Cole - Betrayal

Survival.

Its all down to who you trust.

Aiden OHara has been head of the family since he was kid, and hes going to keep it that way.

Jade Dixon is the one who watches his back. Mother of his son. The one who makes him invincible.

But Jades been in the game a lot longer than Aiden. She knows no ones indestructible.

And when youre at the top, thats when youve got to watch the hardest.

Especially the ones closest to you...

Martina Cole was just 18 when she got pregnant with her son. Living in a council flat with no TV and no money to go out, she started writing to entertain herself.

It would be ten years before she did anything with what she wrote.

She chose her agent for his name Darley Anderson and sent him the manuscript, thinking he was a woman. That was on a Friday. Monday night, she was doing the vacuuming when she took the call: a mans voice said Martina Cole, you are going to be a big star.

The rest is history: Dangerous Lady caused a sensation when it was published, and launched one of the bestselling fiction writers of her generation. Martina has gone on to have more No. 1 original fiction bestsellers than any other author.

She won the British Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year with The Take , which then went on to be a hit TV series for Sky 1. Four of her novels have made it to the screen, with more in production, and three have been adapted as stage plays.

She is proud to be an Ambassador for charities including Reading Ahead and Gingerbread, the council for one-parent families. In 2013, she was inducted to the Crime Writers Association Hall of Fame, and in 2014 received a Variety Legends of Industry Award.

Her son is a grown man now, and she lives in Kent with her daughter except when she chases the sun to Cyprus, where she has two bookshops.

Her unique, powerful storytelling is acclaimed for its hard-hitting, true-to-life style there is no one else who writes like Martina Cole.

The stuff of legend. Its vicious, nasty... and utterly compelling

Mirror on FACELESS

Her gripping plots pack a mean emotional punch

Mail on Sunday on THE RUNAWAY

A blinding good read

Ray Winstone on THE KNOW

Intensely readable

Guardian on FACELESS

Right from the start, she has enjoyed unqualified approval for her distinctive and powerfully written fiction

The Times on BROKEN

An extraordinarily powerful piece of family drama

Daily Mirror on THE BUSINESS

The acknowledged mistress of the insanely readable gangster thriller, Cole has delivered another addictive tale of men of violence and the women who love them... brutally compelling

Sunday Mirror on GET EVEN

We always get excited when a Martina Cole novel drops on our desk, and she continues to maintain her reputation as one of the best fiction authors around with this gritty and unforgettable story of a family immersed in a world of violence and revenge. Spectacular 5*

Closer on THE LIFE

Martina tells it like it really is and her unique, honest and compassionate style shines through

Sun on THE TAKE

The queen of crime

Woman & Home on HARD GIRLS

Dark and dangerous

Sunday Mirror

Thrilling, shocking and exceptionally written, youll get lost in this gritty novel, which proves there really is only one Martina Cole

Closer on REVENGE

The undisputed queen of British crime thrillers

Heat on GET EVEN

Copyright 2016 Martina Cole

The right of Martina Cole to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

This Ebook edition was first published by Headline Publishing Group in 2016

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

Mother Courage and Her Children Bertolt Brecht, 1939

eISBN: 978 1 4722 0106 5

Cover photography Larry Rostant

HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

An Hachette UK Company

Carmelite House

www.headline.co.uk

www.hachette.co.uk

Contents

Dangerous Lady (1992) The Ladykiller: DI Kate Burrows 1 (1993) Goodnight Lady (1994) The Jump (1995)

The Runaway (1997) Two Women (1999)

Broken: DI Kate Burrows 2 (2000) Faceless (2001)*

Mauras Game: Dangerous Lady 2 (2002)*

The Know (2003)*

The Graft (2004)*

The Take (2005)*

Close (2006)*

Faces (2007)*

The Business (2008)*

Hard Girls: DI Kate Burrows 3 (2009)*

The Family (2010)*

The Faithless (2011)*

The Life (2012)*

Revenge (2013)*

The Good Life (2014)*

Get Even (2015)

On Screen:

Dangerous Lady (ITV 1995) The Jump (ITV 1998) Martina Coles Lady Killers (ITV3 documentary 2003) The Take (Sky 1 2009) Martina Coles Girl Gangs (Sky Factual documentary 2009) The Runaway (Sky 1 2011)

*Martina Coles No. 1 bestsellers at time of press she has spent more weeks at No. 1 than any other author

For Freddie Mary and Lewis Clark

Still my kahuna burgers, even all growed up!

And for Debbie in the Karakum shop!

Youre a lifesaver!

Behold my mother and my brethren!

Matthew 12:49

When lovely woman stoops to folly

And finds too late that men betray,

What charm can soothe her melancholy,

What art can wash her guilt away?

The Vicar of Wakefield , Oliver Goldsmith (172874)

Reeva OHaras voice was loud and harsh as it always was when she had what she considered to be an audience. Even at 8.15 a.m. in her local Co-op, Reeva never failed to entertain. Her saving grace was she could be very funny when the fancy took her.

So I said, Go and find your fucking fathers and get some sweet money off them ! She screeched with laughter at her own wit and a few of the other mothers in the busy shop joined in.

Reevas ever-present cigarette was dangling from her red-stained lips and her distended belly told anyone who cared to look that she was nearly on her time.

Jack Walters, the manager of the Co-op, liked Reeva. She wasnt a bad girl really she had just been badly used in her time by the many men she seemed to attract. She attracted him . She was a good-looking young woman with a warm and generous personality and clearly a healthy attitude towards sex unlike his wife, Doris, who thought it should take place in the pitch dark and as fast as humanly possible. Jack kept that gem of wisdom to himself though; Doris was as narrow-minded as she was skinny. It was like shagging a skeleton.