in me hands, it’ll be yours, mate.’ Frankie Taylor bellowed his threat to Del. Besides being good mates with Alfie, he had no time for Del who, since being involved with the Russians, thought he was Al Ca-fucking-pone.
Del laughed aggressively. ‘I didn’t know you needed a nursemaid, Alf; I thought that was more Tommy’s style.’
‘Who you calling a pussy!’ Tommy Donaldson scraped back his chair, entering the arena of arguing men.
‘Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Please!’ Lola wasn’t laughing now, her voice was raised and her arms folded.
‘Zip it will you, darling!’ Del snapped at Lola, causing Tommy, who had always been closer to Lola than his own mum at times, to grab hold of his arm.
‘Don’t speak to her like that, otherwise you’ll have me to deal with.’
‘Oh and is that supposed to rock me fucking boat?’
Johnny Taylor, Tommy’s brother-in law, began to jump to his defence.
‘It ain’t going to rock it, Del, it’s going to …’
‘Enough!’ Vaughn Sadler stood up, banging his fists on the table, staring hard at all assembled. His voice was rough and edged with hardness as the room fell silent.
‘We ain’t here for a mothers’ meeting, but we sure as hell sound like one. I know most of you would rather be somewhere else, but until we sort out exactly how we’re going to keep Soho safe from the threat of the triads then none of us are going anywhere, unless you want to deal with me.’
Alfie’s tone was sarcastic. ‘Oooh! You’re scaring us now, Vaughn. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep in me bed tonight.’
Vaughn, about to turn on Alfie, was stopped by Lola’s soothing voice.
‘Leave it, Vaughnie. You know he’s being a wind up … ain’t you, Alf? Listen, can we all turn it in for now? This ain’t a joke and it ain’t just a threat either. There’s been attacks and there don’t seem to be anyone wanting to stop it. Folk are frightened, real frightened. Greg said the last time he’d seen business people so terrified was when the Krays ruled the East End. We don’t want to go back to that, and besides, these triads make Ronnie and Reggie look like the Flowerpot Men. And that’s why you all got the call. We need help. Soho needs help.’
Johnny nodded his head in agreement. ‘Lola’s right. They clearly want to come and take over and won’t stop at anything until they succeed. What we have to do is stop them, and quick.’
Del interjected. ‘Yeah, but why?’
Johnny looked puzzled. ‘Why what?’
‘Why now, why after living all these years with them in relative harmony do they want to come over to our patch? The triads have been coming and going long before I was around, but now all of a sudden they have a problem with us. It don’t make sense.’
Vaughn spoke matter-of-factly. ‘Maybe it does, maybe it’s just a question of things changing. New people taking over.’
Del rubbed his chin, shaking his head. ‘There’s more to it. I’m sure.’
Alfie snapped, looking slightly uncomfortable, ‘Why does there have to be more to it?’
Del looked puzzled before he frowned. ‘What’s your problem hey, Alf?’
‘I never said I had a problem, I just think not everything’s as deep and frigging complicated as you make it. Reckon you’ve been hanging out too much with your missus.’
A dark expression came over Del’s face. ‘And I reckon that …’
Before Del could get the rest of the sentence out, the door of the café was swung open by two masked men. One of them shouted, the distinct Chinese accent present in his voice, and it was clear to everyone they were the triads.
‘A message for disobeying the rules.’ The man threw what he was holding in his hand before rushing back out of the café. There was a loud bang, followed by a flash of light. Immediately Vaughn began to shout.
‘Get down! Get down!’ he bellowed as Alfie grabbed hold of Lola, pushing her to safety under one of the tables as the small petrol bomb the man had thrown exploded into the corner of the Bateman Street café.
A small fire broke out as the place began to fill with black smoke. Most of the men, save the ones trying to put out the fire with water, pulled out their guns, racing to the entrance.
Tommy Donaldson, getting outside first, watched as the two men sped off on a scooter turning right into Greek Street. The other men, seconds behind, piled out of the café, along with Lola, whose face was red with rage. She stared at everyone, her whole body shaking as tears of shock ran down her face. She spoke, her voice stripped of its usual warmth as they all stood and watched her beloved café burning.
‘I don’t care. I don’t bleedin’ care how you do it but as of right now, it stops; all of it. The squabbling, the petty jealousies, the blown-up egos, the whole bleedin’ works. You lot need to start working together to sort this out. Because no one, no bleeding one, not even an army of Samurai-fucking-warriors will ever get away with trying to destroy me frigging café.’ And with tears streaming down her face and her head held high, Lola Harding hit each of the men on their chest with her battered handbag before turning and walking away, leaving all those present feeling ashamed and less like London’s feared number one gangsters, and more like reprimanded schoolboys.
The Turkish restaurateur, Sarp, and his wife Anna sat across the table from Alfie Jennings. They were telling him the story of what had happened the night before last – but Sarp’s face told the tale more than his words did. The multi-coloured bruises covered most of his face, a large bandage covering the now-stitched gash.
‘I thought they were going to rape her.’
Alf’s voice was urgent. ‘They didn’t though?’
‘No, but they could’ve done. They could’ve done anything. Worst thing is they knew it and so did I. They ain’t afraid of no one. It was a game to them. They’re animals, Alf. Animals.’
Fear was imprinted in their features and Alfie could see Anna was visibly shaking as she clung onto Sarp. Alfie had known them for over ten years. They were good people and they respected him as both a friend and a face.
He’d had a call from Sarp, pleading for him to go round. It wasn’t the usual course of events. If there was a problem in Soho one of the smaller faces, the upcoming guys, usually dealt with it. Alfie had been around too long to have to deal with shit between neighbours or some of the Toms touting on corners to the disapproval of the business owners.
But this was different. And although he’d known straight away what it was about he was pleased that Sarp had come to him; for more than one reason.
‘So you see, you guys need to do something. I can’t have my wife terrified. Look at her, she’s in a right state. They ain’t like us. They’re crazy. If you don’t
