‘Christ, Stuart, she’s brainwashing you. You don’t know anything about Gregory and the shit he’s been through.’
‘He worked hard for what he has, right? Don’t feed me bull, Scarlett; you’re better than that. I know what tough really is. I know what it’s like to grow up with nothing. No one.’
‘He’s dealt with more than you know and he’s been nothing but nice to you.’
‘He’s got a fuckin’ funny way of showing it.’
‘He took you on.’ I run a hand down my throat, trying to ease the pain as I speak. ‘That’s not something he’d do if he didn’t like you, if he didn’t see potential in you, if he didn’t want to get to know you.’
His body seems to soften and I allow myself to hope that I’m getting through to him.
‘Webothlike you, Stuart. This is not you. We can walk out of here together.’
He stands, anger raging from him as he snatches the metal cuffs from the table.
‘In front. Please,’ I beg.
He cuffs me roughly, yanking my arms forward so they’re locked around the leg of the table. I’m alone again and the coat doesn’t hold off the cold for long. My muscles shiver and my head is increasingly weary.
Think. Find a way.
He grew up alone. That’s what he’s talking about. He told us in the first meeting we had with him that he didn’t know his parents, that he’d never met them. I laugh internally.He swore on his mother’s life he wasn’t involved.Of course he did. He’s never met her.
How could we have missed that?
What else am I missing? What do I know?Trina wants a confession that Gregory and DI Barnes were involved in bribery. Stuart wants what and why? Moreover, how in the hell do they think they’re going to get what they want?
25
At some point, I surrender. Whether it’s sleep, exhaustion or something else, I don’t know, but when my forehead rolls on the cold metal table and my eyes open, the sky is charcoal, not black, and the rain has stopped.
The living nightmare continues. I swallow, trying to soothe my throat, and push myself back, sitting as straight as my cuffed wrists allow, my vertebrae cracking as I rise.
I feel the presence in the room before I see the figure sitting opposite me. His tousled, dirty-blond hair looks dry, messy compared to his slick appearance at Thursday’s gala. Steely greys are focused on me. His usually clean-shaven face is sketched with stubble and the remnants of a bruise I suspect Gregory made. He wears a thick, warm, duffel coat, fastened to the neck, making his shoulders look even broader than they are. His hands rest in the pockets of his coat.
‘Scarlett, so thrilled you’re awake. And, if you don’t mind me saying so, looking significantly less smug than usual.’
I stare at the missing piece of the puzzle. Nick Henshaw.
He leans his head to one side. ‘Nothing to say for yourself today?’
‘Why am I here?’
‘Speak up now, Scarlett.’
‘Why am I here?’ My effort to raise my voice is lost in the gruff of my words.
He stands, moving slowly towards me. ‘Well, because you just.’ His fist locks around my hair and yanks my head towards him as he grates his words into my ear. ‘Keep. Getting. In. My. Way.’
He releases my hair, pushing my head away from him, then pulls his chair around the table so it’s next to me, rather than opposite. He straddles the seat, leaning onto the back, his face so close to mine I can feel his hot, liquor-laced breath. ‘You’re the brains of everything. Aren’t you, princess? So good. You excel at so many things, Scarlett.’ He taps my nose with the tip of his finger the way he might torment a child. ‘Including getting yourself kidnapped.’ Now he laughs, rocking back and forth on his chair.
‘So you intend to kill me, Nick? Wind up behind bars for life. Is that your plan?’
He laughs harder now, throwing his head back on a chortle then rocking forward, thumping his hand on the metal table and making me jump. ‘Ah, she’s funny. You kill me. No. I don’t intend to kill you, princess. That would be a waste of such a pretty thing.’ He twirls a finger in my hair and I lift my shoulder fast, pushing him away. ‘Oops. Gutsy. Perhaps I’ll change my mind. My new friend – I think you’ve met her, Katrina Martin? – she tells me anyone can pay their way out of a murder charge these days.’
‘If you don’t want to kill me, what do you want?’
‘Oh, sweetheart, you’re just a pawn in a big boys’ game. There’s something that means a lot more to me than your life. Or Gregory’s. Or putting both your bodies into the ground.’ He sits upright, drumming his fingertips on the metal frame of his chair. ‘The thing is,youkeep taking it from me. First, you take my company when it was starting to turn a profit again. All those years of putting sweat and blood and money into my company, then you and the mighty CEO try to take that all away from me. Then, you force me to resign and Ithinkyou forgot to write my goodbye handshake into that resignation letter, princess, didn’t you?’
