Betrayal

  The DJ put on Desmond Dekker’s ‘Israelites’ and Agnes laughed as she saw her mother dragging poor Marvin over to dance with her. She got herself another glass of wine and walked over to her brothers and Aiden, putting his arm around her, hugged her to him tightly.

  ‘Look at your Colin, drinking his uncle’s beer. This is what life is all about, Aggs. Making new memories, and remembering the good old times.’

  Agnes was watching her mum and Marvin Hendry when she felt a hand on her arm. It was Timmy and, pulling her away from her brother, he led her to the patio dance floor and she happily started to dance with him. Agnes was really feeling good for once. She still relied on the Church and she went to Mass at least once a day. It had always been her solace, the place where she felt she belonged. Her faith was very important to her. But tonight she had drunk a few glasses of wine, and she was feeling young and attractive. She knew she was a beautiful woman − men had always given her attention, from a very young age, often attention that she had not wanted to receive. Suddenly, tonight, she wanted to be young, to enjoy herself. Her mum was always telling her that she was a fool to spend the best years of her life mourning a man who could never come back to her. That she should be out there enjoying her life while she still could. But tonight, she didn’t know if it was the wine, or the moonlight, but for the first time in years she felt the urge to let herself go. In Timmy’s arms she felt safe and she also felt like she was young again; inside she had always felt so old, like she had to always be the adult. But that was because her mother had never quite mastered the grown-up bit for herself.

  Timmy was pleased to see Agnes enjoying herself. He always felt conflicted around her because he was as much in love with her as ever but couldn’t forget that he had murdered her husband. But he couldn’t stay away from her.

  ‘You look beautiful, Agnes, do you know that?’

  Agnes laughed delightedly and said quickly, ‘Well, Timmy, it is very dark!’

  Timmy looked at her and said seriously, ‘Agnes, you are a very beautiful girl. My brother would have wanted you to build another life for yourself and for your son. Look at you, lady!’

  Agnes was so embarrassed she turned her head away from Timmy’s gaze, and sighing heavily she said nervously, ‘Oh, stop it, Timmy. Please! You know I don’t know how to react to that kind of talk.’

  Timmy could quite happily have shouted at her; she was such a fool. She was so determined to stay on her own, and honour the memory of his brother.

  ‘Listen to me, Agnes. You need to get a life of your own. All I am saying is, there is a big world out there. For fuck’s sake, go and join it before it’s too late.’

  She didn’t answer him; she didn’t know what to say.

  Reeva was still holding on to Marvin Hendry and he was quite happy to dance with her. He liked Reeva and he admired her. As Patsy pulled her away from him, and danced her over to Tony, they were all laughing good-naturedly. Tony was quite happy to dance with his Reeva. After all the years they had been together it was quite plain to see that he actually did love her.

  Aiden and Jade were dancing to ‘Kingston Town’, the original version − it was their record in a way. And, as they danced, she saw him watching their son and his young girlfriend.

  ‘I think they are a lovely couple, Aiden. What’s your problem? They are young, and the chances are this won’t even last.’

  Aiden snorted at her with complete disrespect and, shaking his head slowly, he said angrily, ‘I might have known you would think this was fucking love’s young dream! Are you stupid, Jade? I had you down as a lot of things, but not a fucking idiot. If he ties himself to her, it’s all over for him. Look at her, a fucking Jamaican drug dealer’s daughter!’

  Jade pushed him away from her violently. She was furious at his complete disregard for his son’s feelings and his first foray into the world of relationships and love. How could he be such a hypocrite and still keep a straight face?

  ‘Who the fuck do you think you are, Aiden? Look around you. You think that you can just want something and it will happen. Well, it doesn’t work like that, mate. Our son is a grown man, and the sooner you fucking remember that the better it will be for all of us.’

  Aiden was aware that their little contretemps had been noticed, and he was not happy about that. But he was more annoyed that Jade couldn’t see what he was trying to tell her. He had really believed that she would see where he was coming from. Surely she wanted the best for their son? That was all he wanted for him, all he had ever wanted for him. Unlike his mother, of course, who it seemed didn’t care if he threw his fucking life away at twenty. Women were cunts. His mother had been used by men all her life, from fourteen years old. His attraction to Jade had been because she had the nous to use the men − she wasn’t a fucking silly girl with dreams of fucking romance and weddings. Now it turned out that she was as fucking deranged as every other fucking idiot woman he had known. Why did everyone seem to think that he was the bad bastard because he wanted the best for his boy?

  He looked around him as he walked back to his brothers, and seeing his sister still dancing with that fucking Timmy Clark did not do anything to help with his bad mood. But he plastered a smile on his face, and he played the part of the happy uncle.

  But he wasn’t happy at all. In fact, he was fucking fuming.

  Chapter One Hundred and Eleven

  ‘Jade, will you just stop for one moment and talk to me.’

  Jade had no intention of talking to Aiden because she believed it was a complete waste of time. As she walked past him to leave their bedroom, he grabbed her arm roughly and threw her back on to the bed. Jade was shocked because, as threatening as she knew Aiden’s behaviour could be when thwarted, he had never once used violence against her. She jumped back up immediately − she wasn’t going to let him get away with this.

  ‘You would fucking dare to think that you could ever lay a hand on me? I don’t think so, Aiden. The man ain’t been fucking born yet who could get away with that.’

  Aiden was trying his hardest to keep his cool but Jade was not making it easy for him and she was more than capable of giving him a run for his money if it came to a physical fight. He didn’t want to have to fight with her but she was really winding him up. He was surprised; she was generally sensible enough to know that the best way to deal with him when he was aggravated was not to fucking push her luck too far.

  ‘I am telling you again, Aiden − our son can do what he likes. You can’t fucking stop him caring about someone. You cannot even really believe that you have that much power over him, surely? He loves us, Aiden, but he loves Loretta too. She is a terrific girl. It might all fall out of bed next week, but that is up to them, not you! Who the fucking hell do you think you are?’

  Aiden was on the verge of losing his temper big time. He couldn’t even breathe properly. He was so angry and disappointed with Jade’s stupidity.

  ‘He ain’t you, Aiden. He doesn’t see everything and everyone as a fucking opportunity. I have had to stand in for you and stop you physically harming the girls you were fucking. I have had to make sure that you didn’t get the poor mares murdered. Because you are more than capable of that kind of hatred, especially when they think they might be in with a chance. You are such a fucking lunatic, Aiden. You only ever see what you want to see. You just never let other people be, do you?’

  She could see that she had really got his temper up and, for once, she didn’t care. Her days of pussyfooting round this fucker were over.

  ‘I am warning you, Aiden: don’t fucking push this. If you are not careful you will push that boy away. He’s a grown man and he doesn’t have to listen to you!’

  Aiden could see that she was talking sense on one level, but he could not allow his son to throw himself away on a girl like Loretta. He could do so much better for himself − why couldn’t he see that? What really bothered him was the way that Aiden Junior looked at that girl; he was absolutely besotted with her.

/>   Jade was watching him, she could see the different expressions on his face and she could read him like a book. Placing her hand gently on his arm, she said sadly, ‘Leave him be, Aiden. For Christ’s sake, just leave our boy alone. He won’t thank you for your interference.’

  He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. When he held Jade like this it was the only time that he felt safe. Jade gave him a stability that he desperately needed. The fact that she still loved him, knowing him as she did, was something he would always be awed by. Because he knew that he wasn’t like other people; his take on the world wasn’t fucking perfect and he saw a lot of things from a very different perspective to most of the people around him. Well, that was why he was so successful, and why he had created a world for everyone he cared about.

  He followed her down to the kitchen and watched her as she made them their morning coffee. She was still a very attractive woman; as old as she was, she could still give a lot of younger women a run for their money. He realised he was lucky to have her – if only he was capable of sitting back and enjoying the life he had built. But it wasn’t in his nature. He’d always had control of everything around him. It had been the bane of his life; from the time he was a young kid, he had always had to think about all the people in his life, from his mother, Reeva, to his brothers and his sister. That had just been his lot and he accepted that. He had been the man of the house − he had had to be, no one else was going to look out for them, were they? So he had done it. He had taken on that load and he didn’t regret a second of it.

  But to see his handsome son tying himself to a girl whose only conversation was about fucking celebrities, and who spent more time looking at her social media accounts than she did actually talking to the people around her, distressed him. She was a fucking moron, a very pretty moron but a first-grade one, nevertheless. From her expensive shoes to her false nails, she was everything that he loathed. He employed girls like her in his houses and his clubs, but they were for no more than a dalliance. You didn’t fucking marry them.

  Jade placed a mug of coffee in front of him, breaking his train of thought. ‘You really can’t see what you are doing wrong, can you, Aiden? It scares me that you can’t see what the real problem is here. Something so simple even your fucking mother could suss out while on one of her massive benders, is beyond your comprehension. Be honest, Aiden. It’s not Loretta you object to. Your fucking problem is that your son is striking out on his own, doing something that you had no hand in, something that you can’t control. Don’t try and bullshit yourself that this is about anything else − because we both know that it’s not.’

  Aiden shrugged. She made a good argument − and she was absolutely right. But that didn’t change the fact that he still believed his son was making a big mistake.

  Jade lit herself a cigarette. He clearly wasn’t going to admit anything so she tried another tack. ‘Is it because she’s black, Aiden?’

  Shaking his head slowly, he looked into her eyes as he said, ‘In all honesty, Jade? I just don’t know. I really can’t answer that, darling.’

  Jade looked at him for a long moment before saying sadly, ‘You never fucking cease to amaze me, Aiden.’

  She was so disappointed in him, and he understood why she would feel like it.

  ‘I could have lied to you, Jade, but I didn’t, did I?’

  She didn’t know what to say to him any more. They were a strange pair, but they had been through so much together. She knew everything about him − the good as well as the bad, and there was a lot of bad in him. He was ruthless and vicious and he could be very petty when the fancy took him. Yet somehow they worked together; they were both broken people. But she had been broken by circumstances − Aiden had been born broken.

  ‘Promise me one thing, Aiden. Please leave Aiden Junior alone. Let him follow his own road because there is a lot of you in our boy and he won’t take kindly to you interfering in his life.’

  Aiden couldn’t deny she was right about that.

  ‘It’s his first real love job, Aiden, and that’s a big thing at his age. You remember how it felt, don’t you? I concede that she isn’t exactly a fucking bluestocking, but that doesn’t bother him. And Marvin − he thinks the sun shines out of our Aiden’s arse. You know what the real irony is? That Marvin isn’t bothered about his precious daughter with our son. Unlike you, he thinks that they are entitled to love whoever the fuck they want.’

  She walked over to him and, slipping her arm around his shoulder, she sat on his lap. He immediately held her to him as she knew he would.

  ‘This is a good thing. It will cement our relationship with Marvin, and that alone will gain for us untold benefits. Marvin wants to take Aiden out to Colombia and, let’s face it, that is something he has never offered anyone else. Whether Aiden and Loretta stay together or not this is a good alliance for the boy. Surely even you can see that?’

  The best thing to do with Aiden was to appeal to his logical side, to his business side. That was always the most important thing where he was concerned. He was smiling now, and she kissed him gently on his mouth.

  ‘You’re right, Jade. I can see where you are coming from. If Marvin does decide to take our Aiden into the actual supply chain as a buyer then that can only benefit us as a business, as a family.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  She hugged him to her and hoped that she had talked him down, even though she knew that Aiden was as unpredictable as a menopausal Russian weightlifter.

  Chapter One Hundred and Twelve

  Marvin Hendry had recently purchased a building in Brixton; as it was being gentrified it was becoming a great place for investment opportunities. He had always felt at home in Brixton − he had even met one of his baby mothers at The Fridge many moons ago. She was a good-looking girl from Essex who had produced a son for him and, more to the point, had always understood the situation of being involved with him. She was a realist. She was married now to a nice guy who wasn’t short of a few quid and who his son really had a great relationship with. The boy had finished university and was training to be a doctor. He was interested in surgery, and Marvin was quite happy to bankroll his education. He planned to gift him one of the flats in this block that he had purchased and was now being renovated. Marvin liked to see his blood achieving. He had always partied away from home, and that would never change, but he also prided himself on never shirking his responsibilities. It grieved him that so many men in his world produced a child and would often abandon that child along with its mother. Marvin was a staunch believer in taking responsibility for your actions.

  He was pleased that his adored daughter, his Loretta, and Aiden O’Hara Junior were so enamoured of each other. He really liked the boy and he was quite happy to bring him into the operational side of the business if he became family. Marvin was well aware that it bothered Aiden O’Hara that he had never been able to get a foot into the actual Colombian distribution. But as much as he liked and respected Aiden, Marvin could never allow him to become too involved in that side of it. He knew Aiden O’Hara too well; the man had a natural greed and that, coupled with a personality that would never let him be anything other than the top earner, automatically disqualified him from ever getting anywhere near the people concerned. This, along with the knowledge that Aiden would always try to infiltrate the organisation so he could further his own agenda, pretty much guaranteed that Marvin would never let the fucker get too close.

  But his son was a different entity entirely. He was young and he was hungry, but the boy’s real talent was his ability to get along with everyone around him; in this particular game that was a real bonus.

  Marvin’s connections were real Colombians. Fanatical Catholics, they were passionate about family. It was a given that the only people you could ever really trust were your own family − that was how they had survived in the world they inhabited for so long. Family also included the people who had married into the clan; unless they were deemed weak or fake they
would be welcomed with open arms. Marvin believed that he could quite easily take Aiden Junior under his wing and teach him everything he needed to know. Marvin didn’t have any of his own children this high up in his business; the sons he had working for him were good boys but they would never have the brain capacity to do anything more than run whatever side businesses he provided for them. It broke his heart to admit their limitations, but in his world you couldn’t ever put the wrong people into positions of power. That was a mistake too many others had made, and he knew exactly how it tended to turn out − he was normally the person who had to go in and pick up the pieces.

  Instead, he was quite happy to bring Aiden Junior into his business on a really good footing. The boy was an up-and-coming young Face, already talked about as a diamond geezer, as the cockneys would describe him. And then there was the fact that Loretta was pregnant; she had already confided in her mother, who had immediately confided in him. But he would wait for his daughter to tell him in her own time. He was also very interested to see how Aiden O’Hara Junior handled the situation. Marvin had worked out for himself that Aiden’s father wasn’t exactly a big fan of the youngsters’ relationship. That had irritated him. He really didn’t like to contemplate that a headcase like Aiden O’Hara could actually think that his daughter wasn’t good enough to align herself with his son. That was a real melon scratcher, all right. The plus was that Marvin had great hopes for Aiden Junior, and he believed that the boy would step up to the plate where his daughter was concerned. He liked the kid and he trusted him.

  So Marvin was doing what he always did: keeping quiet about what he already knew and waiting. That was something he had learned at an early age: never let anyone know what you knew. The chances were that most people were very rarely scrupulously honest about the part they played in whatever drama you were suddenly involved with. He had learned to always find out everything he could about everyone around him, and that way he could never be surprised at what they might be capable of. That meant that he was already aware of how they were going to react before they even crossed his threshold. It was called covering your own arse, and he was the fucking king of it.