‘Fucking hell, Lairy Bollocks. Calm down, will you? Harry will be here in a minute and I’m sure you can have your say then.’ Kicking his leg to stop the noise, Raymond glared at Terry.
Terry continued to stamp his feet on the floor, lifting his knees and slamming his legs down. Raymond kicked the man once more. This time harder.
‘Calm the fuck down,’ Nathan chimed in now, getting fed up with Terry’s erratic behaviour. He could see that Raymond was coming close to really losing it with the bloke. Terry must have a death wish to keep this shit up.
‘Here he is.’ Raymond almost sounded relieved to see Harry walk in a few minutes later. ‘Tell you what, Harry, it’s a good thing that Christopher brought him in. You might be right about him blabbing – even with a gob full of gaffer he’s still trying to fucking have his say.’
Walking over to where Terry was sat, Harry stared down at the man with hate in his eyes. ‘What did my little girl ever see in you, eh? You’re nothing but a snidey piece of shit.’ Harry could feel himself getting worked up as he spoke. He had years of hate and venom pent up inside him. He hated Terry, had done since the day he’d first met him. Especially the day he’d first met him. Thinking he’d be meeting some adolescent spotty teenager, Harry had been temporarily floored when he’d been faced with this pompous looking prat. Terry was almost the same age as he was for fuck’s sake. By the time Harry and Terry had been introduced, it was too late. Harry had seen the look on Kelly’s face. His girl was already smitten. Christ knows why, though, he had thought at the time. Terry Stranks thought he was some kind of a wide boy. It must have been the bloke’s tacky gifts that he’d wooed her with, because it sure as hell wasn’t the poncy floral shirts that had caught Kelly’s eye. He looked like a first class cunt. It was like he’d styled himself on some seventies porn film. He was cheap and brash, and Harry had been able to see that the bloke was nowhere near good enough for his Kelly.
Not even close.
Kelly had met the bloke at a bad time. She had been grieving, just like they all had. While she had grown closer to Terry, she and her dad had drifted further apart.
Now, seven years later, Harry couldn’t contain himself any longer.
This bloke had taken his daughter from him.
Had kept his grandkids from him.
All in the name of love.
What a fucking joke. Terry had slept with half the hookers in London behind Kelly’s back, most of whom Raymond had known. As Raymond had confirmed, Terry was a proper scumbag. He liked the girls he messed about with to be young enough to be his granddaughter, let alone his daughter.
‘Go on then, you gobby cunt, say your bit. You’re obviously desperate to. Trust me, there ain’t nothing you can say that’s going to make me change my mind about you. You are a fucking no-mark. Always have been and always will be. And you have been dragging my Kelly down with you for far too long. She’ll thank me for this one day, when she’s finally cottoned on herself and found a decent man.’ Harry roughly yanked the tape off Terry’s face, enjoying the fact that it ripped his skin painfully as he did so, and then he pulled his head around sharply to the side.
Terry turned his head back.
Finally he was able to speak.
‘If anything has happened to my kids I’m going to kill that numbskull son of yours,’ Terry spat now, his mouth bone-dry from the tape.
Harry raised his eyebrows. He’d expected Terry to beg and plead, maybe be a bit cocky.
‘What do the kids have to do with this?’
‘If Christopher hadn’t been so busy using my head as a fucking football, he might have realised that I wasn’t the one who was breaking into that poxy bar . . . Someone else beat me to it.’ Terry glared now. ‘I was trying to help your daughter – my wife.’
Harry stared at Terry, then at Raymond. He was confused.
If Terry was just trying it on with this spiel then he was doing a pretty convincing job of it. Harry, having already underestimated Terry once, didn’t want to take any chances in falling for it again.
Raymond shrugged. He wasn’t sure if Terry was being straight with them or not either.
Then, Christopher had looked like he was on another fucking planet tonight, and the way the kid had been acting lately, Raymond wouldn’t put anything past him. Maybe he had been so off his rocker on gear he hadn’t realised what was going on when he’d caught Terry creeping through the window. He guessed it was an easy enough mistake to make. Easy even if you weren’t coked up to your eyeballs. Christopher would have been so preoccupied with scoring points by being the one to dish Terry up to them on a platter that he could have easily missed the bigger picture. Let’s face it, Raymond thought to himself, Christopher wasn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer even when he wasn’t snorting gear.
‘What’s to say that you’re not just making this shit up?’ Harry questioned Terry now, searching his eyes to see if he could spot Terry lying.
‘The way I see it, Harry, you ain’t got no choice but to believe me. Kelly is in big trouble and so are my kids. The divvy cow always thinks she knows best. Must be a Woods trait.’ Terry’s eyes welled up as he continued.
‘Knows best about what?’ Harry narrowed his eyes now.
‘She never paid the fucking O’Sheas, did she? Pocketed all that money you gave her for herself.’ Terry was crying now, but he didn’t care. Even with snot dripping out of his nose, and Raymond and Nathan staring at him open-mouthed, he didn’t give a shit. The drama of the past few weeks was catching up with him now. The O’Sheas, being on the run, Harry. It was all too much.
All Terry wanted was normality once again. He wanted his wife and his kids.
He wanted his life back.
‘I know you don’t give a flying shit about me, Harry, and that’s fine with me. But I’m begging you with my life, please untie me. Jimmy and Micky are animals, Harry, and from what I heard tonight, before Christopher fucking did me over, Kelly is in big trouble.’
Chapter Thirty-Eight
‘Terry?’ Kelly could tell right away by the tall, slim silhouette that the person lurking behind the oak beam wasn’t Terry.
Reaching for her phone, she picked it up to dial Nathan.
‘I don’t think so, Kelly.’ The figure stepped out from the shadows in the corner of the room and Kelly’s heart almost stopped as she recognised Micky O’Shea. ‘Put the phone down.’
Turning to hear another noise at the opposite end of the room, Kelly should have known that Micky wouldn’t be alone. His brother Jimmy O’Shea was here too. Gripping a baseball bat in his hand, he tapped it on the oak floor as he walked towards her, making the same noise that Kelly had heard when she was upstairs.
Whack, whack, whack.
Instantly she recognised it as the noise that had woken her.
Kelly could see by the look on his face that Jimmy was enjoying her reaction to their little surprise visit.
‘I take it that hubby’s not home then?’ Micky ran his finger down the front of Kelly’s dressing gown, pulling it open and exposing her nakedness. ‘That’s a shame, ain’t it? Looks like you’ll have to do for now then, eh?’
Kelly stood frozen in fear, shivering as Micky’s eyes roamed her body, her heart pounding once more.
This was all her own fault. All her own stupid doing.
She knew she had played a dangerous game when she had upped and left the house without paying the O’Sheas what she owed them. She had stupidly thought that because she was back with her family, they would leave her alone. Even if they did manage to track her down, surely they’d find out who her dad was? She had figured she’d be free to take the money and run. No-one would mess with Harry Woods’ daughter.
Now she was realising what a grave mistake that assumption had been.
The O’Sheas had tracked her down. They looked majorly pissed off.
Kelly didn’t know what to say; for once she was so scared that she was momentarily lost for words. The kids were upstairs asleep, and she was just praying that they would stay that way. She would take whatever it was that these two bastards were going to do to her; her only concern right now was keeping her kids as far away from it all as possible.
‘Funny thing, you doing a runner,’ Micky added. ‘You left us with no choice but to do a bit of digging about. And we heard that you were here, and that this was Nathan and Christopher Woods’ place. Well let’s just say it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that you were their sister.’ Micky sneered. ‘And more to the point, that you were the famous Harry Woods’ daughter.’
Micky curled his lip in contempt as he spoke. This bitch had given them the runaround for long enough. What she and her fuckwit of a husband had been doing borrowing money off them when Harry Woods had money coming out of his ears, Micky had no idea. He’d done some poking about and word was that Kelly had fallen out with her old man years ago. She was clearly back in the fold now, and Micky and Jimmy had a feeling paying Kelly a visit tonight was going to work out extremely lucratively for them both.
Holding out the brooch that he had taken from Kelly, Jimmy sneered. ‘Didn’t you even want your mum’s brooch back, Kelly?’
Kelly eyed the jewellery in Jimmy’s hand.
Of course she had, it was all she had left to remember her mother by. But Kelly had chosen to let it go. Jimmy would have never given it back to her even if she had asked for it. Even if she had paid him what she owed. He was just tormenting her.
‘Let me guess? Your old man gave it to your mum as a gift?’ Jimmy stuck up his bottom lip, impersonating Kelly as she began to cry. ‘See, I got a friend who deals in this kind of thing, and as it turns out this brooch is one of a kind. Worth a fortune, only it’s hotter than a Mexican’s fart. It was nicked from a jewellers over in Mayfair a few years back. So I’m going to bet that your dear dad was involved. Giving his missus knock-off goods as presents – who said romance was dead, eh?’
Jimmy shoved the jewellery back in his pocket before continuing, ‘Your old man doesn’t like us very much, Kelly. He’s been cunting us off to half of London.’ Micky drank his drink down in one, enjoying the burn it gave him in the back of his throat. ‘He thinks that we’re just small fish. Refuses to work with us, don’t he, Jimmy?’
‘Apparently so.’ Jimmy nodded, as he continued to tap the bat on the floor.
Kelly flinched as Micky leant down, and stared her straight in the eyes. The smell of his putrid sour breath as he pushed his pockmarked scarred face up against hers made her want to gag. ‘But your old man is exactly that, ain’t he? Nothing but an old man. A has-been. See, we’ve heard this little rumour that he’s stepping down; he’s set tongues wagging all over London. Sounds to me that your old dad must be losing his edge. And if he is taking a step back from a good earn, me and Jimmy think that it’s only right he gives someone else a fair turn.’
Kelly flinched again as Micky leaned in closer.
‘Wonder what your daddy would say if he could see you now, eh? Wouldn’t think we were so fucking insignificant then, would he?’ Micky grinned with malice as he roughly pulled Kelly’s lank hair tightly around his fist, and pulled her sharply towards him, causing her scalp to burn in pain. ‘It would be a shame to let Jimmy loose with that bat. Makes a right fucking mess, he does. Caved someone’s skull in with it last week for a lot less than what you fucking owe us. Now, we ain’t going to ask you again, where’s our fucking money?’
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Getting in the motor, Harry pulled out of the driveway like the antichrist. The wheels of his silver Bentley screeched as he rammed his foot down hard on the pedal.
‘Fuck me, Harry, go easy, mate. We won’t be helping Kelly if we’re upturned in the fucking ditch.’ Raymond held onto the door, as Harry continued to drive erratically, sending Nathan and Terry flying against the back doors.
‘I swear to God, Terry, if this is some bullshit fabricated story, no matter what happens, even if Kelly never forgives me, I will fucking annihilate you.’ Harry was fuming.
If what Terry had said was true then Harry was going to cause a shitstorm for those two blokes, two-bit cunts who went around bullying people for money.
Harry gripped the steering wheel tightly. He was fuming with Kelly now. She’d put herself in real danger. If she had no intentions of paying them, she should have said. Harry would have dealt with it for her. Like he’d offered.
They weren’t the type to just let stuff like that go. They were greedy. That combined with them being under the illusion that they were a force to be reckoned with was not a great combination. Especially for Kelly. Micky and Jimmy O’Shea were nothing but a pair of money grabbing cunts, and he’d obviously hit the nail right on the proverbial head, because what the pair of them thought they were playing at by breaking into the bar and threatening his daughter, he didn’t know. What he did know was that they were clearly asking for trouble.
‘I ain’t making it up, Harry. You’ll see for yourself when we get there.’ Terry’s stomach was in knots as he spoke. None of them knew what exactly they were going to see when they got there – that was half the problem.
By the time Harry had taken Terry’s gag off and let him speak, his Kelly had been alone with those animals for near on an hour. After their threats last time, who knew what they were going to do next?
‘The O’Sheas ain’t got no backup to take you on, have they?’ Nathan asked his father. ‘I mean, they must know that you’re going to be gunning for them?’
Although Nathan knew that he’d have to help his sister, there was no questioning that he wished to God he’d never answered his brother’s call, and was still wrapped up in bed with Cassie. Wedged in the back of the car next to Terry, and on their way to face a couple of shifty loan sharks, Nathan had well and truly broken his promise to her to stop the criminal work. But if Kelly and the kids really were in trouble, he couldn’t just walk away.
Cassie would understand.
‘Well, whatever their reasoning they have fucking made a grave mistake. This is going to be the most costly twenty thousand pounds those fuckers have ever tried to rinse out of someone.’
‘It was ten grand.’ Terry shrugged. ‘Kelly rounded it up . . .’ Under the circumstances it was only fair that Harry had the correct information before he was faced with Jimmy and Micky. The amount of money that they owed didn’t really matter now, but Terry didn’t want Harry to look like he didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about.
Harry shook his head.
That bloody girl. He’d given her everything, and still she wasn’t content. He’d never say it out loud, but she was more like her mother than any of them. Evie might have been the image of her in looks, but Kelly had her selfish traits down to a fine art.
‘You don’t think they’ve heard about you dropping the Holland deal, do you?’
Raymond stared at Harry. They both shared a knowing look. It had to be something like that. Why else would the O’Sheas suddenly find their bollocks to do something like this. They were cunting him off because word had got out about him stepping back. He wasn’t even officially out of the game yet and people were already treating him like a mug. Like he was too weak to stand up for himself.
The O’Sheas clearly had no idea who they were fucking with. Messing with his family was one step too far.
Slamming his foot down, Harry was on the w
arpath. When he caught up with the O’Sheas he was going to take great delight in making an example of the pair of them.
Stepping back or not, no-one, but no-one, threatened his family.
Chapter Forty
Stepping out of the taxi onto the path, Evie was now having second thoughts about coming here.
When she’d left the house she had felt determined. But during the silent journey over here in the back of the cab, doubt had crept in and she wondered if she was doing the right thing by burdening Kelly with it all.
Besides, it was the middle of the night. Kelly may have said that she could come to her any time she needed to, but Evie very much doubted that she had meant that in the literal sense.
Spotting the light on in one of the downstairs windows, she guessed Kelly must still be up. Maybe now was as good a time as any, though she was wary of upsetting her sister by laying her worries about their father on her. Kelly had enough to deal with at the moment.
Evie wouldn’t mention the fact that she’d just seen Terry over at their dad’s house.
Terry’s whereabouts were none of Evie’s business, and her dad would most definitely not thank her for sticking her oar in.
Walking up to the door, Evie got her key out, but wavered over the lock.
She could just go back home and pretend that she hadn’t seen the blood spattered bathroom. That she hadn’t heard her dad lie awake half the night coughing his guts up.
Maybe she should ask her dad outright, but she knew that he’d only lie to her.
He was as stubborn as a bull, and he’d do anything to protect his kids from something like that.
If he was ill, really ill, she just knew that he would try to shield them from it for as long as possible.
Evie might be opening up a whole can of worms by coming here, but what choice did she have? Kelly might be able to help. She might know what’s going on. Turning her key in the lock, Evie pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Bad Blood Page 23
