I pushed him away, wrenching from his grasp. The trolley skittered down the ramp to join the others. I would have gone with it but several other lads appeared and grabbed hold of me.
A moment later, Max himself appeared. ‘Well, well, well,’ he drawled. ‘Look which little rat has shown up, crawling out of her sewer.’ He stepped closer and brushed the skin of my cheek with his fingers. I couldn’t suppress a shudder.
‘Hello, Max,’ I managed. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’
‘Charley. You always bring such … joy into my life.’ He bared his teeth. ‘Do you have my money?’
‘Funnily enough,’ I said, ‘I’ve been somewhat preoccupied the last day or two.’
‘Really?’ he murmured. ‘I can’t imagine why.’ He smiled at me, clearly amused at himself. ‘Don’t think I’m going to let a little thing like the evacuation of the city get in the way of your debt.’ A nasty smirk flickered round the edges of his mouth. ‘I saw Rider scarper quickly enough. That means I only have you to hold responsible.’ He leaned in. ‘I. Want. My. Money.’
I breathed out. I had to admit I was relieved that Christopher had decided to leave Manchester; it was for the best, especially if Max was going to continue to hassle him as well as me.
I gazed pointedly at the kids. ‘I don’t know why you’re in such a hurry,’ I said. ‘Unless you’re planning to leave money by the tills for all this stuff you’re taking, you’ve nothing to spend my hard-earned pennies on.’
Max sniffed. ‘Not yet. And I’m not the only one who is taking from this place.’ He glanced pointedly at my trolleys, standing outside the door. ‘Everything in this supermarket belongs to me. Nothing can leave without my permission.’
‘You can’t do that.’
He threw back his head and laughed. ‘Oh, but I can, little Charley. There’s a new world order in play.’ He licked his lips. ‘Manchester is mine now.’
I didn’t think that he was impressed by my expression of amused disbelief. His smile disappeared.
‘In my Manchester,’ Max said, ‘thieves are punished.’
Everyone watched him. ‘I said,’ he repeated in a louder voice, ‘in my Manchester, thieves are punished.’
The kids cheered and punched the air. A few of them began to chant, ‘Kill, kill, kill.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?’
He pursed his lips. ‘Maybe we’ll chop off a hand, given it’s a first offence.’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘One of you find me a knife.’
I didn’t actually believe that Max would do as he threatened, but I could see how he might resort to such violent tactics if normal life didn’t resume soon. For now, I’d bet the hand of mine that he was currently stroking that he was still focused on intimidation. That didn’t mean he wasn’t scary.
‘Look,’ I said, ‘you can threaten all you like but…’
Without warning, he backhanded me, his palm cracking across my face with such stunning, shocking pain that I cried out. A few of the kids cheered. Most of the adults looked delighted.
‘Get on your knees,’ Max commanded. ‘Get on your knees and apologise to me.’
I might have considered it if I could have left peacefully with my shopping supplies. Bending my knee wouldn’t change a thing for me in the future, whether it made Max’s dick hard or not. But before I could fully consider the ramifications of agreeing or refusing to bow down, I spotted the girl towards the back of the pack. She was a few years younger than me, with long, straggly brown hair, cowed eyes and a gigantic bruise across her face, probably not dissimilar to the one that was forming on my own cheekbone. I had my limits – and Max had reached them.
‘Fuck you,’ I hissed. I writhed underneath the hands holding me and managed to break free on my left side. Max raised his hand for another strike as I yanked myself forward with all the explosive force I could muster. A strange pounding pressure was building up in my skull. My fingertips throbbed and there was a dull roaring sound in my ears. ‘Fuck off!’ I screamed.
The air around me rippled in odd, invisible waves. As if in slow motion Max, the boys, the men and even the beaten girl were thrown several feet, arms and legs akimbo. Every single one of them fell onto their backs, sprawling silent and unmoving.
I gaped. The pressure in my head had gone but my fingers still pulsated. I held them up and wiggled them. There was a faint blue light emanating from each fingertip. Uh…
I shook myself. I didn’t know what had happened or what I’d done, but I had to take advantage of it. I darted over to the girl and checked her pulse. It was steady, and she was still breathing. Good enough for now. I picked her up, threaded my arms under her armpits and dragged her out to my waiting trolleys, then heaved her on top of the nearest one. Given how overladen the trolley was, she was balanced precariously. This wasn’t going to be easy but I had to vamoose before Max and his pimply minions woke up again.
With incredible difficulty I swung each trolley round, creating a sort of arrow with one trolley at the front and the two others, including the one with the comatose girl in it, at the back. Unfortunately, what had seemed easy in my head wasn’t quite so simple in practice. Every ten feet or so, the front trolley veered off.
It took me five minutes to reach the end of the car park. The girl was starting to groan as she came round. That meant Max wouldn’t be far behind. I’d been confident that he wouldn’t really hurt me before but now that I’d flattened him and his cronies, I had no doubt that it would be a different story.
I needed to find a way to rope
