The Life by Martina Cole Read Free Book Online Page B

everyone in their world knowing their status. Outsiders meant nothing to him personally, and they should mean nothing to Daniel. What the fuck was he trying to prove? If he wasn’t careful they would have their collars felt and, like the Krays, they would be over before they were even really getting started. They had worked so hard for this. Peter was not going to sit back and let his brother destroy it all before they had even really begun.
    Peter could see how the world was going, he could see that these were dangerous times for people like them. They were sensible in that they had enough legitimate businesses to explain away their lifestyles, but there was no reason to attract too much attention to them as people, as personalities. They had enough creds – they didn’t need any more. Plus, if they kept theirviolence quiet, so only the people who were in their world knew about it, he believed they would get a much better profile anyway. Times were changing, people were much more aware of how they were perceived these days, the Filth had so much more at their disposal, so why play into their hands? Why put yourself in the frame, when you could quietly and calmly take out your enemies with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of terror? If a person just disappeared, never to be heard of again, Peter felt that was a much more sinister ending than a gun shot in a car park, or a battering in a public place. He wanted a low key takeover of the Smoke, not a fucking remake of
High Noon
. He felt instinctively that the lower the profile, the better the earn. The days of bursting into a place waving a sawn-off shotgun, or kneecapping an enemy in full view of a crowded pub, were long gone. He believed, strongly, that this was the era of the quiet disappearance, of the ‘Reported Missing’; no one these days drew too much attention to themselves unless they had to. Even then you used someone else to do your dirty work, making sure that when the skulduggery occurred, you were out with at least fifty people who would happily swear on oath that you were in their company should it all turn pear-shaped, and a court hearing ensue.
    Daniel needed to get this point through his head and, after they had seen Alfie, Peter was going to make sure that Daniel understood that, if he wasn’t careful, his actions would eventually be the cause of their demise. Already his brother was pissing him off, making him nervous, jeopardising everything they had worked towards, but this wasn’t anything new; he had always pushed it to the hilt – it was part of his so-called fucking charm. Whereas Peter was the voice of reason, Daniel was the voice of absolute chaos. He relished the drama of the fight, never allowing for the fact that the more people who knew what theywere up to the more chance there was of a fucking serious capture.
    Even the birth of his only daughter had not scratched the surface of his arrogance; he was still too involved with what he saw as his personal crusade to wipe out the competition. Peter could not help wondering when that would include him and his boys. Daniel was not a man to take kindly to criticism, and Peter was criticising him left, right and centre at the moment.
    Daniel continued, ‘I want to be there when we tell him the score. I don’t think you understand how important it is for us to show a united front, Pete. You seem to think this is cut and dried.’
    Peter sighed heavily. ‘It
is
, Dan. You have got to lighten up, mate. We have achieved what we set out to achieve – now we can play the good guys. You acting like
A Man Called Horse
ain’t going to earn us any creds. Calm down, will you? We don’t need the blatant violence any more, Dan. Alfie’s a good earner, let’s keep him on-side.’
    Daniel was annoyed at his brother’s interference, even though he knew he had a point. ‘What are you trying to fucking say, big bruv?’
    Peter bit back his anger, and instead said reasonably, ‘What I’m trying to