Page 76 of Dublin's Danger Dancer

There was no way I could get word to anyone. My best chance was to escape on the boat. If I tried before, he’d know I was lying and he or one of his men in the car would shoot me.

Whatever his uncle has. I’d have to rely on the fact that Liam loved me enough not to kill me.

“I...” I begin.

“Not one word, Ciara. Not one word.”

I can practically see the steam come out of his nostrils, as his mind races through the catalogue of experiences he’d had with me trying to figure out whether I can really be a guard.

When the car parks at the Docklands, he wastes no time in pulling me out of the other side. Gone is the gentleman who opened my doors. Here is the Brutus who will kill me if he discovers I’ve been betraying him.

I swallow hard. The night sky is crisp, charcoal grey, no stars can be spotted, just a plume of clouds which gather together like witches around a cauldron.

The huge, imposing white hull of the boat rises up from the ocean like a shark’s fin. Liam angrily tugs me towards the boat. I feel exactly like I’m about to be fed to the sharks.

For one split second I turn, hearing a police siren, but the car whizzes past us. Liam notes my turn, and this further fuels his anger.

He tugs at my wrist so firmly my skin burns.

He takes out his gun and points it at me. “Step on board.” he says.

He calls out “Freddie, Freddie.”

“Down here.” Freddie calls back. “I’m not going to kill my only nephew. Come below deck. The evidence is here waiting for you to meet.”

Liam drags me down the stairs behind him, instinctively using his body to shield me. The smell of rust permeates the air. As we descend the last step I make out a figure doubled over, chained to a chair with the same chains that I’d seen in pictures of girls who’d been rescued from brothels.

The person’s head is lolling forward and to one side. From this vantage point, they looked barely conscious.

Freddie raises his foot and kicks whoever is in the chair in the leg. The man’s head pulls back sharply. Hundreds of knitting needles simultaneously stab my heart.

“I met this ol’ fella last night.” Liam says, looking around the room to make sure it’s just Freddie, Admir and us.

“Funny that he came when no one called him? Don’t you think?”

“How do you know that?” Liam asks.

“He’s one of ours. He’s been part of our family since before you were born.”

Freddie pulls Fergus’ head back so his face is clear. It’s covered in blood and bruises, and I spot several missing teeth.

“This is her handler,” says Freddie.

Liam looks back to me, his eyes wide open. I move back towards the stairs, but I know that I can’t run, Admir would happily shoot me before I do. I swallow my emotions, a muscle in my cheek flinching.

Freddie kicks Ferg again as Liam rounds the side of him, his eyes still locked on me.

“Tell him what you told us!” Freddie demands, grasping his bloodied chin.

“She is one of mine, an undercover agent. She’s been undercover since she started at Lollipops. We recruited her because she’s an orphan.”

Liam’s eyes spear me.

“Go on,” says Freddie jabbing his gun into Fergus’s neck.

“When I met you, you were just fifteen. I was planning to traffic you, but then I realised you could be more useful to me on the inside. And, you,” he pauses, laughing, “you were so easy to manipulate. All you could see was revenge for your sister’s murder. If I’d have told you to eat dog shite to catch the killer, you’d have done it.”

I stay silent shooting him death glares.

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