But now Michael Flynn needed a serious fucking talking to and he was going to give it to him, please or offend. This should never have been allowed to go so far, and Michael knew that better than anyone. It took a lot to make Declan angry but, when he finally succumbed to anger, he could be a very dangerous individual. Michael would do well to remember that.

He glanced at his watch. Michael was already over an hour late, and that added to his irritation. Tardiness was the greatest insult of them all; arrangements were made to suit those concerned – it was the height of rudeness to overlook other people’s needs.

He heard Michael arrive; he hailed people as always with his usual bonhomie and smiling face, but Declan knew Michael Flynn was not the amiable, hail-fellow-well-met cunt that he pretended to be. He was a vicious fucker, who could pass in company as a well-heeled, well-dressed businessman. And that was fine, so long as he remembered that, while he had been playing happy families for the last six months, he had inadvertently dropped the proverbial ball. He had a fucking seriously damaging break in his ranks, and it needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.

Josephine’s problems were common knowledge and as much as everyone felt for him – after all, no one wanted a fucking nutbag on the team – Michael needed to remember the golden rule: family life came second to everything else.

As Michael made his entrance into the office, it took all of Declan Costello’s willpower to stop himself from smacking him one. If ever a man needed to be brought down a peg, Michael Flynn was that man.

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Three

Hannah was holding her granddaughter on her lap, amazed at the love she felt for the child. The only other person to ever make her feel such overpowering love had been her son, and where had that got her? But little Jessie had crept into her heart, and now the thought of being parted from her was a real torment. She had even tempered her usual sarcastic remarks, frightened that if she pushed too far the child would be taken beyond her reach.

She could see herself in her, although no one else would admit that. She had her eyes, and her own mother’s cupid bow lips. It was unbelievable really, the child’s hold on her. Hannah adored her, and that was something she had never envisaged.