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

was examined by another doctor, who said she could go home. Eagerly she showered, shampooing her hair twice, which still wasn’t enough to eradicate the smell of smoke and finally she was reunited with Vance outside her hospital room, who was coming down the hall towards her. She wondered if she looked as weak and exhausted as he did.

He smiled and hugged her, ignoring the way Rose’s eyes glittered with anger and a little fear but he didn’t care. He needed to feel her safe and well in his arms. The others didn’t think there was anything strange about it. They were just two siblings embracing each other after going through an ordeal together.

“You ready to get out of here?” he smiled down at Faith.

“More than.”

The family left together and Caleb and Jason drove them all back to the safehouse in their cars.

“You both do look unwell,” Rose told Faith and Vance as they slumped onto separate couches.

“I’ll be fine,” mumbled Faith.

“Me too,” yawned Vance.

“There’s been some developments,” said Caleb. “You need to be brought up to speed.”

“Developments?” said Faith, looking a little more alert.

“Mum, Michael, why don’t you wait in the other room?” Caleb told them.

Michael had been a little put out at first to be constantly lumped in with his future mother-in-law but now he was glad because he didn’t want to know what was happening, although he was very afraid for Abi. He didn’t like how increasingly she was being dragged into all this but he was keeping his objections to himself, for now. The family had enough going on. However, he had noticed something odd about Rose lately. The others had missed it because they were so preoccupied with just trying to stay alive but because he’d been spending so much time with her it was more obvious to him. Rose seemed to be becoming resentful towards her two eldest children. There was a spite in her eyes every time she looked at them, it was almost as though she was afraid of them but he didn’t think she was physically afraid. He couldn’t quite work it out but something was definitely wrong. When they’d been told that Faith and Vance had been trapped in a fire, she’d seemed almost disappointed when she’d heard they’d escaped at the last moment and she hadn’t seemed too eager to visit them in hospital. The only thing he could think of was that they had some sort of hold over her but what hold could make a mother wish her own children dead?

Michael had considered confiding in Abi but she was already under so much pressure and he didn’t want to pile any more on her. He would keep it to himself and keep a close eye on Rose.

“First of all,” Caleb told his siblings. “My contact got back to me about Adam’s phone. He managed to find a few text messages but that was it as it had been so badly damaged in the crash. He sent them on to me and from what I can make out Adam was there to lure you both into a trap.”

“That was the first kidnap attempt?” said Faith.

“It seems so, only they weren’t expecting you to kidnap him instead.”

“But I brought the car around to the back of the pub alone. They could have taken me then. I wouldn’t have stood a chance against the four of them.”

Panic shot through Vance as he realised his own actions had put Faith at risk.

“They didn’t have eyes on you,” said Caleb. “Adam was supposed to send them a message when the time was right. They were waiting on the next street. They probably didn’t want to ruin their squeaky clean reputations by being seen outside such a notorious pub. When Adam didn’t send that message, they must have worked out what had happened. Either that or they saw you drive away from the pub and figured it out when they couldn’t get hold of Adam. The number Adam texted was untraceable.”

He then went on to relate to them everything Matthew had discovered.

“I called Jules,” continued Caleb. “She said she would leave the decision of whether to open Eclectic tonight to us.”

“She still wants to see how we’ll handle this,” said Faith.

“So, should we open?”

“Do we want to risk hundreds of people’s lives?” said Vance.

“But Matthew said the other fighters were dead against setting fire to the place,” said Caleb.

“What if Amanda decides to do it off her own back?”

“What would be the point? She needs her crew but they might try some other form of sabotage.”

“You’re in charge of Eclectic, Caleb,” said Faith. “The final decision is yours.”

“Shouldn’t it be all our decision? We’re all going to be there.”

“Whatever you decide we’ll support you but the choice is yours.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” said Kevin.

“In this business we’ll all have to make tough decisions, so the sooner you get used to it the better.”

“All right,” said Caleb, taking a deep breath. “If we cancel then we’ll lose a ton of money, damage our reputation and piss off a lot of people and Ben and his crew might not even make a move. However, if we do open and they do make a move then we could put people’s lives at risk.” His eyes lit up. “Or we could ensure they’re too busy to bother us.”

The corner of Faith’s mouth lifted into a smile. She knew he’d see the right path. “How do we do that?”

“We start a fire.”

CHAPTER 21

 

Faith didn’t really feel up to spending the evening in a busy nightclub but she wanted to be there to support her brother on his big night and to protect their family’s reputation. She sat at a table in the VIP room of Eclectic nursing an orange juice, feeling