34

The little hotel was swanky by name and swanky by nature. Fancy chocolates on the pillows, mini-bar full to the brim, the toilet roll was folded into neat triangles. Mind you, none of it was complimentary, as they would have you believe, not at two hundred and fifty pounds a night. They had checked in yesterday and had a little meal in the bar; that had cost a small fortune, considering it had barely been big enough to feed a poxy budgie, but Tanya had cheered up a bit, so Jay thought that it had been worth every penny.

His plan had been just to drop Tanya off, but now as the sunlight beamed through the edge of the curtains he realised that she had had other plans: she had been persuasive last night. He had to get back now though, he hadn’t seen Kate in three days, and although there had been times he had been away from home for longer he wanted to know what was going on, if anything. Looking at Tanya lying next to him, her tanned naked body all snug under the sheets, it was hard to drag himself away. Being careful not to disturb her, he quietly put his clothes on and took his car keys from the side table. Leaving a note on the coffee table saying that he would call her later, he left her some cash for pampering at the spa, closed the door gently behind him and made his way home.

Ryan couldn’t physically function in the morning without a cup of tea with four sugars, he was like a bear with a sore head most of the time anyway, but catch him before he’d woken himself up with his mug of “cha” in the morning and you’d be in trouble. He glanced once more out of the window, watching the beamer pull up outside.

Billy had filled Ryan in on what had been happening with Jay: not only the drugs and debt collecting that had been done in Billy’s name, but the girls, including his sister’s best mate, Emma. He had been only too happy to stay at Sonia’s and keep the scummy fucker out. The couch had been nice and comfy and Sonia was just knocking up a nice fry up for him, she had been keeping the teas coming since he had arrived yesterday. She was a lovely woman; he could see that. His mum had been a waste of space. She had had no time for him or his brother and they had been left alone frequently when they had been growing up, often nearly starving and having to fend for themselves. How the fuck someone like Jay could have such a lovely mother like this one, God only knew.

To be fair, none of the lads had taken to Jay when he had first come on board. However, they had all been told by Billy that that was the way it was going to be and they were to like it or lump it. Jay had only been given errands, really: nothing major. They certainly hadn’t given him any “in” on the real money that there was to be earned.

All of the lads knew that Billy thought the world of his sister, and that was the only reason he had put them in the position of having to work alongside with such a loser, but it had at first made everyone question Billy’s priorities. They had worked alongside him for years, and he always came up trumps with deals and connections. He had a real way of talking people into things and getting exactly what he wanted: he was a perfect businessman. Billy had wanted to keep an eye on Jay, and that he had: he knew everything about the crooked little shit now. Billy was currently making sure that Jay Shaw didn’t fuck up his sister’s life any more than he had already: cue Ryan. After what he had been told about Jay and his scummy ways, it was the least he could do to help Billy out; knowing that none of them had to put up any pretence anymore and be civil to the sly little fucker was the icing on the proverbial cake.

Hearing Jay scraping his key at the front door, Ryan put his cup in the sink, and gave a now pale-looking Sonia a reassuring look; he knew he had the look of a man that could sort anything, and he was in control of this situation.

Trying another key, Jay couldn’t work out why he couldn’t get in; he only had a couple of keys on the fob, and one of them had to work. Realising he was getting nowhere, he realised that the dozy bitch Sonia must have changed the locks: well, that answered one question then, didn’t it? The shit had obviously hit the fan. What Sonia thought she was doing getting involved he just couldn’t fathom, he had as much right to be here as her: if it wasn’t for him, she would have fuck all to her name. It might be her house, but he had done the place up; he had bought some massive fuck-off telly for her to watch her poxy soaps on: what was she fucking playing at? Jay was about to start booting the door in, when it opened. He was confronted by a large, beefy-looking Ryan. Jay didn’t have a chance to ask Ryan what the fuck he was doing in his house, before he registered what was going on, he was slammed onto the floor, with Ryan’s fists raining down on him, blow after blow.

              “Next time you show your face around here, boy, I’m going to cut your fucking throat, do you hear me? You’re not fucking welcome. If I hear of you even looking at Sonia or Kate the wrong way, I’m going to personally cut you up into tiny little pieces and feed you to my fucking dogs. Do I make myself clear?”

Jay could just about see Ryan’s face; it was screwed up and red with hate and anger. Just when he thought the punches had stopped, Ryan leant down and whispered:

              “And this one’s for Emma, you slimy fucking cunt.”

Getting up and launching his size-eleven boot into Jay’s stomach, he then spat at him before turning and walking back into the house and double-locking the door, more for Sonia’s benefit than anything: he had a strong feeling that Jay wouldn’t be so stupid as to come back again.

Jay struggled up off the floor. It had been a pounding all right, but he knew Ryan’s reputation, and that was a little tap compared to what that man was capable of. Glad that the warning was over, he scurried back to his car; hoping that as few people as possible had just witnessed his humiliation, he pulled away so quickly that his tyres screeched. He was aware that his own mother had probably stood and watched that whole scene, along with half the fucking neighbourhood, twitching their curtains and probably loving the show. He pulled up a few streets away and, after wiping the blood from his nose, he rested his head on the steering wheel.

Shit, they knew about Emma.

He knew he was up fucking Shit Street without a paddle. Billy has dumped Tanya, now it was Jay’s turn to be in the firing line. He decided to make a few calls to his contacts to see exactly how far this thing had gone.

Robbie Challis had been expecting Jay’s call. Billy had paid him a visit a few days earlier, after following Jay. Robbie had been very humble to Billy and had explained that he had thought Jay was working for Billy. Billy had felt sorry for the bloke, it was clear Jay had mugged him off and was using Billy’s name to do so. He asked Robbie how much he had given in cash to Jay, and Robbie figured it at about four grand; his last lot had been the week before, and they were busting their guts to make the five grand a week Jay demanded.

              “Tell you what, mate, you keep it, on the condition that you tell Jay the next time he calls round that you do work for me, and that from now on he’ll have to go through me, too: understand?” Billy reasoned.

              “Yeah.” Robbie was shitting himself; he could see Billy was really pissed off; he was glad that he wasn’t his target.

              “What about Jay, though, he’s bound to kick off, Billy.”

Looking around the tiny flat, seeing the scales on the table and the collection of mobile phones next to them, Billy could see that this guy was out of his depth and just some small-time druggie, Jay always tried to pick on the weak. Billy grinned, deciding that Robbie could keep his money, he wanted no part of it: he had bigger fish to fry.