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by Cole, Martina

  That Patrick had only just noticed how she was feeling annoyed her but she smiled and allowed him to pet her and love her. After all, he was only a man and, as her mother pointed out at every available opportunity, they couldn’t feel their way out of the womb unless a woman was pushing for them. Everything they did from then on was either to get a woman or to keep a woman. In some cases, they tried to do both things at once. When all was said and done, women ruled the fucking world.

  As Patrick smiled at her with his smug face and enveloped her once more in his strong arms, she was more convinced of that fact than ever before.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Spider was feeling the heat and he was not a happy bunny. Cain was starting to irritate him on an hourly basis. The boy was somehow under the mistaken impression that he was more on the ball than his older brother; he was at the stage in life where a few quid and someone else’s hard work seemed to make him feel he was the winner of Mastermind: chosen subject, villainy and drug dealing. He was now of the inflated opinion that he could run everything from a bar stool and that his brother, who had been kind enough to pave his way into the world of riches and money, had suddenly acquired the intellect of a Millwall supporter. It was laughable, but worse than that, it was also making Spider very frightened. And that was making him even more frightened.

  Life was hard enough as it was without his little brother suddenly developing a death wish. It was as if Cain really thought that he was the brains of the outfit. The young man he himself had schooled and who he had grafted for suddenly seemed to think that he was the alpha male, the dog’s gonads.

  Cain really thought that he was a fool who would not suss out what was going on right under his nose and that his treachery would go unnoticed and, more to the point, unpunished. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

  The Williams brothers were pariahs in their community and what did Cain decide to do? Make them his bosom buddies at the expense of all he had worked for, all he had tried to achieve. Cain was suddenly prepared to overlook him, was prepared to forget everything in a heartbeat. He had no thought for anyone except himself and the shite he had decided to hang around with. Jasper the Rasta was bad enough, he had been hanging with him for a while now but, coupled with the Williams boys, it was a catastrophe of fucking Olympian proportions.

  And Cain was so dense that he actually thought that he, Spider, his older brother, the man who had taught him everything he knew, had no idea where his brother’s nights were spent and, worse still, what he was doing while on the missing list.

  Spider had the unenviable task of telling Patrick the full story, although he had a feeling he already knew all about it. There wasn’t much Patrick didn’t know about, and what there was didn’t merit his attention.

  The Williams brothers had offered Cain the earth on a plate, convinced him they were what he needed to succeed and Cain had swallowed it all like the fucking useless no-neck he had become. It was this that was annoying Spider the most: that his Cain, his brother, could be that fucking stupid. Like he could trust white boys. White boys who were now lower down the food chain than the whores they were attempting to pimp and weaker than the drugs they were attempting to peddle in his name, and more treacherous than Judas Iscariot himself.

  Cain had always been vain and that must have been how the Williams boys had got into him; it was the only thing he could think of to blame. They must have mug-bunnied for England to get him on their side.

  The Williams brothers thought they were the new rude boys and, with Cain onside, they seemed to think they were getting away with it. Except that Cain was only accepted because of his association with Brodie and that, of course, was only because he himself had been onside with Patrick Brodie since day one.

  Cain was using his largesse and his goodwill with Patrick to further his own ends. The Williams lot must think that they would be protected because of his connections and that he would make sure his brother would get away with his stupidity. The Williams brothers had taken him for a ponce as well as Cain; they had assumed he would look out for his brother and, to an extent, they had been right about that. But now they had stepped over the line; they had made him out for a fool and that he would not accept.

  As much as Spider loved Cain, he had a reputation to uphold and that rep had never included whores or bores, a saying of his father’s that had been proved true over and over again. The Williams boys were already starting to bore him and he had never really had much time for them anyway. Cain had finally pushed him too far and he had to retaliate to make him see what he had done. Spider needed to try to salvage something from the mess that had dropped into his lap.

  Spider was determined to see that the accident the Williams brothers were going to have came sooner rather than later but did not include his brother in any way, shape or form. Cain was a fool; something he had never believed would have been a possibility until now. But he would save Cain’s arse for no other reason than how his behaviour affected him; how he was perceived and how people judged him personally and professionally. Cain was not going to nause up all his hard work by making him look as if he had no fucking idea about what was going on in his own backyard.

  In a short time, Cain had gone from someone he would trust with his life to someone he would not trust with his car keys. Quite a leap for two brothers who were proud of their filial affection and who had once believed that together they could rule the world. Their world at least. Spider was having to rethink everything about their relationship and their dealings and work out how best to limit any damage that might occur if Cain was cunt enough to completely disregard him and his teachings.

  On top of everything else, his brother had broken the cardinal rule that he had drummed into him over and over again: never take your own products whether it was the women or the drugs. And, if what he had heard was true, ketamine and amphetamines were rife where the Williams brothers were concerned, and the brown was always on the table. They were complete wasters and, like all wasters, they had a habit of taking other people down with them. Cain was slipping further away from him with every day that passed by.

  Spider would scrub his brother out in a heartbeat if he ever became a liability; he had always told Cain that. Spider had explained to him that the world they lived in did not allow for sentiment of any kind. Once you blotted your copybook you were out, even if you were family. Trust was all they had to rely on, the only thing that stood between them and jail. Once that trust was broken, no one was safe and that included baby brothers who had been lucky to have family who looked out for them and employed them in the first place; even if they were too stupid to understand that. It meant that even blood would be wiped out without hesitation for the greater good, for the guarantee of equilibrium once more. It was nothing personal as such, it was just the way that their world worked.

  The big picture had always been the only picture as far as Spider was concerned and if that meant taking out family then so be it.

  ‘What are you on about?’

  Lil came out into the hallway; her mother’s voice was loud enough to alert her to trouble and she knew, without asking, that whatever it was, it had been caused by her second son. It was strange but she had been expecting something like this, someone on her doorstep with hate in their heart and profanities on their lips.

  It was almost a relief, as if her wicked thoughts needed to be proved true once and for all by an innocent bystander so she could admit the feelings she had towards her son had some kind of basis, some kind of concrete foundation.

  Lil knew Lance was trouble and she knew that because she always let her mother sort it out; she was colluding with him, letting him get away with it. By turning a blind eye she had brought this woman to her door and she knew it had to be really serious for her to come here in the first place. Most people wouldn’t have had the guts.

  Today though, Pat Junior’s party was on the horizon and her belly was heavier than ever before, and when her mother’s voice wa
s finally expressing her anger at the grandchild she usually defended with all her considerable strength, Lil had finally had enough.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Lil’s voice was hard, the words delivered with unusual vehemence, and the woman on her doorstep, Janie Callahan, was reminded of exactly who she was dealing with.

  This was Lil Brodie, the wife of the man everyone around and about revered and feared in equal measure. Lil was a star in her own right and Janie liked her a lot, but today she knew she had to make some kind of a stand and that Lil was the person she needed to deal with, not her mother. Annie Diamond was a two-faced, disloyal ponce who only had the ear of the street because of her connections, because of who her daughter was married to. And she milked that for all it was worth; she was a terror of a woman who used her daughter’s name for her own ends. Well, it was going to stop now because Janie was not going to stand for it any more.

  Everyone else was terrified about making any kind of complaint about the Brodie kids and this was because Annie protected them, no matter what they did. Especially the main culprit, Lance. Lance walked on water as far as Annie was concerned and he was aware of the power his name gave him. Lance was a bully and bullies needed to be reined in sooner rather than later.

  Janie Callahan was like any mother worth her salt; she was willing to take on anyone to protect her kids and if that meant taking on Annie, then she was going to do just that. If it meant taking on Lil, then she was willing to do that as well. But she knew in her heart that Lil was someone to be reasoned with, someone who had a bit of sense; at least she hoped that was the case.

  Janie felt angry enough to take the lot of them on, even Patrick Brodie himself, if needs be. Her children needed to know that she was looking out for them and they needed to feel safe. Janie was determined to make sure that they were, no matter what the cost to her personally.

  ‘Get in, Lil, you are not in any condition to deal with this.’

  Lil saw the confusion on her mother’s wrinkled face and then she shoved her none too gently out of the way. That gesture was enough to quieten her.

  Lil had always liked Janie and she wanted to know why she was on her doorstep reading them the riot act. It had to be serious because Patrick Brodie was a byword around the streets and she knew just how hard it must have been for Janie to come knocking on her door. She sighed deeply, wondering what her son had done to merit this kind of reaction.

  ‘Get out of the way, Mother. Come in, Janie, love, and tell me what on earth the problem is.’ Lil’s voice was calm and she stepped aside so that Janie could walk into her home; she needed to sort this out and she needed to know what had been the cause of the woman’s upset. She wanted to know what that little fucker had been up to this time.

  Lil was aware that she also had to make some sort of stand in front of her neighbours; it was how they lived and how they survived. So she stepped outside her front door and looked at the women in the street; they were all standing on their doorsteps waiting to see the outcome of this little drama whilst pretending they had no interest whatsoever. Lil stared at them all, one after the other, her eyes hard and her jaw clenched in anger. She knew how to play the game and she played it with a quiet contempt that was as insulting as it was threatening.

  ‘Had your fucking look?’ Her voice was harder than she intended but it had the desired effect. The women knew they had overstepped the mark and she knew they would be chary of repeating that mistake in the future.

  Janie was now inside the house and, hearing Lil’s angry voice, her earlier bravado was deserting her by the second.

  Lil could feel the fear and the loathing coming off Janie Callahan in waves; she saw the widening of her eyes and the way she bit on her bottom lip. She knew that it had taken every ounce of courage Janie possessed to come and knock on this door. She knew that this was serious, that this was not about the usual childish arguments or the kids’ pranks so prevalent in the street. Janie was on a mission and her mother’s quietness was, in itself, enough to convince her that Lance was indeed the culprit and that, as she had thought earlier, he had been seriously out of order.

  Lil was frightened of hearing what Lance had done, and yet she knew it was inevitable that she would be regaled about his latest misdemeanour.

  ‘Make a cuppa, Mum.’

  She smiled at Janie and it took every ounce of courage that she possessed. Then she said quietly and with a friendliness she didn’t actually feel any more, ‘Come through to the lounge, Janie, and let’s sort this out, shall we?’

  Janie nodded in relief but she saw the way Annie looked at her and knew she had just made herself an enemy for life.

  Cain was out of his box and his smile was as phoney as his annoyance was real. Leonard Barker was never happy at any time, but giving this young man the news that his brother was searching for him all over the Smoke was making him even more depressed than usual. Cain had to be some kind of mug; Leonard would give his eye-teeth to have someone on board with him like Spider. But Cain was so blitzed he just shrugged it off.

  Leonard walked from the room; he had done his chore for the day and he wanted to distance himself from this man as fast as possible.

  Having heard the bad news, the Williams brothers were scattering. They were suddenly off for the evening, leaving Cain alone even though they knew he was not fit to use the toilet without help. But that was the Williams boys all over, they seemed to enjoy taking this boy down with them. And Cain himself was galloping towards obscurity and censure as if it was the only thing he wanted in the world.

  Leonard Barker was collecting glasses out the front of the Speiler when he saw Patrick Brodie slip through the door. There were a few regular customers at the bar and Leonard noticed how Patrick was being observed without anyone actually looking directly at him. He waved nonchalantly at no one in particular and everyone in there greeted him heartily. Leonard felt his heart sink down to his boots and wished that his boss wasn’t such a lazy cunt so he would not have to be the person overlooking this pile of shite. He would be glad when Cain finally got his comeuppance.

  Patrick nodded at him in a friendly way; no one would ever guess at his anger or his dismay that it had come to this. He opened his arms as if in supplication and Leonard Barker nodded almost imperceptibly towards the back room knowing that Brodie would have all the information he needed before he would have even deigned to walk through the doorway. It was a game that had been played out over and over again for years and the only changes were the players in the little soap opera. This time though, a renowned lunatic, Patrick Brodie, had seen fit to sort his problems out in public and Leonard knew it could go either way for him because of that. He would either be the villain of the piece or the knight in shining armour, depending on the outcome.

  Leonard just wanted his wage in his back pocket and fuck the dramas that came and went with a depressing regularity. He was further dismayed to see two huge men come into the bar with baseball bats neatly wrapped in red insulating tape. When the dirty deed was done they could unwrap the tape and burn it, thereby leaving the bats in pristine condition for further use and any evidence as ash.

  Two of the regulars at the bar drank up and walked out quickly without saying their usual good-humoured goodbyes and this seemed to be the sign for a general exodus, as was expected. No one questioned anything; the atmosphere said enough and no one wanted to get caught up in the situation here, and who could blame them?

  Patrick smiled then and Leonard poured him a large Scotch before shutting the bar flap and leaving the place himself. He would sit it out in the cold and wait for them to vacate the premises before going back inside. Brodie owned the bar, even though he didn’t run it, and Leonard knew that Cain was about to find out just what owning something or, more to the point, someone really meant.

  Leonard sat outside in his little Hillman Imp and rolled himself a cigarette; his hands were trembling and that annoyed him. He started up the car and pushed a cassette into his eight-track system. E
lvis Presley’s voice filled the void around him and he closed his eyes and wished to Christ that he too felt lonesome tonight.

  ‘What’s wrong then, Janie?’

  Janie sighed heavily. Her earlier bravado had deserted her and she was perched on the edge of the sofa with a dry mouth and a heart that was beating so loud it was almost drowning out her own thoughts.

  Lil was aware of the woman’s discomfort and she smiled once more, feeling phoney because a large part of her didn’t want to hear what this poor woman had to say.

  ‘Lance is bullying my kids, Lil. I can’t sit back and let him, it’s gone too far this time.’ It was out, it was said and the world had not come to an end.

  ‘In what way?’

  Lil was asking all the right questions, she knew, but the truth was that she could have written Janie’s script for her. But what Janie answered was nothing like what she had expected and she had, as always where Lance was concerned, expected the worst. She was stunned as she listened to the woman talk.

  ‘Eight stitches in the head and that was when Lance pushed her off the bus . . .’

  Janie trailed off as she saw the shock on Lil’s face. She had assumed that Lil had heard about it. It was the talk of the school; not that they were willing to do anything about it. But what could Janie do? This had to be resolved because her kids were in mortal fear of even leaving the house.