Duality

DUALITY

DIVIDING LINE SERIES #9

By Heather Atkinson

Copyright Heather Atkinson February 2016

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to my fabulous mother Stephanie for proof-reading this book, to my sister and fellow Indie author Suzanne Clark for her wonderful and unwavering support, to my lovely husband Paul and my gorgeous daughters Charlotte and Sophie. Also thanks to Scott, Mark, Larry and Reece, who together form the band I.C.O.N. Their awesome album The Blacklist was very inspiring and greatly assisted me in the writing of this book. Also thanks to the Maguires and Laws, who are starting to feel like family themselves.

As always many thanks to you, the reader, for taking the time to read my work.

CHAPTER 1

“Yep, on my way home,” smiled Rachel. “Can’t wait to see you.”

“Can’t wait to see you too sweetheart,” Ryan’s voice echoed through the car. “I intend to have the children in bed before you arrive then I get you all to myself. In the shower.”

“Take it easy Romeo, I might be tired after my long journey.”

Rachel was driving back home to the village of Newton Abbot in Devon after a business meeting in Bristol. She’d gone alone as Ryan had been tied up with their businesses back home. Now he was at home with their three children, eagerly awaiting her return.

“It’s only an hour and a half,” said Ryan. “You are tougher than that Rachel Law.”

“I’m getting old.”

“You’re thirty six and no excuses will be accepted. I promise to soap you all over.”

The sound of her husband’s sultry voice was enough to make her tingle. Even after nine years of marriage they were still so close. “In that case, I’ll do my best not to be tired.”

“Yes you will because I want to kiss every inch of your body then I’m going to slide my tongue…oh hello Leah, didn’t see you there.”

Rachel laughed. “Save the dirty talk until later babe, I’ll be back in about forty minutes.”

“Children, bedtime,” she heard him call, making her laugh.

“Already?” she heard Leah say. She was twelve but thought herself much older.

“Yes, you’ve got school in the morning.”

“But…”

“No buts. Go on, get your pyjamas on.”

“Aww Dad,” Leah huffed.

Rachel winced at the slam of a door. “She is becoming such a little madam.”

“And it’s only going to get worse. I do hope you’re driving carefully?”

“Don’t I always?”

The road she was driving on was a lonely one. It was nine thirty at night and there were few lights on this road, which was lined with trees and bushes. There was only one other car in view, a few metres ahead of her, the red lights a comforting sight. No one had passed them on the other side for a while. There was another route she could have taken, a busier, well-lit one but it was longer and she was keen to get home to her family. She didn’t want to be away from Ryan for too long. In a couple of days the sentencing of the three serial killers who had kidnapped and attempted to kill him was taking place, attempted being the operative word as he’d half-killed one of them. The prospect of seeing them again in court was really getting to him, although he’d never admit it and she wanted to be there to support him.

“I’ll get off the line and let you concentrate,” he said. “See you very soon.”

“Yes you will,” she smiled, a little disheartened when the call ended and it went silent. Ryan’s voice had been very soothing. Rachel didn’t know what was going on, she wasn’t usually prone to nerves but something about this road was making her edgy.

“Oh for God’s sake, the speed limit’s sixty you idiot,” she sighed when the car in front of her slowed to forty miles per hour. For the last mile the car ahead had been travelling at fifty and she’d been content to remain behind it simply for the comfort of being near another human being but this was taking the piss. The road was an easy one to negotiate, smooth with few bends and the weather was fine.

Eager to get home she put her foot down and sailed past the other car, her sporty Mercedes easily overtaking the four by four. As she passed she glimpsed a nervous-looking woman in the driver’s seat, gripping onto the steering wheel, eyes wide, clearly afraid of driving on such a dark road and Rachel felt a bit guilty for criticising her.

Rachel only took her foot off the accelerator when she reached sixty, leaving the other car far behind, it’s headlights disappearing altogether. She was alone again on the road.

“Stop it,” she told herself when her spine tingled with unease. What the hell was wrong with her? Was she going soft? After all the horrible shit she’d been through, after having her throat cut by someone she’d considered a brother and surviving, after tackling some of the most dangerous people in the country and winning she’d thought a lonely country road would hold little terror for her but something was seriously unnerving her and she had no idea what.

As she approached a poorly-lit area she slowed down, glimpsing something sat at the side of the road.

“Jesus, it’s a baby carrier,” she said.

Her instinct was to pull over immediately and she almost did, until she caught herself and drove on.

“Don’t be an idiot,” she told herself.

Instead she carried on driving, pulling into a lay-by just before a curve in the road, where she could keep an eye on the baby carrier and make a call at the same time.

The sound of ringing filled the air then a nasal voice asked which emergency service she required.

“Police please.”

There was a pause before another, less nasally voice came on the line.

“There’s an abandoned baby carrier on the road,” said Rachel.

“You haven’t gone near it?” said the voice.

“No, I pulled in further down the road.”

After describing the location Rachel was told to leave the area immediately and that a unit would be sent out to deal with it.

“Thanks,” she said before hanging up.

Just as Rachel started to pull back out onto the road she glanced in the rearview-mirror and saw the car she had overtaken approaching the area where the baby carrier was.

“Don’t stop,” she told its reflection. “Don’t you dare stop.”

She sighed and shook her head when she saw the car’s indicator go on and it start to slow.

“Oh bloody hell, you really are a moron,” said Rachel.

She sighed and hung her head, thinking of Ryan and her children waiting for her at home. Looking back at the mirror she saw the nervous woman climb out of the car and hurry over to the baby carrier. As she knelt before it Rachel saw two figures dart out of the woodland that lined the road, closing in on the woman, who was so concerned with peering into the carrier in the dark that she didn’t even notice them.

For a split second Rachel actually considered driving off and leaving her to her fate. It wasn’t her problem, she’d been through enough shit to last a lifetime and hadn’t she done her bit by calling the police? They said they’d be here soon. But this road was isolated and by the time they arrived that poor woman would probably be lying in the bushes, beaten and gang-raped and Rachel was ashamed of herself for even considering abandoning her.

Turning off the headlights, Rachel slammed the car into gear and did a u-turn, heading back the way she’d come. The woman finally noticed the figures running at her and Rachel heard her scream over the car engine. She pushed the car harder, wrenching at the gearbox, heading full tilt towards the scene before her, the woman racing back to her car, about to be overtaken by the two black-clad figures.

When all their attention was drawn by the growl of her car engine Rachel slammed on the brakes, the seat belt tightening painfully across her chest and switched on the headlights at the same time, dazzling them all, causing them to stop in their tracks.

Before they could recover she snatched her taser out of the glove box, flung open the car door and leapt out. One of the figures - who she saw was a large man - reacted quicker than expected and she just managed to avoid getting a fist in the face, leaping aside and jamming the taser into his ribs. He jumped and jerked, eyes wide behind the balaclava, before dropping.

“Get in,” she yelled at the woman.

“My baby,” she screamed back at her, verging on hysteria.

“Oh just perfect,” said Rachel, preparing to take on the second man, who had failed to notice the taser too in the darkness, giving Rachel the impression they were just amateurs and not hardened criminals, which was all the better for her. He practically threw himself at her, thinking they’d just got themselves two victims to toy with, squealing with surprise when she kicked him in the stomach and stuck the taser into his crotch. Furious, she grabbed the back of his balaclava and banged his head off the side of her car and he slumped to the ground with his friend.

The woman took her baby out of the four by four and cradled it to her, looking terrified.

“Get in the car,” Rachel yelled at her again when she saw two more figures in black running out of the trees towards them.

She jumped back into her car and flung open the passenger door for her. The woman got in, cradling her baby to her chest, eyes shiny with tears.

“Get your seatbelt on,” Rachel said, ramming her own seatbelt home.

The woman released a scream of surprise when one of the men Rachel had injured threw himself onto the bonnet of the car, eyes glaring at them through the balaclava.

“Think that’s going to stop me?” hissed Rachel, stepping on the accelerator.

A few yards down the road she hit the brake and he flew off. The man she’d hit in the crotch with the taser had come round and the other two picked him up and dragged him to the four by four.

Rachel did a sharp u-turn and put her foot to the floor, eliciting a gasp of surprise from the woman beside her, both arms clutched tightly around her child.

“Are they following?” the woman asked Rachel, turning in her seat.

“Yep,” she replied, brow furrowed as she concentrated on negotiating the road at speed, all the while the lights from the four by four getting brighter as it gained on them. “How fast can that thing go?” she exclaimed.

“I don’t know, I’ve never gone above fifty,” said the woman.

That didn’t surprise Rachel.

“But my husband had it chipped, why I don’t know. They’re going to catch us,” she wailed.

“No they’re not,” replied Rachel, wrenching the wheel to the left at a sudden bend in the road.

“Oh God I can’t look,” said the woman, holding her baby closer.

“Don’t worry, I’ve been trained by the best,” said Rachel, grateful for the evasive driving lessons Battler had given her.

“Are you, in the police or something?”

“No, I’m a businesswoman.”

“Oh. Who the hell are they? What do they want? Why was there a baby carrier at the side of the road?”

“It was a trap. Gang initiation. A woman sees the carrier and pulls over, they drag her into the bushes to beat and gang-rape her then leave her for dead. If it’s a man they just beat and rob him. You should read the police warnings more often.”

“R…rape?” exclaimed the woman, causing her baby’s eyes to widen. “Oh my God and they’re still after us, they still want to do all those horrible things to us.”

“Please, let me concentrate,” said Rachel, eyes continuously flicking between the road and the rearview-mirror, watching those lights get closer. She put her foot down a little more, gripping the steering wheel tightly, holding her breath as they rounded a tight bend at eighty miles per hour.

“Oh God,” cried the woman, screwing her eyes shut.

Rachel couldn’t blame her, it was bloody scary. There was no daylight left, the car headlights dancing wildly off everything around them, disorientating her.

“Redial,” said Rachel.

The woman jumped when the sound of ringing filled the air.

“We need the police,” said Rachel as soon as the operator answered the call. “I reported a baby carrier on the side of the road. It was put there by a gang of four men who attacked me and another woman. They’re chasing us in another car.” She looked to the woman beside her. “Tell them your reg number.”

“My what?” she said, pale and dazed.

“Your registration number,” snapped Rachel.

“I…I don’t know it.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Colour, make and model then.”

“Oh yes, I know that. It’s a burnt orange Hyundai. Fifteen plate.”

“Model?” pressed Rachel.

“I can’t remember,” she cried.

After giving the operator their location Rachel hung up, needing to concentrate but the woman’s crying was getting on her nerves.

“What’s your name?” said Rachel.

“What?” she shrieked.

“What’s your name?” she repeated louder, trying to focus the woman’s mind and calm her down. The baby was looking up at her with wide, scared eyes and the last thing Rachel needed was the baby crying too.

“Sa…Samantha,” she stammered. “Samantha Harper.”

“I’m Rachel,” she replied. “I need you to do something for me, I need you to try and keep calm. I can’t concentrate with you screaming like that and if I can’t concentrate there’s a good chance we’ll crash.”

Samantha took in a deep breath. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. We’re approaching a main road and the police will be here soon then that shower behind us will back off.”

Samantha released another cry when their car was rammed from behind and they skidded to the right, heading straight for a wall.

“Shit,” exclaimed Rachel, wrestling with the wheel, wrenching it to the left, praying it was enough.

The car missed the wall by inches and when it was straight Rachel stomped hard on the accelerator again but her natural instinct wouldn’t let her push it all the way, after all she had a baby in the front seat who wasn’t strapped in.