“Fucking shutup Beanz.” I kicked him in the shin as I walked past. “Make yourself fucking useful and get those fucking curtains closed. You too.” I nodded at the prospects who stood like statues made out of fear in the middle of the clubhouse.
“Indie,” I spoke low as I crossed over to him, and he nodded, moving us to the far side of the pub.
In the background Fury barked quiet, urgent orders. “Everyone against the walls. Stay away from the doors and windows. Chaos and Carnage collect every weapon we’ve got. Demon get anything we can make into a fucking weapon.”
Demon grinned, upending a chair and stamping on a leg, and suddenly there was a wooden baton in his hand.
“Fucking hell,” Indie grumbled as we huddled in a booth. “I’m going to have no fucking pub left.”
On another day I would have smiled, at least internally. But not today. Today, the Hand and the Notorious stood outside our clubhouse, ready to kill us. Inside we sat as defenceless as newborn babies.
“It’s Baz,” I whispered.
Indie locked eyes with me. “I know.”
“When?”
“Just now. Same as you.”
I nodded. “The women. The fake funeral.”
“Brie.”
Indie said the same word that had been going through my mind, but I couldn’t quite form.
“Brie,” I repeated like I needed to release it.
“What now?”
“Watch him. I don’t want him to know we know. Not yet.”
I nodded. “So, what now?”
“Did you ever find God?” He laughed then.
“Never believed in the fucker.”
“Good. Then fight like there’s no one to punish you in the afterlife.”
A fist hammered against the clubhouse door hard enough to rattle the frame. Every fucker inside went silent. Then Grim’s voice boomed through the wood.
“Thought the Kings were meant to be brave, lads.”
Demon’s grip tightened on the broken chair leg until the wood creaked. Another bang. Louder this time.
“We know you’re in there.”
Outside engines idled low and savage. The sound vibrating through the walls like a second heartbeat. Then another voice shouted from somewhere near the side alley.
“Oi Demon!”
Demon’s head snapped up instantly. Dangerous already.
“Think your bitch still screams your name when someone else fucks her?”
The room detonated.
Demon surged for the door, Fury’s and Carnage’s hands glancing off him, catching his arms, but he shrugged free. Chairs crashed backwards. The baton splintered further in his fists.
