by Beth Wynne
For some reason, I didn’t like lying to Bella about it; hiding the one thing I am most proud to be a part of. But the Kindred Sons don’t discuss internal affairs with anyone outside the Family. The MMA thing was a real thing anyway and was on the gym’s website so at least if she cared enough to look, she’d buy it.
I went back to the business I needed to do, and by 4:30 I was finished up, so waited in the coffee shop around the corner from Sawyer’s until Louise arrived.
“Thanks for agreeing to meet here, Jake.” Her eyes darted around the room, “With Bella spotting you that day, and Denver being a dick, I thought it was better to keep more of a low profile.”
“I see your point.” I said neutrally.
“Denver wouldn’t lower himself to come in here and Bella doesn’t go home this way - this’ll make you laugh…” she looked at me uncertainly, “Bella thinks you’re my secret boyfriend.”
I almost spat my coffee in her face, swallowing it instead. “Fuck off,” I said, shocked. “But you’re my cousin - what kind of sickos does she think we are?”
“Duh, she doesn’t know that… idiot.” She shook her head. “Where’s your head anyway - you know that no one in there knows we’re connected.”
Shite. Of course, that’s where my head should have gone first.
“Does it help us with her if she continues to think that?” I asked, praying that the answer might give me some idea of whether that was why she didn’t like me.
“Why don’t I ask Aunt Jennifer if she’s happy for me to pretend to be your girlfriend?” she said sarcastically. “Pull your head out of your ass, Jake. I’m undercover here; linking me publicly with you will not help - remember why I’m here?”
I nodded, scratching at my stubble. If anyone else spoke to me like that, they’d be in a choke hold now but Louise was basically a little sister to me. Mum and I would stay at Louise’s mum’s every summer. Blood and Loyalty. Always Blood and Loyalty.
“You don’t fool me, you arse.” She said, eyeing me sceptically. “I remember the way you were the last time you fell for a woman.” She tapped my head, “Think with this for a while.”
We sat in silence for a moment as she drank her coffee. I could deny that I had feelings for Bella, and I would deny it to any other person. With Louise, I just wouldn’t broach the subject at all.
She leaned in closer, an action I instantly mirrored, knowing she had something important to say. “I’m certain that he’s targeting her.” Her hushed tones turned serious, “I’m reckoning she has another couple of weeks before she disappears too - if we don’t keep an eye out… like, a proper eye out for her.”
“Like Cassie?” I asked, as quietly as I could, forcing my voice to say her name. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself together. This would not happen again. She reached her hand over to mine, giving it a quick squeeze before taking it away again.
“Let me protect her, I’ve already made friends with her - I think she’ll trust me.”
I looked at Louise, her small frame belied the assassin she was trained to be. She looked like a gym-bunny rather than the mafia trained undercover agent she really was. The fierceness in her eyes now was the only thing that gave her away.
I stood, needing to break the eye contact, “Do what you need to do, Louise. I want daily updates and immediate texts about anything you think is important. If Denver so much as blinks the wrong way anywhere near her, you have my go-ahead to take whatever means necessary.”
Her eyes widened in shock as she looked up at me. I cut her off before she was able to speak. “Yes, that’s an order. You follow your orders, if anything happens, I’ll deal with the fallout.”
I tapped her on the shoulder, I needed to get out of this coffee house, it was suddenly too small. “Take any protective action… keep safe, Lu-bell.”
I wandered the neighbourhood for a while before going back to my car. Only to find myself at the riverside where Cassie’s body was found. Her family had placed a little plaque up in her memory. It had been three years since her death and by the looks of it, they still brought fresh flowers.
Cassie, the woman I thought I could love. Except, a few hours before she disappeared I found out she didn’t really feel the same. I couldn’t prove what had happened after that, but I’m certain Denver and his bitch had been involved.
Our relationship was no secret, the Kindred Sons and even the McCauley’s knew we were together. But she felt pressure being the Under Boss’s girl, and I guess she’d expected more diamonds, yachts and long-haul holidays. I found out she’d been playing me to get to the money, but before I was able to confront her and break it off, she disappeared. Initially, I didn’t try to contact her, thinking she’d beat me to making the break. But when she didn’t come back for her personal things - even her purse - I knew something was wrong.
Denver swore that his prostitution business was not involved in any way, but frankly, the girl was not smart enough to be able to disappear without a trace; especially without her phone, cards or any money from her bank accounts. She turned up six months later, face down in the river. The Post Mortem confirmed she was ten weeks pregnant at the time. From the estimated time of death compared with when she left, the baby could never have been mine. I’d found my peace with that.
Toxicology reports also said she must have overdosed and fallen in. I didn’t buy the “accidental overdose” for a second, she never took drugs in the eight months we were together and never would have if she was pregnant. The Kindred Sons would have reported finding her and never given her drugs, so the only other place she could have got them was from Denver’s scumbag dealers. She was anti-drugs, so taking them of her own free will was questionable.
With no proof, I was forbidden to reap any revenge for her death. Cassie was not the woman for me, but she didn’t deserve how things had ended for her. The agreement between the Kindred Sons and the McCauley’s can go to fuck if there is any possibility that Bella could get harmed too.
Chapter 12
Bella
Louise arrived to work at the same time as I did, exactly ten minutes early. We hadn’t chatted much lately so agreed we’d go out for lunch today. Burritos… my guilty pleasure.
I must have thought about the Chester file all night, and no matter how I reasoned, I knew giving the file to Denver was wrong but I was doing it for all the right reasons. Ryan’s parole hearing was in a few weeks. I needed to do whatever it took to make sure that I could be the big sister he needed when he got released. I prayed to God that he would get parole; it would kill him if he was refused again.
The burrito sat heavy on my stomach all afternoon, until four thirty when I decided to just get on with it. Carrying the Windsor file and a second empty file deliberately, I went into Mildred’s office. My heart thumped in my chest and I swore I could actually hear it in my ears. I was convinced that each person who walked by was going to come in and catch me, so I locked the door. Even the pictures of Mildred’s kids around her desk were watching me with suspicion.
Getting the Chester file was simple; it was under C… duh. I grabbed the empty file I’d brought and stuffed the Chester file’s contents inside. Quickly, I did the only thing left to do: lock the cabinets and leave, pretending that none of this ever happened and that I wasn’t breaking the law or giving in to a blackmailer. Back at my desk, I stuffed the file into the extra-large handbag I’d brought today. If anyone was to ask, I’d simply say I was going to catch up on some training paperwork tonight for my probation interview next week.
By home time I was keen to get out with my forbidden cargo. My heart sank as Louise was waiting around on the ground floor. I don’t want to lie to her.
“Have you seen the rain?!” she said, as I looked out the full-length windows to what looked like a typhoon. “C’mon, I’ll give you a lift home… I can’t have you getting pneumonia on my conscience.” With heavy feet, I followed her to the staff parking area and jumped in after the indicators flashed. I n
ursed my handbag, wrapping my arms around it to hide my decision. I just hoped it wasn’t something I’d live to regret.
We chatted lightly as she slowly made her way through the rush hour traffic. When we finally arrived near my apartment block, I thanked her for what must have been the twentieth time and went to rush out of the car. In my haste to find my keys, the bag flew open and the folder came into view. “Jesus, you doing homework now? I didn’t think Mildred was that bad?” Louise joked.
My face fell, “Um, well, no. I’ve got my probation meeting next week, so I wanna be ready.” I lied… badly.
Louise reached for the file before I had a chance to grab it. “Well, I can help with that! Why didn’t you just say?!”
“Wait!” I pleaded. Her smile dropped as soon as she opened the file.
“Are you fucking serious? What the hell are you doing, Bella!” she snarled at me, rage radiating out of every pore. She shook her head and watched out of the window, unable to look in my direction. “Two fucking years undercover, two years of fucking mundane working and watching for you to come in for a few weeks and put the whole thing in jeopardy!”
Angry tears spilled from her eyes as she turned back at me. “Have you any fucking idea what you could have done - how many lives depend on the contents of this… I mean, did you even look in it?”
Two years? Doing… what? Working and watching? The woman beside me was not the girl I’d made friends with on my first day at work. I could barely speak, so it came out as a whisper. “Who are you?”
Chapter 13
Bella
I gathered my things and got out of the car, fuck the folder - Louise can keep it now. I made a dash in the rain to get inside and was joined by Louise as I slid my key into my front door. “We need to talk.”
I opened my door and she pushed past me. “What the hell are you doing?” my gut warning me that something bad was going to happen.
“I thought we were friends,” she started. “I can’t believe you were going to give this to Denver and say nothing to me. I thought you trusted me?”
A fine sentiment for someone who just said something about two years’ work. “Undercover? Fine way to trust me? I mean, what the fuck, Louise?”
She was already on the phone. “Yeah, I need you to come over… Bella’s house… yeah, I texted it to you… No, he’s not here… They’re not outside either… I’m fine… see you in five.”
“Sit down.” Even though I was in my own flat, I obeyed the command, for that’s what it was. I watched in stunned silence as she filled my kettle, put it on to boil, and gathered three mugs.
A loud knock came to my door before the tea was even made. Louise went to my door and answered it. I heard low murmurs in the hallway before a man’s voice. “Chester?!” oh no. I recognised that voice.
I stood up as I met him. “Jesus, Louise, why did you bring Jake here?” I looked from one to the other: angry, confused and feeling outnumbered in my own home. The baseball bat I kept for protection was hidden under my bed, and they were blocking my way to it.
“Sit down.” Louise said, frostily. “Here.” she handed me a steaming mug.
“What have you told her?” Jake spoke directly to Louise, the authority in his voice made me shake.
Louise paced, jaw clenching. “Nothing. I’ve not said anything, but she needs to know. That file would have sent over thirty families to their deaths.”
“What?!” I said incredulously. That’s not what it was about… Denver was blackmailing a few pervy businessmen who kept secrets from their wives.
Jake raked his hands over his still-sore looking face. “Fuck it, you’re right. She needs to know.”
He turned to look at me, eyes piercing me so intensely I thought he could see into my soul and read all the secrets I ever held. “Have you heard of the Kindred Sons?”
“Aye, your family’s involved… you’re an Armstrong.” Shit. “I mean, that’s what I’ve heard.” I can’t let him know I came from around here as a kid.
“Well, you’ve done your homework.” Louise quipped. “Any idea who the McCauley’s are?”
“Heard they’re a rival gang.” I was going to stick to minimal talking, surely that would be my safest strategy right now.
“No shit, well Denver happens to be one of them, and the file you were about to give has the list of all the families that get support money from the Kindred Sons for their fallen.”
My mouth must have gaped open because I remember closing it and swallowing. The implications of what I was going to do hit me like a steam train.
Jake continued, “That file keeps a record of who and when all support payments are made to. With those details, the McCauley’s would have paid a little visit to every single family and…” he didn’t need to make the gun shape with his hands… I already knew where he was going.
Louise finally sat down. “How’d you get involved in all this?” She’d told me she grew up nowhere near here, and I’d believed her.
Jake answered for her. “Her father was a Kindred Son, he fell many years ago. We protect our own.”
“I’m sorry.” I knew what it was like to grow up without a father. My eyes flashed back to her with shame. “Oh my god, I didn’t realise you were related - after me teasing you about him being your boyfriend!” Embarrassment flamed up my cheeks.
She was calming down but hadn’t forgiven me. “My mum’s on that list, you know. You would have been handing Denver the bullet to shoot her.”
Jake was quick to defuse Louise. “Look, she didn’t know what was in the file… but this puts us at an advantage.” We both looked at him in confusion.
“He’s expecting you to deliver a file.” He looked at me and then around the room, eyes searching for the next part of his idea. “I can put together a nice little list for him… you’ll give that to him.”
“Thank fuck ye were there Louise,” he said, his tone softening, “Uncle Steven would be proud of ye.” The affection between them was clear now; I saw it for what it was… a family connection. The look he gave her took me back to watching my Grandma look at Ryan and me.
Was it wrong for me to feel so relieved?
Chapter 14
Bella
Louise wrapped her hands around her mug as if the heat brought her comfort. “Most of the Kindred Son’s business accounts are handled through Sawyer’s. I do a fair bit of them - including working on the Chester file.” She breathed deeply. “Denver doesn’t realise my connection. He thinks he’s been blackmailing me for about a year and a half now, but the info I’ve been feeding him is all false - leading them on goose chases and letting the McCauley’s think we’re not as… comfortable… as we really are.”
“He didn’t…” I felt the pit of my stomach lurch. I was taller, heavier, and probably stronger than her. If she had been in the kitchen rather than me, I doubted she’d have been strong enough to get away.
“No, no.” She said reassuringly. “He did try to sweet talk me at the start, but I already knew enough about him to keep under that particular radar.
That was something, at least.
“Mum was pregnant with me when dad was shot.” She said, her expression blank as if recounting facts that had not torn her world apart. “He died about six weeks before I was born, so he saw my ultrasound pictures, and I seen photos of him, but that’s what we were to each other - photos.” She pulled up some images on her phone: the first of a smiling couple, the woman looking particularly like her; the second, of the man with another man; then a picture of two young children. “That’s mum and dad, see, she’s about 6 months pregnant with me there. This next one is our dads - Jake’s and mine - they were brothers; that last one is Jake and me… you were ten there, I would have been, what? Six?”
“Aye, that was Manchester, Mum always took me over there for the summer.” Jake confirmed.
“Without the Kindred Sons and the protection, my mum would have been penny-less and more than likely killed. They protected h
er when we were most vulnerable, I’ve committed to do whatever I can to keep bastards like the McCauley’s from getting anywhere near ours. Blood and Loyalty.”
“Blood and Loyalty.” Jake automatically echoed.
A grim smile crossed her face. “The bastard that killed my father is dead, but his son is very much alive. I can only hope to be there when that changes.”