His mind wandered to Lily Summers and Gina’s question earlier of, ‘Why me? Why not Lily?’ In truth, Lily had been the only person he’d been remotely close to loving the way Gina loved him. He had had his reasons for calling it off with Lily, and he idly wondered whether he regretted that decision now, whether he could have made it work if he’d bothered trying.
He forced Lily’s beautiful eyes and her warm smile from his mind. He wasn’t sure how long he had been lying awake, but eventually he came to the conclusion that he needed to put some distance between him and Gina. He had bigger fish to fry – bigger fish than attempting to keep a girl by his side. But he wasn’t looking forward to the aftermath of this decision. Gina Watson was one problematic young lady…
He sighed in reflective satisfaction at how his life was turning out. Not yet eighteen and he was making an average of two grand a week – quite the accomplishment for a kid who had brought himself up from fuck-all! He smiled to himself. With the car business ticking over, his debt collections with Reggie and his employment as an enforcer with the KKKs, he was gradually climbing the ladder to a greater success and, he knew, if he kept on working his arse off and kept on the right side of the right people, he could become a major player of criminal activity in London, just as he aspired to be.
His association with Kamal Kamar was a major factor in his achievements, but he’d like to also make a name for himself on his own terms. He wanted to earn big, and the only way to do that was to become the chief in all his endeavours. Grant had taught him that, though probably unwittingly.
Grant had always wanted him to work for him, not with him. But Aiden saw that Grant earned big by being the boss in his chosen schemes. Like Grant and Kamal, he wanted to become his own boss eventually. He wanted riches beyond what a mere employee could attain. He wanted out of Hackney, and out of the clutches of the welfare abusers, the addicts and the underachievers. He wanted more, much more. And he would get it. All he needed to do was let his natural acumen explore the opportunities, play around with some new ideas, and come up with some new enterprises – his own enterprises. That’s what he did best. A brawler he may be, but he liked to think of himself as a businessman. He had a criminal mind and an industrious quality, and he planned to use those talents to achieve everything he knew he was capable of.
Chapter twenty-five
Two months had passed since Roy’s suicide. In that time, Gina had become somewhat of a recluse, relying on alcohol to obliterate the lonely nights she had not yet become accustomed to. Aiden had disappeared into thin air. She couldn’t contact him through Ricky Finn, Reggie, or even Kate. She’d tried. She’d even shown up at his new flat several times, but to no avail. He hadn’t been there.
The last time she’d heard from him, he’d come to inform her that he had found out who Roy had owed and had paid them off, with interest, so that they wouldn’t seek any retribution on her. So at least she didn’t have to look over her shoulder. She was thankful to Aiden for that, more than he knew, but it had obviously affected their relationship. She thought he was probably angry with her. He had never liked his money being spent so frivolously when he worked so damned hard to earn it. It was therefore a complete surprise when he strolled into her bedroom that evening as if he’d never left.
She downed the dregs of her cider, stifling the urge to tell him to piss off, despite the fact that, deep down, she was elated to see him. She wouldn’t show it, though, not after his disappearing act. “How did you get in?” she asked coolly.
“Well, fucking hello to you an’ all!”
She added, “I’m going out…”
“No, you ain’t. I’ve got a proposition for you.”
Gina stepped around her bed and allowed her dressing gown to drop to the floor. Beneath it, she wore just a t-shirt, no knickers, and she knew Aiden would admire her from afar whilst she got dressed. It was petty, but even so she craved his attention, as always.
“What kind of proposition?” she asked nonchalantly as she pulled her t-shirt over her head, leaving her stark naked. She didn’t need to look at Aiden to know he was taking her in. She could feel the intensity of his stare as she opened the top drawer of the chest of drawers to locate her underwear. She added determinedly, “Whatever it is, it can wait until tomorrow. I need to get out. I’ve got some money and I intend to spend it.”
“I thought you’d packed in your job?” Aiden asked, somewhat distractedly.
Gina finally pulled on a pair of knickers, subsequently taking out a matching bra from the drawer, and she put that on too. She replied, “I’ve been babysitting Barbara’s little one on the floor above. He’s only six and he’s already got a mouth like a sewer.”
“How much d’you get?”
“Forty quid for five nights…”
She turned to Aiden and raised an eyebrow when his eyes lowered to the dark patch beneath the lace of her knickers. He attempted to disguise a gulp and averted his eyes to meet hers. He added, “I can promise you double that for one night, if you’re up for it?”
He finally had Gina’s full attention. The promise of money didn’t come often in their world, so it was wise to grab what you could get when it was offered to you. “How?” she asked, intrigue written all over her pretty, though tired looking and slightly thinner, face.
“A film…”
Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of film?”
“Nothing too risky. Just a bit of tit and that…”
Gina stared at him in disbelief. “Aiden, are you seriously asking me to do a porno?”
“It ain’t a porno. Stop being so fucking dramatic…” He lit a cigarette.
“Sounds like it to me!” she retorted, then strutting over to him, she wrapped her arms around his waist. “Now, if you fancied making a video of us, then that can be arranged…”
He pulled her arms from around him and stepped back. “I’m serious, G. This could be a big earner for us. I’ve been working hard, been in talks with a bloke who’s able to distribute across the whole of the East End. That’s what I’ve been doing over the past few weeks. I’m thinking, if it takes off we can think about getting out of this shithole and start up somewhere else… together, like.”
Gina continued to stare at him. For a moment, Aiden thought he might not get his own way on this one, but her expression eventually became animated. “Do you mean that, Aiden?”
“Will you do it?”
“You want us to move in together, for real?”
“Will you do it?”
She swung her arms around his neck and planted a long kiss on his lips. Aiden responded, slipping in his tongue, as always. When she finally pulled away, he asked once more, “Will you do it?”
Gina nodded. “Alright, but you have to be there and you have to make sure it ain’t too sordid. I want to look glamorous, like Chasey Lain!” She ran her hands through her thick, dark hair and ruffled it up between her fingers, posing in front of him as if he had a camera.
“Yeah, whatever you want, babe…” he laughed.
Aiden left five minutes later. He had told Gina to meet him at Ashley Connor’s flat in one hour.
************
Ashley Connor’s living room was no Hollywood film set, but that was of no consequence when you considered the people who would eventually buy the film he was about to make. Ashley was a middle-aged, short, stocky East Ender with a short neck and no hair. He hated poofs, he fucked prostitutes, and he drank too much. He didn’t touch drugs, though, and Aiden had already been informed of his strict no-drugs policy. Naturally, ever the one for challenging the rules, Aiden had taken a couple of grams of bass before his arrival.
“What type of dirty are we talking here, Aiden? I mean, there’s dirty, then there’s dirty, know what I mean?”
Ashley had been making budget sex videos for the past four years. His cousin owned a couple of sex shops and his supply was always welcome, at the right price. Ashley had made over a hundred and fifty films, using mostly local g
irls he knew who fancied earning a few quid on a Friday night, and business had ticked over alright the past few years.
“Whatever you think is gonna sell, Ash. You’re the expert,” Aiden replied, preoccupied with taking in the set-up of Ashley’s home-built studio.
Aiden was feeling the buzz of his consumption now, and was tinkering about in the spotlit room, checking out the apparatus that Ashley had positioned in various areas around the room to form some resemblance of a set. In the centre was a couch with a red velvet throw slung over it, and on the floor, a patterned rug. There were three spot lights hanging from the ceiling, positioned towards the middle of the room and on either side were two video cameras resting on tripods. Aiden was impressed and it showed.
Ashley slumped down onto the couch and lit a cigarette. He replied, “Well there’s the usual… masturbation, doggy-style, buggery, blowjobs and what-not, then you got lesbianism, of course, and dildos, threesomes… then to add to that you got other sex toys and objects such as fruit and veg…”
Aiden turned to face him, his nose crinkled in disgust. “Fruit and veg?”
“You know, girls fucking cucumbers and marrows and that…?”
Aiden smirked. “Go on,” he said, turning back to peer through the lens of the video camera.
“Then there’s the harder stuff…” Ashley added, taking a long drag of his cigarette.
Closing one eye to hold focus through the lens, Aiden replied, “Oh yeah? Harder than sticking a marrow up your gash?”
“We in the business call the people that buy it the specials. This is proper back-room shit – the kinda stuff you’d get locked up for if the Old Bill was ever to catch up with you… but you get the right girl on the job and you could earn a fortune…” Aiden’s interest was immediately piqued, and leaving the video camera, he eagerly pressed for more information. Ashley eagerly obliged. “There’s a range of different stuff. It can go from light to heavy: rape, gang-rape, forced use of objects… It can get proper nasty: a good battering and a golden shower ain’t anything I haven’t seen before… there’s some other shit too, but I ain’t getting into that kind of mischief…”
“Like what?” Aiden’s eyes sparkled with intrigue.
“Ah, Jesus, there are some sick cunts about, Aiden. You don’t even realise. Men who get off on kiddie porn and that, but that’s not me. I’ll do all the rest, but with adults. I ain’t no paedo…”
Aiden frowned, disgusted once more. “Nah, fuck that! Leave it to the nonces, eh?” He jested, but he couldn’t deny that this was somewhat of a learning curve. He just hoped Gina would be up for at least the lighter stuff tonight.
Backtracking, Aiden asked with a cunning glint in his piercing blue eyes, “So… how do you get a bird to agree to all that hard stuff?”
Ashley smirked and stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray his mum had brought back from Cyprus for him. It was grey stone with a map on it. He knew it was as ugly as shit, but he loved his ma and would never want to offend her. He looked into Aiden’s handsome face. The eagerness in the lad’s eyes couldn’t be disputed. The kid was game. He had big ideas whirling around in his drug-crazed mind. He could potentially work with this kid, if he impressed tonight and laid off the drugs a bit. Ashley sat up.
“Look, most of the time they don’t agree, Aiden. That’s the beauty of it, mate. That’s what turns on these fucking head cases who buy this shit. They like to see the fear in a girl’s eyes, a struggle. A girl being up for it just don’t float their boat. That’s why the harder stuff is sold round the back of the shop… that’s why it’s so fucking lucrative. These special people will pay big money to get their sordid kicks.”
Aiden nodded, deep in thought. He liked the word ‘lucrative’. He’d learned what it meant from Kamal and it was his new word, a word that made him sound like he knew what he was talking about. You say ‘lucrative’ to a man in business and they beam with enthusiasm, like he was doing now.
Ashley went on. “So, your girl’s a looker, then, yeah? ’Cos if she’s some munter, Aiden, we ain’t gonna make much from the film… it might not even make the shelf. If I’m putting time into doing this for you as a favour to your uncle, the poor bastard, I want a good return, understand?”
“I’m telling you, she’s alright… what about the male lead? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”
“I thought we’d do lesbians tonight. Shelly’ll be here at eleven.”
Before Aiden could press for more information, there was a light knock on the door. “That’ll be Gina,” he announced apprehensively.
Ashley jumped up to open the door. As he disappeared from the room, Aiden thought about what had been revealed to him so far tonight. He already knew that sex videos could result in a reasonable earn, but from what Ashley was saying, you could earn big without the added cost of professional equipment, proper studios and well-known actors. The potential made him nervous. He’d not done anything like this before and now he had dragged Gina into it with no real knowledge of what was expected of her to make this all worthwhile.
When Ashley came back into the room, he was beaming. “She’s fucking hot,” he whispered enthusiastically, thumbs up and all.
Gina came into the room, all big hair, make-up and legs, dressed in a denim mini-skirt, a tight white t-shirt and black, leather-look ankle boots. Ashley’s excitement surprised Aiden. Of course Gina was a looker, but he’d not really taken in how beautiful she actually was. In fact, she was perfectly formed from her silky dark hair to her impeccable arse and long, slim legs. Aiden stared at her for a few seconds, considering all this.
Yet for all her beauty, he couldn’t see her as anything but someone he fucked as and when he felt like it, because in reality, though she might be an eleven to Ashley – who didn’t have much going for him in the looks or body department – to a specimen like him she was a generous eight. But this was Aiden all over. He knew how good-looking he was, so he always kept his options open. Furthermore, he found himself thinking, Gina Watson would never match Lily Summers in the looks or personality department. No one had ever bent his head like Lily. She had taken his heart with her when they had parted, and it had never returned…
He shook his head. These drugs were turning him all fucking sentimental!
By the time the introductions had been made and Ashley had got everyone a drink, Aiden had forgotten his earlier nervous flutters. Now he was full of determination. Gina could make him a mint in the near future, and tonight was about impressing the man who could make it all happen.
Shelly Matthews arrived just after 11pm. She bustled into the room, all loud chatter and laugher, dressed in a cheap fur coat, a tight leopard-print mini-dress, and black, knee-high patent leather boots. She wasn’t as much in the looks department as Gina, but she had a cracking body and an electric confidence about her, Aiden thought, as she pulled off her coat and slung it over the couch.
Shelly was of African descent. Her hair, dyed a deep red, was alive like hundreds of springs bouncing off her scalp, and her long legs would give Naomi Campbell a run for her money. Ashley explained that she was an old friend of his, as in she had worked for him several times before. He had got in a pro to show the new girl a thing or two.
“Shelly will show you the ropes, Gina. Let her guide you,” Ashley announced once Shelly had settled herself down with a drink and a cigarette in hand.
Gina looked petrified all of a sudden. “It’s just me and her?” she quivered.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed and, before she talked her way out of a job, he quickly intervened, “G, can I have a word?” Pulling her up from the couch, he took her into the front room. As they left, Shelly rolled her eyes.
Aiden closed the door of the front room behind them and pushed Gina away. “You do whatever he says, alright? I’ve got a lot of money riding on you, G,” he sneered with a surprising amount of frustration.
“A lesbian act?” Gina spat in a cold whisper. “I didn’t agree to no lesbians!” Aiden grabbed her a
rm again, using all his strength, and it hurt. “Get off me!”
He didn’t let go; this wasn’t a game. Pulling her towards him, he pressed his nose on hers. “You’ll do this, G, or you’ll be answering to me! Don’t make me look like an idiot, you got it?”
Gina was furious. What an overreaction! She struggled to break free from his grip, but it was of no use. He was far too strong for her. “What the hell has got into you?” she seethed, and when he refused to unhand her, she kicked out, landing a hard stiletto-heeled blow to his shin.
Aiden jumped back in pain, simultaneously releasing her. For a moment, he was so shocked by her retaliation that, in his drug-crazed mind, he didn’t quite know what to do. He felt his face begin to flush, and all of a sudden, as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over him, he saw the situation with complete clarity. He was on the cusp of something big, something that would broaden his small empire, and he wasn’t about to let this bitch ruin that for him. He would never live it down if she bailed on him now. He was acutely aware that he needed Gina on this one, and this wound him up all the more. Aiden Foster refused to rely on anyone. It had been easy to learn that lesson growing up with a father who didn’t give a flying fuck about his family and a mother who kissed the ground the fucker walked on.
The pain seared in his leg and he glared at the beauty before him. Their time apart had worked well for Aiden. It had allowed him to focus on his aspirations, clear his head of Gina’s physical allure, and see her for what she really was: a self-loathing, fragile misfit with a quick temper. She wanted more from him and he couldn’t give it to her. He couldn’t love someone so weak and filled with self-hatred. He’d spent his entire life watching his own father prove that a woman with no self-respect could never be loved by a man.
He wanted to laugh at Gina now, to degrade her and show her exactly what she meant to him at this moment. His glacial blue eyes became a steely resemblance of his rising temper. He strode up to her, and, before she could react to his approach, he slapped her hard across the cheek.
Human Conditioning Page 18
