Dangerous Games

by Gillian Godden

  ***

  Elle knew, apart from the boxing club, Antonias’s other love was cars, and these days she knew when he disappeared for hours on end, it was because he was spending time at the garage around the corner, talking with the mechanics.

  He was there that often, they had offered him a weekend job valeting the cars, which he enjoyed.

  Elle knew the owner, so she seized what she saw as a golden opportunity and asked the manager, Wayne, if he would take Antonias on as an apprentice.

  ‘Might as well,’ he said, ‘he’s always here, anyway. Just so long as he goes to college.’

  Jake was still at school, sitting his exams. He had been out with Janice a few more times, but the relationship had dwindled over time. All’s fair in love and war.

  Antonias, Elle thought, looks like a different person, compared with the skinny boy who first came to stay. With all his working out at the gym, he had muscled arms, he filled out his shirtsleeves, and in the summertime, when he purposely wore a tight-fitting T-shirt while working at the garage, the admiring glances from the girls made all the other mechanics call him ‘the stud’.

  ***

  ‘Antony! Antony! Over here, mate.’

  Antonias was having a few beers with Jake and a few friends from college. He looked around the pub crowd, to see who was calling to him. His eyes scanned the room, and then stopped. It was Eddie, who had been in the children’s home with him, all those years ago.

  Antonias excused himself and went over to have a chat with Eddie, who was propping up the bar. He smiled, as he walked towards his old friend. It’s good to see him after all this time, he thought. Eddie looked good, too. He was wearing a suit and tie. He had obviously done well for himself.

  ‘Eddie, mate, how are you?’ Antonias envied his well-turned-out friend. He felt underdressed, in his denim jeans and shirt.

  ‘Doing well, Antony, can’t complain. What are you up to these days? Still a crazy bastard?’ He hugged Antonias. They had been through a lot together, they knew each other’s past lives.

  Antonias didn’t want all his friends knowing he had met Eddie in a children’s home, and so put him on the alert to keep quiet about it, should any of them come over.

  ‘I’m working as an apprentice mechanic, doing well, but obviously not as well as you, by the looks of it. What are you doing?’

  ‘Bit of this, bit of that.’ Eddie winked at him. Antonias wasn’t sure what he meant, and so enquired further.

  He listened as Eddie filled him in on his amazing lifestyle. It sounded glamorous to Antonias, and what was more, Eddie took out his wallet and showed him the contents; it was fat with notes, a full wallet. Wow!

  ‘Went to prison for a while, Antony. Not long, just a year, but in there, I met some guys. They work for the guy who runs the protection racket in the East End pubs.’

  Antonias looked puzzled. He had never heard of anything like that before, he wasn’t sure what Eddie meant.

  ‘It’s like this,’ said Eddie. ‘There’s this guy promises these strip pubs and local boozers protection from any trouble, and in return they pay him. It’s like insurance. On the odd occasion, he makes trouble himself. That way, they pay him more, because they’re frightened, and if they don’t pay, we smash the place up and give the landlord a good beating.’ Eddie grinned. ‘It would be money for old rope for you, you always loved a fight.’

  Antonias couldn’t believe what he was hearing; this was like something out of the movies.

  ‘You get paid for collecting money and beating people up, is that what you’re saying?’

  Antonias found this amazing. Surely it couldn’t be true that all Eddie did was collect money from local striptease clubs and start fights, and he was being paid handsomely for it.

  ‘Sometimes, we get tooled up. Other bosses want to collect money off our turf, and we have to show them who’s boss.’

  ‘You use guns? Come on, Eddie, this is all stories. Tell me the truth, have you got some office job somewhere? This sounds like some gangster movie.’

  Antonias started laughing at Eddie. He’d always been fond of farfetched stories, but this was wild.

  ‘They call it security, Antony. I tell you what, come to that strip club tomorrow night.’ Eddie took out a card with the address on and showed him. ‘I’ll get you in, I’m working the door tomorrow.’

  With that, Eddie left the pub. Antony was thinking about what Eddie had said, he kept going over it in his mind. He decided to go to the club. If nothing else, it would be a different experience – he had never been in a strip club before.

  The next evening, Antonias got himself dressed in a pair of black trousers and a white shirt. He didn’t own a suit, like Eddie, but he wanted to look smart.

  Elle presumed he had a date. He had been seeing Alison, from the bookies, lately, and seemed to like her. She had passed what Jake called the ‘two-week test’; if they made it past that, they were his girlfriend.

  Antonias went alone. He didn’t like leaving Jake, but he wanted to do this by himself. He didn’t know what to expect.

  He looked for the street name that was on the card, and then he heard loud music. He looked towards the pub and, as promised, Eddie stood outside, letting people in.

  ‘Antony, you came.’ Eddie seemed pleased to see him. He shook his hand and introduced him to another guy in a suit, also acting as doorman.

  Antonias felt a little bit intimidated by it all; this was a whole new world to him, for once he didn’t feel so confident and in control.

  Eddie took him inside and pushed through the crowds to the bar. He ordered some drinks, and Antonias noticed he didn’t pay for them. He looked at him.

  ‘Perks of the job, Antony, and so is that.’ He nodded his head towards the stage in the background. There was a woman provocatively taking her clothes off to the music.

  Antonias felt a little embarrassed. He could feel his body stirring at the sight of the nearly naked woman, wearing just stockings and suspenders, rubbing herself in baby oil while the crowd of men watching her cheered.

  ‘Steady on, mate,’ said Eddie, laughing, ‘you’re a bit quick off the trigger.’ He looked down at Antonias’s erection, blatantly growing in his trousers.

  Now Antonias really did feel embarrassed; he blushed and felt a fool. He had seen many a naked girl, but not like this. This was a woman, teasing and bending over in front of the crowd, wiggling her backside provocatively in front of them. Her breasts were full and round, and her legs were shapely. Antonias couldn’t take his eyes off her.

  Eddie was full of bravado, showing off to his friend. He introduced him to more of the guys he knew and then took him into the ladies’ toilets, where there were more strippers getting ready and changing, preparing to go onto the makeshift stage.

  It was tacky, but it was fun. Antonias thought it was great, it was a whole new experience, and he was hooked.

  Suddenly, he heard a glass smash, and Eddie told him to stay at the bar and wait for him to come back.

  Antonias didn’t wait; he was curious, he followed Eddie towards the front doors.

  A fight had broken out. One man had a knife and was waving it about, shouting and threatening everyone. Eddie was telling the man to put the knife down. He kept repeating himself.

  Antonias leapt forward. He hit the man on the chin, took the knife out of his hand, then kicked him hard, in between the legs, for good measure. He turned around and handed the knife to Eddie.

  Eddie took the knife. ‘It’s good to see some things don’t change. Still fearless, eh, Antony?’ He slapped Antonias on the back and led him back into the pub, then got him a drink.

  Antonias seemed to be the hero of the evening. Eddie encouraged a couple of strippers to come and meet his friend. They stood next to him at the bar, wearing only their underwear. They took out their breasts, and teased him, laughing at his instant reaction.

  Damn! Antonias thought to himself. If he were to come here again, he would have to learn to
control his body.

  ‘You’re a pretty boy.’ One of the strippers reached up and put her hands through his thick mane of blonde hair and held it.

  Antonias looked behind her, where Eddie stood. Eddie winked at him and gave him the thumbs up.

  Antonias had had enough of hiding his excitement. He put his hand out and started stroking the stripper’s breasts. She didn’t stir or try to stop him; again, he looked at Eddie.

  Eddie pointed to the gents in the corner, and mouthed to him, ‘In there, Antony.’

  Antonias took her hand and started to lead her away from the bar. She followed him, and once inside the gents, went down on her knees and undid the zip on his trousers. She performed oral sex on him, something Antonias hadn’t experienced before, and it nearly blew his head off.

  Afterwards, he went back towards the bar, where Eddie was standing. The grin on his face said it all. ‘That’s another perk of the job,’ he said.

  Antonias thought this was the best place on earth, and that Eddie was a lucky sod. He would definitely be back again.

  ***

  Antonias became a frequent visitor to the pub, partly to see Eddie, but most of all to see Caroline.

  Each time he went there, he would look for her, and she would eventually go over to him, after speaking to the punters who paid her wages.

  Caroline always said her farewells to Antonias in a sexual way. She wasn’t one of the modest schoolgirls he had dated. Caroline liked sex, and in her experienced hands he learnt an awful lot.

  Antonias still dated Alison on the side. He could only see Caroline on a weekend, so he needed something to do on the other days of the week! Alison was nice enough, but lacked the knowledge and the willingness to try different things.

  Caroline had invited him to her house one night, and he had willingly gone – and what a night it was.

  She knew all kinds of different positions, she liked being tied up and knew all kinds of different games. Antonias was besotted with her, he couldn’t get enough of her. He would turn up on a Saturday night, bursting with excitement, taking Caroline a bottle of her favourite perfume or some other gift he could afford. She was worth it; he had even borrowed money from Jake to buy her things.

  ‘Where do you go every Saturday, Antony?’ asked Jake, one night. ‘You’re always late home and you never say anything. I thought we were brothers.’

  Antonias felt guilty he had kept this secret from Jake, and so he sat on the edge of the bed and told him everything, giving him details that shocked Jake. Antonias was grinning broadly; it made him feel like a man.

  The more shocked Jake looked, the more Antonias boasted about his sexual rendezvous with Caroline.

  ‘Can I come with you, Antony? I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that,’ Jake said.

  Antonias said he would ask Eddie for next week, and maybe he would set Jake up with someone.

  ***

  When Antonias next got to the club and tried to have a word with Eddie, he found his friend was preoccupied.

  ‘You’d better leave, Antony, there’s going to be big trouble tonight, we’re expecting things to kick off.’ Eddie looked up and down the street.

  Antonias was puzzled; Eddie looked nervous and agitated, which wasn’t like him. Even so, Antonias had waited a week to see Caroline, and he wasn’t going home now.

  ‘What’s going on, Eddie? Can I help?’ Antonias was desperate to get through the doors; Eddie was standing outside with one of the other ‘security’ men, and they both seemed on the lookout.

  ‘Bossman’s turf is the East End. All the bosses have their own turf, but our boss has been scamming some of the South London lot and they’re not happy about it. In short, there’s going to be a turf war, and I don’t want you getting hurt. At least we’ve got protection.’

  Eddie put his arm into his jacket and pulled out a gun from his pocket, Antonias was shocked, he had never seen one this close up before; in fact, he’d only ever seen one on TV or in the movies.

  ‘I’m staying with you,’ Antonias said. ‘You’re my mate, and you never know, maybe I can help.’

  Eddie stared at him. Antony had always been a crazy bastard, maybe he could help. He nodded.

  ‘On your head be it. Just remember, I never asked you to stay.’

  Antonias was prepared to take his chances; at least if he stuck around, he might be able to get in to see Caroline. Surely, she would be wondering where he was by now, he was never late.

  Antonias was not prepared for what happened next. He’d thought Eddie was exaggerating, with all his talk about turf wars, but he wasn’t.

  Two cars sped towards them, driving up onto the pavement and screeching to a halt. Three tall black men carrying baseball bats jumped out of the cars. They weren’t shouting or arguing, they looked like they meant business.

  Antonias saw Eddie reach into his pocket and knew he was getting ready for the fight, getting ready to take out his gun.

  The three men told Eddie and the other security guy to get out of their way, and tried to push them aside, so they could get into the pub. Antonias could see that, for all Eddie’s bravado, he was scared, and who wouldn’t be?

  Eddie took out his gun and pointed it at one of the men. ‘Just fuck off or I’ll use this,’ he shouted.

  The music blaring out from the inside was drowning out the argument taking place outside. The three black men laughed at Eddie and his friend. ‘You amateurs make me sick!’ said one of them. ‘Get out of my way and go home to Mummy.’

  Eddie fired the gun, but the man moved out of the way and Eddie missed. Antonias reckoned he was such a crap shot, he would probably have missed anyway.

  The man took hold of his baseball bat and raised it. He was just about to bring it down hard, on Eddie, when Antonias leapt forward. He grabbed the man’s wrist and held it tight, shaking his arm so he dropped the bat.

  The other men started hitting the other security guy; blow after blow they rained down on him with their bats. Eddie seemed to freeze; he looked at his friend on the ground, covered in blood, and then at Antonias.

  Antonias pulled back his arm and slammed his fist into the face of the man he was holding by the arm. Again and again, he punched him, until he fell to the ground, then Antonias started kicking him.

  Eddie held his gun out and shot at one of the two men who were hitting his friend. The man fell to the ground. He was covered in blood; Eddie had shot him in the stomach and it was obvious he was dying.

  The other black man stopped beating the security guy on the ground and turned to see who had shot his friend. Eddie hit him, and the man headbutted Eddie in return. Eddie had his hands to his face. The man grabbed hold of Antonias’s shirt, ripping it. He pulled Antonias towards him, and punched him hard in the face.

  Antonias saw stars for a moment and felt blood dripping from his nose. He wiped it with his sleeve.

  ‘Here, Antony!’ Eddie threw a baseball bat towards Antonias.

  Antonias caught it and swung it through the air, bringing it down hard on his assailant’s head and neck. He watched as the man staggered back and fell to the ground. Antonias saw him hold up his hands; he was screaming in pain, and begging Antonias to stop.

  Antonias held up the bat to take another swing. ‘Now who are the fucking amateurs?’ he shouted at the man on the ground.

  Suddenly, Antonias felt arms grab him from behind and hold him back. Someone was pulling him away. There were more than two people behind him, because there were two pairs of arms around his waist and another pair of hands holding his arm, with the bat in it.

  He heard men’s voices behind him. ‘Enough!’ someone said. ‘Enough, do you hear me? Stop it, now.’

  Breathing heavily, Antonias dropped the bat, then looked at Eddie, who had his hand up, indicating he should stop.

  Antonias didn’t want to stop. He was angry and all fired up, and then suddenly he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel at his temple.

  ‘I said, enough, calm down. I’m
going to lower the gun now and if you turn to hit me, I’ll shoot you. No questions asked, okay?’

  Antonias nodded. He knew on this occasion he was beaten, but he was also confused: why weren’t the men behind him hitting him?

  Antonias controlled his breathing. He looked up at Eddie, and saw a short stocky man, dressed in a suit and tie, standing beside him. He looked around fifty, maybe more. The man was smoking a cigarette and looking at Antonias.

  The man turned towards Eddie. ‘Put the dead one in the back of the car, and drive them all over to the south side where they belong, then clean this mess up.’ He dropped his cigarette and ground it out with his foot, then looked back at Antonias. ‘You, come and see me when you’ve cleaned up.’ With that, he turned and walked back into the pub.

  The other security guy was just about beaten to death, but he was breathing.

  Antonias and Eddie put the dead guy into the boot of the car, along with the other two. They were covered in blood, and half unconscious.

  Before he closed the boot, Antonias lowered his head to ear of the man he had just hit with the baseball bat.

  ‘Tell whoever your friends are, no one fucks with Antony Lambrianu, got it?’ Antonias raised his head and waited for some acknowledgement, to show the man had heard him.

  The black man, his face bloodied, nodded at Antonias and then passed out.

  A couple of the bar staff came out. They were holding buckets of soapy water, and threw them on the pavement to wash away some of the blood.

  Antonias saw Eddie’s gun lying discarded on the ground. He looked around to see if anyone was watching him, then quickly picked it up and put it into the waistband of his trousers.

  ‘Phew, thanks for your help, Antony,’ said Eddie. He looked around, in a daze. ‘I can’t believe I killed that guy.’ Eddie was visibly shaking. His face was white, and Antonias watched him as he turned to a corner of the wall and vomited. Eddie wiped his mouth with his sleeve and turned to Antonias. ‘Come on, I need a large drink, and you need to clean up before you meet the boss.’

  Antonias was just about to push the pub doors open. He stopped and turned to Eddie. ‘The boss? What are you talking about?’