‘She is a fucking stripper, Liam! Will you get a grip!’ Imelda Bailey was clearly annoyed; she didn’t like that her brother was being taken for a fool. What was it with her brothers and strippers?

‘I don’t care, I like her.’

Imelda rolled her eyes at the ceiling. ‘Strippers are like pros, Liam, they just see the money. You go out with her, do what you like, but you do not treat her as a real girlfriend. I’m trying to help you here. You are a fucking complete idiot where women are concerned.’

‘She’s nice.’

Imelda grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted, ‘She’s nice to everyone, you idiot! She flashes her clout for a fucking living! For fuck’s sake, Liam, don’t let anyone see that you really care for her, or you will be slaughtered! All I’m saying is, have a bit of discretion, OK?’

Liam nodded. But he couldn’t help his feelings. Mandy, as she was called, rang every bell he possessed. Nice tits, tight snatch, and she treated him like a king. He couldn’t help it – he went through the girls like water, was always on a love job of sorts.

‘Your job is to run this club, Liam, with me. And you do a good job. Then a new stripper arrives and you fall in love! It’s not right, Liam – you need to differentiate between the strippers and real birds. That’s all I am saying.’

Liam just grinned and Imelda sighed in frustration – she knew she was wasting her time. Liam, who was a good guy, had a weakness for women in him. He was attracted to the strippers and, unlike the other boys, he actually dated them. Handsome fucker he was, so she could understand the girls’ interest in him, but she was determined that not one of them would ever get a foot in his doorway. Not on her watch anyway.

Imelda actually liked this Mandy Wright; she was a genuinely lovely girl. The hardest part was that, since Imelda had taken over the Soho clubs, she had seen a different side to it. She’d become a part of the girls’ lives and seen the reality of their situations. Mandy had a two-year-old boy, a nice little kid called Bernard who she worshipped, and who was the reason she stripped for a living. She had no real education, no real family in the background to help her out, and she was doing what she had to, to get by: stripping for a living. Through that, she paid her rent, and fed and clothed her boy. But she was still a fucking stripper, a Jack the Ripper as the slang went, and Liam needed to understand that there was a fine line, and once you stepped over it, you lost your credibility.

‘Look, Liam, I like Mandy, she is a nice girl.’