The Traitor (15 page)

Still unable to sleep, Eddie switched on his torch again. He’d wanted to save Gary and Ricky’s letter, so he had something to look forward to on Christmas morning, but his insomnia had made him change his mind. Ripping open the envelope, Eddie grinned. Now he had banished the twins from his world, Gary and Ricky were his life.

As much as Ed had loved Jess, what Frankie and Joey had done was unforgivable in his fragile mind, and even though they were all he had left of his beloved deceased wife, he no longer cared about either of them. One had turned out to be a poof and the other had fallen in love with the gypsy son of his biggest enemy, so the pair of them were now history as far as he was concerned.

Ed chuckled as he began to read the letter. Both Ricky and Gary were fuckers for the birds and they always filled him in on their escapades.

The paragraph at the bottom was the moment Ed’s smile turned into an angry snarl:

Eddie’s pride wouldn’t allow him to read the last line. If the lags found out about Joey, he’d be the laughing stock of the poxy prison.

Ripping the letter into shreds, Ed turned off his torch. His son repulsed him, and as for that fucking Dominic, if he ever saw him again, he wouldn’t just threaten him, he would bastard well kill him.

Back in Rainham, Joyce had a look of disappointment etched across her face.

Polly’s parents were nothing like she had envisaged at all. Dickie was flash, loud and loved the sound of his own voice, and his wife Jenny was bordering on alcoholic, and was drinking her and Stanley out of house and home.

As Jenny stood up and started dancing around the room, holding her glass aloft, Stanley nudged Joyce.

‘I can’t believe you made us dress up like a pair of prized pricks to meet these two,’ he hissed.

‘I didn’t know they were going to behave like this, did I?’ Joyce hissed back.

‘I think it’s time for a toast to the happy couple. Have you got any champagne in the house?’ Dickie said in a loud, annoying voice. He didn’t just look like Boycie, he sounded like him as well.

Joyce scuttled out into the kitchen. She had been so desperate to impress the in-laws, that she’d spent over fifty quid yesterday on just two bottles of champagne.

‘Here we are,’ she said proudly, handing one to Dickie.

Dickie looked at the label on the bottle and laughed. ‘We can’t drink rubbish like this. I had to drink this shit at a party recently and it tasted like bloody antifreeze. Jenny, go to the car and get the champagne we brought out of the boot.’

Extremely drunk, Jenny picked up her husband’s keys, lost her balance and fell straight on top of the coffee table.

‘Are you OK, Mum?’ Polly asked in an unconcerned voice. She was used to her mother getting in these states. The falling over was nothing she hadn’t seen a hundred times before.

Raymond stood up. ‘Let me help you, Jenny,’ he said politely, as he picked her up off the table.

Joyce was mortified. She looked at Stanley. ‘I don’t fucking like ’em one little bit,’ she whispered.

Stanley squeezed his wife’s hand. ‘My sentiments exactly, dear.’

Less than a mile down the road from Joyce and Stanley, Frankie was unable to get off to sleep, due to the loudness of the music. She wasn’t that bothered she was just glad to be in the safety of the trailer, away from the brawling guests.

As Tammy Wynette’s, ‘Stand by your Man’ was played for about the tenth time, Frankie smiled. She had known very little about country and western music until she met Jed. ‘Stand by your Man’ was their favourite song and they’d agreed that when they finally got married, they would choose it as their first dance.

As the song came to an end once more, Frankie pulled the quilt over her head. She and Jed had certainly had their ups and downs, but she still couldn’t wait to become his wife. Frankie O’Hara had a certain ring to it, and with a bit of luck once they got married, they could buy their own place and get away from his parents.

Deciding to speak to Jed about setting a date very soon, Frankie shut her eyes. Within minutes, she drifted off into a contented sleep.

Jed O’Hara grunted and groaned with ecstasy. He was in the stables having his cock sucked by a forward little filly called Mary.

Seeing his cousin Sammy shafting her mate just a few feet away, Jed smiled. ‘Do you remember what we were doing this time last year, Sammy boy?’ he shouted out.

Sammy paused, then laughed. ‘Yeah, we were terrorising that old shitcunt, weren’t we?’

Grabbing Mary’s hair, Jed ordered her to turn over. He spread the cheeks of her arse and rammed himself into her anus. Pumping away, Jed ignored Mary’s gasps of pain. All he could think of was Harry Mitchell’s battered corpse.

‘Ahh, you slut, fucking hell!’ Jed screamed, as he shot his seed.

Jed’s orgasm was so intense that it seemed to go on for ages. Releasing his cock from Mary’s arse, Jed stood up and grinned. He couldn’t wait to fuck Frankie while thinking of what he’d done to her grandfather. Now, that orgasm would be mind-blowing.

CHAPTER TWELVE

It was ten o’clock on a wet, cold Friday night in March when Frankie felt her first real contraction. She had experienced slight stomach pains that afternoon and had begged Jed not to go out and leave her again.

‘I’ve gotta take a chordy motor down to Norfolk, Frankie. You’ll be OK. You ain’t due for another couple of weeks.’

‘Please, Jed. I keep getting these funny twinges and I’m scared. Can’t you deliver the car another day?’ she’d pleaded.

Jed hugged her. ‘I can’t, babe. It’s gotta be done tonight. Mum and Dad are only next door and I’ll have me phone with me. Now we’ve got a chavvie on the way, we need the money, don’t we?’

As another contraction ripped through her, Frankie screamed in pain. If only her mum were still alive, she would have known exactly what to do. Absolutely terrified, Frankie rang Jed’s mobile. It was switched off.

Holding her swollen stomach, she staggered towards his parents’ place and banged on their door. ‘Alice, open up, I think the baby’s coming,’ she sobbed.

Alice took one look at her and told Jimmy to go and find his keys. ‘We’ll go in the Land Cruiser, not that poxy truck,’ she ordered.

Alice sat in the back with Frankie and did her best to comfort her. ‘There’s no need to be frit to death, everything will be fine,’ she said soothingly.

Still clutching her mobile phone, Frankie handed it to Alice. ‘Ring Jed again for me. I couldn’t get through when I tried,’ she said tearfully.

Alice was annoyed as she tried her son’s number. How could Jed have his phone switched off when he knew his girlfriend could go into labour any minute? ‘Typical bloody man,’ she mumbled as she handed the phone back to Frankie.

Jimmy, who had barely said a word so far on the journey, immediately stuck up for his son. ‘Give the boy a break, Alice. He’s out grafting to support his family. Them phone batteries don’t last long, you know.’

Missing her own family more than ever, Frankie scrolled down the names and rang Joey. As luck would have it, he answered immediately.

‘Oh, Joey, thank God you answered. I think the baby’s coming. I’m on the way to Oldchurch Hospital with Jed’s parents.’

Joey gasped and whispered the words ‘Frankie’ and ‘baby’ to Dominic. ‘We’ll get a taxi,’ Dominic said, nudging him.

‘Frankie, hold tight. Me and Dom are in a bar up in Liverpool Street. We’re leaving right now and it should only take us half-hour or so to get to the hospital.’

Frankie ended the call and screamed as another contraction ripped through her.

Alice sat in silence as they continued the journey. She was fuming that Frankie had invited that brother of hers. In her eyes all homosexuals were disgusting creatures, and Alice was thankful that they didn’t exist in the travelling community. She glared at Frankie.

‘He ain’t bringing that boyfriend of his with him, is he?’ she asked nastily.

‘Yes, he is, actually. Dominic’s a lovely bloke,’ Frankie said, silently cursing Jed. Alice had only found out about Joey’s sexuality a few weeks ago, when her drunken boyfriend had made a joke of it after dinner one evening.

As Jimmy drove at speed through a large puddle and splashed some people at a bus stop, he smiled to himself. When he’d heard that Eddie Mitchell’s son batted the other way, he’d felt like throwing a party. Even though Frankie was now part of his own family, Jimmy still despised her father and every kick in the teeth that Mitchell received made Jimmy that little bit happier. Eddie killing his old woman by accident with a machine gun had been the funniest story Jimmy had ever heard.

Unbeknown to his girlfriend, Jed and his cousin Sammy were in the Berwick Manor in Rainham. Although Jed and Sammy were currently earning a bundle by selling hooky motors, they had decided to take this weekend off to go out and party.

As the ecstasy tablet he’d just taken began to take effect, Jed smiled as he nudged Sammy and pointed out the two little birds that were giggling and staring their way.

‘I love this tune and them birds are well fit,’ Sammy said as the DJ put on Richie Rich’s ‘Salsa House’.

About to bowl over to where they were dancing, Sammy grabbed Jed’s arm. ‘’Ere, cacker, Sally and Julie have just walked in. Dordie, they’re heading this way.’

Jed took a deep breath. He knew he was probably about to receive a barrage of abuse and he really couldn’t give a fuck.

He and Sammy had stopped seeing Sally and Julie a good few months ago. Both girls had got too serious, so the lads had shagged them one last time just before Christmas, then ignored their numerous phone calls.

Sammy had recently moved his girlfriend, Kerry, into his trailer so, for obvious reasons, both Jed and Sammy had recently changed their mobile numbers.

Having now come up properly on his E, Jed was in the mood for taking the piss. ‘All right, Sally? You’ve put on a bit of weight, ain’t ya, girl?’ he said laughing.

Sammy nodded politely at Julie. He wasn’t quite as brazen as his cousin. ‘How you doing?’ he asked her awkwardly.

Julie ignored Sammy and nudged her best friend. ‘Tell him then, Sal.’

Sally was physically shaking as she turned back towards Jed. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she said bluntly.

‘Congratulations! I ain’t been near them old shitty drawers of yours for months, so what’s that got to do with me?’ Jed asked cockily.

Sally looked him in the eye. Jed was so good looking that he turned her to jelly. ‘It’s definitely yours,’ she told him bluntly.

Being pilled up and being told that you were about to become a father by a bird you had no interest in wasn’t the best mixture in the world. Grabbing Sally’s arm, Jed marched her outside. The music in the club was blaring and he needed to get this sorted.

Once out in the cold, crisp air, Jed quickly came to his senses. He dug deep into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a large wad of money. ‘You told me you were on the pill,’ he said angrily, as he handed her five fifty-pound notes.

‘I was on the pill, but something obviously went wrong. Why are you giving me money?’ Sally asked, bemused.

‘To get rid of it, you dinlo. You’re lucky I’m giving you anything. I don’t even know if the chavvie’s mine,’ Jed said sarcastically.

Sally threw the money back at him. ‘I don’t want your money, Jed. I’m keeping this baby whether you like it or not.’

Getting angrier by the second, Jed grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her around the side of the building. He pushed her up against the wall and squeezed her face between his thumb and fingers.

‘You do as I say and get rid of it. If you don’t, I’m telling you, I’ll get rid of it for ya.’

‘What’s going on? Are you OK?’ Julie screamed, as she ran over to her friend.

As Jed let go of her face, Sally slid down the wall, sobbing.

‘Get away from her, you bastard,’ Julie screamed.

Realising that Jed was probably only seconds away from clumping Sally, Sammy waded in and dragged him away. ‘Come on, let’s get back inside,’ Sammy said.

Unable to resist a parting shot, Jed turned around, slung the fifty-pound notes on the ground, then pointed his finger at Sally. ‘I meant what I said, you silly fucking slag,’ he screamed.

As Jed and Sammy disappeared out of sight, Sally and Julie clung to one another. Both girls had thought they had hit the jackpot when they’d met Jed and Sammy but, as they watched the fifty-pound notes blow off in the wind, they realised that they didn’t really know the boys at all.

Inside the hospital, Alice O’Hara was doing Frankie’s head in. ‘Pant – you’re not panting properly,’ Alice yelled at her.

‘You’re doing fine. The baby’s not quite ready yet,’ the midwife said kindly.

‘I want my brother. Get Joey for me,’ Frankie shouted. She had never felt pain like this in her life and, with only Alice by her side, she was incredibly frightened.

‘You can’t have a mush in ’ere, especially one like your bleedin’ brother,’ Alice said spitefully.

‘Please get my brother. I think he’s outside,’ Frankie pleaded with one of the nurses.

The blonde-haired nurse felt extremely sorry for Frankie. She was only young and the rough older lady with her wasn’t exactly sensitive.

Joey had tears in his eyes as he entered the room. He walked around the other side of the bed, opposite where Alice was standing, and grasped his sister’s hand. ‘How you doing?’ he asked awkwardly. He could sense Alice glaring at him.

‘It don’t half hurt, Joey,’ Frankie sobbed.

‘Where’s Jed?’ Joey asked. He’d been fully expecting to see him.

‘He’s out earning money,’ Alice said coldly.

Joey smiled. ‘I’m Joey, Frankie’s brother. It’s nice to meet you.’