Duality (2 page)

“Oh God, please,” gasped Samantha, tears running down her face.

“They will not catch us,” said Rachel determinedly.

Ever so lightly she pressed the accelerator just a little more, making the car behind think she was speeding up.

“Keep a tight hold of your baby, alright Samantha? I’ve got a surprise for these bastards.”

She nodded, breath coming out so fast Rachel feared she was going to hyperventilate. That would just be the bloody icing on the cake if she did. The lights of the four by four were so close in the mirror they dazzled her. She gritted her teeth when there was another bump from behind, the roar of the engine competing with her own car’s.

“If you’re going to do something then please do it now,” said Samantha, doing her best to protect her baby from any possible impact.              

“Any second now,” said Rachel, squinting at the road ahead, praying she hadn’t made an error of judgement, it was getting harder to tell where she was. Finally she saw it, the sign.

“Hold on,” she said, swinging the car to the right.

“Christ,” yelled Samantha as they bumped and jerked their way up the dirt track that went past a farm. The turning was very easy to miss, especially in the dark, only locals really knew about it.

Rachel looked into the rearview-mirror and was relieved to see nothing but darkness behind them. “They’ve gone,” she breathed.

“Oh thank you God, thank you, thank you,” said Samantha in a shaky voice, kissing her baby’s face. “What if they come back?”

“They won’t, you hear that? It’s police sirens.”

“About bloody time,” she exclaimed. “Where does this road go?”

“Up to a main road. We’ll go straight to the nearest police station, it’s not far.”

Samantha let out a shaky breath and leaned back in her seat. “I don’t know how to thank you Rachel, you saved my life and probably hers too,” she said, looking down at her baby. “If they’d got hold of her…”

When she broke off and started to cry a lump formed in Rachel’s throat. She could understand exactly how she felt.

They both finally relaxed when Rachel steered the car onto the main road, which was much more well-lit. With some light finally shining on her face Samantha saw Rachel’s features clearly for the first time and she did a double-take.

“Oh my God, you’re that gangster woman who was in the papers, you’re Rachel Law,” she shrieked, leaning back in her seat as far from her as possible, turning her body so her baby was tilted away from her.

“I’m not a gangster, I’m a businesswoman. You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the papers.”

“You’re a drug dealer and you’ve killed people,” she shrieked, eyes wide and terrified.

“I’ve never killed anyone.” She’d come close several times but she wasn’t about to tell her that. “And I don’t deal drugs, I own hotels and spas.”

But Samantha wasn’t listening, she just continued to cry and wail. The baby finally gave into the tears she had been repressing and started to cry too, the sound deafening in such a confined space.

“Well that’s great,” muttered Rachel, “just great.”

CHAPTER 2

Ryan glanced nervously at the clock. Rachel should have been home by now. The children were in bed, he had some supper warming for her in the oven, a glass of red wine at the ready and some mood music playing in the background. He’d been determined she would not feel tired when she got home, he’d had plans for her but they’d all gone out the window an hour ago when she should have been home. Now he didn’t care about a romantic evening, all he wanted was his wife home safely. After she’d been kidnapped twice and almost killed it was natural his thoughts turned to the worst outcome. Had their enemies - and they had plenty of those, despite the fact they were now living the legitimate life - got hold of her for revenge? Had she been involved in an accident and was lying in a ditch or a hospital somewhere? He’d called her phone several times and she hadn’t responded. There was no reason why she couldn’t answer when she was driving with the state-of-the-art hands-free kit she’d had installed. He tried to reason that she could just be stuck in a traffic jam, but traffic jams were few and far between this time of night.

When the phone rang he snatched it up. “Hello?” he practically yelled, praying to the god he didn’t believe in that it wasn’t a call telling him she was dead.

“Ryan, it’s me.”

“Oh Rachel, thank God,” he said, knees going weak. “Are you alright? Where are you?”

“I’m fine and I’m at the police station.”

“Have you been arrested?”

“No I haven’t. Me and another woman were attacked tonight. Actually she was attacked and I helped her.”

“Attacked?” he exclaimed. “I’m on my way.”

“No, it’s alright, don’t disturb the kids. I’m getting a lift home, my car’s being kept for evidence.”

“Evidence, why?”

“I got rammed.”

“By who?” he yelled, gripping the phone tightly.

“I’ll explain when I get home, I won’t be long. Love you.”

“Love you too,” he said, then she was gone.

Ryan sank down at the huge kitchen table, so relieved he could cry and he very rarely cried. His wife was his world, they’d gone through hell together too many times to count and if he ever lost her his life would be over. He’d have to go on for their children’s sakes but without Rachel he’d be a walking shell of a man.

“She’s alright, she’s alright,” he repeated to himself in an attempt to shake off the anxiety that had settled in his gut ever since she’d failed to come home on time.

He turned off the oven and drank down a glass of red wine in one go, glad when it steadied his nerves. Ryan prided himself on being unflappable but when it came to his family it was a different matter.

Then he pulled a chair up before the bank of security monitors that covered the exterior of the house, eyes glued to the entrance to the driveway, waiting for her to return. It was far too dark outside to see and he would need to buzz open the electric gates. After what they’d endured they’d ensured their new home in the heart of the Devonshire countryside - which they’d had to rebuild after Alex Maguire had burnt their old farmhouse to the ground while in the grip of his insanity - had the best security their considerable wealth could buy.

Every second of the forty minutes he had to wait was agony. When a police car finally did appear at the bottom of the drive he leapt up, slammed the button that would open the gate then raced out of the house, greeting the car as it reached the top of the drive.

The back door was flung open and Rachel jumped out and ran to him. Ryan pulled her to him and buried his face in her long dark hair.

“I’m okay,” she said, rubbing her hands up and down his back. “Honestly.”

He pulled back slightly to regard her and took her face in his hands, eyes earnest. “You’re sure?”

She nodded and gave him a small smile. “Sure.”

He put his arm around her and led her back to the house. “Let’s get you inside.”

“Thank you,” Rachel called to the police officer who had brought her home. Ryan only spoke to the police when they didn’t give him a choice.

After kicking off her shoes she curled up on the couch with Ryan, who poured out a glass of wine for them both, and told her tale. By the end of it he was furious.

“I will track them down and put each of them through the worst pain imaginable,” he snarled.

“There’s no need, the police will find them.”

He released a snort. “Yeah, right.”

“Me and Samantha gave them as much information as we could.”

“Did you see their faces?”

“No, they were wearing masks.”

“Do you know who they were?”

“Well…no.”

“So how can they possibly catch them?”

“They might find something at the scene or in Samantha’s car.”

“We both know that car will be on fire somewhere by now. This was a gang initiation, they will have a back-up plan when something goes wrong.”

“Perhaps. I don’t think they were the brightest sparks.”

“You said they were chasing you. That means they got your licence plate number. They’ll be able to track you down.”

“I should think when they find out who we are they’ll leave us alone and be grateful they had a lucky escape.”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps they’ll see us as a challenge. Plenty have.”

“These are stupid little boys playing at being gangsta. They’re not in the league of Alex or the Slatterys.”

“Well, let’s hope so. But I think it would be wise to be cautious.”

“Alright,” she sighed, yawning and running a hand through her hair.

“Adrenaline wearing off?”

She nodded. “You know what the worst part of tonight was?”

“What?” he said, stroking her face.

“When Samantha realised who I was she started screaming her head off. She was terrified of me.”

The hurt in Rachel’s eyes infuriated Ryan. “How dare she, after you put yourself at risk to rescue her and her spawn from a hideous fate.”

“I can’t really blame her.”

“Don’t defend her Rachel.”

“I’m too tired to think about it now. I just want a hot bath then bed.”

Ryan wanted to ask if she would like company in the bath but wasn’t sure she was up to that. Romance was the last thing on her mind. “Would you like me to bring you up a cup of tea?” he asked instead.

She smiled gratefully and squeezed his hand. “That would be lovely, thank you. I’m sorry, I know you had something more exciting in mind.”

“Do not apologise. I’m just relieved you’re home safely.” He pulled her to him. “Please do not be that reckless ever again.”

“I’ll try but I can’t promise anything.”

“And that is why I love you,” he said, kissing her.

Jules stared at the plastic stick in her hand in astonishment.

“Pregnant?” she whispered.

She was sat on her bathroom floor, back against the cool tiled wall, trying to get her head around the fact that something she thought would never happen to her just had.

“I don’t get it,” she said to herself. “I can’t get pregnant.”

Jules had been violently raped on her thirteenth birthday by her adopted father’s best friend - who had been the highest bidder for her virginity - and she’d almost died from the hideous damage that had been done to her. The doctors had said she’d never be able to have children so she’d never factored kids into her life. She had never even considered them, until now.

She didn’t even have the solace of blaming the test for being wrong. This was the third one she had done - and all were positive.

“Oh shit, oh shit,” she said before throwing the stick across the room. There was only one man the father could be. Even though she’d thought she couldn’t have children she’d always been careful to practice safe sex because of the risk of disease - except with one man and that was because she hadn’t had any choice. Not that it hadn’t been consensual, she’d enjoyed herself mightily with him but she’d been a prisoner in his home after he’d abducted her from the Maguire compound when it had blown up. He’d taken her to his home in Kent and instead of doing the sensible thing and killing her he’d taken a shine to her and they’d had some really enjoyable sex. The only other man she’d slept with since had been Jackson Driscoll, her long-term bootie call but they had always played it safe.

“Oh bloody hell, I’m pregnant with Jared Slattery’s baby,” she exclaimed. “How marvellous, how fucking marvellous.” What was her family going to say when she broke that little gem to them? Not only had Jared Slattery broken into the Maguire compound and abducted her but he’d almost succeeded in bringing down their entire family and their empire, he was the only man to ever get anywhere close and her cousin Mikey and her brothers Jez and Ryan hated him. She couldn’t imagine them taking to having his child as a niece or nephew. And what if Jared found out? Both him and his mum had been creepy weird. Tanya, Jared’s mother, had even tried to kill her, she was almost as good with a knife as Jules herself. She’d seen the longing in her eyes whenever children were mentioned, she would love nothing more than an heir to the Slattery empire and she could imagine Tanya going to any lengths to get one. Maybe it would be better if this baby didn’t exist?

She rested her head back against the tiles and looked up at the ceiling for inspiration. “What the hell do I do?”

The sound of her doorbell ringing had her leaping up. Mikey was here, they were going out to a meeting but not the civilised kind in a board room. This was in the back of a closed down pub and Mikey wanted her along as back-up. She knew he wouldn’t be impressed if he found out his only bodyguard was a pregnant woman who kept throwing up every thirty seconds.

Briefly she considered not opening the door and pretending she was out but that wasn’t her style, she never hid from anything, no matter how bad it was and she didn’t intend to start now. So she dragged herself to her feet and wandered through the living room to the front door, checking the spy hole before opening up.

“You ready to go?” were Mikey’s first words.

Hell, he looks good,
thought Jules. She loved the combination of his dark Maguire hair and sea green eyes. Mikey was her first cousin but that fact had done nothing to stop them from getting hot and heavy a couple of times. They’d never gone all the way but they’d come close. There was an irresistible attraction between them that might not have been there had they been raised together as cousins, but he and her brothers had only come into her life a year ago so to her he was just another man rather than a blood relative. Mikey’s mother and Jules’s father had been brother and sister but neither of them cared.

Mikey entered the room looking dark and brooding, as always. She’d noticed that lately he’d seemed to have become darker somehow. His experiences at the hands of Jared Slattery and his conspirators had taught him a harsh lesson. For a few days after the compound had blown up he’d had to pretend to be dead in order to lure their enemies into a false sense of security before brutally cutting them down and it had left its mark on him. He looked more mature, harder, which only made him more attractive to Jules.

He stood there in a very expensive deep blue suit, hair stylishly tousled, eyes cutting into her.

“Are you okay?” he said. “You look a bit pale.”

“I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“Who kept you awake?”

“No one. I was alone, I just couldn’t sleep.”

“Something bothering you?”

There was a beat of silence as Jules tried to work out whether he actually knew her secret, he was staring at her so intently.

“No,” she quickly replied. She hadn’t had time to process this huge shock and as yet she had no idea what she was going to do about it and she wasn’t going to tell anyone until she knew.

“Let’s go then.”

She nodded and followed him out into the hall. She lived in a block of flats that had been built by Ryan and Rachel’s property development company. Mikey had bought it off them for Amber when she’d fallen pregnant with their baby but she’d moved out when they’d become a solid couple. Mikey had set Jules up here when she’d first started working for him and she hadn’t bothered to find anywhere else. It was comfortable and had everything she needed so she hadn’t seen the point in moving.

They jogged downstairs in silence and the second they were outside Jules automatically reached for the pack of cigarettes in the pocket of her leather jacket then thought better of it and decided to leave it where it was, which took a huge effort of will, she’d smoked from a young age.

“Not sparking up?” said Mikey as they headed to his gleaming black Audi sitting in the car park. He didn’t allow smoking in his car, he hated it but he was used to her frantically puffing on a cigarette on the short walk between the door and the car.

“I’m trying to quit,” she said, feeling frustrated and irritable already. She’d never tried to quit before and she thought it probably wasn’t going to go well.

“This is going to be fun,” he sighed as they got in the car.

Mikey drove them towards Cheetham Hill, north-east of the city centre where the meet had been arranged. Jules sat in silence, gazing out of the window as she mulled over this fresh shock, trying to figure out what the hell she was going to do. She was carrying the baby of one of their biggest enemies, it would never be accepted into the family and what sort of mother was she going to make? She was too screwed up to ever be a parent. The baby’s father and grandmother were even bigger nightmares than her, it wouldn’t be fair to inflict all that on a child. Maybe an abortion would be for the best?