“We are,” replied Rachel. “But there’s one more loose end to tie up first.”
They all looked at each other grimly.
“Well, good luck with that,” said Raven.
Rachel, Ryan and Shane said their goodbyes. When they’d finished Jules took Raven’s hands.
“I’d kiss you but I’m happily married now,” she said.
Raven nodded. “Shame. We always had a great time together.”
“We certainly did.” Instead she kissed her cheek. “You’d better stay in touch.”
“Course I will.”
“And if you ever need any back-up…”
“You’ll be my first port of call. You sure you don’t fancy a quickie before I go?”
“Tempting gorgeous but I wouldn’t do that to Mikey.”
“He could watch.”
Jules’s bark of laughter startled some birds out of the trees. “I’ll run it past him but I think it’ll be a no.”
“Oh well. Go on then, get yourself back to your husband. I hope he knows how lucky he is.”
Jules winked at her. “Course he does. I’m a lucky lady too.”
Before Mark followed the others he hesitated by Raven. “It was great working with you.”
“You too.”
“I wondered if you fancied going out for dinner some time?”
“Sorry, happily married,” she said, producing the ring she wore on a chain around her neck.
“What a fucking waste,” he said, making her smile.
She kissed his cheek. “If I wasn’t married I’d accept. You impressed me today and that’s not easy to do.”
Mark treated her to a rare smile. “I suppose that’ll have to do then.”
“Take it as a compliment. I don’t say that often to men.”
“Well, hopefully I’ll see you around.”
“No doubt you will.”
Mark winked at her before following the others to the van.
Raven watched them leave, feeling a little sad. She’d enjoyed working with them all and Jules was the one person in the world she loved who wasn’t a member of her family. Her only friend.
Half an hour later Damon emerged from the trees, face streaked with dirt, carrying a muddy shovel.
“All done?” said Raven.
“Yep. The hag’s buried nice and deep. What a fucking fright she was eh? She’s more attractive now she’s a corpse.”
“She wasn’t exactly pleasant. You ready to go home?”
“Yeah and just in time too. I’ve got a date tonight.”
“Then we’d better make tracks. You’re always calmer once you’ve got your end away.”
“I’d be calmer a lot more if you’d oblige me.”
“Shut up and get in the car.”
“You promised I could drive home.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” she said, getting into the passenger seat.
He tossed the shovel into the boot and climbed into the driver’s seat. “If any cyclists get in my way I’m stopping.”
“Fair enough. You’ve earned a treat.”
He grinned as he started the engine.
CHAPTER 48
Amber got off the plane at Manchester airport with a sinking heart, the cold rain depressing her spirits further. She wished she was far away, somewhere hot and exotic where there were no bloody Maguires or Laws. Katia had lost the war. She’d vanished, Hayden and Clayton were dead. Their men had either been slaughtered or gone over to Mikey and Jez. Neither could she be certain that they hadn’t given up her involvement in the plot. She had no evidence to suppose they had, no one had said anything, although Riley had given her a few hard looks but he’d never liked her so that didn’t tell her much. The boys seemed totally disinterested in her, despite her best efforts, preferring their uncle and aunts, why she had no idea, they were all boring losers.
She swallowed hard when she saw Rachel, Ryan, Jez and Bruiser waiting for them in arrivals. No Jules and Mikey, thank God, she wasn’t sure she could bear the sight of them together. They were probably still laid up in hospital anyway.
She was almost knocked over when Cathy shoved past her with George in her arms, racing towards Jez, their other two children in her wake. She threw herself at her husband, being careful not to squash George and kissed him. Jez gripped onto her, delighted. This welcome was far more than he’d expected.
“I missed you so much,” she sobbed into his shoulder.
“I missed you too babe,” he breathed, kissing her hair.
She looked up at him with her tear-streaked face. “I never called my solicitor, I couldn’t do it. I love you too much. I don’t want a divorce, I just got scared.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “So you still want to be with me?”
“Of course I do you big lemon,” she wept.
He grinned and kissed her, pressing his forehead to hers. “Thank God. I love you so much. I was half a man without you.”
“I won’t ever do that again. You’re my man. Forever.”
They clung onto each other, the children getting in on the family hug.
Ryan was relieved to see the life return to his brother’s eyes, the coldness that had seemed so alien vanishing.
“Told you so,” Rachel said to her husband.
“That is a relief.”
Rachel’s smile dropped when she saw Amber.
“Just take it easy,” said Ryan, sensing her bristle.
“I’m trying.”
Her scowl was hidden by Beth who hugged her, Riley shaking Ryan’s hand.
“Thanks for keeping them safe,” said Ryan. “At least you didn’t have any trouble. Or did you?” he added when Riley and Beth glanced at each other.
“There was an incursion into your home,” he said.
“What?” said Ryan and Rachel in unison.
“It’s fine, no one was hurt. Well, none of our lot anyway, your kids are really something. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“You should have told us before now,” said Rachel.
“We decided not to because it would have distracted you from what you had to do and that could have been dangerous. Besides, it was all sorted so there was nothing you could have done.”
“So the kids are fine? My parents too?”
“Your parents were out at the time so they don’t even know it happened. Michelle Wright was watching over the kids, as were Fletch and Leo. They weren’t hurt. In fact they did more damage to the attackers,” he chuckled.
“Well that’s a relief. We’re going to round things up here then get home.”
Riley nodded sagely. “You know what you’re going to do about that?”
“I’ve got a good idea,” said Rachel, her eyes moving past him to Amber attempting to round up her sons, who appeared to be taking great delight in running rings around her just to wind her up. Rachel smiled inwardly. Good boys.
She was distracted from the ginger witch by a pair of eyes burning into her. Archie stood off to one side, staring at her in such an inscrutable way she couldn’t decide whether it was hostile or not. A shiver ran down her spine as she recalled the way young Alex had looked at her in the garage. The father lived on in two of his sons. Cold foreboding slithered down her spine.
Beth caught her younger son staring at his aunt and hated what she saw in his eyes. “Come on, let’s go home,” she said, wafting her children towards the exit.
“We’ll be back down to Devon soon for Battler’s funeral,” said Riley.
“See you then,” said Ryan, hugging him.
Rachel didn’t hear this conversation because Archie was still staring at her over his shoulder as he was ushered away by his mother. “Hello boys,” she smiled when Josh and Zach ran to her for a hug.
“Where’s Mum and Dad?” said Josh who had appeared to have completely forgotten about Amber.
“They wanted to be here boys but they weren’t strong enough to come. Don’t worry, they’re getting better, they’ll be fine,”
she hastened to add when their smiles dropped. “We’ll take you to see them.”
“Then we can go home?” said Josh hopefully.
Rachel’s hard black gaze was turned on Amber. “You didn’t tell them?” she whispered.
“I thought it would be better coming from Mikey,” she replied before looking down at the floor.
With a final glare at her Rachel took the boys’ hands. “Come on, let’s take you to your parents.”
Amber was alarmed when outside the airport the boys were taken away in a car with Riley, she thought he’d already left with Beth and the kids.
“You’re with us,” said Rachel, pulling open the back door of a large black car with blacked out windows.
“Where are we going?” she whispered, throat constricted with fear.
“We need to have a little chat. Get in before I fucking throw you in.”
She looked around, wondering if she could scream for assistance but even though they were at a busy airport they’d left the car in a quiet corner, away from the public thoroughfare. Bruiser and Jez came up behind her, penning her in.
Left with no choice she quietly got into the back, Rachel getting in on one side, Bruiser on the other. Ryan took the driver’s seat while Jez took the front passenger seat.
Rachel glared at her the entire journey while Amber kept her head bowed, hiding her face behind her curtain of hair. No one spoke for the entire journey, which lasted barely ten minutes but was the longest moment of Amber’s life. She wanted to ask where they were going, what they were going to do with her but she was too afraid so it was easier for her to keep quiet. Instinct told her that just the sound of her voice could tip Rachel into a violent frenzy.
Amber felt sick when the car rolled to a sudden halt. Her head snapped up and she saw they were outside what appeared to be a closed down garage. The surrounding area was wasteland.
Rachel threw open the door and climbed out. She stood there waiting for Amber to follow and when she didn’t she thrust her head into the car. “Get out.”
“No,” she cried, recoiling backwards into Bruiser. She looked up at him and gasped at the hatred in his eyes. “No,” she yelled when Rachel grabbed her leg and dragged her out of the car. She tried to kick her but Rachel punched her in the back of the knee, the pain taking her breath away. Rachel hauled her out and Amber hit the ground hard.
“What are you going to do with me?” she said, gazing up at her fearfully.
“That depends on what you have to say,” she said, grabbing her by the back of the coat and shoving her through the door of the garage.
Amber stumbled and almost fell, clutching onto the grubby wooden stand that had once been the reception desk. The place stank of damp and oil, rusted car parts scattered about the empty, echoing room. Worst of all Jules was there, her right arm in a sling. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to cause her too much damage with only one arm? Obviously Katia or Hayden or someone had told them about her involvement in the plot. That meant there was only one way she was going to get out of this alive - she was going to have to front it out, it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince them that their mortal enemies had lied to them.
With a plan firmly set in mind and a possible way out of this mess she felt more confident. Planting her hand on her hip she tossed back her head. “Where’s Mikey?”
“He’s not well enough to get out of his hospital bed,” said Jules. “Guess whose fault that is?”
“Katia’s, obviously.”
“Not just hers,” she glowered.
“I don’t know what you mean.” She jumped when the door was slammed shut, Turning, she saw Jez lock it and pocket the key. Her heart thumped in her chest and she thought she might throw up when they surrounded her in a tight circle, each one of them radiating hostility.
It was Rachel who spoke.
“What I don’t understand,” she began. “Is how you could conspire to murder so many people who welcomed you into their family, who loved you like one of their own?”
“Welcomed?” she laughed. “What a joke that is. You never liked me, none of you. I was always the figure of fun.”
“No Amber, not at first,” said Rachel. “We all loved you until you turned into a vain, spiteful witch who shagged her own husband’s cousin behind his back.”
“He was shagging his own cousin behind my back,” she exclaimed, pointing at Jules.
“Actually, we weren’t,” said Jules. “As you well know. Stop using that as an excuse.”
“Excuse, for what?”
“For almost killing us all.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Give up the pretence,” sighed Jules. She was sore and tired but had wanted to be here for this. “We know you were in on it with Katia, that you approached her and gave her all the information she needed to attack us.”
“And you believed her?” she laughed. “It’s all lies to try and cause further disruption in the family.”
“Katia didn’t say anything about you,” said Jules. “Your own words trapped you.”
“What do you mean?” she said, a chill creeping up her spine.
“Riley hacked into your phone while you were in Devon,” began Rachel, stepping forward. “He found quite a few juicy text messages.” She smiled when all the blood drained from Amber’s face.
Amber quickly recovered from her shock. “I didn’t write them. Someone could easily have got hold of my phone.”
Rachel took out her own phone and brought up the messages. “Here’s the address of where the inbred freaks are getting married,” she read aloud, drawing a grunt of anger from Jules. “I can’t wait for them to be blown sky high, that’ll teach the twisted bastard to cheat on me.” Rachel looked back at Amber. “Now, who else could have written that message I wonder?”
“Someone who’s got it in for me. They couldn’t attack me at the wedding because they knew I wouldn’t be there so this is their way of getting at me.”
“Why would they bother to get at you?” said Jez, speaking for the first time.
“Because I’m a part of the family too.”
“No you’re not.”
“Well…I was.”
“Then how about this?” said Rachel, jabbing a button on her phone, Amber’s voice playing out loud and clear as she gave Katia Rachel and Ryan’s home address.
Amber felt herself flush bright red with panic.
“Your actions nearly led to us all getting killed, including our kids.” A tear slid down Rachel’s cheek. “Your actions killed Battler and Grant.”
“No, they didn’t. I was tricked into giving away information…” She yelped when Rachel backhanded her across the face.
“Lying fucking bitch,” she bellowed.
Amber tried to back away from Rachel’s terrifying black-eyed rage but she backed up into Bruiser and could go no further. With a look of disgust he shoved her towards Rachel who punched her, knocking her to the floor.
“Please don’t kill me,” wailed Amber, giving into her fear and starting to cry.
“Give me one fucking reason why not.”
“My children…”
“They have a mother and a father. Why would they need you?”
“I didn’t want it to come to this. I love Mikey. If I was still with him this wouldn’t have happened.” She pointed at Jules. “This is her fault.”
“You bitch,” barked Jules, lunging for her.
Amber squealed and backed away, looking to the men for help, deciding her feminine wiles were the only way to save her from the fury of the women. “Please,” she said with her best wide-eyed expression, eyes shiny with tears. “Don’t let them hurt me. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
All the men looked down at her dispassionately. Realising she wasn’t going to talk her way out of this one she broke down in tears. “I don’t want to die,” she wailed.
“You should have thought about that before siding with our enemies,” said Rachel, grabbing a h
andful of her hair and dragging her backwards with one hand while drawing the knife from her belt with the other. Amber shrieked and kicked, attempting to free herself but Rachel was far too strong.
When Rachel drew back her arm, ready to plunge the knife into Amber she found herself unable to move. “What are you doing?” she said, glaring at her husband who had taken hold of her arm.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“What the fuck do you think I’m doing?” she spat. “She helped kill Battler so she’s going to fucking die.”
“I’m not going to let you do this.”
“You’re protecting her?”
“No. I’m protecting you. If you do this you won’t be able to live with yourself.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“No you won’t. You’ve stopped me doing something I’d regret so many times. I’m not going to let you down when you need me to do the same for you.”
She tried to snatch her arm from his grip and failed. “Let me fucking go,” she yelled. “I need to do this, for Battler.”
“He wouldn’t want you doing this,” he said sadly.
Rachel looked to Bruiser who slowly shook his head.
“Fine,” she hissed, pushing Amber away. She held the knife out to Jules. “You do it. I know you’d enjoy it. What are you waiting for?” she snapped when Jules shook her head.
“She’s Josh and Zach’s mum. I can’t.”
“She’s not their mum, you are.”
“You know what I mean. How could I ever look them in the eye again?”
Rachel sighed with irritation and looked to Bruiser. “You then, for your brother.”
“My brother wouldn’t like the killing of a tiny woman in his name,” he said.
She looked to Jez, who similarly shook his head.
“If none of you have the fucking balls then it looks like I’ve got no choice.”
Ryan wrapped his arms around his wife, pinning her own arms to her side. “You do this and there’s no coming back,” he whispered in her ear. “She’s already taken enough from us. Don’t let her take any more.”
She looked up at him, her face tear-stained. “I want to do Battler proud.”
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