“Shit man. This is bad. Why the hell did you do that, Frankie?” Davie struggled to keep up with the others as they ran deeper into the estate, passing by rows of houses that became progressively smaller and unkempt. Usually Davie would have been faster than the lot of them, but with his throbbing concussion he could manage no more than a lolloping run.
Frankie slowed down ahead and allowed Davie to catch up. “Bitch had it coming,” he said. “She came at me like a nutcase, you saw it.”
“I saw you drive a knife into her neck when you could have just as easily punched her.”
Frankie shrugged. It was an awkward movement to make while running. “It’s done now. No point stressing about it.”
Davie reached out and grabbed his brother’s jacket, dragging them both to a stop. “You’re trippin’. The police will be after us all within the next two minutes. There’s two women bleeding to death because of you!”
Frankie huffed. “Because of us.”
Davie shook his head, dismayed by the suggestion that he was in any way to blame. “What the hell did I do?”
“You distracted me enough that Andrew could take a shot at me. Everything went schitzo after that. If you’d just kept your gob shut then everything would have been okay. I was just about to let them go. Figured I’d scared them enough to get the message.”
“Bullshit,” said Davie, hoping there was no truth to his brother’s words. If there was then Davie was indeed responsible. “You told everyone you were going to kill the guy.”
“Course I did,” said Frankie. “I wanted Andrew to shit himself. I weren’t going to do it, though. You think I’m a complete muppet or something?”
Davie shook his head. He was feeling dizzy again and couldn’t wait to find his way to bed. Were his actions really the cause of what had happened? Davie wasn’t sure he could live with himself if they were. He stared at Frankie and concentrated on his brother’s reactions. “You were really just going to let them go?”
Frankie put a hand on Davie’s shoulder and looked him dead in the eye. “I swear! They were just at the breaking point where they would have been never said a word to no one for fear that I would come after them again. The pigs would never have ever known. Now though…”
“What are we going to do?”
Frankie patted Davie on the back and got them both moving again. Up ahead, the twins and a semi-conscious Michelle were waiting for them. “We’re going to go see a mate of mine and lay low for a while at his gaff. We’ll get our stories straight and decide what we’re going to do then.”
Davie nodded. “Okay. Who’s this mate? Can we trust him?”
“Yeah,” said Frankie. “It’s him I’ve been dealing product for. Well, his old man, really, but he’s in the nick for a stretch.”
“Maybe, we should just go home instead. Get mum to tell the police that we’ve been home all night if they ask.”
“You really want to rely on that drunk bitch to keep a story straight?”
Davie shrugged and looked down at the ground. “Guess not.”
They caught up with the twins and Michelle at the end of the street, just as they passed by a group of shops and a grotty old pub called The Trumpet.
“My mate lives a few blocks up,” Frankie told them all. “It’s pretty late so he should be in. Mind your manners, though, because this guy would kill you as soon as look at you. In fact he’s the only geezer in the world that actually scares me. ”
Everyone nodded their understanding. Then they got going again, cutting through the paved-jungle of the housing estate and disappearing into the night.
***
Frankie knocked the door and shushed everyone. The house they were stood at was bigger than most of the others on the street with a long driveway and an overhanging porch that had a light that lit their approach.