Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 02 - Goons 'n' Roses (19 page)

They were going to kill her now? In front of us? Even though I knew we were going to die, my mind had shied away from the details. It wasn’t thinking about blood or gunshot wounds, and had instead developed a craving for a hot chocolate.

Blood roared in my ears and time seemed to slow as Mickey started to lift the barrel of the gun. I saw Boo Boo squeeze his eyes shut and put his hands over his ears. Mum reached out a hand, her mouth opening to scream. Mickey finished lifting the barrel of the gun and as he aimed it at Martine, I dived towards him, flying through the air with my arms stretched out. His finger tightened on the trigger. I was going to be too late. A scream of rage loosened in my chest and burst out of my throat. And then the weirdest thing happened.

One millisecond he was pulling the trigger, and the next he was slumping to the ground with a hole in his head.

I landed on the floor next to him, staring at him with my mouth open. What had happened to his head?

A group of men, dressed in black, burst into the room. They were wearing vests with FBI printed on them. I recognised a couple of them and, well, I knew one of them pretty intimately.

They trained their weapons on the Mafia, most of whom dropped their guns straight away and placed their hands in the air. Barney still held Mum, his weapon pressed tight against her head.

‘Put your weapons down,’ Billy ordered.

The ones that hadn’t already done it, dropped them now and put their hands in the air. A couple of the FBI started cuffing their hands behind their backs.

But Barney hesitated. Still holding the gun at Mum’s temple he stared around the room, a crazy light in his eyes. Then he grinned fiercely and his hand tensed on the gun. There was the sound of a weapon discharging and then Barney collapsed to the ground. The gun fell from his lifeless fingers and clattered across the floor.

‘Holy shit,’ Mum said. ‘What if you’d missed?’

‘Me? Miss?’ Billy said.

I stared at him. I knew my mouth was wide open but I didn’t seem to be able to get it to close.

Holy shit.
He was FBI?

I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry, but mostly I wanted to take him somewhere and finish off what we had started earlier. Hell, I might even use the cable ties again. But this time, I wouldn’t be going
anywhere.

‘I don’t think I’ve seen you speechless before,’ he said, reaching down a hand to help me up.

I climbed to my feet and said, ‘How’d you get free?’

‘You owe me a new bedhead.’

I grinned and said, ‘Well, we’re going to need to replace that.’

‘So we can break it again?’

We’d been moving closer to each other as we spoke and then he pulled me into his arms. I curled into him, enjoying the feeling of safety. It was the first time I had felt safe since Mum had disappeared.

‘Billy?’ Big H was standing in the opening to the dungeon.

‘Hey Dad.’ Billy kept one arm around me as he reached out towards Big H.

Dad?

‘What are you doing here son? I thought you were in New York.’

‘Undercover mission. We’ve been working on a human trafficking case.’

‘How’d you know we were here?’ I said.

‘Like I said, I’ve been watching you.’

I smiled and stood up on my tip toes to kiss him.

‘That and they finally managed to get sound equipment in here,’ Kingy said, coming over to stand next to Billy.

‘What?’ I stopped with my mouth a few inches from Billy’s.

‘They’ve had this place under 24 hour surveillance for weeks, but were unable to get sound equipment inside. Then the other night the two of you,’ Kingy pointed at Martine and me, ‘came racing out of here like crazy women. And they all gave chase.’ He let out a chuckle.

The corner of one side of Billy’s mouth pulled up into his crooked smile. ‘It was the break we needed,’ he said. ‘The bugs we placed have given us the evidence we needed to bring down the whole ring. Plus, we’ve got these goons,’ he gestured towards the Russians, ‘talking about how they tried to finger you for killing Tommy Tiger.’

I stared up at him. ‘You knew he was in my room?’

He gave me a sheepish grin.

‘And you let me think I was going to get caught?’ I could hear my voice going up in pitch and I saw Kingy step back. ‘So who moved the body?’

‘The others.’ He nodded in the direction of some of the FBI that I recognised as being a part of his bikie gang. The wolf-whistler was one of them.

‘I promise I’ll make it up to you,’ he said, leaning towards me. ‘Tonight,’ he whispered in my ear.

‘Huh,’ I said. But if making it up to me meant he was going to do things to my naked, sweaty body that would make my eyes roll back in my head and my toes curl up, well, I was going to
have
to forgive him.

Something Kingy had said stood out in my mind and I managed to drag myself away from my eye-lock with Billy. ‘What do you mean they?’ I said to Kingy. ‘Aren’t you FBI too?’

‘Kingy’s a reporter from Australia,’ Billy said. ‘I met him on an army tour in Afghanistan. He saved my life. So when he came to me with evidence and asked if he could follow us around on this one I couldn’t say no.’

‘So let me get this straight,’ I said pointing at Big H. ‘This is your Dad.’

Billy smiled and shrugged. ‘It’s not like I was the only one keeping secrets. Constable Smith.’

‘Actually,’ I said, ‘it’s
Probationary
Constable.’

‘Little Billy?’ Mum looked up from her embrace with Trent. He had his good arm wrapped around her, holding her tight. ‘You were only thigh high when I saw you last.’ She disengaged from the hug, clinging onto Trent’s hand instead as she moved towards us.

‘Oh goody,’ Hillary said, ‘another fucking re-union.’

Mum reached over and smacked her on the head. Hillary snarled at her and strained her arms, which were firmly cuffed behind her back. For a minute I thought Hillary was going to charge, with or without her arms. There was obviously a lot of bad blood between the two of them.

‘We’re going to need an ambulance,’ one of the other FBI men said to Billy. He poked at some legs that were hanging out of a wall and then looked over at The Rock.

‘Rocky did good?’ The big man asked.

‘Real good buddy, real good,’ Sammy said. He had a black eye and a gash on one cheek, but apart from that he appeared unscathed.

A foul smell wafted through the room and Boo Boo put his hands over his nose and blew a raspberry. A couple of the FBI coughed and hurried back down the hallway to the front door.

‘Enough with the bog fog,’ I said, looking at Crafty.

‘You can’t tell me that didn’t scare the shit out of ya,’ he said in his gravelly voice.

‘Get the others outside,’ Billy said to the wolf-whistler. ‘Start getting their statements. And for goodness’ sake, take him first.’ He pointed a hand at Crafty and shook his head before turning back to Mum. Looking at her thoughtfully he said, ‘I think I remember you. It’s a bit hazy.’

‘You were only five,’ she said. And then she seemed to notice the fact that we had our arms wrapped around each other. ‘You two?’ She pointed a finger back-and-forth between us.

‘He’s the perfect kind of bad,’ I said to her.

He let out a throaty laugh and kissed me on my neck, just below my ear lobe. A shiver ran down my spine and I had to restrain myself from leaping on him and pinning him down. I was
really
looking forward to later.

‘Oh dear,’ she said.

‘Oh dear what?’ I pulled my eyes off Billy’s face and turned to her.

‘Chanel, I think it’s time you met your father.’

I burst out laughing. ‘Good one Mum.’

‘Not Billy.’ She turned towards Big H. ‘Harry,’ she said, ‘I’d like to introduce you to your daughter, Chanel. Chanel, this is Harry.’

‘The man you fell in love with and followed back to Australia?’

She pulled a face. ‘I might have lied about a few of those details.’

I stared at Big H with my mouth open.

‘Chanel?’ he said, staring at Mum. ‘My daughter?’ His mouth opened and closed a couple of times. ‘And you tell me
now
…’

‘To prevent further complications.’

I wasn’t really listening to Mum. Pieces of information she had fed me over the years were flying around inside my head, crashing into each other and disappearing. My Dad had died in a freak circus accident? Bang. He had left Mum for slutty Hilda? Crash. He had never loved Mum, hadn’t cared about me? Gone. All gone.

In its place was new information. My Dad hadn’t known I existed. He might be interested in getting to know me. Hell, he might even learn to love me. I hadn’t thought I cared about not having a father until I realised I had one. Now I wanted him with my whole heart.

And then the real implication of what she was saying struck home. I know, I know, sometimes I take a little while to get there.

I stared up at Billy. The look of horror on his face must have mirrored my own.

‘So that would make Chanel my…’ he said, stopping and swallowing.

‘Half-sister,’ Mum confirmed. ‘You two didn’t do anything you shouldn’t have, did you?’

‘No,’ we both yelped, jumping apart.

Christ.
I had almost gone the whole way with my brother.

I stared at him trying to align the facts. The problem was, even though I’d been told he was my half-brother, that didn’t erase the feelings I had when I looked at him. I still wanted to weld my mouth to his and melt into him, but now, I was never going to get to.

‘OMG,’ Martine said, looking between Billy and me.

Billy had a stunned look on his face. He shook his head rapidly as if trying to dispel something from his mind and then said, ‘Sister?’

Kingy put a hand on his shoulder. ‘That’s too bad man. She was perfect for you.’

‘That’s fucking great,’ I said, anger exploding inside me. I spun to face Mum. ‘You know if you’d just tell me things, this sort of shit would never happen.’

She sighed and shook her head. ‘So you
did
do something?’

‘No. Not really. Maybe a little. Okay, we kissed. And maybe fooled around a little. Look that’s not the point.’ I could feel my face going red and I shot a guilty look at Billy. His biceps bulged delectably as he flexed and un-flexed his fists. His hair was ruffled up from running his hands through it. I wanted to smooth it down and kiss his brow, and run my fingers over those biceps and…

Agggghhhhhh
.

He’s my brother.

I couldn’t fathom it.

‘What
is
the point?’ Mum let go of Trent’s hand and put her fists on her hips.

I smacked myself in the head. ‘You don’t tell me things, and then I end up with egg, no worse than egg.’ I waved my arms around in the air. ‘I end up with
shit
all
over
my
face
!’

‘I’m guessing you don’t mean that literally.’ She looked contrite. ‘I probably should have told you your father was alive. But I don’t see how that would have prevented
this.
’ She waved a hand between Billy and me.

‘I don’t think Chanel is just talking about that,’ Trent said.

‘Yes,’ Martine added. ‘I love you Tess, but you’ve got more secrets than a teenager’s diary.’

‘And I certainly would like to know a few things,’ Harry said.

‘Well, what else do you want to know?’ Mum asked.

‘I want to know everything,’ I said.

‘Fine, ask me. Ask me anything and I’ll tell you the truth.’ She crossed her arms over the front of her body.

‘The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?’

‘So help me God.’

Her words had a feeling of serious finality. I studied her face while I tried to work out what I wanted to know the most. She looked the most serious I’d seen her since she’d shed her housewife shell.

‘All right,’ I finally said. I could see Martine’s eyes alight with curiosity. ‘This one’s for all of us.’ I looked over at Big H, I mean Harry – sigh – I mean my
Dad
and nodded my head. ‘What happened that night?’

‘Do you think we should do this now? The paramedics will be here soon and the boys want to start their investigations.’ She gestured at a couple of the FBI agents who were lounging against the far wall.

I glanced over at them.

‘Don’t mind
us,
’ one of them said. They seemed to be enjoying the show.

I turned back to Mum. I knew if I didn’t pin her down now she’d find a way to wiggle out of it. ‘What happened that night?’ I said again.

‘You’re going to have to be a bit more specific than that,’ she said cagily.

I blew out a big breath of air. ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘What happened the night Lou the Brain disappeared?’
‘Oh,’ she said, her eyes widening in surprise. ‘
That
night.’

**********

I’d like to thank you for reading
Goons ‘n’ Roses.
I had heaps of fun writing it and I hope that translated into the story.

If you enjoyed it, I ask that you give me the gift of an honest review on the site that you bought this. Reviews are important to all authors and I thank you for the time that it takes you.

If you’d like to be notified when my books are released, please go to my website – www.donnajoyusher.com – and subscribe to my New Books’ Release List. You’ll find it on the top right hand side of the page.

Hi there, I’m Donna Joy Usher. I started writing my first novel when I was seven. With no idea about plot or character development (I mean I
was
only seven) my storyline quickly disintegrated into a muddled jumble of boring dialogue between two horses. Disillusioned, I gave up writing stories for quite a while after that. Instead, I concentrated on my studies, eventually graduating as a dentist.

After many years of ‘drilling and filling’ I turned to writing in an effort to escape the seriousness of my day job. During that time I created my first book,
The Seven Steps to Closure
, and discovered that I love nothing more than making other people laugh. Well that, and my husband and two miniature schnauzers, Chloe and Xena.

I currently live near the beach on the beautiful New South Wales Central Coast. When I am not working or writing, I love to paddle board, walk on the beach and sip chai lattes at the local cafe.

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