Five

Sofia

I think it might be time to move offices. Again. I’ve already moved once, from the center of Copenhagen here to Vesterbro, but even though I’m now working out of two rooms above a coffee shop the rent is still proving difficult to cover. I’ve had to let two members of staff go, now it’s just me, one other accountant – Mal – and Alice, an assistant we both share. And I know Mal’s looking for work elsewhere, he thinks I don’t hear him, making calls to different firms across the city. He thinks I don’t catch him updating his resume, asking Alice to help him, give him advice. I know, and I don’t blame him for wanting to get out before this ship sinks, because it’s sinking fast. And as each day goes by I’m finding it harder and harder to hide that fact.

Rushing across Vesterbros Torv I ignore my phone ringing in my pocket. I’m late for an early meeting with my business advisor, and I curse quietly under my breath at the choice of heels I chose to wear today. Too high, they’re not built for running.

“ Shit! ” I mutter as I feel my ankle give way, and I reach out to grab onto something, anything to stop me from falling, thankfully finding the back of a chair outside one of the cafés, saving me from sinking unceremoniously to the ground.

“They make your legs look incredible, but not really practical, huh?”

I look up slowly, my fingers tightening around the back of the chair as my eyes meet those of Skip Larsen. “I told you not to look for me.”

“I don’t take instruction well.”

“Evidently.”

I told him to leave me the hell alone, so why aren’t I more angry that he chose to ignore my request? He found me, and I should be worried about how he managed to do that, how he managed to find me so quickly, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to ask that question. It might be safer if I don’t know the answer.

He looks different today, too. Is this the real Skip Larsen? This man with the unkempt hair and slightly hooded eyes that didn’t seem that way last night. He’s dressed in jeans, battered army boots and a dark shirt, he doesn’t look like the clean-cut man I met. Wanted. I wanted that man, but he wasn’t real.

“I haven’t got time for this. I have a meeting to get to.”

“It’s canceled.”

I glare at him. “I’m sorry…?”

I finally let go of the chair, breathing an inner sigh of relief as my ankle allows me to put weight on it.

“You need my help, Sofia.”

I open my mouth to protest, and then realize it’s a waste of time, because he’s right. I do need help, but his help? I lay awake all last night, going over and over everything in my mind. I sat up until the early hours, looking online for anything I could find on his club, the biker world; this man. And there wasn’t all that much, but what I did find chilled me to the bone, it scared me, I can’t work for people like them. A man like him. I can’t. But maybe he’s the only option I have left. Time’s running out, and I can’t let Ana down. I won’t, let my daughter down. I just can’t quite believe it’s come to this.

“I don’t want your help,” I whisper, and I want to look away but his eyes, they hold my gaze and I can’t break the stare.

“You don’t want it, no, I get that. But needing it, well, that’s another matter.”

I finally turn my head away, stare out at the busy square full of people heading off to work, going about their business. Are their lives as hard as mine? As complicated? As messed-up?

“Yes. I need help,” I murmur. And then I turn back to face him, frowning slightly. “You canceled my meeting? How – how did you even know…?”

“I can find out anything I want to. About anyone.”

Did he mean that to sound quite so menacing? Because it did. His words made my skin prickle, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I really don’t know what I’m doing here. I just know that if I don’t do this – if I don’t take this chance, then I could lose everything. Am I honestly even thinking about taking that risk? If it was just me there’d be no question. Walking away, losing it all, that wouldn’t bother me, if it was just me. But I have Ana to think about. I don’t matter. She does.

“At least let me explain, Sofia. Listen to what I have to say.”

My shoulders sag, I’m defeated. Backed into a corner. And I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, this point in time where I could be about to step into a world I don’t understand… no. That’s not true. I know. I understand all I need to. But I’m desperate.

“Hear me out. Okay?”

“Okay,” I sigh. What choice do I have? Alright, yes, I could still walk away, find another way of dealing with this, maybe bankruptcy is the best way to go. The smartest option. It would force me to make a new start, but it would also force me to tell Ana the real depth of my problems. And this – taking Skip up on this job offer – this won’t? Maybe I can’t shield her forever. Things are changing, they have to. Whether I want them to or not.

Skip

“You’re asking me to do things… Most of this isn’t anywhere close to being legal, Skip. And you’re happy telling me all of this?”

“I trust you.” And I do. Trust her. I barely know her, and I trust her. But she looks scared. There’s a fear in her eyes, because I’ve told her things she can’t forget she heard, not now, which means that, if she walks away from this, she’s in more danger than if she comes with me. To the club. Walking away, with the information I’ve just given her; knowledge of the tasks she’d be expected to carry out, everything she’s now privy to, we don’t let people do that. We don’t let them just walk away. She’s still a stranger, to all intents and purposes, albeit a stranger I really do feel like I can trust. But I’m listening to my gut here, and it’s never let me down yet.

“I still don’t understand why you’re so desperate to help me.”

“Because I want to sleep with you.”

My bluntness shocks her, she visibly flinches in her seat, but her expression doesn’t waver. She’s got one damn impressive poker face.

“So, say that happens: you get to sleep with me. Once you’ve done that, what if you suddenly decide you don’t want me around after all? What if, all of a sudden, you decide that giving me a job was a bad move, and the sex was okay, but, employing me…? I don’t trust you , Skip. Not yet.”

“Sex is gonna be a whole lot better than okay, I can guarantee that.” I raise an eyebrow: throw her one of my best grins, but she’s not loving the flippancy.

“I don’t trust you.”

“You need time. I get that.”

She stares at me, right into my eyes, and there’s something there, some glimmer of hope that she’s about to accept my offer. Or maybe I’m just willing it to be there.

“I’m almost at the end of the line here, Skip. I don’t have time for games.”

“Believe me, Sofia, I’m not playing any. I don’t do that, I don’t fuck about, I tell it straight.”

Her eyes remain fixed on mine, she’s staring me down, and the more I look at her, the more I want her. She’s different; vulnerable, even though I would never tell her that. She’s been hurt, but she’s a fighter, she’s beautiful and tough and I fucking want her. And I know the sex is going to be way better than okay.

“Yes. You certainly do that.”

“Come with me, to the clubhouse. See what we do, who we are, then make your decision. How does that sound?”

But she really has no choice. She has to take this job, she’s crossed that line now. She knows too much, she can’t just walk away from this, I won’t let her. But I don’t think I’m going to have much of a fight on my hands. She’s going to take the job.

“You want to sleep with me.”

She isn’t asking a question, she’s stating a fact.

“Yes, I do. You want to let me know how you feel about that arrangement?”

Her eyes burn into mine, and it’s there, that spark, that glimmer, she wants me. She’s just too stubborn to let herself admit it. And then she drops her gaze, starts twisting her coffee mug round and around on the table. “Have you been a biker all your life?”

I wait until she looks back up before I answer. “For all of my adult life, yes. My father was a biker, for a while. Before he met my mother. He left it all behind for love.”

“Is that something you’d ever do?”

Her eyes lock on mine and I hold her gaze. “No.”

She smiles slightly, but gives nothing away. “What made you gravitate toward this world?”

“I was seventeen when my parents decided to move back to Sweden, but I was settled here, in Denmark. It was my home. So, I stayed. And I guess you could say I fell in with the wrong crowd, but the Vikings, they gave me something to focus on.”

“Your club, it’s been involved in murders–”

“Allegedly. Nobody was ever charged. Nobody ever did time, not for killing anyone.”

“And that makes it okay, does it? That, just because nothing could be proved–”

“You’ve been doing your homework.”

“I felt it necessary.”

“You shouldn’t believe everything you read.”

“It can’t all be lies.”

I laugh, briefly turning my head away, she’s a challenge. I like that. “We look after those we care about, Sofia, and we take care of those who threaten us, we don’t hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it. And we never let innocent people get in the way.”

“And I should feel better for knowing that, right?”

“Yes. You should. Because the second you walk into my club you become one of us. You’re protected.”

“As long as I play by the rules.”

“That’s a given.”

She waits a beat or two before she speaks again, and the air, man, the intensity is fucking suffocating!

“I want to trust you, Skip.”

“I know.”

She’s torn, I can see it all over her face. Part of her wants to do this, while another part is screaming at her to run, which she can’t do, of course. It’s too late to run. But she isn’t going to. I know which part of her will win out. And I’m never wrong.