Thirty Five

Thirty-Five

Joel

“D o we all understand what’s happening?” Skip lights up another cigarette and leans back in his chair. “We go on Thursday. Kai, Wade, Kasper, your men will deal with the Hawks. Hit them the same way they hit us, I’m not overthinking this shit, we don’t have the time. They’re planning something, we know that much, but we don’t know what or when so we need to act.” He takes a drag on his cigarette before dropping his head. “Me and Joel, we’ll take out Renard and his henchman. We know he’s sent out a call for soldiers, and if those men are coming from the Balke family we sure as shit don’t have time to waste. If they get here before we’ve made a move I can’t guarantee we can pull this off alone. But, just to be on the safe side, I’ve put a call out myself, so we have help on standby. I’ve opened up a handful of safe houses in the surrounding area, and by tomorrow morning we’ll have men of our own lying in wait in case we need them.” He takes another drag on his cigarette. “Weapons are all sorted?”

“Ollie’s got us covered,” Wade says. “Some of his brothers are driving down here tomorrow, me and Kai’ll meet them at the warehouse and bring the weapons back here.”

“We owe them one,” Skip says, glancing behind him, he’s still distracted. And that worries me. This feels like a knee-jerk reaction, but I get that we need to act fast. Emil Renard needs to be out of the picture, more so than the Blackhawks in my opinion. He needs to be out of Ana’s life. “Okay. Are we done here?”

Everyone gets up, leaves, except me. “You sure about this, Skip?”

“Don’t question me, Joel. You know better than that.” Skip’s eyes meet mine, and the frustration – impatience, almost – is evident in his. “You seeing Ana later?” he asks, lighting up another cigarette.

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Just keep an eye on her. Make sure she’s okay.”

“And once this is done, you’re really going?”

“I’m out of here. Yeah. You ready to take over?”

“We haven’t even told the rest of them that you’re leaving. The elders know, but shouldn’t we make sure everyone else is on board?”

“Let’s get this shit out of the way first.” He stubs his cigarette out on the underside of the table. “Go on, get out of here.”

I turn to leave. There’s not much else I can do, Skip’s made his mind up, my reservations don’t count.

“Joel?”

I stop. Turn back around. “Yeah?”

“How did the store opening go?”

“Good. It went good.”

He nods, and I take that as my cue to leave. I need a drink, time to get my head around everything. Did I really ask Ana to move in with me earlier? Jesus, my head really is fucked… and then I see her, standing by the bar talking to Kasper. Man, she’s beautiful, I mean, in my eyes she’s fucking stunning even though she’s only wearing jeans and an oversized white shirt, her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, her face devoid of makeup. And when she turns her head and sees me, she smiles the kind of smile no woman has ever thrown my way. And I feel everything.

“Hey.” She leans back against the bar. Kasper’s left us to it, and I slide an arm around her waist and kiss her slowly. I just want to feel her. Taste her.

“Hey. What you doing here?”

“You’re not pleased to see me?”

“I’m always pleased to see you. I just assumed you’d want a quiet night after the store opening.”

“Well, that’s what I had planned, but…” She lets that sentence tail off, her gaze shifting for a moment before she brings it back to me, her smile reappearing. “I got bored. Dag and Freya are out, and I didn’t much fancy being alone. But, if you’re busy…?”

“No, I’m done here.”

“Did the meeting go okay?”

I’m not telling her what’s going on. Nobody except those involved can know, it’s safer that way. “Yeah. Let’s go outside.” I take her hand and we head out into the compound.

“Is everything alright?” she asks, her smile replaced by a frown. She’s too good at reading me now.

“Everything’s fine. It’s just been a long day.” We sit down at one of the tables outside, she’s still eyeing me slightly warily and that’s making me nervous. Jesus, everything’s making me fucking nervous these days, what the fuck is wrong with me?

“Don’t lie to me, Joel.”

See? Too fucking good… “I don’t know if I’m ready to take over, Ana.” I look her right in the eyes. “It’s all happening too fast. Everything’s happening too fast.”

“Are you including us in that?” She has a slight smile on her face when she asks that, which makes me smile, too. The fact that she can lighten a mood that’s threatening to darken pretty quickly, after what she’s been through, is testament to the woman she’s become. The woman we turned her into…?

“You are the one thing – the one person who’s keeping me sane.”

She drops her gaze, but she’s still smiling. “Yeah. I know what you mean.” She sighs quietly, and she’s tense, it’s obvious.

“Are you alright?” Because I’m kind of getting the feeling that there’s something she wants to tell me. Something to do with me asking her to move in…?

She nods, puts that smile back on her face and looks at me. “I’m fine.”

I think we’re both lying, but neither of us is in the right frame of mind to question the other one any further, so we’re just going to let it go. Bury our heads in the sand? Maybe. For now.

“If Skip didn’t think you could do it he wouldn’t have made you his V.P., Joel.”

“I can do the job, Ana, I’m just – the timing feels off, that’s all.”

She reaches for my hand, her fingers wrapping around mine and I can’t explain the rush of calm that sends hurtling through me. “There’s a lot going on. I get that.” She squeezes my hand, and her smile disappears, her expression changing. She seems anxious. “You’re still going to get justice for Mama, aren’t you?” The hope in her eyes is overwhelming, like she’s silently pleading with me. “Because, I don’t know…” She lets go of my hand and sits back, looking around the compound, “it feels like it’s never going to happen.”

“It’s going to happen, Ana.” Sooner than she thinks, but I can’t tell her that. It’s too dangerous. She needs to keep out of it. “Believe me, it’s going to happen.”

Her eyes are back on me. “Do you promise?”

“I promise.” I don’t miss a beat, because she needs to know that what I’m telling her is true. I’m just not giving her details. She doesn’t need to know the details. She doesn’t need to know that her father is also a target for us, because we’re a target for him. We’re going full-on tit-for-tat, because we have to.

“But, that’s it, huh? That’s all you’re telling me?”

She doesn’t need me to answer that. “Did that car come back? After I left the store?”

She shakes her head, and I think she knows as well as I do that it’s her father. That car, it’s his doing. He’s watching her. He’s watching all of us. But two can play at that game…

“Listen, Ana, what I said before… what I asked you, at the store, about moving in with me…” I take a breath, just a second to give myself time to make sure I mean what I’m saying. But, you know, like I said, life’s too fucking short… “I meant it.”

Her eyes brighten, the tension that was evident before has just dissipated. But then she pulls it back, dampens down that smile, like she’s trying not to look too happy about what I’ve just said. But she is, happy. Fuck it! So am I.

“So, what do you say? Do you want to move in with me?”

“I… yes! Of course I do, just, not yet, Joel. Not straightaway.”

To be honest, I’m glad she’s said that. With everything that’s going on right now the timing of this isn’t the best. I’d rather she was with Dag and Freja until we’ve dealt with the Blackhawks: dealt with her father. And now I’m wondering whether she deserves to know: whether she should know what’s about to happen to him. Her dad. Because she isn’t stupid, she’ll work it out. She’ll know we were involved. But then, once she knows the truth about the kind of man he really is…

“Are you okay with that, Joel?”

Her voice shakes me out of those thoughts, and I look at her. “Hmm?”

“Are you okay with waiting?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. It’s probably for the best, to be honest. If we wait until Skip’s gone it might make our lives a whole lot easier.” I smile. So does she.

“He can’t stop us from being together, Joel.”

“You’d think, right?” I arch a brow and she rolls her eyes. “You hungry?”

“I’ve already eaten.”

“Yeah, well, I haven’t. Come on, you can watch me demolish a burger. I’ll buy you a beer.”

“Last of the big spenders.”

We look at each other and smile, and the mood’s lightened again. I need to keep it that way, so she doesn’t suspect the endgame is getting closer. Once the job’s done we can all move forward, even if that means losing Skip. He’s choosing normality over this world, a world full of risk and danger. But maybe I can change that. This club will be mine in a matter of days, and then, I can do what I want with it. I can do what the hell I want…