The Driver (21 page)

Next door, Tasha had squinted out through the spyhole when she’d heard Eddie showing his visitor out. She couldn’t properly see the woman who she’d just heard arguing with him because she moved off too quickly towards the stairs. But she did catch a glimpse of dark bushy hair, which ruled sleek blonde Chrissie out.

Tasha rushed into the living room now, pulled a chair out from under the table and carried it over to the window. Standing on it, she pressed her nose up against the grille and peered down. A couple of minutes later a scrawny-looking girl scurried out of the main door below, followed shortly afterwards by Eddie who, even from this distance, looked shifty as he skulked off in the opposite direction.

Tasha pursed her lips.
Interesting
, she thought.
Very interesting
.

‘What are you looking at?’ Elena asked, coming in from the bedroom just then.

‘Nothing,’ Tasha said evasively, stepping down off the chair. ‘Just the view.’

‘
Really?
’ Elena drawled sarcastically, clearly not believing her. ‘Because it’s so spectacular from here, isn’t it?’

Tasha didn’t care what Elena thought. This was her secret and she had no intention of sharing it – at least, not with her so-called friends. She didn’t know yet quite what she would do with the information she’d just gleaned, but she would use it to her advantage if she got a chance. Maybe as leverage to get Eddie to dump that leech who called herself his girlfriend, because any fool could see that the bitch wasn’t right for him. He needed somebody with the same fire inside her as that which burned in him.

A woman like Tasha.

Unlike the others, who were still childishly yearning to go home, Tasha had quickly realised that this situation might actually be more of a blessing than a curse. English men were so stupid – and rich beyond the dreams of any of the menfolk back home. And Eddie could give her everything she’d ever wanted: money, clothes, jewellery, protection – all the luxuries that bitch Chrissie took for granted but hadn’t earned.

Tasha had earned it. And she wanted it. She just needed a way to get Eddie to see that she could handle his business better than his so-called girlfriend.

17

Joe left it a week before he went looking for Katya again. He didn’t know if she would want to talk to him, considering that she already suspected he was following her around on Eddie’s orders, but she had told him her name – after a little persuasion – so he was hoping that she would.

She’d been on Newton Street last time he’d seen her, but there was no sign of her there tonight. And nor was she back on Dale Street, so he was forced to trawl around looking for her. Eventually finding her a few streets away from where he’d started, Joe suddenly felt nervous as he approached her. Gazing out at her face through the windscreen, he was dismayed to see the instant fear in her eyes. But then, amazingly, she almost smiled.

‘Fancy a coffee?’ he ventured, rolling his window down.

Katya bit her lip and glanced around before answering. She
had
been scared when she’d recognised the car but the fear had melted away as soon as their eyes met. Her heart was pounding now, and there was a fluttering of excitement in her stomach. She’d thought about him almost constantly over the last week, recalling his lovely soft voice and his beautiful eyes. But she hadn’t dared to hope that he might come looking for her again. And now here he was.

‘Yes, thank you,’ she said shyly.

‘Right,’ Joe said, sounding as shocked as she herself was that she’d agreed. ‘Great. Well, let’s go then.’ Leaning over, he pushed open the passenger-side door.

He took her to a different café this time, further out of town than the previous one. Again, he settled her at a table in the corner before going to the counter to buy their coffees. And, again, he spoke to her as if she was a lady, which made her feel strange because it had been so long since anybody had treated her so nicely.

‘Thanks for coming,’ Joe said when he’d settled into the seat opposite hers. ‘I didn’t think you would.’

‘Neither did I,’ she admitted. ‘But, like you said last time, it’s only a coffee.’

‘Absolutely,’ Joe agreed, unable to stop himself from smiling. ‘So how have you been?’

Katya gave a tiny shrug. ‘Nothing is ever very different. I work, I sleep, I work again. There’s really nothing more I can tell you.’

Amazed that she was being so forthcoming after her previous reticence, Joe said, ‘I’m sure there’s a lot more to you than that.’

Blushing, Katya shook her head. ‘This is all I do and all I am.’

‘All you
think
you are,’ Joe corrected her. ‘But I’m guessing that you haven’t always lived like this. Am I wrong?’

‘No, but it doesn’t make any difference,’ Katya said, gazing down into her cup.

‘I haven’t told anybody,’ Joe said. ‘About us talking, I mean.’

‘Thank you,’ Katya murmured.

‘I just wanted you to know, because I know you had your doubts – about Eddie, and that,’ Joe went on. ‘But I meant what I said about him and me not being mates. I just work for him, that’s all. And I saw what he was like with you that time, so I would never do or say anything to put you in danger—’

‘It’s okay,’ Katya interrupted. ‘I believe you.’

‘Good, because it’s important that you know you can trust me,’ Joe said. Then, holding up his hands when she gave him a mock-weary look, he said, ‘Okay, I’ll shut up about it.’ After drinking some of his coffee he said, ‘Do you mind if I ask where you come from? Only I’ve been trying to place your accent, and I can’t.’

The caution returned to Katya’s eyes. ‘I can’t tell you,’ she murmured. ‘Please don’t ask me to.’

‘Hey, it’s fine,’ Joe assured her. ‘No pressure. You speak excellent English, by the way.’

‘Thank you.’ She gave him a small smile. Then, turning the spotlight onto him, she said, ‘You were born here, yes?’

‘No, Liverpool,’ he said. ‘Not that anyone can tell, ’cos I lost the accent years back. It was getting a bit rough back home, so my folks moved the family here when I was six. Thought we’d stand a better chance of staying out of trouble.’

‘And were they right?’

Smiling at the memory of his parents’ naivety, Joe shrugged. ‘A city’s a city. If you’re the kind of person who seeks out trouble, you’ll find it anywhere.’

‘I think you’re right,’ Katya said thoughtfully. ‘But sometimes you can’t avoid it even when you try your very hardest to.’

Joe guessed that she was referring to her own situation. ‘Life can be unfair,’ he said, ‘but we just have to find a way of coping with whatever it throws at us. It helps if we’ve got good friends to lean on,’ he added pointedly. ‘A problem shared is a problem halved, and all that.’

Katya repeated the phrase, saying the words slowly as if to digest them fully. ‘That is very wise,’ she concluded. ‘Did you – how you say –
invent
it?’

‘No, it’s just an old saying,’ Joe told her. ‘We’ve got loads of them over here; things people have said that get passed down to the next generation, and the next.’

‘Tell me more,’ Katya urged.

Catching a glint of something he could only describe as hunger for knowledge in her eyes, Joe reeled off a few more sayings and their meanings, some of which she understood immediately, others that took a little extra translation and working-out before she could get to grips with them. But even Joe was stumped when it came to explaining why a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.

Katya mulled it over for a few minutes, then said, ‘I think maybe it means that it’s better to have
some
thing, however small, than to chase that which is out of reach and have nothing.’

‘Wow.’ Joe gazed at her with admiration. ‘So simple, yet so deep.’

Katya dipped her gaze as a blush flared across her cheeks. ‘I could be wrong.’

Joe shook his head. ‘No, I think you’re spot on. And it makes perfect sense put like that. Very
wise
.’

Aware that he was teasing her by using her own word, Katya smiled.

It was the first proper smile she’d given him, and Joe thought she’d never looked more beautiful. She had the most stunning eyes he’d ever seen, large and dark, with long silky black lashes. Her hair was equally black, and, free of the hood, fell in a curtain all the way down her back. He thought she would look amazing if she were able to pamper herself like women were supposed to, but she was like a butterfly whose wings had been coated with dust, and that saddened him.

Conscious of his scrutiny, Katya began to fidget. She found him very attractive and had almost convinced herself that he liked her, too. But the pity she saw in his eyes right now reminded her that he was only being nice because he felt sorry for her.

‘Thank you for the coffee,’ she said. ‘But I think I should probably go back now. Would you take me, please?’

‘Of course,’ Joe said, his mood dipping at the thought of her returning to work. The more he saw of her, and the more he spoke to her, the more he knew that she shouldn’t be selling herself like this. She was too good, too beautiful, too intelligent for any random man to think that he was entitled to abuse her just because he had the cash in his wallet. And that she seemed so resigned to it was tragic. But he couldn’t help her if she refused to let him.

Just outside town they passed an all-night pharmacy. Glancing back, Katya bit her lip. She’d been too frightened to stray away from her spot before, terrified of what would happen if Eddie caught her. But she’d been for a coffee with Joe twice now and the sky hadn’t fallen in.

‘Could you please stop?’ she blurted out.

‘Yeah, sure,’ Joe said, doing as she’d asked. ‘Is something wrong?’

Katya shook her head and unbuckled her seat belt. ‘No, I just need something from that shop.’

Guessing that she meant the chemist’s, because that was the only one that was open on the block, Joe reversed back.

Katya was relieved to find a female pharmacist on duty because she knew that she would never have been able to discuss such an intimate problem with a man. But she was still poised to run if the woman asked for her name or proof of identity.

Fortunately, she was asked for neither, and she came back out a short time later with the medicine and the cream that the woman had prescribed after Katya had confided her symptoms to her. She’d had to dip into her earnings to pay for them, which had worried her because she was sure that Eddie would realise she’d spent some of his money and would beat her. But it would almost be worth it just to have this awful pain taken away.

‘Sorted?’ Joe asked when she went back to the car.

Nodding, she held the small bag in her lap as he set off, already wondering where she could stash it. She definitely couldn’t take it back to the flat, so it would have to be somewhere near her doorway. That way she could take some when she arrived each night, and more before she left in the morning.

Joe turned to her when they stopped and offered her thirty pounds.

‘Please,’ he urged when she shook her head. ‘I don’t want you to get into trouble with Eddie.’

‘He is never satisfied no matter how much we make,’ Katya told him, giving him the clearest glimpse yet into what life was like for her under Eddie’s control. ‘It will probably be his girlfriend who comes to take it, and my friend Elena always puts the money together when she comes so they don’t know who has given what. So, really, I don’t want it. You’ve already done enough.’

‘Can we do it again, then?’ Joe blurted out. ‘The coffee, I mean.’

Katya inhaled deeply. Her head was telling her that she should stop this now before one or both of them got hurt. But her heart was screaming yes, yes, yes.

Her heart won.

Smiling, she said, ‘Yes, please.’

18

Carl was freezing when he arrived home at just gone twelve in the afternoon. He’d planned to stay at his mum’s the night before but had ended up going to a party at an old mate’s place a few doors down and he’d got so wasted that he’d ended up flaking out on the guy’s kitchen floor. So by the time he’d woken up this morning his mum had already gone out, locking his jacket in her place – along with his keys and money.

Cursing her for stranding him like that, and Mel for the row which had sent him there in the first place, he’d walked all the way back from Longsight only to get no answer when he knocked on his flat’s door.

He shoved the letter-box flap open after several attempts, and yelled, ‘
MEL!
I know you’re in there, you ignorant bitch, so quit arsing about and open the fucking door or I’ll kick the fucking thing in!’

Kettler came out of his own door just then, buttoning up his coat. He cleared his throat as Carl stepped back to carry out his threat.

Twisting around, Carl gave him a thunderous look. ‘What you gawping at?’

‘I was just going to tell you that she went out about half an hour ago,’ Kettler informed him. ‘And I’m sure the council won’t be too pleased if you damage their property,’ he added disapprovingly.

‘Fuck off,’ Carl snarled. ‘I pay the rent, I can do what the fuck I want with it.’

Kettler’s eyebrows rose. He wanted to point out that Carl most certainly did
not
pay the rent: that it was paid for by the DSS, from the proceeds of the taxes they had taken from honest workers like his own father. But he sensed that the lout was in too volatile a mood for honesty, so he went on his way without another word.

Sucking his teeth as he watched him go, Carl booted the door before marching over to Joe’s. Although, now that he knew Mel was out, it was more an act of defiance to piss Kettler off than a serious attempt to get in.

Joe didn’t hear the first few knocks because he was sleeping, but he woke up when Carl started yelling through the letter box. And then he pulled the pillow over his head and tried to ignore the noise because he was too knackered to face any of Carl’s usual morning exuberance.

Since his breakthrough with Katya last week, he’d been nipping into town almost every night to see her. And their conversations had deepened as her trust for him grew, so now he knew that she was twenty-four, and that she’d wanted to be a teacher but that she’d been too poor to waste time gaining the necessary qualifications because she’d been forced to take whatever jobs were available in order for her family to survive.