It had been a bonus to find she’d taken Aiden under her wing. Because, as clever as that fucker was, Eric Palmer depended on Jade to keep him on the straight and narrow. Aiden was an earner, but Eric had begun to see that, without this woman beside him, he would never reach his full potential. The boy had earned his creds and no one could deny that he had a brain full of ideas. But his youth still made him a liability, as had been proven recently.
It was a shame that Jade had not been born a man, because she had the nuts to make it in the world they lived in. She had gone further than most women would have been allowed to – and that was because of him. She had gone further than most men, if he was being really honest. Jade Dixon was the anomaly that only turned up every so often: a woman with the mentality needed to succeed in their world.
Eric had taken Jade to his bed when she was far younger than he had thought and she had shown a natural aptitude for the work early on. She had wanted to make something of herself, and she had. He still felt guilty about their short relationship. He had never believed that she was so young; she had been so experienced. She had used him and he had accepted that eventually, but it still gave him sleepless nights. He had never really been a chancer – he had seen Jade and he had wanted her. Now, of course, he knew that she had wanted him for her own reasons. She had known, even then, how to manipulate the people around her. He had been used, and that was something that had never left him. He still admired her resolve: she went after what she wanted and she tended to get it, no matter what the price.
Thanks to Eric, and his knack of finding people who were capable of living in the world he created and who he could trust, no matter what happened, Jade Dixon had found her niche. He had given her the opportunity to ply her trade, and she had proven her worth to him on more than one occasion. He had never regretted bringing her on board. In fact, she was one of the best earners he had. She was also the voice of reason and that was one of her main attributes. Aiden O’Hara and Jade were a real good combination and now they had a child together. Aiden, for all his nous, needed a guiding hand – a hand that she was more than qualified to give him, even as she was wondering if it was going to be worth her time and trouble. Oh, he could read Jade like a book!
Watching her, he felt terrible because he really didn’t want to have to do this. Sighing heavily and theatrically, he said quietly, ‘You can talk to me, Jade. I’ve already worked out that you were the one who made sure our Aiden didn’t make a fool of himself.’ He tried to look like the good guy, like the friend he thought he was.
Jade laughed then, a real laugh. It sounded wrong in Eric Palmer’s posh new offices, the offices that Aiden had insisted on.
‘Eric, Aiden is a shrewd fucker. You know that as well as I do. But he doesn’t think some things through. There are too many people offering him deals, more people every day pandering to him because he has so much power. In time he will understand all that old fanny. But for now he still doesn’t get that certain deals need to be watched and that his reputation isn’t enough. I do the day-to-day shit while he swans off and looks for more lucrative deals, looks for more excitement. So don’t fucking try and pretend you never knew this was on the cards.’
Eric smiled. ‘I do know that, Jade. You are absolutely right. We gave him too much too soon. But, in all my years on the street, I have never met anyone who can think up an earn like him. Your influence is noted and I can’t deny that you can rein him in. But give him the time to learn and no one will be able to touch him.’
Jade raised her eyebrows. ‘So, you are happy with him gunrunning. Really? When he was just dealing with Gerry Murphy, I wasn’t too bothered. But now he’s involved with some serious fucking people.’
Eric Palmer nodded. ‘True, but it’s a good earn, and we just provide the guns on the streets. As Aiden pointed out, this way we can monitor who has got what. The main money comes from sending them overseas, of course, but he has that covered too. He has the savvy that we need, Jade. All you need to do is keep an eye on him.’
Jade shook her head sadly. ‘So, basically, I have another fucking business to look after. I don’t trust the Irish, Eric. Not this fucking lot, anyway. They see themselves as above us. They don’t really think we are credible. They are funding a war, we are on the rob – two completely different fucking things.’
Eric Palmer knew Jade spoke the truth but he also believed that Aiden was right. He had pointed out that if they didn’t deal with the Irish, someone else would and, whoever that might be, they would then have the backing needed to take anyone down if necessary, and he said as much to Jade.
‘We need the Irish onside. That, Jade, is simple economics.’
She could see the logic, but she wasn’t happy about any of it. ‘I still don’t trust them. Plus, once we are involved with them, we are not just looking at the regular Filth, who we can control, coming after us with everything they have got, but we will have to swerve the agencies who are geared up to look for anything pertaining to terrorism. It’s a whole different ball game. And all the people that we have on our books will run a mile once the IRA are mentioned. You know, Eric, you never did understand that, while we might have evidence of them fucking little kids – the evidence against those nonces – if the balloon ever went up, and we were accused of dealing with terrorists, the people we have onside now would run a fucking mile. Our so-called power would be null and void overnight. Those fuckers protect their own − it’s been proven to us time and time again. Look at last year with that MP, the one after boys so young even we wouldn’t go there. He walked away from it all because the bloke who accused him disappeared into the system. What I’m saying, Eric, is sometimes it’s better to do one deal with these fuckers and then drop it. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth the aggro.’
Eric Palmer could hear the fear and worry in her voice and that bothered him because Jade Dixon was game for literally anything. If she was not interested then maybe he should have a rethink.
Seeing the uncertainty on Eric’s face, Jade took the chance to drive her point home. ‘Honestly, Eric, I have a bad feeling about this. People are always afraid of terrorism. Open the papers. People clear a bus or train if they hear an Irish accent. It’s ten years too late. But they are still bombing people. If you get us involved in this we can’t get away from it, no matter how much money we throw about. We are basically fucked.’ She opened her arms in a gesture of supplication. ‘Aiden is like you, he just sees the bottom line. I see that we would be allying ourselves with people who attempt murder indiscriminately. We are not part of their cause, Eric. We would be vilified by our own people eventually. It’s why you’ve never got involved with this before – so why start now? And I certainly don’t want to have anything to do with it now. I think we should get a quick stash of firearms and then fuck them off.’
She made a good argument. She was talking sense. Eric trusted her to know more about what was going on out there than he did these days. He relied on people like Jade and, more so, on men like Aiden to be his window to the world. They were the people who gave him the day-to-day information that allowed him to ply his trade. He didn’t want to immerse himself in it any more. He was taking a step back and that was what he paid people for – and he paid fucking well. But now in taking his eye off the fucking ball he had allowed Aiden to walk them all into this latest fucking aggravation. Listening to her, Eric believed that Jade knew what she was talking about. He trusted that Aiden had a good head for earns. This time, unfortunately, he had gone a bit too far. Once he understood the economics, Aiden would understand that it was not in any of their interests to pursue the relationship. He would tell Aiden that they would only bankroll one buy; after that, they could not justify the expense. It was up to Aiden now to extricate them from this deal.
Jade sighed heavily. ‘Do you know something, Eric?’ She was shaking her head in despair. ‘I have already brokered the deal. We bring in one shipment, and then we walk away. Honestly, I wonder at times what t
he fuck you lot would do without me. I explained that we couldn’t guarantee the safety of their product. That, with hindsight, we were not in a position to overlook our other businesses to concentrate on them and that we were already bringing guns in from Belgium, et cetera.’
Eric laughed then. ‘What fucking guns from Belgium?’
‘The guns we are now bringing in on a much smaller basis, mainly handguns. Nothing too outrageous. We can offload them immediately because I have already talked to Jimmy Ortega. He’s a good Brixton boy, as you know. He’s over the fucking moon. After the second shipment I will explain that we are in line for a capture. So he will swallow his big, huge knob – and I am speaking from experience here, he is a big lad! Then we disappear into the woodwork and pretend this never happened. You know and I know, Eric, that any guns found nowadays are somehow all brought back to the IRA. Gerry Murphy will do this one-time deal and that’s it as far as we are concerned. There is no comeback for any of us from his Irish colleagues because they understand that Gerry fucked himself over.’
Eric Palmer was more than impressed. ‘You sorted all that out today, Jade?’
She smiled. Her first real smile. ‘Of course, Eric. I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.’
‘You are one fucking clever bird. I always knew that about you.’
Jade laughed again, but it was a sneer more than a laugh. ‘Oh, well fuck me sideways. I’m so impressed. I have been working your biggest scams for years, Eric. I have earned you fortunes! Not that I haven’t earned a good wedge myself. But did it never once cross your mind that I could only ply my trade because I made a point of befriending people who could further my cause? The Filth, for example? I made it my mission to get them onside. The same with the Irish. I gave them whatever they wanted because I knew that it would be the only leverage we had if everything should ever fall out of bed. Which it has. And I realise that you never once gave me the fucking benefit of all that. You never once understood just how much I watched your back. No matter what happened I always sorted it, like I have tonight with Aiden. Now I have to ask myself honestly if you ever once appreciated just how fucking loyal I have actually been?’
Eric Palmer was shocked at the vitriol in her voice, and he was also shamed because he had never given credit to just how much power she had. He wondered how he had have never realised this woman’s acumen. Tonight she had, with a few phone calls, talked them out of something that would have eventually destroyed them. She had single-handedly given him exactly what he wanted, without asking anything in return, or trying to do a deal with him beforehand. He was actually humbled by her loyalty and her decency.
‘I can’t argue this with you, Jade. I can only say that I never really appreciated you fully until now. I always had the highest regard for you and I always knew that you were a brilliant businesswoman. Tonight, though, you have made me see that I have in you, Jade, a real fucking diamond. I can’t explain to you just how much I underestimated you. But I can assure you now, that will never happen again.’
Jade believed he meant every word he said, but she was well aware that Eric would never refer to any of this again. So, shrugging nonchalantly, she said quietly, ‘I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet. But you need to see the people around you that are there for you. Aiden, especially. He adores you. He spends his life trying to prove himself to you.’
Eric Palmer looked into her eyes. ‘I never doubted that for a minute, darling.’
Chapter Fifty-Five
‘Look, Aiden, you have to get past this. You made a big fuck-up, but it’s sorted now and that’s it. We’ve all been guilty of it.’
Aiden didn’t answer Jade. Instead he walked out of their bedroom on to the landing and made a big performance of knotting his tie. He was angry – angry and humiliated.
Jade followed him out and tried to hold him in her arms but he shrugged her away.
‘Turn around. I always do your tie for you.’
He looked at her in the mirror and turned towards her slowly. Jade knotted his tie expertly. When she was finished she grabbed the tie and pulled him towards her, kissing him violently on his lips.
Letting him go, she said saucily, ‘I’ve missed that, Aiden. I’ve missed kissing you, darling.’
Taking her in his arms, Aiden pulled her into his body and, holding her tightly, he said angrily, ‘You know that I’m still annoyed, Jade. You fucking made an idiot out of me.’
Jade knew better than to argue with him; there was nothing she could say to minimise his hurt. She even understood exactly how he was feeling. But she couldn’t tell him that. In her bed he was a man, but outside the bed he was a boy in so many respects. A boy who couldn’t see that she had pulled his arse out of a fire! A fire that he could never have saved himself from. It had been three weeks since the aggravation with Gerry Murphy and his behaviour was really wearing her down. Although she and Eric had explained the situation from their point of view, Aiden couldn’t accept that he had done a wrong one, that he wasn’t anything less than perfect. Oh no, that would be too easy. But the fact that he could have jeopardised everything else they were involved with was to Aiden like a giraffe’s fart. It went right over his head.
He was still standing on his dignity, acting like they had ganged up on him and were deliberately ruining his future. It was fucking scary just how close they had come to ruination because of him. But Aiden just couldn’t see it. Or, more to the point, he refused to see it, and that was really starting to bother her. Jade was finally losing patience not just with this latest stupidity, but with her life in general. Aiden treated her like a cunt and now that was beginning to smart. She had taken him into her world − there was nothing that he could ever offer her. She believed that the time had come for her to remind him of that fact.
‘Why don’t you just fuck off, Aiden.’ She held up her hands and waved him away from her. ‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’ Her anger had got the better of her now and she shoved him away from her, pushing him towards the stairs.
He laughed at her. ‘You sure, Jade? Because if I go, I go for good.’
She shrugged, all the fight leaving her suddenly.
‘Do you know what? I can’t do this any more, Aiden.’
Aiden turned to her and she saw the arrogance and the anger in his handsome face. She saw him for what he was − what he really was − not what she had chosen to believe he was. She saw how little he really thought of her, how juvenile he was when he didn’t get what he wanted and he thought he had been crossed.
‘Listen to me, Aiden. You do not look down your fucking nose at me. I have been fucking good. I have put up with your stupidity for over three weeks. Well, guess what? My patience is running out. Grow the fuck up, Aiden. What are you? Fucking twelve?’
Despite her anger, she could not help looking at him and admiring how handsome he was. What it was about him she didn’t know, but he rang all her bells − even now, when she could quite happily punch his fucking lights out.
‘You can fucking act as good as you like, Jade. But I know the truth, never forget that.’
Jade looked into his eyes and the anger inside her, the fury at his snide remarks and his complete disregard for and her feelings, bubbled once again to the surface. She knew he couldn’t wait to leave her, that he needed the validation of some little tart he would pick up. He couldn’t wait to get away from her and the truth of what he had started – and she had finished for him. And she wasn’t going to take that lying down.
‘If you walk out now, Aiden, you ain’t fucking coming back in this house. I’m not a fucking silly little girl, playing fucking silly little games. You walk out of here tonight and I swear on my boy’s life, you will never darken this fucking door again.’
She walked away from him and, as she made her way down the stairs, she felt a calmness wash over her. For once she had the upper hand with him. She knew that if he did walk out she would not ever let him back in her life. It would hurt her, but she would be better
off without him. She couldn’t play this game any more, pretending that everything he did was OK. She had no intention of spending any more of her time making him feel good about himself when that meant she had to put herself down. It was ludicrous! What the fuck had happened to her? When had she decided that her life would be about making him feel better about himself? When had her life meant that she forgot about herself?
In the kitchen she opened one of the cupboards and took out a bottle of whisky. She grabbed a glass from the draining board and poured herself out a stiff drink. She had not felt this angry with anyone for years. But over the last few weeks Aiden had pushed her to the limit.
She downed the Scotch quickly, savouring the burn in her throat. Then she poured herself another large glass. As she turned around to take her drink into the sitting room, she walked straight into Aiden. He took the glass from her and he swallowed the drink down. Coughing at its strength, he said seriously, ‘You are the only person I know who can drink raw Scotch, lady.’
She smiled and, taking the glass from him, she poured him another. Then, going to the sink, she picked up a second glass and, pouring herself another measure, she said lightly, ‘I meant what I said you know, Aiden. I refuse to do this shit any more. I have done nothing fucking wrong, as you well know.’
She leaned against the sink, sipping her drink and wondering where this conversation was going. She still couldn’t trust him, and it occurred to her suddenly that, if she was honest with herself, she never had trusted him really. Never trusted him to stand by her. The knowledge hurt her.
Across the kitchen Aiden studied her. She was looking her age in many ways. She was still a beautiful woman, though. He loved her with every part of his being, and he could never imagine being with anyone else, not like he was with her, anyway.