Kidnap (The Billionaire Series) (7 page)

Tom breathed a huge sigh of relief. Although he had stood up to
them, there were eight of them and they were all bigger.

“What? You scared of a little girl are you?” taunted Lela. She
couldn’t help
herself,
any mention of her mother
stirred a deep and painful emotion within her. This guy was going to pay.

“What the hell are you doing?” said Tom, his relief evaporating
as he tried desperately to grab hold of her arm and calm her down. There were
eight
Neds
, what was she playing at?

“I’m going to teach these idiots some manners!” Lela said angrily
avoiding his grasp.

”What the f*** do you think you’re doing little girl
?!
” exclaimed the biggest Ned, looking down at the small
girl squaring up to him and his mates.

Lela struggled to control her anger. She had never felt like this
before, the Ned had made her snap, insulting her mother and threatening Tom.

“Well, asshole, last chance to apologise?” her eyes blazed with
anger. She desperately wanted to make the big Ned feel the pain she felt
inside.

***

Sinead had caught up with Kevin who had managed to see the last
of the kids disappear into the cinema as he had drawn up into the car park.

“Did you see them?” she asked hopefully.

“No, they sprinted off the bus and ran straight into the cinema.
The little Asian guy’s just standing by the entrance behind me,” replied Kevin,
indicating over his shoulder.

“Damn,” she replied watching Saki stand nonchalantly by the door.
Sinead was no fool and had met some very experienced people. That level of
nonchalance was well
practised,
the little Asian knew
exactly what he was doing.

“Did he make you?” she asked.

“What, the little guy? No way!” replied Kevin insulted at the
suggestion. But Sinead was not convinced. Through the corner of her eye, she
had seen him look over at them twice. If he had made Kevin, he had now made
her. This was not good. She called
Conor
and
explained the situation.

“What do you think we should do?” she asked.

Conor
took a second to consider what
she had just told him.

“Send in the boys, you and Kevin stay back. If he’s made you,
you’ll just blow the whole thing.”

“OK, good idea. I’ll call them and tell them what to do.”

Sinead hung up and called the
three crew
members waiting in the car.

***

Tom and Ahmad followed Lela
,
they had to stop her
. She was nearly at the
Neds
and was staring unblinking into the face of the
biggest Ned. As they approached her, she put her hand out behind her back and
raised her palm.

“Stop, Tom,” she commanded. “Don’t come any closer.” The tone was
such that both Tom and Ahmad involuntarily stopped. Their hearts said keep
going but the message delivered to the brain, overwhelmingly overrode them.

The biggest Ned towered over Lela and was becoming increasingly
irritated by this girl. He was also beginning to lose face in front of his gang.
This was totally unacceptable. He unzipped his white shell-suit jacket and held
one side open long enough for Lela to see the handle of his knife.

“Back off and I won’t carve up your boyfriends,” he threatened
with a knowing smile. His gang laughed.

Lela snapped and punched the big Ned so quickly that nobody knew
why he suddenly winced and grabbed his nose, blood pouring down his face and
ruining his best white jacket. She grabbed the knife from his belt, as his hand
made towards it, spun it round and holding the blade, threw it with such
precision and force into a nearby door frame, it would take a hammer to remove
it. The Ned tried to lunge at her but before he had moved an inch, Lela
delivered a massive disabling blow to his groin.

Tom, Ahmad, and the gang of
Neds
all
winced as the big Ned gasped and fell to the floor, his face turning white. The
other
Neds
looked at each other; they couldn’t run
from a girl so they lunged towards her in unison.

Lela spun round and caught the first Ned with a high kick to the
chin, lifting him two feet off of the floor and depositing him against the
wall. The next received a kick to the
stomach which
slammed him through to the female toilets. This was Lela’s first real fight and
although she knew every pressure point and nerve ending in the body, she had no
idea how hard she should punch or kick. Her hands and feet were used to
punching and kicking boards and bags. She realised from the first three blows
that she was hitting too hard. She wanted to hurt the
Neds
,
not kill them. She blocked a punch and delivered her own, this one was about
half the power she would normally manage against a block of wood but it was
still too hard. The Ned lifted two inches from the floor before dropping to the
ground, knocked out. The power, speed and accuracy of her movements were
astonishing.

The speed with which she had dispatched half the
Neds
was such that the others had not had the chance to
re-evaluate their situation, they just kept coming, their momentum driving them
forward to an inevitable beating. Lela took the next two out with a sweeping
high kick, leaving only two to deal with, She spun round and caught one with
the back of her fist as he tried to come up behind her on her blind side. He
dropped to the floor. Lela cursed herself again, she needed to hit more softly.
The last Ned stood before her.

“Not so funny now, is it?” she asked menacingly. That Ned had
laughed the hardest at the Big Ned’s comments about her mother.

He opened his mouth to reply but Lela wasn’t interested. She spun
round, threw out her leg and caught his midriff. He flew across the foyer and
slammed into a bin, emptying the contents all over himself.

Less than ten seconds had passed from throwing her first punch to
when she turned back towards Tom and Ahmed. Both stood open jawed at what they
had just witnessed. Lela hadn’t even broken sweat as she smiled at them. She
had very much enjoyed her first fight and most importantly had learned a lot
from it.

By the time the security guard had been alerted to the commotion,
Lela, Tom and Ahmad were peacefully queuing at the kiosk. Tom and Ahmad were
still in shock and left Lela to place the order. The guard laughed at
suggestions that the little girl at the kiosk had beaten up the
Neds
. He banned the
Neds
for six
months for fighting amongst themselves. The Big Ned, however, was in no
condition to leave. Having thrown up from the pain numerous times, an ambulance
had been called.

Saki came running into the foyer just as Tom, Lela and Ahmad were
heading back into the cinema.

“Lela? Tom?”

“Yes Dad?” replied Lela. Tom and Ahmad were in no condition to
talk.

“Are you OK?”

“Yes, fine thanks. What’s wrong?”

“I just saw some boys being escorted out, as though they’d been
in a fight?”

“It was nothing, just some
Neds
, you
know what they’re like, fighting each other all the time,” replied Lela
casually.

“Are you sure that was all?” he asked knowingly, looking straight
into her eyes.

“Yep,” she said winking, they would talk about it later.

“OK,” he winked back and smiled, laughing to
himself
as he made his way back to the door at how unfair the fight had been. Eight
boys against his Lela, they hadn’t stood a chance. She was the best student he
had ever taught and certainly better than he was at her age.

***

The three had just begun to make their way towards the front door
when the little Asian man had bolted inside. They had no idea why, but whatever
it was, it had him moving very quickly. They paused and looked for Sinead. She
was nowhere in sight. She had moved around to the back with Kevin after being
spotted. One of them gave her a call and explained what had happened.

“Follow him you idiots, see if you can spot the kids,” she
ordered.

By the time they had made it into the foyer, the little Asian man
was making his way back outside, laughing to himself. However, his face changed
the minute he spotted them.

***

Saki had been imagining his little Lela’s first fight and was
wishing he had been there when he suddenly caught sight of three pairs of eyes
looking at him. He recognised two of the faces. He scanned his memory and
recalled both faces. They had been jogging outside the estate within the last
two weeks but not together, separately. He had put his earlier concerns about
the motorcyclist and the woman down to paranoia. It may be coincidence.
However, Saki didn’t believe in coincidence. On the other hand, he didn’t want
to spoil Tom’s birthday party unnecessarily. He took his mobile from his pocket
and dialled a number.

***

Sinead called
Conor
.

“I’ve just heard from my guys, they’ve just been made by the
Asian guy.”

“Jesus, you’ve only been there five minutes and he’s made all
five of you, you’d think you were a bunch of amateurs,” fumed
Conor
.

“
Conor
, I’ve told you this job is bad
news. I have a really bad feeling about it. We have no idea what we’re up
against. We should just get the hell out of here while we still can.”

“You don’t understand...”
Conor
caught
himself,
Sinead didn’t need to know about the deal. She just
needed to do her job. “Have you even confirmed if the kids are there yet?”

“No but I’m fairly certain they are.”

“OK, hang around. If you get an opportunity, take them.
Otherwise, we’ll take them at the house later.”

Conor
hung up, Sinead’s bad feeling was
contagious,
a
knot was developing in the pit of his
stomach.

***

The three took their seats as though nothing had happened. Ahmad
had been sworn to secrecy as they had entered the dark theatre. The trailers
were already running.

Ahmad whispered to Tom as they sat down.

“Did we really just witness Lela kicking those guys’ arses or am
I dreaming?”

“I think we both must be,” replied Tom. He knew Lela’s training
was special but had no idea just how amazing it was until then.

Ahmad had always had a soft spot for Lela, most of Tom’s friends
did, but Ahmad was now completely smitten.

“You really have one wicked sister!” he exclaimed as he replayed
the scene in his mind. “I’ve never seen anything like that, not ever, not even
in the movies.”

Tom was also reliving the moment. However, the memory for him was
slightly tainted. He had stood helpless while his sister did the fighting, it
just seemed wrong somehow. But then you couldn’t argue with the result, she
really had kicked their arses well and truly. You definitely couldn’t argue
with the result. Ahmad was
right,
he really did have
one seriously wicked sister. He smiled.

Chapter
17

“
Conor
, we’re pulling out right now.”
Sinead had called the minute the first police car had arrived.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her panic.

“Police. One car just arrived but another two undercover ones
just pulled in,” she said as she walked out of the rear of the complex. “We’re
dumping the car and the bike, we’ll be with you as soon as we can.” She ended
the call as one of the crew flagged down a black cab.

“Train station,” she said as she closed the door.

Once at the train station, they used another cab to the next
station before using a third to return to a street close to their camp.
Conor
picked them up where the taxi had dropped them off.

“The place was crawling with cops by the time we left. These guys
must have some very powerful friends,” explained Sinead.

“It might not have had anything to do with us, it might have been
a drug raid or something, you don’t know,” replied
Conor
more for the benefit of the crew than anything else.

Sinead didn’t like it, her instincts were seldom wrong.

***

The SO12 Special Branch “A” squad commander had reacted
immediately to Saki’s call. Saki was well known to them having been vetted by
them many years earlier when he had first taken responsibility for Tristan
during a trip to the Kennedy Estate. Only few ‘civilians’ were entrusted with
the safety of the Prime Minister’s children. Within ten minutes, 50 police
officers had been on scene and within 15 minutes,
they were
joined by eight members of the Strathclyde Police Force Special Protection
Unit, SPU
.

There was no sign of the suspicious individuals other than their
abandoned motorbike. Saki had never seen their car and therefore did not know
that it had also been abandoned. A scrupulous sweep was made of the entire
complex while the kids sat blissfully unaware of the mayhem outside. Sniffer
dogs were called in to search for explosives and five special protection
officers joined the kids in the theatre to look out for anything suspicious. With
five minutes to go before the end of the movie
,,
the
all clear was given. The decision of what to do next was left to Saki and the
Special Branch Commander in London. Both agreed that the kids should enjoy as
normal an evening as possible and decided that the trip to the
ten pin
bowling should proceed as planned.

A security perimeter was set up outside the complex and a number
of undercover officers joined the customers both in the cinema and in the
bowling alley. The SPU Officers would be playing on the alley either side of
the kids.