Chapter 28
Reeze kept his hand on Molly’s shoulder for a second longer before letting go.
She still looked thoughtful about how an ordinary collection from school had somehow turned into a secret escape through the back door and into Billy’s car, but apparently not thoughtful enough to forget the most important part.
“So it really is ninjas?”
Billy laughed from behind the wheel.
“It’s always ninjas.”
Molly nodded contentedly, as though that explained everything, and climbed farther into the seat. Reeze leaned down towards the open car door and looked at Billy.
“Drive straight to HQ.”
“I know.”
“Call Mum too. She’ll have a fucking breakdown if she hears about this from someone else.”
Billy grimaced. “She probably will anyway.”
“Probably.”
Molly leaned forwards between the seats. “Are you coming later?”
The question changed Reeze’s expression immediately. “Yeah, flea. I’m coming.”
That was apparently enough for her. She settled back into the seat again and a few seconds later Billy put the car into gear.
Reeze closed the door and remained where he was while the Chevy rolled away across the car park.
Molly waved through the side window until the car turned onto the road and disappeared between the houses, and only when she was gone did Reeze allow his attention to move in the opposite direction.
The grey Volvo was still there.
They hadn’t even bothered moving it.
By now the men inside seemed to have given up any pretence that they were there by chance, and Reeze couldn’t help the faint, humourless smile that pulled at his mouth.
They knew he had seen them, and he knew they were following him.
The game was already blown, so there wasn’t much point in anyone pretending otherwise.
He returned to the bike and put on his helmet but didn’t start the engine immediately. For a moment he stood there considering whether to ride over to the Volvo and knock on the window, simply to see what they came up with.
The more sensible part of him reminded him that Molly had only just left and that the last thing he needed was to create a scene a few hundred metres from her school.
So he let them have it.
For now. The blue lights came on less than three hundred metres later.
Red and blue reflections flashed across his mirrors and painted the tarmac behind him as Reeze calmly guided the bike towards the side of the road. Irritation stirred somewhere deep in his chest, but it was difficult to get particularly worked up about something he had already expected.
If anything, they had taken their fucking time.
When the engine fell silent, the familiar ticking of cooling metal took over. Traffic rumbled along the main road farther away, and somewhere behind the buildings a lorry changed down through its gears. Then he heard the Volvo’s doors open behind him. Two men got out.
Josh he recognised immediately. The other man was unfamiliar, but one glance was enough to tell Reeze that he was younger, thinner and considerably less comfortable with what they were doing than his colleague.
While Josh walked towards him with the particular confidence some cops acquired when they started believing a badge made them untouchable, the younger officer remained a couple of steps behind and already looked as though he might be questioning why the hell he was there.
Josh took his time.
As though the walk from the car to the roadside were part of the performance and he wanted Reeze to understand exactly who was setting the pace.
His sunglasses were still on even though the clouds had long since swallowed most of the sunlight, and when he finally stopped in front of the bike, he looked like a man who had already decided how the conversation was going to end.
“Well.”
He removed the glasses and let his gaze travel over the bruising on Reeze’s face.
“There he is.”
Reeze took off his helmet and hung it over the handlebars.
“Problem?”
“Routine check.”
One eyebrow rose. “In plain clothes?”
Josh shrugged. “We’re flexible.”
“So I see.”
A few steps behind him, the younger officer suddenly seemed very interested in the road surface.
Josh smiled, but there was nothing friendly in it. He looked entirely too comfortable standing there at the roadside, knowing he could ask whatever he liked simply because he wore a badge.
“You look like someone who needs checking.”
Reeze let his gaze drift towards the grey Volvo and then back to him.
“You lost me earlier.”
It was a throwaway remark, but he saw immediately that it landed. Only a slight tightening along Josh’s jaw before the expression disappeared and he held out a hand. “Driving licence.”
Reeze handed it over without protest. The younger officer took the card and returned to the Volvo while Josh stayed where he was.
For a while neither man spoke. Cars passed on the road, wind moved through the trees on the other side of the ditch and the ordinary world continued around them while they stood there measuring one another.
Reeze had endured far worse police encounters over the years. But this was different.
Josh wasn’t there because of Wallhalla, and he certainly wasn’t there because of traffic.
He was there because Dennis had sent him. Eventually Josh tilted his head slightly.
“Where’s the weapon?”
“What weapon?”
“You’re Wallhalla.”
Reeze lifted one shoulder.
“You lot usually like carrying weapons.”
“That’s a fairly broad assumption.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Yeah.”
The smile returned, a little wider this time, as though the answer itself had never mattered and the question had only been a way of getting to whatever he actually wanted to say.
“You know, we can make life pretty uncomfortable for you.”
Reeze leaned casually against the bike. “You seem to be putting a lot of fucking effort into it already.”
The smile disappeared. Not dramatically, just enough for Josh to look genuinely irritated for the first time. He stepped closer, stopping near enough that most people would have instinctively moved back.
Reeze didn’t.
Josh studied him for a few seconds before lowering his voice. “Dennis doesn’t like people taking what belongs to him.”
Something cold shifted behind Reeze’s ribs. “Charlie isn’t a fucking motorcycle.”
Josh shrugged. “That’s not how he sees it.”
For the first time there was something almost honest in his tone, and Reeze noticed the slight twitch at his jaw before he continued.
“If he decides something is his, then it’s his.” The words settled between them. For a moment neither man said anything. It was probably the clearest explanation Reeze had received so far.
Dennis’s behaviour wasn’t simply about being unable to accept that a relationship had ended.
It was about ownership. About a man who genuinely believed people, places and situations belonged to him simply because he decided they did.
And apparently Josh had been close enough to him for long enough to understand exactly how that worked.
The younger officer returned before Reeze could say anything else. “Everything’s clean.”
Josh took the licence but didn’t immediately hand it back. Instead, he studied it for several seconds longer than necessary, as though hoping to find something that wasn’t there, before finally holding it out.
“Drive carefully.”
Reeze took it. “Always.”
He put the licence away and pulled his helmet back on. As he started the bike, their eyes met one final time and there was no longer anything left to pretend about.
This had never been a routine check.
They had followed him to Molly’s school and then stopped him simply to demonstrate that they could. Dennis wanted Reeze to understand that he was still watching, still knew where they went and which people mattered. But Josh had also given him something Dennis probably hadn’t intended him to have.
If he decides something is his, then it’s his.
Reeze pulled back onto the road with anger sitting heavy but controlled beneath his skin.
At least now he was beginning to understand exactly what they were fighting.