Nathan frowned. That’s exactly what he thought she did. Now that she no longer had the Carters at her disposal, her burgeoning criminal empire seemed to have been taken over by Kevin Mitchell, of all people. So, what was she doing with her time? Maybe she was with that Sandra bird? Nathan had forgotten all about her in the midst of all the recent drama.

Jake laughed again and shook his head as he put on his jacket. ‘Come on then, where are we going?’

Nathan was still pondering Grace’s whereabouts as they drove to the scrapyard. Where was she and who the fuck was she with? It bugged him more than he had expected it to. He’d phone her, but Jake was with him and he would definitely get suspicious then. He was becoming increasingly annoyed. He’d gone to find her at the pub earlier that afternoon because he was hoping for a quick fuck. She usually did the books on a Saturday afternoon in the office upstairs. No one would have even known he was up there.

When she wasn’t there, he went to the house to find her, only to find Jake there instead.

Nathan had to pretend he was looking for him. Although it turned out in his favour anyway, as Jake could help him out with some business he had on that afternoon. And he could do with having someone with him he could trust. Especially as John appeared to have gone AWOL that afternoon too.

Nudge Richards was waiting for Nathan in his office. Nudge had a very unfortunate ‘accident’ with a machete when he was young. He was left with a scarred face and lasting nerve damage in his right eye – giving him the appearance of a permanent wink. It started as a joke whenever anyone saw him – ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’. And was soon shortened to nudge – hence the name. In addition to his facial disfiguration, he was over six feet tall, and was a huge, hairy fucker. He always reminded Nathan of a gorilla. Quite frankly, he scared the shit out of most people he met. Not Nathan though. He had the measure of him.

Recently, Nudge had developed a significant Charlie and gambling problem. He was also partial to a beautiful woman. He’d built up quite a debt in Nathan’s club, and had also developed something of a crush on one of their dancers, Mandy. It turned out he was surprisingly loose lipped when she was sucking him off. It seemed Nathan’s old friend, Kevin Mitchell, was looking to make a bigger name for himself. He was looking to get his hands on some decent guns, and he had come to Nudge to supply them.