“What the hell is it?” he wailed, covering his ears with his hands.
Raven ignored him and hurried to her car, stepping over the wailing men. Residents of the surrounding wigwams emerged to see what all the noise was about.
“What’s up with them?” a bearded man asked her.
“No idea,” she replied before getting in her car and starting the engine. The sound device only had a twenty second function, so her time was limited.
She did a u-turn and headed down the dirt track that would take her away from the holiday park and onto the main road. As she drove she pulled out the ear plugs and tossed them onto the passenger seat, continually glancing in the rear-view mirror but she wasn’t being followed. Raven chuckled to herself. Pitbull and his crew were pretty ridiculous.
“Don’t fucking move bitch,” said a voice.
Raven didn’t find the situation so amusing when cold steel was pressed to her throat.
“Luke,” she said, glancing in the rear-view mirror, recognising one of Pitbull’s lieutenants, kicking herself for not checking the car before getting in.
“What did you do to them?” he said.
“Just a little sonic device to mess with their hearing,” she calmly replied. “Nothing permanent.”
“It better not be. Now here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to drive us somewhere nice and private where you can pay for what you did to Terry.”
“For Christ’s sake, how many times do I have to say it? I didn’t kill Terry.”
“You’re so full of shit and I don’t want to hear it. There’s a turning coming up on the right. You’re going to take it.”
“And then?”
“I’ll give you more instructions.”
“Fine,” she sighed.
“I’m going to make you hurt bitch and when the others arrive they will too. You’re going to suffer for what you did to Terry. We’ll start with your toes, we’ll…err,…break them, yeah. Then we’ll stick hot needles under your nails…”
Raven tuned out his rather unimaginative threats as she considered what to do. She had to make her move while she was still on the main road. The roads turning off it led up into the countryside, away from civilisation. She couldn’t allow him to force her there. Through the mirror she could see he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, which would have made it impossible for him to hold the knife to her throat. When she gently pressed her foot harder against the accelerator, he didn’t even notice, so caught up was he in reciting what he was going to do to her, his poor grasp of the English language taking all the menace out of it.
“And when I’ve cut off your fingers I’m going to…err…cut off your…eyelids. Yeah, your eyelids, so you won’t be able to close your eyes when I cut off…cut off…your ears.”
Raven urged the car on faster, the needle hovering over seventy miles an hour. She considered what to do next. Slamming on the brakes would send him through the windscreen and she didn’t want him making a mess of her car. Besides, something like that would draw the unwanted attention of the cars around her and probably the police. All she needed him to do was drop the knife.
There was one car ahead of her and nothing behind. She waited to make her move when the car coming the opposite way had passed. No witnesses. When the car was a speck in her wing mirror, she wrenched the steering wheel to the left, sending him rolling around in the back of the car. When she slammed on the brake he hit the back of the passenger seat, dropping the knife. She steered the car onto the hard shoulder, threw off her seatbelt and leapt into the back with him, flipping him onto his front before he could recover.
“You should have killed me while you had the chance,” she said, banging his head repeatedly off the floor until he was out cold.
She smiled down at his prone form. Now she had some leverage over his gang. For good measure she slipped one of the metal bangles onto his left wrist, giving her control over him should he come round unexpectedly. “Thank you Luke,” she said, taking out her phone to call One Eye.
Before she could dial, the roar of an engine and the honking of a horn drew her attention to the rearview-mirror and she just had time to see a black car racing up behind her before it slammed into the back of her, shunting the car forward several feet. The phone fell from her hand and, as she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, she was flung sideways, bringing up her hands to protect her head, bashing her left hand painfully against the side window.
When she opened her eyes, her skull thumping, the car was surrounded by Pitbull and his gang, unfortunately recovered from the sonic device and out for blood. They yanked at the door handles, which refused to open as she’d locked the doors after getting in.
One of them drew back a tyre iron and slammed it against the driver’s window. Having not realised it was made of toughened glass, it rebounded and smacked him in the face and he fell, vanishing from view.
Raven dragged herself back into the driver’s seat and started the engine. There was a thud from above as one of them hauled themselves onto the roof and began stomping on the sunroof. As that had been toughened too she paid him no attention, slamming the car into gear, dismayed by the hiss that sounded from the front right tyre. Pitbull straightened up, a diabolical grin on his face. She whipped round when the same sound came from the back right tyre, the car slumping to one side. She was going nowhere. She looked around for her phone, which held an app that would put her vehicle into lockdown in the event of an attack but she couldn’t see it, unable to locate it in her dazed state.
Raven threw off the seatbelt and dove into the back, dragging the still-unconscious Luke upright and pressing a blade to his throat.
“Back off,” she yelled at them through the glass.
Knowing she was a serious woman with a serious reputation, they backed off slightly from the car.
“Get back in your own cars,” she said.
Pitbull folded his arms across his chest and shook his head.
“Do you want me to slit his throat?” she said, pressing the knife harder against Luke’s neck.
Pitbull gestured to his men, who reluctantly retreated back to their vehicles.
“You too,” she said when he remained where he was.
“I’m going nowhere,” he snarled through the glass, spraying it with spittle. “Give him back.”
“I’ll give him back in tiny little pieces if you don’t back the fuck off.”
The door locks suddenly popped up and it was only then Raven glimpsed the top of a bald head crouched down by the front passenger door, picking the lock. Pitbull had been distracting her and she cursed herself for falling for it.
“I will kill him,” she said when both back doors were pulled open, Pitbull leaning in one side and another stubbly bald head on the other. The rest of the gang - who had retreated back to the cars - returned, surrounding her vehicle.
“Give him here,” said Pitbull, lunging inside, attempting to grab Luke’s leg but Raven kicked him in the face and he fell back out of the car.
“Back off,” she told the other skinhead who leaned into the car, nicking Luke’s neck with the tip of the knife, the sight of blood encouraging him to take a few steps back.
Frantically she tried to think of a way out of this mess. Her vehicle was screwed with so many flat tyres and she couldn’t fight them all. She looked up and down the road, praying for another car to home into view but there wasn’t one in sight. She was all alone on this deserted road with ten skinheads who were all baying for her blood. What a bastard of a situation to be stuck in.
Luke began coming round so she punched him in the side of the face, knocking him back out. Her eyes flicked about the car, trying to remember what weapons she had stashed away. It was then she spotted her phone, which had slid beneath the passenger seat when the car had been rammed.
“Stay back,” she yelled hauling herself onto the back seat, Luke between her splayed thighs facing forward, head lolling backwards. Slyly, she nudged her phone closer to her wit
h her left foot.
“You’re done bitch,” spat Pitbull. “There’s no pubs you can run into for help here. You’re all alone. Be sensible and give him back. If you do we’ll let you go.”
Raven needed her phone. If the car went into lockdown, it would make it impossible to pick the lock open again. The sound of the alarm might also scare them off and alert someone to her dilemma. But first she had to get them to shut the doors.
She decided the best way to achieve that would be by pretending to fall for Pitbull’s obvious lie. “Do you really mean that?” she said.
“Course I do,” he replied with a rattlesnake smile. “All we want is our mate back. Hand him over and you can go on your way.”
“Promise?”
“Cross my heart,” he smiled predatorily.
“Well…alright, but first you’ve got to shut the doors.”
“No can do sweetheart. How will we get Luke out if all the doors are shut?”
“Just leave that one open,” she said, indicating the one he was standing before. “But the others have got to be closed.”
Pitbull nodded at his men. “Do as she says.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when the other doors were slammed shut, leaving open only the one.
“I want them over there, with you,” she said, nodding at the men lining the left side of her car.
Pitbull nodded at the men, who walked around her car, standing with Pitbull and the rest of the gang on the right side.
“Now back off five paces,” she told Pitbull while pressing her index finger to her phone, unlocking the screen.
Slowly he walked backwards, his men following suit, hands raised, a smirk on his lips.
Raven actually felt nervous. If her timing was wrong she would lose her only advantage.
Luke started to stir, shifting and groaning, telling Raven her time was up. She needed him out of the car before he got back to full strength.
Removing the knife from his throat, she kicked him out of the car, sending him sprawling face down on the tarmac. While his body blocked access to her car, she slammed the door shut with her left hand while the right fumbled for the device in her pocket.
“Get her,” yelled Pitbull, reaching for Luke.
As Pitbull grabbed Luke’s left arm, Raven pressed the button on the small device, activating the bracelet on his wrist. Pitbull’s men were so surprised when their leader released a cry, his body jumping and jerking, along with Luke’s, that they halted in their tracks. Raven jabbed at a button on her phone, putting the car into lockdown, relieved when the locks popped down again and the alarm began wailing.
“I can pick it,” said one of the men, lunging for the driver’s door. “Argh,” he cried when he touched the handle and received an electric shock.
“Fucking sly, tricky bitch,” slurred Pitbull, dragging himself to his feet.
She pressed the device again and Luke’s body jumped and jerked for a second time.
“I’m going to keep doing this to him until you get the message and get the fuck out of here,” she yelled over the sound of the alarm.
Pitbull raised a shaky hand to point at her. “This isn’t over bitch. We are going to fucking kill you.”
He went silent, awaiting her reply, annoyed when she didn’t respond. She quietly waited while his men assisted him to stagger back to his car, dragging Luke along with them. Raven was unable to resist pressing the button once more, again shocking the unfortunate Luke along with the two men holding him by the arms and all three fell to the ground.
“Bitch,” bellowed Pitbull, making a move back to her car, forced to stop when she held up the device, a challenge in her eyes. He stomped his foot, gave her the v-sign then threw himself into the passenger seat of the rear car. All the men piled into the two cars, the one that had rammed her performing a u-turn, heading back the way they’d come, the front bumper hanging off and the engine rattling.
Once they’d vanished, she silenced the alarm and called roadside rescue.
After making the call, Raven dropped her phone into the passenger seat and massaged her temples, the headache she’d been left with after being rammed starting to build.
“What a shitty day,” she sighed. “Again.”
CHAPTER 16
“What happened here?” frowned the mechanic.
“Not sure,” replied Raven, massaging the back of her neck. She was tired and desperate to go home. “I ran over something in the road and I heard the tyres go. I managed to steer it onto the hard shoulder. Luckily no other cars were on the road.”
“It looks like you’ve been shunted from behind.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Sure no other cars were around?”
“I don’t think so but it happened so fast and I was too busy trying to keep the car on the road.”
“Do you need me to call the police or an ambulance?”
“No thanks, it’ll just be a waste of time. I’m not injured and I can’t tell them anything useful.” She was well aware he thought there was something funny going on and she didn’t have the patience to convince him otherwise. Instead she dipped into her inner coat pocket, produced her purse, took out a wad of notes and pressed them into his hand. “Can you get me to a garage?”
He nodded, stuffing the notes into his boiler suit. “Not a problem.”
It was starting to get dark by the time Raven got home. The recovery vehicle had taken her and her car to a garage, then she’d taken a taxi to a rental company to pick up a Vauxhall Astra. It was fortunate her weapons were stashed in a hidden panel in the car, so the mechanics wouldn’t be able to find them.
Raven’s spirits were lower than they’d been in a long time. She was no closer to eliminating her rival, in fact the task had just become even harder in light of the revelation that he was a police officer. Pitbull and his friends would be even more determined to kill her after what she’d done to them today, Dexter was still on her tail and Patrick was blaming her because he was a suspect in the attack on Harold. Plus she’d still heard nothing from her husband.
There was one solace open to her however. Mescaline.
As mescaline-containing cacti were legal in the UK, that was the form she used, only she cut up the plant and brewed it into a tea. The stuff tasted horrible, like bile, but she’d been taking mescaline for almost twenty years. One Eye had introduced her to it. He’d been an avid user since he was a teenager.
As she sipped the vile brew, idly she thought back to the very first time she’d used it, which had involved a large amount of throwing up, but over time she’d grown accustomed to it and could now take it without purging.
The effects of the cactus were subtle, slowly warming up her body until it thrummed pleasantly, the anxiety that had accompanied her these past few days simply melting away. For the first couple of hours she could function perfectly well, pottering about the house doing odd jobs, until the visuals started. Every object she looked at was outlined with wildly beautiful colours, shimmering and constantly moving, as though everything was pulsating with energy that she could only see through the medium of the drug. Her body pulsated with pleasure, as though music were flowing through her.
Inevitably she got the overwhelming urge to go outside. Usually she’d head onto the moors but she avoided doing something so reckless while under the influence of mescaline. It was so easy to get carried away while under the influence of the drug and the moor could be merciless, so she wrapped herself up in her coat, boots, scarf and gloves and wandered into the garden instead.
The rear garden was huge, the house sitting in an acre and a half of its own land. At the bottom of the garden was a massive oak tree, limbs twisted and gnarled. She’d always thought of it as an ancient guardian, watching over her property. The mescaline only compounded this feeling and she sank to the ground, nestled between its roots, its massive trunk cradling her as she leaned back into it.
As her thoughts spun through her head
at a mile a minute, she simply let go, observing them but making no effort to control them. It was pleasant not to concentrate on a single thing, not to fret and worry.
The visuals became more intense, the colours and lines more vivid. A craw drew her attention upwards, into the branches of the trees, where two enormous ravens sat hunched together, far bigger than normal ravens. Occasionally she had seen this pair while sober but they usually came to her when she was under the influence of mescaline.
They looked down at her with their beady black eyes, but rather than feel nervous, they only made her feel safe. Their beaks glowed, a whole spectrum of colours running through them. As their gazes connected with her own, suddenly she knew how to handle the mess she was stuck in.
The ravens launched themselves off the tree, swooping down towards her, Raven not flinching as they dived, those lethally sharp beaks heading straight for her face. But rather than be skewered, soft, warm feathers caressed her skin, telling her she was protected and watched over…
With another loud craw, the wings parted and Raven found herself staring up into her husband’s face. For a hallucination it was remarkably lifelike, the same smooth plane of his cheek, defined lips, sparkling eyes that were green one moment, blue the next, constantly changing.
“Go away,” she said. “It’s not the first time you’ve turned up during a trip and you’re not tricking me again.” She gasped when the hallucination scooped her up in its arms. “Well that’s never happened before.”
“Mescaline again?” said Aidan, carrying her back to the house.
She gaped at him. Was it possible that her husband had actually come home? She’d been tricked by mescaline before and she refused to fall for it again. But the trip was already starting to wear off from the shock, she could feel it yet she was still being carried back to the house in his arms. She smiled as she gazed at that handsome face. He was tanned, his skin always went a lovely warm caramel in the sun. His short dark hair was stuck up in places, in its usual adorable way. Looking past him up to the sky she saw the ravens circling overhead - normal-sized ravens. This was no hallucination. They’d been warning her of his arrival and she hadn’t understood.
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