Mel Black looked at her brothers with suspicion. She didn’t believe a word that came out of their mouths when it came to business. She understood where she came from: a father who ran the city, infiltrating the clubs and the pubs with drugs, the streets with prostitutes, who was now dead, leaving behind a legacy and reputation for his eldest son to pick up and carry on. Mel knew her city well enough to know that when one gangland boss puts down his whisky glass for the last time, another picks it up, serving himself much bigger measures than the last would ever pour for himself.
‘You’re trying to tell me that you two are going into a new venture with Goran, a venture that will have you liaising with Goran’s men over in Amsterdam and further afield and it’s legit?’
Mel raised a brow as both brothers failed to meet her eye.
‘Of course it’s not fucking legit. Do you think I’m stupid? You think I’m blind to what this family business is all about? I’m the one who does the fucking books. I see how much money is coming in and where it’s coming from. So what is so special about Amsterdam? Is it drugs?’
Steff glanced at Donnie, as if asking silently if they should tell her. Donnie’s brow furrowed as he shook his head.
‘If you’re expecting me to do the books for this new business deal with Goran, then I need to know where the money is coming from so I can make it look legit, Donnie,’ Mel said as she reached for her pack of cigarettes. ‘It’s not as if I’ve been wrapped in cotton wool all my life. I know what we do here.’
Donnie’s expression lightened a little. ‘I know that, Mel. But the less you know, the better. It’s not your average deal.’
Steff swung gently on the chair and laughed. ‘What the fuck is average in our line of work? Look, sis, it’s simple. We’re branching out to Amsterdam’s sex industry. We’re working with Goran and his firm abroad to bring together the sex workers from Scotland and Amsterdam. That’s it.’
Mel felt her skin tingle. ‘Bring together? As in what?’
‘Girls from here to there. It’s all legit. Passports, flight tickets, you name it and we’ll have it covered. We interview the girls who apply for the jobs and then we pass them on to Goran. His firm will set up accommodation for them, make sure they have a regular place of work. We get a finder’s fee.’
Mel took a deep and steadying breath. She knew it was bullshit. The biggest amount of bullshit she’d ever heard in her life.
‘Human trafficking. That’s what it is. Fucking hell, Donnie. Are you seriously going to go through with this?’
Donnie stood up quickly and adjusted his suit jacket. ‘Mel, it’s nothing more than the prostitution rings that we run here. And you don’t seem to have a problem with that, do you? Just do your job so we can do ours, eh?’
Mel felt the anger building in her stomach and she shot off her chair. ‘Don’t talk to me like I’m a fucking child, Donnie. You know fine well the prostitution ring in Glasgow is different to what you’re proposing. For a start the women involved here are there through choice. You’re telling me that it was Dad who organised this?’
Donnie headed towards the door, and Steff was smiling. It was as though he enjoyed family dramas.
‘And another thing: do Cammy and the rest of the boys know about this? I can’t say Cammy would be best impressed.’
‘I don’t give a shit if your precious boyfriend approves or not. He works for me now, Mel.’ Donnie gritted his teeth before relaxing his jaw. ‘Look, if you don’t want to be part of this empire anymore, then you know where the door is. But if you walk out on the business, you walk out on this fucking family. Do you really want to put our mother through that after she just lost her husband? She still fucking blames you for not being able to bring him round. Do you really want to make things worse between the two of you?’
Her big brother’s words were like a dagger piercing right through her chest cavity. He could be a right bastard at times.
‘I can’t believe you just fucking said that. You sure it’s not you who holds that grudge?’
Steff got to his feet and stood between the two. ‘Right, enough. We’ve got a fucking business to take over here.’ He looked down at Mel, who was trying her best to fight back the tears.
‘All you have to do is your job, Mel. You’re an accountant for the Black empire. You don’t need to know the ins and outs of what we do. You just need to make sure the money is in all the right places. You don’t have to have morals to do that, do you? Bankers do it every fucking day and they were the reason for the 2005 collapse. Bet they’ve still got cash in their back bins, with no guilt.’
Mel felt numb. As much as she hated to admit it, Steff was right. She was the accountant. Nothing more, nothing less. But the new venture just didn’t sit right with her. And how would Cammy and the rest of them feel about that?
‘Can you do your job?’ Donnie asked, his hand poised on the handle of the office door, his back to her.
‘Out of sight, out of mind,’ Mel replied through gritted teeth. She didn’t want to be ousted by the family. It was bad enough that she’d always been compared to her brothers, by both her parents. As much as her dad had said he was proud of her, she knew on some level he’d always wished she’d been a boy, another brother to take over the business when he was gone.
‘Good,’ Donnie said. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I have a family business to run. Steff, you coming?’
Donnie opened the door and left the office. Mel looked at the empty space where her big brother had been standing, feeling like she wanted to pick up the chair he’d been sitting on and throw it at him.
‘He’s not angry at you,’ Steff said, seemingly noticing the tears in her eyes. ‘He just wants to get on with things now that Dad’s gone. And no one blames you for Dad’s death, Mel. The doctors told us the heart attack killed him immediately. A lifetime of booze and fags along with high stress in his line of work, is it any wonder he died earlier than he should have? You didn’t cause that, Mel. Don’t let Donnie or Ma tell you different.’
Mel felt her mood soften a little as Steff wrapped his arms around her and gave her a reassuring hug. He always was the softer of the two.
‘I need to go, Mel,’ he said, pulling away and heading for the door.
‘Tell him from his loving wee sister that he’s the world’s biggest prick, eh?’ Mel wiped a tear from her cheek.
‘Let’s not pretend that he wouldn’t love that title.’ Steff smiled.
He left, closing the door behind him. Mel sat down at her desk and gave herself a shake.
It didn’t matter that she didn’t like their way of business. It was like Steff had said, she had a job to do.