Jessie Keane - Lawless

‘Don’t apologize for me,’ roared Kit, coming closer to his mother.

It was then that Vittore stepped forward, swift as a viper. Suddenly, shockingly, he grabbed Kit’s head.

Ruby let out a yell.

Rob shouted: ‘Hey!’ and moved to intervene.

‘Get off me, you wop son of a bitch,’ snarled Kit.

But Vittore didn’t headbutt Kit: he just held him. Then he flicked a thumb against his own front teeth and ran a fingernail down his own cheek. He released Kit, who staggered back, shocked out of his stupor, the grin gone from his face. Vittore said something under his breath, his words harsh, his gaze deadly.

‘That’s enough,’ said Rob, and grabbed Kit’s arm.

Kit took a fumbling swing at Rob, but stumbled sideways. Effortlessly Rob dodged the blow, pushed Kit’s arm behind his back and pulled him away, toward Ruby’s car.

Ruby stood there, aware of Vittore’s coldly contained rage, of Bella’s distress.

‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated. ‘He’s drinking a lot. I know it’s no excuse, but…’ her voice trailed away.

There was no excuse. This had been terrible, an insult. She was still shaking from the suddenness with which Vittore had caught hold of Kit.

‘Come, Mama,’ said Vittore, and took Bella’s arm and put her in the limousine.

‘Wait-’ started Ruby, following.

Vittore turned a snakelike gaze on her. ‘ Go away ,’ he hissed.

Ruby’s shoulders slumped. Moving among the staring crowds, she made her way to her own car. Rob was already behind the wheel, and Kit was laid out, eyes closed, in the back. She got in beside him, looked at him with disgust. This was her son, but at this moment she was ashamed of him.

‘Back to yours?’ asked Rob, his eyes meeting hers in the rear-view mirror.

Ruby nodded. Right now, she couldn’t trust herself to speak. Kit had ruined everything. And she couldn’t help thinking again of Bella’s words.

Blood will flow.

She only hoped it wouldn’t be Kit’s. But after this? She very much feared that it would.

‘Rob? Did you hear what Vittore said?’ she asked him.

Rob shook his head.

‘ Rob? ’ she insisted.

Rob heaved a heavy sigh. ‘It’s an empty threat, Ruby.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He said, “You and yours,” said Rob uneasily. Actually, what Rob had really heard Vittore say was: ‘I’m going to rip the heart out of your family, out of each and every one of you.’

He wasn’t about to tell Ruby that.

Instead, he shrugged. ‘Big talk. That’s all.’

Ruby looked at him. She thought he was lying, but she wasn’t going to pursue it.

‘Get us home,’ she said.

‘You bloody fool,’ said Ruby, thrusting a cup of freshly ground black coffee into her son’s hands.

Kit lay sprawled on her sofa at the Marlow house. He straightened, took the coffee, stared at it, then swallowed a mouthful. Lifted the cup in salute to his mother, who stood over him looking disapproving.

‘Thank you, Mother dear,’ he said.

‘And you can stop that right away,’ snapped Ruby. ‘D’you think that was clever, turning up and making a show of yourself?’

Kit put the drink down on the side table. Looked up at her, then at Rob, who was standing over by the window, arms folded, watching. At least Daisy wasn’t here giving him an ear-bashing too. She was out somewhere, either pretending she was loving the store work to arse-lick her way into Ruby’s good books, or with Jody and the twins.

‘Wanted to say my farewells,’ said Kit. He was feeling steadier now, but faintly sick – and his head was starting to throb again.

‘You should have stopped away.’

‘Well, I didn’t.’

‘I talked to Bella Danieri today. She told me something important.’

‘ Did she now.’

‘Can you not take that tone with me please?’ said Ruby. ‘Yes. She did.’

‘So what’s this nugget of pure gold she passed on to you then?’

‘Jesus, mate…’ said Rob, shaking his head.

Ruby crouched down so that she was on the same level as Kit. ‘She told me none of her sons was responsible for Michael’s death.’

Kit sat there a moment, staring at Ruby’s face.

Then he started to laugh. He laughed so hard she thought he was about to shit himself.

‘Yes. Hysterically funny,’ said Ruby.

Kit wiped at his eyes; he was literally crying with laughter. Neither Rob nor Ruby looked even faintly amused.

‘Look,’ said Kit when he could get his breath, ‘whether it was Tito who put the gun to Michael’s head, or Vittore or that little shit Fabio, it’s all the same to me. The order came from Tito. I know it did.’

‘You don’t know any such thing. You hated him because he’d hurt you in the past-’

‘Hurt me? He fucking crucified me. He deserved everything he got.’

‘But he didn’t kill Michael.’

Kit shrugged, sipped more of the coffee. ‘Fabio then. He’s like a hyena, that one, giggling and shuffling and twitching around, always ready to pull some fucker apart once the big boys have taken their share. Michael was shot from behind. Isn’t that Fabio’s style?’

‘At least you admit it’s not Tito’s.’

Kit gave a sour smile. ‘I’m not admitting anything. What about Vittore?’

‘What about him?’

‘He’d do it.’

Ruby let out an exasperated breath. ‘Kit – none of them did it. Bella swore that was true. She said Tito came to her, but she said no. And neither he nor Fabio nor Vittore would disregard her wishes – not about Michael. He was married to her niece, he was kin. She wouldn’t allow it. She made that very clear.’

‘Michael should have struck first,’ said Kit, now gazing mournfully at the floor. ‘He should have let me sort it. I told him, let me do it. But he wouldn’t.’

Ruby was silent, feeling Kit’s anguish for the loss of his boss, the one man who had been like a father to him. His real father, Cornelius Bray, had discarded him; he’d grown up bounced around children’s homes, feckless and footloose, back in the days when she hadn’t known where he was or even if he was still alive. She had desperately tried to trace him, but it was Michael he had stumbled into, and Michael who had saved him from the gutter, raised him up. The loss of him was killing Kit, she could see that.

‘It’s too late for all that,’ she said gently. ‘Too late for regrets. But maybe not too late to let it all go. To admit to yourself that you were wrong, that the Danieri family weren’t responsible.’

Kit gazed at her. ‘I’m not admitting a damned thing,’ he said.

Rob let out a heavy sigh.

‘And you can shut up,’ Kit told him.

‘Oh, pardon me for giving a shit,’ said Rob.

‘ Look ,’ said Ruby, shooting a glance between them. ‘This has to stop. If we’re lucky – and I’m sure Bella will be talking to him right now – Vittore will calm down. For God’s sake, Kit, the last thing anyone wants is all-out war. Admit you were wrong. That you made a mistake. Let’s do as Bella says and stop this, just drop it.’

But Kit was shaking his head.

‘No! I have to know who did it,’ he said. ‘If what you say is true-’

‘Kit! It is.’

‘OK. I don’t believe it, but let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re right. If it wasn’t one of them , then who the fuck was it?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Ruby, thinking of Michael, her Michael, thinking of his steel-grey eyes and the feel of his hair beneath her fingers, of his strong, handsome face, his laugh, his way of always finding the answers. Well, he couldn’t find this one. He was gone. ‘I loved him too, Kit. I really did. But maybe we’ll never know.’