The Deception (18 page)

Chris’s death was the reason Ryan had come to the gym in the first place, the reason they had met, and she’d been the first person that he could talk about it with. He hated Salvatore with a passion for giving the order, and Tony even more for following it with a point blank shot to Chris’s head.

With a steady hand, she calmly touched Ryan’s leg and then gave it a squeeze, just to let him know she was here. Hopefully that would stop him doing anything foolish or dangerous. Well, maybe just foolish.

Instantly his grip on her arm eased and she breathed a bit easier.

Tony’s feet shuffled back to his car and it roared into the warehouse and shut off. No lights came on. It remained quiet.

A squeak of a door opening echoed out before it was closed with a thud. A click of a lighter followed by the hiss of car shockies. Jaz could see Tony in her mind, getting out, lighting a cigarette and leaning on his car. Soon the waft of smoke leaked out through the nail holes in the wall. Maybe one of them would be big enough to see through? She didn’t dare move yet, she was waiting for Rich to arrive. That would be her chance.

They waited for a few more minutes. The cold night was making her shiver, but she didn’t feel cold, it was more from the anticipation and danger. Tony cleared his throat and spat.

AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ rang out into the night, making them both jump.

‘Yeah … I’m here … alright I will … no, not yet … I can hear a car now … righto, bye.’ Tony hung up his phone as another vehicle approached.

Jaz quickly moved to the warehouse wall, using the car’s noise to full advantage, and felt across the tin, searching for a hole as the car turned in. As lights lit up the inside of the warehouse, it caused pinpricks of brightness to escape through the holes in the wall, like sunbeams through clouds. She quickly found a big one and stuck her eye up close. Presto. She could see Tony’s green car in the light. It was an SS Commodore. She couldn’t make much of Tony except that he had a small bald patch at the top of his head.

‘Right on time,’ said Tony, after Rich turned off his car and got out.

Only it wasn’t Rich. Maybe Carl didn’t trust him not to mention Jaz?

‘Carl, why are you here?’ asked Tony cautiously.

‘We don’t have the shipment. Tell Sal we were overrun by a group and they burnt the drugs right in front of us while we were held at gunpoint.’ Carl’s voice was hard to hear, especially as it wavered.

‘What!’ yelled Tony clearly.

‘Ethan got shot. I think they let us live as a warning. I swear, Tony, I don’t even know who they were. Police, a gang, some secret mob. I don’t know. Please tell Sal there was nothing we could do.’

Tony stalked through the car beams like the Terminator on
Judgement Day
, pulling his gun from his back pocket. Jaz stood up automatically to warn Ryan. She couldn’t let Marcus’s dad die, no matter what trouble he’d got mixed up in. But Ryan wasn’t there. She took a few seconds to focus into the dark, only to see a shadow of movement out the front near the roller door. Oh shit.

Did she help or did she stay?

With her gun held firmly in her hands, she stepped in the direction of Ryan’s last whereabouts.

She could hear Carl and Tony’s voices clearly as she came to the open door. If she stayed in the shadows, hopefully they wouldn’t see her. Pulling up her hoodie, she leant against the wall and glanced in as far as she dared, her heart rattling like the loose tin in the wind. Crouching down, she waited for her moment.

A crunch rang out, fist on bone. Jaz darted inside and behind a metal pillar. Lucky the lights from Carl’s car were pointing in the opposite direction. Jaz took a moment to see what was happening. Carl was bent over holding his nose while Tony shook his fist. Jaz went rigid as Tony reached into his pocket, but he only pulled out his phone.

‘Sal … bad news, the shipment has been destroyed.’ Tony grimaced. ‘I’m with Carl … he said some guys came in and burnt it … no, no idea who they were or where from … yes, I will clean it up right now.’ He disconnected and smiled. It was the smile of a psychotic killer, one she’d seen in many movies.

Jaz felt like she was going to be sick.

‘No, please,’ begged Carl. Blood was pouring down his chin, either from his nose or a split lip. Maybe both.

Jaz heard that same plea earlier, only this time he seemed more certain of his impending death. Maybe he knew how Tony operated.

‘Sorry, mate. Just business,’ said Tony, as he lifted his gun.

Carl’s hands went up as he stepped back while Jaz rose and took aim. Tony saw movement and glanced her way just as Ryan appeared in the light behind him. ‘Drop the gun on the ground and kick it away,’ he instructed, pushing his own gun into the back of Tony’s head.

Tony grunted but did as he was told.

‘Hands behind your head.’

The dark jacket Tony wore crinkled as he moved his arms up, exposing his belted jeans and a leather pouch of some sort.

‘Get out of here, Carl. I suggest you get away from Perth as soon as possible,’ said Ryan.

‘Thank you.’ Carl didn’t wait a moment longer. Jumping into his car, he reversed out. While his lights bounced up into their eyes, Tony went for the leather pouch and dropped to the ground. Jaz tried to aim a shot but as Carl departed, so did all the light, dropping them into instant darkness.

Grunts and shuffles were all she could hear while she waited for her eyes to adjust. It was so infuriating. With shapes starting to take place, Jaz moved towards them with her gun aimed, hoping she wasn’t about to find Ryan hurt.

The scrape of a metal gun sliding across the concrete floor scared her, it could only be Ryan’s. Pulling out her phone, she turned on the light and held it up next to her gun as she kept her aim. Ryan was on the ground with Tony beside him, locked together wrestling.

Hell.

‘Don’t move,’ she yelled to Tony. But her words didn’t register as he elbowed Ryan in the face. Ryan returned the gesture and added a hard knee to Tony’s groin, causing him to contract in pain.

‘No, I’ve got it,’ growled Ryan.

Was he worried about a shot fired into the night? Or did Ryan want Tony all to himself? Jaz pondered the outcome as they wrestled on the floor like two pythons, twisting and wriggling. Ryan was younger, stronger and he had a dangerous look in his eyes. He wanted Tony dead. The way things were looking, he might just get his wish. Then what would happen?

A glint in the light made her catch her breath. A knife. Tony gripped it firmly as he moved to bury it into Ryan’s ribs. Before Jaz could shout, Ryan latched onto Tony’s arm, stopping the knife millimetres from his chest. A test of strength raged between them, the point of the knife coming to rest against Ryan’s skin. Jaz had to do something, she couldn’t watch Ryan die. Stuff that. She stepped closer just as Ryan jerked his knee into Tony’s groin again; already tender, Tony doubled over. Ryan used this to his advantage, turning the knife towards his attacker.

Jaz didn’t see anything but heard a hiss of air, whether it was from Tony’s mouth or his possibly pierced lungs, she couldn’t be sure.

‘Start the car Jaz, turn on the lights,’ came Ryan’s command as he stood up.

She did as he asked. As the light lit up the inside of the warehouse, Ryan found his gun and quickly picked it up, while Jaz kept hers trained on Tony. He was holding his chest, blood ran through his fingers and over his hand, turning his white shirt red. Ryan put the knife on the car before hauling Tony to his feet and shoving him into the back seat. Tony didn’t fight, he was too busy holding his chest. He looked at his blood in disbelief.

‘Get in and drive, Jaz,’ he ordered, as grabbed the knife and sat in the back with Tony.

‘Lock up the building. If we don’t, it will implicate Carl. We need it to look like they came and went,’ said Ryan.

Jaz did as requested. The screeching of the roller door as she pulled it down made her pulse jump, as if hanging onto an electric fence. Surely half the city heard that? Clicking the lock closed, she got back in the car and continued to reverse out onto the road. She glanced back to see Ryan with his gun pushed against the deep cut in Tony’s chest, causing him to groan. Ryan looked as if he wanted Tony to try something, anything, to give him a reason to kill him. As if sensing Jaz, he pulled his gun back.

‘Drive to the ute, tell Tay to follow us and head to the cemetery, Becky’s one.’ Ryan’s eyes didn’t leave Tony.

Jaz pulled up alongside the ute. Tay got out, relief on his face when he saw her.

‘I was getting worried,’ he asked as he glanced in the back. ‘What’s happening?

‘Just follow us, okay.’ She shot him an ‘I really can’t go into detail’ look and drove off. Jaz was trying hard to remember how to get back on the right roads to get to the cemetery. Just her luck she’d get them lost, or worse, pulled over by the cops for forgetting to indicate. She could see it now, ‘Sorry officer, I was too busy worrying about the guy bleeding out in the back. You know, the one we are holding at gunpoint.’

Biting her lip, she blinked and focused on the road ahead. Soon they were back where the streetlights all worked and roads were familiar.

‘I’ve waited for this day,’ said Ryan.

For a moment, Jaz thought he was speaking to her.

Tony grunted, causing Jaz to glance in the rear-vision mirror. As they passed a light she caught a glimpse of Ryan with the knife in his hand, fresh blood ran down the blade.

‘Tell me about Salvatore. Has he got another shipment coming in?’

A wheezing sound came from Tony’s lips, his attempts at a dry evil laugh.

‘Do you want this slow and painful, or quick?’ offered Ryan. ‘Give me something and I promise I will end it quick. Just like you did for my best mate, Chris.’

Jaz couldn’t tell if Tony recognised that name, she had to keep her eyes on the road. They were fifteen minutes from the cemetery. Would Tony even make it that long? And what was at the cemetery? An agent who knew first aid? A secret lair that they used to hold prisoners? She really didn’t want to dig any further than those few questions, the other possibilities scared her.

Ryan was still talking to Tony, but his voice had dropped. There was an awful gurgling sound coming from Tony that was starting to turn her stomach and the next time she glanced back, there were blood bubbles along his lips. Gross.

Five minutes from the cemetery and everything was very quiet in the car. The metallic blood scent was so thick she’d started to breathe through her mouth and faced the air vents towards her. It felt like the longest bloody drive in history.

‘Where to now?’ she asked as she pulled into the parking area.

‘Turn left here,’ said Ryan as he directed her into the cemetery.

She had to stop at a gate but Ryan gave her the pin code, which was a little unnerving. Did all operatives know it? Should she?

Ryan had her actually driving through the cemetery.

‘Pull up here.’

Jaz stopped, killed the lights and got out. There were nothing but crypts, headstones and lots of decaying bodies underground. Tay came running up after leaving the ute back in the car pack. ‘What’s going on?’ he whispered.

‘Fucked if I know’, was her first thought. She went with a shrug instead.

Ryan had opened his door and held out his gun. ‘Tay, take it.’ Then he pulled out Tony.

Jaz scrunched her hands into fists. ‘Is he …’

‘Dead? Yep. Grab his feet.’

She pulled a face but did as she was told. Jaz focused on Tony’s leather shoes and not his dead facial expression. She had no clue where they were taking him, they were in the middle of the cemetery at night. It was as freaky as all hell.

Ryan led her past old graves with broken headstones and sloping slabs, where flowers were a thing long forgotten. The only fresh materials were the deposits the local birdlife had left on top of the headstones. The clouds had thinned, breaking open in sections allowing the moon to shine down, which bounced off the polished stone graves casting eerie shadows around them. Goosebumps covered her body and Jaz thought of the age-old saying that ‘someone had walked over her grave’.

‘Here,’ said Ryan, dropping Tony’s dead body to the ground, leaving Jaz still holding his feet.

She let them go and wiped her hands on her pants because she felt the need to.

Ryan stepped towards a large old crypt with an engraving she couldn’t quite read in the darkness. With a sigh, he began to pull on the door. He grunted with the force and eventually it creaked open. ‘This will have to do, as there were no recent funerals.’

Jaz glanced at Tay. She didn’t even want to ask what the heck that all meant.

With the door open, Tay helped Ryan drop Tony’s body inside. Jaz wouldn’t walk in there, just in case the room was full of dead bodies. Well, there were bound to be some, but she meant ones like Tony, fresh ones. How often did the Agency do this?

Ryan turned on his own phone for light, double-checked Tony’s body for his phone and ID, pocketing them.

‘Help me push it shut.’

Jaz did, if only to rid the vision of Tony’s bloody lips and wide-eyed expression. Nightmares. More nightmares, she was sure of it.

‘Right, let’s go.’ Ryan took his gun back from Tay. ‘Jaz, you go with Tay. Follow me. I’ll torch the car, text Sal and tell him Carl was dealt with and then we can go home.’

Ryan took the plates off Tony’s car and doused it in petrol from the jerry can in the back of the ute. It was done in some abandoned blocks off from the highway down south. They didn’t hang around to watch the flames lick over the body and blister the paint, but they heard the explosion from the fuel tank not long after they’d left.

‘Well, that was a little intense,’ said Jaz. The metallic blood had been replaced by a strong fuel and smoke scent. Ryan had a small blood smear across his chin. He looked tired, worn, as if Tony’s death had taken a toll on him, instead of relief. A shiny patch on his jumper caught her eye. ‘Is that your blood?’

Ryan glanced down after stopping at the lights. He frowned at the offending mark and with quick hands ripped off the hoodie.

Jaz leant over and lifted up his shirt. ‘It’s your blood,’ she said, ‘Tony must have cut you.’ While one hand held up his shirt, she pressed the other one against his stomach to get a better look at how bad it was. She had to try very hard to see the cut and not feel his abs.