Jacqui Rose - Sinner

Franny walked across to Bree and leant down into her face. ‘Are you being serious? Are you really jealous of a baby?’

Bree shook her head. ‘No of course not! I’m not saying that.’

‘Then what are you saying?’

‘It’s just that you seem different from when we started all this. We were friends and now … I just don’t know how to explain it.’

Guilt and stress and uncertainty rushed through Franny. ‘Maybe because it’s bullshit and there is nothing to explain. You need to grow up, Bree, and appreciate what’s around you, and if you haven’t realised already, this is a really difficult situation I’m in. Don’t forget, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have Mia. You were happy to run off and get an abortion.’

The shock on Bree’s face didn’t mar her beauty but the sadness in her eyes shadowed it. ‘Franny, please don’t say that. It wasn’t like that, you know I was desperate. I didn’t want to bring a child into the life that Alfie leads. All the violence, all the crime. The people that come with it. All the drugs and guns, even the money laundering he does, well it all comes at a price. It’s dangerous and I know what it’s like to live in fear and I didn’t want to bring a baby into that. I know it was you who helped me, but being cooped up here, it’s difficult. The only person I see is you. I just want to go out, even to the park.’

Playing with Mia’s tiny fingers, Franny shook her head. ‘I’ve already told you, we can’t risk it, not at the moment.’

Wrapping her blue silk dressing gown round her, Bree appealed, ‘When then?’

As Mia started to become grizzly, Franny rocked her, the sound of her cries filling the room. ‘The subject’s closed , okay? I don’t want to talk about it so just drop it, Bree.’

‘Then maybe it would be better if we just told Alf …’

Franny angrily interrupted, ‘If we told him? If we told him that we went behind his back, that we’ve lied to him, that we’ve been taking money from the business so you can stay here? Are you stupid?’

‘No, I … I … all I’m really trying to say is look around you, Franny; we’re in the middle of nowhere, no one will see me if I go out, and if anyone did find out, I’d never say it was you. I’d never say you were involved.’

Franny gave Bree a cold stare. ‘Bree, unlike you, Alfie’s not stupid. He knows you had no money, no real family, and suddenly you have a flat and your daughter’s in a good school. He’ll know someone helped you, and it won’t be long before he works out that someone was me.’

‘Then what about Mia? It’s not good for her to be kept inside like this.’

‘She’s fine.’

‘No, she’s not. I know what’s best for her, Franny, she is my baby.’

With the expression on her face tight and taut, Franny walked across to Bree, gently giving Mia back to her. She glared at Bree before picking up her jacket to turn away, but at the door Franny stopped, speaking quietly. ‘No, Bree, you’re wrong, she isn’t just yours. You can’t push me out of her life that easily.’

Shannon trembled as Charlie stood above her in the back room of his club. She was stoned, but not so stoned she hadn’t felt the hard kicking Charlie had just given her. The blood ran from her mouth as she gazed up at him. ‘I’ll do some more okay? I’ll work harder, I promise, Char.’

The boot to the side of her head sent her flying back against the table and the ringing in her ear almost muted out what Charlie was screaming at her. ‘Too fucking late! You call yourself family and then you have the cheek just to hand me four hundred quid! You cheeky bitch. I can’t believe it. I mean, there’s me thinking that you’re pulling your weight and it turns out you’re just mugging me off … Four hundred quid for a whole day’s work.’

In serious pain, Shannon hugged her knees to her chest as she sat against the wall. ‘I tried, I really did.’

Charlie’s bellow filled the entire room as he charged towards Shannon, lifting her up from the floor by her hair. He stuffed the money she’d given him into her mouth, pushing it down her throat, making her gag, making her face turn from red to blue. Her eyes opened wide in terror as she struggled to breathe.

‘Tried! Are you being funny? All you have to do is open your mouth or open your legs and bingo! You hardly have to be a frigging genius, but what you want is a free ride ain’t it, Shan? You don’t want to do any work. You’re taking the piss because you think I’m soft for family. Well think again, darlin’, because I warned you before about handing over this sort of money.’ He shook her hard, and her head flicked back and forth, before he dropped her back on the floor, watching in disgust as she vomited up the contents of her stomach along with the money he’d stuffed in her mouth.

Void of any sympathy, Charlie raged, ‘I hope you’re going to clear that up. This ain’t a free boarding house, Shannon. You’re no better than a dirty dog.’

Pulling off her top and quickly trying to clean up the vomit with it, Shannon nodded fearfully. ‘I know, Char, and I’m really sorry … Look, there, that’s better, it’s gone. It’s all clean now.’

Charlie crouched down to Shannon, curling up his nose at the smell of bile. ‘Stop the crying, for God’s sake. I don’t know what you expect me to do, Shan. I mean, seriously, tell me how I’m supposed to pay for all you girls, and pay for this place and all the other expenses I have, when all you give me for a day’s work is this?’

Unable to stop crying, Shannon wiped her mouth with her top, which was now covered in vomit and dirt. Mucus and snot stuck to her cheek. Then looking so much younger than her sixteen years, she trembled, gazing at Charlie through her swollen, black eye. ‘Char, I’m so sorry, you got to believe me. I won’t do it again.’

Grabbing another handful of Shannon’s hair, Charlie pushed his face onto hers. He spoke in a hiss. ‘You say that every time, and every time I give you another chance. Maybe if you spent less time sucking that crack pipe and more time sucking cock, there wouldn’t be a problem.’

Shannon nodded her head, but she flinched as Charlie pulled her hair harder and continued to talk. ‘It’s no good, Shan. If I give you special treatment, all the other girls will want special treatment too, and I can’t be doing with that. I can’t do with the grief, so you need to say ta-ta.’

Shock crossed Shannon’s face, her eyes full of fear. ‘What … what are you talking about?’

Standing up, Charlie wiped his hands on his tailor-made dark blue jeans. ‘I’m letting you go, Shan, I’m not anybody’s mug.’

Panicked, Shannon crawled towards Charlie, grappling at his trouser leg. ‘ Please , please , Uncle Charlie, I’ll try harder. I’ll do anything you want, just please don’t get rid of me.’

Trying to shake her off his leg, Charlie bellowed. ‘For God’s sake, get up!’

Shannon continued to beg, her voice becoming louder and more high-pitched as hysteria set in. ‘No! No, Char, please. I love you. I don’t want to go, please don’t make me go, I want to stay here and work for you. Please, Uncle Charlie, I’m sorry.’

Turning to one of his men who was sitting reading a magazine in the corner, Charlie spoke abrasively. ‘Get her out of here, Frank, now !’

Whereupon, Frank picked up Shannon – who scratched and fought like a tomcat – and took her outside to the dark streets of Soho, dumping her still crying and half naked in the alleyway.

‘Do you have to do that shit?’ A few streets away in the empty club in Sutton Row, Vaughn stared at Alfie as he hoovered up another line of finely cut cocaine.