by Alex Kane
‘You’ve got a good work ethic. You know how to get shit done and I know you’re loyal. I’m expanding my business; the market is growing because demand is higher. You’ve good connections and I want you to run my shit up here. Organise runs, set up teams who will move my drugs around, up and down the country and that. I’m in with some of the high-end suppliers up here in Glasgow and they asked if I could get someone to manage the hubs up here and I thought of you.’ Cole took a sip from his pint, regarding Jake through narrow eyes. Of course he’d put Jake forward. He always knew that his involvement with Cole would come back to haunt him one day.
‘When you say “up and down the country”?’ Jake asked.
‘Like the job you did for me back in London. You get a team together – although try to hang fire on shagging any of them. I wouldn’t wanna have to be in a situation where I have to sort things out for you again.’ Cole laughed loudly.
Jake held his tongue. If Cole was going to be around for a while, he’d have to bite his tongue at every little dig.
‘Right, I get it.’ He gritted his teeth, hating that Cole had dirt on him and so had a lifelong way to blackmail him.
‘So, who’re the connections then?’ Jake asked, wondering what kind of potential trouble this could lead to. At the same time, he was thinking about the money that could be made from this. Cole wasn’t lying when he said he’d paid Jake well. Tens of thousands for the runs and an extra bonus for ensuring the police were none the wiser.
‘Nah mate, no can do.’ Cole shook his head.
‘Cole, if I’m going to do this, I need to know who the bigwigs are. You’ve got to remember that I run my own production line, so if I’m going to be in this with you, using someone else’s product, then I need to know who I’m getting involved with.’
Cole hesitated. ‘You’re stuff is recreational, eh?’
Jake nodded.
‘Well, these guys are of the hard stuff. You know, crack, heroin. That sort of thing. It involves big money, a good pay out for both of us. All you have to do is get a team of lads, girls, whoever together and I give you the jobs. They do the runs and we all get paid. Simple as fucking that. You arranged the job for me last time and it worked a fucking treat, Jake. I need you on my team.’
Jake considered his options. He had none. If he refused to work with Cole, he could make his life a living nightmare. Jake wouldn’t put it past him. He and Roxanne didn’t need the money from the job Cole was proposing, but Jake needed to protect Roxanne from the awful truth and Cole would expose it. Not only that, but he would tell Roxanne every little detail.
‘How’s that fine lady of yours doing? Still in the nick?’ Cole asked, as if reading Jake’s mind.
‘She gets out tomorrow.’
Cole’s eyes lit up upon hearing that. ‘Good. That was another thing I was going to tell you. I want her at the front of the operation. From what I’ve heard, that Roxanne is a bit of a fox, knows her shit and how to get the job done. Just a shame she got put away, but I’m not going to let that part worry me.’
Jake didn’t like the way Cole was referring to Roxanne. ‘Nah, she’s not even out yet and when she does get out, she’ll be on probation.’
‘Jakey boy, don’t get yourself all twisted about something that can be so simple,’ Cole said, disregarding what Jake had just said. ‘I want to put this to both of you. So, I think you should introduce me to her before we go any further with this. Think of the money involved. It’ll be life-changing for you both.’
Life-changing? Did he think Jake and Roxanne were on the poverty line or something? Jake wanted to knock him out just for his sheer cockiness. But at the same time, he knew that Cole spoke the truth. And he knew that Roxanne would be on board. She’d be craving getting back into things once she was out. In fact, Jake strongly suspected that Roxanne would be more into this than he was, probation or not.
Chapter Nineteen
Twenty-four hours. That was all she had left to serve in Kirktonhill. Needless to say, it was the slowest day of her life, but all she kept thinking about was getting out, seeing Jake. She’d missed him a lot, more than she’d thought she would. She’d learned to live with his absence but that didn’t mean she could do it again. Roxanne vowed never to allow herself to get into a situation that would land her back in a place like Kirktonhill. Well, not one that would leave her open to getting caught.
It had been a godsend that Jake was able to pay off the prison officers. It was thanks to his cash and their discretion that Roxanne basically got to do what she wanted, when she wanted, even inside. Having her own mobile phone in her cell so that she could contact Jake regularly had proved most helpful. She still had a hand in things, and Jake still consulted her on business decisions. Not that she didn’t trust him. He’d never given her cause to think badly of him. Ever since she’d been put away, Jake had continued to bring in the business, generate their income and he’d done a good job. Now that her release was just hours away, Roxanne couldn’t help but feel a ball of anxiety settle in the depths of her stomach. What was life as a free woman going to be like? She’d been locked up for ten years. To most people that wasn’t very long but to someone who’d become institutionalised, it may as well have equated to a hundred years. The only reason she knew half the stuff that went on was because she’d had her mobile; her only link to the outside world, a tiny phone. Her daily routine was going to change, but Roxanne was sure that her body clock would remain the same. Lights out at ten, lights on at six. She’d have to try to reprogramme herself, so that she could fit back into life as Roxanne McPhail, gangster, not prisoner.
Her new friendship with Arabella was partly what had kept her going for the last stretch of her sentence, and it had been painful to watch her come and go so quickly. They’d been in touch via text message since she’d been released and it made Roxanne smile to think that their friendship could last on the outside. Arabella was a good girl. A little messed up to say the least, but reliable, trustworthy. She’d done time for something that wasn’t really her fault; Roxanne could see that in her the minute she’d walked through the door. There really wasn’t a bad bone in her body.
The phone in her hand began to vibrate and Roxanne glanced down at it. It was Jake. He’d be calling to arrange to collect her tomorrow. Relishing the thought of having her freedom again, Roxanne smiled.
‘Oi, McPhail. Make it a quick one, eh? I’m due on my break,’ the male prison officer said. He was standing at the door to her cell with his back to her. Normally that kind of attitude would stir up an anger in her belly. She wanted to comment that he must be feeling annoyed that as of tomorrow, his ‘bonus’ would stop. But she chose to keep quiet. She would not start any shit. Not today.
Pressing the accept call button, Roxanne raised the phone to her ear. ‘Jake?’
‘How you doing, babe? Your last day dragging?’ Jake asked.
Roxanne shook her head. ‘It’s not bad. So, you picking me up tomorrow?’
There was a pause and Roxanne instantly felt uneasy. Jake was never quiet, never left a question unanswered.
‘Jake?’
‘Aye, of course I’m picking you up.’
‘What’s wrong?’
Jake sighed on the other end of the line and Roxanne felt the unease begin to rise in her stomach.
‘Nothing’s wrong, so to speak. We just didn’t seem to make as much cash on the operation as we thought.’
Roxanne sat down on the chair next to her bed. ‘Why not, Jake?’
‘Some of the security tags burst.’
She nodded, knowing full well what that meant. ‘How much merch was lost?’
‘About eighty percent.’ She listened as Jake sucked air in through his teeth. ‘But don’t worry, it was a one-off and things are fine, business-wise. You have nothing to be concerned about. There’s been a development, an old business associate of mine down south has been in touch and he’s offered us a business opportunity.’
‘What kind o
f opportunity?’
‘He wants to speak to you face to face. So when I pick you up tomorrow, we’ll be going to meet him.’
‘Who is this guy?’ Roxanne asked. She didn’t like these kinds of things being thrown at her out of the blue.
‘His name is Cole Woods,’ Jake said, sounding hesitant. It was as if he knew she wasn’t going to like this.
‘Cole Woods, as in thee Cole Woods? The biggest supplier of drugs from London?’ Roxanne closed her eyes momentarily. ‘Are you fucking insane, Jake? That guy is a nut job. Have you heard the stories circulating about him?’
‘Was the biggest. He left to go to Spain, and has only just come back.’
Roxanne raised a brow. ‘Even so, he’s still a nutter.’
‘Oh come on, Rox, people probably called you the same thing when you went away. Every gangster from here to the moon has a story or two floating around about them. And the reason those stories began is because he was dividing his time between living and working in London and abroad. Folk were saying that he was laying low overseas. It’s all just bullshit,’ Jake said.
‘You hope,’ Roxanne replied.
‘Look, he’s no more a saint than us and the rest of our connections here in the city, Rox. We’re just meeting him to discuss things. It’s not like I’ve signed anything.’
Roxanne sighed heavily. If Jake was in front of her, face to face right now, she was sure she’d knock him out. Cole Woods wasn’t someone she wanted to get mixed up with, not unless she knew the exact scope of the business arrangement. And definitely not until she was the one in charge. It was a good thing that she was getting out the next day. As much as she loved and trusted Jake, she wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle this quite as efficiently as she would. Jake was the man you wanted in charge of the shoplifting operations. This new business opportunity could be anything from selling weed to being hired to shoot someone where Woods was concerned.
‘Jake, why would you contact him of all people?’
‘I didn’t. He phoned me. If he didn’t think he could put good business our way then he wouldn’t have bothered to contact me at all.’
‘Oh so he’s our guardian fucking angel now?’ Roxanne hissed, although she heard a slight hesitation in his tone.
‘Rox, just chill out, eh? I’m just focusing on seeing you tomorrow. Anything after that can get dealt with at the time.’
Hanging up, Roxanne stuffed the phone back into her pocket and wished she could turn the clocks forward by one day so she could get out of here and see what Woods had to offer them. She wasn’t scared of Cole by any means; she knew she would be able to handle him, especially on her patch. However, Cole was good at manipulating a situation to suit his own needs. Roxanne wasn’t in the mood to be manipulated. She’d spent the last ten years stuck in Kirktonhill, allowing Jake to run things in her absence. She didn’t want Cole Woods to step on her toes the second she got out.
‘Enjoy your last day of luxury living, Rox,’ the officer standing by the door said with a sarcastic grin.
Smiling in return, Roxanne thought about what she might be faced with when she got out. The thought turned her stomach. Was she truly ready to get back into that life of crime, the life that she’d fallen into after she’d come back from the disaster that was Spain? She didn’t know how else to live her life, how else to be. She couldn’t exactly go legit, not now after all this time. Not now she and Jake had money behind them. There was no such thing as wealth when you worked a minimum wage job. Who in their right mind would give someone like her a job after her time at Kirktonhill? No one, that’s who and she would need something to keep money rolling in. What they had already wouldn’t last forever if they kept spending but not replacing.
It didn’t matter what reservations Roxanne had, she had no choice. The only thing she was sure of was that this time around, she would get people to do the dirty work for her. No more stamping on bodies to get them to pay up. If she was to be certain never to end up behind bars again, then she would have to keep her name out of the mud. They’d have to take on more people to do the deals. All Roxanne wanted was to stay out of prison and get on with her life. As tough as she was, she couldn’t go back to prison. She may be free again tomorrow, but she only knew this life. It was like an addiction; once you started you couldn’t stop. But Roxanne knew how to stay out of prison now. Don’t get caught.
Chapter Twenty
Arabella looked up at the sign above the large window of the salon and couldn’t help but smile. She couldn’t believe that Eddie had actually bought her a fully functioning salon. Just a few weeks ago, she had been in prison and now she was her own boss.
‘You like?’ Eddie asked, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.
‘I love it,’ she replied.
Getting out of the car, Arabella allowed Eddie to lead her across the road and into the salon. A woman in what Arabella guessed to be her mid-thirties greeted them at the front desk with a smile. She was the manager, according to the embroidered tag on her pink tunic.
‘Arabella MacQueen?’ the woman asked and Arabella nodded. ‘I’m Scarlett, the manager here. It’s nice to meet you.’
Arabella didn’t know what to say. She was staring into the eyes of the manager of the salon and realised that she and Eddie were now this woman’s employers, along with the rest of the staff here. Was she ready to become an employer? Someone who would be relied on every month to pay the wages, order the supplies, keep the place and staff in professional order?
‘It’s nice to meet you, Scarlett.’
‘Scarlett,’ Eddie interjected. ‘I want you to go over everything with Arabella. How the salon operates, introduce her to the staff. She should know the ins and outs of it all. No detail left out.’
Scarlett was nodding, her eyes fixed on Eddie. ‘Of course, Mr Corrigan.’ There was a hint of sarcasm to Scarlett’s tone and Arabella was beginning to wonder if the girl already felt like her toes were being trodden on. The tone, along with the narrowed eyes, dispersed as quickly as it had come. At that, Eddie disappeared through to the back of the salon and Arabella watched him go.
A rush of excitement caused a flutter in Arabella’s stomach. Finally, she was going to have something in her life that belonged to her, something that she could be in control of and that would better her life.
‘Come on, I’ll show you around so you can see how I run things,’ Scarlett said, moving through to the back in the same direction in which Eddie had gone. Arabella stood still and looked around, taking in her new surroundings. As much as she was qualified to do the job, she didn’t exactly possess the experience to do it well. The apprehension of getting to grips with everything so quickly was overwhelming.
‘Arabella?’ Scarlett pressed.
‘Sorry,’ Arabella replied, smiling at the manager and following her.
Passing a few female stylists and two male, Arabella watched as they chatted at ease with their clients as they coloured, trimmed and blow-dried their hair.
‘You’re a qualified stylist?’ Scarlett asked. ‘Is that why you bought the place from Rory?’
Arabella didn’t want to look stupid. Eddie hadn’t told her a thing about the sale, or where the idea had even come from. So instead, she nodded. ‘Yes.’
Arabella had gained a level three in hairdressing back in college a long time ago. She hadn’t used her skills in years, other than trimming Roxanne’s hair while they were inside. And just because she had the basics didn’t mean that she was capable of running a salon.
‘But I don’t do it anymore. I like the business side of things,’ she lied.
Moving to the back of the salon, Arabella eyed four porcelain sinks in a row, with black leather lounge chairs in front of them. Mirrors lined the right side of the wall, with more of the same chairs in front of each one. Each chair had its own styling station and Arabella felt the familiar ache of standing on her feet for hours on end as she remembered her first job as a salon junior. Endless hours o
f sweeping floors and making cups of tea. Nowadays, she felt that was all she would be good at in a place like this. The salon was clearly high end, based on its décor and the fact that the place was serving champagne in ice buckets next to the clients’ chairs.
‘So,’ Arabella started, trying to distract herself from the self-doubting and self-loathing thoughts circulating inside her head. ‘Tell me what it is that you do here on a daily basis, Scarlett.’
Scarlett smiled and Arabella watched as she drew back her shoulders a little, as if she was getting ready to deliver the biggest and most important speech of her life. A slight feeling of envy prodded Arabella in the chest as she listened to Scarlett proudly explaining the job she did. She didn’t own the place but it was clear to see that Scarlett could have become the owner if she’d wanted to. She carried herself with such assurance and not in a cocky way.
‘I take care of the day-to-day running of the place,’ she said. ‘I take bookings, order in the supplies, do wages and pretty much hire in new stylists when we need them.’
It didn’t sound like much, perhaps not as difficult as she had thought? But Arabella was in no position to judge anyone on the job they did. She had just come out of prison, and had a business bought for her. Most people struggled to get a job after being released. This had fallen into Arabella’s lap.
‘Sounds like you’re a great manager. Can I ask, Scarlett, why you didn’t buy this place over yourself?’
Scarlett let out a laugh but Arabella knew it wasn’t in humour. ‘Being a salon manager, single mum and paying nursery fees doesn’t leave a lot of spare time or cash to get a business loan.’
‘Oh, you have a child?’
‘Two. A three-year-old and a sixteen-month-old. Both boys and both drive me nuts.’
Arabella gave Scarlett’s figure a sneaky glance. Two kids under the age of four and she had a body like that? How had she become single so soon after having the second baby? She chose not to ask.
‘What’s your secret?’ Arabella smiled and Scarlett laughed.
