Fifteen
Staring at the security camera, Alex watched as Jimmy got out of his Range Rover and steamed towards the office. Going by the thunderous look on his face, he was clearly still reeling from last night at the club.
Alex knew he’d gone too far, and he’d been waiting for Jimmy to show up so that he could apologise for his actions. Deliberately ruining Jimmy’s date last night had seemed such a good idea at the time, when he’d been off his face on gear and Scotch that is. Now though, in the cold light of day, when he was sober and faced with the wrath of Jimmy Byrne, Alex knew that he’d majorly fucked up. And going on the way the man was marching across the gravel driveway, visibly enraged, it was going to take a lot more than an apology to make this right with Jimmy.
Holding up his hands as if to call a truce as he burst through the office door, Alex started talking. ‘Before you say anything, Jimmy. I’m sorry, all right,’ he said, trying to be the bigger man and own up to his actions. ‘You were right. I had too much to drink, and too much gear. I shouldn’t have slagged off Tiffany the way I did but the girl was doing my brain in. You know how trappy she can be. I acted like a complete twat last night, Jimmy, and I apologise profusely.’
Jimmy had forgiven him for his unruly behaviour many times before, and Alex was certain the man would forgive him once more.
Only Jimmy wasn’t having it this time, it seemed.
‘A twat? Is that what you fucking call it?’ Enraged, Jimmy launched at him. Grabbing Alex firmly by his throat and wrenching him out of the chair, he pinned him up against the wall.
‘What else are you sorry for, Alex, huh? What else did you do last night?’ he spat, incensed that, as per usual, Alex thought he could just do and say as he pleased and that there would be no repercussions.
Alex saw red.
‘I only turned up at the restaurant in the first place as I thought you might appreciate some decent company. I thought I was doing you a favour. That I’d be helping to relieve the boredom of you having to endure sitting with some straight-laced fucking bore like Colleen,’ he said, annoyed that Jimmy had taken things so out of context. ‘How was I supposed to know that the plan’s all changed now that you’ve gone all soft on the girl? I thought we had a fucking plan, Jimmy. I thought the whole point in you getting involved with the girl and her mother was to get them out of the flat?’
‘And what? I wasn’t doing it quick enough for you, is that it? You couldn’t just let me do things my way, could you?’ Jimmy said; his face was so close to Alex’s that their foreheads almost touched. ‘So what? You thought you’d take things into your own hands and burn their flat down? Are you some sort of moron?’
‘What are you talking about, Jimmy?’ Alex shook his head. He’d never seen Jimmy so angry. Glaring at him with rage, Alex could see the vein on the side of Jimmy’s head throbbing as his adrenaline surged through his body. His anger consuming him. ‘I was off my fucking tree last night, Jimmy, and I behaved like a complete cunt. I admit that. But burning down their flat? Come on, Jimmy.’
‘Oh bullshit. You did nothing but snipe at Colleen all evening. You took an instant dislike to her on sight and after our conversation last night, I know you set out to deliberately muck everything up for me. You’re pathetic, Alex,’ Jimmy bellowed.
‘Seriously, Jimmy. I left the club straight after you did last night. I was home in my bed by half two. I was fucking wrecked, Jimmy. Wankered. The taxi driver had to help me to my front door. I could barely put one foot in front of the other let alone go and start a bleeding fire. I’ll get the cab firm’s number if you don’t believe me. You can check!’
Alex flinched. Off his face on way too much cocaine and enough drink to put most men in a coma, he had a vague memory of a phone call he’d made on the way to get the cab.
Jimmy let go. Seeing the solemn look on his friend’s face, he stepped back, as if he’d been physically winded.
‘You did it, didn’t you?’
‘Shit,’ Alex said, shaking his head as if trying to shake the memory from his mind. ‘I made a call, Jimmy. Fuck! I was so out of it, I wasn’t thinking straight.’
Speechless, Jimmy bit his lip.
‘Fuck!’ Alex thumped the side of his head with his fist. He’d majorly messed up, he knew that now and he had no choice but to confess. Jimmy would only find out otherwise.
‘I asked that kid that we paid to do the break-in to go round and stir things up a bit. I said I’d had a fucking nuff of pussyfooting around the old woman. I told him to make sure that this time she knew we weren’t messing about.’
Alex was pacing the office now. This was his fault. He’d had enough of Jimmy hovering around Colleen and her mother. So consumed in his drink and drug-fuelled rage, Alex had wanted the woman dealt with quickly. He’d wanted her out of the flat.
‘I wasn’t thinking, Jimmy,’ he said, running his fingers through his thick black hair as he remembered the phone call that he’d made to Stuart Matthews when he’d ordered him to go around to Edel Walsh’s flat the night before.
Jimmy didn’t speak. Slumping down in the chair, he was beyond pissed off with Alex.
‘They’re investigating the fire for arson,’ he said, glaring at Alex, unable to comprehend the length he’d gone to behind his back. ‘If anything comes back to us, I’m holding you personally responsible, do you understand?
‘Fuck me, Alex. What were you thinking? I told you that I would sort it. I said that I had it all in hand. What the fuck is your problem?’ Jimmy knew what the problem was though. Alex had made that blatantly clear last night.
Colleen.
‘They could have fucking died, Alex. They were both in there. Both in their beds. The firefighters had to carry them out. Unconscious they were. You and that moron Stuart Matthews could have been responsible for killing them both.’ Jimmy wasn’t even raising his voice now. Never in his life had he felt so angry, so irate. Yet the enormity of Alex’s actions, of his betrayal, only left him numb.
‘I feel like I don’t even know you these days, Alex.’
‘I’m sorry, Jimmy. I wasn’t thinking straight. Fuck, I wasn’t thinking at all. I didn’t think that the fire would rip through the place. I thought it would just cause a bit of damage downstairs. That it would shake Mrs Walsh up a bit. Make her want to reconsider moving out,’ Alex said, rubbing his neck from where Jimmy had grabbed him, knowing how pathetic he sounded right now. ‘We needed to get her out so that we could get moving with the development. She’s costing us money.’
‘It ain’t just about the money though, is it?’ Jimmy said, his eyes cold, devoid of emotion as he stared at Alex, as if he was looking straight through him. They both knew what this was really about, only Alex was too gutless to admit it.
Alex didn’t trust Jimmy’s judgement, so he’d taken it upon himself to sort the Walshes out. Only, his actions could have cost them everything in the process.
‘I can’t do this anymore, Alex. I can’t work with you when you’re like this. The drink. The drugs. It’s too much!’ Jimmy said, his voice quiet, almost eerily subdued.
‘I’m sorry, Jimmy. I’ll sort it, okay. Leave it with me,’ Alex said, realising that he’d pushed Jimmy too far this time. ‘I’ll pay Stuart off and get him to lay low for a while. I’ll make sure nothing comes back on us.’
Jimmy nodded. Alex would certainly do that much all right. That was a given. There was nothing else he could say on the matter. Alex’s stupidity, his rash decision had been made without his knowledge and the damage was done now. Colleen and Edel were out of the flat for good. The place was beyond repair. All Jimmy could do was try and salvage the situation as best he could. His head was spinning. Sitting in the chair, in silence, the thunderous expression on his face unwavering.
‘I’ll sort the girls out for the party tonight. You look like shit. Why don’t you go and get your head down and leave me to sort out the job tonight, yeah?’
Desperate to make up to Jimmy for his epic fuck
up, Alex knew he was going to have to work his bollocks off to get back into his good books.
‘What job?’ Jimmy said, his head still spinning from Alex’s revelation. Having been at the hospital most of the day, and hardly having any sleep last night, he’d lost track of what day of the week it was let alone what job they’d sorted for tonight.
‘Mr Donoghue. You know: our client with the penchant for getting a bit handy with the girls. Likes it a bit rough, shall we say. He’s asked for two girls tonight. I’ll do the drop and the pickup. At least that way, the girls will still be in one piece when he’s done if he knows that I’m personally couriering them about. The man’s a fucking lunatic.’
Jimmy nodded. The best thing for them both right now was for Jimmy to be as far away from Alex as possible. He couldn’t deal with anymore dramas. He was done in.
Let Alex sort out tonight’s shit.
Jimmy couldn’t stand Mr Donoghue. The man was a first grade bastard to the girls. With a fetish for inflicting a bit of pain on them, he’d pushed his luck with the last girl that Alex and Jimmy had sent around there for one of his special ‘parties’.
Jenny Rowe had come back covered in bite marks and cigarette burns, and traumatised from being tied up all night while Mr Donoghue and his friends had their fun with the girl. Raping and sodomising her with all kinds of objects. The only reason Jimmy and Alex hadn’t strung the man up by his bollocks when they’d later paid him a visit was because the man was worth a fucking fortune and had made an agreement with the two that he’d pay an absolute premium for girls in the future.
Thousands of pounds a night for Jimmy and Alex to send him a girl that doesn’t mind being roughed up. Alex had agreed to it without a second’s thought, though Jimmy hadn’t felt entirely happy with the arrangement. Still he’d gone along with it once the men had agreed on a couple of ground rules.
The girls could be tied up and roughed up, but Mr Donoghue and his friends were forbidden to leave any marks on them, and after Alex had stipulated that it would be he or Jimmy that would be collecting the girls personally at the end of the night, Mr Donoghue had been happy to make sure that he stuck to the agreement.
Getting to his feet, Jimmy needed to get the fuck out of there. Away from Alex before he said or did something he’d regret. He didn’t even want to be in the same room as the man.
‘From now on, Alex, what I say goes. You don’t question me and you don’t fucking go behind my back. And make no bones about it, Alex, if anything comes back on us about the fire, if there’s even so much as a whisper that somehow we were involved, me and you will be done for good. Do you get me?!’
Not waiting for a reply, Jimmy stormed out of the office.
Alex Costa had crossed the line and if he wasn’t careful Jimmy would bury the man himself.
Sixteen
‘I can’t believe that you found me this place, Jimmy. I never thought I’d say this after losing my home, but it’s perfect,’ Edel said as she stared out of the window, down onto the bustling Piccadilly Circus: hordes of tourists filled the square, along with shoppers and theatregoers, stopping to sit at the foot of the Eros statue on a bronze water fountain in the centre of all the commotion. Down the road Edel could see a stream of people pouring in and out of the tube station. Wandering beneath the twinkling illumination of all the Christmas lights, glittering above them.
‘I’m only a five minute walk from Dean Street so once the shop downstairs is all up and running, I’ll still be able to keep the small clientele that have been coming to me for years,’ she said optimistically. ‘And just look at all these people out here now. The area is packed.’
‘It’s prime location, Edel,’ Jimmy said. ‘Not only that, but at least now you’re away from that gang of kids that were hanging around the old place.’
‘I honestly can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for me,’ Edel said, her voice thick with emotion. Without Jimmy’s offer of help, God knows where she and Colleen would have ended up. Probably slumming it in some hostel somewhere. Edel would be eternally grateful for everything the man had done for them both.
‘Don’t be silly, Edel. Besides it’s like you said: it’s a business arrangement. You’ll see me right once your insurance pays out. In the meantime, I’m more than glad to help out.’
Edel beamed as she stepped aside as two of Jimmy’s men carried in a brand new sofa that Jimmy had insisted on buying her as a moving in present.
It had been almost a month since the fire and Edel had to admit that it felt good to be starting afresh. As lovely as it had been staying at Jimmy’s the past few weeks, she couldn’t wait to have her own space again, and as kind as it was of Jimmy to give up his spare room, she knew that he was probably looking forward to having his lovely apartment all to himself again after the month that she and Colleen had been there now, and Edel didn’t blame him.
‘The place is lovely, Edel. I’m sure you’re going to be very happy here,’ Jimmy said as he followed her into one of the bedrooms so that they could measure up for a bed.
‘This is going to be Colleen’s room. It’s big enough for a double bed, isn’t it? If we put it there under the window. It might be a bit of a squeeze, do you think? Maybe I should order a single bed? What do you think?’
Jimmy put the measuring tape down then.
‘I was going to talk to you about that. I think I can help.’
‘Not a chance, Jimmy, you’ve done enough. I’m perfectly able to buy the furniture on my catalogue. I’ve always kept up with the payments. A couple of beds won’t bankrupt me. I can probably even stretch to a wardrobe. I won’t even hear you suggest that you’ll pay for them.’
Jimmy laughed.
‘Jesus, Edel. You don’t make things easy, do you?’ he said, as he straightened his collar, the room feeling a little hot.
Edel looked puzzled, convinced that she’d missed something. Jimmy had a strange look on his face. Like he wanted to tell her something but he didn’t know how to say it.
‘What is it, Jimmy?’
‘I don’t want to buy Colleen bloody bedroom furniture.’ He grinned. Then slipping the small navy box out of his pocket, Jimmy opened it and showed the contents to Edel. ‘I want to buy her this. A ring. I want to marry her, Edel, and I’m asking your permission.’
Staring at the beautiful cluster of diamonds on the simple platinum band, Edel Walsh was left momentarily speechless. Only momentarily though, of course.
‘Oh dear God! Jimmy, it’s beautiful!’ Edel cried as she flung her arms around the tall strapping man, hugging him to her. ‘I couldn’t be happier for the pair of you. Of course you have my blessing, Jimmy,’ Edel said as happy tears cascaded down her cheeks.
In the few months that Jimmy had been in their lives so much had happened, but one thing Edel was sure of: Jimmy Byrne was the best thing that had ever happened to her Colleen.
She couldn’t wait for her daughter to become a Byrne.
Seventeen
‘Edel! What a unique choice of dress,’ Joanie Byrne said, her eyes roaming the questionable outfit. She was unable to hide the smirk from her face as she took in the sight of Edel Walsh dressed up to what could only be described as the proverbial dog’s dinner. Not only was the dress at least two sizes too small for the woman, but the cheap, shimmery material did nothing for her figure, in fact, from the back Edel’s arse resembled a bag of spanners.
As a woman, you either had class or you didn’t, and poor old Edel didn’t have a clue – accessorising her gaudy outfit with a psychedelic-looking floral clutch bag, black clumpy shoes that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a donkey and jewellery that resembled something Joanie could have pulled from a Christmas cracker. The woman looked like she’d run through a jumble sale and been hit by every rack on her way back out again. Which, knowing how much her son had spent on the woman and her daughter ever since they’d lost their home and business in the fire, Joanie knew certainly wasn’t true.
Jimmy ha
d spent an absolute fortune on the pair of them. Though class, it seemed, was something that couldn’t be bought.
Unlike Edel, Joanie didn’t even have to try when it came to making an effort with her appearance. She oozed sophistication, naturally, prided herself on it in fact. Blessed with a naturally slim, tall figure, she could have worn a bin bag and made it look good.
The plum-coloured jumpsuit that she wore today was designer, of course, a Vivian Westwood classic. Everything from the luxurious silk material to the statement padded shoulders screamed the very height of eighties chic. Accessorised with a pair of the very finest Italian pumps and a classic silver clutch bag, not only did Joanie look like a million dollars, but she’d almost spent that amount too.
Still it was her only child’s wedding, she had reasoned and her efforts had been worth every penny if she said so herself. The only consolation about Edel looking so awful was that at least Joanie would look even better in all the photographs.
‘Neon pink is so on-trend right now, but it’s such a hard colour to pull off I find. Very daring of you to give it a go, though!’ Joanie smirked. She needn’t have worried about the mother-of-the-bride outdoing the mother-of-the-groom after all. There was clearly no chance of that happening.
‘It’s coral actually!’ Edel corrected the woman, not biting to Joanie’s obvious dig.
‘Well, you look very, what’s the word I’m looking for? Vibrant.’
‘Cheers! You don’t scrub up too bad either. Though I have to say, if anyone’s “daring” it’s you, love. You’re the first person I’ve ever seen wear pyjamas to a wedding.’
Suppressing a snort as he tried not to laugh, Michael Byrne, who up until that point had been standing quietly minding his own business, couldn’t help but laugh at Edel’s little comeback.
The Betrayed: A shocking, gritty thriller that will hook you from the first page Page 12