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

“Oh God,” he sighed.

“Luckily for you, you’ll be staying at Pulse,” Faith told Kevin. “Vance will be the one helping Caleb with this place.”

“Thank Christ for that,” muttered Kevin.

“I love eighties music,” enthused Abi.

“The refurbishment starts tomorrow,” said Faith. “It’ll only take a week, the changes are just cosmetic and then we’ll have the launch party. All the tickets have sold out.”

“Oh my God,” breathed Caleb.

“You can handle it,” Vance told him, patting his shoulder. “You’re ready for this.”

“Cheers,” he replied with a nervous smile.

“Me and Michael are coming,” said Abi. “So if you need us, we can help out.”

“I appreciate that.”

“I’ll be here too for opening night,” Faith told him. “Kev and Jason will be running Pulse that night.” She stared hard at her two younger brothers. “So no getting pissed and no shagging women in the toilets. You’ll need to be on the ball.”

“We will be, no worries,” replied Jason. “And me and Kev have found the new storage place for the product.”

“If you say it’s a couple of streets from a police station I will lock you in a cupboard,” Vance told them.

“It’s not. Actually, it’s slap-bang in the middle of the town centre with dodgy people coming and going all the time, not wanting to be noticed by anyone.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” said Caleb when Kevin paused dramatically.

“It’s a porn shop,” he grinned, very pleased with himself.

“As in adult entertainment?” said Vance.

“Oh yeah,” he said, smiled broadening. “It’s only selling for eighty five thousand on an online auction, meaning we can buy it through a business name, so it won’t be linked to us. But that’s not the best thing.”

“It’s still got all its stock inside,” exclaimed Jason, unable to contain himself.

“I wanted to say that bit,” frowned Kevin.

“Fair’s fair. You told the rest of it.”

Kevin scowled at his brother before looking to the rest of his siblings. “They couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take it all on, so they decided to sell it with the building.”

“Urgh,” frowned Abi.

“Let me guess,” Caleb said to Kevin. “You’d like to run that shop?”

“Well, I won’t object if you’re offering, even though I have plenty of women now. I don’t need porn anymore.”

“Anymore?” said Vance with a raised eyebrow, making him blush.

“Anyway,” Kevin hastily continued. “The auction’s tomorrow and I think we should bid on it.”

“It’s a good idea,” said Faith. “I’ll run it past Jules, she’ll be the one paying for it. But I won’t be going in for a look around.”

“Why not?” said Caleb.

“It would look weird a woman going into a porn shop.”

“Women use those places too.”

“Actually, I think it’s definitely more of a male-dominated environment. Enjoy yourselves boys,” she grinned at her brothers.

“Faith’s right,” said Abi. “Those places are disgusting. I’m not going anywhere near it.”

“I hate to think what Mum would say if she finds out we’re running a porn shop,” said Jason.

“Then we need to make sure she doesn’t find out,” said Faith with a pointed look at him.

He blushed and looked down at the floor.

“I’ll call Jules,” said Faith.

Her siblings all listened as she phoned the fearsome queen of Manchester, who found the fact that they wanted to use a porn shop to store the product hilarious. Jules approved the idea and said she’d happily bid on it, so Faith could leave the auction in her hands. Jules also informed her that Raven was still trying to get hold of her adopted father, Nik, who made the flash devices the robbers had used on their men. Apparently he had a fondness for travelling and was good at staying off the grid. At least they’d found new premises to store the product. That was one less thing to worry about. Now they had to find whoever had robbed them.

“I think we should follow the trail of the hydraulic door breacher,” Faith told her siblings when she ended the call. “It’s an unusual piece of kit and someone might remember it.”

“You can order them online from abroad,” said Vance. “If they did then we’ll have no chance of tracing it and they’re only available in this country to police and rescue services.”

“Rescue services,” breathed Faith. “Do you remember two weeks ago the fire alarm went off at Pulse at the busiest time on a Friday night and we had to evacuate? There was no fire and we never did find out why the alarm went off. We were so concerned with getting everyone out that we didn’t even think to keep an eye on what the firefighters were doing.”

They stared at each other as realisation struck them all at once.

“What if someone set off the alarm on purpose so we’d all clear out, leaving them free to search the building?” said Vance.

“Exactly,” said Faith. “We didn’t even think twice. Everyone trusts a fireman. Actually, make that firefighters because one of them was female, just like one of the people who attacked our men at the vault.”

“We were outside a good twenty minutes while they checked the building,” said Caleb. “And no one was allowed back in until they’d said it was safe.”

“What if we’ve blamed the wrong emergency service for the robbery?” said Faith anxiously.

“Corrupt coppers I can understand,” said Caleb. “But corrupt firefighters? You never hear of that.”

“Why not?” said Vance. “They’re in the perfect position to pull off a robbery. No one questions them when they charge in somewhere and they can keep everyone out until they’re finished. They can knock down doors and break windows and who’s going to accuse the heroes of the hour when something goes missing? They could have searched the office while everyone waited outside on the pavement like lemons and we wouldn’t