Two-Faced (46 page)

Liam said, ‘Cheers, mate, but I can’t handle any more hysterics. I’ve had my head twisted up enough for one lifetime. I’d best just go see if I can find the car – try and get it back to Darren’s dad.’

‘This is a long, dark, ridiculously narrow road,’ Sammy cautioned. ‘Not the kind of place to be caught walking if two cars come along at the same time. Why not let me drive you – see if can spot the car together?’

‘Fair enough,’ Liam agreed. ‘But I’ll wait out here, if you don’t mind.’

Sammy nodded, and made his way back up to the house.

Kim and Michelle were waiting for him in the lounge, Kim in the armchair she’d claimed as her own, Michelle perched on the arm.

‘Shell’s going to go ahead with the presentation,’ Kim announced, looking more drained after just twenty minutes in Mia’s company than Sammy had seen her looking in weeks.

‘Are you sure?’ Sammy asked.

Nodding, Michelle said, ‘Mia’s not up to it, so I said I’d stand in for her one last time.’

‘Mia will be all right here with me,’ Kim went on resignedly. ‘I’ve sent her upstairs to sort herself out. We’ll have a drink when you’re gone – see if I can get her talking.’

‘Oh.’ Sammy looked crestfallen. ‘So you’re not coming?’

‘How can I?’ Kim asked, sounding wistful because she’d been looking forward to this all week. ‘You understand, don’t you, love?’ She looked up at Michelle now. ‘Mee might be the gobbiest, but she’s never been as strong as you.’

‘It’s all right,’ Michelle replied without hesitation. ‘She’s been through a lot; she needs her mum.’

Picking up on Michelle’s use of the words
her mum
, not
our
mum, Sammy hoped that this didn’t mark the end of the new relationship that had been developing between herself and Kim in Mia’s absence. Just as he hoped that it didn’t mark the end of her involvement in modelling, although he suspected that once Michelle handed what she saw as Mia’s rightful crown back to her she would fade back into the shadows from which she had only recently emerged. And that would be a tragedy, because she had so much potential. But he would talk to her about that on the journey tonight – see if he couldn’t persuade her that there was room for them both.

Eyes dark as she sucked on her cigarette, Kim had no doubt that she was in for a long, difficult night. But, not wanting to spoil it for Michelle and Sammy, she forced herself to smile as they got ready to leave. Looking Sammy over, she chuckled softly. ‘Bow tie’s crooked, Mr Bond.’

Tickled by the 007 reference, Sammy quickly straightened the neckwear. Then, returning her smile, not wanting to show how bitterly disappointed he was that she wouldn’t be sitting beside him tonight, he said goodbye.

Michelle turned to kiss her mum before following Sammy out and blushed when Kim held on to her hand and said quietly, ‘That Liam’s bloody
gorgeous
, and he thinks the world of you by the sound of it. So if you want to go for it,
go
for it. And don’t worry about Mia; I’ll make sure she stays out of it.’

Michelle hugged her and said, ‘Thanks, but we don’t really know each other, so it’s not worth upsetting Mia over it. Just let him go his way, and we’ll go ours.’

Mia shuffled miserably out of the bathroom as the front door closed behind Michelle. She went into the front bedroom and yanked the curtain aside to watch the bitch leave. She’d only agreed to let her sister do this last thing in her place because she knew that she was in no fit state to do it herself. But come tomorrow, she was putting herself
right
back in control. Starting with the bank account – and God help them if they had been helping themselves to her money in her absence. Michelle might have earned it, but only by default.

The car rolled slowly down to the gates. As the vivid red brake lights flared in the darkness, Mia’s heart lurched when she saw a figure slide out of the shadows and open the passenger-side door. As the car’s interior light came on, clearly highlighting Liam’s handsome face, she screamed, ‘
NOOOO!
’

She almost fell down the stairs in her haste to get out before they got too far and struggled when Kim rushed out to stop her. Far stronger and tougher than her daughter, Kim easily restrained Mia and pulled her into the lounge. Sitting her firmly down on the couch, she took a bottle of brandy from Sammy’s alcohol cabinet and poured large slugs into two glasses. She pushed one into Mia’s hand and told her to drink it and calm herself down.

‘I don’t
want
it!’ Mia yelled, hurling the glass at the wall. ‘I want
Liam
!’

Kim winced when the glass shattered on impact and sprayed shards across Sammy’s carpet. She smacked Mia sharply across the cheek. Then, taking her by the arms, she shook her, saying, ‘
He
don’t want
you
, so get over it!’

‘I hate you!’ Mia gasped, putting a hand to her cheek. ‘You lied! You said he’d gone.’

‘He did go,’ Kim replied truthfully, unaware that Liam had been waiting outside.

‘He didn’t,’ Mia sobbed. ‘I just saw him getting in the car with
her
!’ She yanked her arms free and tried to get up, her eyes wild with jealousy. ‘I’m going after them! Where is this charity thing? I’ll call a cab.’

‘Mia, just give it up, love,’ Kim told her, holding her in her seat. ‘He don’t want you, he wants her. You heard what he said out there.’

‘Why are you taking
her
side?’ Mia demanded, tears streaming from her eyes.

‘I’m not taking anyone’s side,’ Kim insisted. ‘I’m just trying to make you see sense before you get yourself hurt.’

‘
Hurt?
’ Mia repeated, her voice rising hysterically. ‘You haven’t got a fucking
clue
what you’re talking about, you stupid cow! He
saved
me. Steve had me locked up, and Liam broke in and
saved
me. And he’s been looking after me for weeks, while you and that bitch have been pretending I don’t exist!’

Pulling Mia into her arms, Kim held her tightly and rocked her. ‘Ssshhh . . .’ she crooned. ‘You’re safe now; I won’t let anyone hurt you again. And we never forgot about you – we
love
you.’

Peering into the darkness as Sammy drove slowly down the lane, Liam spotted the rear end of Darren’s dad’s car sticking out of a hedge.

‘There!’ he said, pointing at it as they passed.

Sammy stopped and glanced back. ‘Good lord, he’s lucky. There’s quite a deep ditch behind that hedge.’

As Michelle watched silently from the back seat, Liam jumped out and shoved the branches apart to get a better look at the angle the car was at. It wasn’t too far in, and as luck would have it Sammy had a tow rope in his boot, so they soon had the vehicle back on solid ground. The key was still in the ignition and Liam turned the engine over, grinning at Sammy when it started first time.

Back at the house, Mia had calmed down. As she sipped on her second glass of brandy, her mind was whirring while she watched her mum hoover up the broken glass. Staying with Liam for the last few weeks had been heaven, but in the space of a few short hours she’d been plucked out of their cosy nest and deposited in hell. Liam had looked at her with such disgust and hatred, and then he’d humiliated her in front of them all by telling her that he felt nothing for her – and that was unforgivable.

Mia had tried, she really had. She’d kept her mouth shut and acted the boring lady that she’d thought Liam wanted her to be; and she’d suffered heroin withdrawal for the bastard when every fibre of her being was screaming for a hit. But some people were just too stupid for their own good. The first time she’d ever met Liam she’d wondered if he had mental problems, because what other possible explanation was there for him preferring a boring, ugly bitch like Michelle to
her
? And now, after everything he and Mia had been through together, he
still
claimed to love Michelle. And that bitch, who had already stolen her name, her face and her career, had stood there and lapped it up while Mia’s heart was being torn to shreds in front of her – for which they would
both
pay.

Stomach in a knot now as her nerve endings screamed for a fix, Mia finished her drink and put the glass down on the table.

‘Feeling better?’ Kim yelled over the sound of the vacuum cleaner.

Mia nodded and gave an exaggerated yawn. ‘Think I’ll just go and have a lie-down.’ She got up and gave her mum a guilty smile. ‘Sorry for making a mess. I just lost it for a while, but I’m all right now.’

Kim told her not to worry about it and forced herself to return the smile. Glad as she was to have Mia home, her daughter’s reappearance had changed everything and it was going to take a lot of readjusting for them all while Mia picked up the reins of her career. They would have to go back to their own house, for starters; and Michelle would probably go back to college, while Kim would be back to being sidelined. But there was nothing she could do about it. It was Mia’s life they had been borrowing, and now that she was back she was entitled to do with it as she wished.

‘That charity thing they’ve gone to,’ Mia asked, making it sound like a casual enquiry. ‘What’s it for?’

‘Not sure,’ Kim told her, trying to downplay it so that Mia didn’t get het up again. ‘Something to do with Christie’s, I think. Definitely cancer, anyway. Nothing major.’

‘Where is it?’ Mia probed. ‘Only I feel bad about holding them up like that. They’ll get there in time, won’t they?’

‘Oh, I should think so,’ Kim told her. ‘It doesn’t start till half-eight. And Sammy says it’s not that far. Some country house in Styal, or somewhere like that. Just down the road, he reckons.’

Exhaling as if relieved, Mia said, ‘Oh well, that’s good. At least I haven’t ruined their night.’

‘Course you haven’t,’ Kim lied, switching the vacuum off at last. ‘Anyhow, you go get a rest; you look wiped.’

Mia agreed that she was, said goodnight and headed upstairs. Kim put the vacuum away, flopped down into her chair and reached for her drink. But just as she raised it to her lips she noticed the tiny red light glowing on the phone that stood on the table beside Sammy’s chair. She knew that this meant that one of the other phones was in use and her instincts bristled. She should have known that Mia was lying; she’d calmed down far too quickly. But who could she possibly be talking to? Kim slipped her shoes off and tiptoed upstairs to find out.

Mia was in Sammy’s bedroom. She was speaking quietly but urgently. Kim held her breath and pressed her ear against the door to listen.

‘Don’t fuck me about, Noel,’ Mia was hissing. ‘I need to speak to him –
NOW
! Tell him it’s Mia; he’ll definitely want to talk to me.’

A few seconds later she started talking again, her tone almost wheedling now.

‘Hello, Steve, have you missed me? Yeah, I bet you have, but I’m not coming back till you say you’re sorry. And you’d best treat me right this time, ’cos I’m about to tell you something you
really
want to know . . .’

Horrified when she heard what Mia was telling Steve Dawson, Kim padded back downstairs on wildly shaking legs.

She snatched her mobile phone out of her handbag and rushed out into the back garden, not caring that her feet were getting soaked as she ran across the grass to distance herself from the house.

‘Michelle, don’t go to that place,’ she blurted out in a loud whisper when her call was answered. ‘I’ve just heard Mia telling Steve he’ll find Liam there!’

‘We’re not with Liam,’ Michelle told her. ‘He didn’t come with us, we just helped him get his car started. He’s gone to his friend’s to drop it off.’

‘You’re not talking about Darren Mitchell, are you? Only she told Steve
his
name and address, an’ all.’

‘Do you know where Darren lives?’ Sammy asked, braking hard when Michelle disconnected the call and told him what her mum had said.

She nodded, and peered at him with frightened eyes. ‘It’s near our house. Why? What are you thinking?’

‘Well, unless you’ve got a phone number for either of them I think we’d better go and warn them.’

Michelle shook her head and clung to the sides of her seat as Sammy swung the car around in a wide arc. ‘What about the function?’ she gasped.

‘To hell with that!’

32

Steve had spent the last few weeks in a state of quiet fury. He’d drawn a complete blank on the identities of the three black guys who’d broken in and attacked him, and Mia had been nowhere in sight when he and his boys had gone round to her house the night after the raid. All their belongings had still been there, but that didn’t mean shit, because that was the kind of stunt women pulled when they were on the run – leaving everything behind in order to make people believe they were coming back, giving them time to get as far away as possible.

He’d put feelers out all over the place, but it seemed that Mia’s family were as cagey as she was and nobody had a clue where the bitch had gone. Unsure of what she might have said by now, he’d had to clear absolutely everything out in case the police came to do a raid, which was making life increasingly difficult.

If there was one thing Steve hated, it was losing control. But having to stash his gear at odd locations meant that he was always in danger of being ripped off. In addition, he was losing money hand over fist since he’d had to get rid of his upstairs girls. The club girls were having to play it by the book and had stopped giving extras on the spot, so even their earnings were down. And since he’d also had to put a stop to the weed-smoking and small-time dealing that he’d turned a blind eye to in the past, people were finding alternative places to hang out.

Mia was to blame for all that. So when she’d rung just now to tell him who was behind the raid in which she had been freed, he’d been beaten half to death, and Vern had been shot dead, he’d played it cool, letting her believe that he was so grateful for the names she’d given him that he’d be willing to put the past behind them and start again.

And she’d fallen for it, the brain-dead little junkie; even going so far as to tell him where he could pick her up from after he’d done what he had to do.