Now he was home once more and he was going to see to it that they were all taken care of and would make sure that none of then ever went without again.
And as for Brewster, he was going to have a straightener with him at some point. Sneaking around with slags and his mother still having to work the club for him. Oh, he was biding his time all right and when he finally had what he wanted, he was going to make that cunt pay through the nose for his blatant neglect of his family. Lenny was going to realise, once and for all, that he had a mission in life and that mission was to take care of his family. Even the family Lenny had provided before going on the trot. Patrick had gone away a boy and come back a man. He had experienced many things in stir and one of them was the need to take back control from people who believed they were your intellectual superior. Brewster was a cunt but he would bide his time before he forcibly pointed that fact out to him; he needed to see how the land was lying in that direction and wait until he was settled once more. It took a while to acclimatise to being on the outside and when he had sussed out all the options he would take great pleasure in distributing his own brand of retribution.
As they sipped their tea, he saw Lance look at Kathleen with a frown. Patrick knew he was as worried about her as he was himself. After all, he had been left as the eldest and had been left to take care of them all. He looked around the room; it had hardly changed since he had left it years earlier. There was the same couch, the same TV, the same carpet, the same everything except it was more dilapidated. In fact, it looked like something from a documentary on poverty in the Western world. The whole drum needed upgrading and refurnishing. It was like a doss house. But then seven kids tended to do that to furniture; it took a battering on a daily basis. Most furniture wasn't really built for large families.
As Brewster was caked up with dough it didn't seem a lot to assume that some of it might have been thrown in his mother's direction. She had needed someone to protect them when his father had been outed and he had understood her logic, even admired it. She had the sense to know they were in danger from the Williams brothers and whoever was pulling their strings. Brewster had been the obvious choice and it was the price they paid for the world they lived in.
Lenny had been all over Lil once and all over them as well; he had been the answer to their prayers after his father's death. Then one day he had just stopped coming round and his mother had been left with two more children and Patrick had been old enough by then to understand exactly what the ponce had done to her. He had taken on the mantle of breadwinner then and it had landed him in the poke. Now he was a grown man and he was not about to let anyone interfere with his family ever again. His mother had kept them together no matter what and he was determined to take the onus off her, to take the mantle of breadwinner on himself once more, as his father would have wanted him to, have expected him to. Now he had settled back in and had a working knowledge of what was going on around him, he could work out a proper plan of action at last.
'Hello, Lil.' Lenny was smiling at her and Lil noticed that his teeth had become grey since they had last talked properly. From his red flushed face to the veins across his cheeks, he looked what he was now, a drinker. Lenny was old, he was like a parody of the man he had once been. Seeing Lenny like this was awful; for all that he had done to her, she didn't wish him any ill. She had learned a long time ago that bad things happened to people soon enough; they didn't need her wishing it on them. As her mum always said, what goes around, comes around. It seemed it had come around to Lenny sooner than any of them had thought. Lil smiled easily, not letting any of her pity or her nervousness come through. She looked cool and this pleased her. 'To what do we owe this pleasure, then?'
Lenny shrugged; that annoying, heavy-shouldered shrug that gave the impression of complete indifference to whoever was talking to him at the time. She had seen him do that to so many people she had actually forgotten just how irritating he could be.
He was watching her and, he had to admit, she looked good considering her age and the fact she had birthed seven kids. But then, Lil had the kind of skin that most women would kill for, and he knew that first-hand, he had seen every inch of her.
'This is my club, Lil. I don't see how you can question me about coming in here, do you?'
As always, he was making a point, trying to remind her of things best left forgotten. He couldn't help himself; he had to hurt and wound, make people feel they were inferior to him. For once, Lil took the bait. After the night she'd had she was suddenly up for a row. Who did he think he was? Who did he think he was talking to?
'With respect, Len, this was actually my club long before it was ever yours, remember. My husband bought it many years ago and you just took it, didn't you, after he was murdered?'
Lenny was shocked at her words. Lil could have a row, he knew, but she had never brought up anything like that before. She'd never once alluded to how her husband's assets had been divvied up. He wondered now if she had ever mentioned any of those things to her sons. They were big men now and he knew they were at an age when they wanted to prove themselves. Lance was safe enough but now that Pat was home, he was getting fucking ambitious and so was this woman here, by all accounts. He would have to watch her, she was under the mistaken impression that she had something of value to say. Always a bad move where women were concerned.
'You talking to me, Lil?' He was, as always, on his dignity when he felt he was being undermined and insulted.
Lil grinned then, remembering just how awkward a bastard he could be. 'Don't you want to know how the kids are, Lenny?'
Lenny loved the question in her voice, the utter disbelief that he didn't care about her wonderful kids. He had made sure she had her work cut out; two of them at close quarters but, like all his paramours, once they had produced, he had no more interest in them.
Lenny smiled and she saw the lines on his face and the way his hair was thinning and she actually felt sorry for him. He had taken her at her lowest ebb, taken everything she had. Not just from her, but from her kids as well. Then he had given her a job in this place, the place she helped set up, and now he was loath to hand over a few quid for the kids she had given him.
'You're a piece of work, Lenny. You have two gorgeous kids and you ain't got a fucking ounce of compassion for either of them, have you?'
Lenny shook his head and laughed again, the false laugh that he really believed made him seem sophisticated, a man of the world. 'I couldn't give a flying fuck, Lil. They mean nothing to me, love. None of my kids do; the fact they arrived through a cunt speaks volumes, if you'll excuse the pun.'
He was laughing again and Lil felt the hurt once more; when he dismissed the kids like that, she knew she was capable of really harming him. She could feel her hands clenching into fists. If some of his so-called mates heard him at times she knew they would not believe their ears. He could be so hateful and so vicious and the worst thing was, he enjoyed it.
'Well, assuming your mother gave birth to you, then it stands to reason that you travelled into the world through a cunt yourself so at least your kids have got one thing in common with you, eh?'
He was finally silent and she knew that just for once she had got the better of him. Her toughness had attracted him but it was always brought to the fore when anyone or anything threatened her children. She was like a wild animal in that respect and as she was now, proud and angry, he remembered her attraction. He had used her, he knew, but it had not been a hardship. She was faceable if you didn't crave youth.