As Grace escorted her sozzled son to bed, she wondered what the Carter twins were doing with Jimmy Dillon of all people. Michael wouldn’t be happy about his boys hanging about with that lunatic. Dear God, what if Jake had shot one of them? Or they’d hurt him? What would she have done? She’d worked hard to keep Jake away from her other life. He knew Michael and Patrick as men who frequented the pub and did a bit of security work for her, anything more than that he was oblivious to. Things were getting a bit too close for comfort, and it was all bloody Nathan’s fault.

Grace’s head spun with the incomprehension of it all as she lay in bed staring at the butterflies on her bedroom wallpaper. The sooner she could get her son away from his father, the better. There was no way she was going to let Nathan ruin her son’s life the way he’d ruined hers.

Jake was good. He was kind and caring and decent. Hell would freeze over before she would allow his bastard of a father to corrupt him. Grace would do anything in her power to ensure that their son turned out nothing like either of them had. He would have a proper, respectable job. One where he could go home every night with a clear conscience and not worry about who might knock at the door.

Grace needed a strategy. And as soon as her head was clearer she’d come up with one. She’d got rid of Nathan once. She would do it again.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Grace sat on the sofa staring at her son. Jake had chosen a suitably awful film for their final movie and takeaway night, and obviously, pizza was the selected cuisine. When he was little they would always watch a film and get a takeaway on a Sunday night. It used to be her favourite time of the week. It seemed fitting that they do that the night before her baby boy went off to live on his own, in another part of the country. As usual, Jake was allowed to choose what they ate and watched.

The film was full of blood and guts, just the type his father used to like making her sit through too, she thought. Of course, she feigned interest in it, but she spent most of her time looking at Jake. Her son, off out into the big wide world. Her heart could burst with love and pride whenever she looked at him, despite his little adventure a few nights earlier. He told her later it had been a mistake and that he was deeply ashamed of himself, and she believed him. She hoped he could put it behind him and move on. Connor and Paul Carter had been warned not to mention his involvement in anything. They were to forget he was ever there.