He barked at her in growing anger, ‘Listen to me, Donna. I have a lot of clout in the criminal world, but in case it escaped your notice, so does your old man. The truth of the matter is, if we fuck him up, we’d never be able to sleep easy in our beds again. You know yourself, Paddy, everyone, is in on this. When it all comes out, there’s going to be a lot of red faces, and not with embarrassment - but with rage. We can’t even let this be handed over to the police, it’s gone too deep for that now. We have to do it in such a way as to fuck him up, but he can’t point the finger at us. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

Donna shook her head in stunned silence.

Alan stared into her strained face and said sadly, ‘The trouble is, at this moment in time, neither do I. But I’ll think of something, love, don’t worry about that.’

She poured herself another drink and said waspishly, ‘And what about Stephen Brunos, eh? He knows more than enough about everything. What if he tells Georgio me and you came out here like Batman and Wonder-woman and fucked up his plans? What then, eh?’

Alan closed his eyes and said sadly, ‘Donna, Stephen Brunos is dead.’

She frowned in consternation. ‘What do you mean, dead?’

He said slowly, ‘As in doornail. He knew as well as I did that he was dead the minute I walked into that hotel room. With all that was going on, I couldn’t ever let him open his mouth. There are too many dangerous people involved, Donna, that’s what you seem to be forgetting, what you can’t seem to take into your pretty little head.

‘I can’t stop the jump, Donna,’ he said again. ‘I wouldn’t dare. Only your husband can do that now, and that’s the last thing he wants. The jump will go ahead, and you and I will let it, whether we like it or not.’

Donna dropped on to the bed as if someone had punched her in the solar plexus.

‘The jump must be stopped!’ Her voice was hysterical.

‘Leave it to me, love, just leave it to me. Your life’s in as much danger as mine at the moment. More even, because Georgio won’t take any of this lying down. If he finds out, we’re in deep shit.’

She looked into Alan’s face and said through her tears, ‘How the hell did I get involved in all this?’

Alan glanced out of the door at the brilliant sunshine and answered her softly.

‘You were involved from the day you married him, love, you just didn’t realise it.’

BOOK THREE

BOOK THREE

‘Should all despair;
That have revolted wives,
The tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves’—

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616 The Winters Tale