Shauna sipped her coffee and shook her head. She’d fought so hard and done so much to achieve her perfect family unit with Josh. ‘I dunno. If he comes to heel, maybe I’ll forget it. Forgive him. Take him back.’

Comes to heel. Like a dog, thought Lesley. She didn’t envy Josh Flynn right now. She certainly wouldn’t want to be in his shoes when the brown stuff started flying with wifey here. Lesley found she didn’t like Shauna at all; but she was paying. What else mattered?

‘I’ll head back to the office, get you a quote worked out,’ said Lesley, quickly draining her cup and standing up, gathering up notebook, pen and photo. She put on her jacket.

‘Soon. I want to get on with this,’ said Shauna.

‘I’ll be in touch today,’ said Lesley. ‘Without fail. Goodbye, Mrs Flynn.’

118

118

Everything was running like clockwork at the yard now and money was pouring in the door. Dividends were distributed lavishly from the auto parts trade and the scrap business and other income streams, so Aysha was able to buy herself a diamond-studded Rolex Oyster as a pre-Christmas present and to rent a small flat in Kensington.

‘That’s some watch,’ said Benedict when she came into the office and flashed the thing about. Connor wasn’t in.

‘You like it?’ Aysha twirled her wrist around so the diamonds caught the light.

‘I like it,’ said Benedict, coming around the desk and grabbing her hand, pulling her closer. He looked into her eyes. ‘I like you, too,’ he added.

Aysha hadn’t really even looked at a man since the disaster of her marriage to Joey Minghella. But Benedict? He was hard to ignore. He was big, solid. Not handsome, exactly – but he was a beautifully groomed hard man who could obviously handle himself, like Connor, like Dad. He dressed well, to impress. Always smelled nice. He had thick straight black hair and dark sexy eyes. But she’d done all this shit. One minute they were charming you into bed – and anyway she was useless at all that sex stuff – then they were taking you for granted. And next thing? They were kicking you aside like you were rubbish.

‘Thanks,’ she said, and snatched her hand away. But her heart was beating a little faster, and she wished it wouldn’t. This was a bad idea. Mixing business with pleasure couldn’t be good.

‘Don’t you like me?’ He gave a lopsided smile. ‘Maybe just a little, uh?’

‘I don’t even know you.’

‘You’ve been careful about that,’ he said.