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

“He won’t cooperate with that,” said Vance.

“Then we make him,” she replied, making her brothers smile.

CHAPTER 23

Caleb’s friend Bryan was, in Faith’s opinion, a sleaze. He’d homed in on her the moment she’d walked through the door, not seeming to care that she was flanked by her two big, hefty brothers. He wore a migraine-inducing leopard print shirt, open at the chest with a gold medallion to reveal greying chest hair, which didn’t match the badly-dyed black hair on his head. His teeth were dazzling and his skin orange. Faith’s assessment of him was a sad, lonely man going through a midlife crisis, desperately clinging onto the delusion that he was still in his twenties. But he seemed genuinely pleased to see Caleb and the two clearly got on well.

They chatted with Bryan in his poky office behind reception, which was only big enough for three chairs. When he told Faith she could sit on his knee, her gaze was so cold he hastily looked down at the floor.

“I suppose I could let you have the run of the place,” said Bryan slowly, a little puzzled by the request. “But why?”

“We can’t tell you,” said Caleb. “I know this is a big ask but we’ll look after the place and lock up behind us and we’ll pay you well.”

“How much?”

Bryan’s eyes bulged at the enormous wad of cash Vance tossed onto his desk.

“Err….,” began Bryan before trailing off, speechless.

“And we brought an extra gift,” said Caleb, adding a generous bag of cocaine to the pile of money. “To show our appreciation.”

“Well,” smiled Bryan. “How could I refuse such generous gifts? Just please don’t damage the place, will you?” He knew better than to ask why they wanted to use his premises. He was well aware of what this family was involved in. “I just need to know one thing – you don’t want to use it for storage, do you? Because this is my business, it took years to build up…”

“Nothing like that Bryan, I promise. It’s just for tonight, that’s all.”

“Oh,” he said with a breath of relief. “Well, yeah, go on then but any damage and you fix it.”

“Deal.”

The two men shook on it, Bryan grinning from ear to ear. “I’m in for a good night tonight at the strip club.”

Faith tried not to grimace at the thought of him pawing some poor half-naked young girl. “And don’t tell anyone about this,” she said. “Ever.”

Her tone was so icy it made him shiver. “I won’t,” he said. “I’m not stupid.”

“No, I don’t think you are,” she said with another hard look, just to remind him of who he was dealing with.

They left Bryan happily stacking his money and drugs into his safe on the agreement that they would come back just after closing time. Vance took with him a map of the building from the reception desk and they returned to the safehouse. The others had already returned from the hotel and Abi was regaling Rose with her grand plans for the reception, the cost of which rather seemed to alarm Michael.

“Don’t worry,” Faith told him, patting his shoulder. “We’ve got it covered.”

“Thanks,” he said, relieved. “But please try to talk her out of gold-dipped eucalyptus leaves, jewelled stationery and gold plates.”

“That’s what she’s seriously considering?”

“The wedding planner at the hotel put all sorts of daft ideas in her head. If we take her advice both our families will be left bankrupt.”

“Don’t you worry. I’ll knock all that nonsense out of her.”

Abi darted out of the kitchen where she’d been talking ten to the dozen at her mother. “Michael, tell Mum about the roaming peacocks we can hire to wander about the gardens. Oh hi Faith, I’ve got loads to tell you about the wedding. We’ve been given a ton of new ideas, haven’t we babe?”

“Yeah,” replied a reluctant Michael. “Loads.”

“There’s a sand sculptor who can create a sculpture in the shape of a dolphin. I love dolphins.”

“So does Jason,” sniggered Kevin.

“I’ll catch up with you in a bit about it,” Faith told her sister. “We’ve some business to discuss.”

“No worries,” she beamed, looking radiantly happy.

Michael gave Faith a pleading look as he was dragged into the kitchen and the door was closed.

“Poor sod,” commented Jason as Faith returned to the living room to join the rest of her siblings. “He really has no idea what he’s letting himself in for marrying her.”

“That’s his problem,” said Vance. “We’ve come up with a way to trap the firefighters and we need to do it tonight.”

He related the plan to Kevin and Jason, whose eyes grew wider with eagerness the more he spoke.

“Great plan,” said Jason. “And I know that place. A mate of mine had his stag do there.”

“His stag do?” frowned Vance. “How old was the groom, sixteen?”

“No, he was twenty three and it’s for grown-ups too, not just little kids. We were all a bit pissed actually when we played. Two of my mates ran into each other in the dark and nearly knocked each other out. It can get a bit disorientating in there with all the lasers going off and the darkness.”

“Something else we can use to our advantage,” said Faith.

“We’re going to shoot them with laser guns?” grinned Kevin. “Let’s get the bastards right in the eyes.”

“We want to warn them off, not blind them.”

Vance spread out the map of the facility on the coffee table. “What’s most important is that we split them up and confuse them without doing the same to ourselves, so one of us will need to be in the control booth, or whatever it’s called, controlling the lights as well