Read Online Only the Thunder Knows_East End Girls by Rena Mason Gord Rollo - Free Book Online Page A

they were
there.
    The
footsteps came closer and all William could do was lie down in the old coffin
and pray they wouldn’t spot Billy and come investigate. Out of the darkness,
the glow of a portable gas lamp illuminated the night, chasing away the shadows
as well as any lingering hope William had of them not being caught.
    Shite, he
thought. We’re buggered now!
    William
was sure he’d see the familiar dark blue cap of an Edinburgh police constable
peek over the rim of his hole but the man who walked into sight turned out to
be a huge baldheaded giant. Whoever he was, he looked down at William and
smiled with a mouth filled with rotten black teeth.
    “Who
in blazes are you?” William asked. He knew that wasn’t the smile of a policeman
but that thought only made him feel mildly better.
    “A
friend,” the giant said. “Get out of the hole, if you please.”
    William
didn’t see what other choice he had. He sat up and climbed out onto solid
ground, his mind spinning as he tried to figure out what was going on. “Look
here,” he started to say, but from behind him someone stepped in close and
clobbered him across the back of the head with something hard. He landed face
first beside Billy, who was somehow still sleeping through this and William’s
last thought before he blacked out was that he’d kill his incompetent mate with
his bare hands if he ever got the chance. It was as comforting a thought as any
as he spiraled down into a deep, dark sleep.
     
    *  
*   *
     
    “I’ll
wake the bugger up and you can ask ‘im yourself,” someone said in the darkness.
There was a smelly burlap bag over William’s head and he couldn’t see who was
speaking even if he’d wanted to. His hands were tied tightly behind his back as
well. Hare’s head was still ringing from the blow to the back of his skull but
he was with it enough to hear the man’s gravelly voice clear as a bell and know
that Billy and he were in trouble.
    Check
that…they were in big trouble.
    Then
the bag was roughly yanked away and the same fat giant who’d smiled at him at
the cemetery slapped him roughly across the face. He’d seen that William was
already awake but he’d slapped him anyway, just for the sheer fun of it.
    “Wake
up, princess,” the big man said. “The lady would like a little chat with
you…and you’d do well to mind your manners, hear?”
    Lady? William
thought.
    When
the giant stepped out of the way, the last person Hare expected to see standing
in the doorway was a beautiful woman. Not just any beautiful woman, either.
With her jade-colored eyes, her raven hair, and the plunging neckline of her expensive
red dress, William immediately knew this was the highbrow actress Billy and he
had met outside of the Ripley several weeks ago. She hadn’t spoken a word yet,
but he was sure of it – he’d recognize those eyes and that scrumptious cleavage
anywhere.
    What
was her name again? It was a color, wasn’t it?
    He
wasn’t the only one with a good memory; the woman smiled as she stepped forward
to speak.
    “Well,
well, well…look at who we have here! Let me think…William wasn’t it. Yes. Both
of you were named that. What’s your last name again?”
    “Hare,
ah…ma’am. And Billy’s name is Burke.”
    “That’s
right. William Hare and Billy Burke. My big strong Irishmen come back to visit
me again. How sweet is that?”
    As
hard as it was to look away from the woman’s brazen beauty, Hare took a moment
to look around the room he was in. It was a warehouse office by the looks of
it, with a beat up old desk and a few chairs surrounded by boxes and wooden
crates. From the salty smell of the stale air William could tell they were
somewhere down by the docks but couldn’t tell exactly where. Standing in the
small rectangular room was the woman (whose name he still couldn’t remember – was
it Violet? ) the big fat man with the terrible smile, and another
huge muscular man who’d presumably been the bloke