by Edie Baylis
The ugly fuck had taken umbrage at this and wasted no time in crushing her into the wire fencing and roughly shoving his hand between her legs. As he’d pushed his fingers into her he’d whispered if she cooperated he could get the charges dropped easily.
Jane smiled ruefully. There’d only been one answer to that, which had been to knee him hard in his visibly engorged crotch. The stupid bastard had obviously forgotten that although she had her hands cuffed and chained, her feet and legs weren’t attached to anything...
Dropping to the floor, Ginning had howled and rolled instinctively into a foetal position, clutching at his genitals. Funnily enough by the morning, as usual the charges had been dropped anyway and Jane had been released at 6am.
Yeah. Whatever.
Needing some caffeine, Jane opened a can of coke and took a swig. She had to find something to concentrate on before she lost her temper. Eliza better have a good reason both for doing what she’d done in the Barrels and for involving the cops.
Swallowing a couple more pills, Jane took a deep breath as the phone rang again. She picked up the receiver then quickly slammed it back down on the cradle. She couldn’t talk to anyone. Not until she’d calmed down.
PAUL EYED DEBBIE QUIZZICALLY as he waited for her response. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and sighed, getting impatient. “You can’t let what’s happened stop us getting what we want Debs. Look at what he did to me and I’m still going for it.”
Turning her cider around on the sticky table in the Black Eagle, Debbie raised her eyes. It was alright for Paul - he was bloody tapped, but she wasn’t.
As it was since that incident with Jane she’d had to move in with her brother. There had been no way she could remain in the flat on her own now. “It wasn’t Seth who fucked me up though was it? It was her. Besides, he doesn’t want me.”
Paul had to think fast. This wasn’t going quite to plan. He tried to make his face look as incredulous as possible and grabbed Debbie’s pudgy hand across the table, giving it a squeeze.
“Are you serious? I’ve seen the way Seth still looks at you. He does want you, trust me. He’s just under Jane’s spell, but together we can fix that.”
Ok, Paul knew full well Seth didn’t want Debbie. Who bloody would? He eyed her fat hanging in a large pasty roll over the waistband of her leggings and scowled. He had to be careful. He didn’t want to make out that Jane was the problem and certainly didn’t want to slag her off, but he had to make this work somehow.
“If we can just split them up properly this time, then he’ll definitely come to you.”
Debbie’s heart raced as she studied Paul’s face. Was it possible? Had she really been scared off that easily? She unconsciously ran her finger down her slightly misshapen jaw. Maybe he was right?
Seeing Debbie’s slight change in demeanour, Paul smiled knowing he was getting somewhere. He wasn’t about to tell her he only wanted to fuck Seth up so that he’d be in no fit state to have any form of relationship with anyone ever again because there would be no incentive for her.
“I’ve already told you I’ve got my cousin Stuart on side. He’s in the perfect location next door to them and has been working hard to put the spanner in their relationship and he’s only just started!”
Paul grinned, seeing Debbie waver further. “What we need to concentrate on is fucking it up for them from every angle possible, without either of us being personally involved right? We need them to end up despising each other, but feeling they’ve broken up naturally. Then we’re as good as there!”
Debbie felt a warm glow spread over her. By God, he was right! All this time she’d been heartbroken, but she now realised she’d just approached this from the wrong angle the first time around.
Tipping the rest of the pint into her mouth, she smiled. “I can’t believe I’ve wasted so much time. You’re right. Get us another drink, babe. I’ve just thought of something really good to help our cause.”
SETH’S DAY HAD GONE too fast. He hadn’t had time to swing a cat and the stress crept up him like a red line. Burning a finger on the end of his cigarette, he swore and yanked the car window down to throw the butt out.
Scowling at the bloodstains on his jeans, he grabbed the quart bottle of whisky balanced between his legs, whilst pushing his foot down further on the accelerator.
For fuck’s sake. All he wanted was to get to the pub, but now he’d have to change first.
Running his hand over his beard, Seth took a slug of spirit. He was always on edge these days. He felt like a coiled spring. Scrunching his face up, he slammed his hand on the horn as a white van pulled out of a side street. It took all of his power not to throw himself out of the car and strangle the driver.
Calm down! Calm down, he chanted silently and tipped the remains of the whisky down his throat. Chucking the bottle over his head into the back seat, he turned the car hard into the high street.
Seth roared out of the window as he mounted the pavement to avoid hitting someone who’d stepped out into the road and his scowl deepened seeing it was that tosspot, Ian. Did he have time to handbrake the car and mow him down?
Fuck it. He wanted a drink more than wasting time on that prat.
IAN WAS ON A MISSION and needed to get himself in situ before Maggie came back. Judging on the days and times he’d collated on her movements, she never returned to the van before 9 on a Wednesday. That would give him more than enough time to position himself in the hedge and get settled in for an hour or so. Plus he’d got a couple of joints to keep him going and might even get back to the Dragon in time for last orders after he’d finished.
He couldn’t wait to watch Maggie through the blinds of the caravan again. Ian resisted the urge to knead the hardness growing painfully in his jeans. With any luck she’d start playing with herself, like she had the other day. He ran his tongue over his lips betting she’d been fantasising about him.
He’d also finally made a decision about the date for the big one. The date he’d been waiting a long time for. The date he’d teach Maggie who was the fucking boss and the date he’d get her back for good.
He hadn’t got long to wait now.
TWENTY THREE
NOW THE PLATES HAD been fixed on the white Triumph Stag, it was ready to roll. Leaning impatiently against the wing of the car, Seth smoked a cigarette and waited.
Just as they’d been about to leave, Eliza had turned up to try and straighten things out with Jane, but he’d just been surprised Jane hadn’t lamped Eliza the second she’d walked in.
He’d impatiently paced around the kitchen as Eliza profusely apologised, insisting it hadn’t been her who had called the cops. After giving Jane a blatant ‘We’re going to be late’ nod through the hatch, he’d left the flat to let them finish up.
Glancing at his watch, Seth tapped his foot. Every second felt like an hour. They couldn’t be late. A lot of people would be behind schedule if they were and the window of time on this job was narrow enough as it was.
Hearing the clacking of Jane’s heels on the concrete, he was relieved to see her hurrying towards him.
“All sorted with Eliza then?” Seth asked as they got on the road.
“I suppose so.” Jane glanced out of the window as they sped towards the address they’d been given. “What’s the crack then?”
Taking his eyes off the road, Seth looked in her direction. “Relatively simple. They owe money and I’m collecting it.”
“But...?”
Lighting up another cigarette, Seth changed down the gears to take the roundabout, thinking for a moment before answering. He knew full well Jane was watching his every move.
“I haven’t had confirmation how many of them there are,” he glanced towards her. “There should only be one guy, but if not and I get jumped, we’re fucked. Also like I told you, there might be a bird and if so, I want you to deal.” He knew he was a lot of things, but whacking women wasn’t on his list.
Reaching over, Seth pressed a coup
le of buttons on the radio, hearing white noise. “So you stay in the car until you’re needed yeah?”
Jane studied Seth’s side profile watching the vein in the side of his neck pulsing and stared at him in amazement. “You’re joking, right? I’m coming in!”
“You’re not! I don’t want you involved unless you’re needed.”
“Involved? I’ve always been involved! Don’t be such a fucking martyr!”
Seth sighed resignedly, knowing this would happen. It wasn’t a secret Jane was way more useful, reliable and certainly more trustworthy than half of the people he knew. It was another thing he loved about her, but he still wanted to protect her.
She was one of the only women ever to be accepted into this shit, but she was still a woman. More importantly, she was his woman and he was uncomfortable taking her into something where he was unsure of the score. Still, there was little point in arguing once her mind was made up.
Giving her a hooded stare, Seth smiled. “As you wish.”
Jane noticed the first slight colours of autumn tinting the trees as she absentmindedly stared out of the window.
“Also, I don’t want you working for that prat anymore.” Seth muttered.
Snapping out of her autumnal daydream, Jane whipped her head around. “What?”
Seth’s eyes remained firmly fixed to the road. “I said, I don’t want you worki....”
“I heard what you said!” she interrupted. “That’s a bit out of the blue isn’t it? Where did that come from?”
Seth glanced at her. “I’ve said it before. There’s something about that bloke I don’t trust.”
Neither did Jane. She fully acknowledged her boss was a total and utter wanker, but that wasn’t the point.
Seth’s green eyes flashed with ill-concealed annoyance. “He’s a seedy bastard and he’ll try to drag you into the shit. I know he will.”
Jane gritted her teeth. “So you think I’m that fucking pathetic I’d take my kit off for that twat do you? Thanks a lot!”
Shrugging his muscles to release some of the tension quickly building at the back of his neck, Seth turned to her. “Oh, don’t start. I’m not saying that am I?”
“What the fuck are you saying then?”
Although he didn’t want a row, Seth had recently done a bit of digging on that man and didn’t like what he’d found. He wouldn’t put up with Jane working there for much longer, whatever she said. Gripping her hand hard, he pulled his eyes away from the road. “You’re mine, Jane. Mine. You’re my business and therefore what you do is too.”
Jane wrenched her hand away. “Fuck you, Seth. No one tells me what to do!”
“What is it you don’t understand? I don’t like him and I don’t want you working there anymore. GOT IT?”
Jane was riled. If she could have got out of the car and walked off, then she would have. “Got it? Who the hell do you think you are? I’m not a bendy-spined little girl. I won’t take your demands up the arse and say ‘Yes Seth, no Seth’. Besides, what fucking choice do I have?”
She poked his arm. “You’re not holding it together right now are you? Snorting and drinking all the money, along with that wanker next door.”
Seth’s eyes flashed with rage. “And you don’t, you stupid bitch? Just me is it? Sort yourself out girl and stop bringing Stuart into everything. He’s got fuck all to do with anything, he’s a nobody.”
He grabbed her hand. “We’re getting two grand for this job and we’ll be alright for brass, so don’t try that old chestnut. Besides, when have I ever failed to come up with the goods?”
Snatching her hand away, Jane glared out of the window. She folded her arms tightly across her chest whilst Seth sulkily turned the radio up. Staring fixedly on the road, he stamped on the accelerator.
AS THEY PULLED UP OUTSIDE the address, Seth reached underneath the driver’s seat for his sawn-off and Jane watched impassively in the twilight as he loaded it. “Ready?”
Nodding, Jane opened the passenger door and jumped out, following Seth up the rubbish-strewn path to the ground floor flat. She could almost hear the adrenalin pumping through her veins as she waited in anticipation for the off.
With a last glance up and down the road, Seth gave her the nod. Knowing the drill, she stepped back giving him enough room to deliver a well-aimed kick to the insubstantial wooden door.
With an almighty crash, he rushed into the small hallway with its torn and threadbare carpet. A twenty-watt bulb hung from a bare flex on the ceiling, dimly illuminating the outline of a rusty-looking push-bike propped against the brown and yellow ripped wallpaper.
Bolting through a door off the hallway, Seth found two men frozen in shock along with two scantily-clad women. One man with closely cropped blond hair sat on the sofa, his white shirt unbuttoned and his jeans pulled down to his ankles. A girl with bleached hair in a bright pink tube-dress knelt between his legs with her mouth frozen open.
A second man stood agape, his cock hanging pathetically out of his grubby boxer shorts as he was interrupted from giving a red-haired girl a seeing to over the backrest of the sofa.
Wasting no time, Seth quickly despatched one of the men with a swift punch which sent him flying and coming to rest in a crumpled head on the floor with his trousers still halfway down his legs.
Jane gripped the blonde woman around the throat and slammed her into the wall, then delivered a head-butt to the bridge of her nose. The blonde crumpled to the floor screaming, blood spurting through her hands from her nose over her pink dress.
“Shut the fuck up, will you?” Jane hissed. The silly cow’s screeching was giving her a fucking headache, but at least she wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.
Jumping onto the brown velour sofa, Seth grabbed the second man by his shirt collar and dragged him over the back. “Where the fuck’s the money, you cunt?”
The man’s eyes darted from left to right in panic, his mouth quivering. “W-What money? I don’t know nothing about no money?”
Seth shook him roughly and increased his grip around the man’s windpipe. “I think you do and you’ll be sorting it out won’t you?”
“We don’t have nothing!” the red-head screamed. “Leave us alone.”
One doth protest too much, Jane thought unmoved and glanced back at the blonde on the floor.
“You must have the wrong address,” the man muttered in a strangulated voice as he tried in vain to prise Seth’s fingers from around his neck.
“That I doubt,” Seth snapped, getting impatient.
Jane could see the vein in Seth’s neck throbbing fast and knew it wouldn’t be long before he delivered. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye the red head made a swift movement towards Seth with a stiletto.
With the speed of light, Jane grabbed the woman’s arm and twisted it back painfully. “That was silly wasn’t it?” she whispered, yanking the arm down and smiling as the bone snapped.
Jane pushed the screaming woman by the back of the head as hard as possible, leaving her to crash into a cheap two-seater dining table wedged into the far corner and crumple to the floor, making a horrible screeching sound.
“SHUT THE NOISE!” Seth roared and the wailing immediately reduced to a series of quiet racking sobs as the woman clutched her arm and rocked back and forth. Pulling out the sawn-off from his inside pocket, he raised it towards the other man who’d begun to get to his feet. “OK. Time’s up!”
Registering the barrel of the gun, what colour left in the man’s face drained, which only emphasised the purple bruising spreading across his shattered cheekbone.
“Fucking hell Martin! Just give them the money! It ain’t worth it!” the blonde gibbered, dragging herself to her feet.
“I’m waiting, Martin....” Seth growled, staring the man directly in the eyes.
“I think they’re taking the piss!” Jane smiled.
“I think you’re right.....” Head-butting the man with the speed of a panther, Seth held him upright and smiled,
exposing his straight white teeth. “Now, where were we? Ah yes, you were going to get me that twenty grand weren’t you?”
DIGGER WAS HALF AN hour early, but being as he’d had nothing else to do he’d thought he may as well head toward the rendezvous point.
He didn’t however want to attract attention by hanging around, even though it was well off the beaten track, so he’d taken the opportunity to have a cruise around the nearest town first on his bike. After all, he might as well see if there was any talent hanging around. There was no harm in looking was there?
Pulling up at a set of traffic lights, he revved the throttle impatiently and glanced at a group of three girls wearing tracksuits, each with a pushchair and eating chips on a bench outside McDonalds.
Scowling inside his crash helmet, Digger came to the conclusion there was more chance of him becoming Colonel Gadhafi than finding any remotely acceptable women in this dump. For fuck’s sake – it was like the gathering of the Ugly Convention. Dear God! No thanks!
Grateful the lights had now changed to green so that the image of those revolting creature weren’t forever indelibly ingrained on his retinas, Digger kicked the bike into first gear and shot up the road, hoping Seth and Jane would be on time.
He needed to deliver the cash back by 9 and then he’d got to go to the city for an appointment with some old bird. She was a fucking pig, but pleasant enough. Besides, he didn’t really care because she paid handsomely.
All that the woman wanted was for him to accompany her to some bash at a casino, which was just fine by him. And at the end of the day, if he had to shag her afterwards to keep her happy, then so be it.
There were worse things he could do after all. Like fuck his mate’s wife for a start!
SETH SMILED. IT HAD been pure genius on Jane’s part when she’d looked in the thick brown envelope of cash and exclaimed the money was short. He knew she was calling their bluff, but the dozy tart with the bust arm went into panic mode.
“Give them the coke, Martin. Just give it to them.” Shoving her good arm down the back of the grubby sofa, she rummaged around.