LITMIR.BIZ

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headed to the bar in the lounge and waited for the others to arrive.

      Eric thought about his brother’s words and wondered if he was contemplating going back to his ex-girlfriend. He’d heard through the grapevine that she was in London. He’d been tempted to make a play for her himself, but this latest row between his brother and Jackie might have put paid to that pipedream. If Mike split with Jackie and knew his ex was back in London, he would no doubt go sniffing around.

      ‘Mikey, I think I want to jack it in. I wanna settle down, have a family, and start me own business.’

      Mike chuckled. ‘Eric, you are a fucking bell-end sometimes. What ya gonna do? You ain’t even got a swimming certificate let alone a GCSE.’

      Eric looked his brother over and felt that nagging sense of envy that seemed constantly to eat away at him. Being classed as second best to Mike was not how he saw his future.

      ‘Anyway, Eric, we have more serious matters at hand than career advice. ’Ave ya told Farver to stay in Florida? I want him outta the way an’ all. This is a war we are walking into, and I don’t know the level of their army … yet.’

      Eric felt his stomach churn. ‘Yes. Dad’s staying another few weeks. Do you think they’ll do us over, one by one?’

      The brandy hit the back of Mike’s throat and he swallowed twice. ‘No! I didn’t string up Travis’s cat, did I? I fucking strung him up. They wouldn’t have the guts to open up Staffie. Nah, they cowardly butchered his dog instead. Who the hell do they think they are, eh? The fucking Mafia?’

      Within a few minutes, Lou and Willie arrived. Like Eric, they were unsettled. Staffie was the last to arrive and he was freaked out. Mike poured them all a drink, and they headed for the dining room where they used to play poker, until Jackie managed to ruin that too, with all her mad, drunken outbursts.

      They sat around the table and Mike looked from one to the other; his sidekicks, they were. It was how it was from when they were born. His father, Arthur Regan, used to run the firm. Willie Ritz’s old man, Charlie, and Staffie’s father, Teddy, were the muscle in the crew. Then there was Lou Baker’s father, Big Lou, who was the brainy one. They were Bermondsey boys with a serious reputation and an eye for a good heist or for pavement work. Robbing the security vans, they ran the manor.

      ‘I don’t like it, Mikey,’ said Lou, always the voice of reason. ‘It’s not knowing enough about the Harmans that sits uneasily with me.’ His tone was softer than the others and slightly more refined. In fact, Lou looked the odd man out. With his passion for sharp suits and his blow-dried hair sitting neatly behind his ears, he was always immaculately turned out – and more like their lawyer than a villain.

      Mike nodded. ‘Well, lads, that’s our first job. I want every single fucker in South-East London interrogated. I want everyone knowing that the Harmans are grasses. I’m gonna make damned sure that no other cunt will wanna work with them – that is, if they are attempting to take over the firms in our manor. These cowardly bastards will regret trying to bring me down, that’s for sure.’

      Willie was almost chewing his lips off, his last toot of cocaine having left him agitated, as per usual. ‘I wanna know why they saw fit to grass our operation up to the Filth, and why us? I mean, we’ve got no beef with them. We don’t even know ’em!’

      Mike snarled. ‘Well, I’ll get to the bottom of it, even if it means ripping a few heads off along the way!’

      Staffie jumped to his feet. He was raging. ‘Well, I swear to God, if I get my hands on any of those Harman brothers, I’ll gut them like a piece of fish. I fucking loved that dog. ’Orrible, evil lowlifes they are!’ After a few deep breaths, he sat back down.

      Mike poured him another brandy. ‘’Ere, Staffie. Drink this, mate, and calm yaself down.’

      Mike looked at Staffie. He couldn’t remember a time when the man was young or had hair; he was always the big bruiser with a thick forehead and hands like bricks.

      ‘Right, get on ya phones now and call around. I want to know everything there is to know about these bastards.’

       Chapter 3

      Harry Harman entered his mother’s kitchen with a face like a smacked arse. Doris was in her pinafore, not that this was unusual. Making a sandwich, she turned to her eldest son. Briefly looking him up and down, with no hint of an expression, she carried on slicing the cheese.

      ‘Where’s the ol’ man?’ His deep voice was gruff from too many fags and he had another distinguishing characteristic – a fat neck to match his overlarge head. A spiteful-looking man, he glared with hate most of the time. Those cold eyes never softened, even when he watched his mother with her crooked fingers, riven with arthritis, pouring tea into her dainty bone china teacup. She was almost fifty-seven and yet the boys still had her running around after them, cooking and ironing their shirts. They had moved out years before, with huge drums of their own, yet they would still bring their washing home, treating her as though she was their slave.

      ‘I don’t know, Son. Shall I give him a message?’

      Harry tutted. ‘Nah, I need to find him, like fucking now!’

      Doris stopped buttering the bread and wiped her hands on her apron. ‘Son, he’s probably up to no good with that old tom up on the Sandycroft estate, as well you know an’ all. So, I would be grateful if you didn’t come in ’ere and raise your voice at me,’ she said calmly, before she picked up the knife again and carried on buttering the bread.

      Harry was seriously irritated. He knew his father was off somewhere having it away with the next tart who would put it out for him for a few drinks, but he felt somewhat guilty; he should have been more polite to his mother. Doris had a knack for winding him up with her righteous ways. She moaned constantly about their father and for good reason: he shagged everything in sight, and when he wasn’t doing that, he spent all their money on drink.

      Whilst she could at least thank her lucky stars that her husband never belted her one, her mother always said she’d married beneath herself. And as the years rolled by, she wished things had been different. Hindsight was a wonderful thing but if only she’d never said ‘I do’ at the time. Trying as hard as she had, she’d been unable to change him or her sons for that matter. All three were a chip off their father’s block. And all of them had two things in common – a total lack of class and not a single brain cell between them.

      Frank Harman wasn’t the best-looking man in South-East London, but he was okay – although he viewed himself as a Paul Newman double. If he was, Doris never saw it, and now he resembled the wrestler Big Daddy. Still, she’d made her bed and she had to damn well lie in it.

      With three boys and a girl in the family, they sadly took on their father’s looks and build, with the possible exception of Scottie, who was the better looking of the bunch. Paris wasn’t too much of a looker without make-up, and certainly never had her mother’s sweet face.

      Trying to keep up her posh voice and sophisticated ways only earned Doris the reputation for being a snob, and so, as the years dragged by, she became resigned to being put down at every turn by her insufferable children and humiliated by her villainous husband. Even her daughter had an air of arrogance about her, goaded on by the three boys. Their little princess, they called her. Doris wasn’t so blinded by her antics as the boys were, though. She was a class-A tart and was always causing unnecessary bother. Flashing her new tits and a five-hundred-pound pout, she was a spoiled little madam.

      If only she could be proud of at least one of her four children, but the truth was she was ashamed of them. Totally. Frank was to blame. He brought them up to do whatever it took to earn a few bob, and there was nothing legitimate in it either. He laughed at their naughty antics, and so it was no surprise that they were all off the rails before they even reached primary school.

      ‘Where’s

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