The Goldsworth Series Box Set

by Davie J Toothill

  Tyrese marched up the small pathway to the front door and pushed it open. He could feel Trent one step behind him. The walls were damp and mouldy and the corridor was filled with junk. Tyrese held his bat tighter and went up the stairs.

  The music was louder upstairs, hiding the creaking of the steps beneath them. Tyrese paused on the landing, before moving forward slowly.

  Three doors led off the landing. The first door was open, a filthy bathroom that was empty. The second door was ajar and Tyrese paused before walking in. The music blared from the stereo in the corner and dancers turned in surprise at the two brothers standing in the doorway, armed with baseball bats.

  Tyrese scanned the faces, but none matched Troy and Brandy’s description. No gold teeth in a grinning face.

  They retreated, and Tyrese motioned towards the third door, which was closed.

  “Is he in there?” Trent whispered.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Tyrese said. “We don’t know who’s in there with him, so go careful.”

  Trent nodded.

  Tyrese put his hand on the door handle and opened the door slowly and stepped into the room. It was as dirty as the rest of the house and was bare except for a mattress in the middle of the wooden floor. Trent followed Tyrese in and started laughing.

  A pretty blonde was on her back on the mattress, a tanned figure on top of her. The blonde screamed at the sight of Tyrese, and the man turned around, his grin fading as he caught sight of Tyrese.

  Tyrese nodded at Trent. Golden teeth.

  “All right Sam?” Tyrese’s voice was cold.

  Sam looked visibly alarmed and jumped off the blonde, who was fumbling for her clothes. Sam backed into the corner of the room, eyeing the window. Tyrese stepped aside to let the terrified blonde disappear down the corridor, then turned his attention to Sam.

  Sam leapt for the window but Tyrese was quicker and the baseball bat connected with Sam’s jaw before he’d taken a few steps.

  Sam shrieked in pain and fell to the floor clutching his face, blood trickling between his fingers.

  “We heard you did something naughty,” Trent hissed. “Tut tut.”

  Sam groaned and tried to speak, flecks of blood coming from his mouth.

  “Enough chit chat,” Tyrese said.

  He lifted the baseball bat over his shoulder and brought it down on Sam’s legs. Following his brother’s lead, Trent did the same.

  Sam’s screams and the snapping of bones were masked by the blaring music from the room next door.

  After several minutes, Tyrese stopped and held up his hand. Trent paused, halfway through a swing. Tyrese surveyed the damage they’d done to Sam. A small pool of blood was coming from his mouth, and several of his golden teeth lay on the wooden floor beside him. His bare chest was covered in angry bruises and his legs were destroyed. His kneecaps were shattered and one of his shins was splintered, the bone piercing through the skin. Unnatural moans came from Sam, his face still shielded by his arms.

  Tyrese nodded at his brother, and in silence the Banks brothers left the room, wiping their baseball bats on their shirts.

  * * *

  Aurora felt her cheeks burning at Zoe and Sasha’s inquisitive looks.

  “So, how was it?” Sasha asked, leaning forward over the table.

  Zoe’s kitchen seemed claustrophobic and Aurora tried to find something to focus on that could distract her. Sasha had been delighted to learn that she and Clint had consummated their relationship last night, but wanted more details, and Aurora was struggling to find a suitable distraction.

  “Was it bad then?” Sasha inquired.

  “No, it was amazing.”

  “Come on then, I want details,” Sasha said, “Or can’t you remember?”

  If only, Aurora thought. She remembered every single detail of being with Clint but she didn’t want to share it. It was too personal. She couldn’t bring herself to share it with anyone, even Sasha, who seemed to like nothing more than revealing all the intimate details of her own sex life.

  “Let’s leave it,” Zoe said, picking up on Aurora’s feelings. “It’s personal. Between her and Clint. It’s none of our business.”

  Aurora smiled in gratitude at Zoe, who returned the smile.

  “So?” Sasha persisted.

  “So, we’re not all like you, wanting to share our sex stories with everyone else,” Zoe said.

  “Fair enough,” Sasha sighed. “At least you enjoyed it then.”

  “Yeah, I did. Clint did too. It was just magical,” Aurora gushed.

  “I’ll bet he did,” Sasha said.

  Zoe giggled and Sasha shot her a quizzical look.

  “So what happened on your night out?” Aurora asked.

  Sasha and Zoe exchanged meaningful looks.

  “I argued with Brandy, and then went and met Wright,” Sasha said. “Then I went to his place and had sex so many times I lost count.”

  “Wow. You had fun then?”

  “It was magical,” Sasha grinned, mimicking Aurora, and they all started laughing.

  A knock on the front door startled them all.

  “Are you expecting anyone?” Sasha asked.

  Zoe shook her head, “But I can guess who it might be.”

  She went to answer the door, and Aurora leaned closer to Sasha.

  “Who does she think it is?”

  “Brandy,” Sasha replied. “Who else could it be?”

  Zoe returned to the kitchen, followed by Brandy.

  Aurora looked at Brandy’s face and was surprised to see her sporting a swollen lip and no make-up. Her hair looked fair messier than she’d ever seen it before, and she was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a flimsy white jacket, a far cry from her usual attire.

  From the looks on Sasha and Zoe’s faces, the same questions were running through their minds as well as hers, Aurora thought.

  Silence followed her appearance and Brandy sat awkwardly in one of the kitchen chairs, the scraping of its legs against the floor the only noise.

  Sasha looked pointedly away from Brandy, and Aurora felt no loyalty to Brandy that would encourage her to break the silence.

  “I just thought I’d come round,” Brandy broke the silence. “See how you were.”

  “I’m fine,” Zoe said bluntly.

  “That’s good. You Sasha?”

  Sasha shrugged, “Good.”

  Brandy looked up at Aurora and caught her eye.

  “Aurora, didn’t expect to see you here,” she said.

  Aurora remained quiet, unsure what to say.

  “I invited her round,” Zoe said. “She’s my friend.”

  “Right.”

  Another silence filled the kitchen. Aurora wondered whether she should leave them to be together, but as she moved in her seat, Sasha subtly shook her head and Aurora remained seated.

  Brandy coughed, the noise sounding loud in the relative silence of the kitchen.

  “So, Sasha, how was Wright?” Brandy asked, trying to make her voice light.

  Sasha, caught off guard, shrugged and mumbled a reply.

  “Look, Brandy, why did you come round?” Zoe asked.

  Brandy looked surprised.

  “I already told you, to see how you were.”

  “Well, you’ve seen that I’m fine,” Zoe said. “Unless you’ve got an apology for us then maybe you should go.”

  “Apology?” Brandy gasped. Looking at the faces around her, she nodded. “Okay, I’m sorry.”

  Aurora watched Brandy’s face. It was so hard to see into her eyes. To know whether she was lying or being honest, whether she meant her apology or not.

  “Is that the best you can do?” Sasha laughed.

  “Look, I’m sorry about last night,” Brandy said. “Can’t we just forget it?”

  “No, because you’re still the same. You don’t care.”

  Sasha’s voice was rising and her chest heaved.

  Brandy was about to speak, when Zoe cut across her.

  “I thi
nk you should leave, Brandy.”

  Brandy’s face froze and her eyes widened.

  “You’re kicking me out?”

  Zoe nodded.

  “Seriously?” Brandy stammered.

  “I’m serious,” Zoe said.

  “You’re throwing me out, but you’re letting that stuck-up virgin stay?” Brandy continued, shooting Aurora a venomous look.

  Aurora once again wondered at Brandy’s unreasonable hatred for her.

  “She’s our friend,” Zoe said, voice rising. “She’s a better friend than you’ve ever been.”

  “Yeah, right,” Brandy laughed.

  “And she ain’t a virgin after last night,” Sasha added, smiling quickly at Aurora.

  Brandy was caught off guard, but she quickly regained her composure.

  “I don’t care,” Brandy said. “She’s still a stuck-up bitch.”

  “Don’t call her that,” Zoe shouted, jumping to her feet.

  Brandy and Sasha stood up too, chairs scraping against the floor, and Aurora remained frozen in her seat, struggling to take in what was going on around her.

  “Just get the hell out of my flat,” Zoe continued, pointing towards the door.

  Brandy hesitated.

  “Judging by your face, I’d say you lost a fight last night,” Sasha said. “You really want to lose another one?”

  From her seat, Aurora watched as Brandy’s shoulders slumped at the mention of last night and Aurora felt a moment’s pity for her. Then, she squared up to Sasha.

  “You’d better watch yourself, silly girl,” Brandy spat at her. Then she turned on Zoe. “And you, you just remember to keep your fat mouth shut.”

  Zoe’s resolve seemed to be crumbling, and Aurora knew it was time for her to act. It was what friends did for each other, stepped in when the other needed them.

  Rising to her feet, Aurora looked Brandy in the eyes. “I think it’s time you went.”

  Brandy looked at her wearily.

  “I’m out of here,” she said. Walking out of the kitchen, she turned to them all. “Bitches.”

  “Says the biggest bitch of all,” Zoe retorted.

  With that, Brandy stormed out of the flat and slammed the front door behind her.

  * * *

  Troy waved goodbye to his brothers as they left the flat. They had explained to him how they’d broken both of Sam’s legs and left him unconscious at his house after beating him with baseball bats.

  Troy had nodded and thanked them, as he knew they expected him to do, but now they’d gone out to celebrate, he let out his anger and punched the wall, sending flakes of plaster falling to the kitchen floor.

  His girlfriend had been raped by two of Jayden’s losers and all they’d done was break someone’s legs. He’d smiled at the thought of Sam in a wheelchair, unable to fuck anything for months, but the pleasure paled in comparison to his fury.

  Jayden Healy was probably laughing his head off right now. Troy respected his brothers but he knew that they hadn’t fulfilled their duties properly this time.

  He wanted blood. More than just the blood from a few broken knees. Someone had to pay big time. It wouldn’t be Sam, who was still wheeling himself around the hospital. Troy knew who it would be. Jayden himself.

  Troy waited a minute to be sure his brothers weren’t coming back, then hurried through the flat and into Tyrese’s bedroom. He crept across the floor and fell to his knees at the side of the bed. He felt under the bed, looking for the shoe box. It took only a few moments to find.

  He pulled the box out and cradled it in his arms, before taking the lid off and unwrapping the cloth. The gun fell into his hands and Troy smiled properly for the first time that day. He hastily threw the cloth back into the shoe box and tucked it back under the bed where he had found it.

  He went into his own bedroom and sat on his bed, admiring the gun that rested in his open palm. This was the revenge he was talking about. If Tyrese and Trent wouldn’t do it, he would. He was going to kill Jayden Healy.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Keskia Banks sat at her kitchen table and listened to the rhythmic humming of the washing machine, her arms folded in front of her.

  How had her life come to this? She had always known that her eldest sons were up to no good, and had kept quiet, grateful for the increased cash flow they brought in and for the fact that they hadn’t yet been sentenced to a long stretch in prison.

  The discovery that Troy had killed somebody, especially an innocent young woman, had shocked her to the core. She had eventually resigned herself to losing him to a life of crime and danger, just as she’d had to do with Tyrese and Trent. It hurt, as if bits of her heart were splintering, when she thought like this, but she knew that the day would come when one of her sons wouldn’t return home, either imprisoned or killed, and although she would mourn, she would always know that it was a long time coming and that they’d brought it upon themselves.

  Still, at least she had Jessie, her only daughter. Or at least she had thought she did. Then, she’d made the discovery which had finally shattered the final part of her heart.

  Before going out to see her friends, Jessie had left her handbag unattended in the kitchen. Not one to pry, Keskia had ignored the bag. Then she’d knocked it off the table by accident, and she had instantly worried that Jessie would believe she’d done it deliberately. With speed that surprised even her, she had knelt on the kitchen floor and began replacing the items that had scattered across the floor back into the small leather bag.

  Phone, cigarettes, make-up. Then she’d paused. A small bag of marijuana. Keskia had frozen, willing herself to have jumped to the wrong conclusion, but she’d seen Tyrese and Trent with it enough times to know that she wasn’t mistaken.

  Her youngest child, her only daughter, was smoking cannabis. Keskia had dropped it into the bag with the rest of Jessie’s possessions and put the bag back on the kitchen table. Jessie had returned moments later and snatched up her bag, before sauntering out of the flat.

  Now, Keskia was sitting waiting for Jessie to emerge from her bedroom. Tyrese, sat beside her, also folded his arms. She had told him, begged for his help and support with the matter, and he’d eventually agreed to help talk some sense to his sister.

  The kitchen door opened and Jessie walked in. She glanced at them suspiciously but continued to the counter, grabbing bread and dropping it in the toaster. Keskia noted how she’d altered her school uniform, hitching the skirt up several inches and unbuttoning the white shirt so that the black of her bra showed.

  Still, that was a matter for another time.

  “Jessie, come and sit down for a minute,” Keskia said, trying to keep her voice even.

  Jessie groaned.

  “I’m not getting changed,” she protested. “Only geeks wear their skirts low.”

  “Just sit down, please,” Keskia said.

  Jessie put her toast on a plate and slowly crossed the kitchen and sat opposite them. She seemed bemused, but Keskia could see the caution in her eyes.

  “What’s this about?” Jessie asked. “I don’t need a lecture before school.”

  “Just shut up and listen,” Tyrese said.

  Keskia winced at the authority in her son’s voice, but was pleased to have enlisted his help. Her own voice, she knew, would not be enough to command Jessie’s attention or respect.

  “Okay, whatever,” Jessie sighed.

  “I found something in your bag the other day,” Keskia said, and raised her hand when Jessie opened her mouth to protest. “Some cannabis.”

  Jessie shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

  “Are you going to tell me why you had it?” Keskia asked.

  “I was just looking after it for a friend.”

  “Which friend?”

  “You don’t know who, you haven’t met them,” Jessie said.

  “Why were you holding it for them?”

  “They asked me to,” Jessie said sullenly.

  “Stop lying, Jess,�
�� Tyrese joined the conversation, leaning forward. “We ain’t stupid.”

  “Fine, I was going to smoke it, for fuck’s sake, is that what you wanted to hear?”

  Keskia sighed and closed her eyes. She had expected it, but hearing her daughter admit it, with no trace of remorse, made it so much worse.

  “I want you to stop smoking it,” Keskia told her.

  “Fuck off,” Jessie replied.

  “Who sold it to you?” Tyrese asked.

  “I didn’t pay for it.”

  “Where did you get it then?”

  “From a mate,” Jessie replied, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

  “What’s this mates name?” Tyrese pressed.

  “Are you going to stop smoking it?” Keskia asked, feeling side tracked by Tyrese. Perhaps it hadn’t been such a good idea to include him in the questioning.

  “Jessie, the name?” Tyrese urged.

  “Oh, fuck off both of you,” Jessie snapped. “I’m out of here.”

  She stood up and snatched up her bag, heading for the door. Tyrese made to stand as well, but Keskia put a restraining hand on his arm, and he remained seated.

  “Where are you going?” Keskia asked.

  “To see my mates,” she replied. “Maybe smoke some weed.”

  “No, Jessie, don’t be-” Keskia began, but Jessie had stormed out and slammed the door behind her.

  The kitchen was silent, and Keskia felt her shoulders droop. Jessie was just as rebellious, just as disrespectful, as her brothers, perhaps more so. She had always wondered if perhaps her sons were the way they were because of a lack of a father figure, but Jessie flouted that thought. Maybe it was something wrong with her, with her parenting skills, her mothering. Keskia felt tears welling in her eyes and wiped at her eyes, desperate not to break down in front of her son.

  “She’ll be okay, mum, she’s just got a bit of a temper,” Tyrese said, trying to be reassuring.

  Keskia nodded her head half-heartedly and stood up. Tyrese rose to and pulled her into a tight hug. In her eldest son’s strong arms, which she knew had been responsible for numerous beatings and worse, Keskia let it all sink in and burst into tears.

  * * *

  Jessie stormed across the estate and down the road, still fuming at her mother. How dare she interfere in her life? It wasn’t like she was going around causing trouble or anything, it was just smoking a bit of weed with Jazz. And Tyrese, coming on all High and Mighty when he did much worse every day.