The Driver (11 page)

‘Yeah,’ she slurred, grinning up at him. ‘Wanna come with me, handsome?’

‘Wish I could,’ Daz drawled, looking her over. Her dress was short and tight, and her hair was all mussed up from dancing.

The girl took a step towards him and giggled when her heel caught on the concrete. She fell against him. ‘Oooh, you’re a big boy, aren’t you?’ she purred when he caught her. ‘Bet you work out.’

‘A bit,’ Daz admitted, catching the scent of her perfume mixed with the alcohol on her breath and feeling a stirring down below.

‘I like a man who works out,’ she said huskily, giving him the green light with her eyes as she stroked his arms. ‘They reckon it makes you last longer ’cos of all those push-ups. Is that true?’

‘Why don’t you come and find out?’ Daz suggested. He grabbed her hand and led her back into the shadows as the temptation became too strong to resist.

The doormen watched as Daz and his conquest disappeared. Then, exchanging a quick glance, they checked that the road was clear and went inside, locking the door behind them.

Carl turned his head when he felt a tap on his shoulder. ‘Yeah?’

‘Your mate’s getting jumped outside,’ one of the doormen told him. ‘Just thought you’d want to know – ’cos there’s three of them.’

Tutting, Carl pushed himself away from the pillar and headed out into the foyer. Under any other circumstances you’d expect a doorman to wade in if there was a fight. But he could hardly blame this one for staying out of it, because it
was
a bit of a piss-take expecting the guy to help one of the men who were stealing money from the club. And that was effectively what they were doing, because they certainly weren’t doing any of the security dirty work to justify it. That was all left to the doormen, who had to deal with the troublemakers
and
mop up the vomit and blood – all for a fraction of what Eddie was taking.

The foyer light had gone out. Trying the door and finding it locked, Carl presumed the doorman had done it to keep the fight from spilling over into the club. But as he turned to ask him to open it he heard a whooshing sound. Too late to duck – he felt like he’d been hit by a train when the baseball bat connected with his forehead.

At that same moment Kenny and Matt had just stepped out of the manager’s office. When he found the previously lit corridor in darkness, the hairs rose on the back of Kenny’s neck. And when the manager suddenly closed and locked his door behind them, he dropped instinctively to his haunches and eased his gun out of his inside pocket. He’d never used it and had hoped he’d never have to, but if something was going down there was no way he was being taken out without giving himself a fair chance.

Narrowing his eyes now, Kenny squinted into the void, watching for movement in the shadows as Matt edged his way along the wall in search of the light switch. When he heard the same distinctive whooshing sound that Carl had just heard out in the foyer Kenny yelled, ‘Get down!’ But it was too late, and he winced when he heard the dull
thwok
of wood connecting with bone, followed by the sound of Matt’s body hitting the deck like a sack of potatoes.

‘Don’t be a prick,’ Kenny said calmly, guessing that the doorman had whacked Matt with a bat. ‘I’ve got a gun, so drop it or I start shooting!’

‘Fuck you,’ the doorman hissed, swinging out wildly and jarring his elbow when he hit the wall. ‘Mistake you made was thinking that we were gonna sit back and let your boss carry on ripping us off,’ he went on. ‘
We
run this place, not him.’

‘Know him, do you?’ Kenny asked, edging away from the door, aware that this was most likely where the man was heading for.

‘Are you deaf, you little cunt?’ the doorman snarled, getting closer. ‘We don’t give a flying
fuck
about Eddie Quinn – and you can tell him that from me. This is over, do you hear me? As of now, he ain’t getting another penny.’

The light came on suddenly as Carl burst through the door and flicked the switch. Seeing the gun in Kenny’s hand and realising that he’d been telling the truth, the doorman stopped in his tracks. It genuinely hadn’t occurred to him that they would be armed, because they looked like a bunch of kids playing hard men to him. If anything, he’d thought they might have knives, but he always wore a stab vest when he was doing doors so that hadn’t bothered him.

‘All right, lads, no need to get stupid,’ he said, raising his hands. ‘Just leave before the pigs get here, yeah?’

Seeing Matt on the floor, Carl swiped at the blood running from the cut on his own head and aimed a vicious kick into the small of the doorman’s back, sending him sprawling to his knees.

‘Where’s the other one?’ Kenny asked, strolling towards the doorman and pointing the gun at his head.

‘Spark out in the cloakroom,’ Carl told him, wiping his face on his sleeve.

‘And Daz?’ Kenny asked, wondering why the hell Daz hadn’t stopped the men from coming after them in the first place, or at least alerted them – unless they’d got to him first.

‘No idea,’ Carl said, squatting beside Matt and slapping his face to rouse him. ‘All I know is, this one’s mate told me he was getting jumped so I went to help him out. But they’d locked the doors, and he took a swing while my back was turned.’

Nodding, Kenny turned his attention back to the doorman. He lifted his foot and slammed it down on the top of the man’s head.

‘Try anything like this again and you’re fucking dead, mate!’ he warned him. ‘Now get up and let us out. And lock the door behind us, ’cos if anyone tries to follow us they’re gonna seriously regret it.’

Hauling the doorman to his feet now, Kenny shoved the barrel of the gun into his back and pushed him out through the clubroom as Carl helped Matt out.

Daz was strolling around the corner, adjusting his flies, when Kenny and the others came out. He frowned when he saw Carl holding Matt up, his face covered in blood, and said, ‘Jeezus, what’s happened?’

‘Fetch the car,’ Kenny ordered coldly, his eyes flashing fire as he took in the fact that Daz looked totally unscathed.

When Daz pulled up alongside them Kenny stashed the money he’d just taken into the bag with the rest and slid it under the passenger seat. Then, after helping Matt onto the back seat, he climbed into the front and told Daz to drive to the nearest hospital.

After dropping Carl and Matt off outside the A&E department Kenny kept his eyes peeled for a suitable spot in which to have it out with Daz when they set off again. He felt like whacking the idiot and didn’t want his movements to be restricted by the confines of the car, so he told Daz to pull in behind a boarded-up warehouse just off the main road.

‘Aw, I hope you’re not planning on waiting for them,’ Daz complained, doing as he was told. ‘They’ll be hours yet.’

Kenny didn’t bother answering this. He climbed out when they stopped and paced on the spot until Daz got out the other side.

‘What the fuck were you doing back there?’ he demanded, launching straight into him. ‘All you had to do was watch the door and make sure them clowns stayed put, so how come you didn’t see them following us in?’

Daz folded his arms, pursed his lips and gazed down at his trainers. He’d been having a knee-trembler with the pissed-up bird in the car park but he could hardly admit to that after what had happened. So he lied, and said, ‘I thought I heard my alarm going off, so I went to check it out.’

‘Bullshit!’ Kenny spat. ‘You were nowhere near the car. Anyway, you were zipping yourself up when we saw you. So what were you really doing? Having a wank? ’Cos I’ll tell you what, that’s the only muscle
you
ever use. The one in your
head
certainly never gets any fucking exercise.’

Incensed by the way Kenny was going off on him, Daz puffed out his chest aggressively. ‘Who the fuck d’y think you’re talking to? I could knock you out with one punch, mate.’

‘Come on, then,’ Kenny challenged him calmly. ‘Let’s see what you got.’

‘You make me laugh,’ Daz sneered, circling him. ‘You gob off like some kind of hard man, but you’re nowt but Eddie’s lapdog.’

‘You reckon?’ Kenny’s eyes glinted a warning. ‘So what’s stopping you from taking a pop, then? Come on –
do
it!’

Daz’s burst of bravado fizzled out as quickly as it had come over him. He’d always relied on his size and his tongue to intimidate people into submission before they realised that he couldn’t actually back up his words with actions. But Kenny wasn’t intimidated and Daz’s instincts told him that it would be a mistake to get into it with him. Kenny might be smaller but he was rock-hard on the inside – where it counted.

‘Didn’t think so,’ Kenny jeered when Daz headed back to the car. ‘You’re a bottler, mate. I’ve been thinking it for ages and now you’ve proved it. And I’ll tell you what: Eddie’s gonna go fucking
ape
when he hears what you did tonight.’

Still fronting, because that was his last defence, Daz gave a slow smile as he climbed back in behind the wheel. ‘You’re full of shit,’ he drawled. ‘Only reason I’m not touching you is ’cos I don’t wanna break you.’

Muttering, ‘Whatever,’ Kenny walked around to the passenger side. But just as he reached it, Daz activated the central locking and reversed away. Shocked, because he hadn’t seen it coming, Kenny ran after him, yelling, ‘Stop, you idiot! You’ve got the money!’

Kicking the kerb in frustration when Daz turned the corner with a screech of rubber, he yanked his mobile out of his pocket. But Daz’s phone went straight to answerphone so he ran out onto the main road and looked around for a cab.

Joe woke with a start when his phone rang. Groping for it on the bedside table, he croaked, ‘Yeah?’

‘It’s me,’ said Carl. ‘Didn’t wake you, did I?’

‘Yeah, but it’s okay.’ Joe rubbed his eyes. ‘What time is it?’

‘Nearly three,’ Carl told him. ‘Sorry for disturbing you but I need a favour. I’m at the hospital. Can you pick us up?’

‘Hospital?’ Joe sat up now. ‘Why, what’s happened?’

‘Long story,’ Carl said wearily. ‘I’m okay but I left my dosh at home, so I really need a lift.’

‘Course.’ Joe was already pushing the quilt off. ‘Which hospital?’

‘Fuck, I don’t even know,’ Carl murmured. ‘Hang on. Let me just ask.’ His voice sounded muffled as he spoke to somebody else. Then, coming back to Joe, he said, ‘Stepping Hill. Do you know it?’

‘Yeah – Stockport. I’ll come now. Do you want me to tell Mel?’

‘Nah, I’ll see her when I get back. No point worrying her. Just hurry up, yeah?’

Carl was sitting on a bollard when Joe pulled into the ambulance bay a short time later. He’d been having a smoke while he watched two policewomen try to convince a bloody-faced young girl that she needed to let the doctors have a look at her. He stood up now, flicked his cigarette butt away and shouted, ‘Yo, I’d go with them if I was you, love. That nose is gonna look like you’ve gone ten rounds with Tyson come the morning.’

He grinned when the girl called him a wanker and yelled at him to go fuck himself, climbed into the car and touched fists with Joe. ‘Cheers for coming, mate.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Joe said, frowning as he checked out the glue holding his friend’s forehead together. ‘What the hell happened?’

‘I had a run-in with a baseball bat,’ Carl told him, shrugging as if it was no big deal. ‘Don’t hurt that much now.’

‘Bet it did at the time,’ Joe remarked, taking in the size of the lump surrounding the wound. ‘Who did it?’

‘Just some joker,’ Carl said evasively. ‘But he came off worse, so I reckon he’ll think twice before he tries it on with anyone else.’

Shaking his head, Joe turned the car around and headed home.

Mel hadn’t been back long from Damien’s party and she was still pretty pissed. But she sobered up fast when she saw the state of Carl.

‘Oh, my God!’ she squawked, leading him to the couch. ‘Sit down – let me have a look at you.’

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Joe said when she rushed into the kitchen for a bowl of warm water and some cotton wool to wash off the dried blood. ‘I’ll pop round in the morning, see how you’re doing.’

‘You don’t have to go,’ Carl insisted, looking as pleased as a pig in shit as he lapped up Mel’s attention. ‘Get my gear out and roll a couple.’ He nodded towards the sideboard.

Mel came back in just then. ‘Aw, don’t go,’ she said. ‘I’ve just put the kettle on. You can stop for a brew, can’t you?’

‘Okay, I’ll stay for half an hour,’ Joe agreed. ‘But you should try and get some sleep, mate, ’cos you’ve already been up for two days.’

‘Don’t worry about me,’ Carl scoffed. ‘They don’t call me the Duracell bunny for nothing, you know.’

‘They don’t call you it at
all
,’ Mel pointed out, softening what would normally have sounded quite bitchy with a smile.

Joe was pleased to see the couple being nice to each other for a change. Carl had been complaining about her constant sarcasm and the lack of sex he’d been getting recently. But if seeing him hurt had given Mel a wake-up call, then there was hope for them yet.

Joe had just started to roll the spliff when somebody knocked on the door. Mel jumped, sloshing water out of the bowl onto Carl’s leg.

‘Who the hell’s that at this time?’

‘Want me to go?’ Joe offered. He knew the reason for her nervousness because Carl had told him all about the gang raiding them before he’d moved in.

‘If you don’t mind,’ she said gratefully, her hand rising automatically to her mouth for a good old chew. When she remembered that she’d been touching blood, she dropped it and scooted a little closer to Carl. ‘Be careful, though. See who it is first.’

Joe told her not to worry, went to the door and peeped out. When he saw Eddie standing out in the corridor he opened up.

‘Carl in?’ Eddie asked, seeming a little surprised to see Joe here at this time.

‘Yeah, he’s in there.’ Joe stood back. ‘Go through.’

Mel hadn’t had a chance to ask Carl exactly what had happened yet, but she figured it must have been serious for Eddie to be making a house call. Sensing that this was a men-only moment, she made them all a brew and then took herself off into the bedroom.