скачать книгу бесплатно
Scarlet Women
Jessie Keane
She was a madam in a brothel, then a gangster’s moll. Now Annie Carter owns the East End of London, and God help anybody that crosses her…It’s 1970, London, and there’s a killer on the loose.When gang boss Annie Carter gets a call, suddenly it’s personal. A close friend of hers is the latest victim, and another is in the frame for the murder.With the hated Delaney gang still causing trouble, and NY mob boss Don Constantine Barolli’s family making no secret of the fact that they hate her, she senses a feud blowing up in all their faces very soon.To save her old friend, Annie has to try to find out who’s been targeting the girls. Before long she’s diving head-first into the seedy underbelly of the streets.How long before the killer strikes again? And who will be the next victim?
JESSIE KEANE
Scarlet Women
Dedication (#ulink_5d8ffd58-94f6-5fa6-8a35-7c7ef7a44719)
Cliff my darling—this one’s for you.
Contents
Title Page (#uf85da1bc-68c8-5388-b6bd-ff77d876c924)
Dedication
Prologue (#ud2142cd9-99ca-5389-9123-127b089e242b)
Chapter 1 (#u76086757-98a7-5692-97d0-351f8f033d45)
Chapter 2 (#uff164408-48ca-5f9d-b303-3dd2fd0c400f)
Chapter 3 (#u96bb58f9-a898-56ef-a7b3-bb25e30934c2)
Chapter 4 (#u5e7cebf3-9f77-5d28-999b-872b5f37815e)
Chapter 5 (#u991458d9-3dad-5941-81f1-095ea0fb0ae6)
Chapter 6 (#ub170231e-e497-5589-92df-d0cce5e4e805)
Chapter 7 (#uf0d8d933-0cd5-5476-b0f9-e27eb1700b6f)
Chapter 8 (#uf2494046-d324-5dd9-a3a9-5090aa6f5986)
Chapter 9 (#u444694b4-14fb-581c-962a-aa4d50071222)
Chapter 10 (#u7edb1dc2-856d-5d44-85c8-df4e7143a8dc)
Chapter 11 (#u961ab2fc-63e7-5be5-879b-1392ba272f71)
Chapter 12 (#u0556d692-1ef1-589f-89be-3f690d170e08)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 39 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 42 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 43 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 44 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 45 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 46 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 47 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 48 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 49 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 50 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 51 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 52 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 53 (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Jessie Keane (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#ulink_cdcfaaca-432f-568b-9da0-8b80067b6453)
Annie Carter opened her eyes slowly. Her first thought was what the fuck? Her head hurt; there was a sore spot behind her right ear. She saw semi-darkness and a dim, familiar interior.
She was in the car. Shit, they’d hit her hard. Her brain was spinning.
Her car, yeah that was it. Had to get a grip, think straight.
The black Mark X Jaguar.
She was lying across the back seat, which smelled of leather and cologne; familiar smells, comforting smells, but alarm bells were ringing in her addled mind. Her guts were clenched with unfocused anxiety.
Tony?
Where the fuck was Tony?
He was usually up there behind the wheel, weaving easily through the London traffic and asking where she wanted to go next, saying okay Boss, sure thing. But he wasn’t there now, so where the hell was he? She was the big car’s only occupant.
And now it came back to her in a rush. Now she remembered what had happened to Tony. They’d coshed him too. Put him somewhere. But where? Was he all right? Was he dead?
How long have I been out of it? she wondered, sitting up, wincing as her head thumped sickeningly in protest at the movement.
Then she remembered Charlie Foster, and Redmond and Orla Delaney. She remembered it all. She’d been knocked out cold, Tony was fuck-knew-where, and now they were going to drive her off in her own damned car to some remote spot, where they would blow her brains out, what little brains she had, because who but a fool would push their luck as far as she had done?
She thought of Layla. Her little girl, her little star. Had to get out of here because she was all that Layla had; she couldn’t afford to get herself wasted.
She was reaching for the door when the noise started—a high mechanical whine, deafening in its intensity. Her heart rate picked up to a gallop.
What the…?
Suddenly the car lurched, knocking her back against the right-hand door. Then her horrified eyes watched as the left-hand door started to buckle inward. There was a ferocious shriek of tortured metal. With a noise like a gunshot, the glass in the door shattered, showering her with fragments. She ducked down, covering her head momentarily with an upraised arm, then staring with terror as the door just kept coming, buckling inward, metal tearing, screaming, ripping.
And now the door behind her was coming in too. The noise was beyond bearing, beyond anything she had ever known before. The window imploded, and again she was covered in pieces of glass, felt her cheeks sting with the impact of it, felt warm blood start to ooze from cuts on her face.
‘Jesus!’ she screamed in panic, knowing where she was now, knowing what was going to happen to her.
Then the roof crashed in upon her, folding inward like cardboard. She felt the floor lift and she fell sideways, ending up in the well behind the front seats, nearly gibbering with fear. She was going to die, she knew that now.
Just make it fast, she thought desperately. Please make it fast.
She lay there, powerless, and watched the roof coming down towards her.
Closed her eyes, and waited to die.
Chapter 1 (#ulink_0500eb4f-1122-5557-8ce6-819b58079814)
SUMMER 1970
Whack!
The whip cracked down across the nude buttocks of the man tied to the bed. He moaned but was careful not to scream. He’d had his orders.
‘This is a nice place,’ the woman told him, looming over him. She was dressed in a white topless PVC mini-dress and matching high-heeled boots. A white nurse’s cap was perched jauntily on her coal-black hair. Her ample and naked coffeecoloured breasts bounced as she drew back the whip to strike again. ‘Remember that. I don’t want you kickin’ off and yelling the sodding place down, now do I?’
The client strained to look back at her over his shoulder from his prone position. He said nothing.
Whack!
‘Answer Nursy when she speaks to you,’ trilled the woman.
‘No! I won’t scream,’ he panted.
