ASBO: A Novel of Extreme Terror(78)

Bex mewled like a wounded animal and buried her face in her hands. Andrew turned his stare back to Frankie. “Do you enjoy this? Ruining lives? Causing pain to innocent people?”

“Who says you’re innocent?”

Andrew was ready to give up. There was no part of Frankie that had any remorse or understanding. There might have been something there, deep beneath the surface, which could be scratched at, but Andrew had no idea what it was.

“My daughter is innocent,” Andrew stated. “What has she ever done?”

“She belongs to you.”

“And what have I done, exactly? Is this all because I didn’t buy you a packet of fags?”

Frankie was breathing quickly and his twitch was becoming even more erratic. “You needed to learn a lesson.”

“What lesson? You know nothing about me?”

“I needed to teach you some respect.”

“Why is it so important that some guy you never met respects you? Are you that insecure?”

Frankie thrust the gun forward at Andrew and for a moment it looked like he would pull the trigger again. Andrew didn’t flinch, though – not for a scumbag like Frankie. When the gun didn’t go off, it became clear that Andrew was scratching at something – something beneath Frankie’s calloused exterior that was heavily guarded.

Andrew smirked, enjoying the sight of Frankie’s squirming. “But this was never about me, was it? This is about your own bullshit. So what is it, Frankie? Daddy abuse you?”

“Fuck you! I never even knew my Dad.”

Andrew was getting close. He could sense it. “Hardly surprising having met your mother. Maybe it was the young offender’s home, then? Did one of the bigger boy’s make you his bitch?”

Frankie pulled the trigger. Andrew’s vision went white like someone had lit a firework inside his skull. The pain came hot and heavy, accompanied by thick waves of nausea and mind-rattling dizziness.

I’ve been shot. Holy shit, I’ve been shot.

The pain was so gigantic and all-consuming that Andrew couldn’t even tell where he’d been hit. It was only when his vision returned, and he saw the blood pouring from his knee, that he knew. The agony was so massive that Andrew knew straight away that he’d never walk the same again.

If this psychopath doesn’t kill me altogether.

Bex was screaming again, crying out for her father and begging for Frankie to leave them all alone.

“I told you not to f*ck with me,” Frankie shouted at Andrew on the floor. “I told you, didn’t I?”

Andrew slid along on the floor like a wounded slug, leaving behind a trail of hot, sticky blood. He dragged himself towards Dalton who was staring at him wide-eyed, no doubt wondering how the hell she had gotten herself into this situation. Andrew knew how she felt.

Frankie marched forward and kicked Andrew’s wounded knee. The pain bloomed again like a nuclear explosion, chasing away his vision in a cloud of agony.

“Please,” Andrew cried out. “Haven’t you done enough? Please, just leave us alone. I’m begging you”

“Why would I do that?” Frankie kicked Andrew again, this time in the side of the head, sending him dizzy. “If I kill the three of you, who’s going to say I did anything?”

“The police already have…Andrew’s…statements,” said Dalton in a half-conscious drawl. We know all about you, Francis Walker.”

Frankie was clearly unhappy at the news, but it wasn’t enough to deter him. “Well, it still wouldn’t do any harm getting rid of the witnesses, would it?” He placed himself down on Bex’s bed and she squirmed as he started to stroke her face. “Shall I leave you for last, princess? Let you watch all the fun before I put your lights out too?”

“Please,” she sobbed. “Just go. Me and my dad won’t say anything.”

Frankie laughed. “Seriously? You’re going to go with that old chestnut? It doesn’t work in the moves and I can tell you right now that it doesn’t work in real life either, sweetheart.”

“Get away from her, you evil bastard.”

Frankie looked down at Andrew across the room and laughed. “Or else what, you sad cripple? You couldn’t take me with both legs, so what use are you now?” Frankie put a finger in his mouth and sucked it before holding it in the air. Andrew was forced to watch while he delved it beneath his daughter’s blankets.