‘Won’t be me talkin’ then, matey—my fucking jaw’s prob’ly broken.’
‘Yeah, about that. See, here’s the thing. I’ve made my decision, chosen my path, and that’s with Nikolas—so that little chat we had about atonement? Doesn’t mean shit to me anymore. Just so you know. I don’t care what he’s done in the past. But this is the thing I want you to really get: I don’t care what he does in the future either. I’m onhisside regardless. Just remember that if your jaw starts to throb later tonight and you get ideas for a little payback. You harm one hair on his fucking head, you even narrow your eyes at him one more time…in fact, you even swear at him in anger one more time, and it’ll be me you answer to. You wanna risk that,matey? You really want to putthatto the test? Think carefully about your fucking answer.’
Aleksey made a conscious effort to close his jaw, which had opened in disbelief.
Ben came back around the bed, hesitated for a moment on seeing him, then walked past, apparently unconcerned that he had heard this bizarrely uncharacteristic pronouncement.
Aleksey swivelled his head to follow his progress and when he turned back the moron was watching them both. Squeezy immediately held up his hands in a mock defensive gesture when Aleksey looked at him. ‘Whoa, wasn’t narrowing me fucking eyes at you, boss. You can call off your fucking pit bull.’
‘I wasn’t aware I had one or needed one. But it’s nice to know.’ He was tempted to addand I prefer the term warrior angel, but that was private. He turned his gaze to Harry, who had moved his upturned bucket to just outside the shed, and was sitting there, upright, hands on his knees, as if on guard, or maybe in an odd kind of vigil for the dead. Maybe he just didn’t want Neil to be lonely wherever it was he’d gone.
Aleksey toed the ground. ‘Neil said someone took him somewhere. Somewhere nice with good food.’
‘Yeah. I know. I heard him say it before.’
‘You were…trying to find out where, weren’t you? Where they took him. That’s why you weren’t at the cathedral? You’re staking the canal out. You could be one of them. You fit in.’
‘Well cheers, mate. An’ that’s from someone who wears homemade fur pants. Nice.’
Aleksey smiled ruefully.
‘There were over twenty veterans we knew about. Now there’s only three left. Fuck, two, I guess now.’
‘We?’
Squeezy nodded slowly. ‘Yeah, well, the old fucker’s not totally barmy. He’s the one first saw what was happening.’
‘And he told you?’
‘Yeah, an’ look where that’s gotten me.’ He rubbed his jaw again, just in case Aleksey didn’t get the implication in his words.
‘Why didn’t you want me or Ben to help?’
Squeezy took a breath and seemed to be giving his answer some uncharacteristic thought. Finally, he offered, ‘Because of that.’ He waved vaguely at Aleksey’s crotch.
Aleksey tipped his head to one side. There were many things he could think of that the moron might ponder about his cock, but he couldn’t work out how any of them would preclude his help with this project.
Squeezy rolled his eyes. ‘Your leg,’you fucking moronwasn’t actually added, but Aleksey heard it, nevertheless. ‘You’ve had enough shit the last few months—didn’t need this. An’ if I told Diesel…well, you come along for the ride, don’t you. So, now you’re in it anyway. Now it’ll probably turn into a fucking zombie apocalypse.’
Harsh, but true. Aleksey shook himself slightly. ‘I think you owe an apology.’
‘What the fuck! You fucking hit—’
‘Not to me.’ With that, he turned and followed Ben, who was walking slowly back along the path towards Topsham.
When he caught up to him, he put his arm over his shoulder, eased him close and kissed into the side of his hair. Ben turned his head a little into the affectionate gesture, but he seemed down, his natural sunny affability clearly shaken.
Aleksey felt much the same way. It was only as they got back to the car that he realised that with all the recent drama, he’d left the books he’d bought somewhere in the strange, brightly coloured garden.
He hoped Harry would enjoy them.
And Snodgrass, obviously.
* * *
Chapter Sixteen
When they got home, they went over to tell the family about the proposed trip to the island. They both felt the need for something good, something normal, and this seemed like the perfect thing to cheer them both up. Miles and Emilia were working on some adjustments to the squirrel run because the little critters had defeated his first design in under an hour. Molly spotted them as they rounded the cottage by the side gate and skipped over to be picked up. Ben swung her up to perch on his hip and kissed into her hair, much, Aleksey thought with a smile, as he had done to Ben by the canal.
