The Promise Read online

  ‘Oi, what have I told you about manners, Georgie? Watch your bleeding mouth!’ Josie interrupted, even though a part of her revelled in her daughter’s stand-offish comments to Delray.

  She was actually glad that her eldest wasn’t as easily fobbed off as Delray would have liked. Unlike most females in this part of London, Georgie wasn’t falling for Delray’s charm.

  Her eldest daughter was smarter than Josie gave her credit.

  Still, this wasn’t the time or the place for backchat.

  Josie knew Delray only too well.

  He’d smile at you one minute and turn on you the next without a second’s warning.

  After the state Josie had gotten herself into last night, Delray was already on the warpath. The last thing she needed was Georgie riling him up even more than he was already. Especially seeing as it was going to be her head on the chopping block today.

  ‘You know better than to speak like that, Georgie. Delray’s brought you a gift. Now, what do you say?’

  ‘Thanks.’ Catching her mother’s warning look, Georgie shrugged but made no attempt to retrieve the gift from where it lay discarded on the table. ‘What?’ she said as her mother continued to glare at her. ‘Just because everyone else around here bows down to him, doesn’t mean I have to as well,’ she said, making her feelings perfectly clear. ‘He always does this. Bring us stupid toys the day after you’ve got really drunk, or someone’s beaten you up. It doesn’t make it all better, you know.’

  ‘Georgie!’ Josie warned.

  If Georgie wasn’t careful she’d have a lot more to worry about than being given ’stupid toys’.

  ‘Leave it, Jos.’ Delray’s eyes twinkled in amusement.

  Georgie Parker was a chip off the old block, it seemed. Josie has been exactly the same in her younger days. Argumentative, defiant, stubborn as hell. Shit, she was still like it now. The woman could start a row in an empty room if the mood took her.

  Anyone else speaking to Delray like Georgie would have earned themselves a clip around the ear talking back to him, but Delray only found Georgie highly amusing. ‘She's right, she ain’t a little kid anymore. She’s all grown up.’

  Suddenly it was like seeing the child with new eyes. She was pretty, but looked nothing like Josie. Both the girls had darker skin for a start, not like Josie’s pasty white complexion. They had long dark hair too, chocolate brown, matching their eyes.

  ‘I tell you what, Jos, it ain’t going to be much longer and you’re going to have some trouble on your hands with that one. What is she now? She must be eleven, huh? With a bit of slap on her she could easily pass for fifteen. She’s gonna have every young scrote this side of the river trying their luck with her. You could cash in on that, you know.’

  Delray grinned at Josie, seeing the anger in her eyes at his suggestion.

  He was winding her up, purposely trying to piss her off.

  ‘I’m twelve.’ Georgie corrected him, her cheeks reddening as she realised what Delray had just implied. ‘And I ain’t interested in boys. I’ve seen enough sad excuses of men in this house over the years to put me off for life.’

  Josie held her breath, horrified at the child’s blatant insult to Delray.

  For a second, the room was completely silent. Even Marnie had stopped spinning around the place like a demented fairy.

  Josie stared at Delray, trying to read his reaction. To her surprise, he started to roar with laughter.

  Josie couldn’t help but laugh then too.

  ‘Jesus Christ, Georgie! You ain’t half got a gob on you!’

  As much as her daughter drove her around the bend with her mouthiness sometimes, at least she said it how it was, and she didn’t seem to give a shit who she was up against either. Anderton included it seemed. For a second, Josie almost felt proud of her daughter. Only for a second, though, until she reminded herself who they were dealing with here.

  Georgie needed to remember her manners, otherwise Delray might remind her of them.

  ‘Oi, madam. Delray was only paying you a compliment! God, you can’t half be a right narky cow sometimes, do you know that.’ Raising her eyes to the ceiling, Josie tried to make light of Georgie’s comment. As funny as Josie had thought it was, Georgie was going to cause bloody murder in a minute if she didn’t rein herself in.

  ‘Don’t worry, Josie. I’m used to trappy women and, let’s face it, with you as their mother, it was inevitable that they’d inherit your big gob, wasn’t it?’ Delray grinned. ‘Luckily, that’s where the similarities seem to end. This one’s got her head screwed on. Fuck knows how. She’s obviously seen what she doesn’t want to turn into by looking at you.’

  Josie was offended again at Delray making his snide digs. Using the kids as ammunition against her.

  Sensing the tension between her mother and Delray, Georgie knew that there was a row brewing. Especially after all the dramas that had on gone here last night.

  ‘Come on, Marnie, let’s take our new bears to our room, yeah?’ she said, eager to get Marnie out of the way.

  ‘Yay!’ Marnie squealed, completely oblivious to the underlining hostility in the room. She was delighted that her sister wanted to play with her and, grabbing Georgie’s bear, was happily led from the room.

  Delray took a seat at the kitchen table. Now that the girls were dealt with and out of the way, he didn’t want to waste anymore time in getting straight back down to business.

  ‘So, go on then,’ he said, finally, ‘what the fuck was all that about last night, and don’t spin me any bullshit lines, Josie. I had enough of that from Mandy. I want to know the truth.’

  Josie shrugged and, knowing that she had landed herself well and truly in the shit last night after her actions, leant back against the sink and lit herself another cigarette.

  ‘I fucked up, Delray. Okay.’ Holding her hands up, she knew that Delray wouldn’t tolerate any form of deceit. She had already crossed the line with him as it was. ‘I had a really fucking bad day yesterday. I guess I just got a bit carried away with the drink. It won’t happen again, trust me. If it makes you feel any better, I’m really suffering. I’ve got the mother of all hangovers today. My head’s pounding.’

  Eyeing the gash on her forehead from where she had fallen, and her sickly pale skin, Delray could clearly see how rough Josie looked but, in his opinion, she wasn’t suffering nearly half as much as she should be.

  Not after the way she showed herself up last night.

  ‘You’re a right fucking mess, Josie,’ he said, disgusted, as he took in the greasy mop of hair that was stuck to her scalp. Josie hadn’t even showered this morning.

  Her clothes were creased and dirty as if she’d picked up discarded clothes from the floor, which, knowing Josie, she probably had.

  ‘It looks more than just a hangover, if you ask me.’ Delray glared at her. His eyes boring into her. Steely. Cold.

  He was making Josie nervous.

  ‘I feel like I’m dying, Delray but, honest to God, this is the worst hangover I’ve ever had. I know I shouldn’t drink on the job, but I thought we were done for the night. I didn’t know Mandy was going to pick those two blokes up at closing time. I was already half gone. She said something about someone spiking my drink? Who knows, eh? There’s a lot of chancers about.’

  Delray pursed his lips and nodded, as if understanding Josie’s predicament.

  ‘So someone slipped you a roofie, eh?’

  Josie nodded and visibly relaxed at Delray’s words, breathing a sigh of relief she had somehow managed to talk him around. Their little chat was going better than she had anticipated. She had royally fucked up, she knew that, but the last thing she needed right now was Delray reading her the riot act.

  ‘Having your drink spiked, eh? That’s pretty fucked up,’ Delray said.

  ‘It was pretty terrifying.’ Josie nodded in agreement.

  Delray was glaring at her. Looking right through her as if he could see all her secrets.

  She�
�d read this all wrong.

  The conversation wasn’t going well at all. Delray was just fucking with her. Letting her dig herself a deeper hole, and when the time was right he was going to bury her in it.

  Trying her hardest to keep her composure, Josie could feel her heart hammering inside her chest.

  ‘There’s some sick fuckers out there. Those blokes didn’t seem the type, eh? But I guess you just never can tell!’

  Delray twisted his lips as he took in the dark circles around the woman’s eyes; her pupils still tiny as she stood there gnawing on the inside of her cheek between her words.

  She was shaking too. Every time she brought her cigarette up to her lips, she fought to keep her jittery hand still. This was more than just the drink.

  Delray had known it the second he’d clapped eyes on her last night. Sprawled out on the lounge floor, fucked off her face, as high as a proverbial kite.

  ‘You know, Jos, I like to think I’m a fair man,’ he said, sounding bored. ‘I gave you the chance to come clean. To be honest with me… but, as always, Josie, you’re too fucking stupid to comply.’

  Launching himself off the chair, Delray grabbed her roughly by her throat and pushed her backwards, causing her to shriek in agony as her back arched awkwardly over the sink behind her.

  ‘Do I look fucking stupid, Jos? Huh? Do I look like I was born fucking yesterday?’

  Taking the cigarette that was still gripped between her fingers, Delray flung it into the sink amongst the pile of dirty crockery before grabbing Josie tightly by her arms. ‘You’ve been smoking smack again, haven’t you?’

  He shook his head. Disgusted.

  ‘Didn’t you do enough damage to yourself last time, Josie? Is it any wonder why you’re losing business left, right and centre? Why work is “so slow”. No one wants to fuck a skaghead, Josie! Especially not one that smells and looks as bad as you.’ Delray was raging now. Shaking his head as he glared at her, he could smell the pungent stench of her body odour. Her sour breath.

  She had let herself go to shit, and now to top it off she was back on heroin.

  Delray was fuming.

  He’d been giving the woman a free pass for ages. Months. Josie was a fucking liability at the best of times, but even more so when she was back on gear.

  It was no wonder punters were avoiding her like the plague.

  ‘It’s not how it looks, Delray. I ain’t using, not properly. I’m just chipping,’ Josie tried to explain.

  ‘Chipping?’ Delray was incredulous.

  ‘Yeah, just dipping in now and again. Having a small hit once in a while to tide me over. I’ve got it under control this time. I know what I’m doing.’

  ‘I know what fucking chipping means, Josie; I wasn’t born fucking yesterday. You are fucking deluded if you think you’ve got this under control. That’s the trouble with you skagheads, you lot lie so much that you even manage to convince yourselves of your own bullshit.’ He was no longer in the mood to listen to the woman’s spiel. ‘Who the fuck’s been supplying you?’ he bellowed, twisting Josie’s wrist angrily.

  Whoever it was must be either fucking brave or fucking stupid to think that it was okay to sell heroin to one of his girls. Especially after the beating he’d dished out on the last parasite that had served up to Josie.

  ‘You’re hurting me, Delray.’

  ‘Tell me who fucking supplied you.’

  As he twisted her arm right around now, Josie screeched, scared he was going to snap her wrist.

  ‘All right, Delray, I’ll tell you. It was Billy. Billy Stackhouse.’

  Delray shrugged her away. ‘Are you fucking having a laugh? That fucking ponce.’

  He was incensed.

  Billy Stackhouse was the one that had got Josie hooked in the first place.

  Delray had handed out a beating to him that time too. Stackhouse was already on a warning for supplying Delray’s girls; though, clearly, a warning wasn’t incentive enough for him.

  Delray would deal with the fucker later; first, he needed to sort out this mess in front of him.

  ‘Chipping? Behave? You’re well and truly gone, Josie. Look at the state of you. Bet you’d love a hit now, wouldn’t you?’

  Josie couldn’t argue with that. She was clucking today, badly. All she’d been able to think about was how she was going to be able to get her hands on some money so that she could go and pay Billy the money that she owed him, and have enough left over for another score.

  Delray had seen Josie in some states over the years, but he’d never seen her look so downtrodden as she was now.

  Looking around the flat, at the squalor, he shook his head in disgust.

  The sink was full of dirty crockery; the dustbin overflowing; a thick trail of dirt and grim on every surface.

  ‘And you’re bringing punters back here? Fuck me, Josie! This place is a shit-tip. A fucking health and safety hazard. I’d be surprised if it isn’t infested with cockroaches and rats. Mind you, even they probably have higher standards than you.’

  Years ago, when Josie was starting out, she had been one of his main earners. Not anymore though.

  The woman standing before him was barely recognisable.

  Unhygienic, and looking at least a decade older than her years, Josie was a mess.

  Working under his name too? Under his protection. He couldn’t have this.

  Sitting back down at the kitchen table, Delray drummed his fingers loudly against the wood. The truth was, he’d been carrying Josie for years. The woman had been past her sell-by date long ago, but Delray had thrown her a lifeline, not that the ungrateful cow had ever appreciated it.

  He’d allowed her to keep working for him. Earning money for as long as she possibly could.

  It had done him a favour too, for a while, to have extra income coming in, but he wouldn’t be cutting the woman any more slack. That went for Mandy, too. The pair of them were losing him business, costing him his reputation at a time when Delray was trying make a real name for himself.

  ‘I’m cutting you loose, Josie. You and Mandy. You’re both out.’

  ‘What?’ Josie shook her head, certain that Delray wouldn’t really do that to her; he couldn’t. He was just angry. ‘You can’t do that to me, Delray. What about the girls? How am I going to afford to feed them, eh? To keep this roof over their head. I’m boracic. I haven’t got a penny to my name.’

  ‘You should have thought about your girls before you started pumping your veins full of that shit then, shouldn’t you, Jos!’

  ‘I should have thought about them?’ Josie laughed, a crazy maniacal sound gurgling at the back of her throat. She was shaking violently. Not because of the hangover or the gear, but because of the anger that surged inside her.

  The barefaced cheek of Delray Anderton. Telling her to think about her own kids, as if that wasn’t what she did her every waking minute.

  ‘How dare you! I do everything for my girls. EVERYTHING.’

  ‘Do you, Jos? ’Cos looking around the place, I find that highly fucking unlikely, girl.’ Making his point Delray dragged at the kitchen cupboard handles, almost pulling the doors off as he spoke. ‘Do you see that. Fucking empty. This is what you’re giving your girls, Josie. Sweet fuck all by the looks of it. You’re already struggling to bring any money in, and now the little you do get is going to be used so you can get off your face. So spare me the fucking sob story, will you!’

  ‘Sob story?’ Josie shook her head. ‘This isn’t a sob story, Delray. This is my fucking life. A life that clearly you know fuck all about, seeing as you’re so busy living it up in your fancy fucking new apartment with that little tramp, Javine Turner.’ Glad that she suddenly had his full attention now, her eyes were blazing. ‘You do know that she’s only seventeen, don’t you? Barely much older than my Georgie! She’s just a kid, Delray. Not that you care, eh?’ Delray wouldn’t give a shit how old the girl was. As long as she was legal, that little snippet of information wouldn’t make the slightest
difference to the man.

  ‘Who the fuck do you think you are chatting shit about my business, huh?’ Delray shouted, pissed off that Josie seemed to know all of his concerns.

  ‘Me? You need to have a word with that Javine! That’s what kids do, Delray. They run their mouths off.’ Josie shook her head in anger. ‘All this time you’ve been making out that you’re still living in that dingy little flat in Lambeth and, really, you’ve gone up in the world, haven’t you, Delray. How’s that, eh? How is it that I’m the one lying on my back for strangers to make ends meet and you’re the one living it up in some poncy apartment on the Albert Embankment?’

  Josie knew she was crossing the line but she no longer cared. She’d held her tongue for years for fear of Delray punishing her and, suddenly, she realised with clarity that she had been punished all along, without even realising it.

  Delray had used her. Like he did with all ‘his girls’. Now he was done, he was spitting her out like she was nothing.

  ‘You’ve taken everything from me, do you know that, Delray? You’ve fucking destroyed me. From the first day I ever met you all you did was fill my head with bullshit. Coming around here, holding your hand out for my money that I earned—’

  ‘That’s enough.’ Delray slammed his fist down on the table, his patience wearing thin. He’d heard enough of Josie’s mouth. Fighting to regain his composure, he could feel the vein in the left side of his forehead throbbing. He clenched his fists tightly at his sides. It was taking every last bit of control that he had inside of him not to react, not to launch his chunky fist into Josie’s face and knock her crooked yellowed teeth down the back of her throat.

  ‘I don’t owe you shit, Josie. Not even for old times’ sake.’ Grabbing his keys off the table, Delray walked towards the back door. ‘You’re out, Josie. You and Mandy. If I find out that either of you are so much as thinking about touting for business in a twenty-mile radius of here, I promise you now it will be the last thing either of you ever do.’