Page 41

The instructions to regroup came early that morning with the incessant ringing of two mobiles. Mine lay just to my left, vibrating angrily against the black metal of the bedside table. I’d ignored the first call, half oblivious, tucked in behind Alice, as she lay on Cade’s chest. Then, in the hallway, I heard Cade’s muffled ringtone from under the pile of clothes on the floor.

Cade and Alice slept soundly. The slightest of noises from long, slow breaths and the tiniest rustle of bedsheets as they turned into each other. The phone above my head vibrated again, creating more noise on the metal tabletop than it would have done if I’d had the sound on.

“Huh?” I grunted down the phone, not bothering to see which of the Kings had been ringing.

“Get your arse out of bed,” Fury growled down the phone. “Indie wants everyone in church now.”

I groaned, carefully stretching out so I didn’t wake Alice. “Right now?”

“Yesterday.” And then he hung up, clearly in no mood for small talk.

I reached across and rocked Cade awake.

“Mate, we need to go.”

Cade just nodded, gently lifting Alice’s arm and sliding out from underneath her.

“Reckon she’ll be safe here?” he asked.

“Aye. Safer than the clubhouse, that’s for sure.”

I poked my head back in the door before we left five minutes later, watching her sleep as Cade teetered on one leg, forcing his foot into a bike boot.

*****

Almost the entire club squashed into the big room over the pub. I glanced around the faces, ticking people off in my head. Indie, Fury, Magnet, Reap, Demon. Heads beside me doing the same, searching for who was missing, because despite the number of members there was something wrong in that room.

“Who did we lose, Indie?” Beanz asked as the simmer of voices quieted.

“Sicknote came off. He was with the first lot who cut at Bowes.” The room grew quieter, still no one breathing. “He’s badly banged up. But alive. Just.”

“Daft cunt played dead when he hit the deck, and the Hand fell for it.” Fury muttered, his voice dark.

“The Hand would have killed him if he hadn’t. And a dead member is a useless member.” Indie reminded the group that huddled round the big table. “We lost Big Red.”

The room fell silent, just like someone had suddenly sucked the air out of it. For a while, no one spoke, some looking down at their hands, others staring straight ahead.

“Not just that,” Indie continued. “Has anyone or their ol’ lady heard from Jazz?”

I glanced at Fury, watching a flicker in his eyes, the muscles tightening in his forearms. Heads around me bobbed from side to side and Fury’s face darkened.

“She hasn’t made it back yet?” I asked, shooting a look at Barry the Blade.

“I’ll fucking knock you out if you look at me like that again!” The oldest living member of the club warned. “I went after her. But there was no way I was keeping up with a Hayabusa, not with his crazy ass sister on board.”

“Call her crazy again, mate, and see what fucking happens.”

“Enough!” Indie roared, taking to his feet and glaring down at every one of us. “We’ve one dead King, one in bad shape in hospital and a woman missing. You want to fight each other fine, but you do it out of here and then you shake fucking hands.”

“How did the Hand know what we were doing?” Reap asked.

“Someone must have seen us packing up,” Toni Cannelloni answered, rubbing a hand around the back of his neck.

“Or we’ve a fucking mole.” Indie scanned the room. “And if we have, I’ll fucking find him. And when I do, he’ll wish he fallen on his fucking sword.”

The room grew quiet again, no one daring to speak, most of us not sure whether breathing right now was a good idea, either. But it was the shrill ring of a phone on the table in front of Indie that cut through the thick silence. Brie . His name lit up the screen. Indie shot everyone a look, and anyone who might have been thinking about taking that breath didn’t.

He pushed the phone to his ear, grunting something unintelligible.

“Fuck,” he said. “Ok.” And then he hung up. “Fury, Demon, Magnet, Reap, Baz and the Kray twins, sit. The rest of you, fuck off.”

Chairs scraped against the floor as brothers got to their feet.

“How’s Suzy?” I muttered at Magnet whilst we waited for everyone else to file out.

“Good mate. Turned out it was appendicitis. But the baby is doing fine.”

“Fucking amazing news, mate. I’m stoked for you.”

The door closed, and the seven of us sat quietly, waiting for news. Because whatever Brie had rung for wasn’t good.

“They’ve found Jazz’s bike. But no Jazz,” he added quickly when Fury looked about to explode.

“Do we know…”

“We don’t know that yet, mate. But there was no sign of blood and the bike’s not too damaged. So that’s something.”

“Fuck!” Fury roared, hammering his fist into the table, the sound ricocheting off every wall in the room. “Fuck!”