Rival

by Jacqui Rose

  Sniffing loudly and wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve, Ellie burst into tears again. ‘I don’t feel well.’

  ‘Do you want me to make you a coffee?’

  Miserably, Ellie shook her head. ‘I just want to see Wan.’

  Franny frowned. She didn’t know much about Ellie, and had only seen her a couple of times but she did know that something was troubling her. She’d been surprised to find Ellie sitting on her own, shaking and looking completely miserable, and close up she could see that Ellie was really no more than a kid. ‘How old are you?’

  Ellie’s green eyes darkened with mistrust. She shrugged as she glanced out of the window, seeing the rooftops of Soho. ‘Twenty.’

  Giving a sad smile, Franny, not unkindly said, ‘I ain’t stupid, Ellie, just tell me how old you really are.’

  Crossing her arms, Ellie pouted. ‘Why? What’s it to do with you?’

  Keeping her patience, Franny tried again. ‘I just want to help you, that’s all. I don’t like to see you upset.’

  Ellie shrugged. ‘I don’t need any help, I just need to see Wan.’

  ‘Wan?’

  ‘Yeah, why’s that so strange? He’s my boyfriend in case you don’t know.’

  Franny stood up and walked across to the window. She couldn’t afford for Wan and his men to catch her grilling Ellie, but it was clear there was something very wrong. The whole set-up with the girls made her feel uncomfortable but she had no one to talk it through with. If Alfie was here or at least even if he was returning her calls, she’d be able to get everything straight in her head. But then, maybe she should just follow her gut, because it was when she didn’t that things went badly wrong.

  It wasn’t as though she’d been a stranger to employing prostitutes and escorts in her own club, but this was different. These were young, inexperienced girls and although she didn’t know exactly what Wan was doing, it was clear that these girls were vulnerable and Wan and his men were taking full advantage.

  God, didn’t she just hate the fact that she’d been forced to hand over her shares of the club, a huge part of her livelihood, to Wan and his men for protection from Vaughn and Harry, as well as being made to work for them. Which meant it was hard or maybe it was impossible for her to walk away unless she wanted to walk away with nothing, having to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder. That was something she couldn’t afford to do.

  The whole thing was a circle of a mess. Vaughn needed protection from Wan and had sought it from Harry, which meant she had to get protection herself and, ironically, that had been in the form of Wan. So in one way, she and Vaughn were in very similar positions: up shit creek with neither of them wanting to be there. Stale fucking mate.

  ‘Is that what he told you, Ellie? He told you that you were his girlfriend?’ Franny said.

  Ellie spun around and glared at Franny from under her red fringe. ‘What are you getting at?’

  Knowing she had to tread carefully as she certainly didn’t want Ellie alerting Wan she was asking questions, Franny played it cool. She feigned a smile. ‘I’m not getting at anything. I’m just surprised that’s all, cos you seem so young and pretty, and well, Wan seems so much older.’

  Defensively, Ellie barked. ‘He’s only ten years older. That ain’t a lot, and anyway that’s how it’s supposed to be. The man older than the woman.’

  Franny nodded her head, not letting Ellie see how angry she was. She knew exactly how old Wan was, and if like Ellie said, she was ten years younger, that would make her fifteen. Christ. She was just a baby.

  Taking a deep breath, Franny continued to play it coolly. ‘So how come you were crying? Did you have a lovers’ tiff with Wan?’

  Suspiciously, Ellie scowled. ‘What’s that?’

  Franny gave a genuine laugh and tried her hardest to push the thought of Alfie out of her mind. ‘A lovers’ tiff? It’s when you have an argument with your boyfriend but it ain’t really a serious row … Is that what happened, Ellie?’

  Seemingly putting her defensive wall down, Ellie looked coy. ‘Kind of.’

  Taking a can of 7Up out of the mini fridge, Franny continued to play the game with Ellie. ‘Look, you can tell me, it won’t go any further. We’re just all girls together, ain’t we? I’ve been there with my boyfriend so I know what it’s like.’

  ‘Do you?’ said Ellie after a few moments.

  ‘Yeah, of course … So come on, what was it about?’

  Fifteen-year-old Ellie, desperate to talk, stared at Franny with her eyes wide open, dropping her voice into a whisper. ‘You promise you won’t tell him?’

  ‘Of course – guys don’t need to know everything that us girls talk about, do they?’

  Then smiling, Ellie began to talk. ‘This morning, I was with Wan and he …’ She trailed off but within moments, she started speaking again, playing nervously with her hands in her lap. ‘He wanted to know if I would do a few lines of coke.’

  Franny, without saying anything just nodded, wondering if her face let on how much she hated Wan at that moment. But she stayed silent and continued to listen to Ellie talk.

  ‘I didn’t want to do it at first, cos I was a bit nervous. I ain’t done drugs like that before. I’ve done pills he’s given me – he’s always giving me pills, but not coke. And after Sophie, I was a bit nervous.’

  ‘And did you tell Wan that?’ asked Franny as she took a sip of her drink.

  ‘Yeah, but he said it was fine.’

  Franny muttered, ‘I bet he did.’

  ‘But he didn’t make me, I swear; in fact he said that I shouldn’t take it and maybe he was asking too much of me … You know, like maybe it would be better off if we were friends. He was dead nice about it. He gave me a choice.’

  Franny, seeing how Wan had clearly manipulated Ellie, couldn’t help herself saying, ‘If you say so.’

  Bursting into tears, Ellie raised her voice. ‘He did! He did! He did give me a choice!’

  Not wanting to upset Ellie more than she already was, Franny put down her drink and walked back to where Ellie was sitting. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sure he did. I shouldn’t have said that.’

  With Franny appeasing her, Ellie continued in between sniffing. ‘Anyway, I took a line and I don’t remember anything else, but when I woke up, Wan weren’t there. No one was, so I let myself out and came over here looking for him, cos I wanted to know why … cos—’ She stopped and buried her face in her hands at which point Franny spoke softly to her, genuine concern in her voice.

  ‘What is it, Ellie? What’s the matter?’

  ‘I’ve got bruises and I’m sore.’

  Franny frowned. ‘I’m not following you.’

  Slowly taking her hands off her face, Ellie stared at Franny. ‘When I woke up, it’s like … well, it’s like I’ve had really, really rough sex and, I dunno, I guess I’m just upset that Wan didn’t stay or … or maybe he was busy and had to go.’

  ‘So he had sex with you and you can’t remember it?’

  Ellie nodded her head. ‘And the thing is …’ she said with her green eyes full of panic. ‘You won’t say anything will you?’

  ‘Of course not.’

  ‘Well he’s never usually rough, not like that anyway. And it’s not like, well it’s not like I haven’t done favours for him before.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You know, sometimes he wants me to keep his friends entertained. It’s no big deal, but this is different – I can’t even remember what happened.’ She sniffed loudly again as Franny sat in thought.

  ‘Let me see the bruises, Ellie.’

  With only a moment’s hesitation, Ellie began to take off her black, skin-tight jumpsuit, rolling it down to her knees.

  ‘Jesus Christ, Ellie, when you said bruises, I thought you meant just a few,’ Franny said as she stared in horror at Ellie’s inner thighs, which were covered in huge, red and purple bruises, so much so, she could barely see the real colour of Ellie’s skin. ‘What’s th
at?’ She leant towards Ellie’s skinny legs, getting a better look got a lot of those. I think Sasha th. ‘They’re bite marks … Do you—’ Suddenly hearing a noise, Franny looked up at Ellie. ‘Quick, get dressed. And don’t worry, El, I won’t say anything. I won’t tell him you told me.’

  ‘Told you what?’ Unexpectedly, Wan stepped into the room, just as Ellie was zipping up her jumpsuit, giving even Franny a fright. His face, good-looking and chiselled, was drawn in a stern line.

  ‘Just girl’s stuff, Wan,’ Franny said casually as she held his gaze.

  Looking suspicious, Wan looked from Franny to Ellie. He glared at her as he spoke.

  ‘What are you doing here, anyway?’

  Ellie blushed, clearly uncomfortable, and glanced at Franny before saying, ‘Oh, I was just looking for you. I-I-I wondered where you’d gone and then I got chatting to Franny.’

  Wan lit a cigarette. He could see her eyes were red and it looked like she’d been crying, though it could, of course, have been the fact that she’d been passed out on the ketamine. It pissed him off that his men hadn’t just taken her back to the house in Whitechapel. Sighing, he blew out the smoke. ‘I don’t appreciate you just turning up like this, Ellie. But I guess now you’re here, you might as well go downstairs to get a drink. I’ll come and find you in a minute.’

  Ellie nodded and quickly dashed out of the room, leaving Franny to stare at Wan. She could feel the tension in the air and it was all she could do to hold back her temper. Tightly, she said, ‘Ellie tells me she’s your girlfriend. Seems like you’ve got a lot of those. I think Sasha thought the same … and Sophie, come to think of it.’

  Wan’s face curled up into a grimace. ‘What the fuck’s that got to do with you?’

  Franny stood back up and began to walk out of the room. ‘Well, Ellie especially, she just seems young that’s all. I just wondered what you’d see in her.’

  Wan stepped forward, blocking Franny’s way. He took her long chestnut hair in his hands and sniffed it, his face dark and dangerous. ‘Let me tell you something. Keep out of my business, Franny, because if you don’t, you’ll regret it. I’ll make Vaughn look like a fucking pussy cat.’

  17

  ‘You’re trying to tell me that both your phones weren’t fucking working?’

  Vaughn nodded as he stared at Harry whose face had literally turned to red in front of his eyes. He shrugged. ‘What can I tell you, Harry?’

  Pushing Vaughn hard against the expensive grey slate kitchen table, Harry snarled, ‘You can fucking tell me what was going on.’

  Opening and closing his fists to stop himself beating Harry to a pulp, Vaughn chewed on his lip. It was going to be even worse than he thought it would be, and the tension in the air was strained, to say the least.

  As he stared at Harry, once more hating the fact he was in this position, Franny came into his head, but he shook the thought away quickly, knowing that thinking about her wouldn’t help matters, especially as no doubt she was sitting pretty.

  Irritated even more now but unable to show it, Vaughn said, ‘I ain’t saying they weren’t working, Harry, I’m saying that the basements of those stores Tia likes to go in, well they ain’t got much reception.’

  Harry’s face – as handsome as Vaughn’s – was screwed up in anger. ‘So, you’re telling me that you were stuck down a poxy basement for nearly six fucking hours? Do I look like a cunt to you?’

  Vaughn shrugged. ‘Again, I ain’t saying that, I just didn’t think to look at me phone. It’s that simple really.’

  Harry spun around to Tia, walking up to her and grabbing her arm, squeezing it hard. She squealed in pain. ‘But you know, you know that you need to keep in contact, don’t you?’

  Vaughn, not wanting Harry to lay his hands on Tia but not wanting to wind Harry up either, walked over to them and gently peeled Harry’s hand from Tia’s arm. ‘Look, mate, this ain’t her fault, it’s mine. I’m sorry, I should’ve checked me phone, called you, kept you in the loop basically. Next time I’ll know.’

  Not liking the fact that Vaughn had stepped in between him and his wife, Harry shoved Vaughn hard in the chest. ‘You should’ve known this time.’

  The temptation to grab Harry by his face and smash it over and over again against the kitchen units was overwhelming, to the point where Vaughn had to take a quick gulp of air to try to calm himself down. ‘I know, Harry, and I’m sorry. I really am.’

  Harry stared at Vaughn and then at Tia, trying to work out how big a problem he should have with Vaughn for the fact that not only had he corrected him but he’d also corrected him in front of Tia.

  But then, he had to see Wan later and he needed all his energy for that, so instead, he just nodded. ‘Fine. But next time, I ain’t going to be so fucking charitable.’

  Vaughn and Tia turned to walk out of the door but Harry grabbed Tia and said, ‘Not you, darlin’, I need another word with you.’ He pulled her close and then his hands roamed over her body, moving down to between her legs. She stiffened at the same time as trying to back away and as she did so, she caught sight of Vaughn, who looked at her before he hurriedly turned and looked away.

  ‘Not now, Harry. Please.’

  He stepped back and glared at her. ‘You’re a frigid bitch, you know that. What’s your problem, Tia?’

  ‘I’m … I’m just tired, that’s all and I wanted to read the kids a bedtime story.’

  Harry laughed bitterly as he turned to Vaughn. ‘You hear this? This is what I have to put up with. A wife who thinks it’s all right not to put out. A wife who’s too busy giving her kids attention to give any attention to me … But don’t worry about that because tomorrow, I’m packing them off to my sister’s. Then you’ve got no excuses.’

  ‘Harry, please, don’t do that, I came back because of them. Don’t send them away the minute I’m back.’

  He grinned nastily. ‘Be a good girl and I won’t have to, will I? Give me what a woman should give a man, and then they’ll be back before you know it … Now come here, give me that kiss. Let’s start where we mean to go on.’

  ‘Harry, don’t … Vaughn’s here,’ Tia muttered.

  Putting his hand under Tia’s chin to lift her head up higher, Harry grinned. ‘Vaughn’s a big man, I think he’s seen it all before. He knows all about the birds and the bees – don’t you, Vaughn?’

  Vaughn, not liking how being around the situation was making him feel, walked towards the door. ‘Look, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  As he reached the kitchen door, he raised his eyebrows in surprise at Tammy who was walking down the hallway towards him. It had always shocked him how extraordinarily alike she was to Tia, in looks anyway. In anything else, they were as far apart as a cat and a mouse.

  ‘Hello, Vaughn, you’re looking as handsome as ever,’ purred Tammy. ‘Maybe you should drop by one day. Catch up on old times or maybe you could come and babysit me instead of my sister. What do you say?’

  Vaughn stared at her, wondering what the hell Harry was playing at bringing Tammy back. Though he guessed it was just to wind Tia up. To hurt her. Harry had always had a dark streak when it came to his wife.

  And if he was being honest with himself, well, it was a shame. A damn shame. He knew how much Tammy being here would hurt Tia, though not because Tia wanted Harry to herself. He knew that Tia had always wanted her sister to be just that. A sister, not a prize bitch. Shit …

  He didn’t want to even think about their domestic set-up. It was totally screwed up but ultimately it wasn’t anything to do with him and he certainly wasn’t interested in getting involved. He needed to get his life back on track; anything else would take a back seat.

  It was at this point that Vaughn, not bothering to answer Tammy, walked away, leaving them all standing in the kitchen as he tried to ignore the overwhelming feeling of sadness.

  18

  It was late and already felt like it had been a long day when, at the corner of Beak Street
, Vaughn, deep in thought about Harry and Tia, suddenly felt a rough grip on his arm.

  He spun around ready to drape up whoever it was that seemed to think it was all right to hold on to him, and came face to face with a tall black man in his mid-forties who wore a supercilious smile. ‘Hello, Vaughn, I think you and I need a word.’

  Vaughn stared at the man – someone he’d known for a long time, too long. ‘What about?’

  ‘Perhaps we can go in and talk?’ The man nodded to the café that was directly across the street from them.

  ‘I ain’t got anything to say to you,’ Vaughn growled menacingly.

  ‘No, but the thing is, I’ve got something to say to you. I understand that you’ve been working with Harry Jacobs.’

  Vaughn shrugged, and said in a hostile tone, ‘I’ve already told you, I ain’t got anything to say to the likes of you.’

  The tall gentleman dressed in a plain, grey mac, stepped forward. ‘And as I’ve already told you, I have something to say. So if I were you, I’d let me buy you a coffee. Unless of course you want to talk out here. Or we could go and talk down the station, if you’d rather.’

  ‘Sounds like you ain’t giving me a choice.’

  Detective Carter nodded. ‘You’re not as stupid as I thought you were … Shall we?’

  Carter gestured to the café before marching across the road giving Vaughn no other option but to follow.

  The café was hot and a cloud of steam seemed to be sitting in the air along with the smell of frying eggs and bacon, the sound of laughter and voices filling the whole place. The cream walls, looking somewhat grimy, were adorned with photographs of famous British landmarks.

  The Turkish couple behind the counter waved a familiar greeting to Vaughn who nodded in recognition as he sat down on one of the green, faux leather benches.

  Sliding into the bench opposite, Carter picked up the menu. ‘Can I get you anything, Vaughn?’

  ‘I think I’d choke.’

  ‘Food that bad here?’ said Carter sardonically.

  ‘You know exactly what I mean. I ain’t here for a social, so just say what you need to, then you can piss off out of my face.’