Part 10 (2/2)

'That's unnatural. You shouldn't be able to get a whole bag of them in at one time, Brodie.'

I smacked the hand trying to grab a piece of my white pudding.

'There's no need to turn nasty.' Moses Tierney, leader of the Dark Angels, shook his hand dramatically.

'What are you listening to?'

He didn't wait for an answer, rather he pulled one of my earphones out and shared them with me. Moses was caterwauling along as he listened in.

'Johnny Cash has never sounded so bad, Moses. Who told you that you could sing?'

'Everyone. Everyone does. They all say I'm the dog's b.o.l.l.o.c.ks.' He looked genuinely surprised.

'Makes sense. Who in their right mind would tell you what you didn't want to hear?'

'Too true, Brodie, my girl I mean, who really needs some whinging b.a.s.t.a.r.ds around who keep disagreeing with you; present company excepted. I pay you too well to just get lip service.'

Moses and I have a disturbingly close relations.h.i.+p. He has watched over my safety for more years than even I know. Our lives are linked, whether I want it or not, through Kailash. He was another survivor of the s.a.d.i.s.tic paedophile ring headed up by my father and the experience shaped him into a unique character. Moses was the undisputed leader of band of renegade teenagers for years, and he took pride in the fact that they were like Teflon, non-stick.

's.h.i.+ft your a.r.s.e up.'

My Harley was on its stand and I was leaning against it outside the Rag Doll pub. Moses placed his rather more slender hips against the seat. It was intimate but not uncomfortable or remotely s.e.xual.

'He's watching us,' he commented.

'Who?'

'Don't give me that. You know. Glasgow Joe is in his office pretending to do his accounts but he can't take his eyes off that surveillance camera.'

'How do you know?'

'You should know better than to ask me questions like that, Brodie on this occasion I'll answer it. I always approach the Rag Doll via the backyard, not being a big fan of CCTV in general. I only came round the front 'cause I wondered what he was watching so intently. I should have known. Nothing grabs Joe's attention like you. Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d.'

'Don't be impudent, young man.'

Moses mockingly moved to defend himself from an imaginary blow.

'Seriously, the guy is hard. Wouldn't like to be the one that gets between you and him.'

'If you're saying he's tough, he must be.'

'Joe's nothing like me, Brodie. That man is your original freedom fighter. He's got ethics.' Moses spat the word out as if it was dirty it was all front; he had his boundaries just like Joe.

'Stop being so dramatic, Moses.'

Moses was the original drama queen, which made him difficult to handle at times still, given his past I thought he deserved a bit of leeway.

'You can say what you want, Brodie, but you can't argue with facts. He was recruited for the IRA through a boys' football club. He was in Gaddafi's training camps. You know better than me that he ran to America to escape prosecution.'

'You're right, I do know all this. Are you writing his CV?'

Moses tapped Awesome with his walking cane.

'He went underground in LA and joined the Blue Angels they don't wear the h.e.l.ls Angels' colours they're their own men.'

'You don't know everything, Moses.'

'I know. He won't tell me some stuff ...'

Moses' wolf eyes stared at me eagerly, prodding me for information, but there was no way I was telling him the truth. Unfortunately, Moses is not sensitive to other people's feelings. What he'd said was all true but Moses had no idea how catastrophic all of Joe's choices had felt in my world.

'You were out there for a bit, weren't you?' He kept digging. Maybe if I gave him a few snippets, he'd shut up.

'I went out to join Joe in Las Vegas at the end of my fifth year at school. I had all the qualifications for university but I had made up my mind I wasn't going to be a student.'

'Your ma must have been pleased.'

There was no use denying it, Mary McLennan was furious. Of course, she blamed Joe, but when I left Turnhouse Airport I wasn't even sure I could find him. For ten days I searched Las Vegas, asking every scruffy, dangerous-looking biker I could find.

'I didn't know where he was I had cards printed up with my photo and name on it and gave them to everyone I met in case they saw him and could pa.s.s one on.'

'Were you scared?'

'I was seventeen, Moses. I thought I was invincible. When Joe eventually got in touch, we spent our first night fighting.'

'That must have been bad.'

'I smashed G.o.d knows how many beer bottles at him for being ungrateful. I'd travelled round the world for him and all he could do was criticise me for putting myself in danger.'

'You might no longer be seventeen, Brodie, but age hasn't knocked any sense of self-preservation into you.'

I gave him a sharp kick on the ankles.

'Why'd you leave Joe in Vegas?'

'My mother was dying.'

'Mary?'

I wanted to slap him of course Mary. I knew that he adored Kailash, but it offended me to think that Mary would get usurped for her. I kept quiet and also didn't say that whilst I was at home grieving, Joe had gotten a quickie divorce from the State of Nevada.

I screwed up my chip paper and walked over to the bin.

'I think we've kept him waiting long enough,' I said. But as the doors of the Rag Doll swung open, I began to regret my words.

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