Rival Sons

by Aidan Thorn

  “Are you fucking serious?” Graham and Kyle were stood nose to nose and Graham spat as he spoke angrily. “You come back here after all these years and have the nerve to tell me about my mother. I know all about my mother, you fuck. I’ve been looking after her for years while you’ve been off playing hero with a bunch of sand rats. You know nothing about my mother, so how about you fuck off back where you came from. We don’t need you here—I take care of everything.”

  “Looks like you’ve been doing a fine job, Graham.” Kyle said with vicious sarcasm.

  Graham was riled. He shoved Kyle, he was strong, but Kyle was ready for it and didn’t let it move him. Kyle saw the big man behind Graham take a step. The fact that Kyle hadn’t been put down by his shove made Graham’s anger worsen. He swung a punch into Kyle’s stomach. It hurt Kyle and he bent. But he reacted quickly, knowing that if he didn’t this would have been over fast. Kyle straightened quickly and threw an uppercut into Graham’s jaw. It had been many years since anyone had dared raise a hand to Graham Gordon and, if the power of the punch hadn’t knocked him down, the shock of it happening would have. As he fell, he cracked his head on the side of the bar and landed in a crumpled mess.

  The shock played to Kyle’s advantage in more ways than one. Graham hadn’t been expecting it and neither had his man. The big guy with the arms the size of legs stood open-mouthed at what he’d just seen. Kyle knew his window was small. He picked up the stall he’d knocked over as he stood and swung it by the legs. The seat of the stall connected with the big man’s right cheek and he went rigid as he fell and met his boss on the sticky worn carpet. He was out colder than a Scottish winter.

  Kyle had to give Graham some dues; the double blow to the head hadn’t knocked him out. He wasn’t going to be standing up in a hurry, but he’d stayed awake, which was more than could be said for his bigger, lumpier friend. He was breathing, but that was the only sign of life.

  Kyle bent close to his brother and spoke quietly. “You’re a fucking joke, Graham. Preying on this community that you grew up in, bullying people and selling shite to them and their kids. You’ve raped this place of what small redeeming qualities it did have. Dad was an arsehole, but you’ve taken it to whole new levels.”

  Kyle could see that Graham wanted to spit a reply back, but he didn’t have it in him.

  Kyle stood back to full height and looked at the barman, who had moved as far along the bar away from the action as he was able to get.

  “If I were you I’d get myself off home. When these two get back on their feet, they aren’t going to be too happy.” Kyle said.

  The barman didn’t need telling twice, he hurried from behind the bar only pausing to look at Kyle with a mixture of awe and pity.

  “You really shouldn’t have done that,” the barman said quietly so that only Kyle would hear.

  Kyle didn’t fear his brother, but the barman was probably right, Graham was a nasty fucker, and this wouldn’t be the end of things.

  Chapter Six

  Kyle was stood at the window when Emma and Zoe arrived. He was pleased to see them, but apprehensive as to what their reaction would be to the place. He’d told them the town was a shithole, but nothing could prepare them for what it had become. They sat in the car for longer than was normal when they pulled up at the house Kyle had rented. He could see that his wife and daughter were in deep conversation and it didn’t appear to be going well. Emma appeared to be doing her best to pacify their daughter, but the teenager was clearly not in the mood.

  Neither of them had spotted Kyle at the window initially, but Emma’s eyes flickered towards the house and he knew she’d caught sight of him. She didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, she looked back to her daughter, said a few words and made a subtle nod in his direction that he wasn’t supposed to see. Zoe’s head had been straight on the whole time, not looking at her mother as they spoke, but not looking at the house either. She’d been looking down into her lap. On her mother’s nod to the window, though, she briefly looked up and locked eyes with her father. There were daggers in that look. A few more moments passed before Emma stepped from the car, a fake smile etched on her face. She looked in the window and waved, trying to pretend she’d spotted Kyle for the first time. Zoe stepped from the car without the fake enthusiasm. Her head was down, and she put headphones in her ears as she approached the house with dragged feet. Kyle went to the door to meet them.

  “Hello sweetheart. How are you, how’s your mum?” Emma threw her arms around Kyle and landed a kiss on his cheek.

  “I’m ok, let’s get you both inside and we’ll talk,” Kyle said. He freed himself from his wife’s arms and looked around her to his daughter. “Hello Zoe.”

  Zoe rolled her eyes and pushed past her parents into what would be her temporary, she hoped, home.

  “Zoe!” Emma called after her in a tone that told her she wasn’t impressed.

  “It’s fine,” Kyle said softly to Emma, putting a calming hand on her arm.

  Zoe had disappeared into the living room.

  “It’s not fine, she’s been a little bitch lately and you don’t need her attitude on top of everything else.” Where Kyle had spoken in soft tones, Emma deliberately hadn’t. She wanted Zoe to hear what she was saying about her.

  “She’s a teenage girl and, let’s be honest, this isn’t exactly the best place in the world to bring her.” Kyle had more than a little sympathy with his daughter, he hated living there when it wasn’t a shithole.

  “Then why the fuck did I have to come here?” Zoe’s head had reappeared around the doorframe to the living room. She had removed her headphones.

  “Zoe Gordon, don’t you use that language. You’re here because your father needs us here. His mother, your grandmother, is very ill and we need to support her—that’s what families do.” Emma roared her words at her daughter. Kyle had never heard his wife quite so angry. He knew she was passionate, but there was more to this. If truth be known Emma probably didn’t want to be there either, but she was a fiercely loyal wife and would support her husband through whatever challenges he faced.

  “My grandmother? That’s a joke, I’ve never even met the woman.” Zoe skulked back into the living room.

  Emma made to go after her, but Kyle grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him. He kissed her long and hard.

  “I’ve missed you, baby.” He said, “I know this is going to be tough, but when you see mum you’ll see that this is going to be a very temporary thing. I just had to be here.”

  “I know,” Emma said, with sadness for what her husband was going through.

  Graham called Ian to pick Jim and himself up from the Bear and Stag. Jim had taken a while to bring around and, despite his own injuries, Graham had to help him to the car. Ian drove them both to Graham’s home and they put Jim to bed in one of four spare rooms. Graham lived alone. There had been women, but none who had stuck. Ian told Graham he should get some rest too, but Graham had told him to fuck off. Ian knew better than to anger a bear with a sore head and shut his mouth. He stuck around though, just in case Graham or Jim needed anything. Graham didn’t seem himself, and Ian couldn’t be sure if it was the blow to his head or his pride that was hurting him more.

  “Do you want me to take care of him, boss?” Ian asked eventually, more to break the silence than anything.

  “Take care of who?”

  “Your brother.”

  Graham flinched at the association with Kyle. He paused for a long time and Ian started to regret bringing up the question—what had he been thinking?

  “No,” Graham said slowly, as if he still thinking on it as the word left his lips. “He’ll get his, but at the moment I don’t want to give my Ma any extra stress. We’ll sort him out, but I can wait.”

  Dinner was tense. They all sat together but Zoe’s headphones were back in despite Emma demanding she remove them. Kyle told Emma to let it go and she did, reluctantly. Kyle and Emma spoke about his
mother, and the run-in Kyle had had with his father.

  “Well, at least you exchanged words, that’s progress as far as I can see,” Emma said in mock positivity.

  “Exchanging words with that man has never been progress for anything,” Kyle replied. He wasn’t really willing to joke about his father.

  Emma changed the subject quickly. “We’ll go over and see your mum first thing in the morning.”

  “She’ll like that, she’s been looking forward to meeting you both.”

  “What? I have to come?” Zoe chipped in, unimpressed. The headphones were in but they were clearly just there as a protest; she wasn’t listening to anything.

  At this point Kyle started to lose his patience, but he kept it under control. “Well, she’s been looking forward to meeting you in person. You’ve always liked grandma, you get on well on Skype and she’s been good to you with all those presents over the years.”

  Despite never having met Zoe or Emma, Violet had made sure she’d sent gifts for them every birthday and Christmas.

  “I suppose,” Zoe replied.

  Emma gave Zoe a look that told her to stop being a little bitch. Zoe caught it and reacted.

  “What? I said I’d go, didn’t I? It’s not like there’s anything else to do around here anyway.”

  “I’m sorry you’ve had to come here, Zoe.” Kyle said, “Luckily for you it won’t be for long. Your grandmother is very, very sick, you’ll see that tomorrow.”

  Zoe almost looked ashamed of herself.

  “Well I suppose there’s nothing else to do around here.”

  It was as good as agreement as Kyle could hope for and he left it there. Zoe had finished her food and stood up from the table. She made for the door.

  “Hold up, young lady,” Emma called. “You can clear your plate away before you bugger off.”

  Zoe huffed but did as she was told, before heading upstairs.

  Kyle and Emma continued their conversation and finished up what was on their plates. They were interrupted by a call from upstairs.

  “Dad, what’s the WiFi password?”

  Shit, Kyle thought, he hadn’t sorted out WiFi yet, this wasn’t going to improve an already pissed off teenage girl’s mood.

  “Um, there isn’t one, sweetheart,” Kyle called back. “I’ll get on to someone tomorrow to sort it out.”

  “Fuck! I hate it here!” Zoe yelled.

  Kyle shook his head in disappointment, not with his daughter, but that he’d dragged her there. Emma saw her husband’s look and squeezed his hand in a comforting gesture. Kyle pulled it away and grimaced; the knuckles on his hand were sore. He’d hit Graham with 30-plus years of hatred and that sort of punch was always going to leave a reminder.

  “What is it? Have you hurt your hand?” Emma asked.

  He hadn’t wanted to tell Emma about his run-in with his brother. She didn’t need the extra worry. But Kyle had never lied to his wife and wasn’t going to start now. And so he told her. He told her everything. He told her that the town hadn’t always been quite as shit as it was today, he told her it was Graham’s fault it was in the state it was and he told her about the drugs. Emma didn’t care about the town, she was just worried about her husband.

  “Is this going to be a problem for you? He sounds dangerous?”

  In truth Kyle couldn’t be sure, but that panic in Emma’s voice told him he couldn’t worry her more.

  “I don’t sweat my brother, Angel. He’s a schoolyard bully.”

  Kyle still hadn’t lied to his wife. He just hadn’t elaborated on whether he thought Graham would seek some sort of vengeance.

  Chapter Seven

  As Kyle pulled his car up on the driveway of his mother’s home, he wasn’t aware of the man in the house across the street watching. Ian Davis lived opposite the Gordon family home. He’d made a few quid working for Graham and could afford to make the better part of town his home. He watched as Kyle climbed from the car and opened the back door to let Zoe out. Emma had stepped from the front passenger seat clutching flowers. Ian took as many photos as he could of the family as they made their way from the car to Violet’s front door. Ian hadn’t been entirely sure who these people were when he’d first started snapping, but he’d had a pretty good idea. The fact that Kyle used a key to let himself into the house as good as confirmed that the man he’d seen was Graham’s brother and the two women with him must have been his family.

  There was a strange smell inside the house. It hadn’t bothered Kyle before, but he was more acutely aware of it now that Emma and Zoe were with him. Emma hadn’t acknowledged it, but Zoe had pulled a face as soon as she’d entered the place. But the smell wasn’t Kyle’s biggest concern. He had spent the past 17 years making sure that his daughter had no contact with Frank Gordon and now they were in the same house. Kyle hated it, but he knew what it meant to his mother that Zoe was here and that was all that mattered right now.

  Emma had been all smiles and hugs when she was introduced to Violet. She was great like that, she could put a line of death row inmates facing a firing squad at ease, which wasn’t far away from what she’d done with Violet. Zoe, on the other hand, was very standoffish and had to be gently nudged forward to give her grandmother a kiss. To Kyle’s relief, Frank was nowhere to be seen.

  “Has Debbie been already?” Kyle asked.

  “Yes, you missed her by about twenty minutes,” Violet replied, before joking, “it’s a good job you’re here now Emma, love. I think Debbie has a little crush on our Kyle here.”

  “Oh is that right, mum?” Emma had only been in Violet’s company ten minutes and she was already calling her mum, and it didn’t seem out of place. “Well, I’d better keep an eye on this Debbie woman then.”

  “You should, she’s a bit of a sort,” Violet said, making it obvious she meant exactly the opposite. “No, I shouldn’t mock, she’s been a bloody godsend to me, I can tell you,” Violet got a bit reflective before adding, “She couldn’t half do with losing a few pounds, mind.”

  Kyle could see that his mother and Emma were going to get on like a couple of long-lost friends. As he watched their exchanges, he regretted having kept them apart until now. He looked at his daughter who had positioned herself in the corner as far from everyone as she could and was swiping at the screen on her phone.

  “You OK, Zoe?” he said.

  “Is there a WiFi password here?” she asked, not answering the question.

  “You don’t need that at the moment. You’re here to visit your grandma.”

  Zoe rolled her eyes and thrust her phone down in a way designed to show she wasn’t impressed.

  “She’s not interested in talking to some sick old woman,” Violet said. “She’s a teenager, she wants to be chatting to boys and shopping for clothes, isn’t that right, love?”

  Zoe didn’t speak her reply, but she smiled a genuine smile for the first time since she’d been in Scotland, and so Kyle took that as a good sign. Violet told Zoe the WiFi password, and the smile grew broader and more genuine.

  With the three most important women in Kyle’s life all finding some degree of happiness, he felt something resembling peace for the first time since he’d heard his mother’s news. The peace was short lived, however, as he heard a stirring from upstairs.

  “Is Frank here?” Kyle asked his mother.

  “It sounds like it,” Violet replied, “I haven’t seen him yet today.”

  “We should probably get going,” Kyle said. “I’ll drop the girls home and come back in an hour or so to get you some lunch.”

  Violet and Emma both looked disappointed.

  “I know how you feel about your father, Kyle, but the girls are going to have to meet him sometime.”

  Kyle knew his mother was right, but he didn’t have to like that fact.

  “Look Kyle, we’re here to look after your mother. Your dad lives here too, so meeting him is going to be unavoidable.”

 
It had been Emma’s turn to chip in. They were building a dangerous alliance already. Kyle looked at Emma and then at Zoe, then back to Emma again. The look was saying, I don’t want her in the same room as that man. Emma returned a look that said, I know that but we don’t really have a choice—they knew each other so well. As the silent debate went on Zoe looked excited, which was rare in her parent’s company at any time, and completely unexpected after the past 24 hours. But then what kid wouldn’t be excited, or curious at least about meeting a bona fide gangster. Kyle had never hidden who his father was from his daughter. She’d asked lots of questions growing up, “Why does Grandma live in the screen?” “Where’s Granddad when we speak to Grandma?” Kyle had thought it best to tell her everything. He had hoped that, in doing so, it would make her less keen to meet Frank, but she’d always had a strange curiosity about him. She would ask Violet about him when they spoke on the phone or Skype. She would even ask Kyle to tell her more, despite knowing her father hated the man.

  Before Kyle could decide either way what to do, he had no choice. Frank was in the room. His face beamed as he saw Emma and in particular Zoe.

  “Well hello, ladies, you must be my daughter-in-law and granddaughter. What an absolute pleasure it is to finally meet you both.”

  Frank had been told their names on many occasions, but he’d intentionally addressed them in a way that connected them to him and implied ownership. It was typical of Frank, Kyle thought. Something else that had become apparent since Kyle had been back was that Frank had a drink every day and clearly yesterday had been no different. The alcohol could be smelt on him. Frank didn’t suffer hangovers like normal people, though, he’d become a functioning alcoholic. It was possible he’d already had a drink that morning before leaving the bedroom.