Twenty Four

Twenty-Four

Joel

“A nything going on?”

Kit nods. “Someone came to the clubhouse, about half an hour ago. They’re still in there.”

“This man?” I show Kit the photo of the man we now know is Emil Renard’s lieutenant. Linus Bagdonas. A one-time member of a well-known but now disbanded Lithuanian crime family. He’d been their underbosss, second in command, making him one of the most powerful men in that organization. But now it would appear he’s shifted his allegiance to the Balke family.

“Yeah. That’s him.”

“Okay. Go back to the compound. Fill Skip in. I’ll take over here.”

Kit heads off down the street, to his bike parked around the corner. I lean back against the dark blue Peugeot I drove here in, an unremarkable, ordinary car that is going to look a whole lot less suspicious if I need to follow anyone, and look out across the street, at the Blackhawks’ compound. The metal gates are wide open, they’re obviously feeling pretty safe right now. Maybe they think they have less to fear, and this sudden involvement with Emil Renard might have made them feel even more secure, but they’d be foolish to think they can rest on those laurels. Skip’s serious. He wants us to wreak some kind of revenge on this rival club, and I still have no idea how or when he wants that to happen, I just know he won’t settle until it’s done. And then what? All that talk of leaving the Vikings: giving up on this life, I’m still confused as to how seriously I should take that. He could, after all, feel better about things once we take that revenge he’s so desperate to inflict on this place. I don’t know.

The Hawks have built their compound in a quiet part of town, not a lot of people come around here. It isn’t somewhere anyone would want to hang out, that’s why we choose these places to set up our bases. But the Hawks, they’ve really isolated themselves. So I’ve got to be careful, I can’t be seen. Can’t be noticed. Hence the choice of car, rather than my slightly more imposing Harley.

Lighting up a cigarette, I take a drag and glance around, the starkness of this area, it’s quite jarring given that not five minutes away is a bustling town with shops and bars and countless cafés, including one of ours. It’s where Ana and Cady are setting up shop, a business Skip gave them without a moment’s hesitation. He wants Ana to stick around, so he’s doing anything he can to keep her here. But if he’s got every intention of walking away from all of this, what happens to Ana then? Does he take her with him? Skip wants a normal life, isn’t that what Ana wants, too? All of a sudden I feel my chest tighten, and for a second I struggle for breath. Any chance she gets to leave this life, she’ll take it, surely? But then, I gave her the option to walk away, to take back her freedom, and I’d meant it, at the time. Yeah, to some extent I was calling her bluff, I didn’t think she’d have the bottle to actually do it, but there’d been something in her eyes that, for the briefest of moments, told me she’d thought about it: just a flicker of hesitation, one she might not even have realized herself, but it was there. If Skip gave her that option now, would she take it this time?

I’m stopped from delving any further into those thoughts: there’s movement in the Hawks’ compound. Linus Bagdonas and the Hawks’ President, Rollo Dresden are deep in conversation as they walk to what I’m assuming is Linus’ car. A black Mercedes MPV, not exactly inconspicuous. They stop. Shake hands. Then Rollo heads back inside while Linus climbs into the car. I get ready to follow him.

He drives out of the compound, turns left, he’s heading back toward town. I keep a safe distance, although the choice of car over bike will mean it’ll be easier to remain unnoticed. But this was still a risk. One we have to take.

I hang back, keeping him just within sight. He’s heading toward the suburbs, and as we leave the town behind us the traffic becomes a little less sparse, meaning I have to be more careful, I really can’t risk losing him. Or letting him know he’s being followed. It doesn’t matter anyway, I know exactly where he’s going.

The black MPV turns into a street lined with neat, red-brick houses, not that different to many other streets around here. This is where Ana and Sofia used to live, in the house Emil Renard bought not that long ago. And it’s the timing of all of this that isn’t sitting right with me. From what we know, he bought the house almost as soon as it went on the market. And he bought it cash. It was like he had to have it, no matter what, but why?

Bagdonas pulls up outside the house, gets out of the car, locks it and walks up the shrub-lined path to the front door, which is opened before he has a chance to knock or use a key. And it’s Renard himself who ushers him inside without a word, closing the door behind them. I’m not going to find out much at all this way, Renard’s too good at keeping a low profile. But something really doesn’t feel right, about any of it. Aligning himself with the Hawks, for whatever reason; his desperate need to have this house… and it’s the house that’s giving me the most unease: giving me a reason to think something we should’ve realized sooner. We should’ve put two and two together, sooner, and I might still be wrong, but… Emil Renard. Could he be Ana’s estranged father…?