“It’s okay, people, it’s a false alarm, there’s no need to panic: everyone is perfectly safe.” He hoped what he was saying was true, he hadn’t seen anyone with a gun, and as far as he knew none of his security men had either.
Just when Paul thought he was starting to gain control again, the front doors swung open and dozens of armed police officers stormed the club, charging in fully kitted out in riot armour.
“Everybody stay where you are; get down on the floor with your hands on your heads.” Bodies dived to the floor, the music had stopped playing and the harsh main lights had been turned on, most people were starting to sober up.
Billy and Paul were side by side on the floor; Paul put his arm up and shouted to the officer who had commanded them to get down that he was the club’s owner, and the officer let him get to his feet but told everyone else to stay where they were. Looking around the officer could see that there was no trouble here. When they had first arrived to all the running screaming people they had thought they were going to enter a massacre scene from a horror movie, but it turned out no one was hurt. Nobody knew who had initially seen the gunman either. After checking the club and making sure that no one had been hurt or threatened they decided that it had probably been a hoax call.
People started getting up, dusting themselves off and slowly filtering out of the club. The drama had ended what had been a good night out for most. The officers started filing out too. There was no sign of Jay, and as he looked towards the DJ booth Billy shook with anger when he saw there was no sign of the bag of cash anymore either.
47
“We are laughing all the way to the bank, babes.” Jay picked Tanya up and swung her around in the tiny cottage lounge, which in itself was a hard task as you couldn’t so much as swing a kitten. Tanya lapped up his praise and tilted her head back playfully.
“I can’t believe you did it, you’re fucking amazing, Tan… did I ever tell you that?”
Kissing her hard on the lips, he put her down, feeling dizzy with excitement. They had done it: they had really done it. Oh, the look on Billy’s face right now would be priceless: they had just taken a quarter of a million pounds from the bloke, he must be sick as a fucking parrot.
Jay’s adrenaline had been pumping all night long, he had been so worried that someone might have recognised Tanya and fucked the whole thing up for them. This was the biggest job he had ever pulled off, and with the enemies he had now made it had been the riskiest, but even he wouldn’t admit out loud how he had been shitting himself tonight. Tanya, once again, had come up trumps. Jay had led them to believe that this was his plan; that it was all his doing, and that they were dealing with him alone. He shook his head in wonderment, Billy had taken it as read and not realised that Tanya was involved at all: let alone the main instigator.
“I know, I know; I’m a fucking genius!” Tanya was also pleased as punch with herself. She couldn’t keep the grin from her face. She had walked into the club and swanned around amongst them all, in disguise, and fleeced them for everything they had: well, everything Billy had. Men were pitiful. They had been so busy looking for Jay and searching all the men who went into the club, they hadn’t considered that they should have been looking out for a woman. Billy wouldn’t have thought for a minute that it would have been her coming for the money, but then he probably hadn’t given her a moment’s thought since he had thrown her out. It proved what a stupid little man he was. He didn’t have high expectations of her. She was unwilling to let that thought get to her, however; he had underestimated her and that would be to his own cost; nothing was spoiling this high for her tonight.
“How the hell did you manage to get out of the club in one piece with that bag in tow?” Jay nodded at the holdall Tanya had smuggled out of the club, which was now sitting in the middle of the coffee table, full of fifty pound notes. Tanya explained while she poured them both nice big glasses of cold Sauvignon, that she had lowered the bag out of the toilet window into the little passageway at the side of the club and then she had made a dash for the main door, along with the hundreds of other screaming people who were trying to get out of the club. There were people everywhere, running about trying to get to the main doors, in fear of an imaginary gunman; she had slipped out unnoticed. Just as she had got out and reached the passageway, the police had turned up with sirens blaring and all lights blazing. Unbeknown to Tanya, Billy’s lookout, Jonny, had been so consumed with the drama of the clubbers running out looking terrified and the police turning up he hadn’t spotted Tanya running with the bag of cash and getting into the Golf that was sitting a little further down the street. She had got away with it: easy money.
Downstairs Kate could hear the commotion, she had been drifting in and out of sleep all day; dreaming was the only thing that had broken up her time whilst she had been here, it was the only thing that took her away from this waking nightmare. Tanya’s car pulling up had woken her and Kate could hear the sound of her and Jay laughing loudly now upstairs, obviously both very pleased that they had pulled their plan off. Her brother had paid up, it seemed. Kate could imagine that he would be going through hell, not only because she was missing but also that he had just been fleeced out of a quarter of a million pounds. As long as her brother had breath in his body, Kate knew that he wouldn’t rest until he had it back: every single penny. Tanya and Jay were as good as dead now after pulling this little stunt.
Trying to sit up, she swung her legs round and moved so that her back was against the wall. The whole time she had been here, her hands and feet had been tied; they treated her worse than a dog. She felt filthy: and she was filthy. She wondered when they would let her go; she had heard them say that they would as soon as they had the money, so she hoped that it wouldn’t be long. Wriggling her toes, trying to relieve the cramp in her legs, Kate stretched out and tried to think positively. Soon she would be out of there; soon she would be at home.
“We can dump her in some lay-by, or leave her in a motorway cafe toilet; give Billy a call with the details and then just keep on driving.” Jay was excited about starting their new life; a new start was what he needed. He would always be able to start from the bottom and work his way up, he had done so many a time. With Tanya at his side, the world was his proverbial oyster; he knew they could make it. He loved her so much, he really loved her. It was something he had never felt for anyone else. There was a fuzzy feeling in his stomach when he thought about her, as if he craved her: like a drug, he had to have her. Jay had decided it was a good thing, this love business, that he would finally give in to it and see where it took them. Tanya seemed happy, looking at her tapping her feet to the music playing in the background and sipping her drink, apparently deep in thought, he had never seen her look more beautiful. As if his look had interrupted her thoughts, she glanced up.
“Drive where though, Jay? Where are we going to go? Do you think that Billy is seriously going to let us get away with this? That we can start again anywhere? It doesn’t matter where we go, because he’ll find us. Two wronguns like us, we’d have to change our names, keep ourselves to ourselves, which in our way of life would be hard to do. Reputation’s everything, and if we lay low, what sort of money will we ever be able to make? It’ll only be a matter of time before he catches up with us. We’ll be forever watching our backs.”