Authors: JD Nixon
He played the
beam of his light up the stairs, possibly in an attempt to ensure
my safe ascendancy, but it only made my heart pound in fear.
Luckily for me, Marcus had the sense to drag his mother around the
corner of the landing out of the line of vision.
I sprinted up
the stairs and, scared that the lights and cameras would soon be
on, pushed my unwanted guests up the stairs to my flat. Once
inside, I tried to attend to Rose’s injuries. I wanted to call the
police; she wanted to take a shower and go to bed.
“Please, Rose.
Make a complaint with the police before you shower, so they can . .
.” I cast a meaningful nod of my head in Marcus’ direction. “You
know. Do tests to prove things.”
“I won’t be
making a complaint to the police.”
“What?”
“I won’t. You
can’t make me. He’s my husband.”
“Rose. He’s
abused both you and Marcus. You’re not safe with him.”
“He didn’t mean
it.”
“Are you
kidding me?” I twisted my head to the miserable teen in the room
with us. “Marcus, go to my bedroom and shut the door. Your mother
and I have things to discuss.”
“But –”
“
Go!
” I
barked, a little harsher than I meant. He slouched away and I
returned my attention to his mother. “Of course he meant it. He
tied you to the bed and assaulted you. How is there no deliberate
intent in that?”
“You should
understand him. You’re with Heller. You know how these men are.
They’re very dominant.”
“So what? I
would never let Heller beat me up. Or tie me up. You’re making
excuses for Kirnin.”
“He’s my
husband.”
“Big fucking
deal. He’s not treating you like a normal man treats his wife.”
She hung her
head, not able to meet my eyes. “You know how these types of men
are. They do what they want with their women.”
“No, they
don’t. Heller doesn’t beat me up and I’d never let him.” I went
over to sit next to her, grasping her hands. “Rose, what he’s done
to you and Marcus is
assault
. It’s a criminal offence
against you both. He’s disrespected you like no husband and father
should ever do. You need justice. My brother’s a detective and
maybe he can tell us the best way to proceed.”
She leapt to
her feet in agitation. “No police! Are you crazy?”
“Are you?”
“Let me put it
plainly. If I go to the police, he’ll kill me and maybe Marcus
too.”
“That’s why you
need to go to the police! He’s a clear danger to both of you. If
you can’t think of your own happiness, please think about Marcus.
He’s just an innocent boy caught up in this abuse.”
Her face
crumpled with tears. “It’s all Heller’s fault. He ruined
everything.”
“How can you
blame Heller?” I asked in disbelief.
“He’s stolen
all of Chris’ important clients.”
“He didn’t
steal
them. He offered them competitive prices for the same
services. Your husband’s been ripping his clients off for
years.”
She sank back
to the lounge, cradling her face in her palms. “This is like a
nightmare. I just don’t know what to do.”
I sat next to
her and wrapped my arms around her. “The best thing to do is to
think of Marcus’ welfare. He’s a child trapped in the middle of all
this ugliness. You have choices, but he’s at the mercy of the
adults in his life.”
She heaved huge
sobs of despair. “I don’t know what to do.”
“We’re all
overwrought. How about we sleep on it? You and Marcus can share my
bed and I’ll sleep on the lounge.”
“I couldn’t
possibly –”
“I insist. You
can’t go back home tonight.”
She grabbed my
hands and squeezed tightly. “Thank you so much, Tilly. I’ve always
thought that anyone from
Heller’s
was an enemy of ours, but
you’ve been so kind.”
I contemplated
her sadly. “We’re not an enemy. You do know what your husband did
to me, right?”
“No.” Her
puzzlement seemed genuine, but her face suddenly hardened. “Have
you slept with him?”
“
No!
Are
you kidding?” I dropped her hands, drawing back in disgust.
“I’m sorry.
It’s just that there have been a few in the past and you’re young
and pretty.”
“Not me. Never.
He almost killed me and my little friend.”
Neither of us
got a chance to say any more because Marcus came out of the
bedroom. “Have you finished? I’m bored.”
“How about we
watch a movie or some TV and then go to bed,” I yawned. “We can
think about what to do next tomorrow morning.”
I fortified
Rose with a big glass of shiraz and some painkillers and made
Marcus and me a toasted sandwich and a hot chocolate each. We
settled to watch some movie I couldn’t even remember afterwards.
And at a ridiculously early hour we settled down to sleep – Marcus
and Rose in my bedroom, me on the lounge.
I had a
horrible night’s sleep, but didn’t hear a stir from my bedroom. My
mobile rang quite early, waking me from the fitful doze into which
I’d drifted. I checked my clock – 5:15 AM.
“Hello?” I
asked eagerly, expecting it to be Heller.
“I want my
family back, bitch,” someone slurred into my phone.
Chris Kirnin.
I’d know that ugly growl anywhere. Obviously he’d recognised me
from his security camera footage smuggling his family out of his
house.
“Screw you,” I
said and hung up, snuggling back under my blankets. I slept deeply
for a nice hour. My phone rang again.
“You’re going
to regret this. You think you’re clever, but you’re nothing but
Heller’s whore.”
“You should
know how that feels. You’re Heller’s biggest whore.”
“Fuck you, you
barren bitch. You’ll never know what it’s like to have a family.
You’re worthless as a woman, nothing but an average screw hardly
worth the effort of a second fuck.”
That jibe
burned inside me like a hot poker, as it was meant to. I hung up
again, but unsurprisingly further sleep eluded me – just one more
reason to hate Chris Kirnin.
Bleary-eyed, I
made myself a cup of coffee and sat like a zombie on my lounge
sipping it, worrying what on earth I was going to do with Rose and
Marcus. I couldn’t go to Clive or Sid for help, because they’d
condemn me for bringing enemies into the Warehouse. And also,
they’d let Heller know what I’d done. I sure didn’t want to face
that
reprimand.
Why couldn’t
life be less complicated?
I spent the day
skulking about, stealing some of Daniel’s clothes so that Marcus
could have a shower, lending Rose some of mine. I made them
breakfast, I made them lunch. After fending off thirteen offensive
phone calls from Kirnin, I turned their phones off – what they
couldn’t hear couldn’t hurt them. I kept mine on though, in case
Heller rang me.
Miss Petunia
phoned me to enquire, in a decidedly snippy tone, if I would be
honouring the store with my presence anytime today. Seeing another
job opportunity slipping away between my fingers, I had to resign.
I had no idea when I’d be able to go back there, or indeed, if I
even wanted to. I still wasn’t sure if I’d ever been properly
employed there in the first place.
“What are we
going to do now?” asked Rose expectantly, looking up at me with
huge hurting eyes, her bruising stark against her pale skin in the
glaring midday sunlight streaming through my window.
I wanted to
say, “I don’t know”, but I didn’t think that would cheer up anyone.
Instead I distracted them with more food and DVDs. They sat close
together on my lounge, holding hands.
A knock on my
door caused us all to freeze. I shooed the two of them into my
bedroom with a hand gesture and opened the door a crack.
“What’s up,
Danny?”
“Is Niq with
you? I haven’t seen him for hours and I can’t find him anywhere. He
hasn’t been in the office.”
“No. He’s not
with me. I haven’t seen him all day. I’ve been tied up with
something.”
“He’s not
answering his phone either.”
Worry lurched
in my stomach. “Are you sure you’ve checked everywhere?”
“Yes! There
aren’t that many places here to check. Why would he be hiding?”
“Let’s look at
the security footage. Maybe he went out there.” I gestured with my
hand to the window to connote the outer world.
“Good idea.
I’ll ask Sid to retrieve the footage.”
“Hang on, I’ll
come with you.” Leaving him at the door, I ducked back into my
bedroom to tell Rose and Marcus I was disappearing for a while and
for them to stay put.
If Daniel was
suspicious of my strange behaviour, he didn’t show it, all of his
mind on Niq. Though I’d been forbidden from entering the
surveillance section, when he heard why we were there, Sid
reluctantly let me in. He pulled up security footage from seven
this morning, the last time Daniel had seen Niq at breakfast.
He
fast-forwarded through the footage, until we all saw Niq’s
unmistakable small frame, dressed in jeans, runners and a hoodie,
dart out of the Warehouse through the front door.
“There!” Sid
said triumphantly, pointing at the screen.
“Where’s he
going?” asked Daniel.
“Why didn’t he
tell anyone he was going out? And why does he look so furtive?” I
asked as the tiny televised Niq looked around in apparent wariness,
before briskly walking away, his hands shoved in his pockets.
Daniel, Sid and
I all exchanged puzzled glances.
“He didn’t want
anyone to know he was going out, so does that mean he’s gone
someplace he knows we wouldn’t allow him to go?”
“Shopping?”
“Nah,” I
rejected. “He’d ask me if he wanted to go shopping.”
“Where else
would he want to go without telling one of us?”
“Maybe he’s
gone to meet someone?”
“Who? It’s not
like he’s ever met many people.”
“He has
online.”
The penny
dropped at the same time for all of us. “That girl in that game he
likes playing,” Sid said grimly.
“Heller told
him not to have any contact with her until he checked her out.”
“I know he was
growing frustrated with how long Heller was taking to do it,” I
told them.
Sid thumped the
desk. “How could he be so stupid? Heller will be furious.”
“Heller’s not
here, so how he reacts is irrelevant at the moment,” I said flatly.
“We need to deal with this. Ring Niq again and see if he answers
this time.”
Daniel rang and
we all waited, watching his face as he listened to it ring out.
“Why isn’t he answering?” he snapped, hanging up, rare anger
showing in his voice.
Daniel’s phone
rang, startling us. “Hello,” he answered. “Yes, I’ll accept a
reverse charge call. Niq! Where the hell are you? We’ve been
worried sick about you . . . Whoa! Slow down. Not so fast, I can’t
understand you . . . What are you doing there? . . . Can you catch
a bus home? . . . What? All your money and your phone too? . . .
Are you all right? . . . Please don’t cry . . .”
“Tell him I’m
coming right now to pick him up,” I said determinedly. “Where is
he?”
Daniel relayed
some rather garbled directions that I thought I finally understood.
Forgetting about anything else, I raced downstairs, wondering how
on earth Niq had managed to find himself on that side of the
city.
I sped out of
the garage and off down the road. Adjusting my rear view mirror, I
noticed a black vehicle pulling out of a parking spot on the side
of the road. Having any kind of black vehicle following behind mine
was never a comfortable experience for me, and this time was no
different. I marginally sped up to put some more distance between
us, forced to slam on the brakes when a car came flying out from a
side street. It parked askew across the road, blocking my way.
Panicked, I
threw the gear into reverse, but the car behind parked askew as
well, blocking my retreat. I locked my doors and reached for my
phone with shaking hands. My window burst into a hundred pieces
over me and a hand reached in, unlocking the door. I fumbled with
my phone, pressing the wrong access code several times, my fingers
trembling uncontrollably.
My door was
yanked open, rough male hands pulling me out of the car. My hand
clasped over the capsicum spray in my handbag. I managed to squirt
one in the face, before battling intensely with another three men.
One of them threw a black hood over my head and another forced my
arms behind my back, propelling me forwards. A door opened and I
was shoved inside of a car, onto the back seat. Face down on the
seat, my wrists were tightly bound behind my back.
The car door
slammed, as did the driver’s door.
“
Go!
”
yelled a man and the car screamed away with me inside.
Chapter
33
I kicked out in
every direction, blindly wild. My feet connected with someone a
couple of times. Fed-up with that happening, he slapped my legs and
tied my ankles together.
“Geez, hellcat,
would you just calm down? Pull over when you can, Joe. This chick
is kicking the crap out of me. I don’t want to sit in the back with
her a second longer than I have to.”
Joe duly pulled
over after a couple more minutes of driving and me squirming on the
seat and trying to engage them in dialogue. The person with me got
into the front seat.
“Where are you
taking me? Who are you people?” I asked for the fifth time, my
voice muffled through the hood.
“Will you shut
up in the back? We can’t understand you and frankly, we don’t give
a shit enough to even try.”
“You need to
let me go. I was on my way to pick up a kid. Please? He has no way
of getting home.”
“Look, just
knock off the constant whining, would you? You’re doing my head in.
Maybe we should have gone for the kid instead of her? He probably
wouldn’t have whinged so much.”