Bound By Blood

by Paul J. Teague

  ‘Where is she?’ Vinnie asked.

  Joanne was completely calm, allowing him to get halfway into the area before she stepped out of the shadows and took one violent swipe at his hand, sending the gun flying across the chamber. The sound of wood against bone made Charlotte flinch.

  Vinnie cursed as the gun slid across the steel floor towards Kate’s bound feet. The shock of it made her lurch backwards, and for a split-second Charlotte thought she was going to topple out into the darkness. Kate forced her body forwards, changing her centre of gravity, and somehow managed to stabilise herself.

  Joanne took a second swipe at Vinnie, this time striking his head. He’d managed to climb high enough up the ladder to land on the floor of the upper chamber as he took the full impact of the blow, his body crumpling.

  ‘We’ll get to Vinnie Mace in a moment,’ Joanne said, walking confidently over to the gun, picking it up and holding it to Kate’s head.

  ‘I don’t know much about guns,’ she continued, casually waving it about as she spoke.

  ‘For instance, if I pull the trigger now, is the safety even on? Let’s give it a try—’

  She placed the gun at Kate’s temple and her finger tensed on the trigger. Kate’s eyes were scrunched tightly shut.

  ‘No!’ Charlotte cried.

  The gun did not fire.

  ‘The safety must be on,’ Joanne said with a laugh. ‘Best take it off then.’

  She did something to the gun, placing the baseball bat at Kate’s side to free up a hand.

  Charlotte decided to keep her talking. ‘What do you want, Joanne?’ she said, ‘You realise this is over now, surely?’

  ‘Well, it is for you and your friend here. Now the incriminating documents have been retrieved, you’ve done what I needed you to do. You two are no longer required.’

  ‘What about Vinnie?’

  ‘Once I’ve finished with you two, Vinnie and I are going to make a little deal. Were you aware Tiffany Irwin was the sole heir for the land? Her mother cut Fabian out of the picture because she reckoned he was ill. And by ill, I mean mentally ill. And did you know Fabian and David hatched a deal to force Tiffany out of the picture and conceal the truth about the will? Now you’ve found the crucial documents, it gives me all the leverage I need to take what’s rightfully mine... Or what would have been rightfully mine if this bitch and her brother hadn’t killed David—’

  ‘I told you, Joanne, Fabian had David killed. You’re lucky Brett saved you.’

  Kate was using a softer tone now. Charlotte thought she was wise, considering the fanatical look on Joanne’s face, which suggested the past twenty years had been building to this moment. Kate’s face was ashen with fear and her eyes were fixed on Vinnie Mace.

  ‘We tried to save David. In spite of all he’d done to hurt Tiffany, my brother still tried to save his life. I had blood on my hands that night from trying to stop the bleeding. But Brett was wasting his time. David was dead before my brother even put him in his car.’

  ‘You’re a liar!’ Joanne shouted. ‘And you even denied me a funeral—’

  Kate was signalling to Charlotte with her eyes once again, but Charlotte just wasn’t getting it. Kate continued to distract Joanne in her calm voice.

  ‘Brett had to get rid of the body. He was covered in David’s blood. The babies had disappeared into the night. Fabian had tried to kill his own sister on the sea front, making it look like a suicide attempt. For God’s sake, the man is a monster, you must see that. You and Brett were lucky to escape with your lives that night—’

  Joanne was moving towards Vinnie now, gun at the ready, and at last Charlotte saw what Kate had been trying to tell her. A small kitchen knife was tucked under Kate’s rucksack. She’d brought enough items to survive in the turbine for a couple of days. The thought of having to carry anything on her back up the endless ladder made Charlotte cringe.

  She looked at Kate to indicate she’d spotted the knife. Kate had an urgent look in her eyes, watching Vinnie, who had begun to come round from the blow to his head.

  Joanne pointed the gun at him.

  ‘I want you to crawl towards Kate over there,’ she commanded.

  ‘You don’t have to do this, Joanne,’ Vinnie urged. ‘Fabian will make a deal. Now the initial lease is up on the turbines, he’s getting this land re-designated for industrial use. It’s going to be worth a fortune. He’ll cut you in. We both want the same thing; the original will has to be destroyed along with the psychological reports confirming Tiffany’s sanity. Once they’re gone, Tiffany loses any power she might have retained.’

  ‘Walk over to the doors and make a video call to Fabian,’ Joanne demanded. ‘I want him to see where you are.’

  Vinnie crawled over to Kate then stood up at her side and pulled his phone from his pocket. His head was bleeding; he’d received quite a wound.

  ‘Call him!’

  Kate caught Charlotte’s glance. Joanne and Vinnie were distracted. Swiftly, she knelt and took the knife from underneath the rucksack, tucking it into her back pocket.

  Joanne caught the movement in the corner of her eye.

  ‘Stand over there by your friend!’ she shouted at Charlotte. ‘Get where I can see you.’

  There were three bullets in the gun, according to Vinnie. One for each of them. And now the safety catch was off, so the next time anyone pulled the trigger, somebody would be shot.

  As Charlotte inched towards the open doors of the turbine, she saw the headlamps of a vehicle below. Was it the police? Had Will come back for her? She couldn’t tell. But it was a long way down and she and Kate seemed to have little bargaining power left.

  Fabian’s voice came over Vinnie’s phone, set to the speaker.

  ‘Remember me, Fabian? It’s Joanne Taylor, back from the dead.’

  ‘Joanne?’ his voice came over the speaker, calm and in control. ‘Vinnie?’

  ‘It’s her,’ he confirmed.

  ‘I’ve done your work for you. I have Charlotte Grayson here and Kate Allan. We need to talk business. Kate has led Charlotte to the paperwork now. I just need to be certain of my cut.’

  Fabian was completely cool on the end of the phone.

  ‘Sure, Joanne, you and David were always part of the arrangement. Until Kate Allan killed David, that is.’

  He was lying, Charlotte was certain of it.

  ‘Do you have the paperwork with you?’ Fabian asked.

  ‘Charlotte has it. Or more likely her husband does,’ Vinnie replied.

  ‘That’s fine,’ Fabian answered, ‘we’re good. We have someone watching the son’s rented place now, I’ll tell him to go in and start roughing them up a bit—’

  ‘No!’ Charlotte shouted. ‘I’ll tell you where everything is. Call Will now, and he can collect the documents. That’s if you were bluffing about holding him captive already. Don’t hurt the children.’

  She prayed Olli and Lucia had taken their advice and gone to the Travelodge for the night. They’d be safe that way.

  ‘Do we need Kate Allan now?’ Joanne asked.

  ‘I think we’re done with her,’ Fabian replied.

  ‘Good, at last. See ya, Kate!’

  Joanne strode up to Kate and raised her foot to kick her off the end of the platform. Joanne was so tall, she narrowly missed striking her head on a vent pipe which ran along the ceiling. Charlotte saw her chance. With Joanne on one foot now, Charlotte drew the knife from her pocket and launched herself at her. Joanne tried to compensate but was off balance. She struck her head on the pipework, dropping the gun onto the steel floor. Kate pushed herself forward to fall on her face, away from the edge of the platform. Charlotte sliced the tape around Kate’s hands, dropped the knife and reached out for the discarded baseball bat.

  Vinnie was fast, letting his phone drop to the ground as he leapt over Kate’s crumpled form to make a grab for the gun. In a single move, he took the handle of the gun, rolled over, pointed it at Joanne and shot her twice through the head.<
br />
  Joanne didn’t even see it coming. She lurched backwards towards the open doors at the back of the turbine. Charlotte grabbed the baseball bat and ran at Vinnie, copying Joanne’s move to knock the gun out of his hand.

  But he was too agile and already up on his feet. He pointed the gun at Charlotte.

  ‘I’ve had enough of you,’ he said coldly. ‘But I’m not wasting the last bullet on you.’ He raised the gun and shot Kate Summers in the thigh. She gasped with the pain and shock. It was all Charlotte could do not to scream. With Joanne’s body bleeding out on the floor and Kate in excruciating pain, she heard Fabian’s voice come over the phone.

  ‘Got it all in hand Vinnie?’

  ‘But of course,’ he replied, wiping the gun thoroughly on his shirt. He pulled the trigger again, but his bullet count was correct. The weapon was empty. He put his foot on Kate’s wounded leg, pressed down hard and grabbed her hand, placing the gun in it and ensuring her fingers gripped it hard enough to leave prints. He then kicked the gun out of the back of the turbine into the air and turned to Charlotte.

  She was poised with the baseball bat, waiting for her move. He lunged at her, fearless and confident, and she swiped the bat, but he simply grabbed it in mid-flight and threw it to the ground.

  ‘I’m sick to death of you, Charlotte Grayson. Just so you know, we’re going to do whatever we have to do to your kids to get those documents from your husband. We’re aware he’s heading for Lancaster; we have a tracker on your phones—’

  ‘But we removed those.’

  ‘Silly woman. You removed one of them. You don’t think I’m stupid enough to leave them both on the main screen of your phone, do you?’

  ‘Oh,’ was all Charlotte could say, feeling wretched at being duped so easily. No wonder they hadn’t been able to shake him off.

  ‘Will won’t make it to his destination, I’m afraid. We’ve got everything we need from you now, Charlotte. Cheerio.’

  With the sure arrogance of an accomplished killer, Vinnie grasped Charlotte by her neck, lifted her up off the floor and threw her towards the open doors of the turbine, as if she was an old rag doll which was no longer needed.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  December 1999

  As soon as Brett heard the gunshot, he ended his call to Kate. His heart pounded like a hammer in a steelworks plant as he made his way back to Tiffany and David’s car, keeping his head down all the time.

  Tiffany was up ahead, lying still and silent on the ground, and the passenger door was still open. He swallowed hard.

  Glancing across at the group of people in the distance who were illuminated by the headlamps in the clearing, he could hear Joanne screaming hysterically. David was on the floor and the other men were shouting. He would have to move fast to get his new family out of there. His family. He liked the sound of that.

  Checking the coast was clear, he darted across from the undergrowth where he’d been taking cover and moved closer to Tiffany.

  ‘Oh, thank God, Brett, we’ve got to get the children out of here—’

  In among the shouting and confusion, Brett had tuned out Callie’s crying. She’d been startled by the gunshot and was looking for her mum. She was leaning forward in the child seat, hovering over the footwell. If she toppled over...

  ‘We need to take him to hospital, you bastards!’ Joanne shouted.

  The men were laughing and goading her. Whatever the deal was between them, it sounded like the terms had just changed.

  ‘We have to get the kids out now,’ Brett urged Tiffany.

  Jane had been woken by the sound of the gunfire and the shouting, and was beginning to stir, half attempting to go back to sleep, half moaning that she’d been disturbed.

  ‘Callie, darling, Mummy’s got you.’

  ‘Can you take both girls to my car?’ Brett asked.

  ‘Why, where are you going?’

  ‘To help David—’

  ‘No, Brett. Whatever Joanne and David did, they made their bed, and they have to lie in it. They’ve got our run-around car over there; they can drive themselves to hospital.’

  Brett looked over to the increasingly tense scene by the other vehicles. Even at that distance, he could tell Joanne was pushing her luck. David was rolling on the ground, screaming in pain.

  ‘We can’t leave him like that.’

  ‘The children, Brett, they’re the most important—’

  ‘He’s your husband, Tiffany. You must have felt something for him at one time?’

  ‘Those feelings are long gone. I don’t owe him anything.’

  ‘But Rowan. He’s Rowan’s father.’

  ‘Haven’t you figured it out yet, you fool? You’re Rowan’s father.’

  ‘But I can’t be—’

  A rush of confusion swept over Brett. It was too much to deal with at one time.

  ‘Brett, you’re his father. If you look under the box of family photographs in your storage unit, you’ll find all the proof you need. I left it there to keep it safe. I hid some other documents there too, to pick up before we leave tonight.’

  She saw that her handbag was still in the front of the car. She took out the plane tickets and handed them to him.

  ‘These are open tickets to Australia. Kate has the passports already in the envelope I gave you. We have everything we need to get away.’

  ‘But... when? How?’

  ‘I was going to tell you. Tonight. Before we left Morecambe. I had it all planned. I wanted to see your face, knowing we had a new life ahead of us and that you were a father. We can still have it, Brett. But we have to move now.’

  Another gunshot sounded out and Joanne screamed again. Brett saw her stagger backwards, holding her leg, shouting out every expletive in the book.

  ‘You lying bastards, we had a deal. We had a fucking deal, you morons—’

  One of the men walked over and struck her with the end of his gun.

  ‘Mr Armstrong says screw your deal.’

  Joanne dropped to the ground like a brick, out cold. David began to beg for their lives, grovelling while struggling through the pain of his wound.

  The woman who was with them picked up the money bag and started to walk back to the Russians’ vehicle.

  ‘I want you to take Callie and Jane over to my car,’ Brett whispered. ‘Strap them into the child seats and have the engine running. Don’t put the lights on. If you can pull off the road a little further, do it. I’ll come back for you; I promise.’

  ‘Brett, please, don’t—’

  ‘I can’t leave him to die, Tiffany. I can’t leave Joanne here wounded. We can’t start our new life together like this. I have to do the right thing, to help David and Joanne.’

  One of the Russian men kicked David in the face and he too crumpled on the ground. The woman had returned from the large people carrier with a fuel can. She opened the doors of the runaround and began to douse it with petrol. The men walked over to David, took his arms and legs and began to move him towards the vehicle.

  Tiffany had both girls now, carrying a mithering Jane in her arms while Callie walked beside her.

  ‘Get to the car,’ Brett urged. ‘Stay out of sight; I’ll be with you as soon as I can.’

  ‘I love you,’ Tiffany said.

  ‘I love you too, Tiff. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.’

  Tiffany rushed over to the cover of the bushes. Brett followed her, then moved off towards the cars, using the undergrowth to keep him concealed. He levelled up with the parked vehicles. David had been piled into the runaround and was slumped over the steering wheel. Joanne was being moved to the seat beside him. It was obvious what was being planned. He counted the Russian figures, moving around the car. He’d lost one; only the woman and two of the men remained.

  The woman lit a match and set fire to the petrol trail leading to the runaround. It was all Brett could do not to shout out when the flame rushed towards the vehicle. The three of them turned around as if
it was an everyday occurrence, getting into their own car, starting the engine and driving towards the road. Weren’t they planning to take the children?

  As the Russians’ car changed direction and moved towards Tiffany’s vehicle, Brett broke cover and ran towards the flames. They were already towering above him, the fierce heat holding him back. He had to reach David and Joanne before the fuel tank went up; it could explode at any moment.

  Brett covered his face with his sleeve and ran towards Joanne, pulling her out of the passenger seat. She groaned, blood trickling down her face where she’d been struck. Brett pulled her into the bushes, then returned for David.

  The flames were now making their way across the front fascia and his trousers were beginning to smoke. As Brett lunged forward to grab David under the arms, he felt the wetness of the wound where he’d been shot. His side was a mess of torn flesh. Brett panicked. The steel of the car was so hot now, it was creaking from the expansion. He pulled David’s dead weight from the car seat, dragging him across the rough ground and into the cover of the undergrowth. As he sat on the earth to catch his breath, the fire hit the fuel tank and the car exploded, sending out a deadly flare so sudden it made him duck.

  ‘I’m going to get help,’ he said to Joanne, who was now semi-conscious. ‘If I take David to my sister, Kate, she’ll know exactly what to do.’

  ‘You bastard. If it wasn’t for you, none of this would have happened.’

  ‘What?’ Brett said, incredulous. ‘I just saved your lives.’

  ‘You wasted your time, Rambo. You and Tiffany are over, whether you like it or not. Fabian has taken care of it. You don’t get to see in the new year, whatever happens. You’ve screwed this up big time. Fabian is going to be really fed up with you now.’

  ‘It was Fabian who wanted you killed,’ Brett protested. ‘Even I could see that from where I was hiding.’

  Brett ducked and instinctively pushed Joanne to the ground as the beams of a car’s headlamps swept over their heads. Tiffany’s car was in motion too, being spun around in the clearing. In the rush to save David and Joanne, he’d forgotten to check the whereabouts of the Russians. As the first car completed its turn and the second passed in front of them, he screamed out as he saw Tiffany’s lifeless form slumped in the back seat. The third man, who Brett had lost track of, was driving Tiffany’s car. Callie and Jane were in their car seats in the back.