Reckoning

by Heather Atkinson

When Jules made a move to attack her, Ryan held up his hand. “No more.”

  “She’s only going to feed us a pack of lies,” she hissed, jabbing a finger violently at Estelle.

  “Yes but we will get to the truth,” he replied, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a wad of money. Estelle’s eyes lit up as he waved it back and forth in front of her. “Take note Jules, this never fails.”

  “Alright, what do you want to know?” said Estelle.

  “See,” he said. “Already she’s calculating in that sharp, nasty mind how much heroin she can inject into her veins and how much booze she can guzzle. Normal things like food, paying the bills or buying a vacuum cleaner won’t get a look in.” He threw the money down on the coffee table and Estelle leapt upon it, snatching it up and weighing it in her hand, attempting to guess how much was there.

  “Twenty grand,” said Ryan, “for information about Jared Slattery. Why was he here and how much did he give you?”

  “More than you did,” she replied indignantly. “You always were a stingy git.”

  There was a loud growl and Jules kicked the wall. “Un-fucking-believable.”

  Jez placed himself beside her in case she decided to attack Estelle again. “Take it easy,” he said.

  “Take it easy? Are you for real? I’ve met some serious bastards in my time but that bitch takes the fucking biscuit.”

  “We know that more than anyone but don’t let her get to you, that’s what she wants.”

  Jules glared at Estelle, who threw her a smirk.

  “So what did Jared want?” demanded Ryan.

  “Before I say another word I need a ciggie,” she said, reaching for the packet sat on the coffee table, the surface of which was dusted with white powder.

  “You should clean up after yourself Estelle,” said Jez coldly. “If a copper walked in here they’d clock that right away.”

  She ignored him as she sparked up a cigarette and tilted back her head to blow the smoke up to the ceiling, closing her eyes in appreciation. “Ahhh, that’s better.”

  “Good. Now tell us,” barked Ryan, growing increasingly impatient.

  Estelle’s eyes slowly rolled open and fixed on Ryan, her slow smile sending his temper skyrocketing but he kept it inside, remembering his promise to Rachel.

  “You really want to know?”

  “I’m aware you enjoy your games Estelle but I wouldn’t recommend delaying any longer. Jules’s control is liable to snap at any moment and if you mess us about any more I’m not sure I’ll bother to stop her attacking you.”

  Estelle’s eyes slid to Jules’s sleeves, all too aware that was where she kept her knives. “Alright, I’ll tell you if it gets you all out of my fucking hair,” she snapped before tugging on the cigarette, hiding her fear behind a front of bravado. “He wanted to know about you.”

  “Just me or all of us?” replied Ryan.

  “All of you, especially him,” she said, pointing at Jez. “He’s the one with all the power now you’re a goody-two-shoes,” she told Ryan. “Who’d have thought my little baby, my youngest, would be top dog in Manchester. Mummy’s so proud,” she said with a disturbing smile.

  “And what did you tell him?”

  “Everything I know,” she said casually. “Jules is a psycho who likes cutting people with knives, Ryan’s gone fucking soft and Jez, my pride and joy, will kick his head in if he tries anything.”

  Ryan hissed out a breath and turned his back on her, before he was tempted to throttle her.

  “Didn’t it occur to you to tell him nothing?” said Jez.

  “He gave me a huge wedge of cash and I was skint. You two are loaded but you never give me anything.”

  “I gave you ten grand quite recently,” retorted Ryan, spinning back round.

  “And she nicked it,” she said, waving her cigarette at Jules.

  “You didn’t deserve it,” she replied, folding her arms across her chest. “You’d only have stuffed it up your nose or injected it into your veins.”

  “And I suppose you gave it to poor orphans,” she snapped sarcastically.

  “Actually I gave it to a leukaemia charity,” Jules replied, surprising them all. “It’s what Cara died of,” she added.

  “Who was that, your fucking girlfriend?” sneered Estelle. “I’ve heard about you, you fucking muff diver. You’re no daughter of mine.”

  “I’m bisexual mother dear and you’re right, I am no daughter of yours and no, she wasn’t a girlfriend. She was the closest thing I ever had to a sister. I saved her from the Parkers by setting Alice Parker on fire. That’s what I do to bad mummies.”

  Estelle picked up the lighter sat beside her on the couch and hid it behind her back.

  “Please can we stick to the subject?” said Ryan, growing increasingly frustrated. “So you told them everything about us. Did you tell them about our children?”

  “Just that you have three, although one’s not yours and Jez has two. Jules doesn’t have any because she doesn’t like men.”

  Jules flew at her, Ryan and Jez making no effort to stop her. She grasped Estelle’s face in one hand and started to squeeze. “I don’t have any kids because Leighton Parker, who you sold me to, auctioned off my virginity and let his best friend rape me on my thirteenth birthday. He hurt me so badly I ended up in hospital with ruined insides. I don’t have kids because, thanks to you, I can’t.”

  When Estelle yelled right back at her Ryan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

  CHAPTER 15

  Mikey sat at his desk in the compound, head in his hands, trying to get his head round the phone call he’d just taken. Jake was dead. Apparently he’d had a heart attack in the prison canteen. The prison governor had been very respectful, assuring him it was natural causes, that Jake hadn’t been in the best of health, that it was quick, he didn’t suffer, blah, blah, blah, but Mikey knew different. This wasn’t natural causes, it was murder and he knew exactly who was queen of quick, mysterious deaths like this, who was clever at making sneaky little concoctions that could fool any pathologist into thinking it was natural causes.

  Mikey leapt to his feet, determined to confront her, then remembered she’d gone to Nottingham. Frustration nearly tore him apart, he wasn’t sure how he felt about this at all. On the one hand he wanted to kiss her for lifting the burden of his brother from him, on the other he wanted to kill her for interfering before he was ready. He thought about how she’d reacted when he’d killed Leighton without her permission, only he’d done it right in front of her and he wondered if he was being an enormous hypocrite.

  He sighed and meandered over to the window, staring out at the yard below, watching his men on guard duty. Up here in his ivory tower felt like the safest place in the world, the constant threat that had hung over him ever since he’d taken over from Alex receded when he was here. But, as Jules had so starkly reminded him, nothing was ever completely secure. Well he’d already taken steps - quite drastic steps at that - to make sure no one could take the compound from him.

  He pushed thoughts of Jules aside, even though it was becoming increasingly hard to. There were other matters he had to consider. There was his mum for a start. Jake had been her little prince, she’d even protected him when she’d known he was a poisoning psychopath. She’d been in on the plot to set himself up for Jake’s crimes just to protect him. That still stung with Mikey today, he knew it always would. The ultimate betrayal by the one person in the world who should have done everything she could to defend him from his mad brother. The old cow was living in Ireland, sent to live under the watchful eye of Declan’s redoubtable mother. There was no way he was going out there to break the news, he couldn’t bear the thought of seeing her again. But she’d want to see Jake’s body and be here for the funeral. On the bright side the prospect of rubbing his new life in her face was just as pleasing as it had been when he’d been considering visiting Jake.

  He needed to talk this over with someone. If only Jules wasn�
��t in Nottingham. Mikey cringed at his own thought, he should talk it over with Amber, his wife. What the fuck was wrong with him?

  “Grant,” he called.

  The door opened and Grant popped his head inside. “Yes Boss?”

  “I’ve just had some bad news. Jake’s dead. Heart attack.”

  “Oh, sorry Boss.”

  “I’m going home, I need to see Amber. Oversee the security arrangements, will you?”

  “You don’t want to leave it to Brogan?”

  “No, you do it, you’re more experienced.”

  “Course, just leave it to me.”

  “Get Brogan to check the perimeter again, I want to make sure the compound’s watertight.”

  Grant nodded. “No problem. You okay Boss? You don’t look too well.”

  “It’s the shock I suppose. The second Jules gets back from Nottingham, let me know.”

  “Will do.”

  Mikey grabbed his coat and briefcase and marched out of the door, expression black, leaving Grant to wonder what fresh hell Jules had unleashed.

  “Oh shit,” said Shane. He watched the very same Lexus the Essex boys had arrived in on their last visit roll into the estate, followed by another equally flashy black BMW. They were back and the Laws were here. The car doors opened and Shane counted seven of the bastards climb out of the vehicles.

  The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and the air seemed to buzz around him. He got the feeling he was finally going to get a real glimpse of the world he so desperately wanted to inhabit and suddenly he was afraid.

  His best mate Chug strolled up to him, hands stuffed into his pockets, looking very pleased with himself.

  “You know who they are?” Chug said, nodding at the men.

  Shane knew full well but he wasn’t about to let on to this cabbage. Ryan had told him to keep everything to himself and when Ryan Law told you to do something, you did it. “Who?”

  “Jared Slattery’s men. They’re from Essex. Jared’s a famous gangster. He paid me a load of cash to tell him if the Laws showed up, he said they would soon and he was right. Look, he even gave me this phone to call him,” he said, taking it out of his pocket and waving it in his face. “That Jared’s a smart bloke.”

  “Chug, you fucking cock.”

  “What have I done?” he frowned. “You’re just jealous because I’m finally making some cash from a real gangster. I don’t need to make up a scrapbook like you.”

  Shane grabbed him by the shirt front and yanked him close, Chug’s bravado falling away at the wrath in his friend’s eyes.

  “Alright, take it easy, I’ll tell him to cut you in,” stammered Chug.

  “I don’t need cutting in you dick,” he said before punching him, knocking him out, managing to catch the phone as he slid to the ground but letting his friend drop. Jared’s men had failed to notice their exchange, they weren’t even looking their way. They all stopped to look at the Law’s Audi, a big man with a shaved head pointing at it, the others nodding. Obviously he was their leader. It seemed Jared himself hadn’t shown up this time.

  Shane watched as they headed for the same stairs the Laws had taken. Frantically he pulled out the phone Ryan had given him and dialled. After warning Ryan he dithered for a moment, wondering what he should do. Ryan had given him no further instructions.

  He watched one of the men hang back at the Audi and reach into his jacket pocket for something. Shane knew he was going to sabotage the car so the Laws couldn’t get away.

  Picking up the baseball bat he habitually carried around with him on the estate, he snuck up on the man, who was so enjoying his work he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. Shane thought this was very shoddy indeed. As the man prepared to stick the knife into one of the tyres, Shane whacked him round the back of the head with the bat and he fell to the ground, unconscious. He scooped up the knife and slashed at the tyres of the southerners’ cars before sliding it into the back of his jeans. Although some of his friends carried knives he’d never been comfortable with them, he much preferred his trusty bat.

  Taking a deep breath he headed for the stairs. Time to prove himself.

  “Come on, calm down,” said Jez gently. “Let her go.”

  Jules released Estelle and let him lead her back to the corner of the room.

  “You grassed up not only your own kids to the enemy but your grandkids too,” continued Ryan. “Why didn’t you tell him to get stuffed?”

  “I’m not a fool, I knew what sort of man he was the second I opened the door. If I’d said no he would have kicked my head in.”

  “You could have told him lies.”

  “He would have known I was lying.”

  “Bullshit. He flashed the cash and that was all you thought about. Jesus Christ Estelle, when are you going to put your family first?”

  “If you shared any of your wealth with me I might have lied but I was fucking desperate.”

  “We’d be willing to share everything with you if you weren’t a poisonous, evil, drugged-up, selfish hag,” he bellowed.

  “She doesn’t know anything anyway thanks to her complete lack of maternal feeling,” said Jez. “She knows nothing about the businesses, our homes or our lives. All Jared knows is that we’re married with kids. He wasted his cash on sod all.”

  Ryan thought this through and nodded. “You’re right. She knows nothing and so does Jared.” He was interrupted by his phone ringing. “What?” he barked into it. They all watched him curiously as his face turned into granite. “Thanks for the warning. We’re on our way down.”

  “What’s wrong?” said Jez.

  “That was Shane. We have to leave. Now. Jared didn’t come here to get information, he set a trap. Six of his men are on their way up here.”

  “Oh shit. Let’s go.”

  “What are you worried about? We can take six southern ponces,” said Jules, drawing her knives, making Estelle wince.

  Ryan grabbed Estelle’s arm and hauled her to her feet. “You’re coming with us.”

  “Don’t you drag me into this.”

  “You dragged yourself into it when you took their money and if we leave you behind they’ll probably kill you. Move. Now.”

  For once Estelle decided not to argue. “Wait,” she cried, lunging forward to snatch up the money Ryan had dumped on the table. “Well you don’t want the enemy getting hold of it, do you?” she said when he scowled, stuffing it down the front of her t-shirt.

  Jez peered out of the window. “Looks all clear. Let’s go before we get trapped in here.” They were all painfully aware that the flat had no back door, only a window with a twenty foot drop. He opened the front door a crack and peered out. “Okay, let’s move.”

  Jez led the way followed by Jules, Ryan bringing up the rear, holding onto Estelle’s arm so she couldn’t do a runner.

  “You’re hurting me,” she protested.

  “Deal with it,” he muttered as they rushed towards the door leading to the stairs. They all stopped at the sound of footsteps running up them.

  “Other door,” said Ryan.

  They turned and pelted back down the corridor past Estelle’s flat, aiming for the second stairwell, which burst open as three men charged through it, all brandishing knives.

  “Fuck Estelle, what have you done?” said Ryan.

  The enormity of her actions finally struck her and she gazed up at him helplessly.

  “Stay behind me,” he told her impatiently, although he wouldn’t be surprised if she stuck a weapon in him but she was still his mum, a Law and he wouldn’t let anyone hurt one of his blood, no matter how wicked and depraved they were.

  “There’s more of them,” called Jules as two more men burst through the other door, her voice almost joyous. She loved a good battle. “I’ll take this lot. You two take that lot,” she told her brothers, gesturing to the right, knives out.

  “Where’s Jared?” demanded Ryan of the men.

  They all stopped to look as the doo
r to one of the flats opened and an angry-looking woman in a lime green dressing gown, hair in curlers, stuck her head out.

  “Shut it you noisy little bastards. You know my husband’s on nights. If you wake him up he’ll be straight out to skelp your arses…” She trailed off when confronted by the scene on the landing, eyes taking in the knives Jules gripped in her hands. “Bloody hell.”

  Estelle scrambled towards her. “Diane, let me in,” she cried, but the door was slammed shut in her face, the sound of bolts being rammed home following. The two groups turned their attention back to each other.

  “Jared’s got more important things to do,” replied one of the men, a shaven-headed brute who looked like he could give Battler and Bruiser a run for their money. His accent was pure Cockney.

  “You mean he doesn’t have the balls to face us,” said Ryan.

  “Yeah, right,” laughed the man, seeming to find his comment amusing. “Like I said, you lot just aren’t that high on his list of priorities.”

  “So he gets extras from The Planet of the Apes to attack us instead,” said Jules. “Why don’t you fuck off and eat a banana?”

  “Jules, that’s not helping,” said Jez.

  “Fuck them, fucking southern monkeys. Have you heard it talk?” she said, pointing at the shaven-headed one. “He’s probably still stuck on c is for cat.”

  “Shut it you nasty, inbred northern slag,” he snarled back.

  “Ooh, clever monkey used words with more than one syllable. Well done.”

  “That’s it, tear them apart,” he roared.

  Estelle threw herself to the ground, covering her head with her hands while Ryan, Jules and Jez stood together as the five men charged them as one.

  Shane dashed up the stairs two at a time, a stitch in his side, wishing he’d stuck to his New Year resolution to quit smoking. As he reached the first floor the noise hit him like a wall, it was the sound of a big fuck-off fight going on. He hesitated before throwing the door open, he’d been running on adrenaline and hadn’t really stopped to consider the situation before. Maybe he should walk away? Ryan couldn’t seriously expect him to join in this, all he’d asked him to do was keep lookout, which he’d done. But this was his opportunity to shine, to show the Laws what he was made of. He didn’t think they’d offer him more work if he ran home and hid under his bed. This was the world he so wanted to be a part of, so if he couldn’t face it now he may as well resign himself to being on benefits for the rest of his life, dying on this crappy estate from a heart attack at an early age from bad living like so many of the men here. The thought of the future fortified his courage. That would not be him.