Page 39 of Drift

Gray offered a sigh. “A boy.”

“Aboy?” Jan snapped a look to Gray, then back to the iPad. “Where…?” He quickly scrolled down the list. “What’s his name? How old is he? Do you have a picture?”

Gray brought up the image of Jude playing with the black Labrador in the back garden.

“Jesus.” Jan swiped a thumb over the image. He seemed to try and fail so quickly over guessing who Jude looked like more: Jack or Martin.

Knowing this was going to hurt, he brought up part of the file Ray had given him: the Newspaper heading, and Jan’s mood changed instantly.

“Abin?” That life of a council kid living off scraps of food out of rubbish bags seemed to resonate so damn angrily with a baby being left in a bin. “He was dumped in a fuckingbin?” Jan flicked through the rest of the file. “Is Jude alive?”

“We don’t know,” Gray said quietly. “He was eight years old when he ran, and there’s been nothing since. No NHS number, no driving licence, no National Insurance Number issued at sixteen. Even a name change would have left a record. Getting in contact with Raif would be my next step for intelligence. He knows people at street-level, which is where Jude ran to. If he’s still alive, Raif’s the best man to find him.”

Jan shrugged. “So why the hell are you still sat here?” It seemed to hit in the next moment. “Jack. He doesn’t know. Why the hell didn’t you tell him just?”

Gray tapped at a name just above Joanna’s.

“Charles Groves?” said Jan with a frown.

Yeah. Groves. Gray looked Jan’s way.

“Joanna was Cutter’s daughter. Jude ishisgrandson.”

Gray pulled in slow to the manor gates, waiting for Steve to open up. Sat next to Gray, Jan turned his phone over and over as he rested his hands in his lap, his quiet not having given up its hold since they’d left the MC. It touched 5:30 pm, and Jan echoed the bone tiredness of Gray’s.

“I know Cutter really screwed with Jack’s head and body, Gray,” Jan said quietly as the gates started to open. “But Jack….”

“Jack what?”

A look came Gray’s way. “Jack’s decision, no one else’s. He decides what happens from here on in over Jude.”

Gray nodded. It hadn’t been open for debate with him. They’d nearly lost Jack completely over withholding information on who had been behind Jan and Jack’s rape and psychological reconditioning, so Gray had made a promise not to lie to Jack no matter how much it hurt once he’d found out the details. Jan’s calm look refused to be thrown back to the same losses and hurt, and Gray loved his head for it when it came to anythingthat could potentially knock one of them off their feet. “No,” he said gently. “We don’t keep this from him now we have most of the details.” He slipped into first gear as Steve nodded them through. “We’ll talk to him tonight.”

“The list.” Jan looked ahead as Gray headed in, the slow crunch of pebble under tyre setting the pace. “When did you find it after Martin left? How long have you been searching?”

Gray tensed his jaw, keeping his look firmly on the long drive up to the courtyard. He knew this was what would dig into both Jan and Jack. “It was always there at the back of my mind since he gave it to me, but I wanted him here before I made any formal searches.”

“So when did you start?” Jan frowned. “More to the point—when did you start thinking Martinwouldn’tbe back to search for himself?”

Gray shifted into second gear, his thumb brushing the leather of the steering wheel. “I don’t doubt Martin will be back.” He looked at Jan. “But I do know him. Like Jack, he’ll want all the answers. They’re both at their worst when they don’t.”

The weight on Jan’s shoulders seemed to ease. He seemed okay so long as he wasn’t forced into a corner over thinking Martin wouldn’t be back.

Gray rubbed at his thigh. “You okay with my search into the list?”

Jan glanced out the side window, at the green. “I understand why you didn’t mention it, how it could have led to nothing. All that matters is that you looked.” Another twist of the phone in his hand. “But Cutter’s grandkid…. Jesus Christ. What the fuck was Martin thinking, Gray?”

Yeah, Gray wanted to know that too. Cutter had driven Jack’s love of cutting during sex in order to push his aggression levels on breaking the law for him, which ultimately aided on triggering Martin. Cutter also fed Elena’s disorders along with Jack’s, which drove Elena to do what she did to Jack and Jan, their rape and psychological reconditioning off Vince and Henry. Greg, Jack’s dad, was the only one to come away with the broken bones for it.

No. Gray didn’t want to throw Jack and Jan back into all of that. Nor Greg. As for Elena? Gray had made sure she was long since off the playing field.

“Okay.” Jan pushed out with jacket and suitcase in one hand, phone in the other, then he came over to Gray’s side and leaned in close as Gray set his window down. “Get back to work. I’ll let Jack know I’m home and working a few hours here. We’ll talk when you’re both back, not until.” He offered a smile, then headed for the manor in the next breath, already thumbing through his phone to no doubt call Jack and let him know only Monique would need the courtesy car at the MC.

Gray had gotten a text off Brennan. Andrea, Monique’s lover, had been delayed out of town and couldn’t get to the MC until six, so Shaun made the call to wait until she was there until he broke the news over Jason. Jan wouldn’t be notified for another thirty minutes either.

That gave Gray half an hour to get a look at Chris, face to face, and he hoped, he really hoped for Chris and Ben’s sake that they had nothing to do with Monique’s car, because Gray was really in the mood to handle them if they were.

Chapter 12

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