I never used to be, but Rae didn’t need to know that had changed. Or why, how…who. “I’m good. And I don’t have to work till later now. Lucky’s covering me till lunchtime.”
Rae’s face brightened even more, but something on his phone screen distracted him before I could jump him. “Shit.”
“What is it?”
“Council. They’re trying to remove the camp from Fletch’s land. Saying it hasn’t got planning permission for a residential dwelling.”
I searched my brain for the brief conversations I’d had with Rae’s gang mates. “But I thought it was a registered campsite?”
“It is, but Fletch doesn’t charge the rest of us to live there. It hasn’t bothered the council for years, and Goon’s spent that time strategically inserting his pals into local government—pals who want Fletch off that land so they can stick a planning application on it.”
“Why doesn’t he sell it to them then? Buy somewhere better…with actual buildings?”
“Because, apart from a tiny dairy farm, Goon owns the rest of the land for miles around. Fletch’s patch means any hunt has to, for a mile, at least, run next to a public road. If they could go through our site while it was stuck in some decades long planning dispute, most of the public would never see them.”
“And the council won’t give you permission to build a home?”
Rae shook his head, still scanning his phone. “Course they won’t. They want us as uncomfortable as possible. That’s why our power supply was cut off and the energy company have taken eight months to fix it, and parts keep mysteriously disappearing from our water pump. Corruption, baby. Besides, even without all that, we don’t have the money to build a house.”
It made sickening sense, and the injustice of it burned me. My crew had been skint, but we’d had somewhere to live, and the council couldn’t touch us. Hadn’t even tried. We’d fought many battles, but never on as many fronts as Rae’s depleted gang. They were going to lose this war.
Rae touched my face. “Hey. Where’d you go?”
“Nowhere.”
“Right.” His eyes narrowed. “I’ll let you off for being half asleep, but I’m gonna have to spoil the party regardless.”
My already yo-yoing heart sank. “Gotta get home?”
“Yeah. They reckon they can handle it, but Fletch is shit at dealing with official documents. He can’t read that well and people take advantage of that.”
“There’s no one else who can help him?” Rae took a breath, but I cut him off. “It’s okay, I get it. You can’t rest here knowing what’s going on there.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. If I didn’t understand, we wouldn’t have got this far.”
I had zero idea what that meant, but Rae didn’t seem interested in finding out. He put his phone down and kicked the duvet away. “What time do you have to be at work?”
“Midday.”
“Good.” He took my hands and tugged until I was halfway lying on top of him. “Then I’ll get the five-past-twelve train.”
***
A couple of hours later, we left the house in search of food to make up for missing breakfast. The hipster diner a few streets away was in the opposite direction to where either of us needed to go, but it served decent vegetarian food—probably the last Rae would have for a while.
“Stop force-feeding me avocados,” he griped. “You’ll get me hooked, then I’ll have withdrawals back home.”
Back home. I touched the healing cut on my cheek and wondered if he was as torn about that as I was. If the conflict raging in me would even make sense to him when he was so deeply entrenched in the cause.Fuck, I want him to stay.
I poked at the eggs on my plate, perversely amused by the speed Rae inhaled his food. “You’re going to make yourself hurl.”
“I’m trying to hench up so my bones don’t get so cold.”
“The van’s not warm enough?”
“It’s fucking amazing compared to living in a tent, but I’ve just spent the night wrapped around you like a limpet, so I reckon sleeping alone tonight is going to be torture.”
