Page 50 of Ordinary Girl

“Okay. What is it?”

Skip leans back against his desk. “You heard of someone called Emil Renard?”

“No. Who is he?”

“Well, apparently, he’s now heading up the Balke family.”

The Balke family are – were – a major organized crime syndicate that worked out of Oslo. A family we’ve never had any dealings with, but they were pretty notorious, in their time.

“I thought they’d gone underground, after that massive heist they tried to pull off went south?”

“Yeah, that’s what Rik thought, too. But he’s been in touch with a colleague of his in Oslo, someone who used to be on the Balke’s payroll, and according to him, this Renard doesn’t have a blood connection to the family but he’s taken over the running of the business, for some reason. Seems like the other major players are all still keeping their heads down.”

“What about the Blackhawks? Does he have any connection to them?”

“No. Nothing. No links at all. He’s never had any business dealings in Denmark, apparently. None that Rik can trace, anyway.”

“What about the hacking of our account?”

“Again, we don’t know. The reason why Rik’s putting him on our radar is because he’s bought Sofia’s house. Moved in a couple of weeks ago.”

“Coincidence?”

“Who knows? Rik’s trying to find out more, but what we do know is that this isn’t his territory. If he’s here, then there must be a reason.”

There’s a lot not sitting right with me. The Hawks pushing back on retaliation; money going missing; a head of a major crime family appearing from out of nowhere, in the house Sofia and Ana used to live in. None of it adds up.

“It’s too quiet,” Skip says, almost as if he’s reading my mind, or part of it, anyway. “Too unsettling. The Hawks, there’s no sign of them coming for us. Something’s not right, Joel.”

“Do you think it could all be connected, somehow? The Hawks holding back, the weapons deal, the hacked bank account?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Whatever’s going on, it feels out of our control, and I don’t like it. So we need to keep our eyes open and our guard up. We need to be careful. I’ll call a meeting for tomorrow morning, fill everyone in.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll be back out in a minute. I need to make a couple of calls.”

I leave him to it, and head back to the party.

“Are you ignoring me?”

I stare at Ana, and I want to walk away, not look at her, because she’s fucking with my head in a way I don’t need, especially now, but she’s standing here in front of me and I can’t look away. “This isn’t High School, Ana. I’m busy.”

“Okay.” She stands aside and backs up against the wall. “Go on, then. Go and do whatever it is that’s keeping you busy.”

I start to walk away, and then I stop. I take a second. And then I turn around to face her: move up in front of her, so close to her I can smell the lemon scent of her shampoo. Or it might be her perfume, I don’t know, all I know is she smells incredible, and I want her so fucking much it’s crazy! I just don’t know if it’s the right thing to do. I don’t know if it’s thesafething to do. And that’s why I’ve been avoiding her.

“Don’t fuck with me, Ana.” I slam a hand against the wall, right by her head, and she doesn’t flinch, doesn’t break the stare, she just smiles the slowest of smiles. All of a sudden this broken young woman has found her voice, did we change her that much? That quickly? Do I really care?

“I thought you were busy?” Her eyes are cold, but there’s a message there that she wants me to understand. I still need to hear the words, though. I need to know that she’s okay with whatever’s coming next, because something is. It shouldn’t. AndI’m acutely aware of Skip being just meters away, but, fuck it. I’m all in now.

“Come on.” I take her hand and pull her into one of the rooms at the back of the clubhouse, locking the door behind us.

“I guess whatever was keeping you busy can wait, huh?” She lets go of my hand and walks over to the window, closing the blinds. It’s not exactly quiet out there tonight. We’re definitely not alone.

“What do you want from me, Ana?”

She turns around to face me, cocking her head. “Why the silent treatment?”

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