Michael was out of his chair like a bullet out of a gun, evidently relieved to get away from her. It was as though he wanted nothing more at this moment in time than to be as far away from her as physically possible.

Hannah was fuming. She knew who it was. Trust Josephine Callahan to turn up now. If she didn’t know any better, she would think she had planned it.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Jonny Barber was nearly sixty years old. He had pretty much looked that age since his early forties. At only five feet eight inches, he wasn’t tall; but with his barrel-chest, and bow legs he made quite an impression. His thick black hair had started to go grey in his late twenties, and he’d worn it as a steel-grey crew cut ever since. It was the only haircut that suited him. He was not a handsome man but his eyes were unforgettable. Like both his brothers, he had inherited his mother’s big blue eyes framed with long, dark eyelashes. These were so striking that people always gave him a second look. He couldn’t blame them – he knew they were wasted on him. His eyelashes were the envy of many a woman, and they also explained why he had been married three times. His eyes had the power to make a certain kind of woman forget about the rest of his face, though his reputation and large bankroll were also a great help.

These days, Jonny was a worried man. He had heard that his youngest brother Rob had been making a nuisance of himself as usual. Only this time it seemed he had been foolish enough to take his anti-social personality outside his home turf and all the way across London to the East End. He had decided to go and pick a fight with young Michael Flynn, a lad who had a good reputation and never looked for trouble, but was more than capable of looking after himself if it should find him. He was also one of Patrick Costello’s workers. Patrick, as everyone knew, let his brother Declan run the main business, while he dabbled in everything and anything that was illegal and lucrative. He wasn’t only talking drugs. From acquiring prestige cars for the booming Arab markets, to firearms of any kind, including sawn-off shotguns for the bank-robbing fraternity, and army-issue heavy artillery, you named it, Patrick Costello could get it. Jonny Barber had even heard a whisper that the man could procure Semtex if the price was right.