She heads to the kitchen mumbling under her breath and my father whispers, “Grab your gear and meet me out the front. It’s all set and shouldn’t take longer than a game of squash.”
Nodding, we set off upstairs to grab our kit and I sigh inside. Great, just what I need. A fucking job in the middle of the day.
The first stop is the sports centre. As we sign in, I make sure to give the pretty receptionist a long, lingering, look. She blushes and I watch her hands shake as she hands us our locker keys. Winking, I throw her an interested look before following the others to the changing rooms. However, we never reach them. We duck out of the fire exit and head back to the car park where we find our usual car waiting for us. Unregistered and untraceable and just what we need. Pops laughs. “There, one alibi safely in the bag.”
It doesn’t take us long before we reach our destination. A scruffy looking house in a bad area of town. The curtains at the window look tatty and worn and the front garden is overgrown with weeds. This place is as fucked as the people inside and I set my mood accordingly.
Dad filled us in on the ride over and my blood boils. Fucking bastards, grooming young girls and selling them into prostitution. Young girls fresh off the train and most of them underage. These men bring them to houses like this and drug them before raping them and beating them into submission. If there’s one thing my father hates above everything else, it’s this. He had word of this place and true to form, wants them run out of town - the hard way.
I see Dennis and Gary waiting in a side street and grab my weapon. I can sense Charlie is as ready as ever. He may be the joker of the family but he’s a cold-blooded killer when he needs to be. We’re a good team which is why we are feared. Nobody messes with the Carters and these fuckers are about to find this out the hard way.
As soon as dad signals, we’re off. We cover our faces with the usual ski masks and head to the front door and knock loudly. The door remains firmly shut and Joey nods as Charlie kicks it in with one sharp boot to the lock.
With Charlie by my side, we sweep every room in the house. Dirty mattresses line the floors and the place reeks of sex. I hear a scream as Dennis kicks in a door upstairs and hear the sounds of bones cracking and yells of terror. Charlie covers me as I step inside a room and see maybe four guys trying to leave through the window and we’re on them. The man I grab takes a swing at me and I punch him hard. His groans are music to my ears as I swing back and relish the crunch of bone as my fist connects with his skull.
All around are grunts of pains amid words foreign to us. I suppose it must be over in minutes because soon the only sound we hear is crying and howls of pain. The body twitches at my feet and I look down. The man looks up with hate-filled eyes and spits blood on my shoes. Grabbing him by the throat, I snarl, “Who do you work for?”
He laughs darkly and says in barely audible English, “Fuck you.”
I slam his head down and stamp on his neck. He says no more. Charlie has another man up against the wall and yells, “Who do you fucking work for you piece of shit?”
The man shivers and shakes his head with fear. Charlie reaches for his knife and holds it against the man’s neck. “The man’s eyes bulge as the knife cuts in just enough to show him what’s coming, and he says in a strangled voice. “Please, I know nothing.”
Charlie runs the knife across the man’s face, slashing a slice of his skin as it goes. The man screams in pain and passes out and Charlie drops him in disgust.
Pops looks on with anger and snarls, “Fucking bastards. There are five girls upstairs all drugged up to their eyeballs. Two of them are chained to the bed, and it looks as if they’ve been hard at work today. I fucking hate this scum. Coming here and subjecting young girls to this fuckfest. Do what you need to boys because I couldn’t give a shit. I want this place closed forever and nobody dare start up again.”
He looks at Charlie and says angrily. “You had better left one of them alive to tell the others. I want the fear of God put up their arses that will send them scurrying back to the hole they came from.”
Charlie looks at the body of the man he sliced and nods. “I think he’ll live.”
Dennis and Gary head back with blood splattered all over their shirts. “It’s clear. Three down and five women freed. We need to get the hell out of here before the cops arrive.”
We do as he says and as quickly as we came, we go and leave the damage behind us. We head to one of our lockups and dump our clothes, removing the fresh kit we brought with us.
As we change, Joey grins. “One of our better games of squash, wouldn’t you say so boys?”
Charlie laughs. “It was most satisfying.”
Pops laughs. “You know, I never really embraced this new technology but I’m beginning to see the appeal of it.”
We all laugh because technology will provide our alibi. Dennis is more than just a hired thug. He’s a whizz with electronics and has made sure that the CCTV at the local sports centre will show a record of our game at the very time this all kicked off. However, that particular game was filmed months ago and any detective worth his badge would see it’s the same one on repeat every time something bad happens that they try to pin on us.
We head home and Joey says angrily. “Gary found close on three grand in that place. By the looks of it, those girls saw none of it. It makes my fucking blood boil. We need to find out who’s controlling this operation. That was only one house of many and I’m not prepared to turn a blind eye on my patch.”
Charlie nods grimly. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
As I drive, I think about that house. It sickens me to the pit of my stomach. We may be criminals but we would never cause an innocent person’s suffering. These gangs have sprung up, exploiting young, desperate, women and hide behind the houses where kids play outside and honest people live. I share my father’s hatred but know this is a problem that will never go away. It will be a constant fight and I worry for the old man. He’s not as young as he used to be and times have changed. Is this really going to be my life? Always fighting to maintain our values. One day, this will all bite us and then where will we be? Either locked up or six feet under if I can hazard a guess.
Charlie sighs beside me. “Fuck this, I need a drink tonight. Maybe we should check out Honey’s.”
I nod. “Count me in, bro, I need a distraction.”
5
Summer
I think Tracey and I slept all day. Me from jet lag and her from party lag. Aunt Kim doesn’t disturb us and by the time night falls we’re wide awake.
Over dinner, Tracey says excitedly, “I’ll take Summer to Honey’s tonight. They always have happy hour on a Sunday around 9 pm. We could stock up and I’ll show her how we party in London.”
My Aunt looks at her sharply. “Listen, don’t you go teaching Summer your bad habits. She probably just wants some time to adjust to the different time zone, not go gallivanting across town as soon as she’s arrived.”
She shakes her head as the door opens and uncle Jimmy comes in. Jumping up, she says wearily. “Hi, Jimmy, I kept your tea warm.”
He sits down heavily and groans. “I know it’s double time but I hate these Sunday shifts. I don’t even have a day off tomorrow, I’m out again at six to Dover.”