by Martina Cole
She threw the papers on the floor and they saw there was nothing written on them. ‘I was also the one who got into the local filth both here and back in Blighty, and I knew you two were in Spain within minutes of you landing. I knew Alan was snooping around here and I knew what for. I know everything that goes on in my world. It took years before Nick realised that but when he did he left me to it. He was too busy covering up his other life, see.’ She waited for one of them to answer her, challenge her even, but they were all quiet and subdued.
‘Now, if you want any of these numbers then I suggest you fucking pay me what you would have paid him. No penalties this time, I’m in a good mood, so how lucky are you cretins, eh?’
‘Look, Tammy, it’s nothing personal . . .’
‘Come off it Billy, ’course it’s personal. You was going to take the lot from me and assume I would have been none the wiser.’ She looked the men over like they were so much rubbish. ‘We ain’t hidden anything there for years, mate, in fact we hid stuff there so that it would be known around about. You may be in the conservatory, but even Alan would never have got in the house. I brought in another company from Germany to do the final security measures. I can get anything I want. Always could. For example, at the moment I have got plates for euros, dollar bills and fifty-pound notes, you interested?’
She was enjoying herself now. ‘It was me who sorted every site that we built on. You see, I let Nick take the glory, I just took the money.
‘I think you had better leave, and I think you should do what the Germans and the French do. Ring me up and make an appointment. Now fuck off.’
She shook her head. ‘My address book is worth fortunes, that’s how come I am living here and you two ain’t. But my address book is up here.’ She pointed at her temple. ‘Even Nick didn’t know the numbers, sweetheart. I was the real brains of the outfit. Try and remember that for the future. Not a penny was spent but I knew it was going out. Not a euro was invested without my express say-so.’
She was laughing once more. The sarcasm was evident to all in the room. ‘Have a fucking day off, guys, then come back and we’ll talk business, yeah?’
She turned off the lights. ‘By the way, put that all back as you found it please, and remember, Nick Leary was more slippery than Cherie Blair in a chip pan. So what makes you think I was gonna let you have what was mine and my kids for nix? I had the best teacher in the world, guys, so you lot are fucking amateurs to me.’
She walked back into the house. ‘I’ll look forward to hearing from you, okay.’ She shut the patio doors and locked them noisily.
Billy Clarke saw that the garden around the house was now full of Spanish geezers with large moustaches and even larger weapons.
And there was him thinking he was hard.
All he felt now was mean, embarrassed and stupid. They had tried to have her over, and she had been one step ahead. A capture was a capture and he would hold his hand up to it without a second thought.
Tammy Leary was a girl all right, and he had a feeling he would be working with her a lot in the future. She had never given anything out for nothing, not really, and he, better than anyone, should have realised that much.
Epilogue
Tammy watched her son as he dived into the swimming pool. Since the school had outed him, Nick seemed happier. Maybe her poor mother-in-law had been right all those years when she had said he hated it there. Yet James, he seemed to thrive on it. Didn’t even want to come home for the holidays. Nick Junior was his father’s son though, she knew he had been behind a demanding-money-with menaces scam that had rocked the school, even though he denied it vehemently. But then as his head-master had pointed out, he would deny it, wouldn’t he?
She shrugged the worry off.
Who gave a fuck, anyway? Nick Junior got on well with Laurie, who had never gone home. Well, he had once but that was only to pick up the rest of his clothes. They were a couple, and they were a good couple.
She had found out that he was hung like a horse and he had found out that she liked a man who was hung like a horse. He also made her laugh, she made him laugh back so they were even really.
Billy and Siddy had never lived down the fact they tried to have her over. Everyone was now aware that she held the keys to most builders’ riches and she deserved every halfpenny she got. And the truth was, she did. No one worked a site in the South East without her say-so, and no one would for years. She was flexing her considerable muscle in Spain too. She was even a favourite with the Spanish army and had enough work for them till the next millennium. Men always underestimated women, and Tammy had had the sense to look like she had no idea what was going on, when in fact she knew more than anyone about what the score was.
Except for Nick’s extracurricular activities. And who would ever have guessed those? She had nothing on her conscience where that was concerned, she was looking out for her now, her and her kids.
Most women knew more about their husbands and partners than their mothers. Men were different to women in that men could not resist letting women know they knew their weak points, while emphasising their own strong points at every opportunity.
Women however, only ever showed men their weak points. Any man who had been through a messy divorce could vouch for that one.
And, as her old Dad had told her over and over again, people only know what you let them.
So Laurie Metcalf and her own two sons were none the wiser where she was concerned.
And that was how it would stay.
She poured herself a glass of sangria and raised a silent toast to her mother-in-law. Of her old life she was the only person Tammy missed, the only person she cared for. In a funny way she actually loved her. Her own mother had never had time for her, and she had fought off any spark of kindness from Nick’s mother from day one. That was a mistake she would never repeat again; everyone needed someone at some time in their lives. Unfortunately for her, she had learned that lesson too late where her mother-in-law was concerned.
She still missed her old life occasionally, but the new life she was building was proving to be more rewarding in more ways than one.
For now, for this day, the sun was out and life was good.
What more could a woman want?
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Author
Dedication
Book One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Book Two
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epilogue
Chapter One
Epilogue
