Hard Girls by Martina Cole Read Free Book Online Page A

had left her body, she could feel herself deflating with the hot flush of her humiliation. She closed her eyes, she was suddenly overwhelmed with tiredness.
     
    ‘You OK, Kate?’
    Kate shrugged and said flatly, ‘Well, I’ve had better fucking days.’
     
    Peter Bates was nervous, but then he always was. He knew that he was skating on thin ice. He had cleaned the flat up because he thought it was for the best. It was his first reaction, tidy away anything that could tie him to the offence. He was just protecting his interests.
    He had assumed the girl had been on the receiving end of a nut-bag, it wasn’t unheard of in their profession; after all, they were Toms. As well as the regulars, they took their own calls and arranged their own clients. The days of having a maid on the go were long gone, though a maid did offer them a level of security, he saw that now.
    In the fifties and sixties, no Tom worth her salt was ever alone with a customer. Nowadays, there were a few who still employed someone to make the tea and change the beds, but they were a dying breed. Girls today didn’t work out of their homes for a start, and they were a different sort to their forebears. When he cut into the game as a young lad, he had learned early on that a good pimp kept his girls chaperoned, not just for safety, but because they kept their eyes and ears open for any extra monies earned on the quiet. They also ran errands, kept the place clean and, more importantly, kept a beady eye out for anything of a suspicious nature.
    The women and girls these days were more on the ball, they had lives outside of their work. They weren’t as involved with the game now; it was basically just a job, a means to an end. While they were young and fresh-faced they had the chance to work out of a nice apartment, once the life took them over and they started to look a bit frayed around the edges, he outed them. It was only firm flesh that earned a wedge these days; men were inundated with young girls, and they were available at any time of the day or night. It was a competitive business now, albeit a lucrative one, but it was also a business that was being overtaken by the Eastern Europeans. They traffC//DTD XHTML 1

Chapter Two
    Patrick Kelly was fuming, and he knew he had no one to blame for his predicament but himself. That was why he was so angry. Even if Bates hadn’t told him exactly what the flats were being used for, he had to admit he hadn’t agonised over receiving the more than generous proceeds. It was bloody obvious really, particularly to someone like him. He could have got Danny Foster to check it out. If Kate found out she would de-bollock him without a second’s thought. Yet he had turned a blind eye to what had been going on. He had to face the consequences of his actions and that was not something he had had to do very often in his lifetime. He was a well-respected Face, he had his creds, and he had his reputation. He also had a weakness for easy money and, once more, it had caused his downfall.
    He was blaming Peter for his dilemma, but really it was all down to him. He knew what Bates was like, so he had to put his hand up and take the blame. Kate liked honesty; that was her biggest problem, she demanded it, and sometimes people were better off not being in the know. Not that he was going to point that fact out to her in the near future of course. He hoped she would look on this as an aberration of sorts, as a one-off. He would argue the fact that it was an investment, that was all. That he was just helping out a mate who needed a silent partner. He knew he was hoping for a miracle. Kate was not a fool and, worse than that, she was not a person who allowed herself to be treated like one. Patrick Kelly was up shit creek without the proverbial paddle and he knew it.
     
     
    Annie watched as Kate smiled at the woman and accepted a cup of coffee with real appreciation, breathing in the aroma and hugging the mug with both hands. Each