Ruthless (44 page)

And then they saw the flashing blue lights and heard the sirens. The police had arrived.

‘Fuck it,’ said Max tiredly. ‘The cavalry’s here.’

108

Annie didn’t remember going home. All she knew was that she woke up one morning in her own bed, and her head hurt like hell, her eyes felt like they’d been scrubbed with Brillo pads, and her mouth was dry as the Gobi desert.

‘What the . . .’ she moaned, turning on to her back, her eyes flickering open and then instantly closing again as the sunlight pouring through the window scoured her retinas.

Fumbling, barely awake, she sat up, forced her aching eyes open and squinted around her. Yes, she was home. And she was – as usual – alone. And . . . oh now she was going to be sick. She stumbled from the bed and went to the bathroom and threw up. Then, groaning, she cleaned her teeth, rinsed her mouth, took two paracetamol out of the medicine cabinet and tossed them down with a glass of water, and tried not to look at the mess in the mirror. She failed. There was a large bump on her brow. The cosh. She fell back into bed, and was soon asleep again.

‘Is she going to be OK?’ asked Layla anxiously.

‘She had a skinful, that’s all. She’ll be fine,’ said Max.

They were in the drawing room, Layla sitting on the sofa, Max pacing up and down.

‘That bastard
forced
booze down her,’ said Layla. ‘She
never
drinks. She hates it. She’s not used to it.’

‘Yeah, well, he won’t be doing that to anyone else.’

Layla watched her father stalking around like a caged tiger. She’d seen a different Max these past few days, a tough and terrifying Max.
Thank God he’s on my side,
she thought. She wouldn’t ever want to be one of Max Carter’s enemies.

‘I thought we’d lost her,’ said Layla in a small voice. ‘Maybe we should have taken her to hospital? That bump on her head . . .’

‘The police doctor said she was OK,’ said Max.

Layla fidgeted uneasily. ‘I feel bad, you know.’

Max stopped pacing. ‘About what?’

‘When you two split up. Divorced. I was so rotten to her.’

‘Ah, forget it.’

‘Sometimes it seemed as though she didn’t love me. She never
showed
it much.’

Max looked down at her in surprise. He shrugged. ‘Of course she loves you, don’t be daft.’ He paused. ‘You know what? She was never very close to her own mother, Connie. That old bag hated her. Loved Ruthie, but hated Annie. So she never got any hugs or any “I love you” off her own mother. Maybe that just seems normal to her.’

Layla listened closely to this. ‘Perhaps that’s it,’ she said.

‘Yeah, I’m sure of it,’ said Max.

‘I thought we were done for when the police showed up,’ she said.

Me too,
he thought.

In fact it had all turned out better than expected. Big Don Callaghan had taken the guns and night sights, so there was no evidence that Max and Steve were involved in anything but an honest and unarmed mission to get Annie out of trouble. All in all, it had worked out well. There had been a trip to the station, and a long night of interviews and making statements while Annie was checked over. But that was it. No charges, nothing.

‘About Alberto. . .’ she said.

‘Yeah, what?’

‘Where would he go, do you think?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ said Max.

109

Annie woke again, just before four in the afternoon. Her head was still thumping, but the sick queasy sensation had passed. She crawled from the bed with an effort, bundled her hair up in a clip and took a long, hot shower. Then she cleaned her teeth again, brushed out her hair, and paused beside her pile of clothes on the chair. She bent, fumbled in her jacket pocket – and there it was: Redmond’s cross. She
hadn’t
dreamed it.

She took it back over to the bed with her, tucked it under her pillow. Then she fell across the bed again, and went back to sleep.

When she next woke up it was to find Max over by the window turning on a small table lamp and pulling the curtains closed against the dark night sky. She glanced at the clock. Eleven thirty. She’d slept right through the day and now she felt . . . mostly better.

He turned back to the bed and saw her watching him. The door between their adjoining bedrooms was still, she saw, lying on the carpet.

‘Hi,’ he said, and came and sat down on the bed.

She closed her eyes, opened them again. ‘Did all that really happen?’

‘It happened. But it’s over. You’re home.’

‘Where’s Layla?’

‘She’s here. She’s safe.’

‘Is Paul OK? And Bri?’

‘They’re fine.’

‘Alberto?’

‘Gone.’

Annie stared at him. ‘Gone? Gone where?’

‘Over the hills and far away.’

Annie was silent, watching his face. ‘He didn’t come back with us?’

‘No. He didn’t.’

She’d more or less passed out once the police arrived on the scene. Apart from a few lucid moments at the station, she’d missed most of what went on. Now she felt sadness grip her at the thought of never seeing Alberto again. But he’d got away, that was all that mattered. ‘He’s given them the slip then.’

‘Them?’

‘The Feds.’

‘Jesus, you sound just like a Mafia widow.’

‘Well, that’s what I am. Did you two
plan
it?’

‘What do you think?’

‘I think you did.’ Annie shook her head slowly. ‘Talk about hidden agendas. Alberto wanted out, and you wanted to help him because it would get him away from me. Right?’

‘That’s the way it’s worked out,’ said Max.

Annie’s mouth curved in a tired smile. ‘You think you’re so smart. But I’m telling you, you’ve read this
so
wrong.’

‘Oh? Enlighten me then.’

‘You’ve been watching the wrong woman. I
told
you it was someone else, not me. Didn’t I?’

‘You did.’

‘Then why didn’t you believe me?’ she said almost sadly. ‘Why do you
never
believe me?’

Max stared into her eyes. ‘You really want to know?’

‘Yes. I really do.’

He shrugged, frowned. ‘Because Alberto is Constantine’s double. And because you went with Constantine when you should have waited for me. Searched for me. Not just given me up for dead.’

Annie slumped back on the pillows.

‘You never forgave me for that, did you?’

‘I tried to. I wanted to. I couldn’t. And then you kept finding excuses to nip across to America. Seeing
him
every time you were there.’

‘My stepson.’

‘Constantine’s double.’

‘Oh, Max.’

‘Don’t “Oh, Max” me. What the hell was I supposed to think?’

‘You were supposed to trust me,’ said Annie. ‘I was your
wife
.’

‘Women love whoever they’re with.’

‘
What?
How can you say that?’

‘Fuck’s sake, my own mother did. She played around all the time. Led my old dad a dog’s life.’ Max got to his feet and started pacing.

Annie just sat there and stared at him in silence. He’d never told her that before. And it explained so much.

‘I didn’t know that,’ she said at last.

‘Well, now you do.’

‘I was never interested in Alberto, Max. Not like that. And
he
was interested in someone else entirely.’

‘OK then. Come on. Tell me. Who?’ Max came back to the bed, sat down again.

Annie took a breath and braced herself for the fallout. ‘Layla.’

Max’s face froze. ‘What?’

‘She’s in love with him. I think she has been for years.’

‘What?
’

‘This is going to break her in two, him just taking off like that.’

Max stared at her, assimilating the facts. Coming back to the house yesterday with Layla, Alberto taking her arm, her hissing
don’t touch me
, then the two of them arguing in the car. Shit! Annie was right. He could see it now.

‘I’m going to kill that cocky bastard,’ said Max.

‘Too late,’ said Annie. ‘He’s gone. And I bet even you don’t know where his final destination is.’

‘No. But if I did, straight up, I would go there right now and blow his fucking brains out. You don’t think that they’ve . . .’

Annie tried hard to suppress the smile, she really did. It tickled her greatly to see Max Carter, feared gang lord and general hard case, behaving exactly as any doting father would on hearing the news that his daughter wasn’t his innocent little girl any more.

‘What? That they’ve made love? Yes, I think they most probably have.’

Max looked as if he was about to implode.

‘Well thank God he
has
gone. She can’t go getting involved with a freaking
Mafia
boss, is she crazy? And what about the age gap?’

‘The age gap’s about eighteen years. And
our
age gap is about eleven, which isn’t so very different.’

Max had a horrible thought. ‘You don’t think he’s knocked her up, do you?’

‘Oh God,’ sighed Annie, leaning back on the pillows.

‘What?
What?
Well he could have. Couldn’t he? That
does
happen.’

‘I doubt that she’s pregnant.’
And if she was, she’d give you a grandchild you’d dote on forever,
thought Annie.
Would that be so terrible?

‘Thank Christ for that.’

‘I think Alberto would have been careful.’

‘Don’t! Don’t even go there.’ Max was furious.

‘Max.’ She caught his hand.

‘What?’ he snapped.

‘Please – don’t have a go at her. She’s heartbroken as it is. She was already in bits over losing her friend, Precious. She’s had enough. Don’t hurt her any more.’

And there’s Layla downstairs, wondering if her mother loves her,
he thought.

His little girl, Layla. Now she was a woman. And she had chosen Alberto, but he’d run out on her. Annie was right. Layla would need them both to be strong for her.

He leaned over and kissed his ex-wife briefly on the lips. ‘Just rest now,’ he said, and went to the door on to the landing. When he opened it, Layla was standing there.

110

‘Can I see her?’ she asked her father.

Max glanced back at Annie, who was smiling.

‘Don’t tire her out, that’s all,’ he warned, kissing Layla’s cheek and going off downstairs.

Annie opened her arms. Layla hesitated, then ran across the room and flung herself on to the bed, hugging her mother fiercely.

‘I love you, Mum,’ she said, and started to cry.

‘Hey, don’t. Don’t! What’s all this for?’ said Annie, feeling tearful too. She kissed Layla, gathered her into her arms. ‘Shh, don’t cry.’

‘I thought I’d lost you!’ Layla sobbed. ‘I’ve been such a complete cow to you ever since you split with Dad, and I thought I’d lost you, that it was too late, that it would never be all right between us.’

‘It
is
all right between us.’ Annie pushed Layla back a little. ‘Look. I’m here and I’m fine. See?’

Layla wiped shakily at her eyes. Her face was soaked with tears.

‘I’ve never been so frightened in my entire life,’ she said, shivering as she thought of it all. ‘I don’t know how you got through it, I really don’t.’

‘Well, I did. And so did you,’ said Annie, smoothing back her daughter’s hair with loving hands and smiling into her eyes. ‘I like your hair down like this, it suits you. And that lipstick’s nice, what shade is that?’

‘Hot pink. I suppose it’s all over my face now, and I bet my mascara’s shot.’

‘Just a bit,’ said Annie.

Layla managed a laugh at that. She scooped a tissue from the side table and tried to compose herself. ‘I’m such a wimp,’ she sniffed, looking at Annie lying there, who had been through hell but seemed so composed. Her mother was strong as a rock, she admired her so much.

‘Dad told you about Alberto?’ she asked.

‘Yeah. He did.’

Layla clutched at her mother’s hand. ‘I don’t know if I can stand it. Him being gone. I really don’t.’

Annie said nothing as Layla started to cry again.

‘I’m in love with him, Mum,’ she managed to get out.

‘I know.’ Annie pulled her back into her arms and held her tight as she sobbed.

Abruptly, Layla pushed herself free. ‘You
know
?’

‘Honey, it was obvious.’

Layla wiped her eyes. ‘I’m never going to see him again. Am I?’

Annie compressed her lips, shook her head slowly. ‘No. None of us are.’

‘Only,’ Layla gulped, ‘I don’t see how I can live without him.’

Annie hugged her again.

‘You’ll live without him,’ she murmured against Layla’s brow. ‘You can do it. And you know why you can do it?’

Layla shook her head.

‘Because you have to.’ Annie wished she could take Layla’s pain away, but she couldn’t. She was going to have to work through this, learn to bear it. ‘I’m still here, and so’s your dad.’

But he’ll be going soon.

Annie didn’t say it. She didn’t even want to
think
it. But she knew that it was true.

Layla’s eyes drifted over to the connecting door lying there on the carpet. She started to smile. ‘Dad, right?’ she said, looking back at Annie.

‘Got it in one.’

‘Do you think you and he . . .?’ Layla hardly dared hope.

‘No. I don’t.’

111

The police called by a couple of days later.

‘Just a courtesy call,’ said DCI Hunter, when he and Annie were settled in the study at the front of the house. From her seat behind the leather-bound desk Annie could see out of the window. The black van that had been there for weeks was now gone.

‘Where’s DI Duggan?’ asked Annie.

‘Other duties. I thought I’d drop by to check that you’re OK,’ he said.

‘As you can see, I’m fine.’

‘What was it all about?’

‘I’ve no idea.’

Hunter looked at her sceptically. She looked right back at him. He was a handsome man, but so dour-faced.

‘Tell me something,’ said Annie.

‘Go on.’