Free The Graft by Martina Cole

my Sonny. If he had known my boy, he would have seen what he was really like because he wasn’t a bad kid.’
     
    Tyrell was really drunk now and Paxton was wondering when it would be time to take him home.
     
    ‘Now we have to bury him, bury that child, and it’s all wrong. All fucking wrong.’
     
    He was rambling and Paxton nodded at the barman for another rum. Hopefully his friend would drink himself unconscious. Tyrell was in the wrong job, the wrong life. He was just too nice, that was his trouble.
     
    He gulped at his drink once more. Tyrell wasn’t really a drinker so it hadn’t taken much for him to get drunk. But the club was quiet today, quieter than usual, as if everyone was grieving with him even though every man there quietly admitted they would have done the same as Nick Leary. You protected your own, especially your kids and your woman.
     
    Sonny had crossed the line.
     
    But no one said that out loud, of course. Tyrell was far too well respected and liked for that.
     
     
’All right, Jude?’
     
    She heard the voice and tried to focus her eyes but it was hard.
     
    Sally Hatcher smiled at her even as she tried not to wrinkle her nose at the smell around her. She had promised Tyrell she would pop in and see how Jude was doing. By the looks of it, not very well.
     
    Tyrell had said that he had to go to work. She knew he didn’t want to deal with the business today but anything was better than watching this woman destroy herself, apparently. Or watching his mother’s heart break all over again.
     
    ‘Get your coat on and I’ll take you to Verbena’s house, she wants you with her.’
     
    ‘Go away.’
     
    Sally sighed. Her short hair sat perfectly on her finely shaped head, and her slim athletic body brimmed over with health and well-being, making Jude look even older and more haggard than she actually was.
     
    ‘Come on, Jude, Verbena needs you.’
     
    ‘No one needs me, Sally. Never did, never will. Now do me a favour and fuck off.’
     
    There was no insult intended in the words, swearing was as normal to Jude as breathing. She was already building herself a joint, only this one would hold heroin. She smoked it sometimes. Once Sally left she would mainline and get properly floating.
     
    Sally watched her in disgust. No matter how many photos she saw of a younger, prettier Jude, and there were plenty of them in Verbena’s house, she could not equate them with this excuse for a woman before her.
     
    Sonny would have known what to do with her in this state. She’d been like a job to him. Now Jude was going to have to get used to taking care of herself.
     
    The front door opened abruptly and three young men walked in without knocking. They were all white with styled and cropped hair. One had the logo of West Ham Utd shaved into the side of his head, two crossed hammers.
     
    Sally stared at them incredulously.
     
    ‘How did you get in?’
     
    The tallest boy looked her over and obviously found her lacking.
     
    ‘I might ask you the same thing?’
     
    ‘They’re friends of Sonny’s,’ Jude said testily. ‘Now go home , Sally, for fuck’s sake. I can’t cope with you here and all.’
     
    Sally picked up her bag and said gently, ‘If you’re sure?’ Jude looked at her slyly, guessing the other woman was glad of an excuse to leave her.
     
    ‘Oh, I’m sure.’
     
    Sally left her to it. There wasn’t really anything else she could do.
     
     
It was ten o’clock when Nick finally strolled through the front door. Tammy was in the television room watching a film. She had a large glass of wine beside her and a cigarette in her hand. He stumbled into the room and flopped down beside her. She smiled at him briefly before her gaze turned back to the TV.
     
    He looked around him. It was a nice room, a comfortable room. It was a room many people would love to possess. Yet to them it was the dossing room. The curling up and watching TV room.
     
    He moved closer to his