Declan (9 page)

I don’t recognise the bed I’m in when I wake, but I do know the feel of the body that has me wrapped in its warm embrace.

I smile as I allow the memories of last night to come back. The sex was amazing. I’m surprised by how refreshed I feel considering the lack of sleep that we had. Then again, I do seem to recall falling asleep on Declan on the sofa not long after I arrived.

I’m not sure what woke me, when I hear the noise again. It’s a quiet beep of an alarm. I strain to see the time on the clock at the side of the bed and groan when it’s only 6am.

“I’m sorry.” I hear Declan apologise. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” He leans over and kisses me gently. “I’ve got to go to Melbourne for a meeting this morning and needed the early start.”

Holly looks at me in shock. “You’re driving to Melbourne? But that’s a five hour drive!” She exclaims. “When will you be back?”

“I’m hoping to get there, have this meeting and come straight back.” I offer. “I can’t cancel the meeting, it’s too important. I’m sorry.” Right now the last thing I want is a five-hour ride on the bike, but Chris has information he can only share face to face so I don’t have a choice. I’d much rather spend the day in bed with Holly and tell her so.

“I’d rather spend the day in bed with you too.” She grins. “I should go to the hospital I guess, sit with my Aunt for a bit.”

While we’re talking she’s been checking her phone. She looks up at me. “No news is good news, right?”

What do I tell her? No news is sometimes bad news. I don’t want to take the smile from her face though.

“Yep, if there was bad news you’d have heard by now. Cowboy says your Uncle’s a fighter. I’m sure he’ll pull through.”

“Will you be back for the funeral?” I don’t understand what she’s asking me for a moment, her Uncle’s still in intensive care. She sees the confusion on my face. “Scalp’s funeral.” She explains. “He was the president of Carnal MC that died. It’s tomorrow.”

“That’s a bit quick isn’t it?” I’m used to the long drawn out delay of military funerals.

“Maggie his wife wanted it done quickly. All his family are here so there was no reason to delay and prolong her grief.” I’m about to say I didn’t know the man when she stops me. “I know what you’re going to say, you didn’t know him. But I’d like you to be there for me.” She gives me a small smile. “If you can. It doesn’t matter if you can’t get back though. I understand.”

The chances of me making it back for the funeral are slim. I’ve barely slept and have a long ride ahead of me. I’d have to turn straight back round when I get to Melbourne to have any chance of getting back here in time.

“I’ll try.” I promise her. We both know it’s probably an empty promise though.

Declan insisted on making sure I made it back to the clubhouse, delaying the start of his journey. I’m being unrealistic hoping that he’ll make it back for Scalp’s funeral, and selfish. I just know that if he’s beside me it will be a lot easier to handle.

I can’t help but think back to the last funeral. Watching those two coffins beside each other in the church almost broke me. As sad as any funeral is, tomorrow is going to be a lot worse because of the memories it will bring back.

When I step back in the clubhouse Eve is waiting for me. The guys haven’t noticed I’ve been gone all night but she has.

“Were you with him?” She asks quietly, careful not to draw attention to us.

I nod. She pulls me into a hug. “I’m glad you weren’t alone.”

“Is there any news from the hospital?” I ask. I’m starting to feel guilty for spending the night with Declan when I should have been here.

“No change.” Eve looks sad. “But no news is good news, right?”

“No news is good news.” I repeat, smiling wanly back at her.

With our arms wrapped around each other we head off to the kitchen to make a start on breakfast for everyone.

It’s late afternoon by the time I reach Chris’s office in Melbourne. I ache everywhere, and I’m tired, so very tired.

Chris greets me warmly as he ushers me into his office. The private sector obviously pays well as it’s lushly appointed, all highly polished mahogany and leather upholstery.

I’m grateful when Chris suggests we sit on one of the sofas at the back of the room, and his secretary brings us some freshly brewed coffee.

“How are you doing, Declan?” Chris asks. “I heard about Max, I’m sorry.” He sounds genuine, not just the platitudes people come out with when they hear you’ve lost someone close to you. Chris met Max on a couple of occasions, I think they might have been poker games if memory serves, and I also think that Chris might have been on the losing end of Max’s lucky streak.

“I’m okay.” I shrug. “I’m getting too old for all this shit.” I’m not thirty yet, so why do I feel so old?

“It’s a different pace out in civilian life.” Chris tells me. “It takes some getting used to, but you’ll get there.”

“I look forward to it.” I take a welcome mouthful of the hot coffee, savouring it. It’s just what I needed.

We spend a few minutes talking about mutual acquaintances and the state of the economy before Chris brings us back on track.

“What the hell have you landed yourself in the middle of Declan? This is some serious shit.”

“I was hoping you could tell me.” I laugh, but there’s not much humour in it. It’s more to try and defuse the tension that is building in the room.

“How did you end up in Severed anyway? Last I heard you lived in Perth?” I fill Chris in on my road trip with Cam and my impulsive decision to buy the pub.

“I loved it because it seemed such a peaceful place.” I say ruefully.

“You landed in the middle of a disaster zone.” Chris is serious now. “From what I can gather this is a new gang that’s trying to establish a name for themselves on the drug scene. They’re well financed, well armed and they’re starting out in the smaller towns and looking to build up the trade until they’re in a strong enough position to take on the big guys in Melbourne.”

“Where’s the money coming from?” I want to know who’s backing this shit.

“They’re pretty much self financed through a protection racket, but I think they may have recently got some additional funding and firepower from one of the South American dealers.”

That’s not good news. If the South Americans are involved then it’s going to get dirty, violent and deadly that’s for sure.

“Shit. Why couldn’t I have bought a pub in a quiet little town?” I shrug.

“Because trouble follows you old man.” Chris smiles and passes over a file. “What’s in here can’t leave this office, I’m not even supposed to be showing you it.”

I scan the contents of the file. There are photos of the main gang members in there along with their criminal histories. They’ve all progressed from petty street crime to harder stuff, most of them have done time, but not as much as they should have which tells me that they’ve got a good lawyer on their side.

“They’ve not done much time between them have they?” I show Chris the sheet showing time served.

“No. That tells me they’re unlikely to do much time even if we catch them red handed. Someone somewhere is getting paid too much money to keep them out of jail.” Chris shrugs his shoulders in defeat.

We’ve been here before. This is the sort of situation we’re used to going in and dealing with, covertly. We’ve seen some shit in our time, and not of our successful missions have been acknowledged, as we shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

“We’re going to have to deal with this ourselves, aren’t we?” I look over the information in front of me, mentally calculating the manpower and resources that I’m going to need, and working out how many favours I can call in to accomplish it.

“I haven’t got the manpower to spare right now.” Chris apologises. “But I have got the firepower. I’ll happily lend you that.”

We need to know more information before we can come up with a strategy, the most important being the location. We also need to work out how far up the chain we need to go to ensure that this problem doesn’t come back to Severed.

We discuss several scenarios, but until we have that last bit of Intel it’s all theory and speculation.

It’s the early hours of the morning before we put the file away back in Chris’s safe. I’m not allowed to take copies of anything that I’ve seen so we’ve made sure I’ve memorised the important facts and faces.

Chris insists that I go back to his place and crash in his spare room. Crash seems to be an appropriate word, as no sooner has my head hit the pillow than I’m asleep.

Sleep isn’t my friend this evening though. I’ve barely slept a few hours when Chris is shaking me awake.

“Fucking hell, Declan.” He looks white. “That was some fucking nightmare.” Chris tells me he heard my screams from the other side of his apartment. He also shows me the marks on his neck where I tried to strangle him when he came to wake me.

Shit. I can’t do this. I realise that I can’t sleep with Holly again in case I hurt her. The two nights I’ve been with her have been nightmare free, as has most of my time in Severed. It’s not a risk I dare take though. I can’t hurt this girl, she’s becoming too important to me.

How the hell am I going to explain that to her?

Chris leaves the door into the hallway open so he can hear me if I cry out again. He doesn’t need to. After the nightmare I just woke from I can’t get back to sleep. I can’t remember what it was about, just the feeling of terror followed by knowing I had to kill the person in front of me. It was them or me; life or death.

I’m a fucking ex special military soldier and I’m scared of sleep. Instead I lay awake and stare at the ceiling for the rest of the night.

I’ve got to get over this shit. War is about to descend on Severed and right now it looks like I’m the only hope they have.

We’re fucked.

We head back into the city to Chris’s office; on the way he takes a detour to a warehouse that his company owns. When we get past the security at the gate and enter the building I let out a long breath. This place is like a military supermarket.

I look around at the crates of firepower, ammunition, tactical equipment and vehicles. It’s like the set of some high action movie for fucks sake.

“What the fuck?” My jaw is literally hanging open; even in the military I never saw equipment of this quality in these quantities.

“What can I say?” Chris grins widely. “There’s a lot more money in the private sector.”

I look in a crate and pick up what I know to be the newest night vision goggles on the market. “But how?” I turn them over in my hand. “I didn’t think these babies were even available yet?”

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” Chris smirks. He’s always loved that cheesy line. “Seriously, I have excellent contacts and clients who expect the best of everything.” His voice resonates pride when he talks.

“Chris?” I don’t want to ask the question, but I need to know the answer now before I get in too deeply. “Just who do you work for?”

Chris could be affronted by my question; thankfully he’s not. “You know I can’t tell you that, Declan. What I can tell you is that I don’t work for the bad guys. Right now, that’s all I can say. I’m not helping you fight this little drug war of yours to benefit any of my clients. I need you to trust me on this.”

I look Chris in the eyes and see the truth behind them. I let out a huge sigh of relief.

I’m still blown away by the stuff that Chris has in this warehouse. It’s like a soldiers dream.

“Why did you bring me here?” I look around me, wishing I’d had some of this equipment back in Afghanistan.

“Because if you’re going to take these guys on, you need to be prepared. I figure if you know what equipment I’ve got access to then you can write me a shopping list.” Chris gestures at the crates surrounding us.

“I can’t afford this stuff, Chris. I sank everything into the pub. Best I can manage is probably some combat rifles with the change I’ve got left in the bank.”

“I don’t want your money, Declan. I owe you. Consider this my way of repaying the debt.” I blink in confusion, unsure how Chris thinks he owes me.

He sees my uncertainty and reminds me of a mission we were on together several years ago. I’d forgotten about it. Chris got caught behind enemy lines and I’d been the one they sent in to retrieve him. He sees it as saving his life from some bad ass motherfuckers; I just see it as another day on the job, nothing special.

“But…” I start.

“Shit, but nothing, Declan. Man, you saved my life that day. I consider it a debt, so do me a favour and let me repay you.” He looks so earnest.

“Well, it would be rude not to I guess.” I laugh.

“Great, have a look round then we’ll head back to the office and write you up a shopping list.” Chris gestures around the large warehouse.

I’m grinning wildly as I head off to inspect the contents of the nearest crates. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning!