Thief (12 page)

Martina stood frozen to the spot, her face a picture of rage. I wasn’t sure what was real or what was make-believe at this stage. Surely Martina was putting on an
act
the same way she had that day back at the castle? But she was awfully convincing. I was beginning to wonder. Was she
that
good an actress? And what about Kim? She really seemed to believe that Martina had turned to the dark side. Her
anger
didn’t seem forced in any way. But no matter what it looked like, I was sure that Martina was still on our side.
Wasn’t
she? The situation was getting out of control. I didn't know
what
to believe anymore.

“I betrayed
you
?” Martina shrieked at Kim. “What about
yourself
? I gave up
everything
for you! I catered to your
every
whim! And when I ask you to join me to make some money to make our lives more comfortable, you won't
do
it! I
hate
you, do you hear me? I never want to
see
you again!” She strode across the room and picked up the length of wood and fat man had indicated previously. “I'm going to teach you some much needed
manners
, lover,” she spat, viciously. “We'll see how high and mighty you are when you're grovelling on the ground, begging me for mercy.”

“Bring it
on
, bitch!” Kim yelled with vehemence. “Do you think I'm
scared
of you? I picked you up out of the gutter and you can crawl back there anytime you
like
!”

Screaming in an incoherent frenzy, Martina ran at Kim, waving the wood like a club. Kim stood her ground, balancing lightly on her toes. She blocked Martina’s first wild swings with her forearms but then received a strike to her shoulder. She cried out in pain and partially turned around to protect her injury. With a squeal of triumph, Martina began raining blows on Kim's unprotected body. Kim fell to the floor in a foetal position and covered her head with her hands, vainly trying to ward off the blows that followed.

Finally, panting with exhaustion, Martina threw the piece of wood on the floor and straightened up. Giving Kim’s prone body a final contemptuous look, she drew back her foot and kicked Kim viciously in the ribs. A strangled groan from Kim awarded this action.

“
There
! That'll teach you that I
mean
what I say,” Martina croaked victoriously. “The next time I won't go so
easy
on you.”

“
Bravo
!” The fat man congratulated, clapping his hands. “I've never
seen
such a beating! I'd say that you're well on the way to becoming a valuable part of our little circle.”

Martina took a deep breath. “I have to say that was rather
gratifying
,” she said in satisfaction. “A girl could get
used
to this. I didn't realise that revenge could be
this
enjoyable.”

I was horrified at what had happened. Surely this couldn’t be what it
seemed
? I glanced at Bella. She was open mouthed with shock. Kim was still twitching on the floor, making small whimpering noises while Martina strutted victoriously around the place, appearing very pleased with herself. A sudden doubt intruded into my consciousness. How could Martina have defeated Kim so easily? It just didn't seem possible. When it came to hand-to-hand fighting, Kim was a
Master
. It was almost as if she had
allowed
Martina to beat her up…….. as if she allowed…….. A nascent hope blossomed inside me. Ah yes, all was
not
lost. I almost felt like applauding our two brilliant actresses. I'd never
seen
such a display of sincere deception. Should I somehow tell Bella? She hadn’t known Kim for very long and didn't understand her almost invincible fighting ability. To Bella, the whole scenario was appalling real. But the
look
on her face was worth a thousand words to the fat man. More than anything else, her facade of unfeigned nausea was a telling factor in his acceptance of Martina. No, as much as it hurt me to deny her even the smallest amount of hope, I
couldn't
tell her the truth. At any rate, what I
hoped
was the truth. But I now knew for certain that at least
Kim
was shamming. All her groaning in pain was a ploy. The fat man wouldn’t know that she’d
never
allow the opposition to know how hurt she was, even if all her limbs were chopped off and she was being fed into a
mincing
machine.

Martina, I wasn’t
positive
about, however. After all, she
was
a thief, just as she stated, and was rather free with other people’s property. How big a jump was it from
that
to a vast supply of drug money? No, I’d seen her and Kim together too often. Surely, you can’t suddenly change that depth of love into hate. I hoped by all the gods I was right.

Chapter 22.

Bella finally found her voice and cried, “Martina, what have you
done
? What in heaven’s name is the
matter
with you? Have you gone
crazy
?”

Martina stared at Bella with a malicious smile on her face. “You know something, Bella? I think that
you
need a lesson in manners as well. What do you say to
that
?”

Bella bit her lip nervously. “Please don’t, Martina, I’m begging you. You’re my
friend
! Why would you want to hurt me?”

“Because you
annoy
me, Bella,” Martina replied with an evil laugh. “And because I think I’m getting a taste for this sort of thing.” She turned to the fat man and asked eagerly, “Can I teach Bella a lesson,
too
?”

“Why not,” he wheezed. “I
enjoy
seeing women beaten up. None of the women I knew would have anything to do with me when I was younger. I tried and
tried
to please them, but they just
laughed
at me! Now I despise
all
women.” He gave a small smile to Martina. “
Present
company excluded, of course.” He waved a languid hand. “Go ahead, my dear.
Enjoy
yourself.”

Martina strolled over to where she had dropped the piece of wood beside Kim. She picked it up, gave Kim another kick and then walked slowly over to Bella.

“No, Martina,
don’t
,” Bella pleaded. “
Please
!”

“Give me
one
good reason why I shouldn’t,” tantalised Martina.

“Because you’ve been like a little
sister
to me,” Bella said in a shaking voice. “I’ve looked after you all these years. Doesn’t that count for
something
?”

“You mean you’ve
bossed
me around for all those years, Bella. ‘Martina,
don’t
do this!’ ‘Martina, don’t do
that
!’ That’s all I ever heard. Well, now it’s
payback
time!”

Bella cringed and hid her head in her arms as Martina lifted the wood, but instead of bringing it down on Bella’s upturned face, she hurled it like a javelin, directly at the fat man who squealed in surprise. To add to the confusion, there was a loud and sudden explosion at the room’s entrance. The door was wrenched open and came to a drunken rest, half off its hinges. While we all gaped at this unexpected aural intrusion, Kim had, unknown to everyone, taken advantage of all the distractions to sneak behind the three gunmen. Before they could even
register
her presence, she had efficiently disabled two of them. The third one twisted around with a grunt of surprise and managed to fire a single shot which hit Kim in the arm and spun her around in a circle. She dropped to the floor and her legs scythed into the gunman, collapsing him. She sprang onto his chest and clubbed him on the temple with her closed fist. He became immediately uninterested in further proceedings.

Martina’s throw had been extremely accurate and the fat man had collected the blunt end of the wooden projectile flush in the face. He fell backwards with a shriek, his gun finger automatically tightening to send a bullet whistling around the room. As luck would have it, it freakishly glanced off a few metal objects and returned to its departure point like a homing pigeon. We gathered around the dying figure as he gurgled his last words, “See, I was
right
! Never trust a
woman
……”

It was over. We looked at each other in relief. Then Martina noticed the blood on Kim's arm. With a cry of anguish, she rushed to Kim’s side and fussed over her until Kim reluctantly allowed her to bind the wound.

Bella was still recovering her wits. “Let me get this straight,” she asked in perplexity. “
You
,” indicating Martina, “were only pretending. And
you
,” pointing at Kim, “went along with it.” She held her head in her hands in total bafflement. “But I
believed
it! I really thought………. how
could
you be so…..
persuasive
? I was thinking all
sorts
of horrible thoughts about you, Martina,” she fumed. “Why didn't you
tell
me? You let me go on thinking that……… wait a minute, it's all
my
fault, isn't it? I should never have doubted you. Oh god, Martina, I'm so
sorry
! I don't
deserve
to have you as a friend. I'm a terrible person!”

I went over to Bella to try and stop her flow of self-condemnation. I put my arm around her and pulled her into an embrace. “It's all right, honey,” I tried to reassure her. “It's what Martina
wanted
. The
look
on your face was enough to convince the bad guys that Martina was on
their
side. Don't feel so bad. She fooled
me
as well. She was
fantastically
convincing! She should really be on the stage.”

“But Kim knew it all along, didn't she?” Bella commented. “She had
faith
in Martina. I can never pardon myself for thinking the worst.”

Martina marched over and gave Bella a loving cuddle. “
Stop
that, Bella!” she commanded in a fierce voice. “
I'm
the one who should be apologising. I felt awful that I couldn't let you know what I was doing and I had to put you through all those ghastly emotions, but I
had
to persuade them that I was on the level. Can
you
find it in your heart to forgive
me
?”

Bella looked at Martina started to cry. This instigated Martina's tears as well. They hugged each other and the remorseful healing was complete.

Bella pulled out of Martina's embrace, wiped her eyes and said, “But there's
still
a couple of things I don't understand. That
explosion
….. I presume that was
your
doing, Kim?”

Kim nodded. “Yes, it was me. I picked up an explosive device from a friend of mine. It was on a
timer
, so I set it for half an hour. I had a premonition we’d need
some
sort of disruption somewhere along the way. I was lucky it went off just when it was needed.”

Bella’s eyes swivelled between Martina and Kim had finally settled on Kim. “One last thing….. Martina almost beat you to
death
with that lump of wood.
What
was going on there?”

Kim smiled in satisfaction. “Yes, it looked real, didn't it? I
knew
Martina was up to something when she started talking about the drug money. All I had to do was play along. We had to stall for time. There were just too many of them to take on. We needed a major distraction.”

“But what about the
beating
?” Bella asked impatiently. “I mean, I thought she was going to
kill
you!”

“At times, I thought that as well,” Kim chuckled, “but the whole thing was staged. She was holding back and hitting me on the leg muscles and thighs most of the time, so there was a lot of noise, but it hardly hurt at all. I was doubled over and moaning to make it look authentic. Overall, I think it went down fairly well.”

“A little
too
well,” Martina said in a shaky voice. “Don't
ever
put me through that again!”