Tangled Lives

by Stephanie Harte

  Nothing had happened between Alfie and I apart from on that one occasion, but I still felt obliged to let him down gently. I had to make my feelings clear, but it was going to be an awkward conversation for both of us. I thought about sending him a text, to spare myself from having to deliver the news in person. Alfie wasn’t going to take my rejection well, and he wasn’t the type of man you wanted to piss off intentionally. But I had to put a stop to this situation sooner rather than later. There was no point in prolonging the inevitable.

  I was scared Nathan might think something was going on between us again. We’d been spending so much time together recently while Nathan was working. Alfie knew my husband could be insanely jealous at times, especially where he was concerned. It was obvious he wanted to plant the seed of doubt in Nathan’s mind. His behaviour was so transparent. It wasn’t going to be a difficult thing to do. Alfie and I had history, didn’t we?

  42

  Alfie

  I had agreed to be the Albanians’ supplier on the condition that they didn’t sell the drugs near my territory. They were a force to be reckoned with, so it was better to have them onside. Zamir’s gang made the Krays look like choirboys.

  ‘If you know what’s good for you, you won’t ask questions.’ I handed Nathan a revolver. ‘We need to be tooled up for this job in case we have to hand out a beating.’

  Although he wouldn’t have been my first choice, Nathan was helping to provide extra muscle when I went to deliver the shipment of cocaine. The stakes were raised on this job, so I needed extra backup.

  The Mercedes pulled into the dimly lit alleyway and stopped outside unit twenty-two just before midnight. Knuckles, Nathan and I stepped out of the car. Knuckles walked around to the back and took a large black holdall out of the boot, then I led the way, being careful where I stepped. The alleyway was littered with debris and showed visible signs of drug use. Discarded needles and other drug paraphernalia lined our path to the lock-up door.

  I rapped on the shabby paintwork with the back of my hand, and almost instantly, the door opened. Zamir, Esad and Dren were sitting at the table in the centre of the warehouse surrounded by a large group of men.

  ‘Come in,’ Zamir said, beckoning us with a wave of his hand to join them.

  Knuckles placed the bag down on the table in front of Zamir. His eyes lit up at the sight of it. Wasting no time, he unzipped the holdall and took out a polythene-wrapped block. He ran his weathered hands over the plastic, inspecting the merchandise closely, before turning away from me. Zamir began talking to Esad and Dren in Albanian. I drummed my fingers on the table, and after a few moments, I interrupted their discussion.

  ‘I hate to break up your mothers’ meeting, but I’m sure you can appreciate it’s very late, and I didn’t come here for a social visit.’ I wasn’t used to being messed around and was frustrated by the delay.

  Zamir finally turned his attention back to me. I was less than impressed at being excluded from the conversation. I knew it would be impossible to misread the look on my face. Zamir was a fool if he thought he could continue to treat me with such little respect. His consistent rudeness was beyond belief. The atmosphere in the room was already tense and awkward, but the meeting turned decidedly hostile when Esad, fixed me with his beady eyes and tried to haggle over the price. What a fucking liberty.

  I had put up with enough of the gang’s nonsense for one night, so I told the men I was going to walk away from the deal. Dren pushed his chair back and suddenly stood up. We locked eyes; then he calmly pulled a gun on me. I couldn’t help wondering if the business at the club the other night had been a setup. Had we been deliberately led into an ambush by rival gang members?

  Knuckles was surprisingly agile for such a large man. In the blink of an eye, he pulled a short link chain out of his jacket pocket, and in one smooth movement, he stepped behind Dren, wrapped the chain around his neck and began choking him. ‘Drop the gun, you fucker.’

  Dren’s beady eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head. He threw down his weapon and started clawing at his throat. Knuckles loosened the chain a small amount to allow the man to catch his breath, but not so much that he could cause any more trouble. Dren’s breath caught in his chest when Knuckles released his hold.

  ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Alfie. Now that you’ve laid your hands on Dren, blood must be paid for with blood,’ Zamir said. ‘It’s one of our deep-rooted customs.’

  I shook my head slowly, unable to believe what I’d just heard. Dren pulled a gun on me, so Knuckles was acting in self-defence. Who did Zamir think he was, threatening a Watson? The man must have a serious death wish.

  ‘I’d forget that idea if I were you unless you want to leave here in an ambulance or better still an undertaker’s hearse,’ I replied.

  After a tense silence, Zamir began to speak. ‘My street dealers tell me the price punters are willing to pay for coke has dropped.’ Zamir looked over his shoulder and pointed to the dial-a-drug army standing behind him.

  ‘I’m not negotiating on the price. If you back out of the deal now there will be serious consequences,’ I replied. I was completely unfazed by the fact that Zamir’s gang hugely outnumbered us. The Albanians’ treacherous behaviour could not, and would not, be overlooked.

  ‘If I buy the cocaine at source from South America, I could reduce my overheads significantly. Then I wouldn’t be forced to pay your inflated prices,’ Zamir said, and a smug smile spread across his face.

  ‘My Russian supplier won’t be too happy to hear that. He has a well-organised operation set up in the Costa del Sol.’

  The meeting wasn’t going to plan. As there hadn’t been any previous disputes between our two firms, I had very generously returned the teenage dealers without harming a hair on their heads and had merely issued the gang a warning. But instead of apologising, Zamir had thrown down the gauntlet by revealing his plan. Attempting to turn the tables on the supply chain was a bold move. Zamir was a cheeky fucker to even suggest it; I had to give him that much. The gang had originally entered the UK as refugees, and now they thought they could waltz in and take over. The UK had a five-billion-pound cocaine trade, and although a kingpin, I by no means dominated the market. I only controlled a small portion of it.

  I looked down my nose at my tracksuit-clad opponent. Zamir fancied himself as the future King of Cocaine, but he was no Pablo Escobar. He was a nobody who had come to England to escape from poverty. He’d only been in the country five minutes, and now he thought he could call the shots. Zamir was about to learn the hard way. It didn’t work like that in this business. He needed to earn the respect of the big players if he was going to survive in their world. The way he was going about things, I didn’t reckon he’d make it until the end of the week before somebody took a pop at him.

  Cocaine was usually shipped in bulk because it was too difficult to conceal. Vladimir Popov had spent years perfecting the supply chain. Corrupt Spanish port officials were on his payroll and allowed him to control cocaine importation. It was a huge operation. The drug smugglers went to extreme lengths to ensure their illegal cargo avoided detection and reached its intended destination. Cocaine, bound for the UK, was often concealed in containers of pineapples and bananas before being exported from Central and South America. The container ships docked in Spain before being moved on by Vladimir’s officials to UK ports that lay along the River Thames. The huge shipments of cocaine were then offloaded from the vessel by corrupt port workers and loaded onto lorries destined for London and other parts of the UK. Because of the size of the operation, and the number of individuals involved, very few organised crime groups did end-to-end supply. It was too risky.

  ‘I’m not in this game to make friends. I want to make money, so if you won’t negotiate on the price, I’ll have to cut you out of the deal and import directly from South America,’ Zamir said.

  I smirked, the man either had balls of steel, or he was an idiot. ‘I can see where you’re coming
from. In theory, you’d make more money, but the risk of getting caught and banged up would also hugely increase. It might surprise you to know, there’s a reason why none of us run the whole operation. Handling the drugs from shipment to distribution is virtually impossible.’

  I stared at the man in front of me. I wouldn’t want to be in Zamir’s shoes when word of this plan reached Vladimir. Even if I didn’t grass him up, the Russian mobster would find out about it. I knew from experience walls had ears, and it wouldn’t take a man like Vladimir Popov long to find out there was a snake in the grass.

  ‘Trust me,’ I said, opening my arms out wide like a preacher. ‘The way I operate carries the least risk. I fan the gear out to crime groups in London and Essex. Don’t get too greedy, my friend. Trying to be Mr Big is the fastest way to get yourself banged up, or taken out by a rival. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, turf wars can be deadly.’ I turned to look at Knuckles and Nathan. ‘Gentlemen, if you’re ready, we’ll call it a night.’

  Knuckles picked up the holdall and came to stand next to me. Nathan stood on the other side, and the three of us walked out of the warehouse and got into the Mercedes.

  ‘Imagine trying to pull a stunt like that.’ I shook my head as I looked out into the darkness. ‘If Zamir and his gang know what’s good for them, they’ll stay in the shadows. They fancy themselves as crime warlords, but they’re no threat to us. If they had brains, they would be dangerous.’ I laughed.

  43

  Alfie

  The following day, I received word that Zamir was still keen to take over the cocaine distribution in the area by undercutting all his rivals. He’d concluded, if he bought the drugs at source, he could offer a substantial discount to the end user.

  The man was insane if he thought I was going to stand for that. It was time to pay him another visit. The Watsons never had, and never would compete for business. Zamir was out of line if he thought I was going to let the Albanians encroach on my territory. If he tried to, he’d soon realise the Watsons’ turf was well guarded.

  ‘You should go now,’ Zamir said.

  Nobody told me what to do. My stance changed in response to his comment. You didn’t need to be a genius to work out that something was about to kick off. Zamir was about to find out that I thrived on intimidation and violence. It wasn’t only enjoyable, it was also necessary to maintain my notoriety. The Watsons had a well-established reputation as a firm not to be messed with, so it was time to teach Zamir a lesson he’d never forget.

  Zamir was a slippery character and was refusing to elaborate. He was keeping the details of his plan sketchy, but it was obvious that he had decided to forge ahead with his idea to cut the Russians and myself out of the deal. He wanted to buy his cocaine at source, but that wasn’t a sensible move. Attempting to maximise his profits this way was unrealistic. Zamir was getting ahead of himself if he thought Vladimir Popov would allow him to set up an import syndicate and source the coke directly from Latin America. I’d explained that nobody ran the whole operation from start to finish, but Zamir was refusing to listen. He was testing my patience.

  Greed did terrible things to a person. It made men make stupid decisions. Zamir’s hare-brained idea to cut Vladimir and I out of the equation and negotiate directly with the Colombian cartels would have serious consequences. They were newcomers on the scene. They couldn’t just rock up and do away with the existing supply chain. There was a long-established hierarchy in place, and they were at the bottom of the pile.

  The Costa del Sol was a great networking ground for international criminals, and the Russians were there in force, so the idea of Zamir being able to oust them from the top of the rung was ridiculous. The man was delusional if he thought that would happen. He was walking a dangerous path, even considering the possibility. The drug trade generated large sums of money, so the Russians would not give up their position without a fight. They were dangerous fuckers and would not hesitate to kill if they felt they had been double-crossed. They were masters of the game and had a formidable reputation. Zamir and his tracksuit-clad army were no match for Vladimir’s men. I knew for a fact that many of them were former KGB agents.

  The Russians would not stand back and let Zamir take control of the drug-smuggling operation and cut them out of the cocaine trade. There was too much money at stake. They weren’t known for their mediation skills. Vladimir’s men were ruthless and would put a bullet in you as quick as look at you. Disregarding the rules that had been in place for generations would justify the bloodshed.

  Zamir had huge balls if he thought he could rewrite the rulebook. I was certain his greed would lead to his downfall. The network was there for a reason. It was too risky for one firm to handle the operation from production to distribution. I knew the Albanians had a reputation for keeping their word. They always delivered, so this wasn’t an idle threat. I wasn’t looking forward to breaking the news to Vladimir.

  Something would need to be done about the Albanian firm. They couldn’t just cut all the links in the supply chain without bringing trouble on themselves, so I told Zamir in no uncertain terms that Vladimir would not stand for the betrayal. He would choose the best time and place, where he could be sure of getting away with the hit, and then he would get someone further down the ladder to carry out a gangland-style execution. I could guarantee it, but Zamir was too arrogant to listen to the warning.

  I wasn’t bluffing. If Zamir went ahead with his plan, it wouldn’t be if, but when, Vladimir would get even with him.

  44

  Nathan

  I glanced at my watch as I sat in the front seat of the Mercedes next to Knuckles. It was close to midnight and instead of being tucked up in bed next to my beautiful wife, I was out doing Alfie’s dirty work. To say that was a thorn in my side was an understatement, but I wasn’t in a position to hand in my notice and apply for a job somewhere else. Unfortunately, it didn’t work like that.

  Alfie had instructed us to keep an eye on Zamir, and as we cruised past Wandsworth Business Park, our attention was drawn to unit twenty-two. Knuckles parked up so we could observe from the shadows. Goose pimples covered my body. I could sense something was about to kick off.

  Zamir was locking up the warehouse for the evening when he was jumped by two masked men, dressed in dark clothing. One of the men smashed him across the back with a metal pole before the other forced a gun into his mouth. That muffled his cries for help and a chill ran down my spine.

  Knuckles and I watched the commotion unfolding in silence. Although he resisted, the men dragged Zamir backwards towards a white Transit van. After opening the back door, one of the men pulled out a piece of rope. They forced Zamir onto the ground and bound his wrists and ankles together behind his back, rendering him immobile and helpless. Then they covered his mouth with tape before placing a sack over his head. They tossed their hogtied victim face down into the back of the van like a carcass of meat. The thought of what he was about to go through made me shudder.

  ‘We’d best get over to Sherlock’s and let Alfie know what’s happened,’ Knuckles said. He started the engine, and we left Zamir to his fate.

  *

  Knuckles went to have a private word with Alfie, so I took up position in the foyer of Sherlock’s. Having to look for people to scan with my security wand was mind-numbingly boring, but it beat lurking outside a lock-up while some form of punishment was being dished out any day.

  I was just thinking I was glad the drama of the night was over when I suddenly became aware of a large group of men shouting obscenities at the door staff. They were demanding to see Alfie and were trying to burst through the doors of the club. Curly and some other heavies were quickly on the scene. They managed to restrain the men on the pavement. When Alfie agreed to see Zamir, Curly and I escorted him to Alfie’s office while his backup were forced to wait for their boss outside.

  Zamir had been beaten black and blue by his attackers, but at least he was still alive. When I saw the door of the
Transit close in the deserted alleyway, I was certain the men were going to put a bullet in the back of his head.

  ‘Listen to me, you cretin.’ Alfie jabbed his finger towards Zamir’s bloodied face. ‘If I’d done that to you, I would own it. Get your facts straight before you start throwing wild accusations around. I had nothing to do with it. Now, unless you want to receive another hiding, get the fuck out of my club and don’t come back.’ Alfie got up in Zamir’s face before Curly forcibly ejected the Albanian from the building.

  45

  Gemma

  The following afternoon, Knuckles and Nathan were out running errands for the boss, so Alfie decided to escort Luca and I to Darkwood Manor. A feeling of dread came over me. I hated being cooped up in the house with Luca and Alfie while my husband was carrying out the Watsons’ business. As uncomfortable as it was going to be, I was going to take the opportunity to set Alfie straight on a few things, but not while I was trapped inside the confines of the car with him. I’d wait until I could put some distance between us.

  Alfie stepped behind me and began massaging my shoulders after I sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar. As his fingers dug into my flesh, I felt like slapping them away but thought better of it. To escape Alfie’s wandering hands and because I suddenly felt the need to be close to Luca, I sprang to my feet and walked across the marble floor of the kitchen to where my baby was lying in his cot.

  ‘My son looks adorable, doesn’t he?’ Alfie smiled. He looked down at Luca before gazing into my eyes.

  Alfie’s comment blindsided me and my pulse began to race. Luca was sleeping peacefully in his basket, blissfully unaware of the situation that was about to start. Even though he wasn’t stirring, I decided to pick Luca up. I wasn’t sure what Alfie was playing at.