The Greek Tycoon Box Set: The Complete Serial: Books 1-10 (36 page)

“You must be crazy,” said Sam.
 

“Yeah, but what about Tom?” Brian said. “You heard it.”

He hadn’t carried out the plan as they’d arranged at all.
 

“Yeah, well, forget the hotel. We can still get as much money out of these guys as we can,” Macauley said. “Give them some pain they’ll never forget and they’ll happily hand over a few mil.”
 

He laughed as he watched the Swanson-Jessups, their mouths gagged.

“No,” said Brian. “This has gone way too far.”

“Look,” Richie said impatiently. “You’re a newbie getting your feet wet. You’re scared. That happens to everyone on their first job. Then you get over it.”

Macauley laughed again.
 

“When you see the money you get over it, that’s for sure.”

“So shut up and drive,” Richie said. “Ten miles ‘til we turn off.”

But when they got to the road leading off the highway toward the service station, Brian took it. The whole vehicle filled with anger as the three other kidnappers hollered at him with expletives and venom.

When they reached the roundabout, Brian brought the car to an abrupt halt and jumped out.
 

“You wanna do it so much? You bloody drive.”

And then he sprinted away toward the huge car park and the service station. There was a hotel, and a motorway restaurant, and a huge complex, probably filled with fast food, arcades, and small stores. When he got a little closer, he turned around. The people carrier was gone. He couldn’t be involved in that anymore. There was no way he was going to prison for the rest of his life.

When he got near enough, he slowed down, trying to blend in with everyone else. He watched as families chomped down fries at the outdoor tables and friendly salespeople sold breakdown insurance coverage at the entrance. Suddenly, he felt like an alien. He had always felt different, ever since he was a child. He felt somehow disconnected and distant from other people, but now he felt like a completely different species altogether. These people were so normal, doing such normal evening activities. He had just come from a kidnapping.
 

A kidnapping.

He walked through the glass doors and watched kids messing around on the gaming machines, laughing. A young couple cozied together, drinking from the same milkshake with two straws. Brian felt so empty, and joined the McDonald’s line. He felt like stuffing his face.

He didn’t want to people watch much more, but there wasn’t anything else to do. Young women sold cosmetics a little way off, in the hallway between the stores. And, though it was too far away to hear, Brian watched a teenage girl obviously begging her mother to be able to try some. The mother looked reluctant but eventually agreed. One of the cosmetic-selling girls dabbed some eyeshadow on the teenage girl’s eyes, spending a long time sweeping the right colors together. When she held up a mirror, the teenager squealed and grinned from ear to ear. After a little more begging, the teenager was striding out with her own cosmetics bag, looking like she was on top of the world.

Brian had no idea why that particular scene affected him. Normally, the only time he would watch young women for any extended period of time was to imagine sleeping with them. But, he’d just seen something so
human
, so far away from what he had become. And, there in the McDonalds line, just about to order a feast to try and fill his emptiness, he decided he did not like the person he’d turned into. He needed to change.

*****

Sam was at the wheel, swinging the people carrier back onto the motorway.
 

“Cool it, you maniac!” Macauley hollered. “You have to drive calm. Don’t give the police any reason to stop you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sam said. “But the quicker we get you know where the quicker we extract our money.”

Richie’s voice was sharp.
 

“You attract any attention, then you’re dead as well.”

Sam slowed right down after that.

The Swanson-Jessups sat in the very back, terrified. They were tied to the headrests of the seat in front by their wrists, twisted into a painful position, but had interlaced the fingers of their free hands together.

“And you’ll be dead if you don’t share your fortune,” Richie said to them. “So I’d be remembering my PIN numbers if I were you.”

*****

Chapter 3

“Wait here, darling,” Atreus said to Carla as the paramedics rushed into the hallway and attended to Tom.
 

Atreus had an idea.

Vaulting the stairs by twos, it took him only moments to get back into the CCTV control room. He plugged back in the screens and pressed the reverse button he’d tried before. Zooming in on the driveway camera, he managed to get it to reverse even faster, by pressing the same button he’d guessed earlier.

And there it was.

There was a vehicle, which, instead of turning up into the drive, drove along the dirt track behind the bushes. A dark blue people carrier. And there was the registration number—the pot of gold he’d been looking for: RV10 NMA.
 

He heard the police siren then, the squad cars coming up the drive after the ambulance. He knew what he had to do.

Just as fast as he came up the stairs, he went back down them. Emergency professionals in their fluorescent jackets had changed the feel of the scene. At first, it had all been elegant, then hellish, now safe. Carla was apologizing profusely to the guests and he was so proud of her for holding it together.
 

The ambulance crew began hauling Tom out to go to hospital, though Atreus was glad to see that he was cuffed to the bar of the stretcher. Police took statements from witnesses. Atreus went over to the toughest looking officer standing by the door, hoping he was someone with a bit of authority.

“I have information about the kidnapping vehicle. I want to come with you and track it down.”
 

He felt like it was all his own personal responsibility to see this thing resolved.

The man’s face was grave.
 

“Tell me what you know.”

“I have the registration: RV10 NMA. And it came out from the drive to go south.”

Immediately, the policeman pressed his radio.
 

“RV10 NMA. Suspected vehicle of kidnapping incident at Westling House, Kostas Hotel Group.”
 

Then he turned out of the main door and went down the steps.
 

Atreus hurried after him.
 

“I can come with you?”

The policeman nodded.

Atreus rang Carla as they got in the police car, even though she was only a few steps away—he didn’t want to miss his opportunity.
 

“Baby, I’m going in the police car to track them down.”

“Are you sure?”

“Certain,” he said. “Don’t worry about me, just keep yourself safe.”
 

All of a sudden he had images of the whole place blowing up, of masked men storming the hotel, but he tried to put them to the back of his mind. There was present danger.

He got in the passenger side and the car screeched out of the driveway.
 

“Tell me about RV10 NMA,” the policeman said into his radio. “Tell me about it.”

“I’m just running it now,” the woman’s voice came out of the radio. “A Vauxhall Meriva in dark blue.”

“Does that match what you saw on camera?” he asked Atreus.

“Yes.”

“Who does it belong to?” the policeman asked.

“Amos Car Rental.”

The policeman pulled a jubilant corner onto the southbound road.
 

“Excellent. It will be tracked. Run that through the system. If it’s not ours, find out what security company they use. We can find this vehicle right now.”

Atreus sat on the edge of his seat, feeling the weight of his responsibility. When he was younger, he’d considered being a policeman, but too much corruption in the force had put him off.
 

The policeman did not talk to him at all but drove with a stern face on the southbound road. Atreus hoped they were heading in the right direction, and that the criminals hadn’t taken a detour in another direction. He wondered where they were headed.

Eventually, the policeman’s radio crackled back into life.
 

“Yes, the vehicle has been located. Traveling down the M83 coming towards Junction 10. You may proceed with signals.”

“Send backup.”

He clicked a button and all of a sudden Atreus could see their blue lights flashing into the darkness around them. The siren whirred and the policeman stepped on the accelerator. They hurtled forward at alarming speed, but the policeman’s attention was fixed on the street.

They turned down a few streets until they came onto the freeway. It was evening in the middle of a sparsely populated part of Scotland, so it was mostly empty, leaving them to speed through freely.
 

When Atreus’ eyes were not glued to the road, trying to see if he could spot the Meriva, he looked up at the road signs they passed. Junction 12. Two more junctions to go, but by the time they got there, the Meriva would be even further away. He willed the policeman to go even faster.

Atreus went on—watching and glancing and wishing—until they got closer.

“Where are they now?” the policeman asked the radio.

“Just after Junction 9.”

The gap was getting smaller. Atreus felt his heart flip in his chest. The traffic became thicker but the policeman sped down the hard shoulder, followed by a couple other squad cars that joined the chase. Soon, they’d passed Junction 9.

“Where now?”

“Approaching Junction 8.”

The policeman gripped the steering wheel.
 

“Keep your eyes open.”

Atreus studied every car they passed, wishing it wasn’t so dark and hard to see.

RV10 NMA, RV10 NMA
, he kept repeating in his head.

And then he saw it.
 

“RV10 NMA!” he shouted, pointing toward the Meriva over in the fast lane.

“Yes!” the policeman said, his voice full of adrenaline.
 

He beeped the horn and quickly crossed from the hard shoulder across each lane until he reached the fast lane and was right behind the dark blue Meriva.

The sirens blared and he beeped the horn over and over but the Meriva was not stopping. If anything, it was getting faster. Other traffic fell back as the Meriva sped ahead and the police cars followed in hot pursuit. One of the police cars swerved into the next lane and sped right up until they were parallel with the dark blue people carrier.

Atreus watched, his pulse thumping, as the car pulled out in front of the Meriva, and the others took up the position beside it, boxing the people carrier in. He glanced over at the speedometer, which read 90 mph. The vehicles were all in such close proximity that one wrong move and they would all die.
 

Slowly, though, they managed to take the speed down and Atreus felt a sense of cautious victory from the policeman when he looked over at him.

And then, miraculously, it was all over.
 

The police cars at the front halted to a stop, and the Meriva was forced into doing so also. A swarm of police officers jumped out of the cars with a mixture of tasers and guns and batons.

“Stay here,” the officer said to Atreus.
 

Though Atreus wanted nothing more than to jump out and join the action, he knew he couldn’t. So, instead, he watched, with complete and utter relief, as Jules and Felix Swanson-Jessup were led out and untied. Three men he didn’t recognize were lined up against the Meriva and did nothing but hold up their hands.
 

Felix and Jules were a little way away from him, led by a police woman to a car up front, and he watched them embrace for a long time; so long that tears sprung to his eyes. He was glad they were all right. He had no idea if he would have been able to forgive himself if they’d been harmed.

One of the criminals, his face screwed up with bitterness, called out, “There’s someone else, too! Not just us. If we’re gonna get caught, he’s gotta get caught, too!”

“Who?” a policewoman asked, her gun pointed at him.

“Brian. I’ll take you to him.”

And the next thing Atreus knew, this criminal was slapped with handcuffs and led by a policeman into the back of the car in which he sat.

“Atreus Kostas,” he sneered.

Atreus felt absolutely disgusted by this man who went to such lengths for money, but he’d decided a long time ago to treat people well, no matter what they were like, and that wasn’t about to change.
 

“Yes, I am Atreus Kostas. Who are you?”

“None of your damn business,” he replied.

The policeman got back in the driver’s seat.