Page 3 of Bad Duke

“Nah, you know that shit ain’t for me. And you wanna make the most of it. Won’t be long until you're stuck on this estate with me, just like old times.” He raises his flat cap to me before turning and heading down the path towards the woods and I look up at the huge stately home that will soon belong to me. Most men standing in my shoes would be feeling pretty lucky right now. But not me. Right now, all I’m feeling is trapped.

OLIVIA

“Jamie?” I open the door to my apartment and freeze when I see the place has been turned upside down.

“Jamie!” I call my brother's name again when I feel myself starting to panic.

“Liv?” He comes rushing from my bedroom, grabbing hold of my shoulders and shaking me so hard my bones rattle. His eyes are red-rimmed, bulging from their sockets and he looks as if he hasn’t slept for days.

“Have you been on another bender?” I ask, feeling sick to my stomach. Just when I think he’s getting back on track he pulls something like this.

“Where’s that cash I gave you last week?” The quiver in his voice scares me. I’ve seen my brother like this too many times, and yeah, he has a tendency to get paranoid but this feels very different.

“I did what you told me to do with it, I paid the rent.” I point out, shrugging myself out of his clutches and picking up the lamp that's been knocked to the floor.

“No. No. No !” His hands scrub over his face like he’s distraught.

“Jamie, what the hell’s going on? You're scaring me.”

“I need to get out of the city, that's what’s going on.” He starts frantically scrambling around the apartment again. “Do you have any cash at all, anything?” He pulls out the kitchen drawers and starts emptying them.

“I have nothing, you know that. And why do you need to get out of the city, what happened?”

“It was Danny’s idea. His cousin’s close with Alex Stanley and he got Danny a job making drops for him.” He finds his passport and tucks it into the back of his jeans. “Those drops got bigger.” He climbs over all the mess on the floor and stands on a chair to look on top of the kitchen cabinets “It was a two-man job so he cut me in. And there was so much of it, Liv. Soooo fucking much. We didn’t think he’d notice.”

“What the fuck did you do, Jamie?” I stare back at him, praying to God that it isn’t what I think it is.

“Danny took a block. Just a block. It would have been enough to set up the business we’ve been planning.” He comes back towards me.

“Oh, Jamie, no…” I shake my head, starting to feel sick.

“Dad said we could triple the money, with the fight his friend had fixed. We were going to keep the winnings and then buy another block to replace the one we took.”

“You went to Dad?” I shove him out of my way and move towards my room. I’m too angry to even look at him right now.

“Wait, Liv. I had to. The supply we delivered was being held in a lock-up container, and Stanley has a strict 10-day rule. Supply gets dropped, and 10 days later it gets collected by the buyer. We had ten days to find the money to replace the block, and then slip it right back in with the others. We were gonna replace it with quality too. But somehow Stanley knows that it’s missing. And last night the fucking fight fell through. It was supposed to be a dead cert.”

“Nothing is a dead cert with Dad.” I shake my head, unable to believe my older brother could be so stupid.

“I need to get away from here. Alex is looking for us, it's only a matter of time before he finds us and…”

“Alex Stanley.” I check I’ve been hearing him right. “Isn’t he just an entitled rich asshole, who owns a few nightclubs and lives off his father's money?” I’ve seen articles pop up on my phone about him before, and while he’s a playboy for sure, he’s no gangster.

“Are you crazy? Alex Stanley is not someone you fuck around with. He has power that goes far beyond his social reputation. He’s got people in his pocket. Big fucking people, Liv. He owns clubs all over the city, but there’s one of them that’s different.” His voice lowers despite it being just me and him in the room. “It’s a members club for high society, important men. I’m talking about men with titles like his father’s. Politicians. Celebrities…Men who want guaranteed discretion, when they get their rocks off all go to The Residence.”

“Then why did you fuck with him?” I ignore all the sordid details when I feel myself losing my patience. This is typical of Jamie, he can never do anything straight. He’ll hate me for thinking it, but he’s turning out just like our dad.

“Come on, Liv, you’ve got to have something. That dance school you work at pays good, right?”

“No, Jamie, it pays shit, and I don’t think you running away from this is the answer. Maybe you could talk to this guy. Apologise.” I suggest, surely there has to be another option. As dumb and annoying as my big brother is, I don’t want him to leave me. If he did I’d be all alone.

“Olivia, Alex won’t be forgiving of someone who steals from him. He’s gonna hunt me down, and when he does…” I watch as his scared eyes fill with tears and that disappointment, I’ve gotten more and more used to, shows on his face. “Take care of yourself, little sis.” He wraps his arms tight around me. “I’m sorry I let you down…again.” Slowly he releases me and backs away, lifting the rucksack that's next to the door onto his shoulder and slamming it behind him as he leaves. I stand and stare at the door, trying to process everything that’s just happened. Then I burst into tears, wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do now. I can’t afford this place on my own. I can’t afford to live anywhere in the city on the money that I earn. Surely, a man as rich as Alex Stanley could be forgiving if Jamie showed him how sorry he was. Knowing my brother, he’s just too proud to try. Either way, I can’t stand back and risk losing the only person I have left.

I quickly take out my phone and Google Alex Stanley’s name. It confirms that he is the son of Theodore Stanley, the Duke of Hatherly, which makes all that Jamie claims he’s involved in seem hard to believe.

It doesn’t take me long to find the names of some of the nightclubs he owns. One of them, The Vortex, has a reopening tonight, and I’m guessing the owner of the club would be there for that.

My brother has been taking care of me his whole life. Now it’s time for me to take care of him, and with that in mind, I wipe away my tears and head back into my room to find an outfit suitable to grovel in.

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