Amber grinned then. Gripping her mate’s hands, she squealed with excitement.
‘You are on, Megs! Oh my God, we are going to have so much fun!’
‘We’ll walk, Dad, it’s only fifteen minutes away,’ Megan Harris said, pleading with her dad not to embarrass her any further by constantly insisting on driving her around as if she was ten years old again.
‘It’s dark outside. It will take me five minutes,’ Alfie Harris reasoned. Having given in to Megan’s request to let his daughter stay at her friend Amber’s house for the weekend, he was having a lot less luck persuading the girl to let him at least drive her there so that he knew she got there safely.
‘Honestly, Mr Harris, it’s really kind of you to offer, but it doesn’t take long to walk, and we’ll both be together. It’s not like she’s walking on her own,’ Amber said, playing along as the sensible friend.
‘Yeah, come on, Dad!’ Megan pleaded, willing him to stop being so overprotective. He was showing her up. Amber would take the right piss out of her once they finally got out of here this evening.
‘But I took the weekend off. I was hoping we could spend some quality time together. The three of us?’
‘Oh come on, Alfie, she’s sixteen. She doesn’t want to be hanging out with us oldies. Let her go out with her friend,’ Jennifer Dawson said then, winking at the two girls, letting them know she was on their side. ‘They’re both smart girls. Like they say, it’s not far and they’ll stick together!’
It was an olive branch. They all knew that. This was Jennifer’s way of showing Megan that she was giving the girl some moral support.
Megan smiled back at Jennifer but her grin didn’t reach her eyes. She wasn’t born yesterday. The girl was just involving herself in the conversation for pure effect. Playing the good cop, bad cop routine in a desperate bid to win her over.
Only, her dad was hanging off the girl’s every word.
‘Okay, okay!’ Throwing his hands up in the air, laughing. Outnumbered. Faced with all three women staring at him now, insisting that he let Megan go.
‘But the second you get to Amber’s I want a phone call so that I know you got there safely, okay?’
‘No worries, Mr Harris. We’ll call you as soon as we get there,’ Amber said quickly as Megan gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before he could change his mind, before throwing a curt goodbye to Jennifer.
The two girls quickly left the room.
‘See, she’s not that bad. She had your back in there.’
‘Yeah, I bet she couldn’t wait to get rid of me!’ Megan said bitterly.
Chapter Twelve
‘Follow me, my friend,’ Gem Kemal shouted over the loud thud of music that pounded out from the speakers behind them, as he guided Daniel Byrne through the throng of people that crowded the nightclub’s main bar and dance floor.
Reaching the VIP booth that sat on the platform overlooking the entire ground floor, Gem offered Daniel Byrne a seat.
The man looked impressed.
‘Fuck me. The doors only just opened, ain’t they? This place is heaving,’ Daniel shouted as he took in the spectacular sight of the club’s clientele: the scantily clad hordes of girls dressed in a uniform of tight micro-mini skirts, cleavage-busting tops and stiletto heels, which might have been the height of fashion for the early 2000s, but personally, Daniel Byrne couldn’t see the attraction of all the women wanting to be clones of each other. There was no individuality, he thought, eyeing a group of girls all standing in a cluster, with their chunky striped highlighted hair and their obscenely large hooped earrings. The men were not much better, with their designer clothes and their matching designer stubble. Sauntering around the place with their popped collared shirts.
The club’s atmosphere, however, was electric. The music was pulsating its way throughout the building. The bass bouncing wildly off the walls and the floors, vibrating right through Daniel’s body as he spoke. ‘I heard this place was supposed to be the bollocks.’ He raised his eyes in agreement now, seeing first-hand that the rumours were indeed true.
From outside, The Karma Club hadn’t looked anything particularly special; the place was no more than a deserted Victorian warehouse, situated in the heart of North London’s King’s Cross badlands. The club was nestled between the old railway arches at the back of a darkened redundant workers’ yard, tucked away out in the middle of fucking nowhere, but then Daniel guessed that was all part of its appeal. The main clientele seemed to be London’s spoilt little rich kids. All that money, and yet they chose to get their rocks off in an old abandoned warehouse. Irony at its very best.
‘This is the place to be, Daniel,’ Gem said proudly, pointing over to one of the girls that just walked in surrounded by a small entourage. ‘See the girl in the tiny red dress? You must recognise her?’
Daniel shrugged. The girl looked vaguely familiar.
‘It’s Kate fucking Moss. You know, the supermodel. We’ve had all sorts in here. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jude Law. Most nights, we’ve got half the premier league’s footballers in here too and they love to spend their cash, let me tell you. I’m surprised you haven’t been here yet yourself, Daniel? This place has made Alfie Harris a very rich man.’
Daniel nodded in agreement at Gem’s words. He’d heard that Alfie Harris was coining it in these days. The Karma Club was the talk of London right now, and considering that the place had only opened three months ago, it had already seemed to take on a life of its own.
His dad had cashed in early, making sure that his and Alex Costa’s gear was sold on the premises. Daniel was well aware that his family had been making a tidy little sum out of the club’s success and, by the looks of things, there was much more money still to come.
‘All of London’s beautiful people under one roof.’ Gem grinned as he watched Daniel’s reaction. The man was taking it all in. Then, nodding to the waitress to bring him over a drink, Gem ordered one for Daniel too.
‘See the DJ over there?’ Gem nodded towards the booth. ‘Georgie Kissking, please tell me you’ve heard of him? ’Course you have. Everyone’s fucking heard of him. He’s one of the best DJs in the world. The fucking godfather of dance music. Alfie Harris flew him in from Ibiza and gave him exclusive residency. You know what that means, don’t you? These kids are literally lining the pavement outside to get their arses in here, for him alone. Tickets to get through the doors are like fucking gold dust.’ Gem shook his head in wonderment. ‘Alfie Harris reckons he’s going straight now he’s got this place, and with the money he’s making, he’s got a good chance of staying clean.’
Daniel smirked then. ‘Yeah, I saw him plastered all over the entertainment pages of the newspapers last week. Busy kissing some boy bands’ arses outside the club. Proper fancies himself as some sort of local fucking celebrity, these days. But it’s all good publicity, and I guess that’s why this place has just taken off. Every fucker wants a piece of it.’
‘Some men have all the luck, while others, like us, have to make our own,’ Gem reasoned, but the bitterness in his voice was easy to spot.
Alfie Harris had well and truly landed on his feet, and it pained Gem to see someone making so much money with so little effort when he had to work his arse off as head of security, spending months overseeing Jimmy and Alex’s interests, distributing their gear via a couple of the doormen that were set in place, and all Gem was bringing in was a meagre hourly wage.
Sinking back in his chair, he took a mouthful of the Jack and Coke that the waitress had just brought over for them both. All the while keeping an eye on the main door, making sure that Alfie Harris didn’t come swanning in and catch him sitting on his arse talking to Daniel when he should be working.
He still couldn’t believe that the man had actually taken the weekend off work, and left him in charge of the place. Gem had clearly proved himself trustworthy when he’d helped him deal with the cleaner who had been supposedly stealing off the man.
Gem had deliberately se
t this meeting up right under Alfie Harris’s nose. Hiding in plain sight, wasn’t that the term people used? As far as anyone was concerned, Gem Kemal was paying his condolences to Daniel Byrne. No one need be any the wiser what they were really talking about.
Eyeing Daniel with a vague curiosity, Gem lit up a cigarette before holding out the packet towards his companion, who shook his head.
‘So, why did you ask me here tonight? I take it you didn’t call to give me a show-and-tell of the fucking club, Gem?’ Daniel said, wondering what this sudden little meet up was all about.
‘You know what, that’s what I like about you. You’re just like your father. You don’t take any bullshit. You’re straight down the line.’ Remembering the other rumours that he’d heard about Jimmy and Alex, Gem winced, realising his ill choice of words as soon as they had left his mouth.
Only, Daniel didn’t seemed one bit fazed.
‘“Straight down the line”? Come on, Gem, I’m sure you’ve heard all the rumours that are flying about. My old man was more bent than a bleeding butcher’s hook.’
Gem laughed, relieved. A loud cackle escaping his mouth despite himself. Glad that Daniel had taken his turn of phrase in good humour, and that he wasn’t easily offended. The last thing Gem wanted to do was wrong-foot the man. He also wasn’t going to insult him by lying to him.
‘Of course I’ve heard the rumours, Daniel. It was all anyone spoke about for days. I’d have had to have been living in a bubble to not have heard them. Only, I don’t care what your father got up to in his personal life. It’s none of mine or anyone else’s business.’ There wasn’t much going on around here Gem didn’t know. He had eyes and ears all over London. Knowledge was power – and Gem made it his business to know everything.
‘I had a lot of respect for your father, you know. He came across as if he was indestructible, but I guess death comes to us all in the end,’ Gem said, shaking his head as if he was still trying to let Jimmy Byrne’s demise sink in, before laughing to lighten the mood. ‘Your father was ruthless though. And smart too. Which is why I asked you here tonight. I figured that maybe you’d be interested in a little proposition I’ve got for you.’
Daniel laughed again. ‘Well I hate to disappoint you, mate, but me and my father were worlds apart.’
Gem shook his head.
‘You’re a Byrne, Daniel. And I see him in you. There’s more to you than meets the eye.’
‘Go on, then.’ It was Daniel’s turn to sit back now as he read Gem with intrigue. Knowing full well that Gem Kemal only called him here tonight because he was his father’s son. The man clearly had no idea that Daniel had fuck all input in the family business. Not yet anyway.
It was his sister Nancy who was running everything now, though perhaps Gem wasn’t aware of that little fact. Though, that Gem was assuming that Daniel, being the only son, would be the one to rightfully take over his father’s business did resonate with Daniel too. That was exactly how it should have been. So maybe he and Gem were on the same page after all.
‘I want to change things up here at the club, and start making some real money,’ Gem said simply, finally laying his cards out on the table. ‘As head of security it means I have access to the entire club. I already have my men in place on the team. Why should men like Alfie Harris be the ones making a fortune when I’m the one doing most of the groundwork? That’s why I want to start bringing in my own gear.’
‘Why? We’re already shifting gear at the club, using the supplier that my father and Alex put in place. Has there been a complaint about the product?’
‘There haven’t been any complaints as such, no,’ Gem said holding his hands out honestly.
‘Then why try and fix something that isn’t broken?’ Daniel said, wondering what Gem would stand to gain by changing an operation that was already in play.
‘Because the figures speak for themselves. Your father had us selling cocaine. He refused to allow any other substances into the club.’ Gem shrugged. ‘These kids are bored with cocaine. They want something more than that. I have it on good authority by one of my top dealers that these kids want a different kind of buzz than what a gram or two of coke can give them. I’m talking MDMAs. GBH. Special K,’ Gem said, speaking with enthusiasm. ‘Pills, Daniel. That’s the way we stand to make some real money.’ He sat forward in his chair, eager to convince Daniel of his business idea. ‘Your father always said that he didn’t want to be held responsible for fucking up any kids with that shit.’ Gem shook his head in wonderment. ‘The irony being that that shit is exactly what the kids of today all want to get fucked up on. This is our opportunity to branch out.’
He had him now, he was sure of it. Sensing Daniel’s intrigue, Gem grinned.
‘I have some contacts in North London. Some Turkish friends of mine that I know will be happy to supply me with enough pills for us to trial them here at the club,’ Gem said then, finally getting to why he’d called the meeting this evening. ‘But I can’t do it on my own. I need your backing. A Byrne. With your name behind me, we won’t have other dealers coming in here trying their luck.’
‘What about Alfie Harris? It’s his club. Does he even know about any of this?’
Gem shook his head. ‘Look, Harris ain’t interested in the drugs side of the business. He never has been. He’s strictly all about the club.’ He shrugged. ‘Your father and Alex put the pressure on him when the place first opened, and Alfie was made to go along with it all. The man made a fortune from the proceeds, though. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t reaping the benefits. We don’t need to tell him shit.’
Daniel nodded, knowing better than anyone how shrewd and persuasive his father could be when he had wanted. If he had wanted in on the club, no one would have stopped him. Not even the nightclub owner.
‘I’m serious, Daniel. Come in on this with me. If you don’t, someone else will and that’s a big risk for me. There are too many snakes out there. Who do you trust, eh?’ Gem said, shaking his head, before toking on his cigarette once more and then slowly exhaling a white plume of smoke.
Daniel remained silent. Who do you trust indeed? he thought. His father had always been reluctant to get involved with the Turks. He used to say that they were too reckless. The influx of Turkish gangs in to London were renowned for their vicious temperaments. Though Gem Kemal didn’t seem that type.
The man seemed legit.
And Daniel knew that Gem was bang on the money, too, when it came to what this club should be selling. He only had to look around the place to see that. This was the noughties, after all. His father had always been stuck in some kind of time warp of the 80s and 90s. Times had changed now, and the clubbing scene had without a doubt moved on. His father would never touch Ecstasy or heroin, but Gem was right. There was clearly a massive market for the stuff.
Seeing Daniel quiet now, deep in thought, Gem continued talking. He almost had Daniel convinced, he was sure of it.
‘I want us to work together, Daniel, because, together, you and I will be a force to be reckoned with. We can test the product out the first time round using my suppliers and, if you’re happy with the turnover, we can think about importing our own supplies together. I already have my men here in position at the club to sell it all for us.’
‘So, where do I come in then?’
‘If this is a success, we use the couriers that your father and Alex have in place to bring us our new products. We use their warehouses and the dockyard.’ Gem corrected himself. ‘Your warehouses and dockyard. We can keep the same drop-off points too. Nothing will change, but we’ll be supplying a much better product. My only stipulation is that we keep this between only you and me. We need to be discreet. We can’t let any of this get back to Alfie Harris.’
Daniel nodded, able to see the logic in Gem’s proposal. His father’s sudden demise had shaken up the underworld, that was for sure. The reality was, a lot of people in London right now, Gem included, saw his father’s death as some kind of golden oppo
rtunity. The tide had turned and every one of his father’s contacts were suddenly seeing the market as a free-for-all. Of course, it was only going to be a matter of time before someone else tried to elbow their way in. That was the way things worked around here. With the rumours rife about Alex Costa losing his head, and the fact that he and Nancy were both so young, the Byrne empire was an easy target now.
Maybe Gem was right. If they joined forces with him, Daniel could start building his own workforce. He’d have backup then, and judging by the success of this place, Gem clearly knew how to control the masses. Glancing around The Karma Club once more, drinking in the electric atmosphere, he could see the positives in Gem’s plan for them both.
Though there was one thing standing in their way.
‘What about my sister, Nancy?’ Daniel said, as he tried to work out the logistics of how they could run the operation together when Nancy had a habit of sticking her oar in and trying to take over every situation. ‘She won’t go for any of this. She hates the drug side of the businesses. In fact, I think she’s thinking about stepping away from this side of the business altogether.’
Nancy had already made her intentions more than clear. She wanted to concentrate on several brothels that their father had set up, those, and the numerous properties that their father had invested in over the years: the swanky apartment blocks and lucrative office spaces dotted all over London.
‘I didn’t realise that you had to answer to your own sister?’ Gem said with a wry grin to show Daniel that his comment was said purely to wind him up. Then, seeing that Daniel was being serious, he added: ‘This arrangement doesn’t include your sister, Daniel. Let’s get that straight from the off. If we are to go forward with this, you and me, then that’s one of my conditions. I won’t work with a woman. Let her step away. That’s even better for us.’
Daniel grinned then. Liking Gem Kemal’s logic even more.
Women could be a royal pain in the arse, but his sister Nancy was the ultimate. Gem was right; if Nancy was thinking about stepping back from the club and the drug scene, there would be no harm in Daniel pursuing it, would there?
The Broken_A gripping thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat Page 10
