Billy took his phone to bed. He would probably toss and turn all night, waiting for the call, but he needed to rest, and he had no idea what else he could do. It had been another long day. Jay assured him that he would let Kate go when he had the money, but it was gone five in the morning, over five hours had passed since Jay had taken the money, and there had been no call.
Tanya looked at the clock on the bedside cabinet: it was almost five thirty. Jay hadn’t come to bed, and she guessed that he had fallen asleep on the sofa. She had been lying in bed for hours, unable to sleep, wondering what to do. She knew their plan wasn’t going to work.
Tanya knew that with Jay, she would be in for a life of dodgy dealings, and as much as she thought she could cope with that if she had to, she knew deep down that she didn’t want that for herself. She wanted more: more than Jay was able to offer. It was fair to say that she had had more than her share of fun with him, and using him to help settle the score with Billy had made her very happy. At the end of the day though, Jay was a man, so he couldn’t be trusted. It would only be a matter of time before he fucked everything up or pissed even more people off. It seemed to be a habit of his. Trouble turned up wherever he went, he was a magnet for it, and getting into more trouble was not a risk she wanted to take. Sure, he was all over her like a rash at the moment, but give him time and his wandering eye would return.
She had loved Billy, and look where that had got her. He had replaced her in a heartbeat, and actually while she was with him she hadn’t been anywhere near as close to him as she would have liked to be, with the ‘lovely’ Kate about, there were always three people in her relationship. No, this time, she decided, she would to do it alone. A quarter of a million pounds was more than enough compensation for putting up with Billy bringing that slag into her home, humiliating her. As far as she was concerned, she was owed every single penny. The only place where it was possible to hit Billy where it hurt, other than his perfect Kate, was his wallet: Tanya hoped that she had fucking wounded him.
Tanya had made up her mind; she would take the money and run. On her own, she could make it, she trusted herself not to slip up nor let her guard down; besides, Billy wouldn’t be interested in her, he was after Jay, who was behind this as far as Billy was concerned.
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.