Nancy stood there for a few minutes, taking in the puzzled expression on her brother’s face. Watching him as he tried to piece together what the hell was going on here tonight. It was amusing to watch. How thick her brother could really be. How hard he was trying to figure everything out. It was almost as if she could see the rusty cogs and coils twisting and turning inside his head.
‘Sam’s gone,’ she said simply. ‘The poor fucker got out while he could, and I don’t blame him really. Not after everything you told him.’
Daniel didn’t even flinch at that. Instead he shook his head.
‘Oh, I get it. Sam’s just the type to go around telling fucking tales. Is that why you’re here? Sam rang you and told you everything and, typical fucking Nancy, you never could resist the opportunity to poke your fucking nose in where it wasn’t wanted, could you?’
‘He said you murdered someone tonight. That you came home covered in blood,’ Nancy said then. The rage she’d felt inside her for all these past weeks suddenly subsided. The shake in her voice replaced with only calm as she locked eyes with her brother now. Finally laying everything out on the table between them.
‘You also told Sam that you murdered our father. I want to hear you say it to me!’
Daniel laughed then. Though the noise sounded false, lingering in the back of his throat.
‘Oh fuck off, Nancy, will you? Don’t tell me you’re wearing a wire or something,’ he said, wondering what this was all about: why Nancy was insisting on having a bullshit conversation with him, why she was staring at him so intently. Still drunk, and half asleep she was unnerving the fuck out of him. Though even his sister wouldn’t stoop as low as involving the police. This was just his sister being her usual control-freak self. Wanting to know everything as per; well Daniel would give the stupid bitch exactly what she wanted, in great detail.
‘What do you want to hear, Nancy? Huh? You want me to tell you that it was me, do you? That I shot Dad.’ Daniel laughed. He could see the physical pain flashing in his sister’s eyes at his words. The hurt he was inflicting on her, and he was glad.
She fucking deserved to hurt.
‘Oh come on, Nancy! Fucking hell. You’re acting like Saint fucking Jimmy was the fucking pinnacle father or something. The man was a liar, a cheat. He spent his whole life, our whole lives, lying to us all. He fucked young boys, Nancy. Men younger than me.’ Daniel was enjoying every bit of this. Finally, he was letting Nancy know the truth and it felt fucking good. All that rage that he had inside. All those years he had sat back and watched his father place Nancy on a pedestal. The golden child. His favourite. While their father had never so much as given him the time of day.
‘He was just like me!’ he snarled. ‘Do you know that. We were two of the very same. Not only was he bent, but he was a fucking murderer too, Nancy. Gavin Hurst was only one of his victims. There were others too, though. Mum told me. When she was drunk at Nan Edel’s funeral. How our father had murdered someone on the night of their wedding. How even Nan Joanie knew about it too. But they all covered it up. That’s why Mum was so fucked up for all those years, do you know that? The man had so many fucking secrets.’ Daniel smiled then. ‘That night, when I went to meet him to take the money that I blackmailed him with, something in me just snapped. I was looking at him, and I was thinking that he’s no better than me. Not really. He knew it too. That’s why he spent all the years we were growing up belittling me. Making me feel shit about myself. Even when I went to him and told him I was gay, he knew all along. And yet he made out I was disgusting. He made me feel so ashamed. I just snapped. I pulled the trigger and, do you know, it was the best thing I ever did. I’ve never felt so fucking free since that cunt died.’
Unable to stop herself, Nancy hit out. The palm of her hand slapping violently across Daniel’s face, leaving welts in the shape of her fingers across his cheek.
That only made Daniel smirk harder.
‘A reaction from the fucking Ice Queen. Well I am flattered,’ he sneered, his face throbbing under his own hand.
‘I should have shot you when I had the chance,’ Nancy said. ‘Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to snatch your life away from you the way you did our father’s. My biggest regret was that I didn’t get to watch you as you took your last breath.’ Nancy could feel her tears then.
Her face burning as her rage returned. Daniel was just standing there with that stupid twisted smirk on his face. Looking at her like he couldn’t give two shits what he’d done. Like none of it mattered.
But it did matter to her. It mattered more than anything.
‘You haven’t got the guts, have you, Nancy? That’s why you’re nothing like me. Or him, as it happens. You’re the gutless one. It’s you that’s weak.’
Nancy shook her head.
‘No, Daniel. That’s where you’re wrong. I’m exactly like Dad. You see, unlike you, we were clever. That’s what set us worlds apart from you. That’s why Dad didn’t want you involved in the business. You’re lazy, and self-absorbed. Your work is sloppy. You leave a trail for people to find you. You leave a mess.’ She stared at Daniel with utter hate in her eyes, glad that she was finally getting to tell her brother exactly what she thought of him.
‘Me? I’m smarter than that. I knew all along that you killed our father and vowed to get my vengeance on you, and now I finally have. Here’s a lesson on being clever, Daniel. There’s no mess, and no comeback.’
Daniel narrowed his eyes, confused.
‘You took it upon yourself to change the supplier at the club, didn’t you? Thought you’d do a deal behind my back, and cut me out? Well, you’ve really fucked things up this time, Daniel. Megan Harris is in a fucking coma because of you.’
‘Because of me? Bullshit!’ Daniel spat. ‘She’s a kid. She shouldn’t have even been in that club. Maybe Alfie Harris needs to take a closer look at his parenting skills.’
Nancy shook her head then.
Her eyes flashing with disgust, and something else.
Triumph.
Her brother had just unwittingly sealed his fate with his last words.
‘Like I said earlier, I’ll regret not seeing you take your last breath, Daniel, but I’ll live out my days happily knowing that you have finally taken it.’
Opening the front door to the apartment, Nancy Byrne stepped outside, just as Alfie Harris stepped in.
‘Do what you want with him! He’s all yours now.’
Chapter Thirty-Seven
As a stream of sweat trickled down his back, underneath his now blood-soaked shirt, Alfie Harris wiped his forehead. It had been a long night and he was lagging now. His energy depleting after two hours of vigorous revenge – inflicting extreme torture onto the piece of shit in front of him.
Staring at Daniel Byrne, the man strapped to the chair in the middle of an abandoned warehouse tucked away up an old dirt track behind The Karma Club, Alfie knew he had picked the perfect location. This place was set so far back in King’s Cross’s badlands that no one would be able to hear this fucker screaming here. And boy could Daniel Byrne scream!
It had taken the bloke a while though.
Begrudgingly, Alfie Harris had to give the fucker his dues. Daniel Byrne had fought it hard at first. Refusing to react or show his suffering. He had been determined not to give Alfie the satisfaction of hearing him beg and plead for his life. Alfie had known that it would come eventually. He’d been intent on making sure of that personally. Though he’d been surprised at just how much Daniel Byrne was prepared to endure before he caved in.
Intent on being an obnoxious bastard right up until the end.
And the end would be here very soon.
Alfie Harris had to hand it to Nancy Byrne. The girl had turned out to be every bit as ruthless as her old man. When the girl had told him that she didn’t know about Daniel’s plans to change their supplier at the club, that Daniel had gone about it without letting her know, Alfie Harris had believed her. Nancy Byrne did
n’t give a shit about the drugs side of the business, in fact, she’d said that she wanted to step away from The Karma Club completely. That she wanted out. Exactly as Alfie Harris did too. Then she’d told him about the phone call she’d just taken at the hospital. That Jack Taylor had called her and told her that they’d found out who murdered her father. That it had been Daniel of all people.
This piece of shit had killed his own father in cold blood. No wonder Nancy Byrne had been only too happy to hand Daniel over to him.
There was an awful lot of blood now, Alfie thought, taking in the amount of claret that dripped down Daniel’s tortured body, forming a deep red pool at the feet of his chair. The cowardly piece of shit had passed out a few times, but that was okay. Alfie had waited patiently for the man to come back around before he went in for the next round of brutality.
Though he knew that Daniel wasn’t going to stay conscious for much longer.
Alfie was going to have to end this shortly. He stared down at his phone that he’d placed on the floor in front of him: he’d spent the past few hours willing it to ring, praying to God that Jennifer would call him and tell him that Megan was gaining consciousness, that he needed to get his arse back up to the hospital, to be back at his daughter’s bedside.
Only his phone hadn’t rang once.
His little girl wasn’t going to be all right ever again. And it was all this piece of shit’s doing. This man was going to pay, and he was going to pay soon.
Daniel was near death now. After the torture Alfie had inflicted upon him, his body was slowly shutting down. The man could barely keep his eyes open; his head was sagging down to one side. Drifting in and out of consciousness.
‘You know, the worst thing of all is that you haven’t even asked me how she fucking is,’ Alfie Harris snarled through gritted teeth, his temper taking over; he could feel himself about to lose control. ‘You haven’t even hinted that you’re fucking sorry for what you did. What you’ve done.’
That was the biggest insult in all of this. That this prick in front of him had begged and pleaded for his own miserable pathetic life but not once had the fucker said he was sorry, not once had he shown any form of remorse towards his daughter.
Daniel Byrne really didn’t give a shit. Megan’s life meant nothing to him. Nothing at all.
‘You should see the state of her. She’s plugged into a machine, do you know that? A poxy machine! That’s what’s keeping my little girl alive. She might not survive. My beautiful little girl might die.’ Alfie was crying now. Snot and tears pouring down his face as he finally said the words out loud that he feared the most.
‘If she lives – and I say IF, because the doctors have said that her chances are fucking slim to none, she’ll be a vegetable – can you even fucking imagine that? A life stuck sitting in a poxy wheelchair. Sixteen years old and unable to walk or speak. Having to be fed through a fucking tube. What sort of quality of life is that huh?’
Staring down at the row of neatly lined up surgical tools on the table next to him, Alfie toyed with which one to use for his grand finale. He picked up a blowtorch. Pointing it towards Daniel’s right eye. His finger over the trigger.
‘Say her name,’ Alfie said clearly. He could see the fear on Daniel’s face then. The man barely coherent as he tried to speak. To plead with Alfie. Only, his throat was filling up with blood and, instead, he choked. Spraying Alfie’s face with blood and phlegm.
Alfie wiped his face with his hand, disgusted.
‘I want to hear you say it. I want my little girl’s name to be the last thing that ever comes out of your mouth. So you know the reason why you are going to die.’
Daniel groaned. Incoherent now, unable to find the words. He stared at Alfie through vacant eyes.
‘I can’t fucking hear you!’ he shouted, grabbing Daniel by a fistful of his hair and dragging the man’s head backwards. He held his finger down on the blowtorch, the blast of heat exploding out the top as he moved it closer to Daniel Byrne’s face.
‘Megan. Megan Harris.’ Daniel’s words were shaky. Muffled. His throat dry, coarse. He sounded every bit as defeated as he looked.
Finally, a broken man.
Alfie was glad. That was something, at least. It was over now. Time to end this once and for all.
Picking up the petrol can down on the floor by the barn’s doorway, Alfie made his way back over to Daniel now. Glad that his temper hadn’t got the better of him, and he hadn’t taken this fucker’s life the second that he’d set eyes on him. Though it had taken every bit of Alfie Harris’s restraint. He wanted Daniel to be awake for this. To see and feel everything. To suffer every second of pain possible, just as he had inflicted pain upon Megan.
‘You stole my little Megan’s life. So now you’re going to pay with yours. I’m going to burn you alive. I want you to suffer as much as you’ve made me suffer. As much as you’ve made my Megan suffer.’
Dousing Daniel in the fuel, Alfie struck a match and tossed it towards the man, watching for a second as the flames grew higher and higher. The stench of burning flesh filling the room, just as Daniel Byrne’s agonising screams were too.
Walking away from the man that had ruined his daughter’s life, Alfie Harris didn’t look back.
He needed to be with his daughter.
That’s where he should be right now.
Daniel Byrne could burn in hell.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Sitting behind Alfie Harris’s desk at The Karma Club with his feet up and a Scotch in his hand, Gem Kemal felt like the cat that had got the proverbial cream. This was it. He was really on his way now. He’d worked hard at gaining Alfie Harris’s trust and finally it had paid off. He was his right-hand man. The man holding it all together this past few weeks, in Alfie Harris’s time of need.
It had been a close one, though, double-crossing his boss, even Gem could admit that. Having to stand there and face Jenson Reed as the cheeky fucker tried to drop him in it, and claim that Daniel had said Gem had cleared the new supplier. Fuck knows how Gem had kept his head, but somehow he had. Denying all knowledge of knowing anything about the deal that he and Daniel had made, making out that he knew nothing about Ecstasy being sold in the club. That Daniel had done this all on his own and, thankfully, Alfie Harris had believed him.
Of course he had; Gem had done nothing but prove his loyalty and commitment to the man in helping Alfie sort out the entire mess. He’d worked tirelessly here at the club, stepping up just when Alfie Harris needed him the most.
Staring down at the photograph that Alfie had in pride of place on his desk, Gem looked at the young girl in the photograph. He had to hand it to the girl, it turned out that Megan Harris was a real little fighter. The Harris bloodline clearly ran strong, it seemed, as against all the odds that had been stacked up against her, Megan Harris was well on the road to making a full recovery.
Gem was glad about that. He’d never intended for anyone to get hurt when he’d executed his plan to drop Daniel Byrne well and truly in the shit.
Alfie needed Gem now more than ever. He was so busy tending to his daughter, refusing to leave his child’s side, which couldn’t have worked out any better for Gem. He was free to get himself properly established at the club. He was getting the kudos and the respect that he finally deserved as Alfie Harris’s right-hand man and, on top of that, Alfie Harris was paying him good money. More money than Gem could have wished for.
He could provide for Miyra and the kids again. They could move out of their dodgy bedsit and have a decent life here now.
He’d been a desperate man, but his gamble had paid off.
Lighting up a cigarette then, Gem breathed out a grey plume of smoke rings above him, watching as they quickly disappeared into the air. Grinning to himself with satisfaction of the genius of his little plan.
Though it wasn’t all his own doing, he knew that.
He had help, of course.
But it had all worked out perfectly in the en
d.
Alfie Harris had got rid of all the dealers and distributors from the club. He’d forbidden anyone here from selling gear at all. The Byrnes were completely out of the picture, and the icing on the cake was Gem still had the added bonus of having full access to all of Jimmy Byrne’s drop-off points and contacts now, thanks to Daniel Byrne. And Gem knew that he wouldn’t be seeing that fucker again, not after Alfie Harris had caught up with him.
It had been almost two weeks since Daniel Byrne had gone on the missing list. Fuck knows what had happened to him, but Gem would lay a guess on the fact that Alfie Harris had wiped the man from the face of the planet.
That made him smile too. He hadn’t liked Daniel from the second the bloke had walked in here for their very first meeting. He was far too cocky for Gem’s liking. Too full of himself.
Still, it was true what they said: the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And Daniel, the big-fucking-I-am had fallen from astronomical heights.
The bloke had no idea that he was being set up all along.
As if Gem would want to work alongside that twat.
Gem had never really cared for Daniel’s father, Jimmy Byrne, nor his gobby business partner, Alex Costa. He had never dealt with either man personally. Those two arseholes had made a point of steering clear of the likes of Gem and the rest of the Turks working in London. Jimmy Byrne hadn’t ever given Gem so much as the time of day, and Gem had taken it exactly as it had been intended. Personally.
After spending the past few years working the doors of several top London clubs and being shunned by two of the biggest players, fuming at their exclusion, Gem Kemal had had no choice but to sit patiently and wait his turn. He’d thought working here and being promoted to head of security would have changed all of that, but still Jimmy and Alex had chosen to exclude him.
To treat him as irrelevant, when he was clearly anything but.
Eyeing the security cameras then, Gem cast his gaze across the packed-out dance floor. Taking in the breathtaking sight of the hundreds of men and women that filled the place tonight. The place was buzzing. He could hear the music thudding through the floor. DJ Georgie Kissking was in the house and didn’t every fucker in here know about it.
The Broken_A gripping thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat Page 26
