‘You are wrong,’ Irena replied quietly. ‘Nick was the one who find house, and they would have done this with or without me, because Karel needed place to—’

‘Oh, I know what he needed,’ Frank cut her off. ‘A place to hide out while he gets his filthy business up and running again. What I don’t get is what’s in it for you? You’re the one who had to do all the dirty work, but he’s not exactly bending over backwards with gratitude, is he?’

‘You do not know him like I do,’ Irena protested, trotting out the same line she always used whenever Frank criticized Karel. ‘He is good man, and he—’

‘Oh, give it a break, for Christ’s sake,’ Frank groaned. ‘Are you seriously that blind? If he had any respect for you, he wouldn’t be flaunting that girl under your nose. But you don’t even seem to care that he’s screwing her.’

Two bright spots bloomed on Irena’s cheeks, and Frank sighed and shook his head.

‘I don’t get you at all. I know you’re scared of him, because I’ve seen how you react when he gets angry. But you’re not stupid, so why do you stay with him when he treats you so badly?’

A veil came down over Irena’s eyes, and she said, ‘We need finish shop and go home. Karel will be wonder why we are take so long.’

‘I very much doubt he’s sitting there watching the clock,’ Frank sniped. ‘He’ll be too busy fucking your replacement.’

Irena turned and walked away without answering, and Frank followed as she snatched items off the shelves and tossed them into the trolley. She claimed that she and Karel were in love, but Frank had seen little evidence of that so far – definitely not from Karel’s side. The man exuded power, and Frank imagined it was easy for him to fool women into thinking he cared about them when he turned on the charm. But Irena wasn’t a love-struck teenager; she was an intelligent woman in her thirties, who ought to have the sense to walk away when a relationship turned as sour as theirs clearly had. But if she was content to be used as a doormat, there was no point trying to reason with her.

39

Three of Karel’s men were outside admiring a Range Rover with a full body kit and blacked-out windows when Frank and Irena arrived back at the house after calling in at the pharmacy. It was parked behind the Transit, so Frank pulled up alongside it and turned off the engine. Irena went straight inside, leaving him to unload the shopping. As he was struggling up the path with several bulging carrier bags, one of the men walked over to him and held out his hand.

‘Let me take them for you, mate.’