Traitor in the House

by Caz Finlay

  Jake and Connor were sitting on the dusty wooden floor surrounded by the six masked men when the van pulled away from the kerb. Jake hoped that Danny and Luke had got to Luke’s car in time and were in pursuit. Luke drove an Audi S3 and there was no way the van would be able to lose him, even if the driver did notice he was being followed, although he seemed more preoccupied with congratulating himself and his associates for a job well done than paying much attention to his surroundings.

  Jake and Connor weren’t tied up, which Jake considered a rookie mistake. It was as though their kidnappers assumed that sheer numbers were enough to keep Jake and Connor in their place.

  ‘You too scared to show your faces?’ Connor snarled. ‘Shithouses!’

  One of the masked men started to laugh. ‘I think you should take stock of your surroundings, Carter. You sure you want to be insulting the men who quite literally hold your life in their hands?’

  ‘What? It took six of you to take us on, and you still won’t take your masks off?’ Connor snorted. ‘You seem like a bunch of brainless fuckwits to me. What do you think, Jake?’

  ‘Couldn’t agree more, Con,’ Jake said as he glared at their attackers.

  ‘Is that so?’ the one who had been talking shouted before he kicked Jake in the jaw and the other men seemed to take it as a signal they could join in as heavy boots rained down on Jake and Connor. They lashed out to protect themselves until a voice shouted, ‘Enough for now. The boss wants them in one piece.’

  The kicking stopped and Jake sat up against the side of the van. He looked at Connor, who was bleeding from a cut on his eye. He put his hand to his lip as he tasted blood in his mouth and realised that he was bleeding too.

  ‘Still got your fucking masks on though, haven’t you? Shithouses!’ Connor spat blood onto the wooden floor.

  Suddenly one of the men pulled off his balaclava. ‘There!’ he shouted. ‘Fucking happy now?’

  Jake recognised him as Karl Morgan, the owner of Trident Securities. Trident had been a decent firm a couple of years ago and had even ran the doors at The Blue Rooms for a short time, but then Cartel had taken over most of their business, and Trident, and Morgan along with them, had faded into obscurity.

  Jake started to laugh. ‘Jesus, Karl, you look like shit!’

  ‘Fuck off, you arrogant little prick!’ Karl shot back. ‘I look like shit? You’ll be fucking unrecognisable when we’re through with you. Even your fucking mother won’t be able to identify your body when it’s pulled out of some ditch in the middle of nowhere.’

  ‘I think you have a thing for my mum, don’t you? I remember how you were always perving at her when you worked in my club.’

  Karl started to laugh. ‘I wouldn’t touch her with a fucking bargepole. Stuck-up bitch!’ he spat. ‘You’re just fucking like her. Pair of arrogant cunts who think you’re better than the rest of us. It’s like my old nan used to say – what’s in the cat is in the kitten.’

  Jake glared at Karl. ‘Yeah? You’d better fucking believe it.’

  Connor and Jake were bundled out of the van and across the forecourt of the disused warehouse until they reached a large steel door. One of the masked men banged on it with his fist and they were pushed inside. Jake took in his surroundings as soon as he stepped inside. He and Connor were still untied – a massive mistake! Joey Parnell stood in the middle of the large empty room beside two chairs, and a large shaven-headed man stood beside him, grinning maniacally.

  ‘Joey fucking Parnell, I might have known,’ Jake spat. ‘What the fuck is this all about?’

  Parnell laughed as he indicated the two chairs. ‘Sit ’em down,’ he snarled.

  ‘I asked you a question,’ Jake said.

  One of the men pushed Jake into the middle of the room towards Parnell and the grinning man.

  ‘This,’ Parnell spat, as he reached out and took Jake’s face in his hand, ‘is about finally showing your family that they are not quite as untouchable as you fucking think.’

  Jake snarled as he tried to shrug off the giant goon who was holding onto him but the grip on his arms was too tight. Jake spat in Parnell’s face and Joey responded by punching Jake in the jaw.

  ‘I’ve always wanted to do that,’ Parnell said with a grin as Jake spat the blood from his mouth onto the floor.

  ‘You’re going to fucking regret this,’ Connor snarled.

  ‘Oh, I don’t think so, boys. In fact, I think it’s you two who are going to regret ever fucking with me and my firm.’

  Connor was marched across the room and pushed onto a chair, and Jake likewise. ‘Tie them up,’ Parnell barked.

  Jake looked across at Connor, who nodded at him. Jake launched himself off the chair and into the legs of the man standing in front of him, pushing him to the floor, as Connor jumped up and punched one of the men in the face. Using the element of surprise, they managed to overpower half of the men. The room was filled with shouting and Jake could hear Parnell barking orders and hurling insults. Jake was straddling one of Parnell’s men and punching him in the face when he was pulled backwards by two men. ‘Fucking do him in first,’ Parnell snarled.

  ‘Whatever you say, Boss,’ one of them answered. Jake turned to see the glint of metal as his attacker waved a machete in front of his face. He glanced across the room to see Connor fighting with three men, but he was losing too. Jake’s heart started to pound in his chest. Where the fuck were Danny and Luke?

  Jake saw the metal of the blade coming closer to his face as it was pressed against the side of his throat. ‘Still think we’re a bunch of amateurs now?’ he said with a grin, revealing he had a missing front tooth.

  ‘Eight of you against two of us? Yes, I fucking do,’ Jake spat. There was no way he was going to show any weakness in front of this shower of cunts.

  The sound of the heavy metal door banging open made everyone look up in surprise. Jake felt the relief wash over him in a huge wave as he saw Danny and Luke charging into the place armed with hammers. The distraction was enough for Jake to break free and he kicked his machete-wielding attacker in the side of the knee, causing him to drop to the floor like a sack of spanners. Jake stood on his wrist, pressing into the flesh with the heel of his boot and causing the machete to fall free. Jake picked it up and turned quickly, swinging the blade as he did, right across the chest of the man bearing down on him. Luke and Danny meanwhile had run straight into the melée and were swinging hammers indiscriminately over heads, arms and backs.

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ Connor shouted.

  Jake, Luke and Danny nodded in agreement and made a run for the door. Luke’s car was parked right outside and the four of them dived into it.

  ‘Get us the fuck out of here, mate,’ Danny said to Luke.

  Luke started the engine and sped out of the car park. As they drove away, Jake sat back against the leather seat in the back of the car. His head and jaw were throbbing and he could taste blood in his mouth. He looked across at Connor. ‘You okay, mate?’

  Connor touched his eye, which was bleeding. ‘Yeah. Are you though?’

  Danny turned in the passenger seat. ‘Fucking hell, Jake, your neck is bleeding.’

  Jake put his hand against his neck and felt the warm wet liquid trickling from underneath his right ear.

  ‘That prick with the machete,’ he snarled. ‘If you hadn’t turned up when you did, lads…’ He shook his head; he couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

  Connor leaned over and put his hands on either side of Jake’s face, pulling him closer and examining the wound.

  ‘Does he need go to hospital?’ Luke asked.

  Connor held onto Jake and pushed his head up so he could take a closer look at the cut. ‘No, it’s not deep. Some steri-strips and a bandage will sort him out,’ he said as he sat back. ‘It looks worse than it is.’

  ‘Easy for you to fucking say,’ Jake said, wincing as he held a hand up to his neck, which had now begun to throb along with his head and face.

&
nbsp; ‘We should probably get Timmo to check you over though, just in case,’ Connor added.

  ‘I’ll ring him now and get him to meet us at the club,’ Danny said.

  Jake nodded. Timmo was not only one of their bouncers but had served as a combat medic in the army for years and knew his way around knife and bullet wounds – a skill that came in very handy in their line of work.

  ‘There’s a towel in my gym bag, there, Con,’ Luke said as Danny spoke to Timmo.

  Connor picked up Luke’s gym bag from the floor and took out the towel. He folded it and held it against Jake’s neck with his right hand as he put his left arm around his shoulder. ‘You’ll be all right, mate,’ Connor said quietly.

  Jake nodded again. He’d been through worse.

  Danny finished speaking to Timmo and put his phone back into his pocket. He looked down at the knuckles of his right hand and rubbed his thumb across the red skin. He had almost shit a brick when he’d seen Jake and Connor being bundled into the back of a van earlier. He would have happily murdered every fucker who had laid a hand on them, given half the chance. Danny glanced at the back seat and felt a sharp pain in his chest as he saw Jake sitting there bleeding all over the towel Connor was holding to his neck. Connor had told them the cut wasn’t deep, but maybe he was just saying that for Jake’s sake?

  Danny frowned and turned back to look out of the window. Connor wouldn’t risk Jake’s life. If he needed to go to hospital then they would be on their way there – simple as. Danny needed to stop letting his emotions cloud his judgement. It wasn’t like him to be emotional under pressure, but then it wasn’t like him to think about other men the way he thought about Jake Conlon.

  An hour later, Jake’s wound had been cleaned and dressed by Timmo, who had been waiting for them when they’d arrived.

  ‘Thanks, Timmo,’ Jake said as he looked at the small square of white medical plaster on his neck in his reflection in the mirror.

  ‘No problem,’ Timmo said. ‘Happy to help.’

  ‘Sorry to drag you out of the house so early in the day,’ Danny said as he patted Timmo on the shoulder.

  ‘Oh, you didn’t, I was in the office. I had to see Murf about changing my nights.’

  Jake and Connor sighed in unison.

  ‘So Murf knows you’re here?’ Connor asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ Timmo said with a frown.

  ‘Does he know why?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I mentioned you’d been hurt and needed a wound looking at. I didn’t know it was a secret. Should I not have said anything?’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Jake said.

  ‘It’s just Murf will have been on the phone to my dad—’ Connor said.

  ‘And my mum,’ Jake added.

  Suddenly the penny dropped. ‘Of course. Sorry, lads,’ Timmo said. ‘I expect half of Liverpool have been brought in and interrogated already,’ he said with a chuckle.

  ‘It’s not fucking funny,’ Connor said. ‘We’d rather handle this ourselves.’

  Timmo shrugged. ‘You should have said to keep it quiet.’

  ‘I thought he was in the house with his missus,’ Danny said apologetically.

  ‘Look, it’s done now,’ Jake said. ‘Thanks, Timmo, you can get off. You’ll be starting your shift in a few hours.’

  ‘Yeah. Make sure you change that dressing tomorrow,’ he said to Jake. ‘Keep it clean and let me know if you have any problems. If it turns green and your head falls off, probably best to get to A and E,’ he said with a grin before he walked out of the room.

  Jake had just suggested a round of Scotch when his stepfather Michael bounded into the room.

  ‘Connor? Jake?’ he said as he crossed the office. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘We’re fine,’ Connor replied but that didn’t stop him examining their faces and the wound on Jake’s neck. ‘What the fuck happened?’ he shouted. ‘Who did this?’

  Connor picked up a bottle of brandy from the minibar in Jake’s office and poured a glass. He handed it to Michael. ‘You might want to sit down, Dad,’ he said.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Grace stared at Michael and tried to digest what he’d just told her. She could hardly believe Joey Parnell had been so reckless, and so bloody stupid. She wondered why Murf hadn’t called her earlier and told her about what happened. Or why Michael hadn’t told her as soon as he’d found out the boys had been hurt. She supposed the main thing was that Connor and Jake were okay, but from what Michael had told her, things could have easily been so different. He stared back at her and she could feel the anger radiating from him. Rubbing her temple, she wondered if she had made the wrong decision when she’d allowed Parnell to go unchallenged after he’d assaulted her.

  ‘He’s not getting away with this,’ Michael snarled.

  Grace stepped towards him and placed a hand on his cheek. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Do what you need to do. But please be careful.’

  ‘I will,’ he replied as he wrapped his arms around her waist. ‘I always am.’

  Jake stood in his kitchen holding the cold bottle of Budweiser to his bruised eye. His head and jaw still throbbed and his ribs felt bruised, but he considered himself lucky to be standing in his apartment. The way Michael had rushed out of his office earlier, almost foaming at the mouth, surely meant that Joey Parnell’s days were numbered.

  ‘You sure you’re okay?’ Danny asked as he crossed the kitchen and stood in front of him.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘When I saw them driving away with you and Connor in that van…’ Danny shook his head. ‘I don’t think me and Luke have ever moved so fucking fast trying to get to his car in time so we didn’t lose you.’

  ‘Well, I’m just glad you saw us, mate, or God knows what would have happened,’ Jake replied as he put the bottle on the kitchen counter.

  ‘That looks painful,’ Danny said, pointing at his bruised eye.

  ‘Just a bit. Does it ruin my good looks though?’ he asked.

  ‘I think it would take more than a black eye and a split lip to do that, mate. Don’t worry.’

  Jake smiled and then they stood there in awkward silence. It had been two days since the two of them had spent the night together and they had barely spent a minute with each other since. Jake and Connor had gone to sort some business in Scotland and Luke and Danny had been busy dealing with the fallout from their takeover of Parnell’s firm. The first time they’d had a chance to get together had been earlier that afternoon in Maria’s café, before Parnell’s goons had jumped him and Connor. When Danny had offered to drive Jake home, he’d agreed, wondering whether there would be a repeat performance.

  ‘You fancy another beer?’ Jake asked.

  Danny smiled then. ‘Yeah, go on.’

  Jake took another bottle from the fridge and handed it to him. As Danny reached out and took the bottle from Jake’s hand, their fingers brushed.

  ‘You staying the night?’ Jake asked.

  Danny swallowed. ‘Yeah,’ he said, the word sounding like it caught in his throat.

  ‘Good,’ Jake growled. Putting his hands on the back of Danny’s neck, he pulled him closer. ‘I liked waking up next to you.’

  Danny smiled. ‘I liked waking up next to you too.’

  Michael pulled up outside Eric’s gym and watched as his older brother Sean jogged across the dark road towards him. Michael had told Sean about Parnell’s attack on Grace when it happened the previous week, and earlier that evening he had also told him about Parnell’s attempt on Connor and Jake’s lives. Sean was supposed to be retired from the game, although lately he had been allowing himself to get sucked back in, and Michael could tell that getting involved in the whole McGrath incident a few months earlier, and taking the Essex gangster down, had given Sean a taste of the life again. And as much as he protested otherwise, Michael knew that Sean missed it. Even if that weren’t the case, when it came to family, Sean was always happy to help out and Michael knew that there was no favour in this world th
at he couldn’t ask of his big brother. They had always had each other’s back, and they always would.

  Sean opened the passenger door and climbed into the car. He glanced into the back seat and, noting it was empty, raised an eyebrow at his younger brother. ‘Just you and me?’

  ‘Just you and me.’

  ‘Oh?’ Sean said as he sat back in his seat. ‘We’re going old school then?’

  ‘Yeah. You okay with that?’ Michael asked.

  ‘If that’s what you need from me. I just assumed you weren’t into that stuff any more? I mean, after So l…’

  ‘What about Sol?’ Michael snapped as he pulled the car away from the kerb.

  ‘You just shot him.’

  ‘I know. I thought it was for the best. But maybe it sent the wrong message?’

  ‘What? That you’re not the sadistic fucker that you used to be?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘But you’re not,’ Sean said. ‘And there’s nothing wrong with that,’ Sean added before Michael could respond. ‘Neither of us are those people anymore.’

  Michael stared at the road ahead. ‘I know that. But this is too personal. Maybe I should have dealt with Sol differently? Maybe just shooting him in the head was too good for that cunt. And I won’t make the same mistake with Parnell. This fucker has attacked my wife, and now my sons. A message needs to be sent, Sean. I can’t have people thinking that coming after my family is in any way acceptable.’

  ‘Well, on that score, I couldn’t agree more, Bro,’ Sean said as he turned to his brother and grinned. ‘Let’s go make this fucker beg for death.’

  Joey Parnell lived alone in a two-bedroomed apartment on Crosby’s seafront. Unfortunately for him, the CCTV and maintenance for the complex, like many in the area, were provided by Taktik Secs – a subsidiary of Cartel Securities. The CCTV was suffering from a temporary failure and a copy had been made of the master key to get through the external door. It was almost 2 a.m. and the car park was deserted, as were the dimly lit interior corridors.