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ROSA OPENED HER EYES and waited for them to adjust to the darkness. Something had disturbed her rest. She wasn’t sure if the culprit was a sound carrying up from Echlin Road, or something more sinister. The illuminated digits on the clock next to the bed showed it was after one in the morning. Then she heard it again. A definite creak from the other side of her door.
With a trembling hand, she groped for the switch of her lamp. She located it but before she got a chance to click it on, a large rough hand closed around her own while another, equally rough one was placed across her mouth. Her entire body tensed up with fear and she sensed the man’s head getting closer to her own.
‘Don’t make a sound, Rosie,’ whispered Keith’s voice in her ear. ‘You’ve got unwelcome guests. Stay here until I give you the all-clear, and don’t touch that lamp.’
He slowly released her and she heard him treading towards the door. He opened it silently and was gone in a heartbeat. She lay on her back, straining to hear what was happening in the hallway and willing her pulse to quieten. Tears darted to her eyes and she fought them back. She was damned if she was going to allow Keith Munroe to see her bawling like a damsel in distress. Lately, all she seemed to do was find herself in dire straits, requiring some guy to step up and rescue her.
Whatever was going on outside her bedroom took very little time. According to the clock, it was less than two minutes before she saw the light from the hall under her door. She slowly sat up in bed and waited to see who would be the next person to walk into her bedroom. The door slowly opened and a silhouette appeared.
‘All clear,’ Keith said. ‘It’s safe to come out.’
Rosa swung her legs out of the bed and, forgetting about slippers, made her way into the hall. She blinked in the unexpected light. There were two prostrate forms on the grey carpet near the front door. Both men were face down, their hands bound behind their backs with cable ties. Each one wore a brown pillowcase over his head. Jack was standing over them looking bored.
‘Hi, Thorns,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about these two, they’ll be gone in a minute. Pack a bag, you’re coming with me. Double time would be good.’
Rosa’s stunned gaze travelled from his face down to the men on the floor, then on to the door chain which had clearly been cut in two, and finally came to rest on Keith’s face. She felt a numbness creeping over her as the implications of what had happened began to sink in. ‘You were here before them,’ she addressed Keith.
He immediately looked shifty. ‘Marco got hold of your spare keys last week,’ he told her quietly. ‘I had a set made when the opportunity presented itself. I’ve been here for hours. Sorry I had to cut your chain.’
‘Why would you do that?’ she heard the quiver in her own voice as she asked the question. ‘Sneak in like that, I mean.’
‘You’re a soft target, Thorns,’ Jack answered impatiently. ‘These guys have been staking this place out for almost a week. They’re looking for Trenton, and intended using you as leverage. We warned you not to come home, but you were having none of it. Hence, we were left with no option but to take matters into our own hands. Now will you please throw a few things together so we can get the hell out of here?’
‘Who are they?’ she heard herself asking.
‘Alan Flood and Dominic Taheny,’ Jack told her. ‘Two of Boo’s lieutenants. There’s no need to worry about them. You won’t be hearing from either of these guys again. For that matter, neither will anybody else.’
There was a whimpering sound from beneath one of the pillowcases. Jack responded to this by kicking the man in question as hard as he could in the ribs.
‘If you were hoping for a fairy tale ending to this evening, you should have stayed home with your missus and the kids,’ he said nastily. ‘I’ve had my fill of trailer trash for one year. You two losers are off to pay a visit to your little pal, Trenton.’
Jack looked at Rosa expectantly, clearly surprised to find her still in the hall instead of packing her bags. In her turn, she looked at Keith. ‘Were they armed?’ she asked, despising herself for the fear that gripped her stomach.
Jack chuckled nastily as he unzipped his jacket. ‘The one they call Floodie only came equipped with a knife,’ he told her, his voice full of contempt. ‘But the one they call Tats was tooled up with a nice little toy.’ He removed a weapon from his inside pocket and held it up so she could see it properly.
‘The Colt 1911,’ Jack sounded deeply satisfied. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am to get my greedy mitts on this bad boy. I’m sure you’ll agree, Thorns, the hard chrome finish gives it a little touch of elegance.’
‘Why is it a bad boy?’ she gulped.
‘Because of the ammo it uses,’ he eyed her warily. ‘In the trade, we refer to the .45 ACP cartridges as man-stoppers.’
‘What trade is that, Tin?’ she looked him in the eye and recalled the lies she had told her parents about how safe she was in Ireland, and how the press had exaggerated the danger.
‘The killing trade,’ he deadpanned. ‘This sidearm only weighs thirty-nine ounces. I’d be happy to teach you how to use it, if you fancy a few lessons.’
‘I appreciate that,’ Rosa replied in a low voice. ‘I’ll get back to you.’
She turned to face Keith. His eyes were even more serious than usual, and there were deep furrows around his mouth, as if he had given up on the idea of smiling forever. ‘Why did you come yourself?’ she asked.
‘I don’t trust anybody else to take care of you,’ was the gruff reply.
She nodded in acknowledgment of this. ‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ she said softly, and went back to her room. She heard movement from the other side of the door as she shed the PJs and pulled on underwear followed by a pair of blue jeans and a couple of her warmest tops.
She lifted down a leather holdall from the shelved part of the wardrobe and threw her hairdryer into it. Then she stripped a pillowcase off her bed and emptied her cosmetics basket into it. She shoved it into the holdall. She took a second pillowcase and did the same thing with her jewellery box before it joined its mate. Then she pulled her medium sized case out of the wardrobe and flung four pairs of shoes and boots into it. She followed with a mixture of underwear from each of her drawers, two suits, two blouses and some jeans and tops.
She tentatively opened the bedroom door and peered into the hall. It was empty of all bodies, cable tied or otherwise. Grateful not to have to look upon the hooded intruders, Rosa scurried into the bathroom to retrieve her toiletries. Her black waterproof bag was hanging in its usual spot behind the door, and she quickly filled this with as many bottles and jars as she could fit. She folded the bag over and shut the clasp with a click.
When that was done, she gathered up the last couple of items that did not fit and took the whole lot back to the bedroom. She pushed the bag into the suitcase and shoved the loose toiletries into the holdall. Then she zipped up both bags and went to tell Jack she was ready to go. There was still no sign of him or Keith so she went to the closet and retrieved her second-best coat and scarf.
She had lost her favourite overcoat at Castleknock when Megan had removed it before tying her up. It had been confiscated as part of the crime scene evidence and Rosa didn’t care whether or not she ever laid eyes on it again. She would ask her mother to buy her a cashmere overcoat for Christmas as a replacement.
Good plan. Now quit thinking about it.
She pulled on the outerwear then picked up the briefcase resting on the floor inside the closet door. She checked to see if it held everything she needed. Her iPad and laptop were there but not her iPod. She took a step closer to the living room but abruptly halted when she heard Keith speaking on the other side of the door.
‘Operation Ferret is a go,’ he said in a hard voice.
There was no audible response, and Rosa deduced he was on the phone. Not wanting to get busted eavesdropping, she fled back to her bedroom and hauled both her holdall and suitcase out to the hallway. Keith came out of the living room and looked surprised to find her ready.
‘I need my iPod and docking station,’ she said quietly. ‘I have a box here that’s a perfect size.’ She produced a sturdy cardboard container from the closet and handed it to him. Keith accepted it without comment and went to unplug the gadgets.
Rosa followed him into the living room and watched him stow the white oval-shaped docking station safely in the box, and slip the iPod down the side where it would not rattle around. ‘Pretty swanky piece of kit,’ he commented in a neutral voice. ‘These wireless docking stations cost the best part of four hundred yo yos.’
‘It was a gift,’ Rosa replied with equal neutrality.
Keith stood up straight and tucked the box under his arm. He stared at her intensely and she knew he about to say something important.
‘Let’s haul ass, Thorns,’ they were interrupted by Jack’s voice. She swung around and found him standing in the doorway holding all her luggage and briefcase in one hand. She held out her hands for the box, and Keith reluctantly handed it over. She tucked it under one arm then lifted her handbag off a nearby chair. ‘I’m ready,’ she said quietly.
‘Stay close to me and don’t talk,’ Jack ordered and took off.
Even though she knew the chances of her ever laying eyes on her apartment again were slim at best, Rosa deliberately did not turn around for a final look because she did not want Keith to see how shaken she was. Stifling a sob, she obediently followed Jack out the door and down the stairs.
As she made her way downwards, she listened for the sounds of Keith’s footsteps, but heard nothing to indicate he was going with them. Outside in the car park, Jack threw all her stuff into the trunk of the Range Rover and then assisted her to climb into the passenger seat. She found she was glad of his steadying hand and realised shock was beginning to set in. Jack jumped behind the steering wheel and started the engine.
‘Where are those two men?’ Rosa enquired meekly.
‘In the trunk.’
‘I just saw you open the trunk,’ she protested. ‘My luggage is in there.’
‘Not this trunk,’ he replied dismissively. ‘They’re in the trunk of their own car. Or at least the one they boosted for tonight’s mission. The K-Man will deal with them. I think it’s safe to assume your boyfriend has exhausted his supply of patience.’
‘He’s not my boyfriend,’ Rosa replied in a colourless tone.
‘That’s a darn shame,’ Jack replied sardonically, as he pressed the button on the electronic fob he was holding, and watched the security gates begin to open inwards. Rosa wondered how he had come by the fob, but forbore to question him.
If only a gate fob was all I had to worry about.
Jack waited until he had a wide enough gap and then manoeuvred the car through the gates, taking care not to rev the engine or make much noise.
‘Wait,’ Rosa said, and he stopped the car halfway through the gap and turned his head in her direction.
‘What’s going to happen to those two men?’ she whispered.
‘What do you care?’ he sounded harsh. ‘They wouldn’t have hesitated to put a slug in your head tonight, and that might have been one of the more pleasant activities they had in mind for you. Was your run-in with the charming Carlos not enough rip-roaring excitement for one week?’
‘I don’t want Keith to have blood on his hands because of me,’ Rosa clamped her knees against her hands to prevent them shaking.
‘That’s his business,’ Jack replied curtly.
‘It’s my business too,’ she insisted. ‘This is my fault because I insisted on coming home tonight. Is he going to kill them, Tin? Please tell me.’
‘We have other plans for those guys,’ Jack faced the road again. ‘There won’t be any need for him to personally whack them because they’re about to face the stuff of nightmares. That’s all I’m prepared to say and all you need to know. I don’t need to warn you to make like a dummy if the cops question you. There’s something seriously wrong with a woman’s way of thinking. Is it any wonder the whole oestrogen filled bunch of you are constantly up to your necks in trouble?’
Rosa cast a sidelong glance at him and saw that under the street lamps his face looked even more grim and forbidding than usual. She decided against questioning him further. Jack eased the car out the gate, and Rosa twisted her head around for a final glance at her home. She saw Keith standing at her bedroom window watching her leave. Neither of them waved.
