Renegade Hearts (Rebels of Sandland 1)

“He was in Walkabout last night with Kelly Hopton. They looked pretty close.”

Walkabout was a local bar in town and I raised my eyebrow in surprise at what they’d seen. If Zak was gonna settle down and date, Kelly Hopton would’ve been the last girl I’d have expected him do that with. Even Kelly didn’t do relationships. Hell, maybe that was the point. They were the perfect fit.

“And he said he didn’t do dating. Fucking piece of crap. I hate him.” Liv took a gulp of her coffee and then hissed when she scorched her mouth.

“He doesn’t deserve you, Liv.” I patted her knee then leant over to give her a side hug.

“He doesn’t.” She nodded, sniffing back a sob. “I hope for your sake Ryan is different. Those boys are assholes.”

I saw Effy’s eyes go wide and she opened her mouth to speak, then thought better of it and closed it again.

“He is,” I answered, because truthfully, I believed he was. “Ryan and Finn are good guys.” Effy nodded in agreement. And I reminded myself to ask her about Finn later when we were alone. There was a story there, I could tell.

The gym where Brandon worked could’ve done with a Finn-style overhaul. The walls were stark white with inspirational quotes painted onto them in a black uninspiring font. There was nothing motivating about them at all other than the fact they told you to do better, reach your goals, push yourself to your limits. We did that every day. We didn’t need some shitty quote to tell us. I figured a bit of self-reflective art from Finn’s warped and sometimes depraved mind would’ve worked better. But what did I know? I dealt with cars and numbers for a living.

The buzz and whir of the equipment in the main workout area drowned Kanye out beautifully from the speakers around the room. I walked through and headed towards the back where the lads were waiting in the room with the boxing ring. I think Brandon would’ve preferred to have the ring in the middle of the gym. Give him a chance to showcase what he could do to all the girls working out. Instead, he had to come back to a private room to punch the shit out of the punch bag, or any fucker that was stupid enough to get into the ring with him. We weren’t complaining. It made for a better, more private meeting place.

I opened the door to find Zak and Kian already there, leaning against the wall and gritting their teeth. When I glanced at the ring I could see why. Brandon was in there with Finn, giving him another boxing lesson. I could already tell Finn was over it, but Brandon wouldn’t give up. Finn wasn’t a fighter. He wasn’t weak, but he didn’t lose his shit like the rest of us. Brandon saw him as his pet project though. In Brandon’s mind, he was going to train Finn, so he could defend himself from any motherfucker that didn’t look at him the right way. Thing was, I don’t think Finn even noticed the way people looked at him. The problem seemed to weigh heavier on Brandon than it did on Finn. I guess that’s the sign of a good friend. They’ve got your back even when you don’t think you need it.

“We need to work on your upper cut.” Brandon raised his pads up, but Finn shook his head and lowered his arms, letting them fall limply at his sides. “Come on, man. Give me five more jabs. Only five. You can do it.”

“Screw this,” Finn said, wandering over to the edge of the ring and motioning for Zak to help him get his gloves off.

“You’ll never get better if you don’t practise.” Brandon rolled his neck and did a few jumps like he was limbering up for his next fight.

Finn held his bare hands up in front of him. “I appreciate the sentiment, but these are my tools. They create my art. I don’t want to damage them.”

“It’ll be your face that gets damaged if you don’t learn how to protect yourself,” Brandon shot back. “How will you make art then, if you can’t see through two swollen black eyes?”

“Why does he need to protect himself? He has us,” I piped in, earning myself a scowl from Brandon for my troubles.

“We might not always be around,” Brandon said in a low voice, giving me a pointed stare that told me to back the fuck off. Then he threw his pads down and sat in the middle of the ring, staring at each of us like he was picking his next opponent.

“Is there something I’m missing here?” I asked, turning to Zak.

Kian was grinning like an idiot. He wasn’t usually in on our meetings. It must’ve gone to his head. Fucker looked like a ball-boy at Wimbledon, he was so desperate to do something useful. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him to get the coffees, but Zak caught me off guard.

“I think we’re good to go.”

“What do you mean, we’re good to go?” I looked between the guys to see if they knew more than me. I didn’t like being left out of the loop.

“I mean, we have all the evidence we need to bury that fucker, Winters. He’s gonna go down for a long time with the shit we’ve got on him and don’t get me started on Morgan fucking Rotherham.” He grinned, rubbing his hands together. “I broke through, Ry. I got names, addresses, account details, everything. He’s been scamming for years. Made millions. He’ll be paying it all back at Her Majesty’s Pleasure once we’ve set our plans in motion.”

“Shit. This is gonna be fucking epic, man,” Brandon said smirking.

“What have you got?” Kian asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“Nothing for you to worry about, mate,” Zak replied and then gave me a look that told me the less Kian knew the better. He wasn’t the best at keeping his mouth shut.

I patted Kian on the back and decided the coffee idea was the way to go. “We could do with some drinks in here, Ki. You know our orders, don’t you?” I ushered him towards the door and stuffed the cash to pay into his hand.

“I... Er… Okay, Ry. Whatever you say, man.” He kept the grin on his face, but I could tell he was disappointed at being side-lined. It wouldn’t be for long. I just needed to hear the full story and then we’d pull him back in, like we always did.

Once he was gone I turned to face the others. “Hit me with it.”

Zak took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the ring. “Winters is in bed with some pretty nasty dudes. He’s using businesses he’s taken over, local businesses, to clean their dirty money. Drug money. He’s giving them a legitimate source to run their funds through. I have it all in black and white. He tends to float around the companies, using different ones to avoid detection. He made a massive mistake using the Rotherham account though. He gave us a link. I tell you, this guy is going down for life once we hand this over.”

I grabbed the back of my neck and took a deep breath. I knew my dad had been approached by Winters a few years ago. Promised him a cash injection to support his business, all in the name of Sandland. Supporting his local area like the hero he wanted everyone to think he was. Luckily, Dad told him where to stick his cash. Good job too. This guy had fucked half the town in the ass without lube and none more so than his own family. What the hell was I supposed to tell Emily?