Reckoning by Heather Atkinson Read Free Book Online Page B

his neck. “You were friends with Frankie McVay?”
    “His sister Toni’s running things now and we’re also friends with her. She’s particularly fond of my wife. Frankie liked the axe,” he said, slicing through the air with the hatchet, making the gorilla wince. “But Toni’s different. She likes eyes, she plucks them right out of the heads of her enemies while they’re still conscious then puts them in glasses cases for safe-keeping.”
    Thane turned his incredulous look on Rachel for confirmation, who nodded back at him. “Jesus,” he said under his breath.
    “I’ve done that myself to a man,” continued Ryan. “Popped his eye right out of his head. It’s so ridiculously easy to do. Then I made him eat it.”
    The gorilla blanched. “You’re taking the piss.”
    “I know you’d like to think that but I’m perfectly serious.” He knelt by the gorilla’s side and applied pressure to his left lower lid with the tip of his thumb. The man’s entire body spasmed. “What do you think Rachel?” Ryan called over his shoulder. “Would Toni like these as a gift? They’re not a particularly attractive colour and are seriously lacking in intelligence but I think she’d appreciate the sentiment.”
    “I agree,” she smiled sweetly, pausing to kick gorilla number two in the face when he started to come round, knocking him out again. “After all, a collection is a collection.”
    Ryan turned to Thane, thoroughly enjoying how ill at ease he was, for once. “What do you think Your Lordship?”
    “I think we should stop this now, before things go too far.”
    “That’s a really good idea,” said the gorilla eagerly.
    “I don’t know why you’re showing them any sympathy.” said Rachel. “They would have attacked you and your property without a second thought.”
    “This may be your world but it’s not mine,” replied Thane.”
    “Well excuse us Lord-lah-de-dah,” said Ryan. “We’re trying to help you out here. We should have left you to get battered instead.”
    “I could have held my own.”
    Ryan straightened up and threw down the hatchet. “Fine, we’ll leave you to it then. Come along Rachel.” When she stayed where she was, looking from Ryan to Thane and back again, he rolled his eyes. “You heard him, he doesn’t want our help.”
    “I appreciate what you’ve done,” said Thane. “You didn’t have to get involved but I’m the one who’s got to live here. You’ll be gone in a couple of days.”
    “All the more reason to get this sorted now,” said Rachel. She loomed over the head gorilla, glaring down at him. “Me and my husband have put a substantial amount of money into this estate, we’re Thane’s business partners so we will be royally pissed off if anything happens to him or his property. Now let me tell you what’s going to happen. You and your sad little friends will leave and never come back. If you do decide to bother Thane again then not only will you have the McVays to contend with but the Maguires too.” It said a lot for her family’s reputation when the gorilla blanched. “Unlike the McVays they won’t come after your eyes. They’ll come charging up here with guns, knives, machetes, baseball bats, scalpels, blow torches, the fucking works. They’ll take you apart piece by piece while you’re still awake then burn whatever’s left. No one will ever find you, it will be like you just dropped off the face of the earth.”
    This clearly disturbed the gorilla because his lower lip started to wobble.
    “We’re related to the Maguires by blood so they’ll be more than happy to take you apart for us. So I suggest if you want to remain in one piece then you fuck off back under the rock you crawled out from under and never bother Thane again. Are we clear?”
    The gorilla nodded, tears in his eyes, recognising Rachel meant every word.
    Ryan gazed adoringly at his wife then glanced at Thane and frowned. He was regarding her with a ludicrously soppy look