Page 16

There was a slight covering of cloud, just a film stretched across the sky. Not enough to warm the night up, the frost glistening under the glow of headlights.

The last bike rumbled to a stop next to the rest of us, and now we were all present and correct, waiting for Indie’s instructions.

“Where the fuck have you been, Chaos?” Indie grumbled when my brother pulled off his helmet.

“Busy mate. Busy.”

Indie shook his head and then turned back to the rest of us. I could have asked my brother the same question, but I already knew the answer, could smell the faint scent of perfume. The light floral essence leaked all over his bike leathers. And I knew that mussed up hair look anywhere. I fucking knew what he’d been doing. And now I knew who .

We congregated on the site of an old building, a small warehouse, or garage. The only thing that remained was a tangle of a roof and a metal roller shutter, misshapen and rusty. Few premises still traded on the deserted old street. But our mark wasn’t here. The Ace’s clubhouse, if you could call it that, was one street over on the run-down industrial estate. They operated out of a row of rented garages, like the fucking misfits they were. No amount of The Hand’s money would change that, not in the few years they had left. Or these last few minutes, because tonight, Indie intended to wipe them all out.

“They’re all in there, then?” Fury asked, tipping his head over the row of trees that lined the back of the brick buildings.

“From what Brie tells me. They party here every night and then sleep it off until lunchtime.” Indie’s eyes fixed on the treeline.

“Nice to not have to get up for work when you’ve had a fucking skinful.” Fury complained.

“Or a nose full,” Magnet added.

“That’s just cos your boss is shit, Fury.” Reap’s voice rumbled low in the night, all our heads turning towards him.

“Fuck me,” Magnet grinned. “You feeling all right, Reap? Taken your temperature lately? If I’m not mistaken, that was a fucking joke.”

The group laughed, a low orchestra of chuckles, carried into the night air.

“Come on,” Indie broke the humour, pulling us all back to this grisly reality. “Let’s bake some Aces.”

Magnet and Fury turned to the van behind us, a van I’d never seen before, nondescript and white, the same as the countless work vans that littered the region’s roads, and therefore perfect for tonight. They pulled out bags, handing them out to some of us, and then together we crept off into the night.

A thin light bled under the roller shutter garage door, the same light filtering under a wooden door to the side, stuck in the middle of a mass of badly bricked up wall.

“K lads. Quietly does it,” Fury coached, his voice little louder than a whisper. “Me and Reap’ll kick the door in. Beanz, Indie, chuck in that canister of petrol. The rest of you light it the fuck up. Got it?”

We all nodded, my stomach tensing, bile rushing up into my throat. I glanced at Cade, his face tight, the muscle in the side of his neck tense, his hand balling and releasing. He liked this as much as I did. But it was one in, all in. Indie’s orders. And when we signed up to this gig, we signed up to it all, even if we never thought we’d get to this point.

Fury pulled out the jam jars filled with a rag, a clear substance sloshing in the bottom, a potent familiar smell. I inspected the homemade bomb.

“What’s this?” Cade asked, doing the same. “Molotov cocktail?”

“Nah, mate. Fucking Geordie cocktail, this baby.” Fury answered, his face a picture of pride.

“Aye, a fucking Fury creation. When we light that rag, get rid of it pronto. It’s as fucking stable as he is,” Magnet added, grabbing one for each hand.

“Ok boys. Here we go.”

Indie and Reap positioned themselves at the wooden door inserted into a mismatch of brick.

“Three good kicks I reckon,” Indie gesticulated at Reap. “Reckon half this wall will come down with it. On three…”

It took two kicks, the door popping and the wall of brick visibly shifting. Fury drove his shoulder into it after Reap stepped back, and the door flung inwards. There was a rush in the dull light, the splash of liquid, the thud of feet. We had seconds before we woke the whole lot of them. Beanz retreated, Indie falling back last, emptying the last of his jerrycan on the threshold.

“Light it up,” he instructed.

Lighters clicked behind us, the smell of smouldering fabric, Magnet raced forwards with both jars ablaze, launching them into the dark void as far as he could. We followed, half desperate to get rid of Fury’s fucking bombs in our hands. Inside there was a whoosh, and then a crackle, and now we were lit up by the glow coming straight back at us.

“One more round!” Indie shouted over the roar of the flames. “I want these fuckers cooked to a crisp.”

Then, as the last cocktail of flammable substance was thrown into the Aces’ clubhouse, Indie bent down and held a lighter to the patch of petrol at the door.

“And now the fuckers can’t escape.”

Indie stood watching for a second, the heat from the fire radiating outwards and now the flames were visible, not just a red-orange glow. Inside, there was nothing. Not a sound. The sleeping Aces cremating where they lay.

“Time to get outta here.” Fury patted Indie’s shoulder and then waved a finger over his head like he was impersonating a helicopter.

We trooped back to the road at a half-run, the full row of garages now well aflame. Back in the layby, the flames licked the sky, bright orange against the cloudless night, a plume of billowing smoke rising above us, spreading out in the icy cold atmosphere. We didn’t hear it first over the roar of the fire, no early warning.

“Shit!” Magnet shouted. “We’ve got company.”

Heads turned to where he was looking, to the cerulean blue flash in the distance.

“Get going lads!” Indie shouted as leather clad brothers rushed to bikes and the white van. “Chaos. Carnage. Reap. Magnet. Get the fuck out of here. You lot are too recognisable. We’ve got dodgy plates. Go on. Fuck off.”

Around us, bikes roared to life. Reap peeled off first, spraying stones at us as he took off over the grit and dolomite.

“Don’t forget you’re babysitting Demon tonight, Chaos,” Magnet shouted before revving the engine and racing down the street like he was out on a track somewhere.

Cade pulled his helmet on, nodding at me and sliding the tinted visor over his face. Then, side by side, we raced off through the night. In my wing mirror Beanz, Fury and Indie slid into the van, their shapes growing small, until the last thing I could see was the tiny prick of white light. The bend came at us quickly, flashing blue lights advancing from behind us, the white van only just pulling out of the clearing. And then I couldn’t see any more.

*****

I pulled my bike to the side of the road in the street of terraced houses. The vets sat the last house on the end, taking up two premises as it sprawled across the pavement. The windows were lit and gradually, as I sat there, customers trickled out holding a box, leading a dog, carrying a cage. No one went in, the practice soon to close.

Glancing up and down the street again, I surveyed the parked cars. Mid-market vehicles. Nothing too old. Nothing brand new. But enough value to assume my bike was safe for a few minutes at least. So far, no one had nicked Cade’s, and he’d been here for days for what I could figure out. Letting the bike settle onto its side stand, I swung my leg over, dropping to my haunches to pull a heavy chain through the front wheel and locking it with a padlock the width of my palm. No one was stealing my baby.

There was a light tingle as I pushed the door open, walking straight into a waiting room. I’d expected it to be empty, but there were still two people waiting, one with a cocker spaniel like dog and the other hugging a cat carrier against herself. Pulling my gloves off, I stuffed them inside my jacket, replacing them in the spot I took my phone from. Six-thirty. The practice should have been closed by now. The sign on the door stating opening hours were 8.30 till 6pm.

The receptionist tipped her head up, and that’s all I could see over the desk that sat against the far wall, the woman’s head as she eyed me with interest.

“Can I help?” she asked, clocking the lack of animal I brought in with me.

“Aye. Here to see Kinobi.”

“Ah yes, our lovely Doberman guest. Alice has two patients to see first, then she’ll take you through.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, taking a seat at the bench that lined the wall.

So, I sat, and I waited. And I watched. Eventually, the door to my right opened, a woman stepped out. A white coat covered her green clothes; her hair pulled high on her head. Her eyes caught the patients waiting for her on the bench seats furthest away from me, and she smiled warmly, dropping to her haunches to accept the spaniel type dog that ran to her. The dog brought its head to hers, standing on top of her knees to reach her and she bent down too, so the little russet spaniel fussed about her face, licking and jiggling and wagging its tail.

When she looked up again, she looked straight at me, her grin changing but not fading, looking at me like she knew me. And she thought she did. Though she’d never met me. The vet mouthed ‘hi’ and a smiled back, wondering how my brother would have reacted to her. But she didn’t let my presence take her away from her patient, pushing up off the floor and guiding the dog and its owner through the door she’d just come out from.

And then there was one patient left, the woman cuddling the cat in the carrier to her chest. She looked at me too, her eyes sweeping over my bike leathers, studying me slowly, unsure whether to fear me or be attracted to me.

“You waiting to see Alice too?” she asked.

“Uh-huh.”

“She’s the best, isn’t she?” the woman relaxed a little, no longer strangling Fluffy through his own carrier.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“She’s so good with the animals. They all love her. Even when she has to stick needles in them.”

“She sounds like Doctor Doolittle,” I quipped.

“She really is. The best vet you’ll find. Much better than that Stuart.”

“Who’s he?”

“He’s the main vet. Owns this place but he’s hardly ever here and when he is…well he just doesn’t have the same bedside manner as Alice does, unless you’re some blonde young thing. Then he’s interested.”

“Sounds like a great guy.” And now I didn’t like Stuart. Even though I’d never set eyes on the fella.

Eventually Alice’s patients dwindled down, the woman with the half-suffocated cat the next to go in. Behind the reception desk, the older lady packed up, a jangle of keys, locking something. The only thing I could really see was the bob of her head.

Half an hour had ticked away. And all I had done was sit there and watch some woman in a white jacket and green trousers go in and out of a door to the side. Yet I had never just left, my curiosity getting the better of me. I needed to know why Cade didn’t want to share this one. We’d shared everything all our lives. A womb, a cot, a mother, a father, our toys, our fights, a house, a job, and our women. And this was the first time he hadn’t shared. Ever. Why was she so special?

The woman with the cat eventually came back through, walking straight to the receptionist and paying her bill. A few minutes behind her, the door to the side opened, the brown-haired woman stepping out.

“It’s ok Eileen,” the vet, Alice, called to the receptionist, “I’ll lock up. You get yourself away.”

And then she turned to me, the gentle smile for the receptionist morphing into something else. The smile for me was entirely different, her mouth slowly curling in the corners, her face animated, full of happiness, her eyes crinkling. No one had ever looked at me the way she was looking at me right now. There wasn’t a trace of a smirk or a pout, just pure, undiluted joy.

The woman moved towards me, a confidence in her step. “Hey, Cade. I didn’t think you were coming tonight.”

Her voice was light and feminine, but the words were well rounded, only a hint of Geordie. What would Cade have called her? I searched my brain for all the ways I’d heard him greet women and realised I had no clue.

“Yeah, babe. Couldn’t wait to see you.” I tried to contain my wince at the way it sounded, but if she noticed a difference, she didn’t show it.

Then suddenly she was in front of me. Light blue eyes, golden brown freckles all over her cheeks, a naturally shaped arch to her eyebrows. Her smile was infectious, pure and genuine, dimples in her cheeks. She was perfection personified. Breathtaking. Stunning in a completely natural and understated way.

And now I knew why he didn’t, no, couldn’t share. Now I knew why he’d been hiding her from me. Because I wouldn’t be able to resist just as much as he couldn’t.