Tangled Lives

by Stephanie Harte

  70

  Gemma

  I couldn’t get my head around the fact that Alfie had drugged me. Instead of reaching a place of safety, I was more vulnerable than ever. Anything could have happened to me while I was under sedation. Alfie could have taken advantage of the situation. He had a lot of undesirable qualities, but I reminded myself that being a rapist wasn’t one of them. As Jethro pointed out, at least he hadn’t given me addictive drugs. Thankfully, he hadn’t stooped that low.

  I didn’t want to think about the other obvious scenario, but I forced myself to; I had to face facts. If Alfie had wanted to, he could have spirited Luca away while I was sleeping. I might never have been able to find my son if that had happened. I’d read cases in the papers where children had been abducted from their parents and never heard of again. They simply vanished into thin air, and no amount of searching uncovered the child’s whereabouts. That sent a shiver down my spine.

  For once, Alfie had kept his word and had taken good care of Luca while I rested. Even though I was furious with him, the fact that he stuck to his side of the bargain counted for something.

  I’d done a stupid thing by running away, but I’d been desperate for a way out of the nightmare we were stuck in, and desperation often made a person make rash decisions, didn’t it? It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that my plan had unravelled before my eyes, I could see how reckless I’d been. I should have realised Alfie would come after us.

  My thoughts suddenly turned to Nathan; he would have realised I’d gone by now. He’d be beside himself with worry. I wondered if he was trying to find us. But then something else crossed my mind. If Alfie had told my husband about Luca, I could kiss goodbye the idea of that. The trust I’d worked so hard to rebuild would have been undone in an instant. As I mulled over the events of the last few days, my eyes welled up, and my tears began to flow.

  71

  Gemma

  Alfie walked over to the full-length windows and stood next to Jethro. It was uncanny how much he resembled his dad. When I looked at Jethro, I knew instantly what Alfie would look like in twenty-five years’ time.

  ‘How did it go?’ Jethro asked, not taking his eyes off the view of the marina.

  ‘Fine,’ Alfie replied. ‘But you know what the Russians are like.’

  ‘Did Knuckles have to flex his muscles then?’ Jethro asked, tilting his head to one side.

  ‘No, not this time.’

  Alfie didn’t normally discuss business in front of me, so this was going to be an eye-opening experience. I sat with my back to the men, while I listened in to their conversation. I could see their reflection in the large mirror that hung above the TV.

  ‘Where did you do the deal?’ Jethro asked.

  ‘On Popov’s yacht.’

  You didn’t need to be a genius to work out that drugs would be at the centre of the Watsons’ deal.

  Jethro pulled a face. ‘So Vladimir’s got himself a new toy has he?’

  Alfie nodded.

  I wondered how Alfie and Knuckles had managed not to arouse suspicion as they boarded a yacht in broad daylight dressed in smart suits and presumably carrying a case full of money. They wouldn’t exactly blend in with the yachting community or beach-loving tourists enjoying the mild Spanish weather. But the fact that he stood out from the crowd wouldn’t have fazed Alfie. He oozed confidence out of every pore. The idea of carrying out his business in full view of everybody would have massaged his already enormous ego.

  Alfie couldn’t have picked a more public place if he’d tried. The marina was always a hive of activity. Day and night, it was bustling with people. But Alfie wasn’t trying to hide what he was doing; he thought he was above the law, and although there was a police presence in the harbour, they seemed happy to turn a blind eye to the goings-on of the super-rich. No wonder Alfie didn’t fear the police. In this part of the world, he didn’t even have to bother outrunning them. They just looked the other way while he carried out his business right under their noses. Everyone, it seemed, was on the payroll. Cash was king.

  ‘Business must be good,’ Jethro said.

  ‘Vladimir’s got a new supplier.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘Two of Vladimir’s guys threw the old one over the side of their speedboat when they were on their way to collect hashish from Morocco.’

  Jethro laughed. ‘Did they make the poor bastard swim all the way back to Spain?’

  ‘No, he’s sleeping with the fishes. Popov told his men to put a body vest filled with weights on the Colombian, and dropped him out at sea, while he was still alive.’

  Alfie and Jethro exchanged a glance.

  ‘What had he done to deserve that?’ Jethro asked.

  ‘The dopey fucker was stupid enough to try and short-change Vladimir on a deal, and if that wasn’t bad enough, he also tried to sell him an inferior product.’

  ‘Well, he won’t be doing that again will he?’ Jethro laughed. ‘Vladimir’s a force to be reckoned with.’

  ‘I’ve been trying to make Zamir understand that. But I might as well bang my head against a brick wall. He gave me his word he wouldn’t try and shaft us, but I don’t trust the guy. He’s a slippery bastard.’

  ‘If everybody plays by the rules, everything runs smoothly.’

  ‘I know, but you always seem to get one greedy fucker who’ll try to bite the hand that feeds it,’ Alfie said.

  ‘Then they deserve everything they get. Scores need to be settled quickly,’ Jethro replied. ‘In our line of work, you can’t afford to lose face, or your rivals see it as a sign of weakness.’

  Were Jethro and Alfie having this conversation for my benefit? It certainly felt like they were letting me know the lengths criminals like them went to if somebody crossed them. Removing a person’s teeth with pliers and cutting off someone’s fingers one by one with bolt cutters, barbaric as it seemed, was all part of the job description. Their casual chat reminded me of the danger Luca and I were in. When I’d left England, I’d intended to take my son to safety, not lead him into the lion’s den.

  ‘Have you got the shipment?’ Jethro stood toe to toe with his look-alike son.

  ‘Yeah, the gear’s in the car,’ Alfie replied.

  Jethro nodded. ‘In that case, we should make tracks.’

  A mixture of fear and intense fury flooded my veins. If Alfie was expecting me to travel in a car with my son when he was transporting drugs in it, he was putting us both in great danger.

  ‘I’m going to head home for a bit. Phone me when you’re ready to leave,’ Jethro said.

  My ears pricked up. Jethro had said he was heading home, so he must have a property in the area. The thought of that rang alarm bells within me. Nathan and I had thought we’d given the Watsons the slip when we moved into this apartment, but we’d been very much mistaken. Everything was starting to make sense. Alfie told me he was having me watched while we were living in Spain, but I hadn’t realised the family had a base here. No wonder I’d spent months feeling like eyes were following me wherever I went – and to think Nathan was convinced I was imagining it.

  I suppose it made sense for the Watsons to have a place here. This part of Spain was renowned for being a criminal’s paradise and had attracted all manner of villains over the years. The Costa del Crime, as it was affectionately known, on the southern coast of Spain was home to some of Europe’s most dangerous criminals. Puerto Banús was a playground for the rich and famous. There were so many wealthy people floating around here that Jethro would easily blend in.

  The profit from the Watson family’s non-legitimate businesses needed to be lost somewhere, and this was the perfect place to carry out money laundering on a huge scale. Spending large amounts of cash in Marbella wouldn’t be something that would draw attention to a person. It was an everyday occurrence in a resort packed with owners of luxury villas, sports cars and big boats.

  ‘Gemma, you’ve got five minutes to pack up your belongings. You won’
t be coming back to this apartment ever again.’

  My heart began pounding. I could feel my dream of moving to Gibraltar slipping through my fingers but now wasn’t the right time to panic. I needed to keep a clear head. I didn’t want to go with Alfie, but there wasn’t another option. I felt completely powerless. If I didn’t do what he told me to, something terrible might happen to us. Alfie had a violent temper that he could unleash in the blink of an eye. If he thought I was scared, it would only make him want to exert his dominance even more. One of his favourite pastimes was exploiting a person’s weaknesses. So I’d have to put on a brave face and play the game.

  Alfie checked the time on his watch. ‘Four minutes and counting…’

  I freaked out any time Luca was out of my sight, so I took him with me and went into the bedroom. Closing the door behind me, I pulled out the suitcase from the bottom of the wardrobe and placed it on the bed, then ripped the clothes from the hangers and bundled them into the case. I tore around the room, pulling open drawers, firing the contents into the bag from the other side of the room like I was shooting a ball through a basketball hoop. I sat Luca in the middle of the bed and surrounded him with pillows, to keep him from moving around and falling off the bed. Then I gave him a toy to keep him occupied while I pulled the bedside cabinet away from the wall and lifted the piece of loose laminate flooring. Thank God, the huge bag of money I’d stashed some time ago was still there. After lifting it out, I placed it at the bottom of my case and arranged the clothes back over it. I was doing up the zip when Alfie opened the door. He swaggered into the room and stood next to the bed, towering over Luca. A smile spread over his face as he watched his son.

  ‘It’s time to go,’ Alfie said.

  ‘But I haven’t packed Luca’s things yet.’

  ‘Well get a move on. We haven’t got all day.’

  Knuckles came into the bedroom and lifted my case off the bed.

  ‘Take that down to the car, and then come back and give us a hand with the rest of the stuff,’ Alfie said.

  I wanted to make sure I had everything of importance with us, in case, at some point in the future, the opportunity presented itself for us to disappear. Stashed at the bottom of Luca’s wardrobe were mine and Nathan’s collection of bogus passports and the jewellery from the heist at the Antwerp Diamond Centre. I decided to bring it all with me. It might come in handy. Alfie told me before that if somebody wanted to successfully disappear off-grid all they needed was to have one decent piece of ID. Once you had that, you could get hold of anything else you might need. Making a fresh start wouldn’t get off the ground if I didn’t have any identification or money.

  I packed up Luca’s clothes, but I couldn’t get the idea of moving to Gibraltar out of my head. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. It seemed like the obvious choice now. Its official language was English, so communication wouldn’t have been an issue. That would have been one less thing to worry about. As I prepared to go with Alfie, a new beginning seemed like a pipe dream, but I had to have faith that one day Luca and I would be free of him. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure I could find the strength to carry on.

  The thought of being held by Alfie sent a flood of emotions racing through my body. I didn’t want to spend my days walking on eggshells again, worrying that I might say or do something that would set him off.

  ‘Gemma, we need to leave now, or we’re going to miss our flight.’

  The sound of Alfie’s voice made me jump. I was a nervous wreck. Because my mind was on other things, for a moment, I wondered if I’d misheard him.

  ‘We’re flying?’ I questioned.

  ‘Yes.’ Alfie smiled. ‘Don’t look so surprised.’

  But I couldn’t help it. Alfie always avoided airports like the plague. There was far too much security for his liking. I felt the corners of my mouth turn up.

  ‘You look happy,’ Alfie said, smiling back at me.

  I looked up at him with a grin pasted on my face, and on this occasion, my delight was genuine. Fingers crossed, we might get detained by immigration.

  I felt a lump form in my throat as I looked around the apartment one last time. Nathan and I had been so happy here. I didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t have a choice at this moment in time. I could see The Rock in the distance outside the window, rising out of a glittering blue sea, and tempting as it was, there was no point trying to make a run for it. I’d never be able to get away from Alfie. Instead, I was going to have to pin all hope on being stopped by airport security.

  I put Luca in his car seat, and Knuckles carried him out of the living area and down the hallway. Alfie and I followed him. Just before he opened the front door, Alfie stepped in front of me and looked me in the eye. I tried not to give away how I was feeling, but it was difficult to remain calm as the intensity of his stare bored into me.

  ‘When we go outside, don’t try anything stupid. Do I make myself clear?’

  I nodded, to acknowledge that I understood what Alfie meant. Much as I was desperate to get away from him, I had to pick the right time, and this wasn’t it.

  I felt like an A-list celebrity surrounded by a team of bodyguards as we made our way to the underground car park. I was being flanked on each side by Knuckles and Alfie. When we got to the black Mercedes, Knuckles opened the back door and placed Luca’s carrycot on the leather seat.

  Alfie took hold of my elbow and led me to the other door. ‘Get in,’ he said, resting his hand of the small of my back.

  I reluctantly took my seat, and with trembling fingers, I tried to fasten the seat belt. A moment later, a middle-aged man, wearing dark sunglasses and dressed in a short-sleeve shirt and smart trousers got out of another Mercedes parked next to ours. He walked around to the back of the car and opened the door. Jethro got out and had a brief conversation with Alfie. Although I tried, I couldn’t hear what they were saying. When Jethro got back in the car, the man closed the door behind him. I wondered why he wasn’t travelling with us. There was plenty of room in the car. Maybe they were copying royal protocol and preserving the line of succession, I thought. It would never do if two heirs to the Watson dynasty were wiped out in a tragic car accident, would it?

  Once Alfie got into the car and sat next to Knuckles, he began reversing the Mercedes out of the parking space.

  ‘Isn’t your dad coming back to England?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, but he’s going to meet us at the airport.’

  ‘Why does he need to travel in another car? Is it a security measure?’ I was trying to gauge the level of danger we were in. Alfie had just done a business deal with the Russians, and it was very likely there was a shipment of cocaine in the boot of our car. If it wasn’t cocaine, I could guarantee whatever we were transporting was something illegal.

  Alfie laughed. ‘You’ve been watching too much TV.’

  ‘So why is he travelling in another car?’

  Alfie paused. He was famous for dodging the answer to a question, so I wasn’t expecting a response. Then he pulled down the sun visor and looked at me in the mirror. ‘Nobody wants to sit in the middle seat, do they, Gemma?’

  I squinted when we came out from the dark underground car park into daylight. The afternoon sun shone brightly above us in a cloudless blue sky. Glancing out of the car window, I stole one last look at Puerto Banús. Framed by the dramatic Andalusian mountains and the calm turquoise water of the Mediterranean that lapped at the sand, it was idyllic.

  The further away from Marbella we drove, the crowds of tourists thinned out dramatically, and by the time we reached the airport, there wasn’t a single pedestrian to be seen. Knuckles followed the signs to the terminal used solely by private jets. I should have realised we wouldn’t be one of the millions using the main terminal. It was obvious we weren’t going to be boarding a standard flight.

  To my amazement, we didn’t have to wait in the customs queue. That dashed my hopes of being detained by Spanish officials. Our party and all our questionable luggage
had been pre-cleared, so we were ushered through the VIP charter terminal and onto the private jet. Ryanair could learn a thing or two from the smooth running of this operation, I thought. Now I understood how Alfie had got to Puerto Banús before me. He’d broken his no flying rule and had travelled by private jet. My heart sank at the thought of returning to UK soil.

  72

  Nathan

  On the long journey from England to Spain, I had plenty of time to think. I wondered what had happened to make Gemma act so out of character. Why would she disappear like this without saying a word? I understood my wife wanted to get away from Alfie, but why did she go without me?

  I breathed a sigh of relief, and my mood instantly lifted when I pulled into the underground car park and saw the Jeep parked in our space. My hunch that Gemma would come back here had paid off. I’m glad I trusted my instincts now. Turning to face Dad, I let out a long breath.

  After letting us in, I went straight to mine and Gemma’s bedroom. It was six o’clock in the morning, so I expected to find her asleep, but the room was empty. I pulled back the quilt and ran my hand over the Egyptian cotton sheet; the bed hadn’t been slept in recently; it was stone cold.

  When I looked around the apartment, I soon realised Gemma had cleared out all of her and Luca’s belongings. She hadn’t just packed for a couple of days; everything had gone. My heart sank. I knew that meant she wasn’t planning on coming back. Gemma and I had promised to stick by each other for life. Those vows seem to have meant nothing to her because she’d left me. I felt like this had come from nowhere without warning, but maybe I just hadn’t picked up on the signs. I should have realised something was wrong; Gemma had been so cold and unapproachable lately. She’d emotionally detached herself from me, and like a fool, I’d put that down to her depressive state of mind.

  I walked into the living room, biting the nails on my left hand. ‘Gemma’s gone. She’s taken all her stuff.’