‘By the time he realizes he should listen to you, Grace, it’ll be too late. He’ll be in way over his head. He’ll be too involved, to just walk away. And I’ll bet he probably wouldn’t want to walk away. The power, the respect; it’s addictive. You know that. And he would have both. Just because he’s my son he would have that. But with his brains too, he would be a man to be reckoned with. Don’t you want that for our boy, Grace?’

‘If you bring him into this life, Nathan I swear I will—’

‘You’ll what, Grace?’ he interrupted, pulling on his cigarette. ‘Have one of your heavies beat me up? Kill me? I’d like to see them fucking try.’

‘No. I’ll tell the police what you did to Tommy,’ she hissed.

He laughed again; he’d had a feeling she might bring that up. He knew she would think of anything, do anything to protect their son. Whenever he was forced to think about what he did to Tommy, he felt the bile rise in his throat. But his body only reacted that way out of habit now. Besides, Grace would never cross him. She might have the balls to take most people on, but not him. Because she knew exactly what he was capable of.

Chapter Forty

Grace stared at Nathan as he laughed. Not a small chuckle, but a large guffaw. As though she had just told him the funniest joke in the world.

‘Really, Grace?’ He raised an eyebrow at her and took another pull of his cigarette. He had a huge grin on his face – mocking her. ‘You really haven’t changed, have you? You’re still as thick as shit. You have no proof. You never actually saw me do anything. You saw me with what looked like blood on my clothes. There’s no evidence, Grace. You’re as guilty as I am. You destroyed my clothes – remember?’

‘Did I?’ she glared at him.

She watched his grin slowly turning into a frown. His eyes narrowed. ‘You wouldn’t fucking dare!’

‘Try me, Nathan,’ she said defiantly.

He took a step towards her, so his face was just inches from hers. She could feel the heat from him. His blue eyes looked almost black, smouldering like the dying embers of a fire. She could feel droplets of spittle hitting her face as he snapped, ‘Don’t fucking mess with me, Grace.’

She forced herself to smile at him. ‘I have evidence, Nathan. I didn’t burn it all. And if it should fall into the wrong hands … well, who knows what would happen? You’re not the only one with some of Merseyside’s finest in your pocket, you know. I happen to be very good friends with a detective inspector and a couple of his sergeants.’