her lip, thinking about Liam. In such a short time, he had become her rock.
Terrence came back through the lounge and unlocked the door to the outside. The warm air instantly hit them, a stark contrast to the air conditioning inside.
‘Wow,’ said Brooke, as she spied the infinity pool. ‘That is beautiful.’
Arty and Liam looked at her and smiled. This was just the norm for them. They often spent their holidays with the firm in Spain, and Mikey’s villa was in the same league, so they were used to no less.
Poppy and Brooke, though, had only ever been on package holidays where everyone fought for a sunlounger around the pool.
‘Lads, come through to the bar. I need to get you geared up,’ he said, as he looked at Poppy and Brooke, who were still soaking in the surroundings. ‘I didn’t get a chance to organize flak jackets, but I’ll bring ’em tomorrow.’
The girls strolled back into the villa, and Ricky, ever the gentleman, decided he would escort them upstairs to their rooms.
Liam and Arty followed Terrence into the games room, which was more of a lads’ room, comprising a full-size snooker table, a poker table, and a well-stocked bar, with a huge curved TV screen set up on the wall.
‘Cor, Terrence, this is the mutt’s nuts, mate.’
Terrence nodded. ‘I had it put in for when your farvers come over for a break, so don’t you youngsters go and have wild parties and fuck it up, will ya?’
Arty laughed. ‘Terrence, have ya seen those two girls? The wildest they’ll ever get up to is a glass of Pimm’s over a game of Scrabble.’
‘I see one has a bruised face. She looks as though she’s been in a car crash!’
Liam exchanged glances with Arty. Terrence looked on, wondering if he was witnessing a private exchange, until Arty realized that his dad’s mate hadn’t been briefed on every event over in England.
Accordingly, he said, ‘Unfortunately, you ain’t far wrong, mate. Ricky met Poppy in hospital when he was recovering from the attack. Ya knew about that, right?’
Terrence looked at them both, all traces of humour now over. ‘No, not that. Mike told me a lot about what’s been goin’ on, and, quite frankly, I just couldn’t believe it at first. What he didn’t mention, though, was the business with the girls. He just said that they were with you and would I treat them like I would you lads.’
‘Well, Poppy and Brooke’s muvver is the local MP. She’s a dodgy prat. Anyway, she ran Poppy down, probably by mistake, ’cos it was dark, but she didn’t stop, so it was a fucking hit-and-run. I think she’s now on remand, but I don’t know if the girls know that.’ Arty noticed Terrence’s face, which was poised for more information.
‘The twins, Brooke and Poppy, had a stepsister called Kendall. She was Lance Ryder’s daughter, who was killed during the attack on Ricky,’ said Arty, eager to fill in the missing details.
‘About the twins. Who is their father?’
‘Well, funny you should ask. They thought their ol’ man was Alastair, the son of this Torvic bloke. But they only just found out their real dad is Lance Ryder.’
‘Mike told me about this Alastair bloke. Do the girls know he’s dead?’ Terrence suddenly lowered his voice.
‘No, but from what I can gather, they weren’t that close to him. In fact, they weren’t close to their muvver either. Kendall’s dad, this Lance bloke, is looking out for them now,’ said Liam, who had remained quiet up until this point.
‘Fucking hell. There’s a lot of coincidences,’ said Terrence, with a deep frown.
‘No, not really. The only fluke was Ricky dating Kendall. The blokes who attacked Kendall were after Ricky because he’s Mike’s son, but they killed Kendall. The sick twist is that not only did that bastard Alastair play a hand in killing his own stepdaughter but he fucking raped her first,’ said Liam.
‘The dirty fucker! Right, I’d better show you the gun collection.’
Terrence then walked over to the cabinet and unlocked it. As the door was opened, Arty grinned. ‘Cor, fucking tasty, mate.’
Ricky appeared in the doorway and made his way over to see what they were looking at. ‘I told the girls to check out the upstairs. Ya don’t mind, Uncle Skid, do ya?’
‘No, lad, not in the least. Right, now you’re all here, those three guns there are loaded. I’m supposed to have them separate from the ammo, but I didn’t see the point. Anyway, don’t get drinking and start playing silly buggers, ’cos I don’t wanna have to explain how the fuck any of ya got shot.’
Arty patted his shoulder. ‘Terrence, in case you ain’t noticed, we’re all grown men now.’
Terrence raised his brow. ‘Yeah, is that right? Well, you’re still kiddies to me. Okay, in that drawer, there are two small handguns for the girls. Now, look on those walls. See those red buttons? If ya press them, make sure no one is near the windows or the doors, ’cos you may well lose a foot. The minute you press any of the panic buttons, those metal shutters come down, and trust me, they’re fucking heavy and they hit the floor like shit off a shovel.’
As confident and self-assured as Arty was, he suddenly felt uncomfortable. ‘Terrence, tell me, mate. How serious is this business back home? We were given a quick briefing at the airport, but, I mean all this.’ He pointed to the gun cabinet. ‘What’s going on?’
Terrence leaned against the bar. ‘Sit down, lads. Ya wanna brandy?’
Liam nodded. ‘Yeah, sounds as though we’re gonna need one.’
As soon as the tumblers were placed in the boys’ hands, Terrence took a deep breath. ‘Okay, there ain’t been many times when Mikey Regan calls me in a right two and eight, so when he does, I pay attention. All you really need to know is that some geezer called Torvic, a dangerous fucker by all accounts, was held captive by Zara Ezra and Mikey, while they tried to get information out of him. Ya know, “the Mikey way”. Anyway—’
‘Hold it, Terrence. What do ya mean by “the Mikey way”?’ interjected Ricky.
Liam put a hand on Ricky’s shoulder. ‘Oh, trust me, buddy, you’ll live and learn, now you’re part of the firm.’
As Ricky turned to face him, Liam winked. ‘Our pops take no shit.’
Ricky thought back to the brief spell he’d spent in prison when he’d been reunited with his father, and how he had put the fear of God into people. ‘Yeah, Liam, I ain’t really surprised.’
Terrence was relieved that the boys’ fathers hadn’t kept them wrapped in cotton wool. Clearly, they were following in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers before them. But he didn’t know what they knew and what they didn’t. Although he and Mikey spoke on the phone occasionally, they never spoke about business. That was a no-no in their line of work. Fucking GCHQ and all that listening bollocks was apparently being extended from listening in on known espionage and terror related set-ups to any nefarious activity that was making serious money and denying the government of valuable revenue.
‘Well,
