The Downfall Series Box Set

by Edie Baylis

  She’d had do something about their grim situation because Digger had been rendered incapable for some time after Seth and Phil had caught up with him.

  At least they’d been left alone since on the proviso their paths never crossed again. This was all very well, but banishing them had only fuelled the burning need to pick themselves back up with the sole incentive of hitting Seth and Jane where it hurt. And that time was now.

  Thankfully after some time of working on her back Eliza had landed a client who had been so enamoured with her she’d fleeced enough cash from the stupid twat for some premises so she could be in charge again.

  For sure Digger hadn’t much liked her idea of concentrating on younger girls, but she’d needed to find a niche. She didn’t have to particularly like it. That wasn’t the point. There was a gaping market for it and she wanted the money that opening would bring. Business ideas weren’t there to be liked – they were there to be worked and pull in the fucking cash.

  Eliza smiled smugly. Digger wasn’t complaining now was he? The services they offered had ensured a very healthy bank balance and they’d got a lovely house nowhere near this dump of a brothel.

  Besides they couldn’t have remained living under Elipse’s roof. Not if they wanted to succeed with their ultimate payback on Seth and Jane and both she and Digger wanted that more than anything. It was all now beginning to come together very nicely and she would not be stopping until she got exactly what she wanted.

  On top of all that they also had a guy living on site and keeping tabs on things. Providing Steve Lomond had free reign over the girls then he was happy. Eliza had very little time for the man, but being as they could utilise him to aid them in various facets of their plans then it was worth putting up with his pig-ugly face and obnoxious perversions for that alone.

  She’d had to really. They’d had very few people that they could trust or who were reliable as well as having half a brain. The one guy they had who fitted that bill could only do some of the things required. Aiden had been sent into the Limelight only this week to ask a few questions which she hoped would ruffle a few feathers and cause suspicion, but he’d had to abandon the job being as his brother worked there and a lot of the staff knew him. Her next port of call was to send Lomond because no one knew him.

  “Fancy a break from work?” Eliza purred in Digger’s remaining ear. She swivelled her body around in front of him so her deep cleavage was level with his eyes.

  “Come here then,” Digger growled, pressing his mouth down onto her breasts.

  Eliza smiled and straddled him on the chair, feeling his hardness growing as she wriggled on his lap. It was a bit of a pain he had all those fingers missing, but at least the ones on his left hand were still there, she thought smiling as his hand made its way into her knickers.

  Yes, everything was going to plan nicely.

  THREE

  “THANK YOU FOR SEEING ME Mrs Wright,” Anna said nervously, taking the proffered seat in the beautifully furnished sitting room on arriving at the huge house.

  “Call me Jane,” Jane said cheerily, taking the paperwork and sitting down on the other sofa. “I’ll just have a look though these.”

  Anna studied the woman opposite her. Her eyes ran over Jane’s slim but shapely figure encased perfectly in an elegant fitted cream dress. She was indeed beautiful - much more in real life than in the papers. She scrutinised Jane’s heart-shaped face and full red lips in a perfect cupid’s bow, her dark eyes framed with impossibly long lashes and the raven black waves of hair cascading down to her waist. The woman oozed class without a trace of ostentatiousness.

  Anna’s gaze continued around the room with its collection of eclectic furniture and shelves of books. A thick luxurious rug sat in the centre of the room atop the polished oak floorboards and a large chandelier was suspended from a heavy chain from the high ceiling. This room alone was bigger than the entire ground floor of her mother’s house and she wondered silently whether she would get the chance to see any of the other rooms, betting they were all just as stunning. She hoped so and swallowed nervously. She’d love this job and could very much handle living here.

  Mandy had told her Jane and Seth were really nice people and not to take too much heed of the stories she’d read about them. Anna would have been lying if she’d said she hadn’t heard they were involved in all manner of gangland type activities and were as dangerous as hell, but on the flip side if they were that bad, surely they wouldn’t be living somewhere like this or involved with influential people of the city, or featuring in the society and business pages of the paper half the time would they?

  There had been a small part of Anna which had been half-expecting to walk into a room full of thugs clutching machine guns, wearing spats and trilbies like the people in that film Bugsy Malone she’d seen as a kid, but of course there was nothing like that at all and in the five minutes she’d been with Jane she’d seemed nothing apart from pleasant.

  Ok, so they ran a Gentlemen’s club, which apparently was a posh term for a strip club, but that was hardly a brothel was it!

  Anna absentmindedly speculated what the husband was like. Maybe he was the psycho and Jane was the sweet naïve unsuspecting wife – again like in the films?

  “So,” Jane said suddenly, shaking Anna from her thoughts. “Your references are good and I have to say Mandy highly recommended you. You’re young though. Twenty-three?”

  “Yes, I’m twenty-three Mrs Wright, but I’ve worked consistently since I qualified. I’ve been both live-in and day nanny for several families – all for fairly long periods of time.”

  “Call me Jane,” Jane repeated. “Can’t stand the formal stuff! So what made you want to do this type of work?”

  Anna smiled. “I just love children. Always have. Being a live-in nanny means I can spend even more time with them.”

  Jane nodded, taking in what the girl was saying.

  “Sometimes it can get to the point where I almost feel like one of the family,” Anna continued.

  “Yes, but you’re not the child’s mother are you!” Jane said sharply, acutely reminded these people were, when push came to shove, applying for the job of her child’s stand-in mother and that stuck in her throat.

  Reddening, Anna realised she’d somehow said something out of turn because she’d clearly seen a warning flash in the woman’s eyes. “I meant it’s nice to work for a happy family.” she said quickly, attempting an apologetic smile.

  “What of your family?” Jane questioned.

  Anna’s face fell slightly. Oh no! Not the family question. “Well, I stay at my mother’s when I finish an assignment in readiness for the next and I don’t see my sister much. We’re not close.”

  Jane’s expression softened. “What about boyfriends?”

  Anna shook her head. “I’m not interested. It would be difficult to have a relationship with what I do. My work is the most important thing in my life, so boyfriends aren’t something I give much thought to.”

  Actually they were. She’d thought for years about boyfriends because she’d never had one. She’d always been shy and nervous around the opposite sex so they’d always seen her as a bit of a standing joke. In fact, she’d never met a boy who had interested her enough to want to even go down that road. She didn’t know whether it was because her sister had allowed all manner of old men and disgusting creatures to sleep with her for money which had put her off or what.

  There had been one lad she’d gone to the cinema with when she was nineteen, but when he’d kissed her at the end of the evening, she’d felt embarrassed and unsure as to what she’d been supposed to do – especially when he’d pushed his tongue into her mouth. Either way he’d obviously been less than impressed because he hadn’t asked to see her again.

  On top of that she was far too shy for going out and mingling with people and so having a job where she could convince herself she was part of a family that she’d never had enabled her to pretend her dysfunctional real f
amily didn’t exist. Besides, children didn’t judge or analyse her so it was perfect.

  Jane smiled at Anna. That take on the boyfriends was what she’d wanted to hear. She wouldn’t have random strangers traipsing through deflecting the nanny’s attention from her child. Or perhaps overhearing something....

  She looked at the girl in front of her. “What’s your availability?” Jane asked very aware of time frames. Mandy had three weeks left of her notice to serve, but if a suitable replacement was available before that time, she’d jump at the chance to leave.

  “I finished my previous assignment last week, so I’m available as soon as you want me to be,” Anna replied, aware she was sounding over eager, but at the end of the day, she was.

  Jane smiled. “Well, that’s good. This job is for a full-time, live-in position. You’d get your bed and board and a full day and night off every week, but there isn’t usually a set day for that. You’re probably aware we have a lot of engagements we need to honour, but when we’re here we like to spend time in the evenings with our son, so your time is your own those nights in addition. I appreciate it makes it difficult for you to plan anything, therefore it’s quite a difficult assignment for most people because you’d have to work around our fluid schedule.”

  Anna laughed. “That’s fine by me! I never have anything planned. You’ve probably guessed I’m shy so I don’t tend to go out much.”

  Jane frowned. “Sometimes you’d need to accompany us to social engagements when Toby is there. Would that be a problem?”

  Anna shook her head. “No, apart from I doubt whether I’d have the sort of clothes suitable for the lovely places you go.” Realising she’d probably come across as sounding presumptuous, she blushed furiously. “I-I mean I’m not exactly a virtue of fashion!”

  Jane laughed openly, her face lighting up. “You look ok to me!” She looked at Anna’s smart two-piece suit and the pink roll-neck jumper underneath. “Besides, we’d provide you an allowance for outfits for those occasions if you didn’t have something you felt comfortable to wear so don’t worry about that,” she grinned. “Don’t believe everything you read about us in the papers!”

  Anna could have dug a hole and climbed in it. She hadn’t wanted to insinuate she read all the gossip. “Oh God, I-I didn’t mean anything like that. I-I haven’t heard anything bad. I...”

  “Hey, relax!” Jane grinned. “I’m winding you up!”

  Anna breathed a sigh of relief and made a mental note to try not to take herself too seriously. She knew her nervousness invariably ended up becoming irritating and she didn’t want to annoy this woman one iota. She really liked Jane Wright so far.

  “Do you drive?” Jane asked.

  “Yes, but I don’t have a car right now,” Anna replied. “I can always get one though.”

  Jane nodded, pleased. “We’d be looking at a six week trial period initially and we’ll get you a car if needed, so that solves that problem. Is this something you think you’d be interested in?”

  Anna smiled. Did that mean she’d got the job? “Most definitely. It sounds fantastic. When would you like me to start?”

  Jane frowned. “There are things that haven’t been discussed yet.”

  Anna’s face dropped. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry. I’m jumping the gun aren’t I? I’m just keen, I...”

  Jane held her hand up. “Anna, you don’t even know how much we’re paying!” she smiled. “If we’re all happy after the trial period, the salary we’re offering is fifty thousand a year, not including expenses. Does this sound reasonable?”

  Anna nearly choked. Fifty thousand? The most she’d earnt was eighteen. “Wow! That sounds more than reasonable Jane.”

  Jane looked up hearing the front door slam. “Excuse me a minute,” she said, rising from the sofa.

  Jane had almost reached the sitting room door when Seth bounded into the room and without saying a word, pulled her tightly against him. Bringing his mouth down onto hers, his hands shifted her tight dress up over her thighs.

  “God, I’ve missed you this afternoon,” he murmured.

  “Seth!” Jane laughed. She pushed him away and pulled her dress back down. “Being as you haven’t noticed, we’ve got company.” She rolled her eyes at Anna. “Anna, as you’ve probably guessed, this is my husband. Seth, this is Anna. She’s going to be Toby’s new nanny.”

  Snapping his head around quickly, Seth’s eyes locked on to the woman on the sofa and smiled widely. “Hello Anna.”

  Anna stared at the man as he crossed the room towards her, feeling her nerves quivering from inside. He was tall, extremely well built with a neatly trimmed beard, sharp jaw and the greenest eyes ever. His thick dark wavy hair was scraped back into a small pony tail at the base of his neck. Like Jane he was so much more attractive than in the photos she’d seen. In fact, she’d go so far as to say he was beautiful.

  Stretching his hand out Seth grasped Anna’s hand and shook it firmly. “Pleased to meet you and welcome aboard.”

  Anna hoped the furious blush she sensed creeping up her neck wasn’t visible and her hand tingled with the electrical charge she felt from the man’s touch.

  “So,” Seth said, throwing his jacket haphazardly on the sofa and showing his well-muscled arms and torso through his fitted white shirt. He pulled his tie away from the collar and undid the top two buttons revealing a smattering of chest hair. “Where are we at then?” He flopped himself down on the sofa and pulled Jane down next to him.

  “We were trying to discuss hours and expectations,” Jane laughed.

  “Yep, that’s easy. Anna - you deal with Toby in the day and some evenings. The evenings we’re in, we’ll be with him. Nights though – if he wakes,” Seth smiled, “you deal.” He placed his hand on Jane’s stomach and winked. “Nights are ours. I want to continue the bloodline.”

  Jane batted his hand away. “He’s a bloody nightmare. If he had his way I’d have been barefoot and pregnant for years!”

  Seth raised his eyebrows mockingly. “Oh and you think that won’t be how you’re going to spend at least the next few years then? Except you’ll have shoes of course!”

  “Seth! You’ll frighten her off!” Jane laughed, seeing Anna blush furiously. “Look, you’re embarrassing her.”

  Anna smiled. “Actually it’s nice you’re so much in love.” It was obvious. They were like the fairy tale. The complete and utter fairy tale in every way.

  Seth’s face became serious. “The only other thing is that sometimes sensitive business meetings occur from here, so we’d expect you to sign a full non-disclosure agreement.”

  “W-What’s that?” Anna stuttered, unsure what that meant.

  Seth smiled in an attempt to put the nervous young girl at ease. “It means that anything here, stays here. You speak to no one about us. Under any circumstances.”

  Anna nodded nervously.

  “You’re undoubtedly aware the press like to print stuff about people whether it’s right, wrong or indifferent and they’ll go to any lengths to hunt people down to extract information which they’ll twist around to make it as interesting as possible,” Seth said.

  “What Seth’s saying is anything that’s printed about us won’t have come from you right?” Jane’s eyes glinted, hoping she was getting the message across.

  “Not even for any amount of money,” Seth added. His eyes narrowed as he smiled thinly. “Because if you did, we’d have to kill you.”

  Anna laughed nervously. At least they had a good sense of humour. “No, I’d never speak about anything that goes on here.”

  “Right then, that’s good,” Seth nodded. “Have you met Toby yet?” Seeing Anna shake her head, he resumed a normal wide smile and got to his feet. “I’ll go and get him.”

  FOUR

  LOCKING HERSELF IN THE toilet Lacey pulled several pieces of toilet paper from the roll and meticulously laid it all around the seat. Satisfied she’d left no trace of the plastic seat uncovered, she sat down.


  She felt tears beginning to escape from her eyes and desperately tried to hold them back. That bloody awful manager had booked yet another slot with her and was due any minute now. She hadn’t even had chance to shower since the last client and she felt even more dirty and disgusting than usual. It didn’t help this bloke was a nasty bastard who always hurt her. He got off on being exceptionally rough and she hated him.

  When she’d asked Eliza if one of the other girls could sometimes deal with Steve Lomond’s freebies rather than her, she’d got a swift slap around the face and was told in no uncertain terms that if Steve asked for a girl by name then that was who he would get.

  Lacey glanced down at her knickers, hoping to spot a sign that her worst fears were not going to be confirmed, but there was still nothing. She was now two weeks late and was starting to believe that against probability the one time a condom had ever split had been unfortunate enough to have left a lasting reminder.

  She’d ignored it - telling herself the chances were remote, but now it looked like it might have only gone and happened and she couldn’t bear it. Really couldn’t bear it. It was even worse being as the split condom had belonged to him.

  A sudden sharp bang on the toilet door made Lacey’s heart lurch in her chest.

  “Oih! Hurry up in there. Steve’s waiting,” Eliza’s raucous voice screamed. “Don’t start telling me you’re not feeling well or anything like that. Just get a fucking move on and make sure you’re wearing your school uniform.” She knew Lacey was Lomond’s favourite and it was more important than ever they kept him above everyone happy. As well as needing him to keep things running smoothly here, they also required his assistance with their other plans.

  Lacey wiped the tears away from her cheeks with the back of her hand and quickly flushed the toilet. She’d made sure as requested she’d scrubbed her makeup off so Eliza and the punter would be happy. “I’m coming now,” she said hollowly.