Rise and Fall (9 page)

A few cars up from the Escort, Reagan could see a woman from an upstairs flat getting into a little red Mini. He had bumped into her on a few occasions when he had been leaving the flat but she always ignored him and on the rare time when she had seemed to notice him she had come across like she had been looking down her nose at him; the kind of look that told him in no uncertain terms that she was way out of his league. He knew that he would never stand a chance with someone like her, and even though she looked at him like he was worthless, he couldn’t help but fancy her. Watching her bend over through the driver’s door, she leant over to the passenger’s side to place her bag on the floor. Reagan smiled to himself as he watched her skirt ride up high, above her toned thighs revealing her peach of an arse and the tiniest thong he had ever set his eyes on; talk about flash the gash, that girl was fit. 

As he watched the girl get into her car and drive off, Reagan remembered that he was supposed to be looking out of the window for a reason. Giving the street a final once-over, he saw that the rest of the cars were parked up like normal and there didn’t seem to be anyone else about. And as for a ‘posh motor with blacked-out windows’, there was nothing that fit that description. Either it had been out there earlier and had gone, or Tyler’s imagination had once again run away with itself. Reagan had a feeling that it was probably the latter.

Closing the blinds, Reagan turned and gave Tyler a clout around the back of his head that sent the yelping boy flying across the room, landing in a heap on the floor. Reagan sat down, rolling his eyes to Jerell, who had turned to see what the crash was; clearly he had been listening to the whole charade the entire time, as Reagan had suspected that he would be.

“You got to seriously stop making up stories, boy,” Jerell bellowed. “Ain’t you heard of the boy who cried wolf?” Jerell’s voice always seemed to boom out when he spoke; his Jamaican accent was rich and deep and only added to the air of menace around him. Jerell remembered the story well, it was one of his grandma’s favourite tales, and she had used it on more than one occasion when Jerell was a boy. He may have told a few lies back when he was a young boy, but Tyler was on a scale of his own and he was pushing his luck. Jerell had no patience for this type of shit; he couldn’t understand why this boy felt the need to make up so many lies.

“No-one gunna believe a word that comes from your lying mouth, if you keep spouting this made-up shit all the time.” Tyler couldn’t be trusted: he was just a stupid little boy with a big mouth, and his mouth was going to land him in a whole lot of trouble. Jerell wasn’t prepared to risk being dragged into the boy’s dramas any longer. “Reagan, get the boy out of here now, before I teach him where his lies are gunna get him.” Jerell spoke calmly, but Reagan recognised the anger flashing in his eyes; he was getting accustomed to Jerell’s low-tolerance level. It was like the man had a built-in bullshit detector.

“Oh please, Jerell, honestly I was telling the truth, I swear on my life I was.” Tyler felt a flush of embarrassment, as his cheeks flared a deep crimson, as he desperately tried to stop the tears that stung his eyes from falling. Being a liar was one thing, but getting himself the reputation of a cry-baby would be something he would never be capable of living down; the boys round here would rip him to pieces. He had loved helping Jerell and Reagan out these past few months and could not imagine not being part of their world. This place had kept him busy and given him a purpose, and even though he had more money than he knew what to do with for a kid his age, he didn’t care about the cash, he just wanted to be part of something; anything to keep him away from his shitty existence back at home. He avoided his home like the plague. His mum had no time for him, and in the very few rare moments that she did acknowledge him, she did nothing but shout abuse at him, telling him what a loser he was and that he would never amount to anything. It hurt Tyler that his own mother was like that, he had seen how his friends’ mums were towards their kids, and even as stressed-out and as tested as they were by them, they were nowhere near as nasty as his mum was to him. She hated him, and as much as he tried to hate her back, he just couldn’t find it in him. 

These boys had become a family to him in the last few months, and Jerell and Reagan had given him a glimpse of another way of life: he was gutted that he had messed it up.

“I’m sorry, Jerell, I really am, I know I sometimes tell lies, but I won’t anymore, I promise. Please don’t make me go,” Tyler pleaded.

Jerell leant back in his chair and glared at Tyler. The boy was short for his age and looked younger than his twelve years. Unlike many of the other boys who hung out around here, Tyler’s tough guy attitude didn’t really cut it, he couldn’t carry it off. The boy was too soft. He needed toughening up. Jerell could see that Tyler was desperate to be given one more chance; he would do anything to redeem himself. Looking at the pathetic boy before him, Jerell couldn’t help himself. Getting up from his seat, he clicked his fingers towards the sofa, indicating to Tyler to sit. “Reagan, you take the boys and go make tonight’s drops. Me and Tyler here are gunna have a little conversation about a few things, the boy needs to learn a thing or two about where his lies are gunna get him.”

Reagan didn’t like the way that Jerell was looking at the boy; he could see anger in Jerell’s face, but something else, which was more sinister, flashed there too. He looked like a man possessed, and even though Reagan felt uneasy about leaving Tyler alone with Jerell he knew that he would be a fool to get involved. Jerell called the shots around here, so Reagan giving his five pence worth wouldn’t have gone down well at all; he figured that he should just do as he was told. Getting up quickly, sensing the bad atmosphere that Tyler had created, the lads gathered their jackets so that they could go and meet Louise to collect the gear ready for tonight’s drops. Reagan, who was going with them, also got up. He glanced over in Tyler’s direction as he walked towards the front door, reluctant to leave. Tyler sat back on the sofa; he seemed to have calmed down. The silly boy was looking relieved, perhaps in his assumption that he had won Jerell over as he had been told that he could stay. Sitting there all smug, thinking that Jerell was going to have a chat with him and it would all be okay: how gullible could he be? 

Reagan felt the bile rise up from his stomach, he had a bad feeling.

Nodding to Jerell as he left, but unable to meet his eyes or speak, knowing that if he opened his mouth he wouldn’t be capable of finding words, he closed the front door, leaving Tyler to his fate. 

Tyler was so young and naive. Reagan knew, if his instincts were right, that in just a short space of time, Jerell would ruin the poor boy’s life. 

Seeing the glare of the headlights of Gary’s Jaguar behind them, Gavin and Shay couldn’t have been more chuffed with the timing. They had both been desperate for a proper smoke all day, and had lit up another sneaky joint as soon as Gary had finally gone off to get food with the others, and now they both had the severe munchies. Gavin had insisted that they had to hurry up as they took turns taking drags, knowing that it wouldn’t have gone down too well if Gary found out that they had both been smoking a bit of gear whilst on the job. The stuff that Gavin got was always shit-hot, and because they had both hurriedly taken long, swift pulls on the joint, the drug had gone straight to their heads, and Shay was starting to feel so laid back he was almost horizontal. The day had dragged on, and even though they knew that Gary would go mental if he caught them, it had been a risk they had both been willing to take, anything to help relieve the boredom of sitting in the car for the last eight hours solid.

Pulling up beside them, Gary unwound his window, and passed the two men four big cheeseburgers he had picked up from the drive-thru. “Anything?” he asked, nodding in the direction of the flat.

Taking the food and praying that Gary couldn’t smell the gear they had just smoked, Shay replied: “Still no sign of Jerell, boss. Three older boys came out about ten minutes ago, but that nosey little kid who was eyeing your car up earlier is still inside, we think.“ Sighing as he spoke, Shay couldn’t hide his disappointment that the evening was shaping up to be just as uneventful as the day had been. He unwrapped one of the burgers, unable to wait any longer for his food. The monster-sized breakfast he had consumed this morning felt like it had been days ago.

“Yeah, looks like it might only be the boy in there, boss,” Gavin added. “But I’d put money on Jerell being in there too; judging by the comings and goings today, it seems like this could be their main base. Maybe he’s keeping a low profile and getting everyone else to do his dirty work for him today, so that he can stay put.”

Gary agreed with this assumption. Jerell had to be in there; otherwise their entire day had been a complete waste of time. “I think we should make our move now, Gary,” Jamie suggested, sensing that the flat was the quietest it had been that day. For all they knew, there could be fifty boys in there, but they had staked the place out for over eight hours now, and it seemed that most of the kids that had all gone in there throughout the day had come back out again. They knew that the young boy that had come up to the car window earlier was still in there, but he had only looked about eleven or twelve, so as long as he didn’t get in the way of business, he was hardly going to be a problem. 

“Sit tight, boys, we’ll let you know what’s happening in a bit,” Gary instructed Shay and Gavin, before he drove off back to the other end of the street, aware that two cars sitting side by side blocking the road were more than likely going to draw attention; they could carry on this conversation over the phone when Gary had decided what the next step was. Jamie was right, the flat was probably at its quietest right now, and the chances that Jerell would be showing his ugly mug were slim. They would have to go in: and do it now while they had their chance.

After agreeing on what they needed to do, Jamie rang Shay and told him and Gavin to keep watching the street while they went in. If any kids looked like they were approaching the flat, Gavin and Shay were to distract them. 

“What do you mean: distract them? How the hell are we going to do that, Jamie?” Shay didn’t like the idea that he and Gavin might have to approach a group of rowdy kids. Having sat here all day and watched the little buggers swarming around the neighbourhood like a bunch of ASBO rejects, he didn’t fancy provoking any kind of an argument with any of them. Gavin, on the other hand, would be likely start a fight with the little shits for the pure entertainment value. Shay prayed that for his sake, keeping watch would be all he would have to do.

“Just do whatever you bloody need to do, but you don’t let anyone get within twenty feet of that front door, alright?” It pissed Jamie off that Shay was making a big deal about keeping watch, as it was Jamie who was putting his neck on the line by going into the flat to face Jerell; the way that Shay was talking, you would have thought he was sorting out the situation single-handed.

Getting out of the car quickly and taking the guns out of the boot, the three men made their way to the flat; they needed to move fast, as they probably didn’t have much time.

Les was lagging behind the other two; he was out of breath trying to keep up. He had strict instructions that once Jamie and Gary had got inside the flat, he was to guard the front door. No-one was to come in or out other than them. They had given him a gun , but Les had been assured it was just for show; it was loaded, but there was no way that he was going to have to actually use it, Jamie and Gary would have the situation under control.

Jamie had imagined the flat to be like Fort Knox, but standing outside the rickety-looking front door he had been surprised to see that it didn’t look like it had been reinforced. Giving Gary the eye to check that they were good to go, Jamie kicked his size-eleven boot hard into the middle panel of the door. Luckily, the door flung open, crashing into the wall behind it so fast that it swung back and hit Jamie with its full force as he rushed straight inside, with Gary following closely behind him. 

The men bursting into the room startled Jerell. He had been otherwise occupied with the boy kneeling in front of him. 

Before the men had come in, Jerell had forced Tyler to take his erect penis in his mouth and pleasure him. Grabbing the boy’s hair tightly with his huge fists, and deliberately pulling harder to hurt him, Jerell had thrust his penis so far down Tyler’s throat that it had made the boy gag. Jerell hadn’t had this kind of pleasure since he had arrived here in England and the boy's warm mouth covering his throbbing dick made him feel like he was ready to explode. Tyler was the type of boy that Jerell liked. All the crying and the choking only made him appear younger and more vulnerable.  

Thrusting into the boy’s mouth, enjoying the gagging noises, Jerell had been on the brink of coming as the front door crashed open. Pushing the naked boy away abruptly, Jerell pulled up his trousers as he reached over to grab his gun from the table next to the chair.

The men had their guns pointed at Jerell’s head. They were stunned by what they saw. Seeing Jerell pulling up his trousers, and a poor sobbing boy trying to conceal his naked body from them as he pulled his jeans on, Jamie felt sickened. Gary scanned the room and noted that it seemed to be only Jerell and the boy in here.  

The men’s shocked reactions gave Jerell the extra few seconds of thinking time he needed. Limited in his options, he quickly grabbed a now shaking Tyler by his throat, and lifted him up off the chair, almost strangling him, and pressed his gun hard into the boy’s forehead. 

 Jerell hoped that they didn't intended to shoot the kid too or his last-ditch attempt to stop them from shooting him by using Tyler as a shield wouldn’t help him.

“What you want coming in here?” Jerell bellowed at the two men. 

Gary looked at Jamie; they couldn’t shoot the man while he had a gun to the kid’s head, chances were that he would end up getting his brains blown out too and neither of them wanted an innocent child’s blood on their hands.