Page 55 of Indie
I followed behind them, Daisy padding along at my side on her lead, and Luke behind us. Inside, the internal décor wasn’t much better than the outside. The chairs were old, varnish peeling, and threads hanging from the seats. The floor was sticky, grabbing at my feet with each step I took, the faint smell of stale alcohol and fading nights out rising to my nose the further into the pub we moved.
There were a few people in. The big man with the long dark hair. Fury, Indie had told me. And two blond men. Identical blond men, who sat on either side of Fury, a pack of cards splayed out on the table and a scatter of half-full and empty pint glasses.
“You’d better have put money in the till for those,” Indie grumbled in their direction as we passed.
“Nice to see you too, Indie,” one of them called out, a hint of a laugh in his voice, raising his pint glass of gold liquid and fading froth in the air.
At the table next to him, another man sat by himself, smoothing his fingers over the glass tumbler he held in his hands. He’d been staring into the bronze liquid as we approached, but as we got closer, he looked up, chucked his chin and dropped his eyes to whatever was in that glass.
Indie stopped a few tables away from the bar where a group of people sat. Two men and two women. The taller couple glanced towards us, the man looking across from Indie to me, and then to the kids, his face as stoic as Indie’s, his eyes familiar but not quite the same. The woman next to him was stunning. Thick rich brown hair and eyes framed with a bush of thick dark eyelashes. She was flawless, apart from a scar that ran almost all the way across her right cheekbone, the skin puckered and red.
“This is who is going to look after Mr Morris,” Indie said as he stopped in front of the table, Lily’s hand still tightly grasping his.
The other woman turned towards her and smiled. A big warm smile, like she was ecstatic to see the small child stood in front of her clutching an injured pink unicorn.
“Hi, there. I’m nurse Suzy,” she said gently, playing a part that Indie seemed to have silently asked her to do. “Can I take a look at Mr Morris?”
Lily nodded her little head, holding out the now unstuffed toy towards the petite blonde woman. She waited for the little girl to plonk the toy in her hands and then turned him over, examining his injuries.
“Ok. We’re going to need some new stuffing, babe. And my kit out of the cupboard in the back,” she spoke to the man next to her, who immediately took to his feet.
He bent down to kiss the top of her head before moving away from us. And I watched him go, another one with long hair tied into a ponytail and a beard that hung a good six inches off his chin. On the back of the leather waistcoat were the same three skulls that I’d seen Indie wear. Their mouths opened wide in a hideous, gloating grin.
Chapter Twenty Six
Suzy unloaded her sewing kit out onto the pub table, Demon and Ciara shifting sideways out of her way as she spread her tools out. Then she looked up at the little girl, who was still clutching my hand and staring at her injured teddy unicorn with the deepest concern on her little face.
“It’ll be as good as new in no time,” Suzy said gently, pushing in a handful of the white fuzzy foam into its stomach.
“He.Itis a he,” Lily scorned.
But Suzy was unfazed, glancing up and giving the child a wide smile. “I’m sorry, Lily,” she continued. “Mr Morris is going to have a small operation to mend his stomach. And then he’s going to need lots of cuddles and kisses to make him feel better. Do you think you can help with that?”
Lily nodded enthusiastically.
“Do you know what I think he’d really like as well?” Suzy asked, her hand rummaging around in the pink unicorn’s stomach as she pushed the stuffing into the right places.
Lily shook her head.
“I think he would like it if you helped with his operation. What do you think?”
Lily nodded.
“Come on and sit round here with me then,” she said, a look of elation in her eyes as she patted the bench seat beside her.
The little girl slid in beside Suzy, and Suzy bent down towards her, saying something I couldn’t hear.
“I forget how good she is with kids,” Magnet appeared at my side. “I just wish I could help her have one of her own.”
“Still no luck on the baby making project, huh?” I asked, watching the petite blond woman and the little girl with the dark hair working together on the toy lying pitifully on the tabletop.
“No, mate. Just seems every month it’s a big fat negative.”
“Better try harder then, mate.”
“My dick is rubbed raw as it is. Any fucking harder, any more sessions, and the fucker will snap straight off.”
“Fucking man up, Magnet. You’ve got a wife to satisfy. Stop whining about it.” I patted him on the shoulder, a little bit of reassurance, and stepped sideways to Emmie, who was watching from a little way away.