Calamity Jena (Invertary 4)

“If you don’t do any damage. I need her in one piece to dance at the club.”

Jena felt her head spin with his words. Her breakfast fought to come up her throat.

“We can do that,” the guy said before he climbed into his car.

To her horror, he revved the engine and aimed for her house. The car crashed through the living room window, hitting the house at an angle so the passenger side took the brunt of the damage.

Jena screamed. Frank laughed. The maniac in the car climbed out and sauntered over as though he drove into houses every day of the week.

“See,” Frank said against her ear, “it’s like this. When we’re through, there’ll be nothing to keep you in Scotland. This piece of shit house is about to be demolished. You’ll have nothing left. No house. No money. Nothing. You’re out of options, Jena. Time to do as you’re told and work off the money you owe me.”

“No,” Jena wailed. Tears streamed down her face. Her house. The home she was making. The work she’d put in. “No!”

Frank laughed. “Two minutes enough, boys?”

“More than.”

Frank threw Jena into the back seat of his car. She scrambled to get out. He leaned in and smacked her across the face. “Kid locks. You ain’t going nowhere.”

Jena cradled her face as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Better buckle up, baby—this is gonna get real.” He backed down the road at full speed, making Jena scream. He screeched to a halt at the side of the road, coming alongside the other car. He nodded at the men. Someone held something up, gave her a sick smile and pressed a button.

And the whole world exploded.

“Hell yeah,” Frank shouted. “Shut up or I’ll smack you again.”

It took Jena a minute to notice she was screaming. She bit her lip and whimpered as she fought to keep silent. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at the site where her house used to stand. The car had been rigged. It had taken the house with it when it blew. There was nothing left except rubble and smouldering ashes.

The men were laughing when the second explosion rocked them. Frank’s car slid off the side of the road into the ditch. Jena screamed as she tumbled inside it. Her head struck something. Pain shot through her. She blinked hard to get her bearings. Frank was up on the road. He’d been thrown away from the car. The driver’s door was still open. Jena scrambled for it.

“What the hell was that?” someone shouted.

“I only rigged one explosion,” the other guy yelled.

Jena ran. Fast. Hard. Stones and sticks bit into the soles of her feet. She had to get away. She had to get help. Frank shouted. Jena cast a quick glance over her shoulder. He was chasing her, but she still had some distance on him. She ran across the field. She saw Abby standing on her front stoop. Abby shouted. Jena didn’t hear the words. Her lungs burst as she pushed herself to go faster. She could make it. She had to make it.

The earth trembled. It began to disappear under her feet. Jena screamed as she fell. The mine beneath her collapsed. Darkness overwhelmed her.

She was underground.

38

The desolation that confronted Matt almost brought him to his knees. The house was levelled. There was no sign of Jena.

“Keep it together,” Harry ordered him. As though Matt had any other choice.

“Over here,” Lake yelled. “Two guys. Both injured. One unconscious.”

Matt ran to where Lake was standing beside the road. A car had been thrown off the tarmac into the bushes. A guy lay out cold beside it, blood on his head. The other one was propped against a tree, cradling his arm. Matt recognised the type—Glasgow thugs.

Matt strode over to the one who was conscious. “Jena. The woman. Was she in the house?”

The thug ran his tongue over dirty lips. “Naw. She was in Frank’s car.”

Matt looked around. He didn’t see a car. “Where?”

“Up the road a wee bit.”