Daniel laughed, but it was a tired laugh; he was so sick of everything. ‘Fucking young girls selling themselves like pieces of meat. She would happily shag me, and she don’t even know me! What has happened to the world? When did youth become nothing more than a commodity?’

Davey grinned ruefully. ‘When people like us opened places like this.’

Daniel knew the boy was right, but times had changed. Young girls had options now, opportunities – look at his Tania. He was aware, though, that his wife had made sure that his daughter had those options, and he had never even given it a thought until now. He owned this place and others like it, and they earned a fucking fortune. They had strip joints, peep shows – sex had been a big earner for them for many years. So why was he so bothered?

Maybe it was because he had appreciated that Lena had never liked any of this, and he had kept it from her as much as possible. She had been uncomfortable with the clubs – she was a decent woman like that. He was a hypocrite, but admitting that didn’t make him feel any better. He was just trying to justify the Life, the very same Life that had been the cause of his wife’s death, the same Life that was losing its attraction for him day by day.

He wanted out. But without his Lena, what would he do? Without her, he had nothing – nothing except his work.

Chapter One Hundred and Forty

Tania was tired out; she wished she could sleep, but she couldn’t. Until now, she had always welcomed slumber, had slipped easily into its oblivion. She had enjoyed it; cuddled up warm in her bed, she usually dropped off without any trouble. She had never before experienced the trauma of insomnia, and the way it left you utterly exhausted and so depressed.

Now she was at the church, waiting for her nana. She loved six o’clock Mass; she had accompanied her mum so many times, and they had appreciated the quiet of the church, enjoyed the ritual of the Mass and the feeling of being a part of something big. She had sat here so many times in the chill of the early morning, and been happy because her mum was by her side. She should have cherished those times more, she knew that now. But she had taken so much for granted back then. She recognised now, without a shadow of a doubt, that her mother’s daily attendance at Mass was to atone for her father’s sins – her mum had prayed for her father’s salvation, dragging herself here every morning to ask God to forgive him.