Gia remained characteristically cool. “I heard about Joey and Zayn. Such a tragic loss of life, well almost, but it’s nothing to do with the Talia’s'”
“And what about Ray? He can be a little crazy. You have the bottle as much as he does to kill these families, but he wouldn’t have the capacity to think through the consequences. What did they do to piss off your little brother?”
“Trust me, you’re barking up the wrong tree, Judd.”
“Trust you? Now that would be a dangerous thing to do.”
Gia smiled and walked towards Judd. “You know what I think?”
“What?”
“You just needed an excuse to see me?”
By this time Gia had moved close enough to Judd to stroke his face and walk her fingers playfully down his shirt buttons.
“Gia, I’m on official duty.”
“Since when has that ever stopped you?”
Finding it difficult to resist, Judd began to stroke Gia’s hair. “You’ve dyed your hair blonde. Why? I’ve always quite liked the features of your Italian heritage, including your dark hair.”
“Just fancied a change, that’s all. Don’t you like it?” Gia breathed the words seductively into Judd’s face as she teased him by dancing her full luscious lips around his, but never quite connecting.
“You always look stunning to me, Gia. You know that.”
Eventually, they kissed until Judd somehow managed to force himself to break away from the ecstasy.
“Gia, are you and Ray really not responsible for these gangster killings?” Gia placed a finger to his lips.
“Quiet my little bad boy. Think about it. Do you think I’m happy that all this killing is happening on my patch? I’ll work as hard as you to find out who is doing this, and you know what Judd? You’d better hope you get to them first because for all his crazy ways my little brother is an expert with a blow torch and a pair of pliers. Now, kiss me again.”
Judd didn’t hesitate and inevitably their hands went on to undress and explore one another.
As the chemistry between them flowed and the magnetism dangerously connected there was not an area of that room that didn’t become utilised for their energetic lovemaking. The table, the chair, the sofa and finally the floor.
And the furthest thing from Judd’s mind was the slaying of a couple of scumbag gangsters.
Chapter Six
Roxy Pentelow and Erica McDaid were sharing a bottle of Prosecco as they looked out across the Birmingham skyline. Their seats were perfectly positioned by the window of the stylish bar which was situated on the top floor of the Mailbox. Meeting up like this was a secret they enjoyed sharing. It was true that their husbands held a deep mutual respect for one another, but they vehemently traded their businesses in very separate entities and in truth didn’t really like one another. However, unbeknown to Zack and Seb, Roxy and Erica were the best of friends. For many years now, they had been able to find solace in one another as they could both identify with how the other woman felt being the wife of a notorious gangster. Their respective worlds shared an unimaginable amount of pressure and madness. They enjoyed a life of luxury, that was true. They didn’t want for anything, but they also lived life on the edge of their seat, expecting that each knock at the door was the police to say that their hubby was either banged up or worse still had been killed. The way these families ran their lives was a risky business. The parallel lives that the two molls shared gave them a connection that only they could ever understand, and it therefore ironically formed the basis of a very strong friendship.
There was something else that they both had in common. They each loved their husbands with a loyal and undoubted commitment. However, today they were astonishing one another with another secret that they both unwittingly shared. These two women were undoubtedly kindred spirits.
“I can’t stop laughing,” said Roxy as her blonde hair fell all over her face with her belly laughs.
“Well you may want to try and find a way because that snooty couple over there are staring our way far too often for my liking,” said Erica before turning to the couple she spoke of. “Oi, you pair. Do you want a fucking photo or something? I suggest that you refrain from eyeballing us a moment longer because believe me I have ways of making you regret it. Now let my friend enjoy herself without you making it your fucking business.”
The couple hurriedly turned away, fearing for their safety they actually left the bar soon after.
“I can’t believe it, Erica. You’re screwing him too.”
“I know. I was really worried about telling you. I wasn’t sure what you’d say but I just had to tell someone. It was driving me mad; I literally thought my head was going to explode keeping it to myself. He’s so damn sexy.”
“You can say that again.” Roxy managed to calm her laughing as the potential consequences of the situation began to sink in. “But you’re not thinking of leaving Seb are you, chick?”
“Hell no, Seb would kill us both. Nah it’s just a bit of fun, that’s all.”
“Dangerous fun.”
“Look who’s talking. Is it fun for you?”
“Oh yeah, I love my Zack but it kinda just happened. I’m not saying it will happen again either.”
“So just a bit of fun for you too?”
“Yeah definitely. I’m not about to announce that I have undying love for a copper. Fucking hell, I’d be hung, drawn and quartered with my head stuck on a pole in the middle of Kingstanding Circle.”
“Oh Roxy, you are funny.”
“Come on drink up. There’s this lovely cocktail dress I want to show you in Great Western Arcade.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want to get an Ann Summers outfit instead for a certain Detective Chief Inspector Stone?”
Roxy narrowed her eyes and peered at her friend playfully. “Are you sure you don’t?”
The two women giggled like schoolgirls all the way out of the bar, down the internal escalators and then outside onto the external steps which lead to and from the Mailbox.
Their giggling stopped when they were abducted and bundled into a windowless van by two masked men.
Chapter Seven
The Talia’s owned many enterprises in Birmingham and at present Gia and Ray were having a heated conversation in the private room towards the rear of one of their casinos.
“I swear Sis. It wasn’t me.”
“I wish I could believe you, Ray but who else would be stupid enough to start a potential war amongst the families?” Gia was livid. She had analysed the killings of Joey and Zayn to no end and each time she came back to the same conclusion. Her crazy little brother must have been responsible.
Just then a tall figure entered the room. He was wearing a long dark trench coat over a pin-striped suit and a black wide-brimmed fedora hat which sported a cream coloured band.
“Who the fuck are you?” insisted Ray.
“How did you get in here?” followed Gia.
The visitor gave an open gesture with his hands. “Ray, Gia don’t you recognise your own cousin? It’s been a while.”
“Well fuck me sideways. Enzo Durante as I live and breathe.”
“You’re looking good, Gia. Oh, by the way, the henchman who was guarding your door will be fine, but he may need a couple of painkillers when he wakes up. Oh, and perhaps some refresher training in unarmed combat, he was no match for my boys who are currently standing over him, ready to smack him again if necessary. Ironically it is they who will ensure that we are not disturbed.”
“What do you want, Enzo?”
Gia wasn’t impressed at the manhandling of her staff.
“I simply thought that I’d pay my cousins a visit while I was in Birmingham. It would have been rude not too. And how are you pee-wee?”
“Who the fuck are you calling pee-wee?” said Ray.
“It was an affectionate name I used to call you, Ray. Well, to be fair you have grown since w
e were kids… A little.”
“You had better watch your mouth,” spat Ray.
Enzo wasn’t intimidated by Ray’s annoyance.
“Well, how long has it been? Twenty-five years or more since we all went over to Sicily to pay our respects to Grandma. It was the only time we ever met as I recall. Once the funeral was out of the way it turned into a very enjoyable holiday as I remember.”
“I remember you now, Durante,” said Ray. “You bullied me on that holiday, just because you were a couple of years older. Well, a couple of years can make a big difference as a kid, but do you want to find out if they count now?”
“Easy tiger. I have no quarrel with you cousin Ray. You just made it so easy for me back then. I was a little bored and I wanted entertaining. You were like a faithful little puppy dog trying to impress your older cousin. It was quite sweet really, if not pathetic. I’m sure you’re not half as stupid these days. Is he Gia?”
“I’ll ask again, Enzo. Why are you here? It’s you, isn’t it? It’s you who is responsible for the killings of Joey Logan and Zayn Glazier.”
Enzo became quite animated for the first time. He’d been super cool up until now.
“Those cheeky pieces of shit had no business coming over to New York trying to muscle in on my territory. I run that fucking city and they took what was mine.”
“And the Mafia have no place in my city. They especially have no jurisdiction to start killing people.”
“Look, I won’t interfere with your business, Gia, but what sort of a Durante would I be if I let these novices get away with muscling in on my patch over the pond?”
“They only got involved in a few liquor enterprises as far as I knew. It would hardly have scraped the surface of your vast empire.”
“A liberty is a fucking liberty no matter how small.”
“Well you are certainly taking one now, Enzo,” Gia remained cool in spite of her obvious anger.
“These men. These families. They are clowns and I don’t like clowns.”
“Coulrophobia,” interjected Ray.
“Huh?”
“Coulrophobia, it’s the term used for the fear of clowns.”
“Very good Ray. My that was a big word. So, you’re not as stupid as you once were perhaps? But it takes more than learning fancy words to make it as a top gangster. You should come over to New York sometime and I’ll show you how it’s done.”
“That’s the last time you speak down to me, cousin,” Ray was almost frothing at the mouth.
Gia spoke next. “Enzo, listen very closely to what I’m about to say. You’ve had your fun; you’ve killed two heads of two families who I control in this city. It is you who has taken a liberty. Now as you are family, I’m going to allow you to quit while you’re ahead. You leave Birmingham now, head back to New York and that’s the end of it. I do not want you making any kind of plans to seek vengeance on the McDaid’s or Pentelow's. This ends now.”
Enzo Durante took his time in answering. He removed the fedora hat from his head and passed it from hand to hand as he gave the impression that he was seriously considering the words of his cousin. Finally, he placed the hat back on his swept-back hairstyle.
“The thing is I’m becoming very fond of your city, cuz. There’s still a few sights that I feel I need to experience. Particularly in the North and the South of Birmingham if you catch my drift. I’m afraid that I’m not sure I’m ready to go home just yet.”
Chapter Eight
When Roxy Pentelow came around from the effects of the chloroform, her terror had not diminished from the moment she had been abducted outside of the Mailbox.
She woke to total darkness. Although it was pitch black, she sensed that she was somehow unable to simply stand up and walk away from her horizontal position. When she raised her arms, her fears were truly realised as her hands connected with the texture of wood in very close proximity. She panicked and began to bang at the shallow ceiling, desperate to escape her current location yet understanding with each agonising thump that her quest was useless.
The reality was crushing. She had been buried alive.
Somehow Roxy managed to calm herself to try and execute some sort of logic on the situation. She realised that by using up her energy in a state of anxiety was not going to achieve anything. She fumbled around the sides of her body and stumbled upon an object which was rubbery yet solid to the touch. She found the switch and before long she had light in her confined space which served only minimal relief. Her panic diminished slightly when she could see that a hosepipe was protruding into her restricted box. She daren’t think of it as a coffin. She assumed that the pipe must be leading to the outside world however many feet above her, so at least oxygen was available to her. But for how long? Why was she in this position at all and what did her captors ultimately have planned for her?
Then she thought of Erica. Oh no. Poor dear Erica, her best friend in this crazy world that she lived in. What had happened to her best friend? Was she suffering the same fate as her? Or worse? She hoped against hope that Erica was ok.
In fact, unbeknown to Roxy, Erica was in the very same position as her, buried just three feet away to her left.
Chapter Nine
Erica McDaid was shivering. It was bitterly cold underground. Just like Roxy, she had been able to work out what had happened to her and she was scared. Not an easy thing to achieve with this tough lady. She had given up trying to punch or scratch her way out of the wooden box in which she found herself in. All she could do was hope that someone would come along, rescue her and hopefully Roxy too, assuming that her friend was in the same dilemma. This time she was unable to laugh at the irony of sharing yet another experience with her best buddy.
As she lay there with her mind whirring and silent tears rolling from her emerald green eyes down her beautiful face. The animated panic now replaced by a strange necessity to simply lie still and conserve energy and oxygen, Erica had figured that this situation must have had something to do with their husbands. But as she inhaled the strong smell of the pine wood, she also knew that their husbands had a fearsome reputation and anyone knowingly doing this to the wives of Seb McDaid and Zack Pentelow must be totally off their rocker. The whole of Birmingham knew to stay clear of the families.
Therefore, it then crossed her mind that if no one would be foolish enough to cross their gangster husbands, that may mean only one thing. Seb and Zack were actually responsible for the predicament in which the two women found themselves to be in. What if they had found out about their sleeping with Judd Stone? Their husbands would kill them if they knew for sure, but in a way as cruel as this? Perhaps because Stone was a copper that just hit the nerve a little too harshly for the boys to take.
But at least she was alive and at this actual moment for some strange reason, someone wanted her alive. She had a tube leading to the outside world in order to provide oxygen, so her predicament began to puzzle her further.
Then a dreadful thought shot through her mind. Without delay, Erica reached down to her private parts. While she had been unconscious had she been raped? She breathed a huge sigh of relief as everything seemed to be in order down there.
She fumbled around her and was unable to lay her hands on her handbag. She hadn’t really expected to, but she had to try because she knew that her mobile phone was in there. In any case, she concluded that the chances of getting a signal in this cold, dark place would probably not have been a success anyway.
It seemed an entirely useless situation. There was nothing she could possibly do to help herself which took frustration to a whole new level for her, but then Erica McDaid remarkably became annoyed with herself. In all the drama and fear she had forgotten that she was probably better equipped than many others to cope with a situation like this. Erica was a very spiritual lady and she practised yoga. She wasn’t in a position to display any yoga moves but Erica also engaged regularly in Transcendental Meditation. Erica closed h
er eyes and drifted off into a trance as she chanted and repeated her mantra in her mind.
Chapter Ten
Zack Pentelow looked Enzo Durante straight in the eye. “You’ve got some fucking nerve standing there telling me that you have taken my wife. If you harm one hair on her head, I will kill you and every generation of your family for years to come.”
“And the same message goes concerning my wife, whoever the fuck you are,” spat Seb McDaid. “Once we find them, you’re a dead man.”
“But that’s just the problem isn’t it gentlemen. Where the fuck are, they, these two precious women of yours? I know where they are, so it looks like I hold all the cards. If you want to see them alive again, I suggest you start paying me some fucking respect.”
“So, listening to your accent I can tell you’re American, which means you have no place here in Birmingham,” said Zack.
“Just like you had no place in New York,” retorted Durante.
Zack smiled as the penny dropped. “New York. You’re pissed because our families did a bit of business over there.”
“More than a bit. You, that freak standing next to you and those two dead fuckers Logan and Glazier took an almighty fucking liberty. You pissed in the pool of the Durante’s so now I’m fucking raining down hard on all of your parades.”
“Call me that again,” said Seb taking a step forward.
Zack politely placed his arm across Seb’s path.
“Easy Seb. He’ll get his yet, but as Mr Durante has so eloquently expressed at the present time, he is the custodian of our wives’ safety.”
“I can see which one of you has the brains here Gentlemen, but that may not save your wife yet Mr Pentelow.”
Escaping The Shadows Anthology: Shenanigans'19 @ The West Midlands Book Signing. Page 2