by Emma Tallon
Paul stood up and called out to the ref. Seamus’s body convulsed harder and seemed to go into full spasm before he contorted into a strange position and fell to the floor. The ref and on-site medic climbed into the ring and the medic immediately forced Seamus into the recovery position. Seamus’s opponent was sent to the corner and a hush settled over the previously excited crowd. Paul watched as Seamus’s eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth began to foam. It was all happening so fast, he couldn’t understand what was happening.
‘Shit, what’s wrong with him?’ Paul asked the medic, leaning into the ring. He didn’t move any closer, knowing they would need the space to investigate. The other medic suddenly flew past him with a stretcher.
‘We don’t know yet,’ he said as they quickly rolled him onto the stretcher. ‘We just need to get him out of here and get him stable.’
‘Of course.’ Paul stepped back to give them more room as they rushed Seamus out of the ring and away from the hundreds of watching eyes. He ran his hands through his hair and looked around at the crowd whose mood was swiftly changing from shocked to pissed off.
It didn’t matter to them that someone was hurt; all they cared about was their entertainment and their bets. Their bets. Paul closed his eyes as this thought registered in his head. Seamus was his first and most important priority now, but the realisation of what this meant to them on a business level still hit him like a punch to the stomach. Their big payday was most definitely off.
Paul turned to Thea and James, who were still sitting behind him wearing worried expressions. ‘I’ve got to go find out what’s happened. I’ll go to hospital with him so just head home. I’ll see you later.’
James nodded in reply and stood up to leave.
‘Call us when you know how he is,’ Thea said as she followed James out.
The angry crowd began to jeer and moan, bitching to each other about being done over. As Paul looked around, his eyes settled back on Gambino. He stood across the ring, facing him. He was definitely making eye contact now, with a cold hard smile on his face. Paul blinked in shock.
With chilling certainty Paul realised that Frank had just poisoned Seamus. His mind shot back to the man handing Seamus his drink after the last round. It had been one of Gambino’s men. He hadn’t taken notice at the time – why would he? But now he was sure. His hands balled into fists at his side as white-hot rage filled his veins.
Why would Frank do this? Why would he poison an innocent boy and go out of his way to cause them such professional trouble? If he had done this to them, what else was he guilty of? Paul’s thoughts raced around his head as his angry heartbeat pounded in his ears. How dare Frank Gambino go after us? He’s going to pay… he thought darkly.
Frank tilted his head in a deliberate nod to him and then turned and walked out, his two men in tow. It took all of Paul’s strength not to launch across the room at him there and then, but he knew that would be a bad idea. He needed Freddie.
This wasn’t a fight between two men. This was a full-on act of war.
41
Anna woke up from her dream and immediately wished that she hadn’t. It had felt so real. She had dreamed that she was back at home with Freddie. They had been laughing and joking over dinner, discussing names for the baby.
A tear slipped out and slid down the side of her face as she pictured it. He had run his hand down her stomach to rest on her small bump. It still didn’t look much more than a little bit of excess fat, but that didn’t matter. They knew what was inside. Their little creation, growing away, safe and sound.
It had been eight days. She had kept track by marking small lines in the wood of the window ledge, with her nail. She didn’t want to lose track of the days, which would be easy in this house with no phones or internet or any of the usual things she relied on.
The door creaked open and Izobel popped her head round. ‘Do you want to sit downstairs with me for breakfast today? He said you can.’
Anna sat up and nodded. Izobel disappeared, leaving the door open. Anna pulled her long summer jumper top from the chair and put it on over the vest top and leggings she had been sleeping in each night. Knowing he was watching prevented her from wearing any less.
She walked down to the kitchen and took her place at the worn oak table in the middle. Izobel had already placed a plate of toast and scrambled egg down for her, alongside a mug of tea and a glass of orange juice.
‘Thank you. You don’t have to do this though, you know. I can make it,’ Anna said.
‘Looking after you is part of my job,’ Izobel said, her eyes flicking over towards the open door to the hall. ‘And besides’ – she sat down opposite Anna with her own cup of tea – ‘it gives me something to do.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t want to be here any more than you do. It keeps my mind occupied.’
‘Fair enough,’ Anna answered. She could understand that. She wished she had something to distract herself with too. ‘Perhaps I could help you with the cooking?’ she asked.
‘Sure,’ Izobel replied. She gave her a small smile.
Anna tried the egg and picked up her toast. The egg was full of flavour and today she found herself enjoying it. She hadn’t felt quite so sick the last couple of days. Perhaps the awful period of morning sickness was finally coming to an end. She could only hope.
Footsteps sounded behind them and they both looked up expectantly. He walked in, followed by another, smaller man. Anna could see he was Izobel’s brother, Diego, straight away. They had the same warm, almond-shaped eyes and the same full mouth. She watched as Diego shot Izobel a look of concern, like he was checking that she was OK. She nodded almost imperceptibly.
‘Diego, take the shopping list from Izobel and drive into town to get what she needs. Be back by lunchtime,’ he ordered.
Diego did as he was asked, squeezing his sister’s shoulder on the way out.
As he poured himself a coffee Anna took a deep breath. She had come up with an idea. It was a weak one and he would probably shoot her down straight away, but it was worth a try.
‘Listen,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘I need to talk to you about something.’
‘Oh?’ He turned and faced her, leaning backward against the kitchen side.
‘You know that I’m pregnant and you’ve obviously made an effort to ensure I’m comfortable here, but nothing seems to have been arranged for the next stage,’ she said.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘Well, I’ll need a midwife,’ she replied. ‘I need someone to help me through this pregnancy and of course to get through labour when the time comes. Ideally I should have already met with someone; they need to know everything that happens, and be with me on the journey. I can’t do this on my own, you know. And no offence’ – she glanced at Izobel – ‘but Izobel is not equipped to assist me. She’s barely more than a child herself.’
She saw Izobel raise her eyebrows and quickly raised her hand slightly to warn her to stay quiet. Izobel took the hint. Anna silently prayed that he didn’t know Izobel used to be a nurse. If he did, she had even less hope than she thought.
He stared at Anna, a look of cold amusement on his face. She stared him out, maintaining eye contact, refusing to look away. She suppressed a shudder at the dark blankness she saw beneath the surface. He reminded her of a snake, waiting to strike.
It was obvious that he had seen straight through her feeble attempt at getting out, but she held her head high anyway, as if waiting for an answer.
Eventually his cold grin widened and he answered her. ‘You’re right. You can’t go through this alone. I know just how to solve this.’ He walked over to Anna, bent down and put his face close to her ear. ‘Ask and you shall receive. Let that be the lesson learned today, eh?’
Anna fought against her natural instinct to cringe away and forced herself to stay still whilst he was so close. Chuckling softly, he walked back out of the kitchen and disappeared upstairs. Anna shuddered violently as soon as he was gon
e. She wasn’t quite sure what had just happened.
‘What on earth does he mean by that?’ she wondered aloud.
Izobel shook her head, her eyes wide and the colour draining from her face. She was truly scared of the man, Anna realised.
‘I don’t know,’ Izobel whispered shakily, ‘but whatever it is, I don’t think it’s going to be good.’
Freddie, Paul and Sammy stood by the service entrance at the back door of the hotel. The weak afternoon sun was finally giving in to the early evening and they had received the text to tell them that Gambino had finally returned to his hotel room. They had been trying to track him down all day, after the diabolical move he had pulled the night before. More than ever now, Freddie was certain he had been behind all the screwed-up shit that had been happening lately. And that he had Anna.
At this point Freddie no longer cared that Gambino was a Mafia boss. Whilst he was happy to respect him and remember his place when it came to everyday business, all of that went out the window when it came to Anna’s life. It didn’t matter who Frank was anymore – family came first and no one fucked with Freddie Tyler’s family and got away with it.
Bill gave Freddie the nod from the van and Freddie didn’t hesitate a second longer. Bill had hacked into the cameras and had paused the service feeds and the feed from the seventh floor where Gambino currently resided.
Pulling the ski masks down over their faces, the three men ran up the back stairwell to Gambino’s floor. Freddie took the safety catch off his gun and heard the others do the same. It was rare for Freddie to take out his gun; firepower was something he only resorted to when absolutely necessary. Any intelligent criminal knew that it was often smaller charges such as being caught with a firearm that ended up screwing them over. But Freddie wasn’t taking any chances with Frank today. It was worth the risk.
They crept to the outside of his door and Freddie put his ear to it. He could hear their voices just inside. He nodded at Sammy and moved back as his friend took a running start and barged the door in with his broad shoulders. The door was not thick or particularly strong so it only took the one attempt.
As soon as he broke through, the two brothers ran inside. Gambino’s two men drew their own weapons straight away and one took a shot. Paul dodged it by inches and returned fire. He hit the other man’s shoulder and he spun backward to the floor, crying out in pain.
Gambino’s second man held up his gun a second too late as Freddie shot him straight between the eyes without hesitation. Gambino ran to the desk where he’d just taken his gun out of his jacket. He grabbed it and quickly turned it on Freddie. About to pull the trigger he was taken by surprise as Sammy rugby-tackled him to the floor. He dropped the gun and it fell with a clatter, a few feet out of his reach.
Paul walked over to the man he’d shot in the shoulder.
‘Please.’ He held his hands up in surrender, his eyes flickering over to his boss.
‘Sorry. No witnesses.’ Paul lifted his hand and put a bullet in his head. He took no pleasure in it, but Freddie had been explicit about this job. There could be no one left to report the true story back to the rest of the Mafia. They needed to be able to shift the blame away from them when this was all done, or none of them would ever be safe again.
‘You motherfuckers, you’ll die for this!’ Gambino roared and strained against Sammy’s vice-like grip. He twisted and bucked but to no avail. He was a big man, but Sammy was bigger, and for the first time in his life Frank had no backup. He roared again in frustration and stopped struggling, trying to think of another tactic to get out of the position he was in. He was furious, but he tried to calm down and think logically. He had clearly underestimated this little London gang. He’d pegged them as a bunch of wide boys, playing with a few illicit businesses and prancing around just pretending to be something more. Clearly he had been wrong. The look in Freddie’s eyes told him he was facing a cold hard killer. This was not what he had been expecting.
He seethed. ‘Look, guys, I think we need to talk,’ he said through gritted teeth.
‘I think we’re way past talking now, Frank, you jumped-up piece of shit. I don’t know how you do it over there in America but I’ll tell you now, we have rules here in London. And you’ve broken one too many.’
Freddie grabbed Frank by the scruff of his shirt and Sammy hoisted him up by his other arm. They began to drag him towards the door and he pushed back, trying to break free. Freddie stopped, cocked his gun and pushed it into Frank’s forehead.
‘I don’t have time for you to fuck around, so you’ve got two choices. You either walk out that door and come with us, or I shoot you in the head right now. Choose.’
They had only been inside a couple of minutes, but Freddie knew that despite the silencers they would still have made enough noise to worry the guests in the neighbouring rooms. There would be concerned calls to reception going through by now and he had to get Frank out of here before anyone arrived to check things out. Luckily the will to survive was a strong motivator and, holding his hands up in surrender, Frank walked forward without another word.
Picking up Frank’s gun, Freddie glanced around the room to make sure they’d left nothing behind, before he followed the rest of them out and closed the hotel door behind him.
42
Tanya stared at the invoices in front of her until her vision blurred and each one split into two. She rubbed her eyes and reached down towards the drawer. She paused and sighed. Freddie was right – she was hitting it too hard at the moment. And that wasn’t the person she wanted to be. It wouldn’t be the person Anna would want her to be either, especially when she was running both their businesses. She pulled her hand back and decided to call it a night. She was so exhausted that she couldn’t function anymore. She needed to sleep and just shut off from everything. The invoices weren’t urgent.
Her phone beeped and she looked at the screen. She bit her cherry-red bottom lip as she read the message. It was from Tom.
I left some van keys at yours. Are you home? I need them. Tom
She opened it up and tapped out a quick response.
Just finishing up some stuff at The Last Laugh. I’ll be home in half an hour or so. You can meet me then or I can drop them round tomorrow. Tan
She sent the message and stood up, arching her aching back. She hated being seated behind a desk; she could never understand why Anna preferred working in the office. She’d much rather be out the front running around. Her phone beeped again.
Need them for the morning so I’ll meet you there. Tom
Tanya sighed. She wished she didn’t have to go and face him right now. She was still so confused about how she actually felt. She hadn’t yet worked out whether she was just reacting out of her own natural self-destruction because she was tired and going crazy, or whether she really didn’t want to be with Tom. She’d thought about it over and over but she just kept going round in circles.
She did love Tom. She fancied him like crazy too. What she couldn’t work out was whether she could be happy in a normal, everyday relationship. It wasn’t Tom; the fault lay with her. Maybe she wasn’t meant to be with anyone, long-term. Maybe she was destined to live a sad, lonely life, pushing away everyone who dared to come close as she grew into a hard, bitter old woman. Perhaps she’d die cold and alone on the hallway floor after falling down the stairs and breaking a hip. No one would know, because there would be no one to visit and check up on her. No one would care. Tanya’s eyes widened as her thoughts began to terrorise her. She shook it off and picked up her handbag. Now was not the best time to depress herself further than she already was.
Double-checking the front entrance was firmly locked, Tanya walked through to the back and flicked off the main lights. She made her way down the hallway and out of the fire exit that opened into the side alley. The door closed behind her with a bang and the motion-sensor light above the door came on. She picked up her phone and dialled through to Club Anya. She had forgotten to ask Carl if he
could open up the next day.
Distracted, Tanya was about to walk out to the main street when a sound behind her made her pause. She turned and stared into the darkness, towards the small car park behind the club. There was someone standing just outside the perimeter of the light’s circular beam. She squinted, trying to make out who it was.
‘What… Shit, Izobel, is that you?’ she asked in disbelief. ‘Oh my God, where have you been? Where’s Anna?’ Tanya started walking quickly towards her, scared that the girl was going to disappear.
Izobel backed up further into the dark car park. As Tanya drew closer she could see the misery etched into her small face.
‘Izobel?’ Tanya softened her voice.
‘I’m sorry…’ Izobel turned away.
‘What for? Where’s Anna, Izobel? What have you done?’ Tanya’s voice rose and she tried to grasp Izobel’s arm, but suddenly someone grabbed her from behind. She screamed in shock. He was holding the tops of her arms, dragging her backward.
Self-preservation kicking in, she shoved her elbow back hard in an attempt to wind him. She heard a grunt of pain and although he didn’t let go, he loosened his grip just enough that she could bend down to try to grab her knife. Just as her fingers reached it, he recovered and yanked her back up.
Tanya wasn’t ready to give up just yet, though. She lifted her right foot and stamped down on the man’s foot as hard as she could with her sharp stiletto. He howled in pain and bent to the side, still just managing to keep one arm around her in a vice-like grip. She used his movement to bend with him and this time she managed to get a decent grip on the small blade. With a crow of triumph she pulled it out and tried to twist round so that she could hold it. Before she could do anything though, his hand clamped a thick cloth down over her nose and mouth.