Vaughn laughed scornfully. ‘Oh and that’s supposed to frighten me how?’
‘I don’t expect it to frighten you, Vaughn, you’re too stupid for that. What I do expect is for you to back off from Alfie until you know the truth, because if you don’t you’ll regret it.’
‘You two deserve to be together. At first I couldn’t quite see how you and him could work, but now I see it, Christ do I just.’
‘Maybe instead of worrying about Alfie and me, perhaps you should be worrying about your own relationship.’
It was the first time Franny saw Vaughn bristle. His eyes darkened. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Franny began to walk away. ‘You tell me.’
‘I said, what’s that supposed to mean?’
Ignoring Vaughn, Franny opened the waiting room door but felt her arm being held. She stared down at Vaughn’s grip before staring up into his face. ‘Get your hands off me.’
‘Not till you tell me what you meant.’
‘You heard her, get the fuck off her.’ Chloe-Jane stood with a chair in her hand a few feet away from Vaughn.
‘Get your dog to back off, Fran.’
Franny, who’d just been about to tell Chloe-Jane to put the chair down, angrily reacted to Vaughn’s comment. ‘Who the hell do you think you are, Vaughn, speaking to her like that, she’s just a kid? What’s happened to you?’
Chloe-Jane continued to hold the chair in a threatening manner, trying to decide whether or not to feel affronted by Franny calling her just a kid, or to be touched by Franny sticking up for her, a rare occurrence in her life. Deciding on the latter, and without a moment’s more hesitation, Chloe-Jane swung the chair at Vaughn, screaming at him hysterically.
‘She said get off her! Fucking bastard! Get off!’
Seeing Vaughn’s head begin to bleed and sensing Chloe-Jane was about to hit Vaughn again, Del intervened, grappling the chair off her. He pulled it from her hands with a strong tug, managing to release it from her grip in one go. But like a wild feral cat about to lose its prey, Chloe-Jane pounced on both Del and Vaughn. Fingernails scratched at skin, teeth bit into flesh as she yelled a stream of profanities.
Franny moved forward, dragging Chloe-Jane off the men. She wrapped her arms round her as she pulled her away, battling as Chloe tried to break out of her hold and back to the men.
Franny shouted loudly. ‘Chloe! Chloe-Jane! Stop! Stop! Just calm down.’
Chloe-Jane turned to Franny, her face expressing hurt and frustration. ‘Did you hear him though? Did you hear what he said?’
Franny nodded. ‘I did and he was wrong, but you’ve got to calm down. You can’t go round hitting people as and when you feel like it.’
‘But he grabbed hold of you. He wouldn’t let go. He can’t do that, can he?’
‘No. No, he can’t.’
Del spoke up. ‘He can if you’re taking the piss. What do you want him to do, Fran? Let you talk shit about him and Casey?’
Franny’s eyes flashed with anger at Del.
‘Has it come to you having to fight Vaughn’s battles for him now, Del?’
Del scowled. He didn’t need this shit, he’d rather be back home in the Costa with his family, but he, like everyone else, had received the call to come and help. So now he was here, Del wanted to resolve it all as soon as possible, which didn’t mean having to argue the toss or get clouted across the head by some bird. He’d had enough of that being married to his ex-wife, Edith.
‘Turn it in Fran, Vaughn’s right, you’re acting like a silly cow. What you need is a reality check and what missy here needs is a hard spank on the arse.’
It was like a flame to a petrol can and Chloe-Jane exploded. ‘Is that fucking right, mate? And what? You think you’re the one to do it do you? Fucking perv, get off on the thought of young girls having their behinds tanned do you? Go on, frigging try it and see what you get.’
Del sighed. Even though he was furious with Alfie for what he’d brought onto Soho, a part of him couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. This girl was trouble. Trouble and loud-mouthed, and if Franny wasn’t careful, it wouldn’t be just Alfie who’d bring down her world, it’d be Chloe-Jane.
‘Listen sweetheart, think whatever you like, it ain’t going to make an iota of difference to me, but I’m telling you if you carry on like this, you’ll make lots of enemies. And the kind of enemies you’ll make around here, I wouldn’t wish on even you.’
Franny turned her attention from Vaughn to Del, speaking in a low hushed tone. ‘Is that a threat, Del? Because if it is, you better take that back right now.’
Del shook his head. ‘You know how it is, Fran. What you playing at? She ain’t even your family, but you’re happy for her to destroy the relationships around you with the likes of me and Vaughn.’
It was Franny’s turn to shake her head. ‘If my relationship with you is so easily broken, maybe I’m better off without it. And as for her not being family; you’re wrong. She’s Alfie’s family, which makes her mine. So if you’ve got a problem with her, you’ve got a problem with me.’
Chloe-Jane once again couldn’t help feeling delighted with what Franny had just said, but this time she didn’t try to hide it. Standing in the tiny hospital waiting room, she grinned as Del and Vaughn looked on. For the first time in her life she felt wanted, and no one but no one was going to take that away from her. If anyone tried, Chloe-Jane was going to make them wish they hadn’t. Oh yes, she would make certain of that.
Franny sat in Lola’s kitchen. She looked around at the tired orange paisley wallpaper and brown tiles and although it certainly was in need of redecoration, there was something comforting about the familiarity of the place. Days gone past of happy times with her father, memories of late-night chats with friends, and crying through difficult times over cups of tea. It was all here, here in this room.
‘Do you think it’s true, Lola? Do you think Alfie is the reason why the triads attacked Soho?’
Lola Harding, dressed in a cheap designer knock-off dress, plonked a cup of steaming hot tea in front of Franny. Her expression was sympathetic.
‘Listen Fran, I love Alf, we all do, even Vaughnie does in his own way, but both you and I know he’s a chancer. Old school he is, always ducking and diving like the rest of us, but unlike the rest of it, he takes it too far. He gets greedy. No, don’t look like that Fran, you know I’m telling the truth. Ain’t got no reason to lie to you. You and I go as far back as when you were a baby, and I’ve never told you an untruth and I ain’t going to start now. See sense darlin’. Alfie needs to stop what he’s started; he’s making enemies everywhere, those triads will kill him if he’s not careful, and I don’t want to see something happen to him.’
Franny bit her lip. She didn’t want to argue with Lola, especially as she was still upset from the attack on her café, even if it now looked a hundred times better than it ever did. Casey had told her that Lola had called Vaughn up several times demanding high-spec fittings and fixtures for the café which certainly wasn’t reminiscent of the cheap and grimy décor it’d had previous to the attack.
‘What is it all of a sudden about everyone wanting to be enemies? We’ve all been friends for years and now all that’s changing. The Soho I used to know is disappearing,