In Her Secret Fantasy (17 page)

“He’s an ex-cop,” Len intervened. “Why don’t you leave him to me now you’ve softened him up? He’ll tell me, and I’ll get the stuff back. Then I can pay you.”

“You didn’t do so well before,” the enforcer sneered. “Why are you so keen to be the one who finds my heroin?”

“It happened on my turf,” Len said with dignity.

Wanker.

“Give him a few minutes. Then we’ll throw some water over him. I haven’t got days to waste beating up this cop. We need a change of tactics. Find his phone. Give me it.”

Aidan didn’t like the sound of that. He played dead as long as he could. He let them take his phone from his jeans pocket without twitching a muscle. He even let them throw water over him before he opened his eyes, spluttering.

“Welcome back, Mr. Grieve. Do stand up. It’s a mark of respect.”

They hauled him to his feet. Everywhere hurt.

The enforcer smiled at him. “You don’t give in easily to physical punishment. I like that.”

Aidan swallowed. That hurt too. “I hate it when you like me. Bad things happen.”

“Make them stop. Tell me where my heroin is.”

Aidan lifted one forearm, rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign for pay up.

“Still so stupid? You must know I won’t pay for what’s already mine.”

“Make
him
pay.” Aidan jerked his head at Len.

“Then he won’t be able to pay
me
. I don’t lose, Mr. Grieve. And I always carry out my threats. Ask any of the boys here.”

Aidan didn’t need to. He believed him.

“So when I say that I won’t let my men beat you anymore, you may believe me. You appear to be the type who responds better to threats made against other people.” He smiled, holding up Aidan’s phone, which one of the thugs had taken. “Your phone doesn’t switch it on.”

It did when you knew how.

“Out of charge,” Aidan said. “Or perhaps your man broke it.”

“I was going to use it to find a few names that might mean something to you. Wife, mother, girlfriend. But, of course, I don’t need your phone when I have your friend here.”

Len, who’d clearly caught on and wished he’d thought of threatening Aidan’s women instead of Aidan himself, smiled nervously.

“I believe his parents and his sister live at the Bed and Breakfast five minutes’ walk away,” Len said at once.

Aidan didn’t prevent his horror pouring into his face.

“Wife? Girlfriend?” the enforcer pursued. Clearly a man who liked options. “The girl who left as we arrived, perhaps.”

“Chrissy Lennox,” Len said at once, contempt seeping into his voice. “She lives at the big house. He’s fucking her, but I don’t know if you can grace her with the term girlfriend.”

“You can.” Aidan lifted his head to meet Len’s gaze. “She’s my girlfriend.”

Len’s eyes widened as if he finally got that he was marked, even if he got out of his jam with the South Americans. The enforcer, however, was all smiles.

“Bring the sister and the girlfriend,” he said. “Do it quietly. I don’t want any screaming.”

The thugs still lined up in front of the door wall, nodded and turned to go.

“No,” Aidan said at once. “No, don’t. Wait.”

“For what?” the enforcer asked in a bored voice. The thugs didn’t even pause. They were halfway up to the deck.

Aidan threw himself forward in his captors’ hold. “It’s on the beach! The heroin’s on the beach. I hid it in a cave.”

“Which cave?”

The thugs were on deck.

“The third along, walking from here. Just count the ones below head height. The one you want has a narrow passage at the back, leading to a wider cave beyond.”

“Good boy,” the enforcer approved. He snapped his fingers, and the thugs began to clump back down to the cabin. Aidan sagged with relief. With luck, it would be another half hour before he’d have to tell them where it really was.

Chapter Sixteen “You two, stay with him,” the enforcer commanded.

Fuck.
This didn’t suit Aidan at all. He needed to be there when they discovered where the drugs weren’t, to be sure they didn’t go barging back to his parents’ house.

“I’ll show you the way,” Aidan offered. “Won’t that be quicker?”

“Why do you care, suddenly?” the enforcer mocked.

“Because I want you away from my family,” Aidan said steadily.

“You shouldn’t show your weaknesses so easily,” the enforcer said with contempt. “And if you have such weaknesses, don’t shit in your own yard.”

And that, Aidan thought ruefully, was the most sensible thing the bastard had said so far. Why the hell had he agreed to do this job? Because he’d been desperate to get out, to have his resignation accepted without fuss. And, maybe, to protect his own community from bad guys like this. Only he’d imagined they were all up at the big house, that he’d have some measure of control by now. But apart from Len, the others were loose cannons, unknowns.

“Watch him,” the enforcer commanded and led the way out.

“Why the fuck,” Len hissed at him, “didn’t you tell
me
that?”

“I didn’t want you to know.”

Len frowned. “What are you up to?”

“Len!” yelled the enforcer, and Len leapt to it.

Aidan laughed, turning it into a yelp as the thugs threw him into the chair just vacated by their boss. He slumped, panting for breath. One of them laughed, mockingly and ungently patting his face. It wasn’t difficult to feign the pain. In truth, there wasn’t much feigning necessary. But he did play up his weakness while he rested and gathered his strength. He might well need it to take another beating on the beach before the job was done, but right now, he needed to even the odds.

They hadn’t bothered searching the boat. They’d known no one would have been stupid enough to hide anything important either there or in his own home. They certainly wouldn’t have found the missing heroin there, although they might have found the various knives, screwdrivers and hammers which he’d hidden around the cabin.

Aidan took his time, waiting until they lost interest in him and his semiconscious groaning, and stopped watching him to admire the view out of the porthole instead. Only then did he change position, twisting—which hurt like hell—in order to delve one hand down under the cushion he was sitting on. By sod’s law he found the blade of the kitchen knife first and began to draw it slowly out while trying not to cut his fingers to ribbons.

Through the whole process, he watched his captors, who gave him the odd glance to make sure he hadn’t moved or developed a spurt of energy. Clutching one hand to his damaged rib, he closed his eyes and gripped the knife handle down the side of the cushion.

The thugs moved around, separating. After an interchange of views, one went up on deck to see if he could see what was happening on the beach. The other skulked at the cabin entrance, listening for his companion’s report.

There would never be a better chance.

Aidan braced himself for pain and rose from the chair, ignoring the shrieking of his damaged ribs and muscles, and moved swiftly, silently across the floor. It helped that he knew every board, every creak, knowledge he’d absorbed since childhood. In the end, he didn’t need the knife for this one, simply seized the thug by his hair, yanked his head back and smashed it forward off the wall. Aidan caught him and swiped the automatic pistol from his inside pocket before letting him slither gently to the floor. He listened, every sense on full alert.

This was the tricky bit. His pal would come leaping back to see what the thump was. Aidan was hoping to drag him down the stairs and disarm him. He might even have to shoot him because in this state, he wasn’t up to a fight.

But the boat was silent.

His heart drumming, Aidan climbed the steps, peering into the darkness of the space above. Nothing. He paused, his hand on the door, took a deep breath and barged through, gun poised and ready to shoot.

A naked woman was pushing something large—a man—over the side of the boat.

Aidan blinked, but there was too much adrenaline in his system for him to stay stunned. He ran across the deck to the sound of a mighty splash. “What are you doing?”

“I put him in the sea for you,” the naked woman said with a surprisingly nervous smile.

Aidan peered over the side. Sure enough, Number Two Thug was floundering and splashing in there.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Shall I put the other one in too?”

Laughter caught in his breath. Maybe he really was insane. “No, he’s out cold. We’ll leave him. For the police, hopefully.”

Her steady gaze was scanning him with something that looked very like anxiety. “You’re hurt.”

“Got a few thumps. I’ll live.”

To his amazement, she touched his chest, and the pain he’d refused to think about began to fizzle. “I can take the pain away. I can’t heal you unless you come with me.”

“I can’t. I’ve got to chase the bad guys before they hurt anyone else.”

“You mean her.” Her smile seemed difficult. “Go, then.”

“Thank you for this.” He hesitated. “For everything.” For some reason, it seemed the right thing to do to bend and kiss her lips. A kiss of old affection, not love or even sex. And a name slipped into his mind. “Dyrfinna.”

She smiled, her eyes misting. “You do remember…” And then, so fast he barely saw, she flipped backward over the side and into the sea.

Number Two Thug had found her skin, was using it to float. She snatched it from him with casual brutality, shoving him under the water. By the time he bobbed back up, there was only a seal swimming away from him across the harbour.

Aidan ran across the deck and jumped ashore, keeping pace with her along the quay. When he jumped down onto the beach, she was still there.

Round the first bend, in the distance, he could see the angry swarm of men who hadn’t found their heroin. Aidan checked his watch. Maybe, just maybe, Davidson would get here before he had to kill anyone or let the bad guys go free.

He swerved into the cliff, hauling himself up by dubious handholds onto the rising path. A few minutes ago, before Dyrfinna had touched him, he wouldn’t have been able to do that.

Dyrfinna. She’d always been real. His randy teenage self hadn’t been crazy. Or at least, not that crazy. And how amazing that she was still looking out for him. The stark emotion in her fathomless dark eyes prickled his conscience. As if she actually loved him. From the time when he’d been too young and self-obsessed to be capable of much more than giga-lust.

Now… Now there was Chrissy, and everything was different.

He smiled as he jogged silently along the path, trying to imagine a relationship with the selkie. Now that
would
have been a difficult relationship! This with Chrissy was easy—love and fun and lust and need all melded in his heart. He could make it happen.

Right after this tricky situation, which he’d so optimistically engineered.

He could no longer make out the seal in the sea. As he drew closer to the angry men below him on the beach, he moved off the path and climbed downward. It was only a matter of time until he slipped or a stone moved under his feet, so he moved with more attention to speed, his target already picked out. The one who’d been doing the hitting seemed most appropriate.

“This ends now,” the enforcer said grimly, beginning to stride at last back along the beach. “Bring his family to the boat. All of them, and the girl.”

“No need for that,” Aidan called from his rock. Seven heads jerked upwards, staring in shock. “I came to tell you, I made a mistake. The cave’s third from
that
end of the beach, first from the harbour end. He must have hit me too hard.”

And he let go the rock, hurling himself onto his targeted thug, who went down under him like a cuddly toy. It winded Aidan, seeming to shift something in his battered chest, so God knew what it did to the man beneath him. He didn’t wait to find out but delivered a forceful, well placed punch to the chin.

The thug went out like a light, and a sudden racket of metallic clicks told him that the remaining six men all had guns trained on him. He looked over his shoulder to confirm it and raised his hands.

“Sorry. I owed him. Come on, this way.”

Even in the dark, the enforcer’s frown was more baffled than angry. “Where are my men?”

“On the boat. One went for a swim.”

The enforcer walked up to him, hauling him to his feet, shoving the barrel of the gun into his throat. “One more wrong move and I’ll kill more than your family and your woman. A bloodbath in this godforsaken village means nothing to me. Target practice for my men. You get that?”

“I get that. Look, I’m just trying to do a bit of business. Len’s a liability, as you’ll see.”

The enforcer delved into Aidan’s pocket, removed the gun he’d taken from the thug on the boat. Although it was expected, Aidan’s heart sank. He couldn’t shoot anyone sent ahead to terrorize the village, and somehow Aidan knew that wasn’t an empty threat. The man had done such things before. Terror was a forceful weapon.

“Move,” the enforcer commanded. Aidan did. Two of the men dragged the unconscious thug along the beach. The rest surrounded Aidan, pushing and jostling him.

On the roof garden of Ardknocken House, Chrissy said thoughtfully, “If Aidan stays in the police, I suppose he’d be taking a chance on me too. Given my association with ex-cons.”

“Parole officers are still respectable.”

“I’m not a parole officer anymore. I left with my reputation in ribbons. In certain quarters, at least.” She turned her head to gaze at his profile. Now seemed as good a time as any to ask. “
You
took a bit of a chance, asking me to join you here.”

He shrugged. “Didn’t seem like one. I liked the way you did your job. You never talked down to us, just treated us like human beings. Plus…I wanted a bit of the parole officer authority.” His lips twisted. “I liked the guys I wanted to bring here, but let’s face it, they were never pussycats. We needed someone who wouldn’t take any shit, would spot trouble a mile away and deal with it.”

“There’s never
been
any trouble,” she pointed out.
Until now…

“At least some of that’s down to you.”

“I lost a lot of authority,” she remembered, not without bitterness. “In certain circles.”

“Not many. Not with anyone who knew you, or who’d ever met that bastard. I asked you before you were attacked. I came back after because I thought you might want a change.”

“A leg up,” she said. “Like the rest of you.” She refocused her gaze on him, gave a lopsided smile. “I think we’re doing all right. Dragging ourselves and each other up.”

He nodded. “Apart from Len. There’s a lesson there.”

“Maybe we have enough people,” Chrissy mused. “Or maybe we need new guys to be recommended by someone we all trust, for a reason we trust, not just by our own liberal instincts. White collar crime isn’t a guarantee of good behaviour.”

“Far from it. Let’s take each case as it comes up. And be more careful.” He stood restlessly, swinging his arms around him in the cold, and wandering back towards the edge of the roof, hemmed in these days by an iron fence for the safety of Jack and, probably, Screw.

“What were you doing out here anyway?” Chrissy asked belatedly. She’d no idea how long they’d been here, but it came to her the cold was seeping into her bones.

“Just looking,” Glenn said. “The view’s good.”

She followed him over, agreeing. For one thing, from up here there was a better view of the seals’ favoured beach than she got in her own room.

Glenn drew a set of binoculars from his pocket and raised them to his eyes.

“I think there are seals there,” Chrissy said, screwing up her eyes.

“Maybe,” Glenn agreed. He sounded distracted.

“What?”

“I have to go out.” Abruptly, he turned away towards the living room window, but Chrissy grabbed his arm.

“Glenn! What is it?”

He hesitated, then passed her the binoculars. “They’re not seals.”

Almost hidden by the shadows of the cliffs, several men were standing on the beach. They seemed to be dragging two of their number, one of whose hair gleamed bright gold under a sudden swathe of moonlight.

Dizziness swam through her. She had to grasp the fence for support.

“What… Shite, Glenn, what do we do?” she whispered. Her brain felt numb.

He was already walking into the living room. “I’m going down there.”

“Not on your own!” She charged after him.

Although Glenn summoned only the “hard men” who could physically take care of themselves in most situations—and even then warned them they might be breaking their parole—everyone in the house except for Izzy and Jack turned out to join him and Chrissy on the front driveway.

Shuffling into the night, they listened in a huddle to Glenn’s orders.

“Dougie, you and Jim go down into the village, disable the limousine. Archie and Rab go that way too, and head along the beach to meet us. Let’s make it a two-pronged attack. Remember, they’re likely to be armed and trigger happy, and Len’s one of them. Chances are he’s dug up his gun too. Keep your phones on vibrate and keep out of sight unless I say. Remember, Aidan Grieve’s the good guy.”

“Who’d have thought we’d be saving a cop’s life?” Dougie marvelled.

“I don’t know that we are. We’re backup. But if the real cops turn up, we might want to—er—fade into the background. Anyone want to take house duty?”

It was sort of an honourable way out for anyone too appalled by the complications. No one took it. Chrissy hadn’t really expected anyone to.

“All right,” Glenn said. “Go.”

Dougie and his squad ran to the garage for the car. The rest set off through the grounds for the cliff path to the seal beach.

Chrissy, way to the front of the crowd, stopped suddenly to catch her breath and wait for Glenn.

“I need to know,” she said intensely, striding along beside him. “Spill, Glen, everything you know that I don’t.”

“I
don’t
know. I’m only guessing. But it’s like a sting, to nail the supply line and the source, or at least as close to the source as he can get. I’m pretty sure he nicked their heroin from that island to get the attention of someone big and set himself up as the chief suspect so he’d be dragged into the changeover.”