Page 36 of Chaos & Carnage
“Plenty fucking weapons standing here from what I can see, brother. Time they earned some badges.”
“And they will. They will.”
The lift pinged, the doors sliding open with surprising speed given the time the fucker took to ascend the shaft.
Outside in the hospital carpark most cars had cleared off. We were an hour past visiting time. Time to get Demon out and into Indie’s van and escort him home.
“What the fuck is he doing?” Demon tipped his chin towards the Harley Davidson Magnet had just chucked his leg over, laden with a sleeping bag and as much luggage as if he and Suzy were off to a bike rally.
“Coming to yours, mate. I’m first watch. Got my bag and supplies.”
“What the fuck is Magnet talking about?” Demon turned to Indie.
“Until you can defend yourself, we’re putting a man in your house round the clock. Magnet is taking first watch.”
“Nah, mate. Just nah.” His eyes darkened, a tiny wince of pain shooting across his face that was just about disguised.
“Demon, you don’t have a choice. Pres’ orders,” Indie barked. “Now get in the fucking van.”
Demon glanced around at us, at the convoy of bikers and Sicknote in the car with a huge scratch down one side.
“Fine. Chaos, how long till I get my dog back?”
“Not yet, mate. She’s still in a bad way. Al… the vet is changing her dressing twice a day, but she’s still being looked after.”
Al, huh? The slip of a name or something? I’d seen his shoulders shrug with tension as the sound escaped from his lips. My fucking brother was up to something, and I was going to find out what it was.
*****
“I need your car,” I whispered to Sicknote as we stood out on the street in front of the tattoo studio with Demon’s apartment above it.
A bike rumbled in the background, other bikes starting up around us.
“Why?”
“Got a job to do.”
“With a car?”
“Club business. Stakeout. Can hardly sit out on the bike in the street for hours, and these bad boys aren’t the best for any sort of covert work.” I patted the tank between my legs. “We’ll say we’re going back to theDog. But we’ll peel off. I’ll leave my bike at yours. Keep an eye on it. If anything happens to it, I’ll be taking your piece of shit, Harley.”
Sicknote nodded, the usual paleness returning to his face every time the club asked him a hard question.
Cade had parked his Harley on the street in front ofHeaton Small Animal Vets. Darkness swamped the veterinary practice; no lights shone from the frosted glass windows. And yet he’d left his pride and joy out here for any fucker to steal or damage. I parked Sicknote’s car fifty metres back from the entrance, and there I sat, watching. Waiting. For nothing, it seemed, because the minutes ticked by and the moisture on the windscreen started to crackle and twist into leafy, fern-like shapes, as each exhale of air strung out in front of me in a cloud of white. This had gone past fucking brass-monkeys weather. This was artic chill shit. And all I had on was a thin t-shirt and a leather jacket.
I started the car, waiting as it coughed into action and then fiddled with the dial to strip any lingering bit of heat from the cooling engine. I’d sit here in the warm, at Sicknote’s expense, because as one of the newest patched-in members, there was fuck all he was going to do about it. Yet, even as the engine got up to temperature, the air spluttering through the heater matrix was barely warmer than a fart. Fuck. I sank further down the seat, like that might make me warmer, and pulled my leather jacket up around my neck. I should have stayed at home, in the warmth, or I should have gone to that sweet nurse and snuggled right into her cunt. That had kept me warm. But I also couldn’t get my brother out of my head. The disinterest in the women I’d offered him, sulking on the couch the other night and not joining in. None of that was him. None of it. He was either ill, or there was something going on in his head…or a woman.
They stepped out together through the front door of the vets. He carried a bag, some sort of black holdall in his hand. I killed the engine. Even fifty metres back, they’d be able to hear me. But no one looked across, too consumed with each other to notice me.
She wore her brown hair in a high ponytail, falling down her back to just skim her shoulders. She wasn’t tall, but neither small. An average size, with average colour hair and green trousers. A nurse maybe? Or the vet?
They stood talking. Cade’s arm scooped round her waist, pulling her towards him, his hand moving into her hair. I knew what was coming next. His signature move. A look in her eyes, capturing hers, that moment of suspense, and then he’d tilt his head and devour her face. A contradiction. But this kiss was gentle, slow, deliberate, like he was savouring every second.
They broke apart a few minutes later, and he handed her the bag. Another few moments talking about something. Then he stepped back into her, pressing his lips to her forehead, like he was tasting her, not just kissing her. Cade straddled his bike, pulling on his helmet. They said something to each other as he fastened the strap underneath, then he kicked his heel down and the bike roared to life.
The woman took a step back, not used to motorbikes, or at least not the rawness from a Harley engine. Had she ridden pillion with him yet? Had he invited her onto the bike with him? Then she stepped to the side, crossing the street in front of him and walking away, the black holdall type bag still in her hand.
Cade didn’t leave immediately. He stood there watching. Watching her walk away from him down the road that ran perpendicular to the vets. The car cooled down around me, the icy air and hypothermia I’d held off with the shitty heating circling back to have another go. And still Cade watched the girl. The girl I couldn’t see. Then he nudged up the kickstand, and the bike woke from its idling growl. And now I sat in the street by myself.