Blood money - Anne Cassidy

Sixteen year-olds, Jaz, Bobby and Jack find themselves caught up in a web of greed and deceit when they steal a bag containing thirty thousand pounds from the local mafia boss in their town, Mickey Duck. It all started when Mickey, raided by the police and taken for questioning, leaves his back door wide open . . . inside an ordinary-looking Nike bag has been forgotten about. Before they know what they've done, Jaz, and her mates are walking away with the money, with a plan to hide it in Jaz's gran's empty house and then split it three ways in six months' time. But when some of the money goes missing and Bobby and Jack start behaving oddly, Jaz begins to doubt their loyalty. Bobby is her childhood friend, but maybe he has secrets of his own, just like her, and Jack, who've been secretly going out together for months ... Jack is now receiving cryptic phone calls, spending more time on his own, away from Jaz. Then Bobby is blackmailed for a share of the money - 10,000. Jaz is convinced it's a hoax, worse still, that Bobby has made it up. Paranoid, she replaces some of the money with chopped up newspaper. It's not a hoax,and Bobby is badly beaten up. When he recovers, he tells Jack and Jaz that he wants nothing more to do with them, or the money, which just leaves the two of them. Their relationship is floundering under the strain of hiding the money, and a mistrust has crept up between them. Jaz finds out that Jack has another life, another girlfriend - he's been lying to her for years. Furious and betrayed, Jaz sets fire to the money in front of him - only it's not the real money - which is safely up in her gran's loft, ready for a rainy day. She's lost her friends, and her self-respect, she may as well buy herself some more . ..