The Family Firm

Chapter 20

Frankie looked at the large sum of cash in the safe and was pleased. The clubs had been doing marvellously that month, as had the knock-off scams and the car jobs. In fact, in the past few years alone they'd made more money than she'd ever seen in her entire life. Ever since her brother Freddie took over things, business had been booming and they'd all reaped the rewards.

It had been a lot easier than she thought it would be, but then again Freddie was always prepared, and he'd most likely thought over the consequences a lot longer than he liked to let on. He was funny in that way, always careful until he wasn't. But in that case it had worked in their favour; Fred had been dealing with the businesses so long he already knew how they worked, the ins and outs of them, and he had worked first-hand with their employees. They trusted him, they liked him, and Archy hadn't been relevant in years. Everyone agreed Fred should have done what he did, that it was only a matter of time before Archy got topped anyway; he'd had plenty of enemies, enemies who were now Fred's companions because he'd done them all a favour.

Frankie, too, had profited from her brother's success, and not just financially. Now she had a purpose in her life, which was something she desperately needed the older her son got. Twenty-two years old now, he was, and she was nearing forty, which was something she was constantly aware of. He still lived with her, took care of her in a way, not physically but emotionally, and she knew it was only because he cared about her and didn't want her to be alone. But the older he got, the more she knew he would need to find himself a place of his own, a nice bird to settle down with, and eventually leave the nest.

But she couldn't worry about that now. These days, she took care of Fred's books—and Lord Himself knew he needed it; Archy had had significant debts and he hardly kept the book work up at all. Frankie would have bet her last two pence the reason for his alarming debt was because he never kept his books up, but fortunately Fred had single-handedly gotten them all out of the red since he took over. Business was profiting greatly and everyone was happy.

She took a few bundles of pound notes and closed the safe before sitting herself down at the large oak desk in the centre of the office. She had her own office now, in the back of the mechanic shop. But it wasn't dirty and dingy like most mechanics' were; it was a nice place, clean and bright with florescent lighting and all. She'd seen to it that everything was crisp white with hot red accents, something like mod style; she'd always had a knack for that sort of thing, an eye for it like her mum said, and enjoyed the opportunity to dress things up in the way she liked.

The shop was also the front of the car schemes, which was one of her favourite businesses. It was ingenious, really. They would steal nice, expensive cars, re-purpose them with new numbers and a fresh coat of paint, and turn them out overseas. The reason it was ingenious was because nice cars were in no short supply; in fact, people like gamblers who got heavily into debt often gave them up for nothing, simply so they could reap in the insurance money. If you were smart about it, you could do a car job in no time and have them shipped off in less than a day, which meant that everyone benefited and not on the government's pound, which everyone could agree was a good thing.

Although it had partially been her idea, Frankie didn't run the car scheme. She didn't want to, she didn't have the ambition. She handled the book work and sorted out the payments, which meant at that point she was in a good standing with every one of the boys. Of course, she would have been anyway; everyone and their cousin knew that Frankie was the most important woman in Freddie Evans' life, and so you smiled at her, said hello to her in public, and you treated her kinder than you treated your own mother. Most importantly, she was off-limits.

Fred had made sure to instil this into everyone's minds, and while she appreciated it at times, it also annoyed her. They loved each other, but fuck, they weren't married, were they? Couldn't be, of course, and Fred had never been a "one-bird man" so to speak. He was always on the pull and beyond making her incredibly jealous, it upset her on another degree, because she couldn't sleep around to get back at him. No one would touch her, she was always Freddie's sister and practically his property. Not that she really wanted any other man, but it was the fucking piss, wasn't it? Sometimes she just wanted a shag. Sometimes she just wanted to make him as upset as he made her.