CHAPTER 5

Will stopped by the Presbyterian church on Gloddaeth Street, and began walking the rest of the way down the street back to his flat, he was knackered. It was the first real jog he’d had since coming out of nick. Boiling hot, he pulled off his beanie hat, heart drumming in his chest, his throat raw from exertion, and his legs wobbling as if they had no bones in them.

It was Saturday morning, the sky was leaden grey, it was cold and uninviting, and it looked like it was going to be one of those dark gloomy days that never seem to wake up.

Will took out his phone, and looked for any text messages on the caller display window. This time it wasn’t Stacey he was thinking about, but his mate Geoff. Will wanted to know how everything went last night, and thought he should have heard something by now. As he reached the Tribells chip shop on the corner, he searched for Geoff’s number so he could call him to find out, then paused. Perhaps ten o’clock on a Saturday morning, was too early to ring? Most people usually like to have a lie in. But burning curiosity overpowered any consideration, and he decided he would take the chance. He punched in the number and pressed the phone to his ear and that’s when he saw her.

Stacey was standing in the doorway outside his flat. For a second Will almost forgot about the call and quickly hit the quit button on his mobile. She was wearing a purple fleece jacket that covered the behind of her jeans. Her hair was raven-black, and was cut into an old-fashioned bob. Her eyes, her eyes were of the darkest brown, just as he’d remembered. And whenever she got angry they would glisten like chocolate minstrels. The first time he ever saw her he thought she wasn’t classically pretty, but plain-looking leaning towards attractive, a bit like that young sexy teacher in school all the lads had a crush on.

As Will strolled towards her, he was a bit lost for words, and judging by the look on her face, he couldn’t tell whether she was pleased to see him or not. It was the same type of look she used to give him after they had had an argument. Cold and defensive, as if he had a lot of explaining to do before she even considered speaking to him again.

Will stood at the base of the steps, and uttered the first thing that came into his head. ‘I had almost given up on you.’

Stacey’s expression remained the same. ‘So how have you been?’

‘Great!’ Will replied, climbing the steps towards her. ‘I’ve had a really wonderful three and a half years in prison, thanks.’

Stacey appeared annoyed by his sarcasm.

Will stood before her, and she glared up at him with those delicious brown eyes. ‘Wanna come in?’ he asked, digging into his tracksuit bottoms for the key, and Stacey nodded.

Inside the flat, Will tossed his keys on the kitchen work-top, and began filling up the kettle. ‘Fancy a brew?’

‘Yeah, why not,’ she replied, looking around as if she was trying to figure out why he would want to stay in a hovel like this.

‘Have a seat,’ he told her.

‘Bit of a come down, isn’t it, Will?’

Will threw her a quick look. ‘You probably won’t understand, but I don’t want to get too comfortable too quick.’

Stacey sighed impatiently as if she wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty. ‘Listen, Will, I came over because I thought it was best to explain things face to face. I felt I owed you that.’

Will listened while he waited for the kettle to boil.

‘My mind still hasn’t changed from what I said three years ago. That’s why I completely cut all communications with you. I wanted a clean break.’

‘You certainly made that clear, that’s for sure.’ Will finished off making the teas and walked over. He handed Stacey hers.

Stacey cupped her mug while Will sat in the window seat facing her.

‘The problem with you Will is that you’re a ticking time bomb, and I really don’t want to be around you when you go off.’

‘Christ Stacey, I’m not that bloody bad.’

‘Yes, you are, Will. I always knew you had a temper, but what I saw on that day was a complete stranger, a maniac, someone completely out of control. I saw the devil in you.’

Will listened as he supped up his tea. He wanted to defend himself and call her melodramatic but at the same time he also wanted her to have her say, and get it off her chest.

‘I know you also had a bit of a past as well. Those once or sometimes twice a month meetings you used to go to, I’m not saying you were seeing someone else on the sly, but I know those secret meetings were more than just a lad’s night out. And lets be honest, I never badgered you about it, did I? OK, you explained that these outings were a regular occurrence long before I came along, fair enough! But when you’re planning to share your life with someone and start a family things have to change, you have to change and make sacrifices. And call it women’s intuition or whatever I just knew that whatever secrets, dark sides or dubious meetings you were involved in, it had something to do with the way you acted that day. I could feel it, and that was the final straw for me. Yet still to this day you still can’t come clean about everything. You’re still hiding something.’

Will gave her a worn look. ‘Stacey, all that is in the past now. What happened on that day was nothing to do with the way I am or what I used to get up with. That day with the dog and the thugs was just a bad day for everyone, and that’s it.’

Stacey snorted bitterly. ‘You call spending three years in prison away from your fiancée just the result of a bad day?’

‘Of course not! But those meetings you keep going on about were just a group of very close friends simply looking out for each other. I already told you that.’

‘Come on, Will, all those marks that would suddenly appear on your face and body?’

‘You make it sound like I was involved in some sort of a mass orgy or something,’ Will huffed.

‘Well, go on then, Will, tell me everything? Tell me all about your so called mates? Tell me all about why all of a sudden you would have to go out in the middle of the night, and not come back until the early morning.’

Will dropped his head guiltily. ‘I can’t!’

Stacey shrugged with frustration. ‘Well, there it is. And you expect me to just accept that and keep quiet?’

Will said nothing.

‘Just how on earth can you expect to build a relationship with an attitude like that?’

‘Stacey all that is in the past now. I’m not a part of it anymore. And back then I would have proved that to you if you’d have given me more time.’

‘And what about what you went to prison for, would that have still happened?’

‘Maybe, maybe not, I just don’t know. That day I reacted like any other man. It’s just a natural alpha-male instinct to want to maim or kill to protect the things that mean the most to you. You can’t domesticate it by dressing it up in fancy civilised rules. But that aside, I’ve also had some counselling for some of that excess anger, I’m trying so hard to start afresh. All I ask is a chance to prove it?’

Stacey swung her head ponderously. ‘It’s too late, Will. You’ve left it too late, and I’ve moved on.’ She stood up, ready to leave. ‘I suggest you do the same.’

Once again Will could feel her slipping through his fingers.

‘Stacey, I came back for you. I came back because I can now give you the kind of life we had planned before I went inside. Are you really ready to throw all that away again? We’re both not getting any younger you know.’

That last statement seemed to burn her somewhat. ‘No, we maybe not, but at least I’m getting wiser.’

‘I didn’t mean it like that.’ Will backtracked, but the damage was already done.

Stacey silenced him with the palm of her hand. ‘Will I don’t think you could truly commit yourself to anyone. All you want is someone to come home to, someone to look after the house and the kids while you go out and do your thing . And that’s not the kind of life for me.’

Will shook his head. ‘You’re so wrong about that, Stacey, and I can prove it to you.’

Stacey looked at him like she was listening to an alcoholic with a beer in his hand saying he had quit.

Will stood up in frustration. ‘How can I prove it to you?’

‘I don’t think you can Will. Let’s just leave it at that shall we?’ She gave him a flat, sad smile and turned to leave.

Will watched her, powerless to do anything, powerless to say anything that would make any difference. The door clunked behind her, and Will slumped back in his chair, anger welling up inside him. His fists clenched into balls of molten rage, knuckles and fingers turning ivory white. The bones in his hands popped under the strain, and all the scars and scratches glowed like beacons as a reminder of a past filled with terrible violence. The watch on his wrist, the one that Stacey had bought him suddenly became the trigger of all that broiling frustration. He whipped it off and drew his hand back ready to smash it against the wall. But then he froze, the blazing fires in his eyes beginning to die. He could not let go of that cursed watch.

*

That afternoon an emergency meeting had been called at Phil’s home in the junction. The celebration of last night’s revenge ambush was about to be cold showered by what Tom and Charlie had found out.

‘What do you mean we’re now marked men?’ Geoff frowned concerned.

Tom explained. ‘The three lads we went after are all members of the Colwyn Bay gang called the Wilkinsons, and they’re notorious for carrying blades.’

‘Wilkinson swords.’ Geoff joked.

‘Are you sure?’ Phil asked, his face now showing the bruising from the recent attack.

‘One of our bouncer mates at Wetherspoons phoned us up this morning to warn us. Apparently the news has spread like wild fire.’

‘But did they recognise you lot though?’ Phil asked.

Geoff made a face. ‘Would have been hard with the beanie hats, and we were more or less straight in and out.’

Tom turned to Geoff. ‘Well, even if they did get a good look at us they wouldn’t know you from Adam. But there’s always a chance they might know Charlie and me from the doors.’

Phil chewed his lip with concern. ‘Those Wilkinsons, we know all about them, they’re a bit of a handful, and they have a lot of drug connections as well.’

‘How many are there in the gang?’ Geoff asked.

‘As far as I know, they’re about fifteen to twenty strong.’ Phil replied.

‘Yeah, bunch of cowards.’ Tom snarled. ‘Can’t fight for shit by themselves, they always need their mates as back up.’

‘Too right.’ Charlie agreed.

‘Be careful, lads. I mean it!’ Phil warned them.

Geoff began to feel the effects of post adrenal dump, the fear of consequence, and he recalled what Will had said about revenge, and how in the end you may have to defeat the whole army.

‘So what’s the plan?’ Charlie asked.

Geoff swallowed defiantly. ‘We made the choice to do what we did, so we have to accept the consequences.’

‘I think we should all carry our own weapons at all times.’ Tom added.

Phil ignored that last remark.

Geoff continued. ‘We should all stay in close contact on our mobiles day and night, and be on hand for back up.’

Phil cut in. ‘Ring me anytime, and I’ll make sure the police get there as soon as possible. OK? Don’t go anywhere alone at night either.’

Tom grimaced sheepishly ‘We may have to get some more back up ourselves, you know?’

That thought had already crossed Geoff’s mind and he had a short list of possibilities. But the one at the top of his list he wanted to keep secret for the time being.

‘We may be able to get Mike on board.’ Tom turned to Charlie for confirmation.

‘Yeah, he’ll definitely come in an emergency.’

‘I’ve got a few possibilities,’ Geoff confessed. ‘One especially that I can look into, and there’s Guy in Colwyn Bay who runs a judo club, known him for years. Back when his brother was beaten into a coma some ten years ago, he wanted to start a kind of vigilante group, so he won’t need a lot of convincing. We’re going to have to have our own team, not just anyone. They have to be people we can trust, people who are willing to act at short notice, and people who are up to the mark. This is going to have to be a special team.’

Tom and Charlie nodded, impressed. This was right up their street.

‘Once every fortnight, or whatever we can manage, we all train together at a certain location away from where we normally train. Nobody discusses these sessions with anyone, everybody should attend, no shirking. OK? All this may seem a bit of an over reaction, but I don’t want to wait for one of us to get maimed or worse before we do anything about it. Forewarned is forearmed.’

Tom smirked amused. ‘Ever done a stint in the army, Geoff?’

Geoff loosened up a tad. ‘Hopefully, nothing will happen, and all this will blow over, after all they’ve been paid back for what they did.’

‘Except for that other one we didn’t get,’ Tom grumbled.

Geoff ignored him. ‘But even if this does blow over without any comebacks. It’s gotten to the stage out there now were we have to have some sort of back-up protection should we need it. Maybe the time to do something about all this crime out there has come to a head. And, no disrespect to Phil, the law isn’t much help anymore is it?’

Reluctantly, Phil had to agree.

‘And I don’t know about any of you, but I think I’ll be able to sleep much better at night knowing that if any of us, or our families, face any serious hassle or danger from those animals out there, then retribution is only a phone call away.’

‘What about me?’ Phil asked feeling a bit left out.

Geoff turned to him. ‘You’ll be our eyes and ears, you’re in a position where you can supply us with the necessary info we might need, like addresses etc, if it comes to that.’

Tom gave Charlie a sly nudge.

Phil shifted about in his seat uncomfortably. ‘That could be a bit iffy for me, you know?’

Geoff realised this and didn’t want to put Phil on the spot. ‘Phil, I would never ask you to risk your job or anything, but any inside info you could get for us could give us the edge we might need. But if it’s too risky, then fair enough, we’ll understand, OK?’

In response, Phil told Geoff that he couldn’t make any promises.

‘So is everybody alright with this? Does anyone have a problem committing to a pact like this?’

Tom spoke up. ’So is this going to be our own sort of vigilante group?’

‘No, I don’t want to think of it like that. It’s not our job to clean up the whole town. We’re not the A Team. All we’re trying to do is provide a kind of minding service for ourselves, family and friends that’s all. Something like a ready tube of Bisodol in our pockets should we ever get an attack of heartburn.’

Phil rolled his eyes at Geoff’s wit, while Tom’s and Charlie’s imaginations were already beginning to run wild.