I dragged a hand over my jaw, thoughts already moving fast, slotting pieces together whether I wanted them to or not.
“And it’s not just the Notorious,” he added.
I looked back at him.
“The Hand are getting the same feed.”
That shifted it. From bad, to something else entirely.
“There’s more,” he said.
Of course there was. His jaw tightened slightly, like he’d been waiting for this part.
“Name’s come up,” he said. “More than once.”
I felt it before he said it. A weight settling.
“Jake.”
The room seemed to still around us. I didn’t move. Didn’t react. But Ash saw it anyway.
“He’s in the police,” Ash went on, voice harder now. “He’s got access. And from what we’re hearing, he’s not exactly keeping his distance from any of this.”
“He’s Fury’s brother,” I said, my voice low. Controlled.
“Aye.” Ash nodded once. “And he still chose a badge over his blood.”
The words sat there. Uncomfortable.
“He knew about the ambush at the Frostbite. He came to warn us.”
“Did he? Or was it just to keep you off his tail?”
“Fuck it. Fine. Let’s just play this out then. Where would he get his info from? No one talks to him.”
“His sister. She’s as deep in club business as you lot are.”
“Hardly. And if that were true, how come he didn’t find her when the Rats took her?”
“You sure they did? You sure that wasn’t all part of it?”
Something flared inside me. Ash had lit a fuse.
“You didn’t fucking see the state of her. What they did to her. And we haven’t got a fucking clue where she is now. But she sure as hell isn’t here selling secrets in the north east.”
“You Kings keep acting like history buys loyalty,” he continued. “There’s someone in your club selling secrets. You need to look at all your brothers, Reap, because someone is a rat.”
“You saying we don’t know how to run our own club?” I stepped closer again, something colder settling in now.
“I’m saying you should’ve asked that question already,” Ash shot back. “Instead of letting it get this far.”
Silence stretched. Sharp. Because he wasn’t entirely wrong. Indie. Us. We’d let it go on too long. Should have stamped it out the minute we’d even thought about it. We would have done under Ste. Didn’t mean I was ready to hear it from him, though.
“You done?” I asked.
Ash held my gaze a second longer. Then nodded.
“For now.”
