Shattered (Dividing Line #5)

by Heather Atkinson

  “Agreed,” replied a relieved Col. This daft bint had put him in a real quandary. No doubt Ryan was going after every name Katia had given him and they would lose powerful protection because Ryan could be extremely persuasive. But he couldn’t warn Alex without revealing what had happened today. He’d hit the bloody roof if he found out Katia had been so close to Ryan Law. There was no choice, he had to keep his mouth shut. If he didn’t he was a dead man.

  Katia settled back in her seat to ponder over what she’d learnt today. She had thought herself well equipped to deal with this way of life but now she realised she was under-prepared. She had thought her beauty and femininity would keep her safe but now she knew it wasn’t enough. It certainly hadn’t been enough to protect Rachel. She had to learn to play the game smarter, more subtlety. It irked her how Ryan had sneered at her for thinking she could hold her own among them but Rachel had learnt and so would she then she would prove herself worthy of working alongside Alex, her ultimate goal. This man sat beside her who, admittedly had just saved her life, thought he was in line to become Alex’s number two but she was determined to get there first. The prospect gave her much pleasure.

  Without realising it her thoughts turned back to Ryan Law, a most impressive man. He was only the second man she had ever encountered who excited her and she reasoned dangerous alpha males were her type. His taunts had made her determined to prove him wrong, to show him that she was just as capable as his precious wife as well as her equal in beauty and intelligence. One day, with any luck, he’d see her for the woman she really was then she’d make him eat his words. Fortunately she was surrounded by just the men to educate her in how to do that and she was a very fast learner.

  “What happened?” asked Rachel when Mikey and Ryan returned to her room.

  “Nothing for you to worry about Sweetheart,” replied Ryan.

  “You promised not to shut me out,” she frowned.

  “Sorry. Alright then, we just got hold of Katia.”

  “Alex’s bit on the side. How did you manage that?”

  “She was pretending to be the wife of a dying patient. She’d approached me in the Chapel and the Relative’s Room pretending to be upset. She said her name was Leah.”

  “Bitch,” spat Rachel, eyes turning black. “She’d done her research.”

  “Oh yes. I blame myself, I had a lot on my mind and when she was banging on about her husband I tuned her out. She blew her cover by trying to come on to me. Hardly the actions of a grieving widow.”

  “As soon as she’s had the baby I’m going to fucking have her,” said Rachel.

  “She failed miserably. We let her think she escaped but Mikey planted a tracking device on her and we released her back into Alex’s camp.” Ryan turned to Mikey. “Where did you get that from anyway?”

  “Arnold, the tech guy who works for Jez. I asked him for something I could give to Beth in case Alex got hold of her. Luckily I kept it in my jacket pocket.”

  Ryan nodded, once again impressed.

  “Shouldn’t you have kept hold of her?” said Rachel.

  “The last thing we need is her on our hands,” replied Mikey. “We’re stretched enough as it is, we can’t be guarding another person and she’s a proper prima donna, she’d be a major pain in the arse.”

  “Okay, makes sense,” she said. Her eyes filled with curiosity. “What’s she like?”

  “A real piece of work,” said Ryan.

  “Up her own arse,” added Mikey. “High maintenance isn’t the word. Thinks she’s smart enough to be a player in our world, but she’s not.”

  “She can’t have known about Alex’s hidden cameras in the brothel otherwise she wouldn’t have given up her clients’ names so easily,” said Ryan. “She confirmed the DCS who arranged for Battler and Bruiser to be nicked was a client of the brothel so we need to arrange to meet with The Coalition to neutralise the threat.” He looked to Mikey and Riley. “I need a minute with Rachel. Thanks Lads,” he added when they obediently filed out of the room. He perched on the edge of the bed beside her and took her hand. “Katia told us about a woman named Sheridan. Apparently she’s Alex’s new lawyer who has no problem dealing with the shadier side of his businesses.” He brought up the woman’s image on his phone and held it up for Rachel to see. “She’s completely legit, even has her own website. Is this the woman who assaulted you in the brothel?”

  Ryan didn’t need her to answer, he could tell it was from the look on her face.

  “That’s the fucking psycho bitch.” Rachel was so angry she ground her teeth together.

  “As soon as you’re back on your feet we’ll pay her a visit.”

  “Just me and you Ryan. I don’t want the others to know what she did to me.”

  “If that’s what you want Babe,” he said, putting the phone back in his pocket. Just the sight of the woman was causing Rachel untold pain and frustration. “I saw her going into Alex’s hospital room. I’m curious to know what he wanted with her.”

  “We need to find out.“ She sighed with frustration. “I hate being stuck in here, I want to be back on my feet and out there, helping you.”

  “You will be soon enough, you’re getting stronger every day.”

  “Not fast enough.”

  “I know it must be frustrating but just hang in there. I’m sorry, I’ve got to go. Me, Mikey and Jez are meeting Dane Black.”

  “Be careful. He does have a formidable reputation.”

  “Not as formidable as mine,” he smiled, kissing her. “We go back a long way and don’t forget, he owes me.”

  “I just hope he’s a man who pays his debts. After recent events I’ve got a real issue with trusting old friends.”

  Amid her anger and pain, Ryan saw the hurt inside her too and knew it was something she’d never fully recover from. He also worried how hard it would be for her, despite her words, to see Alex dead.

  CHAPTER 15

  Dolores was frantic. She’d ordered her staff at the casino to tear the place apart, as per Ryan’s instructions, but so far they’d found nothing.

  “It would help if we knew what we were looking for,” complained one of the security guards for the fourth time.

  “All I’ve been told is that you’ll know it when you see it. Now get a bloody move on,” chided Dolores. They were due to open in just under an hour and the place was a mess.

  “It’s a waste of time.”

  “Oh you think so, do you? I’ll make sure to tell Ryan what you just said.”

  “No need to do that, I’m getting on with it,” he hastily replied, returning to the search of the casino floor with renewed vigour.

  Two of the cleaners came racing in, red-faced, looking a bit scared. “Dolores, you really need to see this.”

  When the others looked at her questioningly she told them, “carry on and hurry up.”

  She followed the cleaners out of the room and down the corridor that led to the large kitchen, which at the moment was deserted. It only got used in the evenings.

  “We thought it was weird because the head chef always insists on keeping this door shut,” said Monica, pointing at the dry goods store. She was a plump middle aged woman who’d cleaned at the casino since it first opened years ago and was one of Dolores’s most reliable members of staff. “But it was slightly open. There’s a knack to shutting it. You have to slam it really hard otherwise it pops open again. So we went in and found this.”

  Dolores followed them inside and Monica pulled two bags of flour aside to reveal a large squat package bound up in brown paper.

  “What’s that?” frowned Dolores.

  “We wanted to make sure it wasn’t flour or anything,” explained Monica, “so we cut a corner open. Don’t ask how we know but it’s coke.”

  “Oh bloody hell,” she said, calling Ryan back on the number he’d phoned her from. As she waited for him to pick up the walkie talkie she kept on the belt of her skirt crackled into life, making her jump and she almost dropped the
phone. Keeping the phone pressed to her ear she pulled the radio off her belt. “What is it Keira?”

  “There are a load of police pulling up outside.”

  Dolores stared at the huge package of cocaine in front of her with horror. “Oh Jesus Christ. Delay them and call off the search, we’ve found what we’re looking for.”

  “What is it?”

  “Never you bloody mind. Start tidying up and delay them as much as you can.”

  “I’ll try,” she replied uncertainly.

  “Good girl. They’ll ask for me. Say you don’t know where I am, just buy me some time and I’ll make sure there’s a big bonus in your next pay packet.”

  “Okay,” said Keira, sounding more cheerful.

  “Hello?” said a voice in her ear.

  For a moment Dolores was confused and stared at the radio in her hand before she realised it was Ryan’s voice coming from the phone. “Ryan, we’ve found a huge block of cocaine hidden in the kitchen dry store and the police have just pulled up outside.”

  “Oh hell.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Hit the fire alarm.”

  “The fire alarm?”

  “It’s connected to an automatic sprinkler system. It will soak the place and make any search very difficult.”

  “And what do I do with the drugs?”

  “Get rid of them.”

  “How?”

  “Just get them off the premises. It doesn’t matter where they find them as long as it’s not on any property we own.”

  “I’ve got an idea,” she said, inspiration suddenly striking her.

  “Good. Call me back when it’s done.”

  She hung up and looked at her staff, who appeared pale with fright. “Did you have your gloves on when you touched this?”

  They both nodded.

  Dolores pulled on a pair of rubber gloves that she took from the sink and stuck the block in a bin bag. Then she rushed to the fire alarm switch on the kitchen wall. “It’s about to get very cold ladies.”

  She hit it and immediately a wail started up. The lights went off then they were doused with icy cold water. Surprised shrieks drifted down to them from the casino floor.

  “Get yourselves back to the main room,” she told them, “and you don’t mention this to anyone ever. I’ll make sure you get a good drink for your trouble. Ryan and Rachel will be very pleased with you.”

  She hoped the promise of monetary reward and Ryan and Rachel’s reputations would be enough to keep their mouths shut. They were sensible women with families, they could be trusted.

  Dolores crept to the kitchen door to make sure the police hadn’t got this far yet but it appeared the water was keeping them busy. Shivering with cold she stepped out into the corridor and rushed up the back staircase that took her onto the second level to the brand new private gambling rooms for the high rollers. Dolores wasn’t exactly a spring chicken but she didn’t feel tired, only energised because she had to dispose of the horrible item she carried in her hands as swiftly as possible. If she was caught with it she would go to prison for years.

  She hurried up the next set of stairs that led to the roof and burst through the door into the fresh air. The combination of the warm day and the cold water saturating her clothes and hair was enough to keep her alert and moving. She ran to the edge of the roof and looked down at the busy street below, which ran past the rear of the casino. She held the block over the edge and waited for the right opportunity to present itself, hoping it wouldn’t take long. It didn’t. The big lorry rumbling up the road was perfect. Dolores just hoped the packaging the drugs were wrapped in was secure, despite the small hole the cleaners had already made. The last thing she wanted was an explosion of white powder right outside the building when the police were inside.

  As the lorry approached she let the block go, still in the bin bag, and watched as it fell, tumbling over and over in mid air. It seemed to take an age to drop. Her aim was true and it hit the top of the truck.

  “Oh thank God,” she whispered when it landed on the back of the truck and remained intact. She hoped the driver hadn’t noticed but when he kept going she assumed he hadn’t. Next she had to dispose of the gloves, which had her DNA and traces of cocaine on. She filled them with pebbles she found on the roof and let them drop too, where they landed on top of a bus.

  He task accomplished, she returned to the casino, descending the two flights of stairs wearily. Now it was done she was exhausted. When she arrived back on the ground floor she surmised someone must have managed to turn off the water because it had stopped but the place was saturated. One thing was certain; they wouldn’t be opening tonight, even if they didn’t all get arrested.

  Dolores returned to the main casino floor. Keira was squaring up to an enormous police officer who for some reason was wearing a bullet proof vest and brandishing a piece of paper she assumed to be a search warrant. He was accompanied by at least a dozen officers, some uniform, some plain-clothes. Her staff were ranged together by the bar, including her two cleaners, who, to her relief, appeared strong and composed. She could trust them not to break down and confess all.

  “I’m telling you I don’t know where she is,” Keira told him.

  “It’s alright love, I’m here.”

  They all turned to regard Dolores as she limped into the room, tired out, hair plastered to her skull, make-up running down her face.

  “Where have you been?” demanded the big police officer.

  “I was down there when the water came on,” she said, jerking her thumb at the corridor she’d just emerged from. “I slipped and fell. I did try calling for help but no one heard me.”

  “Did you hurt yourself Dolores?” Keira asked her sympathetically.

  “No love, it was just hard for me to get up off that slippery floor in these heels. What can I do for you gentlemen?”

  “Are you the manager?” asked the burly officer.

  “I am. Who are you?”

  “Detective Inspector Barraclough. We’re here to search these premises,” he said, thrusting the warrant in her face.

  “Why?”

  “We’ve reason to suspect drugs are being stored here.”

  “Drugs?” she laughed, surprised by how carefree she sounded. “Be my guest. You’ll find none here.”

  “We’ll see about that.” He looked round at his officers. “Get to it.”

  “Good luck. You could go canoeing in here.”

  “Convenient your sprinkler system goes off just as we arrive,” said Barraclough, suspicion all over his face.

  “I don’t call it bloody convenient. We’re supposed to be opening in twenty minutes.”

  “You won’t be doing that,” Barraclough told her gleefully. “In fact, you might not ever open again. Now you can wait there with the rest of your staff. Don’t move and don’t touch anything until I say you can.”

  Dolores gave him a mock-curtsey and he glared at her again for good measure before striding into her office.

  “It’s like living in Nazi Germany,” she said loudly before joining the rest of her staff. “Thanks,” she whispered to Keira.

  “No problem,” she smiled. Dolores was held in great affection by her staff, who would go out of their way to help her, which Dolores was incredibly grateful for.

  “Are we going to get shut down?” asked one of the bar staff with concern.

  “Course we’re not. This lot are on a bloody wild goose chase.” Dolores’s words hid her doubt. What if there were more of those packages to find?

  When her mobile phone rang Barraclough, who’d been in the process of ransacking her office, yelled, “don’t answer that.”

  “Why not?” she demanded, phone in hand.

  He strode up to her and snatched it off her.

  “You can’t do that.”

  “I can,” he smirked before answering the call. “Who’s this?” he frowned, looking very annoyed before thrusting the phone at Dolores. “It’s y
our husband.”

  “Vince,” she said joyfully, taking the phone off him. “You won’t bloody believe what’s going on here. A bunch of nosey bastard coppers are searching the place…”

  “Dolores, it’s Ryan.”

  “Oh thank Christ.”

  “Did you dispose of it?”

  “Yeah.” She didn’t dare give him any more information with the police in the vicinity. Barraclough seemed to be keeping an eye on her from the office and her staff were within earshot.

  “Good. Was there just the one?”

  “As far as I could tell.”

  “It’s difficult for you to talk?”

  “Very.”

  “Are there a lot of police there?”

  “Yes.”

  “They’ll be gone soon. I doubt there’ll be more than that one block there, it would have been too difficult for them to plant because security’s so tight. I won’t forget what you’ve done for us today Dolores, no matter what happens.”

  “I know,” she replied fondly.

  “Call me back when they’ve gone. They’ll soon get bored and give up.”

  “Will do.”

  The police spent the whole evening searching the building. They even searched every member of staff and their lockers and by the time they were finished, leaving the place in an even worst state, they were all cold, tired and very damp, as were the casino staff.

  “I told you there was nothing to find. This is a legitimate business,” said Dolores proudly.

  “That’s not what we’ve heard,” sneered Barraclough. “Your bosses are a couple of drug dealing scumbags.”

  “That I believe is slander,” she retorted. “They are good, decent, hardworking people. Why aren’t you out catching real criminals?”

  He gave her a contemptuous look before leaving.

  As they watched the last of the police pack up and leave, Dolores sank onto a bar stool, her legs suddenly shaky. “Billy, open the bar up. I think we all deserve a bloody good drink.”

  As the cheers went up Dolores snuck off to her office to call Ryan and let him know the danger had passed.