The bikes were still there—including Axel’s modern Triumph. Axel hadn’t given up and started the club run without him. Leaving his bike at the end of the row, Bayden jumped off it and rushed inside. Axel looked at him, then at the clock. “Thirteen seconds to spare.” Bayden remembered how to breathe. “Everything okay at home?” Axel asked. He always asked. Every time Bayden visited, Axel asked. Bayden nodded. “Everything’s fine. I’d have been back an hour ago, but they’re doing road works. Not even enough room to overtake on a bike. I was stuck behind a hundred cars.” “Where does your family live?” Griz asked. Bayden tensed. That was no one’s business. “He wants to know what road the works are on,” Axel translated. “We don’t want to run into them on our ride.” “They’re on the bypass—from the first junction all the way to the old docks, but everyone who’s trying to avoid them has backed up on the little roads too.” Hale pulled out his smart phone.
