by Caz Finlay
‘Who else are we picking up?’ Michael asked Connor as the van sped along the road, jostling the five men in the back up and down.
Connor grinned at him. ‘Didn’t he tell you?’
‘Who? Tell me what?’
‘Uncle Sean,’ Connor replied.
‘What didn’t Sean tell me?’ Michael asked with a frown. Sean was his brother, two years older than him, and they had always been as thick as the proverbial thieves. They’d had a good operation going, back in the day, and had been unstoppable. They had taken down anyone who stood in their way, and with his brother by his side Michael had felt invincible. But that had been a long time ago, before they had got themselves involved with Nathan Conlon, Grace’s ex-husband and Jake’s father, whose greed and ego had ended up in them all getting sent down for a long stretch. But as soon as Sean had finished that sentence eleven years ago, he had promised his wife Sophia that he’d go legit, for the sake of her and their three children. And apart from a few occasions when he’d taken a momentary hiatus from retirement, he had kept that promise, opening up a string of restaurants with Grace’s help and becoming a successful businessman.
Jake put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. ‘He’s coming with us.’ Jake said with a flash of his eyebrows.
‘Sean?’ Michael said.
‘Yep. When he heard we were visiting Parnell, he said he wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
Michael smiled. It was always good to have his brother by his side. A few months earlier, Sean had come along when he and Grace had dealt with Alastair McGrath, a gangster from Essex, who had tried to muscle in on their business and fuck Grace over. Michael had seen the fire in Sean’s eyes when they had taken down the rival firm, and he’d wondered if his brother was getting a taste for action again.
Ten minutes later, Michael grinned as Sean climbed into the back of the transit van and sat beside him.
‘All right, bro?’ Sean asked.
‘I am now. Although I’m surprised to see you here. Does Sophia know where you are?’
‘I told her I was helping you and the boys out with a problem. I didn’t go into the specifics.’
‘She’ll have your nuts if she finds out what kind of problem you’re helping us with,’ Michael said.
Sean laughed. ‘What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. So you’d better make sure I get home in one piece then, hadn’t you?’
Chapter Three
Joey Parnell was putting the day’s earnings into the safe when he heard the commotion in the car park outside. Instinctively, he reached for the metal bar which he kept beside his desk. Joey and his firm had been making waves in recent weeks, and he knew it was only a matter of time before the Carters pushed back. Well, this time he would be ready for them. He’d assembled himself a small but loyal crew of lads, who were more than willing to help him take back what was rightfully his. There had been a time when Joey had run the most successful security business in Liverpool, until Michael and Sean Carter had set in motion a chain of events that had ended up destroying his business and putting most of his workforce in the hospital or in the nick. Well, now it was payback time.
‘Lads,’ Joey shouted into the back room. ‘Get out here, and bring your fucking weapon of choice with you. We’ve got company.’ He smiled as eight of his best soldiers bounced out of the back room armed with baseball bats and machetes. ‘You ready for this?’ he asked them.
They nodded and grunted in response. Each of them had their own axe to grind with Jake Conlon or the Carter family. They stood in wait as they listened to the footsteps of Conlon and Carter’s men running up the short flight of wooden steps. He and his lads would send them all packing with a few broken bones and a message that they were not to be fucked with. A few seconds later, the door burst open and Joey recognised John Brennan enter the room, closely followed by Luke and Danny. Joey smiled. He’d been expecting them now that they were the Carters’ new muscle. A pair of arrogant little pricks who had been getting too big for their boots since they’d been taken on by Grace and Michael. But Joey knew where they came from and despite them walking around the city like they now fucking owned the place, he knew they were really a couple of pretenders to the throne. They didn’t seem to realise they were simply cannon fodder to the Carters, who no longer deemed themselves worthy of getting their hands dirty.
Joey ran his hand up and down the metal bar as he glared at Luke Sullivan. He was about to show the little fucker exactly who he was. More bodies started to pour into the office and Joey looked up to see who they had brought for backup. He frowned as he saw it was Jake Conlon and Connor Carter. What were they doing there? He’d been assured that they preferred to stay out of the action these days. But if Joey was surprised at their presence in the room, he almost shat his pants when he saw the unmistakeable figures of Michael and Sean Carter walk through the door. Sean was last in and he closed the heavy iron door and bolted it behind him.
Joey swallowed as he looked around the room at the assembled men, all of whom were tooled up and carrying a bat or some sort of cosh. All except Michael Carter anyway. Joey glanced behind him at his crew who were equally armed and equally dangerous, at least he hoped they were. It also brought him some small comfort as he realised that he outnumbered the Carter firm, if only by two men. And as well as that, Michael was unarmed – wasn’t he? It was only when Michael raised his fists that Joey saw the glint of the knuckledusters on them and his heart almost packed in. Michael stared directly at him. ‘What the fuck do you think you’re playing at making a move on our doors?’ he snarled.
‘They were my doors long before they were yours, gob-shite,’ Joey snarled back. There was no way he was going to show any weakness. That was what the Carters and their ilk thrived on. Besides, if they played their cards right, maybe Joey and his men could give the Carters and their firm a run for their money. Sean and Michael hadn’t been in the thick of the action for years and John Brennan was approaching fifty. Joey’s men were all young and fit. Suddenly he felt sure they could take them on and send them packing.
‘Gob-shite?’ Michael asked with a flash of his eyebrows as he turned to Sean. ‘Did Joey Parnell just call me a gob-shite?’
‘I believe he did,’ Sean replied. ‘Cheeky fucker, aint he? Do you think he’s forgotten about that night we found him banging that stripper?’
Joey blanched as he felt the bile rising in his throat. That had been the night that had ended his previous career. How was he to have known that the bird he’d been knocking off was Nathan Conlon’s favourite bit on the side? Michael and Sean had been in league with Conlon back then and they had kicked seven shades of shit out of him. Not content that this was punishment enough, they’d told Conlon all about it too and Joey had been blackballed from working in every decent club in Liverpool. It had been the beginning of the end for him. The memory left a bitter taste in his mouth and ignited a fire in his belly.
‘I fucking remember. You cunts!’ Joey spat. ‘Come on, lads,’ he snarled as he lunged for Michael with the steel bar. Michael was still fast for a man in his forties and he ducked. Joey stumbled forward and looked up to see Michael’s iron-clad fist barrelling towards his face. The force of the impact knocked Joey onto his arse. He barely had time to process the ringing in his ears when a second blow connected with his jaw and he heard the sickening crunch of bone as he was sparked flat out onto the floor. He tasted the blood in his mouth and began to cough as it trickled down his throat. He glanced up to see Michael coming for him again, but thankfully one of Joey’s own men, Col, ran over and swung his bat towards Michael’s head. Missing, he struck him across the back instead, but Michael stood up as though he’d been barely touched and he started laying into young Col until he too slumped to the floor and stopped moving altogether. Rolling onto his side, Joey looked around the room to see his men being overrun by the Carter firm – as though there were dozens of them in the room rather than just seven. He felt the throbbing in his temple and face intensify as
the room started to spin. Joey closed his eyes and soon the shouts and screams of the men in his office started to fade until he slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter Four
Michael stepped out of the changing room of Eric’s gym, freshly showered and in a clean set of clothes. He handed the holdall in his hand to Jack ‘Murf’ Murphy with a nod of thanks.
‘Everything in here?’ Murf asked as he scanned the sea of faces.
The men nodded. While Jake, John, Luke and Danny had headed straight to The Blue Rooms to get cleaned up, Michael, along with Connor, Sean and Murf, had made their way to Eric’s gym to use the showers and changing rooms. They often used the place for such occasions and Eric never asked questions. He had given Connor and Jake a spare key each to use the gym whenever they needed to. In turn, Eric was well looked after, both financially and from any chancers who might try and take the piss out of a man who, while still hard as nails, was pushing seventy. Whereas Jake and the lads could get away with a quick clean-up at the club, Michael, Connor and Sean had kids at home and it just didn’t feel right walking into their family home covered in someone else’s blood. John and Murf had accompanied the respective groups because it was their job to make sure that any weapons, bloodstained clothes or any other incriminating evidence was cleaned or appropriately disposed of.
‘Thanks, Murf,’ Michael said as he approached Connor and Sean.
‘No problem, Boss. I’ll sort these now.’ He disappeared out of the back door.
‘Well, do I look presentable?’ Sean asked as he held out his arms.
‘Yes,’ Michael replied with a grin. ‘But I’m pretty sure Sophia will notice that you’re going home in tracksuit bottoms and a T-shirt when you left in jeans and a completely different top.’
Sean shook his head. ‘She’ll be fine. She knows I was out with you. She’ll be pissed off with me, but she won’t ask too many questions.’
‘If you say so, bro,’ Michael said with a laugh. Sean’s wife Sophia was renowned for her fiery Italian temper and he wasn’t quite as convinced that she wouldn’t rip his older brother a new one when she realised what he’d been up to.
Connor laughed too. ‘I think you’re going to be sleeping in the spare room for a week,’ he said.
‘What? No!’ Sean insisted. ‘She’ll be fine. But let’s get going, eh?’
The three men laughed as they started to head to the back door of the gym. Michael put an arm around Connor’s shoulder. ‘So, how’s that beautiful grandson of mine doing?’ he asked.
Connor’s face broke into a huge grin. ‘Oh, he’s ace, Dad. He smiles all the time, and he’s started laughing at this song Jazz sings him. He’s so fucking cute.’
Michael smiled at his son. His grandson Paul was just over three months old and Michael loved to see his son so happy. A few hours after Paul’s birth, there had been some complications with Jazz, she’d lost a lot of blood and had almost died. But the doctors had responded quickly and had saved her life, ensuring that she’d suffered no lasting consequences. But her ordeal had seemed to bring her and Connor even closer and they were planning their wedding for the following year.
‘He looks just like you and Paul when you were babies,’ Michael said as he felt a wave of sadness wash over him. Connor’s twin, Paul, had been murdered twelve months earlier and his loss still hit Michael like a sledgehammer at unexpected moments.
‘I know. He looks just like him,’ Connor said quietly.
Michael pulled his son towards him and kissed the top of his head. ‘I can’t wait to see him and Jazz tomorrow then. You’re still coming for dinner, aren’t you?’
‘Course we are. When do we ever miss a Sunday roast?’ he said.
Michael said goodbye to Connor and Sean and climbed into his car as he prepared to head home. Joey Parnell and his boys had all been given a good hiding and would be licking their wounds for a while. Luke and Danny had suggested a more permanent solution to their Joey problem, but Michael had convinced them otherwise. After Jake and Connor had been arrested for murder a few months earlier, he was much more cautious about the way they dealt with their enemies. You couldn’t just wipe out a new firm and not expect the plod to start sniffing around. Grace had managed to get DI Moss on side, but Michael didn’t quite trust her. Once a copper, always a copper. And it wasn’t like she was bent like the ones they had on their payroll. No, she was only on their side because she owed Grace a debt. Grace said that it was a better reason, because she wasn’t motivated by money. Anyone who was willing to sell their morals and principles down the river for a few grand every month couldn’t be relied on to remain loyal, in her opinion. However, someone who owed you their life, or the life of someone they loved, would remain loyal in the face of even the most difficult situations – and in DI Leigh Moss’s case, she owed Grace both. Michael wasn’t quite sure yet which side of the argument he agreed with, but he supposed that only time would tell.
Michael turned up the radio as he drove through the streets of Liverpool. He noticed it was almost seven and he would just about make it home in time to help Grace with Belle and Oscar’s baths. At five and one, they were a handful together, and now they’d added a dog to the mix. He smiled as he thought about the home he was on his way to. Only five years earlier, he would have hardly believed it was possible. He’d been married to his second wife, Hannah, and had been thoroughly miserable. Not that any of that was Hannah’s fault – she was a good woman, attractive, kind and funny, but he had never loved her. She had been a rebound fling after Grace had rejected him years before. He had liked Hannah as soon as he’d met her. They’d got on well together and he had stupidly convinced himself that he would fall in love with her if he tried hard enough, and then he would forget about Grace. Except of course, that could never work. He still felt guilty about the whole thing. Hannah had wanted children but he had told her he didn’t, then he’d gone on to have two with Grace – one of whom was conceived while he was still married. He swallowed and shook his head. As far as he’d heard, Hannah had remarried too and was expecting her first child. It gave him some comfort to know that she was happy now at least.
His thoughts returned to Grace and their kids and he realised he was driving with a huge smile on his face.
Chapter Five
Grace closed the door to Belle’s bedroom and crept past Oscar’s room before heading down the stairs where Michael was in the kitchen making dinner. Walking up behind him, she slipped her arms around his waist and laid her head against his shoulder. His shirt felt cool against her warm skin.
‘That smells good,’ she said as she inhaled. ‘You smell good too,’ she added as she planted a kiss on his neck. He’d showered before he came home and put on fresh clothes. She’d been bathing Belle and Oscar when he’d arrived home and hadn’t had a chance to ask him how things had gone at Joey Parnell’s yard. But the fact that, apart from some bruised knuckles, Michael was unharmed, happily cooking a curry, and had needed to change his clothes, told her as much as she needed to know for now. They would unpick the whole thing later after their visit from DI Moss.
‘What time did you say she was coming?’ he asked as though reading her mind.
‘Eight, so she’ll be here any time now. What time will dinner be ready?’ she peered over his shoulder at the simmering pan of lamb rogan josh.
‘It’s ready whenever you are,’ he said as he turned around. ‘Get rid of her quickly and then we can eat.’ He bent his head and kissed her. ‘And then after we’ve eaten…’ He kissed her again as he ran his hands down to the small of her back, pressing her body against his.
They were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.
‘She’ll be out of here as soon as possible, I promise,’ Grace said with a smile as she untangled herself from his arms.
Grace showed Leigh into the kitchen and sat on a stool at the breakfast bar. Leigh followed suit, placing her handbag and a manila folder down on the counter in front of her.
‘
Mmm, something smells good,’ Leigh said as she looked around the spacious kitchen.
‘Michael’s made one of his amazing curries,’ Grace answered as he made his way over to them, carrying an open bottle of Barolo and three glasses.
He planted a kiss on Grace’s head as he sat down beside her and placed the wine and glasses on the counter.
‘I didn’t know you could cook.’ Leigh said with a raised eyebrow.
‘With all due respect, you know fuck all about me,’ Michael said. There was no love lost between him and DI Moss after she had arrested Jake and Connor for murder a few months earlier, but he tolerated her for Grace’s sake.
Leigh stared at him, a smile playing on her lips as she appeared completely unfazed by his response. Grace noticed Leigh’s gaze lingering on Michael’s bruised knuckles – always on duty!
‘Would you like a drink, Detective?’ Michael asked as he started to pour a glass.
‘Actually, I’d love one. Thanks,’ Leigh answered as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Grace watched her husband pour three glasses of wine before handing one each to her and Leigh. ‘So, what is it I can help you with?’ Grace asked.
Leigh took a sip of her wine and shifted in her seat. ‘I assume you’ve heard about the two murders of working girls this past month?’
‘I read about them in the Echo. It was awful. Those poor girls.’
‘Well, there’s been another one. She was dumped early hours of this morning. Same MO.’
‘Oh, God. That’s awful,’ Grace said with a shake of her head. ‘Do you have any idea who’s responsible?’
Leigh shook her head. ‘Not a clue, unfortunately,’ she replied with a sigh. ‘Although please keep that to yourselves.’
