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“Where the fuck were you last night?” I asked, plonking the spanner into my brother’s open hand.

“Just out, Caleb.”

“At the vets?” I twisted out the bolts holding the top of the Harley engine secure.

“Yeah.”

“All night?”

“Till quite late.”

“Then what d’you do after?”

“Just went for a ride, clearing my head.”

I pulled on the top of engine head, the mass of metal not budging, and held out my hand expectantly as Cade passed the oil spray towards me. He looked tired. But not drained, tired. Content tired. And there was something he wasn’t telling me.

A vibration turned both our heads. The phones that sat not too far apart from each other on the garage floor, lighting up. Cade reached across, reading the message as I eased the engine head from the Harley in front of us.

“Indie wants us at the Dog .”

“When?”

“Now.”

“Fuck’s sake,” I grumbled. “This,” I waved my arm over the Harley in pieces on the chop shop garage floor, “needs finishing. We’re already behind. Maybe you can skip visiting Demon’s dog tonight and help me finish it up?”

Cade stared at me, the side of his cheek twitching where I knew he was chewing on the inside. Aye, something was up with him, and I was going to fucking find out what.

*****

There was a distinct lack of bikes in the car park of the Dog on the Tyne that night. I counted each one when I went in. Magnet, Fury, Reap, Tony Cannelloni and Sicknote. The lights in the pub and Kings’ clubhouse were on, but very few shadows moved across the windows.

“What do you reckon this is about?” Cade pulled his helmet off his head, a lock of hair falling over his forehead, which he pushed back with an oil-stained hand.

“Fuck knows. But it’s not full club business by the look of it. Just a select call in. Something’s going on.”

The bodies that belonged to the bikes outside sat at the bar. Five cuts facing us. Fifteen crowned skulls grinning in our direction. Indie lifted his head up from where he stood behind the bar, his eyes locking onto us as the doors creaked closed, and now five MC brothers turned to face us as well.

“Chaos. Carnage,” Indie greeted with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Pleased you could join us.”

“What’s up, boss?” Cade answered, dragging a stool across to take a seat beside Magnet, and I followed, flanking him on the left.

“Demon’s getting released tonight.”

“Good. Maybe he can get his dog discharged from the vets as well now?” I shot a look at my brother.

“Dog’s not ready to be released yet. And if Demon can’t change her dressings, her going home is no good.”

Indie nodded. “Kinobi can stay in for as long as she needs. Reckon you can talk to the vet and make sure she stays for longer? Demon doesn’t need to be up and on his feet just yet.”

Cade nodded, the hint of satisfaction on his face.

“So, what we all here for, Indie?” Reap asked, as uninterested as ever.

“Until Demon can protect himself, I want one of you in that flat with him.”

“Fuck no!” Magnet nearly spat his pint across the bar. “Do you know how much those two fuck? I’ll get a repetitive strain injury from all the vibrations.”

“You’re just jealous,” Fury quipped. “You just want a bit of Demon cock.”

Magnet hit him hard in the bicep, and for a split-second, darkness overwhelmed Fury’s face. We all watched, ready to bound out the way if Magnet and Fury decided they were going for a rumble after all.

“I have babies to make, lads. Can’t be doing that when I’m babysitting Demon.”

“Just think of it as babysitting practice,” Cade nudged Magnet, careful not to send him bouncing into Fury or that rumble might just happen.

“Look, you’re all taking a fucking turn. Tonight, Magnet can do it. Then the rest of you fuckers can make a rota. Got it?”

“Why me? Why do I have to start it off?” he whined, glancing left and right at everyone else.

“You told me Suzy wasn’t feeling well again,” Indie shrugged. “No sex for you tonight, anyway.”

“Fuck. Why can’t Fury do it?”

“Cos Fury has to go find out what his little sister is getting up to tonight,” Fury answered, taking a long gulp of his pint. “She’s fucking gutted out my gym.”

“What? At Mama Dot’s?” I asked.

“Aye. Apparently, she’s moving back in, and she wants the basement room for summit. And for some fucking reason I have to go help.”

“Thought she was down south with her new fella?” Indie leaned on the bar.

“Aye. They split up. So, she’s home again. Dunno why she needs two fucking rooms.”

“Thought you’d moved in with Heidi now, anyway?” Cade shrugged, looking as confused as I was.

“I have. It’s not the point though. That was my room.” I could almost hear the whine of a ten-year-old boy in Fury’s voice.

“Did you two get us the footage of who targeted Demon in the hospital?” Indie turned to us now.

“Aye. I got the pictures. Chaos was as much use as a chocolate teapot.” My brother shot me a look as I passed my phone across Indie. “Definitely one of the Aces by the tattoo. What we going to do about them?”

“I want the fuckers completely taken out. Sicknote, find out where their club house is. I want intel by the morning. Tomorrow night, we’re going to toast some bikers.”

The bar went quiet. An instant hush, a mass of heads bobbing, not sure where to look, apart from Fury and Magnet, who just stared straight ahead, unfazed.

“We’re not going to….” Tony Cannelloni began; his voice was as weak as my insides had suddenly become.

Fury nodded his head. “It’s time you earned your Dirty Deeds badges, boys.”

Cade stiffened beside me, suddenly tense, and I felt the same inside.

“I’ll have a pint, Indie,” I beckoned at the pumps in front of me, my mouth now dryer than the Sahara.

We sat in that silence for a while longer, the only conversation between Fury, Indie and Magnet. Sicknote had turned a shade of green and hadn’t stopped stroking the lip of his pint glass for the last few minutes.

My phone bleeped, a number I didn’t recognise. I stared at the screen, trying to place the name at the end of the message, running through a handful of faces until I found one that fit.

“That little nurse gets off in a couple of hours,” I nudged my brother. “Reckon we’ve got time to get Demon settled and then get out for some fun.” I needed something to distract me, that was for fucking sure.

But Cade shook his head. “Nah, mate. Don’t feel like it.”

“What’s wrong with you?” my voice was sharper than I meant it to be. “You sick or something?”

“Aye. Something. Not tonight, Carnage. You go do what you want to do. I’m going home for a shower.”

Cade pushed his half-drunk pint across the bar. “See you boys at the hospital in an hour.”

*****

Demon moved slowly, taking an age to walk the long corridors, every movement showing across his face as he tried to conceal the wince of each laboured step.

“I’ve found him a wheelchair,” Sicknote came rushing up, the wheels of the chair squeaking loudly on the heavy-duty lino.

“I’m not getting in that,” Demon hissed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll not let Sicknote drive it. We’ve all seen what he’s done to his car.”

“Still no. Fuck off with that thing,” Demon grumbled, wrapping an arm around his middle and drawing in a sharp breath.

“You sure the doctors actually discharged you?” I asked, watching the once terrifying enforcer of the Kings barely able to make it along the corridor to the lift.

“Aye. They did. They knew what was good for them, being medical professionals and all that.”

“Fuck’s sake, Demon,” Indie growled, his voice echoing off the walls of the almost deserted passageway.

“You think I’m hanging around here waiting for someone else to kill me? Fuck that. Just get me home, lads.”

Painstakingly slowly, we edged along the hospital corridor to the lift. It took ages to come, or it seemed that way when we all stood alongside Demon, who was doing his best not to double over in pain. I glanced at my brother, his expression echoing the way I felt.

“Did you need as many Kings as this to pick me up from the hospital?” Demon rasped, as the lift ground and squeaked its way up to the fifth floor.

“Someone’s trying to kill you, remember?” Indie grumbled, stubbing his thumb into the call button on the lift’s panel repeatedly.

“You not sorted that out yet, Indie?” Demon shook his head, the muscle tight in the side of his jaw, despite the sarcasm he’d tried to force into his voice.

“Nah, mate.” Fury pushed the call button as well, like the lift might actually listen this time and get a wriggle on. “Only just identified the fuckers from the other night. They’ll be in hot water soon, though.”

“And the Notorious?” Demon asked.

“We’ve got intelligence in place. We’ll hit them where it hurts, but we need to be in and out and finish the fuckers in one fell swoop. We have one chance to take them out this time, Demon,” Indie added when his brother shook his head slowly. “And now you’re out of action. This is a game of strategy, not weapons.”

“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 the Dog . 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 of Heaton 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.