Whatever happened to people treating their homes as their castle? Alfie thought with disgust, turning his nose up at the squalor that these people chose to live in. The fact that it was a poverty-stricken area, and these people clearly didn’t have so much as two sticks to rub together didn’t mean that they had to live like fucking animals surely? It didn’t cost anything to have a bit of pride and stay clean!
Stepping over empty beer cans and discarded needles, he thought this place was the pits of the fucking earth, but it was nothing in comparison to the pure hell that he was going to send the two fuckers that they were paying a visit to.
Approaching the flat, Alfie pointed to the door up ahead. Flat 15, Sherrie had said. That was the one.
He put his finger to his lips, both of them listening to the thudding music that came from inside. The fuckers were home, and clearly still wide awake.
Though there was nothing like catching them with the element of surprise. By the time Alfie and Gem had smashed their way in, it would be too late for the scumbags inside to even think about tooling themselves up, or running away.
There would be nowhere for them to go.
Gem nodded down to the bottom panel of the front door that had been boarded up, as if someone had previously given it a kicking.
‘Well, this makes it a bit easier, doesn’t it? Fucking thing’s probably hanging off its hinges already,’ he said, keeping his voice low. Stepping back, he waited for Alfie’s word so that he could put his foot through the thing.
Taking a second to prepare himself mentally for the onslaught that was about to follow, Alfie Harris knew that once they got inside, there would be no coming back from this.
Tonight, blood would be spilt.
Gripping the metal baseball bat tightly in his grasp, he thought about his poor Megs lying in that hospital bed. How the nurse had told him that even if she recovered now, which was looking highly unlikely, the chances were that she’d live out the rest of her days as a vegetable.
His little girl.
Not being able to feed herself, or wipe her own arse. Confined to a fucking wheelchair and needing around-the-clock care. All because some fucking scrote thought that it was okay to fucking mess with her.
Scrutinising the rest of the flats nearby, Alfie checked that there weren’t any curtain twitchers doing their rounds. Though he seriously doubted that any fucker would be up at this time in the morning anyway.
It was almost 5 a.m. now.
Being Sunday morning, it was highly unlikely that any alarm clocks were about to go off and mark the start of an honest day’s work. In fact, around here Alfie suspected that this was the case most days. None of the residents on this shitty council estate would know a thing about dragging their arses out of bed before midday around here, he guessed, no matter what day of the week it was. Personally he didn’t give a shit about the neighbours seeing or hearing anything they shouldn’t tonight. If the fuckers knew what was good for them, they’d turn a blind eye, or Alfie would pay them a visit too.
Still he glared at their windows all the same. Then, nodding at Gem, Alfie Harris gave the order.
Let the reprisals commence.
Booting the front door with his huge size 12 boots, Gem kicked the shit out of it. Sending long splintered spears of wood shooting across the hallway. The door smashed to pieces in just seconds. Just a slither of wood left, hanging limply off its rickety hinges.
They were in.
Storming into the first room ahead of them, straight into the lounge. Slamming that door off its hinges, too, as they burst into the room, screaming and bellowing loudly, holding the metal baseball bats over their heads. Catching a group of three lads off guard: the boys all sitting around the lounge smoking weed and playing on the Xbox. The room was dingy. The curtains drawn; the only light in the room was from the glare off the telly.
‘Who the fuck are you?’ one of them shouted with feigned bravado, as the group of lads all jumped to their feet. Shitting themselves, as the two madmen stood there holding the bats high above their heads, clearly not afraid to use them if they had to. Half wishing that it had been the Old Bill busting in here to raid the place now that they were faced with these two nutters.
‘No, son, the question isn’t who the fuck are we. It’s who the fuck you are? Which one of you cunts is Reece?’ Alfie bellowed, glaring through the smokey haze, seeking out the man. These lads were barely even adults. Seventeen, eighteen years old tops? Wrinkling his nose, the room stank of weed. These kids must be as high as fucking proverbial kites.
‘Who’s asking?’ the boy said, shouting back. Clearly trying to buy his mate some more time. To warn him that there were people here looking for him.
‘You stupid fuck!’ Gem said, cracking the bat down over the kid’s head, and knocking him out, sparko onto the lounge floor. The other two lads were rendered silent then.
In fear of their lives.
And so they should be, Alfie thought, with the mood he was in.
‘Where is he?’ he said, directing his question at the shortest lad in the room.
Taking one look at his mate sprawled out on the floor, passed out, a trickle of blood dripping down from his ear, he wasn’t a grass, but he didn’t fancy getting his head caved in either. He pointed.
‘He’s in the back bedroom. With his bird. They’re in bed.’
‘Right then, off you both fuck. Take fucking sleeping beauty here with you,’ Alfie said, ordering the boys out of the flat, along with their now unconscious mate, before nodding at Gem to follow him through to the bedroom.
‘You take that one. I’ll do this one,’ Alfie said as the two men simultaneously kicked in the two bedroom doors. Slamming them hard against the walls behind them.
A shrill scream filled the room then, which was when Alfie spotted Amber. Naked in the bed, with the duvet cover pulled up around her. Next to her, he assumed, was the infamous Reece.
The shock on his face clear to see.
Though, right now, just the sight of the pair of them made Alfie Harris’s blood boil. In fucking bed with each other, while his girl was in a fucking coma in hospital.
This just got better and better.
‘Get your clothes on. Now,’ he bellowed. Pointing his finger, he could barely look at Amber. ‘And you, you fucking piece of shit. Do you know who I fucking am?’ he shouted, striding to the other side of the bed where Reece was and grabbing the fucker by his throat. Forcing him up against the headboard behind him.
It was all Alfie could do not to throttle the fucking life out of the filthy little scrote right there and then. But he didn’t intend to make Reece Bettle’s punishment quick, or painless.
‘Is this what the two of you have been doing, is it? Shagging? While my Megan is fighting for her life in hospital, strapped up to a fucking life support machine?’ Alfie shook his head now. ‘You both fucking disgust me.’
Then turning back to Amber, as the girl quickly pulled some clothes on, Alfie spat: ‘You haven’t even asked me how she is, Amber. She could have fucking died. Fuck! She probably still will,’ the emotion thick in Alfie’s throat as he spoke the words aloud for the first time.
‘But Reece said that she would be okay. That she just had a bad reaction. He said she’d probably be in overnight…’
Amber started crying again, realising that Reece had just told her what she’d wanted to hear. That he’d duped her into getting into bed with him, all the while her friend had been fighting for her life. ‘I’m so sorry, Mr Harris, I didn’t realise…’ But deep down, Amber knew that Megan hadn’t been all right. She’d just been kidding herself and now, faced with Alfie Harris at the foot of her bed, she looked riddled with guilt about everything.
So she fucking well should be, Alfie thought.
‘A bad reaction? She’s in a fucking coma. Who needs fucking enemies, eh? With mates like you. Leaving her on a fucking toilet floor. Go on, get your clothes and fuck off out of here. NOW!’ he bellowed.
&nb
sp; Hysterical then, knowing that she had severely fucked up, that she should never have listened to Reece in the first place, Amber did as she was told. Scrambling to her feet, trying to hide her modesty as she kept the duvet over her body and slipped her dress over her head, she picked up her shoes from the floor.
‘And you, you piece of shit. I asked you a question. Do you know who I am?’
Reece nodded. Everyone knew who Alfie Harris was. He was one big, bad bastard. Or at least he had been back in his day. He watched Amber as she fled the room without even giving him so much as a second glance. Too busy saving her own arse now.
Selfish bitch!
This was all her fault.
It wasn’t until it had been too late tonight, until Megan had already OD’d, that Amber had finally told him and Jenson the truth about who ‘Olivia’ really was: Megan Harris – the daughter of the notorious Alfie Harris. Reece couldn’t fucking believe it. No wonder the girls had pulled a fast one and lied about Megan’s name when they’d both tried to sneak into the club on Alfie Harris’s night off. The girl had seemed far too stuck-up and straight-laced to have a legend of a father like the owner of The Karma Club.
Everyone knew Alfie Harris. The man had been a bona fide nutter in his younger days. One of the hardest bastards in London. Rumour had it he’d worked for the Kray twins. Though Reece was never really sure, as most geezers over fifty claimed to have worked for the infamous brothers at one time or another.
Who the fuck knew?
All Reece did know was that he was the one that had spiked Alfie’s daughter’s drink and now the mad bastard was standing next to his bed with a nasty gleam in his eyes. One hand wrapped firmly around Reece’s throat, the other wielding a metal baseball bat. Which meant he was well and truly up shit creek now, without a fucking paddle. He’d fucked the girl up, big time. Though he couldn’t help but wonder how Alfie had found out so quickly that it had been him. Jenson had told him not to worry, that Alfie would never find out it was him who gave her the gear. But Jenson had been wrong about that.
Alfie Harris had found out, and only within a couple of hours of it happening too. The man must be as shrewd as fuck.
There was nothing Reece could do now other than beg for forgiveness. Though, to be fair, the pure hate and venom that radiated from the man in front of him didn’t give him much hope that Alfie Harris was the forgiving type.
‘I’m really sorry, mate. I had no idea that she was your daughter. Honest to God,’ Reece said, sounding pathetic even to his own ears.
‘Who gave you the gear?’
Reece shook his head. He’d always taken pride in not being a grass, but he also valued his life. Alfie Harris was after blood tonight, and he knew if he didn’t come clean and tell him what he wanted to hear, it would his blood that got spilt over this.
‘Did you smuggle the shit into my club, or were you sold it by someone? Fucking tell me now.’
The bat struck Reece’s shin with an almighty blow. Cracking the bone on impact.
Reece screamed, praying that he hadn’t just pissed himself; he’d never live it down if he had.
Alfie held the bat up above the man once more.
‘Now you’ve got one more chance to tell it to me straight. Who sold you the gear?’
It was Jenson. Alfie was sure of it. But he wanted to hear it from this fucker’s mouth directly. He wanted Reece to say the man’s name.
And he did.
‘Jenson gave it to me. He said that he had some new gear. That he was trialling it out. That it was good shit, the best. I didn’t fucking know that this would happen. I swear to God, I would never have dished that shit out if I’d known your daughter was going to react that way.’
Gem was back in the room then too. Marching Jenson into the room with his hand on the back of his neck, his own baseball bat digging into the side of Jenson’s head.
‘Oh, perfect timing!’ Alfie said, staring the man up and down as if he’d just wiped the fucker off the bottom of his boot. This was the man that had taken his daughter into his staff toilets.
His blood was boiling once more.
‘We were just speaking about you, Jenson. Well, Reece was. I’ll deal with you, you cunt, in a minute,’ Alfie said before turning back to Reece and repeatedly bringing the bat down on his legs. ‘You put that fucking poison in my daughter’s drink. You fucking piece of scum.’
Ignoring Reece’s pathetic screams for mercy, Alfie Harris took his time in shattering the man’s kneecaps and legs until they were just two bloody limp pulps at the end of his body.
When Reece finally passed out from the pain, Alfie lowered his bat.
Then he looked at Jenson. This fucker was getting way worse than that.
Jenson knew it too.
Seeing his mate being beaten within an inch of his life, Jenson quickly weighed up his options. Which weren’t fucking many. He could stay here and get the same treatment, only much fucking worse, he expected. Or, he could try and make a run for it. Only, with Gem standing so close behind him, the only way out of here was the bedroom’s balcony.
Fuck it, Jenson thought, it had to be worth a shot.
Running to the glass doors and yanking them open – a cold rush of air hitting him as he managed to get his leg up on the concrete wall, ready to swing himself over. But his only hope of a getaway was quickly diminished as Alfie Harris leapt on him – was on him in seconds. Grabbing at Jenson swiftly by the fucker’s throat, he yanked the man back down, holding him tightly before peering over the balcony himself.
‘And where the fuck do you think you’re going?’ he snarled. ‘We’re three flights up and that’s a long fucking way down.’ Alfie whistled, guessing, rightly, Jenson’s plan was to try and swing himself into the lower balcony beneath him.
That’s how desperate he was to get away from him.
Glad that he was more than aware of the danger he now faced, Alfie grinned to himself. Hoisting Jenson backwards so the man’s back was arched over the balcony wall, his feet both dangling off the ground.
‘I want to know what the fuck you were doing selling Ecstasy in my club?’ Alfie said, leaning in so close that his face was practically pressing against Jenson’s now.
The man was forcing his head backwards, away from his attacker.
‘I was told it was legit. That we were changing our suppliers,’ he said. ‘I just did what I was told. I was following orders.’
‘Bullshit,’ Alfie shouted. ‘Did you know anything about this, Gem? Any rumours about cutting out our main suppliers?’
‘First I’ve heard of it,’ Gem said shaking his head. ‘No one ran that past me.’
Alfie turned back to Jenson.
‘Gem is the head of fucking security. Don’t you think that if you were changing supplier, he’d know all about it? You better stop with the crap and start being straight with me, Jenson; otherwise, I’m going to help you make your way out via the balcony that you seem so keen to fucking escape down. Only, it might get a bit fucking messy. You know, when your head fucking explodes as you hit the concrete. Cracking your skull open like a fucking Kinder Egg. Brains and claret everywhere.’
Jenson shook his head. Left with no doubt in his mind that the man in front of him was perfectly capable of killing him tonight. Especially if what he said was true and Megan Harris really was on a life support machine. The man wouldn’t have anything to lose.
Fuck risking his life to save some other man’s back. Daniel Byrne was on his own.
‘It was Daniel Byrne. He said that he was taking over from his father and that the club would be branching out. You know, selling pills and shit. He said it was supply and demand. I’ve been saying for ages that the demand for this shit was huge, but I wouldn’t just take it upon myself to bring it into the club. Daniel Byrne set it all up, and he told me to keep it on the down low. Not say shit to anyone about it. I thought that Gem must have known.’
Feeling Alfie pushing him further over the balcony’s edge, h
is back curving awkwardly as he dug his nails into the wall hoping to grip onto something as the birds continued to fly obliviously above him, chirping loudly.
It was dawn now, and light outside.
People would be waking up soon.
Jenson really didn’t want to die.
‘He wanted to trial it out, see how much money we made from it all. Ecstasy, Special K and GBH. That sort of shit. It’s what everyone’s doing these days on the clubbing scene, so I didn’t even question it. I just assumed that Gem was in on it too.’ Jenson was mumbling now. Frightened for his life as he glanced over to where Reece was sprawled out on the bed. The bloke would no doubt never walk again. ‘I swear down, Mr Harris, I had no idea that Reece was going to stick a pill in some young girl’s drink. By the time I found out, he’d already done it… it had fuck all to do with me.’
Alfie had heard enough.
‘You “swear down”?’ he roared. ‘And what happened then, huh? When you found out she was off her fucking head? Then what did you do? ’Cause I heard you took my daughter to some grotty fucking toilet cubicle. Is that how you get off, is it? Trying to sleep with girls young enough to be your daughter? ’Cause let me tell you now, if your cock went anywhere near my daughter I’ll slice it off and take great pleasure in forcing you to eat it!’ Alfie could barely breathe now. His face puce with rage, his heart thudding loudly in his chest.
Never in all his days had he felt so fit to murder someone as he did with these two tonight. These two fuckers had ruined his daughter’s life. They’d snatched it away from her without so much as a second thought. Thoughtless, selfish scumbags. There wasn’t anything that the bloke could say to redeem himself now. The damage had been done and it was irreversible.
Jenson could see it in the man’s eyes. The finality that flashed there. The lengths this man would go to avenge his daughter’s hurt tonight.
‘See him? He’s going to live out the rest of his days in a fucking wheelchair for what he’s done. He don’t know it yet, but every now and then I’m going to turn up and surprise him. Remind him of what he did. Make him spend his life fearing the fuck out of getting one of his regular visits from me,’ Alfie said now. Decided. ‘You, on the other hand, ain’t worth shit to me. Daniel Byrne might have come to you and told you to sell the gear, but you don’t work for that fucking bloke. You work for Gem. And Gem works for me. You take orders only from us.’
The Broken_A gripping thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat Page 23
