Tanya had tried on many occasions to get Billy to move in to the house, but he kept putting it off, especially since his mum had died, last year, and he said he needed to look out for his sister, Kate. Tanya didn’t have much time for Kate; she was a nice-enough girl, she supposed, but it pissed her off how Billy went on about her all the time. She knew it was silly, but sometimes she felt Kate was almost like ‘the other woman’ in her relationship. Kate was always Billy’s first thought, and Tanya knew that on that score that she could never compete. She had to put on a front when Kate was around or even talked about, she was well aware that if Billy even suspected her dislike of the girl he would choose Kate over her in a heartbeat. Resentment bubbled inside her about it. The way Tanya saw it, Kate was the only thing stopping Billy making a proper commitment to her. She just wanted them to be a proper couple, to cook nice dinners for him and snuggle up on the sofa watching television in the evenings. He always said he liked to come and go as he pleased and didn’t want to have to answer to anyone. She loved him, and would bide her time; in the meantime she would take whatever he was willing to offer her.

              She threw on her gown over her tanned, naked body and went towards the lounge to see him.

Billy was sitting slumped in the armchair and the room was in total darkness. He didn’t even bother to acknowledge her when she came into the room.

              “Babe,” Tanya said quietly, “are you okay?”

              Billy was staring straight ahead with a real glare. Something had really rattled his cage, she thought, although she had seen him in worse states in the past.

              “Do I fucking look okay, Tan?” he grunted.

              Tanya could smell drink on him, knew that he had been out with the lads earlier because he had rung her from The Dog. Something must have pissed him off, because he had sounded fine then, quite cheerful for a change.

              “Kate is up the duff,” he said, turning to look at Tanya, trying to gauge her reaction.

              Tanya was surprised to hear that Kate was pregnant. She knew immediately who the father was. Everyone knew about Kate and Jay, the pair of them behaving like love’s young dream. They had been an item for almost a year and even though they both thought no-one knew, they had been seen about here and there and Tanya had known about them for a while.

How Billy hadn’t got wind of it sooner was a miracle, as far as Tanya was concerned: he knew everybody and everything. She had been waiting for Billy to find out about Kate’s little romance, hoping it would cause merry hell. It certainly wouldn’t hurt the soft cow to know how it felt to have somebody interfering in her relationship, Tanya thought.

“Guess who the fucking daddy is?” he asked, still clearly fired up.

If he found out that Tanya had known about his precious sister’s little relationship and not told him, he would go ballistic. She leant down to light the half-smoked joint she had left sitting in the ashtray from earlier that evening, hiding her face with her hair to mask her expression.

              “Jay Shaw: the snide little fucker!” Billy’s fist clenched as he spat Jay’s name.

              “Oh my God, Billy.” She knew she was going to have to blag it now; she hoped that she sounded more convincing than she felt. “I didn’t even know that they were seeing each other. How’s Kate? What’s she going to do?”

              “Funnily enough, Tan, I didn’t stick around long enough to sort out a fucking birthing plan with her,” he said. “Shaw has really got it coming to him now.” He took the joint and took a long drag, then blew a stream of smoke through his nose.

              He couldn’t believe the news that his sister was having a baby. He was going to have to think long and hard about how he would deal with Jay.

He looked up at Tanya, as if he had only just remembered that she was there. Although her hair was a mess and she had no makeup on, she was still stunning-looking. They’d been together for two years, and even though Billy tried to keep it as casual as he could Tanya had stuck it out for longer than any other bird he had been with. Okay, so Tanya was a bit high-maintenance, always demanding only the best for herself and the house, and could be demanding, but weren’t most women? On the plus side, Tanya never questioned his whereabouts. She wasn’t the clingy, possessive type, and she knew exactly how to please him in the bedroom. Tanya was naturally pretty, with long brown hair, green eyes, a toned body and immaculate nails. Most girls could only wish to look that good, thought Billy; she was the perfect woman in that respect. He loved having her on his arm for all to see: his bit of arm candy.

Billy grinned, his mood softening slightly; yeah, he was a lucky bloke. He could see her nipples pressing on the slinky material of her dressing gown and felt himself getting hard. He stood up and groped her breasts as he kissed her hard.

              “Come on, Tan, let’s go to bed. I’ll deal with this shit tomorrow.”

Smiling, as Billy led her upstairs by the hand, Tanya couldn’t wait to get into bed and snuggle up with her fella. She had fallen for Billy the second she had met him. He was as cocky as they came, and this, mixed with his confident boyish grin and the air of danger that surrounded him had been a heady combination for Tanya. The fact that he seemed to be doing well for himself and had an endless flow of cash had also played a part. Billy was hers, but it narked her the way he always kept her at arm’s length and wouldn’t let her get too close.

She knew half his anger was because he bottled everything up inside. Tanya knew there was history between Jay and Billy: it had been going on for years. She had started digging for information once, intrigued by how Jay rattled Billy’s cage so much. She had more than learnt her lesson: he had gone mental at her. She had never mentioned Jay to him again.

Only Billy knew the real reason why he hated Jay with such a passion, Billy had never told a soul. There was no way on this earth Billy would be letting that piece of scum anywhere near his sister: that was for certain. Kate must never find out the truth.

4

It had just gone three in the morning and Jay had finished his shift at the club, which had once again been maniacally busy. His mobile had been ringing for almost an hour and he had been trying his hardest to ignore it, as it was Kate: again.

He switched it off and shoved it into his coat pocket. He wasn’t in the mood for Kate and her clinginess. He had had a long old evening and what he was in the mood for now was a nice bit of light relief. Getting into his new Beamer, his pride and joy, he knew just where to get it from.

Jay enjoyed working the door: Goldie’s was the only place to be these days and he really felt part of it all. He got on well with the other men and despite a little bit of trouble here and there, the place certainly had its perks. In the year he’d been working there, he had taken advantage of as many of those perks as he could physically manage. It was like a meat market, and he could have his pickings, his phone was over-flowing with women’s numbers.

Jay was a typical player; he had an attitude of treat them mean, keep them keen, and it worked a treat in his book. There were two types of woman as far as Jay could see. The cheap tarts who thought that they were something special: able to tame any man and stop any wandering eye. They were the ones who thought that their drunken one-night stand was the start of a beautiful relationship and that they could suddenly have a say in his life. The others were the more desperate type. The ones who were grateful for any attention you threw in their direction, always eager to please, and then counted themselves lucky that Jay had even so much as looked at them in the first place, when he decided it was time to walk away after he got what he wanted. Both types, as far as he was concerned, were more trouble than they were worth in the long run. Women, generally, were all grief.