CHAPTER TEN
Gareth Pike had been betraying North End for eighteen months.
They learned it from his daughter.
Amy did not tell them willingly.
She told them because Leah and Drew reached the fruit terminal twenty minutes before the exchange and found her tied to the steering wheel of Gareth's own car.
No guards.
No Venn.
No Redmile.
Just Amy, a timer on the dashboard and enough petrol poured through the back seat to turn the vehicle into a furnace.
Drew smashed the passenger window with the butt of his pistol.
Leah reached through, unlocked the door and climbed over the seat.
"Amy. Look at me."
Amy was crying so hard she could barely breathe.
"Bomb."
"Where?"
She nodded toward the footwell.
Leah saw wires beneath the dashboard.
A digital timer showed 08:41.
Eight minutes.
"Don't touch anything," Drew said.
"Excellent advice."
"Can you get her loose?"
Cable ties around wrists. Heavy chain around her waist, padlocked through the steering wheel.
Leah searched the floor.
No key.
"Chain cutters."
Drew ran.
Amy grabbed Leah's sleeve.
"My dad knew."
"Knew what?"
"About them. About Venn."
"How long?"
"I don't know. A year. More."
Leah forced herself to keep working at the cable ties with a small blade.
"Tell me."
"I found a phone in his office. Messages. Routes. Registration numbers. He was telling somebody when your vans moved."
"Redmile?"
"I thought so. Dad caught me with it. He said he was protecting the club. Said somebody had him trapped."
"Did you believe him?"
Amy's face crumpled.
"He's my dad."
The cable tie snapped.
Six minutes.
Drew came back carrying bolt cutters from a maintenance cabinet.
"Move."
He climbed into the driver's side and fitted the jaws around the chain.
Amy flinched.
"Do it."
Drew squeezed.
Nothing.
Again.
Metal groaned.
Five minutes.
Leah looked at the timer.
"Faster."
"Helpful."
"It's a gift."
On the third attempt, the chain broke.
Drew dragged Amy through the passenger door.
They ran.
Leah expected the car to explode at zero.
It exploded at 02:17.
The blast threw all three of them behind a concrete barrier.
Glass and burning fabric rained across the empty loading yard.
Amy screamed.
Drew covered her with his body.
Leah rolled onto her back, ears ringing.
"Timer was fake."
"No shit," Drew said.
Headlights appeared at the far gate.
Three vehicles.
A black Range Rover in front. Two vans behind it.
Drew pulled Amy upright.
"Inside."
They moved into the east warehouse.
The building had once held fruit imports. Now it was a cavern of broken refrigeration units, rusted conveyor tracks and stacks of plastic pallets.
Leah looked through a cracked loading door.
Men stepped from the vans.
Redmile cuts.
At least eight.
Then Marcus Venn got out of the Range Rover.
No attempt to hide.
Dark coat. Open collar. Police issue pistol on his hip.
Ben Harker emerged from the other side.
Hands tied.
Alive.
Leah's stomach clenched.
"Ben."
Drew looked over her shoulder.
"Your man?"
"Yes."
A third person climbed out.
Gareth Pike.
He was not restrained.
Amy saw him and stopped breathing.
"Dad."
Drew's face emptied.
Gareth carried the metal cash box.
Venn called into the warehouse.
"Drew. Leah. No point hiding. We know you're here."
Leah drew the pistol Drew had given her.
"How?"
Amy whispered, "My tracker."
She pulled up the hem of her jumper.
A small black device had been taped against her lower back beneath the waistband.
Leah swore.
She ripped it free and threw it under a conveyor.
Too late.
Drew's eyes stayed on Gareth.
"He brought them to us."
"Maybe."
"Stop giving him maybes."
Venn called again.
"I have Ben. You have Amy. Gareth has what I need. Everybody can still walk away."
Drew laughed quietly.
"That's generous."
Leah looked at him.
"We need Ben."
"We need Gareth."
"You want to kill Gareth."
"Eventually."
"Try not to put it on the schedule yet."
Amy grabbed his arm.
"Don't kill my dad."
Drew looked at her.
Something in his face softened and then disappeared.
"Stay behind Leah."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the one I've got."
They stepped into the open together.
Leah kept her pistol low beside her thigh.
Drew did the same.
Amy stayed two steps behind.
Across the warehouse, Gareth saw his daughter.
Relief cracked his expression.
"Amy."
She stared at him.
"You knew."
Gareth looked at Venn.
"Not now."
"You knew!"
Her voice echoed through the building.
Venn sighed.
"Family reunions are always disappointing."
Leah focused on him.
"Where's Michael Quinn?"
Venn smiled.
"Straight to it."
"You told Mia he'd pay. You sent the photograph. You hid a card marked with his initial."
"I didn't hide the card."
That stopped her.
"Who did?"
Venn looked at Ben.
Ben raised his bruised face.
"Daniel Sayer."
Drew took one step forward.
Every Redmile gun lifted.
Leah caught his arm.
"Daniel's alive?"
Ben nodded.
"Last time I saw him."
"Where?"
"Rotterdam."
Drew's breathing changed.
Venn held out his hand toward Gareth.
"Card."
Gareth gripped the cash box.
"Amy walks first."
Venn's smile vanished.
"You don't negotiate anymore, Gareth."
Amy stared at her father.
"What did you do?"
Gareth looked at her.
For a second he was not president of anything. Just a father who had run out of lies.
"They had evidence. Old stuff. Your grandad. Me. Tax. Guns. Enough to put half the club away. Venn said if I gave him routes, he'd keep North End out of major investigations."
Drew's face emptied.
"You sold our loads."
"I redirected some."
"Men died."
"I know."
"Callum nearly died last night."
"I know!"
"Daniel?"
Gareth's face changed.
That was the answer before he spoke.
Drew raised his gun.
Leah shoved the barrel down.
"Not here."
Drew turned on her.
"He knows."
Gareth shouted, "I didn't kill Daniel."
"Then say what you did."
Venn looked bored.
"This is getting sentimental."
Gareth's eyes did not leave Drew.
"Daniel found out Mick was working with a copper. Not Venn. Someone above him. Daniel threatened to expose it. Mick told me to keep him quiet. I gave Daniel's route to men I thought were going to scare him."
Drew's voice dropped.
"You gave them my brother."
"I didn't know they'd take him."
"You gave them my brother."
Amy whispered, "Dad."
Gareth looked at her and broke.
"I'm sorry."
Venn drew his pistol and shot Gareth in the stomach.
The warehouse erupted.
Amy screamed.
Drew fired first, hitting a Redmile man in the chest. Leah shot the light above Venn and darkness crashed across half the building.
Ben dropped flat.
Gunfire tore into the conveyor behind Leah.
She grabbed Amy and dragged her behind a refrigeration unit.
"Stay down."
"My dad!"
"Stay down!"
Drew moved through the dark with terrifying calm.
One shot.
Two.
A man fell beside a pallet.
Leah saw Venn pulling Gareth by the collar toward the Range Rover.
Not killing him.
Taking him.
"Drew! Venn's moving Gareth."
Drew turned.
That second cost him.
A Redmile gunman hit him from the side with a steel bar.
Drew went down.
Leah fired.
The gunman dropped.
Then blue lights exploded outside.
Police.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
Armed officers poured through the west entrance shouting commands.
Leah felt relief for less than a second.
Then every rifle pointed at North End.
Not Redmile.
"Police! Drop your weapons!"
Venn stood in full view beside the Range Rover.
Nobody aimed at him.
Drew looked at Leah from the floor.
"Your cavalry."
"Not mine."
A loudspeaker boomed outside.
"Drew Sayer! Leah Quinn! You are surrounded."
Leah recognised the voice.
Chief Superintendent Robert Hale.
The third set of initials on the card.
R.H.
Drew pushed himself upright, blood running from his temple.
"Ideas?"
Leah looked at the old refrigeration tunnel behind them.
"One."
"Good one?"
"No."
"Perfect."
They ran toward it as police opened fire.