Chapter 33
The steel door slammed shut behind them, and while the others pulled out chairs, sat down or reached for beer cans that had been left behind, Reeze remained standing with the phone in his hand.
The screen had already gone dark, but it didn’t matter.
Every time he blinked, he could still see the same image in front of him: Charlie against the wall out in the yard, her fingers curled into his cut, and that fucking sentence beneath the video that refused to leave him alone.
He just signed his death warrant.
“So,” Rollo said from across the table as Reeze finally put the phone away, “who are we hitting?”
A few grins appeared around the room and Billy muttered something about the answer always being Sunkholes, but the joke never really caught on.
Had this happened a year ago, Reeze would probably have been the first one suggesting a visit to their clubhouse, but something about the whole situation bothered him too much to dismiss it as just another ordinary exchange between clubs.
Threats were simple enough. Someone wanted to scare them, someone else wanted to provoke a reaction, and sooner or later one side hit back.
This was different.
Two cars had been seen in their area, people were moving closer to the gates, and then the video had arrived, filmed from close enough to prove that somebody had been standing there watching them for quite some time.
Sunkholes didn’t usually work like that.
They broke things. They shot people. They started fights they couldn’t win and then tried to deal with the consequences by using even more violence.
Patience and subtle threats were hardly their strongest qualities, and yet they had been circling Wallhalla for months without either club taking that final step.
Rollo had started going through who had been on gate duty and who had moved around the area during the day when Reeze pulled out his phone again and opened the video.
He didn’t watch the clip this time. His eyes remained fixed on the words beneath it.
He. Not the club. Not Wallhalla. Not even her.
“Dennis.” The name left him before he had really thought it through, and the conversation around the table slowly died away.
Billy frowned. “Dennis?”
Reeze put the phone down in front of him. “I don’t know.”
That was the truth. He didn’t have a theory that actually worked, no evidence and not even anything he could call a proper suspicion yet.
Just the same uneasy feeling he got when looking at a puzzle and knowing somebody had put one of the pieces in the wrong place without being able to point out which one.
“He got suspended,” Reeze continued. “Lost his job, lost face and got blamed for more of this shit than he thinks he deserves. He can’t use the badge the same way any more without risking landing himself in even deeper shit.”
Rollo slowly ran a hand over his beard. “That makes him angry. Doesn’t necessarily make him guilty.”
“I know. But if there’s anyone who’d enjoy watching us walk straight into a war we don’t need to fight, he’s pretty fucking high on the list.”
Silence settled over the table while the men considered it. Nobody seemed ready to buy the theory outright, but nobody dismissed it either.
Billy leaned back until the chair creaked beneath him.
“I don’t really give a shit who’s pulling the strings. If somebody’s winding up Sunkholes and pointing them in our direction, it doesn’t change much. They’re still coming at us.”
A low murmur of agreement moved around the table and Reeze nodded.
Billy was right.
Dennis could be involved, or the whole fucking thing could be a coincidence that looked far more intelligent than it actually was. Right now, it didn’t matter. First they had to deal with what was actually in front of them.
Rollo leaned forward and rested his forearms on the tabletop. “So what do we know?”
“That someone was filming outside our property,” Jesse said.
“And wanted us to know it,” Billy added.
“Sunkholes are moving,” Hale said from across the table. “Two cars in the northern district last night and people near our borders today.”
“And somebody’s testing how we react,” Reeze said.
Rollo nodded. “Good. Then we work with what we know, not what we think.”
It was obvious from several faces around the table that this wasn’t what they wanted to hear. Sitting still while somebody lurked outside their gates sending threats wasn’t exactly the club’s natural way of dealing with problems, but that was also precisely why they needed to do it.
“Two men on the gates at all times,” Rollo continued.
“Nobody rides alone unless they have to. If anyone sees anything that smells like Sunkholes, you report it first and act second. Billy keeps digging into Dennis and his partner. If there’s a connection between them and Sunkholes, I want to know about it before either side does something we can’t take back. ”
“That’s going to be popular,” Billy muttered.
“You don’t have to like it.”
“No, but I was going to complain anyway.” A few quiet laughs broke some of the tension and even Reeze felt the corner of his mouth twitch. Rollo pointed at him. “And you.”
“What?”
“You keep a cool head.”
“I always keep a cool head.”
This time half the table burst out laughing. Billy looked almost offended. “That’s the biggest fucking lie I’ve heard all year.”
Reeze gave him the finger. “Suck me.”
“Not even if Charlie shares.”
The laughter grew louder and Reeze was halfway out of his chair before his ribs reminded him that it was a bloody stupid idea. Billy saw it and, if anything, his grin grew wider.
“Sit down, Romeo.”
“One day I’m going to kill you.”
“Not today. You’re injured.”
Rollo let them carry on for another few seconds before slapping his palm against the tabletop. “Is nursery finished?”
“No,” Billy replied.
“Good. Carry on outside.” That was enough.
Chairs scraped backwards and conversations picked up again as the men got to their feet. They hadn’t found any answers about who was behind the video and nobody knew yet whether Dennis actually had anything to do with Sunkholes, but at least they had a direction.
For now, that was enough.
Reeze slipped the phone into his pocket and followed the others out.
Charlie reacted to the sound of the steel door before she even had time to think about it. Her eyes went there immediately as it opened and Reeze came out first, closely followed by the others.
To someone who didn’t know him, he probably looked exactly as he always did. The same posture, the same measured steps and the same expression that revealed no more than he wanted it to.
Charlie had spent enough time studying him over the past few days to see the difference.
She saw it in the way his jaw was still working and in his eyes, which already seemed to be somewhere else.
Behind him, Rollo continued talking to Billy and Jesse about guards, transport and who would be staying in the area that evening.
Charlie wasn’t listening closely enough to catch every word, but his tone told her enough.
The restless energy that had filled the clubhouse after the video had changed.
It hadn’t disappeared. It had simply been given direction.
Billy sent two of the younger men towards the gates before he had even made it halfway across the room, while Jesse disappeared almost immediately in the opposite direction with his phone already in his hand.
Mia stood behind the bar, berating someone who had managed to knock over yet another crate of bottles, but Charlie noticed how her gaze kept drifting towards Rollo as the people around them began moving with a clearer purpose.
It wasn’t panic. It was organisation. And in the middle of it all, Reeze stopped in front of her.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t try to explain what had been discussed in the meeting, and Charlie didn’t ask him to. Seeing him was enough to understand that he was still carrying all of it with him. So she closed the final step between them and wrapped her arms around him.
Reeze went completely still. Only for a second.
Then his arms closed around her waist and he pulled her against him so tightly that she could feel his warmth through her clothes. His chin settled into her hair and she felt him draw a slow breath, hold it for a moment and then release it again.
The tension didn’t disappear. But some of it eased. Charlie closed her eyes and simply held him.
Around them, the clubhouse continued with its own life.
Someone laughed by the pool table, an engine started outside in the yard and Mia threatened to personally murder the next idiot who touched her bottles without permission.
Tony answered with something that made Amanda roll her eyes, while some of the Assholes loudly argued about who had actually cheated during the card game earlier.
Ordinary sounds. Ordinary people in a world that had become anything but ordinary over the past few days.
Charlie slowly ran her hand over Reeze’s back and thought about how much of that world seemed to end up on his shoulders sooner or later.
Molly’s problems became his. The club’s problems became his.
The threats against Charlie became his. The weapons, the men, the security and everything that could possibly go wrong seemed to find its way to the same place, and what worried her most was that Reeze never seemed to stop and question whether he could actually carry all of it.
He simply took the next thing and kept going. As though that was what he was there for.
“You don’t have to carry everything at once,” she murmured against his chest.
She felt his hand stop against her back.
“Someone has to.”
Charlie pulled away just far enough to look at him. “No.”
He raised an eyebrow. “No?”
“Someone has to make sure things get done. That’s not the same as having to do everything yourself.”
Reeze opened his mouth, but she poked him in the chest before he could answer.
“You have Rollo. Billy. Jesse. Hale and an entire clubhouse full of men who look as though they could lift a small building if somebody asked nicely.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Hale isn’t mine.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Mm.”
“And Molly is with your mum.”
“I know.”
“And I’m standing right here.”
This time the faint trace of humour disappeared from his face.
His hand came up to the back of her neck and his thumb moved slowly over her skin.
“I know.” Two simple words, but they sounded different now.
Charlie rested her forehead against his chest again and felt his arms tighten around her.
She knew the moment wouldn’t last. Soon someone would arrive with new information, somebody would see or hear something that required his attention, and the Master at Arms would take over again.
That was the part of him the club needed.
The man who kept his head when everyone else wanted to strike first. The man who made sure the gates were guarded, the weapons were where they were supposed to be and none of his brothers walked straight into a trap simply because somebody had managed to provoke them.
But that wasn’t the man Charlie was holding right now.
Right now, he was simply Reeze. Maybe that was why she tightened her arms around him when she felt him begin to move. “Five minutes,” she murmured.
He stopped. “What?”
“You wanted five minutes of peace earlier.”
Reeze pursed his lips. “That’s not exactly how I intended to use them.”
“I know.”
“My idea was better.”
Charlie laughed against his chest. “You’ll have to make do.”
He let out a deep sigh and rested his chin against her hair again. “Four minutes, then.”
“Five.”
“Four and a half.”
“You’re negotiating a hug.”
“I negotiate everything.”
“Five.”
A low laugh vibrated through his chest beneath her cheek.
“All right, babe. Five.”Charlie smiled and closed her eyes again.
She still had no idea what was waiting for them.
Sunkholes were still out there, Dennis was too, and someone had stood outside the club gates filming them so they could send a threat none of them fully understood yet.
Nothing had been resolved. But for five minutes, it didn’t have to be.