Until you’re back home
It was a rare night of complete bliss, no distractions from the club or any other ‘business’ issues. Reggie and I were sitting on the sofa putting the world to rights, I’m the only person Reg can truly open up to about anything without the fear of being judged.
“You know; sometimes I think about leaving this all behind, going straight. Could you imagine it? Me and you C, living above board?”
I raised an eyebrow, “No” I laughed. He chuckled.
“Really? You can’t picture it at all love?”
“I mean I know it sounds bad, but we’re so good at being a criminals it’s all we’ve really ever known. What else would we be good at?” I said laughing.
“You never know C, I could be a dab hand at something like decorating or cooking for all we know”
“You lost me at the cooking bit Reg, there is no way that will ever happen. I’m lucky to have a house to come home to after some of your kitchen fiascos”.
This made us both laugh, it was no secret that Reggie wasn’t the most domestic person in the world, he did try though bless him.
“Seriously though C, it’s you I feel for. I mean how many times have you been brought in for questioning about something me or Ron’s done? The last time it was hitting 26 hours they had you in that interrogation room. I don’t want that type of life for you, you deserve better than that” he was being completely sincere, he hated it when I was brought in for questioning and felt the stress it put me under when we started dating was his fault.
I cope with it better now mind you, they say practise makes perfect don’t they? I guess you could call me an expert at playing the ‘innocent housewife’ act, it’s not something I am proud of right enough. Obviously I didn’t spend my childhood dreaming of growing up to be a business woman who broke the law to get to where she is, I certainly didn’t dream of falling in love with a criminal, a man who I know I would do anything for, anything to keep him by my side even if it meant lying under oath.
A light crashing noise outside brought me out of my train of thought, I looked at Reggie sitting next to me, my eyes widened. He got up sharply from the couch, picking his gun up from the table situated beside us, and made his way to the kitchen to go and see who was there, it sounded like the gate out the back of our house.
“I swear to god if that’s Albie, I’m going to go crazy, he is not camping out on this sofa and eating all our food for days on end again”
There was an uncertain silence, surely if it was Albie he would of said so by now right? Or if it was Ron he would of grunted a “guess who” with a light chuckle like he always does.
“Babe? who is it?” I said after a few seconds. Still nothing. I was starting to get worried. I stood up slowly and carefully walked down along the hallway to the kitchen. Reggie was aware of my presence, he spoke softly “I don’t want you to panic okay love? I want you to remain absolutely calm”
Now I was really freaking out. What was there to panic about? should I be panicking? Why was I to remain calm? That horrible distant sickly pain appeared in my stomach and all these thoughts started rushing through my mind. Before I even had time to rationalise, there was a firm knock at the back door.
Reggie opened it to reveal a sea of uniformed men. I recognised the one at the front, the chief so to speak, it was none other than Nipper Read, the very man responsible for questioning me for hours on end. He smirked at me as he coolly announced “Reginald Kray, you are under arrest on suspicion of protection racketeering, you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”
My whole body went numb. It felt like the blood inside me had went ice cold. I felt completely powerless, not to mention the pain in my heart. I felt a lump in my throat like I had dry swallowed a large pill, that’s when the tears started flooding down my face.
I grabbed Reggie’s hand pulling him towards me and wrapping my arms around his neck. He held me for what felt like only seconds, but was probably much longer, running his hand through my hair as I cried, he lowered his head to my ear and said “everything’s going to be okay Carmen, I promise”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep Kray” snapped Nipper Read behind us. Nor I or Reggie batted an eyelid, he wasn’t worth it.
“I love you so much, okay baby? We’ll be back together soon” he said quitely into my ear.
“I love you so much” I said through shaky breaths. He looked down into my eyes before pressing a soft kiss against my forehead.
I couldn’t let go of him, until they were physically pulling him away from me. I stood at the back door with my hand over my mouth as they led him away, the cold winter air blew against my face causing me to shiver but nothing compared to the pain I felt in my chest. I watched as they put him in the police car, I knew then I had to be strong. I’m not like the other girlfriends, I knew what I was getting myself into from the very beginning. It was time to call the family lawyer, practise my “I don’t know what you’re talking about officer” act and make sure I got Reg out of there as soon as possible. He didn’t belong in a prison cell, there was only one placed my Reggie belonged, and it was at home with me.