Retribution

by Heather Atkinson

  “Why don’t you come back in?” he said when she’d calmed down.

  She nodded, wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve. “Yeah, alright.” She smiled up at him, feeling a little better just for getting that out. “Thanks Dad.”

  “You’re welcome.” He hesitated. “You know Leah, you can talk to me anytime if something bothers you. Never be afraid of coming to me.”

  “Thanks,” she said, genuinely grateful.

  He hesitated a moment longer, giving her the chance to talk more but when she didn’t he exited the room and she followed.

  “You okay honey?” her mum asked her when she walked back into Jules’s room.

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” she said sheepishly.

  “No need to apologise,” she smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders when she joined her at Jules’s bedside.

  Her mum’s warmth was just as comforting as her dad’s and she started to feel a little better, the good feeling eradicated when her phone started to vibrate again in her pocket.

  “Are you not going to answer that?” said her mum.

  “It’ll just be Britney and I see her all the time. This is Aunty Jules’s time.”

  She felt even worse when her mum beamed back at her.

  Ryan sat in the chair by Jules’s bedside and took her hand. “It’s me, big bruv,” he said with a gentle smile. “Rachel, Leah and the boys are here too.” When he couldn’t think of anything else to say he looked to Rachel for help, who sat on the other side of Jules and began talking of mundane things about their lives - school, work, the weather.

  Leah rolled her eyes. “You’ll be boring her rigid. Aunty Jules hates small talk. She says it’s a sign of an unimaginative mind.”

  “Charming,” said Rachel. “What do you want me to talk about then?”

  “Well, I did bring this,” said Ryan, pulling a small book out of his jacket pocket.

  “What is it?” said Rachel.

  “It’s called The Prince. It’s a treatise on sixteenth century politics.”

  “Oh God Dad,” said Leah. “We’re trying to get her to wake up from the coma.”

  “Jules loves Machiavelli,” said Ryan, opening up the book and preparing to read.

  Leah sighed and slumped into the chair next to her dad, finding the sound of his voice as he read oddly lulling. That, combined with the warmth in the room soon had her nodding off. When her phone began vibrating in her pocket again her head snapped up and she saw her mum was in a similar state of semi-consciousness. The boys were sat on the couch in the corner, playing games on their tablets. Idly she wondered when her dad was going to shut up, she wanted to talk to Aunty Jules alone. Even if she couldn’t talk back or give her a solution to her problem, she would just feel better for talking to her about it.

  “I need the bathroom,” she told her parents before slipping out of the room, heading down the hallway to the toilets.

  She locked herself in a cubicle and checked her phone, dismayed to see more missed calls and messages from Reid. There was no way she was going to call him back yet but she steeled herself to check the messages, which were pleading with her to speak to him - soothing, caressing words that spoke of how much he loved her and how it made him sad that she was worried and afraid. Leah didn’t reply, she certainly wasn’t in the mood to deal with his mind games. So she sent a message curtly telling him she was with her family and she’d talk when she got back to Devon. Hopefully that would keep him quiet for a while.

  Shoving the phone back in her pocket, she returned to Jules’s room to find her dad still droning on and her mum struggling to stay awake. Leah retook her seat, gazing thoughtfully at her aunt, willing her with everything she had to wake up. But of course she didn’t and the more Leah sat with her the more depressed she felt, which ironically made her feel guilty too.

  Sensing this, Rachel decided to intervene. “You stay with Jules,” she told Ryan. “I’ll take the kids outside for some fresh air.”

  Ryan nodded gratefully. “Thank you.”

  “Come on, there’s a nice park across the road,” she said, ushering the children to their feet.

  “But it’s covered in snow,” said Leah.

  “The boys love playing in the snow,” replied Rachel. “Besides, it’ll do you some good, wake you up a bit and it’ll give your dad some time alone with his sister.”

  Leah nodded, knowing this time for him was rare and precious. “Alright,” she said, getting to her feet.

  When they’d gone Ryan put down the book. “I know something’s wrong with Leah,” he began to Jules. He felt guilty using an unconscious person as a sounding board but somehow it felt like the right thing to do. If something was wrong with Leah, Jules would want to know about it. “She’s not herself. Something is troubling her but she won’t tell me or Rachel. But then again, teenagers rarely do confide in their parents, especially if they think they’ll disapprove. I’m worried it’s something to do with a boy. If it is I will remove his tackle with a rusty knife.”

  He did a double take when he thought the corner of Jules’s mouth lifted into a smile. “Jules?” he said, leaning over her, hoping for a repeat to convince him he wasn’t losing his mind.

  “Jules?” he repeated, louder. He sighed when nothing else happened. He must have imagined it.

  Feeling miserable, he slumped back in his chair. He’d only had four years with his sister before this had been done to her. Prior to that he hadn’t even been aware she was alive, his mother telling everyone she’d been stillborn when in fact she’d sold her to a pair of paedophiles who had abused her for years until Jules had been strong enough to retaliate. This had happened when Jules finally had everything she wanted - a home, family, husband and a daughter. Tanya Slattery, the woman who had put her in the coma in the first place was dead at Mikey’s hand but Jared Slattery, Tanya’s son and the real father of Jules’s daughter was still out there and they had been unable to track him down, despite their best efforts and it burned Ryan up inside that he was still alive and well while Jules was in this state. Every day that went by destroyed a little more hope that she would wake up. Ryan used to be optimistic that she would wake up, Jules was a fighter, it was in her blood but the coma seemed to be winning.

  He tried to return to reading the book but a lump had formed in his throat. He could count the amount of times he’d cried in his life on one hand but the tears threatened. He wanted his sister back and there was sod all he could do to make that happen, despite his wealth and influence, which actually meant nothing. Every time he thought back to when she’d first come into their lives he was filled with shame. He’d been all for having her killed, he’d felt she posed too great a threat to his family but Mikey, Jez and Rachel had talked him out of it, thank God. He’d wasted so much precious time despising her, not trusting her when she’d turned out to be one of the most loyal of them all.

  The door opened and Rachel and the kids returned, hair speckled with melting snow, cheeks pink and ruddy. Glancing at the clock he saw almost an hour had elapsed since they’d gone. It felt like minutes.

  “Do you need longer?” said Rachel.

  Ryan looked down at Jules, praying to see that half-smile again but there was nothing. Determinedly he swallowed the lump in his throat and got to his feet. “No thanks.”

  After Rachel and Ryan had kissed Jules goodbye, they took the boys’ hands.

  “Could I have some time alone with her?” said Leah as her parents made for the door.

  “Sure honey,” said Rachel. “We’ll wait in the car but don’t be too long, the boys are cold.”

  “I won’t. I just want to say goodbye.”

  Ryan looked down at the floor. Leah made it sound as though the goodbye would be a permanent one.

  When they’d gone Leah took the seat her dad had vacated and took Jules’s hand.

  “Aunty Jules, I’m in so much trouble,” she began, the words tumbling from her mouth. “I’ve got in deep with this boy, Reid. Well, h
e’s not a boy actually, he’s a man. He’s twenty years old. We got into the vigilante stuff like Mum and Dad - they don’t know about it by the way. Reid went too far, he loves violence and he killed someone. Then the police came to the house accusing Mum and Dad. Thank God they had an alibi. Now Reid won’t leave me alone. I’m in deep and I don’t know how to get out.” Tears started streaming down her face. “I wish you were awake, you’d know what to do. I’m afraid to tell Mum and Dad, they’ll freak and Dad will kill Reid, I know it. I don’t want them to get into any trouble. Alfie thinks I should tell Uncle Mikey or Uncle Jez but they’re all the way down here. And Uncle Mikey looks so sad all the time, I think because you’re still in a coma. He loves you so much.” Her voice cracked and she was unable to hold back the sobs anymore. “We all do. Please Aunty Jules, wake up. We need you.”

  Leah gasped when she felt a pressure on her hand, which then relaxed. “Aunty Jules, did you just squeeze my hand?”

  Leah didn’t dare breathe as she waited to feel that pressure again, she was sure she’d felt something. When it didn’t happen again she sighed, disappointed. She wanted her to wake up so much that she’d imagined the whole thing.

  “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go now,” she said, getting to her feet. “We’ve got to visit Frank, Danny’s and Grandma Martina’s graves. I’m glad I can’t visit Uncle Alex’s, I’m glad that bastard’s gone,” she hissed, hands balling into fists. Whenever she thought of her Uncle Alex she was filled with an almost murderous rage about what he’d done to her Mum. Part of the reason she loved to fight was because it enabled her to get some of that rage out. “Don’t you dare go anywhere Aunty Jules. I always worry I’ll never see you again but you’re so tough so you’re going to wake up. I know you will.” She kissed her cold cheek. “So I will see you again and next time you’ll be awake, I know it.”

  Leah gazed down at her aunt, stroking her hair back off her face, which was getting pretty long, before heading for the door. She took one last hopeful look back at the prone figure on the bed before leaving, weighed down with sadness. At least her Aunty Jules now knew the trouble she was in. She’d heard every word, she knew it.

  Leah returned to the car and flung herself miserably into the back seat.

  “You okay Cupcake?” Ryan asked her from the driver’s seat.

  She wondered whether she should tell them about the pressure she’d felt on her hand but didn’t want to give them false hope, so instead she just said, “yeah, fine.”

  As he started the engine Ryan pondered on whether he should mention the half-smile he’d seen from Jules but dismissed the notion. It had just been his imagination.

  CHAPTER 4

  “Yes Toni,” sighed Mikey, shaking his head while Jez anxiously looked on. They were together at the bungalow, their new base of operations after the famous Maguire compound had been blown up when Jared Slattery and his crew attacked it. They’d decided to go for something low-key after the attack, somewhere only the trusted members of their inner circle knew about. Now Mikey was on the phone to Toni McVay, their business partner and head of the most violent criminal family, not just in Glasgow but the entire country, attempting to placate her.

  “Well?” said Jez when Mikey finally hung up, looking drained.

  “She’s not coming to Manchester.”

  “Thank Christ for that,” he sighed with relief.

  “But someone’s fucked up somewhere along the line. Ten grand’s worth of coke doesn’t just wander off by itself. Small change to Toni McVay but she’s all set for scooping out someone’s eyes for this.”

  “We’ve got a fucking traitor,” glowered Jez.

  “It would seem so but I can’t imagine who’d be stupid enough to fuck us over.”

  “Remember what the Alex nightmare taught us - don’t get too high and mighty. Everyone has vulnerabilities, no matter how strong they are.”

  Mikey nodded sagely. “We’re lucky we’ve kept this under wraps. If our competitors get wind of this they’d take it as a sign that we’re going soft and I do not want to fight another fucking war. I’m sick of them.”

  “Something like this was bound to happen. We’ve been on top for a while, relatively trouble-free. Apart from that fucking lemon Jared Slattery. You don’t think he could have nicked it, do you?”

  “Nah. How? No one’s seen hide nor hair of him since he did a runner from The Homestead and he is one big bastard to miss. Plus he’s a spent force, all his men are dead. We made sure of that.”

  “Suppose. That means there’s a rogue crew with big enough balls to nick from us, or we have a traitor.”

  Mikey sighed. He hated this talk of traitors. It reminded him all too vividly of the time Alex had gone off his nut and tried to take them all out. “I can’t imagine any of our men being traitors.”

  “And I bet a few years ago you couldn’t imagine Alex kidnapping and torturing Rachel and trying to kill us all.”

  “Alright, fair point.”

  “It can’t be Mark or Grant.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they’re so loyal.”

  “So we think. Remember, we can’t afford to rule anyone out just for the sake of it.”

  “True. Declan then?”

  “Hey, he’s my cousin.”

  “So was Alex.”

  Mikey opened his mouth then closed it again. What was he supposed to say to that?

  “We need to get this sorted,” said Jez. “But what the hell do we do?”

  Mikey’s smile was sly. “We set a trap.”

  “What sort of trap?”

  “A mousetrap. What do you think?”

  “Alright, no need to get arsy.”

  “We say nothing about this to anyone else, we make out we’re clueless. It’ll lull whoever’s doing this into a false sense of security. We make out we’re sending out fifty grand’s worth more of coke but instead we send sixty.”

  “Surely that’ll make them suspicious?”

  “Why should it? We didn’t miss the last ten grand’s worth that went missing, supposedly, so why should we miss this? It’ll make the bastard cocky. But we slip a tracking device into the package and catch them red-handed.”

  Jez nodded. “Not bad but what do we do once we catch them? What if it is Mark or Grant or Declan or Shane?”

  “There’s only one thing we can do. If we don’t finish them we’ll look weak.”

  “Not if only we know about it. Could you really top any of them?”

  “I wouldn’t want to but I have to have it in me. That’s why I’m joint boss of this crew and they’re not.”

  “I see your point,” said Jez sadly.

  Mikey sighed, feeling exactly the same way. Christ he wished Jules was here to advise him.

  Amber’s lips twisted into a satisfied smile. “I’ve never seen so much drugs before.”

  “Make the most of it babe,” replied Declan. “Because they’re not going to be here much longer.”

  Amber swallowed down her annoyance. He was so afraid he was sweating, eyes wide, constantly looking over his shoulder as though he expected Mikey and Jez to burst into his apartment at any moment. “And you’re sure Mikey and Jez don’t know you took it?” she said, just to wind him up even more.

  “No, they don’t have a clue,” he said with forced belligerence.

  “You’re so smart,” she smiled, sliding her arms around his neck and kissing him.

  “Thanks,” he said, puffing up with pride.

  “So what are you going to do with it now?”

  “Cut it up and sell it on.”

  “But it’s only worth ten grand,” she said with a curl of the lip. A few years ago ten thousand pounds would have seemed like a king’s ransom but marrying Mikey had given her access to truly astronomical sums of money, so this amount seemed paltry.

  “I’ll cut it with something else, to increase the amount, so we’ll make more cash.”

  “Okay,” she said, not bothering to ask what he was go
ing to cut it with. He’d already said he was going to give her half of whatever he made, so she’d have cash to blow that Mikey wouldn’t know about.

  “I need to get this out of here,” he said, stuffing the huge wedge of coke wrapped in cling film back into the dark blue sports bag.

  “Where will you put it?”

  “I have a flat I bought for cash in another name. No one knows I own it. I’ll stash it and cut it there.”

  “So Mikey and Jez won’t be able to find this flat? You’re certain?”

  “Absolutely. Trust me babe, it’s safe as houses.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. “You think of everything.”

  “I did it for you, to get one over that bastard for the way he’s treated you.” He hadn’t told her about Katia’s man blackmailing him into ruining the McVay deal and he never intended to, she’d only worry. He stroked her face. “Everything I do is for you.”

  Amber beamed at him but inside she bristled with irritation. God he was soft and pathetic. Still, it was satisfying to have sex with him on the drugs he’d stolen from Mikey. Another fuck you to him, even if the sex in question wasn’t very good. However, all she had to do was close her eyes and think of Jackson and she was coming like a train.

  Mikey sat by Jules’s side, explaining the theft of the drugs.

  “It’s someone on the inside of our firm,” he said miserably. “We have a traitor. Again. Jesus, it’s never bloody ending. Only this time, it’s someone in our inner circle. Sometimes I wonder if this business is worth all the hassle. I’ve got enough money to retire, maybe I should do that and take up golf or some shite like that?” He smiled at what he knew Jules would say to such a suggestion if she was awake. “Yeah, I know. I’d probably drop dead from boredom after six months. At least dropping dead from a bullet in the back of the head from some treacherous bastard would be more exciting. I can never give it up, I’m addicted. Unfortunately.” He took her hand and kissed it. “I wish you were awake to tell me what to do. You have a habit of cutting through the crap and getting straight to the heart of a problem.” He sighed. “Plus Amber’s really doing my head in, I don’t think I can take it for much longer. I’m so tempted to ditch her, despite the boys. In fact I think I’d be doing them a favour. She clearly doesn’t give much of a shit about them and it hurts them, I see it in their eyes, especially Josh’s. I need to put a stop to that before it permanently damages them and they end up like Archie, who is blossoming nicely into a full-blown psycho by the way. Well, until Ethan put him on his arse. That boy’s a fledging Ryan,” he chuckled.