The Choice

by KERRY BARNES

  Zara then saw the box in his hand and her eyes filled will tears. She’d never expected this. Now, it all made sense why Mike wanted to spend Christmas with the family. The decision to plan the downfall of the Crawford family at this special time speared her like a lance. ‘Oh, Mike, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I wish …’

  His face suddenly crumpled. ‘What? You don’t want to marry me?’

  ‘Yes, of course, I do. But I’m just sorry I ruined today of all days.’

  He stood up and pulled her close. ‘Babe, just say you’ll agree to marry me,’ he whispered in her ear.

  She pulled away and tilted her head in confusion. Then she saw Mike look towards the doorway at Ricky filming the proposal.

  She laughed as the tears streamed down her face. ‘Yes, of course, I’ll marry you.’ She took the box and slowly opened the lid. A gasp left her mouth when she stared at the bright stone twinkling in the morning sunlight. She remembered he’d once said he would buy her a diamond so big that an astronaut would see it shining. He wasn’t wrong: the diamond was no tiny stone, that was for sure. It was a statement piece.

  He took the ring from the box and placed it on the third finger of her right hand and then kissed her.

  ‘Okay, you two, I don’t need so much smooching on film,’ said Ricky, laughing away.

  Chapter 19

  Mike, Willie, and Staffie parked their cars two houses along from Shelley’s home and waited behind the tall bushes that fronted her property. Zara parked her car at the end of the road and winked at the men as she went past them. Dressed in jeans and a padded jacket to hide her weapons, she walked up to the door.

  Shelley was in the kitchen basting the turkey while Lucas was upstairs playing on his new PlayStation games that she’d bought him for Christmas. She slammed the oven door shut, still angry with Lucas’s tantrums over not receiving a car. Since he’d had his operation, his attitude had become worse. He was moody and aggressive and blaming her for him not having a relationship with his grandfather, when really it wasn’t a relationship he wanted but a stake in the business. She reached for her glass of wine and took another big swig. It was her fourth glass, and she felt more than a little tipsy. After she looked back at the oven, she contemplated turning it off. She didn’t like turkey anyway, and Lucas, as sure as hell, wouldn’t sit at the table with her. As she wandered into the dining area, she stared at the fancy table setting for two and felt a lump in her throat. How had it come to this – a lonely woman going through the motions of Christmas with a bottle of wine as her only company?

  The knock at the door made her jump, and for a moment, she hoped it was her father. At least it would give her a chance to introduce Lucas properly and maybe find some way of getting him off his arse and out to work, instead of continually sponging off her. She placed the wine glass on the table and checked the mirror. Her make-up was intact and her eyes, although glassy, didn’t look like she was three sheets to the wind.

  As she pulled the door open, her heart sank. It wasn’t her father but some stranger. Just as she was about to close the door, assuming the person was a Jehovah’s Witness, the woman said, ‘Hello, Shelley. I hope you don’t mind me calling.’

  Shelley leaned forward for a moment, staring at the visitor, and then smiled. ‘Oh, blimey, I remember you. We met at the hairdresser’s.’

  ‘Yes, you said I could pop in for coffee.’

  Shelley frowned deeply. The Botox hadn’t started working yet. ‘What, on Christmas Day?’

  Zara chuckled. ‘No, sorry, Shelley. I was hoping I could wait with you. I’ve locked myself out, you see, and my brother is on his way over, but it’s bloody freezing, and I don’t know where to go. I was on my way over to his when the door slammed behind me. I don’t have my keys in my pocket, so I’m bloody stuck.’

  ‘Yeah, sure. Come in. I was only cooking a turkey. You can have a glass of wine with me.’

  Zara followed her inside and glanced around. She could hear the sound of machine-gun fire and guessed Lucas was somewhere upstairs on a games console.

  ‘Come into the lounge. I’ve got red or white, or would you like something stronger? I might have a gin and tonic meself.’ Shelley was so busy walking and talking that she was unaware of what Zara was doing behind her back. That was until she turned around.

  Shelley nearly fainted with shock. The fierce expression on her new friend’s face, standing with her feet apart and pointing a gun straight at her, seemed totally at odds with the person in the hairdresser’s.

  She nervously inhaled. Every hair on the back of her head stood on end. ‘Wh-what d-d’ya want?’ she stuttered.

  ‘Shelley, what I want is for you to be fucking quiet, or, trust me, I’ll take back from your son something that doesn’t rightfully belong to him.’

  Shelley’s mouth dropped open. ‘What’s he gone and nicked now, the little bastard?’ She couldn’t believe that she’d let someone into her home who was actually brandishing a gun. Then she wondered what Lucas had actually been up to because this wasn’t some young lads’ squabble, surely?

  ‘I said shut it. Just do as I say.’

  Shelley nodded. Ashen-faced, she wanted to swallow, but her brain had temporarily disabled all her reflexes. She was stuffed and she knew it.

  ‘Sit down!’ Zara pointed to one of the dining chairs.

  Shelley walked over and did as she was told, totally disgruntled. Finally, she found her voice. ‘For fuck’s sake, what’s all this about?’

  Zara noticed the change in Shelley’s tone. She wasn’t sweet like before.

  Placing the gun under her arm, Zara quickly pulled a roll of duct tape from her pocket.

  That was the moment Shelley went for the weapon. But she wasn’t smart enough. Zara threw the duct tape, knowing Shelley’s first reaction would be to catch it. It worked. Zara was onto her in a flash.

  ‘Don’t try anything stupid. Now, I want you to wrap the tape around you and the chair over there.’

  The shock had Shelley sobering up and trying to get her thoughts into some logical order.

  ‘Look, I dunno what all this is about but I reckon you may have targeted the wrong person. If my son owes you money, then you only had to ask, and I’ll sort out his debts.’

  ‘I said tape yourself up and shut up, ’cos, lady, I can easily put a bullet through ya mouth, and then the only noise you’ll make is the splatter sound from your brains decorating the back wall.’

  The expressionless face on this intruder made Shelley think twice about getting one over her. She remembered her father telling her once to be afraid of the calmest person in the room, and right now, she was staring at her.

  She reasoned that there was no escape and began pulling the tape from the roll and tying it around herself and the chair. She stopped once she’d gone around twice and looked up to find the woman with a cruel, mocking smirk.

  ‘Shelley, don’t take the piss. I said tape yaself to the chair. Properly!’

  Shelley curled her lip. ‘My son is upstairs. What d’ya think’s gonna happen when he comes downstairs?’

  ‘Your son may just get a fucking surprise. Now, shut it. Carry on until I say you can stop.’

  Once Zara felt that Shelley was secured, she rushed to the front door, opened it, and gave a high-pitched whistle. Mike appeared, followed by Staffie and Willie. Willie was eager to take over and managed to bustle his way past Mike and head straight into the lounge-cum-dining room where he stopped dead in front of Shelley.

  The shock at seeing Willie had Shelley’s mouth gaping. All the pennies were dropping into place. She slowly turned and recognized immediately the other men. It was obvious they knew about her son. She couldn’t pull a fast one, and, in any case, her brain just couldn’t think quickly enough how to extract herself from this.

  ‘You cunt!’ spat Willie. ‘You was gonna have my boy murdered, thrown in a fucking furnace, just so your kid could live.’ Unexpectedly, Willie swiped her hard across her face.

&nb
sp; She gripped her cheek and looked at him with terror in her eyes. ‘Please don’t, I’m begging you. I didn’t know your son was supposed to be killed. I swear to God.’

  Zara noticed how shocked Shelley was by what Willie had just said, and she wondered if she was actually telling the truth.

  There was silence as Mike gripped Willie’s arm. ‘Shush. Just listen.’

  Footsteps were coming down the stairs. The distant sounds of guns and tanks had ended. Staffie lunged forward and placed his hand over Shelley’s mouth. He hissed in her ear, ‘One word, and I’ll break ya neck.’

  The footsteps became steadily louder until Lucas entered the room. He didn’t have a chance even to gasp before Mike had him around the throat and with his feet almost off the floor. ‘You’re gonna sit quietly next to ya muvver, and if you say one fucking word, I’ll ram a knife right through your gut. Got it?’

  Lucas’s eyes bulged from his head as he tried to nod in agreement.

  ‘Good!’ said Mike, as he let him go. ‘Now, you sit down and listen, both of you.’ He turned to Zara and winked.

  Willie was amazed at the resemblance between this lad and his own. They really were like two peas in a pod. ‘So, you’re the little fucker that has my boy’s kidney?’

  Having very little wisdom, Lucas assumed that since Willie must be his father, he would never hurt him.

  ‘I thought you’d be pleased to meet me, Pops,’ he replied, in a smug voice.

  Shelley held her breath because she knew that although the two were related by blood, it meant fuck all to the likes of Willie. ‘Please, Willie, he’s just a lad. We never meant to hurt anyone. He was dying. Come on. You would’ve done the same. Be honest!’

  ‘Be honest!’ screeched Willie, as he flipped a chair up in the air. ‘Honest! You don’t know the meaning of the word. You never even told me you had a son by me. So fuck off about honesty. You had my boy kidnapped, operated on, and left to die.’ His anger as he said those words made him flip another chair and lean in close to her face. ‘Well you, ya skank, are gonna pay. I want me boy’s kidney back.’ He swivelled his diver’s knife around in his hand.

  Lucas felt the wrath of the man fill the room. The heavy breathing, and the hissing as he seethed like a monster, made Lucas recoil in dread. Was he serious? Lucas could only stare in horror at the madman. A fleeting moment of irony flashed through his mind as to how utterly pathetic he was in playing war games at his age, which was all they were, when here he was in the middle of a full-scale crisis in which his life was at stake and he was shitting hot bricks. Suddenly, his brash ideas of acting that way disappeared. It was the first time in his life that he was afraid. Growing up with Nicolas and surrounded by what he classed as hard-core villains was nothing compared to the men in the room. This wild-eyed bloke, who was supposed to be his father, appeared to be a complete lunatic, and his accomplices were no less evil-looking. As for the woman holding the gun, she didn’t look to be that hard, but the weapon in her hand told a different story.

  ‘Calm down, Willie, mate. We’re here to get a job done.’

  Her words and the firmness in her voice turned Lucas’s eyes from his father to her. Whoever she was, she had his father stopping dead in his tracks. He wanted to laugh. A woman ordering them about – was she for real? The whole thing was absurd.

  Willie stepped back. ‘Yep, you’re right. I’ve plenty of time. In fact, we’ve all day.’ He sniffed the air. ‘Ya know what? I think the turkey’s burning.’

  ‘Well, Willie, go and turn the oven off because I don’t want the smoke alarm blaring.’

  Willie suddenly turned from rage to laughter in a split second, which completely unnerved Lucas. This was so surreal, yet when he turned to face his mother, she didn’t appear shocked at all. He sussed out that not only did she know the unpredictability of the man, she probably knew everyone in the room.

  They all listened to the banging, crashing, and swearing coming from the kitchen. ‘You never could bastard well cook! What, no fucking roast taters!’ hollered Willie.

  Zara turned her attention to Shelley. ‘So this is what’s gonna happen. You will get your father over here today. I don’t care how you do it, but I want him here. I won’t tell you what to say because only you’ll know what it’ll take to get him here, and I trust you value your son’s life enough to cooperate.’

  Lucas suddenly had hope. His grandfather would come with an army. From what he’d heard and seen of Colin, he wasn’t a man to be threatened lightly by anyone. Lucas’s mouth slowly creased up on one side and a smirk formed.

  Staffie sneered. ‘Take that look off ya face, ’cos when he gets here, things won’t be pretty.’

  With Willie still in the kitchen, Lucas put his arrogant expression back on. ‘Do you even know who my grandfather is?’

  Shelley cringed. ‘Shut up, Lucas!’

  ‘No, I won’t shut up, you fucking stupid tart. They ain’t gotta clue.’

  Zara recognized the attitude as one that wasn’t new. He was too quick to slate his mother, and if he treated her like shit, then he obviously had no respect for anyone. She wanted to put him to the test, just for her own satisfaction.

  ‘Lucas, what would you say if I offered you a deal? Your mother’s life for your own? ’Cos one of you is gonna have to pay for what you’ve done.’

  Willie stood in the doorframe, almost touching the top. He leaned and listened, while he tore into the turkey leg.

  Lucas looked from the woman to his father and speculated for a moment if this was some made-up dream. How could Willie go from being a complete nutter to someone who was casually tucking into their Christmas dinner? His eyes returned to the woman, and then, with a vindictive sneer, he looked at his mother. ‘Go ahead. She ain’t worth a wank anyway.’

  With her heart beating faster, Zara felt her anger rising. He really was a little bastard. She had listened to Nicolas describing the boy but had considered at the time that possibly Nicolas was a little harsh because Lucas wasn’t his son. But every word that came out of that man’s mouth was on target. Lucas, it turned out, really was a nasty person. She looked across at Willie; for all his faults, he was kind at heart in a weird way.

  She stared at Shelley. ‘Looks like it’s gonna be you then that takes the rap for what happened.’

  Shelley was wide-eyed with terror. The woman spoke with such conviction that she had no reason to doubt her. Her mouth was dry and her heart was doing overtime from all the stress.

  ‘Look, I ain’t stupid. I know you’ll kill me. I swear to God, I never knew Willie’s son was left to die. That wasn’t the plan, and as for Lucas, well, he never even knew he had his brother’s kidney. He was too sick to know anything. It was only afterwards when I told him everything. But you have to believe me, I would never have wanted …’ – she looked at Willie – ‘your son, Lucas’s brother, killed.’

  Willie pushed himself away from the doorframe and wiped his greasy mouth. ‘Well, either fucking way, I want me boy’s kidney back, and I’ll take it. End of.’

  Lucas laughed. ‘I thought the woman with the gun said I could live if she dies.’ He pointed to his mother.

  It was Zara’s turn to laugh. ‘You’re a complete prick, ain’t ya? There’s no love or respect for your dear ol’ woman, apparently, is there? I wanted to see how bloody evil you were before I decided how your life will end.’ She stepped closer. ‘That is, if you and your mother don’t manage to have Colin here before the end of the day.’

  ‘Well, he won’t come here, I can tell you that much. He hates me mother.’

  Zara glared at him. ‘Well, Lucas, he obviously doesn’t hate you, to have arranged what I see as a very risky undertaking. So, I suggest you give him a call if you believe he hates your mother. Maybe you can work your magic and get him here. You see, the more you cooperate, the more chance you have of living. Or, failing that, at least you might die a less torturous death.’

  Lucas looked at her unblinkingly, his head inclined. �
��Who are you, exactly?’

  Zara chuckled. ‘The boss. Now, enough with the time-wasting questions. Start thinking about what you or ya mother’s gonna say to entice your grandfather over here.’

  Shelley butted in. ‘He’s right, though. Me father hates me, and to be perfectly frank, I don’t care much for him either. So, I don’t know what I could say to get him over here. He made it very clear he never wanted to see me ever again.’

  ‘Well, I’ve done me homework, and let’s just say I’m good at understanding the emotional dynamics of people … like your father. He arranged the operation, so the man does have feelings for you, both of you, and I would lay a million pounds on betting that if he thought either of you was going to have your fingers cut off, he would be here in a shot.’

  ‘What? Are you serious?’ croaked Lucas.

  Willie gave his famous crooked smirk. ‘Nah, she’s joking. She’ll cut off one of your hands and go from there.’

  Understanding the interplay between the main players in the room, Lucas was beginning to wish he could be a part of this crew. His father, although a little nutty-looking, was a man to be respected. The woman, he didn’t care much for, but as for the men, they were right up his street. They were the type he wanted to be involved with. He didn’t want to be the one ordered to sit on a chair. He longed to be the one dishing the orders out.

  ‘Okay, listen, Dad. I’ll tell you everything I know about Colin and—’

  He didn’t get a chance to finish before Willie was suddenly in his face, his hot angry breath almost burning his skin off.

  ‘Don’t you ever fucking call me Dad. I have one boy, and he can call me what he likes. You, though, ain’t nuffin to me but a fucking leech, with a grandfarver who thinks he can fucking take what don’t belong to him and toss the leftovers aside. Well, ya little creep, he ain’t gonna get away with it. If it’s the last bullet I shoot, I’ll take that cunt down!’

  Zara decided to stop Willie from saying any more. ‘Willie, hold on. Don’t be too hasty.’ She put on her soft-spoken voice; it was a fake one that told him she was up to something.