If she had never seen Jackie again she wouldn't give a fuck. She felt, for the first time in years, free, unencumbered, light-hearted and indifferent about who she might hurt if anything did come out.

Fuck them all, her Jimmy included. It was knowing that she didn't now care about how he would react that had actually made it all so much easier. Jimmy had become the one she had been trying to protect, and Jimmy was the strongest of them all.

She had dared Freddie to spill the beans and he had walked away. She had taken back the power.

Now, she was happy. She loved her boy, had always loved her boy – the half that was hers anyway – but thanks to Freddie she felt so guilty about the circumstances of his conception she had found it hard to watch her Jimmy being his father. And loving Jimmy so much, she had been terrified that Freddie would let the secret out, just to prove a point, just to make trouble. Just to teach her a lesson.

But that night she had discovered that he was wary of Jimmy, scared of him in fact. And she had finally sussed out that Jimmy was the reason it had started in the first place.

Things weren't all back to normal, but she was trying to make things right, and if Freddie would only leave them in peace, their lives would be so much better.

And look at his kids. Without her, what the fuck would the girls do? He was not even interested in Rox getting married. She had made a fucking good match in their world, and he had no interest.

Jackie had no interest in any of them either. Kimberley was off the gear, and Maggie had helped her get a flat, but neither Jackie nor Freddie had bothered to go and see her, which had hurt the girl. Maggie knew how she felt, knew how it was when you had let people down, but these were people who let themselves down and Kimberley was better off without them. All the girls were better off without them. Even Dianna was seeing a little fucker, and would be gone before they knew it. Neither of them gave a shit, yet when Freddie finally found out who the bloke was, Maggie knew the Third World War would erupt.

Why was one person allowed to have so much power? Why did everyone feel the need to make his life easier when all he did was use people? And Jackie was just the same, full of her own self-importance.

Maggie had pointed out to Jimmy that he paid the wages, not Freddie, and yet he still fucking pandered to him. She knew it had hurt Jimmy, she knew it was a provocative statement, but as she had said it time and time again, who the fuck did Freddie Jackson think he was? What gave him the right to treat people like he did, including her Jimmy, her husband?

She had argued that with Jimmy the night before. He had been telling her how Freddie was still conning money off people. Big news on the grapevine that was. All these years later, he was still nicking pennies and halfpennies off fucking no necks. And she had told Jimmy, 'You give him his power, and until you take it away from him he will always be trouble.'

Now she had his daughters' lives in her hand, and she wanted to help them out because she loved them. Like her little son, she knew he was only half of them, and the other half was nothing to do with him and his life.

For all that, though, Little Freddie was scary, and she knew that he was on borrowed time. She made sure her little man was never in his orbit for any length of time, and that he was never alone with him.

If it was left with her now, she would blank Freddie and Jackie without a second's thought. They were just not worth the aggravation.

Jimmy Junior opened his eyes and she smiled at him. He sat up and she kissed his handsome face and she tickled him until he was screeching with laughter.

This was her life now, this boy, her baby, and she was determined to make his life everything it could possibly be.

Chapter Twenty-One

'Look, Jimmy, I had a lot on my fucking plate.'

It was obvious that Jimmy thought that Freddie was taking the piss. He laughed in derision and annoyance. 'You had a lot on your plate? I had Amos here, Glenford, the whole fucking shebang. It was like the Black and White Minstrel Show - your term for the meet if I remember rightly, not mine. Remember now, do you? The meet where you should have talked your way out of the shit? Ring any fucking bells, does it?'

Jimmy's sarcasm and open animosity were so unusual that Freddie was for once speechless. Jimmy never goaded him, Jimmy never lost his rag, that was Freddie's department, not Jimmy's. Freddie was the wild card, he was the one no one knew how to deal with. Not Jimmy. Jimmy was the placid one, the thinker, the fucking brains of the outfit, according to the gossip.

'You made me look a right fucking knob. Well, not any more, Freddie. You can go and fuck yourself from now on, and I mean that.'

Jimmy lit a cigarette and pulled on it deeply before saying, 'These are shit, how can people buy them!' He put the cigarette out and rummaged through his desk until he found another pack. The cigarette he had lit the first time was Chinese contraband. They looked like Benson amp; Hedges, they were in the same packaging, and they had the same health warnings. However, they were made and rolled in China and sold off here for a fraction of the original cigarettes' asking price. The tobacco was cheap, they were easy to manufacture and they were selling like hot cakes thanks to Gordon Brown and his determination to make smokers into the elite. Jimmy, however, always knew a snide fag, and he hated them.

He lit up again, his fury still evident. 'I tell you, Fred, I looked at Amos and all the others and I could see their point. Why should they have you ripping them off, eh? Who are you to do that to them? What gives you the fucking right to have them over when they are only grafting a living the same as us?'

Freddie was astonished. Jimmy had always tried to be respectful of him and his feelings, and he knew he had not always given young Jimmy the same respect back.

'It was Little Freddie, he is in big trouble…'

Jimmy waved his hands in dismissal. 'Oh, fuck off, Freddie. His whole life will be trouble, he is his father's son. You left me standing on my Jacksy like a fucking cunt, and I had some serious people here because of you. And I have had enough. Do you hear me? You and me are that far-' he held up the thumb and forefinger of his right hand about an inch apart – 'from fucking falling out altogether. You fucking cheap ponce. I had to kiss their arses over fucking twenty grand! Twenty fucking grand they were light, and it wasn't the first time, was it? Jesus Christ, but fucking Ozzy had you fucking taped from the off.'

Freddie had never seen Jimmy like this, he had never seen him so angry or so uncontrolled in what he was saying. Jimmy always thought before he spoke, even in anger, and Freddie knew this could mean he was on his way out.

He watched Jimmy as he walked around the office. His huge shoulders and his taut body denoted a man who looked after himself, and Jimmy did just that. He took care of himself inside and out. He also took care of everyone around him, and that was the bugbear.

Now Freddie was finally accepting that Jimmy was the better man and it was too late. Jimmy had reached the end of his tether and Freddie was wise enough to know when it was best to keep quiet. Let him get it out of his system.

'Don't worry, I weighed them out, Fred, don't you fucking worry about that. I weighed them out and gave them a drink on top for their trouble. You cost me a fucking fortune, but what I can't understand is where your poke goes! You don't even possess a decent bit of clobber. You must spunk it up like no one's business. You earn a serious fucking wage and you got fuck all to show for it. You are thieving off my workers and they are not earning anything near your fucking wages, and so I want to know, where the fuck is it all going?'