Page 69 of Fool Me Twice
His tone was full of derision.“And Trent thought, ‘Peckham, why’s that familiar?’And then he remembered.All them evenings down the Dog and Duck with the brickies, back before that job that went tits up and landed us all in jail.So, he heads over there, and what do you know?They had plenty to say about you turning up like a fucking bad penny.Asking about the boss’s nipper’s mate—one of your little boyfriends, back in the day, wasn’t he?They told Trent he’d moved back to hippie central here.”Dad folded his arms, looking smug.“After that, it didn’t take long to find you.You’ve done a piss-poor job of hiding, but then, why should I expect any different?”
Zig felt colder than he had on the tor.“Why, though?Why come all this way after me?Last time we spoke, you told me I was a bloody waste of sperm.”
Dad’s face turned hard.“Because you owe me, boy.”
“I don’t owe you nothing.”Ice, there was fucking ice clogging up his veins, making it hard to think.Stay strong.Tell him to eff off and do his worst.
“That’s what you think, is it?I gave you life, you ungrateful little bastard.I gave you life, and I fed you and housed you after your cunt of a mother fucked off and left us, so don’t you fucking tell me you don’t owe me.”
Even as Zig reeled mentally with the blows, the ice melted, a little.He doesn’t know.Thank fuck, he doesn’t know what I did on that last job.“I never asked you to do any of that.”
“No?”Dad’s tone was steel.“And I never asked you to set off the alarm, grass us up to the pigs, and land us all in jail.But here we are.”
The ice stabbed him right in the heart, and bile rose in Zig’s throat.He wanted to swallow, but his mouth was too dry.“Who told you that?”His voice shook.
Triumph flashed in Dad’s eyes.“I knew it.I fuckingknewit.Trent swore blind he laid that guard out before he had a chance to reach for his alarm.And unlike some ungrateful pricks, he don’t lie to me.”Dad’s colour rose, but his voice was as quiet as ever.It was somehow worse than if he’d shouted.“Think I’m stupid?Did you think I’d never work it out?You ought to thank your lucky stars Trent ain’t put it all together.You’d finally have two matching eyes if I let him loose on you, and that’d be the least of your troubles.”
“What do you want?”Zig rasped.What’ll stop you telling Trent?
“You’re going to do a little job for me.And this time, me and Trent won’t be coming along, so the only person you can shit on is yourself, you got that?”
“What, and then you’ll leave me alone?”Like hell he would.
“All I want is you to pay me back for those years inside.So you do this job, and you make it good, and then we’re quits, right?”Dad smiled, showing his gold tooth.
There was a lead weight in Zig’s stomach.They’d never be quits, not in Dad’s eyes.Not unless thislittle jobwas doing over the Tower of London and making away with the Crown Jewels.No, not even then, cos this wasn’t about the money, was it?This was about showing Zig who was boss.Making him do what he was told.
Stay.Fucking.Strong.
“No,” he said, but it came out almost inaudible, so he said it again.“No.I’m not doing it.I’m through with all that.”A cautious flicker of warmth spread through him.He’d done it.He’d stood up to Dad.
“You’re through with it when I say you are.”Dad’s voice went softer, snuffing out that warmth like a bucket of ice water.“Or do you want me to give Trent your new address?Tip him off about you sounding that alarm?Admitting it to my face?Reckon he’d beveryhappy to see you again.”He paused.“’Spect he’d like to meet that bloke of yours too.Rides a Harley, don’t he?I saw one parked out back of that shop you live over, and I don’t think it’s that witch bint who rides it.Terrible dangerous things, those are.So many accidents.I knew a boy came off a motorbike.Skidded on some oil.He spent a year in hospital getting his face pinned back together.Never the same again, poor lad.”
The ice was back big-time, and the nausea too.He’ll hurt Si...
Zig couldn’t let anything happen to Si.Not Si, with his warm smile and the utter fuckinggoodnessof him.“You wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t I?”Dad snarled in Zig’s face.“You just try me.Now, are you going to be a good little boy, or is the boyfriend going to be trading his Harley for a wheelchair?”
Oh God...“One job,” Zig found himself saying, though it didn’t sound like him at all.“One job, and we’re through, yeah?”
“That’s it.”Dad nodded, like he was satisfied.“Give me your phone.”
Numbly, Zig pulled his phone out of his pocket, realising as he did so that he hadn’t switched it back on since the afternoon.Dad muttered a few curses while they waited for it to boot up again, then Zig unlocked it and handed it over.
After sending a quick text—to himself, Zig assumed, so he’d have Zig’s number—he handed it back, so roughly it almost fell to the ground before Zig could grab it and shove it back into his pocket.
Dad rolled his eyes.“I’ll be in touch with the details.”Then he turned on his heel and walked away.
Si had spent every spare moment of the afternoon trying to call Zig.He kept getting the message “Sorry, the person you are trying to call is unavailable.”
Why wasn’t Zig available?Siknewhe’d charged his phone—he’d seen it plugged in by the bed like it was every night.Why would Zig have switched it off?
Maybe the power to the socket hadn’t been turned on?Si had done that once or twice.
In the end, he gave up trying to get through to Zig and called Esme.
“Es, is Zig there?I can’t get him on his phone.”
