Chapter 1
Natasha
I lit my thirtieth cigarette of the day. It was some cheap Bulgarian import brand that Kev’s mate had bootlegged in on the ferry. Two-fifty a pack. Couldn’t even get Stirling for that price anymore. Tasted like diesel fumes, but I didn’t care. I needed my nicotine hit.
“Ready?” Kev asked. I nodded. A balaclava covered his shaved head. Mine was next to me. Didn’t fancy the chances of it being flammable.
“Aye,” I whispered back. “I’ve got the bag.” Anything to get out of this rank squat. I stood up from the soggy, ripped mattress I’d been perching on. Rusty springs surrounded by mouldy foam were sticking out of it.
“Marcus got a new chib this mornin’.” Kev sounded excited. I wasn’t.
We both knew the significance of that. Marcus wanted to find someone to stab up.
“Is he steamin’?” I asked. He’d been off his head on meth during our last job. Lashed out at all of us. My leg still had an angry red cut from where he’d caught me with his old knife.
“Nah, just had a bit o’ coke.”
I nodded. Marcus was hard work when he was out of it. When he took things together, he became unpredictable. I would never admit how much he scared me.
“’Mon, it’s time to go. Put that on.” Kev indicated my balaclava. I dropped my fag butt on the floor and ground it in with my foot. I had no way of knowing that would be the last cigarette I ever smoked in my life.
I unfurled the balaclava and pulled it over my face. With it on, I felt safe. Protected by the fabric covering my nose and mouth. Like it was stopping the bleachy do-gooders from seeping in and infecting my soul with wanting something other than this.
I picked up the bag. It was a huge holdall. Perfect for a job like this. Kev swung his metal baseball bat over one shoulder. That bat made me almost as wary as Marcus’s knife.
“Giz a kiss.” Kev pulled me in. I obliged, knowing what would happen if I didn’t.
With that chore out of the way, we left the squat. Marcus was standing outside smoking a spliffy. He swayed on the spot and it was obvious he’d had more than a bit of coke. I’d guess he’d robbed some meth off someone.
“You keep edgie while we go in, aye?” Kev asked him. I didn’t think it was a good idea for Marcus to be responsible for raising the alarm if we were spotted. He wasn’t exactly observant when he’d had a few.
“Can’t she do it? Or are you plannin’ on wynchin’ her while I’m out in the cold?” Marcus grinned but he’d said nothing funny.
“Already done it, pal,” Kev replied. I hated that they talked about me like this. “Don’t you want to use your new chib?”
“Aye. But I dinnae want to miss out on the fun, either. I’ll be Nigel nae pals.”
“Aye, right. You just want to knock the morphine,” Kev countered.
As a trio, we made our way to the our destination. Kev and Marcus still bickered over who was doing what, but by the time we arrived, Marcus seemed to have decided to keep watch after all.
“That’s the place,” Kev whispered.
Jaswan Pharmacy was one of several shops in one of those run-down concrete shopping parades that had been optimistically built a long time ago to give council estates a sense of “community”. If community meant people coming together to rob shops for drugs or drug money, the town planners had succeeded.
The pharmacy’s shutters were down at the front. It might put off some people, but I had practice at this sort of job.
“Go on, do yer thing,” Marcus said, waving his knife in my face. I nodded and eyed the lock that operated the roller for the shutters. Any security was only as good as its weakest point.
“Piece of pish.”Easy to deal with.I pulled out my lockpicks and put them into the barrel, feeling for the pins. Turning slightly. Eyes closed. It was a delicate dance that could end in breaking the lock instead of opening it.
“’Mon, ‘mon, ‘mon, we’re no’ standin’ here for our health.” Marcus bounced up and down on the balls of his feet.
“Don’t rip your knitting, I’m workin’ on it,” I grumbled.
This wasn’t the sort of distraction I needed right now. Irritated, I twisted the pick too hard and the metal bent.Shit.Had I used too much force?
The lock turned. Shutter began to move. I breathed a sigh of relief.