CHAPTER ONE
The noise was tremendous as Babs Morton walked into the huge prison cafeteria. The chatter of a hundred female voices echoed from the walls, mixed in with the crashing and banging of trays, plates and cutlery, and overlaid by the occasional screeching voice of one of the screws shouting out reprimands.
Babs winced and pinched the bridge of her nose. She couldn’t wait to see the back of the place. She was due out next week, and her release date couldn’t come fast enough as far as she was concerned.
When she’d been sentenced, her brief had assured her she would only serve a maximum of two years, but Babs had ended up serving nearly six years. She was pretty sure that bastard husband of hers, Martin Morton, had something to do with it, but of course, she couldn’t prove it. He was too sly for that.
Babs picked up a tray and began to walk towards the serving counter for breakfast. Nothing looked very appealing. The food was always lukewarm and never seemed to taste of much.
She turned her nose up at the tray of congealed scrambled eggs and the soggy bacon that looked like it had barely touched the frying pan.
Babs turned to her friend Gertie who stood beside her.
“Look at the state of that bacon,” she said. “It looks inedible.”
The woman serving behind the counter was one of the prisoners. Her shrewd hazel eyes narrowed as she snarled at Babs, “If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.”
Babs felt herself bristle with annoyance. The nerve of the jumped-up little madam.
Babs didn’t even know her name. The woman had arrived last week with a few other new girls, but from the look of the hard-faced cow, Babs guessed she’d served time somewhere else in the recent past.
She leant on the counter and gave the woman her trademark glare. “You should learn how to cook, love.”
Too late, Babs realised she’d taken the bait like a fool. The woman’s hazel eyes sparkled with delight. She’d got a rise out of Babs, and that had been her intention all along.
Gertie, who was still standing beside Babs, put a calming hand on her shoulder. “Leave it be, Babs. It ain’t worth it. You’ll be out of here in less than a week. Don’t let this jumped-up little tart ruin it for you.”
Babs took a deep breath and shot a thankful look at Gertie. She’d grown close to the older woman while she’d been inside. Gertie wasn’t exactly a looker. She was missing most of her front teeth. Her skin had a ruddy appearance, and her hair had turned prematurely grey and wiry, but she had a good heart, and Babs was glad of the company.
They were kept in the same cell, despite the fact Gertie had been banged up for a far more serious crime. They spent nearly all their time together during recreation and mealtimes as well as back in their cell.
Gertie was inside for attempted murder. She had finally grown sick of her old man battering her and had attempted to chop his John Thomas off with a carving knife. According to prison gossip, she’d done a bloody good job, and her old man had almost bled to death.
Babs thought Gertie’s sentence was unnecessarily harsh. There had been plenty of occasions when she’d been tempted to chop off her own husband’s bits. She should have done it a long time ago. Babs reckoned it would have been worth the prison time.
Babs knew she should give it a rest. Gertie was right. She didn’t want to risk her freedom over this jumped-up little mare. The woman with the hazel eyes looked at her and smirked before glancing over her shoulder and looking back at one of the screws, who stood watching them carefully.
Of course, it had to be the worst screw of the lot. Mean Maud Montgomery.
Babs tilted her chin up and gave both women a hard look. She wasn’t going to start anything, but they needn’t think she was a pushover.
“I’ve not seen you before,” Babs said with an accusing tone. “You’re new, so I suppose I should forgive your lack of manners because you don’t know who I am.”
The woman with the hazel eyes smirked again, and Babs felt like smacking the smile off the woman’s face.
“I’m Gwynn Jones,” the woman said.
“I’ll remember that,” Babs said, making sure the threat was clear from the tone of her voice.
But Gwynn Jones seemed completely unaffected. Her smile broadened as she said. “Oh, you will, Babs. I’ll see to that.”
Babs wanted to ask what the silly cow was talking about, but the people behind her in the queue were growing restless.
“Give me a spoonful of the eggs, then,” Babs demanded, ignoring the bacon.
The woman behind the serving counter splattered a ladleful of eggs onto Babs’s plate and pushed it across the stainless steel surface.
She knew why this woman was playing up and giving her aggro, but that didn’t make it any easier to stomach.
During her time inside, Babs had become a well-respected inmate. Not respected by the screws, of course, but her fellow prisoners gave Babs the respect she deserved. Now, it appeared that some of the newcomers had decided to push their luck. They wanted to raise themselves up in the pecking order, and what better way to do that than taking on Babs Morton? Especially when she wouldn’t be able to fight back without compromising her release date.
When she had first been inside, Babs had been extremely hot-headed. She’d lost count of the number of fights she’d got into, which really hadn’t helped her chances of getting out of prison any earlier. It was some time before she had realised she was playing right into Martin’s hands.
He loved the fact she was in here. Any decent man would be distraught over the fact his wife had been banged up, but Martin Morton wasn’t a decent man.
Once he had been a face in the East End, and an important one at that, but after his arrest, when Babs herself had run the company along with his brother Tony, things fell by the wayside. According to reports Babs had received from the outside, Martin had never quite managed to regain his power.
That was the only thing that kept Babs going from day-to-day, knowing that Martin was having a hard time of it outside. But his business failing wasn’t punishment enough. She was going to get her revenge on the bastard. It might take time, but she was determined.
He hadn’t been to visit her once in all the time she’d been locked up. She’d had other visitors, though. Tony had proved himself worth his weight in gold. He’d visited Babs every six weeks, filling her in on all the comings and goings in Martin’s organisation and trying to support her the best he could. Her daughter Ruby visited regularly, and although it killed Babs to let Ruby see her like this, she knew she was lucky to have a child as level-headed and mature as Ruby. Her son, Derek, on the other hand, had only been to see her twice, and on both occasions, he’d been awkward and sulky.
Babs tried to be understanding. After all, she knew it wasn’t easy for either of her kids to see her banged up like this. Family was important to Babs, though, and she was hurt that Derek hadn’t made more of an effort.
Frieda Longbottom, her long-term friend, had been her rock. She told Babs every little crumb of gossip that came her way and provided all the details Tony held back out of misguided loyalty to Martin. Babs knew she could trust Frieda with anything. Even so, Babs hadn’t confided her burning desire for revenge with anyone, not even Frieda.
Her need to get back at Martin was something very personal, and Babs knew her best chance of succeeding was to keep things quiet. When she was out, she would play the long game before finally taking Martin down once and for all.
She hadn’t quite worked out how she was going to do that yet, but one thing being locked up had taught her was patience, and she’d always believed in the saying, “All good things come to those who wait.”
She had a visit from Tony to look forward to in an hour, and if all went well, this time next week, she would be a free woman and she could finally put her plan into action.
* * *
Just over an hour later, Babs entered the prison waiting room.
Tony stood up as soon as he saw her. It was a natural reaction but one that drew the attention of one of the prison guards. The guard sneered at Tony and pointed to the chair, gesturing he should sit back down.
Tony ignored him and kissed Babs on the cheek as she joined him at the table then they both sat down.
He’d been visiting Babs regularly over the last few years, and although her appearance shouldn’t have come as a surprise to him, he couldn’t help feeling angry at the change in her looks. Babs had always been a stunningly attractive woman in Tony’s opinion, and she still was. But the sparkle in her eyes and the air of adventure she used to have had slowly left her over the years. Although that couldn’t all be put down to the fact she was in prison. She had lost some of her sparkle as soon as she had married Tony’s brother, Martin.
She managed to smile at him, but he could tell her heart wasn’t in it. Her cheeks were hollow, and she’d lost the curves she’d once been so proud of.
She leant forward, put her elbows on the table and stared into Tony’s eyes.
“This will be the last time you visit me in here, God willing,” Babs said.
Tony hesitated before responding, and Babs immediately started to worry. “What is it? Has there been a change to my release date?”
Tony shook his head, anxious to reassure her. “No, nothing like that. Everything is going to plan. This time next week you will be a free woman.”
Babs’s face took on a dreamy expression as she smiled. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Her face hardened, and her eyes narrowed as she looked at Tony. “I’m sure the length of time I have been in here is down to your brother.”
Tony didn’t like the direction the conversation was heading. He believed Babs was right. As Tony had worked tirelessly to try to get Babs free and get her excellent legal representation, Martin had been sabotaging his efforts and doing his damnedest to keep her inside.
But Tony knew if he admitted as much to Babs, it would only cause further problems. In an ideal world after her release, Babs would be reunited with her children and somehow manage to have a relationship with Martin.
He was under no illusions and knew the couple’s marriage had been over for a long time, but Tony didn’t want to cut either one of them out of his life.
Tony could only hope Babs didn’t push her luck too far. She was angry and rightly so. But if she got too angry, she might be tempted to try and get her own back on Martin, and that would be a bad thing…a very bad thing for everyone concerned. Because Martin would crush anyone who went up against him, even his own wife.
“I know,” Babs said. “He is your brother, so you won’t hear a bad word against him. And you’re right, of course. I need to focus on my future and seeing Ruby and Derek again. Have you heard any more from Derek?”
Tony had to shake his head. If he was honest, the boy had been a disappointment to everybody in the Morton family. It had been Babs’s bright idea to send her children off to a posh private school shortly after Martin had been locked up. Tony didn’t blame her, of course, things had been very hard at home and Babs had been forced to deal with everything herself.
Ruby had hated the school and hadn’t fitted in at all. She’d taken it upon herself to run away and come back to the East End. It showed the girl had guts and gumption. Ruby had blossomed into a lovely girl who was loyal to her family. Derek, on the other hand, had only been to see his mother a couple of times in the whole six years she’d been locked away. In Tony’s opinion, Derek was a waste of space. He had taken to his new posh life like a duck to water, ignoring his roots and turning his back on his family. The last time Tony had seen him, Derek seemed ashamed to be seen in public with any of the Morton family.
Still, family was family as far as Tony was concerned, and that meant he would never turn his back on the boy, even if he personally thought he would do well to take a leaf out of his sister’s book and play a more active role in the family. The very least the boy could do was show his parents a little more respect.
“I think Ruby had a letter from him last week,” Tony said, opting not to say anything that might hurt Babs’s feelings. She still thought the sun shone out of the boy’s backside.
She smiled. “I can’t wait to see both of them again. Ruby’s been an absolute angel. She never misses a visit, but I can’t wait to see her outside these walls. It will be different, do you know what I mean?”
Tony nodded. “It will be fantastic, Babs. I know Ruby can’t wait for you to get out and I’m sure Derek feels the same.”
Babs bit her lower lip. “I worry about Derek,” she said. “I know he’s not had an easy life, but he seems to keep himself separate somehow. Have you noticed that?”
Anxious to reassure her, Tony patted her on the hand and said, “He’s a young man now, Babs. He has his own life to lead. You know what we blokes can be like.”
Tony treated her to his most devastating smile. He was well aware of the effect his good looks had on women. They never failed.
Babs’s cheeks flushed as she returned his smile. “I know only too well,” she said. “That’s why I’m worried.”
Tony laughed at that, and as they laughed together, they both relaxed a little, and he remembered the Babs of old.
He was looking forward to Babs being out again. He’d always enjoyed spending time with her, and although Martin had treated her like dirt during their marriage, Tony had thought he was crazy for not valuing his wife.
They’d grown closer when Martin had been in prison, and Tony had to manage Martin’s business interests. When his brother had been released, Tony had to adapt, going back to being number two. It wasn’t easy to go from being the main man in control back to the number two spot, but Tony had swallowed his pride and done it. He’d never been a man who believed he needed to win at all costs. And although he knew his brother was a twisted bastard, he really did love him and wanted the best for Martin and his family.
Tony had suggested Martin go abroad or even move further north, away from Dave Carter’s reach, but Martin would have none of it. In his opinion, he was far superior to Dave Carter, and it was only a matter of time before he proved it again and got his revenge.
Tony didn’t see the point. There were easier pickings elsewhere. But then he’d never had the same drive and ambition as Martin. It was enough for him to have his family safe, have a bit of money in his pocket and a pretty lady on his arm. But Martin had never been a man to opt for the easy road, and Tony had a feeling that was going to turn out to be his downfall.
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