?"
"Dad showed me when I was little. It runs under the back wall."
Drew stared.
"Why does every building this club owns have a tunnel?"
Sam's voice came from the rear doorway.
"Because Mick had tax problems."
Everyone turned.
Sam, Daniel and Michael had entered through the workshop.
Drew looked at Daniel.
"I said stay away."
"You say lots of things."
Michael looked at Pete on the floor.
For the first time, the older man's composure cracked.
"Peter."
Pete smiled faintly.
"Hello, ghost."
Michael saw the ring in Drew's hand.
"You have it."
Outside, Venn's voice came over the loudspeaker again.
"Two minutes."
Leah looked at Michael.
"We can either have another family reunion or open the box."
Drew closed his fist around the ring.
"Box."
They left through Mick Pike's tax drain while Venn counted down outside.