Page 71 of Come Back To Me

We look at one another. Mollie’s face is tight, her emotions living so visibly on the surface. It’s like an avalanche waiting to fall the way she carries them all. “I went in, took on five of them like some chump. I was blinded by my hate, Mollie. I’d lost Mads, Jack…” I struggle to elaborate on how I felt finding out that Jack was no longer on this earth with me.

Rubbing my face, I try to steel my composure. “When one of them mentioned him, I stabbed him before another one knocked me out. I came to, his hands around my throat. Travis shot the man on me, then turned and shot another as he went for Beats who was coming in at the back of the building, a petrol drum in his arms. He dropped the drum trying to protect himself, leavingtwo of them inside.”

Mollie keeps watching me as I recall the events that unfolded that night at the mill. “He and Travis took out the last two when they ran like fucking cowards.”

“Where were you when this was happening?”

“On the floor.” Wishing in that moment that the air had been robbed from my lungs.

“Police reportsixmissing persons.”

“The sixth was outside—before I went in. I took him out there.”

“Right,” she says. “So, once the five inside were no longer able to talk, who brought the sixth man in?”

“I did,” I tell her. She doesn’t ask, but I sense Mollie waiting for me to continue. “We covered what we could in fuel and lit the place up like it was fucking bonfire night.”

A moment of silence passes between us. “Why didn’t you clean up. Like last time?” Her voice is hushed. The past still very much her present.

I sit back in my chair. “We went into lockdown later that day. There was no time. Saviours had threatened everyone close to us.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I reply. “I don’t need your sympathy, Mols. What I need is for you to ensure I get out of here.”

She sighs. Hard. “I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.” I stare at her. “Yourhopes,”she says the word loosely, “to survive and get back out with the information you want, aren’t very realistic when you’re in on amurdercharge. You do realise that in order to get you out, we’ll need a miracle?”

I let that sink in. “Just because you can’t see the light, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” Mollie looks at me hard-faced. I lean forward. “Now’s the time to be the woman you left to become.”

She takes a moment, then picking up her pen, she clicks thetip. “What else do you need from me, besides working miracles?”

Simple. “She’s with Bex now for a while, but make sure Mads is okay?” Travis will protect her life when I can’t physically be there, but my girl will need someone who’s been in this situation before. Emotionally.

Mollie smiles, but it doesn’t reach her ears. “Sure.”

“I need you to keep the club updated as well. Will mean talking to Travis.” She eye rolls me, and I smile thinking of my girl. “Think you can manage that?”

“You want me to keep things civil?”

I nod.

“Then I need something in return.”

I raise an eyebrow at her.

“When this is all done… if we can somehow get through this… I might need your help.”

I immediately straighten my face. “Everything, okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just… need your help with something, but it can wait.”

The look I give lets her know she better not be lying to me. She mirrors it as if to tell me to get fucked. “Deal,” I say. “But if you need anything sooner, you let the club know. Whatever you need, Mollie, you come to us.”

I’m interviewed with Mollie by my side. Her only instruction: to answer ‘no comment’ to everything they ask me. It’s clear this isn’t going to be a walk in the park.

After she leaves, I wait in the room to be escorted back to the cell. I’m in desperate need of a piss and know I’ve probably got a long weekend ahead of me, just waiting to hear that I won’t be granted bail any time soon.

The door opens, and I hear two sets of footsteps approach me from behind. With my back to the door, I wait for them to tell me to stand so they can take me back.

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