The Formidable

15

"Quiet tonight," Greg mumbled when Madison entered the staff room. She hummed, hanging her jacket up. She was too distracted to pretend to care about her shift. The first time she had seen Jase in over three years was uncomfortable for lack of a better word. It was like meeting a familiar stranger. She knew him. Knew. But whether she knew him anymore was still up for debate.

The second time she saw him, she was filled with rage and the situation had swallowed her, leaving no room to properly digest being in the house again. But the third time, the third time had almost wiped her out. When he took Mia from her so she could sort out the car seat, he'd done it so naturally, it felt like a fever dream. How he had insisted on paying for her shopping had reminded her that underneath his reputation and cutthroat exterior, Jase had always been a good guy in a bad world. To an extent, but for the most part where Madison was concerned.

She understood why he left his drink on the coffee table. It was a stupid idea to have invited him in in the first place, not to mention unfair on both of them.

"You okay?" Greg asked, breaking her out of her daze. Madison smiled using only her lips as she nodded.

"Yeah, you?" she asked, taking a water from the fridge and cracking the seal. Greg narrowed his eyes but didn't interrogate further and Madison didn't wait for a response, going out onto the floor. He was right, it was dead, bar around twelve customers throughout the night, four of them regulars, all of them making her suspicious of who might be watching.

"How are you getting home tonight?" Greg asked. Madison was wiping the bar down for the third time in an hour.

"I'm getting picked up by a friend." He nodded, his attention having already returned to his phone. At half-eleven, the owner walked out onto the bar floor, making his way toward Madison and Greg.

"Madison, you can clock out," he said, sitting down at one of the stools as she poured him his usual double vodka on ice.

"Thanks," she said, returning the bottle to the shelf and untucking the cloth from the waistband. She messaged Jase as she made her way to the staff room. To her surprise, he was already outside.

"Why are you here so early?" she asked, pulling her seatbelt across her chest. Jase was staring at the entrance of the bar then his eyes flickered to the rearview mirror. There was a car in the corner of the parking lot with two men inside, out of view of the CCTV. They had been there before he arrived half an hour ago.

"Who else do you work with?" he asked.

"Pretty much just Greg on the bar. Why?"

"When did he start?"

"About a month after me." Jase puckered his lips in thought.

"Is that him?" He jerked his chin towards the side alley where staff went for cigarettes. Greg was there with his phone in his hand. He glanced up at Jase's car, watching them for a beat too long before slipping back in. Madison's lips tugged down.

"He's probably just making sure I get to the car safely," she said, rejecting the pending accusations. Jase looked blankly back at her, almost amused. Greg never cared about her safety before, not to the extent of watching her leave. Jase didn't need to know that to smell something rotten "You think he's in on it?" she asked, her heart sinking a few inches. Greg was the closest thing she had to a friend that wasn't working for her dad or watching her kid.

"Caspar's getting his information from someone," Jase said, turning the car on. He was halfway down the road when he saw headlights in his rearview. He remained calm, concentrating on keeping his voice level. "Is Lily looking after Mia tonight?"

"Yeah, why?" Jase pressed his foot down, testing the acceleration. The car behind him lurched forward at the sudden increase in speed. "What's going on?" Madison asked. He didn't answer immediately, busy mapping out the streets of London in his head.