Ray choked her to death. When he realised what he had done, he was annoyed with himself. This was the last thing he needed right now. He rang Elton – he would sort out what needed doing. Ray knew that he needed to calm himself down. It wasn’t the first time this had happened – he should have been prepared for the girl’s threats. At the end of the day, that is all they were – girls. Sharon was the love of his life, his wife, and, as such, she would be afforded respect. Even by the women he fucked. What kind of husband would he be if he allowed them to bad-mouth the mother of his daughter? He fucked them but they were never going to be contenders to Sharon’s crown. What made them think they ever could be?

He smiled as he waited for Elton Mills to arrive; he was good, was Elton. He always made everything go away. Ray was relying on him more and more.

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-One

Elton Mills had been in bed with his girlfriend, a good-looking Jamaican girl called Abigail, when the phone rang. She was stunning, with big brown eyes and a shaved head. She really embraced the African look – it suited her and she knew it. She believed that Elton Mills was going places so, when he took the call, she was sensible enough to smile and act like she thought it was perfectly normal for a man to leave her halfway through making love to her.

‘I need to leave, baby.’

She kissed him deeply, using her tongue to its best advantage. ‘Come back soon. I will be waiting for you, baby boy.’

He knew she meant every word, well aware that she was after the main chance, but he did not say that, of course. Instead he got dressed and left as quickly as humanly possible.

Ray was starting to bother him. He respected the man – in truth, he was the reason he had such a fabulous life. Elton was his number two and everyone knew that. But lately, Ray had been like a loose cannon. Now he had taken out that silly Chrissie. She was a fucking prat, but she was only twenty-two and had been used by everyone in their orbit, so her disappearance would be noticed by all and sundry. It wasn’t as though Ray had hid his relationship with her either; he was pretty fucking blatant. Elton wondered if he wanted Sharon to find out, if he was trying to get some kind of reaction from her. That was just speculation, of course.

One thing Elton knew for sure was that Ray worshipped his wife and his infatuation with younger women was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Now Elton had to take the girl and make her body disappear into thin air, and that was really not what he wanted to be doing.

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Two