Takedown Heather Atkinson (rosie project txt) 📖

“Maybe I should come with you?” suggested Vance.

“If he sees you he’ll get scared.”

“Why?”

“Because everyone’s scared of you,” Jason told him.

“Are they?” he smiled, rather pleased about that.

“Let’s move,” said Faith. “If Patrick is in danger then the quicker we get there the better.”

Faith stalked through the club, her staff preparing for opening in two hours. Patrick was refilling the optics behind the bar.

“Patrick,” she called without breaking stride. “I need to see you in my office.”

“Err, why?” he called after her.

Faith noted the nerves in his voice. “Some heavy lifting,” she replied, which was code for moving the product.

He looked around for her brothers and relaxed when he didn’t see them. “Coming.”

Patrick followed her down the corridor, relaxing even more when Faith paused to bob her head into the male changing room to yell at the two barmen in there who were smoking.

“Do it again and you’re both sacked,” she told them. “You’ve had enough warnings.”

This was followed by muffled and very sheepish apologies.

“Idiots,” she said, continuing on her way, making Patrick grin. He was glad he didn’t smoke.

He stood by her side, waiting for her to unlock the door.

“Is there a lot to shift?” he asked her.

“Yes. We’ve just had a fresh delivery.”

“Great,” he replied. Another payday had arrived. The Chambers family were new at this game and green around the gills. He’d nicked more from them than they’d realised and they still didn’t have a clue what was going on.

When she unlocked the door and pushed it open, his stomach dropped when he saw Caleb, Jason and Kevin waiting, their eyes bright blue with anger.

“Oh shit,” he breathed, turning to run and smacking straight into Vance.

Vance didn’t even move while Patrick rebounded off him and fell to the floor.

“Get him inside,” Faith told her brothers.

“No, wait,” cried Patrick as Vance and Caleb took one of his arms each and hauled him in.

Faith closed the door behind them and locked it, waiting while Patrick was manoeuvred into the waiting chair and tied to it with gaffer tape.

“I suppose you think you’ve been pretty clever, don’t you Patrick?” said Faith, standing over him, flanked by Caleb and Vance. Kevin and Jason stood either side of Patrick, eagerly awaiting orders.

“I…I don’t know what you mean,” replied Patrick, so scared he thought his heart might jump out of his throat.

“Yes you do. You’ve been nicking from us for a while, haven’t you?”

“I haven’t nicked anything Faith, promise. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Course you would. We know all about the extra cash you’ve had lately but what we want to know most of all is how you found out about the vault?”

“Vault?” he said innocently.

“You know exactly what I’m referring to - that big lock-up out in the countryside housing lots of product. How did you know about it?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Faith nodded at Kevin, who punched him in the side of the face. Patrick, who had never been in a fight in his life and who had certainly never been hit before, cried out with surprise before groaning with pain, eyes sliding shut.

“The big jessie,” exclaimed Jason. “He’s fainted.”

“Wake him up,” said Faith.

Kevin gently tapped Patrick’s face and he jumped awake with a start.

His eyes slowly rolled open and he groaned. “Oh God, I’m still here.”

“The vault was broken into and most of our product was stolen,” continued Faith. “But this really isn’t news to you. Don’t bother to deny it, you’ll only piss us off even more,” she added when he opened his mouth to speak. “All I want to know is who actually raided the vault. We know it wasn’t you. These people were pros.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Just tell us Patrick,” she said gently. “We’ve known you all our lives, you’re the son of our mum’s friend. We don’t want to hurt you.” Her gaze sharpened. “But we will if we have to.”

He chewed his lip uncertainly before resolve filled his eyes. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Fine, play it the hard way but don’t say we didn’t warn you. No,” she added when Kevin stepped forward holding a small hammer. “Vance.”

Kevin and Jason were a little put out to be denied their fun but they didn’t object, standing aside when Vance stepped up, glaring down at Patrick, who started to tremble beneath the force of that gaze.

“Give us their names or I’ll start snapping your fingers,” Vance told him.

“Snapping my fingers?” Patrick chuckled nervously. “You wouldn’t.”

“I don’t think you understand just who we are,” he replied. “This isn’t a joke, it’s a serious business and when people take the piss out of us we get serious with them. So tell us - what are their names?”

“Look,” he said, starting to sweat. “I didn’t get their names. They approached me in the street on my way here one day. They said I just needed to give them an address and they’d pay me a lot of cash. I didn’t even know there was a vault. I mean, of course I knew the product was stored somewhere but I didn’t know it was called the vault. They told me that.”

“What did they look like?”

“One was tall, a real big, strong bastard and another was smaller and bald.”

“Did they give their names?”

“No. I’ve really no idea who they were but they had local accents.”

“How did they know about the vault?”

“They didn’t say. I slipped a small tracking device into one of the packages before it was taken to the vault.”

“Where did you get a tracking device from?” said Kevin scathingly.

“I didn’t. They gave me one.”

“How much did they pay you?” said Vance.

“Ten