Page 70 of So Steady

She started a little at being addressed. “Yes?”

“I don’t know who did the windows and doors, but I’m pretty sure it was my housemate’s ex. Or someone my housemate’s ex paid off.”

“Your housemate who needed your help after we…?”

Noah smirked, then his smile faltered. “Yeah, Paula. She’s the wife of one of my dad’s bikie mates.”

Nicole pictured a sexy bikie blonde with big hair and heaps of tattoos. Nausea rose in her chest. “Are you…?”

Noah shook his head. “She’s older; early fifties. More like a mum to me than anything else. She called me up, said she wanted to get out of the club’s orbit, so I let her move in for a bit. But it looks like she and Shredder have gotten back together.”

“Shredder?”

“Nice name, huh?”

Nicole shook her head. “Why would she wreck your house after you helped her?”

“Shredder wouldn’t have seen it as helping.” He turned to look at her. “I’d have helped you either way, but I’m glad to be getting out of the state for a couple of days.”

“Oh, well, I’m glad to help.” Nicole bit her lip, remembering what he’d said about it not feeling like he’d run away from home. “Do you miss being in The Rangers?”

Noah kept his eyes on the road. “I’d be lying if I said no.”

Nicole twisted the hem of her t-shirt. Ever since he’d admitted he’d been in a bikie gang, she’d stopped being so scared of him, but it was unsettling to know he wanted to go back. For the first time, she wondered what he’d done while he was a member, and realised she must seem sonaïveto him. A suburban girl whose only crime had been stealing a toffee cup from the school fete when she was nine.

“But it was bullshit,” Noah said. “Every bikie gang goes on about brotherhood and loyalty, but that’s bullshit. It’s about money and scaring the shit out of people so you can do whatever you want. It’s ISIS without the politics.”

Nicole blinked, trying to process his outburst. “So, The Rangers are involved in criminal stuff? I did some research and it said not all biker gangs are. Some are just about riding bikes, and the cops drum up charges against them because of the stigma.”

Noah’s laughter was cold. “The Rangers are crooks to their back teeth, Nikki. And I’d bet my legs the others are, too. It’s a cover, saying you’re ‘bike enthusiasts.’ The stigma’s there for a reason.”

His voice had changed, become harder and more ocker. Nicole felt a creep of nerves at being in such a close space with him. She looked at the paper bag, reminding herself she knew Noah; her dad knew Noah. “What did you do in The Rangers?”

“All kinds of shit.”

“Was it… like a regular job? Like nine to five?”

“Nah, for most guys, it’s an after-hours thing. They do their own work during the day. But like I said, boss’s son. I got patched in when I was sixteen.”

If she hadn’t readBlood in the Gears, Nicole would have had no idea what he was talking about, but she understood he’d been made a full member of The Rangers. “You were so young!”

He grinned as though she was as woefully naïve as she suspected he found her. And she was. She’d grown up in such a bubble, finding out that real, dangerous bikers existed was a bit like finding out Hugh Jackman was actually Wolverine.

“So you were involved in…?”

An ugly smile. “Everything, Nikki. Fuckin’ everything. Drugs, driving sawn off shotguns up north, paying off cops. Everything. But mostly, I did the tattoos.”

“The patches?”

“And anything else the crew wanted. I had a lot of work.”

She nodded, trying to absorb what he was saying. She looked across and saw the spider web on his elbow. Her heart pulsed hard. “Did you go to jail?”

He nodded, barely inclining his head. “Ten months.”

Nicole tried to absorb this. It wasn’tshocking, exactly…more surreal. “What did you…?”

“Aggravated assault.”

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