She drove to the pub Rory owned in Bracknell, which had to be the shittiest dive in the county. Berkshire was nice and if places had body parts this had to be the anus. Outside was a pebbledashed, non-descript box with mesh over the windows. She parked her bike in the car park beside the pub - which had the nerve to call itself The Merry Monk - and walked inside.
The chattering and clinking of glasses came to a halt, everyone staring at her in amazement. Jules wasn’t surprised as the clientele seemed to be comprised solely of overweight middle aged men with five o’clock shadows.
“Rory Noble?” she said, addressing the room. When no one replied she sighed and shouted across the room, “Rory Noble?”
“What you wantin’ Rory for?” called the barman.
Jules glared at him. “None of your business. Where is he?”
“What you wantin’ him for?”
“As I’ve already said, it’s none of your fucking business.”
“You should watch your manners little girl.”
Her fingers twitched, itching to draw the blades strapped to her wrists but she wasn’t about to waste them on this idiot. Neither was she going to draw attention to her presence in Berkshire by getting involved in a fight.
“Just tell me where he is you fucking nob.”
“You bitch,” he snarled, moving to walk around the counter. Despite wanting to keep a low profile, Jules was up for a good scrap.
“Its okay Bobby,” called a voice. “I do believe this is normal behaviour for this lady.”
“Lady?” snorted Bobby.
Jules ignored him, craning her neck to see who had spoken. She saw a fat bastard sat with two more fat bastards at a table at the back of the pub. She bristled when he beckoned her over with a twitch of his fingers, as though she were some lacky. However she swallowed down her annoyance. She needed information from him.
“Rory Noble?” she said as she approached the table, the rest of the pub returning to their drinks and chatter.
He nodded magnanimously. “And you must be Jules Driscoll. Howie told me you were coming.”
“The name’s Venom now,” she said, taking the seat opposite him.
“Venom,” he smiled. “Like it. I like all that black make-up and the tats too. Very sexy.”
Jules ignored the comment. “Where’s Jared Slattery?”
He regarded her thoughtfully before replying. “Let me get something straight…Venom. I only agreed to meet with you out of respect for your deceased uncle. Me and Frank worked together, he was a great man. But I owe you no such loyalty. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to tell you anything about Slattery yet. You need to convince me to.”
“I thought the twenty grand I’ve already paid you would have done that.”
“That paid for my time, not my information.”
“What do you want then?”
“We’ll get to that in a minute. First of all I’d like to know what your intentions are towards my new employer. Howie hinted that you’re not exactly on friendly terms.”
“Thanks to him I was put in a coma and my daughter was stolen from me. So no, you’re right genius, I’m not here to give him a present and a pat on the head. I’m here to kill the fucker.”
“Take it easy,” he told the men sitting either side of him when they bristled. “The Laws and Maguires are to be respected and I want no quarrel with them.” He looked back at Jules. “But it seems you’ve gone renegade, something you apparently have a habit of doing. This isn’t about business, it’s personal.”
“You’re fucking right it’s personal. So you tell me where the big stupid bastard’s cowering so I can put him out of his misery.”
“What makes you think you’re even capable?” He held up his hands when she glowered. “I mean no disrespect but if your brothers and all their men couldn’t kill him, what makes you think you alone can?”
“Because I’ve been a trained and very skilled assassin since I was fourteen years old. That’s how.”
“Yes, your reputation is second-to-none but Jared Slattery is my new employer and a lucrative one at that. We’ve gone from the small time to hitting bigger targets very successfully and he’s making us cash. Why would me and my men give that up?”
“Haven’t you heard he’s a jinx who lost his last empire?”
“For personal reasons. Had he and his mother not stolen your daughter and attacked you, he’d still be operating now. It wasn’t business incompetence that destroyed him.”
Jules was rapidly losing patience and knew she couldn’t contain her frustration for much longer. She shifted awkwardly in her seat, giving herself chance to come up with a reply. “Jared Slattery employed a bunch of lemons who ran the second my family hit The Homestead.”
“Are you calling us a bunch of lemons?”
Jules sighed. Diplomacy wasn’t her strong suit at the best of times, even more so since the coma and her temper was even shorter. “Yes,” she hissed.
Rory laughed and shook his head while his men huffed beside him. “Where’s the famous Maguire silver-tongue? Frank could have sold tea to China. You just seem to think you’ll get your own way with swearing and aggression.”
“It usually works.” She leaned in closer. “Listen. I don’t have time to sit around bandying words with a complete prick. I do have other things to do, like killing Slattery slowly and painfully. So if you’ve nothing useful to say, I’m off.”
When she stood up the men either side of Rory stood too, penning her in.
“Did you think I was going to let the woman who threatened my new employer just walk out of here?” said Rory.
Glancing around she saw the customers quietly filing out, heads bowed, not wanting to get involved. Apart from the two goons penning her in, only four other men remained, plus Bobby the barman, who looked like he was going to enjoy watching her take a beating.
“What are you going to do?” she said.
“Hand you over to him. Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you,” he added, despite the fact that she didn’t betray a flicker of fear. “He’s always going on about you. He was over the moon when he discovered I’m an old friend of Frank’s. He’s obsessed with you and he’s going to give me a nice fat reward when I hand you over to him.”
“He knows I’m here?”
“Christ no. If he did I wouldn’t have been able to keep him away. I wanted to keep you as a surprise, just in case Howie was wrong and you didn’t show up. He’d have cut my balls off for getting his hopes up.”
Jules had to admit that did make sense. She had intended to give Rory and his men a good kicking but instead she said, “take me to him.”
“With pleasure,” he smiled. “I’m glad you’re being sensible about this.” He looked to his men. “Tie her hands and check her for weapons.”
“I don’t think I’m going to let you do that,” she said. For all she knew he was lying and he would kill her the second she was helpless.
Rory smiled. “You don’t have any choice in the matter…”
Before anyone could move, Jules had punched the man on the right in the throat and he dropped to his knees, clutching his neck and gurgling while back-handing the one on the right in the face, following this up with a punch to the side of the head that knocked him out.
“Get her,” exclaimed Rory, pressing himself back against the wall while his other men charged at her.
Jules pulled a can of mace and sprayed two of them in the eyes and they fell, screaming, hands pressed to their faces. She dodged when a man attempted to hit her and leapt onto the snooker table in one nimble move, snatching up a pool cue and whacking him around the head with it. She remained standing on the table, making it difficult for the other two men to reach her. Rory himself stayed behind his table, suddenly not looking so smug.
“What are you waiting for?” she yelled at the two men, brandishing the pool cue.
When Bobby attempted to leap up onto the table she kicked him in the face, sending him sprawling
on the floor. The last man standing got the tip of the cue in the left eye, followed by the handle around the back of the head. Jules jumped down off the table and kicked a writhing Bobby in the face again, who was finally knocked out.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she called when Rory made a scramble for the door.
She drew one of her knives and threw it, the weapon spinning end over end before striking him in the back of the knee and he fell on his face, to Jules’s delight.
“Still got it,” she grinned.
She took her time striding up to him, pausing to knock out a man groaning on the floor, who was starting to come round. She bolted the front door. The last thing she needed was for someone to walk in while she was interrogating Rory.
She knelt by Rory, who recoiled from her, grasped the end of the knife and twisted, making him scream.
“Now Rory boy, if you’ve quite finished flinging your dick about and embarrassing yourself, tell me where Slattery is. Or would you like a blade in your other knee?”
CHAPTER 37
Jez, Jackson, Mark and Shane arrived at The Merry Monk to find it all locked up.
“Maybe it doesn’t open till later?” said Shane.
“Dumps like this run by dodgy bastards like Rory are always open,” said Jez. “It’s where they do business.”
“You looking for Rory?” called a voice.
They looked round to see a man sweeping the street, who leaned on his brush, clearly eager for gossip. “Never seen anything like it.”
“Like what?” said Jez, approaching him, the others following.
“I heard shrieks and yells from inside,” he explained. “I minded my own business, that place is a zoo and that’s saying something in Bracknell. Then an ambulance turned up and carted out two of them on stretchers. One was crying about his knees.”
“Who?” said Jez.
“That dirty bastard Rory Noble. Things were shite enough around here then he came along and made everything worse. Someone put him in his place and it’s about time.”
“Do you know who?”
“Nah, unfortunately. I’d like to shake their hand. Must have been a gang of them though because they took out all of his men.”
“So where is Rory?”
The man frowned at him. “You don’t work for him, do you? You’ve got the same accent.”
“Actually we’re here to do to him what someone else has already done,” said Jez, causing Jackson to gape at him.
The man grinned. “In that case they’ve taken him to the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Give him one from me.”
“Will do,” said Jez before returning to the car.
“Should you have told him all that?” said Jackson as he got into the back with Shane.
“It got us the information we needed. That’s the important thing.”
Jez was used to getting whatever he wanted in Manchester. Being one of the most powerful men in the city tended to have that effect but in Berkshire he had absolutely no clout. Neither did he want to alert Slattery to his presence here. Therefore he was forced to wait until visiting time to see Rory in the hospital, which he was not at all impressed about. Usually he’d grease a few palms or his name alone would give him access denied other people and the waiting wasn’t helping his temper. Usually Jez was very laid back but when it came to protecting his family one thing he lacked was patience.
“This is so frustrating,” sighed Jackson, cradling a cup of tea. They were in the hospital canteen, killing time until they were allowed on the ward to see Rory. “Jules is on her way to Slattery, if she isn’t there already and we’re sat around here like spare parts.”
“You’re not saying anything we’re not already thinking,” said Jez. He glanced at his watch. “Another twenty minutes. Not long now.”
Jackson’s phone started to ring and he wrenched it out of his pocket, hoping it was news about Jules. The look in his eyes told Jez who it actually was.
“Err, sorry,” said Jackson, already getting to his feet. “I need to take this.”
“Your bit of fluff, is it?” said Jez, eyes narrowed.
Jackson didn’t reply, hurrying out of the canteen clutching his still-ringing phone.
“Wanker,” muttered Jez before taking a sip of tea.
Personally Shane was amazed Jackson was still alive after betraying Jules and in turn, the family. He could only surmise he was still breathing on her instructions. After all, he was a good dad to her daughter. He knew Jez could have happily topped Jackson.
“What was that about?” demanded Jez when Jackson returned to the table.
“Cindy was just asking after Jules. She’s concerned.”
“Concerned?” snorted Jez. “She’s probably hoping Jules gets killed, then she can have you all to herself.”
“That’s not true,” retorted Jackson. “Despite what you think, Cindy is a good woman with a kind heart. She’s just as worried as we are.”
“If she’s so kind how could she shag a man when his wife was in a coma?”
“It just happened,” said Jackson, struggling to maintain his temper, tired of the same old debate. “We didn’t plan it.”
“Famous last words,” said Jez coldly.
“Is that some sort of threat?”
“Yes.”
“For fuck’s sake, if Jules can get over it, why can’t you?”
“Jules is far from over it. If she was she wouldn’t have run off.”
Jackson was stuck for an answer so he just glared at Jez.
“Can we save this for later?” said Mark. “Everyone’s looking at us.”
“Oh I’ve had enough of sitting around here,” said Jez, getting to his feet. “Let’s get up there.”
When visiting time on Rory’s ward finally began only Jez and Jackson went in, knowing a group of four men would attract a lot of attention, Mark and Shane waiting outside the ward.
“Just follow my lead in there,” Jez told Jackson as they wandered over to Rory’s room. “I’ve had more experience of this sort of thing.”
“You mean threatening people?”
“Morons like Rory only respond to two things - intimidation and cash. After the going over Jules gave him I bet he’ll be willing to tell us anything just to make us go away.”
“We don’t know for sure it was Jules. For all we know Slattery could have turned on him.”
“Trust me, that was Jules. Carnage like that is her calling card.”
Jackson hesitated.
“What is it?” said Jez, trying to contain his impatience.
“I never wanted to know about Jules’s work, so this is all new to me. Is she really capable of doing a group of men such damage?”
“Don’t you know your ex-wife at all?”
“She’s not my ex-wife. Right now she’s still my wife.”
“Stop evading the question. You’ve lived in Manchester your whole life. Surely you’ve heard of her reputation?”
“Of course but hearing it from someone actually in the know rather than from someone who’s never met her is a totally different thing.”
“So?”
“So, all this violence and aggression, it’s not my life.”
“No, you just like shagging strippers.”
“Cindy is not a stripper.”
“Look, we really don’t have time for this. You’re free to go back to Manchester. No one’s keeping you here.”
“I want to stay.”
“If you do I can’t have you wussing out. I’m painfully aware that you’re not in the family business but we need to do this the hard way, which is my way. Say now if you’re not up for it.”
“No, I’m in. It’s the least I can do for Jules.”
Jez nodded. “Then let’s get on with it.”
He pushed open the door to find Rory laid on the bed, dozing, the sheets pulled up to his waist. He didn’t stir when Jez gently shut the door behind them and they stood over his bed, looking down at him.
; “Wakey wakey,” said Jez.
Rory jumped awake with a frown. “Who’s there?” he said, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “Is it time for my bed bath?”
“Urgh, no,” said Jez. “Do you know who I am?”
Rory pushed himself up on his elbows, wincing when pain shot through his legs. “Oh shit. You’re her brother.”
“I see my sister’s been making her presence felt.”
“She stabbed me in the knees.”
Jackson looked down at the floor so Rory wouldn’t see him wince.
“Let me guess, you didn’t do the sensible thing and tell her what she wanted to know. I bet you wound her up instead?”
“Well…maybe.”
“Course you did. You underestimated her and paid the price. What did you tell her?”
“I suppose I may as well tell you too. The damage has already been done,” he sighed.
“Well?”
“I told her where Slattery’s hiding out.”
“And where is that?”
He sighed and looked away.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to make the same mistake twice in one day?”
This had the desired effect. “No but please make sure you kill Slattery or else he’ll kill me for this.”
“If Jules has gone after him he’s probably already dead,” said Jez, making Jackson wince again. “Address.”
“I can’t give you the address because I don’t know it.”
“It wouldn’t be wise to piss us about.”
“I’m not, honestly. I never dealt directly with Slattery. He always sent one of his lieutenants and even that lieutenant never dealt with Slattery either. He’s set up a chain of people with himself right at the top so he doesn’t have to reveal himself.”
Jez had to own that was smart. “So who did you send Jules to?”
Rory rhymed off an address back in Bracknell, looking depressed. “Slattery was a good earner for us too.”
“We’re doing you a favour. He would have dragged you down with him.”
“You young ‘uns, have no respect. Things were different when men like Frank Maguire were in charge.”
“And there’s the difference. You wouldn’t have dared piss Frank about, you would have just told him what he wanted to know. You didn’t mess with Jules because she’s younger than you, you did it because she’s a woman, so stop being a sentimental old fart.” He looked to Jackson. “Let’s go.”
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