Noel motioned for his brothers to follow him into the offices of the club, and they went willingly. None of them were really in the mood to enjoy themselves.

Inside the small office, Danny poured them each a large drink and then, holding his glass up, he said loudly, ‘To Jack! Cunt that he was.’

They swallowed their drinks quickly, but they each knew that nothing could raise their spirits this night. All any of them wanted was to forget.

Chapter Eighty-Three

Peter Bailey pulled up outside the warehouse in Basildon; he had a heavy heart as he turned off his car engine. He sat in the dark, pleased to see that the lights in the warehouse were muted – his sons had learned well how things were supposed to be done. Petey and Liam needed to be a part of this, he knew that much. They needed to understand that there was always a price to be paid for mistakes, for doing anything that could affect the family as a whole.

He suspected that his eldest boy was at peace with what was going to happen, and that showed him that Petey was sensible enough to understand that sometimes in their world you had to do things that were a necessary evil. Liam was still learning about the Life and, unlike Imelda, Peter had a feeling he would take all this onboard and learn a valuable lesson. Imelda was a good girl, but she was too emotional for her own good. Well, she was Delroy’s fucking problem now – not his. She had to understand that there was no way the family could ever be compromised, it was as simple as that.

Jack was beyond redemption, he had no fucking chance of walking away from this. Peter intended this to be a lesson to the other boys – Daniel’s too – that they had to police each other. One of them had to have known what Jack was getting involved in, suspected that he was getting in over his head somehow. This would show them that, in future, it would be more sensible to bring that kind of knowledge to the powers-that-be, sooner rather than later. They would hopefully understand how their actions impacted on everyone around them and what could happen when these problems weren’t addressed.

He got out of the car slowly. Walking into the warehouse, he heard Jack’s voice, and he felt a momentary pang of genuine sorrow. Jack had been such a lovely little lad, with all the potential to be a son he could be proud of, but his weakness had won out.