by Martina Cole
Jade gave a sad, disgusted shake of her head before she said, ‘We bought her two years ago for an ounce of heroin. She was only supposed to stay a month. Her mother had been pimping her out since she was a toddler by the sounds of it. The heroin was too good for the silly bitch and she overdosed that night. We have had her ever since. You know Eric, he loves a fucking bargain, bastard that he is!’
She placed a hand on the girl’s hair, which was thick and abundant – and the only thing visible now she had been covered up with the blood-stained sheet.
‘She never had a fucking chance.’
Aiden really didn’t know what to say, so he kept silent. Jade walked from the room, and a few minutes later he followed her.
The girl’s body and every piece of furniture in the room was gone within the hour and, by the time Eric was made aware that anything had gone awry, the room had been scrubbed with bleach, repainted and refurnished. This was what he paid them for. And Eric paid them very well.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Jade was lying in Aiden’s arms. Neither of them was in the mood for sex and instead they held each other tightly. The day’s events had thrown them both.
Aiden was Eric’s blue-eyed boy, the clever lad, the problem-solver. That should have made him feel good, but this time it didn’t. He had erased from the world a child who had never known a day’s happiness. It was as if she had never existed. That bothered him for once, because it had hit home that, without him, the same thing could have happened to his brothers or sister. It was a small step for some kids: they ran from one situation only to find that they were in another one, far scarier than that they had left behind.
‘You all right, Jade?’
He felt her move away from him and, as she lit them both cigarettes, he watched her in the lamplight. She was looking older today, and even though he knew she was still a beautiful woman – especially to him – she was nearer forty than thirty and that was something she was very aware of. He noticed the lines around her eyes and her mouth but they didn’t bother him one bit. He loved her − not just her body or the sex they had, but her. His Jade.
He took the cigarette from her and pulled on it deeply.
‘I don’t know, Aiden. Poor little mare.’ She smiled slightly as she said, in a jokey voice, ‘Must be going soft in my old age!’
He laughed with her and, sitting up in the bed, he kissed her shoulder gently. ‘Cost that piece of scum a hundred grand to keep it quiet. Imagine the papers if this came out? Let alone the fucking judicial system, eh?’
Jade snorted angrily and stabbed her cigarette out. Then, immediately lighting another, she said bitterly, ‘He would see the advantage though, wouldn’t he? Always about fucking money for Eric.’
There was a bitterness in her voice that Aiden had never heard before. Where was the hard bitch he had first met? Was she actually going soft like she said? He wondered at her showing such emotion; it just wasn’t like her. He pulled her into his arms and was disconcerted when he realised she was crying. He had never seen her cry.
‘Hey, come on, Jade. You know there was nothing anyone could have done . . .’
But she cried harder. He was nonplussed at what to do; this was something he would never have expected in a million years. He kissed her gently and tried to pull her face up to his, but she just buried her head in his chest.
Jade Dixon had fallen for this young man. Against her better judgement there was something about him that attracted her. For the first time in her life she actually enjoyed sex with a man and, even though she didn’t feel this way every time they coupled, it was often enough to make her see that he meant a lot more to her than she would have ever thought possible. They worked well together, even with the age gap, and she believed that he genuinely cared for her. He made her feel wonderful when he was with her and he respected her for the right reasons. Now, though, she had fucked it up and she had to tell him.
She pushed him away from her, and saw the concern in his eyes as he looked into her ravaged face. But this was not the time to be thinking of how old she looked – even she knew that.
‘What the fuck is wrong, Jade?’
She looked at this lad, because that was what he was for all his size and his intelligence, and she said heavily, ‘I’m fucking pregnant.’
She saw the mixture of emotions that crossed his face and was surprised to find the first one was happiness. Surely he couldn’t expect her to have a child? Have his child at her age?
Aiden smiled widely. ‘Really? You are having a baby? My baby?’
She nodded and, even though she had cried off her expertly applied make-up and she looked every day of her thirty-six years, Aiden knew he had never loved her more.
‘This is the best news ever, Jade. I know it wasn’t planned but what a baby we will make, eh?’
She couldn’t answer him, because she quite honestly didn’t know what to say. He was holding her tightly to him, and talking nineteen to the dozen, and suddenly she wondered if this might be a good thing. She knew that this was probably her last chance of motherhood even though she had never wanted a child before in her life, and wasn’t that sure she wanted one now. But now she knew that if she did have this child, Aiden would be there for it and for her. He was already a father to his younger siblings and he took family seriously − really seriously, because anyone who could put up with Reeva had to be family-minded. Whereas she had no familial loyalty because she had no family to speak of. None that she wanted in her life anyway. But this child she was carrying would be her family, wouldn’t it?
‘But I will be so old when it’s born, Aiden . . .’
He laughed at her and said jovially, ‘Stop it, you dozy bitch. You’re beautiful and you’re clever and you are mine. This baby will be like a fucking superchild: with your looks, my brains and our nous, it will rule the fucking world!’
Despite her reservations she was picking up on his excitement and, when he kissed her long and hard on her lips, she responded.
‘This is a gift from God, Jade. A child is a blessing, you know? And after that poor girl today think of how lucky our child will be. Boy or girl, I don’t care. It will be a part of us, won’t it? You and me can live on together in this baby!’
Then he started to really laugh and Jade laughed with him. It was such abandoned laughter, and it felt good to be laughing. But Aiden’s laughter was much longer and harder than hers.
‘Come on, Aiden! Tell me what we are laughing at?’
He was wiping his eyes with glee as he said loudly, ‘Reeva, me mother. She will be a granny! I bet that won’t go down too fucking well!’
He was laughing once more. But Jade wasn’t joining in now. She didn’t find that funny at all.
Chapter Thirty-Four
‘Look at him! He’s fucking terrified, Aiden.’
Aiden laughed at the awe in his brother’s voice. ‘So he fucking should be. Wanker.’
Patsy O’Hara loved working like this with his brother; he had had a lot of making up to do and had learned a lot in the past two years. They were in a small lock-up in Basildon − a row of abandoned garages that Aiden, in his wisdom, had purchased for the company recently. It was the perfect place for jobs like this. They were quiet and the people who lived nearby had no intention of getting involved with anything. Why would they? This was an area where anyone with half a brain kept their noses out of other people’s business.
Patsy poured out a generous measure of Scotch and passed the glass to his brother who sipped it nonchalantly as he studied his prey. Larry Brookmeyer was a big man in every way: wide of girth and loud of voice. It was said mouth that had landed him in his latest bout of trouble. That, and the fact he had had his hands in Aiden’s pockets. Never a good idea at any time, but less so when he had informed his esteemed colleagues that he wasn’t scared of ‘that little runt’.
Aiden was fuming, with what Larry had said about Jade. Jade, who was near her time, was feeling very vulnerable what with h
er age and everything else. Larry had said he had always wondered what it was like to fuck a pensioner. That was a very unfortunate turn of phrase to use. Some people really should not go near drugs of any kind, especially cocaine. It was cocaine that had signed Larry Brookmeyer’s death warrant.
Aiden could almost have overlooked the insult if it had been Larry’s only crime. If only he’d kept his mouth shut about Gloria – Aiden’s latest bit on the side. Young and lovely Gloria, with her pert breasts and her long legs. And a snatch that could grab you like a vice! Gloria who, thanks to this idiot, had come to the attention of Jade. Not that Jade had mentioned her, of course − she had too much fucking class. But Aiden was sure she knew − there was nothing that went on in the Smoke that Jade didn’t know about. Oh, the once delectable Gloria was next on his list of things to take care of! Mouthy fucking mare didn’t know when to keep her trap shut either.
He sighed in annoyance. Yes, he had fucked Gloria, but that hardly counted as an engagement. And he had expressly told her to keep it on the down-low. Instead, the stupid whore had broadcast it to the nation and for that she would pay and pay big time. He was going to ensure that she never fucked with anyone again − she would always remember that she had fucked him − in more ways than one.
But first things first – Larry was about to be taught a lesson. Aiden rubbed his hands together with relish as if he was the presenter of a Saturday-night programme, delivering the prize to be won to the audience.
‘Now, Larry. I want to revisit a few of the things you have said recently. Namely the “fucking a pensioner” barb. Were you on the fucking Bostik, you dozy shit?’ He sighed theatrically. ‘That was bad enough! But also mouthing on about me and a certain little bird who shall remain nameless, and who should have stayed fucking nameless, especially to my better half, the lovely Jade.’
Larry was in serious trouble, but he was sensible enough to realise that he had to take any punishment coming to him. Aiden possessed a very low threshold for aggravation; he was not a man to cross.
‘Look, Aiden. I can’t apologise enough, mate. It was the drink and the drugs. I’ve promised my wife I would sort myself out, and this lot now has been the wake-up call I needed . . .’
He was stuttering in fright and Patsy found that amusing. ‘Oh, you will be waking up, all right. Only not in the way you think, mate. You will be waking up in intensive care, methinks. That’s if you ever fucking wake up, of course.’
‘Give me the petrol, bruv.’
Larry’s eyes were like flying saucers as he saw Patsy O’Hara pick up the petrol can and hand it to his brother. The lid was already off and the fumes were suddenly overpowering him. As Aiden poured the liquid all over Larry’s head he started screaming in fear. Aiden belted him across the face with the empty can, and knocked him senseless. He had no empathy for him. He wanted the fucker gone, once and for all.
Finishing his drink, he calmly lit a match and tossed it on to the sodden man. The flames engulfed him in seconds, and the screams were loud, like an animal.
The chair he was tied to was metal and, as it heated up, it added to the man’s pain and terror. The garage door was open and Aiden and Patsy stood together, smoking cigarettes, and watched.
Patsy nudged his brother gently and pointed at the fire extinguisher. But Aiden pointedly ignored him, shrugging him off aggressively.
When the man’s eyes melted, Patsy brought up his lunch and Aiden was laughing so hard as his brother spewed his guts up that a group of young lads riding by stopped to watch the spectacle. When they saw the burning effigy in the garage, however, they quickly went on their way.
Rubbing his brother’s back gently, Aiden finally said, ‘Come on, mate. Let’s go and get you a nice cold drink of water, shall we?’
Aiden was smiling as he picked up the fire extinguisher and put the man out. He then locked up the garage and, turning to his brother, he said jovially, ‘I need a pint. Thirsty work, burning rubbish.’
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jade was nearly on her time. Apart from a small, neat bump, she looked no different from usual. She had watched what she ate, had stopped smoking, except for two in the evenings, and rarely touched alcohol. Aiden had been insistent, saying he had read an article in Woman’s Realm about pregnancy and now thought he was a fucking expert on it. Why and where he had read the magazine, he couldn’t recall. But it seemed he had remembered every word of the article.
Jade was tired, and she would be glad when this baby was out of her and breathing for itself. She did not like this housing of another human being, and wondered at women like Reeva who were prepared to do it over and over.
She had found out about Aiden’s paramour – a stripper who was half her age and who could talk the hind leg off a table by all accounts. A complete airhead of a girl − that was the worst thing. Larry might have opened his big trap but Jade had known about Gloria almost from the off. Gloria had bragged about her conquest to all and sundry.
She squeezed her eyes shut in distress. She had still not said a dicky bird to Aiden, and that was how she was going to play it. She would keep her dignity, but having this child inside her only seemed to add to her humiliation. In a strange way she understood his logic: he still wanted her but he seemed frightened that if they had sex it would somehow harm the child. When they did have sex, he was gentle and almost courteous − not their usual way of fucking each other’s brains out. She knew that he saw her now as a mother, and that was what had changed him.
But she didn’t want to be a mother if it meant he didn’t want her as he always had. Her whole life had been coloured by the sex act, and now she had found a man who could actually make her feel something she was not about to let him go. She felt the sting of tears. Aiden was already crazy about this baby, but what did that count for if he changed towards her? He was too young for her, and she was too old for him, but finally she felt something akin to love and she was loath to lose that.
The baby kicked and she put her hands on her tiny belly and, for a few seconds, she wished the child dead. She couldn’t let anything or anyone come between her and Aiden. She just knew it would destroy her.
Since they had found out about the baby and moved in together, Jade’s feelings had only intensified. She loved being with Aiden every day. Jade Dixon was in love for the first time in her life and that fact frightened her. She saw love as a weakness, and weakness of any kind was anathema to her. She was also experiencing jealousy for the first time in her life and she hated herself for it. She had always prided herself on her even mindedness where men were concerned − she had used them and that was that. She had never had a female friend of any kind, just acquaintances and, again, that had suited her fine. So why did she now crave another woman to talk to about what was happening to her? She could only blame this child, and the hormones, or whatever it was that made her feel suddenly so alone and so vulnerable. Either way, she didn’t like this way of living and she knew that she had to get a grip on herself and her emotions before they spilled over and she said things she would regret for the rest of her days.
But one thing she knew for sure: she would never let Aiden know just how much he had hurt her. She had always seen emotions as a weakness, and now she knew she had been right all those years. They left you exposed, they left you in a state of flux, unable to control your thoughts. She didn’t like it one bit.
She wasn’t cut out for this childbearing malarkey, that much was obvious. She forced herself to concentrate on the ledger in front of her; the books were not going to balance themselves.
But all she could see in her mind’s eye was Gloria, with her girlish breasts and her wide, open smile. All she could see was Gloria’s youth and, with the baby inside her and the dragging feeling she’d had in her back all day, she felt tired and old. She blinked back the sting of tears. If someone witnessed her crying she would lose her hard-won credibility overnight.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Gloria was admiring herself
in her bedroom mirror. She was a good-looking girl and she knew that she had to make the most of it while she could. Her mother had been a looker too, but she had saddled herself with three kids by the time she was twenty-two and she didn’t want Gloria to waste her opportunities. It was a refrain that Gloria had heard over and over again; she listened to her mother carefully and acknowledged the wisdom of her advice. There was no way she was going to live like her mum, on social security, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and putting up with men who were beneath her to try and get a few extra quid into the house so she could live a little better.
She had decided before her fourteenth birthday that she wanted a lot more than her mother, and she would go all out to get it. Not being an academic, she had known her only chance lay in marrying money. ‘Lay’ being the operative word!
Now she had hooked the big prize in Aiden O’Hara and she was determined to have him on a permanent basis. She had it all planned: she already had him in bed − eventually she would produce a child and her life would be settled. He would look after her, she was depending on that. Aiden would have to look after her, if she was producing his next heir. If she was going to all the trouble of having a baby, it would be one with a father who could enhance her life − not fucking stunt it like it had her mum’s.
The plus side was, of course, that he was very good-looking, and that made her job just that little bit easier. And the change in people’s attitudes when they found out that he was her boyfriend was amazing. The respect was evident − heady stuff to a girl who had grown up with nothing of value, not even a good family name. Gloria craved recognition and, through her relationship with Aiden, she felt she was finally getting it. She daydreamed of them together, maybe even married, in a beautiful home where they had all the latest appliances, and where they lived in harmony and nothing was denied her.