Rotten to the Core (13 page)

T
hat morning had been different
.
S
he didn’t come home with her bright smile and her arms full of groceries
.
Kate remembered it like it was yesterday,
although
it had been just over a year.
Her mum
had been coming
 
back from another of her “shopping spr
ees” and had
 
keeled over: gone,
j
ust like that! Heart attack
,
they said later
.
S
he was only fifty four
:
too young to die.

Kate
wondered what her mum would think of her
pregnancy
. She would have been a brilliant grandma
,
she
thought sadly. If ever there was a time whe
n
Kate needed her mum the most it was now
;
she knew having this baby was going to be the toughest thing she had ever done. She didn’t have a clue. Nappies, feeding, the constant care a baby required, sometimes if she dwelled on it too much the
fear
overwhelme
d her. Kate glanced around the
 
room
.
I
t was purely d
ue
to Billy that they were able to
stay here
.
H
e had
taken
over the mortgage
long before
their
mum
had
died
. He continued to after too,
tr
ying
to keep them together as a family, but she knew they could never be that now, not after what he had done to Jay.

Kate
opened her wardrobe and started filling her holdall with clothes and shoes. She wasn’t sticking around here for Billy anymore. Jay and this baby were her family now, she was sure that Sonia wouldn’t see them on the streets.

Taking one last look around the house, she closed the front door behind
her and picking up her pace in c
ase she bumped into anyone she knew
,
she made her way to Sonia’s house.
 

13

Jay
’s
whole body ached. He knew he must look a right state,
but
there was no point looking in a mirror if he didn’t need to, it would only depress him.
             
He had been given a warning. He knew that if they had wanted to kill or seriously hurt him they were more than capable of doing so.

Jay
had
instantly
known who they were and why they had come to
issue
his reprisal. He had worked on the door with both of them for the past year, and he had watched many a beating dished out by the two men, mainly to unlucky troublemakers too stupid to realise
with
who
m
they were messing. Tommy and Carl were old school,
a
real force to be reckoned with, and they had a good
ten
years on Jay and were probably both double his size. He had respected them both when he had worked alongside them at the club
, knowing
that with their backup, he was as safe as houses
,
should any trouble come his way. He had always been careful when
doing
any deals on the door, and apart from a couple of close ones, he’d managed to keep both them and the other doormen from knowing about his little money
-
making set up.

The doormen randomly searched people as they went into clubs, so slipping gear into a punter
’
s pocket with one hand and removing the cash they had ready in the other pocket with his other hand was child’s-play.
His gear was good
,
so he rarely had complaints in that department. The thing that had always made him laugh was that he was actually being paid to stand out on the door, the prime location, and paid to sell his drugs; it
had been
perfect.
Jay sighed now
as he realised Goldie
’s
was over for him
;
he would be avoiding Paul Goldie
in future
, he should have realised that you don’t mess someone like Paul about
.
I
n fact he
had known i
t from the beginning, but it was just too easy
.
P
unters came to him, he had the best location, good backup on the door if anyone tried to mug him off, he had made good money, and had been getting paid a wage while he was doing it. He wasn’t sure how Paul had found out, as he was always so careful, but he guessed it was bound to come out at some point. He would have to find somewhere else to do his deals, his contacts had been supplying him with some shit
-
hot gear, and he was making a fortune.

He had enough of the debt
-
collecting,
which
was too much like hard work,
whereas
dealing was easy money. He loved the power he had over his regulars
;
some were so hooked on drugs that they could barely see past their own noses, they would give him pretty much anything he asked for
.
N
ot that they had much he wanted, but he felt so in control, these weak pitiful messes begging him to give them a couple of ounces on tick, the vulnerable young girls wanting to pay him in kind, which depend
ed
on his mood and the state of the girl he often indulged in.
He
was on top of his game, so ok
ay
, he wouldn’t have his prime spot at the club anymore
, but
it was a bit of an inconvenience
and
not the end of the world.
He
would have to lay low for a bit, let things cool off, but
his
little empire would soon be back up and running
,
of that he was sure.
 
             
Jay
looked up at his bedside table and could see that his mum had been in; he could see his wash bag from home and a few other bits that only a mother would think of. He could only use one arm as he reached over to get his drink off the side, his mouth felt swollen, and
he
felt so thirsty. Trying to undo the bottle with one hand was proving to be a bit of a mission
,
as the lid was on so tight
ly.
Jay couldn’t even put much strength into trying to open it
,
as his ribs and stomach hurt so much. After a few minutes
,
he gave up, letting the bottle of water fall onto the floor.
             
“Jay
d
arling....” Sonia beamed
,
as she came back into the cubicle with a plastic cup full of hot tea in her hand
.
“
H
ow are you feeling
,
my boy?” she asked quietly, pick
ing
up
the bottle of
water
.
             
“I’m fine
,
Sonia
,
” he replied
,
as he snatched the now open bottle of water from her hands, even though he was in agony, there was no way he would let his digs to hi
s mother slide. He knew that calling her by her Christian
name
always hurt her. But then she had hurt him, and in return he owed her a lifetime of hurt. What sort of a mother walks out on their baby, and never bothers to look back
?
Jay
had
often wondered as a child how his mother could have just upped and left him like that. It
had
bothered him for years as a boy, but as Jay grew into a man he realised that he didn’t actually care anymore
.
S
he was filled with guilt and that he could tell her to jump and she would ask how high
,
pretty much every
time. She would go out of her way for him, cooking
,
cleaning, fetching, and why not
? A
fter all these years of being abandoned by her, she bloody well owed him
,
he figured.

Jay swigged his water
;
it was lovely and cold
, although his body
hurt when he swallowed and when he tried to sit up
.
             
“
T
he doctor said you have a couple of broken ribs, you
’v
e been lucky really Jay, it could have been much worse
,
” Sonia said.
             
“
Y
eah, I’m well lucky me, beaten up by some baseball
-
bat
-
w
i
elding thugs
,
in the middle of the night
,
on my own front door step, lucky old me!”
             
“So
,
” strained Sonia
,
deciding to ignore his sarcastic tone
, “d
o you remember much about what happened
,
Jay? Did you manage to
see who they were
?”
             
“
I
t was dark, I didn’t see anything
.
Let’s
just drop it
,
Sonia
;
I was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time. You know what some of the little shits are like in our neighbourhood
;
half of them do this sort of thing just for kicks
.
”
             
Sonia had a feeling that her son knew who had beaten him
.
S
he knew that half
of
the scumbag kids that hung around the
i
r neighbourhood were scared shitless of
him.
He had made a name for himself
.
T
his wasn’t kids, she was certain. She had no choice but to drop it
,
though
;
getting information out of Jay was like getting blood from a stone,
there was
no chance. Sonia could tell that Jay was
i
n one of his foul moods so she decided to keep
the
fact that Kate had turned up at theirs
with her suitcase in tow, to herself. Sonia
had
n’t ha
d
the heart to say no to the girl when she had opened the door to find her there in tears
,
with her bags in tow, and she hadn’t know
n
what to do for the best. She wasn’t sure that she had done the right thing by saying that she could stay for a bit, she had a feeling that Jay would not be happy about it at all. Most people wouldn’t want to see their pregnant girlfriend out on the street, but then Jay wasn’t most people. Sonia knew that the
hospital
wouldn’t let Jay go home for at least another couple of days, so she figured that she’d bide her time, who knows, once Kate calm
ed
down a bit she may just go back home
.
Sonia had a feeling that that wasn’t going to be the case at all
, however
. The poor girl had been
so upset
, convinced that her brother had done this to Jay.

             
“Any news
?
”
Jay sighed in a bored exaggerated tone interrupting Sonia’s thoughts
.
             
“
N
o
news,
love
.
Your Kate
’s
a
nice girl
, though,
isn’t she
?
She was here all day yesterday, seems to really care about you
,
Jay, you wan
t to
look after her
.
”
             
“
Y
eah, no offence, but the last person in the world I’d take relationship advice from is you
,
Sonia
.
”
             
Sensing Jay
’
s mood turning
,
Sonia chose to ignore his
narky
tone and smiled
at
him
.