Chapter Thirty Six
She shrugged her arm free of my grasp, her face strained, her blue eyes sparkling more than I had ever seen them before. Maybe for the first time I would see her cry. But then she turned around, storming towards the door, not giving me a chance to rethink those words, or get over suddenly seeing her here in my mam’s house.
“Go after her, son,” her voice was gentle behind me. “Go after her. Because she had the balls to come back here. To go to the clubhouse and track you down. She didn’t have to do that. With her money, she could have anyone she wants. But she wants you.”
“She left, mam. She walked away and didn’t come back.”
“She did come back. She came back now. Don’t let her get away again, son.”
“You just want grandkids, mam. So, any woman will do.”
“I do want grand bairns. But not just with anyone. I want their mother to be tough, resilient, determined. You couldn’t have found a better one. But most of all, I want my son to be happy. I’ve only ever seen you truly happy with one woman. And that happiness is walking down the street right now.”
Smiling, I turned to the woman that seemed to shrink before my very eyes, and bent down, kissing the top of her head. Then I spun and ran out the door.
Heidi was a fleck in the distance walking away up the street, long legs taking her away from me fast. I broke into a jog, the distance between us decreasing. A van in front of me veered across the road towards her. It stopped. Men jumping out, surrounding her. I broke pace, sprinting now, too far away. My arms pumped. My chest heaved. Her arms flailed, waving around, then they stopped suddenly, her body falling. Falling into the arms of a masked man. He dragged her towards the back of the van. I pushed harder, the steep hill taking away my speed. The back doors of the van clanged shut. A few more steps. The van sped off, roaring away from me. The last thing I saw was the number plate.
The same number plate from the van in the churchyard that night. The same number plate I’d seen each time I watched that footage back.
Turning, I sped back down the bank, pulling out my phone, punching in Magnet’s name.
“Aye?” He answered.
“Get your bikes. Now! Someone’s just taken Heidi. Tell Demon he is with me.”
I wasn’t even back to the house when men streamed out of it, running to the bikes, the growl of Harley’s starting up like a bomb going off. I jumped into the truck, wedging my keys into the ignition, slamming it into reverse and out into the street, not stopping as Demon ran alongside, yanking the passenger door open and jumping in, just as I forced the accelerator to the floor. The truck roared up the street, the Harleys in pursuit.
“Which way did they go?” Demon shouted.
I took a left, Demon falling against the passenger side door.
“This way,” I grunted, my eyes on the road, searching for the white van and seeing nothing.
I scanned left and right. Nothing. No sign. No sign at all. I’d seen it go left at the top of the street and now we’d lost it.
“Fuck!” I roared into the space in the cab. “Fuck.”
I slowed the truck, trying to think.
“We need access to the cameras,” I shouted. “Who’s our contact?”
“Sargeant Simple in Northumbria police,” Demon stated, using our nickname for the officer we bribed.
“Ring him.”
Demon pushed his mobile to his ear, frowning.
“No answer.”
“That fucker needs a lesson. Get someone to make sure he knows to answer his phone to us when we ring him,” I instructed. “Who else we got? Fuck, man!” I yelled at the traffic in front, hitting the steering wheel with the palm of my hands.
“I dunno. That contact of the O’Sullivans?”
“That’ll take us too long to get through to them.” I frowned, thumbing through the names on my phone.
I don’t know why I still had his number. And I hoped to God he hadn’t changed it. The phone rang. And rang.
“Brother?” He answered, his voice low and cold on the other end.
“Someone’s just taken Heidi.”
“What do you mean, taken?”
“Grabbed her off the street and stuffed her in the back of a van fucking taken.”
“Fuck.”
“Exactly. We’re tailing, but we lost them. I need cameras, Jake.”
“I’ll get a car out.”
“No Jake, you won’t. You’ll get me camera intel. Tell me where you last saw them. I don’t care how you do it, but no police. I’m dealing with these fuckers myself.”
“I don’t want any bodies, Fury.”
“There’ll not be any bodies, Jake. You and I both know Dave takes care of those when we need him to. Now get me the fucking intel.”
I pulled into a side street, the bikes following me.
“What’s happening, Fury?” Chaos asked.
“We’ve lost her. I rang Jake.”
“You rang Jake?” Magnet pulled his helmet off.
“Sargent fucking simple didn’t fucking answer. What else do you want me to do?” I shrugged.
The phone in my pocket vibrated against me, and I yanked it out, forcing it to my ear.
“That reg you gave me. Turned into that old industrial estate just north of the Tyne Tunnel a few minutes ago.”
“Thanks Jake.
“You owe me now, brother.”
“No brother. You just don’t owe us anything anymore. Your debt is discharged.”
The phone disconnected.
*****
The industrial estate on the north side of the Tyne Tunnel had been desolate for years. The roads crumbled, the feedback through the steering wheel of my truck giving me worse repetitive strain injury than the vibration of my Harley. Behind me, the bikes roared, announcing our approach from metres back. There would be no creeping about, just a charge and an extraction. We’d already lost the element of surprise, so we’d just use the element of force.
The van was parked outside one of the units, the shutter half rolled up, exposing the bottom of a red metal door, covered in scratches and dents.
“I want her out and in my truck, lads. I don’t care who you have to kill to make that happen. Understood?”
The men with me nodded.
“Good. Keep your helmets on. Faces covered. I’ve no idea whether there’s CCTV in there. Leave your cuts in my truck.”
“What about us?” Demon asked.
“Just don’t look up.”
“And what about you? You’re hardly unnoticeable.”
“It’s easier to get one of us out of trouble than all of us.”
Demon frowned, but nodded his agreement anyway, dropping his eyes to the floor and bowing his head.
We moved quickly, skulking across the carpark like an elite task force.
“Would have been good to have a weapon or two,” one of the twins behind me grumbled.
“You are a weapon. What do you reckon your fists are for? Anyway,” I continued. “I counted three in that van last time I saw it. There’s more than a chance we outnumber them.”
We paused at the door, listening, but the thick metal muffled any sounds other than my breathing. I pushed at the metal, feeling the door give way, opening easily, and we slipped through into the cavernous space beyond.
Heidi was there at the far side, slumped in a chair, her limbs limp, three men crowding round her, totally unaware we’d entered their space. And on either side of them were rows of coffins, like some sort of coffin storage space.
Holding my fist in the air, I stopped the men beside me. I pointed to the twins and Reap, directing them down the side of the building to my right, and sending Magnet and Demon off to my left. I’d cause the distraction, pull the attention of the men surrounding my girl to me, and my brothers would strike from the side. A Kings’ formation.
Heidi stirred, coming to. I crept closer, carefully placing each foot to the floor, covering the ground as quickly and as quietly as I could, gaining as much distance before the men at the front noticed me. She stirred again, trying to move her arms.
“Quick,” someone at the front grunted. “Pass the rope before the bitch wakes up.”
I wanted to growl. To yell and jump on him, ripping his head off for the words he used, but I waited. One foot in front of the other. Carefully. Slowly.
Someone moved beside him, passing him the blue rope. Heidi was awake now, pulling at her arms, trying to yank them from his grasp. The man beside him pounced, wrapping the rope around her wrist, tying it to the arm of the chair. She cried out, half anger, half fear, throwing her legs out, but not connecting.
“Get off me! Get off me!” Her voice was shrill, full of panic, hitting me hard in the chest. Anger. Fear. Rage. Possession.
A word was muttered, something I couldn’t make out. But I could make out the hand that came crashing down against her face, snapping her head sideways, a gasp and whimper mixed together, and not the same kind I liked to hear.
“For fuck’s sake, you dumb fuck,” a voice right at the front cursed. “Now you’ve fucking marked her. This is supposed to look like an overdose. Tie that other fucking arm down.”
“No! No! No!” Heidi’s voice rang out in the air.