The Life Read online

  She sat back and sipped her drink – a vodka and tonic, with ice and a slice.

  Imelda had relaxed as much as she could in the past few years. She still worried about her son, but she had come to accept she couldn’t do anything about it. He was long gone from her; he was a part of the family, and that was all he really wanted. He was another Bailey boy – the Life was ingrained in him, and she had to accept it.

  She finally understood her mother’s choices and, like her mother, she had decided to put her son’s life into her husband’s hands. She now realised the futility of trying to change him. The only thing she could do was hope and pray that nothing happened to him. He was his father’s son, and his mother’s darkest fear.

  She truly believed that if she had known how it would all turn out, she would have grabbed her son, and taken him as far away as possible from her family and the Life. But it was too late to change anything now. Like her mum, she was involved in the Life, her husband and son had made sure of that, and she could never walk away and leave them. The only thing she could do now was hope against hope that her son never had to pay the price for his family’s mistakes.

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-One

  Liam was shattered, but pleased with his day’s work. As his cousins came into the club, he grinned – they were like his brothers now, and he was glad about that. He enjoyed their company, and he was so much happier now he didn’t have to deal with his brother and clean up after him. Petey’s death had caused more than a few ripples in their world, but no one had really mourned him – except for his mum, of course, but that was to be expected.

  Even Bernadette hadn’t been that bothered. She had been given the house – all paid for – she got to keep the car Petey had bought her – a Mercedes Sport limited edition – and she was now married to a civilian she met on holiday in Tenerife. She was living there running an upmarket restaurant and bar with him, having decided that the Life wasn’t as appealing as she had first thought.

  Danny was laughing as he motioned to the barmaid to get them all drinks. ‘How’d it go, Liam?’

  He was excited, and Liam knew that his news would be celebrated for the best part of the night.

  ‘It’s a mover.’

  ‘Fucking blinding news! I knew you could pull it off.’

  He wished he had been as sure as his cousin. ‘I told them we could cover the distribution, all they needed to do was guarantee the product. They were a bit wary at first but fuck them, we are the ones calling the shots. I’ve got to be honest, Danny, the Albanians are funny fuckers, but they are good at what they do. Very professional, albeit very fucking volatile.’

  Danny didn’t give a fuck about that; they were safe as houses – the Albanians needed them far more than they were willing to admit. ‘This gives us the exclusive rights to the whole of the European market! It’s a fucking seriously big earn.’

  Liam knew that better than his cousin – he had worked out the deal after all. ‘The coke they provide is really fucking top grade, and they seem to have an endless supply. I reckon we can start distributing within weeks. I’ve also warned them that if they sell to anyone else, the deal’s off. I did labour the point for effect, but they ain’t cunts – they know the score.’

  Danny shrugged. ‘Fuck them. If they push it, we’ll just fucking demolish them. There’s plenty more where they come from.’

  Liam laughed. Since Petey’s untimely death, the remaining boys had toughened up, and pulled together. They had realised that the main thing for them now as a family was to be seen as tighter, more impenetrable, than ever before. A lot of people in the Life believed that Petey Bailey had been taken out by his own family, and that suited them. None of them would ever confirm or deny the theory, but the whisper about town had given them an even more fearsome reputation; after all, if the Baileys were capable of taking out their own flesh and blood they were basically capable of anything. No one ever got a second chance – one fuck-up and you were gone. It was a new regime, and it was working better than anyone could have expected.

  The Baileys were now not just the premier crime family, but also responsible for the most lucrative business in the game. They now had a stake in almost every activity that occurred in the British Isles. They had a workforce that could rival any major car manufacturing company, and they prided themselves on paying far better wages. The Baileys had never been so popular, and they intended to make sure they stayed that way.

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Two

  ‘You sure about this, Tania?’

  She nodded. ‘’Course.’

  She heard her father sigh and she smiled. ‘You know what, Dad? You make me laugh. You asked for my opinion on this, and I researched it and got you all the figures you requested. I know as well as you do that this is everything you thought it was – and more. It’s also completely legit, but if we use our heads, we can organise it in such a way that we will have another avenue to launder the dirty money. It’s perfect really.’

  Daniel Bailey was very proud of this girl of his; she was in possession of a natural talent to exploit every situation to the family’s benefit. He was amazed at just how quickly she had adapted to the Life. He had given her a job to keep her happy, get her out of the house, and so he could watch over her. She had wanted to earn her own crust and he respected that. But he had never believed she would be as shrewd as she had turned out to be. She was only twenty, and she was already turning over a good profit. Furthermore, she was crafty, ruthless and hard as nails if the situation warranted it. She was a true Bailey, all right.

  ‘I’m going to go and make us a cup of tea. You look over the figures again, Dad – I know you will bite my hand off for this.’

  He watched her as she left the room; she was a very different girl to the one who had buried her mother. Having her son had changed her too – she had seemed to grow up overnight, but children could do that to a woman. Daniel had never let on that he knew the truth of his grandson’s parentage – she had never offered a name, and he had never demanded one. He had also made sure that none of the boys revealed it either.

  He had been surprised at his feelings for his grandchild; from the first moment he had laid eyes on him he had adored him. His only regret was that Lena had not lived long enough to see him. The child had brought life back into a house that he had believed could never again know happiness. But he had been wrong. The child had united them all – even Ria had brightened when the child arrived. She had needed something to focus on, and little Daniel had fit the bill. She had filled the role of grandmother that should have been Lena’s.

  Daniel had taken Tania into the Life because he needed her near him, and he knew that she had needed to be near him just as much. They were a good pair, and he was proud of how she had coped with everything that life had thrown at her. Now she was trying to branch out on her own, and he saw that he had to let her, just as he had been forced to let his boys have their freedom.

  Petey Bailey’s treachery had brought home to him and his brother the danger of not letting go, of not accepting that there was more than enough to go round. He picked up the file and opened it, but the truth was he had already perused it, digested it, and made up his mind to pursue it. He just hoped that he wasn’t doing the wrong thing by giving his daughter so much responsibility. But he was convinced that she was more than ready to tackle it.

  As she came back into the small office with two mugs of tea, he said nonchalantly, ‘You can have this, but you keep me in the loop, OK?’

  Tania grinned happily; like him, once she decided on something there wasn’t a lot anyone could do to persuade her otherwise. She had taken to the Life like a duck to water. She was a natural really – even her brothers treated her as an equal now. But there was a small part of him that was sad because his Lena would be mortified to know that her efforts to keep her daughter away from the Life had been in vain. ‘You look pensive, Dad. You OK?’

  He smiled and nodded. ‘You’ve done a good
job, Tania. I’m proud of you.’

  Tania Bailey didn’t answer her father, but she knew he was right – she had done a good job, and she was looking forward to doing an even better job now he was willing to finance it. She had quickly adapted to earning serious money and had slipped easily into the family network. She was determined to make her mark, and prove to everyone just how much of a Bailey she really was.

  She had a child who was more Bailey than anyone knew, and she wanted him to have that legacy. Without a father, the only legacy she could eventually leave to him was her own. So she would work night and day if necessary to make sure that he would be seen to be as much a Bailey as any of them.

  Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Three

  Stephen Doyle was a big man whose size could intimidate people, so he made a point of always having a cheerful countenance – he had learned at a young age that it put people at their ease. At school he had been the class giant, and his family’s name had not helped either. The Doyles were well known as a family to be wary of. His father was a powerful man, prone to drunken rages if he was thwarted, who could smash their home up on a whim. He also, however, had a reputation for being more than capable of orchestrating a good earn for anyone who requested it.

  His old man had always been a broker, and Stephen Doyle had inherited his father’s knack for finding out everything about everyone, and using that knowledge to his advantage. He put people in contact with each other – people who were looking for a partner in certain enterprises, or who had a product needing a viable distributor or backer. These were people willing to pay a percentage of their earnings to the broker who had found them a perfect match. It was a lucrative earn and one of the few specialist occupations in the Life.

  The Doyles were approached by anyone who needed a partner; they brokered deals for new business ventures by marrying up the money-people with the ideas-people. The real knack lay in being able to create partnerships between those who could actually work together. It was important to understand who you were dealing with and to ensure that they could get along. In their game, that was imperative – especially as so many of the people he dealt with settled any differences with a firearm.

  Now that Europe had opened up, Stephen was more in demand than ever, regularly approached to broker international deals. He was respected because he never underestimated the people he dealt with, and he would always ensure that everyone concerned received an accurate assessment. There could be no hidden surprises that might cause problems down the line.

  Stephen Doyle was thirty-seven years old and, for the first time in his life, he was falling in love. From the moment he had laid eyes on Tania Bailey he had been smitten – until then he had always been happy to play the field. Now he was actually courting a girl of twenty, whose father was a man only a raving fucking lunatic would cross.

  But he didn’t care. She was like him – intent on living the Life to its fullest. He understood even better than her exactly what that meant. Together they had the potential to be the dream partnership – they could pool their resources and eventually they could own this fucking town.

  He could sense the same ambition and desire in her that he had. She had a child and she wanted the best for him. Like him, Tania Bailey had an instinct for achieving what she wanted and, like him, she knew that they were destined to be together. She was so young and so lovely, and he had never wanted anybody as much as he wanted her.

  Tania saw him standing by the bar of the new club the Baileys had just opened in Soho. She stood in the doorway watching him for a few moments; he was a lot older than her, but that didn’t bother her as much as it did him. She really liked him, and she was confident that he felt the same way.

  Her son’s birth had brought home to her the Bailey need to earn and make sure that you were capable of keeping yourself and your own. She was a Bailey all right, she had realised that when she had held her son in her arms.

  She had been the victim of so much heartache, but it had made her stronger, she could see that now. You had to toughen up, and learn how to deal with whatever life threw at you. Her mother’s death had catapulted her into the Bailey world overnight and, from that moment, she had walked into the Life with her eyes wide open. She was so different now; the young girl she had been three years ago was long gone. Her mum had paid the ultimate price, and her uncle had paid a high price as well – he had lost two sons. Her Auntie Ria had never got over Petey’s death, and her cousin Imelda spent her life watching her son’s submersion into the Bailey franchise. They were all fucking full of regrets.

  But Tania wasn’t going to end up like them. She wouldn’t live off the proceeds of the Bailey name, while distancing herself from what the Bailey name really stood for. She knew better.

  Her brothers had grown up in the Life, they had known the pitfalls from an early age but they had never been given a choice. Her mum had tried to protect her from it, but Tania had seen glimpses from a very early age, and when her mother had been taken from her she accepted it could not go unavenged. She had learned there was no getting away from the Life, not for a Bailey. And when she had given birth to her boy, she had sworn to herself that he would never go without.

  The Bailey name was her ticket to independence, and the Bailey name would ensure that never again would anyone take advantage of her. In the future she would be the one using other people, she would be the one to exploit other people’s weaknesses. Tania had embraced the Life and thrown herself into it wholeheartedly.

  Now she had Stephen Doyle. He was a very dangerous man – she knew that about him, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t frightened of what the Life had to offer her – for her, the Life offered its own attractions. She had chosen this, and she had no qualms about it whatsoever. Furthermore, she would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. And she wanted everything that the Life had to offer, starting with Stephen Doyle.

  He smiled as he saw her walking towards him. Tania Bailey had the aura of a woman with power. She looked for all the world like a woman who knew exactly what she wanted from the Life, and who knew exactly how to get it.

  Lyrics Acknowledgements

  ‘Woke Up This Morning’

  Music and lyrics by Jake Black/Chester Burnett/Simon Edwards/Piers Marsh/Robert Spragg

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd/BMG Rights Management (UK)

  Ltd © 1996

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘Mansion On The Hill’

  Music and lyrics by Made Hamilton/Odie Hawkins/E. Evans/Ed Bereal/Piers Marsh/Simon Edwards/Jon Delafons/Robert Spragg

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd © 2003

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘Keep Your Shades On’

  Music and lyrics by Jake Black/Piers Marsh/Robert Spragg/Jon Delafons/John Jennings

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd © 2005

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘You Don’t Dance To Techno Anymore’

  Music and lyrics by Jake Black/Simon Edwards/Piers Marsh/Robert Spragg/Charles Harrison/Brian O’Horain

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd © 1997

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘Hypo Full Of Love’

  Music and lyrics by Jake Black/Simon Edwards/Piers Marsh/Robert Spragg

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd © 1996

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘The Night We Nearly Got Busted’

  Music and lyrics by Simon Edwards/Piers Marsh/Robert Spragg/Charles Harrison

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd © 1997

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘Power In The Blood’

  Music and lyrics by Jake Black/Simon Edwards/Piers Marsh/Robert Spragg/Charles Harrison/Mark Sams/Jon Delafons/John Jennings/Alexis Worrell

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd © 2003

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘Come O
n Home’

  Music and lyrics by Jake Black/Robert Spragg/Jon Delafons/John Jennings

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd © 2003

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘How Can I Protect You’

  Music and lyrics by Piers Marsh/Robert Spragg/Jon Delafons/Alan Downey/Anthony McGuinness/Christopher Dignam/Joseph Jewel/William McGuinness

  Published by Chrysalis Music Ltd/Copyright Control © 2005

  Used with permission. All Rights reserved.

  ‘Crazy World’

  (Dignam/McGuinnes/McGuiness/Jewell/Downey)

  Published by Elevate Music Limited

  Lyrics reprinted by permission.