Rotten to the Core (41 page)

             
“Paul, oh my
God
it
’s
really you, thank
G
od you
’
r
e
here, where’s my brother? Where are Jay and Tanya?”
She had a million questions to ask
.
Because
she was weak and her mouth was dry, she sounded quiet and raspy
.
He picked up a bottle of water that had been left just out her reach, opened it and poured it into her mouth
.
S
he gulped it down as if her life depended on it.

             
“Billy’s here, he’s just upstairs, you’re ok
ay,
Kate, you’re going to be ok
ay.
”
H
e was undoing the tape around her feet
;
they had been bound so tight
ly
that the skin was red and puffy where
the tape
had
cut
into her. As
Paul
was
un
doing
her hands
,
Kate’s
brother rush
ed
towards her
.

             
“Billy, I knew you would find me
.
”
T
ears
were
rolling down her cheeks, throughout her whole time here she had never once been in
doubt that
he
would
come,
and
he hadn’t let her down.
He n
ever had, and
he
never would.

Hugging her to him now
,
he asked her
:

             
“Are you ok
ay
, he didn’t do anything to you
,
did he?”
She shook
her head,
and
the two men in front of her sighed with relief. She was really ok
ay
. Paul and Billy helped her to her feet, she was weak and exhausted.

First thing
s
first, Billy wanted to get her home and looked after her
;
she needed a nice hot bath, decent grub and a warm bed
.
T
hen
,
he was going to come back and deal with Jay for the very last time.

Sonia was in her element
:
she had just made the biggest cooked breakfast known to mankind, and there had been more than enough food to feed an entire army had she need
ed
to. It had gone down very well
,
judging by the content faces that were sitting around the small kitchen table. She had been over the moon when Emma had called early this morning to say that Kate had been found and Billy and Paul were on their way  to the house
;
Sonia
had quickly stuffed her bag with everything she could find in her fridge so she could make Kate and the lads something decent to eat
.
Always the mother hen was Sonia, she had quickly made her way over
to the flat
so that she could be there when Kate arrived back.

Sonia
had been worried sick about the poor girl, and of course she had the whole guilt thing going on
,
too
:
Jay was her son
,
after all, her blood, and she felt responsible for him in some way. The
manner in which
he had turned out sickened her
;
she regretted
,
deeply
,
leaving
him
in Den
’
s hands all those years ago. The damage that man had caused
,
God
only knew. Jay was like his father in every single way
:
selfish, cruel and motivated by money. He, like his father
,
would step over anyone who got in his way
,
no matter what the cost. She would never
,
as long as she lived
,
speak to him again. He was dead to her. As far as she was concerned
,
she didn’t have a son,
but
she
did
ha
ve
a beautiful daughter now
:
Kate,
who
she loved like her own. She had practically run
a
round here, and she had smiled when Emma had opened the door and quipped
,

             
“Fu
ck me, what did you do, Son
, get Richard Branson to fly you around?” She had been driving Emma mad these last few days, constantly texting to see if any of them had news
.
Emma knew the woman was as worried sick as the rest of them, and now they had the best news
:
Kate was safe and sound and
,
more importantly, she was
coming
home.

It had been an emotional reunion
,
to say the least; Paul had walked in with Kate leaning against him,
steadying
her while she walked
; she had
look
ed
as if the
life
had been
sucked out of her. She had lost weight and she had hardly any energy left in her at all.
H
er hair was a tangled mess, and her skin was grey, no doubt
from not having
fresh air or proper food all week. There had been tears cried by them all. Mostly now
,
though
,
they were
tears of joy and relief at her safe return.

Kate was so glad to be back
:
the last few days had been a living hell, and she wasn’t sure in the end what Jay and Tanya would
have been capable of, especially Tanya
, that woman was
mad
.
Kate
had seen genuine hate radiate from her, and
she
could admit now that she had been very frightened. Jay was a weak
and
pathetic man, she could see that now
;
she had known from the
start
that it was Tanya who was the one to worry about, Jay was
just
her little puppet,
Kate
hadn’t been worried about him at all. Tanya had really lost it
,
though, she
had appeared
unhinged
with
had a few screws loose, and that had scared Kate,
Tanya
was capable of just about anything.

             
“
O
h
,
that was fucking lush
,
Sonia, just what we all needed
.
” Finishing his last mouthful of bacon and eggs
,
Billy stretched his arms up,
realising
that was the first proper bit of food he had eaten all week
;
he hadn’t really felt any hunger,
he
guess
ed
worry did that to you. It was probably the same for all of them. They had all survived on a diet of fags, tea and extreme stress for the best part of the week.

Emma had been on cloud nine
after
Billy called to say they were on their way back, and that Kate
was
with them.
After calling
Sonia,
she had
done a quick tidy up of the place. Everything had been neglected this week, as
she had been
so preoccupied with what was going on with Kate. She didn’t want her to come home to a pigsty, so she spruced the place up a bit, and
then got cups of
tea ready for them all.

             
“Yeah, that was a mean fry up
,
Son
,
” Paul thanked her
,
“I don’t think I’ll need to eat again all day
.
”

             
“All week more like
.
” Emma winked at Kate
.
“I saw you shovelling in those extra sausage
s, Paul.
”

             
“
They are big strong men
,
Emma, they need their fill of good grub
,
” Sonia smiled
,
pleased as punch that she had been of some use to them all this morning
.

             
“Yeah, come on
,
Em
;
get the kettle on again
,
will you
?
U
s ‘big strong men’ need another cuppa
.
”
L
ifting his cup and waving it in
Emma’s
direction
,
Billy smiled. Emma had grown on him, she was a g
ood
friend to Kate
;
he was glad that she was around for her.
Shaking her head
,
but smiling back
at him
, Emma put the kettle on.

The smell of bacon, combined with a diet of what might
as
well of been dog food all week had been a lethal combination, and Kate had eaten like she had never seen a plate of food before
;
she had scoffed it down so quick
ly,
her stomach ached
afterwards.
A
s she sat there
,
and looked down at her clothes
,
she realised that she probably stank to the high heavens. She hadn’t had a bath in seven days, and her hygiene hadn’t been under her own control either.
Kate
decided that she would bin everything she had on, even her shoes; she wanted no reminders of what she had been through.
T
he hardest thing she had ever had to deal with was losing her baby
;
this would be nothing in comparison. She was determined she would get through this
;
she wouldn’t let them beat her.

Kate
had told Billy everything on the
drive from Surrey:
how Jay had lured her into the car, and how h
e
and Tanya had plotted what they would do to her if Billy hadn’t paid. She told
him
how Tanya wanted to make her suffer. She had wanted to get revenge on Billy and knew hurting Kate would have been the ultimate
means to do this
. They both
thought
that it was Tanya who had been the brains behind the whole sorry episode
,
after all, as Jay was too dim to come up with any kind of plan worth worrying about.

Tanya
,
on the other hand
,
had been
an
other story. She had legged it with Billy’s money, leaving the man that had risked it all for her to take the rap
:
what a catch she had turned out to be. As per usual, Billy thought, she
had been
out for herself. Well
,
Billy would be having the last laugh with that one. The poor bitch had no idea what was coming.

No one had mentioned Jay or Tanya
,
or anything to do with Kate
’
s ordeal since
she
had arrived home
,
though, it was
as if
they were all trying really hard to act normal for her sake and make her feel at home again, and for that Kate was thankful. That
wa
s how she dealt with things
:
not bottling them up as such but
not
going over stuff that had happened, it would only torment
her
.
She couldn’t
change it and
nor
make
what had happened
go away,
she
just ha
d
to keep moving forward.

Looking around the table at them drinking
t
ea and ribbing each other, Kate realised that these were the people that she cared about most in the world, the ones
who
were always there for her no matter what
:
when the shit hit the fan, they came up trumps. It was good to be home.