She felt better then, stronger. It was as if Lesley Scott had healed her somehow with her vitriol and her delusions. She knew she had to get her life back, for the sake of her boys and for herself. She remembered how once, at school, the English teacher had said that it wasn’t what happened to you, it was how you dealt with it. She couldn’t remember where the quote was from but it was apt. She wasn’t going to let this latest trouble destroy her. She was going to get on with it, make a good life for her and her boys, and she would get even with Lesley Scott, not by fighting with her but by putting this behind her and not letting it define who she was to become. Anger, she was finding, could actually be a good thing.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One

Jack Johnson was talking to Ray Donovan alone. Ray was not too bothered; he knew he had right on his side and, in fairness, Reggie and Barton had stopped him before he had done too much damage to Lenny Scott. He had done what he had set out to do: made sure that Big Lenny Scott never touched another woman as long as he lived. That seemed just and fair to him, though what had happened to his Sharon would not be so easily remedied. Now he looked calmly at Jack, a half-smile on his face. He had had his retribution; he felt better for that anyway.

‘What can I do for you, Jack?’ He spoke quietly and respectfully. He had no quarrel with Jack Johnson and he had a feeling that Jack didn’t have any quarrel with him.

‘Feeling better?’

Ray shrugged nonchalantly. ‘A little, if I’m honest. But it still doesn’t change anything for Sharon. What he did was brutal and frightening and soul-destroying.’

Jack nodded in agreement and sympathy. ‘True. But at least she hasn’t got to contend with him ever again. That in itself has to be a blessing. One thing, though. I’ve realised who you are, or rather who you were.’

Ray was immediately alert and he sat up straighter in the chair as he said, ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

Jack smiled then. ‘Oh, your secret’s safe with me, son. I won’t say a dicky bird. Do you still keep in touch with the Wheelans? I know them well. Todd and Dingo were old muckers of mine many years ago when we were all starting out.’

Still Ray didn’t say a word.

‘Listen, if I really want to, I can find out another way, Ray, but I would rather hear it from you.’

There was a hint of a threat, but only a hint, and Ray relaxed somewhat.

‘They are fine. Obviously I don’t see that much of them now they are banged up. I hear the odd word, of course.’