The Reckoning (Carter Brothers), page 14
That woman had been Bethany Johnson. Even thinking about her one-time adversary made Stacey’s heart beat faster and her palms feel clammy. She’d once regarded Bethany as a friend; the reality, though, had been very different. Bethany hadn’t wanted her friendship, she’d only used her as a way to get to Tommy, and although Tommy had sworn blind that nothing had ever happened between them, she would never know for sure if he’d been telling the truth or not. At the time, she’d had no other choice but to believe her husband; they already had their daughter Karen at this point, and Stacey had been pregnant with their second child. They had been a family. Was she supposed to just roll over and let her so-called friend decimate her entire world, break up her little family and steal her husband from under her nose without putting up a fight? No, she’d fought back, all right, and after a brief separation, she had decided to give Tommy the benefit of the doubt on the one condition that he never saw or spoke to Bethany again, and to the best of her knowledge, he hadn’t.
‘No, this isn’t about yesterday,’ Stacey said, careful to keep any hostility from her voice. ‘I just wanted to ask you something, it won’t take long.’
Pulling herself up to her full height, Maria resisted the urge to sigh. She was sure it couldn’t be anything of importance; it wasn’t as though Stacey had much of a life other than running around after her family and, let’s face it, there were plenty of them to keep her occupied. Not only did she have kids of her own, but she was also a grandmother and that was without her brothers-in-law, how many of those were there, four, five, maybe even more, who knew? Besides, the quicker she got it over and done with, she supposed, the better it would be; she was already losing out on valuable time when she could have been shoving the wedding magazines under Danny’s nose and forcing him to choose a date.
‘And please be honest with me because I really don’t want to have to take this to Danny, he’s under a lot of stress as it is.’
Her ears pricking up at the mention of her fiancé’s name, Maria leant slightly forward, her forehead furrowed. The bastard; she’d been right after all, Danny had sought Stacey out for advice regarding their relationship. Had it been Stacey who’d advised him to back off?
‘How do you know Joey Mann?’
Maria’s mouth fell open. Of all the questions she’d been expecting, she could safely say that this wasn’t one of them.
A light tapping at the office door made Danny look up. ‘You okay, mate?’ he asked, leaning back in his chair.
Jimmy nodded and, making his way inside, he pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘Stace is downstairs, she’s just having a quick word with Maria, wedding talk probably,’ he said with a laugh, gauging Danny’s reaction. If he suspected his fiancée was involved in Lexi’s shooting, he sure wasn’t showing any signs of it.
Danny’s gaze snapped towards the door, his hand automatically reaching up to smooth down his hair.
‘So.’ Puffing out his cheeks, Jimmy looked around him. ‘Any updates on Gerry Mann?’
‘Nah, nothing,’ Danny answered, steepling his fingers in front of him. ‘Last night, you mentioned a son?’ he asked with a flick of his head.
‘Joey,’ Jimmy confirmed once again, watching Danny’s reaction closely, ‘hangs around with another one of the Christos family, Carlos.’
‘Never heard of either of them.’ Screwing up his face, Danny rested his chin on his locked fingers and thought the situation through. ‘Still doesn’t explain how the gun got inside the club, though, does it?’
Jimmy shook his head, his heart sinking. He’d been right, after all; Danny knew nothing about Maria and Joey’s little escapade. ‘It has to have been an inside job,’ he said with a shrug, ‘someone in cahoots with Gerry, there’s no other explanation for it.’
‘That’s what I’m thinking,’ Danny sighed. His thoughts immediately turned to Aaron. The burning question was: how would Moray’s son have become involved with Gerry in the first place? What was the connection between the two? Aaron had been banged up for the majority of his adult life, so how had they even met? Had they been introduced to one another by a third party? Had Aaron actively sought Gerry out? And how had Aaron even known about Adam Christos? He highly doubted that Moray would have told his son about the murder they’d committed as kids.
The list of scenarios was endless, he supposed, and in the grand scheme of things, unimportant. The only thing that mattered was that he had a chat with Aaron and pronto. His thoughts wandered to Moray and he glanced towards the door; in any normal circumstances, he and Moray would never have been at loggerheads. In all the years they had known one another, they’d rarely, if ever, fallen out; their friendship had been solid. He’d even thought of Moray as the brother he’d never had. The shooting had divided them, and he could sense the tension and animosity between them growing in intensity by the day. As angry as he was, he couldn’t help but feel depressed.
‘We’ll keep our ears and eyes out,’ Jimmy said, looking over his shoulder, wondering for the umpteenth time what was taking Stacey so long. Sucking in his bottom lip, he tapped out a rhythm on his thigh. He needed to say something about Maria’s connection to the Mann family, the question was: how? How was he supposed to tell Danny that he suspected his fiancée was somehow involved in the shooting? Knowing Danny, he’d go off on one, that famous temper of his would erupt and who could blame him? It wasn’t as though he was accusing Maria of having her hand in the till, they were talking about an attempt on Lexi’s life.
Maria’s body bristled, and as a sliver of ice-cold fear ran down the length of her spine, it took every ounce of her willpower not to pull back her fist and smash Stacey to the floor. She was sick to death of seeing her smug face everywhere she turned. How had she even found out about her and Joey? It wasn’t as though she’d broadcast the fact that she knew him. She’d always been careful whenever she’d met up with him or his father, telling Danny that she was meeting up with an old school friend. She’d even gone as far as to say that the friend was housebound.
A sickening thought sprang to her mind, and she felt the colour slip from her face. Had Stacey somehow found out that it had been her who’d planted the gun? Or maybe she’d somehow found out that she’d been to bed with Gerry? No, she couldn’t have; surely Gerry wouldn’t have said anything? He knew when to keep schtum, and there was no way he would want the plan to be ripped wide apart before Moray and Danny were even dead. Could it have been Joey? He wasn’t stupid and was bound to have guessed that she’d slept with his father – the fact she’d reeked of sex and that her hair looked as though she’d only just tumbled out of bed had been a dead giveaway. Maybe it was a case of jealousy; maybe Joey had wanted her more than she’d thought, and this was his revenge. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said, feigning confusion. ‘I don’t know anyone called Joey.’
Stacey ran her tongue over her teeth and raised her eyebrows. Oh, Maria was good, all right; if she hadn’t have known better, she would have believed her. No wonder Danny had been so taken in by her; her act was faultless, Oscar worthy in fact. ‘You were seen with him.’
Biting down on her lip, Maria pretended to think Stacey’s words over, all the while, her mind going into overdrive. She and Joey must have been spotted when they had met up for a drink in a little wine bar near Hornchurch, to discuss the finer points of getting information from Danny. The burning question was: who’d seen them? She couldn’t remember anyone coming over to say hello; in fact, she was pretty certain that no one had approached them. From what she could remember, the bar had been practically deserted. ‘Joey,’ she said rolling the name around her tongue. ‘Oh, of course.’ She slapped the palm of her hand across her forehead and attempted to giggle, the high-pitched cackle sounding false even to her own ears. ‘I do know a Joey; it completely slipped my mind, he’s an old friend of the family, that’s all.’
Stacey’s eyes narrowed into slits; convenient, she thought to herself. Moments earlier Maria hadn’t even known a Joey, and now, all of a sudden, he was an old family friend. Surely you wouldn’t have forgotten something like that in a hurry.
‘Do you know what, I’ve just remembered that I have a hairdresser’s appointment.’ Maria glanced at her wristwatch, then made a show of fluffing out her hair, the bridal magazines tucked under her arm suddenly heavy. ‘Would you tell Danny that I’ll pop back later when he’s less busy?’
‘Of course,’ Stacey answered.
Stacey's eyebrows rose a fraction as she watched Maria walk back across the dance floor. As if Maria had a hairdresser’s appointment. It didn’t take a genius to suss out that it was a lie, and not a very good one at that. Maria knew she’d been caught out, that was the problem, she just didn’t want to stick around and face the music once her fiancé found out what she’d been getting up to behind his back.
Stacey turned on her heels and made her way up the stairs towards Danny's office.
As Stacey entered the office, Danny sat up a little straighter and gave a warm smile that lit up his face. ‘Hello, Stace.’
Returning his smile, Stacey placed her handbag on the floor, then took a seat. ‘Maria said that she would pop back later when you’re less busy, she said she has a hair appointment.’
Danny looked towards the door; he’d been so preoccupied with seeing Stacey that he hadn’t even given his fiancée a second thought. There and then, a pang of guilt hit him, and he cleared his throat in a bid to hide the shame that rippled through his body. He shouldn’t have been having fanciful thoughts about his friend’s widow, he was an engaged man. Maria should have been his priority, his only train of thought. Truth was, every time he thought about their upcoming nuptials, he was filled with dread.
He’d have to have it out with Maria, lay his cards on the table and be honest with her, that they didn’t have a future, that the relationship wasn’t working, at least on his part, anyway. And if that made him come across as a complete and utter bastard, then so be it, he couldn’t help how he felt, he couldn’t force himself to feel something that wasn’t there any more. His feelings had shifted; he couldn’t be doing with the drama or the theatrics, let alone the temper tantrums. He was too old for all that shit. All he wanted was to settle down and live a quiet life.
After what had happened to Lexi, he knew that she and Logan would always come first, and now that Maria had more than made her feelings clear about them, he knew for a fact that he didn't want to go through with the marriage. Perhaps Moray had been right, after all. He’d powered full steam ahead without even getting to know Maria properly first. Theirs had been more than just a whirlwind romance, it had been more like a tornado that had picked up speed so fast he’d barely had the time to breathe, let alone think. He hadn’t even met her family or friends, and it was only now that it had started to bother him. What exactly was she trying to hide from him?
‘We were just discussing Gerry Mann,’ Jimmy said, with a raise of his eyebrows.
Taking the hint on board, Stacey nodded and, as she glanced across to Danny, her mind was in turmoil. As much as she knew Maria wasn’t good enough for him, she had to be honest and admit that it was plain and simple jealousy spurring her on. Danny was obviously besotted with his fiancée, he had to be, to want to marry her so soon into their relationship. As much as it pained her, Stacey knew what she had to do. She couldn’t set out to try to destroy his and Maria’s relationship, to do so would make her as bad as Bethany, and she wasn’t that type of woman, never had been.
‘I asked Maria if she’d heard of Gerry and his son and she said no.’ Ignoring the look of confusion that filtered across her brother-in-law’s face, Stacey swiftly changed the subject, eager to get back on to neutral territory, even if that meant she would always regret not telling Danny that she had more than just a few doubts about the woman he planned to marry.
13
Gathered in the lounge of Gerry’s home, Joey was raging. Even Carlos’s attempts to calm him down were fruitless and he batted his friend away from him as though he were a mere fly, which, considering Carlos’s muscular bulk, was no mean feat. Someone had seen him and Maria together; question was: who? He’d only met up with her the one time to run through the plan and then it had only been for an hour, two at the most. He racked his brain as he tried to think back. Who could have seen them?
‘I told her you were an old family friend.’ Maria pouted. ‘I don’t think she believed me, though.’
‘Who’s she?’ Joey demanded.
Maria’s lips curled down at the corners. ‘Stacey fucking Carter! Everywhere I turn,’ she complained, ‘she’s there, sticking her nose into mine and Danny’s relationship. Anyone would think she wants him for herself, the way she’s carrying on.’ As soon as the words left her mouth, Maria sat bolt upright and a laugh escaped from her lips. How could she have been so stupid, so blind, to have not seen what was going on right under her nose? Stacey wanted Danny, that was what this was all about. Stacey Carter, the sad bitch that she was, wanted her man; as if Danny would even look twice at the old cow. The fact Stacey was not only a beautiful woman but also nearer to Danny’s age was conveniently wiped from Maria’s mind.
‘Carter?’ Joey’s eyebrows were knotted together as he repeated back the name and he shot a glance in his father’s direction.
‘That’s right.’ Maria nodded, her gaze tick-tocking between father and son. ‘Why?’
Joey clicked his fingers. ‘Jonny Carter,’ he said, stabbing his forefinger forward, ‘I remember seeing him at the wine bar. I didn’t think he’d clocked us; he practically had his tongue down the barmaid’s throat pretty much the whole time we were there.’
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Gerry berated his son, ‘why weren’t you more careful? If you’ve fucked up the plan, I’ll throttle you with my bare hands.’ Despite his bravado, worry edged its way down the length of Gerry’s spine. All these years later and he could still recall the pounding he’d received from Tommy, the eldest of the Carter brothers. He’d been a fool to even think he could take the man on, let alone think it was a good idea to actually go through with it. The Carters were a boxing family, he knew this and should have known well enough to steer clear; by then, though, he’d been well on his way to being as pissed as a fart. So pissed, in fact, that he’d continued to goad Tommy, even when he’d been told more than once to wind his neck in and lay off. But no, Gerry had carried on regardless.
It was the drink, not forgetting the coke that he’d been snorting all day, every day, that had made him feel invincible. He’d actually believed that he could take the Carters on and win, all six of them, and at the same time, no less, he’d actually believed he could take on the entire world. It wasn’t until Tommy’s fists were flying towards him that he’d realised his mistake, that he understood exactly why Tommy had been fast on his way to making it as a professional boxer before hanging up his gloves and making a name for himself in the criminal underworld. Only, by then, it was too late to back down, at least not without becoming a laughing stock in front of the entire pub first.
There had been a lot of strength behind the punches; they’d swung towards him so hard and so fast that he hadn’t even had the chance to bring his hands up to his head to protect himself. Within a matter of minutes, it had been over, and as he lay in a crumpled heap on the pavement, Tommy had stepped over him. Fitter and younger than Gerry, it was no surprise that he’d barely even broken out in a sweat, and if that wasn’t bad enough, as he’d made his way back into the boozer surrounded by his brothers, he’d laughed, a huge belly laugh that Gerry could still hear if he concentrated hard enough. As he’d staggered to his feet, Gerry had never felt more humiliated. Ever since then, he’d made it his mission to steer clear of the Carter family; the last thing he wanted was a repeat performance, his ego wouldn’t be able to survive a second beating.
‘So what’s the plan, what do we do about this?’ Carlos asked.
‘We do him,’ Joey answered, cracking his knuckles. ‘I’ve never liked the prick; all he ever does is swan around giving it the big I am. The wanker thinks he’s something special, some kind of tough man. Nah, trust me, without his brothers around to back him up, he’s fuck all, never has been.’ It was a lie, of course, deep down they all knew that Jonny Carter was as capable of looking after himself as his elder brothers were.
Shaking his head, Gerry held up his finger. ‘The minute you lay a hand on him, you’ll have the rest of the Carter clan on the doorstep. Is that what you want? Ain’t we got enough to worry about without going to war with them as well?’
‘The Carters have had their day.’ Joey laughed. ‘They’re fuck all for us to worry about.’
Gerry raised his eyebrows. Even with Tommy and one of the other brothers out of the picture, there were still enough Carters left to cause some serious ructions, and that was without the younger generation who were stepping up to the plate and making names for themselves in their own right. ‘Don’t touch him,’ Gerry reaffirmed. ‘We stick to the plan, concentrate our time and energy on destroying Garner and McKay.’
Joey gave an annoyed sigh. ‘Whatever you say, Dad,’ he said, giving Carlos a surreptitious wink. He would have his day with Jonny Carter if it was the last thing he ever did.
‘What was that all about?’ Jimmy was livid and, tugging on Stacey’s arm, he forced her to come to a halt beside him.
Yanking her arm free, Stacey turned her face away, not answering.
‘What the fuck is going on, Stace?’ Jimmy bellowed, stabbing his finger towards the club. ‘We were meant to have told him what was going down. God only knows what Maria is plotting. It could be Danny they go after next; he’s a sitting duck, has that thought even crossed your mind?’
