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  Sometimes the past came back to haunt him, but those moments were getting less as the time wore on. Prison, especially a lump of a sentence, could do that to a man. It was the isolation from the outside world that was the worst. Once you got your head around that it made life easier. Some men became paranoid; others who missed their families became depressed, while men like him just felt that they were in some kind of suspended animation.

  He shook the thoughts from his mind and sipped at his thick, strong coffee – careful, as always, to use the coaster provided! He was smiling once more at Sharon and her foibles. Most loan offices looked like a scene from War on Want. As the business of the day began he felt himself relax properly; he loved his work and that was half the battle.

  Chapter One Hundred and Ten

  Sharon was enjoying having a day off. She had cleaned the house from top to toe and she was about to get into a nice relaxing bath when her doorbell rang. Sighing in annoyance, she slipped on a dressing gown – a thick, warm, towelling one – and went down the stairs to answer the door. It was Big Lenny. She saw that he was well away and letting him in was the last thing she wanted to do. She tried to slam the door in his face but he was already halfway into the house. This was the one time she cursed that no one could see them from the road.

  He shoved the door shut clumsily behind him and said angrily, ‘Why are you treating me like this? I was there for you after Lenny died and you weren’t so fucking fussy then, were you?’

  Sharon Scott looked at the man who had often made her feel uneasy but who had also been a great father to Lenny and grandfather to her boys. He was now her enemy, but she had to box clever. She said, as placatingly as possible, ‘Please, Len. Will you go?’

  Big Lenny was staring at her. She had bewitched him. He fantasised about having sex with her, about them living as man and wife, about having her whenever he wanted her. In the fantasy, though, she was a willing participant. She was groaning with pleasure and egging him on to bigger and better performances. But the reality was very different.

  ‘I am warning you, Len. If you don’t go I am going to tell Lesley what’s going on.’

  He continued to stare at her and she felt fear washing over her.

  ‘I’m not joking. Reggie and Ray already know what the score is—’

  It was hearing Ray’s name that seemed to send Big Lenny over the edge. His hand shot out and he grabbed the front of her dressing gown, pulling her towards him and causing it to fall open. She was naked underneath but before he knew what had happened, she had slipped out of the sleeves and was making a run for the back door. He was on her in seconds and, when he forced her to the floor, she could feel the coldness of the wood, and the pain as he lay on top of her. She was fighting not just with fear but also with disgust. She could smell the alcohol on his breath, and the sweat from his body. It was making her gag.

  As he held her arms above her head with one large hand, he shoved her legs open with his knee, all the time fumbling with his zipper, and she screamed out. He was forcing himself inside her. With one last surge of strength she bucked her hips and forced him off her. She turned, bringing her knee up with all her might, and caught him perfectly. Now it was he who was screaming in pain.

  As he rolled away from her she was up and running. She ran up her stairs and didn’t stop until she was in her bedroom. She locked the door and picked up the phone.

  She rang Jack Johnson, assuming rightly that he was the best person at this time. Ray would do murder. As would Reggie. As would her father.

  As she whispered urgently into the phone she could hear Big Lenny coming up the stairs and she was almost hysterical with fear. She could still smell him on her. It was making her want to vomit. She placed a chair under the handle of the door and then ran into the en-suite bathroom, locking that door behind her. She stood there shivering in fear as she waited to see what was going to happen next.

  Chapter One Hundred and Eleven

  Jack Johnson was in shock but he was a man who worked well under pressure. He racked his brains for someone he knew in the area where Sharon lived and he came up with a huge bouncer called Dougie Stewart.

  Dougie was a big Scottish lump from Glasgow who had married a very pretty and available Essex girl. She had produced two beautiful children – and then run off with Dougie’s best friend. Dougie now brought his kids up with the help of an au pair and spent his spare time hunting down his errant wife.

  He listened carefully to what Jack Johnson said, kissed his kids and smiled at the au pair. Then he left the house and was on his way in seconds. He was disgusted with what Jack had told him; that a man could go after his son’s widow was just about the lowest of the low. Reading between the lines it seemed that Big Lenny, the piece of shite, was looking for a right-hander. Well, he would not have to wait for long.

  At Sharon’s house, he parked the car, walked around the back and kicked the door in with one swift movement. He could hear the commotion upstairs and made his way up the stairs with great speed considering his bulk.

  He was still hammering Big Lenny when Reggie arrived. It took all Reggie’s considerable strength to pull him off.

  Chapter One Hundred and Twelve

  Gerry was sitting with Sharon, refilling her wineglass when needed and just listening to what Sharon had to say. Gerry was scandalised at the horrific treatment of her friend. And by her own father-in-law! That was what she had trouble getting her head round. She had tidied up as best she could, disposed of the dressing gown, helped her friend into the bath and arranged for the boys to go to Sharon’s mother’s house.

  Big Lenny had been taken away by Reggie and Dougie, and they had heard nothing from anyone since. The girls agreed that the last person Sharon needed now was Ivy. She would just tell her husband what had happened to their daughter and that would cause even more aggravation. She would have to be told but not yet.

  The other person in the dark about the night’s events was Lesley, though why Sharon was trying to spare that religious maniac, Gerry didn’t know. But Sharon could be funny like that; she knew how much the boys meant to Lesley since the murder of her son. Sharon was a better person than she would ever be, Gerry knew that much.

  She still could not find out what exactly had happened. Gerry would lay money that he had managed to rape the girl; she had seen the bruises on her in the bathroom. But that was something for Sharon to say yes or no to. She was the victim and it was her call. Gerry shuddered, trying to imagine the horror of your dead husband’s father trying to have sex with you. It was gross, unnatural – especially with a man like Big Lenny Scott.

  Sharon knew that it would be pointless trying to keep the attack from Ray, but what she knew she had to keep secret was that she had been raped. He had managed to penetrate her, and the thought of it made her feel physically ill. The smell of him was still in her nostrils and she wondered if it would ever go away. She could still feel his hands on her breasts, between her legs and his tongue probing inside her mouth. She felt like gagging again and she tried to stifle the reflex.

  She could see poor Gerry watching her, and she knew her friend had guessed a lot more than she was letting on. It was strange because Gerry was normally full of inane chatter, but now she was quiet and calming. Sharon was pleased she was there. She knew that she would go along with whatever Sharon wanted to do about the situation. She would need someone watching her back – none of the people she was dealing with were fools.

  She had to lie, because as bad as what they thought Big Lenny had done was, if they knew he had actually succeeded in his quest to take her, he would be a dead man. As much as Lesley Scott irritated her at times, she was still her boys’ grandmother, still Lenny’s mother. She didn’t know why it mattered so much. But it did. The boys needed family in their lives and that meant she had to lie for their sake, not for her own. She hated Big Lenny, but she did not want his death on her conscience, however much she craved it. Because, God knew, she wanted him dead more than any
thing.

  The last few months had been a nightmare for her with the late-night visits and the drunken lectures that she needed a man to take care of her and her fatherless sons. She had known she had to be careful but she had also been frightened to tell anyone about it. She lived in a world where certain things were only settled with extreme violence, and trying to take on your dead son’s wife was definitely up there with the lowest of the low.

  Now, of course, she realised she should have told Jack Johnson when it started. He would have discreetly sorted it out for her, she was sure. Jack Johnson was a good man, and he had her best interests at heart. But it had been hard to tell anyone what was going on. She had felt so ashamed, as if she was somehow at fault and, because of what had happened to Lenny, she had assured herself that his father was suffering from some kind of stress over his son’s death. She had tried to sort it herself and where had it got her?

  It was strange what you did for the people you cared about – like keeping Lenny and Reggie’s secret because of her sons. Like allowing Big Lenny to terrorise her – because that is exactly what he had done – and all for family unity. Fucking family was overrated in so many ways. Her husband had preferred another man to her and her father-in-law seemed to think that she was willing to enter into some kind of sexual relationship with him. Because that is basically what he had wanted from her, no matter how he tried to justify it. Using her sons as an excuse to try and have sex with her. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so fucking sad.

  She knew that, despite the secrecy surrounding everything, the cat would well and truly be out of the bag and she would have to face everyone: her mother and father and, worst of all, Lenny’s mother, who she knew would blame her. Lesley Scott had a blind spot when it came to her son and her husband. They were, and always would be, beyond reproach. Sharon wondered how long it would be before she had Lesley swooping down on her like the Avenging Angel, and how she was going to handle it.

  Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen

  Del Conway was like the Antichrist – that was the only way that Ivy could describe him. It took both Reggie and Ray Donovan to keep him from going out and killing Big Lenny. No one wanted him to go after the man more than Ivy did, but she could see the logic in stopping him doing something he would be banged up for. Jack had assured them that it would be dealt with and that was enough for her.

  As she looked at her poor daughter, she wondered at a world where one girl could be given so much grief in such a short time. Ivy had great hopes for her daughter and Ray. She liked him, and she could see that he adored Sharon and the boys.

  Now that fucking madman had nearly raped her child, and that had to have an effect. Wait till she saw that fecker Lesley Scott! Always acting like her shit didn’t stink and they were better than everyone around them, going on that the boys were being dragged up and needed her influence to keep them on the straight and narrow. After what she had bred – a fucking criminal of the first water – she thought she was in with a chance with those two? The woman was deluded.

  Ivy felt a small glimmer of shame at her secret delight that Lesley had been brought so low. But it was human nature, she supposed. Lesley had always acted so superior, with her church-going and her refusal to have a drink or a laugh, as though it was all beneath her somehow. She busied herself making endless pots of tea as she waited for her husband to calm down enough to be freed from the two men’s grip. But she could understand his anger for she felt it herself. What she couldn’t understand was why her daughter wanted to be alone and had asked her mother to let her get herself settled a bit before she saw her again. That had felt like a slap in the face.

  Ivy wished things had turned out different for her child, but one thing that she knew from experience was you had to roll with the punches. Learn to accept whatever life threw at you. It was the only way to survive.

  Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen

  Lesley was sitting alone in the dark. Nothing could have prepared her for what she had been told by Jack Johnson. He had been so calm, and insisted she had a brandy, which she had to admit she was grateful for; she could feel the man’s sympathy for her plight. But as she looked at him now, she felt the urge to tear his face apart with her well-manicured and prettily painted nails. She knew he was telling her the truth – even though she tried to deny it.

  She had seen the way her husband had looked at that girl; it was like he had a hunger in him – a hunger she had never been able to arouse or indeed provoke. He had watched Sharon’s every move, even when their son had been alive. The too-long embrace goodbye, the way he had always chatted to the girl as if they were long-time friends. She felt the bile rising up inside her at the words Jack was saying.

  ‘He never managed to actually . . . You know.’

  Oh, the shame of it. That’s all she could think of now, the shame. Knowing that he had tried to . . . She pushed the thought from her mind and concentrated on the brandy that Jack Johnson had poured for her.

  Jack was heart-sorry for the woman, but she seemed devoid of emotion and he had a feeling it had nothing to do with shock. Clearly there was a large part of her that resented her daughter-in-law and the way she managed to keep those boys away from their grandparents. Lesley, being the woman she was, didn’t think that it might have had something to do with her husband.

  She was already formulating a scenario where this was Sharon’s fault. The girl had not waited long before taking up with another man, after all. That it had, in truth, been a couple of years, Lesley conveniently overlooked. Oh, she knew whose door to lay the blame at and it wasn’t her poor husband who would have been caught up in that whore’s web of lies.

  Lesley was gulping more brandy now, trying to convince herself that she was right in her assumptions. But, even in her drink-fuddled mind, she still couldn’t quite manage it. That, she knew, would take time.

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen

  Ray Donovan was like a man possessed. To think his Sharon should have to put up with that, even after Big Lenny had been warned off, was unbelievable. Well, as far as he was concerned, it ended now. He was in a small lock-up garage in West Malling in Kent, waiting patiently for Reggie and Barton to bring the guilty party to him. There was no one living close enough to hear anything, which is why he had chosen this exact spot.

  He opened a bottle of Chivas Regal whisky and poured himself a stiff shot. He was almost excited at the prospect of what he was going to do. He had thought this was all over for him, but now that he had to avenge the woman he loved, he was pleased to bring this part of his life back to the fore. He had been good at what he did – an artist at it really. He glanced at the workbench with the array of tools laid out and he smiled nastily to himself. Big Lenny ‘the fucking Big I Am’ Scott was going to regret his actions for the rest of his days, or his name wasn’t Ray Donovan. This was personal now and Big Lenny Scott was going to find out that some urges were best left unexplored. Trying to fuck your dead son’s wife was one of them. Ray was as disgusted as he was angry. Poor Sharon had not asked for any of this. She’d had her fair share of heartbreak and, if it was in his power, she would not be getting any more.

  Ray rubbed his hands together in glee. It had been a while since he had had to teach someone a lesson. There was a time when this had been his forte – not that he would tell Sharon that. He was looking forward to the pleasure that using his instruments would bring him as he showed that cunt Big Lenny just what the fuck he was dealing with. Just exactly who the fuck he was dealing with.

  In his former life, his rep had been The Torturer. He had worked with a gang for a long time. He had made his bones and done his time. But he had enjoyed his sojourn as the main man in his field. He had known that he was born to harm people who stepped over the line. Back then his activities had been the subject of more than one fucking documentary. He had been forced to take a back seat. It had been safer for him to keep a low profile.

  Now, for the first time ever, his particular s
kill set was going to be used for his own good. Well, bring it on. He was looking forward to giving that cunt the worst night of his life.

  Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen

  Sharon was trying to sleep. The fact that she had not seen Ray yet that night spoke volumes. Why would he want her now? She had been the object of her father-in-law’s desires. She must have somehow made the man think that he was in with a chance when that had been the furthest thing from her mind. Big Lenny was the father of her husband. She wondered if he knew that Lenny wasn’t the man they had all thought he was. Either way, she could not help feeling responsible for what had happened, as if all that had befallen her was somehow her own doing. Big Lenny’s actions had completely destroyed the family, even more than his son’s had, if she was honest. He had made her feel unsafe in her own home, fearful for her safety and as if it was all her fault.

  He had destroyed his own family too. Sharon wasn’t Lesley Scott’s biggest fan, but she would never willingly wish this situation on her. She had a knack of making everyone around her feel just that bit inferior. Who could compete with her, with her church-going and her belief that she had the ear of Christ Himself? Lesley was a hard woman to get close to, especially when she didn’t want you to get too close. Sharon had never really stood a chance with her. Her dad had always said that Lesley Scott could start a fight in an empty house and that pretty much summed her up. After Sharon had buried Lenny, she guessed that his mother had sensed that everything wasn’t right with her, but she had assumed this for entirely the wrong reasons. Lenny had been the be-all and end-all in Lesley’s life – and when he had been murdered no one recognised that as much as Sharon.