Chapters (48)
- Cover
- THEFEUD
- Dedication
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
As Jed answered the phone, Jessica spoke calmly and rationally. ‘Please don’t put the phone down, Jed. It’s Frankie’s mum and I want to help you.’
‘We’re fine. We don’t need your help,’ Jed said coldly.
‘Listen, Jed, and listen carefully. I need to meet up with you. Eddie’s on the warpath and I’m worried about your safety. I swear he doesn’t know that I’m ringing you and if you see him, please don’t tell him.’
Jed swerved onto a kerb and, holding his phone between his legs, repeated the conversation to Frankie. Although Frankie used to be a daddy’s girl, she knew that her mum was the one she could trust. ‘Let me speak to her,’ she urged Jed.
Reluctantly, Jed handed her the phone. ‘Mum, what’s up?’
Jessica repeated what she had already told Jed. ‘I’m really worried, Frankie. Your dad’s planning something stupid, I saw it in his eyes.’
‘Well, he won’t find us,’ Frankie said adamantly.
‘Aren’t you at Jed’s house?’ Jessica asked surprised.
‘No, we’re miles away. It’s remote where we’re staying, sort of in the middle of nowhere.’
‘Please Frankie, tell me where you are and I’ll come over and sort things out. I understand how you feel about Jed and the baby, I really do. I felt the same about your dad and you and Joey when I fell pregnant. I want you to be happy, Frankie, and if you want to marry Jed and have his baby, then it’s fine by me. We still need to convince your father, but if I can come over and speak to you and Jed, between us we can make things right.’
Frankie held her hand over the phone and spoke to Jed. ‘Look, I know she’s not setting us up, my mum’s not like that. We can’t stay away forever, Jed. I miss Joey and I’m gonna want contact with him. If anyone can make my dad see sense, it’s my mum. Please Joey, give her the address and let her come over.’
Against his better judgement, Jed told Jessica where they were staying and told her not to drive there until it got dark. ‘And don’t come in your own car. Borrow one off someone else, or we ain’t got a deal,’ Jed told her as he abruptly ended the call.
‘Thanks, Jed,’ Frankie said, squeezing his hand.
Jed snatched his hand away. ‘’Ere, cacker, you’ve done a wrong ’un there, Frankie, I’m telling ya. I’ve got a terrible gut feeling that tonight is gonna be one almighty disaster. Things ain’t gonna go cushti, I just know they ain’t.’
FORTY-TWO
Eddie and Raymond sat in a grotty pub in Tilbury. The weather was awful. It was meant to be midsummer, but the rain was bouncing off the ground.