Page 47 of Compulsion

“The bartender said you had left a message. The girl who served us earlier. I was annoyed….” He paused as if anger was rising up again and he was trying to damp it down. “But I couldn’t see you anywhere. I assumed you had already left the club.”

He’d regained control. But I knew him better than that, even after such short acquaintance. I saw the jitter in his dark pupils—the slight shiver to his lip. He was mad and wary with it.

“Same girl,” I said with a sigh. “Makes me think her heart’s not really in that job.”

“What are you talking about?”

The bartender had played us both, hadn’t she? Presumably she was answering to Peck, not to Compulsion. Passing on messages to meet Peck’s needs, not ours. “Can I come up to the flat?”

Seve still looked bemused. “Do you expect to?”

I stepped up close and grabbed his wrist. It was down by his side so there was no awkward jarring, but I made sure he knew how tight my grip could be. “Yes, I do. I think I deserve a better reception than Peck gave me in the backyard tonight.”

“I never meant… wait, what do you mean? Are you hurt?” There was real panic in his eyes. But he hadn’t protested at hearing Peck’s name.

“Take me upstairs,” I insisted. “I may not be able to stand here much longer. We’ll talk there.”

“YOU knew Peck was on the payroll!” I growled the words at Seve. We sat on opposite sides of the living room, each of us on one of the deep leather-covered couches. He’d opened two bottles of water and placed them on the low table between us, but I hadn’t touched mine so far. “You knew he was still around. And everything I was talking about, everything that happened to me in London, at a club owned by your family, under their control—you knew it was real. You knew I was right. However much you try to hide behind your job and this single fucking club, it’s all in your family’s name!”

“For God’s sake, Max, calm down.”

“Don’t deny it, Seve! Credit me with some intelligence. Okay, so I’ve been really stupid so far—”

“No!” he snapped back at me. “I’ve said before, you are not stupid and I don’t believe you ever were.”

“Misguided, then. Bloody naïve.” That sounded almost as bad. “But not anymore, you hear?”

Seve steepled his hands on his chin and seemed to consider his reply very carefully before he spoke. “Have you told anyone else about this?”

About what? I wanted to shout at him. About being beaten up by thugs, about being threatened by a lump of shit who once strangled a kid for being insolent? About running drugs for the illegal rackets that your uncle runs out of the Medina clubs? About suspecting you’re involved, that you’ve been playing me along just like that bartender…?

I wiped my eyes with my sleeve; I was bloody tired of it all. “No. Not yet. I’ve never told anyone the full extent of what I know—what I did. I’ve been too fucking ashamed of my own past to own up to the present. Isn’t that pathetic? But then Peck will have reported back to you by now to tell you that. I’m sure he’s told you I’m not a critical risk—not just yet.”

Seve’s expression was cautious. “Peck hasn’t contacted me at all. I don’t expect him to.”

“But you obviously know he’s still around. Still checking on both of us.”

Seve was silent.

“Look. Whatever you do….” My voice was shaky. “Stop the lies, please. Stop trying to fool me, to hide what you’re doing, what you know. I need the truth from you, Seve. Just… stop.”

There was another too-long, too-painful silence.

“I said once I wanted to protect you, Max,” Seve said.

“And I tried to punch your lights out.”

He grimaced. “Yes. That definitely needs work.”

My laugh barked out, but I bit it off quickly. “I don’t need protecting.”

He shook his head, his eyes angry. “I know. That doesn’t stop me wanting to do it.”

All I could do was stare at him.

“Max, I’ve kept you out of things because you don’t deserve to be in. I swear that I did not lie to you—that I did not know about the problems in our other clubs or my uncle’s involvement.” He flushed. “You must understand that I found it hard to believe your allegations against the knowledge and experience of my own family, especially when you are—”

“Just a casual fuck.”