Ruby by Heather Burnside (carter reed txt) 📗

tone was arrogant and she hated the way he overemphasised the word Ruby as though scornful of her alter ego. ‘I’m giving you a few days to recover, and I think that’s more than generous. After all, you got off fuckin’ lightly. It’s not as if you’ve got any real injuries. So, let’s say Saturday night, nine o’clock. I always like having a good time at the weekend.’ He laughed but quickly resumed his hostile tone as he added, ‘I want you to be in the club ready and fuckin’ waiting for me.’

‘But the club won’t be ready by then. We’ve got repairs to do.’

‘Do you think I’m fuckin’ stupid?’ he growled. ‘We only smashed up the reception and waiting area. The rest of the rooms weren’t fuckin’ touched. So, we’ll be using one of them. In fact, I’ll enjoy seeing our handiwork on my way through the club.’

He sniggered and Ruby felt a stab of irritation, but it was overridden by her abject fear at the sound of his voice.

‘So?’ he shouted. ‘Are you gonna fuckin’ be there or do you wanna face more consequences?’

‘Yes, I’ll be there,’ said Ruby, then she quickly cut the call.

For a few seconds she stared at her phone screen. She was sweating and the phone felt slippery in her hands. She put it back inside her handbag, the whole of her body now trembling.

Then she grew annoyed with herself. Why was she letting him get to her in this way? This wasn’t who she was. He was only a man after all and, ever since she’d been a child, she’d always stuck up for herself. And now, here she was, letting a sly bastard like Kyle Gallagher beat her.

But it needn’t be like that. She had the answers; she just needed to act on them. So she pulled her sweaty phone back out of her handbag and called up Josh’s number. She knew now that things had already gone too far. It left her with no choice but to see it through to the end.

58

August 2011

It was two days later and Ruby’s cousins had called round to see her and Tiffany.

‘You still look fuckin’ sore,’ said Calvin when Ruby answered the door.

‘Could have been worse,’ said Ruby, trying to be blasé about the attack.

Once they had settled down in the living room and Tiffany had gone to fix them each a drink, Josh asked, ‘How’s things going with the club? Will you be able to get it up and running soon?’

‘Hopefully,’ said Ruby. ‘We’ve managed to get hold of a lot of replacements but we’ll have to wait for them to be delivered and I’ve got someone booked in to repair the walls next week.’

‘That’s good,’ said Josh, looking cautiously at Tiffany as she came into the room carrying drinks.

‘It’s OK. Tiff knows everything,’ said Ruby.

They all knew why he and Calvin were here and, now he knew Tiffany was on board, Josh came straight to the point. ‘OK, like I told you on the phone, the plan is to hit the whole gang at once. We’ve done our homework and know the place they hang out. It’s a pub called The Duck in Stockport. They normally go down there at weekends so we think Saturday would be a good night.’

He looked across at Calvin who nodded.

‘Saturday?’ asked Ruby, the terrifying thought of her upcoming meeting with Kyle sending a chill through her. ‘What time?’

‘Dunno. We’ve not decided yet. But we don’t wanna make it too early. We wanna make sure they’re all there.’

‘Good idea,’ said Ruby, trying to keep a cap on her fear. ‘Why not make it around nine o’clock, nine-thirty?’

‘Sure,’ said Calvin while Josh nodded his agreement. ‘We’ve heard Kyle’s usually in by about half seven, but some of his guys come in a bit later.’

‘OK,’ said Ruby.

‘I hope you realise things are gonna get brutal,’ said Josh. ‘Are you sure you’re up for it, Ruby?’

Ruby looked across at Tiffany, noting the fear in her eyes before she said, ‘Yes, I’ve thought it through and, like you say, there’s no alternative. I need them wiped out otherwise they’ll make my life a fuckin’ misery. But I want no comeback.’

‘Don’t worry. We’ll go in disguise and keep schtum. We always cover our backs. There’s no way the police will be able to trace it back to us. Oh, and I wanna make sure you two won’t say anything either.’

‘Course we won’t,’ said Ruby.

‘You sure?’ asked Calvin, looking at Tiffany.

‘Yes,’ said Tiffany. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the idea of any of this. But, like Ruby says, we’ve got no choice. It’s the only way to get them off our backs.’

‘OK, as long as we all understand,’ said Josh.

For the next few minutes they made small talk. Ruby didn’t add anything more about the proposed attack until Tiffany went into the kitchen to fetch them more drinks then she quickly said to her cousins, ‘By the way, Kyle won’t be there on Saturday.’

‘Why not?’ asked Josh.

‘Because he’ll be with me.’

‘What the fuck?’ said Calvin.

‘Don’t worry,’ Ruby said. ‘Just you take care of the rest of the gang. I’ll sort Kyle out myself.’

‘You sure you can deal with that, cuz?’ asked Josh.

‘Oh yeah,’ said Ruby, outwardly confident.

Inside she was full of trepidation about what she had to do. But Kyle had tortured her for too long. After going over everything countless times in her head, Ruby had finally decided that she was no longer prepared to let him get away with it. Not only did she need to put a stop to Kyle, but she also wanted to make it clear to him that from now on she was the one in charge.

59

August 2011

Saturday soon arrived. Ruby had thought about hardly anything other than her forthcoming meeting with Kyle and her cousins’ plans to annihilate the rest of his gang. She was trying to quash the feelings