Fucking coward! Well, Peter would not swallow this little lot, he knew that even if the others hadn’t quite grasped that fact yet. Liam had brought him to Daniel’s house while the others tried to talk Peter down. But it was pointless. Jack Bailey was what the Yanks called a Dead Man Walking.

‘Did you inject that shit, Jack?’ he asked conversationally.

Jack looked at his uncle fearfully; he sounded so calm, like he was chatting about the weather or asking after his health. Jack nodded.

‘Well, for what it’s worth you would have been much better off OD’ing, son, ’cos you’re a fucking dead Bailey either way.’

Jack didn’t answer – there was nothing he could say.

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Tania could hear her Auntie Ria crying – it was a terrible sound, as if she was struggling for breath. Sitting at the top of her nana’s stairs, Tania could hear everything that was being said.

‘He will kill him, Lena, I know he will. The boys won’t be able to stop him, no one will be able to stop him . . .’ Ria was in despair. Peter would out Jack, son or no son, of that she had no doubt at all. Ria, who’d always had her eyes wide open to the Life, suddenly wished for the blissful ignorance Lena had maintained. What had her boy been thinking? Jack must have known from the moment he took that drug how it would be received if his father found out about it all. This wasn’t something they would ever countenance, it was something that was seen as a weakness, as a sign of mental incapability. You sold drugs, you didn’t fucking take them – not that kind of shit anyway. ‘He’s my baby, Lena, he’s my little boy. Call your Daniel, tell him to hide him, tell him to take him away somewhere . . .’ Ria was distraught, desperate, but she knew it was useless.

Lena still didn’t answer her friend. She rubbed her back gently, unable to say anything to comfort her, and feeling guilty that she was grateful it wasn’t one of her boys. ‘Drink this brandy, Ria. Imelda will be here in a minute.’

Ria didn’t answer her and, after a few moments of grief-driven crying, she was suddenly quiet.

As Lena hugged her friend tightly, she wondered at how they were ever going to get past this. They had the money, the prestige and the cars – they had front-row seats in the Life. But this was the downside. The Life was good, no doubt about that but, as they all knew, it came at a price. At times like this, it was a terrible price, but one that had to be paid no matter what the consequences might be, or who it might hurt. This was the Life at its worst, and poor Ria would have to live with it. They all would.

Chapter Seventy-Eight