Brutal Revenge (5 page)

“I suppose you’re right,” Parker said.
“Though I reckon I could get accustomed to it. Life in the smoke is not what it
used to be. That’s why I fuck off to Spain whenever I can. I have an apartment
there. On a golf course.”

“Nice for some,” Maclean said. Then he
looked pensively out the window and when he next spoke his voice was almost a
whisper. “You know, I used to think that this town was a huge fucking
metropolis. Compared to the island it was. My mum used to bring me here about
once a month to do some shopping. It was a big thing in those days to come
across to the mainland.”

“What was it like living out there?”
Parker enquired.

Maclean pulled a face and sipped at his
whisky. “For me it was bloody awful. Too cut off from everything. Not enough
happening. Looking back on it now the best thing I ever did was leave. The
place was killing me.”

“Would you have left if your parents
hadn't died?” Parker asked.

“Oh, sure. There was no future for me
there. At least not one that was particularly appealing. I’d have ended up
digging peat bogs for the rest of my life.”

 
They chatted on about inconsequential things
for a few minutes and then Parker asked him how things had gone.

Maclean leaned forward and lowered his
voice to a steely whisper. “We’ve got a boat. It's out there in the harbour.
There — you can see it through the window.”

Maclean pointed. Parker saw a smart
white-hulled cabin cruiser that appeared to be making overtures to a small,
squat lobster boat moored next to it. Though Parker did not profess to know
much about boats, he did think the cruiser would have been more at home on the
Norfolk Broads than at sea.

“You sure that will get us there?” he
said. “It doesn’t look that big to me.”

Maclean nodded. “Stewart gave it the once
over. He reckons it’s okay. There’s plenty of room in the cabin and on the
decks for the treasure.”

“How much is it costing?”

“Couple of grand. I hired it for a week so
we'd have it ready and waiting when we decide to go in. And don’t worry. It was
all organized with a dodgy ID.”

“Are we still on for tomorrow?”

Maclean shook his head. “The weather will
be against us. They expect gale force winds and rough seas. I don't know about
you, but I wouldn't trust Stewart on anything but a dead calm sea.”

“That’s a pain.”

“I agree, but they do forecast better
weather on Wednesday. We’ll go then.”

“Have you been back to the island this
past week?” Parker asked.

“I just returned from there. The treasure
is still at Mor's place. I had to give Mor five big ones so it looks like I'm
making efforts on their behalf. But the good thing is the treasure has already whetted
the appetites of the dealers I’m working with. They’re having orgasms at the
prospect of getting their hands on the rest. From what they’re telling me I’m
beginning to think we’ll get around five million. Maybe more.”

Parker whistled through his teeth. “So
what would the market value be?” he said.

Maclean shrugged. “It depends how they
offload the stuff. They’ll want to sell it on without attracting too much publicity.
But there’ll be plenty of eager buyers. Even if they melt the gold down they’ll
cover their investment. But the rare artifacts will almost certainly be snapped
up by collectors who won’t care where they came from. It could push the total
haul to well over ten million.”

“Wow. So we could be looking at over a
million each for a night’s work.”

Maclean grinned. “Exactly.”

Parker swigged back a mouthful of whisky
as a bolt of adrenaline rushed through his body.

“So when are you going back to the island?”
he asked.

“On Wednesday,” Maclean said. “I've told
them I'll return soon so they won't be surprised to see me again. I'll go back
on the ferry and when you come across
 
later I'll be waiting.”

“Has the girl been keeping her trap shut?”

“Like a clam. By the way, you'll be
meeting her later. She came over with me.”

*

They waited in the hotel bar until the
other two arrived.
Hodge came in from
the airport at noon
. He looked worn out and
it was
Parker's guess that the outcome of a hectic night on
the booze still tormented him.

He said very little, just listened moodily
as Maclean
brought him up to date
with events.
He
did express his
annoyance,
though, when he learned that they would be
holding
up in Oban for two nights.

“That's
something I didn't bank on,” he said.

”Don’t sweat
it,” Maclean told him. “We can't help the weather,”

“S'pose not.
It's just that I don't like waiting around. It
gives me the jitters.”

“Too bad,”
Maclean said. “We’ve got no choice. I’ve booked rooms in this place. I’ll open
a tab at the bar and we can all sit back and relax. The time will fly past.”

Stewart arrived
in the late afternoon by train from
Edinburgh. He was still his same gregarious self and bored
everyone to tears over drinks with his repertoire
of corny
jokes about dim Irishmen
and tight-fisted Scotsmen.

It was Stewart, however, who made the biggest impres
sion on Bella.

She arrived at six after
visiting friends on the outskirts of Oban and was introduced to every
one by Maclean, who was careful not
to use their names.
Bella was aged
about thirty-five and rather attractive in an
old fashioned sort of way
.

She wore a grey polo sweater under a heavy
green anorak. Her jeans were tight and her long, dark hair hung loose about her
shoulders.

The guys were wary of her at first and the
conversation was stilted. But the drink eventually eased the tension and even
allowed Parker to overcome his strong reservations about involving her at all.
He actually found himself warming to her.
 
She had a natural charm and a gentle smile. When Hodge came right out
and asked her why she was getting involved, she said, “I should have thought
that was obvious. I believe that Andy and I were always meant to be together. I
let him get away once, but I won’t let it happen again. I realize it will mean
shedding all ties with the island. But I can live with that. My parents are
dead and I have no relatives there. I’ll miss my friends but I can make new
ones.”

It was a good answer and one that impressed
Parker. Even so they were careful not to reveal anything about themselves and
Bella, shrewdly, didn’t ask any difficult questions.

She didn’t say much at
all in fact, but she
did have an awful tendency to laugh
insanely
at Stewart's wisecracking
and this only served to encour
age
him. All the same, Parker found the afternoon and
evening, which was entirely spent in the hotel bar, surprisingly
relaxing.
A
nd
he became aware of an emerging sense of comradeship
between
the five of them which strengthened his own
faith in the venture they were about to embark on.

He also realized something else that evening. It was
that Maclean
had strong
feelings for Bella
. Feelings he was still
coming to terms with no doubt. He treated her with total respect and it was
also apparent that he was making a conscious effort not to swear in front of
her.

Just after ten they decided to call it a day as nobody wanted to wind up
drunk. They all retired to their rooms — Bella with Maclean — and it was
arranged that they would meet again the next day to look over the cruiser and
finalize the plan for relieving the islanders of their new-found wealth.

SEVEN

Maclean did not find it easy to go to sleep. Even though he'd exhausted
himself by trying to keep pace with Bella, in what had been a rather frantic
encounter between two people with an animal craving for each other's flesh, his
mind simply refused to be influenced by his weary body. He felt troubled
slightly and he couldn't explain the feeling.

Next to him Bella slept fitfully, her long dark hair flung across her
chest, her pink pouting lips soft against his left nipple and her breath warm
against his skin.

He felt sure she had made a good impression with the guys. She had come
across as sincere and committed and very much in love with him. It was a relief
for sure, because he had feared that her involvement might have frightened off
the ever-cautious Parker.

His mind flashed back through the years and he recalled how he had
fancied her something rotten when they were young. She’d been one of only a
handful of girls on the island at that time in his own age group. Furthermore,
she was the only one who had ever shown any interest in him.

He thought about that unforgettable day all those years ago when she’d
struck up an acquaintance with him. She had sat next to him at the back of the
only classroom in that tiny island school. At the time, the teacher, an old
spinster type with a deep masculine voice, was going on about the history of
the islands and trying to instill in their naive minds an appreciation of an ancient
culture which even then was in danger of dying out.

Quite out of the blue, Bella, who at fourteen was a freckle-faced kid
with a brace on her teeth, placed her right hand in his lap. The gesture caught
him completely by surprise. He drew breath sharply, and noisily, causing a few
heads to turn.

Bemused and extremely embarrassed, he had simply sat there, the lower
half of his body completely numbed by the delightful sensation her hand
provoked in his loins. And his face had burned fiercely.

Slowly, and with what he thought must be a practiced hand, she had
unzipped him and moved her cold fingers inside his trousers. And he had moaned
softly and stared ahead, his mind far removed from the teacher's ramblings.
This, he remembered himself thinking at the time, was like nothing else on
earth.

She kept her hand there for a full minute and in spite of herself she
failed to suppress a giggle when an orgasm caused his knees to shake
uncontrollably
and the desk to wobble on top of them.

In the months that followed, she pestered
him as girls tend to pester the boy they idolize. And, as was only natural, he
took advantage of the situation. They eventually became a couple and when he
left the island she was devastated. They stayed in touch for a while. She would
write to him and he’d phone occasionally. They even had a few wild weekends in
Oban, but eight years ago they’d stopped contacting each other. Or rather he
had stopped answering her calls and responding to her letters. He’d become too
busy and had got involved with another woman.

When Bella learned that he was returning
to the island she made a point of being there to welcome him when he got off
the ferry. It was rather a poignant reunion and seeing her brought a lump to
his throat. What’s more he was dumbstruck by the fact that she was still single
and living alone.

She was as beautiful as she had always
been, with dark brown eyes, high cheekbones and a sensuous mouth.

On the day they were reunited she invited
him to her home for a meal. And bombarded him with questions. Was he married?
Did he have a serious girlfriend? Any children? Pets? What were his plans for
the future? Why had he not stayed in touch? Had he missed her?

Much to his surprise he thoroughly enjoyed
the evening. And he had enjoyed answering questions, even the difficult ones.
They’d made him feel special. And wanted.

The next day they went for a walk together
on the beach and held hands for the first time in years. The day after they
made love in the sand dunes. They came together twice and the experience was
one that he would savour for the rest of his life. He had never before felt so
turned on. So alive. And so comfortable in a woman’s arms.

And that was when he realized that his
feelings for her were still strong and that he had been a fool to leave her
when he did.

He’d never been married himself and his
last serious relationship had ended two years ago. Loneliness had crept up on
him without him even realizing it and recently he’d begun to view the future
with trepidation.

But the fact that Bella still carried a
torch for him after all this time convinced him that she was indeed someone
special. Someone he should hold on to now that she had come back into his life.

It was that realization that had prompted
him to tell her about his audacious plans for the treasure. If she had declined
to go along with it then he would have dropped the idea and continued to work
with the islanders. But she’d been intrigued and excited at the prospect of a
life far removed from the one that she was bored with. And so she’d agreed to
help him and that meant there could be no going back on the promises he had
made her.