Seven

Sofia

D ays out with my daughter are rare. She’s a busy girl, she has a business to run, a business that isn’t failing, unlike mine. Which is why I no longer work for myself. I closed my business down a few weeks ago, something I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to do, but circumstances saw otherwise. I’m now attached to an outlaw biker club, charged with making their money laundering look legitimate. I could go to jail, I could lose everything anyway, despite me making this choice in order to try and save it all, and that thought still keeps me awake every night: every second of every day I’m wondering if I’ve done the right thing. And then I realize I have no choice. I’m all in, there’s no going back, no changing my mind. I can’t walk away now. I’m trapped.

But today – today is all about forgetting my new, somewhat surreal situation, and enjoying time with Ana. The sun’s shining, it’s warm and bright and we’re heading into Frederiksberg for some lunch and a look around the shops. Ana’s singing along to a playlist she’s created for me, and as I quickly glance at her, my heart breaks because I had to tell her things I never wanted her to know: it breaks for the worry she’ll now take on board, because she will, worry. She just won’t let me see it. And that breaks my heart even more.

“Is that your phone?”

“Hmm…?” I look down at my phone lying screen-up in the center console. “Shit!” Skip’s name is flashing up. “I’ll have to take this.”

I pull over and listen to what Skip has to say. He needs me to come to the compound, now, and as much as I want to ignore his request, I’m not really in a position to do that.

“Something up?” Ana asks, her expression slightly concerned.

“I just need to make a quick detour, to the Vikings’ compound. Skip wants a word, that’s all. It shouldn’t take long.”

“He couldn’t do it over the phone?”

“Apparently not.”

“Okay, well, let’s go.”

I look at my daughter. My beautiful, kind, free-spirited daughter, and I can’t stop a wave of fear rushing over me. She was never supposed to go anywhere near that compound; that club. That world, and her world, they stay separate. That’s the deal I’ve made with myself. She isn’t getting involved in this, any of it.

“When we get to the compound, you stay in the car. Do you hear me, Ana?”

“You do know how old I am, right?”

“It’s be cause I know how old you are that I want you to stay in the car.” She needs to realize I’m serious here. She needs to do that. “I mean it, Ana. You stay in the car.”

“Okay.” She turns her head and stares out of the window and I can’t help but regret the dangerous decision I’ve made now. But I can’t back out, it’s too late.

I have to trust Skip Larsen. And hope he’s a man who keeps his promises.

Skip

I lean back against the wall outside the clubhouse and watch Kasper and Kai working on a Harley we’re doing up for a business associate of mine, Killen Hunter. A big-time drug- dealing scumbag who runs various parts of the city from his huge, somewhat garish house just outside of N?rrebro. We do him a lot of favors, and in return he allows us to work his territory, for a cut of the profits. It’s the kind of business deal I like, and Killen’s never given us any shit. I’m making sure it stays that way.

“Is it always this quiet around here?”

I look up as Rik Nilsen approaches, pulling his cap down over his eyes.

“What can we do for you, Superintendent?”

“Just doing my rounds.”

“Bit beneath your rank, isn’t it? Babysitting the bikers?” I light up a cigarette and offer him one. He declines.

“You know why I’m here, Skip.”

I raise an eyebrow, and shrug. I have no idea why he’s here.

He leans in closer to me, takes off his cap and tucks it under his arm. “I’m on your payroll because you made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I’m greedy, I’ll admit that, I won’t settle until I’m Chief Constable, so we’re gonna help each other out. Okay?”

“Not sure that’s how it works, Rik.”

“You think there’s something going on with The Blackhawks, right? Involving a shipment of illegal weapons into the country?”

“Not sure. We’re keeping eyes on them, but so far they’re giving us nothing.”

“That you can see.”

“Obviously.”

“Well, we think they might be involved with an arms dealer called Gil Jessen. You know him?”

I shrug again and take another drag on my cigarette. “Heard of him. We’ve never had any dealings with him.”

Rik narrows his eyes as he stares me down. This lawman better not prove to be a problem, ’cause I don’t take too kindly to being dictated to. He’s on my property, things are on my terms here.

“You haven’t?”

“You accusing me of lying?”

Rik takes a couple of steps back: puts his cap back on. “If we can prove they’re involved, in any way, with a major illegal weapons deal concerning Gil and his crew, we can bring that club down, which will only be beneficial to you. It would give you more territory. More business.”

“You really think you can shut the Hawks down?”

“We can try.”

“With our help?”

“Yes. With your help. Your clubs have history, everyone knows that. You’d both rather the other didn’t exist so, let’s try to make something happen. Something that benefits both you, and I.”

“You want us to help you bring down The Blackhawks?” I stub my cigarette out on the wall behind me. “Yeah. I don’t know. We’re fighting a continuous war with those assholes, and I can’t say I’d rather not have to waste energy on their crap…” I shake my head, “but working with the police…”

“You’re working with me . Nobody else will have any idea you’re involved.”

“We do all the work and you take the credit, huh?”

“Would you rather we brought the Vikings down, too?”

“You’re way too full of it, Rik. You need to know where that line is, and stay behind it. And that’s not a threat, it’s just a friendly word of advice: a little nudge to remind you of the rules here. We’re paying you a lot of money to make sure our backs are covered, so, let’s just say that we’ll continue to keep eyes on the Hawks. We’ll carry on doing what we do, and you stick to making sure we’re not prevented from doing that. You understand me?” I don’t break the stare. I think he gets it. Now. “You’ve never worked with men like us before, Superintendent. Have you?” He stays silent, but his expression says it all. “You’ll learn.” I leave him standing there: go back inside, and he won’t follow. He knows, now, who’s pulling the strings. “Hey. Where’s Joel?” I ask Wade as he chalks the tip of his pool cue.

“Out back,” Wade replies, not looking at me as he leans over the pool table to take a shot. “Do you need him for something?”

“Not yet.” I head into one of the rooms at the back of the clubhouse, the ones we use to crash in, when need be. Live in, if necessary. And as I look out of the window I catch sight of Sofia walking in through the open gate. Dressed in jeans, a white shirt and Converse, her long blonde hair pulled back off her face in a loose ponytail she’s catching the attention of every brother who’s out there in the compound, but she’s ignoring the comments they’re throwing at her. Fucking animals. Any one of them touches her and I’ll cut their fucking balls off with a rusty knife.

I turn around and lean back against the window-ledge: take a couple of deep breaths and close my eyes. I don’t need a word with her, I lied. I just wanted to get her here, to see her. Test her? Maybe. But she passed. She’s here, isn’t she? She knows the rules. She’s a good girl.

A rap on the door causes my eyes to spring open. “Come in.”

She walks into the room, although, not too far in, and I notice she doesn’t close the door behind her. “Is this important, Skip? Only, I’m supposed to be spending the day with Ana.”

“I just wanted to catch up with you. Make sure everything’s okay, with the new office.”

“It’s a room above a piercing studio. It’s fine. You couldn’t have done this over the phone?”

I move toward her, and she doesn’t back away. That tells me something: tells me she feels safe, being here with me. “I wanted to see you. In person.”

“And I want to spend the day with my daughter. So, are we done here? I’d prefer not to waste any more time.”

“Close the door.”

She looks at me, crossing her arms over her chest. “Skip, can I just go? Please? I’ve got no idea why you made me come here…”

I slide a hand around the back of her neck, lower my mouth down onto hers, I kiss her. And she’s all in, for the briefest of seconds before she pushes me away. She tries to back out of the door but I’ve already kicked it shut; blocked her escape, man, she’s fucking angry now.

“Let me out,” she hisses under her breath, but I shake my head, and she’ll be scared, for a second, until I touch her again. And I’m going to touch her again. I’ve been touching her, in ways she can’t get enough of, for weeks. This resistance she’s putting up now? I’m not buying it.

“I needed to see you, Sofia.”

“And I need to be with my daughter. So, this – not now, Skip, okay? Not today.”

I reach out and take her hand, I grip it so tight there’s no way she’ll be able to wrench it free, and I pull her against me. I kiss her again. I tilt her head right back and rest my mouth against the base of her throat, my hand on the small of her back, and she doesn’t make any attempt to escape. Not this time. There’s no fight, she’s giving in, I can feel her weakening in my arms because she always does. Always. She falls against me and I kiss her harder, feel her respond, alright, maybe sex is off the table right now, but she doesn’t get to go until I’m done with her.

“You finished?” she whispers, resting her forehead against mine, her fingers playing with the hair at the back of my neck.

“Yeah. You can go now.” I smile, she returns it, and I let her go.

I want that woman with every beat of my fucked-up heart, and she’s in my world now. Right where I want her to be, and I don’t mean that in a sinister way. My father loved my mother so much he left the world he really wanted to live in behind to be with her. It’s just that, I don’t intend to do that. I intend to make Sofia love me so much that she’s willing to leave her world behind to live in mine. Permanently. And she will. One day…

Joel

“Want a game?” Wade asks, tossing a pool cue at me. “I’ve just kicked Jep’s ass, you want to try your luck?”

“Make you proud, does it? Kicking a prospect’s ass?”

“That’s what they’re here for, right?”

I toss the pool cue back at him. “You’re not kicking mine.”

“You worried, huh?”

“I could beat you blindfolded, Wade, I’d just hate to humiliate you… Jesus! What the fuck have we got here?”

Everyone’s attention is suddenly diverted to the clubhouse entrance as a young woman with long, silver-blonde hair and the face of a goddamn real-life angel walks inside. Dressed in skinny black jeans and a dark gray T-shirt she quite obviously doesn’t belong here, and our club girls, man, if looks could kill…

Wade whistles out loud, leaning back against the pool table as she stops by the bar and takes a look around. And her face, she’s nervous. Understandably so, this obviously isn’t her regular kind of hang-out. And I’m about to go and ask her who she is, and why she’s wandered into our clubhouse, but Kasper gets to her first, closely followed by Kai, but that’s no surprise. He can sniff out the pretty ones a fucking mile off, but she doesn’t seem to be reciprocating the attention. She seems more interested in Kasper.

“Has she just blanked Kai?” Wade crosses his arms and smirks. It doesn’t happen very often, women ignoring Kai. “Not the Swedish stud you thought you were, huh?” he shouts over at Kai, who flips him the finger and heads behind the bar.

And that exchange, it causes this pretty stranger to turn her head in our direction, and I get a chance to look at her head-on. She’s young. Very young, and those eyes, man, even from back here I can see how blue they are. She’s fucking stunning, but that’s all I get. A brief glance, not even a smile, she’s throwing all that at Kasper. She likes a bad boy, that’s obvious, but I’m guessing the kind of bad boys a girl like her has had contact with are nothing like us. Which makes me even more curious as to why she’s here.

“Ana?”

I turn around to see Sofia coming out from the back of the clubhouse, closely followed by Skip. She knows this kid?

“Ana! What are you doing in here? I told you to stay in the car.”

Ana.

Sofia’s kid?

“This is Ana?” Skip asks, as Sofia makes a beeline toward the girl.

“Yes, this is Ana.”

Sofia takes a deep breath, it’s quite obvious she didn’t want her daughter anywhere near us. This place. Can’t say I blame her, but I like the fact the kid has a mind of her own.

“And we should be going. Come on, Ana.”

I watch as Ana and Kasper exchange a look: as she slips him what looks like a scrap of paper – her number, maybe? – before she follows her mother out of the clubhouse. I head over to Skip.

“Everything okay, boss?”

“Everything’s fine. Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

We head outside, across the compound to the row of bikes parked out front of the workshop.

“She really didn’t want her kid anywhere near us, huh?”

Skip follows my gaze. Sofia’s still talking to her daughter, and from her body language it’s obvious she isn’t happy.

“Yeah, well, would you want a daughter of yours mixing with bastards like us?” Skip smirks as he pulls on his helmet and kicks his bike into action.

I climb onto mine, grabbing the handles as I take another glance over at the fraught mother/daughter exchange still going on by the roadside. I watch as Sofia strides around the car and climbs into the driver’s seat: watch as Ana looks over, catches my eye, and this time – this time she allows the glance to linger, throwing me a smile before she finally gets into the car.

She could be trouble.

Nothing nobody here can’t handle.

Sofia

“Jesus, Ana, what did I tell you?”

“I was curious, that’s all. And they seem fine to me.”

“Do you have any idea how na?ve that sounds? And you aren’t stupid, you know those men in there aren’t people you want to be mixing with. You stay away from them. I’m serious, Ana. You don’t go near that place again.”

I don’t want this to ruin my day with my daughter, and I don’t want to let myself become distracted by what happened in there. When Skip touches me he changes me, and I let him do that because I like it. What the hell am I playing at? I’m telling Ana to stay away, to never get involved with any of those men and yet, I’m sleeping with one of them. I’ve been sleeping with Skip for weeks now, seeking some kind of messed-up escape because he makes me feel alive. But I think I need to end it. I need to take a step back, for Ana’s sake. Seeing her in there, amongst those men, it’s shaken me. I don’t want her anywhere near them, or that place, that scares the hell out of me. I can handle it; handle them. I’m not sure she could. And I know she isn’t a child, she’s a sensible young woman, most of the time. Until it comes to men, that’s when she weakens. When common sense can fly out of the window. Like mother, like daughter…?

“I’m sorry, okay?”

Ana’s voice shakes me from those thoughts, and I smile at her. It’s alright. I’ll sort this. Everything’s going to be fine. “Has your curiosity been satisfied now?”

She throws me a small smile back. “I don’t know what I was expecting. It was a bit like a seedy, run-down dive bar, to be honest.”

She’s got that right. The clubhouse smells of stale beer, cigarette smoke and bad cologne: it’s dark and loud and it carries the kind of atmosphere I really don’t want my daughter to be a part of.

“Stick with your regular haunts in Vesterbro, kiddo. Much nicer. Much safer.”

“I’m not a child, Mama. I can make my own decisions.”

My fingers grip the steering wheel tighter as we put more and more distance between us and the club. A place I’m scared could now have a much bigger impact on the life I’m trying to save. The daughter I’m trying to protect.

Who’s going to protect me ? From the man who’s promised to save me…