“Wow. Impressive place.” I craned my neck out of the Range Rover window to get a good look at Greenall Manor. The grounds were beautiful. “Hey, isn’t that the cops?” I spied two figures running through the gardens.

“Liam and Rob? Yeah, that’s them. Jase must have asked them here for their advice.”

“Hmm, must mean Sanjay is around too.” T parked up the car while G tapped out a message on his phone. Soon after, the door to the manor house opened and Jason ran out to greet us. Or rather, he launched himself at G & T while I stood by observing. There was definitely history there. Jason jumped on T and wrapped his long legs around the man’s waist. G moved in behind and sandwiched the Good Lord between them. The three dipped their heads together and kissed.

“Goodness, I missed you chaps.” Jason declared breathlessly. “Hurry; let’s do that again before Remi finds me.” G grabbed Jason around the waist and pulled him off of his twin brother.

“You must have a death wish, Jase.” G laughed. On cue, a moody looking Frenchman appeared at the door. G & T took a step back from their friend.

“Oh fuck, he’s here, isn’t he?” Jason asked. The brothers nodded. Jason spun around looking as innocent as he could muster. I hated to tell him his lips were wet and puffy. Remi raised an eyebrow. “Mon cher…” Jason began sweetly.

“Fuck that, shit head. Get inside.” Remi was really pissed off. Luckily Adam Cohen-Woolf emerged from the house, with Angel in his arms. He immediately plonked him on Remi who had no choice but to gather him up, or drop him.

“Remi, je t’aime,” Angel whispered before peppering his face with cute little kisses.

“Don’t try and distract me, Angel. Jason did exactly what I begged him not to. He knew I’d lose my temper, yet he did it anyway.”

Angel placed a hand either side of Remi’s head forcing him to look at him. “Don’t you know by now, that Jason loves it when you get angry at him? When you lose it, it turns him on…” Remi harrumphed loudly, staring daggers at Jason who was biting his lower lip anxiously.

“Sorry, Jase, didn’t mean to get so angry. I know you mean nothing by it.” Remi’s expression was full of remorse.

“For fuck’s sake,” Jason cursed. “Fine.” He actually stomped his feet and threw his hands in the air. The Twins laughed and greeted a placated Remi. They all disappeared into the house, bar Jason. He walked over to me. “You might want to close that.” He tapped me on the chin. I snapped my jaw shut. “It’s the norm for this family; perhaps you’ll find that out for yourself before too long.”

“No shit.”

Jason cocked his head at me. “You fucked them.”

“What?” I gasped.

“Yup. You’ve been G & T’d. Welcome to the club.” Jason took my elbow and steered me towards the house, as if he hadn’t just blown my mind with his eerie powers of deduction. I’m not sure if I was more shocked that he could tell I’d been G & T’d, as he put it, or that he’d dipped his dick there too. “Don’t worry sweetheart, your secret is safe with me. We wouldn’t want to send Isadore into a shit fit.” I threw my head back and laughed. Jason was hilarious, made all the more so by his plummy upper-class accent. He reached up and smoothed my forehead with his long, delicate fingers. “Welcome to my home. My parents are out for the day, but hopefully you’ll meet them later.”

“Thank you for having me. I hope my being here doesn’t have any negative impact on you.”

Jason frowned. “I can’t imagine anyone would be foolish enough to fuck with our little gang, for want of a better description. We are gaining quite the reputation for fighting crime in our own unique way. Attack one of us and suffer the consequences.”

“Umm, I’m not sure how that applies to me?”

“Tal, dear boy. Any friend of Izzy’s…” Jason giggled. “Come on, let’s go and meet the others and have a drink.”

We entered the Manor House amid barking dogs, and Angel’s boisterous friends on their way to the gym and pool. I spotted Bastien, who blushed profusely when he noticed me watching him. The boy was wearing speedos and a crop t-shirt displaying his gorgeous body. My stomach flipped with excitement.

A familiar figure holding a tray crossed our path. “Sanjay, what are you doing?” Jason addressing the cops’ boyfriend jolted me out of my Bastien induced daydream.

“Helping Cook with lunch.”

“You don’t work here anymore, love.” Jason tutted and took the tray of food from the stunning Indian man. I was mesmerised by his elegant attire topped off by another richly coloured turban. Dark teal this time. “Please join the others in the conservatory, and take Tal with you.”

“Indeed. Mr Roth, please come with me.” Sanjay placed a hand in the small of my back and directed me down the hallway to the back of the house. I could hear chatter coming from that direction and was relieved to hear Izzy’s dulcet tones above all the others.

“Tally!”

I groaned. Naturally, he’d call me that in front of the others.

“Izzy,” I growled back. He slapped me on the back and laughed before pulling me in for a hug. He pulled back gripping my biceps. “What?” I asked him, feeling a little uncomfortable under the glare of his scrutiny.

“Good night, was it?” Izzy winked at me. So much for the Twins wanting to keep our three-way a secret. This lot all had some kind of G & T sex radar. I blew out a breath. “Details later,” Izzy whispered in my ear. I snorted.

Jason appeared. “Let’s go to the dining room. I’ve laid out some lunch and we can talk in peace. The boys are having fun in the pool, so we won’t be disturbed.”

The dining room table was enormous and easily able to seat us all with space to spare. Izzy sat at the head with Adam to one side. Jason sat at the other end flanked by Angel and Remi. Sanjay, Liam and Rob sat opposite me, G, & T. The eleven of us helped ourselves to the deli lunch provided by our host, and once our plates were full, Izzy hushed us so we could discuss the real reason for meeting. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, my mobile phone rang. Izzy raised an eyebrow. I mouthed ‘mother’ at him and his face softened in understanding.

“Mum,” I spoke into the phone. “Now’s not a good time.”

The shrill response from the matriarch of the Roth family threatened to shatter the crystal ware on the table. “Don’t you dare try to palm me off with your busy excuses. I’m your mother, not one of your boy toys.” I cringed, but she had a point. Sniggers around the table caused me to wander off out of the room.

“Sorry, Mum. I just have a lot going on.”

“Well, don’t forget we have the wedding coming up. I wanted to make sure you got your dinner suit dry cleaned.” I groaned. She was like a dog with a fucking bone.

“Not sure I’m going to make it.”

“Don’t give me that, Tally. You’re coming. It’s important to your father.” She sighed. “We don’t see you anymore, chuchela. I replied you were bringing a plus one. I promise not to try and set you up with anyone, ok? Please come.”

There was nothing like a Jewish mother’s tug on the heart strings to make one capitulate despite all the stoic promises you made to yourself. The guilt was already settling uneasily in my stomach. “Of course, I’ll come. I miss you and Dad. And I don’t need to bring a date.”

“Well, you have to now. I don’t want anyone to think you can’t get yourself a boyfriend.”

Oh my God, now I wanted to kill her.

“Ok, mother. I’m sure I can rustle up someone to come with me.” I rolled my eyes feeling about twelve years old.

“Make sure he’s handsome. And Jewish.” I growled down the phone. “Don’t growl at your mother. Is that too much to ask?”

“Jewish, or growling?”

“Don’t be smart.”

“Mum, I’ll bring someone, ok. Please don’t start with the conditions.” I was met with a stony silence, and then I got the voice.

“Your sister broke our hearts, Tally. George…”

“It’s Gordon, Mum.” I wasn’t sure if she genuinely got his name confused, or if she did it for effect. With her, you could never be sure.

“Yes, yes, Gordon. Well, he’s a lovely man, but you know…Catholic.” The last part was whispered.

“And?” I couldn’t help myself.

“Is it too much to ask that you find yourself a nice Jewish boy? I don’t understand.”

I sighed. Again with the ‘nice’ and again with the ‘Jewish’. I knew it was important to them, but neither were a priority with me. It was a generational thing. I loved my parents, but I just couldn’t be manipulated to conform to their ideals of happiness. However, to stop the nagging I said all the right things.

“I’ll try Mum, that’s all I can do.” It was a little white lie that I knew would make her happy.

“Thanks, Bubs. I’ll use the whassapp thingy to send you the details.”

We exchanged a few more pleasantries before I cut her off to return to the meeting. If I didn’t get my real-life problems sorted, not meeting a boy my mother approved of would be the last of my worries.

Izzy stood up when I re-entered the room. “And how is the lovely Gayle Roth?”

I grunted and rolled my eyes in response. “You and Adam have made everything a hundred times worse for me, just to let you know.”

Adam laughed. “Well, sorry not sorry, Tal.” He was too cute. My heart melted when faced with his big cheesy, love struck smile. His man bun was particularly wobbly today and it caught my attention, along with the rest of his gorgeous self. No one should be that sexy.

“Hey!” Izzy barked. “Eyes over here, Roth.”

I smirked at Izzy momentarily enjoying the banter and wishing nothing more pressing needed to be discussed. But alas…

Izzy addressed the room. “We need to find a way to trap Sagall into confessing he used Tal as a scapegoat. If the press is to be believed, the authorities will be looking to question Tal in connection with the trial Doron just walked free from. I guess they need to find someone accountable for the enormous amount of dirty money they think has passed through legitimate sources.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to investigate whether the funds were all legit to begin with?” Jason offered.

I shook my head. “Once funds have entered the UK monetary system, the government aren’t strictly concerned where it originated from, they just want it out again.”

Izzy spoke up. “I’ll have my financial team work on a plan.”

I shook my head vociferously. “I don’t want any blame to come down on you. This is all my fault for being dazzled by riches. I’m better than this.”

Izzy came over to my chair and stood behind me. My friend placed his hands on my shoulders. I tilted my head and looked up at him. He leaned down and brushed my lips with his. “You are better than this and don’t you ever forget it. But you have us on board now and I think you’ll find we’re hard to shake.” I leaned back into his solid body. He made me feel safe. “G & T will protect you through all of this. They’ll smuggle you into my office tomorrow for a meeting with my team.”

There was no need to ask Izzy if his people could be trusted; they wouldn’t be working for him otherwise.