Danny shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Tell me about it, Petey, but it will all come out in the wash. Until then, the fucker’s mine.’ Danny drank his brandy, savouring every sip, safe in the knowledge that he now owned Colin Farmer lock, stock and fucking barrel. And, before he was finished, he would own a lot more people. He was his father’s eldest son; it was down to him to bring back some kind of respect and admiration for their side of the Bailey family, and he was going to make sure that happened. They were not going to be perceived as second best any more. All his life he had watched his father go his own very strange and very peculiar road, and he had realised early on that it had not gained them anything of any real value. His father, unfortunately, was a man of extreme but random violence – not something that was seen as a drawback in their world normally. But Danny understood that his father’s complete disregard for the moral codes that they lived by, and his inability to see his actions as anything other than justified, had caused them serious problems. His Uncle Peter had ensured that his father’s more outrageous escapades had been overlooked, but they were still remembered.

Well, now he and his brothers were grown up, and they were not going to stand by and play second fiddle to anyone; he was working day and night to make sure that the sons of Daniel Bailey were seen as trustworthy and, more to the point, as men in their own right. Petey Bailey and his brothers had nothing to prove, and Danny was pleased for them, but he and his brothers had to work twice as hard to prove their worth. They were willing to do that, to bring a good wedge to the table, and show their Uncle Peter that they were more than capable of scratching a good living. And, unlike their cousins, they would achieve it against the odds.

Petey Bailey watched his cousin as he rolled a joint, and he wondered at what it must be like to live in the shadow of a father like his Uncle Daniel – a bona fide fucking nut-job. Petey loved his cousin; he felt sorry for him, because he had a lot to live down, but he was confident that Danny was well able to do the job. And whatever Daniel Bailey Senior was, he was still a man who could terrify the average man on the street. He was still one of the Bailey brothers, and that counted for a lot in their world.

Chapter Fifty-Nine