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“Don’t you want to teach the little bitch a lesson, Connie? She treats you like crap. She doesn’t deserve Ollie. We’ve been over this.”
“He doesn’t deserve this. He’s worried about her.”
“He’s a kid, but once I’m done with him, he’ll be a man. He can own these streets once I’m too old to carry on. We’re giving him a future.”
“When The Perished Riders find out about it, they might come for us.”
“By then, it’ll be too late. We’ll hold Ollie over them until they back the fuck off.”
Lucy closes the laptop. “I don’t know who sent this, but it’s also filming when we came to visit and you were out of it. Dougie is seen right before we arrive, giving you more pills.”
Meli grabs my hand. “So, it proves that Rosey wasn’t lying. She didn’t take the pills.”
Lucy nods. “I’m waiting on a call back from Jill, but I don’t see why we have to keep you and Ollie apart any longer. Your drug tests came back clear, as did the alcohol. Social services might want to keep checking in before you’re fully discharged, but I doubt they’ll be around for long.”
A tear rolls down my cheek. Mum must have sent this in. Who else would have recorded that? The office phone rings and Lucy answers. She relays her evidence to Jill before hanging up. “She agrees. We’ll call your solicitor, Hadley, was it?” I nod. “See if that judge can’t reverse the care order.”
Albert takes my hand, and we rest against his car. Kids pour out of the school gates, and I scan them for Ollie. When I finally see him, I wave frantically, and he looks mortified. Albert laughs, tugging my arm down as Ollie heads over. “What are you doing here?” he asks, glancing around.
“I got some good news,” I tell him. “You can come home.”
His eyes widen in surprise. “Really?” I nod. He throws his arms around me, suddenly not caring if his friends see or not. I inhale his musky aftershave and the teenage smell that is all Ollie, and I relax.
We get home shortly after, and Albert wastes no time rushing upstairs with Ollie hot on his heels to show him the new bedroom he had done. It’s got all the latest computer equipment and the best LED lights, all requested by Ollie. And I know it means so much to Albert that Ollie feels settled here.
When Albert returns to the kitchen twenty minutes later, he’s grinning. “I take it he liked it?” I ask.
“He loved it. He said it’s the best room he’s ever had. He also invited me to play a game on his PC later. It looks violent.”
I laugh. “And what did you say?”
“I told him his mother was abandoning us to see her girls later, so a night on the computer sounds fantastic.”
“I didn’t make plans,” I say, frowning.
“I made plans. You need this, and I need time to bond with Ollie. I’ve never been a dad before, especially to a teenager, and I don’t want to mess it up.”
I wrap my arms around him, placing kisses along his jaw. “I love you, Mr. Taylor,” I whisper.
“Remember my rule,” comes Ollie’s voice.
I smile against Albert’s mouth. “I make the rules around here, kid,” I tell him.
It’s been so long since all the old ladies got together, that for once, I’m excited to be around people. Albert arranged for us to take one of the VIP areas in Bertie’s with drinks on the house. “Ghost wasn’t impressed when Mav gave us the go-ahead to leave the club unescorted,” Nelly tells me as she refills my wine glass.
“Grim was the same,” adds Hadley. “But we’re in Bertie’s, and I’m pretty sure Albert and Arthur have us covered.”
I glance over at the security spread around the edge of the room and give a smile. “I think we’ll be perfectly safe here.”
“So, that’s two of you married off to the mafia,” says Rylee.
“Living away from the club,” adds Hadley, pouting.
“Hardly,” says Meli, “I’m literally next door.”
“And she’s always in the clubhouse,” Rylee points out. “We see her more now than when she lived with us.”
Meli grins. “If you’re complaining, I’ll stay away, taking my babysitting duties with me.”
