Ben’s eyes slipped to the knife Vance produced from inside his jacket. “Just so you know,” he calmly said. “My friends are on stand-by at your restaurant, Pulse and your mother’s house. If I don’t come out safely in the next…” He paused to glance at his watch. “Eleven minutes then all three buildings are going to need our expert services.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Vance, pressing the point of the knife to Ben’s stomach. He was keeping his back turned so anyone passing by wouldn’t see.
“I’m just going to take my phone out of my pocket.”
“If you pull out anything else then your intestines are going to be all over the floor,” hissed Vance, lips drawing back over his teeth.
Ben slowly pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialled and put it on speakerphone. “Amanda, state your position.”
“I’m across the road from Rose Chamber’s house,” replied her voice, which was bursting with smugness. “I can see her through the window. She’s dusting.”
“You bastards,” spat Caleb, hands curling into fists.
Ben ended the call and dialled another number. “Eddie, state your position,” he said when the call was answered.
“Outside Audra’s Kitchen. The sister and her boyfriend are inside.”
“Jesus,” sighed Vance.
He dialled for the third time. “Rick, state your position.”
“Around the back of Pulse. Tell Faith one of her barmen is smoking in the staff room.”
“Oh dear,” said Ben, ending the call and slipping the phone back into his pocket. “That’s against fire regulations.”
“I’m always telling him to stop but he doesn’t listen,” she replied. “It’s time to give him his cards.” The only part of her that moved was her mouth. The rest of her appeared to have turned to stone because she was so furious.
“If I get out of here in one piece then no harm will come to those buildings or your family and staff. Should I not make it out unmolested then all three will become raging infernos but never mind, at least we’d be the heroes of the hour charging to the rescue but not before those you love have been burnt to a crisp.” He grimaced when Vance pushed the blade harder against his stomach, although he was careful not to break the skin.
“Vance,” said Faith, voice heavy with warning. “Put it away.”
He glared at Ben, who stared back at him steadily. Vance sighed and shoved the knife back into his jacket.
“Very sensible,” said Ben.
“Why are you doing this?” said Faith. “You save lives, protect people. Why are you threatening to burn people alive? You’re a local hero for God’s sake.”
“Because I’m sick of it.”
“Sick of rescuing people and saving lives?”
“I’m forty eight. At best I’ve got another seven years active service. Or I could retire in two years because I’ve given twenty five years service and do what? Live on a pension for the rest of my days, eking out the money.”
“So that’s what this is,” said Faith, shaking her head. “You want a nest egg.”
“No. I want a fucking massive nest egg. I want to do all the things I’ve wanted to do for years and never had the money or time.”
“Then why not rob a bank or blag a wages van?” said Vance.
“Because the beauty of nicking from you lot is that you can’t report it to the police, although I’m guessing your police friend might know about it,” said Ben, producing from the clipboard a photo of Faith talking to Matthew and dumping it on the table. “But if he does know then he hasn’t done anything about it. You can’t report it, so an investigation can’t be carried out.”
“And do you know how to dispose of what you stole?”
“We have contacts who do.”
“Contacts who are getting a cut?”
“I’m not saying another word.”
“That’s a yes then,” muttered Caleb.
“You know what we can do and what we’re capable of,” continued Ben. “You’ve got twenty four hours to give back what you took, or else your homes and businesses will be burnt to the ground with everyone inside.”
Vance thrust his face into his. “Or we could just cut all your fucking throats.”
Ben glanced at his watch. “If I’m not out of here in six minutes then things will go very bad for your family and businesses.”
“Then you’d better leave,” Faith told him. “Quickly.”
Vance got to his feet so Ben could rise, the two men staring each other out before Ben walked to the exit, clipboard tucked under his arm.
“Caleb, call Mum,” said Faith. “Vance call Abi. I’ll phone Kev. We need to make sure they’re okay.”
The frantic phone calls were made and the three of them relaxed when they discovered their loved ones and staff were all safe.
“Cheeky fucking bastard,” said Caleb. “Can you believe those sick photos?”
“They’re Adam’s doing,” said Faith, glancing at Vance. “He swore he’d destroy my reputation.”
“He always was obsessed with you. Those photos prove how truly sick he is. Urgh, they made me want to throw up.”
“Can we please never talk about them again? And for God’s sake, don’t mention them to the others.”
“I won’t. I wish I could pull the memory out of my head and burn it, it’s so disgusting.”
“All right, stop banging on about it,” frowned Vance.
“Sorry. As if anyone would believe that was you in the photo. Adam’s body is way podgier than yours.”
Despite everything, Faith had to stop herself from laughing at the outrage in Vance’s eyes.
“Never mind the photos,” said Faith. “He was just trying to distract us with them and turn us against each other. Now we need to think about what we’re going to do.”
“We can’t just give them the product,” said Caleb. “The Maguires would kill us.”
“Probably. At best we’d all be put in intensive care.”
“And if we don’t then Ben and his friends will torch everything,” said Vance. “There’s no choice, we have to get rid of them.”
“And how do we get rid of four local heroes without anyone noticing?” said Faith.
“Do to them what Marlow did to me. They can’t set fire to things if they’re in prison and people die every day in prison from natural and unnatural causes.”
“That would be a good option,” said Faith. “But Ben’s the ringleader. He needs removing permanently.”
“I thought we’d dealt with some crazy situations before,” said Caleb. “But this takes the fucking biscuit.”
“We took down Marlow and his friends and we’ll take down this lot too.”
“The so-called legitimate people are worse than the criminals,” said Vance.
“Can the man who raises funds for sick children and poorly animals really be the same man who’s prepared to burn innocent people alive so he can sell drugs?” said Faith. “I know people aren’t always what they seem but this really doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe something happened in his life to turn him?” said Caleb.
“Nothing happened to him,” said Vance. “He just became a greedy bastard. That’s usually why people commit the worst crimes.”
“We need to come up with a plan fast,” said Faith. “They must know we’re not going to roll over.”
“We’ll hire private security to watch this place, Pulse, the restaurant, Mum’s house and our flats. We’ll tell them we’ve had anonymous arson threats and if they ask if we’ve told the police then Matthew can always confirm that we have.”
“Good idea,” said Caleb. “We can’t do it alone.”
“I’ll arrange that,” said Vance. “There’s a bloke I worked with on the force who left to set up his own business.”
“Police?” said Faith uncertainly.
“He wasn’t one of Marlow’s crew, in fact he hated him. One reason he left was because they kept clashing. He’s a goo
d man.”
“All right Vance, I trust your judgement. I need to let Jules know and see how she wants to handle it. After they threatened our lives I think I know what she’ll say but I have to get her permission first.”
“You mean…,” began Caleb.
Faith nodded. “Perhaps.” She took out her phone. “I am not looking forward to this call.”
Faith stepped gratefully through the front door of her flat. On her way home she’d stopped by to see Blossom. Her application had been successful, so now they were on with the regular visits to make sure they were a fit together. It was even more of an incentive to get this mess with the firefighters wrapped up as quickly as possible. She didn’t want to bring Blossom back to a home that was under threat of arson.
“My friend’s people can’t start work until tomorrow,” said Vance as he came through the door. “So we’re on our own tonight.”
“Ben gave us twenty four hours,” replied Caleb. “So we should be safe until then.”
“That’s if they stick to their word,” said Vance. “Maybe we should have stayed at a safehouse tonight, like the others?” The rest of their siblings had taken Michael and Rose with them to the flat they’d run to when hiding from Marlow’s men. The only reason they hadn’t joined them was because there wasn’t enough room.
“This is a gated community,” said Faith. “It will be harder for them to gain access here and I don’t care what threats they throw about; no way are Ben and his friends insane enough to set fire to a block of flats containing over a hundred people.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am. Now let’s open a bottle of wine and forget about bloody firefighters for one night.”
“I’m going to grab a shower,” said Caleb. “Then shall we order pizza?”
“Why not?” said Faith. “Let’s enjoy ourselves.”
When they were certain Caleb was safely in the shower, Faith and Vance flew into each other’s arms.
“I don’t know what the weirdest part of today was,” said Faith, holding onto Vance, taking comfort in the feel of his arms around her. “Ben threatening our entire family and businesses or Caleb seeing photos of us having sex and not believing them.”
“I agree. I could have done without him going on about how disgusting it was.”
“We could go at it in front of him and he’d think it was an optical illusion,” she grinned.
“I’d like to test that theory,” he smiled down at her.
They kissed, Vance pushing her up against the fridge, Faith wrapping her thighs around his waist.
“I love my brother but I can’t wait until he’s moved back into his own flat,” Vance murmured into her neck.
“Mmm, yes. I want to try out those handcuffs.”
They spent some time gently kissing, forcing themselves apart when they heard the water in the shower turn off. When Caleb walked into the kitchen ten minutes later they were both sat demurely at the table cradling mugs of tea.
“There you go,” said Faith, holding out a mug to him.
“Cheers,” he said, picking it up and taking a sip. “Shall we order the pizza now?”
Vance got to his feet. “Order me a margherita,” he said. “I need to get some more clothes from my flat.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” said Caleb. “I’ll come with you.”
“That will leave Faith alone up here.”
“I’m sure I can manage without you both for a few minutes,” said Faith flatly.
“Are you sure?” said Vance.
“I’ll lock the door behind you and I won’t open it until you come back, promise. And if it makes you feel better, we can arrange a password or maybe a special knock.”
“All right, I get the hint,” he smiled. “We won’t be long.”
Faith followed them to the door and locked it behind them when they’d gone. She returned to the kitchen and phoned through the pizza order before opening the bottle of wine. She poured herself a glass and took a long drink, sighing with relief, almost dropping the glass when the fire alarm went off.
“Shit,” she said, putting down the glass.
She ran for the front door but stopped before she reached it when the lights went out and she was plunged into darkness.
As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Faith ran to the balcony, pulled open the doors and stepped out, shivering against the blast of cold night air. Looking up and down the road she saw only their building was in darkness. The flats either side were still lit up.
“They’re here,” she breathed.
There was nothing out of the ordinary in the car park below, no ominous red fire engine.
Returning inside, she closed the balcony doors and took out her phone to call Vance, tutting when his phone burst into life on the coffee table. She tried Caleb’s phone instead, relieved when he answered.
“Caleb, they’re here,” she said.
“I know but unfortunately we’re stuck in the bloody lift.”
“Oh hell. What’s that noise?” she said when there was a loud clang on the other end.
“Vance trying to open the doors but they’re not budging. You need to get out Faith. The building will be being evacuated. Slip in with the crowd and stay with them. They can’t do anything if you’re surrounded by people.”
“What about you two?”
“We’ll be fine. You’re the leader Faith, you’ll be their main target.”
“Okay, I’m leaving the flat now,” she said, pausing to pull on her jacket, the weight of the extendable baton she kept hidden there reassuring.
Vance’s voice came on the line. “Stay on the phone with us Faith.”
She opened the door and peered out. “The corridor’s full of smoke.”
The last of the neighbours on their floor were just heading down the stairs and she tagged on behind, coughing as the smoke hit the back of her throat. “I’ll get you both help,” she said into the phone.
“Stop worrying about us and get yourself out,” said Vance’s firm voice.
“There’s smoke but I can’t see any fire,” she said as she reached the next level, coughing as the smoke grew thicker.
Vaguely up ahead she could see the woman she’d been walking behind disappear down the next flight of stairs. As she moved to follow, an enormous figure stepped out before her, breathing apparatus over their face, oxygen tank strapped to their back. Despite the swirling smoke and the mask, she could see right into their eyes.
“Ben,” she breathed into the phone. “He’s standing right in front of me.” Her eyes widened. “He’s holding an axe.”
“Run,” Vance bellowed in her ear.
She turned and ran back the way she’d come, the smoke getting into her lungs and stinging her eyes but she didn’t have any heavy equipment strapped to her back, so she pulled ahead of him, managing to stay out of reach.
Faith burst back onto her floor, coughing and spluttering, racing back towards her flat. She stumbled and the phone fell from her hand and she couldn’t see through all the smoke to retrieve it. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Ben in pursuit. She threw open the door of her flat, slammed it shut and locked it. Blows started to rain down on the other side and she backed away from the door. Ben had an axe, so it wouldn’t take him long to break through.
She was trapped.
CHAPTER 17
“Faith,” Vance yelled into the phone.
“What’s happened?” said Caleb.
“I don’t know, she’s not answering. Christ, I hope they haven’t got her,” he said, frantic with worry.
“Someone’s trying to open the doors,” said Caleb when they heard a thud against the metal.
“Meaning we’re not stuck between two floors,” replied Vance, the phone still pressed to his ear, hoping to hear something from Faith but there was nothing. “It’ll be Ben’s people on the other side, so we need to be prepared.”
The brothers backed away from the doors, readying themselves to fight, V
ance handing Caleb back his phone, who shoved it into his jeans pocket. They started to cough, eyes tearing as the smoke began to filter into the lift.
“Should we call Kev and the others?” said Caleb.
“No. They’ll come tearing over here and give these bastards more targets. They’re trying to take us to use as leverage to get the others to give them back the product.”
“But they can’t just drag the three of us out of here against our will.”
“All anyone will see is a group of firefighters pulling three unconscious people out of a smoke-filled building. Who’s going to condemn them for that?”
“Unconscious?”
“They’ll make sure we’re unconscious before they take us outside. Then they can do what they like with us and no one will stop them.”
“Bloody hell. This is insane.”
“Yes it is. Get ready,” Vance told him when there was another loud clang on the other side.
The door was prised open sideways a couple of feet before it refused to go any further.
“Close your eyes,” cried Vance when two small round objects were tossed inside.
Vance could see the burst of light even behind his closed lids. Judging by Caleb’s surprised cry, he hadn’t been fast enough. He opened his eyes in time to see a stocky man burst through the gap in the door, face covered with a breathing apparatus mask. He was reaching for Caleb, whose hands were clamped to his eyes.
Vance grabbed his extended arm and smashed it against the lift door, making him scream with pain. He yanked him into the lift and pulled the mask off over his head. Vance punched him in the side of the head and he dropped like a stone, landing on his side. Thanks to the gap in the door the smoke was now pouring in and they could barely see.
“Get down,” said Vance, dragging Caleb behind the door when a second man reached in wielding a stun gun and attempted to stun him.
The man missed and Vance kicked him in the stomach, sending him staggering backwards into the corridor.
“Caleb, can you see?” Vance called to him.
“Yeah,” he said, squinting and blinking rapidly. “Please say that’s smoke and not my eyes.”
Takedown Page 23