Reckoning

by Heather Atkinson

  Leah beamed. “Thanks Mum,” she said, leaping up to hug her. Next she threw her arms around Ryan’s waist. “Thanks Dad.”

  “You’re welcome Cupcake,” he smiled down at her.

  “You won’t call me Cupcake in front of Tiffany, will you Dad?”

  “Not if you don’t want me to,” he assured. “Now it’s time to do your homework.”

  “Okay,” said Leah, happily settling at the table and taking out her books.

  So Leah wouldn’t be disturbed while she worked, they took the boys into the lounge and settled them in front of the telly with their toys.

  “Great, so we’re going to be inundated with teenage girls now are we?” muttered Ryan.

  “Looks like it but don’t go spoiling it for Leah. She needs some fun after the time we’ve had lately.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. I just hope it doesn’t become a regular thing.”

  “When Leah’s thirteen we’ll permanently have a teenage girl around the house.”

  “Leah’s different, special,” he said. “But I could do without all the giggly girly thing.”

  “I hate to tell you this sweetheart, but you’re going to have to get used to it. Anyway, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”

  “Alright,” he replied, following her to the other side of the room, out of earshot of the boys.

  “Kirsty Halliday was waiting for me at the salon,” she began.

  “That airhead.”

  “She is not.”

  “Yes she is, she’s stuck-up, talks vacuously about clothes and shoes and goes into meltdown if one of her nails break.”

  “Alright, you might have a point, but when she came to see me she was really serious.”

  “And what inanities did she come out with?”

  Rachel related to him what Kirsty had told her about her daughter.

  Ryan’s first concern wasn’t for Gloria, it was for Kirsty’s inside knowledge. “How did she know we want to buy The Tower?”

  “Her husband works for the Council.”

  “That explains it. It could be very useful to get him onside. Perhaps we should pay this Billy a visit?”

  “Just hold your horses there Ryan. Tracey told me he’s a good lad. Yes, he wasn’t always good but he’s pulled himself together since he’s been with Gloria.”

  Ryan’s eyes hardened. “So Billy doesn’t get Mummy and Daddy’s approval and they want us to get him out of their daughter’s life. The bastards.”

  “Ryan,” she said, nodding at the boys.

  “They didn’t hear, they’re too engrossed in the television. I hate it when people try to use us.”

  “I arranged for Kirsty and her husband to meet us at Empirica. We can ask them then.”

  “Actually, I have a better idea.”

  “I know that look,” she said when his eyes narrowed. “The Hallidays are in for an uncomfortable evening, aren’t they?”

  “Oh yes,” he said.

  His wicked smile went straight between Rachel’s thighs.

  CHAPTER 9

  Bobby Nilsen looked down dispassionately at his little brother, who was only half-conscious, eyes rolling about in his head.

  “They cut his fucking ears off, the bastards,” seethed Joel Starklaw. “That’s just wrong.”

  “Then they dumped him outside your club like he’s rubbish,” added Joel’s older brother, Ollie. They were in the safe house in Moss Side, just south of Manchester city centre, which they’d secured thanks to the contacts Nilsen had brokered. Mikey and Jez would never find them tucked away here.

  “I didn’t think they’d go this far, he’s just a kid,” said Bobby, eyes still on his brother.

  “Mikey and Jez are animals,” said Ollie. “We need to punish them for this.”

  “Oh that’s coming to them and soon,” said Bobby, placing a hand on Lyle’s head, which settled into his mop of dark curly hair so like his own. “But what about poor Lyle? He can’t go through life looking like this, they’ve turned him into a freak.” Gently he slapped the boy around the face. “Lyle?”

  Finally Lyle’s eyes rolled open and focused on his brother’s face.

  “Did you tell them what I told you to tell them?”

  “Yeah,” he murmured.

  “Good boy,” he replied, stroking his hair. “Don’t worry about anything, I’ll take care of you. Time to rest now.”

  With that Bobby grasped his brother’s head and twisted, the snap of his neck loud.

  Ollie and Joel looked at each other, both stunned.

  “It was for his own good,” said Bobby before kissing Lyle’s forehead. “Goodbye little brother,” he said before walking away without so much as a backwards glance.

  Joel and Ollie continued to stare at Lyle’s body in shock.

  “If I get injured don’t you fucking dare do that to me,” whispered Joel while Ollie shook his head, his jaw hanging open, thinking Nilsen might be just the man to finally bring down the Laws and Maguires.

  “What do you see?” whispered Mikey.

  “Nothing yet,” Mark whispered back, staring down the scope of his sniper rifle.

  Beside them Jules was raging, crouched in the undergrowth with the five men, stabbing at the ground with her knives. “Bastards, fucking bastards,” she hissed.

  “Sshhh,” said Jez. “Just take it easy.”

  Nilsen and the Starklaws had taken over Jules’s old clubhouse, the one in the woods which had been attacked when her club had sided with Alex in the last war. After Riley had firebombed it the clubhouse had burnt to the ground. Nilsen had renovated it, a brand, spanking new lodge standing where the tumbledown house used to be. It was a smart move, they would never have thought of looking for them here.

  “What do you want me to do if I see one of them?” said Mark.

  “Just hang fire,” said Mikey. “We want to know exactly who’s in there first.”

  “We can’t just sit about here for God knows how long,” said Jules. “Let me go round the back, break in and top all the cheeky bastards.”

  “No,” said Mikey firmly. “Keep it together or you can go home.”

  Jules pouted and stabbed at the ground harder, muttering under her breath.

  They waited in silence while Mark continued to stare unflinchingly down the scope, not the slightest tremor or sign of getting uncomfortable. Like Hayden, Mark had been in the army too, although he’d been a sniper and since he’d left the army he’d only honed his skills while tracking the worst of criminal society.

  “This is ridiculous,” said Jules. “I know this terrain like the back of my hand, just let me take a peek around the back. I won’t do anything without your say-so.”

  “Absolutely not,” said Mikey.

  “She might have a point,” said Jez. “We could be sat here all day. So far we’ve got nothing.”

  “I don’t like it. It could be a trap.”

  “I’m not an idiot Mikey. I was doing work like this when you were still sucking at your mummy’s tit.”

  “Oh nice,” he frowned. “You’re only ten years older than me, so are you seriously saying you were doing reccies around drug dealer’s houses when you were ten years old?”

  “Alright, I was doing work like this when you were still waiting for your balls to drop,” she retorted.

  “Will you two stop it?” hissed Jez. “What’s wrong with the pair of you?” he said, looking from one to the other, the suspicion growing in his gut. What the fuck was going on with these two? Whatever it was, he didn’t like it. “If it’ll keep the peace then go right ahead Jules, just stay safe and don’t give us away.”

  “As if I would,” she said before disappearing into the undergrowth.

  Hayden had been scanning the area, not liking the slight undulations in the ground, as though something had been buried beneath it. Suddenly the seemingly empty house made sense. “They’ve planted detonation devices under the ground.”

  “What?” exclaimed Jez. “You�
�re sure?”

  “Absolutely. I’ve seen them often enough.”

  “Jules,” exclaimed Mikey before tearing off after her.

  “Mikey…,” called Jez. “Oh, hell. Hayden, go after them, make sure they’re okay.”

  “Will do,” he said before he too disappeared into the bushes.

  “Have you had much experience with this type of bomb?” Mikey asked Mark.

  “A bit. Not as much as Hayden but I do know that if one of us had stepped on one of those bastards the whole place probably would have gone up.”

  “This was a trap, they wanted us to walk in there.”

  “And using Jules’s ex-clubhouse was another fuck you,” said Grant. “The Starklaws hate her after she beat up Joel.”

  “I’ll call Jules,” said an anxious Jez.

  “Don’t, your phone could trigger the devices,” said Hayden.

  “Oh Christ,” he exclaimed.

  Mikey leapt over a small bush, tearing the bottom of his trousers on a jagged thorn, which almost caused him to fall, but he was determined to keep going. There was a ripping sound and he was free.

  “Jules, stop,” he yelled when he saw her just about to set foot out of the tree line.

  She turned, finger pressed to her lips;. “Sshh,” she hissed at him before stepping out of the trees.

  “No,” he cried, throwing himself forward, grabbing her and pulling her down to the ground. They landed just out of the tree line and Mikey’s eyes widened when he saw one of those sinister undulations beneath the ground close by.

  “Get off me,” she protested, wriggling beneath him. When they’d fallen Mikey had landed on top of her. “Have you gone mental or something?”

  “Keep still, the whole place has been booby trapped. They’ve planted detonators around the building.”

  Jules went absolutely still. “The sneaky little sods.”

  “Exactly,” he replied, glancing around nervously. “There’s a lump in the ground about ten inches above your head so don’t bloody move.”

  “Are you okay?” said a voice.

  Mikey chanced a glance over his shoulder. “Hayden, thank God. I need you to guide us back.”

  “First of all you have to get to your feet.”

  “You think?” exclaimed Jules.

  “Okay, there’s a bomb very close to you on your right,” said Hayden. “Mikey, very slowly shift your weight backwards on the palms of your hands then roll yourself upright. Jules do not move.”

  “I wish everyone would stop saying that,” she muttered. “I’m not going to jump up and start doing a tap dance.”

  The danger was such that Mikey barely considered that he was lying between Jules’s splayed thighs. Besides, the last thing he needed right now was an involuntary muscle twitch.

  Pushing himself backwards on his palms, ignoring the gravel digging into his skin, he got himself into a crouching position. He paused to take a deep breath then slowly rose until he was looking down at Jules, who stared up at him.

  “Good, now take one step backwards,” Hayden instructed.

  Mikey did, feeling sweat trickle down his back. He didn’t like not being able to see where he was going, for all he knew there was a whole cluster of bombs in the ground behind him.

  “Good,” said Hayden. “Now two more steps and you’ll be back in the tree line.”

  Slowly Mikey took one step then another, breathing a sigh of relief when he found himself standing beside Hayden. “Thanks,” he said.

  “No worries,” replied Hayden. “Now it’s your turn Jules.”

  “About time.”

  “Whatever you do don’t put your hands down on the ground, you’re too close to the device. You have to get to a sitting position using your abdominal muscles only.”

  “It’s lucky I work out,” she said before tensing her stomach muscles and pulling herself upright.

  “Just stay where you are for a second,” said Hayden, getting down on his hands and knees to peer at the line of the ground, making sure there weren’t any more around her. “Okay Jules, there’s a second bomb about fifteen inches from your left shoulder.”

  Jules swallowed hard, it only hitting home that Mikey had actually saved her life. If he hadn’t stopped her she would have run right across that bomb.

  “What’s that noise?” said Mikey.

  They all strained to hear the beeping that was getting faster and louder.

  “It’s coming from the house,” said Hayden. “Jules, get up now, everything’s going to go up.”

  Jules threw herself in the same direction Mikey had gone, only able to pray she didn’t trigger a device. Mikey caught her and together the three of them ran back the way they’d come, yelling at the others to get down. Fortunately Mark had already realised what the beeping meant and had ushered Jez and Grant back.

  There was a huge bang and Jules, Mikey and Hayden were thrown forward as the house was blown apart, a section of the roof just missing Hayden by inches as it plummeted into a bush beside him.

  “Stay down,” Mikey told Jules, pushing her back down as the main explosion triggered the devices in the ground, lighter, faster beeps preceding a series of quieter bangs followed by a fountain of earth shooting up into the air. After four of these eruptions everything finally went quiet.

  Jules looked up at Mikey, who had been thrown on top of her. “Thanks,” she said.

  “You’re welcome,” he smiled down at her.

  When Hayden got to his feet coughing, Mikey hastily pushed himself upright. “You okay?” he asked him.

  “I’ll live,” he mumbled, shaking his head.

  Jules dragged herself up to a sitting position, a large bruise forming on her cheek from where she had hit the ground. “I am going to kill Nilsen and the Starklaws.”

  “Ditto,” he said, pulling a disorientated Hayden away from the section of roof, which was on fire.

  “Are you all okay?” said Jez, dashing towards them.

  “Yeah, we’re fine,” replied Mikey.

  “Then let’s get out of here. Someone somewhere must have heard that.”

  Together the six of them staggered towards the cars, in various states of shock with ringing ears, cuts and bruises.

  Rather than retreat to the compound, not wanting to run the gauntlet of Brogan’s men and builders, Mikey, Jez and the others retreated to Martina’s Bar instead, which wasn’t opening that night so they were free to talk in peace.

  They sat in silence at the bar as Mikey poured out the drinks and passed them round.

  The silence was broken by Jez. “Well that went well.”

  “I can’t believe my clubhouse has been destroyed twice,” said Jules.

  “I can’t believe Nilsen set us up like that,” said Mikey. “It had to be him, the Starklaws are too fucking stupid.”

  “He sacrificed his own brother to set us up,” said Jez. “We were followed to the pub, word had probably got round about Toni McVay being there, she made no secret about it. Then Nilsen sent Lyle and his thick mates to smash the place up, who had no idea we were there.”

  “They were careful to make sure Toni had gone first, so she wouldn’t think it was an attack on her,” said Grant. “They were trying to impress her.”

  “Thank fuck we got there first,” said Mikey. “And right now they’ll be uncertain whether their attempt to blow us up was successful, that could give us the advantage and someone must have discovered Lyle and his clan of morons by now. We’re in a strong position, definitely.”

  “We need to use it to find Nilsen,” said Jez. “He’ll be right here, in the city somewhere, he had to be in order to follow us to the pub.”

  “We weren’t followed,” said Jules, throwing the whisky down her throat. “I would have noticed if we were.”

  “What are you saying?” said Jez.

  “Someone grassed us up.”

  “Are you saying we have a rat?” said Mikey.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
/>   “You could be wrong, you might have missed the tail,” he pressed, not wanting to believe they had a traitor in their midst. He and Jez had gone out of their way to build a strong, solid crew around them after the Alex incident. If they’d picked wrong what did that say about their judgment?

  “I didn’t miss it, I never miss it,” she said.

  Mikey and Jez looked at each other, somehow knowing she was right. “I’ll call Declan, let him know what’s happened,” said Mikey, taking out his phone and retreating to his office. Declan was Mikey’s cousin from Ireland who had been working for them for a while now. His two brothers, who had come over to work with him, had returned to Ireland, deciding the gangster lifestyle wasn’t for them after being caught up in the war with Alex. Other than Jez and Jules, Declan was the only one he was absolutely certain wasn’t a traitor, not because he was blood but because Declan was a follower, he would never try to make a power grab, neither would he have the balls to go up against them. Declan was shocked to hear about what had happened and promised to keep a close eye on the compound.

  Just as Mikey ended the call, Jez and Jules entered the room, leaving Hayden, Grant and Mark in the bar. “We’ve got a fucking rat,” were Jez’s first words.

  “I know,” he replied. “The question is, who?”

  “I don’t trust anyone outside this room,” continued Jez. “Anything we discuss about this matter is kept between the three of us, agreed?”

  Jules and Mikey nodded.

  “We can trust Declan too,” said Mikey. “I’ve already told him what happened at the clubhouse.”

  “What did you do that for?”

  “Declan isn’t the rat, I can tell you that now.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “The same way I know it’s not either of you two,” he retorted.

  “Okay, fine,” sighed Jez. “But no one else.”

  “Don’t start bickering you two, for fuck’s sake,” said Jules. “We need to find Nilsen, torture him a lot and make him tell us who the rat is.”

  “Good plan,” said Mikey. “It’s just a shame we don’t have a sodding clue where he is.”

  “Someone must know,” she pressed.

  “If they do we can’t find them either,” said Jez. “DCI Taylor has come up with nothing but he said he’ll keep an eye open. We need to flush Nilsen out, it’s the only way.”