But then, as it had become clear that this wasn’t going to happen, Tina had opened one eye and watched the woman as she stood at the window, all her concentration now on her new target.
Tina had known that the chances of her creeping up on the woman without being heard were almost zero. Her best bet was to stay where she was. But that way she was sentencing Ray to death.
Her mind had been in utter torment, until she’d seen the woman stiffen and raise her gun.
Pushing down on the palms of her hands, Tina had slowly lifted herself up and was in a crouching position as the woman fired her first shot.
She was still pointing the gun out of the window as Tina took a silent step forward, then another. Then, holding her breath in an effort to stay completely silent, Tina sprinted across the room.
The Wraith heard her at the last second, and was already turning round as Tina slammed into her, yanking her gun arm up and away from her body and launching an elbow strike to her face. But The Wraith was quick. She blocked the elbow strike with her forearm even as the momentum of Tina’s attack sent the whole of her top half out of the window. Tina kept going, trying to push her out completely. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ray. He was getting to his feet, looking slightly disorientated, but as he saw what was happening, he ran towards, then vaulted, Mrs West’s fence.
Tina just had time to feel a pang of relief that he was OK before The Wraith launched herself upwards, keeping hold of Tina and trying to drive a knee into her groin. The two of them stumbled back into the room and Tina fell backwards onto the bed, landing on Mrs West’s legs, with The Wraith on top of her.
Now the momentum was with The Wraith as, with a snarl, she yanked her gun arm free, her dark eyes burning behind the mask.
But Tina had rage on her side, and that gave her strength. She sat up suddenly and punched The Wraith in the side of the head before she had a chance to turn her gun on her. The woman stumbled, the gun went off, and Tina broke free, punching her in the head a second time, sending her sprawling over the bed and down the other side.
Leaping up, Tina sprinted through the bedroom door, hitting the wall on the other side of the landing, then took a hard left turn towards the stairs as a single round flew past her head and struck the wall.
Ray was already coming up the stairs, obviously in the middle of some sort of rescue attempt, but now he was just in the way.
‘Run! Run!’ she screamed, and he immediately turned round and together they scrambled down the narrow staircase, almost falling over themselves in their haste.
As they made the turning at the bottom, Tina shoved Ray bodily into the living room, taking a half glance over her shoulder to see The Wraith already at the top of the stairs, taking aim with the gun.
Tina dived out of her field of vision, landing in a heap on top of Ray as The Wraith fired a second round. She rolled off him in an instant and then she was on her feet, motioning for him to follow her out the front door, knowing that if they went out the back they’d be easy targets.
Her car keys were already in her hand as she opened the front door. ‘Get in the back,’ she hissed at Ray as they made a dash for the car, knowing that if The Wraith had moved fast enough she would already have got to the front of the house and could get a shot at them from the upstairs window.
But there was no time for hesitation and she pulled open the driver’s door and jumped inside, keeping her head down. She heard rather than saw Ray come flying into the back and, shoving the key into the ignition and starting the engine, she pulled away in a screech of tyres.
No shots came, and Tina was halfway through a sigh of relief when she glanced in her rear-view mirror and saw two marked police cars driving fast down the high street in the direction of her house.
‘Oh shit.’
‘What is it?’ asked Ray from the back.
‘Stay down. It’s the police.’
Tina put the Focus into third gear, rounding the bend so they were out of sight, then put her foot to the floor.
‘What the hell are they doing here?’
‘I have no idea,’ said Tina, accelerating fast then slowing rapidly and taking a right-hand turn onto one of the back roads at the end of the village, spotting the lead police car just as she pulled across the road. She’d guessed that they were coming to her house but had hoped they hadn’t spotted her driving away. Now she knew they had.
‘Jesus, what happened back there?’
‘I’m sorry, Ray. The woman with the gun – The Wraith – she used Mrs West to lure me round there. Then she killed her and told me I’d be next if I didn’t call you.’
Ray shook his head. ‘I’m sorry too. Jesus, what a mess.’
‘It is,’ she said as calmly as she could as she accelerated along the narrow, winding, tree-lined road, hoping she didn’t meet anything coming in the other direction. ‘And now we’re going to have to say goodbye. Your passport and licence are taped under the passenger seat so grab them, then when I slow the car, you jump out and get your arse into the woods fast, because if you get caught, it’s going to look very bad for me. And ditch the burner phone somewhere safe. I’m getting rid of mine.’
She heard him rip the documents free and then he appeared in her
