Chapter 13 #2
Now the man looked around properly, and Charlie could almost see the calculation taking place behind his eyes. He was standing alone in Wallhalla’s pub, surrounded by people who weren’t remotely impressed with him and who quite obviously already knew how this would end.
“I didn’t mean any harm.”
“No,” Reeze said with a slow nod. “But you’re leaving anyway.”
A few seconds passed before the man ran a hand through his hair and backed away.
“Fine.”
“Good choice.”
He muttered something Charlie couldn’t make out and headed for the door.
No one stopped him and no one followed him because there was no need.
By the time the door slammed shut behind him, the murmur of conversation was already returning and someone at the pool table picked up the argument that had been interrupted.
Mia shook her head.
“Every fucking summer. There must be a factory somewhere making them.”
“They migrate here,” Billy observed.
“Like Canada geese.”
“But dumber.”
Charlie couldn’t help smiling even though her pulse was still beating a little too fast. Reeze turned towards her immediately and looked her over, not dramatically and not excessively, merely checking that she was all right.
“Did he touch you?”
“No. He just…” Charlie searched for the right words. “Got too close.”
Reeze nodded once.
“Good.”
Apparently that was enough. He pulled out the chair beside her and sat down again, but as he did, his hand moved warmly and naturally over her back, and only then did Charlie realise that she had relaxed completely.
She sat there for a while, trying to return her attention to her drink as the noise around her took over again.
Another argument about the rules had broken out at the pool table, farther away a group of women were laughing at something that was clearly much funnier than it sounded, and Mia continued pouring beer as though escorting a drunken idiot out of the pub was the most ordinary thing that could happen on a Wednesday.
Which perhaps it was.
Charlie simply didn’t understand how yet. “Mia?”
“Mm?”
“What the hell was that?”
Mia laughed. “Which part?”
“All of it. He comes over to me, Reeze says a few words, the bloke looks like he’s about to shit himself and then he leaves.”
“Yeah, more or less.”
“That explained absolutely nothing.”
“No, I know.”
Charlie glanced across at Reeze, who was once again sitting with Billy. He appeared to be in the middle of some club-related discussion and everything had already become so normal again that it was almost as though the man had never existed.
“Why was he so scared?”
Mia followed her gaze. “He wasn’t scared of Reeze.”
Charlie gave her a sceptical look. “I was standing right here.”
“Yeah, but you’re missing the point. He was scared because he suddenly remembered where he was.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No, because you think like a normal person.” Mia laughed when Charlie’s expression made it clear that this explanation hadn’t helped either.
“You’re in Wallhalla’s pub. Most people here know each other, and most people know who’s in charge.
When someone walks in from outside and starts behaving like an arsehole, they tend to realise pretty quickly that they’re on their own. ”
Charlie let her gaze travel around the room, and now that Mia had pointed it out, she began noticing things she had missed before.
Prospects moved between the tables carrying trays and dishes without anyone needing to tell them what to do.
Certain men received immediate attention when they spoke while others mostly listened, and Reeze could sit there laughing with Billy while half the room seemed to know exactly where he was at any given moment.
“So it’s about respect?”
Mia grimaced. “Partly.”
“What else?”
“Reputation.” She nodded towards Reeze. “You’ve met him as a dad, a neighbour and the bloke who makes pancakes and carries shopping bags. Most people around here know another version of him.”
“Master at Arms?”
“Exactly. He’s the man who makes sure the rules are followed, deals with problems and makes sure nobody fucks around in the club’s territory. After a few years, people get a pretty good idea who they can mess with and who they’re better off leaving alone.”
Charlie looked at Reeze again. He was laughing at something Billy had said and, at that moment, looked mostly like an ordinary man, which somehow made the whole thing even stranger.
“He doesn’t look particularly scary.”
Mia burst out laughing so loudly that several people turned towards them.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You absolutely have to tell Billy that.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to see his face.”
That didn’t explain a damn thing either, but for the first time since Charlie had arrived at the club, she found herself genuinely laughing with Mia, and somewhere in the middle of it Wallhalla became a little less alien than it had been only an hour earlier.
As Reeze rounded the corner away from the bar a little later, he slowed down.
The music and voices from the clubhouse still reached into the corridor, but they were more subdued here, a distant rumble behind the walls.
He stopped beside the worn panelling, drew a deep breath and rubbed one hand over his jaw.
The evening had been quiet. People had been laughing, drinking beer and playing pool, and Charlie had even begun to properly relax. Then that fucking idiot had appeared.
It wasn’t the man himself that stayed with Reeze.
It was the way Charlie had initially tried to dismiss him, the way she had stiffened when he refused to listen and how her smile had disappeared when she realised that saying no might not be enough.
Reeze knew enough about her past to understand why it affected her even if he didn’t know everything.
He had never pushed her for details and wasn’t about to start now, but he had noticed how she sometimes stepped back when someone came too close and how she automatically checked who was behind her.
And still she had stood her ground. She had said no and tried to deal with the situation herself.
That should have been enough.
What bothered him was that he hadn’t been able to stand there and wait to see whether the man would listen the second time. He had reacted before thought had caught up with instinct and had been ready to intervene long before he actually needed to.
Farther away in the clubhouse, a roar of laughter was followed by the crash of something falling over. Someone swore loudly, which immediately made several others laugh even harder.
The usual sounds of an ordinary night at the club.
Reeze rested the back of his head against the wall.
If the man had backed away the first time, Reeze probably would have forgotten about him before the evening was over.
But he had kept pushing himself on Charlie after she had refused him, and Reeze could still feel something dark stirring beneath the control he had spent most of his adult life building.
The anger wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was how close it had come to the surface.
He ran a hand through his hair, pushed the thought aside and shoved himself away from the wall.
When he returned to the bar, the heat and noise washed over him again, and Mia caught his gaze from behind the counter.
She didn’t need to ask how he was doing.
He gave her a quick nod and headed towards Charlie.
The room wasn’t large. The bed occupied most of the space, a small table stood beneath the window, and a pile of clothes covered the chair where they had probably been lying far longer than anyone had originally intended.
When Reeze closed the door behind them, the sounds from the clubhouse became muffled but didn’t disappear entirely.
Laughter travelled down the corridor, a door slammed somewhere and music seeped through the walls.
Charlie glanced towards the door and then back at him.
Reeze noticed and smiled as he pulled off his cut. “What?”
She felt her cheeks warming. “Nothing.”
“Charlie.”
She sighed. “They’re going to hear us.”
Reeze stopped halfway through what he was doing and then began to laugh, not loudly but with that low laugh that always made something move in her stomach.
“The walls,” he said. “You’re still thinking about the walls.”
“They’re thin.”
“Yep.”
“Reeze.”
“Babe, people have been fucking in these rooms since before I became a member.”
Charlie stared at him.
“That doesn’t help.”
“Why not?”
“Because someone will hear us.”
“Someone always hears.” He shrugged and began unbuttoning his shirt. “If anyone does, they’ll either ignore it or start clapping along through the wall.”
Charlie’s jaw almost dropped. “You’re joking.”
“Not even a little.”
“That’s happened?”
“Several times.”
“Oh my God.”
His low laugh vibrated through his chest as he crossed the room and pulled her against him. “Nobody gives a shit, Charlie.”
“You people are completely insane.”
“Says the woman who voluntarily came home with a biker.”
“That was low.”
“Wasn’t wrong, though.”
She tried to look annoyed and failed completely, and Reeze pressed a light kiss to her temple.
“Relax. If anyone starts applauding, we’ll take it as a good review.”
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
He kissed her, his hand sliding up her back as she pulled him closer, and outside the clubhouse carried on with its own life.
Someone laughed loudly in the corridor, music still played somewhere in the distance and another door slammed shut, but for the first time since Charlie had arrived there, none of it felt threatening.
It was simply noise, people and life happening around them.
Reeze drew back just far enough to meet her gaze.
“Now let’s give them something to stamp their feet to.”