Gradually Blake took a sip of water and reviewed the joint for the back room to where the woman was referring to. She observed a red curtained doorway near the bar where a customer had just entered. That has to be where the private shows are held.
As Blake advanced toward the doorway, she glanced at Harry and gave him the nod to follow her.
Hesitantly she pulled the curtain across to find a gloomy hallway with many other doors leading off it. With only light fabric covering the entrances, she could see inside the faintly coloured rooms. Yuck… repulsive! She thought as she roamed along the hallway, searching for the dancer to whom she presumed was Candy.
Harry trailed behind her disguised as a customer concealing their affiliation from others.
A hint of stimulating soft music drifted from a speaker in the ceiling giving it almost a hypnotic effect, making her more nervous than usual.
Finally Blake came to the last door on the left and found their potential target lying on brown crushed velvet covered sofa, sucking on a straw which smelt like a Sambuca and coke.
** *
“I just want to ask you a couple of questions,” Harry blurted out as he entered the small room cautiously behind Blake.
The woman sat up from her relaxed state and visibly appeared uneasy from Harry’s fast statement. “What do you want? I don’t have all night—you know. I have other customers waiting,” she announced as she squirmed in her seat.
“You were already paid a hundred so that should cover our conversation for a while, I believe… Are you the one they call Candy?” Harry enquired staring directly into the dancers nervous eyes.
“Maybe who’s asking?”
Harry gave a quick glance around at the ceiling and walls to confirm there were no surveillance cameras watching for what he was about to do next.
“Wait!, Candy gulped as Harry pulled out his Beretta M9 with silencer and pointed it directly at her head.
“You should have kept your mouth shut!” He squeezed the trigger without hesitation and popped a bullet into Candy’s skull.
“That’s one down,” he declared.
Harry shoved the weapon back inside the gun holster and said, “Let’s hightail it out of here.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ten minutes had passed since entering the strip club. Harry observed as more customers occupied the tables and the bar and noticed steadily it began to get quite busy.
And the music wasn’t nearly loud enough to conceal the moaning sounds transpiring from the nearby rooms Harry thought.
Blake held onto Harry tightly as they stood by the curtain, waiting for the right time to escape.
“Ready!” he asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Hey man you plan on standing in the hallway, blocking the way all night or what?” A middle aged gentleman asked in a loud Hawaiian shirt and board shorts which looked like it had been purchased way back in the seventies.
“Sorry…mate…” Harry opened the curtain and let the gentleman step through when a loud scream was heard from behind them.
“Bugger… busted!” Blake yelled.
“Candy’s dead. Help someone help…” a woman cried out from behind them.
Harrison was about to step threw the doorway when he noticed a couple of very hefty looking guys heading in their direction and paused.
“Okay what’s the plan? Blake asked nervously.
Harry pulled the Berretta back out and cocked the trigger. “We go to plan B, we fight our way out!” he declared and then stepped through the curtain.
Blake followed releasing the pump action shot gun she had shoved inside her jacket with the acknowledgement, “Oh shit—!”
Blake’s face looked of horror as Harry let off a round of fire inside the crowded bar.
The Berretta’s silencer did nothing to deafen the air piecing tremors that echoed through the darkness. Customers dived to their safety scattering to the floor while shattered glass glided aimlessly trailing behind.
The sound of return fire whipped passed Blake’s right ear, Harry noticed, sending a look of panic across her face. There was a quick sigh of relief before detecting more shots were fired and within seconds they were separated as he flew in one direction and she in another.
Loud screams continued to hail around him, but he couldn’t panic. He had to get her safely out of there.
The smell of gunpowder filled the gloomy air and all he could think about was Blake. He took a deep breath before yelling out to her, “Blake…” but there was no answer. “Blake!”
“Get your ass out of here now!” He heard her scream only a few metres away.
“Not on your life… baby,” Harrison responded, relieved to hear her voice.
“Cover me then!” she shouted.
Harrison stood and began to fire in the direction of their opponents, but missed both before they leaped for cover.
He watched as Blake bounced from behind a table, hurtled herself toward one of them and landed smack on top of the big guy.
With no time to waste, Harrison fired another shot at the other one that was just about to swoop on Blake who had his mate in a head lock.
The trigger jammed leaving him scrambling for ideas.
The huge male glanced at Harrison and then back at his mate on the floor, who was losing the battle fast.
There was silence for a moment, bare a couple of whimpers heard in the corner when Harrison ditched his weapon and leaped across the room using a chair for a launch pad and lunged at the male.
They both collided and flew across the tables head first, crashing to the ground.
Harrison laid a quick hook striking his opponent in the jaw, snapping his head back.
The male retaliated with a heavy jab to Harry’s nose sending blood spurting across his face and over the bouncer’s fist.
Harry then bent over the male stunned that he was still conscious after the blow. He grasped the leg of a nearby chair, pelted it across the bouncer’s head, splitting his eyelid open and shattering timber lodging it into his skin.
And just in case he concluded with a powerful uppercut and knocked the guy out cold.
Harry jumped up, brushed himself off and proceeded to give Blake a hand.
“No need to bother, he’s sleeping like a baby,” she stated. “Everything’s under control, now let’s get the hell out of here.”
“I’m with you sweet cheeks,” Harry responded.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, gave a quick sweeping glance around the joint and they swiftly exited the building.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Hastily Harry turned the key to the ignition and fled out of the parking lot, screeching the tyres in the wet slippery road.
“That was interesting, not! We could have been killed. I think we need to give up this game now before it’s too late,” Blake stated.
“Bugger… someone’s on our tail,” Harry announced nervously peering back and forward from the rear view mirror to the side mirrors.
Blake swept an anxious look in Harry’s direction and snapped, “I’m out.”
Suddenly they were both flung sideways as the Jeep Wrangler was rammed from behind, sending the vehicle veering left toward a road barrier and completely shredded it down one side like it had been opened up with a can opener.
“Check the glove department,” Harry shrieked and then rammed the Ford Falcon XR6 driving fast up to his side.
The vigorous push forced the Ford off the road, sending it swerve strait into a row of Wheelie bins on the foot path nearby. And as every one of them flew in the air sending rubbish fly, the Ford didn’t give up. Once again the turbo bellowed toward them with full force.
“This is all I could find,” Blake stated as she lurched herself out the passenger window and began to fire a round from the small calibre pistol.
One shot hit the passenger door. Another hit the back right tire, but still the Ford stayed on course.
Quickly Harry ducked as he heard returning shots
fired from their pursuers and one narrowly missed his head by millimetres.
Finally Blake managed to hit her target and shot the driver fair between the eyes.
The driverless Ford careered toward a street pole doing about a hundred kilometres. Then split in half and wrapped around the pole in a mangled mess.
Relieved, but didn’t stop to take in the scenery, Harry put his foot down and indicated “Nice shot.”
Without saying a word, Blake nodded with agreement visibly still shaken.
After a few silent moments, slowly Harry turned to find Blake staring out the passenger window watching the city traffic drive by. He let out an enormous sigh, “I’m pretty sure they’re going to have us on video surveillance, so… it’s only a matter of time before more come after us. We’ll go and book into a new motel for now. I think we need to go over the plan before seeking out Deak’s’s to finish off the job.”
Blake gave him a slight glance of acceptance, “I guess…”
What seemed like forever, Harry finally pulled into a hotel undercover car park. “You said you were up for it? Are you having second thoughts?”
Blake reached over and touched his cheek tenderly. “I’m just concerned baby. I don’t want to lose you,” she announced in a shaky tone.
“It’s okay. I’ve been doing this for a long time. This is the last job I swear… and then we can retire comfortably in the Caribbean or where ever you like.”
“I know… it’s just we still have Smith’s goons chasing us. Now Deak’s’s and goodness knows… how many more assholes are waiting around the corner for their chance to pop a cap in us,” she said.
Harry did feel a little responsible getting her involved in all his crap and wondered if just disappearing now wouldn’t be such a bad idea. “Let’s sleep on it and decide in the morning. It’s been a long day, and… we probably could do with some time out,” he declared.
Blake’s eyes lit up. “Baby… that’s the best thing you’ve said all day.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Deak’s’s penthouse
Anthony Deak’s sat quietly in his large leather reclining chair, smoking his expensive Cubin Cigar.
Once owned by royalty, Anthony managed to purchase the top penthouse suite which over looked the entire city with panoramic views where he’d acquired illegally.
He watched his guests partying like there was no tomorrow. Drinking his expensive champagne, snorting his blow and sleeping with any hooker they pleased. Politicians, actors, sports heroes, everyone that liked to party hard.
Anthony Deak’s was a gangster who became boss of the Bray crime family in London. Deak’s and his half-brother John Daniels grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an early age. Deak’s quickly rose to fame, becoming one of the crime family's biggest earners operating out of the Datton’s neighborhood of London. They were primarily involved in large-scale robberies, assaults, arson, protection rackets and murder. Deak’s over took the family business and became one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in London, one that made hundreds of millions of dollars a year from construction, waste management, hijacking, loan sharking, gambling, extortion, and other criminal activities. Deak’s became known as “The Freaks” because he didn’t mind getting his hands dirty and doing the odd jobs that no one else had the stomach for. No one wanted to get on the wrong side of “The Freaks”, no matter how much they couldn’t stand him. He wouldn’t just shoot you and be done with it. No he’d have to torture his victims to death and then kill any family members or friends, even the family pet.
Some say he was born without a soul. Some say he was tortured as a child, beaten every day and starved for affection. No one really knows for sure.
Close by was “Dog”, Anthony’s closest bodyguard. He was his shadow and closes collaborator, everywhere Anthony went, Dog wouldn’t be more than a foot away. They call him Dog because he has the personality of an underfed wild dog. Seven foot tall, dark with muscles the size of boulders, no one ever dared to get close to him.
“Do you want some company tonight sugar?” a long legged brunet asked Anthony. She knelt down between his legs and nestled between them. Seductive and alluring she waved her breasts toward him, teasing him to play, but he wasn’t in the mood to respond.
She was sexy and enticing enough he thought, but he was sick of all the tarts that threw themselves at him, always wanting something for nothing. “No. Go and find someone else to play with,” he said, discarding her away like a piece of trash.
The woman scurried away; obviously looking a little bent out of shape as she glanced back at him, but still knew her place.
One of Anthony’s men stepped through the crowded room and whispered into Dogs ear.
Dog leant toward Anthony and said in a deep husky voice. “Excuse me sir, but there’s been some kind of disturbance at the Roxy Bar.”
“What kind of disturbance?” Anthony asked.
“Sorry Mr Deak’s,” the man said nervously. “Jonesy and big John were beaten to a pulp and the bar was shot up pretty bad. And… also Candy’s dead. She’d been shot in the head, execution style.”
Anthony paused. He felt his face flash red with rage. “Who was it? I’m go’na have their head. “Well… speak to me man,” he yelled.
“Um… we’re not sure sir. The video surveillance showed a woman we’ve never seen before and a man … It’s possible it could be Harrison King, sir.”
Dog eyed the man intently, “How do you know this Sunny?”
“That bustard, show me!” Deak’s barked.
Sunny pulled out a wireless IPad from inside his suit pocket and pressed play. “I’ve downloaded the footage here sir,” and passed it to Deak’s.
Deak’s watched as his place had been demolished right before his eyes. “That’s him. I’d recognize King anywhere. He’s got a rep for getting the job done, but… doesn’t normally leave without destroying all the evidence. And that’s a huge mistake because now he’s mine. And that bitch with him.”
Anthony handed back the devise to Dog. “I want everyone on this and see if you can dig up some more info on this bird. I want them found now, and… alive. No one messes with Anthony Deak’s. No one!”
“Yes sir!” Sunny responded and marched out of the room.
The party crowd went suddenly quiet after Deak’s’s outburst and stared nervously in his direction.
“Don’t stop on my account, drink up everyone. It’s meant to be a party, not a bloody funeral,” Anthony yelled grinning, but still fumed inside.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Smith ramped and raved as he paced the living room floor of his mansion. Not only did he lose a family member, but now to lose one of his best men to that whore and Harrison King. It had him screaming blue blooded murder.
The house was unusually empty he thought, until he heard the phone ring a few times from down the hall. “Is anyone going to get that?” he yelled, but there was no response.
“Bloody useless mugs, I’m undisputable sure I must be running a kindergarten,” he screamed as he picked up the receiver on the phone.
“What! It better be bloody important!” Smith screeched.
“Is that anyway to greet your cousin?” Deak’s queried on the other end of the line.
“Oh… sorry cuz, what’s happening your way? Keeping your folks inline down there?”
“Yeah right— enough with the chit chat. It’s come to my attention that you’ve had some trouble up your way. Does a name called King sound familiar to you?”
“Of course, that asshole did the hit on my half-brother, Johnny. When I found out I decided to hire him and then put the hit out on Forbes, but things didn’t go down as planned. I’ll tell you… you can’t get good help these days. Why do you ask?” Smith probed curiously.
“Johnny always was a hit waiting to happen. You knew that cuz... Anyway King hit my club last night, took out my girls and brought down two of the biggest gorilla’s I’ve got. I heard
you had dealings with him, I just wasn’t sure of the connection.”
“Last night…? Then they’d most likely still be in the area. Have you got any idea at all where they’d be hiding out?” Smith replied.
“Yeah… I’ve got my men on it now.” Deak’s responded reservedly.
“I’ll have them prepare my private jet now. Have someone pick me up from the airport will you? Oh… and if you find that bitch, leave her to me, I have a score to settle!” Smith said and hung up the phone.
CHAPTER TWENTY four
After long consideration, Blake and Harry both decided that there’d been enough blood shed over the past few weeks. Killing Deak’s wasn’t going to make the situation any better, so they decided to just pack it in and disappear somewhere where no one would find them.
Harry had enough in his overseas accounts to keep them in a nice comfortable lifestyle for a while, on the assumption he wasn’t going to live forever.
Blake ordered room service for them both, while Harry took a long hot shower. The warm water felt so… relaxing he thought as it beat down onto his sore tense muscles. He needed to wash away the bad demons that were clawing away at his thoughts, drowning his soul with sinfulness. It seemed that every time he did a hit now days his mind was finding it harder and harder to dissolve the bad memories that now consumed him so… utterly and completely. It was time to retire he thought and sooner the better.
“Are you going to be long in there? I’ve opened a bottle of champagne… my sweet!” he heard Blake sing out from the other side of the bathroom door.
“No… I’ll be there in a jiffy!” Harry turned the tap off and got dressed in the complementary bath robe. The sound of soft music was heard coming from the living room, and he assumed Blake was setting a romantic scene which put a smile on his face immediately. It’s just what I needed to take my mind off last night’s muck up!
The Eternal Defiance Page 6