Finders Keepers Edie Baylis (phonics readers .TXT) 📖

said nothing about anything. It was all very well getting her feet under the table at the club, but she couldn’t have him backing off about the wedding. That would wreck everything and then all of this bullshit would be for nothing.

Getting up from the large round armchair, she wandered over to Jonah and draped her arms around his neck. ‘Is there anything I can help with?’ she purred, surreptitiously eyeing the paperwork. ‘Are those the dance rotas? Why don’t you let me have a look? I could p...’

‘I’m fine,’ Jonah snapped, quickly putting the paperwork into a pile.

Lena pouted. ‘Just trying to help,’ she said, sulkily walking away. ‘So, when can we discuss the wedding?’

‘For Christ’s sake!’ Jonah barked, slamming his pen down. ‘Don’t you think I’ve got enough on my plate?’ Lena knew nothing about what had gone on with Dulcie Adams, or that all of his attempts to discover who had lifted the haul was getting nowhere. And now he had to fudge the rotas at the Feathers too, whilst all she wanted to do was discuss the wedding? A wedding he didn’t even goddamn want?

‘What exactly do you want? I’ve signed the registry office forms and given you the go ahead to arrange whatever you wish for the wedding and the reception.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m presuming you won’t be as stupid to do something along the lines of the engagement party this time?’

‘But that’s just it, Jonah. I want you to be involved. After how you behaved at the party about my choice of decorations, I’m frightened to do what I think would be nice.’ Lena made her eyes fill up with tears on cue and ran her hand over her still perfectly flat stomach. ‘It’s not good for the baby.’

Jonah waved his hand dismissively. ‘Get a wedding planner. That will take the pressure off.’ If Lena could call anything she dealt with as pressured? But the one thing he didn’t want was anything happening to that baby inside her. That and that alone was the only reason Lena was still breathing. ‘And you’re sure you didn’t see Gwen at the party after I left?’

‘Oh, you mean after you disappeared for hours without telling me? How embarrassing was that?’ Lena sniped.

‘Like I said when I got back, I didn’t have the time to unwrap you from your host of admirers. We had an emergency at one of the warehouses,’ Jonah countered. At least Nero had sorted out an alibi because they sure as hell needed one after those wankers had got to Dulcie Adams first, leaving him in the frame for the dead body.

‘And for the record, like I told you before, I didn’t see Gwen,’ Lena lied, hiding her scorn. ‘It’s clear she’s upped and left.’

Jonah shook his head. ‘She wouldn’t just do that.’ He got to his feet. ‘That’s why I’m going around there now to see what’s happened. Something’s not right. I just hope it not too serious.’

Lena stiffened. He was going to Gwen’s? The old cow had best remember what the deal was here because there was no way she wouldn’t use her newfound knowledge courtesy of Uncle Ron to her advantage, like she’d promised. But if Gwen had done a runner, then she wouldn’t get what she wanted that way either. The second bloody plan that had been scuppered. She needed to have her feet well and truly under the table long before the wedding. And time was running out.

She needed certain things to be nicely in place before the cat came out of the bag because when it got to the part when her real name was read out, Jonah would know, as would everybody else, that she wasn’t Lena Taylor at all.

It was a gamble, but with his belief there was a baby on the way, it was pretty much guaranteed he’d swallow the ‘discrepancy’ for the sake of his reputation.

Yeah, he’d take the hit that he’d married an O’Hara on the chin, because otherwise he’d look a prize cunt for ditching his pregnant fiancée at the altar and she knew all about Jonah’s principles where family was concerned. When the baby unfortunately never materialised due to ‘natural causes’, well... it was just one of those things...

Three

JONAH PULLED UP OUTSIDE GWEN’S ADDRESS. Getting out of the car, he nodded politely to the people congregating outside their houses to acknowledge him.

He knew the Feathers and the Powell firm’s notoriety was renowned in the area, along with many other parts of the city and he hoped his presence at Gwen’s house wouldn’t cause any hostility. Although with any luck it would bring her some well-deserved kudos rather than anything detrimental.

Knowing Gwen, she wasn’t the sort to broadcast their association. She always kept herself to herself, but it shouldn’t do her any harm to have a personal visit from him. She’d been a faithful member of the business for so very long – both to him and his father before him and the rather sad observation that he had given her little credit for that nagged painfully.

That’s why he was here now. He was worried. Very worried. For Gwen to be off sick for six days in a row was unheard of. He couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t been in work. Even when she’d been really unwell in the past, she’d always struggled in. There had even been one occasion when she’d had an operation and insisted on taking the rotas to work on from her hospital bed, so for her to not put in an appearance, nor to call was a red flag.

The thought of Gwen suffering alone was not something he would allow. She had no family; no husband or kids – the business had always been her family and, if he admitted it, she had been more like a mum to him since his own mother had died, so making sure she was alright was the