He had said it now, said the name Bailey out loud. Everyone had guessed who the perpetrators were anyway, so it was pointless trying to pretend otherwise.

Jed Lanson looked around him, saw the faces of his workforce – good men, loyal to him – but they were getting on, were paunchy having lived the good life for far too long. Always a mistake, getting too complacent; after all, this was how he had got to where he was now. Taking out the old guard. He should have retired ten years before, quit while he was ahead. But it was hard, so hard to admit you were past it. That it was time to step back and enjoy the fruits of your labour. But, then again, unlike the Baileys, he had three daughters, no sons to bring up in the Life; that’s why his sister’s son had thought he was the dog’s knob. For all the good it had done him – done any of them come to that.

He looked around him once more, at the men he had grown up with, worked with all these years, and he smiled wryly to himself. He had a feeling that they didn’t stand a fucking chance. The Baileys would have thought this out down to the last second. This was going to be a well-planned and well-executed coup.

He sighed heavily. Twenty years ago they were the cream of the crop. Now they were more like Dad’s Army, and he, it seemed, was Captain fucking Mainwaring. He knew instinctively that this night was not going to end well for any of them. And all over that useless ponce Micky. He would lose everything he had worked for, over a man he had never really liked, or indeed never even respected. It was life taking the piss all right.

Two hours later the last thing he ever saw was Daniel Bailey’s face as he shot him through his right eye.

Chapter Four

‘Where have you been, Dan? I’ve been worried out of my mind.’

Daniel Bailey grinned that roguish smile that had attracted Lena so many years ago. It was strange really, even after all this time and giving him four strapping sons, she still felt the same pull that she had felt the first time she saw him. He had looked like an even more handsome Rhett Butler to her – taller than most men, with thick dark hair, and deep blue eyes. She had been bowled over by him then, and she still was.

He slipped into the bed beside her and, pulling her into his arms, he said quietly, ‘I was working. You know me, Lena, there’ll never be no one else for me.’

She did know that. If he had strayed she would have heard a whisper, their world was like that. Anyway, her husband was a stickler for fidelity. He saw it as his yardstick for decency and morality.