Get Some (19 page)

‘
Don’t do it, Trigg. He is not a pretender.’

‘
He fucking is, I tell you. It’s just he has money, money. Fuck, that’s fuck all when you have balls.’

‘
It isn’t just the money Trigg. Money hasn’t made him what he is, or what he is going to be. The money has merely unmasked him.’

‘
Well fuck him and his loyal ants. I’ll sort them. I‘ll sort fucking Tommy and that cunt lawyer too.’

‘
Well, I guess it’s your death warrant then, Trigg. My bet is that if you take this road I’ll probably never see you again.’

‘
Well guess so. Nice nearly working with you’.

After slamming down the phone, Trigg was straight on the phone to Samson.

Samson answered and sounded panicked. ‘Tell me what the fuck is going down, Trigg. I’ve been trying to reach you. I’ve had fucking dock workers saying they are being laid off, I got fucking dealers saying they are being robbed and I got our wagon drivers being hijacked for their loads, some even got thrown into the fucking River Humber. Shit is going down all over the city and we are fucking standing still.’

‘
Well there is some fucking major shit going down, and speaking of majors, he’s fucking gone.’

‘
Whatcha mean ‘gone’? Like gone-gone?’

‘
No not ‘gone’ just gone. Y’know, got the fuck out of Dodge - he’s done with it in Hull.’

‘
What?’

‘
I know. Fucking pussies wouldn’t know a battle if it hit them, saying that this Valukana fuck is running shit now. I mean, I know we ain’t big in numbers or anything, but are you willing to let these fucking foreigners just come in and roll us over?’

‘
Fuck that, Trigg’

‘
That’s what I said. Fuck that. You know what, this is all because of that cunt Tommy. I shoulda just popped him the first day he came home, hid the body and nobody would have ever been the wiser.’

‘
You shoulda clipped him over there, Trigg. You get any news on the lawyer fuck?’

‘
Yeah, still breathing I’m afraid.’

‘
Fucking hell, the night gets worse. Had me a fucking good mini chewy bomb going on with all the trimmings too. Woulda blown the cunt in half. Fucking hell, you know how much that semtex costs, Trigg?’

‘
I know, I know. Look we need to sort our shit out, get the guys in, we need a sit down. One thing that needs sorting is Tommy. We are under our own rules now, Samson, and I say we just go for it.’

‘
Fucking damn right,’ snarled Samson, ‘except this time he fucking stays dead.’

‘
No, that will come later. First we take his heart.’

Chapter Thirty Seven

For the first time in a long time I felt free. Free at last!

When my wife moved out it was like my ball and chain had truly been taken away. I looked at motorbikes on the internet and was like a little kid browsing through all the different makes and models. I also bought a Playstation. Pure mind numbing fun felt great.

When things started to get back to normal again after such a turbulent few months, my mind and soul felt rejuvenated. I had taken up an offer and was guilty of being naughty. I was committing a sin. Well according to my late mother, I was.

I had been spending time with Sarah and she was like a huge breath of fresh air. We talked. I mean we really, really talked. I felt like a teenager again. Was this how it was supposed to feel? She took me places I had never thought of going. She took me to Robin Hood’s Bay and we took a walk that seemed to last forever by the Cliffside. It was raining but it was beautiful. We talked, we walked, we kissed, we took pictures - proper couple-type stuff.

I would never have believed it. Me taking walks, me, enjoying scenery, me…opening up.

I think its opens your mind so much when you meet someone who can change your perspective on so many different things, like changing the course on a destination you had set and then suddenly for someone to change it mid-journey and say ‘Hey, this isn’t where you’re going, this is where you’re going’, and not through force of manipulation of feelings. They do it because in some way they relate to you, in some way they see you differently. They see past the walls, and into you.

It felt great.

Having never been one to see what was right in front of me, I had no idea Sarah liked me. She said she had fancied me for years. For years!

Deep down I wished we had got together years ago but, hey, I was just thankful she said something to Tommy and Emma that night and we got sorted, otherwise I would have been meeting the same old wrong girls, again and again and again. Such was my amazing knack of getting together with the wrong type, as Emma put it.

Yes, I felt good, real good.

Sarah was out of town for a few days doing some teacher training and I had managed to meet up with Tommy for our fitting. The wedding was only a few weeks away and we had left it late, but the owner at L. Blakeman and Sons was an old friend so he agreed to fit us and promised any alterations would be done in time for Tommy and Emma’s big day.

The suits were great. We were going to be wearing brown suits with white shirts, sporting cream cravats. We looked the business.

Apparently Sarah and Emma were having another trying on of their dresses tomorrow night, so both I and Tommy had strict orders to be out of the house for the night. We had a games night planned on the Playstation, a night of Tekken and Grand Turismo beckoned and we couldn’t wait. I loved spending time with Sarah but games nights came a close second.

During those quiet months, after all the drama with X and Trigg, and me nearly getting blown in half, I sometimes thought I was being followed. I caught a glimpse of a man a few times but could never get a clear look.

It was to my relief that it was Valukana’s man. He had given his word, kept his word. I even saw the same man shadowing me and Sarah on the drive down to Robin Hood’s Bay, I didn’t say anything to her. I didn’t want to panic her. After all, it was for our protection.

Word was that Trigg had left town. Valukana had sent word again, like he promised he would, that if a hair on my head was harmed he would get involved … personally. I guess that was enough to make Trigg rethink his life.

Having spent some time with Tommy, I told him about Valukana and how he had intervened, how he had basically dissolved X Company’s hold on the city’s underworld. Tommy, like me, was grateful, but still, like me, wanted to keep a safe distance from Valukana and that way of life.

Tommy met him with me one day and extended his gratitude, to which Valukana responded the next day by sending vouchers for all the flowers and photos for the wedding to be paid for by him.

You have to hand it to the guy. This Valukana never forgot a favour.

Chapter Thirty Eight

‘
No, no, no. You don’t hold it like that. Come here.’

There was still something weird about him, he was so icy…

Standing behind me, he helped me to adjust my arms and posture.

‘
Remember you grab it with two hands, back straight, keep it steady, aim for your target, remember to breathe, exhale as you see the shot…’

It certainly was helpful advice because I shot straight onto the green.

‘
You see, Joey, it’s all about concentration, always, my friend.’

There was something about the way he talked about the golf swing that was disturbing. I don’t know if it was just my overblown paranoid imagination but the way he said ‘exhale as you see the shot’ really made me question if he was talking about golf or re-enacting some shady scene in his head from his past.

‘
Not bad, Joey, not bad at all…for a beginner.’

‘
Hey less of that beginner stuff, you. Just because I’m rusty doesn’t mean I can’t play.’

‘
Am I sensing one has had his jam taken out of his donut, Joey?’

‘
Ha-ha, no, I don’t spit the dummy when things aren’t going my way. I’ll catch up.’

In all fairness I knew Valukana would beat me but I had to talk a good game in case I got lucky and won.

I was not one for golf in bad weather and with it being December we knew there wouldn’t be much time to play for a while. The club had closed for the winter but, Valukana being Valukana, he persuaded the owner to let us have one last game before the winter break. Snow was due next week. I for one couldn’t believe Tommy and Emma were having a winter wedding but Emma was insistent that she didn’t want to look too fat for her wedding and wouldn’t wait. I told her we would freeze to death in the church and outside for the photos but she just called me a wuss. She was right, I was a wuss, always had been.

During my game with Valukana on that sunny but cold morning I would also show my true wuss nature again.

Having known Valukana for all of a few months I had a feeling every time we met he had something to tell me. It was just his way.

We walked the course at a nice easy pace, talking about my friend’s upcoming wedding, my new girlfriend. We chatted about all sorts. Then Valukana told me that when I sorted out the contact for him there had been a little bit of a delay with some of his papers. He was sorted now though and had a new name. He asked me respectfully if I would call him by his new name and also, if asked, to never disclose anything to those who may ask about knowing of anyone by the name of Valukana.

Agreeing of course, I assured him how confidentiality was a specialty in my line of work and I would never disclose anything.

He believed me.

After we had finished, we sat and had a coffee. He had beaten me again but wasn’t bragging as much this time. I think my challenge, where it came to golf, wasn’t a challenge anymore for him but, still, it gets one outside, doesn’t it, and playing with a talented golfer such as him would only help my game. Losing did suck though.

We had nearly finished our drinks when he stopped me, mid-babble, and did his serious face…

‘
Joey?’

‘
Yeah?’

‘
I worked for the mafia. I was a hitman’

Cutting in, I told him I really didn’t need to know any details. I knew too much already. ‘Look, I have said before, we really can’t talk about your past. I don’t need to know.’

‘
Well I want to tell you. It seems once again I am to become a new name. Does that mean I become a new man? With each name I have taken, this being my third, I seem to lose a little piece of myself.’

‘
Well, I’m probably not the best person to tell all this to. I mean, I’m a lawyer. The worst thing I have done in the past few years is to put plastic in my cardboard bin, and I reckon that’s about it.’

‘
That’s why I wanted to talk to you. There’s no lying in Joey and you tell me what’s what, sometimes even when you’re scared, and you always do so very delicately.’

‘
Yeah, because I don’t want my arse to get kicked.’

‘
It’s just in my life I have a lot of yes men. It gets hard to rely on one’s opinion. This new life ahead of me, it is a challenge. You see I yearn to be the top in what I do. I crave success, it drives me, it makes me crazy even. The feeling of satisfaction when I ran those silly little army men out of Hull. Well, it was beautiful.’

‘
So there you go, new name, which I don’t know yet, new projects, your all sorted then.’ Standing to my feet whilst grinning a grin which said ‘Please let me leave’, I gathered my clubs hoping that was it.

It wasn’t…doh!

‘
I have a few questions for you, Joey. Life questions. I ask you because I can see you make good choices.’

‘
Please, I’m a nightmare, my marriage was a …’

‘
Joey, what I know I know.’ There was no way I was arguing as he got that icy look again. ‘Now, I have some people problems. How would you handle a person or persons you were suspicious over?’ He sat there with a notepad and a pen. There was this guy, one big scary person, and he was asking little me for advice? I tried my best not to disappoint.

‘
Well, firstly, I guess I would say ‘Don’t judge people on what they say, but on what they do’. My mother taught me that. And one of my favourites ever from my mother again is ‘Just because they look the business, doesn’t mean they are the business’. Now I could go on all day, but those two little quotes have served me well. Maybe they can for you too.’

‘
Joey, I love them. I love hearing people’s thoughts and quotes on life. You listen to a man’s thoughts on life and I think it is possible to see one of two things: either what he has done, or what he hasn’t done. You see my mind is in a transitional period, the quiet before the storm, so to speak. You may hear some things about me in the future, Joey. I’m going to be unsettling many an organisation. The price of certain illegal substances will drop, it will be all down to me, blood will spill, heads will roll. So on that note, it is with great regret that I have to call a cease to meeting you, Joey. I greatly enjoy your company but think it is best for your career if you keep a safe distance.’

Ok, I have to admit I was relieved, but also quite taken aback because this guy really seemed a nice guy. But how could he be with all the vile things he may have done? But to me he was sincere, and I didn’t quite know what that meant. Did I judge him by how he treated me, or how he treated the world? I didn’t know the answer to that one.