“Yes,” said Toni, lips curling into a smile of pleasure. “I like this very much. We will only make even more money.”
“Yes we will and we need Glasgow to do it,” he said. “We hold England but we need Scotland to make it work.”
It was the assurance Toni wanted. She was still a very viable part of their arrangement and he was telling her they couldn’t possibly take Glasgow. They wouldn’t attack her with their new strength and their arrangement would continue. “Very well. I’ll return north to my gossamer blanket of pleasure and luxury. To many more years of doing business together gentlemen,” she smiled.
“To many more years,” said Mikey, Jez nodding in agreement.
“Excellent. Good day gents,” she said, giving them each a nod before leaving.
“Thank Christ for that,” said Jez when they’d gone.
“I enjoyed the look of shock on her face.”
“It feels fucking good to finally be stronger than her. You think she’ll toe the line?”
“She’s no choice. She knows that if she doesn’t we’ll kill her too.”
“This calls for a celebration mate,” said Jez, pouring them out a scotch each. “We’ve finally achieved what Frank, Alex, Danny and every single one of our enemies dreamed of. We own the whole fucking country.”
Mikey grinned and clinked his glass against his. He only hoped they could hold it.
Dwyer hung up after talking to his colleague in Liverpool. Andrew Clayton’s dead body had been found in a river, beaten and strangled to death. Another heap of bodies had been discovered at an isolated farmhouse on the edge of the city. They’d questioned the usual suspects but everyone was refusing to talk, all afraid of something. Or someone. Contrary to what he’d expected all was quiet down in Kent and south London, no signs of any massacres, although Katia and Hayden Brody had mysteriously disappeared.
Fury rolled through him. The Brodys had joined forces with Clayton to take out the Maguires and Laws. No wonder they hadn’t been able to ID any of the bodies discovered at the barn, they’d assumed they were from down south when they must be fucking scousers. Now they’d have to start checking against missing persons in Liverpool. Rachel Law had known all along that her enemies were up north and not down south and she’d let him prattle on, no doubt enjoying how stupid and clueless he’d sounded.
Neither had they been able to find any evidence linking the Maguires to Taylor’s murder. In fact they hadn’t been able to find any evidence linking anyone and the trail had gone cold.
He slammed his fist down on the desk, the sound causing his team at their desks outside his door to look up. When he glared at them they all hastily looked back down at their work. He spun round in his chair - which only recently had been occupied by Taylor - to gaze at the massive whiteboard pinned to the wall, running the entire length of the room. It was covered with images of various members of the Maguire-Law family, even the innocent ones such as Cathy and Beth. You never knew, they might come in useful one day. The photos were dotted with information about the family. No one was willing to speak out against them but he had picked up snippets on the streets, enough to understand part of their operation at least but certainly not enough to bring them in.
In the centre of it all was Rachel Law’s photograph, a mugshot he’d snaffled from the files. She glowered at him with her black-eyed gaze. Although Mikey, Jez and Jules were the ringleaders of their crew she was the one he really wanted to bring down and if they fell so would she. Despite her protestations of innocence she was in it up to her neck, he’d seen her at the hospital giving orders like she’d never left the business, the men bowing to her every word.
How he hated that bitch, the murderer of his brother. It was her fault he was gone.
He aimed his fingers at her image, mimicking a gun.
“Unlike my brother,” he said. “I never miss.”
Katia gratefully walked through the front door of the villa carrying Krystina, the boys trailing after them clutching their bags. All of them were exhausted. Katia had driven them straight to John Lennon Airport after they’d escaped the attack by the Maguires and Laws. She hadn’t even dare go home first to pick anything up, consequently all they had were the clothes on their backs and the items they’d bought at the airport. Fortunately her handbag containing all her cash and cards had been in the car. She’d even had their passports in there, a precaution in case anything went wrong. When she’d packed them she’d never dreamed she would actually need them. The possibility of losing the war had never entered her head.
Katia had many enemies down south as well as up north. She simply couldn’t risk exposing her children to such danger, so she’d decided leaving the country immediately was the best way to keep them safe. There were plenty of lowlifes who would be keen to get in with the new order by serving up her head on a platter to her enemies. She’d bought tickets for them on the first flight out of Liverpool, which had been to Paris. After spending a few days there in a quiet hotel so Katia could lick her wounds and recuperate from the battering she’d taken from Rachel Law, they’d moved on to Portugal. She hadn’t felt France was far enough from England, she couldn’t relax properly. They owned a villa in the fishing town of Cascais, so that had seemed the natural place to come.
The man who looked after the place had flirted shamelessly with Katia as she didn’t have her husband with her. When he attempted to follow them inside Katia slammed the door shut in his face and locked it. She remained frozen in the vast living area, able to feel Hayden’s presence so strongly. They’d holidayed here just three months ago.
“Mum, are you okay?” said Daniel, clutching onto her skirt.
She swallowed down her tears and nodded. “I’m just tired. We all are.”
“I miss Dad too,” he said, gazing up at her with tear-filled eyes.
“Oh my darling,” she breathed, slumping into a chair, holding out her free arm to him.
Daniel nestled into her, crying, his small body shaking with emotion. Alex looked on dispassionately, although his turbulent eyes told her he was furious about what had been done to his stepfather. It was a blessing Krystina was too young to feel the same pain but it made Katia incredibly sad that she’d never get to know her father. She couldn’t stop thinking about that shotgun being jammed into the back of Hayden’s neck, the bang, the shot practically decapitating him. How she wished that wasn’t her last memory of her beautiful husband.
“What will I do without you?” she whispered to his image in a frame on the windowsill, rocking back and forth, on the verge of hysteria, clinging onto Daniel and Krystina.
“We will get revenge for him,” said Alex in a tone that sounded much older than his years. “We’ll grow big and strong and when we’re old enough we’ll do to them what they did to Dad.”
Her son’s words fortified Katia. She took them into her heart, fostering the rage and hatred. Every day she watched her sons growing into big strong men was a day closer to getting revenge on the people who had taken from her the two men she’d loved.
“I know you will my darling,” she said. Her lips curled into a cruel smile. “Let them think they are safe, for now. Then it will hurt them more when we tear them apart.”
For the first time, Katia saw her son smile.
Amber walked along the clifftops in Galicia, northern Spain. She’d come straight here after Mark had packed her off at the airport in Manchester. As she needed to preserve her money she couldn’t indulge in her usual pastime of shopping. Her bank account was healthy but as the regular payments from Mikey were no more she was having to control herself. Walking was one of the few things that was free in this world. The cliffs were a ten minute walk from the small villa she’d hired that was nice but nowhere near the luxury she was used to.
Any sadness she may have felt about losing her meal ticket was eradicated by the fact that she was still alive. That in itself felt to be a victory over the Maguires and Laws. So was the fact that the day would eventual
ly come when they were finally taken down. Katia and Hayden hadn’t been the ones to do it but one day someone would, she had no doubt and that filled her with malicious joy.
She gazed down at the sea crashing against the jagged rocks below, smiling to herself, picturing Mikey’s face when he realised he was finally going to die. How she wished she could be there to witness it. Maybe events would conspire to make that dream come true for her?
Amber gasped when she realised someone was standing behind her. Before she could turn strong arms shoved her in the back.
She screamed as she fell from the cliff top, hands frantically clawing at the air, those black serrated rocks rising up to greet her…
Raymond McGinnis looked down and winced at the mess that had once been a cute little redhead dashed across the rocks. The tide was already coming in, tugging at her remains, gently encouraging them out to sea. Within a space of fifteen minutes she was entirely gone, just a patch of red left behind but soon even that would vanish.
He turned and ambled back down the cliff, just another ex-pat out for a walk. He’d been following her for a few days, gauging her routine and she hadn’t even realised he was there. It was vital it looked like an accident and her fondness for walking along the cliffs had been just the ticket.
He took out his mobile phone to make the call. “It’s done.”
“She’s gone?” said the voice on the other end.
“Obliterated would be more the term I’d use.”
“Good work. Transferring the full payment now.”
The call ended and Raymond’s phone beeped. He smiled at the message telling him about the large contribution to his bank account.
He was whistling to himself as he wandered down the path leading back to the road. Not many bank robbers wanted by the UK police got the chance to make such a vast amount of money.
Jez hung up the phone, feeling slightly sick. He’d not wanted to do that, they’d all agreed Amber was to be left alone, even Rachel, albeit reluctantly. But showing mercy in the past had always backfired on them. Estelle had turned up time and time again, the epitome of the bad penny. Leaving Katia and Hayden alone, not to mention the Slatterys and Jordans had blown up in their faces and he knew the same would have happened with Amber. She would have found some way to hurt them, her ego would have demanded it. But he would tell no one about this. Only himself and Raymond McGinnis knew and he wouldn’t be telling anyone, McGinnis was a pro and knew to keep his mouth shut. He felt awful about keeping something so huge from Mikey after they’d agreed to have no secrets from each other but Mikey would have flinched from this, understandable as Amber had been the biological mother of his children. But sentiment could get people killed.
Jez ran a hand through his hair, feeling it shake slightly. This sat uneasy with him but he’d done it to protect his family and for that reason he didn’t regret it.
“Jez, dinner’s ready,” called Cathy.
It was their first night in their brand new home, which was bigger than the last one with the reading room Cathy had always wanted complete with a window seat looking out into the garden that was bursting with flowers and colours. They were all happy here and it was the perfect fresh start they needed. Amber was not going to spoil that for him.
He pushed thoughts of the poisonous ginger dwarf aside. “Coming babe,” he called back, a smile on his lips.
Christ life was good.
THE END
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Carnage Page 45
