Fight Back

by Anna Smith

  ‘You all right, girl?’ Vic’s voice was soft.

  ‘I am now,’ Sharon said. ‘I was worried.’

  ‘Don’t. It’s okay. Listen. I haven’t got long. Once we’re off this boat, we’re heading north. Place called Trafford Park industrial estate. Old yard. It’s a warehouse. That’s all I know at the moment. I’ll text more when I can. The driver, Bobby, is as thick as pig shit, so he just does what he’s told.’

  ‘Great. I’ll let Kerry know and we’ll get on it.’

  There was a silence and for a moment Sharon thought he’d hung up. Then he spoke.

  ‘Sharon. Look. When this is all over, I want to talk about you and me.’

  Sharon didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t even begun to consider if there was a future with Vic, given the way they led their lives. But she knew she had feelings for him, real feelings. Now was not the time to even talk about it though.

  ‘Vic, let’s put these next few days out of the way first. Honestly. That’s all I want to think about.’ She paused. ‘But please be safe. I miss you.’

  The line went dead.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  By the time they were on the outskirts of Manchester, Kerry felt as though most of her life had been unfolding in front of her. There had been little conversation during the four-hour journey as the Range Rover swept them down the motorway. Most of the talking and planning had been done last night as Danny, Jack and she finally made the decision that she should take Frankie up on his offer of a meet. Like her, they felt it was a set-up, but if it was arranged and planned to the letter, they assured her she would be well covered. They knew that Frankie would know that too, so they doubted he’d just come walking in all guns blazing. This was an opportunity to take Frankie out in one go. What swung their decision was the call from Sharon to say that Vic had given her an exact location as to where the truck was coming with the cocaine. When Frankie had called Kerry again last night and she’d agreed to meet him, he’d told her the location. It matched the one Vic gave, so they knew they were in business. What they had to do was to make sure there were plenty of bodies on hand nearby and if possible inside the warehouse by the time the shipment came. In theory, it sounded achievable. The locations matched. Frankie would be there, and so would the shipment. The Casey boys were following the shipment in their own transport, so by the time it was in the warehouse, Danny was sure their own troops would outnumber and outgun anything that Frankie could come up with. But it was still risky, Danny said. Very risky for Kerry to put herself on the frontline like this. He told her she had nothing to prove. She’d already put herself on the firing line the day Pepe Rodriguez came to kill her at the restaurant in Glasgow, and Danny told her that the story about how the Caseys foiled the attack from the Colombian cartel would enter into gangland folklore, as would she. Now, as Kerry sat in the back of the car, Danny’s words ‘gangland folklore’ rang in her ears. She’d come such a long way from the high-powered lawyer who pitched up for her brother’s funeral. And it had been an even longer way from the teary-eyed teenager who left Glasgow to go and live in Spain, feeling she’d been banished for something she hadn’t done. Now she’d come full circle: she was back in Glasgow among the hoods and the killers, the blood of her enemies on her hands. But she didn’t feel ashamed by it, or by the reality that she and her gang of criminals were about to rob a massive haul of pure cocaine and sell it for their own profit. And for some reason she couldn’t even explain to herself, she wasn’t afraid to walk into the meeting with Frankie, even though there was a chance she would not come out alive. She was calm and collected. This was her time.

  The Range Rover pulled into the motorway café a few miles from the city where Danny had arranged to meet some of the other troops he’d sent down overnight. Kerry saw a couple of her boys from Glasgow standing around smoking next to three cars that were parked alongside each other. Big Pete got out of one of them when Kerry’s car pulled up, and came across to greet them. Danny suggested they go inside for a coffee and the three of them, along with one of Pete’s men, followed. Once they were sat down at a table far away from the other customers, Pete gave them the low-down on the warehouse. He pulled a piece of A4 paper and a pen from his top pocket and placed what looked like a plan on the table. Danny cocked his head to the side trying to look at it.

  ‘I see you wanted to be an architect at school, Pete,’ he chuckled. ‘What happened? Did your pencil break?’

  Pete laughed. ‘Aye, very good, Danny. I’m drawing what I see here, and I think this is quite good.’ He grinned. ‘I’m a great believer in putting things down on paper so we can see where we are.’

  ‘It’s good,’ Kerry said, smiling. ‘So is there much going on around it? I mean in the industrial estate? Is it busy?’

  ‘Well. It was nearly four in the morning when we got to the place to have a look, but not much to see. As we were leaving there were a few cars going in and out, but all down at the other end.’ He marked it on the paper, with an arrow pointing away from the building he’d drawn. ‘Down here is the entrance to the estate. It looks like a lot of the units are either shut down or just storage places. I mean, there’s no big working warehouses with trucks going in and out, probably the way it was a few years ago. And the warehouse where we’re going looks more for storage than anything. It was locked and shuttered. But of course we got in, had a good look around, and then put everything back in its place.’ He stopped, took a breath, then looked from Kerry to Danny. ‘But I did leave a couple of our best shooters in there. Don’t worry, they’re well hidden, and they’re used to sitting on their arses for hours on end waiting for a target. Ex-army sniper boys. They know how to do this stuff. They’ll only come out when the shit hits the fan. Is that all right?’

  Danny pursed his lips a little.

  ‘Great. But are you absolutely sure your boys are nowhere to be seen? Because Frankie will have a team getting in there just about now. In fact I’m surprised there was nobody down there last night to keep a watch on the place. That’s a big fuck-up on his part. He knows this shipment is coming in there today, so it would have been smart to have the place watertight to make sure people like us or anyone else isn’t already there as a reception party when it arrives. What the hell was he thinking about?’

  Kerry looked at Danny.

  ‘Maybe he’s just saying this is the place, and he’s about to phone and change it at the last minute. Maybe he’s trying to second-guess that we would get our own people in the place and ready.’

  Pete shook his head. ‘Kerry, I’ve worked with Frankie. He’s a slick bastard when it comes to a lot of stuff. I mean, he looks the part and talks a good game, but he’s not as clever as he thinks he is. Never has been. If it hadn’t been for your Mickey, Frankie would not have got as big as he is.’

  Kerry wasn’t so sure about that, but she didn’t want to get into a discussion. All they could do was deal with what was in front of them. And unless Frankie phoned to change the venue, then this was it.

  Danny looked down at the paper again.

  ‘Right. So on the main drag here. We can be close enough to get in there smartish once the truck is in?’

  ‘Yep.’ Pete looked at Kerry. ‘But there’s another truck, isn’t there, with our boys in it. It’s going to be coming into the estate looking as though it’s going to some other building, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kerry said, looking at Danny. ‘Are we well covered then?’

  Danny nodded slowly. ‘As much as we can be without getting noticed.’ He looked at Kerry. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Kerry said. ‘I just want to get it done.’

  For a moment nobody spoke, then Pete got up.

  ‘I’ll go and get ourselves sorted then.’ He turned to Kerry. ‘You’ll be all right, Kerry. The boys I’ve got in there are top hands. Don’t worry.’

  ‘I’m not worried,’ Kerry said, and she meant it.

  *

  Jumbo Keane had listened
quietly, his face impassive as his boys relayed to him what they’d seen at the warehouse last night. The place had been recced a couple of days ago and there was never any movement around it, and since Evans said he wasn’t going to be there, Jumbo had expected it to be quiet. But two of his boys had seen some movement there in the early hours of this morning. There had been a couple of cars parked in one of the neighbouring buildings, and they’d seen at least three men on the prowl. That was as much as they could say, as there was no sign that anyone had broken into the building the last time they looked. They hadn’t been in there themselves, as Jumbo decided not to do that in case they aroused suspicion. But the fact that there had been some activity around the place disturbed him. It could mean that Frankie was double-crossing him, that he was planning to ambush him knowing he would be carrying a huge stash of cash on him in the suitcases that were now locked and secured in the boot of his Mercedes outside, with two men standing guard. Frankie was sly enough to try that caper, Jumbo thought, but was he really brave enough, or stupid enough? Jumbo’s men would hunt him down if he double-crossed them. But it could also mean that some other bastard could be planning to ambush the shipment. Someone who knew through the grapevine that pure cocaine was coming into this warehouse, and was hard enough to try, could set up their own ambush. Jumbo was only in for twenty million of this coke, so other dealers must have been primed by Frankie, but it would be stupid to have them all coming to the one place, like some kind of fucking fire sale. No. The activity meant danger, so he was gearing his men up for a fight.

  *

  Cal had been awake since six in the morning with only a few hours’ sleep, but he was buzzing. He sat in the back of the Mercedes along with Tahir and listened as Jack spoke to Danny on his mobile. Along with the other eight men who had travelled down to Manchester last night, they’d stayed in a hotel. He’d been thrilled to be sitting at the same table with guys he knew were considered among the most feared hard men in Glasgow. They had all been given their weapons and ammunition this morning, and now the gun inside his jacket pocket made him feel powerful and part of something big. From what he could gather as Jack spoke, there were already people inside the building waiting. But he’d watched early this morning as the big truck that had been following the shipment pulled into a transport café off the motorway and their boys got into the back of it. Cal had been outside smoking a cigarette with Tahir and he’d exchanged glances with Tahir at that point, and knew they were both thinking the same thing – that Tahir’s family had perished in the back of a truck just like that. They didn’t say anything, but Cal just gave his arm a friendly squeeze as he stubbed out his fag end on the ground and suggested they go back inside and join Jack. The truck with the cocaine in it was parked at the other side of the car park, so when it left, the truck carrying their boys would go too. And Cal, Tahir and Jack’s car would follow at a discreet distance.

  *

  Frankie Martin got out of the car he was being driven in as it pulled to a halt outside the warehouse. Two of his men in the car behind got out first and he saw them do a quick scan of the area before he approached the building. Frankie tossed one of the guys the key to the padlock, and he watched as the shutters noisily went up. He let the guards go inside first and hit the lights, then after a few moments they came out and told him it was clear. Frankie looked at his watch. His last conversation with Kerry Casey had been short and to the point. He told her the shipment would be here in twenty minutes, and he wanted to talk to her before it arrived. She told him she was on her way. This was the biggest gamble of his life. There was no way that Kerry Casey was coming here to do business with the man who had her brother killed and who was responsible for the carnage that killed her mother. Kerry was coming here to kill him. It came down to that. It was him or her. He had plenty of bodies standing by, and he could hear the engines of a couple more cars arriving. It would be like Fort Knox by the time Kerry arrived.

  Chapter Forty

  ‘Looks like Frankie hasn’t come to the party alone,’ Danny said as they drove into the industrial estate and saw the fleet of cars in the distance. ‘If that’s the place at the end there, then he’s mob-handed.’

  ‘So are we,’ Kerry said, her voice betraying the little tweak of angst lashing across her gut. ‘Where will our boys be, Danny?’

  ‘Nearby. They’ll have clocked this lot by now. They’ll be prepared.’ Danny turned around to face her. ‘Are you all right, Kerry? Seriously?’

  Kerry looked him in the eye.

  ‘I’m all right, Danny. I’m ready.’

  She slipped her hand into the pocket of her jacket and touched the small pistol. It was the same gun Jack had given her the day she went to meet Pepe Rodriguez. She had used it then, and she would use it today. She just hoped her shot was more accurate this time.

  As the car pulled up, one of the security guards looked at her, then went inside.

  ‘Do you think they’ll frisk me?’

  ‘Don’t know,’ Danny said. ‘Normally they would. But the way Frankie’s been talking to you, he said you’d be free to put a bullet in him. So he might show some faith and not frisk you if he thinks there is any chance you’re going to invite him back in. He’s that fucking naive.’

  ‘What if they do frisk me?’

  ‘Then you hand it over, and say what the fuck did they expect? A bunch of red roses?’ Danny smiled. ‘You’ll be fine. Our boys will be watching you every step of the way, and the rest of them will be here shortly.’ He glanced at the driver. ‘When you get out, we’ll turn the car around and drive twenty yards down the road, then turn back to face here. So they’ll think we’re just waiting for you.’

  Kerry pushed back her hair and opened the rear door. She stepped outside and stood up, squared her shoulders. She glanced one last time at Danny and gave him a tight smile. She took a few steps away from the car, as Frankie Martin appeared from the darkness into the huge doorway. He stood tall, the way he always did, well dressed, his hair slicked back like a businessman about to do a deal. Or, Kerry thought, it was a smart suit to get buried in. He didn’t smile and his face gave away no impression of what was going on in his head. He stepped forward.

  ‘Kerry,’ he said as they were only a couple of steps away from each other. ‘Good to see you.’

  Kerry didn’t answer. She looked him in the eye, a cold rage inside. This was the man who had changed her life for ever.

  For a long moment they said nothing, and the bodyguard who had come in with her turned and left. As they stood in the silence, Kerry couldn’t help her eyes quickly scanning the length and breadth of the warehouse. She wondered where Pete’s guys were. Hopefully not lying somewhere with their throats cut. She could see Frankie’s lean jaw twitch a little.

  ‘Just you and me, Kerry.’

  Kerry nodded. ‘Yeah. You and me, Frankie.’

  ‘It shouldn’t have come to this. It really shouldn’t have.’

  Kerry pushed out a sigh, but she felt calm.

  ‘Don’t you think it’s a little late to be raking up the ashes? Look. You know what you did. You can’t change the past any more than I can.’ She paused, looked him in the eye. ‘What’s done is done.’

  There was a flicker of surprise in Frankie’s eyes. He hadn’t been expecting her to be this agreeable. For a moment he said nothing. Then he managed to pull an expression that looked hurt and tormented.

  ‘I’m so sorry for everything, Kerry. I loved your Mickey like a brother, and I worshipped your mother. I’ll never forgive myself for what happened to her. I hope that one day you’ll understand that anything I did, I did for the good of the Caseys. For the future. So that we could have everything.’

  ‘With you running the show,’ Kerry said. She felt she had to put at least a dig in or he wouldn’t believe her act.

  ‘Yes. That’s right. With me in charge of the family. I know what’s good for the Caseys and I know how to make them bigger than anything they ever dreamed of. More than you
r father’s dreams, and more than yours.’

  Kerry nodded and sighed. ‘Yeah. With Pepe Rodriguez and the Colombian cartel pulling all your strings, Frankie.’

  His eyes narrowed.

  ‘For the moment it seems that way. But in time, we can take Rodriguez down too. He’s not untouchable.’

  ‘I think we’ve already proved that, Frankie. He’ll not be putting his last trip to Glasgow on TripAdvisor.’ Kerry allowed herself a wry smile.

  Frankie smiled and nodded.

  ‘Aye. You’re right about that. But that just proved that he can be beaten.’ He paused, then put his hand in the pocket of his suit jacket. ‘And I’m the man to do it, Kerry. For the Caseys.’

  Kerry watched as he suddenly produced a gun from his pocket. He pointed it at her, and she felt her legs go a little weak. Then it felt like something snapped inside her head. She took a breath and looked him in the eye.

  ‘You’ll need to kill a lot more than me, Frankie. Are you really that stupid?’ She looked over Frankie’s shoulder to see the two guards emerging from behind a pillar, rifles pointing at Frankie.

  ‘Don’t be a bigger dick than you already are,’ one of them piped up.

  As he turned around swiftly then back at her, she could see the red rising in his neck and his eyes blazing. He lurched forward and grabbed hold of her and put the gun to her head.

  ‘You shoot, she gets it.’

  Frankie dragged her backwards and Kerry felt powerless as she saw the two men still with the rifles pointed at him. But she knew they couldn’t shoot or they might hit her, and the cold metal of Frankie’s gun dug into her temple. Suddenly there came the sound of a truck outside, and rapid gunfire as though it was hitting something metal. Frankie turned and fired at the truck, but the gunmen sent back two bullets and he fell to the ground, his arm still around Kerry’s neck. She could see blood pumping out of his thigh and also dripping from his hand. Kerry wriggled her free hand into her pocket and pulled out her gun, and in one movement she pressed it against his stomach and pulled the trigger.