“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Rayah jumped, a gasp leaving her and breaking the quiet. The tall man’s head appeared over her shoulder. Without thinking, she closed her fist and hooked him in the stomach, a move practiced on her cousins and Jake over the course of several years.
She figured he was going to call her a fucking bitch if he’d had the breath but she’d winded him. Unfortunately, his friend was also there and she felt a hefty arm grab her round the throat and pull her into a body that felt more like a cliff face than human.
“It’s the nosey teacher.”
Her arm was grabbed and twisted behind her back causing her to squeal with the pain.
“Shame you’re here. I heard the kids quite like you.” He started to drag her towards the building, oblivious to the kicks she was trying to land. She dug her heel into his leg, but he simply shook her off with a laugh and a comment about her being a fighter. The taller man had caught them up, greeting her with a kick to the stock that would’ve made her double over if she hadn’t been being dragged up a flight of stairs.
Everywhere was quiet, devoid of people. Doors were open, exposing rooms with little furniture and what was there was old fashioned. The tall man pushed open any door that was closed, looking for someone called Sinny, someone who clearly wasn’t going to be given any favours.
“What shall we do with her?” The hench guy said as they entered a large room whose windows were boarded from the inside. The door had been locked, but they’d somehow gotten in without forcing it. There had been a hand splayed roughly across her face while they’d done it and a knee had made contact with her back, bringing tears to her eyes.
She was thrown roughly to the floor. Getting out of the room without being caught wasn’t going to happen. Being athletic was one thing, but she’d need to be fucking Wonder Woman to walk out alive. Instead she curled into a ball, protecting her head, anticipating that she’d receive at least one more kicking before they finished whatever they were going to do.
The tall guy riffled through the drawers of a desk, hurriedly pulling out paper and dumping them on the ground. Without watching what was happening, Rayah relied on her hearing, listening to what was what happening and being said, trying to discreetly shuffle back into the room, hoping that by being out of sight they’d forget about her and move on. She heard a click and cold laughter, then a comment about a gun.
“Bitch is trying to hide.” It was the tall man; she knew their voices now. “Fucking leave her here. Building’s going up in flames.”
She curled up tighter. If they locked her in here, she didn’t know how she would get out. The room was on the second storey, the windows boarded and then they would probably lock the door.
Jonny was back in the bar, talking to her brother and cousin, not knowing where she was. When he found out, when he discovered what she’d done, how she hadn’t gone straight back and told people about her hunch, he’d be devastated. If she was still here, if she got out, he’d probably never speak to her again.
The door closed. She heard a laugh then the click of a lock. She waited, listening for the sound of feet walking away, needing them to go before she stood up and started to try to find a way to get out, to prise the boards off the windows or smash them through if she could find something heavy.
Then everything shook and for a second she thought she was in a country with a fault line. It was only as something hit her head that she realised that there was an explosion and the crackle that ripped through the night was fire.
Chapter Twenty-One
The lady with the shoulder length white hair appeared in the bar with a look of concern on her face that shook Jonny’s bones. Gran was the one person everyone in the town paid attention to, no matter their state of intoxication or, if like Zack Maynard, you had a pair of faux reindeer antlers on your head.
“Jonny.” Gran’s hand wrapped around his bicep and if it wasn’t for the fact that her expression was deadly serious, he’d have figured she was trying to cop a feel. “Kayleigh Farnsworth has just run down from Felley Manor. Rayah’s there. She told Kayleigh to… never mind.”
Sirens blared past the window, one of the fire engines speeding down the road in the direction of the manor. Jonny yanked out his phone and called Rayah, his attention shortly caught by Keren holding Rayah’ phone up high. She’d left it behind.
Panic was a war dance inside him. He left the bar and headed outside, a second engine racing passed. In the distance, he saw red and orange, the dark sky clouded with darker smoke.
“Jonny! What’s happening?” Scott had followed him out, putting a hand on his shoulder, turning him round.
“Rayah’s up there. And it’s on fire.” He didn’t think, just started to run, thankful at that point for every race he’d done, every test of endurance. Scott was behind him, almost keeping up. Three hundred metres away became two hundred, the fire thickening, the furore of a crowd starting to hit his ears.
An audience of hysteria met him, members of the church standing outside and watching one of their buildings devoured by the fire.
“Rayah!” He heard the shout but didn’t get that it came from him. Then he saw Will, heard him give instructions to his team.
“What the fuck’s going on? Who’s in there?” He felt the plot slipping from his fingers, sheer panic grasping him with its claws.
Will shook his head. “We don’t know. Most of the people here were in the church when the explosion went off. I’m going in.”
“Rayah…”
“You’re off shift and if she’s in there, we’ll get her out. This is not your call, Jonny.” His words were firm, his grip more so.
Jonny shook out of it and went to the engine. “I’m coming in with you.”
“No you’re fucking not. You going in there and you’re breaking all sorts of fucking rules…”
