by Emma Tallon
Thea laughed with glee as she realised what he was saying to her. ‘Oh you bugger!’ She reached forward and slapped his arm playfully. ‘Thank you. I’m so glad you like them. I picked these ones specifically for you.’ She looked down at her work, smiling from ear to ear. ‘You ain’t paying for them though. You already paid for my course and all my camera equipment. This can be my payback.’
‘Bloody expensive pictures then,’ Freddie joked, laughing.
‘Oh shut up, you. You know what, when I was—’
There was a frantic knock at the door and whoever it was opened it straight away, cutting Thea off.
‘Sorry.’ Alan looked flustered as he tried to get his message out quickly. ‘It’s just – it’s – she’s here.’ His eyes darted back over his shoulder. He pulled a face at Freddie.
‘Right. Thank you, Alan.’
Alan stepped back and a few seconds later a new figure appeared at the door.
7
At five feet eight and with a broad, almost Amazonian frame, Sarah Riley was a formidable sight. The fitted designer trouser suit flattered her athletic physique while giving off a no-nonsense air. She had an interestingly handsome face with a strongly defined jawline and high cheekbones. Her dark hair was set perfectly with not one strand out of place. She would have fitted in well with any given military group, Freddie thought. She stepped into the Portakabin, seeming to fill the small space, then looked around slowly and deliberately, her nose in the air and an expression of cold curiosity on her face. His intense frustration began to bubble towards the surface and he pushed it down, faking a polite, casual smile.
‘Miss Riley, what an expected pleasure.’
She smiled at him, narrowing her eyes like a cat. ‘Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint you, Freddie, let you think there was a little corner of your empire that I couldn’t reach now. What is it that you do here anyway?’ She cocked her head to the side and raised one eyebrow.
‘Here? Well, I just happen to really like watching the ships coming in and out,’ he replied innocently. ‘This office exists purely for my own self-indulgence.’
Thea sat silently, waiting for Freddie to let her know what he wanted her to do. She had figured out that this must be the DCI that was breathing down his neck and took an instant dislike to her, bristling at the way the woman looked down her nose at her brother.
Freddie’s fingers moved slightly and she stood up. He had given her one of their signals, asking her to leave. They had a series of signals that only the family-in-the-know knew. They were so discreet that no one else would realise that they were communicating. Which was something they often needed in their line of business. Although not directly involved and technically classed as a civilian, Thea was kept aware of all the business dealings and ran the books for Freddie privately. She had been his personal accountant, hiding and laundering his money for years.
Thea’s movement drew the DCI’s attention to her.
‘Ah, the sister. What are you doing here, princess? Come to pick up your pocket money?’ Riley taunted. ‘Don’t actually work, do you? You just seem to live off your brother’s generosity as far as I can see.’ She waited for a response but received nothing but a stony look. Narrowing her eyes, she continued. ‘Or perhaps I’ve missed something. He runs whorehouses, doesn’t he, your big brother? Is that where you come in? Do you work as one of his girls?’
Thea’s mouth and eyes shot open at the insult. ‘You what?’ she cried, incredulous.
Freddie stood up abruptly and turned his back to the detective, facing his furious sister.
‘Thea, I’ll catch up with you later. Leave these here – I’ll send them to the framers and get them sorted out. If you have a preference for how they’re done, text me.’
Thea breathed deeply, ready to tear the smug smile off the DCI’s face. Instead she listened to Freddie. She knew he would deal with it. He wouldn’t accept that sort of talk towards his sister. Bigger men would lose a limb for insults like that. She might be the filth, but she would still face something.
‘Right. Yeah, I’ll text you what to tell them for the mounts and that. See ya later.’ Picking up her handbag, Thea walked round the table and paused by DCI Riley. ‘I earn every penny I have by using my brain rather than lying on my back. But perhaps you know more about that sort of thing than me. After all’ – she looked her up and down – ‘you might look like the back end of a bus, but you’re an expensive one, eh? I doubt a pig’s wage would have been able to wrap you in Dolce & Gabbana. You knocking off the boss for some extra cash?’ Thea smirked, then leaned in and curled her lip. ‘You wanna watch who you’re talking to, you smug cunt. You think you know who he is.’ She shook her head slowly, her mouth forming a hard smile. ‘You don’t.’
DCI Riley smirked and watched as Thea left, the door shutting behind her. She laughed lightly and folded her arms. Turning back to Freddie with another quip fresh on the tip of her tongue, she was met with a large, strong hand connecting with her neck. Taken by surprise she was slammed backward onto the desk, on top of the prints that Thea had left behind. Freddie’s vice-like grip tightened around her neck, and she grappled at his wrist, trying to get him off. Her eyes were wide with panic, and she kicked her feet out trying to connect with him. Freddie positioned his body so that she was unable to do so. He leaned over her helpless figure, venom in his eyes.
‘Like my sister said,’ he said through gritted teeth, his voice hard, ‘you think you know who I am. You don’t. You don’t have the first fucking clue who I am or what I'm capable of. No one talks to one of mine the way you just did.’ He tightened his grip further and the panic in her eyes grew to outright fear. She was beginning to realise that she was way out of her depth. She had poked the wrong bear. ‘You ever insult my sister or anyone else in my family like that again, you won’t even live to regret it. Understand?’
With one last cold stare into her frightened eyes, Freddie let go. Riley immediately fell to the floor and began coughing, her lungs desperately straining for oxygen. She grasped her throat, where Freddie’s hands had been. He removed the gloves that he had put on as Thea left. An action Riley had been too overconfident to notice.
‘Whatever you think you know about me or my business, let me make something clear – you will never gain an upper hand with me. So you may as well stop wasting both our time and start focusing on your actual job,’ Freddie spat. ‘I mean, let’s be frank shall we, Detective? Finding that bird is in my interest too. All this is bad for business. Like I’ve told you already, I had nothing to do with it. Even if I was into kidnapping women, which I’m not, drawing attention to myself – in my own fucking club, more to the point – is not exactly something I like to do. Think about it, for fuck’s sake.’
Freddie pulled a cigarette out of the box in his pocket and lit it, before drawing deeply on it. He exhaled the smoke loudly and opened the door. Sarah Riley sat on the floor, her back against the desk and one hand still at her throat. She seemed to have calmed down, though, and was actually listening to him for a change. He stared out at the boats being loaded and the scene around them.
‘I do actually like watching the boats, you know,’ he said absentmindedly. Turning back to look at her again, his face was hard. ‘I will help you in any way I physically can. If I find out anything, even the smallest detail, you will be the first person to know. If you have a genuine question to ask me, you can phone me or Terry at any time. But other than that, you can fuck off and leave me and my business alone.’
He watched as she stood up awkwardly and straightened her suit, regaining her composure. ‘Next time,’ he added as she walked towards the open door, ‘I might not ask so nicely.’
She paused and narrowed her eyes at him hatefully. ‘I could arrest you for that – have you banged up before you could even blink,’ Riley said through gritted teeth.
‘But you won’t,’ Freddie replied, his voice calm and confident. ‘Because not only did you leave whoever you’re with ba
ck out there at the car, giving you no witness and opening yourself up for questioning as to why you wanted to speak to me alone, you’d look like a prize twat too. And we both know your ego won’t allow that.’
Freddie stared her out, his gaze casually level. Riley’s eyes burned for a second before she looked away.
‘The only reason I won’t be arresting you today is because I think you may be of more use to my case on the outside. But that was still a bad move, Tyler.’ She nodded to herself. ‘You won’t be of use to me for very long, and I make a very bad enemy. I’ll be seeing you.’
‘Good day, Detective,’ he replied as she left.
When she disappeared from view, Freddie sat back down in his chair. His anger towards the woman still flowed through his veins. She was lucky that all he’d done was threaten her. He had known she wouldn’t arrest him. She was too proud, and there was something about her that told him she didn’t quite play things by the book. She would try to get her own back, however, of that he was sure. But that wasn’t anything to worry about. Freddie had lived and breathed this life for a very long time. He protected himself from threats every day. Sarah Riley was playing a game that she was completely unprepared for. There was no way on earth that she could actually win.
Sarah Riley scowled furiously at the men around her as she walked back through the docks and up the cobbled path towards the uniformed colleague she had left in the car. She should have taken him in with her, really, but she had wanted to bait Freddie; she had wanted to put him on the back foot, make him uncomfortable. It had totally backfired. She had assumed that he would be scared of her, less powerful than her, the way criminals should be. But he wasn’t. Instead he had shown her how foolhardy she had been and had literally slammed her back in her place.
Scum, the lot of them, she thought bitterly. The fact that they ran around London in plain sight, living as though they were some sort of royalty, burned through her. How dare they? How dare they have the gall to say or do anything to her? They were criminals. She was a bloody DCI, for fuck’s sake, and she gets treated like that?
‘No way,’ she muttered angrily under her breath. Freddie said she had no idea who he was; well, he had no idea who she was either. ‘No fucking way. That was a big mistake. I will get you for that, Tyler. Not right now, oh no. But I will get you, if it’s the last thing I do.’
8
Tanya walked into the restaurant and scanned the room for her date. Daniel waved his hand to catch her attention. The head waiter flew over, having just realised that there was someone waiting to be seated. It was a busy night and he was a waiter short.
‘So sorry to keep you waiting. Have you—’
‘No worries; I’m with him.’ Tanya pointed.
‘Ah, perfect. I will be with you shortly to take your drinks order.’
‘Great, thanks.’
The waiter scurried back to what he’d been doing before, and Tanya began to wind her way through the crowded restaurant. Eventually reaching the table she sat down.
‘Christ, it’s busy in here, ain’t it?’ Her thick East End accent came through clearly as she laughed.
‘Yes, I was lucky to get a table,’ Daniel replied. He grinned at her eagerly, bright white teeth shining evenly. Expensive teeth, Tanya thought.
‘I ordered some wine, but I can get you something else if you would prefer?’ he asked politely.
‘No, wine’s fine, thanks,’ Tanya replied, squeezing his hand happily. He always made her feel so warm inside, being so polite and gentlemanly towards her like this. It wasn’t something she was used to. She liked it.
She looked him over fondly. His floppy, public-schoolboy haircut was, as usual, falling forward over his forehead and he flicked it back into place. His long nose and high cheekbones gave him a classically handsome look, and his clear-cut Home Counties accent captivated Tanya. She could listen to him talk all day.
Daniel was not her usual type. She didn’t come across people like Daniel a lot – genteel, educated, gorgeous and single all in one. When she did, they never wanted to date her. They looked, of course – all men did, but when she opened her mouth and revealed her East End roots they turned their attentions away, back to the girls their posh mothers would approve of. Daniel, though, he was different. He liked Tanya for who she was and didn’t seem to notice or care about their differences.
‘So, how’s your day been?’ Tanya asked.
‘Stressful. Better now that you’re here.’ He grinned. ‘Had loads of management meetings today. Utter ball-ache. Just a waste of time that keeps me from doing my actual job, you know?’
‘I do. I feel the same about my paperwork. I would much rather be coordinating the acts and running the club, but it’s always there, staring me right in the boat race. To be fair, though, Anna does most of it. She’s one of those people who would rather be tucked away in the office on her laptop than out with the punters or dealing with the front-of-house stuff. It works well. We’re a good team, Anna and me.’
Daniel poured the rich red wine into Tanya’s glass and handed it to her while she talked. She took a sip and pulled an appreciative face.
‘Mm, that’s pukka. What is it?’
‘This is a rather bold Malbec from Mendoza, 2012. It’s won quite a lot of awards apparently; thought we could try it.’ He swirled the liquid around in his glass and tried some himself. ‘Yes, this does go down well, doesn’t it?’ He switched his attention back to what Tanya had been saying. ‘So, it sounds like you’ve found your perfect other half in Anna, business-wise.’
‘Yeah, definitely. Couldn’t be without her.’
‘I’d love to meet her sometime. Maybe come and see your club too.’
‘Oh, yeah sure, you can come any time. And I can’t wait for you to meet Anna – she’s my best friend,’ Tanya said excitedly. ‘Actually, as it happens I have an invite for you.’
‘Oh?’ Daniel raised one naturally defined eyebrow in question.
‘Well, it’s Anna’s birthday on Saturday, and Freddie, her other half, is throwing this big party for her. There’s going to be loads of people there, food, drink, music. It should be really fun. Would you like to come?’
‘Ah, Saturday.’ Daniel grimaced at her apologetically. ‘I have to work next weekend so I won’t be around. I’m sorry, Tanya. If I were here I would have loved to come. Maybe another time?’
‘Oh right. Yeah, of course. No worries.’ Tanya shrugged, trying to hide her disappointment. Asking a man to meet her best friend and come to a family event was a big thing for her. When Anna had been brought into the fold of the Tyler family, so had Tanya. They came as a package and were accepted as such. For the first time in her lonely life, Tanya was treated as part of a family with Anna and the Tylers. They meant everything to her. Introducing someone new, even just for a party, was a big deal. But she knew that she had to respect Daniel’s work. He had already told her that he worked away most weekends. It was part and parcel of his job. Not many women would be happy spending their weekends alone, but it actually suited Tanya. Weekends were her busiest time at the club.
Daniel reached forward and squeezed her hand over the table, apology still showing on his face.
‘How about I book something fun for Monday night, when I’m back?’
‘Sure, yeah, that sounds good.’ Tanya smiled, not wanting him to feel bad. It wasn’t like he was being an arsehole. Work was work; she fully understood that.
‘OK.’ Tanya straightened her back and flicked her thick, wavy hair over her shoulder. She picked up the menu and began to check out the contents. ‘So tell me, Mr Hotshot, what’s good to eat here?’
Daniel slowly ran his eyes down her body.
‘I can suggest a good starter and main, but what I want for dessert is definitely not on this menu.’ His eyes burned into hers intensely.
She felt herself melting under his gaze and took a deep breath. She cleared her throat and tore her eyes away. ‘Well, I’m sure I have something back at
mine that would suit your tastes.’
‘Oh yes. You most certainly do.’
9
The rest of the week seemed to pass quickly for Freddie. Sarah Riley had backed off since his last conversation with her. Other than one phone call to Terry asking if there was any update, there had been a blissful silence. Finally free from constant scrutiny, Freddie had a lot of catching up to do. The businesses that had been put on hold were started back up again. Shipments that had been hidden or moved were rerouted back on track with extra men and caution, in case this was only a brief respite. Meetings that had been cancelled were rearranged and sites that Freddie had avoided in order to keep them hidden were visited.
Freddie was working on a new plan with Sammy to expand their gambling dens with an underground boxing ring. He’d always loved boxing. It would be an exciting new direction, and one that could bring in a lot of money.
He stepped across the busy street and entered Dot’s, a small sandwich shop he often visited when he was over this way. There was a customer in front of him, but seeing who’d just walked in, the chubby woman behind the counter clicked her fingers at the teenage girl next to her. The girl looked up, her eyes widening as she saw Freddie. She quickly looked away and quietly took over the first customer’s order from her boss.
The chubby woman wiped her hands on her apron and moved down the counter with a big friendly smile. ‘Freddie, sorry to keep you; what can I get you today?’
‘That’s alright, Dot. I’ll have the salt beef today, I reckon. Looks good.’ Freddie pointed to the large cut of meat under the glass. Dot picked it up and took it over to the chopping board.
‘I’ll do you one nice and thick, Freddie. This is fresh in this morning, really tender.’