Ruby and Daisy looked at Rob. ‘I’ll stay here in case I’m needed,’ he said. ‘Come on, let’s go find Reg downstairs, get you two home.’
‘I want to stay,’ said Ruby.
‘No. The doc’s right, time to go.’
The surgeon departed, and Rob escorted Daisy and Ruby downstairs and out to the car park where Reg was waiting with the Merc. Having got them safely inside, Rob went back into the hospital, found a payphone and called Ashok. He told him what had happened, and to get himself to the hospital at eight a.m. to take over. Then he returned to the now deserted waiting room, took off his jacket and made it into a pillow, and laid himself out across four of the chairs to try to get some sleep.
79
Someone was knocking on the door of Thomas Knox’s Hampstead home.
‘What the fuck?’ he asked of no one in particular. He sat up, switched on the bedside light. It was four in the morning, and someone was out there playing silly buggers. He slipped on his robe, and went over to the window. There was a black Mercedes parked up on the drive, he could just about make out a grey-haired bloke sitting at the wheel.
He made his way downstairs, flicking on lights as he went. Flung the front door open. Ruby shot inside like an Exocet, slamming the door shut behind her. Since leaving the hospital, she’d been fulminating with rage against Thomas Knox. He’d promised he was going to look out for Kit, and now Kit was in intensive care. So she’d dropped Daisy off, and then she’d got Reg to drive her over here, because she was so devastated, so furious, that she felt if she didn’t get some of this rage out then she would explode.
Ruby strode straight past Thomas and into the sitting room. She flicked on the lights in there. He followed her, his eyes curious, as she stalked around the place like a caged panther.
‘You promised,’ she spat out at last, coming at him with eyes full of fury, poking him hard in the chest with one finger. ‘You promised you were going to watch out for him.’
Thomas stared at her. ‘What’s happened?’
‘You mean you don’t know? You’re supposed to know everything, aren’t you? But you don’t know my boy’s laid up in hospital with a bullet wound in his chest!’
‘When did all this go down?’
‘Last night. He got shot.’
‘Jesus! Who?’
‘Who shot him? I have no idea. Nobody seems to know. But you didn’t even know he’d been shot, and you should. You’re supposed to be on the ball.’
‘Ruby, I said I’d keep an eye on him and I’ll stick to that, but I can’t stop harm coming to him twenty-four hours of the day – how could I?’
Ruby rounded on him in fury. ‘Are you serious? You seduced me and promised me…’
Now Thomas’s eyes hardened. ‘Hey! As I recall, you didn’t seem too reluctant. You were panting for it like a fucking porn star.’
Ruby’s eyes flared with rage. She slapped him, hard, across the face.
To her surprise, Thomas slapped her right back in return and pushed her until she hit the wall. More startled than hurt, she glared at him as he held her there, pinned, immobile.
‘Oh, now this is the real Ruby Darke,’ he hissed against her mouth. ‘This is the East End alley cat, not the cool business lady. This is the genuine article.’
‘Why was I so stupid as to get involved with you, to believe what you said?’ she gasped out. It shamed her, mortified her, that she had been cavorting with Thomas Knox in expensive hotel rooms, swimming naked with him in his pool, while Kit had been going through some sort of awful crisis.
‘While we’re on the subject of stupid, what about Kit fucking the Danieri sister – how’s that for stupid?’
Ruby grew still, staring at him. ‘What are you talking about?’ she whispered.
‘I been hearing about it around town. I got people on the streets. They were starting to notice, Kit and Bianca Danieri. So if you’re looking for someone with a good reason to shoot your boy, I’d look to Vittore or Fabio, since Kit was busy turking their baby principessa. If you think they were going to be happy when they found that out, you’re off your head.’
‘Bianca…?’ Ruby repeated numbly. ‘I didn’t know they had a sister.’
‘She runs a club down south, I heard. Dante’s.’
Ruby’s eyes grew distant. Kit had been away on the south coast, and he’d been late coming back to London; she and Daisy had been frantic over Simon’s death, they’d needed Kit to be there. Was this Bianca the reason he hadn’t been? For God’s sake, if that was true, how could he have been so foolish?
‘There’s much more to that girl than meets the eye,’ said Thomas. ‘More to that family, too. The story was that they adopted her, but Michael told me something different.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Tito – did you know him?’
‘Not much.’
‘That’s good, because he was a real bad bastard. Mike was tied to him in business and there was a family connection because of Sheila – but he hated the guy. And Mike’s boy Gabe was like Tito’s lapdog. Mike hated that, too. Told the boy to keep clear. But Gabe wouldn’t. He hung around Tito, and saw more than he wanted to see. Came home one day, Mike told me, all shot to pieces. Gabe was never the same after that. And he confessed to Mike that he’d seen Tito snatch a little girl from her parents, and kill them. Bianca wasn’t adopted like everyone thinks she was. She was taken.’
‘Jesus,’ said Ruby, and slumped against the wall. ‘And this Bianca, she doesn’t know?’
Thomas shook his head. ‘She believes she was adopted. She idolized Tito. And she don’t remember a thing about him offing her folks.’
Ruby was shaking her head at the ghastly picture he’d just painted. ‘Poor girl,’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ said Thomas.
Ruby closed her eyes, fighting back the tears. ‘We could lose him,’ she moaned. ‘We could lose Kit. He could die.’
‘Hey! You won’t. He’s tough as old boots, that one. Like his mum.’
‘I love him, and you know what? He’s never believed it.’
‘You got time to work on that.’
Ruby let out a thin, sad laugh. ‘I might not have. He’s seriously hurt. He could die. Oh God, I’m sorry I hit you.’
They looked at each other. Then Thomas opened his arms and Ruby went into them, hugging him, feeling shattered from the horrors of this night and wondering where the hell they could all go from here.
‘You want to stay here tonight?’ he asked, kissing her forehead.
‘I can’t. I have to go home, in case the hospital phones.’
‘He’ll be all right.’
She didn’t dare allow herself to believe that.
‘Ruby?’ he murmured against her brow.
‘What?’
‘There’s something else. There are things I should have told you before, but didn’t. I want to tell you now, but I’m worried you’re so screwed up over Kit that it will be too much for you…’
‘What is it?’ asked Ruby, drawing her head away from his so she could look into his eyes.
‘Nah. Let’s leave it for now.’
‘No. Whatever it is, tell me.’
Thomas stared into her eyes for a long time. Then he said: ‘It’s about Mike.’
‘Michael? What about him?’
‘Ruby – I’m sorry. I heard he was unfaithful to you.’
‘What?’
‘From dependable sources. He was seen with another woman. They were close, if you get me. That’s all I know. More than that, I can’t tell you.’
Ruby’s eyes were anguished as they stared at his face. ‘No,’ she said faintly.
‘I’m sorry, Ruby. It’s true.’