Текст книги "Rotten to the Core"

Автор книги: Casey Kelleher

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 14 страниц)

              “My friend is very special, Sophia, I think that you are really going to like her.” Looking up at him not quite sure what to make of what he was saying, he continued:

              “Her name’s Kate; she is a real princess, just like you.”

              “Wow, will she be wearing a princess dress like me?” Sophia seemed to be excited now; she had always wanted to meet a real princess.

              “She hasn’t got a lovely princess dress like you but she is very, very pretty, and she is very kind. Maybe we can have a look in your bedroom and see if she can borrow something of yours to wear, I bet she will love your dress.”

Bouncing off of her daddy’s lap, Sophia ran to her bedroom as if her life depended on it, desperate to find something for her daddy’s princess friend to wear.

Smiling at her innocence, Paul couldn’t shake an anxious feeling. This was a big step. He had decided, years ago, that he would never let anyone close again, but then that was before he had met someone as special as Kate. He had never felt like this, not even about his ex, Caroline. Caroline hadn’t batted an eyelid when they had separated; she continued to go out partying and coming home at all hours of the morning. She had treated Sophia like she were a big inconvenience and it had broken Paul’s heart to see his baby left to cry in her cot, ignored by her own mother.

When he left, she had told him to take Sophia with him; she had dismissed Sophia as if she were nothing, as if Caroline had not a single maternal bone in her body. Paul had done that. He had never heard from Caroline again and knew in his heart of hearts that he never would. He had got over her, that was for sure, but it hurt that his little girl was growing up without a mummy. Since Sophia was nine months old he had brought her up, with the help of the nanny. Sophia was the love of his life; his sole reason for living. Building up a reputation and a business in the clubbing world was hardly a place for a small, beautiful baby; he had always kept them separate. He never spoke of his personal life; the less people knew about him, the less chance they would be able to hurt him. But he had fallen for Kate, and he wanted her, and he knew that it was time to let someone in. Tonight, the two most important girls in his life would meet. And he just prayed that after tonight, Kate would feel the same as he did.

53

There were moments when Tanya thought about her disloyalty to Jay, but they were so fleeting that they passed almost as quickly as they came; she certainly didn’t lose a moment’s sleep over it: far from it, as a matter of fact. Tanya had been living the high life. The life she was convinced she was born for. To some people, a quarter of a million pounds would be a lot of cash, the sort of money that would allow them to put a nice-sized down payment on a little house where they could settle down, maybe buy a flash car and new clothes, and generally be quite content with their new-found fortune. It was a decent start. But Tanya wasn’t “some people”. She wanted five-star luxuries all the way: a penthouse in London, somewhere upmarket like Mayfair, a Bentley with a personalised number plate, and designer clothes. A quarter of a mill was just a taste of what she thought she needed in order to get by. It wouldn’t last five minutes with the plans she had, she needed to use it wisely. Tanya had always believed that money came to money, and now she had a little it was her chance to get more. So she had come up with quite a plan. In order to find a nice rich man, she would have to go to where the rich men were and to appear as if she had come from money. Tanya, never short of male attention, expected to catch the attention of a rich guy looking for a woman on whom he could spend his fortune.

Tanya had checked into the Dorchester, a hotel she had always wanted to stay at, in the hub of London and she actually felt quite at home there, she drank endless amounts of champagne and indulged in treatments at their top-class spa, figuring that she wasn’t frittering away the money, it was an investment. These rich men could be quite clued up on gold-diggers, there were plenty of them about, even she knew that, and although a young girl may think she was in with a chance with a man, often they would be on to them in a heartbeat, and they would get what they want from the girl, with no real intention of losing a single penny of their cash to her.

Tanya was acting as if she was loaded; spending her money as if it were limitless. That way, when she fluttered her eyes and flashed her cleavage at some unsuspecting old bore at the bar, they might actually believe that she was interested in them and not just after their hard-earned cash; her motive would be concealed, as she so obviously had enough of her own wealth.

So far, she had gained admiring glances from most of the guys staying there, single and attached, much to her amusement. Men were so fickle, she thought. Normally she played it cool, letting men come to her; that way she wouldn’t come across as if she had initiated anything or seemed desperate. There had been a few men who had approached her, but they had turned out to be dirty old men with a wife in tow somewhere else in the hotel, trying their luck while they thought they might have a chance. One even hinted that he knew she was a call girl: top class, of course; it took a lot of effort not to get out of her chair and lump him one. She had decided to be very bold this afternoon and had taken it upon herself to send a glass of champagne over to a very good-looking guy at the other side of the terrace bar who had kept catching her eye. She figured he must be shy as every time she had caught him staring, he had looked away, so she decided to take the initiative. Waiting for a rich, eligible bachelor wasn’t working out quite the way she had anticipated and Tanya decided that she would have to do a bit of catching and reeling in herself. She could see that the guy had been very surprised by the drink and had looked uncomfortable accepting it, but Tanya was sure that she was in for a chance with him, he had been watching her from the minute she came into the bar. Raising her own glass to him and smiling, she took a long sip of her drink and enjoyed the bubbles fizzing on her tongue whilst she thought about what a catch she had stumbled upon, he was much younger and much better-looking than the old farts around here that had been on her ‘hit-list’ so far.

Interrupting her thoughts, the hotel’s duty manager approached her and asked if he could have a word with her, she felt that it was most inconvenient right at this moment in time and asked if she could pop to reception and see him a little later on, but he insisted it was urgent. Reluctantly following him to the desk, she felt like a naughty schoolgirl; picking up on the attitude of the manager, it was as if she had done something wrong. She assumed it was to do with her payment, as she had no card to put down as a deposit when she had checked in she had told them she would be settling up in cash. There must be a lack of communication or something going on as she had already paid for the room up-front for a week, just to keep them sweet, and she had only been here two days. So she couldn’t imagine why he seemed so grumpy with her.

As she reached reception she could see several of the staff looking at her as if she had two heads growing out of her neck; she was starting to get a little pissed off now.

              “Do you mind telling me exactly what is going on here? I was in the middle of a drink.” She gestured to the bar.

              “Perhaps you wouldn’t mind stepping into my office.” The manager nodded towards the door next to the main desk, and Tanya went in, eager to get whatever issue the guy wanted to discuss over and done with so she could get back to her drink and, more importantly, back to that dishy bloke.

              “Miss Wright… it is Miss Wright, isn’t it?”

Tanya, sitting in the chair opposite his desk, picked up on his tone which implied that he was in fact questioning if her name was actually what she had booked herself in as and was not a friendly question that he wanted an answer to confirm.

              “Look, if this is about my bill, then there’s been some sort of mistake; I paid it two days ago when I arrived; in cash; in full.” How dare he drag her in here like this and talk to her in this manner?

              “Well, you see, ‘Miss Wright’, that is exactly why you are here.” He coughed and looked uncomfortable.

              “Your bill so far has been paid for just the room, it does not include your spa treatments, and all the bottles of wine and champagne,” he emphasised the word ‘all’, much to her annoyance. He coughed again, and she could sense that he was having a bit of a dig at her. lt was her choice how much she bloody drank: the cheek of him.

              “Your suite is three and a half thousand for the week and so far all the extras bring your entire bill to five thousand one hundred pounds,” he continued, ignoring her look of disbelief that he was speaking to her in such a way. Tapping her foot impatiently, she wanted him to stop dragging whatever he had to say out and get to the bloody point.

              “Yes, and I paid the receptionist three thousand and five hundred pounds when I arrived; if I need to pay more than I will, but as I keep telling you the room is all paid for.”

              “Well, you see, that’s our problem, actually; unfortunately it was Sally, our new girl, who checked you in on Monday night, and she is not really very well trained when it comes to these matters.”

              “Matters? What matters do you mean exactly?” Tanya was starting to get really fed up with this guy, he was wasting her time, and his attitude towards her stank; making a note of the name on his badge, she decided to make a formal complaint. What an arrogant little prick: clearly having a little bit of power round here had gone right to his thick little head.

The phone on the manager’s desk rang and, turning his back on Tanya, he answered it and spoke in a hushed tone. How fucking rude, thought Tanya, as she heard him tell the person on the end of the phone to ‘send them in’: what the hell was going on?

              “I’m afraid, Miss Wright, that the money that you paid us with is counterfeit.”

Tanya stared at him in complete disbelief; he may as well have been talking in another language, because she didn’t understand what he was talking about. Her ears had heard the words, but there was definitely some kind of a mistake going on.

              “And unfortunately it was undetected by Sally when she checked you in two days ago; otherwise, we would never have let you book in. I’m sure that you can appreciate our concerns about your now unpaid bill.”

Tanya’s mouth was on the floor: she was speechless.

              “And I’m afraid, Miss Wright, that it is also my duty to inform the police, not only because of the outstanding balance but because you have committed a criminal offence.”

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door and in came the young, good-looking man who Tanya had been giving the eye to at the bar for most of the afternoon. Clearly he had been interested in her for reasons other than the obvious. He was followed closely by a similarly dressed in smart dark suits, older man. Realising now that they both had that familiar cop look about them, Tanya wanted the ground to swallow her up. Feeling all her hopes crash down around her, she fought to stop herself from smashing up the fucking room in anger. Fucking Billy O’Connell, she should have known that he would never have let her walk away with all that cash; trying to gather her thoughts she went to start on a long elaborate story of how she had obviously been conned herself, maybe she could say that she had sold something and the guy who had bought it had clearly ripped her off, but she stopped as she saw the older officer placing her holdall, with all the money in, down in front of her, her room had obviously already been searched.

              “Would you care to explain how you came into possession of this bag and its contents, Miss Wright?”

How the hell was she going to talk her way out of this one? A few dodgy notes were one thing, but a quarter of a million pounds in a holdall was not a very good look. She could hardly say that she had been ripped off by some bloke after she had kidnapped his sister. She hung her head in defeat.

              “I want a solicitor, and in the meantime no comment.”

54

 

Kate felt like a little kid, she was so excited she thought she would burst. Looking out of the passenger window of Paul’s car, she saw the sign for the Gatwick Airport turnoff ahead, a few hours from now they would be sitting on a plane on their way to the Caribbean.

Paul had booked it as a surprise and she had been really grateful to him, she really needed a break. She had been at home for two days, and she still felt shaken up, more by her constant thoughts of what could have been than anything else. Tanya and Jay were scum, she knew that now: she was sorry that she had been so trusting and had let herself get into that situation. She felt stupid about that.

It had been good to be home, but everyone had been fussing; bless them, even though she knew they meant well, she was sick of constantly having to say that she was okay. Sonia had made her many cups of tea and homemade cakes, the cakes to “put some meat back on your bones”, and promised her that she had disowned Jay; she had told Kate that she wished she could make it up to her, which meant everything that her son, now ‘that boy’, had done. Kate had reassured her that there was no need, Sonia had done more than enough for her: she had taken her in when she had been pregnant, she had helped her and her brother sort out their differences and been like a mum to her, what more could she possibly do for her.  She told her that she adored her, and Sonia had been extremely grateful to hear it.

They had all vowed to never speak Jay’s name again. All they knew was that he was gone, and Billy guaranteed that he would never be troubling them again. Kate had tried not to dwell on the ins and outs of Billy’s promise too much: what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. She knew not to ask any questions on the matter, she was sure she would not want to hear the answers. Any ounce of guilt or worry in that respect, and she just reminded herself of what he had done to her and, more importantly, to her friend, and left the rest to karma. Whatever he got, it would have been deserved.

Emma and Billy had been constantly watching her every move, and of course they were just worried about her, but every time she looked up she had caught at least one of them keeping an eye on her, checking that she was okay and not about to fall to pieces at any moment like a fragile doll. They had become really good friends, which pleased Kate.

Kate had gone to dinner at Paul’s house two nights ago too, when she had certainly discovered more than she bargained for. She had almost geared herself up whilst she had got herself ready to meet his new glamour-puss girlfriend, had visualised that she would have to sit there pretending to be happy for him and smiling sweetly. So when she was greeted by an adorable little girl, who was as shy as she was beautiful, Kate hadn’t known whether to laugh or cry. She had an amazing evening with Paul and fell in love with Sophia in a heartbeat. Paul had cooked a lovely meal and the three had had a really good time, sitting together and enjoying the food. Kate had worn a sparkly pink tiara throughout the meal, at Sophia’s insistence, and had laughed heartily when Sophia had whispered that her daddy had told her the secret about Kate being a real princess, but that Sophia wouldn’t tell anyone.

Kate helped Paul put a very tired little Sophia to bed an hour or so later. If Paul had been in any doubt of how Kate had felt about meeting his daughter, he needn’t have worried. Kate had soon had him laughing with her when she had explained what she had first thought she may have been walking into at the beginning of the evening. Admitting that she had felt jealous before she had arrived, she had been relieved to see that the special person had in fact turned out to be a beautiful little girl.

They had spoken for hours about everything: Kate’s kidnap, her mother’s death, Paul’s ex-wife, everything had tumbled out. They laughed, shed tears, and finally in the early hours they had fallen into bed, where they had spent the night completely wrapped up in each other.

Now, she could hardly believe that she was sitting in Paul’s car on her way to the airport, it was all a whirlwind. A two-week, all-inclusive holiday in the Caribbean. He had insisted that a holiday was just what she needed. He had mentioned it to Kate, and by nine o’clock last night it was all booked online and paid for; it was exactly what she needed, the thought of getting away for a while to somewhere hot and sunny was just what the doctor ordered. Paul had arranged for the three of them to go, including Sophia, and Kate was very happy.

Sophia had taken to her straight away and vice versa, but this would be the perfect opportunity for them all to get to know one another properly. Kate had barely had time to pack, but she had thought she could buy more bikinis at the airport.

Emma and Billy had waved her off this morning and told her to enjoy herself. Billy had told Paul that he would keep an eye on the club, and Kate had a feeling that Billy would be keeping more than an eye on Emma, too, while they were away. She had seen a few glances between them; they seemed to be good mates, and there was definitely the potential for more, she had a strong suspicion that maybe something had already begun between them: because if it hadn’t already, it was just a matter of time. Billy was really making a real effort with Emma, Kate had noticed. Billy had never really taken to Emma before, he had always thought that she was a bad influence on Kate, but ever since he had found her at the flat, he was much more patient and caring towards her. Kate had seen them joking together over the last couple of days, and they seemed at ease in each other’s company. Hopefully they would both put the past behind them, and it pleased Kate that some good had come out of the whole thing. Kate was pleased at how well everyone seemed to be getting on; it was amazing how a crisis brought people together. Her brother and Paul got on famously; it was almost like they were best mates and it made her happy that there was genuine respect and friendship between them.

Paul pulled up into a space at the airport’s long stay car park, looking at his watch he smiled at Kate.

              “We’re almost four hours early; is that enough time for you to squeeze in a bit of retail therapy, missy?”

She smiled back; she had nagged him to pick her up as early as possible this morning, she was so excited, she would have gone to the airport last night if she could have got away with it.

              “Yes, four hours should be just enough time, and who knows we may even have a spare two minutes at the end of my little shopping spree for a quick coffee.” They made their way into the terminal to check in their bags, Kate holding Sophia’s hand while Paul got a trolley for their luggage. Kate couldn’t stop smiling; how life had changed in just the space of a few days. It was like everything, for the first time in her life, had fallen into place. This holiday was what she needed: sun, sea and Paul to herself. Then, looking down at the gorgeous girl holding her hand and smiling up at her, she thought ‘almost’ to herself, if she had to share him with anyone it would be with this adorable little girl. As if he could read her mind, a habit of his, Paul took Kate’s hand.

              “Come on Kate, let’s get rid of these bags then go and do some serious damage to my credit card. Four hours isn’t very long for a woman to shop and, knowing you, that will be barely enough time to do just one store.” He laughed, as they made their way to the check-in desk.

55

Jay slowly shook his throbbing head. It was pitch-black; he couldn’t see anything. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious and no idea where he was. Pain seared through him, making him feel weak and sick. He felt as if his body were covered in bruises: which, after what he had endured from Ryan, it probably was.

Trying to sit, he whacked his head on something hard and fell straight back down into a lying position. Reaching to feel where he was, he seemed to be inside a box: a small, solid, wooden box. Pushing the sides, he began to panic, he wasn’t good at being closed in at the best of times and the feeling of claustrophobia was making him feel physically sick with fear.

Shouting for help, he wondered where the hell Billy had put him; he prayed that someone, somewhere, would hear his cries. Clawing his fingers across the top of the box, splinters from the wood piercing his skin, he tried to see if he could climb out; he tried to use his whole body by turning onto his stomach and putting his back behind the top of the box as he tried to force his way out, but he could barely get off the floor, it was stuck solid.

He figured that he had been in there for a long time, as he now noticed the lack of oxygen he had, and was sure that he would run out quite soon. Fear and panic made his breathing erratic, and the air was gradually dwindling.

Frantically, he kicked and hit the walls but nothing gave. He was trapped. He started to cry. It was a sign of weakness, he knew, but there was no-one to see his tears or witness how low he had sunk. There was no-one to help him, this was it for him. Billy had caught up with him, and he was going to end his days buried alive.

Jay thought about all the people he had done wrong to and all the shit he had gone through in his life. He had wanted so much more than this for he had had. He had always said that he would do better than his old man, and for a while he thought that he had. But he was no better; in fact, he was worse. Billy had been right, nobody would give a shit if he was dead or alive. Stupidly, he had let Tanya get one over on him. He was sure that he would have got away with it if it hadn’t been for her damn greed. He had had no idea how callous she was. She was a cold-hearted bitch that one. It was ironic though, he thought, that he had used woman all his life and the first woman he had ever loved, the first women he had ever trusted, had done nothing but use him back: although none of that mattered now.

It’s funny the thoughts that pop into your head as you die; he remembered hearing about how a person’s life flashes before their eyes when they’re dying: a slideshow of photos and video clips kept in the subconscious. Memories you shared, the faces of people you loved and that loved you. He waited for the slideshow, but all he saw was darkness.

He could taste the salt of his tears, and he could smell that he had soiled himself. It wasn’t the  exit that he had imagined he would have from this life. He had often wondered if he would have died from a beating or a stab wound. The kind of dealings he had been involved in, knives and guns were never far away. A bit more fitting for him, he felt, would have been to go out in a blaze of glory. This was something else altogether.

He was alone, crying like a baby and scared, and as he struggled to gulp his last few mouthfuls of air, he could almost feel his lungs explode with the struggle.

The face that flashed before Jay Shaw’s eyes as he slipped out of this life minutes later was that of a smug-looking Billy O’Connell.