Cole Woods closed the front door of his flat behind him and turned to face the lounge. His mobile phone rested in his hand. He’d hated having to leave Jake and Roxanne to finalise things at the salon, but he hadn’t had much choice. He knew Jake would come through for him because there was no way he would do anything to risk Roxanne finding out about what went down in London. In fact, Jake wouldn’t want anyone finding out about it. It was too risky for his reputation. And of course, Cole didn’t want to have to reveal Jake’s biggest secret because that would mean the deal not being finalised, leaving Cole in the shit. All that was just another headache on top of the one he already had. Stealing the one hundred grand from Jez Kennedy had been a stupid yet necessary move. Every time he thought about what he’d done and why he’d done it, that bloody Kenny Rogers song popped into his head. ‘The Gambler’. That’s what Cole was, a gambler and a bad one at that. He seemed to be on a losing streak recently. That was why he’d had to take the money from Jez. It wasn’t as though he’d miss it. He was practically a fucking millionaire and Cole was as close to the gutter as he’d ever been. Cole needed to turn money into more money and quickly. If he hadn’t had to deal with such a loss in his life, one that had almost finished him off, he might never have gone into this life in the first place.
As Cole paced the floor of his rented Glasgow apartment, the phone rang in his shaking hand. It was the fifth call in two hours. He’d ignored it each time, but the more he did, the more it rang. Jez Kennedy wasn’t going to give up. Seeing the unknown caller come up on the screen had made him feel physically sick, but he wouldn’t even admit that to himself. Before the gambling became a problem, Cole and Jez were tight. Cole was a man to be feared, and for those who knew nothing of the predicament that he was in, he still was feared. Jez and Cole had worked well together as business partners. Jez owned the clubs; Cole supplied them with the constant demand for recreational drugs. But the money was disappearing as quickly as it arrived in his pocket. He was practically keeping the casinos going single-handedly over there. He couldn’t afford to lose more, and taking from Jez was his best option to get away from his debt to the Albanian gang he’d been working for in order to supply the clubs all over the islands. The Albanian gang he’d stolen five hundred grand from.
Five hundred from the Albanians, one hundred from Jez plus that diamond ring he’d found in the safe at Jez’s club which he still didn’t have the balls to have valued in case it was traced back to him. He wasn’t scared of Jez. He was scared of the Albanians. If they got hold of him, he’d be dead before he realised they were on to him. Cole couldn’t have that. He hadn’t completed his quest to find out what had happened to his brother. That was partly the reason he’d stolen the money in the first place. Hiring a private investigator wasn’t going to be cheap, but he needed to find out the truth. He had stolen more than enough when he was in Spain to cover the expenses.
That ring was real, he knew that just by looking at it. It was also his insurance policy: if the Glasgow deal went bust he could get it valued, sell it and use the cash to go into hiding. It was all such a mess.
‘Fuck!’ he screamed, squeezing the phone between his fingers. ‘Fuck the lot of them!’ Six hundred grand was nothing to these people. That was partly why he took it all in the first place. In truth, he knew he was in deep shit.
If he could just get Jake and Rox to pull this off, then things would be fine. He’d be able to pay off his debt to the Albanians, go back down to London, and hopefully get back to some sort of normality. Cole was ruthless; he wouldn’t have stolen from a deadly group of gangsters if he wasn’t. He couldn’t tell Jake anything about that though, he had a reputation to uphold and if Jake found out about his dealings with the Albanians then he’d back out, regardless of the risk of the truth coming out about him.
The phone pinged again and vibrated in his hand. Buzzing twice, he glared down at it and his stomach rolled again.
‘Fuck!’ The phone flew across the room, bounced off the wall and landed on the sofa.
This wasn’t the way things were supposed to turn out. He was supposed to be top dog and now everything was fucked. He’d been stupid, greedy and weak and if he was found before Jake and Rox got things moving, got cash flowing, then Cole Woods would be a dead man. Jez Kennedy wasn’t going to stop until he found him. He was a resourceful man, had people in his circle who would already be looking for Cole. And if Jez did find him, so would the others.