8. Kaleb
Kaleb
My attention zones in on the empty seat beside me.
Once again, Kai is late.
“How do you know the Northview Garage won’t turn?” Griff grumbles at Leon, who casually smiles back at him. “We don’t assume loyalty until we know for sure.”
Xavier huffs. He’s been sitting in on these meetings now that Thomas is, well, six feet under.
His brown eyes roll. “Because he’s fucking Theo.”
All heads turn in the direction of Leon’s smug smile. It only confirms it.
He shrugs. “What? I like it over at Northview.”
Ash snorts, hugging Maddison closer to his chest. She watches with a small smile on her face.
“They are Devils after all,” Ash drawls. “As long as they aren’t on this grey zone bandwagon.”
He looks tired. Dark circles underneath his eyes and a weariness in his shoulders.
“No,” Leon says with a smile. “They’re cool.”
Griff growls, glaring at him over the table. “Cool?” Turning an incredulous face to Ash, he adds, “Is that what we’re going off? Because Leon gets his dick wet, we rule them out as cool?”
Ash’s brows draw, amusement sparkling in his eyes, looking between the pair.
“Pillow talk is a powerful thing, Griff,” Leon murmurs, biting his lip.
Before Griff can jump, the door slides open, and my brother enters. His eyes immediately land on mine and hold them.
Maddy gasps, uncurling from Ash’s arms and running up to Kai. “How’s Roxy? I can’t believe they did that to her studio; she must be heartbroken.”
Kai doesn’t look down at the girl. His unblinking eyes bore into mine. My lips twitch.
He knows.
Good.
Finally, they slide down to Maddison.
Ever since the kidnapping, tortured and left to fucking die together, he’s grown a soft spot her. Eyes on her like danger is everywhere. Which it is,, according to Kai.
“She’s okay.”
The words come out clipped. Not that anyone else would notice. It sends a thrill through me.
He takes the seat next to me. Back rigid. Head straight.
Maddy settles again on Ash’s thigh, the table falling silent.
“I never once doubted Kade or his children,” Ash murmurs, talking about the Northview family. “Kai, when you pick up your bike, put some fear of God into them.”
Once a Devil, Kade was retired from a shotgun to the knee. Took his four kids and old lady to the garage that Ash offered him and has been there ever since. In fact, it’s where Shadow, Kai’s bike, currently is. I’m sure he’s itching to get her back.
“Griff, what about the Kings?”
Griff is barely able to take his attention off Leon. The hate in the room is palpable, and I love to see it.
“They don’t get involved in shit like this. It’s the street criminals who think that quiet means weak,” he grunts. “Dealers and thugs who realise too late that this is bigger than they can even comprehend.”
Ash’s fists ball. “Yeah, well. Enough of them are sniffing around and it’s becoming a fucking pain. Every shipment is delayed, and I can’t find a single employee worth hiring at The Ninth Circle since drugged-up psychos keep slipping through the doors and attacking my staff.”
Ash tightens his arms around Maddy.
“This isn’t random anymore. They’re testing us.” He drums his fingers on the tabletop. “None of it’s enough to start a war...”
“But enough to make us bleed,” Xavier finishes.
Ash’s jaw ticks. “They are choking us slowly.”
They’re right. It feels like they are mapping the north side of Havenport Harbour. Mapping our entire empire and finding every crack. Waiting to see what breaks first.
“And then we have the Wraiths to think about,” Matt grumbles.
“Which ones?” Leon quips sarcastically. “The ones in hiding or the ones still harassing the south side of Havenport?”
He has a point. We all know Zeke is still alive with enough money to fill the harbour. And a good chunk of the Wraith men.
They aren’t in that underground palace under the grey zone. They aren’t anywhere. They’ve vanished into thin air.
Wod on the street, the Wraiths still around think their president is dead.
“And the studio,” Maddy’s soft voice interrupts. “Roxy’s brothers are Wraiths, and they’ve come to the North Side.”
Her face twists in an anger that simmers in her dark eyes, and Ash falls in love all over again.
Ash skims his hands through Maddy’s hair, smiling. “Don’t worry, Angel, they’ll pay for what they’ve done. Roxy will be okay.”
He solidifies it with a pointed look in Kai’s direction.
Talk of Roxanne has me simmering with a need to be with my brother alone. To hear exactly what he thinks of my little game with the girl. I wonder if he knows that I sliced her. That I drew my knife across her soft tongue, while I took her body for myself.
“I’ve got a fucking migraine,” Ash sighs, leaning back in his chair.
Maddy turns to straddle his legs, and his hands find her hips in an instant.
“Meeting dismissed,” he mutters, biting his lip. All of his attention zones in on her. “We’ll talk tomorrow when we know more.”
Exiting the room, I feel Kai behind me. Silently trailing me through the club and noise. Out the front door, where the neon red sign illuminates the gravel car park. Even over the rocky ground, his footsteps are silent.
So silent that I almost grunt when he shoves me into the side of our car, pressing his forearm against my throat.
There he is.
It’s been a long fucking time since I’ve seen Kai show any feeling. Now, he’s vibrating with the it.
Eyes cold and harsh on mine. The muscle in his jaw feathering. Forearm pressing against my neck.
“I don’t know what you’re playing at,” he mutters, his face inches from mine. “But leave the girl alone.”
My lips twitch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His chest heaves, if only by the smallest amount. His teeth slide together, catching my attention.
“No?” His voice is barely a whisper. “Because she seemed to recall a moment between her and me that I wasn’t present for.”
That sentence alone is more words out of him than I’ve heard in forever.
Maybe I’ll have to go pay the girl another visit...
“Did she?” I taunt. “Hmmm. That’s very odd.”
His eyes flicker between mine.
“I won’t tell you again,” is all he mutters before shoving off me and rounding the car to the driver’s seat.
I rub at my throat. It all came and went so quickly, but my heart jolts at the thrill. Call it brotherly bonding.
Huffing, I hop into the car.
As soon as we arrive at the Northview Garage, Kai beelines for Shadow. Fingers skimming over the fresh exterior, free from bullet holes. Machinery whirs from inside the shed.
As much as this weathered garage is an eyesore, something about it feels like home.
Yellow lights stream into the rain-slicked parking lot, music blaring from inside the shop. Above it is a small balcony, leading into their shared living space. Fairy lights sparkle above overgrown potted plants, and chipped white paint.
All five of them under one roof.
It used to be six until Kade’s old lady got ill and passed away. But still, they are family.
Looking at this place, the one they call home, I let myself imagine for a split second how Kai and I might have turned out if we had a family like this.
Sure, they don’t have a lot. But they have enough.
Would we be as twisted as we are? Would we even be Devils?
Questions that will never have answers are a waste of my time.
“If it isn’t my favourite shining twins,” Jules grins from inside the shop.
Wiping his oil-stained hands on his jeans, he saunters out. His dirty blonde hair looks like it’s been pushed back with those oil-stained hands too many times.
“It’d be a hell of a lot easier to start with a new bike than to work on that thing,” he gestures to Shadow, earning a cold look from Kai. He reaches into his pocket to pull out a joint, lighting it as rain spatters over us. “That thing has been through hell and back.”
One more insult towards Shadow and friends and all, the man won’t be standing for much longer.
His eyes dart between me and Kai., before he chuckles, shaking his head.
“Heard through the grapevine that you boys have got yourselves into a little bit of trouble.”
I wonder which trouble he’s talking about. We both turn our attention on him, not bothering to reply.
He huffs.
“Young Wraith stopped by to get his bike wrapped. Wandered right in without a care in the world. The look of outrage on his face when I turned him away with my gun aimed at his head.” Jules huffs again. “No way a Wraith just got mistaken and showed up at the wrong shop.”
This is getting fucking tiring.
A part of me wonders if Maddison was worth all this. Not that I’d ever say it out loud.
Love is a farce. One people buy into to give themselves a false sense of meaning.
And look what this love has turned into.
Metal clatters onto the concrete, and Jules’s younger brother comes running out.
“Hey guys,” he grins.
It’s so weird seeing two brothers look so different. Kai and I don’t share a single difference apart from the scars that decorate his body. But the differences between Jules and Theo are stark.
Where Jules is wrapped in bulky muscle, Theo is lean and soft. With clean hair, sides buzzed close. His eyes hold less violence than Jules’s too.
I nod at him.
“So,” he starts, fidgeting on the spot. “How’s Leon?”
Fucking hell.
I can taste Kai’s impatience from here.
“Why?” I ask.
I already know the reason after that shamble of a meeting. But if he wants to ask stupid questions, then be prepared for stupid answers.
His face blushes, embarrassment creeping up his cheeks.
He may be only twenty, but boy does he look young like this. Innocent in a way I don’t remember ever being.
“Never mind,” he grumbles, chewing on his bottom lip.
Stairs creak as Kade slowly hobbles down from their house above the garage, his greying hair tinted yellow from the lights.
“Boys,” he nods, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. “Good to see you both alive.”
He greets every single Devil the same way.
I nod.
“She up to scratch?” he says hoarsely.
Kai gives the slightest tip of his chin. He’ll be on that thing all night, ripping through the city.
I might have to pay our little pet a visit.
Kade coughs, the frigid air forming clouds with each breath. “Good. Told the boys to make sure she’s perfect. Don’t quite know what your brand of punishment looks like, but I know I don’t want a bar of it.”
Smart man.
Kai grabs the keys, making no move for his wallet. Kade wouldn’t accept payment anyway.
I make a silent reminder to get some outdoor heaters installed for the fuckers, before the old man croaks with a cold.
Jules takes another drag from his joint, the smell of tobacco and weed mixing together.
“About the Wraith,” Kade starts nervously.
“He ask any questions?” I murmur.
Jules nods once. “Who worked here. How long we’d been here. Whether Dad still lived upstairs.” He shrugs. “Normal enough. Until I spotted the Wraith cut.”
Kade flicks the ash from his cigarette.
“We club men used to do things the right way,” he mutters. “Now they send boys barely old enough to grow a beard. Ever since Zeke died, the place is a free for all.”
I let him believe the lie.
“Come to us if you hear or see anything else.” I glare at them. “No secrets.”
Kade nods, his face turning serious.
Kai slides the keys into Shadow before climbing onto the bike. The tiniest drop of his shoulders tells me exactly how he feels, sliding into the familiar leather. He looks down the dark road, stretching away from the garage.
And then he’s gone. Tearing through the night.
He doesn’t look back.