Reckoning (3 page)

A course of action decided upon, the three of them returned to the lounge where Amber and Cathy were patiently waiting.

“Sorted?” said Cathy.

“Yeah, nothing to worry about Babe,” replied Jez, sitting beside her and taking her hand. He wanted nothing stressing her out right now. “We have an announcement,” he said to the room.

“You’re pregnant,” smiled Jules. “I wondered why you weren’t drinking wine at the dinner table. Sorry,” she added when Jez tutted and glared at her. “I’m just excited for you.”

“Is it true?” said Amber, looking to Cathy. “You’re having another baby?”

“I am.”

Amber leapt up to embrace her friend while Mikey shook Jez’s hand. Jules stood before her brother, looking contrite. “Sorry, all this family stuff’s so new to me.”

“That’s okay,” said Cathy, hugging her. “We’re just glad you’re here to share in this moment, aren’t we Jez?”

“Ecstatic,” he replied, deadpan, doing an excellent impression of Ryan.

“How far along are you?” asked Amber excitedly.

“Three months.”

“This is your third kid?” said Jules.

“That’s right,” replied Cathy.

“You’ve kept your figure amazingly well after two I’m sure a third won’t make any difference,” she said, running her eyes up and down Cathy appreciatively.

“That’s so sweet. Why don’t you say nice things like that?” said Cathy, slapping Jez on the arm.

“Because I’m not a pervert,” he replied, frowning at his sister.

“Don’t be so rude,” chided Cathy. She turned back to Jules. “Just ignore him, he can be such a grump.”

Jules sniggered, finding the word
grump
an amusing way to describe one of the most dangerous men in Manchester. She wondered if Cathy was aware of what her husband was capable of. Probably, she seemed like a really smart woman, unlike Amber. Jules didn’t think she was stupid but there was an innocent naivety about her and Jules couldn’t decide whether it was endearing or annoying. She was starting to understand Mikey’s attraction to herself because she was the complete opposite of his wife. She glanced at Mikey, who was covertly watching her from behind Amber’s back. Interesting. 

CHAPTER 3

Katia scraped her fingernails down the wall, splitting and tearing them, drawing blood, smearing it down the white paint. The hole that had been created inside her ever since her twin babies had been stolen by Mikey Maguire threatened to consume her. The door opened but she didn’t bother to turn around. Unless they’d brought her children back she didn’t give a fuck who they were or what they wanted.

“Katia, I brought you something to eat,” said Irina, her second-in-command who helped her run the new high class brothel in Essex similar to the one she’d managed for Alex. Her new patron was Jared Slattery. Since Mikey had stolen her children and tried to have her killed in the process, Irina had been running the brothel single-handed. Katia had physically recovered from the attack on her but mentally she was in turmoil.

“I don’t want it,” she replied in Slovakian, the native language of both women.

“You must keep up your strength. If you give up who will rescue Alex and Daniel?”

Katia glanced at Irina over her shoulder, blue eyes narrow and feral. Irina had never seen her friend this way before. Katia was unwashed, her blond hair a tangled mess and she’d worn the same rumpled jeans and t-shirt for two days straight. Most unusually, she wore absolutely no make-up, but she still looked beautiful.

“Jared called, he’s coming to see you. He should be here any minute.” Irina was trying to be respectful of her friend’s feelings but she was bubbling over with excitement at the prospect of seeing her lover again. She wasn’t a fool, she was aware Jared only saw her as a prostitute who fulfilled his odd proclivities but she was falling for him hard, a fact she was finding increasingly difficult to hide.

“Has he found my babies?”

Irina’s gaze was sad as she shook her head. Katia released a sigh then returned to scraping her nails down the wall.

Irina winced at the sound and put the tray down on Katia’s bed. “You’re hurting yourself, look at all the blood.”

“What do I care? Nothing can hurt me more than this. I want my babies,” she screamed, snatching up the tray and hurling it against the wall where it smashed, sending chicken and vegetables everywhere.

“Jared is looking, he will find them.”

“Jared,” sneered Katia. “He doesn’t know where they are. Only Mikey Maguire knows, so I am going to Manchester.”

“Manchester, when?”

“Now,” replied Katia, dragging a suitcase out from under the bed. She’d been staying at the brothel as a precaution against further attack, one of Jared’s men working security in case Mikey sent someone to finish the job when he inevitably found out she was still alive. She didn’t want to be at home anyway, it wouldn’t be the same without her sons. She stopped to glare at Irina. “Don’t just stand there, help me.”

“Katia, please think, what can you do?”

“I can hold a knife to that bastard Mikey’s throat until he tells me where Alex and Daniel are.”

“That’s not going to happen. Let Jared deal with it. If Mikey finds out you’re in Manchester he’ll kill you.”

“I want him to find me,” she said, throwing her things into the suitcase. “I want him to come to me so I can slit his throat. Now help me pack,” she screeched.

The door slowly swung open to reveal a large, muscular figure with a shock of blond hair.

“Jared,” said Irina, desperately fighting the urge to smile. If he discovered her true feelings he’d never sleep with her again.

“Irina,” he replied curtly, eyes passing over her to settle on the frantic figure of Katia. “Going somewhere?”

“Manchester, to find my children,” she said, switching back to English as she threw a heap of expensive silk underwear into the case.

In two strides he was before her, slamming the lid of the suitcase shut, Katia just managing to snatch her fingers out of the way.

“You’re going nowhere,” he growled.

“Someone has to do something because you’re not,” she screamed in his face.

“Calm down you daft mare, there’s customers downstairs.”

Katia wasn’t too far gone to catch the warning in his tone and she went quiet, blue eyes fixed on him. “What is a mare?”

“Never mind. Look, I know you’re upset about your kids, who wouldn’t be, but I’ve promised to get them back and I will. You charging up north like a mad fucking harpy is going to get you nowhere. All Mikey will do is shift them somewhere else and you’ll never see them again.” Jared couldn’t give a shit about her babies but it was a point of pride that he got them back. Word had spread about how the Maguires had fucked over someone under
his
protection on
his
patch and if he didn’t do something sharpish he’d look weak. In his line of work that was dangerous. Getting those kids back was vital to his survival. “I’ve got people working in Manchester on my behalf,” he continued, “people who know the area and who know the Maguires. As soon as they find anything they’ll let me know.”

“Who are these people?”

“People who are sick of the Maguires and Laws ruling the roost. They’ve been top too long and it’s time they fell.”

The prospect made Katia’s eyes gleam. “And what then, when they’ve fallen?”

“Then I’ll have my puppets in charge in Manchester, I’ll get Toni McVay onside and then I’ll rule the whole fucking country.”

“I want to help. Please, let me do something before I go mad.”

Jared considered her proposal. Katia was losing it, giving her something to do would keep her grounded. He didn’t want to get rid of her, she was too valuable with her inside knowledge of the Maguire empire, plus she was a natural born businesswoman and she was making him a ton of money. She’d been Alex’s lover and he’d even allowed her inside the legendary Maguire compound, which was more secure than the Queen’s drawers. She could give him an in. “Actually, there is something you can do.”

“Will it hurt Mikey Maguire?”

“It’s going to fucking cripple him, at the very least.”

Katia’s lips drew back over her teeth in a frenzied, bug-eyed smile.

Mikey stared down at baby Alex and the child stared back at him impassively. It unnerved Mikey how quiet and still he was, it wasn’t natural. Babies were always moving or gurgling or doing something, they shouldn’t be freakishly still like this. But he supposed any child of Alex Senior and Katia’s unholy union was going to be strange. Mikey prayed Alex Junior wouldn’t grow up to be a full-blown psychopath like his dead daddy. Daniel, named after Alex’s dead brother and Rachel’s first husband, was much more normal, doing all the usual baby things. Unlike Alex, Daniel actually let Mikey hold him without screaming the house down.

He scooped Daniel up and cradled him in his arms, the child perfectly content. Alex, in his cot, turned his head to watch. God, had he blinked yet? Mikey couldn’t be sure. Turning his back on Alex, Mikey carried Daniel to the window and looked out at the Cheshire countryside, nothing but green fields and sheep for a full two miles. Jared Slattery would never find the boys here. Technically the children were his second cousins but he wanted to raise them as his own sons, to bring them in on the family business when they were old enough, he felt it was what Frank and Martina - the boys’ dead paternal grandparents - would have wanted. Even Rachel agreed they were much better off here being raised by family than stuck in Essex with the mad Slovakian slapper. If anyone was a negative influence on a child it was her. She’d raise them with hate in their hearts, drill into them how their daddy had been betrayed by his own blood when in fact it had been the other way around. If Mikey didn’t imprint on these children as soon as possible that he wasn’t the enemy then they’d grow up into big strong men intent on revenge.

Annie, the gentle woman he’d hired to care for the boys, entered the room with a pile of fresh laundry, the scent of clean linen filling the air.

“They’re good boys, aren’t they?” she smiled. “Never any trouble.”

Mikey looked to Alex, a shiver running down his spine to see the boy was still staring at him. There was a knowing in those dark Maguire eyes that seemed out of place in a child so young. He had the disconcerting feeling it was Alex himself, reborn. “Do you think Alex is a bit too quiet?” he asked Annie.

“Every child’s different. He may be quiet but he’s a clever little boy, he takes everything in.”

“He keeps staring at me.”

“He’s curious, that’s all. Babies like to imprint on the faces around them, it helps them recognise those closest to them.”

“But he does it all the time. He’s doing it now.”

Annie glanced at the child in his cot and smiled. “He likes you.”

Mikey seriously doubted that. Annie didn’t seem concerned so maybe he was just being paranoid.

“It’s time for their feed, do you want to help?” she said.

“I’ll feed Daniel,” he said quickly.

Hayden Brody waited downstairs for Mikey, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. He’d only been working for the Maguires for ten days and was starting to wish he’d stuck to his contract killing, that had been nice and simple. He’d been in on the operation to snatch the twins from their mother and it wasn’t sitting well with him, in fact he was in torment. He’d been having bad dreams and was filled with a horrible guilt. He hadn’t been the one to actually take the children or kill the mother, that had been Mark Cameron, Mikey’s hitman and bodyguard, but he’d played his part too. When he’d agreed to work for Mikey and Jez for an admittedly generous fee he hadn’t envisioned that one of his first duties would be so low. He’d been working freelance as a contract killer for years, ever since he’d left the army and his conscience hadn’t been troubled once about exterminating lowlifes for a hefty wedge, but this was different. Killing a defenceless woman and snatching her babies was definitely a no-no for him. But what could he do about it? Both the twins’ parents were gone. Mikey was all they had left.

Mikey appeared carrying one of the boys, Hayden wasn’t sure which one, they were too identical for him to tell apart. Annie followed with the second boy and Hayden hastily averted his gaze so they wouldn’t see his wince of guilt.

“We’re taking the boys out into the garden,” said Mikey.

Hayden just nodded. He had to give Mikey his due, he treated them very well, they lacked for nothing, but could that make up for the absence of a mother’s love? Hayden knew all about that, his own mother had abandoned him and his dad when he was nine years old and the pain had never gone away. He hated to think of these two boys growing up feeling that way, but what choice was there? Their parents were gone and this was Mikey Maguire, the most powerful man in the north of England. But if he didn’t do something Hayden knew the guilt would eat him alive.

“Hey, you beat me again,” said Riley.

Beth popped her head into the living room and smiled at the sight of Riley sat cross-legged in front of the television with Alfie and Archie playing on the games console. Holly was sat with him, giggling and clapping. Beth released a long, slow sigh of contentment, these past few days had been bliss. Riley had taken them all swimming, to the park, the zoo, the soft play and the cinema. When the kids were tucked up in bed, exhausted after a busy day, he’d made long, slow, sweet love to her, making her body sing in a way it never had before. The best part of all was that Archie hadn’t had a tantrum once. Ever since he was exposed to his father’s insanity - during which he’d heard Alex killing Beth’s lover Nick Jordan and torturing and beating Rachel as well as witnessing him actually trying to rape Rachel - his behaviour had been appalling, his father’s depravity scarring him for life. But Riley’s presence had worked wonders. He had an air of authority about him that was impossible to ignore but, unlike Alex, he used it gently with no shouting or swearing. Once or twice Archie had appeared to be on the verge of launching into a violent screaming fit when he hadn’t got his own way but one look from Riley had been enough for him to think twice and Beth was actually enjoying being around her younger son again.

“Let’s have another game,” exclaimed the boys, in high states of excitement while Holly eagerly clapped her hands.

“You guys go ahead, I need to have a stretch and a drink,” said Riley, uncurling himself off the floor and getting to his feet. As he raised his arms above his head in a huge stretch Beth took the opportunity to admire his stunning physique, his t-shirt riding up slightly to give her a glimpse of the scars on his stomach, the majority of which had been put there by Jasper White, Jules’s dead ex-boyfriend who had not only tried to kill Riley but had murdered his pregnant fiancée. Dane had killed Jasper for his sins and it had taken Riley a long time to get over his loss. Beth was his first relationship since that awful event.

“Brew?” she said.

“Please,” he replied, wandering into the kitchen after her. “Give us a cuddle,” he said, wrapping his arms around her waist as she filled the kettle.

Beth switched on the kettle then turned in his arms to face him. Riley was almost the double of Ryan, who was his older half-brother, but she saw past that. They were two completely different men and best of all, Riley was completely legitimate and had never been involved in the gangster lifestyle. However his profession was still dangerous - he was a soldier in the SAS but he had already handed in his resignation and had less than a year to serve, but he had to return to his unit in two days. Beth was terrified that something would happen to him that would stop them from living the life together that they’d planned, the life she had the feeling would be so amazing.