Page 38 of Drift

Gray went to say something, but a car pulling into the car park drew them apart, and Jack was back to watching it too.

“Go on. Watch your suit. Go look after Jan and Monique.” Jack winked at him. “Big bloke here. I can handle this.”

Gray cocked half a smile. “Never usually bothers you over grease on my suit or me handling you.”

Jack tutted. “Just keeping it family-friendly and clean, guv’na.” Another wink. “There’s no alley around to go Public Indecency Offence and you get me in cuffs over it. Bloody shame, that.”

Gray laughed and looked him up and down, so damn tempted. Jack needed cuffing and curbing at the best of times just to keep him… focused in the right ways. “Give me a call with all the details once you’re done.”

“Will do. Butyou’llhandle this how?”

Gray glanced back at Jack, a little caught out with the explicit ask. Jack didn’t do that. “Normal channels.” His smile fell. “My way.”

Jack nodded, and his smile fell too. “Make it hurt. Because this is close, far too close to fucking home andhim.”

Gray nodded. That was more like Jack. He headed back to the car, throwing a glance Jack’s way before climbing in his Mercedes.

Talk stopped behind him, and Jan looked up. “Just give me a moment,” he said before pushing out and running the phone over to Jack. Something was said, a kiss stolen, mostly Jack’s, and his extra hard hold onto Jan that seemed to carry a quieter sorry over leaving him on the roadside held Gray’s attention.

Jan jogged back over a moment later and slipped in the front passenger seat. “All good,” he said, snapping his belt into place. “I double-checked he added all yours in right too. Jack and tech despite him being a mechanic, eh?”

“Thank you.” Gray shifted into gear and snorted a smile as he pulled away. “Shouldn’t take us long,” he said as he turned into the road. “About twenty minutes.”

It took Gray fifteen minutes with the light traffic, and he pulled to a stop in the MC carpark after security allowed him in.

Monique had gotten a call a few moments ago that Shaun needed to see her, and she sighed as she slipped her phone away before getting out and offering over a smile. “Thank you, Mr… erm.” She blushed. “Gray.”

“Anytime.” He meant that today, especially knowing what she was about to walk in to.

After slipping her bag over her shoulder, she headed over to reception. Gray gave Jan a look when he didn’t take off his belt, just sat there, staring out the window once he’d finished messing with his suitcase.

Gray kept focus on the window ahead. “I think you need to be in there with her, Jan.”

Jan didn’t take the hint, only sent a look Gray’s way. “You gonna tell me why you were at home?”

Gray frowned.

“You said business, then contradicted it by saying you were on your break.” His smile was so soft. “And trust me, this really isn’t the time for your double love of sophistry. Something’s bothering you to get you home early from… Nottingham business.”

Gray stared out the window again. “I was done in Nottingham, nothing more.”

Jan stayed on him for a few seconds, then—“Okay.” He pulled out Gray’s phone and offered it over.

“You’re doing what now, Jan?”

“Playing the privileged card.” He tapped the phone. “Make the call. Get me the last few hours out onbusinesswith you. I’ll catch up at home tonight with work.” He gave a rough sigh. “It should also give Chris and Ben something to really cry about to Jill, arseholes that they are. But you talk to me now. I think you need to. You’ve been a little lost over the last few months.”

Gray frowned, then eventually took the phone and made the call, occasionally flicking a hard look back at the MC’s account’s building: to the line of cars and licence plates. Chris’s and Ben’s hid among there somewhere, but that wasn’t his focus. Not just yet. He couldn’t tell Jan about Jason, not before Shaun had spoken to Monique. Too many questions would be raised, so that only left… Jude. And yeah, it more than troubled him.

He brought up Martin’s list on his own iPad, then offered it over to Jan. “Martin handed me that just before we lost him.”

Jan frowned at him, then ran a look over it.

“Women?” He glanced at Gray. “Those he slept with? Why…?” He seemed to work it out so quickly, but then that was Jan once he’d been given some of the jigsaw pieces. “He handed you this during all the trouble with Light.”

Gray nodded. “I thought it was just a distraction tactic to stop me and Light going head-to-head.”

“But women… kids.” Jan’s look went back to the list. “You found something?”

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