Page 84 of Chaos & Carnage

“Tell them what you told us,” Indie instructed.

“The Hand. They’re coming after you.”

“Fucking polis,” Big Red rolled his eyes, “always five steps behind. Course they’re coming after us, son. The minute they stepped foot back on British soil again, they were coming after us.”

“No. They’re coming after you this weekend.”

The tent went silent. Everyone staring at the younger police sergeant like he had three eyes.

“What do you mean?” I asked what everyone was thinking.

“They’re planning on ambushing you on the way home from the rally. All of you. They’re going to attempt to wipe every single one of you out in one go.”

Caleb shot me a look, and I met his gaze, seeing the look of worry on his face that he was trying to hide from everyone else.

“How do you know all this, Jake?” Caleb stared at him.

“I can’t tell you. But I can tell you it’s an official source. In a police briefing note from an operation, we’re running. If the police find out I’ve been here, I’ll get the boot. If some of these people on this field find out I’m a copper, I might end up with my throat slit before I make it to the main road.”

And now we knew the concern Fury’s exiled brother was bringing us was genuine.

“So why just tell us?” Big Red grunted. “Why not tell everyone? I get we’re trying to keep this fucker from spilling his blood all over this place, but why the secrecy?”

“Because I don’t know who I can trust. But I know I can trust the old guard and these three.” Indie glanced at me, Caleb and Reap. “We have a mole. I’m sure of it. I just don’t know who. Someone warned the Aces we were coming, and we didn’t manage to barbeque even one of the fuckers…”

“Whoa!” Jake interrupted. “I don’t want to be hearing this.” He covered his ears with his hands.

“Mate, right now you are in it up to your neck. You ain’t going to tell anyone we cremated the Aces clubhouse as much as we’re not going to tell your superiors you’ve spilled the beans on whatever anti-gang operation they’re running.”

Jake dropped his arms to his side like a chastised teenager.

“So, what do we do, Indie?” Fury asked. “We have our women here. They can’t get caught in the crossfire.”

“We pack up and we go now. The Hand won’t expect us to leave early.”

“We never leave a fucking rally, early,” Barry the Blade shook his head. “It isn’t the Kings’ way.”

“Exactly. By the time the message gets out, we already have the upper hand.”

“And the ol’ ladies?” Caleb asked.

I didn’t need to see his face to know he was feeling as tense as I was. We’d brought Alice into this mess. We needed to get her out of it without getting her hurt. Or worse.

“We’ll put all those with women in the middle of the pack with our best outriders around them.”

Fury shook his head. “No one takes my woman. No one.”

“We can protect Heidi better when she’s in the middle. The prospects are good riders. But not fighters. If we get into defensive riding, you don’t want Heidi on the back of you.”

Fury shook his head, but he said no more.

“And what about Magnet?”

“He’s still at the hospital with Suzy. They’re safe.”

“What happened?” Jake asked.

There was silence for a while, as Indie decided whether Jacob got the chance to know anymore club business. But in the end, he decided he’d tell him.