The Broken_A gripping thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat

by Casey Kelleher

  ‘Well, that’s another thing, Alfie. I can’t locate Jenson,’ Gem said, the shake in his voice betraying him. ‘I think he’s already done a runner.’

  Alfie Harris shut his eyes. Well and truly pissed now, guessing rightly that Jenson Reed had probably fucked off tonight to try and save his own arse, not because the stupid fucker thought that he’d be better off lying low. This whole situation was a fucking nightmare. The police crawling everywhere like cockroaches, one of his main dealers going AWOL and some kid ODing in the toilets.

  It wasn’t going to take Einstein to do the fucking maths here.

  As of tomorrow, Alfie would be having words with Alex Costa and putting an end to the drug distribution in his club. He never wanted this sort of shit going on in his club in the first place, the only reason he’d ever gone along with the deal was because Jimmy Byrne and Alex Costa had made Alfie Harris an offer that he couldn’t refuse. Literally.

  He knew that you didn’t say no to men like those two.

  Jimmy and Alex ruled the fucking streets. If they told you to jump, you fucking jumped. Through hoops of fire if you had to.

  Besides, in some ways, letting Jimmy and Alex take over that side of the club had actually done Alfie a favour. The deal he’d made with them meant that he didn’t have to get involved in the drugs side of things, he could just concentrate on running his club.

  That side of things were completely out of his hands. All Alfie had to do was turn a blind eye. Everything had been set up by Jimmy and Alex. They’d been the ones to arrange for two dealers to work in the club under the pretence of security: doormen, in actual fact. Hiding in plain sight, they had direct contact with all the customers on the way into the club.

  Alfie had been promised that only the best grade of cocaine would be served up on his premises. That way, they knew that the clientele were kept happy and that there would be no problems, or comebacks. No turf wars with any other dealers. And they all stood to make a shitload of money. All Alfie was required to do was turn a blind eye and hold his hand out at the end of the month for a nice big wad of cash for his troubles.

  Though the irony now was that Alfie didn’t fucking need the extra money any more. He had money coming out of his ears. In just a few short months, The Karma Club had become legendary in the clubbing world. Alfie Harris was pulling in more money than he knew what to do with. He was already in talks about opening up a second venue somewhere a bit more upmarket, like Mayfair.

  With Jimmy dead, and Alex temporarily off the scene, now was the perfect opportunity to do so. But neither of the men were around to clear up any of the shit that had been left in their wake. Which meant that Alfie was going to have to take the brunt of the fallout from tonight. A position that he’d been promised he’d never be put in.

  He’d made up his mind firmly. He was done with it all.

  He didn’t need this kind of aggro. He’d ask Alex to pull his men out. He’d get his own doormen in to run the place. Legit doormen who knew how to stop underage kids from worming their way in.

  ‘You tell all your men that they are on my payroll and that when this is all over, I’m having one of their jobs for this fuck up tonight, because, trust me, if one of them have let some kid in and has given her some gear, there will be hell to pay. Do you understand?’

  Walking back into the bedroom and turning on the light, Alfie ignored Jennifer’s whining at being woken up so abruptly and how bright the bedroom light was.

  ‘Get your clothes on, Jen. I’ll drop you home. I’m going to the club. We’ve got trouble.’ Chucking Jennifer her dress that she’d left in a heap at the foot of the bed, Alfie wasn’t in the mood for an argument, and the expression on his face said as much. This was another reminder of why he hadn’t been looking for anything serious when it came to women. His business always came first and tonight he was in the middle of dealing with a fucking nightmare.

  Though give the girl her dues, Jennifer didn’t argue with him. Alfie felt a tinge of guilt. Jennifer was a diamond. Any other bird would have lost their shit at this treatment.

  Turning his attention back to the phone, making sure that Gem heard him clearly, he repeated himself. ‘I’m on my way over. Don’t let the plod anywhere near my office, or anywhere else for that matter. They haven’t got a warrant, so they can’t start snooping around the place. Can you at least get that right?’

  ‘Yes, Alfie. Sure thing. Boss, there’s something else. It’s probably nothing… but I think I should run it past you anyway.’

  ‘What is it?’ He was sitting down on the edge of the bed as he pulled on his trousers, convinced that nothing Gem Kemal could say would make things any fucking worse.

  ‘The girl. The one that’s OD’d…’ Gem said, his voice sounding suddenly cautious. ‘Well, one of the barmaids, Sherrie Murphy, she thinks that she recognises the girl. Only, it’s a bit of a weird one—’

  ‘For fuck’s sake, Gem, spit it out. Get to the fucking point, I haven’t got all night,’ Alfie shouted, about to lose his shit.

  ‘Sherrie thinks that the girl might be your daughter, boss. She reckons it’s your Megan. I mean, the girl’s ID says her name’s Olivia, so Sherrie might be talking shit. And I’m guessing your daughter is at home with you… I know it sounds stupid.’ Gem winced, wishing he’d never said anything at all. Sherrie Murphy had been the one to find the girl in the toilets and had stayed with her until the paramedics had taken her out to the ambulance on a stretcher.

  ‘She might have been a bit confused though, boss, she was in shock. She said something about another girl that had been with her. Amber or something—’

  The phone went silent then.

  ‘I knew that it was probably nothing,’ Gem said, checking his phone was still working, and hadn’t somehow lost connection.

  ‘Boss? Are you still there?’

  ‘Is Sherrie still there with you?’ Alfie said, a real urgency to his voice.

  ‘Yeah, she is. One of the other bar staff has just made her a hot drink.’

  ‘Good. Don’t let her out of your sight. Tell her not to say jack shit to the Old Bill either. Not a fucking word. And keep her there until I get there, okay?’

  ‘Yeah, of course. No worries, boss,’ Gem said catching the panic in his boss’s voice.

  ‘The hospital that the paramedics took the girl to, which one was it?’

  ‘Erm, I think the paramedic told one of the coppers that they were taking her to St George’s. Shit. Sherrie isn’t right, is she? It’s not your Megan that OD’d, is it?’ Gem said now, finally piecing things together.

  Only he was talking to a dead phone.

  His boss had already gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Standing in the doorway of the kitchen, Jack Taylor had had a sneaky suspicion that Nancy would be working here at the brothel at Bridge Street. She’d said that she was going to sort this place out, and Jack knew that Nancy was a woman of her word. Sitting at the kitchen table, with the mountain of folders stacked up beside her, it seemed that she wasn’t wasting any time in doing so.

  Jack had been watching her for a few minutes now. So engrossed in the figures in front of her that she hadn’t even noticed her glasses slipping all the way down her nose. Like a librarian, or a sultry-looking secretary.

  ‘It suits you!’ he said, with a smile.

  ‘Shit!’ Nancy jumped. Startled for a few seconds, though she quickly regained her composure. ‘I didn’t hear you come in. Fuck, Jack! You scared the life out of me.’

  ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,’ he said, feeling bad now for sneaking up on the girl. The attack that Nancy had endured a few nights ago had clearly left its mark, no matter how much she had insisted otherwise.

  ‘It’s a bit late, isn’t it? Even for you?’ he said, nodding over to the piles of paperwork that Nancy had been working her way through, before looking up at the clock. ‘It’s gone 2 a.m., Nancy. Don’t you ever sleep?’ Then he noted the bottle of Scotch. Jimmy kept
it in the cupboard for when he was here sorting out business.

  Nancy’s eyes went to it, too. Holding it up as if to do a toast she shrugged.

  ‘Sleep? Not lately.’ She smiled, trying to make light of her admission, but Jack could sense the raw honesty behind her answer. ‘I thought a few of these might help, but I don’t think they are helping me at all. I can’t bloody see straight let alone think straight,’ she said with a small laugh, realising that she’d had way more to drink than she’d intended.

  Jack looked concerned then.

  As beautiful as Nancy was, there was no mistaking the dark bags under her eyes, nor how frail and thin-looking she was becoming. The problem was, Nancy was her father’s daughter. Too proud to admit to anyone if she was struggling, and she was struggling. No matter how much of a brave face she put on for the rest of the world, Jack knew Nancy, and the girl was suffering greatly.

  Her father’s death had devastated her beyond repair.

  Though Nancy, being a Byrne, was never going to admit that out loud.

  ‘I thought that I could sort out some of the accounts. The incomings and the expenditures. The books are in chaos… I should have kept on top of it all, but my head’s been all over the place since my dad…’ Seeing the troubled look on Jack’s face, Nancy stopped herself mid-sentence, not wanting to say out loud the words that, each time she spoke them, took her breath away.

  Since my dad died.

  Her stomach lurched at the words once more.

  ‘There’s just so much to do, so much to think about. The warehouse, this place, all my father’s property investments and businesses.’ She’d spent hours tonight going through the endless pile of files that were stacked up all around her. Tallying everything up as she double-checked everything. Running her finger down along the figures on the page, before jotting her own sums in the margin next to them. ‘I thought I’d make a start with this place, though the books here just don’t add up. This place is making a loss. A huge one, too, and it has only been a few weeks since my dad… If things keep going the way they are, we could end up having to shut it down.’

  She was drunk, Jack realised as he heard the slur behind her words. The Scotch she’d knocked back tonight was only heightening her already fretting mind. Watching as she wrinkled her nose and looked back at the books again as if somehow the figures had changed since the last time she’d looked, he stepped into the room.

  ‘It’s just one great big headache,’ Nancy said rubbing her hands across her face. ‘I really don’t know what I’m going to do here, Jack.’

  ‘If anyone can do this, Nancy, it’s you. Trust me.’

  ‘Truthfully? You really believe that? Because from where I’m standing, it’s not looking good at all. We’ve lost so much money. I’m not sure that I can do all of this on my own.’

  ‘You’re not on your own, Nancy!’

  ‘Aren’t I? I don’t know when or even if Alex will be back running things here again, and I can’t depend on Daniel to pull his weight, can I? So, this is all going to be left down to me now. I need to get it all sorted, otherwise we’ll all be royally screwed.’

  ‘Forget about Alex and Daniel, Nancy. You’ve got me. I’ll help you in any way I can,’ Jack said trying to reassure the girl. ‘Alex just needs a bit of time out of it all. He’ll be fine in a few weeks or so. And as for your brother, I genuinely think that he meant well leaving Lee Archer looking after this place. Maybe you should give him one more chance.’

  ‘No way. You saw him earlier at dinner. He’s a fucking mess. God knows where his head is at right now, but it’s like he’s on self-destruct mode.’

  Nancy pursed her mouth. Still not able to bring herself to tell anyone what she knew her brother had done. That he was the one who murdered their father. Still annoyed at herself for not avenging her father’s death when she’d had the opportunity. But Nancy knew it wasn’t just that.

  The second she opened her mouth and told everyone the truth – that Daniel had murdered their father, nothing would ever be the same again. She’d blow their entire world wide apart. Her nan’s included, and Nancy really didn’t think that the woman would ever come back from that revelation. Hence why Nancy was here in the middle of the night. Sat in Bridge Street brothel’s kitchen on her tod, long after the last of the girls had gone home for the night. That’s how desperate she was to try and keep her mind off her brother and keep busy instead.

  ‘I’ve decided that I’m going to promote Bridget, and get her to run this place for me. She’s been here long enough to know what she’s doing; besides she was practically running the place single-handedly for my father and Alex Costa anyway. It’s about time she got the recognition for it. I reckon if I offer her an attractive enough salary, she’ll pull the place back around in no time. She’s a good girl, and I trust her.’

  ‘And you don’t trust Daniel?’ Jack said then, his question hanging in the air between them, knowing that her brother’s behaviour at dinner today had riled up Nancy. Though so far, Nancy’s silence on the matter was doing all the talking for her.

  ‘Look, Nancy, I’m just going to play Devil’s advocate here. But I think the reason that your brother has been acting the way he has lately, is because he’s hurting. Just like you are. I know he’s got a funny way of showing it, but we all grieve differently.’

  Nancy shook her head. Not willing to listen to Jack making every excuse under the sun for her brother.

  ‘That’s crap, Jack, and you know it. Daniel’s not grieving. Not like me and you are. Daniel doesn’t give two shits about anyone except himself, that’s the real truth right there,’ she said then, her eyes blazing.

  ‘Maybe you just need to cut him some slack.’

  Nancy laughed, shaking her head.

  ‘Cut him some slack? Please.’ She raised her voice, the truth balancing on the edge of her tongue. ‘You haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about, trust me.’

  ‘Then tell me. If I haven’t got a clue, tell me what I’m not seeing. Because I know there’s something you are not telling me, Nancy. I can see it in your eyes. What is it? What’s Daniel done that’s so bad?’ Jack pleaded with the girl, seeing how tormented she was about her brother. How angry she was with him.

  ‘I just don’t trust him,’ she said simply. Wishing that it was so easy that she could tell Jack everything and unburden herself of being the only one who knew the truth about the evidence that her father’s old contact had managed to find on him. How the computer that was used to blackmail her dad led back to the house.

  The sordid video of her father having sex with a younger man before he was killed violently.

  The trace had led right back to Daniel.

  It could have only been Daniel.

  But she couldn’t find the right words to even start to explain, so instead, she lied.

  ‘With the business. He’ll fuck it up, like he does with everything. Ask yourself this, Jack, why the sudden interest in my dad’s business’s now anyway? Daniel was never interested in being a part of any of it when my dad was alive. And you know what else, my dad didn’t want him to be a part of any of it either. He didn’t trust him. That’s the bottom line. His own father didn’t trust him, and in the end he had good reason not to—’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Jack said then, perplexed, as Nancy realised that she’d been waffling.

  The drink loosening her tongue. She quickly backtracked. ‘What I mean is, I gave him a chance. I told him to look after this place and he couldn’t even do that. He left someone else in charge of the place who had no clue what they were doing. He can’t be trusted to do anything.’

  Jack Taylor had no idea what her brother Daniel was really capable of.

  No one did.

  Only her, and it was taking every bit of willpower that Nancy had not to blurt out to the man in front of her everything she knew.

  But she kept quiet about what she knew.

  The sudden realisation dawning on her that she’d sp
ent her entire life listening to her father say how Daniel wasn’t smart enough, or shrewd enough, or determined enough, but actually her father had been wrong all along.

  They all had.

  Daniel had every one of them fooled.

  He’d killed their father, and by doing so he’d ripped their entire family wide apart and the craziest thing about it all was that he’d got away with it.

  He was still walking around, acting as if he was innocent, and what galled her even more was that she hadn’t annihilated the bastard when she had the chance.

  But that was the difference between her and Daniel. Nancy wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. She wasn’t a murderer, and she’d never stoop as low as her brother.

  ‘This business really means a lot to you, doesn’t it?’ Jack said. Seeing the determination in Nancy’s eyes, he could see that she was as passionate about the business as Jimmy had been. Nancy wasn’t doing any of this purely for the money. There was more to it than that.

  ‘I watched my dad work his fingers to the bone to build up what he had. He came from nothing, but he worked his arse off to make sure that we didn’t. He made sure none of us wanted for anything. We had the best education, the best clothes, the best house…’ She felt her tears then, though she blinked them away, refusing to get emotional again, not in front of Jack. ‘This was important to him. This is what made him; it made me too. I need to keep everything going. My dad would have wanted that. And he would have wanted me to be the one to do it. That’s why he involved me in the business in the first place. He always said that one day he’d leave all of this to me. The Byrne empire. Only, the day came sooner than any of us ever anticipated.’

  Jack went to her then.

  Wrapping his arms around her, he held her tightly.

  Letting her cry in his arms.

  The girl had been so strong for so long, he’d known it wouldn’t be long until she broke. He was just glad that he was the one nearby when she finally did.

  But the last thing he expected was for Nancy to reach up and kiss him. Softly, at first. Her lips warm, her breath hot on his skin. Jack pulled back, but Nancy kissed him harder. Her mouth searching hungrily for his.