Jessie Keane - Ruthless

‘She had a skinful, that’s all. She’ll be fine,’ said Max.

They were in the drawing room, Layla sitting on the sofa, Max pacing up and down.

‘That bastard forced booze down her,’ said Layla. ‘She never drinks. She hates it. She’s not used to it.’

‘Yeah, well, he won’t be doing that to anyone else.’

Layla watched her father stalking around like a caged tiger. She’d seen a different Max these past few days, a tough and terrifying Max. Thank God he’s on my side, she thought. She wouldn’t ever want to be one of Max Carter’s enemies.

‘I thought we’d lost her,’ said Layla in a small voice. ‘Maybe we should have taken her to hospital? That bump on her head…’

‘The police doctor said she was OK,’ said Max.

Layla fidgeted uneasily. ‘I feel bad, you know.’

Max stopped pacing. ‘About what?’

‘When you two split up. Divorced. I was so rotten to her.’

‘Ah, forget it.’

‘Sometimes it seemed as though she didn’t love me. She never showed it much.’

Max looked down at her in surprise. He shrugged. ‘Of course she loves you, don’t be daft.’ He paused. ‘You know what? She was never very close to her own mother, Connie. That old bag hated her. Loved Ruthie, but hated Annie. So she never got any hugs or any “I love you” off her own mother. Maybe that just seems normal to her.’

Layla listened closely to this. ‘Perhaps that’s it,’ she said.

‘Yeah, I’m sure of it,’ said Max.

‘I thought we were done for when the police showed up,’ she said.

Me too, he thought.

In fact it had all turned out better than expected. Big Don Callaghan had taken the guns and night sights, so there was no evidence that Max and Steve were involved in anything but an honest and unarmed mission to get Annie out of trouble. All in all, it had worked out well. There had been a trip to the station, and a long night of interviews and making statements while Annie was checked over. But that was it. No charges, nothing.

‘About Alberto…’ she said.

‘Yeah, what?’

‘Where would he go, do you think?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ said Max.

Annie woke again, just before four in the afternoon. Her head was still thumping, but the sick queasy sensation had passed. She crawled from the bed with an effort, bundled her hair up in a clip and took a long, hot shower. Then she cleaned her teeth again, brushed out her hair, and paused beside her pile of clothes on the chair. She bent, fumbled in her jacket pocket – and there it was: Redmond’s cross. She hadn’t dreamed it.

She took it back over to the bed with her, tucked it under her pillow. Then she fell across the bed again, and went back to sleep.

When she next woke up it was to find Max over by the window turning on a small table lamp and pulling the curtains closed against the dark night sky. She glanced at the clock. Eleven thirty. She’d slept right through the day and now she felt… mostly better.

He turned back to the bed and saw her watching him. The door between their adjoining bedrooms was still, she saw, lying on the carpet.

‘Hi,’ he said, and came and sat down on the bed.

She closed her eyes, opened them again. ‘Did all that really happen?’

‘It happened. But it’s over. You’re home.’

‘Where’s Layla?’

‘She’s here. She’s safe.’

‘Is Paul OK? And Bri?’

‘They’re fine.’

‘Alberto?’

‘Gone.’

Annie stared at him. ‘Gone? Gone where?’

‘Over the hills and far away.’

Annie was silent, watching his face. ‘He didn’t come back with us?’

‘No. He didn’t.’

She’d more or less passed out once the police arrived on the scene. Apart from a few lucid moments at the station, she’d missed most of what went on. Now she felt sadness grip her at the thought of never seeing Alberto again. But he’d got away, that was all that mattered. ‘He’s given them the slip then.’

‘Them?’

‘The Feds.’

‘Jesus, you sound just like a Mafia widow.’

‘Well, that’s what I am. Did you two plan it?’

‘What do you think?’

‘I think you did.’ Annie shook her head slowly. ‘Talk about hidden agendas. Alberto wanted out, and you wanted to help him because it would get him away from me. Right?’

‘That’s the way it’s worked out,’ said Max.

Annie’s mouth curved in a tired smile. ‘You think you’re so smart. But I’m telling you, you’ve read this so wrong.’

‘Oh? Enlighten me then.’

‘You’ve been watching the wrong woman. I told you it was someone else, not me. Didn’t I?’

‘You did.’

‘Then why didn’t you believe me?’ she said almost sadly. ‘Why do you never believe me?’

Max stared into her eyes. ‘You really want to know?’

‘Yes. I really do.’

He shrugged, frowned. ‘Because Alberto is Constantine’s double. And because you went with Constantine when you should have waited for me. Searched for me. Not just given me up for dead.’

Annie slumped back on the pillows.

‘You never forgave me for that, did you?’

‘I tried to. I wanted to. I couldn’t. And then you kept finding excuses to nip across to America. Seeing him every time you were there.’

‘My stepson.’

‘Constantine’s double.’

‘Oh, Max.’

‘Don’t “Oh, Max” me. What the hell was I supposed to think?’

‘You were supposed to trust me,’ said Annie. ‘I was your wife .’

‘Women love whoever they’re with.’

‘ What? How can you say that?’

‘Fuck’s sake, my own mother did. She played around all the time. Led my old dad a dog’s life.’ Max got to his feet and started pacing.

Annie just sat there and stared at him in silence. He’d never told her that before. And it explained so much.

‘I didn’t know that,’ she said at last.

‘Well, now you do.’

‘I was never interested in Alberto, Max. Not like that. And he was interested in someone else entirely.’

‘OK then. Come on. Tell me. Who?’ Max came back to the bed, sat down again.

Annie took a breath and braced herself for the fallout. ‘Layla.’

Max’s face froze. ‘What?’

‘She’s in love with him. I think she has been for years.’

‘What? ’

‘This is going to break her in two, him just taking off like that.’

Max stared at her, assimilating the facts. Coming back to the house yesterday with Layla, Alberto taking her arm, her hissing don’t touch me , then the two of them arguing in the car. Shit! Annie was right. He could see it now.

‘I’m going to kill that cocky bastard,’ said Max.

‘Too late,’ said Annie. ‘He’s gone. And I bet even you don’t know where his final destination is.’

‘No. But if I did, straight up, I would go there right now and blow his fucking brains out. You don’t think that they’ve…’

Annie tried hard to suppress the smile, she really did. It tickled her greatly to see Max Carter, feared gang lord and general hard case, behaving exactly as any doting father would on hearing the news that his daughter wasn’t his innocent little girl any more.

‘What? That they’ve made love? Yes, I think they most probably have.’

Max looked as if he was about to implode.

‘Well thank God he has gone. She can’t go getting involved with a freaking Mafia boss, is she crazy? And what about the age gap?’

‘The age gap’s about eighteen years. And our age gap is about eleven, which isn’t so very different.’