Nancy and I glared at each other for a moment. I grabbed her arm and pulled her down to the floor so we were hidden behind the cupboards. ‘Stay down.’ I mouthed silently to her, she didn’t reply, she just nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She dialled Jackson’s number but didn’t speak; she just motioned for me to talk. If Jackson heard what I was saying, surely he would realize something was wrong and him and Tristan would come.
“There is nobody next to me, you must be seeing things,” I looked awkwardly at Nancy; I didn’t know what else to say to him, she just motioned for me to keep talking. Jackson had answered the phone.
“I hardly think so Leticia,” the voice said.
“So what, you’re standing outside my house watching us? Coward, why not come in, I’m sure we would treat you very well.”
“Now that’s funny.”
Nancy tapped my arm and gave me the thumbs up, meaning Jackson and Tristan were on their way.
“I swear to god when I see you I’ll kill you!” I shot.
“I hardly think so my love, you see, you won’t see me, why get my hands dirty when I have people who are more than willing to do the dirty work for me.”
“You prick, you’re gutless.”
“Well, if you say so, anyway, must dash...”
“Why? Got a date or something?” I was trying to stall him, I wanted Jackson to find him. I wanted him to drag this guy’s sorry ass in here so I could empty my gun into his head.
“Actually I have, wow, can werewolves read minds too?”
“If I could I would know who you were, where you were, and you’d be dead already.”
He started to respond but I didn’t get to hear it, Nancy grabbed the phone out of my hand.
“Listen to me you spineless piece of meat, she isn’t on her own and she never will be, so if you think you can take her out, try it. I promise you, you won’t succeed, we will find you. Think on it this way you thick shit, if werewolves exist, what else does? What do you think I am?” she blasted. “Well, come on, do you think I’m a normal human being?” She stood up straight. “Take a good look, what do you think I am?”
“Just another target,” I heard him reply.
“He just hung up on me,” she told me, disgusted. “The bastard actually hung up on me.”
“Nancy, he’ll come after you now too.”
“Let him.”
“He knows about Tristan and Jackson too.”
“How?”
“He called me earlier.”
I told her everything that had been said over the last few conversations I’d had with him. Her eyes seemed to darken slightly. They looked cold, very cold.
“If he hadn’t called while I was here, would you have told me he knew about us?” She asked, her attitude matching her eyes
“Of course I would.”
“When?”
“Nancy, do me a favor, lose the attitude,” I warned. “I was going to tell you before you left.”
We were interrupted by a thudding sound; it was coming from the back garden. Both of us flew to the door, Nancy ripped it open and we ran outside. We got out just in time to see Tristan snap some guy’s neck, I watched as his lifeless body fell to the floor. A few feet away from him was Jackson. He had another guy pinned to the ground, his knee pushed down between the guys shoulder blades.
“Look what we have here.” Jackson smirked, dragging the guy to his feet.
“Nice,” Nancy smiled, walking over to him. “Maybe I could keep him as a pet.”
“Good idea,” Tristan added. “You could really have some fun with him.”
I started to worry a little, was this how they treated people?
“I thought you might want to have a little chat with him,” Jackson said to me.
“Bring him inside.”
I turned my back on them and walked back into the kitchen. Nancy followed but waited by the door to close it behind the guys. Jackson led the man to the chair closest to him and pushed down on his shoulders to make him sit. I sat down studying him for a moment. He was skinny, not very tall and young, around twenty-five. His clothes were dirty and torn, he smelled as though he hadn’t had a shower for months – at least, not body odour, more musty. He carried a strong smell of damp. His long greasy hair was pulled back behind his ears, matted with mud and other dirt.
“Who are you?” I finally asked.
He didn’t respond.
“Answer her,” Tristan shouted.
“I’m nobody, just a nobody,” the man replied.
“What is your name?” I don’t know why I asked, I didn’t really care.
“Adam.”
“Well Adam, I suggest you answer all my questions, otherwise, well, you work it out.”
“If I tell you anything he’ll kill me.”
“Who will?”
Silence.
“Adam, who will kill you?”
“I don’t know his name; we just call him ‘boss’. He gives the orders, if we follow them we get paid,” he told me.
“Who is ‘we’?”
“There are lots of us.”
“How many?” Jackson asked him.
“I’m not sure, about thirty, forty, maybe more.”
“Why do you want Leticia?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know who she is or why he wants her.”
“So you’re just trying to kill someone because he’s offered you money?” Nancy shouted.
“I wasn’t sent to kill her, I was sent to watch her, frighten her,” he explained. “Not to hurt her.”
“The guy you work for,” I started. “This ‘boss’ of yours, what does he want with me, what’s his end game?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said, shaking his head. “And that’s the truth, he said not to ask questions, when he wants us to know something he’ll tell us.”
“Why would you work for someone like that?”
“I need the money...”
“Drugs?”
“No, god no, I wouldn’t touch them. I lost my family, I have nobody, I was an idiot and everyone turned their backs on me. I have no money for food or shelter, I live on the streets, the only time I eat is if someone takes pity on me and buys me some soup or something. We’re all the same, or at least the others I’ve met are, they’re all homeless.”
“What has he offered you?” I asked.
“He gave us cars, money for food, he said once this is over we’ll be looked after, we’ll be able to afford to pay for a flat, food, clothes, so we can start again, get jobs, better ourselves.”
“Adam, do you honestly believe someone this sick and twisted will do that for you?” Tristan asked him.
“I don’t know but I had to try, nowhere will employ me because I have nowhere to live, to change, to wash, but how can I get all that without being employed?” he turned to face me; his eyes were filling with tears. “I’m sorry Leticia, I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t know you, I don’t know why he hates you so much.”
“Do you know what I am?” I asked.
“I don’t understand the question, wait, you do people’s nails and stuff don’t you?”
“Yes, is that all you know about me.”
He didn’t answer he just nodded.
“Adam, answer me honestly,” I told him. “If I were to let you leave, what would you do next?”
“I have to report back, if I don’t, he’ll find me and I’m as good as dead. When we first started he said if we betrayed him he’d kill us.”
“So you’ve seen his face?”
“No, this may sound stupid but he wears a scarf, he wraps it around his face so only his eyes are showing, and a coat with a big hood, we didn’t take him seriously at first, until he fed us, watered us and...”
“So hang on a minute,” Jackson interrupted. “Are you saying if Leticia was nice enough to set you free, you would still go back to this dick?”
“I have too,” Adam sighed.
“Then you know we can’t l
et you leave.”
“I don’t want to die,” he was crying now, his hands were trembling, I felt genuinely sorry for him. I stood up and walked over to the kitchen window.
“Sorry mate, but we can’t let you report back,” Tristan told him.
I turned around just as Tristan started toward him, I ran forward and grabbed Adams arm, dragging him from the chair and behind me.
“No!” I shouted at Tristan, putting my hand flat against his chest. “Leave him alone.”
“Leticia look, I know this is hard but...”
“You are not killing him in my house!”
“Then I’ll take him outside.”
“You’ll have to get past me first.”
I was facing away from Adam, so I allowed my eyes to change, my teeth to sharpen, I wanted Tristan to know he would have to fight me to get to him.
“Are you crazy?” Jackson scolded.
“Get out, all of you, now!” I almost snarled.
“Wh...?”
“NOW!”
“Screw you then,” Jackson shouted, he grabbed Nancy and Tristan and marched out of the house, slamming the back door behind them. I watched through the window as they paced through the garden, a minute later I heard one of their cars spin as they shot off.
Chapter 8
I returned to normal before facing Adam.
“Sit down,” I half smiled at him. He didn’t reply he just did as I’d asked. “Are you hungry?”
“Very.”
I made him a few sandwiches and a cup of tea, all the time he sat there in silence. I sat facing him again and waited for him to finish eating before I spoke.
“That didn’t take long.”
“They were delicious and I haven’t eaten since yesterday.” he told me.
“Are you an honest person Adam?”
“I used to be... then.... but I want to be, I don’t want this, I just need to get my life back.”
“Let’s say I was to help you, would you still report to this man?”
“What do you mean help me?”
“Do you have a bank account?”
“I did, but I haven’t used it for about a year.”
“I take it you don’t have your bank card anymore?”
“Actually I do,” he said pulling out a tattered looking brown wallet. “Driving licence too, but I had to sell the car. I lived out of it for a while, but I needed the money for food. It was an old banger so I didn’t get much for it.”
“I’ll make you a deal, but I swear if you don’t stick to your end, I’ll kill you myself.”
“What deal?”
“I’ll write you a check for five thousand pound, you take it to the bank tomorrow and cash it. I have some money here that I will give you to get into a hotel, buy food and some new clothes. Then, when the check clears you get an apartment or flat, whatever you want to call it. You get a job, an income, build a life and you write to me or call me and tell me what you’ve done.”
“Why would you do that for me?”
“Because I believe in giving people chances. I believe everyone at some point in their life will need help, and I think they should get some. I think everyone makes mistakes, but that you need to learn from them and not make them again. You need to make amends, move onwards and upwards,” I told him, reaching over and holding his hands. “Would you do that for me, for yourself? Would you leave now and not go back to this man who cares nothing for you? Look what happened to the other guy outside, I’m going to have to bury him, nobody will know what happened to him, not his family, not the other guys you’re working with; and let me tell you... your ‘boss’ won’t care, you’re disposable and you’re just doing his dirty work.”
He didn’t speak for a moment, tears ran down his cheeks, he sat there crying and squeezing my hands.
“I promise I won’t go back to them, I promise. But what if he finds out? What if he finds me?”
“Did you drive here?” I asked.
“Yes, the car’s parked about half a mile down the road.”
“We’ll drive out somewhere and burn it out. I’ll follow behind you, we set the car on fire, then you get in with me. I’ll take you to Huddersfield and drop you at a hotel, how does that sound?”
“Thank you,” he cried. “So much.”
My eyes were filling up now; my heart went out to him.
“Is there anyone else watching us?” I asked.
“No, we were the only ones out here tonight; about ten others are watching your friend’s house though.”
“Shit!”
“They’re not going to attack, just watch.”
I grabbed my phone and tried to call Nancy and Jackson, but both of them rejected my calls.
“Send them a text,” Adam suggested. “They can’t reject that can they?”
I nodded and sent the same message to both of them, telling them what I knew; I just hoped they would read it. I took a deep breath before turning to Adam again.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
I pulled my check book out of the drawer and wrote one out for the five thousand, then went in my safe under the stairs and took five-hundred pound cash out.
“Here,” I said passing it to him. “Just promise me again.”
“I promise Leticia, I promise. I’d hug you but I don’t smell very nice,” he smiled.
“It’s OK,” I laughed. “When you’re all clean and doing well for yourself, you can meet up with me and hug me then.”
“Deal.”
He asked me to write my mobile number down for him so he could keep me updated; he put it away safely in his wallet.
“Before we do the car, the least I can do is help you get rid of the body lying in your garden,” he said.
“Thank you.”
“No, no, thank you.”
We dragged the body of the other man over to his car and put him in the trunk, along with one of my garden shovels. I locked the house up and followed him onto Holmfirth road and then to the middle of the moors. He was about the get the mans body out of the trunk when I got an idea.
“Adam, you said your ‘boss’ would come after you if you betrayed him?” I confirmed.
“Yes.”
“Is this your car or the other guys?”
“This one is mine.”
“Well then I suggest we leave the body in here. We’ll still burn it out, but when they find it, surely they will assume the body is yours. You have the same hair colour and style, and if the body is burned badly enough they may not realize it was your friend.”
“It’s got to be worth a shot,” he agreed. “But he’ll know were a man down.”
“So? If he thinks your dead in the boot of your own car he will go looking for this guy,” I said pointing to the corpse in the trunk. “Let your ‘boss’ search for him instead of you.”
“Good point.”
It was actually sad; the dead man must have only been the same age as him, maybe just a little older. I shook my head as we closed the trunk.
“Nobody will ever know.”Adam said sadly.
“I know,” I sighed. “Come on, we need to set this thing on fire.”
“Where are we going to do it?”
“Right here, it’s not like there’s camera’s in the middle of the Moors.”
“OK,” he nodded.
Adam set the car on fire quickly and jumped in the passenger seat of mine. I shot across the rest of the moors, through Holmfirth, Marsden, straight through into Huddersfield. When we reached a hotel we stopped.
“Welcome to the rest of your life,” I smiled.
“You know, I used to work in a garage, I loved it. I have qualifications in mechanics.”
“So then do it again.”
“I will. Thank you, thank you for believing in me, you’re a beautiful person and I swear I won’t let you down.”
“Good, you take care of yourself; you have my number, keep in touch, OK?”
??
?I will.” He got out of the car taking a deep breath, then turned to look at me. “Leticia, they have a lot of guns, cars, men, you’re not safe, I don’t know what they want from you, but take my advice... run.”
“No, thanks, but I won’t run,” I told him. “If they want a fight they’ll get one.”
“What is it about you? What is it that’s different?”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s got to be a reason for them, him, targeting you.”
“I don’t know,” I lied. “But I’ll find out.”
“Please be careful, I really would like to meet up with you again.”
“You will,” I smiled. “Now go get a shower, eat, get warm, have a good night’s sleep.”
“I will. Thank you.”
He smiled at me again before heading into the hotel.
Chapter 9
When I arrived home, my front door was wide open, ‘Great’ I said to myself ‘here we go again’. I approached the entrance cautiously, half expecting someone to jump out at me, or to run out of the house and straight past me. When I got inside I slammed the door and locked it. I wanted to create as much noise a possible now to let whoever was here know I was home. I also wanted to make it difficult for them to escape. Something inside me had snapped. At first, I didn’t want to fight. I was ready for packing and leaving again. But now, I wanted to fight, Jackson and Nancy’s words had made me think differently. Why the hell should I run? I could easily defend myself; I was stronger and faster than any human being on earth. It was about time I used what I was to my advantage. It was time I took control.
“Where are you?” I asked loudly, slowly making my way down the hall. “Come out, come out where ever you are,” I almost sang.
“I’m in your living room,” I heard Tristan say.
I walked in to find him sitting on one of the armchairs.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Jackson is pissed with you, Nancy too, and if I’m honest so am I.”
“Is that supposed to bother me? I don’t know you, so why should I care?”
“We were there for you.”
“I know that,” I said, raising my voice. “And I’ve told you more than once, I couldn’t possibly thank you enough for what you’ve done for me, but that doesn’t mean I have to answer to you.”
“I never said it did.”