The Life (7 page)

Daniel continued, ‘I want to be there when we tell him the score. I don’t think you understand how important it is for us to show a united front, Pete. You seem to think this is cut and dried.’

Peter sighed heavily. ‘It
is
, Dan. You have got to lighten up, mate. We have achieved what we set out to achieve – now we can play the good guys. You acting like
A Man Called Horse
ain’t going to earn us any creds. Calm down, will you? We don’t need the blatant violence any more, Dan. Alfie’s a good earner, let’s keep him on-side.’

Daniel was annoyed at his brother’s interference, even though he knew he had a point. ‘What are you trying to fucking say, big bruv?’

Peter bit back his anger, and instead said reasonably, ‘What I’m trying to say is, Dan, we don’t need the bully-boy tactics any more. We have sorted everything out perfectly well so far. We need to establish a new order, a new way of handling things. You have to see that taking everyone out at a second’s notice will only cause upset and distrust. We have worked long and hard for this, I’m begging you, don’t let’s fuck it up by generating bad will. We don’t need to prove ourselves any more. We’ve arrived, mate. Let everyone else take the chances –
we
need to be here to oversee everything. To make sure it goes in our favour.’

Daniel grinned. ‘So it’s all right for you to do things off your own bat but not me? Is that it?’ He was still upset with his brother for taking out Kevin O’Neill behind his back, and Peter knew it.

He smiled, and held his hands up in mock surrender. ‘I’ll give you that one, Dan. But this isn’t about now, this is about the future. We have always been very different in our approaches to our work, and up till now that has been one of our strengths. No one knows how to handle us, not separately and definitely not when we are together. We are like chalk and cheese, but now we have to pull together properly, and we have to keep a low profile.’ Peter could see the scepticism on his brother’s face and it angered him that Daniel could not see the danger he brought to their daily lives with his violence and his pettiness.

‘You think you know everything, Pete, you always have, since we were little kids. And I love that about you, but you can’t sit there like the fucking Angel Gabriel spreading your glad tidings at this late stage in the game. We took all this with our front, and only our front will keep us in the running. You need to remember that.’

Peter shook his head then. He had dropped the rest of the crew off at a pub, making sure that there were only the two of them for this conversation. He was aware that Daniel would fight him on this – on every level. Daniel always acted first and thought it all out afterwards. When they were on their way
up
the ladder that had been less of a problem. Now, though, they needed to pull back a little, keep a low profile for a while. In short, they had to wait and see how their new status was received by the general populace.

Daniel seemed to think they faced no opposition. Well, it wasn’t the case. They had trodden on more than a few fucking toes and, even though they were convinced they were big
enough and tough enough for the job in hand, it would not hurt either of them to wait and see if there were going to be any reprisals.

‘We don’t know, Dan, what the upshot of this is yet. We have done our best, but we have still fucked a lot of people over. I believe we need to step back and see what the future holds. Alfie is a good earner and, as lairy as he is, he has his creds. All I am saying is, let’s see what he has to offer.’

Daniel Bailey looked into his brother’s eyes; he was sorry for him in some ways. Peter always believed the best of people if he could – he got that from their mother. He also thought that because he did things on the quiet they didn’t count. But they did. Peter was paranoid these days. Since they had made their move Peter seemed convinced they were going to get their collars felt. Daniel wondered at how he was going convince his brother of his way of thinking. He saw their next moves as pivotal in their conquering of London and the Home Counties. Daniel felt they should be rattling the cages of everyone within their orbit, making them see just how dangerous they were, whereas Peter wanted to tip-toe in, like fucking burglars, creepers – the lowest of the low where they came from.

Daniel thought they should remove all the old guard, and replace them with their own people. He could not see the logic of keeping people employed who had worked closely with the very people they had annihilated and he said as much. ‘For fuck’s sake, they don’t trust us, Pete, they see us as their fucking enemies. They are wondering what we are going to do to them.’

Peter smiled. ‘
Exactly
. And we can work with them. They’ll work with whoever is running the show, Dan. We can use this as our chance to recruit more of the real workers. We already have the bully boys and the fucking romancers. What we should be concentrating on is the real earners. And we should be making
sure that they are working for
us
. They don’t give a shit who they answer to as long as they still get their money. We were the same, Dan – if you remember, we worked with whoever guaranteed us a wage. Now, I know you have a fucking problem with Alfie, but you have problems with everyone, and I want Alfie on our payroll. He’s a shrewd fucker, and he can sniff out a serious earn in his sleep. People like him are few and far between.’

Daniel knew his brother was talking sense. But Alfie had never been a favourite of his. He looked down his nose at everyone around him.

Ultimately, though, Daniel had a different agenda to Peter. Daniel had always seen their eventual rise to the top as an opportunity to pay back old debts, insults, fucking piss-takes and, more to the point, he had seen himself paying them all back in a public arena, had pictured himself taking out certain men in front of audiences of his choice. He was well aware that his penchant for petty anger and his ability to hold a grudge was not conducive to the world his brother wanted them to inhabit. He should not let things bother him as much as they did, but that was his nature.

Peter, who he loved, was more than capable of overlooking slights about his colour. Peter was, in many respects, the bigger man because of that. Whereas Daniel saw any slights, whether towards him or his brother, as something warranting a personal vendetta. He saw anything – no matter how trivial – as a reason to prove how hard he was and show his personal disgust at the treacherous bastards around him. And he enjoyed it. He
liked
to make people see that he was not a man to be messed with, he
wanted
people to fear him. Still, he saw the sense in his brother’s words, knew that Peter was trying to keep them on an even keel until they were properly settled in. He would swallow
this time; after all, if Alfie Clarke pushed his luck, then that was his fucking look out. Daniel would then take him down like a rabid dog.

‘OK, Peter, but if he says one fucking detrimental thing to me, or he fucking dares to treat me like a cunt, he’s fucking history.’

Peter couldn’t argue with that – it was more than he had expected. ‘Let’s pick the lads up, and go to the meet then.’

‘As you wish, bruv. But I’m telling you now, we
need
to establish our-fucking-selves in more ways than one. You and me need to make sure we are seen as capable of
anything
. And, let’s face it, we
are
, Pete. Look at some of the fucking stunts we’ve pulled over the years. But I swear to you now, no one is ever going to disrespect me or mine. I ain’t worked my bollocks off to be made a fucking mug of. Not by anyone.’

Peter nodded because he didn’t trust himself to speak. They
were
established, if only Daniel could see that. They didn’t need to prove anything to anyone. But he kept his own counsel, and hoped against hope that Alfie Clarke had the sense to keep his mouth shut, and his sarcastic comments to himself.

‘She’s beautiful, Lena. A real little heartbreaker.’ Ria’s voice was choked with emotion. ‘Seven pounds, and a month early. Sure you never got the dates wrong?’

Lena smiled wearily. ‘No, she was early. Just like a woman, afraid she would miss something. Boys are lazy bastards. All mine were late, too settled in the womb, only came out for the football season.’

They laughed together.

‘I bet your Davey nearly had a seizure! Is it true he almost delivered her?’

Lena shook her head in abject disbelief at what had happened. ‘Bless him, my waters broke, I told him to get you, his nana and locate his father, in that order and, before I knew it, this little one was here. Within fifteen minutes of my waters going, she was out. It was so quick. Poor Davey saw it all, he was in a right two and eight. But he was a trooper, Ria, he looked after me.’

Lena would never forget the shock on his face as his sister slid into the world. It was a mixture of wonderment and disgust. He was only fifteen and the mystery of birth was as alien to him as knitting himself a crash helmet. But, in fairness, he had been good, he had done everything he was asked to do and with the minimum of fuss.

Holding his new little sister in his arms Lena had seen the look of pure love in his eyes, and she had also seen the natural
way he had held the child to him. He had grown up in that moment. Her Daniel, after four children, had never once held any of them with such confidence. Davey had looked at her with tears in his eyes and said huskily, ‘It’s a miracle, Mum.’ He seemed utterly overwhelmed.

Lena was glad to know that one of her boys had a heart in there. She worried that her sons might only have inherited their father’s worst characteristics: the tendency towards the dramatic, the anger that was never far from the surface, the aggression that emanated from him at times. But she knew now, and she blessed herself unconsciously as she said thanks be to God and his Holy Mother, that Davey, at least, had the same capacity for loving as his father did.

It was a revelation to her, and she felt a calmness come over her because of it. She knew that the boys were Daniel’s, were his from the day they could follow him around. She had only had her sons to herself until that point. Oh, they loved her, she knew that, but they all idolised their father. Danny Junior was a good lad but, like his father, capable of great violence, and already strong as an ox to boot. Her Davey had proved today that he was capable of great emotion but she was well aware that that could translate into hatred and anger as well as love. Noel and Jamsie were still only boys, and they would follow where the elder ones led. They already had the makings of hard men – it was in their genes. Oh, yes, all four of her sons would be men of substance – her husband would make sure of that. And there was nothing she could do about it.

But now Lena had a daughter, and she would be all
hers
. She would see to it that she didn’t become a part of that world, and Daniel would not have any sway over her little girl’s life at all.

Ria watched as her sister-in-law gazed down at her daughter, and she knew exactly what she was thinking, because she had
been there herself. True, daughters belonged wholly to their mothers in their world, but she had found out, as the years went on that, unlike the boys, girls grew up faster. They were harder to rein in and, one day, they fell in love and, if this little one was anything like her Imelda, she would want a man who was her father and brothers personified.
That
was when the real worry started. But Ria kept her own counsel; after all, Lena had plenty of time to find that out for herself.

‘You thought of a name yet, Lena?’

Lena nodded. ‘Tania. I think this little one looks like a Tania.’

Ria grinned. ‘With that hair and those Irish eyes, she’ll be a beauty, our Tania. She looks like her nana, don’t you think?’

They smiled as Theresa Bailey bowled into the room; she was excited and worried all at the same time. ‘I can’t believe it, Lena! I was in the pub when they came and got me. Let me have a look at her then.’

Lena passed the child to her mother-in-law, and watched happily as the woman expertly snuggled the little child into the crook of her arm.

Theresa stared down at the child for long moments then, nodding as if answering a question, she said softly, ‘She’s a Bailey all right, from the eyes to the hands. She has my mother’s hands – long fingers. She’ll play the piano, and she’ll know love.’

Lena and Ria didn’t say a word. Theresa, they knew, missed her mother and her sister so badly it was a constant pain inside of her. But they had turned their backs on not only her, but on her two children, and that, she could not –
would
not – ever forgive.

‘She’ll be a comfort to you in your old age! That’s what the old shawlies used to say in Ireland about a late child, especially a daughter. Oh, God love her, she’s gorgeous.’

Lena sank back into her pillows, and sighed happily. She would be just that, a comfort to her in the years ahead. She was thirty-three years old, and she finally had the daughter she had always wanted. She wondered when Daniel would arrive to greet his only daughter, but she knew he would come as soon as he could. Until then, she would do what she had always done and wait patiently for him to come to her.

But, as time wore on, Lena began to feel uneasy. Where was her husband? He knew she had given birth, knew he had a daughter, he should have been here by now, should have been beside her. He should have come straightaway, and she knew that Ria and her mother-in-law both thought the same, even though neither of them had said it – not in front of her anyway.

She looked at her daughter’s tiny hands, curled up into little fists, at her heart-shaped face, and she saw the long eyelashes that would one day attract a man, and she felt the panic rising inside her.

She breathed as deeply as she could, knowing that she had to stop this feeling before it got out of control. She had to swallow it down, as she had swallowed it down in the past. She had to be strong, had to put her brave face on for the world. She had to gather her strength, because this little child would need her to be strong. But, as she fought against the terror rising in her breast, she felt the first stirrings of discontent inside her. Daniel had let her down, and badly. As ever, he had more important things on his mind. There was always something more important than his wife or his family. And until now, until this second, she had never before admitted that to herself.