It took every ounce of Nathan’s strength not to stop Ruby as she walked away. Coming to this decision had not been easy, and he could not back out now. Giving her the flat was meant to be a final gift; a gesture of thanks for everything her family had done for his. But there was much more to it than that, and he was kidding himself if he thought otherwise.
Ruby was his biggest addiction, and in his fantasy world, where everything was black and white, they could be together without holding back. But as long as she was in the police then it wasn’t going to happen. Their relationship veered from painful separations to brief lust fuelled reunions, when all he wanted was for them to settle down. His father would turn in his grave if he knew. The thought gave Nathan a certain satisfaction. He had come across some nasty fuckers in his lifetime, but nobody matched up to his old man, and he hated him with a passion. He couldn’t believe it when his mother cried at his funeral. Not just crocodile tears, either. She was inconsolable. His brother, Lenny, was seventeen then and refused to attend. Nathan went for two reasons: firstly, to support his mother, and secondly so he could make sure the bastard really was dead. He had waited a long time for that day, and volunteered to help fill the grave afterwards. Injecting his anger into each shovelful of clay, he had enjoyed the satisfying thump as soil hit the expensive oak coffin. Not that Jimmy Crosby had the common decency to stay in the ground. Even now he haunted his son’s thoughts, orchestrating his lifestyle, calling him weak as he spat in his face.
His father’s words echoed in his mind as he watched Ruby leave. ‘She’s only a bird. Plenty more where that came from.’
It felt like the sky had fallen – the day his father died. He should have been relieved, but Nathan spent the day in shock. Jimmy was untouchable, and even in prison he had carried on his regime of terror. Nathan had learned to overpower his larger-than-life memory by claiming the family business for his own. Nobody liked his father, but they respected him, and after he died it was all up for grabs. Under the guidance of his mother he learned the ropes, modernising it until it was a sleek money-making machine. Gone were the drug-addled Toms, porno movies and seedy massage parlours. In their place were top class online escorts and a personal delivery service of class A cocaine. Racketeering was old and outdated, and there was no need to rob banks when you could get your hands on exceptional quality coke. Nathan was making too much money to need the protection racket and sold it on to a smaller firm. Nathan was a businessman; his only interest in organising the shifting of the product from A to B and making a healthy profit in return.
Lenny had had to pull some nasty stunts to keep them on top of the food chain, but their future was secured, and there was no need for any of that gangland shit anymore. They had made enough money now to buy themselves anonymity. But there was something about the violence that Lenny craved, and in the two weeks since his release from prison, he had lost his head. It didn’t matter how many times Nathan told him to keep a low profile, he didn’t seem to care. It wasn’t that Lenny was a big bloke either, but it was that look in his eye – a twinkle of madness, his confident swagger – that told people he wasn’t to be messed with. His mates would laugh and joke with him, but never stopped being on their guard. Lenny could turn in a second, and he was always tooled up. One minute he’d be laughing, and the next he’d be holding a knife to your face.
It was another reason he and Ruby were better off apart. As much as they were indebted to her and her family, Lenny had always looked at her with an intensity that was cause for concern. A mixture of lust and hatred was not a good cocktail. But Nathan couldn’t just let her go.