by Caz Finlay
Ivan re-introduced them both and Steven shook Grace’s hand with a sweaty palm.
‘So, what am I doing here, gentlemen?’ Grace asked as she sat down.
‘It’s my daughter,’ Steven began. ‘She’s in trouble.’
He went on to explain that his sixteen-year-old daughter, Megan, had got herself involved with an older man, Leo Baines, who Steven later discovered was basically a pimp. Wouldn’t you know, Steven’s sweet little daughter was now Leo’s number one commodity. Megan had left home, got hooked on drugs and was living in a filthy flat in Kirkdale. Steven had tried to bring her home but Leo had given him a hiding and threatened to do the same to his wife and their two younger daughters if he ever went near Megan again. Megan managed to escape and make it home herself one day, only for Leo to turn up and forcibly remove her from the house, swearing that if anyone phoned the police he would murder them all in their beds. He was a nasty piece of work with fewer morals than brains and he had them all terrified of him.
Grace knew what was coming. It was a headache she could do without, but being a parent herself, it was hard to watch Steven as he sobbed in front of her.
‘So, what is it you want from me, Steven?’ Grace asked.
He stared at her. ‘Ivan said you might be able to get her back?’ he said as he choked back the tears.
‘I know of Leo Baines. He is a nasty, horrible bastard. He holds a grudge too. Fortunately for you, I happen to know some people who can be much nastier than him, and who don’t look fondly upon men who use women and girls for their own disgusting ends.’
Steven looked up at her gratefully.
‘If I help you with this, nobody knows about it. Not your mates down the pub. Not your neighbour or your business partner. Not Megan. Not even your wife. I don’t need any aggravation from the likes of Leo Baines right now. Understood?’
Steven nodded furiously. ‘Yes. I won’t tell a soul. I promise.’
‘Do you have a photograph of her?’
Steven passed Grace a well-thumbed photograph. She looked at the face of a bright-eyed teenager smiling into the camera and her heart almost broke.
‘Right. Well, go home. Don’t tell anyone about this meeting and Megan will be back within the next couple of days.’
He stared at her as though she’d just revealed she was the Virgin Mary. At any moment, she thought he was going to throw himself at her feet. ‘Thank you, Grace,’ he sobbed. ‘Thank you so much. What can I do to repay you? I have money.’
‘I don’t need money, Steven. Just remember your promise to keep this to yourself. And who knows, one day you might be able to help me out. I may open another restaurant again in the future.’
He took hold of her hands. ‘Of course, Grace. And thank you.’
Grace smiled at him. ‘No problem. Now I have to get back to my own daughter.’ She smiled. ‘She’ll be back soon, Steven. I promise you.’
***
Grace climbed into her Mercedes and phoned Connor Carter. His voice filled the car when he answered.
‘Hiya Boss,’ he said.
‘Connor. I need a favour. Another one.’
‘Anything.’
‘It’s the type of job that’s just up your street.’
‘Great,’ he laughed.
‘Can you and Paul meet me at my place in an hour?’
‘Consider it done.’
***
Grace watched Paul and Connor as they drank their tea and casually digested the information she’d just given them.
‘I don’t want any of this to come back on me or the club,’ she said. ‘I could really do without the aggro right now.’
‘Of course it won’t,’ Connor said.
‘No one will even know we were there, Grace,’ Paul added.
‘Make sure the girl gets home safe. This is her,’ she said as she handed them the photograph of Megan.
‘Nice-looking kid,’ Paul said. ‘How did she get mixed up with that piece of shit?’
Grace shook her head. ‘Who knows?’
***
Less than twenty-four hours later, a very grateful Megan Porter was returned home to her loving parents Steven and Anne. Leo Baines, on the other hand, had the shit and the teeth kicked out of him and the word ‘paedo’ carved into his forehead by two masked intruders.
Chapter 32
Grace was putting some money in the safe when she heard the fracas in the hallway outside. It was a Wednesday night and they were usually quiet. As she stepped outside her office, she had to duck behind one of the bouncers as a body came hurtling down the corridor.
‘I’ll fucking cut your nuts off if you come back in here, you little cunt,’ Michael bellowed from the distance.
‘You’re a shower of bullies, you lot,’ a woman screeched as she was forcibly marched past Grace’s office.
‘And you can fuck off and all. I don’t want to see either of you in here again. Do you hear me?’ Michael shouted as he walked towards Grace.
‘What the hell was that about?’ Grace asked him.
‘That daft old cow was demanding to be served after the barmaid cut her off because she can barely fucking stand. And Romeo there’—Michael nodded towards the door—‘decided to leap to her defence and came at Libby with a broken bottle.’ He shook his head as he held up his bleeding hand. ‘Pair of fucking loons.’
‘She’s been in here a few times. She gets a bit lairy when she’s had one too many,’ Grace said. ‘She’s seemed pretty harmless before though.’
‘She’s as mad as a box of frogs,’ Michael said. ‘Her and her fucking drinking buddy. Look at my hand.’
‘Come on. I’ve got a first aid box in my office,’ Grace said. He followed her inside and sat on her desk as she cleaned his wound with alcohol before starting to wrap it with a bandage.
‘Ow, that fucking hurts,’ he said, wincing.
‘Don’t be such a baby,’ she told him, trying, and failing, to suppress a smile.
‘I think you’re enjoying this.’ He smiled at her, his brown eyes twinkling.
‘Well, it’s bringing back memories, me cleaning up your war wounds,’ she said as she finished wrapping the bandage. ‘There, all done.’ Then she unconsciously lifted his hand to her face and kissed the palm, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. She felt momentarily embarrassed by the overt show of affection for him but it soon disappeared when he placed the same hand on her face, rubbing the pad of his thumb across the flushed skin of her cheek.
It was as though she had only just become aware of how close they were, only just realised that she was standing between his legs and their thighs were lightly touching. She could feel the heat from his body, hear his fast, steady breathing. Looking up at him, she saw him staring at her intently, his pupils dilated, making his brown eyes look almost black. In one swift move, he was up off the desk, spinning her around so she was on it, sitting as he had been only seconds before. Then before she could even think about what was going to happen next, his mouth was on hers.
Pushing her back onto the desk, Michael slid her skirt up her thighs until it was bunched around her waist. All of Grace’s senses were heightened. She was hyper aware of everything. The heat of his fingertips as they brushed her skin. The smell of his Tom Ford aftershave – the one she loved. The one that always reminded her of him. The taste of the coffee he had been drinking earlier and the peppermint sweets he loved. Then she heard the unmistakeable sound of him undoing his belt buckle and she thought it was quite possibly the sexiest thing she had ever heard in her life.
‘Stop,’ she said, pushing his hands away. What the hell was she doing? He was a married man, for Christ’s sake. ‘What about Hannah?’
He shook his head. ‘There is no Hannah. Not anymore. We’re getting divorced.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
‘I’m not,’ he breathed.
Then he was kissing her again and this time she didn’t stop him. His lips only left hers for a mome
nt when he used his teeth to tear open the foil packet on the condom he’d pulled out of his pocket. For a second, Grace wondered why he had one, until she was too busy being grateful that he did.
***
‘Well, that was an unexpected turn of events,’ Michael said breathlessly as he zipped up his trousers.
‘Was it?’
‘Hmm.’ He put his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck. ‘I was beginning to think you’d never succumb to my charms.’
Before she could respond they were interrupted by a knock at the door.
‘Shit,’ he snapped, and then he straightened her skirt and fastened his belt in two fluid movements, before Grace could even think of a response for their unwelcome intruder.
‘Come in,’ he said before Grace had fully regained her composure. The door opened and Ali, one of the new barmaids, walked into Grace’s office. Grace could see from the look on Ali’s face that she knew something had been going on. Grace was so embarrassed that she could barely look the girl in the eye. Michael, on the other hand, didn’t miss a beat.
‘What can we do for you, Ali?’ he asked nonchalantly.
‘There’s someone here to see you, Michael.’ She smiled sweetly at him.
‘Oh shit, I forgot.’ Looking slightly flustered, he started to head off out of the door. Ali waited for him in the doorway, preventing Grace from talking to him about what had just happened. Just as she thought he was going to walk out of there without saying a word, without any acknowledgement of what has just happened between them, he turned to her.
‘Thank you for sorting me out, Grace,’ he said, while holding up his bandaged hand. His tone was serious but she could see the wicked glint in his eye and hoped Ali didn’t notice her blushing in the dimly lit office.
***
Eddie Redman watched as the bouncers manhandled the man and woman out of The Blue Rooms and wondered what mortal sin the pair of them had committed to warrant their punishment. Probably told that stuck-up cow Grace that her arse was getting fat. He laughed to himself.
‘Why the fuck are we sitting out here still, Ed?’ Ando Williams groaned in the passenger seat beside him. ‘Let’s go and get some more scran. I’m fucking starving.’
Eddie rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to punch Ando in the face and tell him to get out of the car – it was Ando’s motor, after all. ‘Here, have these and shut the fuck up.’ He tossed a paper bag containing three cold chicken nuggets into Ando’s lap.
Ando grumbled as he opened the bag before stuffing one of the nuggets into his mouth.
‘I wonder what they’ve done.’ Eddie nodded his head towards the two clubgoers who’d just been ejected by the bouncers as they staggered towards the direction of the car.
Ando shrugged. ‘Who gives a fuck?’
‘I bet that bitch had them thrown out for nothing.’
‘You’re fucking obsessed with her,’ Ando chuckled through a mouthful of cold processed chicken.
Eddie turned in his seat to give Ando a slap when there was a loud bang on the bonnet. The drunk woman had stumbled and fallen onto the front of the car. She was clearly unhurt as she cackled and squealed while her companion helped her up.
‘Sorry, lads,’ she shouted loudly as she gave a half-hearted wave at them through the windscreen.
‘Oh, fucking hell, I know her,’ Ando groaned as he ducked low in his seat. ‘Let’s get out of here before she recognises me.’
Eddie started the engine. He was starting to sober up, his skin prickled with nervous energy and repressed anger and he knew he needed something to take the edge off – and fast. He would resume his monitoring of Grace Sumner another night. She wasn’t going anywhere.
‘Who is she?’ Eddie asked as he pulled the car away from the kerb, startling the drunken woman and causing her to give him the finger as he drove past.
‘Some old crank who used to live by us in Birkenhead when I was a kid. Her and me ma used to be mates but even she realised what a nutter that one was, and as you know me ma will talk to anyone.’ Ando laughed. ‘She disappeared for a few years then turned up at me ma’s house a few months ago on the sniff for a few quid. Me ma told her to fuck off.’
Eddie liked Ando’s mum, Angie. She could talk the skin off a cat and was always in the know about who everyone was and what they were up to. Although Eddie wasn’t that bothered about the neighbourhood gossip, he liked that she’d always treated him like he was a grown-up. She’d even given him his first spliff when he was thirteen. She was nothing like his own mother, who tried to constantly baby him and make him do stuff he had no interest in, like going to school or fucking cycling with Richie, her useless cunt of a husband. No, Angie just let him be who he wanted to be. She cooked the best cheese toasties he’d ever tasted as well. Eddie’s stomach rumbled as he realised he’d given Ando the last of his McDonalds.
‘Reckon your ma will be up?’ he asked Ando. ‘I could fucking murder a cheese toastie.’
‘She’s always up,’ said Ando. ‘She’ll have some good weed an’ all. Her new fella, Dave, just started selling it.’
‘Sound.’ Eddie smiled as he made his way towards the Birkenhead tunnel.
***
The rest of the night passed in an uneventful blur for Grace, who’d been so busy, she’d barely had time to think, which was probably a good thing given what had happened earlier with Michael. Realising she hadn’t seen him since he left her office, she wondered whether things would be awkward between them. Aside from the obvious, he was going through a divorce. She was a single mother. After everything they’d been through, she wasn’t sure she wanted anything more right now. But did he? It would certainly complicate things if he did.
As she was locking up and letting out the last of her staff, Grace saw a car parked outside with its lights on and the engine running. She recognised it as Michael’s Audi. He stuck his head out of the driver’s window as she approached.
‘Can I give you a lift home?’ He grinned and she couldn’t help but smile at him. Walking over, she leaned inside the window.
‘I have a perfectly good car there.’ She indicated her silver Mercedes.
‘I know you have.’ He smiled. ‘But I can promise you it will be much more fun driving home with me. And don’t worry, your car will be safe in here. I know the head of security. I’ll bring you back for it in the morning.’
‘You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?’
‘Well, I have reason to believe you fancy the pants off me.’
She laughed. She’d forgotten how funny he was.
‘But don’t worry, the feeling is mutual.’ He winked. ‘Now come on. Get in.’
‘I can’t let you take me home. Belle is there.’
‘She’s a baby. She’ll be asleep, and I’ll leave before she wakes up. Promise. I’ll get your car dropped off instead. Come on. What have you got to lose?’
‘Er, everything.’ She laughed. If only he knew! Going home with him was opening herself up to a whole host of trouble. He was going to find out about the secret she’d been keeping from him – from everyone. And when he did, none of their worlds would ever be the same.
‘Come on,’ he pleaded.
She looked at him. He was just her type really. She’d never let herself think about that when Ben was alive. Dark hair. A neat beard. Eyes that crinkled when he smiled. One muscular arm resting on the car door, his rolled-up shirt sleeve offering a glimpse of one of his many tattoos.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘But we’ll have to go to your place and I’ll need to be home before Belle wakes up. I’ll ask Marcus to stay the night at mine. He won’t mind.’
‘My place it is then.’ He grinned. ‘Jump in.’
So Grace did as she was told and climbed into his warm car.
‘So how long since you and Hannah …?’ she asked as he drove.
‘About six weeks now.’
‘I didn’t realise. You came to Nicola’s birthday party together?’
‘That was just for appearances. I wanted to tell the boys first and Hannah wanted to find herself a house by her mum’s before we made it official.’
‘I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you both.’
He shook his head. ‘We should never have got married in the first place. We’ve always wanted different things. We should have split up ages ago,’ he sighed. ‘I feel like I’ve wasted years of her life. She deserves someone who can give her everything she wants.’
‘I’m sure she’ll find someone when she’s ready.’
‘I hope so.’
‘So have you been seeing anyone else?’
He looked at her like she’d just asked him if he’d shot his granny. ‘Of course not. I told you it’s only been a few weeks.’
‘Oh, right. It’s none of my business anyway. It’s just …’
‘Just what?’
‘You had a condom?’ It had been playing on her mind. She was glad he’d had one, obviously. But Michael had never been into one-night stands or casual sex – at least he never used to be.
He started to laugh. ‘Billy’s daughter works in the STD clinic. He always brings a bagful in for the lads. I always take a few or I never hear the end of them taking the piss out of me.’
‘Oh, I see.’ She smiled to herself. Jealousy was an unfamiliar emotion for her, and one she didn’t relish experiencing again any time soon.
‘I’ve never had cause to use one before, if that’s what you’re getting at,’ he assured her. ‘How about you? Is there anyone else I should know about?’
‘Nope,’ she shook her head. ‘There’s been no one since …’ She didn’t finish her sentence. He knew.
Grace smiled as she leaned her head against the passenger window, despite knowing that she was making a huge mistake. She would pay dearly for this, she knew, but at that exact moment, she didn’t care.
Chapter 33
Jake watched as Connor and Paul Carter strolled into Eric’s boxing gym and placed their sports bags near the ring.
‘Ready for a good scrap, lads?’ Eric asked.
‘Always,’ they said, grinning.
