“Welcome aboard, gentlemen,” Aidan said. “Very glad to speak to someone of importance.”
The enforcer smiled thinly. “Oh, I doubt that. I believe you have something of ours.”
“I thought it was Len’s.”
“Until it’s paid for, it remains ours.”
“What’s the going rate for fifteen kilos of heroin?” Aidan asked innocently.
Len’s foot shifted as if he couldn’t help it, adding fuel to Aidan’s suspicions. But right now, it was Aidan who sounded like the extorter.
The enforcer smiled with what appeared to be genuine amusement and confirmed everything. “You want paid for fifteen when you only have ten. Initiative. I like that.”
He flicked up his hand, and two of the heavies marched up and seized Aidan by either arm. Even if he’d tried to, there wouldn’t have been chance to avoid it, especially as a third arrived right in front of him.
“Where is it?” the enforcer asked mildly.
“Payment first,” Aidan said. It would be expected, and they had to feel complete masters of the situation.
The heavy in front raised his fist.
“Body blows only,” the enforcer murmured. “Don’t want him trailing his bloody face through populated areas if we can avoid it.”
Oh fuck, here it comes.
“Trust me.” She did trust him…
Just not to avoid getting hurt. Her mind heaved with speculations and plans. The trouble was, she’d no idea what wouldn’t make things worse for him. He wouldn’t be able to trust her if she interfered and ruined whatever it was he was up to. And yet she couldn’t do nothing while that sinister car skulked opposite his boat and he sent her away as if her life depended on it. What about his life?
No one had pursued her. She didn’t see a soul between the harbour and Ardknocken House. Maybe the bad guys weren’t so bad. Maybe Aidan was paranoid about her safety. She liked that idea best, although it didn’t bode well for a conflict free life together.
She needed to speak to Glenn. As she approached the front of the house, she contemplated using the fire escape which led up to the roof garden, and swerved around the side of the building. This would be quietest… Although she didn’t want to scare Jack.
Approaching the fire escape, she glanced up, hesitating, and a shadow moved on the flat part of the roof. It spoke volumes that fear closed up her throat. In Ardknocken, on Glenn Brody’s territory.
“Chrissy?” Glenn’s voice called softly. “What’s up?”
Relief made her shoulders sag. “Come down. Or will I come up?”
“Come up.”
She clanked up the fire escape as quietly as she could. Towards the top, since she’d run most of the way up from the village beforehand, her knees began to feel shaky.
“That’s some climb,” she whispered. “What are you going to do when you’re old?”
“Kick you all out and live on the ground floor,” Glenn said promptly. “What’s happening?”
“Aidan’s got visitors. Bad guys. I don’t know what to do.”
“What did he ask you to do?”
“Stay away. Come back here, and if anyone chased me to hide at the B & B and call you to come and get me.”
Glenn blinked, as if surprised by this measure of trust in him. “I take it you weren’t chased.”
“No, but—”
“Best stay away, then.”
“How can I?” she burst out. “What if they’re murdering him?”
“He won’t let it get that far. He’ll have the police at his back.”
“Do you think so?”
“No point, otherwise, is there?” Glenn said reasonably, and she had to admit he was right there at least.
Restlessly, she walked across to the table and chairs he’d set up in the midst of his garden. It didn’t thrive in winter. Too many dead sticks in pots to look good. But at least there was some greenery, and a lot of sky. The roof garden was the main reason Glenn had bagged his bedroom when he’d first come here, somewhere he could go quickly to remind himself he was free and able to go outdoors whenever he wanted.
She threw herself onto one of the chairs. Glenn wandered over to join her, though he didn’t sit, just stared out towards the sea.
After a moment, he stirred. “You serious about him, Chris?”
She smiled. “I suppose I must be. I put myself on the line to stop him leaving.”
He glanced down at her. “Leaving you or Adknocken?”
“Me. Ardknocken was always done for.”
Glenn was silent for a bit, then said, “You’ve got to take a chance sometime. If it matters.”
She looked up at him and smiled. “Like when you danced with Izzy at Oban?”
She was sure colour bled into his face, but in the poor light from the study window, it wasn’t obvious. He just nodded curtly.
“I’m glad for you and Izzy,” she offered. “And Jack.”
He grunted, uncomfortable as always with personal conversation. She wondered if he ever told Izzy how much he loved her.
Glenn cleared his throat. “He’s all right.”
“Aidan?” She smiled. “For a polis?”
A smile tugged at his lips and vanished. “Aye.” He sank down in the seat beside her, and for a while they just sat in silence. In his calm presence Chrissy’s anxiety levelled down to bearable.
“He’s out cold,” the enforcer said in contemptuous Spanish. “You hit him too hard.”
Losing consciousness was the best means Aidan could think of to waste time. He’d really hoped to string things out a bit longer before they turned nasty, but he’d no intention of letting those bastards damage him beyond quick repair. So he’d thrown his head back with one of the blows and deliberately struck it on the wall before sagging between his captors.
They dropped him.
“He’s faking it,” said one of the thugs and aimed a judicious kick at the rib he’d already bruised to the point of cracking. Aidan didn’t even flinch, let the agony flow over him, through him. He could play dead as well as he could play any other part.
“Or not,” the enforcer said dryly and switched to English. “Don’t kill him until we get our drugs, remember?”
“He doesn’t kill so easily. He’s a fit man.” The moron was pleased to have laid out a fit man before his boss, even though the boss needed him compos mentis.
“He’s an ex-cop,” Len intervened. “Why don’t you leave him to me now you’ve softened him up? He’ll tell me, and I’ll get the stuff back. Then I can pay you.”
“You didn’t do so well before,” the enforcer sneered. “Why are you so keen to be the one who finds my heroin?”
“It happened on my turf,” Len said with dignity.
Wanker.
“Give him a few minutes. Then we’ll throw some water over him. I haven’t got days to waste beating up this cop. We need a change of tactics. Find his phone. Give me it.”
Aidan didn’t like the sound of that. He played dead as long as he could. He let them take his phone from his jeans pocket without twitching a muscle. He even let them throw water over him before he opened his eyes, spluttering.
“Welcome back, Mr. Grieve. Do stand up. It’s a mark of respect.”
They hauled him to his feet. Everywhere hurt.
The enforcer smiled at him. “You don’t give in easily to physical punishment. I like that.”
Aidan swallowed. That hurt too. “I hate it when you like me. Bad things happen.”
“Make them stop. Tell me where my heroin is.”
Aidan lifted one forearm, rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign for pay up.
“Still so stupid? You must know I won’t pay for what’s already mine.”
“Make him pay.” Aidan jerked his head at Len.
“Then he won’t be able to pay me. I don’t lose, Mr. Grieve. And I always carry out my threats. Ask any of the boys here.”
Aidan didn’t need to. He believed him.
“So when I say that I won’t let my men beat you anymore, you may believe me. You appear to be the type who responds better to threats made against other people.” He smiled, holding up Aidan’s phone, which one of the thugs had taken. “Your phone doesn’t switch it on.”
It did when you knew how.
“Out of charge,” Aidan said. “Or perhaps your man broke it.”
“I was going to use it to find a few names that might mean something to you. Wife, mother, girlfriend. But, of course, I don’t need your phone when I have your friend here.”
Len, who’d clearly caught on and wished he’d thought of threatening Aidan’s women instead of Aidan himself, smiled nervously.
“I believe his parents and his sister live at the Bed and Breakfast five minutes’ walk away,” Len said at once.
Aidan didn’t prevent his horror pouring into his face.
“Wife? Girlfriend?” the enforcer pursued. Clearly a man who liked options. “The girl who left as we arrived, perhaps.”
“Chrissy Lennox,” Len said at once, contempt seeping into his voice. “She lives at the big house. He’s fucking her, but I don’t know if you can grace her with the term girlfriend.”
“You can.” Aidan lifted his head to meet Len’s gaze. “She’s my girlfriend.”
Len’s eyes widened as if he finally got that he was marked, even if he got out of his jam with the South Americans. The enforcer, however, was all smiles.
“Bring the sister and the girlfriend,” he said. “Do it quietly. I don’t want any screaming.”
The thugs still lined up in front of the door wall, nodded and turned to go.
“No,” Aidan said at once. “No, don’t. Wait.”
“For what?” the enforcer asked in a bored voice. The thugs didn’t even pause. They were halfway up to the deck.
Aidan threw himself forward in his captors’ hold. “It’s on the beach! The heroin’s on the beach. I hid it in a cave.”
“Which cave?”
The thugs were on deck.
“The third along, walking from here. Just count the ones below head height. The one you want has a narrow passage at the back, leading to a wider cave beyond.”
“Good boy,” the enforcer approved. He snapped his fingers, and the thugs began to clump back down to the cabin. Aidan sagged with relief. With luck, it would be another half hour before he’d have to tell them where it really was.
Chapter Sixteen “You two, stay with him,” the enforcer commanded.
Fuck. This didn’t suit Aidan at all. He needed to be there when they discovered where the drugs weren’t, to be sure they didn’t go barging back to his parents’ house.
“I’ll show you the way,” Aidan offered. “Won’t that be quicker?”
“Why do you care, suddenly?” the enforcer mocked.
“Because I want you away from my family,” Aidan said steadily.
“You shouldn’t show your weaknesses so easily,” the enforcer said with contempt. “And if you have such weaknesses, don’t shit in your own yard.”
And that, Aidan thought ruefully, was the most sensible thing the bastard had said so far. Why the hell had he agreed to do this job? Because he’d been desperate to get out, to have his resignation accepted without fuss. And, maybe, to protect his own community from bad guys like this. Only he’d imagined they were all up at the big house, that he’d have some measure of control by now. But apart from Len, the others were loose cannons, unknowns.
“Watch him,” the enforcer commanded and led the way out.
“Why the fuck,” Len hissed at him, “didn’t you tell me that?”
“I didn’t want you to know.”
Len frowned. “What are you up to?”
“Len!” yelled the enforcer, and Len leapt to it.
Aidan laughed, turning it into a yelp as the thugs threw him into the chair just vacated by their boss. He slumped, panting for breath. One of them laughed, mockingly and ungently patting his face. It wasn’t difficult to feign the pain. In truth, there wasn’t much feigning necessary. But he did play up his weakness while he rested and gathered his strength. He might well need it to take another beating on the beach before the job was done, but right now, he needed to even the odds.
They hadn’t bothered searching the boat. They’d known no one would have been stupid enough to hide anything important either there or in his own home. They certainly wouldn’t have found the missing heroin there, although they might have found the various knives, screwdrivers and hammers which he’d hidden around the cabin.
Aidan took his time, waiting until they lost interest in him and his semiconscious groaning, and stopped watching him to admire the view out of the porthole instead. Only then did he change position, twisting—which hurt like hell—in order to delve one hand down under the cushion he was sitting on. By sod’s law he found the blade of the kitchen knife first and began to draw it slowly out while trying not to cut his fingers to ribbons.
Through the whole process, he watched his captors, who gave him the odd glance to make sure he hadn’t moved or developed a spurt of energy. Clutching one hand to his damaged rib, he closed his eyes and gripped the knife handle down the side of the cushion.
The thugs moved around, separating. After an interchange of views, one went up on deck to see if he could see what was happening on the beach. The other skulked at the cabin entrance, listening for his companion’s report.
There would never be a better chance.
Aidan braced himself for pain and rose from the chair, ignoring the shrieking of his damaged ribs and muscles, and moved swiftly, silently across the floor. It helped that he knew every board, every creak, knowledge he’d absorbed since childhood. In the end, he didn’t need the knife for this one, simply seized the thug by his hair, yanked his head back and smashed it forward off the wall. Aidan caught him and swiped the automatic pistol from his inside pocket before letting him slither gently to the floor. He listened, every sense on full alert.
This was the tricky bit. His pal would come leaping back to see what the thump was. Aidan was hoping to drag him down the stairs and disarm him. He might even have to shoot him because in this state, he wasn’t up to a fight.
But the boat was silent.
His heart drumming, Aidan climbed the steps, peering into the darkness of the space above. Nothing. He paused, his hand on the door, took a deep breath and barged through, gun poised and ready to shoot.
A naked woman was pushing something large—a man—over the side of the boat.
Aidan blinked, but there was too much adrenaline in his system for him to stay stunned. He ran across the deck to the sound of a mighty splash. “What are you doing?”
“I put him in the sea for you,” the naked woman said with a surprisingly nervous smile.
Aidan peered over the side. Sure enough, Number Two Thug was floundering and splashing in there.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Shall I put the other one in too?”
Laughter caught in his breath. Maybe he really was insane. “No, he’s out cold. We’ll leave him. For the police, hopefully.”
Her steady gaze was scanning him with something that looked very like anxiety. “You’re hurt.”
“Got a few thumps. I’ll live.”
To his amazement, she touched his chest, and the pain he’d refused to think about began to fizzle. “I can take the pain away. I can’t heal you unless you come with me.”
“I can’t. I’ve got to chase the bad guys before they hurt anyone else.”
“You mean her.” Her smile seemed difficult. “Go, then.”
“Thank you for this.” He hesitated. “For everything.” For some reason, it seemed the right thing to do to bend and kiss her lips. A kiss of old affection, not love or even sex. And a name slipped into his mind. “Dyrfinna.”
She smiled, her eyes misting. “You do remember…” And then, so fast he barely saw, she flipped backward over the side and into the sea.
Number Two Thug had found her skin, was using it to float. She snatched it from him with casual brutality, shoving him under the water. By the time he bobbed back up, there was only a seal swimming away from him across the harbour.
Aidan ran across the deck and jumped ashore, keeping pace with her along the quay. When he jumped down onto the beach, she was still there.
Round the first bend, in the distance, he could see the angry swarm of men who hadn’t found their heroin. Aidan checked his watch. Maybe, just maybe, Davidson would get here before he had to kill anyone or let the bad guys go free.
He swerved into the cliff, hauling himself up by dubious handholds onto the rising path. A few minutes ago, before Dyrfinna had touched him, he wouldn’t have been able to do that.
Dyrfinna. She’d always been real. His randy teenage self hadn’t been crazy. Or at least, not that crazy. And how amazing that she was still looking out for him. The stark emotion in her fathomless dark eyes prickled his conscience. As if she actually loved him. From the time when he’d been too young and self-obsessed to be capable of much more than giga-lust.
Now… Now there was Chrissy, and everything was different.
He smiled as he jogged silently along the path, trying to imagine a relationship with the selkie. Now that would have been a difficult relationship! This with Chrissy was easy—love and fun and lust and need all melded in his heart. He could make it happen.
Right after this tricky situation, which he’d so optimistically engineered.
He could no longer make out the seal in the sea. As he drew closer to the angry men below him on the beach, he moved off the path and climbed downward. It was only a matter of time until he slipped or a stone moved under his feet, so he moved with more attention to speed, his target already picked out. The one who’d been doing the hitting seemed most appropriate.
“This ends now,” the enforcer said grimly, beginning to stride at last back along the beach. “Bring his family to the boat. All of them, and the girl.”
“No need for that,” Aidan called from his rock. Seven heads jerked upwards, staring in shock. “I came to tell you, I made a mistake. The cave’s third from that end of the beach, first from the harbour end. He must have hit me too hard.”
In Her Secret Fantasy Page 19