Duality (27 page)

On arrival back in Manchester, Jez went straight home to see his wife and kids. Mikey knew he should do the same but there was someone else he wanted to see first. He just had to know what Jules had decided, especially when Grant told him she was back at the bungalow.

After telling Shane and Mark to go home and get some rest and sending Grant on an errand to make sure they had total privacy, Mikey entered the bungalow, pausing before the office door to take a deep breath before entering, not sure how he’d feel when he saw her.

Jules was sitting in his chair with her feet up on his desk. She slowly rose and they stood there staring at each other, unsure what to say.

“How was your trip?” she asked him, breaking the silence.

“Successful.”

“Thank Christ for that.”

“And thanks for grassing us up to Ryan and Rachel. Me and Jez have both had bollockings off them for going to Glasgow.”

“Sorry about that, it just came out.”

“It’s okay. How was your trip?”

“Good thanks. I got a lot of stuff worked out.”

“You did?” he said, almost afraid to ask.

She nodded. “I’m going to marry Jax.”

Mikey released a sigh and shook his head. “I had a feeling that’s what you’d say.”

“It’s the right thing to do.”

“Is it?” he said, staring at her intently.

“Yes,” she replied, steadily meeting his gaze.

In two strides he was before her, kissing her, Jules enthusiastically responding.

“I love you,” he told her, taking her face in his hands.

“Oh bloody hell Mikey,” she said, wrenching herself free and turning her back on him. “Why did you have to say it?”

“Why not? You already knew.”

“But it’s different hearing it out loud.”

“I want you Jules.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean I want to be with you.”

She turned back round to gape at him. “Have you lost your sodding mind?”

“No. I’ve been driving myself crazy thinking about it but I was only trying to fool myself. I know what I’ve wanted for a while now and it’s not Amber.”

“You’re not serious, this is just a physical thing.”

“No it’s not and we both know it. I want to leave Amber for you.”

“You have a kid together,” she exclaimed.

“It’s not fair for us to stay together for him because it will only make us all miserable.” He took her face in his hands again. “You’re the woman I want to be with.”

“We’re cousins, first cousins.”

He shrugged. “I couldn’t give a shit. We’d be fucking amazing together Jules.”

Jules gazed into those sea green eyes of his that were so wide and earnest and full of hope. “I know we would but we’d also be so dangerous together. One reason why I love Jax is…”

“You don’t love him,” he barked.

“Yes I do and one reason why is because I like myself when I’m with him. I’m nicer, softer and that’s what I need to be a good mum. With you I’d be even more on the edge than I usually am.”

“It wouldn’t be like that.”

“One of the first times we were alone together you killed Leighton.”

“That was a mercy killing.”

“After I failed to do it properly. That’s what we’d be like all the time, pushing each other to the extreme and that’s not right, not when we have two kids to think of. Plus how would you feel raising Jared Slattery’s child as your own?”

“I wouldn’t mind,” he said, eyes flickering.

“Course you would but Jax doesn’t have a problem with it.”

“Jax,” he spat.

“Come on, you like and respect him and so you should, he’s a lovely man.”

“You know what you said about why Ryan and Rachel’s marriage works so well? We could have that. Together. With Jax you’d always be keeping secrets from him about your work. With me you’d have total honesty.”

“He knows we can’t share everything and he’s fine with that too. I know you think I’m settling but I’m not. I really do love him and my future lies with him.”

“You’re making a mistake.”

“I’m not.”

“But
we
love each other.”

“Sometimes that just isn’t enough.”

Mikey released her and turned his back on her as everything he’d finally dared to hope fell away.

Jules didn’t know what to do when he just stood there with his back to her, shoulders heaving. Part of her wanted to go to him, to hold him and do naughty things with him just one last time because she fully intended to be faithful to Jax. It would be a struggle but she was determined to do it.

Unable to resist, she wrapped her arms around his waist. He grabbed onto her hands, gently squeezing them before releasing her.

“You’d better go,” was all he said.

“Okay, if that’s what you want,” she replied, disappointed.

She’d almost reached the door when he changed his mind, grabbed her and pulled her to him. “No, it’s not.”

Mikey kissed her hard, pressing her up against the door, her legs wrapping around his waist. Any guilt about cheating on Amber went right out of his head as he instinctively knew this would be the last time this would happen with Jules.

She unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it open, Mikey groaning into her mouth when she ran her hands down his bare chest. He yanked her black hoodied jumper off over her head, thinking he must be dreaming when he saw her breasts encased in a black satin bra. The bra was cast aside too and he dipped his head to kiss her full breasts, lightly running his tongue over one hard pink nipple.

His hands wandered down to the zip of her jeans, every part of him screaming to do it but something stopped him.

“I can’t,” he said, releasing her and stepping away.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I wish I was. Aw Jesus, you’re so gorgeous,” he groaned when she stood there, hands on hips and bare breasted. “But if I have you once I will never be able to let you go, I’ll want it again and again with you and that won’t be good for anyone.”

“But if we do it once we might get it out of our system.”

“No we won’t and we both know it. This is about trying to end something, not start it.”

“I can’t believe you’re turning me down.”

“Jesus Jules, I don’t want to. Can’t you tell?” he said, gesturing to his bulging crotch. “I’ve dreamt of nothing but this ever since we met but I’ve got to think of the future and if that can’t be with you well, I’ve just got to accept that. Starting now. I’d rather imagine what could have been rather than find out and keep wanting more. It would drive me out of my fucking mind. I can’t believe I’m saying this but please, put your clothes back on.”

Jules hesitated as a manic look came into his eyes, as he was almost overwhelmed with desire.

“Fuck,” he yelled, turning his back on her and picking up his shirt.

Jules decided it would be best to dress too. She was disappointed but she knew he was right. If they tasted each other once they wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other and her marriage to Jax would be over before it had even begun.

“I suppose you’re right,” she said, pulling on her bra.

“I would have given you the world Jules,” he said, keeping his back to her, afraid he’d weaken if he looked at her.

“I don’t need the world. I just want to feel happy and secure for the first time in my life.”

“Sounds like your shrink talking.”

“She helped me see what I need. From now on we’ve got to keep everything purely professional when we’re at work and just be cousins when we’re not.”

“Agreed. As much as it pains me to say it.” He turned to look at her over his shoulder, eyes smouldering. “You’d better go before I change my mind and fuck you against my door.”

She pulled on her jacket, opened the door and hesitated. “If only I didn’t think we’d be lethal together things might have been different.”

“Don’t give me what-ifs Jules,” he said coldly. “They mean nothing.”

When she’d left, closing the door behind her, Mikey slumped onto the edge of his desk. He’d been sure she would have accepted his offer and fallen into his arms but she’d thrown him over for Jackson Driscoll. It was even more annoying that there was nothing he could ridicule about Jax. Handsome prize winning cage fighters weren’t exactly easy to take the piss out of. Still, he’d treat her well. But the prospect of Jules and Jax’s future happiness did nothing to soothe the disappointment of his own. He was married to Amber and that was that. Maybe he could improve things with his wife, take her away for a romantic weekend, try and rekindle what they’d had when they’d first got together. But she’d been pregnant with Josh then and he was desperately trying to ignore the fact that that had been the attraction.

CHAPTER 26

Hayden had arranged to meet up with Isaac at a busy café on the sea front in Brighton, well away from Kent. They couldn’t risk anyone seeing them and reporting back to the Slatterys. Jared might be down on his luck but he still had friends. The only way either of them would meet was in a busy place with plenty of witnesses. They were hunched over a table together in a corner of the room.

“Glad you could make it,” said Hayden, shaking Isaac’s hand.

“Yeah, you too,” said Isaac.

They both took their seats, not talking business until their order for coffee had been brought over.

“I wasn’t sure you’d call,” said Hayden.

“Don’t talk like that,” said Isaac. “You make it sound like we’re dating.”

The joke worked. Hayden smiled and the tension was broken. “You’d have to buy me more than a coffee.”

“And you’d have to give me a fucking tranquiliser,” said Isaac good naturedly.

“Okay, now we’ve established that we don’t fancy each other can we get down to business?”

“Fine by me. What’s your proposal?”

“Me and Katia aren’t interested in power or running things.”

“Seriously?” said Isaac with a sceptically raised eyebrow.

“Seriously. All we want are the Slatterys dead. You see, Tanya’s got this weird thing for Katia’s boys, Alex and Daniel. We’re sure she’s going to try to take them off her.”

“Why would she do that? I mean, I know she went bat shit crazy when her daughter died and she’s always been after a replacement but they’re not her blood.”

“Because they’re babies, that’s all she needs. Katia’s paranoid enough about someone taking them from her after Mikey Maguire stole them once.”

“Understandable I suppose.”

“So we need the Slatterys gone. Jared’s a liability, he’s crumbling under the pressure. Tanya’s the one running things now because he can’t cope.”

“And once they’re out of the way what would you want? And don’t give me any crap about nothing because I know you’ve been gathering your own crew about you.”

“For protection against the Slatterys. We’re on borrowed time with them. All me and Katia want is to run our businesses in peace. We could work alongside you, like we do with the Slatterys. You’ve seen my skills, you know I could be useful to you and Katia, well she’s one hell of a businesswoman. Whatever she touches turns to gold. She’s not just got her high class escort agency anymore, she’s branched out into a modelling agency, hospitality. She’s got businesses all over the place, legal businesses that launder a lot of the Slattery’s money. She’s more than willing to do the same for you.”

Isaac’s interest was indeed piqued. He had plenty of illegal businesses but legal ones were seriously lacking, apart from a couple of boozers. This could be very useful to him indeed. “Alright Hayden, you’ve got my interest but the Slatterys would need to be got out of the way first.”

“I’m already all over that. Jared doesn’t trust his own men anymore and Tanya sees that they’re fucking useless. They’re both turning to me and Katia more and more, we often have private meetings with them. It would be so easy for me to take them out.”

“Then why haven’t you done it already?”

“Because Slattery still has friends and I need a strong ally who they wouldn’t dare fuck with.”

“You want protection against any retaliation?”

Hayden nodded. “Everyone knows you’re the next serious contender after the Slatterys. No one would dare touch us if we had your back-up.”

Isaac thought his proposal over before nodding. “Alright Hayden, you’ve got a deal. You get Jared and Tanya out of the way then we can do business.”

“Great,” said Hayden, extending his hand for him to shake.

“When will you do it?”

“Soon. I never know when the next meeting will be called, obviously they’re playing it cautious, not wanting to be predictable. But as soon as Jared calls that meeting then he’s sealed his own fate.”

Isaac smiled his disturbing smile, scars twisting. “I can’t fucking wait. That bastard’s had it coming for a long time.”

“It’ll be a relief for us too,” said Hayden. “We’re sick of constantly looking over our shoulders.”

“How will you do it?”

Hayden’s smile was grim. “Quietly and painfully.”

“Sounds fucking marvellous.”

“Well, I’d better be off before I’m missed,” said Hayden.

The two men got to their feet and shook hands across the table.

“Nice doing business with you Hayden,” said Isaac. “This is the start of something big, I can feel it.”

“Me too. I’ll be in touch once it’s done.”

Without another word Hayden turned and left, heading back to his car parked directly outside the café.

Isaac left a minute later and returned to his own car, where his brother waited in the driver’s seat.

“How did it go?” said Marcus.

“Good. He’s going to top the Slatterys.”

“About time someone did. You trust him?”

“Yeah, I think so. He wants them out of the way as much as we do,” Isaac replied, watching Hayden drive off and disappear into the stream of traffic. “We need this, Mikey and Jez are really pissed off that we haven’t managed to do the job ourselves yet.”

“And what will they say when they find out Hayden did it? He betrayed them,” said Marcus, steering the car out of the car park.

“They won’t find out because once he’s done the job we’ll top him too, as well as that Slovakian slag he’s with. We’ll give her boys back to Mikey, that should make it up to him for us taking so long to get rid of Slattery.”

“I fucking love it,” said Marcus, relieved when they hit the road that would take them back to the motorway and then home. This meet had made him nervous “Then we can finally get back to making money, I’m sick of this war.”

“Wars don’t do anyone any favours and this has been long and drawn out enough.” Isaac closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. “Wake me when we’re nearly home.”

“Did sitting there drinking coffee take it out of you?” Marcus said with a wry grin.

“Actually I had a gorgeous brunette on my cock all last night and she wore me out.”

“My heart bleeds,” he said sarcastically, making Isaac grin his twisted grin.

Isaac settled himself back in his seat for the drive home, dreaming of the time soon to come when all his enemies were dead, he was in Mikey and Jez’s good books and he was king of Kent.

The sound of breaking glass caused him to jump awake. “What the fuck are you doing?” he demanded of his brother when he saw he was steering them towards a ditch at the side of the road. Frantically he grabbed at the wheel and tried to steer it back onto the road but it was too late. The car rammed into a tree, there was a crunch of metal and the seatbelt tightened painfully around him. He released a groan and forced his eyes open, everything hazy. The front of the car had crumpled and his brother was slumped forward in his seat, not moving.

“Holy fuck,” exclaimed Isaac.

The back of Marcus’s head was hanging open, blown apart. It took Isaac a moment to process that a bullet had probably done that to him.

“What the fuck is going on?” he cried.

Through the broken side window he saw Hayden approaching, rifle raised to his shoulder and fixed on him.

“Oh shit, oh shit,” gasped Isaac, shaking hand fumbling for the seatbelt. He managed to unfasten it. Fortunately the door opened and he fell out onto the grass verge.

“You’re a fucking traitor,” he cried, staggering to his feet. “To everyone.”

Hayden jogged round the side of the car, weapon still raised. “There’s only three people in this world I care about and you’re not one of them,” he said before pumping two bullets into the back of Isaac’s head when he tried to run. The gun was silenced so no one heard anything.

Hayden looked behind him to his men, who were dressed up as police officers, standing by their patrol car. A tow truck was behind that. “Get them in the car before someone comes along.” Hayden had chosen that café for a very good reason. One, it was busy so Isaac would have been reassured about meeting him there and two, he had to drive along this quiet country road in order to reach it. But they had to move fast, someone would be along soon no doubt.

Two of his men bundled the bodies into the boot of the patrol car along with the rifle while another two quickly and efficiently cleaned up the blood left behind. Fortunately it was forecast to rain that evening so by tomorrow morning all trace of what had happened here would be gone. Tarpaulin was wrapped around the car so no one would see the blood inside and it was loaded onto the tow truck. They’d just completed their grisly task when a car drove by holding a family of four, gawping at what they thought were the remnants of a car accident.

Hayden and Katia had been going to switch their allegiance to Isaac but then they’d considered what use they would be to him once they’d got Jared and Tanya out of the way. Isaac knew Hayden had betrayed Mikey and Jez. Turning on Jared too would prove he couldn’t be trusted and once he’d served his purpose he would have been bumped off along with Katia too. So they’d changed their minds. Isaac had hoped to use him but they were going to use him and his brother instead.

Robbie swallowed nervously, not so certain he was doing the right thing now he was confronted by Jared Slattery, who looked as pissed off and mad as ever, glaring at him with his manic, bloodshot eyes. The Slatterys had found another safe house in another part of the Kent countryside after the attack by Isaac and Robbie had driven out here to share what he’d learnt about Hayden.

“Fucking spit it out then,” said Jared. “I haven’t got all day.”

“I think Hayden’s up to something.”

The fury in Jared’s eyes waned slightly, replaced by a hunted look. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” lied Robbie. He could give the game away but he didn’t want to land Katia in the shit. He had to play this just right to make sure he instilled the right amount of paranoia in Jared, a paranoia that would drive him mad and hopefully push him to top Hayden. “But he’s gathering men around him, building a crew.”

Jared’s eyes narrowed. “So why are you coming to me? You’re part of that crew, or are you being pushed out?”

“Hayden’s a slippery bastard and he proved he can’t be trusted after he betrayed Mikey Maguire.”

“Yeah, don’t I fucking know it.”

“If he is up to something I’m sure Katia doesn’t know about it.”

“How can you be so sure? Thick as thieves them two.”

“Because she’s not stupid enough to betray you. But he is.”

Jared thought carefully before nodding. “Alright, keep an eye open and if you find anything out you come straight to me. Understand?”

Robbie nodded, trying not to look too pleased. “Yeah, I do.”

“Good. Now bugger off, I’m busy,” he said before turning back to the window to continue wallowing in his memories of Jules. But what Robbie had said niggled at him. He hoped the little sod was wrong, Hayden was by far the best man he had at his disposal, his efficiency had only highlighted just how seriously lacking his own men were. He had been contemplating putting him in charge of his security, after all he did save his mum’s life and for that alone he would be eternally grateful. If Jared lost his mum too he’d be completely alone in the world and that thought terrified him more than anything.

When he heard a car engine approaching he jumped into life. No one outside his inner circle knew he was here and he wasn’t expecting anyone. He peered out of the window and saw a dark blue car winding its way up the dirt track that led to the farmhouse.

“Someone’s coming,” he bellowed, flinging open the study door and stepping out into the hallway.

All his men assembled around him, including Robbie Jordan, weapons drawn, just like they’d rehearsed in case of an emergency.

Tanya appeared from the kitchen brandishing her own gun. “Who is it?”

“No fucking idea. Stay here Mum while we check it out.”

Jared took up position at the window, cautiously peering out, watching as the car rolled to a halt at the front door. Surely this couldn’t be an attack? Whoever it was was being a bit fucking blasé about being here.

He was almost relieved when Hayden got out of the car, until he remembered Robbie’s words. He glanced at Robbie, who stood beside him at the window.

“What do you think?” Jared asked him.

“I really don’t know,” he quietly replied, secretly hoping Jared would just shoot him.

“He doesn’t look armed.”

“He was a soldier, I’m sure he knows how to hide a weapon.”

The sound of the doorbell ringing echoed through the house and everyone looked to Jared for confirmation.

“He’s a mad bastard if he starts an assault by ringing the doorbell first,” said Jared, stuffing the gun into the back of his trousers and pulling his shirt over it to hide it. He was sick of being afraid, of cowering. It was time to be a man and face up to shit.

His men followed as he walked to the front door and pulled it open. “Hayden, we didn’t arrange for you to come here.”