“I need to think about this,” Tyrese said slowly.
“I’ll give you some time,” Jayden agreed. “Don’t take too long. You know what it’ll cost you if you do.”
He turned to leave the playground. Tyrese was taken aback.
“You’re leaving?” he asked.
“Until Troy’s gone, there’s nothing left for us to discuss,” Jayden said over his shoulder.
A thought struck Tyrese.
“Is this about her?” he called after Jayden. “About Mercy?”
“This has nothing to do with her,” Jayden said, stopping but not turning around.
“Are you sure? You’re not punishing me still?” Tyrese insisted, knowing he had struck a nerve. “I’m sorry, for what it’s worth. I loved her and she loved me.”
“I loved her too,” Jayden said quietly. He turned to face him, eyes narrowed. “You broke the rules. We were best mates, and you stole her from me, but I’ve forgiven that.”
“Isn’t that what this whole feud has been about? I betrayed you, and I’m sorry,” Tyrese went on, hoping to gain some ground, to appease him. “For what it’s worth, she left me. She hated me in the end, I could never commit to her, even after all we’d been through and –”
“Spare me the pity party,” Jayden snapped, anger flaring. “This has nothing to do with her. I want justice for Wright and everyone else your little shit of a brother has killed.”
Tyrese fell silent. He knew that whether this was about Mercy, the past, or not, it would serve no purpose to mention it again. Jayden had laid down his terms and there was nothing else to be done. He would accept nothing less.
“I’ll do what I can,” Tyrese relented, mind already racing.
“You’ll do more than that if you want to keep the Goldsworth for yourself,” Jayden said. He turned and left, the metal gate screeching again as he went.
Tyrese remained where he was, watching him go.
If he wanted a truce, then Troy would have to leave, and he knew that his youngest brother would not be reasonable about any of it. It was not what he had expected, was not how he had hoped their meeting would go, but he knew he had no choice now.
Lighting a cigarette, he left the playground, his mind replaying Jayden’s words.
* * *
The interior of the car was stuffy in the warm summer night, the smell of takeaway coffee and salt and vinegar chips filling the enclosed space.
Detective Serena Patterson rolled down the window to let in some fresh air, wondering again if she was wasting her time with this surveillance. She was not being paid for it, and she had not cleared it with her superiors. She had extended her trip to London, telling her superiors in Cornwall that she was needed on the Jasper Okoro case. It was a good pretense and they had kindly allowed her the additional time. It was true that she was needed on the case and during the days she had slogged it out in the office pouring over old files and cases, some decades old, that marked his era as a kingpin in London.
When she clocked out, she pursued her real reason for extending her stay in London, unbeknownst to her colleagues. She was determined to see Troy Banks face justice for the murder of Shaniqua Curtis. She had made a promise to Aurora and her mother that she would, and she could not let them down.
That was why as midnight came and went, Serena remained in her hire car and watched the Goldsworth Estate. She was not sure why she had come, did not know what she expected to see or find. Nothing, most likely.
She could see the block in which the Banks brothers resided with their mother. It was not the same block she herself had grown up in here, but all of them were similar enough. She did not allow herself to think of her youth, it was in the past.
It had been with disgust that she had heard the distant bass music start up and watched partygoers drift in and then slowly begin to drift back out a few hours later a little worse for wear. Troy Banks was throwing a party. It should not have surprised her after all she knew about him, but she still found it rankled. The boy had killed three people and escaped justice for all of them, and he still had the nerve to celebrate the fact, even as the families of the victims lived on the same estate, could probably even now here the music that marked his celebration.
Serena was tempted to call it in as a noise disturbance. Even if the police visited and were ignored, it would cause Troy some irritation. She resisted the urge. Nobody in the block would call it in and she did not want to run the risk of someone finding out she was carrying out the unauthorized surveillance.
She took another sip of coffee, stretching out in her seat, her legs going numb after so many hours in the same position. She would call it a night soon, she decided, not sure why she was determined to stay for just a short while longer.
Perhaps it made her feel useful, feel like she was doing something.
She would come back tomorrow, and the next night, and the night after that. She would keep going over the files and interviews in her spare time, anything that might help get the evidence she needed to put away Troy Banks.
Justice was coming for him and Serena would do whatever it took this time.
* * *
Tyrese heard the music and gritted his teeth as he climbed the stairwell. Two drunk girls batted eyelashes at him as they staggered downstairs, but he ignored them, his fists clenching as he approached home.
The party was clearly starting to wind down when he threw the front door open, but that did nothing to quell his mounting anger. He was trying his hardest to fix things with the Healy brothers and Trent and Troy had decided to throw a party. As if Troy had not caused enough trouble, now he was determined to draw more attention to himself and rub more people up the wrong way.
Tyrese saw Trent lounging on the sofa with Adrianna. Trent smiled lazily when he saw him, his eyes red from the joints he had smoked earlier.
“What the fuck is this?” Tyrese demanded.
“A party,” Trent replied, and Adrianna giggled in his arms. Tyrese wanted to hit them both. “Celebrating Troy getting out, in case you forgotten.”
Tyrese gritted his teeth.
“Where’s Troy?”
“Enjoying himself,” Trent grinned.
As if on cue, Troy staggered out of his bedroom, followed by a crowd of guys that Tyrese did not recognize. They looked like kids, with white powder on their nostrils. Troy held his gaze, as if daring him to challenge him. The meeting with Jayden played on his mind, and Tyrese wondered why he had defended his brother. Family loyalty, sure, but perhaps Jayden was right, Troy was a jumped-up little prick.
Perhaps he was better off out of the city, where he could cause trouble somewhere else, where he would be somebody else’s problem. Tempting, Tyrese thought.
“Party’s over,” Tyrese said firmly.
“Doesn’t look like it to me,” Troy said.
“You get out of prison and think you’re the big man now?”
“Lighten up, Ty,” Trent called from the sofa. “Chill out and have a joint, man.”
Troy sneered at Tyrese.
“Yeah, relax, Ty,” he said. Tyrese could not tell if he was being mocked.
Tyrese let out a long breath. Troy looked relieved, as if Tyrese had backed down. Tyrese went to the speakers and shut them off. The music cut out and people looked around, moaning until they saw that Tyrese was the one to shut it off.
“Party’s over,” he repeated. “Now get the fuck out, all of you.”
Even drunk, people did not need telling twice. The flat cleared quickly, until only Tyrese, Troy, Trent and Adrianna remained.
“You need telling twice?” Tyrese asked, glaring at the blonde.
“You want me to leave too?” she asked, looking from him to Trent.
If she had hoped Trent would defend her, she was sorely mistaken.
“Off you go,” Trent said, hoisting her off his lap. “Looks like Ty needs to get a few things off his chest.”
Adrianna looked pissed off as she left the flat, but Tyrese
didn’t care.
Troy had lit a cigarette, puffing lazily as he watched Tyrese return from locking the front door behind everyone.
“You’re supposed to be keeping a low profile since you only just got out,” Tyrese snapped, glaring at his youngest brother. Troy did not seem remorseful in the slightest, only giving a slight shrug. Tyrese looked at Trent. “Was this party your idea or his?”
“Who cares?” Trent sighed.
“It’s like dumb and dumber,” Tyrese groaned, turning his back on them.
He could not argue with them, could not bring himself to engage. There was no getting through to them. He went into his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He heard his brothers’ muffled voices from the lounge but did not to listen to know they must be complaining about him and the abrupt end to the party.
Jayden’s offer flashed in his mind. Tyrese knew that Troy was nothing but a liability wherever he went, and the more he thought of it, the more he wondered if perhaps Troy was better off away from them. He would not like it, but after his disrespect just now, the thought of bringing Troy down a peg or two was quite appealing to Tyrese.
As for Trent, he could hardly believe he had once viewed him as a partner, an equal. He was as stupid as Troy, and at least Troy had youth and inexperience as an excuse, however feeble that might be.
Tyrese stripped down and switched off the light. Climbing into bed, he thought over his options. He would not make any hasty decisions, but he knew which the more appealing one was right now.
* * *
Troy went into his bedroom, leaving Trent silently grinding his teeth on the sofa, and shut the door behind him. He kicked off his shoes and cut himself another line, feeling his earlier enjoyment fading fast after the sudden end to what had started to become a good party.
He did not know what Tyrese’s problem was but he sure as hell did not appreciate his actions. If he had hoped that tonight would prove that he was back and stronger than ever, then Tyrese had blown that out of the sky, humiliating him in front of everyone like that. At least his mates, his real mates, had not been there to witness it.
Lifting the straw to one nostril, he put a finger to the other and snorted the first line and then the second in rapid succession, tasting the powder as it hit the back of his throat on the way down into his system.
He lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling as he felt the drug coursing through him, its effect less pronounced after a whole night of use. He found himself smiling as he realised that his plans to get back at those who had wronged him had already begun.
Kojo had done four lines and was buzzing by the time Tyrese had ended the party, but that had been enough time for Troy to take the kid under his wing. As soon as he had raised the subject of Clint, he had sensed at once that there was already a divide between the two brothers, one that he had been quick to take advantage of. By the time Kojo had left with the others, Troy was in no doubt that his mind was swimming with new truths about how Clint had betrayed his closest friends and could not be trusted, that Troy could teach Kojo how the estate and the world worked far better than his brother could.
Smiling wider, Troy already felt the sweetness of revenge and he had only just got started. He could only imagine what it would feel like when he watched the worlds of those who had wronged him shatter into a thousand pieces, just like they had done to his.
CHAPTER TWO
Clint swung his legs out of the single bed that he had slept in as a child and now called his once more, and sat up, rubbing his eyes at the morning sunlight filling the bedroom. In the single bed across the room, the outline of his younger brother under his duvet was visible. He sighed with relief that his brother had at least made it home last night for a change.
He had slept restlessly after seeing Aurora, his dreams disturbed by the fear that she was in danger and the anxiety of being apart from her and their daughter. He had even considered getting dressed and going to guard the outside of her flat, but he had dismissed the idea. Aurora would lose her shit if she found him there, he thought.
Finally finding some sleep in the early hours of the morning, Clint knew that Kojo had not been back by then. Wherever he had been, he had been out until late. This new Kojo, the rebellious, streetwise youth, was a far cry from the sweet, innocent kid he had been when they had last shared this bedroom. Yet Clint knew that his brother was not streetwise, was still clueless about how the estate worked, and that was what worried him.
“Turn off the light,” Kojo grumbled from across the room, the duvet moving as he rolled over. Clint rolled his eyes.
“The light is off,” Clint told him. “It’s sunlight, you idiot.”
“Shut the curtains then,” Kojo moaned.
“They are shut,” Clint told him.
It was not his fault the threadbare curtains did nothing to keep the light out, and perhaps it served him right for being out until all hours, Clint thought.
“Maybe if you hadn’t been out all night you’d be waking up now like normal people instead of trying to get to sleep,” he chastised him.
“Fuck off,” Kojo said, his voice muffled from under his duvet. “Just because I have a life and get invited to parties.”
Clint wondered whose party it was that his brother had been to. He thought of Troy, but he knew that even his brother would not be so stupid as to show his face there. Still…
“Whose party did you go to?” he asked.
“Mind your own business,” came the reply.
“Someone I know?” Clint persisted.
Kojo mumbled a response that he could not make out.
Clint stood up and went over to his brother’s bed, snatching the duvet and dragging it off his brother. Kojo sat up at once, his eyes flashing with anger, hands clenching into fists as he snatched at it.
“Fuck off,” he shouted.
“Whose party?” Clint demanded.
“Like you don’t already know,” Kojo said, eyes meeting his. Clint noticed that his brother’s eyes were tinged with red, and he wondered if alcohol and weed were the only things Kojo got up to when he went out.
“Troy’s party?” Clint asked, shaking his head. “You’re an idiot. You know it’s not safe, right? He has it in for us. You can’t go near him, you hear me?”
Kojo sneered.
“Nah, Clint, he doesn’t have it in for us, he has it in for you,” he said. His shoulders were squared. “And after everything you did, I don’t blame him.”
Clint was shocked into silence. He could not find the words to contradict his brother. Troy had got his claws into Kojo, filled his head with whatever bullshit had come to mind, no doubt, and Kojo was so gullible and foolish that he had lapped it up.
“I don’t know what he’s told you,” Clint stammered, “But you’re not seeing him again.”
“Fuck off, you nasty-ass snitch,” Kojo snapped.
He snatched the duvet out of Clint’s grasp and covered himself in it, burrowing down in his bed, leaving Clint stood there dumbfounded.
Whatever innocence his brother still had, Troy was determined to obliterate it. Clint should have known Troy would resort to these tactics to get back at him.
He wondered if Troy hoped that this would force Clint to confront him. Clint stood there, weighing up whether he was ready yet to face his former best friend.
* * *
The stench of spilt drinks, stale cigarette smoke and the sweat of strangers filled the flat when Troy ventured out of his bedroom into the lounge. Trent was still sleeping on the sofa, in the same place he had left him earlier, and was snoring loudly, a can knocked over at his feet, its spilt contents now dried into the carpet.
Sounds came from the kitchen and Troy followed the smell of coffee, finding Tyrese sat at the kitchen table. His mother was pouring coffee, and she did not look around as Troy sat down. He wondered if this would be one of the days she coddled him or ignored him.
“How are you feeling today?” Tyrese asked, raising an e
yebrow. “Hungover?”
Troy shrugged. His mouth was dry, and his stomach churned with hunger, but he was not hungover. When he had been released, he had spent his first night of freedom doing tequila shots and fucking a university student he had met at a pub. The morning after he had thrown his guts up and been ill in bed all day, so unused to drinking after his time locked up, and he had been nursed back to health by her. They had done the same that evening, and the following morning he had not been so ill. Perhaps the days he had spent with her had built his resistance.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Troy said, shaking his head. He was still pissed off with his brother, and he wanted him to know it, keeping his shoulders squared, his posture defensive.
If Tyrese noticed, he did not rise to it. Their mum put two mugs of coffee down on the table and left the room without a word, clutching a black bin bag. Tyrese clasped his mug, deliberately avoiding looking at Troy.
He gritted his teeth, frustrated that Tyrese was not acknowledging what he had done.
The kitchen door opened, and Trent staggered in, looking rough. He rubbed his eyes and sat down heavily in one of the chairs, groaning at the effort.
“Fuck. Last night was heavy,” he said, taking the coffee that had been meant for Troy.
Troy opened his mouth to protest but stopped himself. Trent seemed to be the only one on his side right now, so he held his tongue, narrowing his eyes as Trent sipped the coffee.
“You pleased with yourself?” Trent asked, looking at Tyrese. “Causing that whole scene last night, and for what? A party?”
“If you don’t understand where I’m coming from, then that’s the problem,” Tyrese sighed, shaking his head with disappointment. “You need to grow up, Trent.”
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