Eric’s reaction. Then Eric was on him. Tackling him to the ground and pummelling his face until the bloke was out cold. I stepped back, pulled out a cig and glared at the fuckers on the ground. I inhaled a drag, letting Eric have his fill of spilled blood, then, resting the cig between my lips, pulled him from the fucked-up prick on the floor.
“Outside,” I ordered Eric. He was breathing hard, his knuckles split from all the hits. We passed by the bouncers. I flicked my chin at the mass of groaning twats trying to get up from the floor. “Sort them the fuck out.” The bouncers moved to the Welshmen without question. The Adleys fucking ruled this town. Anyone who worked here wouldn’t dare question a word I said, not unless they had a death wish. My family had men paid off all over Europe. We ran Spain with our gear.
I pushed through the crowded street, drunken Brits falling over and getting in my fucking way. I pushed a smashed cunt aside when he fell in my path.
“Oi, mate! You got a fucking death wish?” he snapped, trying to get closer to me as he stumbled to his feet.
Charlie walked toward him and nutted the arsehole’s forehead, then fell back into step beside me as though nothing had happened. The fucker went down like a sack of potatoes, and his mates rushed around him.
We stopped across the street, and I threw a cig at Eric. The fucker winked and grinned before lighting up. Blood still covered his chin, and the tosser made no move to wipe it away. I looked around my family. All our knuckles were bloodied.
“All that for fingering some slut?” Freddie said to Eric. “She better have been worth it.”
Eric raised his hand and put his fingers under Freddie’s nose. “You tell me.”
Freddie batted his hand away, leaving Eric laughing. I took off my glasses, wiping the spots of blood from the lenses when I heard, “Adley.” I turned, and before me was Ollie Lawson. My lip curled just seeing his pretentious fucking face.
I put my glasses back on, took a drag of my cig and blew it out right in his face. Ollie’s nostrils flared, but he wouldn’t dare do shit against me. His old man owned a few docks around London. A legit business. Import and export. Lawson’s old man had offered my dad millions over the years to get ours too. Never with much luck, of course. The Lawsons were smug and smarmy and royal pains in our arses.
Especially this fucker. The sight of his face alone made me want to shatter his skull.
“Lawson!” Eric held out his arms. “No hug for me?”
“You’ve got blood all over your chin,” Lawson said, clearly disgusted. Eric made sure Lawson was watching as he licked at the blood.
“Did I get it all?” Eric asked, knowing he hadn’t. Charlie and Freddie laughed. Vinnie whispered into Pearl’s ear, and I just fucking glared. I hated this twat. Raised with a silver spoon in his mouth and walked around like he owned our fucking town.
“Anyway, just thought we’d say hello,” Lawson said, pointing to his mates. “We’re here for a holiday, just like you. A break from the Big Smoke, yeah?” He glanced at each of my mates, but his attention stayed on my cousin. “Charlie, sucked any good cocks lately?”
“Just your old man’s,” my cousin said. “But that maggot could hardly be classed as a dick.”
Ollie’s eyes flared. But we all knew he wouldn’t raise his fist. Lawson wasn’t a fighter. He was nothing. And we didn’t waste our energy on nothings.
Then Ollie’s eyes drifted over my shoulder and he broke out in a huge grin. “Sorry to cut our little chat short, Artie, but I’ve got someone I need to see.”
Lawson and his mates brushed past us and headed toward the club we’d just been in. I watched them go, only for that fucker to walk right up to Cheska. I tensed, ready to charge at the arsehole for even speaking to her. Then he hugged her; Cheska hugged him right back.
“That’s the bird from the yacht beside us,” Freddie said. “She knows Lawson?” My nails sliced into my palm as I clenched my fist so hard my bones practically broke. How the fuck did Cheska know Ollie Lawson? Had she fucked him? I felt my anger growing like a fucking demon inside me. That was new. Nothing made me feel much anymore.
I watched them head