Cynthia walked from the house without another word. For the first time ever, she didn’t know how to react. She knew she had been rumbled and she was frightened – she knew she had gone too far. Her hate had caused this situation. She had hoped Jonny and his cronies would all be taken away, so she never had to look at them again. She had tried to bring them all down, had tried to make them all see how vulnerable they really were. But instead she had found out how deeply entrenched they were with the police, and now she finally understood how dangerous a position she was in. She had wanted to take them out, her husband included – especially her husband if truth be told – but now she knew she had no chance of making that happen. They were involved in some deep shit, and she knew exactly how deep that shit was. So she’d told the Filth all she knew – for a price, of course. Instead they had served her up, the Filth had served her up like a fucking sacrifice. She would never get over the fact that the people who should have been hanging on her every word, who had been given the information they’d need to bring down some serious crooks, had turned it all around and had left her hanging in the wind, at the mercy of the very people she had tried to bring down.

She was now an acknowledged grass, a woman who would never be trusted again. Someone who would be a dead body if her sister had not been Jonny Parker’s other half. She knew that she was tainted, knew that she would have to really prove herself at some point and, worst of all, she knew that she had brought this on herself. She was a jealous, vindictive bitch. She knew that better than anyone. But everyone around her knew that too. And that really irked her.

She felt sick with apprehension and she realised that feeling would never leave her.

Chapter Twenty-One

‘You’ve asked for it, Cynth, all of it. You would have taken us all out – even me. Or should that be especially me?’

Jimmy Tailor had long ceased to be in awe of his lovely wife’s tongue. Since she had brought the Filth breathing down all their necks, he had been decidedly rude where she was concerned, and with what he thought was good cause.