Finders Keepers Edie Baylis (phonics readers .TXT) 📖

is coming.’ She glared at Saul and jerked her head towards the phone. Unbuttoning the last part of Lena’s dress, she frowned seeing a swimming costume. She audibly gasped at the visible dent in Lena’s bump, her own stomach rolling with the thought of that poor baby.

‘Shut her up?’ Saul barked. ‘Or I will.’

Ignoring Saul, Gwen slipped the swimming costume off Lena’s shoulders and eased it down over the pink lacy bra underneath, wincing at the purple bruising already vivid over the woman’s ribs. Pulling it lower, she froze as a pile of kitchen roll fell out of the swimming costume onto the floor, revealing a blackened and purple, but perfectly flat stomach.

She paused, trying to make sense of it. Only Saul’s sarcastic laughter broke Gwen from her confusion.

‘Seems you were right all along, so you can get off your high horse about me being this, that or whatever now.’

Gwen stared at the wad of kitchen roll. The sly bitch. Lena wasn’t pregnant and never had been, but she was bleeding from somewhere and needed urgent treatment.

‘Get her cleaned up. Do you want to tell Jonah about her lies, or can I have that pleasure?’

‘Something’s ruptured. We have to get her to hospital.’

Saul laughed nastily as he pulled his phone from his pocket. ‘Nah, fuck it. Leave her as she is. Jonah will kill her anyway, so there’s no point.’

Lena glared at Gwen. Even through the agony of broken ribs and whatever had ruptured inside of her, she still found enough energy to spit out her venom through gritted teeth. ‘Talk about me all you like,’ she hissed. ‘I don’t care. I may not be having a baby but at least I didn’t fuck Jacky Powell, like you...’

Saul looked between Gwen and Lena, before fixing his glare on Gwen. ‘What the fuck did she just say?’

Forty Two

ROBERT’S HEART THUNDERED as he sat in the back of Jonah Powell’s Range Rover. He was more than aware of being scrutinised in the rear view mirror by the piercing eyes of the man himself whilst the car moved at a breakneck speed along the inner city roads.

Robert hadn’t even thought it was possible to get through London this fast, but it was being achieved somehow. This was the least of his concerns, but at least it gave his rolling brain a few seconds’ respite from what was really on his mind.

From the reaction of these two men about Teagan’s possible whereabouts and the fact they had moved so quickly on it, he knew that wasn’t a good sign.

Dread pooled as Robert’s mind scrolled through a selection of various scenarios. He was scared. Scared of what they might find. Looping thoughts of Teagan pushed back into the forefront and he clenched his sweaty fists. What if after all of this, he felt nothing?

Fumbling to work his lighter with shaking fingers, Robert lit a cigarette and stared out of the window at the none-too pleasant surroundings. He eyed the never-ending blocks of flats rising from a maze of littered streets as they navigated the warren of roads into an estate and wrinkled his nose in distaste at the general mess and groups of unsavoury people loitering around. ‘You own all these flats?’ he muttered.

‘Not all of them. Just that block over there.’ Jonah heard the accusation in Robert Adams’ tone and couldn’t say he blamed him. It had been a long time since he’d clapped eyes on this hell-hole and it was a lot worse than he remembered. And that was saying something!

From what he could see, Saul’s continuance of running the enterprise from prison, he’d concentrated only on getting as many undesirables into the properties as possible. The sort who either wouldn’t care or dare question the state of the accommodation they were renting for extortionate prices.

Jonah pursed his lips, wishing he’d taken more of an active interest in how Saul was managing this project, but he’d never given it much thought. Not until now.

And this Robert Adams was a strange one. Jonah had always presumed he’d have immediately gone berserk being faced with the offspring of Michael Pointer, but Robert’s demeanour had impressed him – as had his lack of fear and intent come what may to achieve what he came for. That, and of course, the non-irrelevant factor of returning the diamonds...

He hadn’t even got his head around that yet, nor had he even savoured their long-awaited return. He’d slung the diamonds into his office safe before running to the car. If what Robert said was true and Keith and Saul were keeping a woman hostage in one of these dismal flats, then he needed to deal with that first and foremost. His jaw clenched. Women were not used as pawns in his firm. They never had been and for Saul to pull a stunt like that, although unsurprising, was inexcusable.

Again, the glaring truth that his brother had schemed behind his back, blatantly breaking their agreement, throbbed in his temples, but he didn’t have time to mull that over. It was his duty to release the girl and hope she wasn’t harmed. Saul’s well-known lack of respect for women was legendary. As for Keith’s part in this betrayal...

Parking up against the kerb, Jonah yanked on the handbrake and glanced at Nero. ‘Let’s go!’

Robert followed Jonah and Nero up the stinking stairwells and along mazes of walkways, his heart thundering painfully.

Pulling out a large ring of keys, Nero flicked through them as they hurried along the third floor walkway. ‘It’s number 235.’

Robert waited impatiently for Nero to put the key in the lock, everything taking an extraordinary length of time, when in real life it was only seconds. ‘Come on,’ he hissed through gritted teeth. He’d kick the door down if he had to.

As the chipped, cracked front door was stiffly pushed open, Robert barged his way inside behind Jonah, the stench immediately assaulting his nostrils.

‘Holy fuck!’ Nero gasped, putting his hand over his