The Formidable

34

The car park was lit by a single lamppost on a grass patch in the middle. There was one other car on the edge of the lot, a Jaguar with the interior light off. Jase could just make out someone in the driver's seat, given away by the faint orange of a cigarette cherry. As far as he could tell, no one else was around.

He parked his Mercedes on the opposite side, leaving a good amount of space between them. There was no chance he was getting too close to the car and having his head taken off with a shotgun.

To his relief, the other guy got out first. Jase and Sam followed suit, waiting in front of the Mercedes as he approached. The man was older, old enough to be Jase's dad. He had salt and pepper hair, thick and slicked back, with crow's feet at the corner of his warm eyes. The idea of being threatened by him melted away. The only thing that concerned Jase was the long coat the man wore that could conceal weapons with ease.

"Jase?" he said by way of greeting, "and you must be Sam." He looked at them each in turn.

"And you are?" Jase asked. The man smiled. The same smile, Jase imagined, he flashed his grandkids with no trace of maliciousness. Still, Jase remained sceptical and didn't drop his guard.

"My name is Karl Chapman." Jase narrowed his eyes. He knew that name but he couldn't place it. Karl was still talking as Jase wracked his brain. "You won't know me but I know you." A low chuckle and a slow nod. "I know all about you, and the house, and Madison-"

A high-pitched screech came screaming into the car park. Everyone moved in a blur. Sam and Jase reached for their guns and suddenly Karl didn't look too friendly with an alert scowl on his face and a sawn-off shotgun pulled from the depths of his coat. An old BMW span in, stopping inches from the men. Sam and Jase recognised Kieran's car and Jase's heart stopped. His first thought going to Madison and what had happened for Kieran to be driving like such a madman. Then she stepped out of the car, leaving the door open and pulling her own gun, her expression ablaze with untethered fury at the sight before her.

"What do you want, Karl?" she demanded and proceeded to point the gun at him. Karl looked at Jase.

"I thought you were told not to tell her?" he said, clearly annoyed but not in an angry way, in the way a parent is annoyed with their child.

"I didn't," Jase grunted in reply, not taking too kindly to the scolding tone of this man. Or Madison turning up unannounced. It made him look as though he had no control over the situation.

"Sorry, what the fuck is going on?" Sam asked. Jase shook his head, he was just as lost.

"Or should I ask, what does he want?" Madison continued, ignoring the other conversation. Karl broke out into a smile, tucking his weapon back into an extended hidden pocket on the inside of his coat.

"Bunny, last time I saw you, you were about this tall," he said, holding his hand out at his waist. Madison stood next to Jase now, the gun still raised and aimed at Karl's head.

"Don't make me repeat myself," she said. Karl continued to smile, placing his hand over the gun's muzzle and lowering it carefully.

"He wants to speak to your boyfriend-"

"I told him he could do what he wanted but he keeps Jase out of it-"

"And we were trying to, but he killed our only connection and now he wants to talk to him," Karl finished. Madison clenched her jaw, contemplating whether or not she should tell Karl to get on his bike or if she should accept the inevitable. Reluctantly, she slipped the gun back into her waistband. Jase looked at her.

"Care to explain?" he asked. She was still glaring at Karl.

"I told you I didn't want them involved with each other. I told him Jase was safe," she said. Karl shrugged.

"If he wanted him dead he'd be dead. As I said, he just wants to talk."

Jase sighed in frustration at being spoken about as if he weren't there.

"Madison, what's going on?" he asked, impatience creeping in. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. There was nothing she could do.

"You're about to meet my dad."

"Your dad?" Jase asked, and then it clicked. He remembered why he'd heard the name Karl Chapman before. This was the man Madison had said was her dad. He realised now that she had lied.

"Not here. We're going somewhere more private," Karl clarified. Jase knew what he meant. Private was code for someone else's grounds. "He can go home," Karl nodded at Sam, "Jase comes with me, Madison, you follow."

"Why can't he come with me?" Madison asked and Karl's smile returned.

"Because there is no doubt in my mind that if you both go in the same car, you won't follow me, you'll go elsewhere to avoid this meeting." He was right. Even now, Madison had no intention of Jase meeting, or knowing, her dad. Not now she knew the extent of things he'd done. "And this meeting will happen, Bunny, whether you want it to or not. May as well rip that plaster off."

"Fine," she said reluctantly, "let's get this over and done with." She turned to Jase.

"We need to talk later," he said. She hummed, unfazed, and started walking back to Kieran's car. Jase turned to address Sam. "Tell Kieran he's useless. I'll call you after," he said. Karl turned on his heel and Jase followed him to the Jaguar.

"So I'm going to take a shot in the dark and assume she hasn't told you much about her dad?" Karl asked as he tucked the sawn-off down the side of his seat, out of Jase's reach. Jase shrugged.

"She tells me what she needs to tell me," he replied. He didn't want Karl to know the depths of the darkness he'd apparently been kept in. He didn't want there to be riffs in their relationship either, as if it wasn't complicated enough. Still, he wasn't happy about any of this.

"That sounds like Madison," he muttered. "Did she tell you who her dad is?"

"She told me you were her dad," Jase said, pulling his seatbelt over his shoulder.

Karl grunted out a laugh. "Did she now?"

"Why is she so dead set on me not knowing who her dad is?" Jase asked. He could make a few assumptions but the only one that made any real sense was that Jase may have recognised his name, which meant her dad was big news or bad news or both.

"Same reason Mitch wouldn't mention him. She didn't know what position it would put her in," Karl replied. Jase looked in the wing mirror as they pulled out of the car park with Madison in the BMW close behind. Sam turned in the opposite direction coming out of the car park after her, heading back to the house.

"How do you know about Mitch?" Jase turned to look at Karl.

"Madison told us." Jase sighed, closing his eyes and tipping his head back. Karl chuckled. "You ought to thank your lucky stars son. That girl's the only reason you're still breathing."