I concentrated hard on not rolling my eyes right into the very back of my skull. The man was as tattooed as me. Every inch of skin covered apart from our faces. But that was our only similarity. He was slim and shorter. I had nearly five inches on him at least, and more in width. He’d been a King too, at one point. Indie’s cousin. Son of a founding member. And they were the two reasons why he wasn’t dead, only exiled. But even that was in question. I’d seen the fucker more times over the last year than I’d fucking needed. And here we were again.
“What you got for me, V?” Indie grunted into the cold, still air around us.
“Couple of bits of intel.”
“Jazz?” Fury asked.
“Her later.”
“Police know too much,” the Viking continued.
“We have a leak,” Indie acknowledged.
“Yeah. You told me. But this is more than a leak. Someone in your club is selling you fuckers out.”
I glanced at Indie, but he didn’t look in my direction, only at the man head to toe in leather with his blond hair hanging loose around his shoulders.
“This one knows too much. I was tailed. Took a whole lot of fucking fuel to lose them,” V continued. “Unmarked cars. Professional looking stuff. This isn’t some one-force operation. This is bigger. National Crime Agency sort of big.”
The Viking’s gaze changed, moving to Fury.
“Jake got close to the club again, didn’t he?”
Fury said nothing, just stared at the exiled member like he wasn’t sure whether to kill him on the spot. I knew that look. I’d seen it many times before.
“Could it be Jake, Fury?” Indie asked.
For a moment the air between us stilled like we’d suddenly been sucked into a vacuum. No background noise. No movement. All I could hear was the sound of my own heart and even that wasn’t sure whether it was appropriate to beat right now.
“I’ll kill him.” The words came out loud in that vacuum. “If we find out it’s him. I’ll kill him.” Softer this time. Now it wasn’t anger. Just resignation.
“He’s your brother, Fury,” Indie cautioned.
“Only by blood. Not by patch. If he’s the leak. If somehow, he’s responsible. I will be the one to kill him.” Then he turned to our president. “But I need to be sure, Indie.”
Indie nodded, moving his attention back to the Viking.
“Can you be sure?”
“Not yet. But I’ll get the confirmation you need.”
The Viking’s face had tightened. A solemnity replacing the smugness of before. He'd been out of the club years, but he hadn’t forgotten what this all meant.
“I found Jazz,” he said quietly. “What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing just yet.” Indie’s voice was quiet. “Keep eyes on her if you can. I want to know what that Rat is up to. The rest of them have gone to ground. If he’s in contact with them, I want to know about it.”
The Viking nodded, his hair moving with him. Beside me, Fury was quiet, and I could almost feel the weight that had descended onto his shoulders. He looked so like his mother right then. Mamma Dot. As true a member as the rest of us. Who’d lost more than any of us, and still she stood by the club. Us. Bile rose in my throat.
Chapter Twenty One
‘Morning, Soph. Ry xx.’
The message sat on my phone. Ready for when I woke up. He’d sent it at 5.00am, an hour and a half before my alarm went off. He was either up early or in bed late. I lay staring up at the ceiling, my mind full of thoughts circling like vultures, but just out of reach.
I shouldn’t have let him in. That was the first one that landed. Clear. Solid. Something I could hold onto. Everything else less so.
My body hadn’t hesitated. Not for a second. Not when he touched me. Not when I realised just how much of him had changed. His skin, his hair. Metal where there shouldn’t have been any. The difference. It should have been too much. But it hadn’t been. My fingers tightened slightly around the phone, my gaze still fixed on nothing. Because that was the problem. Not that he’d changed. That I hadn’t reacted the way I should have.
