Chapter 7
Reeze was standing behind the bar, restocking the fridge, when the door to Hangman’s Rest opened again.
The lunch rush had never really materialised, and only a couple of customers remained at the tables, one bent over the day’s paper and the other working his way through a plate of food so slowly that Mia would probably come out and complain about it before long.
From the yard came the steady sound of hammering, occasionally interrupted by someone shouting when one of the prospects inevitably did something wrong.
He didn’t even need to look up to know that one of them had come in. The footsteps were too quick and light to belong to any of the brothers, and when a breathless voice called his name from across the bar, he pushed the fridge door shut with his knee and straightened.
Tony stood just inside the door with his prospect cut sitting crooked across his shoulders, as though he’d pulled it on while running. Despite the cool weather outside, he was sweating, and his gaze flickered between Reeze and the bar before he finally managed to get the words out.
“I went to Charlie’s. She got the stuff. Everything on the list.”
“Good.”
Reeze picked up the cloth again and continued wiping down the bar, expecting that to be the end of it. Tony, however, remained exactly where he was, and after a few seconds Reeze glanced at him again.
“Did you carry the bags in?”
Tony blinked.
“Uh... what?”
Reeze stopped wiping. The question hadn’t exactly been complicated, and the expression on Tony’s face had already given him the answer anyway.
“The shopping. Did you carry it inside for her?”
The colour slowly began to drain from the prospect’s face.
“I... well, she opened the door and I thought... I mean...” He made a helpless gesture with both hands. “The bags were right outside. She sort of took them and I didn’t think there was anything strange about it. I didn’t want to get in her way.”
Reeze put the cloth down.
Tony fell silent halfway through his next breath.
It fascinated Reeze sometimes how little it took for a prospect to realise he’d just stepped straight into the shit. There was no need to shout at Tony or make a scene. If anything, that would only have made things easier for him.
“Fuck,” Tony muttered, running both hands through his hair. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. I should’ve carried them in.”
Reeze raised an eyebrow.
“She’s hurt,” Tony continued quickly. “I know. I didn’t think. She didn’t say anything and I didn’t want to be... you know, hanging around when she didn’t want me there.”
“It’s not about hanging around.” Reeze leaned both hands against the bar. “You left an injured woman standing outside her flat with a load of shopping.”
Tony already looked miserable enough, but Reeze wasn’t quite finished.
“And what if someone had been waiting outside her door? Someone she didn’t want anywhere near her?”
That was when it really sank in. Tony went pale and his gaze shot towards the door as though he was seriously considering running all the way back to Charlie’s flat to check on her.
“I didn’t think about that,” he admitted quietly.
“No, you didn’t, and you’re a prospect, Tony. That doesn’t just mean running errands for us. You’re supposed to learn to think about security, about the club and about the people around it. If you can’t do that, you’ve got no business wearing a cut.”
Tony nodded so enthusiastically that Reeze almost expected his head to come loose.
“I get it. I swear. It won’t happen again.”
“Good.”
Reeze picked up the cloth and went back to what he’d been doing.
“Go.”
Tony needed no further encouragement. A few seconds later the door slammed shut behind him, leaving Reeze standing there with the cloth in his hand, staring at a mark on the bar he’d already wiped three times without actually seeing it.
The irritation wasn’t really about the shopping anymore. It was the thought of Charlie standing there alone and injured while a man who had already ignored a restraining order was somewhere in the background, and that thought was enough to make his jaw tighten.
He had barely put down the glass he was holding when the door opened again, but this time the footsteps were heavier and far more confident.
“Fuck, I’ve missed the smell of stale beer and obnoxious fucking optimism.”
Reeze looked up and felt his mouth twitch into a grin.
“Billy.”
The VP looked much the way he always did after a few days inside, a little rougher around the eyes and with his beard slightly wilder, but his gaze was clear and the cut sat across his shoulders as naturally as though it had grown there.
The tattoo running along his forearm was partly visible beneath the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt.
Neither of them needed to say much.
A hard embrace across the bar was enough.
“Fuck, it’s good to be out,” Billy muttered as he dropped onto a stool. “Those fucking bunks... I’ve slept better on a concrete floor in Romania.”
“How was it?” Reeze asked as he poured him a beer.
“Crowded and depressing, with cops who think they’re smarter than they are. Same shit as always.”
Billy took a long drink before setting the bottle down again.
“They were fishing. A question here, another one there, trying to get us to give them something they could use against you lot. But they had fuck all, and they knew it.”
“Good.”
Billy kept talking while Reeze cleared the last glasses from the counter, almost as though several days of pent-up conversation had to come out now that he was finally back among his own people.
“You should’ve seen Isaac when they tried to explain why we were supposed to sign form number seventeen.”
Reeze laughed. “I can imagine.”
“No, you can’t. He looked like he was seriously considering strangling someone with the fucking thing.”
“That actually sounds exactly like Isaac.”
Billy grinned. “The cop got nervous.”
“Sensible man.”
“Fucking genius.”
Billy fell quiet for a moment, turning the beer bottle slowly between his hands before looking towards the windows and the club grounds beyond them.
“It was good seeing the place again when we got back.”
Reeze nodded. “Yeah.”
“Everything just kept going.”
“That was the idea.”
A crooked smile crossed Billy’s face.
“Rollo’s going to be fucking unbearable now.”
“Now? When isn’t he unbearable?”
“Fair point. He’ll use this as proof that he’s been right about everything since the nineties.”
“He will.”
“And we’ll hear about it for the rest of the year.”
“At least.”
Clubs had come apart over less than losing three officers at once, but Wallhalla hadn’t.
Nobody had lost their head and nobody had done anything stupid simply for the sake of doing something.
They had kept the club running, stood together and waited for their brothers to come home, exactly as they were supposed to.
Billy took another drink and grimaced at some memory.
“The coffee was still the worst crime, though.”
“Still?”
“I swear on everything holy, somebody brewed that shit through their own shoe.”
“Probably would’ve given it more flavour.”
“Exactly!”
Reeze was still laughing when his phone began to vibrate against the bar. He glanced down at the screen and saw Charlie’s name.
He didn’t think his expression changed.
Billy noticed anyway.
“Oh, yeah.”
Reeze gave him a look before answering.
“Hello.”
Charlie’s voice made him smile before she’d managed more than a word.
“Hello yourself.”
“The shopping arrived.”
“Good.”
“Everything, and then some.”
“Then the prospect did his job.”
She chuckled softly at the other end.
“You mean you did your job.”
“No. I delegated. Important leadership skill.”
“Of course it is.”
Billy was openly listening now while making an utterly useless attempt to look innocent.
“But thank you,” Charlie continued. “It was actually really kind of you.”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
“Reeze.”
He smiled. “Charlie.”
She gave the sort of sigh that was already becoming familiar.
“What do I owe you, then?”
“Nothing.”
“You don’t even believe that yourself.”
“I’m fairly certain I do.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You’re impossible.”
“I’ve been told.”
Behind him, Billy made a silent gesture with his hands that looked suspiciously like a heart. Reeze ignored him, or at least made a respectable attempt.
Charlie eventually laughed again.
“All right, then. But I’m taking you out for dinner one day.”
“We can discuss it.”
“That didn’t sound like a yes.”
“Didn’t sound like a no either.”
“Dangerous.”
“I live dangerously.”
“Yes, I’ve noticed.”
Silence settled between them for a few seconds, but there was nothing awkward about it. It was simply the sort of quiet that had already begun to happen between them, as though neither felt the need to fill every second with words.
Then something changed in her voice.
Only slightly, but Reeze heard it.
“You...”
He straightened without consciously meaning to.
“Mm?”
“Are you busy?”
“Working a bit. Why?”
The pause was brief, but long enough for something inside him to tighten.
When Charlie spoke again, her voice had dropped.
“I’m standing by the window.”
The smile disappeared from his face.
“Looking out over the yard.”
Billy saw the change immediately and put down his beer.
“What is it?” Reeze asked.
“There’s a man standing by the car park.”
Every trace of amusement vanished.
“What’s he doing?”
“Smoking.”
“Anything else?”
“It looks like he’s waiting.”
Something cold stirred in Reeze’s stomach.
“Has he seen you?”
“I don’t think so.” She hesitated. “But he knows I’m home.”
Reeze was already moving towards his cut.
“Is the door locked?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You don’t open it for anyone. Not if somebody knocks, not if they ring the bell and not if they claim they’re from the post office, the council or fucking Buckingham Palace.”
“Reeze...”
“Promise me.”
“Yes.”
He drew a slow breath through his nose.
“Good.”
“Maybe it’s nothing.”
“Maybe.”
He didn’t believe that for a fucking second.
“I’m coming over.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do.”
She fell silent for a moment before answering.
“Okay.”
Reeze ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket. Billy remained where he was for a couple of seconds, watching him, before getting to his feet.
“I’m guessing that wasn’t about dinner.”
“No.”
“Problem?”
Reeze took his cut from the hook and pulled it on.
“Someone from her past.”
Billy’s expression immediately lost the last of its amusement.
“The bad kind?”
“If he’s standing outside her flat waiting for her, what do you think?”
Billy nodded slowly.
“Yeah. Fair point.” He straightened completely. “Want company?”
Reeze considered it for a moment before shaking his head.
“Not yet.”
Billy didn’t look entirely convinced, but he accepted the answer.
“Call if you need me.”
“I will.”
“I mean it.”
Reeze met his gaze and nodded once. Nothing more needed to be said between them. Billy would be on his bike the second the call came, just as Reeze had been for him more times than either of them could count.