Grace swirled the brandy around her glass as she leaned back in her chair and watched as Patrick counted the mountain of ten and twenty pound notes into piles. She contemplated how far she’d come from the foolish young girl who’d first met Nathan Conlon. Some of the most feared and respected men in Liverpool were at her disposal now. Day or night, she just had to say the word and they would come running. It wasn’t because they were scared of her either, not like Nathan’s minions. It was because they were loyal to her. They all owed her something. She smiled to herself. Sometime soon, Nathan would be out of hers and Jake’s lives for good, and everything would be perfect.

Chapter Forty-Two

Grace and Patrick were sitting in silence, enjoying the peace and quiet of the pub after hours when they heard the pounding on the double doors. As soon as Patrick undid the large steel bolt, his grandsons Connor and Paul Carter burst into the otherwise empty pub.

‘What the hell has happened?’ Patrick asked them, his brow furrowed in concern.

Their pale, wide-eyed expressions suggested it wasn’t something good.

‘We shot Kenny Lennox,’ Paul said while Connor stood behind him shaking his head.

‘What? Why?’ Grace asked, assuming the boys had been defending themselves. After all, there had to be some plausible explanation for them shooting one of Nathan’s closest associates.

‘We were aiming for Nathan,’ Paul replied.

For a second, Grace thought she must have misheard. Surely, they wouldn’t dare. Her stomach lurched. They had just started World War Three. Nathan had obviously just escaped the twins’ bungled attempt on his life and he would raise hell to find out, and destroy, whoever was involved. But what if they had shot Nathan as they’d planned? What would have happened then? While it would have been a far better outcome than the one they were facing, it still would have caused an all-out war. Nathan’s minions wouldn’t take his assassination lightly. They’d all be vying to prove themselves worthy of his crown.

‘What the hell have you two done?’ she demanded.

The two of them started to explain. Stammering and stuttering. The adrenaline coursing through their bodies making them almost incomprehensible.

‘Calm down, lads,’ their grandfather soothed. ‘Paul, tell us what happened, son.’

‘We waited outside The Blue Rooms for Nathan. We know he stays there late on a Sunday. We saw him coming out. We were on a scrambler and we rode over to him. Connor pulled the gun and he fired, but …’