Toxic. Jacqui Rose

ball game. Why don’t you just duck out now while you can. Then once you get back on your feet you can do what you like.’

      ‘What about Reenie though? We can’t let this opportunity slip through our fingers. To own that business would put us right up there.’

      Lola smiled. ‘I know, darlin, but arrange to do another job. Call Franny again, go look for her, anything but this Vaughn. Playing with somebody else’s diamonds is only going to lead to trouble. Even Lloyd didn’t know about them, so whoever they do belong to, they obviously wanted to bring them into the country without anyone knowing, and now that their diamonds have disappeared, they’ll come looking, they probably are already. Stay well away from this, sweetheart.’

      ‘Hang on, hang on. Ain’t no one giving them back or staying away from them,’ Janine mumbled, her mouth full of a greasy cheeseburger. ‘We need this, Reenie ain’t going to wait, she’ll sell the business to someone else and we can’t let that happen.’

      Lola frowned. ‘Come on Janine, how can just Alfie and Vaughn take on the boys behind this. They’d be stupid to. It could be anyone. Russians. Eastern Europeans. Triads … Mafia.’

      Janine scoffed. ‘The Mafia! Do me a favour, Lola. You’re talking out of your bum hole.’

      ‘No, I bleedin’ ain’t. I don’t trust it and like I say, even Lloyd thought it was one thing but then it turned out to be another. They don’t need to be involved in this. There’ll be another job out there for them.’

      ‘Not like this there won’t.’

      ‘For starters, Janine, how are they going to get rid of them?’

      Oblivious to the ketchup running down her chin, Janine haughtily said, ‘Lola, they’ve been in the business long enough to know people.’

      Lola sighed, irritated at her attitude. ‘And they’ve been away, and people aren’t happy that they’re back. They’ll be watching them, so any move they make will draw attention. One phone call from Vaughnie or Alf trying to sell this lot and every single crime family from here to the Costa will know about it, which means the people who own them will find out too.’

      ‘When did they make you their bleedin’ keeper?’

      ‘And when did they make you someone that doesn’t give a shit about her friends … Actually, don’t answer that, Janine. But there’s no way they should be touching them. It’s like playing with fire.’

      Vaughn nodded. ‘Unfortunately, as much as it would be sweet and solve all our problems, I have to agree with you, Lola. We’d be mugs to go near them.’

      Alfie, who’d been sitting silently, looked across and smiled at Lola. She was a cracking old bird. Fiercely loyal and always looking out for both him and Vaughn. He’d known her for years and they’d never really fallen out, mainly because he always seemed to agree with her. She spoke sense … but not on this. This was different and sometimes, just sometimes, the only thing to do was play with fire.