“There has to be something.”
“There isn’t.” Every situation we’ve been caught in hasn’t directly involved either of us. “Not since, well, not since that one time at The Bar when we were being shot at.”
“Who was shooting at you?”
“The King Street Boys.”
Kelly steps back, my response a shock. “Babe, fuck. That’s the biggest gang in Melbourne. What were they doin’ shootin’ at you?” Then his blue eyes flare with horror. “Oh shit.”
“What?”
“Jonah,” he breathes.
“Jonah?”
“Jake Romero is Jonah, isn’t he? I fuckin’ knew he looked familiar. He ran with Fox back in the day. He’s a member of the King Street Boys.”
“Was,” I correct.
“Is,” Kelly disputes with a harsh word. “Once you’re in, you’re never out. They own you.”
“You’re wrong. Jake got out. He’s out.”
Kelly shakes his head as he tugs his phone from his back pocket. “Babe, don’t like repeatin’ myself. Jake is not out,” he says as he dials. “He might think he is, but the King Street Boys never forget.”
Someone answers on the other end.
“Fox,” Kelly barks into the phone. “Need you.” He rattles off our approximate location without waiting for a response and hangs up.
“That’s your big plan? Luke Fox to the rescue?” I huff and stalk around to the driver’s side of Jake’s Charger. “What, do you think—” I break off as I bend, looking again through the car window. The keys. They’re right there, dangling in the ignition. I straighten quickly, looking at Kelly over the roof of the car. “You think Fox might have some idea of where Jake is?”
Kelly’s massive hands come to rest on his hips. He has his mean face on, the kind designed to scare the big bad bogeyman in the dead of night. “Oh, he’ll know.”
“So why does he have to come all the way here? Ask him now.” My voice rises from frustration when Kelly starts shaking his head. If I can just get an idea of where he is, I can get in Jake’s car and drive there right now. “Just get Luke back on the phone and fucking ask him, you fucking asshead!”
“Cool it, Yosemite Sam,” he says and my eyes narrow. “You do realise you’re pregnant, don’t you?” It’s all I can do not to rip the side mirror from Jake’s precious car and peg it at Kelly’s head. “That thing can hear every word you say.”
“Thing?” My voice is a shriek and his brow lifts. “Thing? I’m not giving birth to an alien!”
He has the audacity to appear dubious. “I’ll guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
My hands curl around the side mirror. “Just call Fox,” I command with gritted teeth. “Now.”
“Babe,” he begins.
My eyes narrow.
“Fuck’s sake,” he mutters with an eye roll. “Fox is going to tell me where Jake is and then he’s going to take you home.”
My instinct is to protest with a tantrum so wild you could see it from space, but I lock it down, eyes flicking to the dangling keys in the Charger. I look up quickly, meeting Kelly’s piercing blue gaze as I find my calm. “You’re right,” I concede. “I’ll go with Luke. I need to think of the baby.”
He nods as if there’s no doubt he was ever wrong. Conceited tool. If he knew me as well as everyone else did, he wouldn’t believe a word I just said. But he doesn’t. More fool him.
“Come stand over here,” he orders, nodding beside him. Traffic is starting to build on the motorway but it’s still light. It’s Sunday. The usual early morning commuters are fast asleep, appreciating another day off, while I stand here on the roadside, tired, frustrated, scared, and about as pregnant as a girl can get.
It grates to do what Kelly says, but I do it. I might not know him all that well but if he’s anything like Casey, he’ll likely come over and drag me back where it’s safer. And if he does that he’ll see the keys and take them and that can’t happen.
Kelly is leaning against the concrete barrier, eyes cold and focused toward the oncoming traffic. I can literally see his mind ticking over. I reach his side and follow suit, leaning against the same barrier beside him and fold my arms. “The King Street Boys have him.”
It’s more a statement than a question, yet he answers regardless. “Yes.”
“What are they going to do to him?” I don’t want to know the answer, but it’s a question that needs to be asked. I need to be prepared. To know what I’ll be walking into.
“If he refuses to go back? They’ll kill him.”
Jake won’t go back. I know him better than anyone. He would rather die. “We’re wasting time. Standing around waiting isn’t helping him.”
“Wrong. It’s keeping you safe. And right now that’s what Jake would want above all else.”
Damn the man. He’s just like his brother.
Ten minutes later, Luke comes thundering down the motorway. The rumble of his engine roars to a crescendo as he pulls over, directly behind Kelly’s bike. He yanks out his keys, pockets them, and rips the helmet from his head, revealing mussed hair and grim eyes. “I already know,” he says before either of us can say a word.
“Leander?”
Luke’s answer is a harsh nod.
“Where is he?” Kelly barks.
With them both distracted, I start inching back to the Charger, my ears cocked for the location as my booted feet fall slowly on loose gravel.
“Somewhere along the Dockside Wharf,” he answers as I reach the car door. Almost there.
“You need to take Mac—” Kelly breaks off. He’s seen me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doin’?”
“I’m—”
“No.”
“You can’t—”
His arms fold across a chest as vast and as rippled as the ocean. “I can.”
“Screw you,” I hiss and grab for the handle. I’m inside with the engine growling to life before he can get around the back of the car. The car tears off on to the road before I even pull the door shut. Gravel and dust flick out behind me. The back tyres spin under the wild acceleration and rubber burns, leaving behind a cloud of smoke that envelops both Kelly and Luke. It clears in a heartbeat as I slam the car door closed and risk a glance in the rearview mirror. They’re not wasting time; both are already swinging legs over their Harleys.
I plant my foot, eyes searching for the next upcoming exit. The Dockside Wharf is back in Sydney. I need to get off this motorway and re-enter on the other side, heading north.
MITCH VALENTINE
I tug the radio from the loop in my belt and speak into it with a low voice. “Is everyone in position?”