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

Tariq’s dark brown eyes flashed with indignation. “This dick here asked me if I’d nicked all those drugs,” he said, jabbing a finger at Kevin.

“Who the fuck are you calling a dick you twat?” he retorted.

When the two men squared up to each other, Caleb and Vance rushed to intervene, as did Tariq’s two cousins who had accompanied him, all yelling at each other while Abi rolled her eyes and studied her nails.

Faith shot to her feet, planted her hands on the desk and yelled, “Shut the fuck up.”

All the men stopped squabbling and turned to regard her.

“Tariq, you stand there,” she said, gesturing to one side of the room. “Kev, you stand over there,” she added, gesturing to the opposite side. “And if I hear any more arguing I’m going to get really pissed off.”

“Sorry Faith,” said Tariq. “But I didn’t touch those drugs.”

“I know you didn’t and Kevin was wrong to suggest you did.”

She raised her eyebrow at Kevin when he opened his mouth to retort before deciding she wasn’t in the mood to hear it and closing it again.

“Well, that’s all right then,” muttered Tariq with an indignant tilt of the head.

“Although we do think whoever is responsible could possibly be local,” said Faith. “So far our contacts haven’t come up with anything. We wondered if you’d heard something about any newcomers?”

“No, nothing. Everything’s been pretty quiet lately.”

“That does seem to be the general consensus.”

“But I will tell you one thing – when I get hold of who did it I’ll cut off their bollocks and feed them to the fish. I was due to get a big payday from that shipment. My mum wants a new conservatory and I was going to get her one.”

“You’ll still get your payday Tariq, don’t worry because we’re going to get the product back.”

“How?”

“We’ve already got a few leads we’re looking into and we need to keep watch at every nightclub and pub in the town in case someone new starts dealing.”

“Surely they wouldn’t be stupid enough to deal our own product right under our noses?” said Caleb.

“They might be, especially if they’re local.”

“Or they could have a contact they’re going to move it onto.”

“And we have to stop that from happening.”

“If they had a buyer lined up they might have moved it on already,” said Vance.

“Bastards,” hissed Tariq, hands curling into fists. Finally he noticed Abi, who was obeying orders and standing quietly at the back of the room. “All right gorgeous? Are you still with that lanky streak of piss?”

“If you mean Michael, yes I am and we’re engaged now,” she said, flashing her engagement ring.

“I don’t know what you see in him.”

“He’s sweet, kind, gentle and clever. The complete opposite to you.”

“If we could stick to the topic please,” sighed Faith, her patience slipping. Sometimes it felt like she was running a nursery.

“I’ve sent my lads to see what they can find out,” said Tariq.

“You did tell them to be discreet, didn’t you? We don’t want the whole town knowing we’ve been done over.”

“Course I did. I sent Azad and Bashir. They’re both clever and they can be subtle. Unlike you, eh Kabir?” he grinned, nudging one of his cousins. “Kabir likes to hit people in the face with bricks. Not very subtle,” he chuckled.

Kabir’s response was a disdainfully arched eyebrow.

“Who are they starting with?” Faith asked Tariq.

“My uncle’s restaurant on the front. He hears a lot of things.”

“How does he hear things?” said Jason.

Tariq’s look was withering. “With his ears.”

“I mean why would he hear anything about nicked drugs? He’s legit. And his food is amazing.”

“I know. He’s always been a great chef,” said Tariq proudly. “But he runs a takeaway service and his people see things when delivering the orders.”

“How?” said Jason. “And don’t say with their eyes. How can they see things while delivering curries?”

“Because they’re out at night, watching and looking.”

“You mean gathering intelligence for your uncle,” Faith told Tariq. “We know he sells information, for the right price.”

“Oh,” said Tariq, for the first time looking a little nervous.

“Don’t worry,” she said, the corner of her mouth lifting into a smile. “We only know because he’s sold us information in the past. Nice of you to keep it to yourself though.”

“Only because he asked me to,” he retorted. “I wasn’t trying to pull a fast one.”

Faith decided not to respond to that comment. “And who else are your people asking?”

“The owners of the chippy on King Street. They’ve got their fingers in a load of dodgy pies. If someone wanted to offload a lot of drugs quickly, they’d snap their hands off and they’ve got the cash to pay.”

“They’d be able to pay out four hundred grand?”

“Not that much but I doubt whoever took it would offload it all in one go, it would attract too much attention. It would be smarter to sell it in smaller bundles and sell them off cheap to get rid of them quickly.”

“That’s a good point Tariq,” she said thoughtfully. “But I think they’ll want to get rid of them quicker than that, before we can catch up with them and take the product back. They might have a buyer lined up, so who else would have the cash?”

“Maybe Mickey Gunning? He lives like a pig but that’s because he’s so tight and stashes away his money.”

“He’s been arrested and he won’t be getting out any time soon.”

“What if he was the buyer?” said Vance. “And now he’s been nicked, whoever stole the product from us has nowhere to sell it.”

Faith sat up straighter in her seat. “Dillon worked for Mickey and he worked for us and Dillon stole