Liverpool Loyalty

by Caz Finlay

  ‘Not all night. Just see where they go next if you can. Tell me if they leave together, and then you can go back to your night out with Ben.’

  ‘Okay,’ he replied with a sigh. ‘But only because I love you.’

  ‘I love you too,’ she whispered. ‘Be careful.’

  ‘I will,’ Nick said with a smile as he hung up the phone. He had waited a long time to hear that from Leigh Moss. As he put his phone back in his pocket, Nick thought he saw John Brennan staring at him from the corner of his eye. But when he turned his head, John was talking to Alastair McGrath again. Nick shook his head. He was being paranoid. There was no way John Brennan knew who he was.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Grace was finishing up some paperwork in her office at Sophia’s Kitchen and had nipped out to the bar to get a drink when she spotted Alastair McGrath and Jock Stewart sitting at one of their tables. She frowned, wondering how on earth they’d managed to bag themselves a table on a Friday night. Carlos, the maitre d’, was passing by and she took hold of his arm.

  ‘Do you know those two men in suits in Lena’s section?’ she asked him.

  ‘No. But John Brennan asked us to squeeze them in. I assumed it had come from you?’

  ‘Thanks, Carlos,’ Grace said with a smile, assuming John had used the table as a way to ingratiate himself and get to know a little more about their competition. She took a seat at the bar and watched the two men. Alastair – loud and obnoxious. His thick Scottish accent could be heard across the restaurant. Jock, on the other hand, appeared to be the complete opposite. Quiet, understated and considered. Together they made quite the pair, and she supposed that in business they probably complemented each other well.

  Lena was making her way over with their food and she gave them one of her brightest smiles as she reached their table. Grace knew that Carlos always gave Lena the best customers – and Alastair, with his expensive suit and gold jewellery, looked like a big tipper. Grace noticed how he made a grab at Lena as she stood beside him, which she expertly dodged. Undeterred, he put an arm around her waist and pulled her towards him. Grace could see Lena laughing it off as she took a step back and placed his plate of food in front of him. Taking a step towards Jock, Lena bent forward slightly and placed the second plate of food down. Alastair took the opportunity to slide his hand up Lena’s skirt, and whatever he did next made the young woman jump in pain, shock or both. The bouncers generally just covered the door and therefore didn’t witness the assault. But Grace had.

  Putting her drink on the bar, she marched over to Alastair’s table, by which time he had pulled Lena onto his lap and was holding onto her with both arms. He was laughing, as though it was all some big joke, and Lena was doing her best to extricate herself from the situation while not causing a scene.

  ‘Alastair,’ Grace said as she reached the table. ‘Let her go, now!’

  Alastair scowled at her. ‘We’re only having a bit of fun, aren’t we, lass?’ he said to Lena.

  ‘I said let her go, you disgusting old perv,’ she snapped. ‘She’s a waitress, not your fucking toy.’

  Alastair released his grip and Lena took the opportunity to jump up from his lap, pulling her skirt down as she did so.

  ‘Now get out of this restaurant and don’t ever let me see you in here again,’ Grace snapped.

  ‘Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?’ Alastair snarled, his teeth bared like a rabid dog. ‘John Brennan got us this table. He understands what it means to work in this business. You don’t piss off your paying customers, least of all customers like me.’

  ‘Well, in case you’d forgotten this is my restaurant and John Brennan works for me. Now get out!’

  Noticing Grace had confronted one of the customers, two of the bouncers came walking over. ‘Everything okay, Boss?’ they asked.

  ‘Please escort this piece of shit out of here,’ she snapped.

  ‘You’ll fucking regret this,’ Alastair shouted. ‘You’ve picked a fight with the wrong man this time. And all for some little whore who wears skirts short enough to show her minge and then complains when people come on to her.’

  ‘Come on, Boss, let’s go,’ Jock said as he pushed back his chair.

  ‘You heard the lady,’ one of the bouncers added.

  ‘You’ll pay for this, Grace. No one makes a cunt of me,’ Alastair said, almost foaming at the mouth now with rage.

  ‘No, you do a good enough job of that yourself,’ Grace added. ‘Now get out of my restaurant and out of my city.’

  With that, the two bouncers approached him and Jock held up a hand. ‘It’s fine,’ he snapped. ‘We’re going.’

  The two men walked out of the restaurant, with Alastair still ranting as he left.

  ‘Thank you, Grace,’ a tearful Lena said as she continued to fiddle with her skirt.

  ‘Come into my office,’ Grace said. ‘Carlos, can you bring us a brandy each? The good stuff?’

  ‘Of course,’ Carlos said as he dashed off to the bar.

  Grace sat down at her desk and Lena sat opposite her, her hands still trembling. ‘Are you okay?’ Grace asked.

  Lena nodded. ‘Yes. I think so. I didn’t know what to do. He grabbed me. He put his hand…’

  ‘I know. I saw him. Dirty old pig,’ Grace added.

  Lena blushed and looked down at her hands, not daring to maintain eye contact. Grace had never had a chance to speak to her about the night she had propositioned her husband and wondered if Lena was thinking the same thing.

  ‘I heard you stepped in and did the rotas and drinks order for Jamie last week?’ Grace asked.

  ‘Yeah. He was off with food poisoning for two days, and Kerry was on leave, so I had a go.’

  ‘And there were no complaints? No issues?’

  ‘None that I’m aware of,’ Lena answered.

  ‘It’s not easy doing the rotas for this lot. Someone’s always complaining that someone else got the best shift, but from what I could see you were fair.’

  ‘I tried to be,’ Lena replied with a shrug.

  ‘You’ve got a nice way with the customers, Lena. You’ve obviously got some brains too. You could be an asset. You’re aware that we own quite a few restaurants and bars, and you could go far if you wanted to? Do you want to?’

  Lena looked up and smiled, nodding her head furiously. ‘Yes I’d love to. I really enjoy working here, and I’d absolutely love to manage a place like this one day. You really think I could?’

  Grace nodded back. ‘If you work hard enough, I think you’ve got what it takes, yes.’

  ‘Thank you, Grace,’ she said as her cheeks turned pink.

  ‘You’re welcome, Lena. I don’t give compliments when they’re not deserved. But if you ever come on to my husband again, I will make sure that you never work in another decent bar or restaurant for the rest of your days.’

  Lena blinked rapidly and was about to reply when Carlos entered the room carrying two glasses of brandy. ‘Here you go, ladies,’ he said with a smile as he handed them over.

  ‘Thanks, Carlos,’ Grace said. ‘You are a truly gracious host.’

  ‘Why, thank you,’ he said as he gave a mock bow.

  ‘Yes, thank you. You are very gracious indeed,’ Lena added although she looked at Grace when she spoke.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Alastair McGrath was almost foaming at the mouth as he walked along Liverpool’s waterfront back to their hotel. ‘Who the fuck does she think she is talking to me like that?’ he shouted as he stomped along. ‘Cheeky, arrogant little slag. She will rue the fucking day she ever met me, Jock. She will rue the fucking day.

  Jock resisted the urge to tell Alastair that he had brought that whole scene on himself and watched instead as his boss, who was half drunk, fished around in his pocket for his mobile phone. He pulled it out and started flicking through his phone contacts, mumbling and grumbling to himself.

  ‘Who are you looking for?’ Jock asked.

  ‘John
fucking Brennan,’ he snapped.

  Jock took the phone from him and scrolled through his list of contacts until he found John’s name. He pressed dial and handed the phone back to his boss and went on to listen to the one-sided conversation.

  ‘John. I think it’s about time we stepped up our plan to work together. In fact, I think it’s time we showed that nasty little bitch just exactly what happens to little girls when they try and mess with the big boys, don’t you?

  ‘Well, if you want to work for me, this is how it’s got to be. It’s about time someone took her down a peg or two, and I’m the fucking man to do it. So, you’re either with me, or you’re against me. Which is it?

  ‘Good. Meet me and Jock tomorrow at our hotel. Ten o’clock. Don’t be fucking late.’

  Alastair ended the call and turned to face Jock, his face an angry shade of purple now. ‘Phone the boys, Jock, and tell them all to get down here. I want a fucking small army here by tomorrow night. We are going to prove to that cunt and her husband that no one makes a fool of me.’

  ‘Why don’t we—’

  ‘Just fucking do it!’ Jock shouted.

  ‘Okay.’ Jock took his own phone out of his pocket and phoned Jerry Smith, who had only a few days earlier headed back to Essex with a flea in his ear after what had happened at The Blue Rooms. He told him to assemble as many men as he could and be prepared to head back to Liverpool when they were told to. Jerry was as dumbfounded as Jock was, but they both knew better than to question Alastair when his mind was made up.

  Jock listened to his boss ranting all the way back to the hotel and prayed for them to get there as quickly as possible to he could go to his own room, phone Celia and go to bed. He’d need his beauty sleep if they were about to take on the biggest firm in Merseyside. He and Jerry would stand by him as they always did, and the lads were always up for a scrap regardless of who they were fighting with. Alastair had an ego big enough for the lot of them, and one day it was going to get them all killed.

  Chapter Forty

  Leigh was asleep when Nick came home from his night out. She’d tried to stay awake but had fallen asleep reading the latest Kimberley Chambers novel.

  ‘Leigh,’ she heard him whisper as he picked up her book and put it on the bedside table. She blinked and was about to reprimand him for waking her up, when she remembered who he’d seen earlier. ‘Did you follow them? Where did they go?’ she asked anxiously.

  Nick nodded and smiled, like a little kid on Christmas morning. ‘The three of them left together. I followed them for a bit like you asked, and they all went into Sophia’s Kitchen together.’

  ‘The Carters’ restaurant?’

  Nick nodded. ‘Exactly.’

  ‘I fucking knew it, Nick. I knew we were onto something. What happened after that?’

  ‘I tried to get a table. I figured I could wait there for our Ben to finish his shift, but they were fully booked. I had a quick drink at their bar, but you can’t see much from there, and I couldn’t see their table at all. So I only had one drink and then I left. John had gone too by the time I did and Alastair and his mate were sitting on their own.’

  ‘Oh, I bet they were waiting for Grace or Michael,’ she said. ‘If only you could have waited a bit longer?’

  ‘I sat there drinking my pint for half an hour, Leigh, and I couldn’t see a thing. Maybe she met them while I was there, I wouldn’t have known. I’m not MI6, you know!’

  ‘I know,’ she said with a smile, realising she’d offended him. ‘And you’ve confirmed our suspicions at least. So, thank you,’ she said as she pulled him to her for a kiss.

  ‘Any time, Ma’am,’ he replied with a grin.

  Leigh slipped out of bed and left Nick snoring as she sat by her dresser and switched on her laptop. Although she’d been exhausted earlier, now her head was buzzing. She was desperate to find out what was going on with Alastair McGrath and the Carters. If she could, then she’d let the DI in Essex know and maybe they could bring the whole lot of them down? God, what a sting that would be. It would cement her career in the police force. She’s probably make DCI in a year or two and would have her pick of any job she wanted. It was all she’d ever wanted. At least it had been at one time. She looked back at Nick and wondered if it still was. Nick was happy being a sergeant and would never go for promotion again. He said that he’d never be able to hack the longer hours, and Leigh knew that the higher you climbed the longer the hours were. As a previous boss of hers had once told her when she’d gone for her first promotion – your salary goes up, but your hourly rate goes down. And it was true. Suddenly, it seemed like her job wasn’t the most important thing in her life any more.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Jock Stewart and Alastair McGrath were sitting at a table in the hotel restaurant eating their breakfast when Jock saw John Brennan walking into the room. The waiter approached him and asked for his room number but John quickly dismissed him with a wave of his hand and headed over to their table.

  ‘Morning, gents,’ John said as he sat down.

  ‘Morning,’ Alastair responded gruffly. He was suffering from a hangover, something of which Jock had extensive experience.

  John ordered a coffee from the waitress and helped himself to a piece of toast from the rack on the table. ‘So, you have a plan?’ he asked before taking a bite.

  Alastair nodded. ‘I want to know who your boss’s suppliers are. I want to know when her next shipment is coming in, and then I’m going to take it from right under her nose. Then when she comes after me, I will wipe out as many of that fucking family as I possibly can.’

  John didn’t flinch. If the thought of taking out his boss was in any way unpleasant to him, he didn’t show it. ‘Your plans have certainly escalated since we last spoke, Alastair,’ he said with a smile. ‘But, I do enjoy a challenge.’

  ‘So you’re in then?’ Alastair grinned.

  John nodded. ‘All the way.’

  Alastair started to laugh. ‘See, I told you, Jock. I said he couldn’t wait to get shot of her, didn’t I?’

  Jock nodded but he didn’t share Alastair’s enthusiasm and he didn’t trust John Brennan at all. He was about to stab the woman for whom he’d worked for years in the back and was smiling about it. From what Jock had heard, Grace had always treated John well, and she counted him as one of her friends. No, a man like that was not to be trusted, but who was Jock to question the plans of the great Alastair McGrath?

  ‘As luck would have it, Grace has a massive shipment coming in in two weeks. The biggest we’ve ever handled, in my time with her anyway. I think she’s trying to prove something to everyone after her kid got nicked.’

  Alastair’s eyes lit up. ‘Two weeks?’

  ‘Yep. Well, two weeks on Monday. Coke and shooters. If we can nick that, then not only would we be quids in, but it would leave Grace in a very vulnerable position.’

  ‘How so?’ Jock asked.

  ‘Like I said, this shipment is huge and I know for a fact we are running low on supplies – of everything. Losing this would disrupt the Carters’ supply chains massively. Plus, we take the guns and we leave them without an arsenal. Grace will only let us use clean weapons – and like I said, we’re running low.’

  Alastair nodded as he stuffed a piece of black pudding into his mouth. ‘Perfect. You give me the details of where and when and we’ll take it right from under her nose.’

  ‘If this shipment is so big, and so important, it’s not going to be as easy as that, is it?’ Jock said as he looked between the two men.

  ‘I never said it would be easy,’ John snapped. ‘But Jake and Connor are out of the picture, so this may be your best shot. Michael will be there but if you ask me, he’s lost his edge lately and I don’t think he’ll give us too much trouble. He won’t even carry a gun any more, he’s turned into such a shithouse. Then there’s usually up to eight men on the pick-up. I don’t expect there’ll be any more than that. Half of them will have guns, and one of tho
se men will be me.’

  ‘Sitting ducks?’ Alastair said.

  ‘The Carters aren’t used to being challenged. They won’t have a clue what’s hit them.’

  ‘Sounds perfect,’ Alastair said.

  ‘Too perfect,’ Jock interrupted.

  ‘Well, not quite,’ John went on. ‘We have two potential problems. The first being that Grace is going to be on this one too.’

  ‘Grace?’ Jock asked while Alastair nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘Yep. She sometimes oversees them, so it’s not that unusual, and with the lads inside, she wants to make sure it runs smoothly.’

  ‘Oh, this gets better,’ Alastair said.

  John shook his head. ‘Not for me. I might be happy to take her business from her, but I don’t want to see her hurt. I’ll go in on this with you, and I’ll give you all the details you need, if you promise she doesn’t get hurt.’

  Alastair glared at him. ‘I thought you were as hard as nails, lad?’ he said.

  Jock looked at John and saw the turmoil on his face. So, it wasn’t so easy to stab your boss in the back then? For some reason, that made him like and trust John just that little bit more.

  ‘They’re my terms, Alastair. I don’t care what happens to anyone else, but Grace walks out of there intact. She’ll be no threat to us after this.’

  ‘Sounds fair to me,’ Jock said.

  ‘If you insist,’ Alastair added.

  ‘What’s the second?’ Jock asked.

  John rubbed a hand across his face. ‘It could be nothing, but…’

  ‘What?’ Alastair demanded.

  ‘I recognised a copper in here last night watching us,’ John said. ‘It could have been a coincidence. Maybe he was just having a pint, but…’

  ‘I don’t believe in coincidences,’ Jock said.

  ‘Me neither,’ John agreed. ‘Grace has quite a few of them in her pockets and I think he’s one of them. If he’s seen me talking to you, then our cover could be blown.’