There was no doubt in Adele’s mind what was going on here. Peter could dress things up as much as it liked by calling it security but this ledger confirmed what she had already suspected. Her brother was running a protection racket.

Despite having her suspicions confirmed, Adele knew that she would stick with her decision to work for Peter. After all, she had exhausted all other possibilities and this was the only viable option open to her.

And if Peter had promised to protect her from things as best he could then she would go along with that. So she shut the ledger and returned it to its hiding place. Now that she knew for sure about his illegal sideline, she would rather try to put it out of her mind and focus on the other businesses.

She knew that nothing she said would make Peter give up the protection business; he was already in too deep for that and, like he had said, he couldn’t afford to show his men any sign of weakness. So she would try to forget that she had ever seen the ledger and hope that Peter’s world was not about to come crashing down around them.

Chapter 49

Adele was working late. There was still a lot of work to do so she tried to concentrate on that rather than her disturbing discovery. Work helped to take her mind off things: her fear of being attacked again, and the nagging worry about what Peter was involved in.

In the past couple of days she had also tried to repair her fractured relationship with her brother. If she had to work with him then she didn’t want it to be in an unpleasant environment. So they kept their conversations strictly to the legal businesses and left other things unsaid.

Noticing how late it was, she put her files away and left her office. She still had one job to do before she left for home: she needed Peter to sign a cheque for supplies to the nightclub. He’d been out all day but had rung her to say he was back so she decided to go in search of him and see if she could get his signature before she went home.

When Adele saw that Peter wasn’t in his office she decided to try the nightclub. There he was, sitting at the bar nursing a large measure of something alcoholic; she assumed it was his usual tipple of brandy. To her consternation, Glynn was also sitting at the bar alongside Peter.

Adele tried to ignore Glynn while she spoke to Peter. ‘Hi, I thought I might find you here,’ she said. Then she passed him the cheque. ‘Can you sign this for me so I can put it in the post tomorrow?’

‘Have you got a pen?’ he asked.

‘Shit, sorry. I forgot to bring one down with me.’