Standing at the edge of the sun-drenched balcony overlooking the pool, Jez Kennedy bared his teeth as he held the phone to his ear. He may well be living in Majorca, but right now he felt like he was smack bang in the middle of hell.
‘You’re absolutely fucking sure of it?’ Jez hissed down the phone. ‘The money’s gone?’
‘Aye boss. It’s gone. He’s cleared out the safe instead of depositing it,’ the voice said, sounding equally as furious as Jez. ‘Word has it he’s long gone, caught a flight back to the UK about six hours ago. But that’s not all he’s taken.’
‘What do you mean?’ Jez felt his breath catch in his throat, and then he remembered. He’d taken his mother’s diamond wedding ring to the jeweller’s to be cleaned that week. He’d picked it up and put it in the safe so that he could take it home. But he’d forgotten about it because he’d been so busy getting ready to launch the club. It should have been completely out of harm’s way in that safe.
‘The ring, mate. It’s gone. I have hunted everywhere for it, hoping that it would have fallen on the floor during his bid to clear the cash out, but it’s not here. I’m so sorry mate, I know how much that ring meant to you.’
Jez gripped the phone, feeling like he could crush it with his bare hands. The sun shone down on the complex Jez owned and had worked so hard to build. Blood, sweat and tears had gone into making a life for himself in Majorca. Not all his own of course, he’d had to bump a few off along the way. But that was business, wasn’t it? You had to look after number one in order to get to the top of your game. And he was reaping the benefits of all that now. Well, he was until six hours ago. One hundred grand was nothing to someone like Jez. It was replaceable. But his dead mother’s diamond wedding ring. It was the only prized possession she’d ever owned, her mother’s before that. A family heirloom.
Jez Kennedy sat down at the patio table. The housekeeper set a bottle of beer in front of him. She always did that when he was stressed. Not that she ever asked him about his phone calls. Not even his wife, Charlene, did that. Jez always made sure that the lines were never blurred between business and family.
‘Esta bien señor?’ Maria asked. ‘Can I get you something else?’
Jez always felt bad for not learning to speak better Spanish, but Maria assured him that he coped just fine, and that she liked speaking English.
‘Fine. Thank you, Maria.’ Jez said quietly, while offering a tight-lipped smile.
Maria sensed that Jez needed to be alone and left him to finish his call. ‘Housekeeper’ seemed an unfair title. She was more than that. She had also been the boys’ nanny, someone who cared for the children and kept their home in order while Jez was out earning money and Charlene was out spending it. She’d been more of a mother figure than Charlene had been in the beginning.
‘What do you want to do, Jez?’ The voice at the other end of the line asked.
Jez knew exactly what he wanted to do. He didn’t take too kindly to being screwed over by one of his own, especially not when they had stolen the only thing that had any kind of sentimental value from him.
‘We find the bastard, even if that means bringing him back to this fucking island in a box. I want my money and that ring and I’ll be damned if I let him get away with this. So, get a team together and find him. Preferably sooner than later. You got that?’
‘Aye boss. Loud and clear. I’ll let you know how things pan out.’
Slamming the phone down on the table, Jez exhaled loudly and ran a hand over his face. The season had started off well, with Jez launching a new nightclub, Martini Beach Club. It had only been open for a month and the place had already made him enough to see him through to retirement. But now the safe had been cleared of takings for the previous week and he was being laughed at all the way to the UK.
Getting to his feet and lifting his phone, he called his ex-colleague’s number. It went straight to voicemail. Of course it did. There was very little chance that he had even taken his phone with him on that plane and if he knew what was good for him, he’d go into hiding when he got back to the UK. Because Jez was going to make sure he found him.
And when he did, bones wouldn’t just be broken, they’d be shattered.