Roy spun around. “What d’you go and get that for?”
“You asked me to…” Aiden laughed.
Roy’s anger was rising by the second. To see that smirk on the kid’s face was more than he could bear. “You little cunt!” Suddenly Roy charged at Aiden, his fists flying.
Gina ran out of the flat to see her father land a hard blow to the side of Aiden’s head. “For fuck’s sake, Dad!” she yelled, jumping between the two large figures. But she was immediately forced to one side by her father, her distraction allowing Aiden to land a punch to his nose. Roy stumbled backwards, cupping his nose in his hands as it bled out.
Gina stared wide-eyed at her father, waiting for him to lose all control of his renowned temper. That Aiden had today undermined him on two counts – the car and the punch – would mean her life would be unbearable until he calmed down again. He would not forgive Aiden for this.
She put her face in her hands. She would get it from both sides now. Both her father and Aiden would have something to say to her. Aiden would let her know just what a useless ponce her father really was – something she didn’t need telling more than once – and her father would enjoy rubbing it in her face about how he was going to teach Aiden a lesson, and that she should have never got involved with him in the first place. She would be told that it was her fault that this had happened today because she had insisted on being his girl.
The fight was not over. Wiping the blood onto his vest, Roy charged at Aiden once more, forcing him against the wall of the flat. But Aiden was a very well-built, very strong young man, with an even shorter temper than Roy, and it didn’t take much for him to restrain him. With one knee to the groin and another blow to the face, Roy was on the cold stone floor, nursing his injuries once more.
Aiden loomed over him, panting like a wild animal, ignoring the witnesses who had appeared on their doorsteps to watch the commotion. He glared down at the man over twice his age with a burning desire to finish him off.
“Enough!” Gina yelled, pushing Aiden in the chest with as much force as she could muster.
Roy groaned, cupping his hands over his privates. Gina knelt down behind her father and, inserting her arms under his armpits, began to pull him up. Roy cursed at her and dropping his head back against her chest, he spat blood up into her face.
Gina fell backwards as Aiden retaliated, swinging his foot and pelting Roy directly in the stomach. “Discussion over!” he panted, glancing at her. He had always known that Roy didn’t really have the money. Without saying another word, he turned and left.
************
The front door to the Watsons’ flat was open when Aiden turned up the next day. So what if Roy had something to say about it? He would just give him another kicking. He stepped inside without knocking. He could hear the buzzing sound of a hoover, and as he stepped into the small living room, he was met with the sight of Gina in a very short, tight-fitting dress, pushing a budget hoover around with determination.
With her back to the door, she hadn’t noticed his arrival, so he watched her for a long moment, taking in the hem of her skirt, which sat just below her buttocks and showed a little of her knickers. Moving in, he slowly stepped up behind her and slid a hand between her legs.
“Da…!” Gina spun around, shutting off the hoover simultaneously. “Oh, it’s you…”
Aiden pursed his lips and pulled her into him. “Who else would it be?”
“No one…”
“Where’s Roy?”
Gina rolled her eyes. “Pub,” she confirmed.
Aiden’s lips found hers and for once Gina pulled away first. “Thanks for sticking up for me yesterday…”
Aiden frowned as if he didn’t understand, but he did really. When Roy had spat in her face, it had disgusted him. He’d reacted the only way he knew how, but he would never understand what his reaction had meant to Gina: his natural instinct to protect her had meant the world to her.
Gina felt Aiden’s hands move over her buttocks, and the stirring need for him came to the fore as it always did. Nevertheless, her desire was interrupted when Roy walked into the room with a sour look on his face. Gina stepped out of Aiden’s embrace, pulling the hem of her dress down over her thighs. Aiden nonchalantly turned to the door. A quiver of smile crept onto his full lips at the sight of Roy’s bruised nose.
“Caught red-handed…” Roy growled.
“Leave it out, Dad,” Gina murmured anxiously. She peered up at Aiden. “You’d best go,” she whispered, her eyes beseeching him not to make a scene. She could tell he wanted to. “Please…” she pleaded.
He left without a word, but he wasn’t happy.
Aiden’s foul mood had thickened the atmosphere at home the moment he had stormed into the flat. Kate stood leaning against the fridge in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of lemonade and glancing up at her brother every few seconds with a quizzical expression, yet afraid to ask what was wrong with him in case she got an earful. Vivien was washing up, something she frequently complained that she spent her whole life doing, and Duggie was watching the races on the television in the living room.
They could all hear Duggie’s protests at the television set as, once again, his horse came in outside of first, second or third place. Aiden sat at the kitchen table puffing on a cigarette and each time Duggie yelled, he shifted, as if he was on the verge of storming into the next room and wringing his father’s neck. All three of them in the kitchen were silent for a while, until Kate finally plucked up the courage to question her brother.
“What’s got your goat?” she asked warily, crossing one long leg over the other and running a hand through her thick, dark hair.
Aiden’s eyes met hers but he seemed to stare right through her. “What’s it to you?” he replied sullenly.
“Oh, you’re in a great mood as usual!” Vivien cut in, as if she had been waiting for the excuse to pounce on her son’s behaviour. “It’s that girl again, I bet,” she added nastily. “Little whore that she is!”
“Mum!” Kate stared wide-eyed at her mother in shock.
“Oh, come off it, you can’t stand her either!” Vivien spat back at her daughter.
“What you starting on her for?” Aiden retorted.
Vivien turned away from Kate to glare at her son. Pointing a soapy finger in his direction, she said, “Whatever it is that’s got you all wound up, Aiden, take it elsewhere.” Her voice then quietened to a whisper. “Your father’s already in a shitty mood today and I don’t need you fuelling his fire, got it?”
Aiden pulled hard on his cigarette then stubbed it out abruptly. “Let’s see, shall we…” he muttered, scraping his chair across the floor and striding into the living room. Vivien quickly wiped her hands and followed him, Kate on her heels.
“Are you not doing anything worthwhile today?” Aiden asked his father, with all the revulsion he felt for the man poured into his words.
“Aiden! Leave it, will you!” Kate protested in astonishment.
Like Kate, Vivien was dumbstruck, and she didn’t quite know whether to launch herself at her boy or not. She was worried what he might do in retaliation. His tolerance had lessened and his courage had heightened drastically over the past few months, and it hadn’t gone unnoticed that he had grown larger in size; he was much more robust than his father nowadays. If Aiden hit her, not only would he cause her untold damage, but all hell would definitely break loose.
Duggie took a moment to register his son’s attempt to belittle him, but when he did, he turned to him with the look they all knew so well. It was an expression of pure loathing and disregard. “What you saying?” he growled.
“I’m asking if you’re gonna get off your lazy arse today or just continue to sit here squandering all my money?” Aiden spat in reply.
“Your money?” Duggie sniggered nastily. He shifted his body around to face his son, his chest out to express dominance. “Since when have you contributed to anything?”
Vivien and Kate sta
red wide-eyed from man to man-boy, not daring to speak out of turn. Aiden smirked arrogantly. “I earn more in a week than you get in six months, you useless ponce!”
Duggie sprang up from his chair and gripped hold of Aiden’s throat, his face contorted with fury. Both Vivien and Kate finally found the will to protest, but did not make contact with either of them. They both knew full well that their presence no longer registered in the minds of the two men before them and that neither father nor son would take responsibility for their actions if either of the women got in their way. Both men were seeing red, glaring at each other, each more than happy to seriously hurt the other.
Duggie was so overcome with anger that the veins in his neck and forehead were pulsing. He spat through gritted teeth, “You ever speak to me like that again…”
But Aiden only displayed a pearly-white, megawatt grin, his father’s trembling fingers around his thick neck having little effect. “You’ll do what, old man?”
The following action came suddenly and as Duggie’s forehead clashed with Aiden’s nose, Aiden immediately felt the warm sensation of blood trickling from his nose onto his top lip. Kate was suddenly hysterical, but Vivien left her to attend to her husband, who was rubbing his head and cursing. Composing himself, Aiden stood to his full height and smiled once more. As the blood seeped into the gaps in his teeth, Kate thought her brother looked sadistic.
Vivien turned to her son. “What’s wrong with you, eh?”
Aiden sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, smearing blood across his cheek, then his lips twitched up into a sardonic smile. “Forever the caring mother,” he muttered before disappearing up to his bedroom.
Chapter fourteen
“AIDEN, PHONE!”
Vivien yelled up the stairs to her son who had been in the bathroom for well over an hour, attempting to clean the wounds Duggie had inflicted on him that afternoon. When he swaggered down the stairs, she noticed that he was clean-shaven, his hair immaculate, and he smelled of a sweet aftershave, and now that the blood had been washed away, his nose didn’t look too bad – just a straight cut across the top and a faint purple bruise that, from experience, she knew would spread and grow darker over the next few days.
Dressed in smart jeans and a checked shirt, even she had to admit that her son looked rather stylish and very handsome. Aiden snatched the receiver from her. “Hello?” he said down the line.
“Aiden, it’s Sid…”
“Oh, alright, Sid.”
Vivien hovered at the bottom of the stairs and raised an eyebrow. No one had seen Sid for weeks and she wondered suspiciously why he wanted to speak with Aiden. Aiden scowled at her and gestured for her to scarper by a flick of his head. Her eyes narrowed but, when he turned his back on her, she huffed and stormed away.
“What’s up?” he asked quietly, having noted the grave tone in his uncle’s voice. Something was up, he was sure of it.
“Do you fancy earning a bob or two?”
“Always…”
“Good. I need you to help me with something.” There was a pause and Aiden wasn’t too sure whether he was meant to say anything to that. Then Sid asked, “Actually, can we meet up?”
“’Course… when?”
“Now. Meet me at the local…”
Fifteen minutes later, Aiden was sitting in The Stag opposite his uncle, who was looking nervous. Sid kept jumping each time somebody walked in the bar and he bit his nails between taking gulps of his pint. Aiden watched him warily. He wasn’t too sure whether or not to ask what was wrong with him or just let the man speak when he was ready. He opted for the latter and sat sipping his lager waiting for Sid to talk.
“I’m in a bit of bother,” Sid finally announced.
Aiden was not surprised by this revelation. His uncle was always in some kind of bother. What did take him by surprise, however, was how worried Sid looked this time. His uncle had always been able to handle himself. Sid could talk his way out of anything, and talk his way into anything for that matter, which didn’t always bode well for the man.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed in thought. Though Sid was a notorious con artist, he never had before seen his uncle show such concern as he was doing right now. He was as white as a sheet. “What is it, Sid?” Aiden asked seriously, and with sheer loyal conviction, added, “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it, alright?”
Sid took to biting his nails again. “I need to ask something of you and, when I do, I need you to understand that you can say no, alright? I ain’t forcing you into anything…”
“What is it?”
Sid took a long swig of his pint then set the glass down carefully on the table. “I hear you’ve been debt collecting for Reggie Driscoll. You’re knocking up quite a reputation. Some of the stories I’ve heard are pretty impressive, Aiden.” Aiden didn’t respond. He stared at his uncle, willing him to stop procrastinating and get the fuck on with whatever he had to say. Sid downed the dregs of his glass and announced, finally, “I need you to help me… take care of some people.”
Aiden’s eyebrows rose. He was shocked by the request, but he didn’t fear it. He’d never killed before, but over the past months since Reggie had promoted him to debt collector there had been times where he had got pretty close and he’d been building up his resilience since their bust at The Old Blue Last, last Christmas.
When Sid announced those he was targeting, Aiden leaned back in his chair and exhaled a loud breath between closed lips. “Fuck me…” was all he could say for a long moment. “Billy Wyatt? What’s he done now?”
“He fucked me over…” Sid muttered.
“Again?”
When Aiden had eventually found out that his uncle was in the nick, he’d also been told that it was Billy Wyatt who had put him there. He refrained from asking why the fuck his uncle should be doing business with him again. Whatever had happened, he was quite willing to help his uncle eradicate that piece of shit in retaliation for getting him arrested in the first instance.
Aiden added nervously, “And why the KKKs?”
He’d heard a lot about the KKKs since Reggie had asked him to keep his ear to the ground. He’d heard people talking all over the town about their swift rise in the business. He’d been hearing some lively things about that crew. They were thought to be involved in drug distribution, money laundering, protection and torture, yet all had been just rumour so far. No one could really get close enough to confirm it. They were a tight-knit crew, a proper firm. They relied on discretion, probably with police and politicians in their pockets.
Reggie wouldn’t approve of him getting involved with trying to take them out. On paper, it was in Reggie’s best interest to eradicate a crew who could potentially overrun his turf, but the aftermath could be more trouble than it was worth. The last thing he wanted was Reggie taking a hit on account of him and his uncle.
Sid watched Aiden warily, but Aiden couldn’t mistake the hope in his uncle’s blue eyes. Sid was softening the deal with the promise of a grand in payment for sorting out Billy and another £5K if he pulled off taking care of Kris, Kyle and Kamal. The thought of all that dough laid heavy on Aiden’s conscience as he thought hard about the consequences of taking on the KKKs. Deep down, he knew that it was an unfeasible task. Yet money talked very loudly to people like him, and usually the loud whirr of greed quietened the most rational of thoughts.
Even so, Aiden finally announced, out of the quiet, “I can’t… the KKKs… I can’t put Reggie in the firing line. They know I work for him. If anything went wrong, they’d come for him… and me, for that matter.”
Sid inhaled a deep breath and sighed quietly. They both sat in silence once more before Sid quavered, “They’re gonna kill me, Aiden…”
Aiden felt the blood drain from his entire body and he closed his eyes. He knew Sid wasn’t exaggerating. The fear in both his expression and voice confirmed that his uncle had landed himself in the kind of shit he couldn’t talk his way out of this time. And a tug from t
he Old Bill might just not come round quick enough to see him inside before he got a bullet through his head.
Aiden opened his eyes and sighed, “What have you done, Sid?”
Sid pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and lit one with a shaking hand. Throwing the box on the table, he gestured for Aiden to have one and he did. “Billy fucked up. Ah, shit, Aiden… it was greed, mate. Inside, I was doing a bit of business with him through one of his lads in the nick with me, Richie Bryson. About two months before I was released, Billy informed me through Richie about some diamonds that were being delivered to a place in New Bond Street. He was going to set it all up and I was to carry out the job with him. See, we figured no one would suspect me, being as I’d just got out and all. How would I be able to set up a robbery like that in a week? Anyway, to cut a long story short, Kamal had already done a deal to rob them himself and it turns out Richie is associated with the KKKs, so of course he ended up leaking our plans to them. When I went to do the job, Billy didn’t turn up… I managed to get away, but, as you can imagine, Kamal ain’t happy…”
“So, why aren’t they going for Billy?”
Sid shrugged. “Whether Billy found out about Richie before the job and did a deal with him to clear his name, I don’t know…”
“Sounds like he ducked out at the right moment and laid all responsibility at your door…”
“Whatever that slippery fuck did, I wanna get to the flash bastard before anyone else does… he’s done me over too many times.” Sid stubbed out his cigarette and immediately lit another. Taking a long drag, he stared at his nephew. “So? What do you think?”
When Aiden left the pub alone, his mind was whirling with fear and anticipation. He was angry too. That his uncle could put him in such a position riled him. Sid had said he shouldn’t feel pressured into doing what he asked, that it was his choice, but what kind of choice did he really have? He couldn’t leave him to be butchered. He couldn’t bail on his own flesh and blood.
Human Conditioning Page 11
