Page 53 of Drift

Jan went to say something, but the words failed him as he turned away and headed for the kitchen. He came back with Jack’s medication not long after and handed it over in the silence.

Gray opened it on the desk and seemed to find what he was looking for on one bottle of meds, checked something on the front, then popped the lid and tipped them onto his palm and thumbed through them.

“Good.” He nodded. “At least you’ve got enough bastard sense to not come off your meds, because that was my first thought.” He slammed the meds back on the table and Jan jolted. “So.” Turning and resting back against his desk, Gray crossed his arms, his look down on his feet. “This shit over the trapeze… thebruise on your shoulder… why you went gunplay on me… your work boots. You gonna be the one to tell Jan what you’ve done?”

Gunplay? Jan frowned as Jack started to turn his look Gray’s way.

“Don’t.” It came so coldly off Gray. “After the shit you’ve just pulled with Ray, I’ll fucking hurt you for it.”

“Gray?” Jan took a step closer, but Gray’s look his way pinned him in place.

“C’mon, Jack. Find that fucking voice of yours. Talk to soft lad here.” Gray tightened the muscles in his jaw. “Then you try explaining it to me. But before you do, know that I was on scene for Chris’s accident, and I saw the tread marks to a second car in that RTA. Fucking know that Simon himself was then the one to go through Chris’s onboard camera system.”

Jan frowned as Jack stiffened.

“Yeah. Chris really pissed you off, didn’t he? So back to the old days of carjacking for you it was, with just a touch of your modern-day tech skills and how to block camera recognition on a licence plate.” Gray wiped a hand across his mouth, looking to try and control so much going on internally. “Oh you were smart, so damn smart using me with a call just after the accident to suggest you were still at work, plus using your new throwaway phone that won’t be setup for tracking like your new one will, with also making sure your car never hit his and erasing any potential evidence of you being at the scene when it came to the onboard camera. I’m also betting you used a scrapped car with no paperwork to tie it to you if by some chance the licence plate was picked up.”Gray kept his look on the floor. “But you forced my fucking snout your way, then Simon of all goddamn techpeople, all because you timed your retaliation during a fucking culler investigation and—”

“Jack.” Jan choked. “You….Youwent after Chris? You put him in hospital?”

“Strange that,” Jack said so quietly. “You wouldn’t have thought twice about calling Gray in, when his option could and has been a lot worse.”

“No it fucking wouldn’t have.” Jan wiped a hand over his face. “It’s the MC, for god’s sake. Theoneplace you both fucking love. The most Gray would have done was talk to Jill or Brennan and got them to get him to back off, or he’d pull Chris aside and have a word in his ear. Whatth’fuckwere you thinking?”

“Master sub.” It came so flatly off Jack. “One who pinpointed a bad element who could have hurt mine. Evidence found, Chris no longer has rights to MC protection. He’s a cunt, one that has no right to be around you or them.”

“You—”

“Not ever your fucking place to tread.” Gray’s yell silenced both Jan and Jack. “Ever since Christmas nearly two years ago… helping Kiyen and Fal to get away—you… you keep trying to piss over my hold on security.” Gray’s look went to Jack. “You wanted your head space, I gave it to you. This is mine.” He looked so calm, yet damn dangerous with it.

“I looked after Jan, nothing more.”

“Don’t,” said Gray. “Don’t fucking kneel there and lie to me about protecting him. I saw your look that day. This is about your guilt over not being there when it all went down, how you left Jan standing at the roadside. So just what the hell were you doing when Jan called you at the cafe? How did you reallybreak your phone? What else have I been forced to miss through giving you your fucking head space? Because that’s what all this is about, right? You and headspace?”

Jan stilled, his look shifting so slowly to Jack and how quiet he fell.

“Yeah. Trapeze moments, right?” Gray said it so quietly. “Your fall with no safety net. Is that it?” He narrowed his eyes Jack’s way. “Have you been pushing limits in other ways in order to try and get to Martin, force him out? All because you were missing him too, because you knew we were, but this last one with Chris?” He frowned and shook his head. “That wasn’t you. There was too much bloody rage in the tyre tracks that missed Chris’s car, with how you’ve just assaulted Ray.” Gray seemed to lose any thread of anger, and he shook his head. “What the fuck’s going on with you?”

Jack eased back.

Got to his feet.

Came over.

Gray eased slowly away from his desk as he stopped nose-to-nose with him, and Gray tilted his head, just slightly, and Jan was right there with him.

Jack stood challenging Gray’s space. Picking another street fight, only this time withGray, all that damn flat-lined feeling in his eyes.

“Family.” Eventually Jack took his phone out and offered it to Gray. “Don’t stand there demanding I spill the shit over me and Martin, not when you and Ray have been balls deep in my arse for over six months without telling me. That’smypast you’ve been fucking with. That’s Martin’s kid, one I’m damn wellresponsible for now when I’ve made it perfectly clear to anyone with half a braincell:I never… once wanted… fucking… kids.”

Fuck. Jan felt sick. Jack knew about Martin. He knew about… Jude, only it hadn’t been Gray who’d told him.

Gray looked down at the phone but didn’t take it before finding him again. “Back in the carpark when you added your number to my contact list, you saw the file. You recognised Joanna’s name on it and transferred the file to yours.”

Jack snorted. “I recognised her mother’s surname. Kim. It was the only one I’d hear Cutter whisper back then. The date of birth confirmed it. He never could stand losing anything, that bastard.”

“So you knew about Joanna’s mother.” Gray levelled his look on Jack. “Did you know Martin had a kid out there?”

“Fuck you, Gray. Just fuck you.” It came out so flatly: no rage… nothing. “That’s you again assuming I put Cutter’s collar over anyone here. I knew fuck all beyond Joanna’s mother’s surname. I certainly knew fuck all about Martin having a kid with Joanna.” He hadn’t once said Jude’s name. “But it looks like Martin caught the vibrations on his spider web, eh?” added Jack. “From that note of his, he told you at some point.” He looked Gray up and down. “Secrets. That’s nearly two years of them between you two. Getting really cosy together back there, were we? Enough you think him first, me… a few years later. Because this is you about protecting Martin’s kid when he protected yours, right?”

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