Pulling a chair out for Kate, Billy told her to sit down. At first, he didn’t really know where to start, there was so much filth and dirt and lies. Then it all just came out, everything he knew. He told her about Jay’s dad and what he had seen all those years ago, when he was just a boy. He told Kate how he had caught Jay coming out of his and Tanya’s house and that he had followed him. He had done this for a few days and one flat in particular that he kept being led back to was Emma’s. He told Kate how he gone to Emma’s flat on his own, to find out what was going on, and what he had seen there.
He gave Kate the letter that was addressed to her, which he had taken the night he had found Emma trying to hang herself. He tried to hold himself together, as he watched the tears roll down Kate’s cheeks as she read it.
“Where is she?” she sobbed, as she put the letter back into the envelope.
“She’s in hospital, Kate; she’s going to be okay, but she’s in a state right now. She’s been there for ten days now. I would have told you sooner, but she wasn’t strong enough. The doctors wouldn’t have let you in anyway, not until she was over the worst.” He touched her hand across the table.
“She is asking for you now, though, and she really needs you, Kate.”
“I just can’t believe that Jay would do this, I don’t get it; I feel like I’m missing something here.” It was all too much to take in, she had had an inkling that Jay was up to no good and she had decided to ignore it rather than question it, but this… this was unforgivable. Getting her priorities straight, Kate added: “Can you take me to see her?”
“Yeah, of course I can, go and get dressed, love, and we’ll go now.”
As she left the room, Kate looked like she had had the wind knocked right out of her.
“What do you think will happen to Jay now, Billy?” Sonia asked.
“My bet is he will try and come back here, Sonia, and knowing him, if you don’t let him in, he will try and force his way in.”
Sonia knew Billy was right. Jay would always do whatever he was told not to, a trait he had had from when he was a boy. Seeing the anguished look on Sonia’s face and as if reading her mind, Billy reassured her:
“Ryan’s on his way over, he’s going to be staying here with you for a few days, just until Jay gets the message, okay?”
“Okay.” Right now, Jay wasn’t on her mind; her only thoughts were of Kate: that poor, poor girl, how did she ever go falling for someone like Jay? Right now, more than anything in the world, Sonia would have swapped a million Jays for one Kate. She had grown to love the girl like her own, and hoped that after all this was over Kate and she would remain close friends. Sonia would be there for Kate, no matter what.
32
As he put Tanya’s heavy suitcase down in the hallway of Emma’s flat, he wished he had been given more notice before he had brought her here. She had been crying her eyes out when she first got in the car, but Jay soon realised they were tears of pure anger. Tanya was angry about the fact she had had to leave her home. In fact, she was seething.
Jay was pleased that when the shit hit the fan, Tanya didn’t have any love for Billy, he had never been really sure of her feelings for him until now. Some birds would say anything to get one over on their old man, especially if they were after money or a bunk up. He had heard every line possible in the past from every bird he had known. But Tanya was different. She was high maintenance, that was true, but most women were these days, they wanted everything they were entitled to and then some more. He loved the way that Tanya wouldn’t take any shit; he could see how angry she was, and he had no doubt that she would get her own back on Billy for the way he had treated her.
There was something else he felt too; something he couldn’t put his finger on. He had never been in love, so he was sure that it wasn’t that. But he did feel something: some sort of need for her. He thought about her all the time that he was away from her; he couldn’t get enough of her smell, her taste, or the way she was in bed with him. He could tell that she was a bit damaged, though, like himself, she had her issues. He could see that she had that strength inside her, like he had, no one fucked with her; that’s why he felt he knew her so welclass="underline" she was the same as him.
Emma’s place was a shithole, and the stench that had hit him as he opened the door nearly made him gag. The curtains were shut, and there obviously hadn’t been a window opened for months as the air was stale. Emma was a filthy bitch, and getting her to tidy up every now and again was too much for her by the looks of it. The smell and mess didn’t bothered him normally, it was only now as he looked around and saw the flies buzzing around the sink, which was overflowing with dishes covered with dried-on food, and the fag ash all over the carpet, that he realised how filthy the place actually was.
Seeing Tanya’s disappointed face and knowing that she deserved better, and that she clearly thought she did too, he decided that he would take her out for something to eat, and get that trampy cow to clean while they were gone.
“Hang on here a minute, babe,” he said, leaving Tanya in the grubby hallway, obviously unaware that under no circumstances did she have any intention of stepping another foot forward in this stinking pigsty. She was desperately trying to hold her breath, and only took short breaths through her mouth when she had to. Tanya convinced herself that she was only here because she had nowhere else to go, and she was desperate. Looking at the dirty, stained carpet and the mould growing up the wall, she tried not to start crying again at the realisation of how bloody desperate things were for her now.
Billy would not take her back; she knew that for a fact. He had always said that if she ever cheated she was gone and picking his arch-rival would have just about put the final, rusty nail in the coffin. She had lost it all. Her beautiful house, her designer clothes: everything. She knew she hadn’t been happy with Billy for a long time, but her things meant more to her than anything, and she had plodded on in the comfort that at least she would always have a roof over her head. Now her roof was over some little slag’s head. Tanya fought to hold back her tears as she thought of that scrubber in her bed, under her Egyptian cotton sheets, using her Jo Malone toiletries; it made her blood boil.
Jay must be rolling in cash, she thought, although looking about it didn’t seem like it. Tanya was far from stupid; even though he had never discussed his business dealings with her she had an idea what he was involved in. He would be making a fortune with the drugs side alone, and then there were the debt collecting and the girls. Tanya had made it her business to know what she was getting into. It hadn’t made her judge him; at the end of the day, Billy was dodgy, but she had realised early on that Jay must be making some serious wedge, although judging by this dive the question was: where was he hiding it? He lived at home with his bleeding mother, for God’s sake; from what she could work out, he had plenty of incomings and fuck all outgoings. Tanya was a cold-hearted bitch: she knew that more than anyone. Money made the world go round; if someone had no money, they were nothing: simple as. Tanya was surprised at the feelings she had begun to have for Jay. She normally went for men with a hard reputation, someone who had all the pieces on the board and who knew how to play the game. At first she had loved having Jay at her beck and call, loved having him come over and fuck her as soon as Billy was out of the house, on the floor that Billy had paid for. He was her bit of rough. She had had her most intense orgasms with Jay grinding on top of her, thinking about Billy catching her.