Chapter 26
The garage smelled of oil, petrol and grilled meat, a combination Charlie would never have imagined could feel natural until she found herself in the middle of Wallhalla’s preparations.
Assholes had taken over one of the long tables and sounded as though they owned the entire building.
Laughter and voices bounced off the walls, boots struck the concrete and bottles landed on tabletops with heavy thuds.
Someone had put music on, and it wasn’t long before one of the men started roaring along with the chorus with an enthusiasm that far exceeded his ability to sing.
In the middle of it all stood Mia in an apron, directing operations as though she were commanding a small military campaign.
“Tony! If you burn those sausages again, I’ll fucking burn you!”
The prospect jumped and immediately began turning the meat with the concentration of a man whose life genuinely depended on the outcome.
Charlie stood a few metres away with an enormous bowl of potato salad in front of her, trying to understand how, in less than a day, she had gone from bruises, threats and existential thoughts about the man she had fallen in love with to helping feed thirty or so hungry bikers.
“Is it always like this?” she asked as she sliced into another loaf of bread.
Mia glanced around the garage.
“This? This is quiet. Wait until somebody wins something.”
Charlie looked towards Assholes and had absolutely no idea what that meant, although she suspected she would find out sooner or later.
They were louder than Wallhalla’s men and somehow seemed to occupy more physical space, but none of them had been hostile towards her.
Quite the opposite. Several had nodded politely when they came to collect food, and a huge red-bearded man whose name Charlie hadn’t yet learnt stopped in front of her with his plate.
“Good choice,” he said, nodding towards Reeze.
Charlie followed his gaze. Reeze stood farther away with Hale, discussing something that looked considerably more serious than anything happening around the dinner table.
“I…”
But the man had already winked at her and moved on.
Heat immediately crept into her cheeks, and Mia, who naturally missed absolutely nothing, pursed her lips in amusement without commenting.
Nathalie and Amanda stood behind the bar dealing with the beer taps. Nathalie kept most of her attention on the room and the people around her, while Amanda still seemed to devote a disproportionate amount of hers to Charlie.
“They’re like a fucking army,” Amanda muttered as another group of Assholes started demanding food.
“That’s the point,” Mia replied without even looking up.
Charlie picked up another tray and began carrying plates out. When she looked up again, Reeze caught her gaze from across the garage. It lasted only a moment, but she immediately saw his attention shift away from the conversation in front of him.
It wasn’t the openly hungry look she had already learnt to recognise, nor was it some display intended for everybody else.
He simply looked at her and, almost unconsciously, began moving in her direction.
He had taken only a few steps when his phone rang.
Reeze stopped, pulled it from his pocket and looked at the display. The change in his expression was so immediate that Charlie noticed it from across the room.
“Lotta,” he said dryly before answering.
At first Charlie couldn’t make out the words coming from the other end, only the shrill, furious female voice that immediately made Billy, who happened to be standing closest to Reeze, raise his eyebrows.
“You can fucking take your daughter NOW!”
Reeze moved a few steps away from the others, although not nearly far enough to prevent those closest to him from hearing.
“What happened?”
“What happened? She happened! She bit another kid, Reeze! She smashed a tablet and the headteacher is threatening to report it, and I was left standing there like a fucking idiot!”
Charlie stopped with the tray still in her hands.
Reeze’s expression went completely still.
“Why?”
“Because she’s exactly like you! Violent and uncontrollable! I’m so fucking tired of cleaning up after both of you!”
His jaw tightened, but his voice remained low. “Don’t say that.”
“I have a job to do! I can’t be called in every time your daughter loses it. I’m about to get fired, do you understand that?”
Reeze closed his eyes for a brief second. “Where is she?”
“At school. And I’m not going back there. You pick her up. Now.”
The call ended so abruptly that Reeze remained standing there for a few seconds with the phone still in his hand.
Around him, the garage carried on as though nothing had happened. Assholes were laughing at something at the long table, a beer bottle hit the floor and Mia could already be heard giving Tony another bollocking over something he had either done or failed to do.
Reeze didn’t appear to hear any of it.
Billy had heard enough, though. He walked over with a beer in his hand and studied Reeze’s face for a moment.
“Problem?”
Reeze put the phone away.
“Molly.”
The name alone was enough to wipe the grin from Billy’s face. In their world, problem could mean almost anything, but when it came to Molly, everybody knew Reeze never exaggerated.
“What’s she done now?”
An almost resigned sound escaped Reeze.
“Apparently she bit a kid, smashed a tablet and got the headteacher talking about reports.”
Billy stared at him for a few seconds.
“She’s eight.”
“I know.”
“She bit someone?”
Reeze gave him a long look.
“I know.”
Billy took a sip of his beer while apparently considering the situation.
“Is it wrong that I’m a little impressed?”
“Yes.”
“Fair.”
Charlie couldn’t help smiling slightly. She had heard enough of Lotta’s shouting to know the situation was serious, but when Reeze finally looked across at her again, there was an entirely different kind of exhaustion in his face from anything she had seen earlier that day.
Not the kind that came from lack of sleep, fighting or club problems.
This was pure, unfiltered dad exhaustion, the sort that could only be produced by a child who had once again managed to create a catastrophe no reasonable adult could possibly have predicted.
“What’s she done?” Charlie asked when he came closer.
Reeze dragged a hand over his face.
“Apparently my daughter has decided to terrorise the primary school system.”
“That sounds serious.”
“You have no fucking idea.”
He was already searching his pockets for his keys, and Charlie saw how quickly everything else had been pushed aside. Dennis, Sunkholes, the meeting and the entire garage full of bikers had suddenly become secondary.
“I have to go.”
“Is she all right?”
Only then did he stop.
“I don’t know yet.”
The answer wiped the last trace of Charlie’s smile away.
Mia had heard enough as well and caught Reeze’s eye from across the grill.
“Go.”
She pointed the tongs towards the door.
“We can manage without you for a couple of hours.”
Billy took another drink.
“Speak for yourself. Who’s going to frighten the guests now?”
“You’re doing an excellent job all by yourself.”
Several men around the long table laughed, but Reeze barely seemed to register them.
He walked over to Charlie and stopped in front of her. Less than an hour earlier she had seen him sitting bloodied and battered after an attack, surrounded by club officers discussing rivals, police and problems that could end with people getting killed.
Now he simply looked like any other worried father who had received a call from his child’s school.
He rested his hand against her cheek and left it there for a moment.
“I’ll call.”
Charlie nodded.
“Give her my love.”
A faint smile crossed his face.
“I will.”
Then he was gone.
A few seconds later, the motorcycle started outside and Charlie listened as the familiar rumble disappeared through the gates and out onto the road.
She remained where she was with the bread knife still in her hand until Mia cleared her throat.
“The bread isn’t going to cut itself.”
Charlie blinked and looked at her.
“Sorry.”
“What did I tell you about apologising for everything?”
“That I should stop.”
“Good. You’re learning.”
Charlie smiled and went back to work while life continued around her. Assholes were still laughing about something at the table, Tony seemed to be on the verge of ruining the food yet again, and Billy had already launched into a story that was becoming filthier with every sentence.
Still, her thoughts followed Reeze.
Earlier that day, she had watched him stand face-to-face with Dennis without giving an inch.
She had seen him fight and bleed, and she had watched him sit in a room with men discussing guns, rival clubs and things that could get people killed.
She had seen parts of him that were difficult to understand and even harder to accept.
Yet all it had taken was one phone call from the school for everything else to fall away.
Molly needed him, so he went.
Charlie pulled another loaf towards her and began slicing it.
Perhaps that was where Reeze was easiest to understand. Not as Wallhalla’s Master at Arms, not as the man the club sent when something needed to be dealt with, nor as the biker whose life still contained far more shades of grey than Charlie had ever been accustomed to.
But as a father.
When Molly needed him, there was no club, no meeting and no other problem that came first.
And that part of Reeze was one Charlie never had to question.