Breaking Bad: 14 Tales of Lawless Love

by Koko Brown

  He cackled, only to groan again. “Innocence? With you to tell otherwise? No, let me kill you.”

  He scrambled in his pocket and lifted a gun from his jacket pocket. Atarah used her left hand, bunched into a fist, to knock Gael out before he could even pull the trigger. “Arsehole,” she whispered, leaning back on the glass.

  “Lonán,” she called. “Go. I’ll tell you what hospital I’m in. Can’t have you caught with a gun.”

  “We’ll be there.”

  “Good,” she whispered, closing her eyes and trying to focus on anything but the excruciating pain in her arm. Part one was now complete. Part two still sat inside Xiu’s police station, most probably planning her escape.

  “Lonán,” she called again. “You have to stop Chambers. Xiu can’t do anything from a cell. Get him out, and get Chambers.”

  “I can’t take Saoirse with me,” he answered, longing in his voice. “I can’t leave you, either.”

  “It’s just my shoulder and maybe some concussion, but please, I am begging you. You have to go after her.”

  “No,” he answered. “I’m not leaving you. If she escapes, she escapes. She’s not my problem any more. You are.”

  “You’re a sweet and stupid man. Go!”

  “Dada, are we leaving Rae where she is? We can’t. She needs doctors!”

  “They’re coming, darling, but Dada did a bad thing,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll see you at the hospital, Atarah, I promise.”

  She heard their footfalls moving away from the car and the corresponding alarm of an ambulance.

  Xiu needed help. If Chambers got the barest warning that Gael had been caught, then she would eliminate the one remaining person who knew who the hell she was.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Xiu flexed his fingers back and forth, cracking his knuckles. He’d been inside the cell for so long he had no concept of time whatsoever. No one had come to see him. He wasted his one telephone call on Andrews, who sent no further messages to him. He hadn’t even requested counsel because it would mean that Alan would be inside a cell with him and pressed on a conflict of interest. There was no choice for him but to wait to see what Atarah could do, with Andrews and Shannon’s help.

  Food came to him and as the desk sergeant promised, the station canteen provided a solidly decent meal. He’d even been granted dessert of a Bakewell tart and custard. Once he cleared his plate, a PC came to collect it

  “Can you let me know what time it is, mate?” Xiu begged.

  The PC looked hesitant.

  “It’s just the time, it’s not a state secret. Please.”

  “Well past eleven.”

  “Thank you.”

  If all had gone well, Atarah would have locked down Gael and he would be on his way to the nearest station to drop his wife in it. The cell door opened again and the desk sergeant looked grim.

  “Sorry, son. I’m taking you to an interview room. Chambers wants a chat. She wants to see if you’ve thawed a bit.”

  “Thanks, Sarge.”

  He followed him to the nearest interview room. Chambers sat alone, her cream silk blouse almost white in the harsh lighting. “Take a seat, Jiang.”

  Oh, surname basis then. Pulling rank?

  He pulled back the plastic chair and folded his arms on the table.

  She tapped her fingers on the table, looking at him neutrally. “Have you changed your mind yet?”

  “Why aren’t you recording this?” he countered, nodding towards the still tape recorder.

  “I’m giving you the opportunity to keep this off the record. To salvage your career. Wipe the slate clean,” she proffered, leaning forward to emphasis her earnestness.

  If he hadn’t known better, how she’d sent two goons to kill Atarah, another who would have killed him at Nicodeme’s flat, and another to kill Shannon once she’d spilled what she knew…he’d have been sold on her fantastic act of concern.

  “Or you don’t want me saying something that’s going to be on a record you won’t be able to erase?” he suggested.

  “You think I wouldn’t be able to do that? I wouldn’t be able to get rid of this if I didn’t want to? I am trying to help you!”

  “By protecting yourself?” he asked. “When did you become this…thing?” He gestured to her form. “This person who would do anything to keep the money rolling in?”

  She sat back. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “My source, she identified you as the boss, Sybilla. She recognised your voice from a voicemail you left for Nicodeme. Why would you have his mobile number?”

  “I deleted all of those messages,” Chambers said without even blinking. “You don’t have anything.”

  “You think you deleted them. We kept voice notes, so we know. We cloned the phone.”

  “Is this where you tampered with a crime scene to aid and abet a murder suspect?” she laughed mockingly. “You’ve opened yourself up for all sorts of offences, but you don’t have a single thing on me. A voice note? I could have left that for you.”

  “And an e-mail from your computer? Your IP address? How will you explain that?”

  “I’ve been looking through Nicodeme’s computer results from my desk,” she said with a shrug. “You still don’t have anything on me, except if you bring your source to the table, but she’s a murderer. Is anyone really going to believe her over me? A decorated officer…”

  “With a husband who is probably in custody right now and who’ll give you up in a heartbeat to save himself.”

  Her face froze. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, yeah, you didn’t think about him, did you?” Xiu said with a laugh. “Your weak-willed, glory-hunting husband would want to bring my source in first.”

  Chambers stormed to her feet, an index finger millimetres from his eye. “You are lying!”

  “Can’t be two Gaels running about who love a tailored suit and golf and trafficking people. Again, my source identified him. And probably confirmed who you are without a second thought.”

  Chambers’ fist connected to his face before he could finish the sentence. “You bastard! Who the fuck do you think you are! Setting up my husband! We’ll get it thrown out of court!”

  “That’s if he doesn’t try and come up with a plea. Everything else is on your computer. The bank account, the e-mails, your connections with Pollard. Those were even easier to find, because you were arrogant enough to use your Met address. Shannon,” he answered. “You should have let her be, because she was going to stay out of it. I told her to. But you pissed her off. And you pissed off Atarah, by trying to kill the father of a nine-year-old girl. The same girl you allowed Nicodeme to abuse.”

  Chambers’ face curled in confusion. “What? What girl?”

  “Someone who used to work for you. Lonán.”

  Her mouth turned down at the corners. “I did no such thing. I didn’t do anything to him.”

  “The fact that you acknowledge his first name alone tells me that you admit what you are. You know what you are. What you’ve done. What you would have done to children like Wen, mothers, daughters…and you’ve pocketed each and every penny. Is money that worth it?”

  “You don’t know a single thing,” she spat. “You don’t know anything about what I’ve had to do to keep my children in school, to keep this stupid job…how many times I’ve been passed over for promotion…”

  “Yeah, that’s a perfect reason to start trafficking people,” Xiu mocked. “How do you sleep at night?”

  “Your Atarah isn’t any better. You think she hasn’t pocketed money for everything she’s done? How easy she made it to transport people from city to city because she spoke their language? You’re like every man I’ve ever known. Leadable by their dick.”

  “Probably,” Xiu said with a shrug. “But she still did the decent thing. Not just with Wen and by ridding the world of scum like Nicodeme, but Lonán’s child.”

  Chambers face reddened, and she looked to
the door. “Look, that wasn’t my fault. Nicodeme wanted to teach Lonán a lesson for not doing as he was told. Even so, it was his wife’s idea to let him spend time with their daughter. It had nothing to do with me. Nothing.”

  “I don’t think he sees it that way.” Her gaze fell again to the door and she edged to the door. “Up to you if you want to leave, but you have to think. Where are you going to run to?”

  “Anywhere,” she whispered, leaping for the door and wrenching it open. Before Xiu could follow, she’d locked the door with the electronic alarm and trapped him inside. With no one else inside the room, he was trapped.

  He slammed his fist repeatedly into the door, yelling for attention.

  A DC opened the door. “What’s your problem, Jiang?”

  “Chambers has been heading a trafficking gang, get out of my way!”

  The DC stayed in the doorway. “I can’t let you out. You’re still under arrest.”

  “God’s sake, you fucking idiot! Call the Armed Response Team in Surrey, right now! And get me out of here.”

  The DC closed the door. “Just calm down and wait for Chambers to come back.”

  “No, you’re going to put people at risk! Oi!” Xiu roared.

  Silence met his irritation. He slammed his hand against the door and threw the chair into the wall.

  “You’re not getting out, so settle down!” came the command from the other side of the door.

  Shit. How could he warn anyone else?

  He waited for another hour, the clock ticking with an agonising slowness, before the door opened again. Superintendent Meyers stalked in.

  “Where’s Chambers,” he demanded, without introducing himself.

  “Anyone’s guess, sir,” Xiu said with a heavy sigh. “DC Plod outside let her go. Just as she admitted everything.”

  Meyers growled with annoyance. “Jesus Christ, this is a shit storm. Come on, Jiang. We’re rushing through a search on her.”

  “Aren’t I under arrest?”

  Meyers sent him a look of such disgust, Xiu could have shrunk into a tiny molecule. “Get upstairs and tell me where the fuck this woman has gone.”

  Xiu took the stairs two at a time, scrambling for Andrews’ desk and his phone. Thankfully, Andrews had left it in his desk, looking inconspicuous and turned off. Immediately he dialled Atarah’s phone and was met with an impersonal female voice: This number is no longer in service.

  Shit a merry brick. He called Shannon instead.

  “What happened?” he demanded as soon as she answered.

  “Jiang!” Meyers bellowed. “You better be calling someone who knows where the fuck Chambers is!”

  “God, is that Commander Meyers?”

  “Yeah, he’s onto all of it. I don’t know how or why. I’m grateful, or I would have been in an interview room for the next year. What happened, Shannon?”

  “Gael did everything we thought he’d do, and then some. He overturned a 4x4 with Atarah inside.”

  “Jesus, is she okay?”

  “She’s in the hospital. We all are, actually. There were bullets flying everywhere. Andrews got shot in the shoulder. I got caught in the knuckle, of all places. Better it was my knuckle, I was protecting my flipping skull. With Chambers, you’ll have to try her home. I’ve tracked her mobile and she’s…oh. Shit. Shit!”

  “What is it?”

  “Xiu, get to St Mary’s now. She’s almost here.”

  Xiu lifted his head to the superintendent. “Chambers is going after my source. If she’s dead, the case will collapse.”

  “We’ll all go,” Meyers ordered. “I’ll lock this place down. No one else comes in here to tamper with anything else.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Xiu put the phone to his ear again. “Shannon, stay by Atarah’s side. Don’t let her out of your sight. Chambers is after her.”

  “Oh God, what can I do?”

  “She can’t kill everyone to get to Atarah. She won’t.”

  “I don’t know,” Shannon said, a terrible shake in her voice. “She’s going to be pretty fucking angry with all of us. I wouldn’t put it past her to kill every single one of us.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Atarah woke up in agony. Her shoulder had been reset, but it throbbed unnaturally. Little stitches covered the larger cuts she’d endured in the car crash. Lonán sat beside her with Saoirse in another, her face tucked into her elbow.

  Silly man, she thought, tears of gratitude in her eyes. She told him to get Saoirse home, away from all of this. The danger he could face just to stay with her.

  I’m not worth it, she thought. Saoirse’s safety is worth everything.

  “Hey,” she said softly. Lonán woke first, blue eyes reddened from tiredness.

  “Hey.” His voice felt soft and so welcome to her ears. “Are you all right?”

  “The morphine probably needs to kick in a little bit more, but other than that, I’m okay. Do you know where Gael is?”

  “In intensive care,” Lonán told her, leaning forward to grip her hand. “One of the response unit officers told me. I think he was being kind, because he probably shouldn’t have told me. I went into panic mode that he would wake up and come after you again.”

  “I’m more worried about the fact that you’re still here and so is Saoirse. You’re putting her in the firing line. I don’t know if Sybilla knows and then…she’s got no soul, that bitch.”

  Lonán lifted her hand to his lips. “I know that. But we were both worried about you. Saoirse wouldn’t let me go back to the apartment without you.”

  “Okay, so let’s get discharged and go.”

  Lonán got to his feet. “I’ll find a doctor. Won’t be a moment.”

  She didn’t let go of his hand. “Thank you.”

  He gently pressed his lips to hers. “Thank you. I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”

  She nodded and watched him turn off into a corridor. Carefully and wincing in pain, she shook Saoirse awake. “Hi, sweet pea!”

  Saoirse hugged her tightly. Even at the feel of Atarah’s wince, she didn’t let go. “Are you okay?”

  Atarah stroked her hair. “I am absolutely fine. I just need a toilet.”

  “Dada and I went while you were having an x-ray.” Small fingers curled into her palm. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Atarah swung her feet out of the narrow bed and yelped at the cold floor. “Dada bought you slippers from the shop,” Saoirse advised, picking up a plastic bag from the floor and offering it to her.

  “You’re both the light of my life.” She sighed and tucked her feet into the softened polyester mix. “Come on.”

  They padded to the bathroom and Atarah made Saoirse wait by her door so she could see the little girl’s feet.

  “Dada says you’re okay. But are you sure?”

  “I am more than okay. You’re all right?” Atarah called out over the stall door before quickly blotting herself with tissue and flushing.

  Saoirse watched her reflection in the mirror as she washed her hands. “Are you going to leave?”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “I don’t know. I have a bad feeling that you’re going to leave us.”

  “That’s a really strange thing for you to say,” Atarah said again, drying her hands and opening the door for Saoirse to leave the bathroom first. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise. Double-down promise.”

  Saoirse pressed her lips together, tucking her tongue into her cheek. “Okay. If you’re sure?”

  “I am absolutely…” Atarah trailed off as they reached her bed. Something didn’t feel right. Slowly she backed off, gripping Saoirse’s hand. “Let’s just go find your Dada.”

  “But he said he’d come back here and find you,” she protested, reaching towards the bed.

  The moment she slipped out of Atarah’s grasp, it all seemed to happen in slow motion: Sybilla stepping out from around the curtain barrier of the next bed, the barrel of a gun pressed to Saoirse’s pink-tinged temple a
nd Atarah covering her mouth in a tearful gasp.

  “No!”

  Sybilla raised a perfectly arched brow. “No what? No, please don’t kill this amoeba?”

  Atarah didn’t know what to do. She had nothing on her, she barely had anything covering her arse, figuratively and literally. That bitch had a gun to her girl’s head. “What do you want?”

  “I need out of this city.”

  “Then go!” Atarah burst out. “You’ve got everything you need to just disappear!”

  Sybilla smirked. “Out. To the corridor, let’s go. Move, you little bitch, or your friend there is going to be responsible for a whole world of pain.”

  Saoirse’s eyes met Atarah’s and tears spilled onto her cheeks.

  “It’s going to be okay, Sersh. All right, princess?”

  “Rae!” she choked.

  “Move! I won’t tell you again!” Sybilla hissed, jabbing the gun into Saoirse’s temple.

  “Don’t do that, please, I’m moving,” Atarah insisted, taking steps backwards to the emergency exit signs. She edged into the draughty corridor, her hospital gown flapping in the icy breeze. “Listen to me, Sybilla…you and me both, we’ve suffered and we’ve struggled, but neither of us had to ensure it at such a young age. We didn’t. Please, can you just…”

  “No,” Sybilla interrupted her. “Whatever this is—” she waved the gun in Atarah’s direction, “—don’t be fooled by it, little girl. She’s a fantastic actress. Did she even tell you her real name?”

  “Sybilla, I’ll do whatever you want me to!”

  “Of course you will,” Sybilla’s voice lilted with a sarcastic laugh, directing her down the stairs to the parking garage underneath the hospital grounds. “Because I’ve got the upper hand. What is it with you and children?”

  “I don’t know. Having a soul will make you empathetic,” Atarah spat, then squeezed her eyes shut for being mouthy. Insulting the soulless bitch wouldn’t make her release Saoirse. That had to be her priority. Get Saoirse out alive and safe.

  “Will it?” Sybilla asked. “Here.” She pointed to an unmarked black Mercedes. “Get in the boot.”

  “Absolutely not,” Atarah refused, shaking her head. “No. We’re far enough now. Let her go back to her father…”