He hadn’t realised until today, until he’d seen his newborn son nestled in Shelby’s arms, how much he actually did love her. Shelby and Riley were his. His very own little family.
And just the thought of either of them getting hurt, or worse, losing them both made him feel sick to his stomach.
They deserved better than he’d given them up until now.
They deserved better than him full stop.
‘She’s had the baby early, Sam. It must have been the shock that set her labour off. Your guy punched her. What sort of a sicko attacks a pregnant woman with a knife and punches her in the face? The police are crawling all over the place, Sam. They are saying that he attacked another pregnant woman too, over in Richmond Park last week. That he murdered her. He could have killed my wife and child too.’ He lowered his voice as a nurse walked past him, aware of the concerned look she flashed him as she recognised the distress he was in. Ashley realised that he was crying uncontrollably, distraught now. The enormity of what he’d got involved in had hit him with full force. Making his way around the corner, he ducked into the men’s toilets for some privacy.
‘Ashley. I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, mate, but whatever happened to Shelby had fuck all to do with us. I don’t know anything about an attack or a knife.’ Sam sounded vexed at Ashley, curt, as if trying his hardest to control his temper as he gave Ashley his last and final warning. ‘We have a business arrangement, Ashley. I gave you a very generous extra forty-eight hours to find what you owe me, and I’m a man of my word.’
‘And I’ll get it. I will. One hundred per cent. Just please promise me you won’t involve Shelby. She’s been through enough,’ Ashley said, unable to stop his plea turning into a strained whine.
‘That’s down to you, mate. The clock’s ticking, Ashley. So, I suggest you stop chucking out false allegations that could get you a serious clump and get your arse into gear to get me my money.’
Staring down at the phone in disbelief then as the phone went silent, Ashley realised that Sam Boland had hung up on him. He felt sick. Weak and unsteady, he grabbed on to the sink in a bid to steady himself as his legs shook violently beneath him. Of course, Sam would deny all involvement in Shelby’s attack. It wouldn’t be in the man’s favour to admit anything over the phone, especially after Ashley had mentioned the police swarming all over the hospital. Sam wasn’t stupid; he probably thought that Ashley calling him was some kind of a set-up. That the police were listening in on their conversation. Worse than that, he knew now that the Bolands weren’t going to back down anytime soon. And they didn’t care what had happened to Shelby or Riley in the fallout.
Staring at the sickly-looking reflection that glared back at him in the dirty, smeared mirror, he took in the sight of his battered, bruised face, his pale, greying skin, barely recognising the broken, desperate man that glared back at him. He shook his head then, defeated, and shoved the phone back into his pocket before punching the wall. Fuck!
The pain from the impact of his fist locking with the brickwork cracked his knuckles and radiated all the way up his forearm. All he wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed and pretend that none of this was happening. Just close his eyes for a bit and make it all go away.
Only he had Shelby and little Riley to think about now. He needed to get back to them.
Splashing his face with cold water to disguise the fact that he’d been crying, Ashley took a deep breath and tried to pull himself together. The last thing he wanted to do was draw any more attention to himself. Because people would get suspicious, and it wouldn’t take much to piece everything together and work out that Shelby was attacked because of Ashley’s selfish actions.
And God help him if Pete got wind of any of this.
Hearing the main door slam, Pete Baker stepped out of the toilet cubicle where he’d been standing, silently listening in on the end of Ashley’s phone call.
He’d only caught the tail end of the conversation, but it was enough to know that his hunch that his degenerate son-in-law was somehow linked to Shelby’s attack was right. He’d known to trust his gut about the bloke, and it hadn’t let him down since he’d first clapped eyes on the loser. Ashley was a wrong ’un, and by the sounds of it, he was up to his neck in shit as per usual. He’d do anything to save his own arse. Not only that, but the man seemed to have a way with sweet talking Shelby into believing the constant stream of bullshit that flowed from his mouth.
If Pete was to remove Ashley from his daughter’s life for good, then he needed to play this smart. He needed to get some proof that Ashley was involved in something bad, so that there was no way that the man could blag his way out of it. Shelby needed to see him for exactly who he really was. Pulling his mobile phone from his pocket, he made a call.
‘Carl? Are you still outside in the car? I want you to go back down to Smokes nightclub and I want you to check out the security footage from last night. Give them a bung, threaten them. Whatever you need to do, just get it done.’ Pete clenched his fists with anger as he spoke. ‘I want to know who Ashley
