Rotten to the Core (40 page)

Tanya had the
“p
ay
a
s
y
ou
g
o
”
phone they had bought for contact
with
Billy, she figured that if she texted Billy the cottage address she would have about forty five minutes to get as far away as possible before he turned up. All Billy wanted was his sister and having Jay handed to him on a plate meant that
Tanya
would possibly have a chance of not being tracked down if she tried to vanish. Kate could fucking rot
,
for all she cared
,
but this way it
may
seem that Tanya
gave a shit
. I
t was her only chance of taking the money and getting home and dry.

Carefully packing a few belongings into the holdall and zipping it up tightly,
she
sent
a
text message to Billy saying simply

             
“
Pines Cottage, Eastwick Lane, Surrey - Kate!
”

Tiptoeing down the stairs, she stopped on each creaking floorboard, and prayed that she didn’t wake
Jay
.

Jay was stretched out
on the sofa
,
snoring,
his mouth wide open and one arm hanging off the edge. He was out for the count.

Tanya picked up the car
keys
from the table, being careful to grip them
firmly
so that they
did
n’t jingle
,
and made for the door. Looking back
,
just
for an instant
,
confirmed to her that she was doing the right thing, Billy would have caught up with Jay eventually, and by then she would be far away. As she slipped out of the back door into the cold night, the only person Tanya was thinking about
was herself.

Pa
ul was pulling on his clothes as fast as he could
.
H
e had only been in bed a little while and he must have been exhausted
,
as he had actually drifted off. Billy had just called to say he was on his way over with Ryan
. Billy
said he had an address
: h
e knew where Kate was.
Paul’s
head was spinning, if Billy really did have the information
about
where Kate was
,
he would be seeing her shortly, and he couldn’t quite get his head around that. He prayed to
God
that she was ok
ay. He
hoped they would get to her in time. Who knew what she had been through
over
the past week
?

Billy was driving like a lunat
ic
.
He had picked up Ryan as soon as he had received the text and he called
Paul. He guessed that Jay wouldn’t be stupid
enough
to text him Kate
’
s whereabouts and then hang around, but he wanted back
-
up just in case. He had no idea what he might walk into
,
and he felt nause
ou
s
;
he didn’t know how Kate would be
or
if anything
bad
had happened to her
. If
anything at all
had
, he knew he would lose it
;
his sister was
everything to him
.

Billy kept his eye on the road as he swerved
a
round bends at eighty miles an hour, sending Ryan flying in the passenger seat.
Outside his house
, Paul
ran to the car and
got
in the back seat.

             
“What’s happened
;
where is she
?
”
he demanded.

             
“Jay did the big manly thing again
,
for a change, he texted me the address
of
some cottage in Surrey. He’ll be long gone
,
I bet, the fucking
chicken shit
.
”
Billy put his foot down
;
every minute felt like ten
;
he
needed
to get to her.

             
“Jonny and Lee are meeting us there
,
” Ryan informed them after his phone flashed up a message.
“Jonny
said to wait for them; he said it could be a trap you’re walking into
.”

The thought had crossed Billy’s mind
, too
. Jay could be up to anything. At least if Billy turned up mob
-
handed
,
then he would have more of a chance if it w
ere
a trap. He seriously doubted Jay would have the bollo
cks
to try anything, he would have legged it with the wedge as soon
as possible
. Mind you a few weeks ago Billy would never
have believed
Jay would
have kidnapped
Kate
and had
Billy
over for two hundred and fifty
K
, so who knew what the guy was capable of
?

             
“Fucking hell
,
mate, you’d give Lewis Hamilton a run for his money
,
that’s for sure
,
” Paul joked
,
as he swung around in the back seat, as Billy rounded another bend.
Paul knew how Billy felt
,
though, all this time of hoping and praying that she was ok
ay
, and now they
were on their way to her. They
couldn’t get the
re
fast enough
,
as far as he was concerned.

Billy had
arrived at the quiet country lane
in just over half the time
it should have taken
, thanks partly to
the fact that there was little
traffic on the road
s
at this time of the morning, and partly to the fact he drove the whole way like a fucking maniac.
The cottage was down a long
,
winding track
;
Billy could see some lights up ahead, behind hedges. He parked the car at
a
distance
from the cottage
and killed the lights.

Ryan
opened
the boot and got out a sawn
-
off shotgun, for Billy, and
a
bag of tools. Paul went empty
-
handed
,
and on Billy’s instructions stayed back a bit, letting Ryan and Billy approach the
cottage
first. The sun had come up, it was almost six thirty. Looking around
,
Billy could see that the next house was a few hundred meters away
,
down the lane
;
checking there was no one else around
,
they made their way down the track towards the cottage.

Ryan
put his hand on
the back door handle and was surprised to find it
opened;
he wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on but this seem
ed
a little too easy. He didn’t want to call Kate
’
s name in case it was a trap, he wanted to give the place a once
-
over first. Signalling to Billy and Paul to follow him, they tiptoed through the kitchen. Looking around, it looked like any normal person
’
s kitchen, there was nothing unusual and there was no sign of Kate.

Glancing into the next room, Ryan did a double take
;
he
could hardly
fucking believe it. Jay Shaw
was
sleeping like a fucking baby on the
sofa
in front of him. Nodding
at
Billy to grab his attention, he gestured him over with his hand and pointed over to where Jay was lying. Billy was gobsmacked
;
it didn’t make sense
;
why would Jay
send that
text and then go to sleep
?
The r
ealisation hit him like a brick
.
Tanya. He should have known, of course she was involved; she was probably the mastermind. This was her style
.
F
ucking hell what had he ever seen in her
?
Th
at
piece of shit
, Jay,
had been well and truly set up and was now lying there
snoring, probably dreaming of spending Billy’s money; th
at
mug had not an inkling of what was going on.

A
s the three men tiptoed into the room and crowded around
Jay
, he had no idea that his sweet dream
s
were
just about to turn into his worst fucking nightmare.
Rubbing the end of the sawn
-
off shot gun against the tip of his nose, Jay brushed it away, and carried on sleepin
g
.
Feeling something rub his nose, Jay put
a
hand up to itch it and opened his eyes
.
Billy, Ryan and Paul star
ed
down at him
.

             
“What the fuck?”
H
is whole body jumped so high it nearly hit the ceiling
,
and he looked like he was actually going to shit himself.

             
“
This is your early morning wakeup call
,
” snarled Billy as he brought the barrel of the gun down hard on his head. Panicked, Paul looked
at
Billy’s angry face, the veins were popping out
on
the side of his head, and he was probably using just about every ounce of willpower he possessed not to
shoot
the man who was now
lying sparked out.

             
“Do you think that was wise
?
W
e don’t even know where Kate is
,
”
Paul said.

             
“Wise
….
? I could have blown the cunt
’
s fucking face off
.
I
t
was
only a tap on the head, he’ll come round in no time, and he looked like he could do with a few extra minutes of shut eye
.
S
hame to disturb his beauty sleep
,
”
Billy said.

He
told Ryan to stay with Jay, he would look upstairs and Paul would go to the cellar. The cottage was the size of a shoebox so he figured it would take them all of five seconds to see if she was here.

Paul tiptoed down
a flight of stairs that seemed to lead to a cellar. He opened the door,
terrified
that he might find something that he didn’t want to see. It was cold and damp and the room
was dim
.
In the corner was a mattress, and as he
walked
towards it, he
saw
a figure
on it
,
looking as if they were
asleep.
Kate.
Bending down
,
he could see that her hands a
nd
feet were bound with tape
.
S
he looked like a
mis
treated animal on
an
RSPCA advert
.
H
e felt relief as he saw her stir, she looked gaunt and dirty but she was still his beautiful Kate.

             
“Kate
,
” he whispered
,
as he stroked her fringe out of her eyes
.
Slowly waking up and hoping that she wasn’t still dreaming, she looked straight into his concerned face
.