Hollow Oaks by Paddy Kelly

Author:Paddy Kelly [Kelly, Paddy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-03-14T22:00:00+00:00

The cool kiss of the outside. I staggered up the alley, one hand tracing a wall I couldn't see through stinging eyes. Sounds rang out — breaking glass, yells, the blare of emergency vehicles, the roar of hose-water muffled by the walls and buildings between me and it.

Another step, gazing at my boots, heavy in limb and head and every other way. Wanting to fall down, to stop. Find Gernaud's flat, that was the plan. Or just hide. Seamus and his lot were probably after me. I'd have to work out how to deal with that later. After I'd found a place, some cold corner, with water, and—

"Help you, sir?" I was looking down and saw only dark shoes. I should have looked up at who spoke, but I heard ambulances and fire engines, and I thought it was one of them.

I let the man — from his size it was a man — sling my arm across his shoulders and walk me a few steps, as I coughed up the taste of smoke.

But … wait. The sounds were all behind me, the blare of an ambulance, the yells. Why were we going all the way around the building?

"Water up ahead," he said. A Dublin accent. We turned a corner, but the wrong way, and I looked up, squinting, and ahead was an ambulance … no. Not an ambulance. A van. The back door was open, and someone, a blurred outline, was looking out.

I stiffened. This was wrong. If I gathered strength I could run for it, scream, fight—

"Don't you think about it," he said, pressing something into my side. A knife. "Now, one fucking word, and this goes into you, and you're one less problem. Got it?"

I looked up into the face of the moustached man, who we'd chased from Brufort House, who'd very likely set the fire behind me. And I couldn't find a single word to say.

He pressed a meaty hand to my neck. Squeezed. "Good. Now keep walking. Someone wants a word with you. And the good sister don't like to be kept waiting."

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