Beautiful Beast (Gypsy Heroes)

‘Take it easy, Dom.’

‘Are you kidding me? That lowlife scum is trying to muscle in on our patch and you’re asking me to take it easy? He’ll be dead meat before I call this feud between the Edens and the Pilkingtons over,’ he screams into my ear.

‘Shut up. Your head is fucked,’ I snarl furiously.

That gets through to him. He goes silent.

I take a deep breath. ‘Let me think. We need to remain calm and focused,’ I say seriously.

‘And then what?’ he spits, still boiling, but disaster has been averted for now.

My temples begin to throb. This silly generational feud. Will I never be free of it? Still, I’m in no mood to argue.

‘And then I decide. I’m the head of this family and don’t you forget it.’

Dom subsides like a soufflé that has seen daylight too early. ‘OK, I hear you. I’m sorry. What do you want me to do, Jake?’

‘Take your boys and go down there and see what the gossip is and report back to me in the morning.’

‘All right, I’m gonna do what you ask, but this needs to be sorted quickly. I’m not gonna let that cocky cunt walk all over us—’

I terminate the call and fling my mobile across to the couch. Shit, fucking shit. The last thing I need is for Dominic to go crashing into this delicate truce between the Pilkingtons and the Edens. Nobody can even remember anymore why our two families are feuding, but we are. We stay out of each other’s way. Why on earth would the Pilkingtons decide to reignite the feud now? There is no sense to it. Neither of us wants an all-out war. I call Shane.

He answers on the first ring. ‘Dom called you?’ He sounds stressed.

‘Yeah. Where are you now?’

‘At the club.’

‘Is the fire out?’

‘Yeah, looks like it.’

‘How bad is it?’

‘They firebombed the front and the back. There was hardly anything to burn in the front and the sprinklers contained the fire but the kitchen looks bad.’

‘Do you need me to come there?’

‘Nah. I got it under control. The police are here now.’

‘Right. I’ll see you in the morning.’

I flick on a light switch, go to the bar, and reach for a bottle of Scotch. I pick it up

to down it and see Lily is standing at the door. I take a swallow, my fingers gripping the cold glass.

‘You want a drink, Lil?’

Before she can answer I pour a second shot into another tumbler. I walk up to her, pass her the drink and raise my glass against hers. I swallow in one but she doesn’t even pretend to drink.

‘What’s going on, Jake?’

‘Someone set fire to Eden.’

‘What?’ Her eyes widen with shock. ‘Why?’

I shrug. ‘Could be just kids.’