‘You all right?’ he managed to get out.
He looked down and Daisy was staring up at him. She gulped twice: nodded.
‘Sure? No damage?’
Daisy shook her head. ‘You’re heavy,’ she pointed out.
Rob eased himself to his feet, slipped his gun back into its holster inside his jacket, and pulled her upright.
‘You going to pass out?’ he asked. He felt pretty shaken up himself. Daisy could be dead now if he hadn’t happened to see that fucker coming.
Daisy took a huge breath. Shook her head again.
‘He was trying to kill me,’ she said. ‘Wasn’t he?’
You and yours,
thought Rob.
I’ll tear the heart out of every one of you.
Despite the fact they had Bianca, Vittore was on the warpath. He’d sent his crew out to follow Kit’s family, to find a chink in their armour and pierce it if they could. That bastard on the bike must have been watching them all day, just waiting his chance.
‘Come on,’ he said, bundling Daisy back into the car. ‘Let’s get you out of here.’
101
Kit was resting at home. When Ruby went to his house and let herself in with a spare key, he was sitting up in bed, staring pensively out of the window.
‘Hi,’ she said, feeling almost shy.
‘Oh.’ He looked round, saw it was her. ‘It’s you.’
‘Yep, me again,’ she said brightly, sitting down at his bedside. ‘How you feeling?’
‘All right.’ Kit lay his head back against the pillow.
‘You looked as though you were deep in thought,’ said Ruby when the silence fell between them, same as it always did. And in that silence she thought,
He hates me, he will always hate me, because he thinks I abandoned him. This is the way it will always be between us.
It broke her heart in a thousand pieces, to think that he would never come to terms with the past, that he would never forgive her.
‘I was deep in thought,’ said Kit, closing his eyes wearily. ‘I was thinking what a royal fuck-up I’ve made of my life.’
‘Meaning?’
His eyes opened. He turned his head and looked at her. ‘Meaning I killed Tito for murdering Gilda and then Michael. I thought I was doing the right thing, the only thing I could do. But turns out Tito wasn’t the one I was after. Whoever killed Michael is still out there, free as a bird.’
Ruby gulped, thinking of Thomas. God, she’d been so stupid, getting involved with him.
‘He was Bianca’s brother. And I killed him,’ said Kit.
‘Kit, she very nearly killed you.’
He shrugged, then winced.
‘She didn’t, though. She pulled to the left. Like the rabbit.’
‘The what?’
‘Tito took her rabbit shooting when she was young, but she couldn’t do it. Thought of all the baby bunnies back at home: what if she killed their mother and they starved to death?’ He gave a wry smile. ‘That’s what she did with me. She wanted to kill me, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. But you know what? Deep down, I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me for offing Tito. I really don’t. How could she? So I’ve fucked it all up. Everything.’
Ruby was silent for a moment. Then she said: ‘Once, I thought I’d done the same. Fucked my entire life up.’
‘Yeah, when?’ He gave her a cynical stare. ‘Big successful business lady, that’s you.’
‘That might be me now, but back in the war it was all different. I fell in love with a rotten bastard and he knocked me up.’
Kit’s eyes hardened. ‘My dear late and unlamented old dad, eh? Cornelius Bray.’
‘When I lost you, and Daisy . . . I felt as if I might as well be dead. That there was no future, no hope.’
‘Yeah, yeah.’ Kit looked unimpressed.
‘But I survived it. I found Daisy, and then I found you too,’ said Ruby.
Now Kit was staring at her. ‘You still glad you did? Find me, I mean? Knowing what I am, that after you chucked me on the scrapheap . . .’
‘I never did that. You were taken from me, I’ve told you.’
‘After that, I got shoved around kids’ homes and then on the streets and then into being a bone-breaker for Michael. Yeah, I might have wedge in my pocket now. I might have property portfolios and shares in hotels and I might lunch at the Ivy along with the nobs and the celebs, but I’m still a bone-breaker – that’s what you made me, those are my roots. Right down deep that’s still what I am, even if I pay other people to do the dirty jobs now. I’m a heavy, knocking heads together, scaring the shit out of people to make a living.’
Ruby leaned forward and grabbed his hand. She was so sick of this. ‘Kit,
I found you
,’ she said fiercely. ‘And I am glad, of
course
I’m glad. You’re my son and I love you. Whether or not you ever love me, it doesn’t matter.
I love you.
You’re so like me, you even look like me. You’re passionate, sensitive, impulsive, clever. You’re not just a bone-breaker. You’re not just a thug. Not you.’
Kit was watching his mother’s face intently. ‘What about Daise? Who’s she take after, eh? Cornelius Bray?’
‘She’s got his looks,’ shrugged Ruby, leaning back. ‘And his intelligence. But you think you’re scarred by what happened to you in your childhood? Well, Daisy is too. She may have had a privileged upbringing, but Cornelius was never there except to throw money at her, and for Vanessa I imagine it was like getting the wrong Christmas present. Vanessa wanted a quiet little girl. Daisy? She’s not quiet. She’s bright, robust and assertive. For Vanessa, I think Daisy came as a bit of a shock.’
‘She’s been pretty wild in the past,’ said Kit, unable to suppress a slight smile.
‘Those days are behind her. Having the twins settled her right down, there’s no doubt about that. It’s sheer hell for her, you know, being separated from them. Still, she’s a work in progress.’ Ruby squeezed Kit’s hand. ‘We all are, son.’
Kit’s eyes grew cold and he snatched his hand away. ‘Don’t call me that.’
Ruby shrank back. ‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘It’s what you are.’
‘Yeah. A fact you conveniently forgot for most of my lifetime.’
‘I never forgot it.
Never
.’ Ruby stared at his face, closed off with anger. ‘I . . . I went to see your uncle Joe yesterday.’
‘That wife of his! What a slapper. My God, I thought she was going eat Rob or me whole.’ Then Kit sobered. ‘It’s good you went, anyway. He’s pretty rough.’
‘He’s running out of time fast,’ said Ruby sadly. Then she brightened. ‘But you’re not. You’re on the mend.’
‘Yeah, with my fucked-up life,’ said Kit.
‘Don’t give up yet,’ said Ruby. And then she told him what Thomas had told her about Bianca.
102
Reg drove Ruby home. There had been such sadness, such awful stress lately that she felt wrung-out, ready to crumble. She thought of the horror of nearly losing Kit; Joe, who was on his way out of this world; of Michael, who was gone, never to return; and Thomas Knox who had seduced her utterly, then ruined everything.
Exhausted, she leaned back against the soft leather upholstery and longed for sanity to be restored, to have nothing to concern her other than how many pairs of XL tights Darkes should stock and whether she ought to be changing her suppliers for skirting material, cutting herself a better deal.
She had been teetering on the edge of the criminal abyss for years, and she had always been careful not to get involved; but how could she not be? Kit was her blood, her precious boy. Whatever he did, whatever trouble he was in, she had to support him.
She thought of Daisy. Daisy who would never fit into shop work of any kind, whose upbringing worked against her just as much as Kit’s did. Even now she was a mother, Daisy still seemed to be floating around, restless, looking for a direction in life. Ruby felt a stab of anxiety pierce her. Right now Daisy was out there somewhere with Rob, trying to find out who killed Michael. What if working with Rob, seeing that side of life, that dark, threatening, gutter side, drew her in, stimulated something in her?
Ruby sat up, told herself she was letting her imagination run riot. What she needed was a hot bath, a warm bed. The events of the last few weeks had left her shattered. She needed to rest, restore her strength. Then she could think about how to get them all back to some sort of normality. And . . .
Shouldn’t there be two men on the gate?
Ruby felt a bolt of unease shoot from her feet to the top of her head. Her heartbeat quickened.
‘Reg, stop,’ she said, instantly alarmed.
Reg didn’t answer. He kept on driving, right up to the house.
‘Reg!’ Ruby reached forward and tapped his shoulder. ‘There was no one on the gate. Where are they?’
Reg glanced sideways; there was no question that he’d heard her. Then he looked stonily ahead.
He brought the Mercedes to a halt outside the front door. In the light from the porch, she could see a group of men standing there. Big men in black coats.
Oh no.
Ruby lunged across the seat and threw open the far door, getting ready to run. But someone got to it before she could, held it wide open. It was Fabio Danieri, and his smile was mocking.
Ruby looked at Reg. For a moment her eyes burned into his in the rear-view mirror, then he turned his face away. She saw a dull brick-red flush creep up from his neck to his cheeks. Reg had betrayed her. Of all people,
Reg
.
‘Welcome home, Miss Darke,’ said Fabio, leaning in with a manic little laugh. ‘Sadly, you won’t be stopping. In fact, I don’t know when you’ll be coming home. Or should I say
if
?’
The other door opened, and Vittore Danieri got in and sat beside her. Ruby shrank back.
‘Why don’t you just drive,’ Vittore told Reg. ‘I’ll direct you.’ He turned his dark vulpine gaze on Ruby. ‘Good evening, Miss Darke.’
Ruby said nothing. She was too terrified to say a word. Fabio piled in and both doors were quickly closed. Reg restarted the engine.
She could feel her pulse beating hard in her throat, almost choking off her air supply.
Jesus, they were taking her, they really were.
She thought of Kit, who still resented her, hated her for giving him up all those years ago. Her heart clenched as the bitter, hard pain of realization hit her full force. Kit would not pay to get her back. And if the Danieris wanted an exchange – her for Bianca – how would that work? Would he stand for it? She thought of Bianca by his bedside. Any fool could see that they were deeply in love. Would he really exchange his despised mother for the love of his life?
Answer: no.
Fabio leaned in and suddenly Ruby saw the knife in his hand, felt the horrifying prick of cold steel against her throat.
‘Now, Ruby Darke, you choose. Where shall I cut you first?’ he asked with a smile.
Over the frantic hammering of her pulse, Ruby could only hear Thomas’s last angry words to her: that if this feud went on there could be bits of Daisy sent through the post to her. Bits of the twins. A finger – hadn’t he said that? – a tongue . . .
But that wasn’t how it was going to be, not at all.
It wouldn’t be bits of Daisy or her kids.
It would be bits of
her.
103
Rob and Daisy arrived at the Marlow house an hour later, and the first thing they noticed was that there were no guards on the gate. Rob stopped the car and climbed out. It was dark, and Daisy was feeling jumpy. Barely an hour ago, someone had tried to kill her. She sat looking tense as Rob scouted around. Then he came back to the car and got in behind the wheel.
‘What’s going on? Why aren’t they there?’ asked Daisy.
‘Dunno,’ he said. Inwardly he was thinking,
Gates wide open, nobody here. Fuck, what’s going on?
He restarted the engine and drove on up to the house. They got out. The porch light was on, but the house was otherwise in darkness.
‘Mum should be home by now,’ said Daisy worriedly, opening the front door with her key and flipping on the hall lights. She started up the stairs.
‘Whoa!’ snapped Rob, grabbing her arm. ‘Hold on, Daise. Let me check.’
He went upstairs on his own, while Daisy loitered, pacing nervously, in the hallway. When Rob came back down, his face was grim.
‘Nobody up there,’ he said.
They hurried into the kitchen, the sitting room, flicking on lights as they went.
‘Mum!’ called Daisy.
Nobody answered. The house was empty.
‘She was visiting Kit at home today, right? She had no plans to go anywhere else afterwards – she didn’t tell you anything?’ asked Rob.
‘No.’
‘What the fuck . . . ?’ muttered Rob. He went over to the phone. The answer machine’s red light was blinking steadily. He pressed PLAY.
You have one new message. Press one to play your new message. Message reads . . .
‘This is a message for Kit Miller,’ said a low male voice. ‘Message is, we have your mother. So you better stop fucking around and hand Bianca back, or this is going to get ugly, OK?’
The voice went on, naming a time and location when the exchange should take place – Ruby for Bianca.
Daisy was staring at Rob with horror writ large all over her face. ‘My God,’ she whispered.
And then they heard it – a low continuous thumping.
‘What . . . ?’ Daisy was almost too shocked to speak.
‘It’s coming from outside,’ said Rob, and ran into the hall and back out through the front door. He paused on the step. Then he went and opened the boot of the car, took out a torch. ‘Over there . . .’ he said, and took off.
Daisy followed him and the thin beam of torchlight, stumbling in the dark, down beyond the lawn to the compost heaps and potting shed. The noise was coming from the shed. Rob pulled open the door, flashed the torch inside. There were two men lying on the floor, bound and gagged, amid the tools. The guards who should have been on the gate.
‘Fuck,’ said Rob.
He knelt down, freed the gag of one of the boys.
‘Where’s Reg?’ he demanded.
‘Well he ain’t here,’ said the man angrily. ‘They jumped us, Rob. I’m so fucking sorry. We heard Ruby’s car come in a while ago, maybe an hour, then it went out again straight away. Maybe Reg was driving, we don’t know. Maybe Reg was
in
on it. We don’t know that either. Fucking well get these ropes off us, will you?’