Slumped in his car, Abel slurped on the dregs from the bottom of a can of Coke. Finishing the drink, he crushed the can and threw it into the passenger footwell, where it joined the others.
“Fuck!” He’d been here for hours, bloody hours, and nothing had happened. No one had walked in or out of the shitty little club the whole time he’d been here, making this a monumental waste of time. He could have been out there, hunting down those bastard Poles and exacting his revenge. But, oh no. He wasn’t allowed to do that because Carter-fucking-Bird had ordered him to stay here and waste a god damned day watching this shitty place and the creepy fucker inside it.
What the ever-lovin’-fuck was he doing with his life?
He sometimes wondered. He’d nearly left several times to go and do something more worthwhile but had so far settled on ordering his crew to go hunting for Radek and his guys over the phone, on strict instructions to call him if they found any.
He’d need a good reason to leave, otherwise, Carter would…
Carter would what? Kill him?
Well, fuck Carter. He’d spent far too long running around being scared of that bastard when it should be people like him and his crew running things.
He needed to find Radek and take his revenge. That’s what he needed. He needed to teach that shit-stabbing cock-gobbler a lesson once and for all. Only one crew could put their girls on the streets around here, and that was his. No one else.
There was a reckoning coming for Radek that would flatten the twat once and for all and leave the streets open for him to use as he saw fit, and it couldn’t come too soon.
He’d had enough of being ordered around by the likes of Carter and these so-called bosses. It was time the real power on the streets took control and showed these old shits how it was really done.
His phone buzzed, the screen displaying the name “Sal”.
Abel answered, “Go.”
“You’ll never believe who I’ve found wandering around Forest Town, bold as brass like she owns the fucking joint?”
“Who?” Abel asked, in no mood for mind games.
“Only fucking Apolonia. Radek’s right-hand girl. Baz and I have her behind the Chinese joint, just up from the school on Clipstone Road.”
“About fucking time,” Abel hissed with enthusiasm down the line. “You keep her there.”
“She ain’t going nowhere.”
“I’ll be there soon.” Abel ended the call, turned his phone off, and threw it into the passenger seat. Glancing up at the club, he pulled a face, knowing he was about to disobey a direct order from Carter. He focused his anger towards Nigel who was hopefully somewhere inside. “You stay fuckin’ there.”
With a turn of the key, the car fired up, and within moments he was out onto the road and driving Southwest, shouting and swearing at slow drivers.
He had a simple plan in mind. Get to Forest Town, deal with Apolonia, and get back. He should be gone for minutes at most. There’s no need for Carter to even know about this, and there was no way he was letting Sal or Baz deal with it without him.
These bastards had ruined his fuckin’ life, and he wanted revenge.
It seemed to take forever to drive the short distance to the outskirts of Mansfield when in reality, it was only a few minutes. But as he finally reached his destination, he saw the overgrown, weed-covered driveway down the side of the takeaway but opted to park at the pub next door.
Pulling in, he whipped the car into a space and jumped out, his hot, angry energy filling him up and urging him to do what needed to be done.
Striding out to the road, he made his way round to the driveaway and turned into it, keeping his ever-vigilant eyes on the streets, looking for anything suspicious.
The back of the takeaway was little more than an overgrown wasteland of a garden, with only the part closest to the building in any kind of regular use, and that was only for bags of rubbish.
He spotted Sal tucked in close behind a shed that had seen better days. She waved him over. As Abel rounded the corner, he saw Baz holding a gun against a kneeling woman’s head. Apolonia was dark-haired with ruddy skin and a face like thunder, but she couldn’t speak due to a gag stuffed in her mouth.
“We found her out on the street, just walking along the road, bold as you like,” Baz said.
“What you gonna do to her?” Sal asked.
The sight of one of Radek’s close allies kneeling before him, vulnerable and defenceless, was intensely satisfying, but there was only one way to deal with this, send the right message to Radek, and get back to the club and his watch in as short a time as possible.
“Send a message,” Abel muttered and reached into his jacket.
“What kind of message?” Baz asked, but before he could finish, Abel pulled a knife, stepped in, and thrust the blade into Apolonia’s chest.
“That’s for Penny,” he muttered as his whole body shook with the emotion and anger that was flooding his system.
Apolonia gasped, her eyes wide with shock as he withdrew the blade and slammed it home again. “That’s for Izabela, and these are for Jerome and the others.” He stabbed her twice more in the chest, making his fist wet with blood.
Withdrawing the blade one last time, he stepped back as she dropped to the overgrown grass and writhed in agony, leaking blood all over this patch of garden.
Abel watched dispassionately. His only thought was that she deserved it. She’d sided with the wrong crew and had paid the price, and so would Radek. She was an important member of his gang, from what Abel understood. A former prostitute turned pimp, she’d recruited most of the girls she currently used, and managed them for Radek, keeping them in line and dishing out punishments when needed.
Her death should hit Radek hard. He’d be pissed and would make mistakes, which was exactly what Abel wanted.
As Apolonia’s face grew vacant and she stopped moving, Abel wiped the blade of the knife against his black tracksuit bottoms and put it away.
“Good work, but get away from here and keep looking,” Abel said as they walked around the main road. “I need to bounce. I’ve got somewhere to be.”
Within moments, Abel was back in his car and using one of the napkins he’d picked up from the chippy to clean his bloody hand before he drove back into Clipstone. It felt like he’d been away for ages. He needed to get back before anything happened to put him up shit creek for good.
Arriving in Clipstone, he pulled into the sideroad that ran parallel to the main road in front of the parade of shops, only to find himself caught behind a couple of cars that were waiting for a third car. Abel briefly considered backing out, but a car pulled in behind and blocked him in.
“Shit.” Abel craned his head. A little further up, separate from this tiny traffic jam, he saw Nigel standing at the side of the road, waving to a car that turned into traffic and drove away.
“What the fuck,” he cursed, jiggling about in his seat, trying to get a better view as Nigel put his head down and strode back into his club.
Turning back to the road, the car Nigel had waved off was gone, having disappeared into traffic. Who the hell was in that car? What had he missed? Carter would want to know!
Furious, Abel screamed. He wanted to sound his horn, but that would attract too much attention. He slammed his steering while with his fists and shouted at the drivers ahead of him, until moments later, the jam cleared, and he could move. He pulled into the first space he saw, jumped out and stormed over to the club. Fury raged and roiled around inside him as his mind raced with thoughts and possibilities, but whichever way he looked at it, none of them worked out well for him when Carter found out.
Reaching the entrance of the closed club. Abel slammed the door open and stormed inside. Nigel was a short distance inside the main bar, and turned in shock as Abel appeared.
“Hey, whoa, hold on for a minute. Just wait…”
Abel launched himself at Nigel and slammed his fist into the older man’s face. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
“What the fuck was that?” Abel raged.
“What?” Nigel asked. “What are you talking about?”
“The car, who was in the car? What were you doing?”
“I don’t—”
“Don’t fuck with me. Tell me what the hell is going on,” Abel raged. “Because if you don’t, I will make what’s left of your miserable life a living hell!”
“Okay, I get it.”
“Who was in that car, and where the hell are they going?”