Takedown by Heather Atkinson (latest books to read txt) 📕

“He’ll get an even bigger payday without us taking our cut.”

“And where would he distribute it? He doesn’t have any contacts outside Blackpool and if he did nick it and distribute it here we would be bound to notice.”

“Suppose,” he mumbled.

“Our relationship with Tariq is too profitable for him to mess up and he’s not stupid enough to ruin it with a one-off blag.”

“Where do you want to meet him?”

“Here in a couple of hours. I need to make an important call first.”

“Jules?” said Caleb.

She nodded and took out her phone, her brothers quietly waiting.

“All right babes,” said Jules’s cheerful voice on the other end of the line. “How are things in candyfloss land?”

“Not so good actually.”

Jules immediately picked up on the dour tone in her voice. “Christ, what’s happened?”

“Four hundred grand’s worth of product was nicked from our vault.”

There was a beat of silence followed by a string of expletives so loud Faith winced.

“I’m so sorry Jules,” she said when the impressive tirade finally came to an end.

“Which fucking dead men took it?” she snarled down the line.

“We’re not sure yet but whoever they were, they’re pros.”

Jules’s family had endured a lot of trauma thanks to people trying to take what belonged to her family, so her sympathies were immediately raised. “Bastards,” she hissed.

“We’re not a hundred percent certain yet. It’s only just happened and that’s just conjecture from the footage.”

“I want to see it.”

“I’ll send it over as soon as I hang up. I’m so fucking sorry Jules.”

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist gorgeous, these things happen but you’ve got to get after the bastards and quick and when you find them make sure they’re never able to rip off anyone ever again.”

“You mean…”

“I mean bury them. I know this is a step up from what your family normally gets involved in but anything less will make you look weak and you won’t last five minutes. This isn’t just about protecting your reputations. It’s about protecting your lives.”

“I understand.”

“Good. I’ve every confidence you can pull this off Faith.”

Faith wished she had the same confidence in herself. “Are you going to get involved?”

“No. You lot can handle it and watch your backs. Whoever did this will expect you to come for them.”

“We will. Should I tell our mutual friend?”

“Yes. He might hear something on his grapevine. Keep me informed and chin up babes – you’ve got this.”

With that she rang off, leaving Faith feeling even more depressed.

“Well,” said Caleb. “Is she coming?”

“No, they’re not getting involved. She said we can handle it.” Faith took a deep breath. “She also said that we’ve to bury these bastards. Literally.”

Silence reined as the brothers all looked at each other.

“I’m sorry lads,” she said.

“Why are you sorry?” said Vance.

“Because I got you into this mess and now you’ve got to be involved in murder.”

“This isn’t your fault and we knew it would come to this one day.”

“And it’s nothing new,” said Caleb. “We got into all that with Lenny Paisley.”

“I suppose,” she said glumly.

“Come on sis, snap out of it,” said Jason. “We need you.”

Faith sat up straighter in her seat. Feeling sorry for herself would get them nowhere. “Right, first I want to talk to our men who got beaten up. Vance and Caleb, you’re with me. I want your take on what they have to say. Kev and Jason, call Tariq, arrange a meeting and then get on with finding new storage facilities.”

“Yes boss,” grinned Jason before he and Kevin rushed out, all eagerness.

“At least someone’s enjoying this fuck up,” said Faith. “Right lads, let’s go and see what we can find out.”

CHAPTER 6

Greg Bailey had worked for their family for a few months and had proved himself to be intelligent, quick-thinking and very handy with his fists. Despite being a hard bastard he’d taken a bad beating and he lay in bed, face black and blue, right eye swollen shut, left lower leg encased in plaster. Faith sat by his bedside, Vance and Caleb standing either side of her.

“How are you feeling Greg?” said Faith. “Or is that a stupid question?”

“Sore all over,” he replied. “I don’t think there’s one bit of me they didn’t batter.”

“I’m sorry this happened to you.”

“Not as sorry as I am.”

“You’ll be paid while you recover, we won’t see you go short.”

“Thanks,” he said. “That’s really good of you. I would smile but it hurts too much.”

“We need you to tell us what happened.”

“I’m not too sure to be honest, it happened so fast. The power went and we assumed it was a power cut. I mean, we didn’t think anyone would find that place. We were getting the back-up generator going when they stormed in, we never even heard them and they were on us immediately. They were all trained and they had these round gadget thingies.”

“Gadget thingies?” frowned Caleb.

“I don’t know what they were, I’d never seen anything like them before but when they threw them to the floor light burst out of them, blinding us. It was a relief when I could see again, I can tell you. It hurt so much I thought I’d been blinded.”

Faith forced herself not to react to this statement, despite the fact that it startled her. She knew exactly what those devices were and who made them. It seemed not all the flashes they’d seen on the footage had been made by stun guns. “Did they speak at all?”

“Yeah. They yelled at us to stay the fuck down and they occasionally spoke to each other. They used as few words as possible but their accents were definitely northern.”