But somehow, they’d made it work, and they’d built their relationship on love and trust, which meant no lies. Ever. And although he wasn’t entirely sure if not telling Casey about selling his house right from under her nose constituted a lie rather than just an omission, within a week of her finding out she’d got up and left, telling him she needed space to think.
So, whatever happened, he needed this deal with Reenie Reynolds to go through as quickly and as smoothly as possible, so he could explain to Casey that although he was wrong not to tell her, it’d been worth it. That risking the home they shared together hadn’t been some reckless, fruitless venture, but security for their future, not to mention being able to get back to the life he’d missed.
But the problem was he couldn’t get out of his mind what Alfie had said. That Casey had just used this situation as an excuse to leave him. In fact, the thought wasn’t so much in his mind as eating him up inside.
‘Alright Vaughnie.’ Alfie, looking tense, strolled in from the main house. He stopped in front of Janine who now lay with her mouth wide open. He gave a wry smile. ‘I see sleeping beauty is getting her kip, waiting for her prince, but for fuck’s sake, don’t kiss her, I could do with Janine not waking up for a hundred years.’
‘I heard that, Alfred!’
‘Yeah, well, you need to hear this too …’ He stopped, wondering quite how to say it, quite how to make it sound as casual as possible.
Sitting up, Janine, her hair in large yellow Velcro rollers, scowled. ‘You look suspicious.’
Alfie stared at her. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, then quickly said, ‘There’s no easy way of saying this, so I’ll just come straight out with it … It doesn’t look like Franny’s coming back with the money.’
The scream from Janine was followed by a huge splash, as Vaughn ran over, catching Alfie hard on the chin with his fist before pushing him into the pool.
Spitting out a mouthful of water, Alfie yelled up at Vaughn, ‘I’ll sort it, okay?’
Standing above him on the side of the pool, Vaughn, his face twisted in anger, shouted back, ‘How? How the fuck are you going to get two bloody quid, let alone two million?’
Janine, struggling to push herself up from the sun lounger, butted in. ‘And what am I supposed to do? I rely on the money you give me and now we’ll all end up on the bleedin’ streets because of you!’
Pushing his hair away from his eyes, Alfie growled at Janine. ‘Just shut up, Janine, I’ll do a job, okay.’
Vaughn stared at Alfie. ‘A job? Are you having a laugh? Just the two of us?’
‘We can get a small crew then.’
‘Get real Alf, cos no matter how much we say please, ain’t nobody I know who’s going to work for us for nothing.’
‘Then we do it ourselves. I’ve already started putting me feelers out about …’
‘Hold up, so how long have you known about Franny and the money?’
‘Only a few days.’
Vaughn could hardly speak from rage. ‘And you’re only telling us now?’
‘Well I didn’t want to believe it, did I? I thought she’d come to her senses. I dunno, I thought she wouldn’t do this to me.’
‘Well she did and it’s not just you, is it? It was two million fucking pounds of my money as well!’
‘I know, and that’s why I tried to line up a job to sort this shit out. I thought if we could give Reenie a down payment—’
Vaughn interrupted. ‘A down payment! We ain’t buying a bleedin’ car you know!’
‘Look, I ain’t giving up without a fight. If this job comes off it’s a start … We’ll be jacking some coke from a lorry. It’s not great, but it’s better than nothing.’
Vaughn let out a loud, rueful laugh. ‘Not great? It’s a mug’s game! I never came back to England to start sticking people up and maybe getting a bullet in me head.’
‘But it’s money Vaughn, and that’s what we need. And nobody is going to get a bullet in their head. We can do this. I know we can. Look at us. This is me, Alfie Jennings, once Soho’s number one face, and fuck me, you’re Vaughn Sadler, the Vaughn Sadler. Come on pal, don’t look like that!’
‘You turned us over again! I came back home to take over a multi-million-pound business, a future for me and Casey, and you’ve messed that up.’
Angry himself now, Alfie shouted, ‘You need to knock that idea out of your head. Your bird’s well and truly flitted.’
‘You bastard!’
Seething, Vaughn jumped into the pool, grabbing hold of Alfie and pushing him under the water, holding him down as Alfie splashed his arms about trying to come up for air.
‘I’m going to kill you! I’m going to fucking kill you, Alf!’
Lola, who’d just walked into the pool house, yelled as she ran over, kneeling down at the side of the swimming pool. She swung at Vaughn’s back, hitting him hard. ‘Vaughnie, leave him alone! Let go! You’re going to drown him! It ain’t his fault! Stop!’
Vaughn swivelled round, glaring with contempt at Lola. ‘You knew? You were in on it?’
‘I weren’t in on anything, but yes, I knew.’
‘By heck, this is cosy, I’m missing out. Pool parties during the day, this is what they must mean about swinging in the suburbs.’ Lloyd Page’s voice boomed out as he stood laughing behind Lola.
Standing chest-deep in the pool with a gasping, red-faced Alfie next to him, Vaughn’s expression was a picture of puzzlement and anger. ‘What the fuck is he doing here?’
‘I let him in,’ Lola muttered, looking upset.
‘I can see that, but I want to know why.’
‘Hello to you too, Vaughn, always a pleasure, though I take it Alfie hasn’t told you about our arrangement … about the job he begged me to give him.’
10
‘What is this?’
Accusingly, Sandra stood in the hallway as Eddie opened the front door. Her tall, skinny body wrapped up in double layer of cream knitwear and jeans.
‘Well go on then Eddie, I’m waiting. What have you got to say for yourself? What you playing at?’
Carefully, Eddie eased off his Gucci loafers attempting to avoid aggravating the painful blisters any more than he had to. He stared at Sandra, hating her as she held up the budget brand tin of cat food in her hand.
‘They didn’t have any Kitty-Kat, so I thought he’d like that.’
‘How many bleedin’ times have I told you, Barrie don’t eat this. If I told you that you were having a bit of steak for tea and instead I put a turd on your plate, how would you like it?’
‘It ain’t quite the same, Sandra, and besides, he’s only a cat.’
With an overhead shot, Sandra threw the tin of cat food at Eddie. ‘Oh, is that how it is now.’
The tin, narrowly missing Eddie’s head, smashed into the wall, leaving a large dent in the newly painted porch. He scrambled up, attempting a smile.
‘Pumpkin I’m sorry, I’ll go and get Barrie some food …’
The sound of smashing glass stopped Eddie finishing off his sentence. A loud voice came from outside.
‘Eddie! Eddie! We know you’re in there. We just want a word. Come on Eddie, open up!’
Eddie’s face paled. He whispered to Sandra, ‘Don’t open the door. Come on, hurry up, let’s go out the back.’
Not waiting for Sandra’s reply, Eddie grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her along with him towards the kitchen.
He froze. His stomach lurching.
‘Hello, Eddie. Going somewhere?’
Jason Robinson, one of the Costa del Sol’s biggest faces stood in front of him, all six foot ten of muscle. His tanned, highly polished head shone proudly under the ceiling spots. ‘I’m disappointed in you, Eddie. You don’t come and see me. You don’t answer me calls. So what am I to think, eh? Especially as you owe me some money.’
Sandra shot Eddie a look.
Jason walked forward, grinning a set of perfectly veneered teeth at her. ‘Oh, hasn’t he told you darlin’? Your old man owes one hell of a lot of money. You see, he liked to run up large tabs at my casinos, he also liked not to pay his bills, giving it large about Reginald Reynolds and what Reggie’s men would do to us. He even got Reginald’s men to put a couple of my employees in hospital to show that he meant business, didn’t you Eddie? The thing is, there aren’t any apron skirts to hide under anymore. Reginald’s pushing up the daisies and his men don’t give a fuck about you Ed, which leaves you with a major problem – me.’
Eddie stuttered his words. ‘Okay … okay, listen, Jason, I’m good for it, or I will be. Just give me a couple of days and you’ll see your money and then some.’
‘Thing is, I don’t believe you. And I did a bit of digging, seems like it ain’t just me you owe money to. Seems like you ran up hundreds of thousands in Reggie’s name, so it makes me think I won’t get me money back.’
Eddie suddenly made a dash for the back door, but not before he felt a hot pain at the back of his head followed by the warmth of his own blood trickling down his neck as one of Jason’s men struck him with a small steel baton.
The punches ensued, raining down on Eddie, pummelling him hard in the stomach, until he collapsed on the floor and noisily began to cough up blood, watched emotionlessly by Sandra.
Bending over Eddie, Jason pulled out his lighter. Flicking it on and off. ‘A little bit of a reminder Eddie, don’t fuck with me, son. You’re on your own now and I’ll be back very soon, and you better have me money, otherwise you and this house, along with your missus, will be going up in a ball of flames.’
11
‘What’s wrong with you? Can you just shut the hell up?’ Johnny Dwyer snarled at his brother as he sat on the couch in the living room of Ma’s mobile home. He rubbed his head.
‘Come on Ryan, what’s with the tears? You’re doing me head in.’
Sobbing noisily into his hands, Ryan’s whole body shook. ‘Can’t find them. Can’t find them.’
‘What can’t you find?’
‘Can’t find them.’
Leaping up, Johnny roughly pulled his brother’s hands away from his face. ‘Jesus Christ, Ryan, stop crying and just tell me.’
Ryan looked up, blinking away his tears. ‘Yeah? Tell Johnny?’
‘Yeah. I’m your brother, ain’t I? You don’t keep secrets from Johnny, unless you want to be in trouble. You wanna be in trouble?’
Panicked, Ryan shook his head. ‘… the kittens. Kittens have gone.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘My kittens ain’t there.’
Pressing his temples to try to stop his headache, Johnny snapped. ‘Then I’ll get you some more, just stop fucking crying.’
‘Don’t want more. Want my kittens.’
Ryan burst into tears again, which sent Johnny rushing back over to where his brother sat. He grabbed Ryan by his tracksuit top, dragging him up off the sofa and pulling him across to the mirror. He yelled, the veins on his temples, bulging out. ‘Look! Look! Look at you, Ryan! What do you see?’
Johnny and Ryan both stared into the mirror. Where one stopped the other one began. Even Johnny couldn’t see any differences. So startlingly similar. The same piercing blue eyes. The same thick, dark hair and the same handsome, chiselled face. But as Ryan cried, Johnny snarled and suddenly the difference appeared; the cold, hard cruelty in Johnny’s eyes.
‘I’ll tell you, shall I, Ryan? I’ll tell you what I see. I see a baby and not a grown man! That’s what you are Ryan, a baby!’
Ryan continued to sob as Johnny held and shook the back of his brother’s neck as he talked.
‘What did Ma always say to us? What did she say?’
‘No crying. No crying.’
‘That’s right, because we’re the Dwyer boys. We should never cry, and if one cries, Ma will make sure both of us cry, and after what you were going to do to me, I ain’t never going to cry for you no more.’
12
Wrapped up in a thick towelling dressing gown with his hair still wet, Vaughn Sadler stared with loathing at Lloyd Page who sat opposite him at Janine’s white kitchen table. He’d never liked the man in all the years he’d known him. He was a flash conman who happily served up heroin to kids, and certainly not someone he wanted to have dealings with. But it was beginning to dawn on him that Alfie and Franny might have given him no choice. And every fibre in his body hated them both for putting him in this position.
‘By heck Lola, that was some bacon sarnie, lass. Fancy coming round my gaff to be my cook.’
Lola grinned a gummy smile, basking in praise as she scraped the burnt remnants off the large frying pan. Like a schoolgirl, she giggled. ‘There’s more where that came from.’
‘I shouldn’t. But what the heck … Pile it on cocker, but I’m telling you Lola, if I cack me pants, I’m blaming you.’
This remark was followed by hooting laughter, which only served to further irritate Vaughn. The man was a prize prick.
Banging his fist hard on the table, Vaughn snapped at Lola. ‘When you’ve quite finished playing The Great British Bake Off, I’d appreciate it if I could talk to Lloyd in private.’
Lloyd glared at Vaughn. ‘Hold up, sunshine, there’s no need to talk to the lady like that. I think an apology is in order.’
Lola, feeling the tension between the two men, tried to placate. ‘Oh, don’t worry about it Lloyd, I’m not offended. I’ve known Vaughnie too long to get upset about him giving me the alligator. I’m used to him snapping. I take no notice.’
Lloyd Page’s blue eyes narrowed as his jaw visibly pulsated. He cracked his gold-sovereign-covered fingers as he leant forward, narrowly missing putting his elbow in the remains of the underdone fried egg. ‘You might not be offended pet, but that don’t mean I’m not. Manners maketh man in my book, so unless you apologise to Lola now, believe me Vaughn, it won’t be chuffing manners which’ll maketh you, it’ll be me.’
Vaughn leapt up, sending the dishes crashing everywhere. He grabbed hold of Lloyd’s black silk shirt, hearing it rip as he bellowed over the table, his rugged handsome face screwed up in anger as his thick silver hair flopped over his eyes. ‘Don’t come in my fucking house and try to give out orders.’
With a supercilious smile, Lloyd spoke dangerously evenly, not raising his voice at all.
‘But this ain’t your house, is it? From what I understand, you and Alf are a bit desperate at the moment, aren’t you? You should’ve seen the way he was begging me. It was shameful really.’
Still holding onto Lloyd’s shirt, Vaughn hissed in his face. ‘Alfie would never beg the likes of you.’
Lloyd’s tone was quietly menacing. ‘Are you sure about that? Desperate people do desperate things and I don’t think you’d want that getting out, otherwise people will be wondering how exactly you and Alf are going to take over Reggie Reynolds’ business … So that’s why you should be nice to me. You need me, Vaughn. So let’s start with you taking your hands off me, shall we?’
As Vaughn opened his mouth to tell Lloyd exactly what he thought of him, the kitchen door flung open.
The sight of Vaughn holding onto Lloyd stopped both Alfie and Janine in their tracks, but it was Janine who ran forward first, swiping Vaughn hard across his muscular back.
‘What the bleedin’ hell do you think you’re playing at? Let him go! We need him! Vaughn!’
Lloyd winked. ‘You best do what the lady says. At least someone has a bit of sense round here, eh Janine.’
Vaughn glared at Alfie, who was now dry from his dip in the pool and with fury running through him like the North winds. ‘You need to start talking, Alf. Otherwise I’m going to put him in the ground,’ he growled.
‘Look, Janine’s right, we do need him. This job I was talking about earlier, it was from Lloyd. We could do his job.’
Vaughn shook his head vehemently. ‘Oh no. No fucking way. I will not have anything to do with this fucking snake.’
Janine, munching on a king-size Mars bar, spoke angrily. ‘This ain’t the time to get choosy. Thanks to bleedin’ Alfie, it looks like you might not have a choice.’
Lloyd shrugged his shoulders in amusement. ‘That’s exactly what I tried to tell him, Jan.’
Going for a head-butt, Vaughn lurched forward but was pulled back by Alfie as Janine squawked shrilly at him in the background. ‘Vaughn, you ain’t listening, just swallow yer pride for once, like all of us have to.’
Dropping hold of Lloyd, Vaughn raged. His face taking on several different shades of red. ‘Alfie, you need to sort your missus out. Shut her up!’
Alfie, just as furious with Janine as Vaughn was, roared. He pointed at her, incensed. ‘Ex-missus! And believe me, over the years I’ve tried to get her to put a sock in it, but she ain’t stopped rabbiting from when I met her till now. My head’s done in! But she’s right, if we want to salvage this, we need to do this job.’ He stopped to glare at Lloyd, trying to calm down.
13
‘Give me a kiss then.’
Bree blushed, stifling a giggle. ‘And if I say no?’
‘Then I’ll love you anyway.’
Chewing her lip, Bree thought for a moment before standing on her tiptoes, quickly landing a large, gentle kiss. ‘There, happy now?’
‘Won’t be happy until you marry me, and don’t say we’re too young, say yes.’
Bree laughed but the sound of a door opening stopped her saying anything.
‘You better go, Bree. She won’t be happy if she finds you here.’
‘I hate this.’
‘I know, but once she gets to know you, she’ll love you … just like I do. It’ll take time, that’s all. Just give her a chance.’
‘I don’t think she’ll ever like me.’
‘She will. I promise. Now go on, get out of here … I’ll see you tomorrow.’
She waved goodbye, running happily towards her push bike, which she’d hidden in the bracken down by the stream. An overwhelming sense of joy came over her, something she’d never experienced before and something she’d certainly never had in her miserable childhood spent being passed from one foster home to another.
Humming quietly to herself, Bree’s thoughts came to an abrupt halt. Puzzled, she looked around. Damn, it wasn’t there. She must have left it further down the hill. The whole of the woods all looked the same.
She sighed, annoyed with herself for being so stupid, and quickly headed for the winding, muddy path. Although it was dusk, the track and the woods were still quite visible, but as she continued to walk, the darkness began to fall and the shadows of the trees twisted and distorted into monstrous shapes as the branches chattered and whispered in the autumn winds. She shivered.
A noise.
Another.
And Bree let out a scream as she spun round. ‘Oh my god, you gave me a fright … Are you alright?’
There in the darkness was Ma. Her bulbous figure standing motionless. Her stare, narrow and cold.
‘I warned you, Bree. I told you what would happen. You should’ve listened. But little bitches like you never do.’
Slowly, Bree began to back away as the wind picked up, then she started to run, heading into the dark of the woods.
It felt to Bree she was going around in circles. All the trees looked alike and all the paths seemed to be the same. Suddenly her foot caught on an ivy root, sending her forward, plunging her head first into the wet moss and mud. With her hands stinging from trying to break her fall and the rough earth digging into her skin, Bree desperately tried to keep quiet as she crawled along on her hands and knees.
A branch snapped beneath her leg, the sound resonating through the woods, and within seconds Ma Dwyer reappeared, pushing her body forcefully through the dense scrub to get to Bree, her hand reaching and grappling in the dark.
Bree began to scramble up but the mud was too wet and she found herself slipping. She turned to see Ma closing in on her, a maniacal look on her face, eyes wild and frenzied.
She screamed as she felt Ma grab her hair before she was flung backwards and dragged through the bushes. Her head felt like it was on fire, then a crippling pain exploded. Unbearable. Ripping through Bree’s eye as a small branch caught and tore into her lid. She could taste the blood trickling down her cheek and into her mouth as Ma continued to drag her along.
Out from under the trees, the moon high in the night sky, Ma stared at Bree, a nasty smile on her face. Then Ma’s fist came smashing down as her heavy body straddled Bree, banging her head against the ground.
‘You leave my son alone! You ain’t taking him from me. He’s mine!’
Her mouth full of blood, Bree gave a breathless, staggered reply. ‘I love him though! I love him!’
Ma let out a piercing, deafening scream. ‘You can’t love him, he ain’t yours to love! So, you shut your dirty mouth, you just shut your dirty mouth!’
Pushing herself upright, Ma raised her foot, ready to bring it down on Bree’s mouth.
‘Stop, Ma! Don’t!’
Ma turned to look at Johnny. ‘I won’t let her, Johnny. I won’t let her take anyone away from me.’
Johnny walked up to Ma, he spoke gently. ‘Don’t do it, Ma. Don’t hurt her. Bree ain’t done nothin’. She ain’t going to take no one away, is she?’
Ma looked down at Bree who was curled up in a ball. ‘Ain’t she?’
‘No, she ain’t … because nobody ever leaves Ma.’
14
‘How the fuck can you lose a lorry full of horses? Who does that?’ Eddie Styler raged, filling Johnny’s overheated Range Rover with his seething, uncontrollable anger as they sat overlooking the deserted beach at Sandy Point, Holland Haven. He was visibly shaking and he hadn’t slept one wink because every time he’d tried to close his eyes, Jason Robinson’s face flashed through his mind, though it certainly hadn’t helped that Sandra had insisted on grilling him like she was part of the secret police.
He hadn’t eaten either, partly due to the pain in his mouth which he’d sustained from the beating, but mainly because he felt sick. Sick at the idea that if he didn’t find the money to pay off the people he owed, he was a walking dead man. And not for the first time, he cursed the memory of Reginald Reynolds for leaving him with nothing after all his loyalty.
Ma sat at the back, her voice cold, a hint of amusement in it. ‘Eddie, you look terrible mate, are you sure you’re okay? You look like you need to see a quack.’
Hysteria coursed through Eddie. He screamed out his words as he bashed his fist on the dash over and over, in time with his words.
‘And … Why … Am … I … Not … Okay … Cos … Of … You … Two … Fucks.’
Ma Dwyer leant forward from the back, putting her hand on Eddie’s shoulder. ‘You better calm down before you do yourself a mischief. Not only that, but you better be careful how you talk to us.’
Scrambling in his pocket, Eddie pulled out a small gun, his hand trembling as he attempted to point it at Johnny and Ma. His face going purple with fury. ‘Have you forgotten who I am? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?’
Ma looked at him evenly, a small smile pulling at her lips. ‘Oh no, Eddie, I know exactly who I’m talking to, but right now I just don’t care.’
The gun shook in his hand as he spoke. ‘You think this is a joke? Do you realise what you’ve done to me? Do you know what I had riding on this? You need to find my fucking lorry, cos when they come looking for me, I’ll be sending them right to your door, Ma.’
