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.’
‘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.’
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.