‘I missed him.’ Connor shook his head. ‘That stupid old bastard, Kenny Lennox, jumped in front of him. He’s definitely dead. Took a bullet right to the face.’ He shuddered. ‘Nathan dived behind a car and we couldn’t get to him. We didn’t know if there was anyone else in the club so we had to get out of there.’

Grace’s heart was beating so fast in her chest she thought it might explode. She rose from her chair. ‘You pair of stupid fucking idiots,’ she shouted. ‘Who the hell gave you permission to go after Nathan?’

‘No one,’ Paul said sheepishly. ‘We did it for you, Grace. We thought it would help.’

‘You thought it would help?’ she sneered. ‘I don’t pay you to think. I had a perfectly good plan to get rid of Nathan, and you two have fucked it right up.’ She walked away from them before she completely lost the plot. ‘Fucking help,’ she muttered.

‘What happened then? Did anyone see you?’ Patrick asked, trying to defuse some of the tension.

‘We got away down the alley. Dumped the gun and the scrambler and came straight here,’ Paul replied.

‘You pair of fucking amateurs,’ Grace snapped as she walked back over to them. ‘If I’d wanted Nathan shot then I’d have asked your father to do it.’

‘We’re sorry, Grace,’ they both said in unison.

‘At least no one saw them,’ Patrick said, still trying to defuse the tension in the room.

‘What?’ she shouted. ‘Look at the two of them. Identical twins. Pair of them built like brick shithouses and you think he won’t have recognized them? Come on, Pat. Are you having a laugh?’ She turned to the twins. ‘So, you took it upon yourselves to shoot Nathan. Why didn’t you at least finish the job then? At least then there’d be something to show for this mess.’

‘I know, but once Kenny went down, Nathan bolted and we panicked. We just wanted to get out of there,’ Connor said.

‘I should hang you two out to fucking dry. I should …’ She didn’t finish her sentence. The thought that Nathan had just survived a murder attempt was too much to contemplate. The fallout from this was going to cause mayhem. He might not think she had anything to do with it, but he would know it was the Carter twins. Thankfully, Nathan had no idea that the twins were on her payroll, but they were, and she couldn’t help but feel responsible for the whole Carter family. When Michael found out he’d have a bloody canary fit.

‘We’re sorry,’ they both said again.

Patrick remained quiet.

‘Get out of my sight and start thinking about how you’re going to make yourselves disappear for the foreseeable future until I can sort this mess out,’ Grace barked at them.