With her back to him Ruby could sense his hesitation as he realised where they were heading; his footsteps becoming slower and more tentative. Good! Her plan was working. She swivelled round and stopped next to a bin while she watched him hover at the mouth of the alleyway. Then he quickly recovered himself and followed her down, stopping before he reached her. Ruby knew she was taking a risk but she had taken precautions and she was glad to see one of those precautions materialise in the form of Tiffany who emerged at the mouth of the alleyway. Gilly turned round on hearing her footsteps and stopped, trapped between the two women.
He swivelled round to face Ruby again. ‘What the fuck’s going on?’ he demanded.
Ruby slapped her hand angrily on the top of the bin. ‘Recognise it, Gilly?’ She watched the expression of alarm on his face. ‘Yeah, that’s right. It’s the same fuckin bin where I found Crystal after you’d left her for dead!’
‘I didn’t leave her for dead, just slapped her around a bit, that’s all. She fuckin’ asked for it!’
‘Just slapped her around a bit?’ Ruby mimicked. ‘Is that why she was unconscious and covered in blood?’ When he didn’t reply, she continued. ‘Her face was a fuckin’ mess, Gilly! You broke her nose and eye socket. And you broke two of her fuckin’ ribs. Can you blame me for turning you in to the police?’
‘You don’t fuckin’ grass, no matter what happens,’ Gilly countered.
‘According to who?’ shouted Ruby. ‘I don’t go by the rules of fuckin’ scumbags like you!’
Angry at her words, Gilly rushed at her. But she was ready. Before he had quite reached her Ruby pulled out her knife and flicked out the blade. It caught Gilly on the hand just as he charged into her. Gilly jumped back, squealing.
‘You fuckin’ bitch!’ he yelled, turning to the side, his eyes shifting about, looking at each of the girls in turn and trying to decide his next move.
Tiffany had also taken out the knife that Ruby had told her to carry. She doubted that her girlfriend would have used it, but Gilly didn’t know that. He finally stepped towards Tiffany, perhaps deciding that she was the lesser threat. Then, while walking away, he turned his head and issued a parting shot for Ruby.
‘You’ve not fuckin’ heard the last of this!’ he spat as he struggled to keep a safe distance from Tiffany in the narrow alleyway.
Ruby wished she could have felt relief that it was all over but she was afraid that she had only made things worse. Instead of frightening Gilly off, she had just made him more determined to exact his revenge. And she hadn’t even had chance to confront him about the gang intimidation; things had moved too fast. So now, she was none the wiser as to whether Gilly was involved or not. But, regardless of that, she hadn’t taken care of either problem.
*
As Ruby made her way back to the massage parlour with Tiffany, she heard her phone ringing. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard it that evening but she’d been too occupied with Gilly to answer. It was a central Manchester number, which looked familiar and she soon realised it was someone ringing her from work. She hit the call receive button and heard the distressed voice of Pammy on the other end.
Ruby immediately felt alarmed, knowing she had left Pammy managing reception while she and Tiffany were out. It was obvious to Ruby that Pammy was worked up. As she tried to speak, her voice was shaking and she was breathing heavily. Considering how calmly Pammy had dealt with the cover up of Victor’s death, it must be something bad to make her react like this.
‘Ruby, we’ve been attacked by a bunch of fuckin’ gangsters!’ she gasped.
‘Shit! What happened?’
‘They came in here carrying baseball bats and wearing masks. They were asking for you, said you owed them some money. When I said you weren’t in and hadn’t mentioned any money, they started smashing the place up.’
‘You’re fuckin’ joking! Did you get a look at any of them?’ asked Ruby.
‘Did I fuck! I told you, they were wearing masks. They’ve left a fuckin’ mess. We were terrified.’
‘Shit!’ Ruby repeated. ‘How many of the girls saw what happened?’
‘Just me and Rose.’
‘OK. Well listen; keep it to yourself and ask Rose to do the same. I’ll make it worth your while. I’ll be back in a few minutes.’
‘What the fuck’s going on, Ruby?’
‘They’re just a bunch of thugs trying to scare us, Pammy.’ Ruby tried to play it down. The last thing she needed was to have the girls panicking and leaving her. ‘Don’t worry, they’ve done their worst. That’s probably the end of it now.’
‘Oh, I don’t fuckin’ think so,’ said Pammy, her voice now shaking with anger as well as fear. ‘They left you a message. They’re gonna be back to see you.’
‘Okaay.’ Ruby dragged out the word, stuck for what else to say. Finally, she said, ‘I’ll chat to you when I get there.’ Then she cut the call hoping she would be able to calm Pammy down when she got back.
‘What’s wrong? What’s happened?’ asked Tiffany.
Ruby closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply, wishing this wasn’t really happening. When she opened her eyes again, Tiffany was still waiting for her reply. ‘Things just got a whole lot fuckin’ worse, Tiff. Those thugs have been and smashed the place up with baseball bats and told Pammy they’ll be back.’
‘Oh shit! What are we gonna do?’
‘I don’t know what the fuck to do!’ said Ruby. Then she looked pointedly at Tiffany and grabbed hold of her hand. ‘I’m fuckin’ scared, Tiff. These are bad bastards we’re dealing with.’
Tiffany stared back
