“Take your junkie mates and get selling. I want that money flowing in. My da might have been happy with the small time, but I want the McDades back at the top of the tree. Understand me?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Are you sure you understand? If you want this to keep flowing in your veins.” Malky lifted up a bag of drugs, and when Kevin went to grab them, Malky snatched them away.

“Please, Malky. I need them.”

He had Kevin exactly where he wanted him. “Davey,” Malky shouted out the office door. A big burly guy with tattoos all the way up his neck came in. “Make sure Kevin gets to his new patch and tells all his wee dealer mates that they’ve to push into Sharkey territory.”

“Aye, nae bother,” he replied.

Davey grabbed Kevin by the collar, and Malky handed Kevin the drugs. “On you go then, like a good wee boy.”

Kevin nodded and was half dragged, half walked out the door. Malky sat back at his desk. He lined up the three pictures of the main Sharkeys—Thomas, Nikki, and the so-called Mack the Knife.

“I’m coming for you.”

Malky’s dad said he had an unhealthy obsession with the Sharkeys, but it was resentment. They had everything, plus the pretention to go legit and become respected businesspeople. He hated the respect and the fear people had for them. If only his dad was as ruthless as Thomas Sharkey, the McDades would be feared and respected just the same, and that was Malky’s goal, while taking the Sharkeys down.

He took a pen and crossed out the faces of Nikki and Mack. He’d like to get Thomas as well, but he was old and retired. Taking out those two would destroy the Sharkeys.

Chapter Five

It had been a strange long weekend for Flora. Strange in the sense that she had felt nervous and excited to get back to work on Monday morning.

On her way to work she looked in the window of the barbershop, hoping to catch sight of Mack, but even though the shutters were up, no one was in the front of the shop, which was disappointing.

As the day went on, Flora had been tempted to walk next door and say hello, which was unheard of for her. Of course she didn’t go through with it, but the excited urge was there, and that was different enough for her.

Flora hadn’t met a woman like Mack before, one who was physically strong and tough and clearly moved through the world without fear. That must be an amazing feeling. Flora had often daydreamed about inhabiting someone with that sort of confidence and surety, even just for a second. For someone so anxiety-ridden and fearful, that imagining was tantalizing.