The Alphabet Game the Complete Alpha Series a to X, Y, Z (35 page)

‘I love a big cock,’ says Ronnie, ‘and I’m all wet and ready cos you tied me up which is just what I like. Now are you going to untie me so I can play?

He saunters up to her. ‘Any funny stuff and I’ll slit his throat,’ he points to Col. ‘My mate’ll be back in a minute so I need to hurry up. He leans over Ronnie and sticks his tongue down her throat. She kisses him back hard. I can’t believe what I’m seeing; what is she doing? He reaches over to untie her hands. The minute she’s free she pulls him over her, fixing her arms around him and twisting his arm behind his back and then she knees him straight in the face. As he drops to the floor, she gets up from the chair and drops straight on him pinning him by the arm.

I gasp.

She spits on the floor. ‘Gross. The biggest cock is on your head honey.’

He lifts his head slightly and even though its with a grimace, he sneers. ‘Yeah, what you gonna do now bitch? Your friends are still tied up and Gaz’ll be back soon.’

‘Shucks, hmmm, let me see.’ Ronnie bites on her lip, ‘Erm, this.’

She wraps her arm around his neck and holding her hand in her other palm she pulls until Bleach-head is unconscious. Then she gets up and unties us.

‘Just wh-what the fuck happened? Forget it. Right now I have no words.’ I tell her.

Ronnie quickly slips her belt off her trousers and ties Bleach-head with it. ‘Stupid fucker didn’t tie me very tight. My arms didn’t go dead.’ She then phones the police and an ambulance. Col has gone into shock, he looks clammy and his breathing is rapid. She rushes back over to him and sits at the side of him, cradling his head.

I pull out my phone and check my messages. There’s one from my mother saying she’s about to leave the hospital. I quickly text her. Then I remember.

‘Gabe. Gabe got knocked down.’ I yelp, covering my mouth with my hands.

‘Go find out what’s happening, I’ll deal with this here.’ She says.

I look at her.

‘I said go.’

I get up, legs wobbling, I’m not sure I can move. ‘Ronnie. I don’t know what that shit was you pulled but thank you. You saved all our lives.’

‘Had a crush on a martial arts expert, attended far too many classes and never even got to first base. Now go.’

I drag myself out of the door and get my phone back out to phone a taxi.

‘Stella darling,’ a voice drawls as a man walks from my apartment building, ‘so glad you could make it.’

Chapter 8

My hands fall to my sides. ‘The police are on their way Arnie.’

He smirks, ‘To do what? Certainly not to arrest me. Shame about that failed armed robbery in the coffee shop.’

‘I’m going to see Gabe.’

‘No point there love, you’re wasting your time.’ He draws waves in the air, ‘Beep, beep, beep,’ then he draws a flat line, ‘boooooooooooop.’

‘No, no!’ I lift my hand up to pummel him, ‘you are lying, you sick and utter bastard. He is not dead. He’s not.’

He grabs my arm and I feel a hint of something sharp needling at my back. ‘Oh darling, I don’t know how he is, last I heard he’d been taken to the hospital, but the look on your face, well it fair melted my heart then.’ He cocks his head to the side. ‘Young love. Now let’s get up to your apartment, I believe we have some unfinished business.’

‘Ronnie will send the police.’

‘Ronnie won’t know where the fuck you are will she? Now it just so happens that I’ve arranged for a rather nasty unfortunate accident to happen to you, so lets go, time’s a wasting.’

I feel a sharp point through my clothing and realise he has a knife as cold presses against my flesh. I have my baby to think of, so I do as he says and go with him to my apartment, buying myself time.

My apartment smells fusty after being closed up.

‘Let’s go on the balcony,’ says Arnie, his eyes lit with amusement.

I look at him through gritted teeth. ‘I’d prefer to stay here, if it’s all the same to you.’

‘Fine, let’s sit here for now and have a little chat.’ He indicates the seat.

‘Thank you for allowing me to sit on my own sofa.’ I snipe.

‘Still with the mouth. Thought you’d be begging for your life round about now.’

‘You’ll not kill me, you wouldn’t want to upset my mother.’

There’s a quick tensing of his body, then he sits back. ‘Oh, she’ll get over it in time, like she did your father.’

‘Why did you never go after Mitch?’

‘Mitch has been far more useful to me alive, close enough where I could keep an eye on you all. It would have looked a bit suspicious if I’d killed them both wouldn’t it?’ He stretches his arms across the back of the sofa. ‘Eventually your mother will come to her senses and realise she’s mine.’

‘Never. She loves Mitch.’

‘Well, I’m proposing a little deal to Mitch, just like we’re good at. He gets to keep Samuel, as long as he stays in the states with him.’

‘My mum would move.’

‘That’s not the deal. The deal will be that he leaves your mother. Otherwise, little Samuel can come and live with his father.’ He claps his hands together. ‘Wouldn’t that be nice?’

‘I don’t get this Arnie? You have a thing for young girls, so how does my mother fit in? Isn’t she too old?’

‘Do you know how old your mother was when I first met her?’

‘No.’

‘Thirteen. She was beautiful. I was fifteen.’ He licks his lips. ‘The things I wanted to do to her. That’s what I imagine when I touch those young girls. I imagine they’re your mother.’ His face lights up with a strange smirk.

‘You’re sick in the head.’

‘Maybe so. Perhaps that’s why the thought of ensuring you plunge to your death is turning me on too.’

I look towards the balcony, tightening my grip on the sofa. I want to put my hand across my stomach but I daren’t. I’ve got to do something and fast. I try what I saw Ronnie do and pull Arnie across me. It shocks him, but he’s too fast for me and has me in an arm lock before I know it.

‘Stupid, silly girl. Time to go.’

He pushes me towards the balcony. The doors are unlocked and he opens them easily with one arm. I know one thing. If I’m going, I shall do my damnedest to take him with me.

‘Arnie, people will see you push me over.’

‘Well of course they would normally, but that’s not going to happen.’ He whispers in my ear, making my flesh crawl. ‘I had someone come in earlier this week and loosen the railing. We’re going to argue and then unfortunately you are going to step back and fall to your death. Splat. Oops.’

He pushes me through the door onto the balcony. I try and drag my feet, but he’s too strong.

‘Any last words, Stella dear?’

‘I have some,’ says my mother, ‘and the first are take your hands off my daughter.’

I see Arnie’s mouth widen into a smile as the realisation my mother is here hits him.

‘Francesca, my love.’ He keeps a firm grip of my arm.

‘Arnie, has it really come to this?’

‘Your daughter’s tried to ruin me. I’m sorry but she went too far. She has to pay.’

My mother’s voice is strong, almost unrecognisable to me. A sound I haven’t heard since my father died and she protected me. ‘You said you’d never hurt me; yet I find out you were responsible for Brian’s death and now you want to hurt my daughter.’

Arnie looks guilty, ‘You were never meant to know about Brian. He wasn’t good enough for you. I was coming you know, to look after you, but Mitch got there first. He always did have to be first.’

‘Oh don’t start with that competition crap again. There was never a competition for me. Now let my daughter go Arnie, because if you hurt her I will
never
be yours.’

‘But she’s getting in the way.’

‘What if I promise she’ll not do anything else? She’ll go and live a quiet life, just her, Gabe and the baby.’

‘Baby?’ He looks at me appalled. I look at him with a smirk on my face.

‘Yes, surprise. Now you’re trying to kill her daughter and her grandchild. Not fancying your chances as a date Arnie.’

He looks back at her. His face absolved of tension. He appears childlike as he looks down, but addresses my mother. ‘I’ll spare them both, but only if you’ll agree to be with me, Francesca.’ He looks up at her and smiles. It’s like the weird smile of a clown. ‘It’s all I’ve ever wanted, all along. Just you. Me and you. It’s how it should have been, right from the start.’

‘Fine, Arnie. You win. You get me. That’s why I came here anyway.’

Arnie’s eyes darken and he tenses again, looking around the area behind my mother. ‘How did you know we were here?’

‘I texted her from the coffee shop.’ I tell him. ‘I told her I was just leaving and was coming to the hospital. Mum was there.’

‘You were in the hospital?’

‘I fainted when we found out about Isabel.’

‘Oh.’ He looks at my mother, waiting to see what she’ll say next.

‘When you didn’t turn up I came over. The police were all over the coffee shop. Ronnie said you’d been left a while. I decided to check your apartment. Thank God I did. There was no need for any of this Arnie.’ She moves closer and touches his arm. ‘If you’d just told me how you felt at the beginning, instead of playing silly games, I could have been yours. I might never have met Brian. I’m here now. Let Stella go and I’ll stay.’

‘Really?’ His lips part and he touches my mother’s face with his other hand.

‘Really.’

‘Leave us Stella please. We need to be private.’ He says. It’s like I’m no longer there.

As he lets go of me, I race past my mother, towards the door. Then I realise I can’t leave her with this madman. I stay close around the back of the curtain and quickly text Ronnie to get the police up here. I watch as my mother takes Arnie’s face in her hands and begins to kiss him, passionately. He loses himself into the moment. They move waltz-like whilst they kiss. His hands slither around her back. My mum fists her hands in his hair and he groans in ecstasy. The sound disgusts me. My mum breaks the kiss and I see him look at her adoringly.

‘See how good we are together.’

‘I do. Lets take off this shirt, shall we?’

For a moment I think I’m going to bear witness to my mother starting to make love with this psycho, but as she helps Arnie remove his arms from his shirt, she steps forward again to kiss him. As he gives himself up into the kiss, Arnie doesn’t realise what she’s done until he feels the railing pressed into his back. He looks at her bewildered,

‘Fran?’ His voice sounds like a little boy who’s disappointed his mother.

‘Oops,’ she says and I know she heard every word he said.

Arnie tries to clutch onto my mother to get his balance but she steps away. The railing can’t hold him and breaks off with a creak, Arnie disappears from view, following it to the path below. There’s a sickening thud.

My mum looks at me. ‘There’s been a terrible accident Stella, call the police.’

‘Already done, they’re on their way.’

She nods.

We are taken to Ronnie’s flat while the scenes of crime people access my apartment. A paramedic assesses me for the after effects of the chloroform. Statements are taken. My mother tells the police about how he’s been blackmailing them for years. I tell them that he said he’d had the railing doctored so I would fall to my death. The tape is found behind the counter in the coffee shop, bleach-head not having managed to get it to Arnie.

I’ve still not been able to find out how Gabe is, but a Police Officer leaves to find out for me.

When the Officer returns I almost can’t bear to listen.

‘Broken rib, cuts and bruises. He’s had a very lucky escape. They’re keeping him overnight for observation because he hit his head.’

I exhale, ‘So he’s okay?’

‘He’s okay. You can relax about him.’

I smile, hand splayed across my chest as I try and regulate my breathing.

‘My daughter’s pregnant,’ says my mother. ‘Shouldn’t she be checked out with what she’s been through?’

The police officer looks at me sternly. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant Miss Mulroney? Yes, I’ll get that organised, make sure the little one is okay.’

As I’m escorted into a police car, I pass Ronnie.

‘What the fuck happened? They won’t tell me anything.’

‘Arnie’s dead.’

Her eyes widen

‘I’ll explain later. I’m off to the hospital for a check up.’

She nods, ‘Good, are you feeling okay?’

‘I don’t know how I feel Ronnie.’

‘Stupid question. Col’s at the hospital too. I’ll be making my way over there soon.’

‘Gabe’s okay, cuts, bruises and a broken rib. I’m going to go see him.’

‘Is it over Stella?’ she asks.

‘I think so.’ I answer and get into the police car.