The Piggy Farmer (The Barrington Patch Book 3), Emmy Ellis [electric book reader txt] 📗

would admit Cassie, Mam, and Lou had gone out at a certain time, returning later. Then there was Nicola from The Pudding. Cassie had told her they were having a night in, and she’d force her to say just that if necessary. And if Branding didn’t shush this up, he’d be meeting Marlene. Alive. Cassie and Mam would watch the mincer scoffing him up, listen to his screams…

Cassie: Okay.

She slid her phone in her pocket and eyed Jimmy, who stood by the window, the top half of his shadow large and misshapen on the blind. The bottom appeared elongated, the thighs stretching down the old-fashioned yellowing radiator with its tumbleweeds of dust on top, shin shapes on the floor, the feet joining his, as if the shadow were his soul and couldn’t bear to break contact.

“He’s ever so rude, don’t you think?” she asked him.

Jimmy started, clearly uncomfortable with being brought into this, to have to give an opinion. “Yeah, well rude.” He gave an awkward smile that said: Sorry, I’m not used to this shit, but I’m trying.

She shifted her attention to Jason again, studying his gross bottom lip, and the urge to squeeze it between finger and thumb overcame her. Christ, what’s the matter with me? She wanted to hurt and hurt and hurt him, no holds barred. What was it, driving her to do it? An in-born need, a Lenny-manufactured one, the proof Jason wanted the estate?

Or was it his betrayal?

Once again, she shut her thoughts down. “Where were you going to get the anti-depressants from to drug me and my mam? Which seller were you going to approach? Or have you already done that? If it’s someone working for me, I want to know about it. But then again, you’re not thick, so I bet you were going to the Sheffield lot, or maybe the pushers in Doncaster.”

Jason continued ogling the bookshelf as if she hadn’t spoken, no tells to indicate which option was the correct one. He must want her to think someone else in her pay was a mole, prepared to go against her. He’d know damn well that would drive her up the wall trying to work it out.

Was he imagining the pain he’d go through when she used what was on top on the bookshelf? How many times she’d inflict it? How long before she administered the fatal move and all this ended? Did he want it to end? Was he in that much pain he wished he was dead, even if that meant leaving his mother?

“I’d have gathered what you were doing to us anyroad,” she said. “We’d have noticed how we felt, groggy or whatever. Especially because you told Jimmy you planned to put it in my coffee and food when we went out on dates, get me dependent, then chat enough shit to convince me to let you move in, then you’d start on Mam. My mam, Jason. That’s so wrong. How would you feel if I planned to do that to yours?”

His lips twitched.

“You really are a minger. Disloyal. Still, Jimmy was loyal, which brings us to this point. Did you really think you’d get away with it, that he wouldn’t tell me?”

He ignored her.

“I bet Gina will be on my earhole soon, asking if I’ve seen you—note she hasn’t bothered to yet. That must sting, your mammy not caring enough to find out where you are.” She smiled, the perfect piss-him-off words forming in her head. “I’m undecided on what to do there. You know, tell her you went missing in the proper sense, just walked off after we’d had a falling out… Or that I barbed your face up then shot you in the leg with a fucking nail, and then, I killed you, minced your body, and scattered bits of it all over the Barrington. I might even go as far as to mention the foxes that may have eaten you, the birds pecking at the meat. Can you imagine the horror and pain she’ll feel when she hears that?”

He growled, just like those foxes. “Uck you.”

“It’s fuck, Jason.”

“Izz ov.”

“No. There’s still so much to discuss. Let’s see…” She rested a finger on her cheek, drawing things out and loving it. The monster had arrived. “Nathan Abbott. A man down on his luck, then Lenny came along and offered him a job looking after that set of sex workers, got him back on his feet. Is that why you chose Nathan? I mean, you must have thought you were the only man Lenny felt something for, yet here comes Nathan, being looked after by him, too. I can’t believe you’d do this to my dad. Lenny cared for you.”

“Ee dint.”

“He didn’t? What do you call it when someone takes you under their wing then? How could he not care if he killed your fucking dad? If he saved you and your mam from him?”

Jimmy let out a grunt of surprise, and Cassie glanced his way.

“This is what happens, Jim. Graftons do what needs to be done for residents. Jason here, his father liked to call him names all the time, hurt Gina, give her black eyes and shit, rule the house like a proper rotten bastard. Lenny stopped all that, and what does Jason do? He tells himself he’ll take the crown, that’s what, throwing everything Lenny did for him back in his face. Well…” She stared at Jason. “You forgot one thing. I’m Lenny’s daughter, and I will not allow you to ride roughshod over me—or his memory. Come on, admit it. You didn’t think I had it in me, did you? You thought I’d be crap at running the patch. What do you think now?”

Jason shuddered and cried out from the movement. A groan followed, and she’d bet he wanted to close his eyes. Too bad he couldn’t. How dry