Disobey (29 page)

‘Go Chloe, I’ll be right behind you.’ She turned to Alfie. ‘The best way is to go back round the building, down the alleyway and keep following it until you get to the main road.’

Alfie nodded pulling Chloe-Jane with him. The next moment, the two of them began to run.

Jodie watched them disappear. She whispered the words to herself and smiled. ‘Goodbye Chloe-Jane … Goodbye.’

Closing the door, Jodie slowly walked up the stairs. Not worrying now whether anyone saw her, or anyone heard her. She had done what was needed to do, she had made sure her friend was safe, and now there was only one more thing left to do. And she was ready.

53

‘Where is she?… Where’s Jodie?’ Chloe-Jane cried hysterically as the cab driver drove them back to Soho.

Alfie looked out of the window. ‘I don’t think she’s coming, babe.’

‘What do you mean?… She said she would … She said she was coming. We’ve got to go back. We’ve got to go back!’

‘Chloe, are you crazy? We can’t go back, we only just got away with our lives. If we waited for her any longer … well …’ Alfie trailed off, unable to say anything reassuring.

Chloe shook her head, and then she remembered Jodie had shoved something in her hand. It was ridiculous but in the chaos, she’d just pushed it in her pocket and hadn’t thought about it. She pulled it out. It was a letter. Pink, with her name written neatly on the envelope.

Quickly she ripped it open.

Dear Chloe-Jane,

By the time you read this, I imagine you’ll be back at home. Home … wow! That’s a nice thought Chloe, to think of you back where you belong; with your family. I know how important they are to you but I also know how lucky they are to have you, like I was lucky to have you as my friend. Don’t forget that Chloe. Don’t let nobody tell you that you ain’t special. You’re the best friend I ever had and being with you made me happy. And I ain’t been happy for a long time, until you came along of course. Chloe, please forgive me for letting you down. I should never have picked you but I knew I would like you straight away. And although the reasons for picking you were for the wrong reasons I’m glad I did, otherwise I would never have got to know you. I’m sorry for everything Chloe, but most of all I’m sorry that I won’t be able to see you again. I know you’ll be alright and I know you would have wanted me to come with you, but it ain’t where I belong. But I’m okay, you made it okay for me. Promise me you won’t forget me and please don’t be sad Chloe-Jane, ’cos you and me have been sad too long. I love you.

Jodie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ps. Don’t let that Uncle of yours be a knob.

54

Knowing that Chloe-Jane was going to be okay made Jodie feel much better. And now here she was, sitting at the window of her favourite room at the top of Mr Lee’s building after she’d managed to open the door with the set of keys she’d got hold of.

From there she could see all of the rooftops, all of the cars and people below, unaware she was there watching them as they went about their business. Many a night she’d slunk up to this spot, doing nothing but sitting and thinking, then Mr Lee had discovered her there sometime last year and he’d kept it locked from that time on. This was the first time she’d been there since.

Jodie sighed, a calm peace resting on her young shoulders.

She locked the door, then pulled a chair to the middle of the room and climbed onto it. She lifted her jumper up, making it easier for her to pull the belt from the loops of her jeans. With the belt in her hand, Jodie calmly threw it over the exposed metal beam before making a noose with it.

She placed her head in the noose then adjusted the belt to sit under her jaw, resting just on her neck. She closed her eyes for a moment, at peace for the first time in her life. Opening them again, Jodie took one last glance around the room and without another thought, she stepped off the chair. It was finally over.

55

‘Please, Franny;
please,
’ Chloe-Jane begged both Franny and Lola as she sat up in bed.

‘No, love. It ain’t sensible.’ Lola looked at Alfie, who’d washed and changed but still looked in a bad way. He hadn’t said much when he’d rung the bell and stumbled in with Chloe. He’d asked to see Franny who’d she’d called straight away and who’d come without hesitation.

As for Chloe, she hadn’t said anything either. She and Franny had run the girl a bath and helped her to get washed, and that’s when they’d seen the cuts and bruises on her back.

‘What’s that, love? What happened?’ Lola had stared, open-mouthed in horror as she saw Chloe’s back.

‘Nothing; it ain’t anything.’

Franny had then taken Chloe’s hand and urged her to talk, insisting that she tell them what had happened. It’d taken over half an hour to persuade her to say anything, and then she had simply said:

‘They did it … They did.’

‘Who honey, who are they?’ Franny had pushed some more, but Chloe had said nothing else – until now that was, but none of them were any the wiser of how and what had happened to her.

Alfie interrupted, realising that Chloe was desperately worried about Jodie. ‘Sweetheart, it ain’t a question of just being able to go and get her. She had her chance to come and for whatever reason she decided not to. It was her choice.’

Chloe-Jane shook her head. ‘No, Uncle Alfie, you don’t understand, she wasn’t happy there. The only reason she was with Mr Lee was because she had nowhere else to go. The stuff we had to do …’

Chloe stopped and looked round the room, all eyes on her. Franny walked over to the bed, sitting down on it gently.

‘What stuff, Chloe?’

‘I dunno.’

Franny took her hand and urged her on. ‘You do know, Chloe. Whatever it is, you can tell us. You won’t be in trouble.’

Chloe chewed on her lip. She wanted to tell them what had happened to her, she really did. But what if she told them and they didn’t want her around them anymore?

‘I don’t know … I …’

Alfie decided to take control. He marched over to the bed and sat down, staring in Chloe-Jane’s eyes. ‘I haven’t said thank you yet, darlin’ … Truth is, I’m not quite sure how. Me words ain’t good enough and they ain’t big enough but if you put your hand on me heart you might be able to feel it bursting. Look, feel … Can you feel it, Chloe?’ Alfie took her hand and placed it on his chest. ‘You risked your life for me. You did that, Chloe. You found me in that basement and you promised to come back for me with help, and when you couldn’t find any, then you still came back regardless. Do you realise how brave you were, babe? You took on them bastards like you was bleedin’ Wolverine, and there’s no way I can really pay you back for what you did.’

‘No, but make sure you make him try, he can start by getting that tidy little pink Chanel handbag up in the window of Selfridges.’ Lola cackled, smiling at them both.

Alfie continued, winking at Lola, and trying not to catch Franny’s eye. He was too ashamed of himself. ‘She’s right, Chloe, I will try, and I haven’t forgotten about that holiday I said I’d take you on. I’m a man of me word … Okay, sometimes that hasn’t always been the case, but I’m going to look after you and that don’t just include designer gear, it includes making sure you’re alright. And that means not letting you keep secrets. Fuck knows, Chloe, they’ll come back and bite you in the end; just look at what’s happened to me. So go on, darlin’, tell us, whatever it is.’

Chloe looked round at them all, then took a deep breath before saying, ‘It was sex stuff. Bad stuff. Like for the internet.’

Alfie clenched his fists. ‘Go on, Chloe, carry on.’

‘I thought it would be the usual, you know, the stuff you get with normal punters.’

‘What do you mean?’

Chloe glanced at Alfie. She put her head down. ‘You know – when I was working the street, it was just the normal stuff like blow jobs, full sex and anal sex.’

Franny gasped, but she quickly put her hand over her mouth not to make Chloe think she was judging her. How could she have missed it? It was so obvious now that Chloe was saying it. She should’ve spotted it a mile away, and Franny was ashamed to think it, but maybe the reason she didn’t see it was she’d wanted to bury her head in the sand and not have to deal with anyone else’s problems.

‘So when Jodie asked me to …’

Alfie interrupted, his voice loud. ‘Jodie asked you. I knew that little tramp would’ve had something to do with it.’

‘
Please
Uncle Alfie, it wasn’t like that. Jodie was my friend. She was as caught up in it as me.’

‘But if she hadn’t got you involved in the first place, Clo.’

Chloe looked at her uncle, desperate for him to see what she was trying to say to him. ‘It wasn’t as simple as that. And don’t forget, she was the one who got us out of there. Without her, we’d be dead.’

Alfie didn’t say anything else as the words resonated.

‘Anyway, Mr Lee didn’t want the guys to have sex with me, he wanted them to hurt me.’

Lola shook her head, she’d seen a lot in her time; after all she’d been on the game herself but it had never been any of that kinky stuff and when anyone had come along wanting to do all that sado shit, she’d run a mile. ‘The sick fuck, you want to string him up, Alfie.’

Franny spoke, trying not to let her voice quiver. ‘And is that what made all the marks on your back, Chloe?’

Chloe nodded. ‘Yeah, the geezer did it when we streamed live on the internet.’

Lola chipped in again. ‘And people pay for this stuff? They want to be locked up. I’ve said it once and I’m sure I’ll say it again but that bleedin’ internet has brought them crawling out of the woodwork in their droves. And as for that Mr Lee …’

Chloe’s voiced raised. ‘Exactly Lola, and that’s why we have to go back and get Jodie. It ain’t safe for her, especially as he’ll know that it was her who let us out.’

Franny looked at Alfie, it was the first time she’d spoken to him. ‘She’s right, Alfie. We can’t leave a young girl there. It ain’t right.’

Alfie thought for a minute or two. It was all a mess and he knew now he was the cause, and he also knew he wasn’t going to make any more excuses when it came to taking responsibility for it all. As much as this Jodie sounded like she’d been the one to encourage Chloe-Jane to get involved with Mr Lee, he wasn’t going to turn his back on her. As Chloe had said, not everything was as simple as it seemed.

‘Okay, but we can’t just go storming in, we have to do this right.’

Franny agreed. ‘The best thing we can do is wait for the others; Del and Frankie, to come. They should be here tomorrow by the latest. That way we can put our heads together.’

Chloe looked startled. ‘Tomorrow?… We can’t wait till then. We’ve got to go back now!’

‘Calm down, Chloe, I know it’s hard but it’s for the best. Alfie knows what he’s doing and with the help of Frankie and Del, I’m sure we’ll bring her back.’

Chloe burst into tears again, but this time Franny held her in her arms as she cried through her words. ‘I’m begging you, please let’s go tonight.’

‘Honey, we can’t. It’s not safe. Trust me, it’ll be alright, won’t it Lola?’

Lola looked dubious but didn’t say anything; she certainly didn’t want to add to Chloe’s anxiety. She wasn’t sure it would be – people like Mr Lee didn’t take kindly to people getting one over on them and if she knew anything, Lola knew he’d want somebody to pay.

56

Alfie sat on Lola’s couch in the dark, deep in thought, and slightly anxious about the imminent arrival of Del and Frankie. He wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing them; he was ashamed and sorry. Sorry for all the fucking crap he’d caused … But how was he supposed to tell them that? How would he, a face, a man who’d traded on his reputation of invincibility and being a hard-edged bastard, apologise and allow himself to show the kind of remorse appropriate?

Alfie sighed to himself. If he were honest, he was surprised they were coming over, but then a lot of things had surprised him lately, no more so than Chloe-Jane.

What he’d said to her earlier hadn’t even come close to how he felt. He’d treated her badly, treated her like a second-class citizen and a person who just spelt trouble. Alfie shook his head, continuing to gaze out of the window. How ironic, how fucking ironic to think of Chloe-Jane as someone who caused trouble when he himself often seemed to be at the heart of any trouble.

He wished he could find the words to show Chloe just how incredible she was, but that was one thing he’d never been great at. Yes, he’d been good with his fists; breaking bones and stamping fear wherever he went. He was good at wheeling and dealing; making and losing millions only to make them all over again, and of course he’d been good, no, he’d been awesome with the ladies – but that was a given, he was after all Alfie Jennings – but words. Shit, words were the one thing which had always eluded him.

‘Hey, mind if I join you?’

Alfie jumped slightly, he hadn’t heard anyone come in the room. He smiled, awkwardly.

‘Yeah, of course.’ He shuffled up to the end of the couch, pushing off Lola’s piles of magazines onto the floor.

‘Silly question, but you okay?’ Franny sat down looking directly at Alfie who stared back; stuck for what to say.

‘Listen Fran, I … I …’ He stopped, feeling a prickle of sweat break out on his forehead. He tried again. ‘Look, what I mean to say is … I … I …’ He paused again, despairing at himself. Ah fuck it, what was there to lose? What if he did look stupid? After everything that had happened, was it really worth worrying about?

Taking a deep breath, Alfie blurted out his words.

‘I love you. And I’m sorry, and I know that won’t make no difference to you after I lied and well, everything else. I’m an idiot, but you know that already. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me. You
and
Chloe-Jane. I don’t deserve either of you and it’s shit that it’s taken all this stuff with Mr Lee to make me realise what a wanker I am. I had me reasons for doing the casinos; I thought if I got enough money, you and me could leave Soho and start a new life somewhere. I’ve never wanted to settle down with anyone, until you. And it was stupid because I wasn’t thinking about anyone except meself. I didn’t care what happened to Soho, to the others, or if I was disobeying the rules, even though I knew what would happen. All that mattered was I got what I wanted. So there it is … Shit Fran, I love you and I need you to forgive me, ’cos I don’t want to live me life without you.’