Starting a feud between Kevin and Nathan would distract them both for a while, and hopefully take one of them out of the game on a permanent basis. Nudge was the perfect co-conspirator. He had ready access to guns and he was an old friend of Grace’s. He’d come to her for some help a few years earlier when he was being blackmailed by an associate of his. He’d heard Grace had a way of digging up damaging information on people, and thanks to Sandra’s trawling of the NHS computer system, Grace was able to find out some much more interesting and salacious information on Nudge’s blackmailer.

The plan was for Nudge to approach Kevin, but she’d almost cried with laughter when Kevin had phoned her a few days earlier and asked her if she knew anyone in the firearms game. He made it so bloody easy, it almost took the sport out of it.

Grace stood up to leave. ‘Thanks for the update, Nudge.’

‘No problem, Grace. You didn’t get your brew. Sorry.’

‘That’s fine. I need to get home. Jake’s making me a curry. Keep me updated, won’t you?’

‘Of course I will. Bye, Grace,’ he said as he bent to kiss her on the cheek.

‘Bye, Nudge,’ she said as she closed the door of his Portakabin.

Grace smiled to herself as she drove home. Soon enough, either Kevin or Nathan would be out of her hair for good. She hoped it would be Nathan, it would certainly save her a job, but she wasn’t sure Kevin was quite up to the task of taking out one of the biggest players in Liverpool. He was too slow, and always seemed to be a few steps behind everyone else. It made him easy to manipulate and was one of the reasons Grace had chosen him to front some of her operations for a while. In all likelihood, it would be Nathan who would come out on top in any dispute between the two. But once that was over she could get on with the final stage of her plan.

Chapter Seventy-Two

Grace noticed Kayleigh had been at the bar on her own for the past half an hour. Nathan was sitting at a table with some business associates of his and was clearly deep in conversation. Kayleigh was knocking the vodkas back like they were about to announce a prohibition, and she signalled to Grace for a refill. Grace took her a fresh drink over and could see she was more than a little drunk.

‘How did you do it, Grace?’ she slurred.

‘Do what?’

‘Get that fucker to marry you,’ she spat. ‘He barely even notices me anymore.’ She was almost crying. ‘Except when he fancies a quick shag anyway, and he hasn’t even done that for ages.’