Running Scared, page 11
It was difficult to see much in the dull orange glow of the few street lamps that were actually working, but it was clear from the odour of dog shit in the air, the broken glass glittering on the concrete, and the bags spilling out of the bin cupboards, that the area hadn’t improved since she’d left. Switching her gaze to the flats, which were more brightly illuminated, she felt the prick of tears behind her eyes when she picked out her old front door. It had been green when she’d lived there and was now red, but everything else still looked the same, and she felt a physical pain in her heart when she visualized her mum coming out through the door wearing her old blue work coat.
‘’Scuse me, love.’
Lexi snapped her head round at the sound of the voice, and murmured, ‘Sorry,’ when she saw a tall thin man in a tracksuit and a baseball cap pushing a stroller in which a young child was sleeping.
The man nodded his thanks when she stepped aside to let him pass. But he’d only taken a couple of steps before he stopped and looked back. Thinking that he’d probably noticed she was close to tears and was going to ask if she was OK, Lexi started to walk away, but froze when he spoke her name.
‘Sorry, do I know you?’ she asked, turning back and peering at his face.
‘It’s Jamie,’ he said. ‘Jamie Holland.’
‘What?’ Her mouth fell open in shock. ‘No way!’
‘You remember me?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘Oh, wow, I don’t believe this.’ He grinned from ear to ear. ‘I never forgot you, but I totally thought you’d have forgotten me.’
‘Never,’ Lexi said, staring at him in disbelief. ‘But when did you get so tall? You were only up to my shoulder last time I saw you.’
‘I shot up just before I started high school. Which was kind of cool, ’cos it made people think twice about trying to bully me.’
‘Glad to hear it. You were a sweet kid and I used to really worry about you.’
‘You were the only one who ever did,’ Jamie said quietly. Then, looking embarrassed, he shuffled his feet and said, ‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard what had happened to your mam. I tried to talk to you when they were putting you in the ambulance, but you were out of it.’
‘They reckoned I’d gone into shock,’ Lexi said, remembering nothing of that day. ‘But let’s not talk about that, eh? Tell me about this little one.’ She nodded at the sleeping child. ‘Boy or girl?’
‘Girl,’ Jamie said proudly. ‘Her name’s Poppy. She’s a terror for wanting to play at night, but she goes out like a light if I take her for a walk in her buggy.’
‘Bless her.’ Lexi smiled. ‘She’s beautiful. And who’s her mum? Anyone I’d know?’
‘I don’t think you ever met her, but do you remember that mad woman off the sixth floor?’
‘The one who used to do yoga in the rain at the back?’ Lexi asked, frowning when she remembered that the woman had looked older than her mum, which meant she must be in her fifties or sixties by now. ‘Aren’t you a bit young for her?’ Grimacing as soon as the words left her mouth, she said, ‘I’m so sorry, that was really rude – and none of my business.’
‘I’m not with her,’ Jamie laughed. ‘I’m with her daughter, Jenny. You probably wouldn’t have seen her ’cos Sandra didn’t let her out much. She was a bit eccentric, but she was proper protective of Jen.’
‘So are you and Jenny living with her, or have you got your own place?’
‘I moved in with them when me and Jen first got together, but San died last year so we took over the tenancy.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Lexi said, touching his arm. ‘And how’s your mum doing?’
‘Couldn’t tell you.’ He shrugged. ‘Haven’t seen her in years – and couldn’t care less if I ever do again. She got hooked on crack and went on the game, and I’m not having that shit round my girls.’
‘Good for you,’ Lexi said, glad that he’d taken the opposite path in life to his neglectful mother.
‘Hey, if you’re not in a rush, why don’t you come up and meet Jen?’ Jamie suggested. ‘She’s heard me talking about you loads over the years, and I know she’d love to meet you.’
Unsure if she could face stepping foot inside the block with all the memories it still held, Lexi said, ‘Maybe another time. I’ve got work in the morning, and I’m worried I won’t wake up if I don’t get home soon.’
‘No problem,’ Jamie said. ‘It’s been great seeing you again.’
‘You too,’ Lexi said, giving him a hug. ‘And your daughter’s a lucky girl to have a daddy like you.’
‘I do my best,’ he said modestly. ‘Can I, um, get your number? I won’t pester you, or nothing, but I’d like to stay in touch – if that’s OK?’
‘Yeah, sure,’ Lexi said, making a show of rooting through her bag. ‘Oh damn, I must have left my phone at home, and I don’t know my number off by heart. Tell you what, why don’t you give me yours instead?’ She took out a scrap of paper and a pen and handed them to him.
Thanking him when he’d scribbled his number down, Lexi hugged him again, and said goodbye, then watched as he pushed the pram on up the path, looking back and smiling every few steps. When he’d disappeared through the main door of the flats, she turned and walked away. As lovely as he’d undoubtedly turned out to be, she had already decided that she would never contact him. He was the third person she had met from her old life tonight, and if the shambolic ending to her catch-up with Nicole had taught her anything, it was that the past was best left well behind her.
15
Still pissed off with Nicole for going off on him in front of Lexi, Ryan slammed the door of his Range Rover harder than he’d intended to after pulling into the car park of The Danski, the seedy lap-dancing club his brother-in-law had bought the previous year, which was situated on a weed-infested lot surrounded by derelict warehouses in the bog-end of Cheetham Hill. Hissing a curse through his teeth when the door bounced open again and he saw that the clasp of his seat belt was dangling out and had made a dent in the metal, he closed it properly and then locked it before strolling to the door of the club.
He greeted the bouncer with a nod when the door clicked open, and said, ‘Where is he?’
‘In the back,’ the man said, his slight eye-roll letting Ryan know that Adam was being his usual loud, obnoxious self.
The throbbing bass of the music coming from the club room vibrated the sticky floor beneath Ryan’s feet as he walked along the red-lighted corridor, and he wrinkled his nose in disgust at the combined odours of sweat and smoke that seemed to ooze out of the peeling flock wallpaper. He knew exactly why Nicole hated him coming here at night, but if she thought for one minute that he’d be turned on by the sights that would greet him when he opened the next door, she was crazy. Unlike her brother, who, along with his so-called posse, spent most of his nights here getting high on coke, cheap pussy, and the even cheaper house-fizz the club passed off as champagne, Ryan had no interest in that scene whatsoever.
The main room was packed and Ryan had to push his way through the leering, mostly middle-aged men who were crowded around a circular stage in the centre of the floor, on which two naked, dead-eyed women were listlessly gyrating around a pole. The tables and private booths were located at the rear of the room, and he headed toward them when he heard Adam’s raucous laughter ringing out above the music. As he got closer, he clocked the source of the man’s amusement: a grossly overweight woman bouncing up and down on another man’s lap; her enormous breasts smashing into his face with every movement.
One of the other men at the table spotted him and alerted Adam, who immediately turned his head, spraying sweat in an arc as he did so. Booming, ‘About fuckin’ time,’ he rose to his feet.
Motioning him away from the table with a jerk of his head, Ryan took the envelope out of his pocket.
Adam snatched it out of his hand. ‘Where’s the rest?’ he demanded after flipping through the banknotes it contained.
‘Another shipment went missing,’ Ryan told him. ‘Your dad told me to cut your share till we get back on track.’
‘So you cocked up again and I’ve got to suffer?’ Adam scowled. ‘Fuck that!’
‘If you don’t like it, take it up with your dad.’ Ryan shrugged.
‘Don’t get cocky,’ Adam snarled, jabbing a finger into Ryan’s chest. ‘You might think you’re special, but you ain’t shit. I’m his son, not you, and when I get what’s mine, I’ll put you back in the gutter as fast as he dragged you out of it.’
‘Whatever,’ Ryan said, batting Adam’s hand aside when the man went to jab him again.
‘Hey there, handsome,’ a topless girl cooed, appearing at Ryan’s side and giving him a sultry look. ‘Looking for a dance?’
‘Do one, bitch,’ Adam barked, shoving her so hard she fell back against a table. ‘In fact, get the fuck outta here,’ he yelled as she slunk away. ‘You’re sacked!’
‘Way to treat your staff,’ Ryan said sarcastically. ‘And you wonder why Danny didn’t put you in charge when he went to Spain. You’re a fuckin’ liability, man.’
‘Says the prick who crawled so far up my dad’s arse he came out the colour of shit,’ Adam shot back. Impressed by his off-the-cuff joke, he turned to see if his boys had heard it. ‘Did youse catch that? Crawled so far up my dad’s arse, he came out the colour of shit.’
Some of the men started laughing but quickly stopped when Ryan glared at them. Angered that they were bowing down to the jumped-up prick, Adam curled his lip and flapped a dismissive hand at him, saying, ‘Off you go, boy. I’m done with you.’
‘See you next time,’ Ryan said, smiling slyly as he added, ‘If you’re still here, that is.’
‘Meaning?’ Adam scowled.
‘Take a look around you,’ Ryan said, casting his own gaze around the room. ‘This place is heaving and you should be raking it in hand over fist, and yet you still need your allowance from Daddy to keep things ticking over. That tells me you’re either putting the profits up your nose, or someone’s on the take. Either way, you’d best get it sorted before you prove how much of a fuck-up you really are.’
Chest heaving, sweat dripping into his eyes, Adam bared his teeth and thrust his face into Ryan’s. ‘You’d best learn your place and start showing me the respect I deserve before I tell my sister what her precious husband gets up to behind her back.’
‘And what would that be?’ Ryan challenged, confident that the prick had nothing on him.
‘Coming round here propositioning my girls and trying to get freebies,’ Adam said, giving a snake-like grin. ‘Bet she’d love that, wouldn’t she?’
‘Nice try,’ Ryan smiled unconcernedly. ‘But she’d never believe that for one minute.’
‘If I send one of them round to tell her all about it in person, she would,’ said Adam. ‘And maybe I’ll word my dad up while I’m at it; see how long it takes for him to put a bullet through your head.’
Leaning closer, Ryan lowered his voice and said, ‘I’d quit with the threats, if I was you, boy. Unless you want your dad to find out where that five extra grand you asked for the other month to clear your debts really went?’
Twitching with rage when Ryan patted his cheek and then walked away, Adam barged past the customers who were standing around and marched into his office, slamming and locking the door behind him.
Nodding goodnight to the doorman, Ryan climbed into his car and slammed his fist down on the steering wheel. Adam had always been a prick, but at least he’d been a semi-bearable prick before his folks went into hiding. Once they were gone, the rot had set in, and Adam’s true colours had come out with a vengeance. Furious that Danny had put Ryan in charge instead of him, he’d morphed into a self-pitying weasel who thought the world owed him a living. Ryan despised him. Fortunately, unlike Rachel, who was still in denial about her son’s less savoury habits and would defend him to the moon and back, Danny had little time for him and was unlikely to pay any heed if he tried to feed him that bullshit story about Ryan propositioning his girls. But if Adam played on Nicole’s paranoia and planted that seed in her mind, she’d start watching him like a hawk – and that could make things very tricky.
Aware that he’d left things on a sour note with her earlier, he decided to stop off at a garage and pick up some flowers and chocolates. It was a cheap fix for a much deeper problem, but it was exactly the kind of superficial show of affection Nicole liked and he hoped it would smooth things over. Until the next time.
Rachel Harvey sipped her cocktail and gazed out over the Mediterranean Sea. She could see the lights and hear the party music pumping out from the nightclubs further along the Golden Mile, but Jackie’s – the tiny bar outside which she was sitting – only ever played country and western music, because that was what the older ex-pat criminals who congregated here seemed to prefer.
Danny loved the place, and she could hear him now, cracking jokes with his buddies and spouting shit about how bad things were back home without real geezers like them, with brains and brawn, to keep things running smoothly. The bastards bored the crap out of her – their wives even more so; and she resented that Danny made her come here instead of taking her to one of the more fashionable places. But he hated the hustle and bustle of Marbella Town, so she got her own back by going on solo shopping sprees during the day while he was sleeping; treating herself to expensive facials and manicures and flirting with the hot young waiters.
Making a mental note to book herself into Marianne’s – the ludicrously expensive clinic where all the ex-pat wives got their Botox and fillers – in the morning, she was about to head inside to get another drink when her phone started ringing, and she smiled when she saw Adam’s name on the screen.
‘Hello, son . . . how are y—’
‘Where’s Dad?’ Adam cut in. ‘I’ve been trying to get hold of him but he’s not answering.’
‘Busy playing Al Capone, as usual,’ Rachel sneered, fanning her face with her hand. ‘Anything I can do?’
‘Yeah, you can tell him to get his lapdog under control,’ Adam hissed. ‘I’m sick of the prick trying to lord it over me.’
‘What’s he done now?’
‘He’s dropped this month’s money off and there was less than usual again. When I asked where the rest was, he said Dad told him to cut my share.’
‘I see,’ Rachel murmured, flashing a glance at her husband through the open door of the bar.
‘It’s not on, Mum. He bangs on about the family sticking together no matter what, but where’s his loyalty when it come to me? I’m his son, and it should be me running things, not that cunt.’
‘Darling, you know why he left Ryan in charge. But things will change when we get back, I promise.’
‘It needs to change now,’ Adam said petulantly. ‘I know I fucked up a few times in the past, and I’m working my arse off to turn things around and make a success of the club; but it’s gonna take time and money to get it back on its feet.’
‘I know you’re doing your best, but I told you from the start I had a bad feeling about that place,’ Rachel said. ‘And if you still need handouts to stay afloat, I was obviously right.’
‘Handouts?’ Adam squawked. ‘What the actual fuck, Mum? Nic gets whatever she asks for without doing jack shit, but I’m expected to grovel for my rightful share? It’s a fucking joke!’
‘You know I didn’t mean it like that,’ Rachel sighed. ‘But that place is a money pit, and you can’t keep throwing good cash after bad and expect to come up smelling of roses. If you want your dad to take you seriously, you need to stop messing about and show him you’re capable of running the business at a profit.’
‘Like Ryan, you mean?’
‘I don’t like this any more than you do, but if you don’t step up your game and prove you can be trusted, your dad will never let you take over.’
‘I don’t need to prove a damn thing,’ Adam shot back angrily. ‘And they’d all best start watching their backs, ’cos I’m sick of being taken for a mug.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ Rachel asked. ‘Adam? Adam!’
Tutting when she realized the line had gone dead, Rachel breathed in deeply as she stared at the blank screen. She understood why her son was frustrated about Danny handing the reins over to Ryan instead of him: it must have felt like the ultimate slap in the face for his father to choose an outsider over his own son. Danny insisted that he’d done it for Adam’s own good, claiming that the gangsters they did business with would chop the boy into a thousand pieces if they ever got wind of the ridiculous accusations of sexual abuse that had been levelled against him in the past. Whatever his reasons, he could easily have left one of the older guys in charge instead of handing it to Ryan. But Danny was a law unto himself when it came to business. It was his way or no way – and to hell with what anyone thought about it.
‘Ray, you out here?’
Gritting her teeth at the sound of her husband calling her by the shortened version of her name – an irritating habit he had picked up from one of his cockney bank-robber buddies – Rachel slotted her phone back into her bag and stood up. Adam had clearly been drunk, so she wasn’t going to pay too much mind to what he’d said before cutting the call. But he was right about one thing: if Danny could fund his daughter’s extravagant lifestyle, kit his son-in-law out with a top-of-the-range motor and treat his new buddies to beers and cigars every night, then he could flaming well see to it that his son got his fair share.
Nicole was curled up in bed when Ryan arrived home, and he could see in the glow of the light from the landing that her eyes were swollen. Guessing that she had cried herself to sleep, he gently touched her shoulder.
