Jacqui Rose - Toxic

And as Steve gulped hard, unwittingly swallowing his chewing gum, he turned red before only managing a quiet voice to simply say, ‘No.’

Alfie stood in the supermarket’s tree-lined carpark in Saffron Walden – a medieval market town located in northwest Essex – listening but not really concentrating on the gratitude the woman was offering him. For a start, she was a sort. A proper sort. Soft pale skin, long tumbling waves, slim yet a curvaceous body … Oh shit. He had to stop. He was getting a boner. Not a good look in the first five minutes of speaking to her. But Christ, it’d been a while since he’d made love to a woman.

Before he’d left Spain, he hadn’t seen Franny properly for at least three weeks whilst he and Vaughn got the last lot of the money together, and then when he had seen her it’d been for less than five minutes when he’d just handed the money over to her. Shit! He suddenly felt the anger rise up in him. Franny was the absolute last person he wanted to think about now. It hurt like hell. Not that he’d let on to the others how angry, how gutted he was with her, because if he did, he knew he’d end up winding himself up and no doubt arguing with Vaughn and Janine about it even more, and that was the last thing he needed.

The other reason he found himself not being able to concentrate on what this woman was saying, was the fact it’d just dawned on him that this was the woman he’d seen in the woods, looking terrified, looking like she was trying to get away – though it still hadn’t come back to him how else he knew her.

‘… so anyway, thank you so much.’

‘Sorry?’ Alfie shook himself out of his thoughts.

‘Just thank you, I’m really grateful. Anyway, I’ve really got to go.’

Carrying her shopping, Bree began to jog towards her car.

A sudden thought hit Alfie. Pounding his being. ‘Stop! Hold up.’

Looking at her watch, Bree, trying not to be rude, gave a tight smile as she waited.

‘I know you, don’t I?’

‘No, I don’t think so. Sorry, but I really have to go.’

Bree turned but was held back by Alfie as he gently grabbed her arm. ‘Don’t give me that.’

Confused, Bree looked worried, agitated. ‘What … what are you talking about?’

A large grin crossed and stayed on Alfie’s handsome face. ‘Bree O’Neill. You were mates with my little sister. God, I remember picking you both up from school. Drove me mad. There’s me, a spotty teenager wanting to give it large, but instead I’ve got two little kids in tow. Wasn’t great for me image …’ He stopped to laugh before saying, ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’

Bree stared then a small flicker of recognition turned into a shy smile. ‘Alfie … Alfie Jennings.’

‘That’s right girl. It’s Alfie.’

The warmth with which Alfie said this hit and ripped at Bree. Unexpectedly, she burst into tears.

Alfie, taken aback and slightly embarrassed, joked, ‘Fuck me, girl, I knew I had an effect on women, but I was hoping it was more about the magnetic than the misery. Come here, you soft cow, give us a hug.’

A hug which was watched by Ma Dwyer as she sat in her car opposite.

‘And did you let him touch you … here? Did he touch you here, Bree?’ Johnny grabbed Bree between her legs as he whispered into her ear. Pressing his body hard against hers. She gave out a small, painful yelp.

‘Did you like it, Bree? Did you ask him for more?’

‘Johnny, you got to believe me. I only spoke to him for a moment.’

‘Liar!’ Johnny punched the wall, centimetres from Bree’s head. ‘Ma told me she saw you in the car park.’

Bree nodded, speaking breathlessly. ‘Exactly! I only talked.’

Johnny whispered back. ‘Don’t lie to me. Don’t make it worse.’

‘I’m not.’

‘What was it like, Bree?’

Terrified, Bree turned her head to the side. Her words were almost inaudible. ‘Nothing happened.’

Staring at her, Johnny suddenly dropped to his knees. Sobbing as he buried and pushed his head into Bree’s stomach. Wild-eyed, he gazed up at her. A ghost-like look on his face.

‘How many times, Bree? Why, why, why did you do it to me? How many times did you let him fuck you?’

Bree closed her eyes, praying, trying anything she could to let her imagination protect her from what was about to follow. As Johnny began to undo his belt, she imagined the crystal-blue waters of a faraway ocean, the sparkle of the sea as she dived in. And as Johnny roughly pulled at her clothes she saw the racing dolphins. And as his hands touched her body she saw herself leaping out of the cooling ocean into the mirrored blue sky to soar over the mountains and high above the trees over the planes and fields to a place far away.

‘I’ll leave you to it, Johnny.’ Ma Dwyer smiled at her son as she opened the door and left the room.

‘Diamonds, all those bleedin’ diamonds. Whoever those belong to ain’t going to be happy.’

Putting Bree to the back of his mind, Alfie snapped. ‘Fuck me, Janine, could you be anymore insightful?’

Janine sniffed. ‘Don’t start getting sarcastic with me, just cos you’re hungry.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t be hungry, would I, if you’d brought me a bleedin’ burger? Everyone else gets one.’

‘You weren’t about, were you?’

‘No, because I was in the bleedin’ carzey having a piss!’

Wanting to stop a row, Lola chipped in. ‘These must be worth a couple of mill. Problem is, whoever they do belong to will come looking, and once that happens, there won’t be any hiding place. It’s not like the coke, with these, there’s no way to knock them out without anyone getting wind. And then there’s Lloyd, if he finds out, he’ll think you mugged him off good and proper. There’ll always be a trail and eventually Vaughnie, it’ll come back to you. I’m worried. You sure you shouldn’t just cut your losses and—’

Vaughn interrupted. ‘Give them back?’

‘Exactly. Maybe if you had people around you, but until you get some money, you won’t be able to pay anybody, so it’s a different ball game. Why don’t you just duck out now while you can. Then once you get back on your feet you can do what you like.’

‘What about Reenie though? We can’t let this opportunity slip through our fingers. To own that business would put us right up there.’

Lola smiled. ‘I know, darlin, but arrange to do another job. Call Franny again, go look for her , anything but this Vaughn. Playing with somebody else’s diamonds is only going to lead to trouble. Even Lloyd didn’t know about them, so whoever they do belong to, they obviously wanted to bring them into the country without anyone knowing, and now that their diamonds have disappeared, they’ll come looking, they probably are already. Stay well away from this, sweetheart.’

‘Hang on, hang on. Ain’t no one giving them back or staying away from them,’ Janine mumbled, her mouth full of a greasy cheeseburger. ‘We need this, Reenie ain’t going to wait, she’ll sell the business to someone else and we can’t let that happen.’

Lola frowned. ‘Come on Janine, how can just Alfie and Vaughn take on the boys behind this. They’d be stupid to. It could be anyone. Russians. Eastern Europeans. Triads … Mafia.’

Janine scoffed. ‘The Mafia! Do me a favour, Lola. You’re talking out of your bum hole.’

‘No, I bleedin’ ain’t. I don’t trust it and like I say, even Lloyd thought it was one thing but then it turned out to be another. They don’t need to be involved in this. There’ll be another job out there for them.’

‘Not like this there won’t.’

‘For starters, Janine, how are they going to get rid of them?’