Back in the Game

by Caz Finlay

  He glared at her, no doubt expecting her to break down and beg him to keep quiet, asking him how much money would buy his silence.

  Instead Grace started to laugh. ‘You really haven’t thought this through, have you?’

  Eddie frowned at her, deep furrows lining his young forehead. ‘Don’t fucking laugh at me,’ he snarled. ‘I’m not messing about.’

  Grace stopped laughing and glared at him. ‘You know who I am, Eddie. You know who my friends are. You also know that I killed Nathan Conlon, one of the biggest gangsters Liverpool has ever seen, not to mention my husband. And I tried to burn him alive, and when that didn’t work, I shot him. Yet you think that you, some little no-mark who couldn’t drop his own pants, can come into my son’s club and threaten me! You really are as thick as you look, sunshine. Now fuck off out of my office, and if I see you in here again, I’ll kick your arse myself.’

  Eddie glared at Grace as he stood, his fists clenched by his side. Grace had always kept tabs on Eddie – just in case he ever found out who his father really was and started to cause a problem for Jake. It was obvious he wasn’t used to being spoken to with so little respect. In his local neighbourhood, he was a small-time pot dealer and a massive bully, and no doubt enjoyed a bit of kudos because of it. But in Grace’s world, he was nothing more than shark-bait.

  Without another word, Eddie stormed out of her office, slamming the door behind him as he went. Grace leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Memories of Ben came flooding back to her. The way he smelled. His smile. How his arms felt when he held her. She missed him so much. Fighting back tears, she thought about Eddie. His threatening her was laughable, and she wasn’t overly concerned about that, but she couldn’t let him get away with murdering Ben. He obviously didn’t realise who Ben had been to her, or he never would have revealed, even inadvertently, that he was responsible for his death.

  Pouring herself a glass of the good brandy she kept in her office drawer for visitors, Grace wondered what to do about him. He deserved to die as painful a death as Ben had. But what about Sandra? Eddie was her son and she loved him just as much as Grace loved Jake. The thought of anything happening to Jake made Grace’s heart fall through her stomach. How could she do that to Sandra, a woman who had always been there when she needed her? Besides, Grace was trying to be a better person now. A better role model for Belle. There would be no more deaths on her hands.

  No. Eddie would live. But one day soon he’d know terror like he’d never imagined. Grace would make sure of that.

  Chapter 15

  Setting down her fork, Grace pushed the half-eaten plate of pasta away from her.

  ‘That was incredible, Steph,’ she said. ‘But I’m fit to burst.’

  ‘You’d never make an Italian.’ Steph laughed good-naturedly. ‘You barely eat.’

  ‘What? I’ve tasted half of your menu,’ Grace replied. ‘All of it delicious, by the way.’

  ‘I do try,’ Steph said as she picked at a stray olive from Grace’s plate.

  Steph had invited Grace to Antonelli’s for lunch and she’d jumped at the chance to see the place where she’d once been co-owner. It was one of three restaurants Grace had opened with Steph’s father, Sean, but Antonelli’s had always been her favourite. Sean had called it their flagship. They’d planned on opening half a dozen more across the country, but after Grace had left Liverpool, that dream seemed to have stalled. Steph was now co-owner and she was doing her best to keep the place as current and trendy as it had been the day it had opened.

  ‘Speaking of trying’—Steph bent her head towards the door as her cousins, Connor and Paul Carter, sauntered through the restaurant, full of swagger and confidence—‘I’d better get back to the kitchen and make a start on dessert anyway.’ She gave them a brief wave before disappearing through the crowded room.

  Dressed smartly in suits, the Carter twins looked the part, and drew the attention of most of the females in the busy restaurant. Paul and Connor Carter had once worked for Grace and now worked for their father, Michael, as well as having a lucrative sideline cleaning up other people’s messes, if the rumours Grace had heard were true.

  ‘Hey, Grace.’ Paul smiled as he approached her table.

  ‘Long time, no see, boss,’ Connor piped up from behind him.

  ‘Hey, boys,’ Grace said. ‘What brings you two here?’

  ‘Steph mentioned she was trying out some new recipes on you. We missed you at the party yesterday. You’d left by the time we got there, so we thought we’d drop by and see if the rumours were true or whether everyone was having us on,’ Connor said as he and his brother took a seat each at Grace’s table.

  ‘What rumours?’ Grace asked.

  ‘The ones about the boss lady being back in the Pool.’ Connor laughed. ‘We had to see you for ourselves.’

  ‘Well, as you can see, I’m here,’ Grace said. ‘But I’m not the boss lady. Not anymore.’

  ‘You’ll always be the boss lady, Grace,’ the twins chorused before signalling the waitress for two beers.

  Grace laughed. She had a soft spot for the twins, always had. They’d caused her no end of grief when they’d worked for her, but they seemed to have matured in the eighteen months she’d been away. Now they were a couple of men to be reckoned with. From what she’d heard, it seemed their brains had finally caught up to their brawn.

  ‘Anything you need doing, Grace, just ask. Isn’t that right, Paul?’ Connor said as his brother nodded.

  ‘Actually boys, there is something you could help me with,’ Grace said, as she was struck by an idea. ‘Can I count on your discretion?’

  They nodded in response.

  ‘Great. I could use your help sorting out a little problem. Can you come to my office tomorrow afternoon? About twelve, before anyone else gets in, would be ideal.’

  The twins grinned at her and she was reminded of their youth. ‘Is it the kind of problem we enjoy sorting?’ Paul asked.

  ‘Yes. Your favourite kind.’

  ‘Nice one.’ They laughed just as the waitress arrived with their drinks.

  Connor raised his bottle in a toast. ‘To the Boss Lady. It’s good to have you back.’

  ‘I’ll drink to that,’ Paul said as he lifted his bottle to Connor’s.

  Grace raised her wine glass to join their toast and smiled.

  It was good to be back.

  Chapter 16

  The twins arrived at midday the following afternoon as requested. Grace let them in through the side door and they followed her through to her office.

  ‘What’s this job you’ve got for us then?’ Connor asked once they were all seated, his eyes twinkling. Grace remembered how the pair of them were always up for getting their hands dirty. Always eager to get stuck in and bang some heads together. In their youth and stupidity, they’d once tried to take out her ex-husband and had failed miserably, causing a shitstorm for Grace to clean up after them. She’d wanted to murder them herself at the time, but in hindsight, it had probably been the best thing that could have happened to them, teaching them a salutary lesson. The twins were no longer as eager to go off half-cocked as they used to be. Grace was willing to give them another shot to see whether they could be trusted.

  ‘Yeah, we’re dying to know,’ Paul piped up, reminding Grace they were waiting for her to speak.

  ‘There’s a little no-mark I need dealing with. His name’s Eddie Redman. Have you heard of him?’

  The twins shook their heads. ‘Nah, doesn’t ring a bell,’ Connor said as he sat forward in his chair.

  ‘That doesn’t surprise me. As I said, he’s a no-mark. But he needs to be taught a lesson, boys. Namely that he cannot walk in here and threaten me.’

  The twins nodded enthusiastically. ‘Want him to disappear?’ Paul asked.

  Grace sighed. She’d gone over and over this question herself and still wasn’t confident she’d made the right decision. ‘No, not disappear. At least, not yet. Don’t do too much damage
. But let’s make sure he has enough reasons to regret his decision to try and cross me, and that I don’t live to regret mine.’

  ‘Consider it done, boss,’ Connor said and Paul nodded in agreement.

  ‘Thanks, boys. You’ll find him hanging around The King’s Arms in Bootle. It’s a shit-hole pub off the Dock Road. He deals out of there. Can I ask you to keep this to yourselves? I’d rather no one knows I’ve had anything to do with the little prick.’

  ‘Of course,’ they said. They didn’t ask any questions, as Grace knew they wouldn’t. They trusted that she’d tell them if they needed to know.

  ‘Great. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, how about a drink?’ she said as she took the bottle of Remy Martin XO out of her office drawer.

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ Paul said, grinning as Connor took three crystal tumblers from the tray on Grace’s desk.

  Pouring them a generous measure each before handing the twins their glasses, Grace thanked them again.

  ‘No problem at all,’ Connor said.

  ‘Anything for you, boss,’ Paul said before downing his drink in one.

  Grace smiled as Connor did the same, the pair of them wincing as the expensive cognac burned their throats. She should have given them the cheap stuff she kept on her desk instead. They would never have tasted the difference. They might dress in expensive Armani suits, but the twins had a lot to learn about appreciating the finer things in life.

  Chapter 17

  Connor Carter pushed open the doors of The King’s Arms and walked inside, with his brother Paul close behind him. Together they walked over to the corner of the room and approached the man who fitted Eddie’s description.

  ‘Eddie Redman?’ Connor asked him

  He looked up and scowled at the pair of them. ‘Who’s asking?’

  Connor couldn’t blame him for his reaction. Eddie couldn’t afford to lose face in his local boozer, where he no doubt thrived on the regulars being scared of him.

  ‘I’d say this is him, wouldn’t you, Paul?’ Connor asked.

  ‘Fits the description. But we’d better check. Just in case.’

  Paul lifted Eddie from his seat by the neck of his T-shirt. Despite Eddie struggling and attempting to free himself from Paul’s grasp, Paul dragged him towards the exit.

  ‘Fuck off. Get off me,’ Eddie snarled, but his protests fell on deaf ears.

  ‘Next round’s on me if anyone can give me the name of this dickhead,’ Connor shouted as he walked behind his brother.

  ‘Eddie Redman,’ a couple of voices from the other side of the pub shouted.

  ‘Much obliged, gents,’ Connor said as he held up five £20 notes and then placed them on a nearby table.

  Paul laughed as he dragged Eddie out of the doors. ‘See how easily they gave you up, lad.’

  Two minutes later, Eddie was bundled into the back of the twins’ old van, with Paul for company while Connor drove.

  Eddie was already bleeding and pleading for his life by the time Connor pulled up at their destination.

  ‘Get out,’ Paul shouted as Connor dragged Eddie out of the back of the van.

  ‘Fucking hell, what were you two doing back there?’ Connor laughed as he saw that Eddie’s nose, eye and lip were already bleeding.

  ‘Eddie here decided to get a little bit mouthy during our trip,’ Paul grinned.

  Connor shook his head and grabbed Eddie by the arm. ‘I really wouldn’t wind my brother up, Edward,’ he whispered in his ear. ‘He’s a bit of an animal.’

  Eddie looked up at him, his eyes wide with fear, and Connor laughed. No doubt, during their twenty-minute journey, Paul had convinced Eddie he was a sadistic psychopath.

  Paul held open the doors of the old garage and Connor dragged Eddie inside. He sat him on the single chair that was positioned in the centre of the room. Eddie sat with his head hanging low.

  ‘Look up, Eddie,’ Connor taunted him. ‘We have something we’d like you to see.’

  Paul stood behind him and lifted Eddie’s head. ‘Look,’ he snapped.

  Eddie opened his eyes, blinking a few times to acclimatise to the dim light. Connor smiled as Eddie’s eyes widened in fear. The sight of two giant meat hooks hanging from the ceiling would be enough to make any man tremble with the fear of what might happen next. Eddie started to shake his head violently and tried to scramble from the chair but Paul held him firm with his powerful arms.

  Paul started to laugh. ‘Calm down, lad,’ he said. ‘You haven’t seen the best stuff yet.’

  Connor walked over to him and placed a large parcel at his feet. Unfurling it, he revealed a wide array of medical instruments and tools. Scalpels, hammers and pliers of various sizes were laid out before Eddie’s feet.

  ‘No. No,’ Eddie screamed.

  Connor knelt down so he could look Eddie directly in the eyes. ‘You have seen a rare glimpse into my brother’s little playroom here today, Eddie,’ he said quietly. ‘Should you ever threaten Grace Sumner again, we will bring you back here and you will never see the light of another day. Do you understand me?’

  Eddie nodded furiously.

  ‘Good,’ Connor smiled. Then he hit Eddie on the temple, knocking him unconscious.

  ***

  ‘Did you see his face?’ Paul laughed as Connor drove the three of them back towards Bootle, an unconscious Eddie now alone in the back of the van.

  Connor laughed too. ‘I thought he was going to have a heart attack for a minute.’

  ‘You went over and above with your little toolkit there, bro,’ Paul snorted. ‘Where did you get it all from?’

  ‘An old friend of ours. Anyway, never mind me. What the hell did you say to him when you were back there with him? He was as white as a sheet when I pulled him out of there.’

  Paul shrugged. ‘I hardly touched him. But I told him what I liked to do to people who threatened my friends, and I embellished a little.’

  Connor smiled at him. ‘Mission accomplished then?’

  ‘I think our little show will make him think twice before he even thinks of Grace’s name again.’

  ‘Good. Now where are we dropping him off? I need a drink.’

  ‘There’s a pub up the road. We can drop him off outside there. It’s quiet, but someone will find him soon enough. Or he’ll come round and he can get himself a pint.’ Paul grinned.

  Chapter 18

  Jake watched Siobhan from behind the bar as she tied her long red hair up into a ponytail. She saw him watching and grinned at him. He winked in response, remembering the incredible blowjob she’d just given him in his office. It was one of the many perks of being the boss, he thought, smiling to himself as she disappeared into the back room to help Libby with the stocktaking.

  He was still smiling when his mobile phone rang. Fishing it from his pocket, he looked at the screen to see it was Vinnie Black calling. Jake had inherited him along with the club. He was loyal, but he was also as thick as rhino shite.

  ‘All right, mate?’ Jake said as he answered the phone.

  ‘Jake,’ Vinnie started, and Jake already knew by the tone of Vinnie’s voice that his good mood was about to disappear faster than a rat up a drainpipe.

  ‘What?’ Jake sighed.

  ‘Someone has tampered with the container again,’ Vinnie said.

  ‘What?’ Jake shouted, barely able to believe what he was hearing. He started to walk to his office where he could have a private conversation.

  ‘We opened the container, and it’s not in there. It’s all gone,’ Vinnie stuttered.

  ‘But it came into the docks, didn’t it?’ Jake snapped.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘So, somewhere between Liverpool and Glasgow, you’ve managed to lose fifty kilos of coke and four handguns? Are you fucking shitting me, Vinnie?’

  ‘I know, boss. Maybe someone switched them? Or they put the wrong container on the lorry,’ he mumbled.

  ‘What?’ Jake shouted. ‘Didn’t you watch them putting it on? Are you f
ucking stupid or something? What were you doing while my money was being nicked? Who was watching the lorry?’

  ‘I was chatting to Blind Macca, boss.’

  ‘Chatting! Fucking chatting! Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve fucking warned you about Blind Macca. He’s a scumbag who would sell his own granny down the river if he thought he’d get a bung out of it.’

  ‘I’ll talk to him …’

  ‘You’d better do more than talk to him, lad.’

  ‘I will, boss. And I’ll get the stuff back, I swear.’

  ‘You better fucking had, Vinnie. Don’t come back here until you have,’ Jake snapped before throwing his mobile phone at the wall and watching it break into pieces.

  Jake shook his head. This was the fourth shipment in two months that had either been nicked or almost nicked. No doubt he would never see his missing drugs again. They’d be cut up and sold off before Vinnie remembered what day it was. He had a good idea who’d taken them, and he would wring Bobby White’s neck once he got his hands on him, but that bastard was as slippery as a stripper covered in baby oil.

  Vinnie was a fucking liability who couldn’t find his own arse with both hands, let alone Jake’s drugs. Instead, he’d turn up with his tail between his legs, begging for forgiveness. But he had fucked up one too many times and Jake had run out of patience with him. Vinnie would repay the debt he now owed, one way or another.

  Jake needed someone working with him who had brains as well as balls. He almost regretted letting John Brennan go. Almost. He’d always had the distinct feeling that John was looking over his shoulder, waiting for him to fuck up, or to remind him that his dear old dad would never do things that way. Jake sometimes hated being Nathan Conlon’s son. There was always someone willing to tell him either what a legend or what a massive cunt his dad was. Either way, they were big shoes to fill.

  There was a lot about his father that Jake admired – his head for business and his ability to get anything he wanted from anyone he wanted. People said he was a lot like him and Jake supposed he was. They certainly looked alike. Jake had seen enough photographs of his dad in his twenties to know that they were dead ringers. He sometimes wondered if that was hard on his mum – having to look at the same face as the man who’d caused her so much pain and misery. If it did, she never showed it. She thought the sun shone out of Jake’s arse and would do anything for him. And though he was a grown man, and he would never admit it to anyone, somehow that knowledge made him feel invincible. His mum was a Liverpool legend. The queen of the underworld – until she’d given it all up to move to the sticks and have his baby sister. But he’d never felt the need to fill her shoes in the same way he did his dad’s.