One Night, page 22
They weren’t far away, the men. Not far at all.
He tried to push himself up but as soon as his head left the ground it span like he was on the wrong end of an all-night drinking session. He let it sag to the floor again and then felt Eve’s hands pulling at him, slipping under his arms, trying to pull him up.
“Too soon,” he tried to say but whether he actually managed to make the words come out of his mouth in a form that another human could understand he wasn’t sure. The fact that Eve kept pulling at him suggested he hadn’t but then she may just have disagreed with his assessment of the situation.
Things were starting to blur in a way that worried him, sounds as well as sights. He could tell that Eve was talking to him but he had no idea what she was saying. The men were close, too close. The light from the torch flicking this way and that, leaving trails in the air like something in a pop video from the 80s.
She gave up at last, pulling her hands away and letting him sink back into the soft ground. It felt like that, like he was slowly being absorbed by it. He saw her legs in front of him. Heard her shout and one of the men laugh. After that all he saw was feet for a while, dancing around in front of him.
Eve stood with Joel at her back and the two men before her. She needed to keep them from him until he had recovered enough to help her. She could tell that he was still dazed and winded from the fall, what she didn’t know was how long it would take him to get back on his feet.
The men were staring at her excitedly. Earlier they’d held back because she was Harry’s niece. That protection was clearly gone now and the men looked like they relished the thought of overpowering her. Maybe because that’s how they got their kicks. Maybe because attacking her gave them a way to get back at Harry. She recognised them both from the cafe. She’d seen a few things there that made her think that her Uncle’s grip on his empire might not be as strong as he thought it was. His men went along with him because it suited them. Eve had seen, in glances and sneers, in Matty’s attitude when he was away from Harry, that the respect they all had for her uncle was mostly lip service.
She looked around as they neared her, searching for something that might help. The beam of the torch that one of the men held picked it out for her, a bottle laying near Joel’s feet. She skipped to it, bent and picked it up then turned back to the men. The neck of the bottle was cold in her hand as she brandished it in front of her base forward, keeping it between them and her.
One of the men stepped forward, he was older, in his fifties probably, but still looked tough. He grabbed for her wrist, not yet fighting her like he would a man, trying to control her rather than take her down. He went for the arm with the bottle in an attempt to stop her using it.
Eve stepped to the side, pulled her arm and the bottle out of his reach and then grabbed a handful of his coat with her other hand. He was leaning towards her already, thrown slightly off balance when her arm had moved out of his reach. Eve pulled him towards her, surprised by how easily he moved, his own momentum carrying him forward. The bottle seemed to have a life of its own as it swung up in her hand, the heavy base of it crashing into his skull just above the eye. She expected it to smash but it didn’t just bounced off his head with a low thud. The skin where it had hit split open like a mouth and bright blood ran down his face, pooling under his eye like tears.
“Bitch,” he muttered and tried to step backwards, shaking his head to clear it. Eve clenched her left hand around the fabric of his coat, stopping him. She swung the bottle again and this time he got an arm up in time to block it. The bottle connected with his ulna, the heavy glass crashing into the long bone running from his elbow to his wrist. Eve heard a snap and the man’s face went pale. She let go of his coat then, pushing him backwards and watching as he fell onto his backside clutching his arm.
The second man was on her almost straight away. He didn’t hold back like his mate had, just swung a heavy fist at her face. She saw it coming and turned just as it connected, the hard knuckles slamming into her cheek rather than destroying her nose. The punch rocked her, sent her backwards with her legs flailing beneath her. She thought she was going to fall over Joel’s prone body but she didn’t and even as her panicked brain tried to keep her upright she realised that could only be because he wasn’t there anymore.
She saw him step in front of her, standing between her and the man, protecting her as she had him. Joel drove a fist into the man’s belly and then caught his chin with an uppercut as he doubled over.
He turned back to Eve. “We make quite a team.”
The whole left side of her face was throbbing from the punch but she managed a lopsided smile.
“Yes.”
And then they were moving again, using the torch to light their way this time. Covering the distance to the fence as quickly as Joel’s swollen ankle would allow.
The van was where they had left it. Eve had just pulled the door shut when her phone rang. She wanted to ignore it but she knew she couldn’t. Her heart sank as she reached into her bag. It was going to be Harry, she knew it was going to be Harry. Trying to talk her round, to persuade her. How would he do it this time? Raise the ghost of her father maybe? Get all weepy about what his poor dead brother would think?
She could almost hear him. “Eve, what are you doing Eve? Your dad, Eve, God rest his soul...”
By the time she had the phone out and was able to see the display she was angry enough that she thought the first word out of her mouth was going to be four lettered.
But when she was the name there the anger faded away and was replaced by concern. She answered it as soon as she saw this three letters on the display. Lifted the phone to her ear.
“Mum”
Harry’s voice bounded down the line at her. “Hello Eve,” he said. “We need to talk. Tell her, Kathy. Tell your girl she needs to come home to me. Bring me what she owes me.” His voice got quieter as he spoke and she realised he was moving the phone away from his mouth. She could hear her mum then. Could hear her tears and the fear in her voice. “Please come, Eve.” she said.
Chapter Fifty Four
The phone disconnected before Eve could say anything back.
She held her tears in, bit her lip so hard it hurt so that she to keep them inside. She did it because she knew if even one got out she wouldn’t be able to stop them. They were building inside her like lava in a volcano that was about to erupt. The pressure behind her eyes was unbearable. She looked at the phone in her hand and knew what she had to do. Joel started speaking and she waved him quiet.
The calming sound of the ring tone sounded in her ear as she called back. She was hoping to hear her mum’s voice. Needed to hear it. The voice that had calmed and advised her throughout her life. Soothed her and scolded her. The sound of it was as much a part of her as her fingerprints. Eve wanted to speak to her mother, to tell her it would be okay. To give back that reassurance she’d been given all her life.
But instead of that calming, reassuring tone came a polished, mechanical voice asking her if she’d like to leave a message.
“Oh God,” she said and hung up.
Joel reached out to her, touched her arm. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.
“It’s Mum. Harry is there. She was crying, Joel. She sounded terrified.”
She realised she was crying. The tears rolling down her face, the heat of them almost painful on her cold skin.
Her phone chirped and she looked down at it as the screen lit up to show the text message she had just received. It was from Harry. ‘Hurry up, Eve. Don’t keep me waiting.’
She felt her stomach churn.
Until now the night had been exciting, thrilling even. A whirlwind that had carried her along and not given her time to do anything but experience it. There had been times when she’d been scared; moments when her heart had felt like it had been broken; but nothing like the sickening sense of terror and guilt that now filled her whole being.
“What will he do?” said Joel.
“I don’t know. I really don’t know. Harry doesn’t live by the same rules as other people. He’ll tell you that like it makes him some kind of an outlaw, like it’s something to be proud of. It isn’t though. He’s just a nasty, vicious man. He uses other people to get what he wants. He used me, used my Dad. Now he’s got Mum. Because he knows that will get him what he wants. The money.”
“He won’t hurt her. I promise you, Eve. I won’t let him. This is nothing to do with you. This is my fault. If he wants the money he can have it. None of it matters, not a penny.”
She stared at him, knowing that he meant every word. Hoping that it wasn’t already too late.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said. Joel started the van’s engine. Put it in gear. Drove.
Harry sipped his whiskey. He’d not had a drink all night but now he needed it. There’d been a bottle of Scotch in the cupboard in the kitchen and he’d pulled it out gladly, pouring a healthy dose into a mug he’d picked up from the draining board.
The bottle had been dusty, the label faded. It’s probably Max’s he had thought as he took the bottle out. Vintage Scotch left to him by his dead brother, he thought with a smile. It was Bells and still tasted cheap. That slightly metallic taste that inexpensive whiskey has filling his mouth. It burned a little going down and that felt good. It brought him back to himself. What was life without a little pain?
The woman was crying in the other room, his sister in law, arms wrapped around herself on the settee. Her whining was making him feel sick. He didn’t want to hurt her, she was an old woman. But he would. He knew he would. If he had to. That was the kind of man he was, he did what was necessary. Always had since he was a kid. Sometimes it hurt, sometimes it was hard but he did it anyway. Because it was necessary. So if he had to put the frighteners on her to get the money he would. And if she made him hurt her with her fucking crying then that was her problem not his. Eve could sort it all out though. She just had to turn up with the money.
Harry put the mug down on the kitchen table and looked at his hands. There was too much blood on them. Too much for one pair of hands. Enough for an army. That was why he kept his fingernails short, closely clipped so that the pink of his fingers poked out from underneath them. It was so he couldn’t see the blood under them.
He heard a vehicle pull up outside. Not a car, something bigger than that. He poured himself another shot and drank it down quickly. No one would blame him for taking a little Dutch courage with what he needed to do.
He looked at the object on the kitchen table. He’d had it with him all night but hadn’t needed it until now. It was heavy in his hand as he picked it up. Heavy and cold.
He'd had the gun for years but he'd never killed with it. When that had been necessary he either hadn't had the pistol with him or the circumstances had demanded another means of attack. Either the circumstances or his mood. A gun was such an impersonal weapon and sometimes his emotions got the better of him. Sometimes he needed to use his hands or at least something that let him get in close. Like he had the first time.
He'd threatened people with the gun though, seen their faces pale with fear as they stared at the hollow black eye of the barrel, its gaze fixed just as surely on them.
He knew threatening would be necessary tonight. He hoped the killing could stop at one, that no more blood than that was necessary to resolve things. You never knew though, and if it had to be done then he was man enough to do it.
The gun was loaded, he always kept it that way. They said you weren’t supposed to but it wasn’t like he had any kids. For Harry a gun was a tool and what was the point in a tool if you couldn’t use it when you needed to.
Eve had a key and she used it. Opening the door and stepping into the hallway she’d know all her life. Harry was standing at the opposite end of it in the kitchen doorway. Joel was behind her and she felt trapped between her future and her past. She had known Harry all of her life, couldn’t remember him not being around. Joel she’d met just hours ago. Facing forward she felt something close to hatred. Behind her she felt the glow of Joel’s presence.
“Thank you for coming, Eve,” said Harry in that oily voice of his. “I knew you’d do the right thing by your family. By me.”
His voice was loud and confident but it didn’t block out the crying coming from the living room.
“Let’s just do this Harry,” she said.
Chapter Fifty Five
Harry's left hand was casually gripping the door frame, his right was out of sight. The frame cut across his forearm, leaving his hand hidden in the kitchen, the rest of him on display. The angle of his arm made it look like the hand was resting on a worktop. Only Joel didn't think it was resting, he thought it was waiting.
Joel was immediately conscious that Eve was between him and Harry and the gun he thought that right hand was holding. The man's voice sounded calm as the words poured out of his mouth but his body told another story. He looked as tired as Joel felt. The flesh around his right eye kept spasming in a tic which might have been caused by nerves or exhaustion. The whole right side of his body was full of tension. Like the gun Joel was sure he was holding was sending waves of nervous energy out into his bloodstream. Joel worried the strength Harry was getting from the weapon was the only thing keeping him going. That it had overwhelmed whatever reason and humanity he might have had left. Joel had seen that happen to Danny. The power of the cold steel in his hand had changed him. It was like it had given more strength to the demons inside him.
Eve stopped when she saw Harry. They hadn't talked about it on the journey, what they were actually going to do when they got here. The drive had been a headlong rush, Eve sitting in appalled silence, Joel not knowing what more to say to calm or comfort her, instead just concentrating on getting them to the house as quickly as possible.
Now he wanted to step around her, block her, but he couldn't get past. Part of him knew that if Harry was going to shoot anyone it would be him but the urge to protect her was instinctive.
He looked at Harry again. His car was parked out the front of the house, empty. Joel assumed that the other guy from the office was in the house somewhere. Probably watching Eve’s mother. He could hear the woman crying, a horrible desperate sound that took him back to the panic room and the dealer's wife.
"Come in then," said Harry. 'Mi casa es su casa."
Eve made a small noise that could have been either a moan or a growl but she stepped forward into the hallway and Joel followed her. As soon as he was through the door he stepped around Eve. Standing side by side they faced Harry who took his left hand off the door frame and ran it through his hair.
"I see you brought it," he said, nodding at the bag that hung heavier than ever from Joel's hand.
They spoke at the same time. Eve said, "We just want this to be over." Joel said, "Of course we did."
Harry laughed. "Aren't you sweet, you lovebirds? Just a few hours and she's opened her heart to you. And her legs no doubt."
Joel dropped the bag and took a long, quick step forward. He knew it was what Harry wanted, that the insult had been thrown in there just to get a reaction out of him. He was way past logic or reason though, all he had left was instinct and emotion.
The gun made its appearance then as he'd known it would from the moment he'd seen Harry. It swung quickly out of hiding like it had a life of its own. To Joel it seemed like it was leading Harry's hand rather than the other way around.
Joel stopped dead because he could see the murderous intent in those three dark eyes staring back at him. Harry wanted to kill him. For revenge or reward or kicks; the why didn't matter but the intent was all too clear. It felt like they both wanted his blood, Harry and his gun. The bloodlust was clear on the man’s face, as plain as the viciousness Joel had seen on Reynolds’s and Danny’s and the boys he’d fought in the children’s home as a child. Or the ones who had gathered round and gleefully watched as the knife sliced into his cheek.
His gut told him that Harry wouldn’t shoot him though. A gunshot and a corpse in the early morning with that distinctive car outside. It all added up to more trouble than a crook as long in the tooth as Harry would want.
“Don’t,” said Eve and that single word stopped Harry. Joel didn’t know if it had cut through the bloodlust or it was just that it gave Harry the excuse he needed to lower the gun without it looking like it was his dick going limp.
“Okay sweetheart. You’re right, there’s no need for any nastiness.” His eyes were on Joel the whole time though. Fixed on him. The third eye of the gun may have looked away but Harry’s were just as full of death. “Let’s go in the front room, finalise this little transaction. I’ll show you mine and you can show me yours. Make sure we’re all happy that everything is as it should be.”
Joel kept his mouth shut. This was about Eve and her mother, not him. He was just there to carry the money and protect them. Both of them.
Eve walked past him and turned off the hallway through a door on the left. As she walked into the room she made that noise again. Maybe sorrow, maybe anger, likely a little of both.
Joel kept his eyes on Harry who nodded at the door. He followed Eve through it, felt Harry come up close behind him as he did it. The hard end of the gun jabbed into his back and Harry spoke in a low voice that just barely reached Joel’s ear. A whisper like a lover’s caress.
“Don’t get any ideas, one wrong move and I’ll shoot your fucking cock off. I ought to do it anyway you dirty fuck.”
Joel didn’t reply. He walked into the room and let his eyes take it all in. Eve bounded forward in front of him, she obscured his view for a second but before she did he saw the woman sitting on the sofa. She was so obviously Eve’s mother that seeing her so distressed felt like a knife twisting in Joel’s stomach. The pain on her face lifted slightly when she saw Eve but there was still far too much of it there. Joel couldn’t see any sign that she’d been physically hurt but even in the short time that Harry had been there he’d clearly terrorised her.
