Reckoning

by Heather Atkinson

  CHAPTER 24

  Jules was furious and in pain. She’d been stuck in the boot of a car, ankles taped together, hands tied behind her back, forced to lie on her side, mouth taped shut. At first she’d tried to note every turn the car had made, figure out which direction they were heading in but after a while it became impossible to tell. Due to the knack she had of counting in her head without having to think about it, she knew she’d been stuck in the car boot for three hours forty three minutes and twenty seven seconds and she was getting angrier with every passing minute. She couldn’t believe she’d been kidnapped by a bunch of southern dick ticklers and she was going to make them painfully sorry for it the second they let her out.

  Jules grimaced and tried to stretch out her legs as much as she could, but she didn’t get very far because she was too tall.

  “Bastards,” she yelled into the gag in frustration, kicking at the boot lid, determined to cause as much damage as she could. She ceased her efforts when her back muscles went in spasm.

  By now she’d worked out that they were taking her back down south, they’d been driving far too long just to be wandering around Manchester. Jared would want to get out of the way while the police investigated the explosion at the compound. She’d no idea if Mikey and the others had got out or if Jez was safe and the worry refused to stop gnawing at her. She shuddered at the memory of that deafening roar as the bombs had detonated, of the lights flickering before going out, dust and plaster raining down on them, that horrible, heart-stopping moment when she doubted the reinforced cellar was going to bear the weight of the building collapsing on top of it. The flickering light had swung wildly, throwing strange shadows about the room. As she’d known what was coming she’d been the first to recover when the hideous rumbling and groaning of tons of concrete and steel collapsing on top of them had ceased. She’d scrambled to her feet and staggered towards the partially-open shutter, but Jared had reacted faster than she’d expected and dragged her back. Stunned and slightly concussed after she’d bashed her head against the freezer when the bomb went off, he’d pinned her down easily. More of his men had appeared at the shutters, tied her up and thrown her into the boot. The last thing she’d seen before the lid was slammed shut was Jared’s smug, gloating face.

  When the car rolled to a halt she assumed they’d stopped at traffic lights again, but the engine was turned off. She strained to listen, hearing the sound of car doors opening and being slammed shut, the rumble of deep voices. There was a clunk and fresh air washed over her. Jules eagerly breathed it in, trying to dispel the staleness of the boot. The sun was setting, telling her she’d counted down the time right. It had been approximately five o’clock when the compound exploded. A huge shape blocked out the last traces of light and Jules went into a frenzy.

  “Welcome to Essex,” smiled Jared.

  “Bastard,” she screamed again into the gag, but the word was inaudible.

  He lifted her out of the boot, Jules writhing in his arms like a caterpillar. Her fury seemed to entertain him. Before she was taken into a large, luxurious detached house, Jules managed to get a glimpse of her surroundings. A chill ran down her spine when she saw there was nothing but trees and grass for miles around.

  “It’s just you and me sweetheart,” he said with a wink.

  Jules glared back at him as he carried her over the threshold, like a pair of macabre newlyweds.

  A tall, elegant woman floated towards them, thick auburn hair hanging to her shoulders. She wore an expensive cream silk blouse and pink skirt, cream-coloured high heels click-clacking across the marble hallway as she made her way towards them.

  Jared plonked Jules down on her feet and she stood there swaying, still feeling woozy from the blast then being stuffed in a boot for almost four hours, unable to take a single step because her ankles were still bound. The elegant woman looked her up and down, lip curling contemptuously. “What is this?”

  Jules bellowed expletives into the tape, grey eyes shooting daggers.

  “I have no idea what you’re saying,” said the tall woman before turning her attention to Jared.

  “This is Jules Maguire, Mikey Maguire’s cousin, Jez and Ryan Law’s sister,” he explained.

  “Ah, a fine prize for you son. Well done.”

  Jules frowned. Son? This must be Tanya Slattery, Jared’s mother. Jules wondered if she was aware Jared had murdered her husband, his own father, to seize control of the Slattery empire.

  “What are you going to do with her?” continued Tanya.

  “Dunno yet.”

  Tanya eyed Jules up and down before saying, “you could torture her for information then chop her into tiny little bits and post her back to her family. Or you could film her being tortured and use that to get her brothers to give up altogether.”

  Jules, not easily shocked, was stunned by how cold this woman spoke. Maybe Jared wasn’t as in charge of the family business as everyone thought?

  “Interesting,” replied Jared, as though they were discussing something so mundane as what to have for dinner.

  Jules’s eyes flicked from one to the other, burning with outrage.

  “The boys will want payback,” he said. “She shot Damien.”

  At that moment Damien limped inside, looking extremely pissed off. “Yeah I do, the nasty little bitch.” He thrust his face into Jules’s. “I’m going to fuck you up bad, I’ll take your fucking kneecaps out then…”

  Jules’s forehead slammed into the bridge of his nose and he fell back into Jared, who caught him before throwing him towards the rest of his men while Jules laughed heartily into the gag.

  “You know, I’m starting to quite like her,” said Tanya before heading back up the stairs.

  There was a bellow of rage and Damien climbed to his feet, moustached face twisted with anger and he charged her, limping on one leg. Jules was helpless to do anything, she couldn’t even sidestep out of the way because of her bound ankles, but Jared put himself between them and the steam train was forced to come to a halt.

  “Go upstairs and get yourself sorted out,” he told Damien. “We need her in one piece, for now.”

  Jules allowed herself to momentarily relax. They weren’t going to kill her, not yet anyway.

  While his men attended to the wounded, Jared threw Jules over his shoulder and immediately she started to squirm again, determined to fight him at every opportunity. He went through a door off the hall and continued down a corridor with lots of doors leading off it, giving Jules the impression the house was huge. He pushed on what appeared to be a blank section of wall and a hidden door popped open. Then they were descending into blackness. Jared had clearly made this journey many times because he easily found his way in the dark, pausing at the bottom to hit a light, urine-yellow fluoresecents leaping into life above them. Jules divined she was in the Slattery torture chamber, judging by the decaying coppery smell in the air, a smell you could never get rid of, no matter how much disinfectant you used.

  He pushed open another door, which creaked in a haunted house sort of way to reveal a small room with grey walls and no windows. In one corner was a toilet and sink and against the opposite wall was a single bed. It was a prison cell.

  Jared dumped her on the bed and she glared up at him, the smirk on his face making her insanely angry. Another string of expletives was hurled into the gag. He grinned and ripped the tape from her mouth, making her eyes water.

  “What did you say?” he said, revelling in his power over her.

  Jared was treated to the full force of Jules’s masterly grip on the baser words of the English language.

  “Finished?” he said when she’d yelled herself into exhaustion.

  “I’m going to fucking kill you,” she ended for good measure. “Stop laughing at me,” she bellowed when he sniggered.

  “What are you going to do Jules? You’re all tied up.”

  “I won’t be forever and when I’m free you’d better get running.”

  “I
was going to free your arms but I don’t think I will now.”

  “What are you looking at?” she snapped when he stood there staring at her.

  “No one’s tried to blow me up before.”

  “Yeah, I’m one of a kind,” she muttered. “You going to get me something to drink then? I’m thirsty.”

  “Why should I bother?”

  “I take it I’m still alive because you want something from me - either to hold me hostage or get me to talk, which means you want to keep me alive, so get me some fucking water,” she yelled, kicking out with her bound feet in frustration.

  “You’re a very angry woman.”

  “Can you blame me?” she exclaimed.

  “What’s it like having Ryan and Jez Law as brothers?”

  “It’s not done me a lot of good today,” she snarled. She knew she should be being smarter and trying to win him round, but the man’s calm, smug manner made her furious. “You’d better not have hurt any of them, not that I think you’re capable anyway.”

  “You’re not sure though, are you?”

  “Yeah I am. You couldn’t hurt them.”

  He smiled at the uncertainty in her eyes. “That’s something you’ll never know.”

  Without a word he turned and walked from the room.

  “Where are you going?” she called but he didn’t reply.

  “Tell me if my family are still alive,” she screamed.

  But he closed the door and she heard the key turn in the lock. Jules wanted to jump up to examine her cell but, to her surprise, sleep was already overtaking her. She figured it was a combination of being blown up then kidnapped that had done it. Deciding she needed to regain her strength, she closed her eyes and let sleep come.

  The next thing she knew her body was engulfed in ice cold water. With a gasp her eyes flew open.

  “You want a drink, have another,” yelled Jared, throwing a second bucket of freezing cold water over her.

  “Stop it you mad bastard,” she cried, attempting to turn onto her side, away from the third bucket. This time it missed her face but her back was saturated, the water so cold her skin tingled.

  He flipped her onto her back, so she was staring up at him. “Be careful what you ask for here, you might get more than you bargained for.”

  With that he produced a bottle of water, removed the lid and left it on the floor beside her bed before heading for the door.

  “Oy, aren’t you going to free my hands?”

  He stopped and turned to her with a sly smile. “No, I want to see how clever you really are.” With that he left, locking the door behind him.

  Jules sighed, staring up at the grey ceiling. “I hate southerners.”

  Jared wandered upstairs to find his mother sitting at her dressing table, touching up her perfect make-up, which she did about half a dozen times a day. He leaned against the doorframe to watch, her beauty never failed to astonish him.

  “How’s our guest?” she said, addressing her son’s reflection through the mirror.

  “Angry, foul mouthed.”

  “Typical northerner,” she commented with a sniff.

  Jared walked up behind her and dipped to plant a kiss on her neck. “You look beautiful Mother.”

  “I know.” She replaced the powder brush on the dressing table and turned to face him. “Have you decided what you’re going to do with her?”

  “I’m going to try to get as much information out of her about the Maguires as I can, but I get the feeling she won’t talk.”

  “You can always encourage her, you’ll enjoy that.”

  “Yes but…there’s something different about this one.”

  “You like her?”

  “She actually fought me, one on one, then she detonated a bomb that brought down the whole compound. She’s not afraid of me either. I find her impressive.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “Keep me updated.”

  He kissed her neck again. “I will.” His eyes slid down her body to her very long legs, her calves set off beautifully by her incredibly high stiletto heels. She had a whole walk-in wardrobe full of high heeled shoes, in his entire life Jared couldn’t recall her ever having worn the same pair twice. Excitement ran up and down his spine.

  “Go and see how your injured men are doing,” Tanya told him.

  He straightened up with a sigh. “Yes Mother.”

  “Right, thanks Taylor. You’ll get a fucking good drink for this,” said Jez before hanging up.

  “Well?” demanded Mikey.

  “There was no one in the cellar.”

  Mikey flopped back into the pillows and breathed out a sigh of relief. “She’s still alive.”

  “Maybe not if Jared Slattery’s got her.”

  “Why would he take her just to kill her? He could have done that in the cellar, it would have been much less risky. He’ll use her as a bargaining tool.”

  “The question is, for what?”

  “To draw us out and finish us off. He’ll have guessed we’re lying low and he’ll know I’m injured. Either that or he’ll just extract what information he can from her then kill her. We have to get her back.”

  “Yes, I had thought of that,” frowned Jez. “But we’ve not a clue where he is. Is he still in Manchester or has he fucked off back to Essex?”

  “If he’s smart he’ll be back in Essex with a strong alibi. He’s done what he came to do, he’s got us on the hop, shown Toni McVay what he’s capable of and put Nilsen and the Starklaws in charge, that fucking bunch of monkeys who can’t wipe their own arses without a set of instructions.”

  “How did Declan get on tracing the phone number Shane gave us?”

  “No joy. Untraceable.”

  “Crap.”

  “Toni was not impressed,” Mikey said grimly.

  “With us?”

  Mikey nodded.

  “Is she sending us any back-up?”

  “Nope. She says if we don’t sort this one out for ourselves then our partnership’s over. She wants us to prove we can deal with this.”

  “Christ. Does she know we lost half a dozen men?”

  “I thought it wise not to tell her that, neither does she know Jared has Jules. I figured we could deny that by saying we thought she’d died in the explosion.”

  “I think that was a wise decision. Losing hired hands is one thing but losing a close relative with intimate knowledge of the businesses, well, that’s another.”

  “I didn’t think I’d ever see the day I missed Frankie McVay,” said Mikey wryly.

  “He’d have charged down here with a hatchet with Jared’s name carved on it, he always loved a good war,” said Jez wistfully.

  “I’ve got a contact down south who hates the Slatterys, they’ve kept him from expanding further into the drugs trade. I gave him a call and he’s willing to help.”

  “That’s good, we’re going to need someone who’s familiar with the area.”

  “So it’s a trip to Essex then,” said Jez. “I’ll call Ryan, he’ll want to be in on this.” When his phone rang again he almost dreaded looking at the screen. It was a relief to see Declan’s name pop up. “Declan, how are the boys?”

  “Oh for fuck’s sake, what now?” said Mikey when Jez’s eyes widened.

  “Yeah, okay, get straight back here, no detours for anything,” Jez told Declan before hanging up.

  “Is it the boys?” said Mikey.

  “Yeah, they’re gone.”

  “Gone?” yelled Mikey.

  “Apparently Hayden turned up with a blond foreign woman in tow. She said she was the boys’ mother.”

  “Katia?” said Mikey. “She’s still alive.”

  “And Hayden betrayed us. Why would he do that for her?”

  “You heard what Grant and Mark said, he wasn’t happy with the situation.”

  “But would he feel bad enough to betray us after the fucking hefty wage we’ve been paying him? He must kn
ow what we’ll do to him for this.”

  “Maybe he didn’t have a choice? Was he under duress?”

  “Can you imagine Hayden Brody letting the mad Slovakian slapper get the better of him?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Course not.” Jez was heart sick with this betrayal because he’d cultivated Hayden and hired him. But he’d had no reason not to trust him, he’d helped them out in the Alex nightmare and he was an old friend of Ryan’s.

  “Is Annie okay?”

  “Physically yes, but Declan said she’s in floods of tears, she was really fond of the boys. She did her best but Hayden knocked her out. She said she’s sorry.”

  “It’s not her fault,” said Mikey. “I don’t expect her to stand up to Hayden Brody.”

  “Declan’s dropping her off at her sister’s then he’s coming back.”

  “Good. When him and Grant get back we can start preparing to move. We’re going down south.”

  “You’re in no fit state to make that journey.”

  “I have to, Jules stayed behind for me.”

  Jez’s eyes hardened. “Sounds romantic.”

  “Well it’s not, believe me it’s not.”

  “Amber wants to see you before they fly up to Aberdeen, she’s worried sick.”

  “I can’t have her coming here.”

  “Riley says the safe house is secure, so you can go to her before he takes her to the airport.”

  “It would be good to see her and Josh.”

  “Hopefully she’ll take your mind off Jules for a while.”

  Mikey didn’t even bother to deny it, it was good having someone to finally confide in. “Anyway, I need to go to Essex. Isaac Jones hates the Slatterys and he’s really keen on doing all he can to help us hurt them. He’s got a couple of his best men to scope out the Slattery Homestead.”

  “Their base?”

  “Yeah. If Jules is anywhere they reckon it’s going to be in there but he’s my contact and he’ll only deal with me.”

  “How do you know him?”