Текст книги "Rotten to the Core"

Автор книги: Casey Kelleher

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

              “When he calls you, we need to tell him that we agree to whatever he asks.”

Ryan laughed out loud in complete disbelief; if it was up to him he would be out hunting this fucker down and when he found him, he would treat him to the slowest and most painful death possible, he wouldn’t be complying with his brainless demands.

              “Let me finish.” Lee held one hand up, to stop Ryan from interrupting, and continued: “We need to play the game. Go along with what he says, and make him think that he has us by the short and curlies. If he thinks that he is the one giving out the orders and making all the demands, then we can catch him off guard.  We will be ready when he picks up the money, we will be three steps ahead of the cunt.”

As always with the Ellis brothers, Jonny finished off his brother’s sentence:

              “We cannot risk Kate’s life in the smarmy fucker’s hands Billy; this is not a time for games. Pay Jay whatever he asks, we will get Kate back, and we will personally serve Jay up on a plate for you, he’ll be like a lamb to the fucking slaughter.”

Billy nodded at the men, his friends, whom he trusted with his life. This was exactly what he needed to hear, he was so emotionally fucked up about the situation that he couldn’t think straight, and he needed their support; only with their help could he possibly get through this, it was Kate’s only real chance. Jonny and Lee were the brains of the group, and he hoped that between them they would sort out a plan that would leave no room for fuck ups, and by the time they had executed it, Ryan, the muscle of the group, would have great pleasure in carrying out Jay’s reprisal. Billy, however, was going to make sure that he was there at the end, he would be the one to finally turn the lights out in Jay’s little fucked-up world.

44

Paul had spoken to his security team; every single one of his guys had been called in to work. It was being treated like a military operation; these were his best men, they knew what was expected of them, and Paul was confident that they would do as they were asked. He had briefed them about what was going on, and everybody was on red alert. They were expected to watch everything that happened in the club tonight, not even so much as a bag of speed was to pass through the doors. No fights; no scumbags; no trouble. Paul needed them to focus their attention on Jay Shaw.

Every man who came in this place tonight was to be searched, and Jay Shaw was no exception, if he thought that he could just walk in tooled up, demands or no demands, he had another think coming. Paul knew that they had the upper hand, really, as everybody who worked at the club knew what Jay looked like: the door men, the security, even most of the bar workers. He was a good looking fucker, one of the only things he actually had going for him, and a bloke like him stood out from the average crowd. Most of his security team had worked alongside him at some stage, so Paul had been surprised that this was how Jay wanted to play it. It seemed strange that he would want to make the exchange somewhere as public and personal as the club.

Paul was aware that there may be more than met the eye going on, particularly as Jay had been outed by him and by Goldie’s in general: he wasn’t taking any chances that Jay might be using this as a chance to get a piece of revenge.

Yesterday had been the longest twenty-four hours in Paul’s life, there were moments when it had felt like time had actually stopped ticking. He and Billy had sat for most of the afternoon together, talking about Kate and how they thought she would be coping and what they would both like to do to Jay when they got their hands on him, as well as going over the plan for this evening. They had talked it all through so many times that there was nothing left to say and then they had mostly just sat there in silence, both worrying at the worst-case scenario that this all could possibly bring them. Neither of the two men wanted to voice their fears about what this could be.

Paul had been gobsmacked when Billy had called and told him that Jay’s second call had come this morning demanding that the money be left by the DJ booth at midnight that night. Jay had said once he had picked the money up and got out of the club safely without anyone interfering or trying to do him any harm, then and only then would he text Billy to tell him Kate’s whereabouts: he said that he was the only one who knew this. He had stating categorically that if anything happened to him while he was picking the money up, Kate would be left where she was, in a remote location where she wouldn’t be found for weeks, by which time it would be too late for her.

Billy had asked what if he was being set up, what if he paid up and Jay didn’t stick to his end of the deal? Jay had just replied that he had no other choice but to trust him.

              “Pay up, don’t fuck it up and you’ll get your sister back. Any trouble and I promise you this, Billy, you will never see her again.”

Jay must have fucking lost the plot, picking Goldie’s was the stupidest location anyone could have thought of. The door was being manned, there were cameras everywhere, and Jay must have known that. He must have known that both Paul and Billy would be watching for him like hawks, not to mention Billy’s guys, who would be all over the place. Jay must be mental if he thought that he would be walking out of there with his legs intact, let alone a bag full of cash, was safe. Maybe he thought that there was safety in numbers or something and that he would be able to just sneak in undetected, but there was no way that was going to happen.

Billy was getting the cash, a cool half a million; it would be there any minute. Paul knew that Billy had no intention of letting Jay get away with it, though. He had been sorting out the plan of action with Jonny and Lee all day, and they had decided that they would have two cars ready, one at the front entrance and one at the back; they would let Jay walk in and out without any interference from anyone and when Jay tried to get away they would tail him from a distance; once they knew where he was hiding out, they would wait it out for a bit, hopefully getting Kate back. They would give it a bit of time, just enough to lull Jay into a false sense of security, let him believe that maybe he had actually got away with it, then they would make their move with Billy and Ryan’s help: they would ransack the place and, more importantly, ransack Jay Shaw.

It was only nine o’clock now; the clubbers normally didn’t start arriving until after ten, the night was still young. Hoping that he had enough men in place and praying that the night wouldn’t throw any nasty surprises, Paul wandered up to the gentlemen’s club; he had decided he would stay up there and man the security cameras with Joe, his security manager. He had a great team on, and even though everyone was on strict orders not to approach Jay or get in his way whilst he collected the cash, Paul wanted all eyes on him. They needed to keep him in their sights long enough to establish where he was going to, otherwise the money would be long gone and Kate’s fate would be left in his slimy and untrustworthy hands.

45

Emma had almost bitten her nails down to nothing; her nerves had got the better of her. She had smoked more cigarettes in the last few days than she probably had in her entire life, so many that she felt like throwing up; she thought it was the fags making her nauseous but she was worried for her friend too. Every time she thought of poor Kate and what she might be going through, she felt as if she would throw up. Emma knew that the chances of what had happened to her repeating themselves and happening to Kate were slim, but that didn’t stop her mind going into overdrive and making her fear the worst. After all, she knew Jay better than all of them; she had been the one to witness first-hand what an evil bastard he could be. She knew Jay would want the cash badly, but even he wouldn’t be stupid enough not to go through with the deal: surely?

Emma was behind the main bar, just like any other Friday night, except this wasn’t like any other Friday night. The time had passed so slowly, and every time Emma had had a chance to glance at the clock between serving people, it seemed like the clock’s hands had barely moved. The atmosphere was so charged it was like electricity thrashing through the club, everyone was on tenterhooks, just waiting.

Billy had looked a state when he had turned up, he hadn’t shaved and his clothes looked like they had been slept in; judging by his grey, shadowed eyes he had had very little sleep, Emma thought. She had been having trouble sleeping, too, and had been grateful that Billy had stayed in the flat with her; she didn’t think her nerves would have been up to staying there on her own, not with this crap going on. Her nerves were already shot to pieces, and knowing that Billy had been lying on the sofa downstairs had been a huge relief to her.

Billy was upstairs with Paul at the moment, in the gentlemen’s lounge and as she looked around at the amount of shaven-headed beefcakes dotted around the place she hoped with everything she had, that one of them came through tonight for Kate’s sake. He couldn’t get away with this. So many things could go wrong tonight. Emma hadn’t wanted to work, but Paul had insisted that everyone carry on as normal: they should keep their heads down and get on with their jobs no matter what the night brought. It was finally a quarter to twelve; there had been no sign of Jay. Emma’s mind was whirling and she had been mucking up orders all night. To make up for it, she had been dishing out free shots to keep people happy and was now surrounded by a pissed crowd who was laughing and dancing without a care in the world. She was trying hard to concentrate but she kept looking around, scanning the club to see if she could spot his face like everyone else working tonight seemed to be doing: just looking and waiting.

Paul was doing his best to keep Billy cool upstairs, they had been glued to the monitors for over an hour and so far no one had seen Jay enter the club. Paul was worried that if Billy saw Jay, he would lose all sense of reason and want to annihilate the fucker, and Paul didn’t want to risk anything fucking up getting Kate back in one piece. He had told Billy that the best place for them to be was upstairs, and it was true. The cameras were on every entrance, including every fire door, all the stairs were covered and, most importantly, so was the DJ booth. It was ten minutes to midnight now, and as they had discussed Paul was going to take the bag of cash and place it next to the DJ booth. In ten minutes, they would finally have a lead as to where Kate was: they all needed to stay on the ball.

46

The dance floor was heaving; sweaty bodies grinding to the music while drunken people chatted, laughed and sang along to the songs pumping out of the speakers. There must have been three hundred people bopping away on it and hundreds more standing at the sides or lounging on the huge comfy sofas or in the secluded booths.

It certainly was the place to be usually, but maybe not tonight. She was sipping from a bottle of something fruity and alcoholic, which was too sweet and too cheap, not her usual tipple, but then nothing about her was usual tonight. She felt she had surpassed herself, and was feeling very smug once again, lapping up every second of it. Earlier that day she had gone to a salon and had her long hair chopped off and had it styled into a shaggy bob with a fringe that hung into her eyes; she had then asked them to dye it black. The hairdresser had tried to persuade her to keep her lovely golden locks, but Tanya insisted that she wanted a complete re-style. The hairdresser had reluctantly done the cut, and actually said in the end that it quite suited Tanya. Some women were lucky that way and could do pretty much anything to their hair so that it looked great no matter what, she had admitted. With her new hairstyle and racy clubbing clobber, she looked like a completely different girl: unrecognisable. Tanya had hooked up with a bunch of lads when she had first come in to the club: it had been too easy. They looked as if they couldn’t believe their luck, drooling at the sight of her dancing up against them and acting like she was right up for it. She had no time for any of them, of course, they looked like a bunch of complete and utter losers but she needed to mingle and not stand out by being alone, which would draw attention to her. That was what she didn’t need tonight. Most of the time she had been there they had been plying her with drinks and compliments so it wasn’t that hard a task, she figured, to make a tiny effort with them.

She looked at her watch; she had been here for almost half an hour and Jay would be about to kick off the first part of their plan by making an anonymous call to the police. It was a fool-proof plan, Tanya’s handiwork. Jay would say that there was an armed gunman in the club and that he was about to open fire; any minute now, the club would be in complete and utter mayhem. Perfect.

Looking around, Tanya could see the security guys, all eyeing the bag that Paul Goldie had placed down carefully by the DJ booth as instructed. Glugging down the last mouthful of her drink for Dutch courage, she whispered to herself that it was now or never. Reaching under her very short skirt, she pulled out two very well-concealed smoke bombs that Jay had managed to get hold of from some dodgy ex-soldier he knew. Pulling off the tops, she threw them onto the floor in front of the stage. The smoke poured out within seconds and people started swinging their arms and coughing. A few of Paul’s security men looked at each other in alarm before making their way over amongst the coughing people and the now giant smoke cloud that had formed around them all. Tanya quickly threw herself down and crouched on the floor; crawling on her hands and knees to get a better view of the bag, she grabbed it with both hands then quickly made her move to the ladies’ toilets before the smoke started to clear. Taking her opportunity as she ran through the cloud Tanya screamed, as loudly as she possibly could,

              “Oh my God, he’s got a gun, he’s going to fucking shoot us all”.

It had the desired effect, people too pissed to think straight started panicking all around her, screaming and pushing to get away from the smoky dance floor in terror at the thought of a gunman amongst them. Everyone started running in all directions; there was chaos everywhere.

Hearing the commotion and seeing the smoke and panicked faces, the security moved in and was making their way through the haze to the booth. They thought that Jay might be there; maybe he was the one with the gun. They knew their orders: they had to get a visual and keep him in sight, but they couldn’t see anyone matching Jay’s description.

People were fleeting in utter panic, as they rushed about trying to get away. Paul and Billy had seen the commotion on the screens and had made it down there in seconds, desperately trying to see Jay. How had he got in without them seeing him, and armed too: it just didn’t make sense. Shouting to try and calm everybody down, Paul took charge of the situation.

              “It’s okay, people, it’s a false alarm, there’s no need to panic: everyone is perfectly safe.” He hoped what he was saying was true, he hadn’t seen anyone with a gun, and as far as he knew none of his security men had either.

Just when Paul thought he was starting to gain control again, the front doors swung open and dozens of armed police officers stormed the club, charging in fully kitted out in riot armour.

              “Everybody stay where you are; get down on the floor with your hands on your heads.” Bodies dived to the floor, the music had stopped playing and the harsh main lights had been turned on, most people were starting to sober up.

Billy and Paul were side by side on the floor; Paul put his arm up and shouted to the officer who had commanded them to get down that he was the club’s owner, and the officer let him get to his feet but told everyone else to stay where they were. Looking around the officer could see that there was no trouble here. When they had first arrived to all the running screaming people they had thought they were going to enter a massacre scene from a horror movie, but it turned out no one was hurt. Nobody knew who had initially seen the gunman either. After checking the club and making sure that no one had been hurt or threatened they decided that it had probably been a hoax call.

People started getting up, dusting themselves off and slowly filtering out of the club. The drama had ended what had been a good night out for most. The officers started filing out too. There was no sign of Jay, and as he looked towards the DJ booth Billy shook with anger when he saw there was no sign of the bag of cash anymore either.

47

              “We are laughing all the way to the bank, babes.” Jay picked Tanya up and swung her around in the tiny cottage lounge, which in itself was a hard task as you couldn’t so much as swing a kitten. Tanya lapped up his praise and tilted her head back playfully.

              “I can’t believe you did it, you’re fucking amazing, Tan… did I ever tell you that?”

Kissing her hard on the lips, he put her down, feeling dizzy with excitement. They had done it: they had really done it. Oh, the look on Billy’s face right now would be priceless: they had just taken a quarter of a million pounds from the bloke, he must be sick as a fucking parrot.

Jay’s adrenaline had been pumping all night long, he had been so worried that someone might have recognised Tanya and fucked the whole thing up for them. This was the biggest job he had ever pulled off, and with the enemies he had now made it had been the riskiest, but even he wouldn’t admit out loud how he had been shitting himself tonight. Tanya, once again, had come up trumps. Jay had led them to believe that this was his plan; that it was all his doing, and that they were dealing with him alone. He shook his head in wonderment, Billy had taken it as read and not realised that Tanya was involved at all: let alone the main instigator.

              “I know, I know; I’m a fucking genius!” Tanya was also pleased as punch with herself. She couldn’t keep the grin from her face. She had walked into the club and swanned around amongst them all, in disguise, and fleeced them for everything they had: well, everything Billy had. Men were pitiful. They had been so busy looking for Jay and searching all the men who went into the club, they hadn’t considered that they should have been looking out for a woman. Billy wouldn’t have thought for a minute that it would have been her coming for the money, but then he probably hadn’t given her a moment’s thought since he had thrown her out. It proved what a stupid little man he was. He didn’t have high expectations of her. She was unwilling to let that thought get to her, however; he had underestimated her and that would be to his own cost; nothing was spoiling this high for her tonight.

              “How the hell did you manage to get out of the club in one piece with that bag in tow?” Jay nodded at the holdall Tanya had smuggled out of the club, which was now sitting in the middle of the coffee table, full of fifty pound notes. Tanya explained while she poured them both nice big glasses of cold Sauvignon, that she had lowered the bag out of the toilet window into the little passageway at the side of the club and then she had made a dash for the main door, along with the hundreds of other screaming people who were trying to get out of the club. There were people everywhere, running about trying to get to the main doors, in fear of an imaginary gunman; she had slipped out unnoticed. Just as she had got out and reached the passageway, the police had turned up with sirens blaring and all lights blazing. Unbeknown to Tanya, Billy’s lookout, Jonny, had been so consumed with the drama of the clubbers running out looking terrified and the police turning up he hadn’t spotted Tanya running with the bag of cash and getting into the Golf that was sitting a little further down the street. She had got away with it: easy money.

Downstairs Kate could hear the commotion, she had been drifting in and out of sleep all day; dreaming was the only thing that had broken up her time whilst she had been here, it was the only thing that took her away from this waking nightmare. Tanya’s car pulling up had woken her and Kate could hear the sound of her and Jay laughing loudly now upstairs, obviously both very pleased that they had pulled their plan off. Her brother had paid up, it seemed. Kate could imagine that he would be going through hell, not only because she was missing but also that he had just been fleeced out of a quarter of a million pounds. As long as her brother had breath in his body, Kate knew that he wouldn’t rest until he had it back: every single penny. Tanya and Jay were as good as dead now after pulling this little stunt.

Trying to sit up, she swung her legs round and moved so that her back was against the wall. The whole time she had been here, her hands and feet had been tied; they treated her worse than a dog. She felt filthy: and she was filthy. She wondered when they would let her go; she had heard them say that they would as soon as they had the money, so she hoped that it wouldn’t be long. Wriggling her toes, trying to relieve the cramp in her legs, Kate stretched out and tried to think positively. Soon she would be out of there; soon she would be at home.

              “We can dump her in some lay-by, or leave her in a motorway cafe toilet; give Billy a call with the details and then just keep on driving.” Jay was excited about starting their new life; a new start was what he needed. He would always be able to start from the bottom and work his way up, he had done so many a time. With Tanya at his side, the world was his proverbial oyster; he knew they could make it. He loved her so much, he really loved her. It was something he had never felt for anyone else. There was a fuzzy feeling in his stomach when he thought about her, as if he craved her: like a drug, he had to have her. Jay had decided it was a good thing, this love business, that he would finally give in to it and see where it took them. Tanya seemed happy, looking at her tapping her feet to the music playing in the background and sipping her drink, apparently deep in thought, he had never seen her look more beautiful. As if his look had interrupted her thoughts, she glanced up.

              “Drive where though, Jay? Where are we going to go? Do you think that Billy is seriously going to let us get away with this? That we can start again anywhere? It doesn’t matter where we go, because he’ll find us. Two wronguns like us, we’d have to change our names, keep ourselves to ourselves, which in our way of life would be hard to do. Reputation’s everything, and if we lay low, what sort of money will we ever be able to make? It’ll only be a matter of time before he catches up with us. We’ll be forever watching our backs.”

              “Nah, Tan, he’ll never find us; give it a few months and it will all be forgotten; he’ll be so happy to have his sister back in one piece and me gone for good, he won’t give a shit anymore, he’ll probably think that it was money well spent,” he reassured her.

              “You don’t know him like I do, Jay. He will never, ever, let this go; this will eat away at him, he will be looking for us, mark my words, we’ll constantly be playing a waiting game, it’ll only be a matter of time. We’ve just fucked him over with two of his prized possessions, his precious little sister and a massive chunk of his money.” Tanya stared into space, deep in thought now as she downed the rest of her glass. The mood in the room had suddenly changed. She had not stopped to think about what was going to happen afterwards, it had only just dawned on her that there was no way that they could just up sticks and start afresh elsewhere. She had only got as far as her little revenge plan; she had not thought past the provoking Billy bit. The sort of circles that Tanya and Jay mixed in, the sort of dealings they would be doing to make some cash: someone, somewhere, would leak it back to Billy and they would never be free, not really. She had to think of another way forward, something that would guarantee them a way out, she was starting to realise that Jay was a liability, and he really wasn’t seeing the bigger picture at all. Tanya needed to think about the situation before they made their next move; she had an idea, but she decided that this was best not shared with Jay.

              “We need to keep her for another night,” Tanya nodded in the direction of the basement door. “Let Billy sweat it out while we sleep on it and tomorrow we’ll decide what our next step should be. I’m going to bed; it’s been a long night.”

She bundled up the cash and took the holdall upstairs with her, leaving Jay sitting in the chair racking his brain for some idea as to what they could do. The mood was bleak; he had thought they would be celebrating, but Tanya was stressed and uptight. Maybe she was right, though, they did have to think about their next move; he would be stupid to take Billy letting this one go for granted.

48

Billy couldn’t believe it: he had been fucking done over by Jay Shaw. That fucking sponger had walked into the club and taken a quarter of a million pounds from him without being clocked; no-one had caught a glimpse of the bloke.

Neither the smoke thing nor the hoax call to the police were rocket science, he supposed, but clever enough. He had wondered how Jay would do it. Billy and Paul had gone over and over the tapes for hours and there had been security everywhere; how the fuck Jay had got in unnoticed, neither could say. Billy should have known that Jay would play silly buggers.

Billy gulped down a shot of whiskey; he was fuming. The only way he would have been able to track the bastard down was to have caught him in the act and followed him, he had got away unseen and now Billy was again at Jay’s mercy, and he fucking hated every second of it. Tomorrow, his sister would have been gone for six days, and he was worried sick about her. If that bloke had done anything to her, he would fucking slaughter him.

He had been at home for a couple of hours now, sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the phone. Like a fucking mug. Jay would be laughing his smug fucking head off at him.

He couldn’t even think about the dilemma of Jay calling his bluff and demanding more money. Billy had made a small fortune from his dealings over the years, and he had wisely tied it up in property all over London. Getting his hands on quarter of a million pounds in just less than twenty-four hours had been a challenge, and one he begrudged to say the least. He had worked hard for that money, made a promise that he would never struggle for anything. He had vowed years ago never to be at the mercy of anyone, like his mum had been.

He realised that he had been quite tight with his cash up until now; he didn’t spend on anything much in particular. He always had cash in his pocket, enough to buy anyone he was with a few rounds in the pub, and okay he had invested wisely, but he could have done more with it. He could have taken Kate on holiday, treated her to nice clothes; they could both have lived life a bit. He smiled at the thought, Kate was almost as stubborn as him in some ways, and her pride would have told him not to waste his money on her, but he should have done so anyway. As soon as she got back, he was going to take her to Westfield on a shopping spree, treat her to a slap-up meal and then maybe ask her about going away somewhere, God knows she would need to go on holiday somewhere after this ordeal; he had no idea what state she would be in.

Emma could come too, of course, and he may even ask Paul. Paul had been a rock over the last few days, Billy was thankful of the support. Paul was the strong silent type but he had a big presence, and he was not a man to be shafted by anyone. Paul had confided that he really cared for Kate, and Billy could tell that he had been genuinely upset when he spoke of Kate, and how he hoped she was okay. Yeah, Billy had a good feeling about Paul. His sister could do with a decent man: one who would look after her; respect her; give her the life she deserved. Maybe, this time round, for once Billy really would step back and let her get on with it.

Billy took his phone to bed. He would probably toss and turn all night, waiting for the call, but he needed to rest, and he had no idea what else he could do. It had been another long day. Jay assured him that he would let Kate go when he had the money, but it was gone five in the morning, over five hours had passed since Jay had taken the money, and there had been no call.

Tanya looked at the clock on the bedside cabinet: it was almost five thirty. Jay hadn’t come to bed, and she guessed that he had fallen asleep on the sofa. She had been lying in bed for hours, unable to sleep, wondering what to do. She knew their plan wasn’t going to work.

Tanya knew that with Jay, she would be in for a life of dodgy dealings, and as much as she thought she could cope with that if she had to, she knew deep down that she didn’t want that for herself. She wanted more: more than Jay was able to offer. It was fair to say that she had had more than her share of fun with him, and using him to help settle the score with Billy had made her very happy. At the end of the day though, Jay was a man, so he couldn’t be trusted. It would only be a matter of time before he fucked everything up or pissed even more people off. It seemed to be a habit of his. Trouble turned up wherever he went, he was a magnet for it, and getting into more trouble was not a risk she wanted to take. Sure, he was all over her like a rash at the moment, but give him time and his wandering eye would return.