Rotten to the Core (21 page)

             
“Don’t ever try and blackmail me again, do you hear me
?
”
H
is voice was low and heavy
,
and Emma knew he meant it; he could cause her a serious amount of grief.

             
“You think I’m going to feed you the best gear going for the last few months for nothing
?
Y
ou’re having a fucking laugh. You
’
r
e
nothing but a dirty slag
,
love
;
you owe me, and you’re going to start paying me back. Any grief from you
,
and I think
M
ummy and
D
addy may stumble upon these
.”
H
e tapped the envelope in his hand and looked at Emma in disgust
,
as he left her to cry her tears to herself on the bathroom floor.

That had been a few weeks ago
.
Now,
she was desper
ately lonely; she had no-one to talk to or to help her.
He had her now
,
she knew that. She
had
thought she had it all under control, sure that if she played it right Jay would see that he would be lost without her. He had just been using her, like the rest of them. Firstly
,
for his own dirty needs
,
and now he was done with her purely to line his pockets.

She hadn’t heard fr
o
m Kate in months, and couldn’t bring herself to call her. What would she say
;
where would she start
?
It was all too much. She was ashamed of what she had become.

H
er parents had called a few times, and she had made up
a
lie about landing a good job as a flight attendant.
Emma
made up stories to
tell
her mum on the few occasions
that
they had spoken
since then.
She had described the
glamorous locations
to which
her job
was
tak
ing
her, and her mum had hung on to her word
s
, glad that her little girl was making
her own way in the world
at last.
A
s Emma made up lie after lie about the hotels she stayed in
and
the people she had met, she had almost started believing it herself
.
H
er own fantasy world sometimes had herself convinced, letting herself float away in the pretence of it all, even if it
wa
s just for a few minutes
.
Emma had almost convinced herself,
and her parents had
seemed to
b
uy
it completely.

24

Kate was beaming. She had made it to the end of her first week in her job, and was actually looking forward to
the next one
. She had really got stuck in
;
busying herself
with
sorting out the office for Paul had been her main challenge to start off with and after spending hours putting contacts into his database and filing paperwork and invoices and making things a whole lot easier to find, she had been over the moon to see Paul look impressed with her efforts. Then she had sorted out the rotas for the staff
;
she could see straight away that there were a few shifts not covered well enough by the bar staff, and then
as
if that wasn’t enough she had even suggested a few promotion
al
evenings to Paul to bring in more money.

Paul had been very impressed
.
Kate was a breath of fresh air
;
he was surprised at how she had thrown herself into the job. It wasn’t a glamorous high
-
profile career, but that
was
how she was treating it, she
was
put
ting
in
one hundred and ten percent. He liked that about her. She was a diamond. He found that he enjoyed being in her company
,
too.

They had sat in the office together several times over the week
.
H
e could have been doing other things but found himself drawn to her.
Kate
often sat
on the floor sorting through piles of paperwork, and chatting away about anything and everything,
while
he sat at his desk, not really doing much, look
ing
up stuff on the
I
nternet, just so he could be around her.

Paul
had been shocked when
Kate had said that h
er boyfriend
was
an ex-employee of his, he hadn’t realised initially that she was Jay Shaw’s girlfriend.
Kate
was obviously kept in the dark about her boyfriend’s dealings, she seemed to have no idea that there was any bad feeling between Jay and Paul, in fact she had even said that Jay had no choice but to give up working at Goldie’s, as he was so busy with his own business.

Paul decided that it was best to keep quiet; he couldn’t get his head around how someone as beautiful and intelligent as Kate could have ended up with a lowlife scumbag like Jay. Kate must be really naive,
he thought: but then
he too had been taken in by the bloke
.
He
realised that someone
as
decent and trusting
as
Kate would have no reason not to believe every line she had been spun
by Jay
.
Paul
was also impressed that she hadn’t tried to use her brother’s name to get herself a job
;
most girls
that had a relative with as much clout as Billy would have
done
, but then Kate wasn’t “most girls”. He could see that she was determined to make her own way and she certainly was
doing that
.

Paul
liked
Kate
, she was a nice girl
;
he could see half the reason that she threw herself so passionately into her work was so that she didn’t have to think about losing the baby. He felt pleased that Kate had confided in him
about that
, she had done so well holding herself together and he had offered her whatever support she needed. At first
,
he thought maybe she could have done with a bit more time off, but soon realised she needed a distraction and the club was ideal
for that
.

Kate was just
leaving for the day
when she overheard Paul on the phone to Suzy
, who seemed to be saying that s
he wasn’t coming in to work again tonight
.
S
he could tell Paul was stressed
about it, as
he was tapping his foot impatiently on the floor as he sat on the edge of his desk.

             
“Problem?”
Kate asked when Paul
had put
down the phone
.

             
“Suzy isn’t coming in again tonight
;
that’s the second time this week
.
”
H
e sighed
.
“I think you
’
ve put her nose out of joint a bit
.
”

Kate felt awful, the last thing that she had wanted to do was
to
come on board and tread on someone else
’s
toes.

             
“Don’t worry
,
” Paul reassured her, as if he could read her thoughts
.
“
If she had
been
do
ing
such a great job, I wouldn’t have needed you
,
would I?
I thought she had the place running great, but you have done more in one week than she has for months
.
”

Paul
hoped
Kate
felt better at his words, and as he said them he knew that
they
w
ere
true. Suzy had
seemed to have
done a good job up until now, but thinking about it the place was so much more organised thanks to Kate. She had only just started but she had made a real impact already.

Kate hadn’t really taken to Suzy; she had been the only person in the club who hadn’t made her feel welcome. In fact
,
Kate
thought
that Suzy had gone out of her way to make her feel very unwelcome, with her glaring
,
steely looks and her harsh tones, which left Kate feeling like a silly child.

             
“
O
nly problem is
,
there’s going to be no-one to run the bar in the gentlem
e
n’s lounge upstairs tonight, I’ll have to close it and stay down
here, the guys can’t be down here on their own
,
it will be too busy
.
” Paul rubbed his forehead
,
as he tried to work out the best plan of action.

Kate didn’t need to think twice
before
she spoke, she loved being at the club, there was a real buzz about the place and she enjoyed working
t
here
.
 

             
“
W
ell, why don’t I stay?”
S
he knew she would only be going home to an empty bed until Jay crep
t
in, in the middle of the night, and she
thought
of the extra cash too,
which
would come in handy.
“I can help you out down here, and you can run upstairs as normal
.
”
S
he smiled
at him
eagerly
.

After a bit
more
persuasion from Kate, Paul agreed. He hadn’t wanted to take advantage of her good nature, but he could see that she was happy to help out so he showed her the ropes. The bar staff were friendly,
showing
her where everything was, how to use the till, and the general running of the bar. It was funny, Kate thought
,
as she poured the pints and lined up the shots later that evening, she had spent hardly any time with Jay this week, and she was starting not to mind so much. In the past
,
she had been on his case, especially when she had been pregnant
;
she had wanted him to give her
more
affection, a little bit of his time, but he
had
seemed disinterested. Even after she had lost the baby
,
she could see that he wasn’t that
bothered about
her or the loss of their child. Losing their baby had affected her more than him. She had thought at first that helping to sort out the rift between Jay and
her
brother
might
change things, but still th
ey
weren’t quite right
;
in fact
,
during
the
short amount
of time
she had
spent with
Jay th
at
week
,
he had seemed irritated. Oh well
,
she thought to herself, at least she could keep busy
with
this little job.

Kate
smiled to herself as she passed some shot glasses to the two pretty girls she was serving, she was really enjoying the hustle and bustle, the club had a good vibe, and it was proving the place to be. You could hardly see the dance floor for people dancing, and the bar was so busy she doubted she would even get a two
-
minute
break
, not that she minded.