WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (50 page)

Everyone
went silent, staring at Steve. 

After
a few deep breaths, Kerry wandered away to find a signal to phone Machete.

I
pondered the idea, but Steve’s plan continued niggling away at me. 
Bringing the two gangs together would surely spell disaster.  Kate could
get hurt.   What on earth was he thinking?  I studied both Dylan
and John, who looked deep in thought, eyes fixed on Steve.  The consensus
seemed to be that they too were worried about the plan.  So why wasn’t
anyone speaking up?  Were they busy thinking up an alternative or too
tired to fully absorb Steve’s plan?  Why would he jeopardise Kate’s safety
in this way?  I had to put a stop to this ludicrousness myself.  I
stood and approached Steve.

“And
somehow, Jenna,” Steve said before I could voice my protest.  He whirled
around and stood on my toes, squashing my trainers into the soft earth. 

“Ouch!”

He
backed up.  “Sorry.  We need to get a message to that guy Joe. 
Start thinking up ways to signal him and persuade him to switch sides.  If
you are right about him being in love with Kate—“

“I
am.  He is.”

 “I
hope so, because having him on the inside is the key to my plan.  If Joe
loves her, he’ll protect her, and might be able to turn some of the other
men.  We just need to let him know he has back-up, that he’s not acting
alone.  Make it clear that he has the option to switch sides, and then
force him to.”

A
light clicked on inside my head.  I got it.  “Sure.  I’ll think
of a way to contact him.” 
Knowing Kate, she’ll already be plucking
away at Joe’s heart strings herself. 
      
 

“
Y
ou’d better
think of a way to get around this little problem, hadn’t you, hotstuff?” 
A man in a sharp black suit slapped his pool cue on the computer desk in Alan’s
trashed yard office. 

Kate
flinched, her heart pounding hard enough to burst a blood vessel.  The keyboard
rattled beneath her quivering fingers.  Kate had no idea how the office
had got into this state.  In fact, she’d rather not know.  She just
needed to do what these guys wanted and get the hell out.

She
recognised the suited man’s accent to be Geordie.  From the way Joe and
the other men acted around him, she figured that he must be the one calling the
shots. 

“I’m
trying my best.”  She clicked the mouse. 

Hotstuff? 
Huh!
She wanted to leap out of her seat and punch him in the nose.  The cold
wind blowing in from the smashed window temporarily cooled Kate’s hot brain as
she searched it for answers.  “It’s not my fault the password doesn’t
work.  Perhaps you should have checked...”  She muttered the
rest.  “...before shooting the only man who knew it.” 

She
stared up at Joe who was pacing the length of the room.  God, she hated
him.  How could he flirt with her at work all these months, and then just
turn cold at the flick of a switch? 

“Try
harder,” Joe said.

Kate
scowled, and then looked down at the keyboard.

Perhaps
Alan lied about the password.
  No.  Surely not?  Not
if these men had been waving guns in his face.  Maybe Alan missed a word
off the end, used punctuation, capital letters, held something back so that
they needed him alive.  But what?  Her brain spiralled trying to
decipher it.

Geordie
leaned forward, bringing his weathered face right up to Kate’s. 

“I’ll
keep at it,” she said, typing the password using capital letters this
time.  “I just need more time to figure it out.”  She kept her gaze
fixed on the screen, tried to act unintimidated, appear more cooperative. 

Perhaps
he saw something other than nerves in Kate’s face.  Suddenly, Geordie
gripped her chin with his long fingers.  He squeezed her jaw so hard she
thought her teeth would shoot out of her gums like popcorn.  He turned her
head, forcing her to meet his rabid stare. 

Kate
fought the urge to cry out.  She refused to give him the satisfaction of
hearing her pain. 

“I’ll
give you another half hour.”  He released her and started toward the
door.  “Patience isn’t my best quality.” 

Kate
wheezed.  “I can tell.”  She regretted it as soon as the words left
her mouth.

He
stopped dead in the doorway.  “What was that?”

Kate
flinched away from his gaze when he spun toward her.  “Nothing. I... er,
I’ll tell you as soon as I...”

 “You
need to keep that mouth of yours in check.”  The man ran his hand down the
length of the pool cue, admiring it.  He then removed a cube of chalk from
his pocket and rubbed the tip blue.  “Did you know, a pool cue can be one
of the most lethal weapons in a bar?”

Kate
shook her head slowly, unnerved by the hard shell to his voice.  The man’s
face became an inky blur of beige as he rushed over to her.  Several ideas
of what to do with that pool cue popped into her mind.  Ramming it where
the sun never shines was the forerunner. 

Geordie
stopped at her side.

Kate
feared he was about to demonstrate the balance of power.  She had to keep
her attitude in check if she wanted to survive.  And she had to crack the
password.  Fast.  Before this nutjob cracked her. 

Think,
Kate, think hard. 

“A
slip of the hand and you can...”  He twirled the cue like a baton, and
then snatched it to a horizontal stop just short of Kate’s eye.  

Gasping,
she jerked back, but he pushed the wooden stick closer.  Her eyelashes
fluttered against the chalked tip.  She froze.  Her thoughts
fractured like glass. 

 The
man continued.  “One more smartass comment from you and I’ll poke your
bloody eyes out!”  Swiftly, he drew the cue back and swiped its length
past her ear.

Kate
winced at the whip of air fanning her cheek. 

He
bent down to whisper.  “Don’t make me ruin that pretty face of
yours.”  He paused for effect, then bellowed in her ear.  ”Get! To!
Work!”

Kate
jumped in the office chair.  Her sweaty fingers slid along the keyboard as
she attempted yet another version of the password at double speed.  It
still didn’t work, not with spaces and not without.  Damn it!  And
damn Alan for lying about the password.  He was still causing problems,
even in death.

Geordie
stood tall and turned his back.  Before he started out of the room, Joe
hurried over and said, “Hey, I thought you said Jenna knows the password.”

Geordie
shrugged.  “Why aye,” he said in his Geordie twang.  “I’m sure of
it.  There’s usually something personal to a password, man.  If
anyone knows how Alan’s mind worked, it’ll be Jenna.”  He ran his fingers
through his hair, then raised his voice, making it carry into the next
room.  “This wouldn’t be a problem if some useless fucks hadn’t let her
escape.  But so long as she knows that we have Kate, she’ll keep
schtum.”  He nodded to himself, seemed convinced of his words.  “We
are going to find her, and her mobile phone.  If what we think is actually
recorded on her voicemail, I’ll be up to my eyeballs in shit if it gets
out.” 

Joe
clenched his jaw.

“I
want news, people!” Geordie yelled.  “Action!  Why hasn’t anyone
found her yet?”

The
man who’d grabbed Kate at Alan and Jenna’s house hurried into the
room.     A bandage was taped to his cheek where she’d
sliced him with her mirror.  “The guys are out looking.  She’s not at
the boyfriend’s house, although they must have been back there because his
car’s gone.  She’s not at—”

Geordie
twirled the pool cue again, gritted his teeth and interrupted him.  “I
don’t want to know where she
isn’t
.  I want to know where she
is
.” 
He cracked him at the side of his skull with the cue. 

The
guy stumbled sideways and groaned in pain. 

“Get
me?” Geordie shouted.

He
bobbed his head like a plastic nodding dog, turned and staggered out of the
room.

Geordie
made a popping sound with his lips.  “Know what?  I don’t think
Jenna’s got her phone with her.  Perhaps it’s broken or lost.  She
hasn’t even replied to Kate’s text asking for help, and if she’d listened to
the voicemail - if it actually exists – then she’d know she has something
worthy of trading, and would have contacted us by now.”  He stared over at
Kate.  “If she cares about her friend.”

“That’s
what I’d do,” Joe said.  “I’d find you and offer to do a trade.”

Traitor. 
Spineless worm,
Kate thought, glancing up at Joe.

Geordie’s
voice lowered to a steely whisper.  “But something’s stopped her calling
the cops or they’d have turned up by now.  The guys are keeping a look
out.  We’re going to find Jenna and her phone, before she gets hold of it
and makes copies of the voicemail or takes it to the cops.”  He whacked
the wall with the pool cue, snapping it in two.  Then he lurched forward
and pressed both halves against Joe’s throat.  “Aren’t we?”

Joe
stumbled back, gurgling and choking, wedged between the cue and the wall. 

“Someone
had better find out where that slippery bitch is,” Geordie shouted, loud enough
for the men in the next room to hear him again.  He jammed the cue harder
against Joe’s throat.  “I’m paying you idiots a lot of money, and what am
I getting for it?  Jack shit!  Find Jenna.  Right now.  Or
you’ll be joining Alan under the patio.”  He paused to stare back at
Kate.  “In fact... you!  If you can’t break this password, then
you’re no more use here.”

Kate’s
breath juddered in her throat.  This was it.  They were going to put
a bullet through her head, right now.  Her watery eyes searched Joe’s,
seeking help.  She bit down on her tongue so hard she tasted blood.

Geordie
lowered the broken cue stick from Joe’s throat and pointed its tip toward
Kate.  “We’ll swap you for someone who can crack it.”  He faced Joe
again.  “Fuck this shit.  I’ve had enough.  Call the rest of the
guys back, and we’ll go hunt Jenna down.  Right now.”

“Sure
thing,” Joe croaked.

“And
bring hotstuff.”  He turned, scraping the cue along the doorframe as he
started to exit the room.  “We’re gonna find Jenna and get that mobile
phone back tonight.”

“Sure,
boss.  Sure.”

“I
want to know every detail that P.I. has on her.”  He paused to point at a
purple file on the shelf, and tapped it with the cue.  “Read through this
report again, Joe.  There must be something in there that’s useful.” 

Joe
picked up the folder and began paging through it.

Geordie,
standing in the doorway, poked his head into the pool room.  “Rigged up
that not-so-little surprise for the P.I?”

“Sure
did,” a man replied.  “Should be one hell of a bang.  It’ll go off
when the lounge door is opened.”

“Good. 
That’ll get me out of paying and save me a pretty penny.”  Geordie faced
Joe.  “I want to know where Jenna drinks, eats, shags and plays... even
where she buys her damn knickers.”

“Got
it,” Joe said.

Kate
took several deep breaths, terrified of what could happen to her and Jenna, but
thankful they weren’t dead... yet.  She prayed that wherever Jenna was,
she was safe and would stay there, hidden.  She stared at Joe, who was
massaging his throat and breathing heavily while studying the papers.

He
glanced over at her, and put the file back on the shelf.  “I’d better get
the other guys to come back.”  He made a quick phone call telling someone
to get back to the yard on the double, then paged through the file again.

Joe
is in danger of getting killed nearly as much as I am.  Can’t he see that?

Joe
glanced at Kate.

She
fluttered her lashes, tilted her head and deliberately tried to hold his
gaze.  Joe’s weak spot was sex.  Perhaps she could use that. 
Yes.  She had to awaken her flirty side to bring forth his amorous
one.  Tease him until he thought with his groin, not his wallet or
survival instinct – whatever had caused him to go along with these
monsters. 

However,
Kate knew she would have to be convincing, deliver an Oscar-worthy performance
to get him to help her to escape.  She’d brushed off Joe’s advances way
too many times for him to believe that her about-face in attitude was anything
other than a cheap and empty, ‘I’ll be your fuck-buddy’ ruse.

Joe
closed the file and placed it back on the shelf.  He strode forward, grabbed
Kate by the arm and pulled her out from behind the desk.

“Please,
Joe,” she cried, as he started binding her wrists at the front.  “You
don’t have to do this.  Help me.  That guy’s off his head.  He’s
going to kill me.”

“Be
quiet.” 

“And
then kill you.”

He
pulled the plastic cable ties tight around her wrists then shook her by the
arm.  “He won’t.”

“Bullshit!”

“Shut
the hell up!”

Kate
persisted.  “Whatever amount of dirty money he’s paying you, you can’t
spend it when you’ve got a hole in your head.”

Joe
dragged a barefooted Kate through the pool room where a couple of men were
racking up a new game.  “Not coming?”

“Nah,”
one of them replied.  “We’re staying put to guard the office.”

Joe
pushed Kate out of the door and down three flights of stairs.  He bundled
her into the back of an awaiting black Land Rover.  Geordie and another
man were sitting up front, revving the engine.  Joe strapped her in and
then gave her a ‘be quiet’ glare.  After he slammed the door and walked
around to the other side of the car, another Land Rover pulled into the
yard.  Joe waved for them to turn around before climbing in next to
Kate. 

Geordie
glared at Kate from the passenger seat.  His eyes were those of a possessed
man, glazed and penetrating - all his patience spent.  She was moving
dangerously into borrowed time.  He turned away and slapped the
dashboard.  “Step on it, Derek!”

Kate’s
mind rushed around.  She glanced down at the door handle.  Could she
make it out?  To her dismay, a distinct click sounded.  The door
locks had engaged.  She swallowed to moisten her dry throat, and began
twisting and pulling at her plastic ties to snap them loose.  They bit
into her wrists, scoring red grooves on her skin, but did not give way. 

They
sped out of the scrap yard through a dust cloud kicked up by the first
car.  Kate studied Joe from the corner of her eye.  His head was
turned, staring out of the side window.  She eyed the hem of her
skirt. 
Stick to the plan.
  She ran her bound hands up her
tanned legs, hiking her skirt up above mid-thigh.