Shattered (Dividing Line #5)

by Heather Atkinson

  “True, so we prime him to explode and send him back into Alex’s camp. We must work every opportunity to our advantage.”

  “We’re not fucking doing anything when this is the perfect time to hit the prick hard and fast.”

  “If we do anything to him in the hospital then the police really will get involved. Thanks to Taylor they believe our story and they’re leaving us alone.”

  Frankie could see the sense of Ryan’s words but his temper was up and he needed to vent. So he continued to pace back and forth, spewing expletives. Ryan looked to the other three in exasperation, who all shook their heads.

  “Mikey, any luck finding Gavin Sugar?” Ryan asked him, interrupting Frankie’s tirade.

  “One of my men is watching him. He’s at The Wherry Tavern at the moment. He’ll let me know when he leaves.”

  “What are you tailing that dick for?” said Frankie.

  “We want to find out if Alex has any more brothels,” replied Ryan. “We’re going to destroy his income. We need to weaken him financially. His men will soon desert him when they know he’s potless. You can be a big part of that too Frankie.”

  “How?”

  “Break off your deal with him.”

  His eyes bulged. “Are you fucking mental? That brings in a fortune.”

  “Let me finish. Break off with Alex and strike up a fresh deal with Mikey instead.”

  “But he’s just a wean.”

  “A what?” frowned Mikey.

  “A fucking kid. You’re not up to running an operation on that scale.”

  “I hate to tell you this Frankie but I’ve been running it for the past year. Alex hasn’t given a fuck about it, except for the profit.”

  “Whatever. I don’t trust you to do it.” Frankie’s eyes settled on Ryan. “But I’d trust you.”

  Mikey and Jez glanced at each other nervously.

  Ryan’s face turned so hard he looked like a statue. “Excuse me?”

  “If you want my back up you and Rachel will take over when Alex is gone.”

  “We’re out of the business and we’re not getting back in,” said Ryan, voice devoid of emotion.

  “Then why should I help you when I get nothing out of it? I might throw my weight behind Liverpool instead, they’ve been after your patch for years. My help might tip the scales in their favour.” Frankie looked pointedly at Jez. “You wouldn’t stand a fucking chance.”

  Ryan felt the situation spinning out of control. Frankie was threatening all their lives - including Rachel’s and his little brother’s - if he didn’t agree. He’d no choice, he had to keep him sweet and hope he could persuade him otherwise later, or maybe Mikey would prove himself to him.

  “Alright,” he muttered, planting his hands on his hips. The perfect life he’d enjoyed before Alex had ripped it apart and trampled on the pieces was all a distant dream, one it seemed he was never going to get back.

  “Fucking fantastic Pal. Welcome back,” said Frankie, holding out his hand.

  Ryan shook it, wanting to rip the appendage off and beat him to death with it but for now he’d reign himself in. Unfortunately he needed Frankie. He threw a warning glance at Mikey, telling him not to get pissed off and he gave him a small nod in response.

  “You need to meet with Dane Black,” Jez told his brother. “We need someone to counteract Lucifer’s Shadow.”

  “What the frig is Lucifer’s Shadow?” said Frankie. “Sounds like one of those wanky computer games those sad gleekit fannies play.”

  “They’re a motorcycle club,” said an impatient Ryan. “Alex is using them as muscle and they’re nasty bastards. Dane Black, president of their rivals the Angel’s Wrath MC, owes me a big favour. If we can get him onside we can counteract Lucifer’s Shadow.”

  “Lucifer’s Shadow, Angel’s Wrath,” sneered Frankie. “Sounds fucking gay.”

  “Well they’re not and I recommend you show them some respect. Dane may go in for theatrics but he’s an astute businessman and a very useful ally.” In all the fuss Ryan realised he’d forgotten to speak to Riley about his relationship with Lucifer’s Shadow and made a mental note to ask him about it as soon as possible. “So this is what we’re going to do. We grab Gavin Sugar ASAP and find out what he knows. Then we get Dane Black onside and find Sabine.”

  “Who in the name of holy fuck is Sabine?” cried Frankie, throwing his hands in the air.

  “You don’t need to be concerned with that, it’s something I’ve promised to do for Rachel but I need Gavin Sugar first.” He turned his back on Frankie, sick of the sight of him. “Riley, a word please.”

  “I don’t want anyone sneaking off and whispering in corners,” said Frankie.

  “This is a personal matter and nothing to do with you,” said Ryan.

  Frankie’s eyes narrowed and sharpened. “You’d better start bucking up your ideas if we’re going to be business partners. I don’t like being kept out of the loop.”

  “And you’d better start showing me some respect or this isn’t going to work. It works both ways Frankie,” Ryan called over his shoulder as he and Riley disappeared into one of the bedrooms.

  Frankie’s eyes snapped onto Mikey and Jez, who unconsciously took a step towards each other, watching uneasily as Frankie’s fingers started to jump and twitch, hovering over the hilt of the hatchet secreted inside his jacket.

  “I think you already know what this is about,” opened Ryan.

  Riley nodded.

  “Jasper White killed Zoe and the baby.”

  He nodded again, lips setting into a thin line.

  “I know you don’t like to talk about it but I need to know.”

  Riley mulled it over before eventually replying, “Alright.” He took a few deep breaths, willing his mental defences to relax. It was only fair he knew. “Me and Zoe had been together a couple of years when she found out she was pregnant. We found a nice house in the suburbs and we were happy. Unfortunately Lucifer’s Shadow had just started up in the area and they were a bunch of annoying arseholes, causing trouble in the neighbourhood; vandalism, intimidation, drug dealing. It was a nice place to live and they were spoiling it. Dane was joint president of the club with Jasper but he was alright, the voice of reason. He wanted to run the club as a business and not use it to harass innocent people. They started to fall out.

  When Dane left things got really bad. He’d had enough of Jasper so he decided to set up his own club, taking half of the members with him. Jasper and the men who stayed with him were left to run wild until everyone in the area was afraid to leave their homes. So I got some of my army buddies together and we arranged to teach them a lesson. We captured Jasper and his vice president, stripped them naked, tied them up and roughed them up, nothing heavy but it scared the shit out of them, they were crying like little girls. Everything went quiet for a while after that, so we thought Jasper had finally got the message, but he was only biding his time. He waited until Zoe was just a couple of weeks off giving birth and I was caught up in the excitement and the preparations.” Riley folded his arms tight across his chest to stop the raw emotion inside from erupting. He had to show Ryan he was calm and controlled otherwise he wouldn’t let him be a part of what was to come. “Jasper and his men took Zoe from our home when I nipped out to the shops for Maisie’s cot. He called me and told me what he’d done and to come to the clubhouse alone otherwise they’d kill her. They were already torturing her by that point, I could hear her screaming in the background. On the way there I called my army buddies and they told me not to go in without them but I couldn’t wait. You probably understand why not.”

  It was Ryan’s turn to nod.

  “By the time I arrived she was already in a bad way. I fought them, I even managed to break one of their necks but there were too many of them.”

  Ryan saw his brother’s composure slip, revealing that pain he knew all too well.

  “You know the rest,” said Riley, unwilling to go into any details, Zoe’s screams start
ing up in his head again.

  “Christ Riley, I don’t know what to say.”

  “There’s nothing you can say. Zoe and Maisie are gone forever and Jasper will pay for taking them.”

  “Too right he will. We’ll make fucking sure of that.” Ryan thought about how close Rachel had come to sharing Zoe’s fate and thanked whatever force had kept her alive. “When it’s done I hope it brings you some peace.”

  “So do I,” he said softly. “I can still hear her screaming my name, wanting me to help her and I couldn’t.”

  There was a moment of silence as both brothers contemplated this, which grew and grew until Ryan decided it was time to break it. “Do you know Dane Black well?”

  “Not really but he’s alright. He’s not an animal like Jasper. He’ll help us, he’s wanted to destroy Jasper for a while now. It was Zoe’s murder that sparked off their feud. Although they were no longer part of the same club Dane did still hope to try and rekindle their friendship and perhaps unite the two groups but Jasper went too far and Dane refused to have anything to do with him. He’s got the same attitude as you; you don’t touch women or children.”

  “Do you want to come with me to meet him?”

  “I think it’s best if I don’t. I don’t want him to get involved because he thinks he owes me. He needs to be in because he wants to be. By the way, thanks for letting me be a part of this.”

  “It’s the least I can do after what you’ve done for me.”

  “What about that ginger wanker in there? Surely you’re not going to let him drag you back into all that shit?”

  “No I’m not but at the moment I can’t be fighting him too. I’ll keep him onside for now and think about him later.”

  “I could break his neck if you like?”

  “Thanks for the offer but the last thing we need is half of Glasgow tearing down here after revenge.”

  “It’s your decision but he doesn’t seem like the type of man to change his mind.”

  “He’s my problem. I don’t want Rachel knowing about this just yet either, it’ll send her frantic.”

  Ever the man of few words, Riley nodded in understanding.

  “Let’s get back out there before Frankie works himself up into a frenzy of paranoia.” An image popped into his head of Frankie hacking through the door with his axe, poking his head through the hole and announcing, ‘here’s Frankie’. “Jesus I need some sleep,” Ryan quietly said to himself.

  “Finished bumming each other?” spat Frankie when they came back into the room, clearly annoyed at being kept out of the conversation.

  Ryan chose to ignore the stupid remark.

  CHAPTER 6

  Alex rested in bed, feeling a little better now his wounds had been restitched and redressed and his pain relief topped up. It had taken him a while to persuade the doctor that he must have rolled onto his front in his sleep because the man couldn’t understand how he’d got himself into that state. Like the Laws, Alex understood all too well the dangers of grassing.

  “Beth is going to pay dearly for what she’s done to me,” he told Col. “I was going to give her a quick death but now it’ll be just as long and painful as Rachel’s.”

  “I can’t believe she was the same woman who nearly had a nervous breakdown in the warehouse,” replied Col.

  Alex refused to admit that his wife was now a stronger woman who could have cheerfully murdered him in his sickbed and enjoyed it. He was surprised to realise he felt a grudging respect for her but she’d tried to kill him twice so she had to go.

  “How’s Katia?”

  “Raging. She’s desperate to see you.”

  “Keep her away. If Ryan sees her…”

  “I won’t let her near. She’s at the safe house.” He and Katia had agreed they wouldn’t let Alex in on their plan, he’d only worry.

  “Good. Cheers mate.”

  “You’re welcome Boss. What do you want me to do?”

  “We have to play this carefully. The coppers are watching so we can’t go after the Laws with guns blazing. We need some powerful back-up. I think it’s time we used the recordings from the brothel.”

  The names Alex rhymed off made Col chuckle. “You’re going to ruffle some influential feathers.”

  “That’s the idea. They’ll be so desperate to keep their depraved activities secret they’ll do anything.”

  “And what is it you want them to do?”

  Alex‘s smile was weak but full of malice. “Whatever they can to fuck up the Laws.”

  “Is anyone in there with him?” Ryan asked Eddie, one of Mikey’s men. He’d worked for Alex for a couple of years and was known for his tact, efficiency and talent for brutal violence but he too had grown tired of Alex’s constant bullying and put-down’s and had quickly agreed to change allegiance to Mikey, bringing the majority of his workforce with him.

  “No. He’s got a bird he picked up at the pub but she’s a friend of mine. I asked her to keep him busy until we got here.”

  “Let’s go and put the poor woman out of her misery,” said Ryan, already crossing the road. The others followed, except for Eddie, who drove around the corner and down the back street running behind Gavin Sugar’s house.

  When Ryan knocked on the door he was greeted by an irritated shout from the other side telling him to bugger off. He tried the handle but it was locked.

  “Is anybody looking?” said Ryan.

  The others glanced up and down the street.

  “No, all quiet,” replied Jez.

  The door easily gave way beneath the force of Ryan’s foot and they all rushed in. Gavin was lying on the lounge floor minus his shirt, his trousers round his ankles. A blond was sat astride him, fully clothed.

  “About bloody time,” said the blond. “I’ve been running out of ways to keep this creep at a distance.”

  She climbed off him while Gavin stared at the men glaring down at him in amazement. “You set me up you bitch,” he eventually yelled, deciding to take his fear out on the weakest of the group. He had two gold teeth either side of his upper incisors that flashed in the light.

  He realised he’d underestimated her when she kicked him between the legs. “You kiss like a sodding plunger, it’s horrible,” she retorted.

  “And you’ve got a fat arse,” he managed to retort, curling up into a ball and cupping his crotch.

  When she tried to kick him again Mikey intervened. “Alright Britney, you’ve done enough thank you.” He produced a wad of notes and handed them to her. “Get yourself a treat, you deserve it.”

  She took the money, pulled on her jacket, picked up her handbag and with one last contemptuous look at Gavin she strode out of the house with her nose in the air.

  “For Christ’s sake pull up his pants then get him in the car,” said Ryan.

  Mikey and Jez hauled a protesting Gavin to his feet. When he started to make a lot of noise Riley punched him in the face, knocking him out. They carried Gavin outside and bundled him into the boot of the car then they all jumped into the vehicle.

  “We’ll take him back to the compound,” said Mikey as they drove away.

  “Isn’t that being held by Alex’s men?” said Ryan.

  “A couple of them tried but now they’re in the freezers,” replied Mikey with a dark look.

  Ryan swivelled round in the front passenger seat to look at Mikey, who he’d just realised had been changed by events too.

  When they pulled up outside the compound Ryan was even more surprised to see men he knew had worked for the Maguires for years opening the doors for them deferentially, obeying Mikey’s every command, two of them dragging a half-conscious Gavin along with them. He wished Frankie was here to witness Mikey’s coming-of-age, it might make him think twice about who should be in charge. Worry plagued him, he’d no idea how he was going to persuade Frankie to change his mind without getting them all killed.

  They descended the stairs to the torture rooms in the belly of the building.

 
; “You’ve been planning this for a while,” Ryan said to Mikey, impressed by how easily he’d taken control of the Maguires’ operations.

  “Alex made it easy. Me and Jez weren’t the only ones he pissed off. They were all too willing to side with me when he got shot.”

  A loud banging on the exterior door leading into the basement attracted their attention.

  “Let me in for fuck’s sake,” bellowed an angry Glaswegian voice.

  Jez sighed and unlocked the door, allowing a pissed off Frankie to enter.

  “You lot took your sweet fucking time,” said Frankie, stalking inside, leaving Jez to close the door behind him.

  “We’re here now,” said Ryan, watching as Gavin was tied to a chair.

  “Stand guard on the door,” Mikey told his men and they left the room to take up their posts.

  Gavin stared up at the men gathered around him, caught between throwing up a front of bravado and throwing up his lunch.

  Ryan once again experienced that burning inside as he thought about the damage that had been done to Rachel. This man had been a part of that. He’d stood back and done nothing while she was tortured and almost killed. Before he knew what he was doing, his fist had shot out and put Gavin on his back. Riley hauled him upright, Gavin’s eyes rolling back in his head, blood trickling from his nose.

  “Steady on Bruv, don’t kill him before we’ve got anything out of him,” said Jez.

  Ryan dragged in a deep breath, the rage thrumming through his body. He looked to Riley and it brought him comfort that one person understood exactly how he was feeling. He walked to the metal cupboard containing the Maguires’ tools of torture and opened it up. After perusing the vicious objects within he said, “tie him to the table instead. The chair isn’t practical enough for what I’ve got in mind.”

  Mikey and Jez untied him and hauled him to the stainless steel table, channels cut into either side to allow the blood to drain away. When Gavin started to fight Riley joined in, pressing down on his shoulders until he was securely restrained.

  “What are you going to do?” said Gavin, a wobble in his voice.