Realising that she may have a Get out of Jail Free card, Tanya thought about calling Billy, saying that if he promised to forget about the money she would tell him where Kate and Jay were but on the condition that she could keep the money. Knowing Billy, it would be an offer that he couldn’t refuse. The more she thought about it, the more she decided against it, though; if she did that then she would still be lowering herself to asking his permission, and she would be making a deal with him. She wasn’t prepared to do that. Besides, how could she know that he would stand by his word and let her just walk away with his money. No, she wouldn’t ask him, she had set this up, this was all her work, she had earned this and she was keeping the cash. After much debating, she decided she would text him the address of where to find Kate, and maybe that way he would come to his own decision once he realised she was involved. She would offer Jay up to Billy; it was the only chance she had that she might be able to keep the money.

Tanya had the “pay as you go” phone they had bought for contact with Billy, she figured that if she texted Billy the cottage address she would have about forty five minutes to get as far away as possible before he turned up. All Billy wanted was his sister and having Jay handed to him on a plate meant that Tanya would possibly have a chance of not being tracked down if she tried to vanish. Kate could fucking rot, for all she cared, but this way it may seem that Tanya gave a shit. It was her only chance of taking the money and getting home and dry.

Carefully packing a few belongings into the holdall and zipping it up tightly, she sent a text message to Billy saying simply

              “Pines Cottage, Eastwick Lane, Surrey - Kate!”

Tiptoeing down the stairs, she stopped on each creaking floorboard, and prayed that she didn’t wake Jay.

Jay was stretched out on the sofa, snoring, his mouth wide open and one arm hanging off the edge. He was out for the count.

Tanya picked up the car keys from the table, being careful to grip them firmly so that they didn’t jingle, and made for the door. Looking back, just for an instant, confirmed to her that she was doing the right thing, Billy would have caught up with Jay eventually, and by then she would be far away. As she slipped out of the back door into the cold night, the only person Tanya was thinking about was herself.

49

Paul was pulling on his clothes as fast as he could. He had only been in bed a little while and he must have been exhausted, as he had actually drifted off. Billy had just called to say he was on his way over with Ryan. Billy said he had an address: he knew where Kate was. Paul’s head was spinning, if Billy really did have the information about where Kate was, he would be seeing her shortly, and he couldn’t quite get his head around that. He prayed to God that she was okay. He hoped they would get to her in time. Who knew what she had been through over the past week?

Billy was driving like a lunatic. He had picked up Ryan as soon as he had received the text and he called Paul. He guessed that Jay wouldn’t be stupid enough to text him Kate’s whereabouts and then hang around, but he wanted back-up just in case. He had no idea what he might walk into, and he felt nauseous; he didn’t know how Kate would be or if anything bad had happened to her. If anything at all had, he knew he would lose it; his sister was everything to him.

Billy kept his eye on the road as he swerved around bends at eighty miles an hour, sending Ryan flying in the passenger seat. Outside his house, Paul ran to the car and got in the back seat.

              “What’s happened; where is she?” he demanded.

              “Jay did the big manly thing again, for a change, he texted me the address of some cottage in Surrey. He’ll be long gone, I bet, the fucking chicken shit.” Billy put his foot down; every minute felt like ten; he needed to get to her.

              “Jonny and Lee are meeting us there,” Ryan informed them after his phone flashed up a message. “Jonny said to wait for them; he said it could be a trap you’re walking into.”

The thought had crossed Billy’s mind, too. Jay could be up to anything. At least if Billy turned up mob-handed, then he would have more of a chance if it were a trap. He seriously doubted Jay would have the bollocks to try anything, he would have legged it with the wedge as soon as possible. Mind you a few weeks ago Billy would never have believed Jay would have kidnapped Kate and had Billy over for two hundred and fifty K, so who knew what the guy was capable of?

              “Fucking hell, mate, you’d give Lewis Hamilton a run for his money, that’s for sure,” Paul joked, as he swung around in the back seat, as Billy rounded another bend. Paul knew how Billy felt, though, all this time of hoping and praying that she was okay, and now they were on their way to her. They couldn’t get there fast enough, as far as he was concerned.

Billy had arrived at the quiet country lane in just over half the time it should have taken, thanks partly to the fact that there was little traffic on the roads at this time of the morning, and partly to the fact he drove the whole way like a fucking maniac. The cottage was down a long, winding track; Billy could see some lights up ahead, behind hedges. He parked the car at a distance from the cottage and killed the lights.

Ryan opened the boot and got out a sawn-off shotgun, for Billy, and a bag of tools. Paul went empty-handed, and on Billy’s instructions stayed back a bit, letting Ryan and Billy approach the cottage first. The sun had come up, it was almost six thirty. Looking around, Billy could see that the next house was a few hundred meters away, down the lane; checking there was no one else around, they made their way down the track towards the cottage.

Ryan put his hand on the back door handle and was surprised to find it opened; he wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on but this seemed a little too easy. He didn’t want to call Kate’s name in case it was a trap, he wanted to give the place a once-over first. Signalling to Billy and Paul to follow him, they tiptoed through the kitchen. Looking around, it looked like any normal person’s kitchen, there was nothing unusual and there was no sign of Kate.

Glancing into the next room, Ryan did a double take; he could hardly fucking believe it. Jay Shaw was sleeping like a fucking baby on the sofa in front of him. Nodding at Billy to grab his attention, he gestured him over with his hand and pointed over to where Jay was lying. Billy was gobsmacked; it didn’t make sense; why would Jay send that text and then go to sleep? The realisation hit him like a brick. Tanya. He should have known, of course she was involved; she was probably the mastermind. This was her style. Fucking hell what had he ever seen in her? That piece of shit, Jay, had been well and truly set up and was now lying there snoring, probably dreaming of spending Billy’s money; that mug had not an inkling of what was going on.

As the three men tiptoed into the room and crowded around Jay, he had no idea that his sweet dreams were just about to turn into his worst fucking nightmare. Rubbing the end of the sawn-off shot gun against the tip of his nose, Jay brushed it away, and carried on sleeping. Feeling something rub his nose, Jay put a hand up to itch it and opened his eyes. Billy, Ryan and Paul stared down at him.

              “What the fuck?” His whole body jumped so high it nearly hit the ceiling, and he looked like he was actually going to shit himself.

              “This is your early morning wakeup call,” snarled Billy as he brought the barrel of the gun down hard on his head. Panicked, Paul looked at Billy’s angry face, the veins were popping out on the side of his head, and he was probably using just about every ounce of willpower he possessed not to shoot the man who was now lying sparked out.