The New Friend

by Alex Kane

  ‘Didn’t know you smoked,’ Jake said, opening the back of the van and slinging the bags in. He slammed the doors shut and moved around to the side next to Eddie.

  ‘Only occasionally,’ he said. ‘What’s up with you? You look like you could kill someone.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter, it’s nothing,’ Jake replied. ‘You can get off if you want.’

  Eddie shook his head. ‘It doesn’t look like nothing.’

  Jake was about to answer when Cole emerged from the front door of the building, his eyes fixed on Jake. No words were exchanged as Cole approached, his eyes falling from Jake and settling on Eddie.

  ‘Eddie, mate,’ he said with a wide grin. ‘You boys can take it from here? I’ve got something else to do right now.’

  Jake nodded and Eddie said, ‘Aye, no bother.’

  Cole made his way along the street and up the hill towards the city centre. Jake knew where he’d be headed. The casino, no doubt.

  ‘You two had a lovers’ tiff or something?’ Eddie said, humour in his tone.

  ‘He’s a fucking prick, Eddie. Like I said before, you can’t trust him. The sooner this job is done and dusted the better.’ As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jake realised that the job would never be over. Jake would have to live his life bowing down to Cole Woods if he wanted to keep Roxanne in the dark about his sexuality, and the rest of the Glasgow underworld. If it got out, it wouldn’t just ruin his relationship and his reputation as a hard man, but it would see him go to prison for murder. The murder Roxanne would be able to live with, but the reason behind it would end her.

  Chapter Fifty

  Cole marched along the road, seething from his altercation with Jake. How dare he think he could get away with speaking to him like that? Who did he think he was? He was nothing but a closet fucking gay who needed to be brought down a peg or two. But Cole had to be careful; he couldn’t jeopardise having him onside. Jake was one of his few connections up here in Glasgow, one of the few people who knew who he was. He needed to keep his head low, make sure he didn’t get into any altercations. Jez would find him, of course he would. He was a resourceful guy, one of the best and a Glasgow man himself. If Cole could go back and change what he’d done then he would. Stealing Jez’s money had been one of those off-the-cuff, split-second decisions. He’d already taken five hundred thousand from the Albanian gang, but he’d got greedy. Gambling had always been part of his life, as had drugs – dealing and partaking. But when he got out to Spain, started working for Jez, the casino clubs had appealed to him more than he’d thought. The girls, the booze, the drugs and the bets. He’d quickly become addicted to it all.

  Jez had been too busy to notice Cole’s money troubles. He was spending as quickly as he was earning. He’d planned the timing of the robbery carefully, had booked his flight to Scotland so that there would only be a few hours between the theft he’d pulled on the Albanians and take off. Once he’d taken from them, he had just enough time to swing by the club to check he hadn’t left anything behind. To his surprise, the safe had been left open. It was pure luck and Cole saw an opportunity to take more than he’d originally planned. He didn’t think twice about it, didn’t hesitate at all. Jez didn’t give two shits about Cole, so why should he care about leaving him financially lighter?

  Going to Scotland had its benefits. London would be the first place that the Albanians would look for him, and none of his connections in Spain even knew Jake existed.

  As he turned the corner, the backstreet casino came into view. A dingy little place that he’d found the day he’d landed. He’d been there every day since.

  Pushing through the door, Cole stepped into the main entrance and the doorman nodded but said nothing as Cole moved through to the bar. He ordered a beer and a Jack Daniel’s before taking his usual seat at the roulette table. Black thirty-three caught his eye. He was drawn to it, as his hand was drawn to his wallet. Pulling out a twenty-pound note, Cole slid it across the table to the croupier and nodded.

  ‘Black thirty-three.’

  The man nodded and placed Cole’s bet. The wheel spun, as did Cole’s stomach. There was seven hundred pounds riding on that one bet. He was either going to be up or down and that made him feel sick. But as he watched the wheel spin, he forgot about everything. Jez, Jake, the job in hand. All he wanted was for the ball to land on black thirty-three, for his winning streak to return and things would get better; he would no longer have the black cloud of doom hanging over him.

  ‘Black thirty-three,’ the croupier said. ‘Congratulations sir.’

  Cole stood up and punched the air. ‘Yas! Get in there.’

  ‘Another bet, sir?’

  Cole looked at the man standing behind the roulette table and smiled. He was seven hundred up, seven hundred better off than he he’d been before he’d walked through the door and that was just the roulette table. The drugs would be making him a lot more than that if Jake, Roxanne and Eddie did their jobs right. Maybe he wouldn’t even pay them for their part in it. Maybe he would take everything for himself and fuck off, start a new life somewhere else. But not before he fucked Jake over by telling Roxanne what her precious gangster boyfriend had got up to when she was in prison.

  ‘Aye,’ he said, his smile growing wider at the prospect of it all. ‘Make it one hundred this time. Black eighteen.’

  If he got enough money behind him, he would never have to worry about Jez or the Albanians finding him. He could change his name and start over somewhere entirely new where no one knew him.

  The croupier spun the wheel and tossed the pill in. Cole watched as it spun around the outside of the wheel itself. Black eighteen, he thought. Another thirty-five to one bet. Only this time, the pay-out would be much more substantial. Just over three and a half grand.

  Worst case scenario, he could stay here and make Jake pay back his debt in other ways. If Jez did find Cole, then maybe Jake could take care of him, take him out. Jake was a Glasgow gangster after all. Maybe if Jez did return to Scotland, Jake wouldn’t want him here. He might get a bit territorial. Cole could use that, if he had to, to protect himself.

  Cole swallowed the Jack Daniel’s in one mouthful and watched as the ball was released onto the roulette table. He hoped he’d win big with this bet. The more he won, the more powerful he felt.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Roxanne made her way across the street towards the salon. It was grey, raining a little and she felt the cold nip at the skin on her face. She looked into the salon window and saw Arabella standing at the reception desk, the phone at her ear. Good, she thought. She was distracted.

  The text had come through from Jake. The van would be arriving in the next thirty or so minutes and she had to be there to take the order in. To anyone else, it would look like salon supplies being delivered.

  Just as she stepped onto the pavement, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she looked into the eyes of a face she’d never thought she’d see again.

  ‘Hi, Roxanne.’

  She gasped, wondering if she was imagining it all. But of course, she wasn’t. She was standing face to face with the first guy she’d ever fallen in love with. The guy who had broken her heart into a million pieces.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ she asked, her mouth suddenly dry.

  ‘Nice to see you too,’ he replied with a smile.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I just didn’t expect it to be you. I mean, aren’t you supposed to be living it up in Spain?’

  Jez smiled again. ‘I am. Well, I was until I had to come back here to attend to some business. I won’t be here for long.’

  Roxanne frowned. If he wasn’t going to be in the country for long then why had he bothered finding her at all? What was the point?

  ‘Do you fancy grabbing a drink?’

  ‘I’m sure your wife would disapprove. Does she even know you’re here?’

  The thought of Charlene brought on a feeling that Roxanne hadn’t felt in a long time. She
and her best friend had gone to Spain to get away from their shitty life in the schemes. They’d grown up together, done everything with the other by their side. They’d promised each other that they’d make a life for themselves over there. It had been twenty years since she’d last seen her best friend, since they’d last spoken. If Jez hadn’t been in the picture, they would likely still be together now. A pang of sadness hit her at the thought. Things could have been different. They should have been different. It hadn’t quite turned out that way.

  Although, now that Roxanne was out of prison and embarking on even bigger and better things since Cole was in the picture, she would be able to move out of the flat in Maryhill and into a lavish house with Jake. That was something that she’d never been able to dream of when she was younger and living in the scheme. Jake had changed all that, even if she’d lost ten years of her freedom.

  ‘Well, she knows I’m in Scotland. I swear I didn’t know you would be here today, Rox. I came looking for someone else and you were crossing the street and, well, here we are.’

  Bullshit, Roxanne thought. ‘Don’t call me Rox.’

  He opened his mouth to speak but kept quiet.

  She took a steadying breath and glared at Jez. The last time she was in his company, he was dragging Charlene off her. Not that Roxanne blamed her for losing her shit. She had been having an affair with her boyfriend. She felt shit about the way things turned out but she couldn’t get over the fact that she’d fallen in love with Jez. He’d said he felt the same, but he was quick to drop her as soon as Charlene had revealed that she was pregnant. The whole thing had been a disaster from the second they met.

  ‘Look, I’ve got to go. I’m waiting on a delivery.’ She nodded towards the salon.

  ‘Oh, you own the place?’

  Roxanne shook her head. ‘No, I just work for the girl who does. I met her in prison.’

  The words slipped out before she could stop them. Shit, she thought. She didn’t want Jez to think that she was some lowlife. But then why did she care? She knew what he was doing over in Spain when she was living there. Dealing drugs at the club had been the start. When social media exploded into the world, Roxanne had tried to look Jez up. She hadn’t found him, but she’d found Charlene and there were a few pictures of the couple, looking happy and carefree, but she knew people exaggerated their lives on social media. There would be a reason he wasn’t on Facebook or Instagram. God only knew what he was up to nowadays.

  He stood there in a pristine suit that screamed money. His and Roxanne’s worlds couldn’t be further apart and for the first time ever, she felt low about herself as she stood next to him.

  ‘Prison? What landed you in prison?’

  ‘That’s none of your business. Like I said, I’ve got to go.’ Roxanne turned to move towards the road which led to the back of the salon when Jez gripped her by the elbow.

  ‘Wait,’ he said. ‘I want to talk to you.’

  ‘I said I don’t have time.’ She shook him off. ‘Look, Jez, you can’t just rock up here after almost two decades and expect me to just hear you out. You were with my best friend and shagging me at the same time. Then she tells you she’s pregnant and all of a sudden you want to be this stand-up guy, leaving me with nothing. I had to come back to this shit hole. I lost my best friend. I lost my future because of you. You’re an arsehole. You were back then and you are now. So, do yourself a fucking favour and bugger off back to Spain.’

  ‘Hang on a minute. You’re blaming me for all of it?’

  ‘Yes, Jez. If you’d just stayed away from both of us, I could still be there living a better life. I might never have come back here and ended up in prison.’

  She turned her back on him then, just like he had turned his back on her twenty years ago, and marched towards the salon. Glancing through the window, she saw Arabella was still on the phone. Jez called out after her, but she ignored him. She didn’t need this right now. Not with the salon, the job with Cole and the fact that she had to keep Arabella sweet. Dredging up the past wasn’t something she could cope with on top of everything else.

  Reaching the end of the road, she turned the corner and stood in the delivery bay area as she waited for the van to arrive. Jake wouldn’t be there. He’d be back at the flat where Cole was holding the supplies. Anger sat heavy in the pit of her stomach, but there was something else. Guilt? She felt guilty for being so rude to him. Why?

  Leaning her back against the wall, she bit her lip. The feelings she’d had for Jez back then were flooding back now. What the hell was she supposed to do with them?

  Roxanne closed her eyes, exhaled loudly and tried to force the memories out of her head. But before she could, she heard footsteps approaching and when she opened her eyes, Jez was just a few feet away.

  ‘Fuck off, Jez. I mean it.’

  ‘Do you though? Mean it?’

  ‘Yes, I fucking mean it. You can’t just show up here and expect me to be sweet with you. You’re nothing but a self-centred arsehole, Jez.’

  He parted his lips to speak, when the back door of the salon opened. Arabella appeared, carrying a bin bag. Roxanne turned away from Jez swiftly and smiled at her friend.

  ‘Oh Jesus,’ Arabella jumped. ‘What the hell are you doing standing out here?’

  Roxanne heard Jez walk away, his footsteps becoming distant. Her chest ached but she would not allow the pain to show on her face.

  ‘I was just waiting on you getting off for a break,’ Roxanne lied.

  ‘Who was that?’ Arabella asked as she tipped the rubbish bag into the bin.

  ‘Don’t know. Fancy putting the kettle on?’

  Arabella hesitated, her eyes falling from Roxanne’s gaze and out to the direction in which Jez had headed. ‘Yeah, okay.’

  Arabella went inside and Roxanne exhaled, relieved that she was out of sight before the delivery van arrived, along with the girls she had hired to deal out the orders.

  Seeing Jez had thrown her off her track. Was this the real reason he’d come back to Scotland?

  ‘Roxanne?’ A voice interrupted her thoughts. Turning, she saw young Stephanie standing just at the edge of the building.

  ‘Come here,’ she replied. ‘Where’s Selina? She better not have done a bunk.’

  ‘She’s just stopped at the shop for fags. She’ll be here in a minute.’

  Roxanne nodded. ‘Right into your suit I see?’

  ‘Aye, well there’s no point in carrying it in a bag. That’ll not look suspicious at all, will it?’

  Roxanne laughed but her attention was drawn to the van as it rounded the corner and stopped beside her.

  ‘Keep him talking,’ she said to Stephanie. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. Oh, and make sure you text Selina and tell her to get here pronto. She’s got a job to do.’

  Roxanne pulled the back door of the salon open and stepped into the small kitchen. The last time she’d been in there was when Stephanie had done her first round.

  Arabella was pouring water into two mugs when she looked up at Roxanne. ‘Milk and two?’

  ‘Actually, you’ve got a delivery out the back.’

  Arabella frowned. ‘Have I? Scarlett must have done an order before her disappearing act.’

  ‘Scarlett has disappeared?’

  ‘Didn’t even call in to say she wouldn’t be coming into work. She’s left me to deal with everything, although I shouldn’t really be complaining, I am the boss after all.’

  Roxanne shrugged. She couldn’t care less about Scarlett. All she needed was for the contents of the van to be emptied into the kitchen at the back of the salon and for Arabella to keep her mouth shut.

  ‘I’ll let him in, shall I?’

  ‘Yes,’ Arabella lifted her mug and took a sip. ‘If you don’t mind.’

  Roxanne stuck her head out of the door and nodded at the driver. He got out and took two holdalls from the back of the van and carried them into the kitchen. He left quickly as Roxanne beckoned the girls inside.


  ‘Roxanne, what the hell is this?’ Arabella asked as the two girls entered the kitchen, their fake pregnant bellies ready to hold drugs packages.

  ‘You know what this is, Arabella. You’ve seen it before. You know Stephanie here. Well, this is Selina. She’s one of the girls I’ve hired to help lighten Stephanie’s work load.’

  Arabella shook her head. ‘No. No way. I said it was a one-off. This is my business, you can’t just come and go when you please, treating it like a fucking halfway house.’

  Roxanne closed the back door and walked over to the door which led out to the salon. She put the snib on.

  ‘Arabella, you really don’t have a choice in the matter.’

  ‘Erm, I think you’ll find I do.’

  Roxanne stared at Arabella, narrowed her eyes and took a breath. ‘Do you really think I’m going to let you stop me from doing this? Have you forgotten what I went to prison for, Arabella? I mean, we met in Kirktonhill not so long ago. I got ten years for GBH. Do you know what I did to that guy?’

  Arabella’s expression hardened, but Roxanne could see in her eyes that she was beginning to worry. Good, she should worry.

  ‘I battered that guy black and blue because he didn’t do what he was supposed to.’ She paused, let the information sink in. ‘Do you know what you’re supposed to do, Arabella?’

  Arabella shook her head so gently that if Roxanne had blinked, she’d have missed it.

  ‘You’re supposed to make the tea, take the bookings and stay out the front while me and the girls here get on with our jobs. Stephanie and Selina are good girls, they’ll do what I tell them for a small price. I wouldn’t even have to get my hands dirty if you got in the way. But you know, I wouldn’t even have to go that far, would I? Because I have dirt on you, love. Hostel guy ring any bells?’

  Arabella’s shoulders slumped. Now she got it.

  ‘Good. Now go out the front, let me get on with my job and you get to keep your freedom and all your bones intact.’