Page 54 of Callous Shot

Nothing I did was ever enough.

We reached the edge of the Whelford campus, close to my apartment building. I glanced over at my father, who had drained the contents of his glass and was now tapping at his phone. The car crawled along the kerb, coming to a stop in front of the first row of buildings, and only then did he look up from his phone.

His hard gaze met mine. “You’ve been ignoring my messages, and the Hoytons are still running around without a care in the world. I didn’t want to have to do this, but you’ve left me with no choice.” Reaching into the seat pocket in front of him, he pulled out a manila envelope and passed it to me.

My hand shook as I opened the envelope, pulling out the contents.

Details of Mike’s heavy workload, carefully framed so it could appear as if he was neglecting Tilly in pursuit of his career, even though Tilly was with her mum, in registered childcare, or with me on the days he had to work late. A bank statement belonging to Tilly’s mum, with numbers in the negative. A printout of a Child Arrangements Order.

My father tapped the top sheet of paper with a gloved finger. “I will be returning home in ten days. You will give Michael something to work with by then or face the consequences. Do you understand?”

A suffocating wave of hopelessness threatened to drag me under. I slumped back, closing my eyes. “I understand.”

25

DAN

Nothing said family bonding like a little murder spree. Okay, not murder…well, not unless things went pear-shaped, but teaching some of our enemies a lesson in a bloody, beat-y up-y way? Sign me the fuck up.

One of our warehouses had been compromised, and Neil had managed to trace it back to some lowlife wannabes who were trying to fuck up our supply lines so they could take over the gap in the market—or so we assumed. My mum had come up with a cool plan to get payback, and long story short, Neil and I were doing a bit of breaking and entering while my mum and another couple of our guys kept watch on the exit points. We also had two more guys as backup, but our preliminary research suggested that this was only a small operation, so we should be able to take them down without help. Neil often entrusted members of the firm to deal with this kind of shit, but the warehouse they’d targeted was the one that had been rebuilt after the explosion that had killed my dad. So this was personal, and we wanted to be the ones to teach them a lesson.

The building we were targeting was on an industrial site that looked to be abandoned, although we knew better. Neil preferred to hide in plain sight, and so our own warehouses were on a busy industrial estate, along with various other businesses including a storage unit, car mechanic, and a hardware shop. Yes, we happened to own a large percentage of the businesses, and no, they weren’t all legal. But they appeared legitimate, which was what mattered in the eyes of the law.

Back to the not-abandoned building. Using the blueprints my mum had sourced, we’d jimmied open a window and had fun contorting ourselves to fit through, and now we were about to give someone a lovely surprise. I tugged at my balaclava, pulling it a little lower, and turned to Neil. “Ready?”

Through the mouth hole of his own mask, his lips curled into a savage smile. “Let’s teach them why they shouldn’t mess with the Hoyton Firm.”

I nodded, slipping my brass knuckles on over my leather gloves, and flicked my blade out of its handle. Palming the knife, I followed Neil to the door that led into the main warehouse. Keeping to the shadows, we crept through the building to the smaller room that served as an office.

Everything happened so fast.

We burst into the room, Neil’s fist flying as he launched himself at the man seated on a sofa under the window. I went straight for the man who’d cried out and dived for the phone on the desk when we entered, slamming my brass knuckles into his face. There was a crunch, and blood began pouring from his nose. He staggered back, clutching at his face as he collapsed against the wall, and I took the opportunity to punch the phone off the desk, letting it smash to the floor out of reach.

A thick arm wrapped around my neck from behind, and I was jerked backwards into a solid wall of body. Choking was only fun when Lincoln was involved—fuck you, brain, for bringing that wanker up when I’m about to die—and I gasped, flailing for a second before my training kicked in and I remembered that I had a knife and a knuckleduster.

I twisted, jabbing my arm back at the same time. The sharpened blade tore through fabric and into flesh, and then I was being yanked backwards, the person behind me crashing to the floor and bringing me with him. I lost my grip on my knife, but I still had my brass knuckles, and I jerked up, throwing my legs apart as I sent my fist directly into the guy’s crotch.

He screamed, his grip on me instantly releasing, and I scrambled away from him, skidding across the concrete floor.

“You alright, Arson?”

I climbed to my feet, carefully prodding my neck. “Fine, apart from that knobhead trying to strangle me.”

“You did good.” Neil clapped me on the back as the door opened behind me. His gaze slid over my shoulder. “Just in time. Let’s get these three in the van.”

“Clean-up on aisle nine,” I said, eyeing the spray of blood decorating the office, and he snorted, his gaze still on the guy behind me.

“Get the clean-up crew in here.”

“On it, gaffer.” Sid’s deep voice sounded from the doorway, and as Neil’s right-hand man came into view, I shot him a grin.

“Might need to call Bryan Attwood to stitch that one up before you interrogate him.” I jerked my thumb in the direction of the floor.

He smirked. “Nah. ’Tis but a flesh wound, little lordling.”

“Aye, ’tis only a scratch,” I replied. Dropping into a sweeping bow, I turned back to my uncle. “If you’ll excuse me, my liege, I must go and find a fair maiden to tend to me.”

“Fair maiden,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Go on, get out of here, you weirdo. We’ve got it. Check in with your mum on the way, okay?”