Blood Ties (57 page)

The Sarge hovered at my side the whole time we waited and whenever I turned around, he was there in front of me, in my way. But instead of finding his constant presence smothering as I should have, I found it strangely reassuring. I paced up and down anxiously, biting my nails down to a ragged edge. Finally they were ready to start and everyone was allowed to enter the courtroom, leaving Joanna and me outside. I waited nervously until I was called by the bailiff to enter the court.

It was a magistrate’s court, with the gallery open to the public and as I’d feared, a crowd of Bycrafts had gathered in force to show support for their four kinsmen. The hostility radiating from them towards me was intimidating, concentrated as it was in such a small room. You would have thought that I’d be used to it after a lifetime of their abuse, but I was particularly tense today and it needled me. They hissed threatening and obscene things to me as I made my awkward way down the aisle to the front of the courtroom to be sworn in by the bailiff in the witness box. I looked over at the public gallery then and appreciated the support of Fiona and the Sarge. And yes, even Bum’s hulking presence gave me some comfort because despite being an obnoxious meathead, ultimately he was on my side.

The Sarge later told me that when the court officials brought in the four men through the main doors, the Bycrafts cheered and shouted, encouraging them to strut and grin cockily in response. They were all dressed neatly in suits for the occasion, freshly shaven and hair combed. Jake’s aunt, Valerie Bycraft, in court to support her two monsters, Al and Grae, started weeping uncontrollably before anything had even happened. A dry-eyed, hard-faced Lola Bycraft had rushed down to hug Red tightly, clinging to his arms and whispering in his ear, before being pulled away from him by the court security. He’d always been her favourite, being her firstborn.

The Sarge told me that the judge had ordered quiet in the courtroom, but it still took a few minutes before the Bycrafts settled down, only the threat of being forcibly removed inclining them towards finally becoming silent. The hearing had proceeded as normal. The charges had been read out, the men, as expected, all pleaded not guilty and the defence lawyer requested bail. Pinky had opposed bail vehemently on the grounds of the seriousness of the attack, the clear intent to assault, the ongoing threat to me, and specifically for Red, the fact that he was already on parole when the assault occurred.

As I stood in the witness stand, Red’s amused reptilian eyes remained set on me the whole time, his lazy confident smile threatening to derail my barely-held calm demeanour. Whenever I felt it slipping away, I looked over at the Sarge and Fiona, who smiled or nodded supportively at me, and I regained it again. The judge listened politely to my evidence, regarded my injuries with a grave face, shaking his head with obvious sympathy, asked me a few clarifying questions, and my ordeal was over. Red winked at me, kissed the air and waggled his tongue indecently as I approached the men to leave the courtroom.

I did what I was good at and I blanked him, not making eye contact nor giving any indication I’d seen what he’d done. That was my mistake, because I should have kept a close watch on him the whole way. As I walked past him, a loud clatter broke the hush in the courtroom and someone from the gallery called my name in panic. I think it might have been the Sarge. I glanced up at him, but the next thing I knew, a strong arm was crushing my throat and I was hauled backwards up against a man’s hard body. A prick of something sharp in my neck drew some blood and a trickle of it tickled me as it meandered down towards my chest, reminding me of my dream the night before. Instinctively I reached for my knife, but of course I wasn’t wearing it.

The three police officers in the courtroom with me all jumped to their feet in alarm, hands on their guns. Court security stiffened in alertness, their hands heading for their buzzers.

“Nobody do anything reckless,” warned a voice. My instant emotion after the initial shock was fear, because Red Bycraft finally had his hands on me. “If you do, I’ll be forced to do something awful to our lovely Tessie and I would just hate to have to do that after everything else she’s suffered.” His low, dirty laugh gave immediate lie to that statement.

He leaned his head down and licked the blood from my neck with unhurried relish, giving another laugh as he did. The touch of his tongue on my skin made me shudder with disgust.

“Mmm, I can’t get enough of my lovely piglet’s blood. I need more.” He turned to his brother. “Karl! Haul arse!”

He took the hand holding the knife away from me for a second, tightening his grip around my neck in compensation. He shook his sleeve and another knife fell to the floor from his suit. Karl swooped down and picked it up. Where the hell did they get the knives?

Red was choking me so hard that I was struggling to breathe. I fought against him, tearing at his arm with my hands, trying to loosen his grip and lashing out wildly, kicking backwards at his legs with my boot in desperation. He merely laughed in response and jabbed me hard enough in the neck with the knife that I thought twice about continuing. The trickle of blood had turned into a creek.

“I will slit your throat right here in front of everyone if you don’t start behaving yourself, Tessie,” he whispered in my ear. “Is that how you want to die? It’s not how I want you to die. It’s not how I plan for you to die.”

I stopped struggling and concentrated on calming myself down, because I was in danger of hyperventilating with fear. I centred my thinking – my safety was up to me now, nobody else. My life was in my hands and my hands only. That was a lesson hard learned from my tough-as-nails ex-SAS martial arts teacher during my teenage years and I’d never forgotten anything he’d ever said to me. Not one word.

Karl pulled my handcuffs from my belt and clapped my wrists together at my front, then retrieved my gun, handing it to Red, who swapped it for his knife. Karl handed Red’s knife down the line to Al, leaving only Grae unarmed.

“Listen up, people!” Red shouted to the court. “Officer Tess here has kindly agreed to act as our hostage to help us escape. What a fucking sweetie.”

He kissed the side of my mouth and dropped his hand from my throat down to cup my right breast. I recoiled with revulsion at his intimate touch, making him laugh again.

“You are all going to back off and give us plenty of freedom to get out of this place. Let me make myself clear – any heroics will cost Tessie her life. On the other hand, getting out of here without any bother will put me in such a good mood that you might even get her back alive. Badly roughed up and fucked half to death for sure, but still alive.”

His deep, evil chuckle threatened to turn my bones to jelly. He kneaded my breast ungently, squeezing my nipple hard between his fingers. I tensed, shutting my eyes, trying not to react. But then he bit me hard on the shoulder, near my neck. I flinched, involuntarily crying out loudly in pain, and he laughed once more. He loved to get a response from me.

Red suddenly twisted, shoving me forward to the back of the courtroom, towards the judge’s door. Karl yanked on the handcuffs from the front as well, and I stumbled as my feet tripped over each other in my boots. Red’s arm tightening around my neck was the only thing that stopped me from falling to the ground. I choked, spluttering in despair, trying to draw oxygen into my lungs.

“Stop . . .” I gasped. I wouldn’t beg though. Not him. Never.

He righted me and released his arm enough for me to draw in huge gulps of wonderful, beautiful, welcome oxygen.

“Careful Tessie,” he whispered warningly in my ear. “You don’t want me thinking that you’re trying to escape, do you?”

My eyes roamed the room frantically and images flashed into my view as we moved together – the judge’s scared immobile face; Fiona furiously yelling into her phone; a pale, grim-faced Sarge moving forward stealthily, his gun trained on us, tracking us as we went. Bum appeared confused as usual looking around him frowning; the court security officers seethed with frustration; Lola Bycraft grinned from ear to ear; Rosie Bycraft stood watching, a self-satisfied smile on her lips; Valerie Bycraft still wept; while Dorrie Lebutt and Rick Bycraft tongue-kissed each other, oblivious to everyone else. Other Bycrafts were merely a blur of cheering faces and waving arms.

The five of us left the courtroom in a huddle and moved into a hallway running along the back of the courthouse. To the right were the judge’s chambers and other offices, to the left the exit to the back carpark that was reserved for staff only. We went left, followed at a distance by the Sarge, Fiona, Bum and the court security.

We stepped outside the courthouse just in time for Greg Bycraft to pull up in one family member’s rattly clunker. I was too tense and panicky to identify whose it was at that moment, but it was old and rusty like all of them. He left the keys in the ignition, engine running and jumped out, clapping his brothers Al and Grae on the shoulders, laughing with admiring approval at his relatives’ daring escape. Greg spat on me in contempt as he disappeared around the front of the courthouse, his spittle dripping off my chin onto my shirt. “Make sure you give her a dose of hard cock for me,” were his parting words, thrown over his shoulder. “The bitch has been asking for it for years.”

There was one thing I was sure of at this moment that would prove fatally hazardous to my life expectancy, and that was for me to get into a car with four Bycraft men. I simply wasn’t going to do it, even if it meant that they killed me right here in this carpark, this afternoon. I’d rather be killed in an honest fight in front of witnesses than be repeatedly gang raped and tortured to death by them, my body dumped somewhere afterwards like a piece of garbage.

I thought sadly of Dad and Jake, of Abe, Romi and Toni, of Miss Chooky and my other hens, and of my girlfriends. I was going to miss my life.

I sent a silent prayer up to my mother and Nana Fuller who had both died trying to protect me and to my friend Marcelle, who’d died in my place, telling them I’d see them soon. I only hoped that they all thought I’d acquitted myself in life to a standard worthy of their own sacrifices. I’d fought the Bycrafts like a demon because of them and I’d been a cat with nine lives, but it seemed that today all my lives were finally up. By God though, I was going out with a fight and maybe I’d be able to take one or two of those Bycraft bastards with me as I went.

The others had come to the door by then and I could hear sirens sounding in the distance. They would be too late to save me. I looked over and smiled sorrowfully at Fiona – she had always been a good friend to me. I nodded at Bum and exchanged a regretful glance with the Sarge, noting with some surprise the fierce expression of frustrated distress on his face. I’d never get to know him better now, would never know if I liked him or not, whether we made a good team. I winked at him, wishing I hadn’t been so quick to judge him. He winked in return and turned his back on me, as if unable to face what was coming.

My phone rang. “Let me get that, Red,” I begged. “It’s Jakey. He promised he’d ring me after my testimony. It might be the last time I ever get to speak to him.”

He hesitated.

“Please,” I begged, hating myself.

He glanced at his relatives.

“Think of how upset he’ll be not to speak to me for the last time,” I cajoled desperately. “He’ll never forgive you.”

Everybody in the Bycraft family loved Jake unreservedly and Red was no different. Jake didn’t backstab his relatives, didn’t sleep with his brothers’ partners, didn’t cheat his family members and was always there if someone needed help. He’d helped Red out hundreds of times with no expectation (or hope) of return. He was the family’s golden boy and was one of the few of her children that Lola Bycraft genuinely loved. Red wouldn’t want Jake to hate him. Nobody would.

“Make it quick,” he relented, with wary reluctance.

“Can you undo the cuffs?”

“Not going to happen,” he laughed, stroking my cheek with the back of his hand with unexpected gentleness. “Nice try though, lovely.”

Karl let go of the handcuffs and Red covered me closely with his gun as I awkwardly reached into my pocket with my clamped hands, pulled out my ringing phone and answered.

“Hello Jakey,” I said in my most loving voice, trying to control the tremble in my voice. “Yes, I’m with Red and the other guys. No, I’m okay. For now. I’m sure they’ll look after me well.” Red snorted with laughter. “I love you too, honey-boy . . . What? . . . Oh, okay.”

I looked up at Red, holding out my phone. “Jakey wants to talk to you.”

Biting back his impatience to get moving, Red took the phone and answered. “What do you want, Jakey? Hello? . . . What? . . . Who the
fuck
is this?”

While he was momentarily distracted, I rammed my body into him as hard as I could, knocking him off his feet and the gun out of his hand. I made a run for it, kicking out viciously at Grae who tried to grab me and just dodging Al who slashed out at me with his knife. I vaulted and rolled over the bonnet of the nearest parked car, landing hard on my side, winded, my heart pounding.

“You fucking bitch! You
lied
to me!” Red screamed, jumping up and retrieving the gun, hurling the phone in my general direction, oddly upset by my deceit. The phone bounced off the car, frightening me with the noise and leaving a small dent behind in the roof. I hoped the Sarge had hung up before he copped that racket in his ear.

Duck-walking with some difficulty and keeping low, I edged along the side of the car before standing up and dashing quickly to one further away. Red shot wildly at me as I ran, rage twisting his face. He missed me by miles, the bullet smashing into the windscreen of a small white Barina, parked at the opposite end of the carpark from me. He was a terrible shot and there were going to be some pissed off car owners around after he was finished today.