‘We need to get into that house quickly and catch the man off guard. It’s the only way.’
Jack didn’t want whoever this fucker was inside to get wind of them coming to get Scarlett first, because then he could use their child against them in his bid to escape. They’d end up with a hostage situation on their hands, and Scarlett being used as some kind of pawn for the man to use to get away.
The element of surprise was all they had going for them.
Nancy had refused his offer of backup coming to the scene. Typical Nancy. She wanted to get her retribution on this bastard her way.
Without involving the police.
And for once, Jack actually agreed with her.
‘Once we’re in, we can deal with this fucker, then we can get Scarlett back. I want you to go around the back. Try the door there or a window. Force the lock if you have to. I’m going to go in through the front. Two minutes, okay?’
Nodding, Nancy hurried. Making her way down the side alley and in through the back gate into the pokey little garden.
Scanning the garden, and making sure the coast was clear, she peered carefully in through the kitchen window.
Staying down, as out of sight as possible.
The kitchen was clear too.
Pulling at the window frames then, in a vain bid at seeing if any of the windows had been left open. She was out of luck.
They were locked.
Bending down, crouching low to the floor, she made her way over towards the back door then.
Trying the handle, she sighed with relief as it moved in her hand and the door clicked open.
She was in.
Quietly, creeping inside the narrow dingy kitchen now. Nancy scanned her surroundings. Her heart thumping inside her chest as she looked for a sign of Scarlett being here.
The place stank.
Hygiene clearly wasn’t this man’s main priority, she thought, as she eyed the sink full of dirty dishes. Caked in congealed food on the plates, all swimming in stagnant water. The bin was overflowing too. Dried food all down the side of it.
She could hear the TV somewhere off in the background, towards the front of the house.
Someone was home?
Scarlett?
Looking out through the hallway, she could see Jack’s silhouette through the glass panel of the door. A second or two later, she watched as Jack stood back and then started to kick the shit out of it.
An almighty crash, as the door slammed hard off the wall behind it.
They were both in, though they’d alerted whoever was in the house with them now.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ Kyle Boyd said, half asleep. The noise had scared him half to death. So much so, that he’d almost fallen off the sofa in shock. Someone had broken in to his home. He was fuming. Only as soon as he clocked eyes on Jack Taylor and Nancy Byrne standing in his hallway, Kyle knew that he was in the deepest of shit.
‘Fuck!’ he said, panicking now. Sweating profusely at the sight of Nancy and Jack standing there glaring back at him.
His stomach churning with fear.
How the fuck did they find him?
He had only two options: run, or come clean and beg.
So Kyle started begging.
‘Look, I know why you’re here and I’m sorry, okay? I know you won’t believe me, but I swear on my mother’s grave I never meant to stab that woman. She made a lunge for me. I was trying to get her off me.’
‘You what?’ Nancy said, having no idea what this bloke was talking about. They’d come here for Scarlett. That’s all she was interested in.
‘I didn’t even take the money. It was all just one big fuck-up. A mistake. If I could take it all back, I would. Please. Please, believe me.’
Nancy glanced at Jack then, unable to believe what they were both hearing; she looked back at the man in disgust. Realising what he’d just confessed to.
‘You’re the one who broke into my place the other night? The man who stabbed Bridget?’
‘Well yeah, I mean no. I didn’t stab her, I told you. She came at me.’ It was Kyle’s turn to look confused then. ‘That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?’
‘Where is Scarlett?’ Jack said, not in the mood for this man’s games.
‘Scarlett?’ Kyle Boyd said, feeling as if his bowels were going to release themselves involuntarily.
How the fuck could they possibly know that he and Jess had been planning to snatch the kid?
He was shitting himself now. Everything Dennis Watkins and Louis Blackwell had told him about these nutters must be true. This Nancy bird seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere. Nothing got past her.
They were on to them?
‘We haven’t got her. We didn’t take her—’
‘We?’ Nancy said, her question interrupted by a loud crash upstairs.
They heard glass breaking, then a bang.
‘Stay with him,’ Nancy shouted, running up the stairs.
‘Scarlett, darling? Mummy’s here…’ she said, following the sound to the small bathroom at the back of the house. She pushed the door open, scared at what she might see.
‘Scarlett?’
But instead of her daughter she was met with the sight of a woman. A woman who was, at this second in time, doing her best Houdini impression and trying to escape out of the narrow bathroom window.
‘I don’t fucking think so, darling!’ Nancy said, grabbing at the woman’s leg and pulling her back down.
Jess held on to the window frame then, refusing to do anything that Nancy Byrne told her to do. She fought back, kicking out in a rage, glad when her heel caught Nancy in the face, sending the woman flying backwards against the wall behind her.
Momentarily stunned, as she held her battered cheek, Nancy flew at her again. Grabbing hold of her top this time.
‘Get the fuck off me,’ Jess ordered. Trying her hardest to break free, to get the hell out of here.
She’d already heard her idiot boyfriend spilling his guts out about stabbing one of Nancy’s girls. It wouldn’t be long until he told them everything about Scarlett too. Bloody idiot.
Well, Kyle might be a gutless fucking moron, but Jess had no intention of sticking around for that fallout.
He’d done all of this.
If he hadn’t been so incompetent in the first place, these fuckers wouldn’t even be here right now. Kyle had led them straight to them.
She hadn’t even had time to make contact with Nancy and demand a ransom yet.
No thanks to Kyle, this was all just one great big fuck-up.
‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Nancy said, again grabbing the girl by her top, and pulling her down with her entire body weight as Jess stumbled back, crashing to the floor in a heap.
‘Get up!’ Nancy spat, annoyed now that they were dealing with such scumbags. That these were the people responsible for taking Scarlett, a pair of down and outs no doubt.
Amateurs. As sick and twisted as they were thick. Which in truth, was one of the most dangerous combinations as far as Nancy was concerned.
‘Where’s my daughter?’
Hauling herself up off the floor, Jess Green stared at Nancy then, hate radiating from her. Their moment of reckoning.
She wasn’t sure what she expected from Nancy.
Shock? Surprise?
Instead, she got confusion.
‘Do I know you?’ Nancy said, narrowing her eyes.
Certain it was her, the woman from the CCTV footage.
But Nancy was convinced that she knew her from somewhere else too, only she couldn’t pinpoint where.
The woman’s vagueness was only another colossal insult as far as Jess was concerned.
‘You don’t even remember me, do you?’ Jess Green spat then, as Nancy was trying to piece parts of the puzzle together.
She laughed, the sound hollow and laced with bitterness.
‘You ruined my fucking life. You destroyed me. And you don’t even remember, do you?’ Jess shook
her head incredulously.
She’d imagined this moment so many times over the years. How it would be to stand before the notorious bitch that was Nancy Byrne and put the woman to rights. To get her revenge for all that she’d done to her.
Only Nancy had never even given her a single thought.
The stupid bitch didn’t even know who she was.
Thirty-Five
‘What the fuck are we going to do with her?’ Daniel said, pacing the flat, the shock of what Marie had done finally sinking in.
She’d taken the child! Nancy’s fucking child.
Scarlett Byrne was here in his flat.
‘Well, I didn’t bring her here for you both to play fucking Monopoly, did I?’ Marie Huston said, fuming now. ‘What do you think I brought her here for? So you could have your revenge on your sister. Isn’t that what you’ve been saying? How you want to screw Nancy over. Well, now’s your chance. You’ve got her most precious possession.’ Marie Huston was beyond pissed off.
After everything she’d done today. All the risks she’d taken and yet it still wasn’t good enough.
Instead of being happy about her plan, Daniel looked like the Antichrist, annoyed at her for taking it upon herself to just snatch the child. To kidnap Scarlett without even consulting him.
‘You stupid fucking bitch! Nancy will cause murders over this. Our fucking murders. You have no idea what you’ve brought upon us both. No idea at all.’
Shouting now, Daniel paced the flat, rubbing his head frantically.
This was just one big headache. One big mess.
‘How the fuck did you manage to get her?’ he asked, wondering how careful Marie had actually been when taking the child. If she’d been spotted by anyone.
Nancy wasn’t stupid.
If Marie left any sort of a trail, they could count on a visit from his beloved sister any minute now. She’d be hot on their tails.
Daniel knew first-hand how vicious and unforgiving his sister could be. He was living testament of that.
‘It was easier than I thought it would be,’ Marie said, wanting Daniel to know that she was confident that her plan couldn’t go wrong. That she’d got away with it, scot free.
She’d spent hours listening to Daniel ranting and raving about his past life. How he’d repeated every detail of what had happened to him, every word. About their fancy home and all the businesses. And she’d taken it all in. Locked it away inside her mind to help her work out what she was going to do.
How she could help Daniel get his own back on his sister.
Then it dawned on her. How easy it would be to make the woman pay.
All she had to do was take the kid.
So she’d done it. While Daniel had been asleep.
‘I went to your family home. The one you told me about, in Richmond,’ she said then, eager to make Daniel realise that they had the upper hand now. This was a good thing. That, more importantly, she’d done good.
‘I was just going to keep watch for a bit, see if I could catch a glimpse of Nancy…’ Marie spat the woman’s name. The woman that had caused her Daniel so much pain.
The woman that had made him like this.
So angry and empty and full of pain.
‘I wasn’t even there twenty minutes when I spotted the older man.’
‘My grandad?’ Daniel said. ‘Michael.’
Marie nodded, remembering how Scarlett had called out for him as Marie had dragged the small child away.
‘He left the house with the kid in tow, so I followed them both. Ended up in Richmond Park. And that’s when I knew. If I took her, for you, you’d have the upper hand. You’d finally have your revenge,’ Marie said now, her voice sounding suddenly excited at the prospect of them both being in this together. Of her and Daniel, a team. Against Nancy. Against the world.
‘I thought the difficult part would be to get the child on her own, that I’d have to try and lure Scarlett to me somehow; but your grandad left her all on her own. Can you even imagine? What sort of person does that? Sneaking into the toilets with some tart.’
Marie shook her head in disgust.
‘He must have had a right shock when he came out and saw that Scarlett was gone. But if you ask me, the old boy deserved everything he got for leaving her on her own. And so will Nancy. For everything that she has done to you, Daniel.’
Marie meant it too. She wanted Nancy to pay, dearly. Not just for the physical damage she’d done to Daniel, but for fucking up his head too.
‘Can’t you see, Daniel? By taking Scarlett, you can finally get to your sister. You can have your revenge. You can make Nancy suffer now, where it hurts her the most.’
Daniel didn’t speak; he just kept on pacing the flat.
The idea of a small kid in the room next to him made him feel on edge. He didn’t want her here. Not in his home. He wasn’t mentally prepared for this. For any of it.
‘You should have told me,’ Daniel snarled, still angry at Marie for poking her nose in. For taking things into her own hands without consulting him.
This was his problem, his business. She had no right to get involved in matters that didn’t concern her.
‘Well, I didn’t tell you, did I?!’ Marie shouted back now, sick of Daniel’s attitude. ‘Do you know what, Daniel, you can be so bloody ungrateful sometimes. After everything I’ve done for you. Well, fuck you!’
Marie’d had enough of being used and spoken to like shit. Daniel Byrne could learn the hard way to show her more respect. Shrugging her coat on, she was off.
See how he liked that!
Being left alone with the little brat, and without his meds too. He’d soon realise that couldn’t treat her this way.
He’d be sorry then.
Just like Louise Langton had been. And her father too.
They’d both learned the hard way, hadn’t they?
‘Where are you going?’ Daniel asked, realising that Marie was leaving.
‘I’m going to work, Daniel,’ she lied, not bothering to look the man in the eyes. Her feelings hurt. Though instead of tears, all she could feel inside her was a hot pool of rage.
The last place in the world she’d be going right now was back to that hospital.
Especially now that all her do-gooder colleagues would have heard about Louise Langton.
But she needed to get the fuck out of here.
Away from Daniel, away from this flat. Away from that bloody kid, crying constantly in the background. The noise echoing inside Marie’s brain.
‘But you can’t?’ he said then, realising that he was going to be left alone with Scarlett. ‘You can’t leave me with the kid?’
‘Why not?’ Marie said, her tone almost challenging. ‘She’s your niece. You deal with her. I’ve got to go to work. I can’t do everything for you, Daniel. I’m not just here at your beck and call. I have a life too. Besides if I keep calling in sick, they’ll get suspicious or I’ll end up losing my job, and then you’ll never get your medication.’
He didn’t argue with that, just like she knew he wouldn’t.
His meds. The only hold she really had over him. As long as he was dependent on them, he’d be dependent on her.
‘I’ll be back when my shift is over, okay? Just make sure you feed her, and give her something to drink. Oh, and don’t forget to make sure she goes to the toilet. You don’t want her wetting that bed. Or worse…’ Marie said, enjoying the look of panic on Daniel’s face.
Smirking as she picked up her bag from the floor, she shot Daniel one last parting glare.
A little time alone with Scarlett would be just the thing that Daniel needed to remind him how much he depended on Marie.
So that he’d realise how much he needed her.
Thirty-Six
Grabbing his head, Daniel rocked back and forth on the sofa.
That wretched noise.
The kid in the other room, snivelling away and crying for her mother.
It was doing his head i
n. He couldn’t stand it.
‘Shut up! Shut up!’ he shouted finally, launching the mug of tea that was down by his feet. The liquid exploding out across the wall. The cup, smashing to pieces and landing on the floor.
Still the kid cried. She wouldn’t stop.
She just wouldn’t fucking do as she was told.
If anything she was worse now. Louder.
As Daniel began pacing the room. Stomping around the flat, agitated. His whole body felt as if it was on fire.
And the pain in his head. Banging constantly. Thumping.
He needed his pills.
Fucking Marie! She’d done this to him on purpose. This was her way of punishing him.
Leaving him here like this, in this state. With the kid.
He had hours yet until she finished her shift. Until she said she’d be back. That’s if she even came back? He wouldn’t put it past the mardy cow to make him sweat this out for as long as possible.
That’s what Marie did. She played mind games with him. Couldn’t help herself. Controlling him. Causing him the ultimate head-fuck. Using the only leverage she had against him. His meds.
Only this time she’d thrown the bloody kid in the mix too, just for good measure.
ARGH! When was this pain in his head going to stop? It was banging. Pounding. As if his skull was being crushed.
He thought of the kid then.
His niece. His blood.
But blood meant fuck all to him. It was nothing, he reminded himself.
Sitting back down and rocking once again. He had to keep moving. To keep his mind from focusing on the agony he was in.
His brain was going into overdrive now, as his thoughts turned to the rest of his family.
All of them cunts. His father, his sister. His grandad too.
Selfish fuckers the lot of them.
The only people he actually gave two fucks about were his nan Joanie and his mother. And even they would put this kid before him if they knew that she was here.
Given the choice between Daniel or Scarlett, they wouldn’t even blink an eye.
Scarlett would win hands down.
He was nothing to them, they’d made that perfectly clear.
The Forgotten_An absolutely gripping, gritty thriller novel Page 25