32
Arnside
I helped Dan escape back to his car watching as he drove away. The sun setting as I walked round the paddocks ensuring the remaining horses were well.
It was much later, while I was lying awake in bed that I thought that I should just go back to London, offer myself to them and beg them to leave my brother alone. However, I feared they would not be satisfied and I would put not only Adam but also Annie and May at risk as well. What the hell could I do? I knew that my fate was set and it was only a matter of time.
***
I was up early, not that I’d been able to sleep. The sunlight pouring through the windows caused me to get up and go down to the yard.
“So, you couldn’t sleep either?” Adam hugged me.
“Not a wink…” I sighed. “Let’s check the horses.”
We kept busy and were scrubbing water buckets when a gunshot rang across the yard. I froze. Adam slammed down the bucket.
“Shit!” He grabbed me. “That was one of the booby traps in the woods, a shotgun shell on a tripwire.”
We stared out across the yard, it was all quiet, maybe it had been a deer or some other animal. I was about to say it must have been a false alarm when there was a yell from the treeline. The first man was heavyset, in black jeans and a t-shirt, carrying a baseball bat which he swung menacingly. Behind him was Patrick, cursing as he pushed through the undergrowth. I turned to run, but realised what happened next was now inevitable. I stopped and knelt down on the concrete yard.
“Shit! Amanda… For Christ’s sake, what are you doing?” Adam yelled.
“Go… Save yourself… I love you… Let me deal with them and whatever…-” I willed him to run away, but he stood his ground, swinging towards the heavy who struck him hard with the bat, there was a sickening crack, and he fell, hitting the ground.
“Hello there…” Patrick walked slowly towards me. “Kneeling before me.” He laughed. “How fitting. Now, tell me, is this you begging for mercy, or something else?” He gestured rudely towards his belt.
“Screw you!” I spat. “Take me, leave Adam, do what the hell you like with me.”
“Oh, I will…” He sneered. “Maybe I should keep you for myself? Always nice to have variety.” I shuddered, looking across Adam, was lying silently on the yard. “Cuff her.”
The heavy man pushed me face down onto the ground, roughly cuffing my hands behind my back.
“Go to the car. Get the tools. We’ll deal with these two here. I’m sick of this one coming back like some bloody weed.” He gave Adam’s prone body a kick. “I’ll keep her entertained.” I looked up from my position on my knees, watching the other man walk away. “Oh, you stupid girl, thinking you could escape. I have you now…-”
I squealed as he suddenly landed on my body. I struggled against the dead weight, but he was soon rolled off me. Someone grabbed me and pulled me to my feet.
“Are you okay?”
“Kate? What the Fu…!” I stared wide-eyed at my red-haired saviour. From the bloody shovel by her feet, I could see that she’d hit Patrick hard, causing him to fall unconscious onto me.
“Oh, you cannot imagine how good that felt!” She was going through his pockets, finding the keys to the cuffs before rapidly unlocking them. As I rubbed my wrists, she turned to Patrick, giving him a hard kick to the chest.
We heard Adam groan, so we both knelt beside him, he rolled onto his back.
“Oh God, now I’m seeing things…”
“No silly… I came back.” Kate helped him to his feet.
I didn’t know if I wanted to hit her, screaming at her for being as stupid as my brother, putting her life at risk for us or to hug her. The embrace won she’d come in the nick of time.
“Right we have to shift. Can you move?”
“Yeah… I hurt, but I can get going.”
“We need to get out. We can cross the bay to Arnside, I have friends there.” Arnside was a small town directly opposite the yard, a simple case of crossing the fence and then making our way across some of the most dangerous mudflats in the world. We made our way quickly into the lower paddock and from there over the fence onto the beach below.
Grabbing my phone, I made a quick call. “Dan, when you get this call me. They’re here. We’re going to go across the bay to Arnside.”
We quickly made our way onto the sandy part of the bay. Looking out beyond the small town, which was in sight, we just had to cross the bay. Although I had not been here long, I was aware of the risks, so gingerly stepped into the ankle-deep mud.
The going quickly became deep, despite this we were soon almost halfway across, facing the flow of the river. I looked back, seeing Patrick standing on the shore, the heavyset man was starting to wade into the bay, making progress towards us. I yelped, crying out that we needed to keep going. The mud was deeper in places, almost to our knees, so he was starting to make progress towards us. We were about to cross the river when we heard a yell behind us. I stopped, looking back I saw that the man had sunk to his chest. I stopped.
“I have to help him…”
“What the hell are you doing?” Kate screamed. “He wants to kill you.”
“I can’t just let him die…” I waded back, grabbing for his arm. Adam stepped beside me, and we managed to drag him free. He lay on the mud for a moment before pulling a knife from his jacket. Leaping up, he slashed towards Adam, catching him across the chest. He screamed, falling back.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake!” Kate grabbed his arms and dragged Adam up. “Run…”
We waded into the river,
