Page 30

“Carnage! Come on!” Indie shouted, the roar of the fire behind me making it hard to hear anything other than the blood pumping in my ears.

Underneath me, the man whose face had hurt my fists was limp. Blood running from his nose, which was now mashed into his face.

“We leaving these fuckers here to burn?” I asked, not moving from on top of him.

These fuckers had touched our girl. Cade’s girl. Alice. They had hurt Alice. They deserved to bake for it.

The first patter of water splashed down on top of my head, intermittent at first and then fizzing to life as the sprinkler system kicked in.

“Come on,” Indie grunted as he hauled the fingerless man backwards, pulling him out through the door and along the corridor, a trail of blood following them.

I looked around again. At the flames building in the corner of the room and the bodies that littered the floor. It was carnage in here. Too many bodies and not enough time. I had no idea how we were going to explain all this away.

Following Indie and the whimpering, sobbing excuse of a man, I rushed out of the burning vets. In front of us, my brothers juggled two dogs that were trying to fight each other, and three carriers of cats. Outside it was cold. Not quite icy, but the wind was picking up.

I scanned the street, watching to see how many curtains twitched, and how far away the police might be.

“We need to get out of here, lads,” Magnet rasped.

“What about these?” Cade lifted the cat carriers in his hands.

“We can take them to my house,” Alice replied weakly.

Fury nodded. “And him?”

“Someone needs to be here to give the right story,” Indie grumbled, pulling the man to his feet.

“Reckon he’ll be able to? He looks pretty fucked over?”

“He will, won’t you Stuart?” Indie now propped him up, his arm under his shoulder, but the man’s head lolled like it might just fall off his neck. “Won’t you Stuart?” Indie asked again, patting his cheek hard, the man turning and staring at him.

Eventually, he nodded.

“How the fuck you get in this mess, anyway?” Indie asked.

“Owed the wrong people money,” he gasped. “Sold some Gabapentin to pay it back. When they found out, they said they’d wipe the debt off if I kept supplying it.” He swayed back and forth cradling his arm.

“Gabapentin?” I asked. “What the fuck is that?”

“Treats pain and anxiety in animals,” he continued through gritted teeth.

“Yeah. But when you snort it, it’s like taking cocaine,” Indie added, standing over the top of him.

“Nice,” Magnet cooed, “never knew that.”

Stuart looked up at us, his face grey, his clothes covered in blood.

“Yeah. Don’t think he’s thinking that now,” I commented.

“Right then, I’ll bring the truck down. Let’s load these pets up and then we need to vanish. You leaving him here?” Fury nodded at the bleeding man.

“Yeah. You and the others sort the animals. Get Alice home. We’ll give this one instructions and then see you back at the Dog for a debrief.” We all nodded our agreement, and I watched Fury, Magnet, Chaos and Alice, half walk, half trot up the street to where we had left the bikes and the truck.

Indie guided Stu to a seating position on the curb, crouching down beside him on his haunches. The faint ring of sirens wailed in the distance, a growing whisper.

“This is what you’re going to tell the police,” Indie instructed, his face only a few inches away from the man in the gutter. “There was a break in. A gang looking for drugs. They took your fingers and then, when you got the chance, you fought back with their own weapon. But someone pulled a gun on you. He shot the oxygen tanks, and they exploded. You’re lucky to have got out alive. Everything you did was in self-defence. You thought they were going to kill you. Understand?”

The man stared blankly back at Indie.

“Understand?” he growled.

Eventually Stuart nodded, but whether he took any of it in, only time would tell. If the police didn’t come knocking on our door in an hour, we were doing ok.

“Good.” Indie patted the man’s shoulder and then stood up.

The sirens grew louder, closer.

“Come on, boss. We need to get out of here.”

Indie nodded, and we ran to the top of the street. I tossed him the spare helmet, and he climbed on the back of my bike, muttering something about not telling anyone he’d ridden bitch with me. The bike fired up, and we took a U-turn, racing away before our cuts were spotted in the area.

We made it back to the Dog before the others, to the awaiting faces of anxious old ladies who’d seen us run from church and straight out of the pub. Indie wrapped an arm around Emmie, kissing the top of her head.

“You smell of smoke,” she mumbled.

“Wasn’t our fault this time.”

“Where you been?”

“The vets.”

“Vets?”

“Yeah. Chaos’ lass sent a distress call. It’s sorted. We just needed to cut and run before the cops arrived.”

“Everyone alright?” Suzy asked, stepping out of the booth she sat in with Heidi, who was still typing away on her computer.

“Well, not everyone. But anyone who was a King is fine.” Indie answered.

“Fuck’s sake, you lot. I can’t keep putting bodies through the crem. At some point someone will find out,” Heidi complained, barely glancing up from the laptop screen.

“It’s fine Heidi,” I answered this time, my eyes glued to the door, watching for movement. “Not our bodies to worry about.”

“As long as Alice’s boss does his bit,” Indie reminded me.

And then they walked through the door with the rest of them. Fury and Magnet. My brother and Alice. I didn’t know how to feel. She was here and she was safe. Yet it was Cade’s hand she gripped tightly, not me. I had no right to her hand. I had no right to her attention. He had found her first. He had the better claim. And even though we were used to sharing our women, I wanted this one to myself. The thrum of disappointment drilled on inside, growing heavier with each step they took towards me.

“Upstairs, boys,” Indie instructed, gently peeling Emmie’s arms from him. “Ladies. Take care of Alice, please. She needs a drink, at least.”

Suzy and Emmie nodded, waving their hands towards her, guiding her into the booth in front of the bar.

“Do we know who they are?” Indie asked once the door of our chapel closed behind us.

“Teesside accents,” Cade shrugged.

“First, I’ve heard of drug trafficking through a vet round here.” Indie crossed his arms over his chest, his face pensive.

“Common practice out in the States. And Gabapentin hits just like cocaine.” Fury acknowledged. “What’s the chance the Hand are behind this? Cocaine dealing is much riskier than even Magnet’s product.”

Indie frowned, nipping the bridge of his nose. I was sure he grew an extra grey hair at every mention of those fuckers.

“I’ll ask Brie.”

“So, Brie is our intelligence now?” Cade asked.

“Brie is good at getting answers. Discreetly. That was always his skill.”

“He always was better at the intel than at the fighting.” Fury grinned. “And you don’t always have to fight to win a war.”

“But it helps.” Indie reminded all of us. “So, we let Brie do his thing and we’ll do ours in return.”