Two-Faced (34 page)

Telling him to keep an eye on the first one, Steve disconnected the call.

Getting no answer at Laura’s house, Mia waited on the step for a good ten minutes before it occurred to her that the bitch was probably hiding out at Stu’s. So she set off for there instead – just as Steve’s car rolled up silently alongside Robbo’s.

After pointing her out, Robbo grinned when Steve tossed a little bag through the window and told him to disappear. Reversing with a squeal of tyre rubber, he did a quick three-point turn and roared off to get to his crack pipe, leaving Steve and Vern to deal with Mia.

As she took short cuts into Rusholme, Mia didn’t notice Steve’s car following at a distance. But when she decided to cut down a long alley that ran between two blocks of terraced houses, she soon realised her mistake. Halfway down, she stopped in her tracks when the car pulled across the other end, effectively blocking it off. Heart in her mouth when Vern stared out at her, she turned, all set to run back the way she’d come. But Steve was right behind her.

‘Going somewhere?’ A snake-like smile on his lips, he put his arms around her – looking, to anyone who might be watching from any of the overlooking windows, like someone greeting their lover.

‘
Ow!
’ Mia cried, twisting her ankle on the cobbles when he jerked her tight up against him. ‘Stop it, Steve – you’re hurting me.’

‘We’ve got unfinished business,’ he told her, his eyes laughing maliciously as he peered down into hers.

‘No, we haven’t,’ she retorted, trying to push him away, angry that he seemed to think he could still behave as if they were together. ‘We’re finished, Steve, so just leave me alone, or I swear I’ll tell the police.’

As soon as the words were out, she knew she’d made a huge mistake.

Prodding her in the stomach with the tip of the blade he’d pulled out of his pocket, Steve increased his grip on her, and whispered, ‘Scream, and you’ll be dead in two seconds. Now, put your arm around me, and act like you love me.’

‘Please don’t,’ she gasped, finding it hard to breathe now. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have threatened you. But I can’t keep seeing you, Steve. I’ve got to stay clean or I’ll lose everything.’

‘You really thought you could finish with me and I’d just walk away?’ he replied softly. ‘After the money I’ve spent on you?’

‘If it’s about the money, I’ll pay you back,’ Mia promised, tears of pain and fear glistening in her eyes. ‘But please just let me go home.’

‘Hasn’t it sunk in yet that I
own
you?’ Steve informed her coldly. ‘I bought you, so you’re mine until
I
say different. Now,
move
!’

Jelly legs barely supporting her, Mia stumbled up the alley with his steel-band arm around her waist. Tears streaming down her cheeks now, she flashed desperate glances up at the windows of the houses, praying that somebody would notice what was happening and call the police.

Reaching the car, Steve shoved her onto the back seat and leapt in beside her.

‘Where are you taking me?’ she asked, sounding as scared as she felt when Vern centrally locked the doors and set off.

Reaching out, Steve wiped her tears with the back of his finger. ‘Shhh . . .’

Licking her lips nervously, Mia glanced at him. He seemed to be calming down, but knowing how quickly his moods changed she figured she should probably try to win him round now, while he wasn’t as agitated.

‘Steve,’ she murmured, using the little-girl voice she always used when he’d given her a gift or she was hinting about something she wanted. ‘I’m sorry for saying we should call it quits. I wasn’t thinking straight. It was just all that stuff in the papers, it did my head in. And the police . . . they kept on and on at me, wanting to know who my dealer was. I didn’t tell them anything, I swear, but they said they’d be watching me from now on, so I thought it would be fairer if I stopped seeing you – to keep you out of it. But I didn’t mean to hurt you – you do know that, don’t you? You know I still love you.’

Holding her gaze the whole time she was speaking, Steve had the faintest of smiles on his lips. ‘Finished?’ he asked when she’d stopped.

Nodding, she fiddled nervously with her fingers. The back-handed slap came out of nowhere, making her eyes water and her nose bleed.

Seizing her by the throat, Steve dragged her towards him so that their faces were less than an inch apart and, gritted teeth bared, hissed, ‘What you seem to have forgotten, you lying whore, is that I
saw
the paper, and I know you wormed your way out of it by saying it wasn’t you. Which means that you’re
not
being watched by the police, so I’m not in any danger –
am
I?’

‘I thought you were,’ she sobbed. ‘Honest, Steve, I was so paranoid, I thought I was being followed all over the place, and I was desperate not to land you in any trouble. You don’t know what it’s been like for me these past few weeks, not to be able to see you or talk to you.’

‘Well, you’re seeing me and talking to me now,’ Steve reminded her coldly. ‘But all you’ve done so far is lie, so I suggest you shut your mouth and save your energy.’

Slumping back in the seat when he released her, Mia dabbed at her bloody nose with her sleeve. She was
really
scared now. He’d always warned her not to lie, and now he’d caught her out he would definitely punish her. And going by experience, whatever he did was bound to be far worse than the last time.

After pulling into the yard at the back of the club a short time later, Vern unlocked the doors and marched Mia inside. Right behind them, Steve took a set of keys out of his pocket and unlocked an internal door, pushing Mia ahead of him up the narrow staircase beyond.

This was only the second time Mia had been up to the first floor of the club, but she’d felt so disorientated the last time that she only had a vague recollection of the bedroom she’d been in and of these stairs which had led her back down to the club. She hadn’t noticed if there were any more rooms up here, but when she reached the top of the stairs now she saw a long corridor with several closed doors leading off it.

Opening the first door now, Steve flicked the light on and threw Mia inside. She landed heavily on the bed and scrambled to sit up as he followed her in. Edging nervously back towards the headboard as he came towards her, she said, ‘Look, I know you’re going to hit me, but please don’t do anything stupid . . . I’ve still got to go to work, and you left me with some really bad bruises last time . . . I-I’ve got loads of jobs coming up, and people will start asking questions.’

‘Quit . . . fucking . . .
whining
,’ Steve said – slowly, as if the sound of her voice was jangling his nerve endings.

‘Please, Steve,’ she whimpered, the blood draining from her face when he took a loaded syringe out of a box. ‘My m-mum will probably call the police if I’m not home soon . . . Steve, please . . .
PLEASE
 . . .’

Steve punched her in the face, straddled her and gripped her arm firmly, squeezing it to bring up the vein. He didn’t have time to waste on fooling her into smoking the white heroin that she’d thought was coke the last time. Anyway, he wanted her good and out of it, and this was the only way to guarantee how much went into her system.

‘I gave you everything,’ he told her quietly as he calmly sank the needle into her vein. ‘And you took it all as if you’d
earned
it. And now you think you can discard me like a piece of shit and go back to your own life as if I don’t exist? I don’t think so! I’m not finished with you, sweetheart. I’ve got big plans for you. You want to be a
star
 . . . ? Well, as of tonight, Miss Mia I’m-a-fucking-supermodel Delaney, that’s exactly what you’re going to be!’

21

When there was no sign of Mia after a couple of hours Kim began to get nervous. Pacing the floor, she ran to the window every time somebody walked past outside. But it was never her. By five, when Mia still hadn’t returned and her phone had been switched off for hours, Kim’s nervousness turned to anger, and she marched down to Laura’s house, thinking that they’d probably kissed and made up and Mia was busy blabbing all their secrets to the back-stabbing cow.

But Laura hadn’t seen Mia. According to her mum, she and Laura had been out all day, so nobody would have been in when she’d called round.

Letting Sammy in when he arrived a little later, Kim felt sick as she prepared to deliver the bad news. But Sammy had news of his own, and he started talking first.

‘Where’s my girl? I’ve got something to tell her, and she is going to
love
it.’ Flopping down onto the couch, he smiled up at Kim expectantly.

Perching on her chair, she said, ‘She’s, er, not here. She nipped out earlier, and—’

‘Oh, well, let’s hope she’s back soon, because I can’t wait to see her face when she hears this,’ Sammy jumped back in. ‘Have you heard of Blaze Cosmetics?’

Vaguely remembering having seen an advert in one of her magazines, Kim nodded. ‘I think so.’

‘New American company,’ Sammy went on excitedly. ‘All set to smash onto the market and give Max Factor and Rimmel a run for their money. Well, I had a call from them when I got to the office this morning . . . Seems they’re holding auditions to find the face for their UK campaign, and they’ve invited
Mia
along! So what do you think about
that
?’

‘It’s brilliant,’ Kim said, still feeling sick. ‘But I think we might have a problem.’

‘
Oh?
’ Sammy’s eyebrows crept together. Everything had been fine when he’d dropped Kim and her daughters off that morning, so he didn’t see how there could be a problem now.

Taking a deep breath, Kim briefly explained what had happened.

‘You’re joking!’ he groaned. ‘Have you spoken to Laura? You know what these girls are like – worst of enemies one minute, best of friends the next.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ Kim said. ‘But she’s been out with her mum all day. And Kath’s not the kind to lie, so I know it’s true.’ Exhaling loudly now, she said, ‘To be honest, I don’t think Mia had any intention of going there in the first place. I think she only said it so she could get out of the house without me suspecting her. I reckon she’s gone back to
him
.’

‘Surely not,’ Sammy murmured disappointedly. ‘Not after everything we’ve done to get her back on track.’

‘Oh, she won’t be bothered about us,’ Kim told him bluntly. ‘She’ll only be thinking about herself – as usual.’

‘But she seemed so positive about getting back to work. I can’t believe she’d throw it all away again.’

‘
I
can. Anyhow, knowing her, she won’t think she’s throwing anything away. She’ll come waltzing back in when she’s ready, thinking everything’s hunky-dory.’

Sammy shook his head and glanced at his watch. ‘Well, it’s almost seven now. If she’s not back by ten, maybe we should think about calling the police and reporting her missing?’

‘They won’t do nothing,’ Kim told him gloomily. ‘They’ll just say she’s an adult, and she’s entitled to leave if she wants to.’

‘Not if we tell them we have genuine concerns for her safety,’ Sammy pointed out logically. ‘Surely if they knew the kind of danger she might be facing they’d have to look for her.’

‘And you don’t think they might want details?’ Kim asked pointedly, wondering why it was that really intelligent people like Sammy seemed to have no common sense.

‘Ah . . . in which case, it wouldn’t be long before they realised that it
had
been her in those photographs, and we’d be right back where we started.’

‘Exactly.’ Wringing her hands in a gesture of hopelessness, Kim said, ‘Anything we do will just make it worse. We don’t know where Steve hangs out, so we can’t go looking for her there. And even if we did manage to find her, the chances are she’d tell us to bugger off. We’ve got to face it . . . if she wants to be with him, we don’t stand a cat in hell’s chance of getting her away until she wants to.’

‘But he beat her black and blue,’ Sammy reminded her worriedly. ‘And what about all that stuff she said about never going back to him?’

A little ashamed to have to admit it, Kim said, ‘She’s greedy, Sammy. She likes money, and he’s
got
money. She won’t walk away from that just because they’ve had a fight. Anyway, she probably thinks she’s punished him enough just by staying away for so long.’ Giving a derisive snort now, she added, ‘Knowing her, she’ll have made him grovel, and he’ll have bunged a load of cash at her, and she’ll be shopping as we speak.’

‘But why would she take money from that animal when she knows she’ll be earning plenty of her own before too long?’

‘Because she don’t like waiting. When she wants something, she wants it
now
. You ought to know; you’ve seen her in action enough times.’

‘So we do nothing?’

‘Nothing we
can
do, except wait till she comes back. And that’s
if
she comes back, ’cos I’ve got a feeling she’s thinking we’ve forced her to choose between him and us.’

‘Well, if you’re right I hope she comes to her senses soon,’ Sammy said worriedly. ‘We’ve got several contracts in hand, and I’d hate to have to cancel them. But if we can’t get hold of her I’ll have no option.’

‘Are they important?’ Kim asked.

‘They’re
all
important,’ Sammy told her. ‘But I thought I’d start her off with a couple of the less taxing ones, to see how she coped before easing her back into the more high-profile things that are in the pipeline. This Blaze thing couldn’t have come at a worse time, but it was too good an opportunity to turn down.’ He sighed. ‘It’s my own fault. I should have said something when I first heard about it, because it might have made her think twice about taking off. But I didn’t want to build her hopes up in case it didn’t come to anything.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Kim asked. ‘I thought you said they only rang this morning.’

‘Yes, to invite her to audition,’ Sammy replied. ‘But they first contacted me a couple of weeks back, asking to see her portfolio, after their scout spotted her – sorry,
Michelle
– in the
Evening News
.’