Rob took two quick steps and grabbed Daisy in one swift movement. As the gunshots started to blast away the silence, he pushed her down onto the verge and threw his full weight on top of her.
He heard her give a thin shriek and for a moment all was chaos. He was scrabbling for his own weapon and thinking, Slow, too fucking slow, he’s going to stop and finish us.
But the roar of the two-stroke engine was dying away. Rob raised his head and saw bike and rider tearing off to their left, then vanishing from sight.
Silence returned. All he could hear now was Daisy’s gasping breaths, all he could feel was her frantically racing heart against his rib cage.
‘You all right?’ he managed to get out.
He looked down and Daisy was staring up at him. She gulped twice: nodded.
‘Sure? No damage?’
Daisy shook her head. ‘You’re heavy,’ she pointed out.
Rob eased himself to his feet, slipped his gun back into its holster inside his jacket, and pulled her upright.
‘You going to pass out?’ he asked. He felt pretty shaken up himself. Daisy could be dead now if he hadn’t happened to see that fucker coming.
Daisy took a huge breath. Shook her head again.
‘He was trying to kill me,’ she said. ‘Wasn’t he?’
You and yours, thought Rob. I’ll tear the heart out of every one of you.
Despite the fact they had Bianca, Vittore was on the warpath. He’d sent his crew out to follow Kit’s family, to find a chink in their armour and pierce it if they could. That bastard on the bike must have been watching them all day, just waiting his chance.
‘Come on,’ he said, bundling Daisy back into the car. ‘Let’s get you out of here.’
101
Kit was resting at home. When Ruby went to his house and let herself in with a spare key, he was sitting up in bed, staring pensively out of the window.
‘Hi,’ she said, feeling almost shy.
‘Oh.’ He looked round, saw it was her. ‘It’s you.’
‘Yep, me again,’ she said brightly, sitting down at his bedside. ‘How you feeling?’
‘All right.’ Kit lay his head back against the pillow.
‘You looked as though you were deep in thought,’ said Ruby when the silence fell between them, same as it always did. And in that silence she thought, He hates me, he will always hate me, because he thinks I abandoned him. This is the way it will always be between us.
It broke her heart in a thousand pieces, to think that he would never come to terms with the past, that he would never forgive her.
‘I was deep in thought,’ said Kit, closing his eyes wearily. ‘I was thinking what a royal fuck-up I’ve made of my life.’
‘Meaning?’
His eyes opened. He turned his head and looked at her. ‘Meaning I killed Tito for murdering Gilda and then Michael. I thought I was doing the right thing, the only thing I could do. But turns out Tito wasn’t the one I was after. Whoever killed Michael is still out there, free as a bird.’
Ruby gulped, thinking of Thomas. God, she’d been so stupid, getting involved with him.
‘He was Bianca’s brother. And I killed him,’ said Kit.
‘Kit, she very nearly killed you.’
He shrugged, then winced.
‘She didn’t, though. She pulled to the left. Like the rabbit.’
‘The what?’
‘Tito took her rabbit shooting when she was young, but she couldn’t do it. Thought of all the baby bunnies back at home: what if she killed their mother and they starved to death?’ He gave a wry smile. ‘That’s what she did with me. She wanted to kill me, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. But you know what? Deep down, I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me for offing Tito. I really don’t. How could she? So I’ve fucked it all up. Everything.’
Ruby was silent for a moment. Then she said: ‘Once, I thought I’d done the same. Fucked my entire life up.’
‘Yeah, when?’ He gave her a cynical stare. ‘Big successful business lady, that’s you.’
‘That might be me now, but back in the war it was all different. I fell in love with a rotten bastard and he knocked me up.’
Kit’s eyes hardened. ‘My dear late and unlamented old dad, eh? Cornelius Bray.’
‘When I lost you, and Daisy… I felt as if I might as well be dead. That there was no future, no hope.’
‘Yeah, yeah.’ Kit looked unimpressed.
‘But I survived it. I found Daisy, and then I found you too,’ said Ruby.
Now Kit was staring at her. ‘You still glad you did? Find me, I mean? Knowing what I am, that after you chucked me on the scrapheap…’
‘I never did that. You were taken from me, I’ve told you.’
‘After that, I got shoved around kids’ homes and then on the streets and then into being a bone-breaker for Michael. Yeah, I might have wedge in my pocket now. I might have property portfolios and shares in hotels and I might lunch at the Ivy along with the nobs and the celebs, but I’m still a bone-breaker – that’s what you made me, those are my roots. Right down deep that’s still what I am, even if I pay other people to do the dirty jobs now. I’m a heavy, knocking heads together, scaring the shit out of people to make a living.’
Ruby leaned forward and grabbed his hand. She was so sick of this. ‘Kit, I found you,’ she said fiercely. ‘And I am glad, of course I’m glad. You’re my son and I love you. Whether or not you ever love me, it doesn’t matter. I love you. You’re so like me, you even look like me. You’re passionate, sensitive, impulsive, clever. You’re not just a bone-breaker. You’re not just a thug. Not you.’
Kit was watching his mother’s face intently. ‘What about Daise? Who’s she take after, eh? Cornelius Bray?’
‘She’s got his looks,’ shrugged Ruby, leaning back. ‘And his intelligence. But you think you’re scarred by what happened to you in your childhood? Well, Daisy is too. She may have had a privileged upbringing, but Cornelius was never there except to throw money at her, and for Vanessa I imagine it was like getting the wrong Christmas present. Vanessa wanted a quiet little girl. Daisy? She’s not quiet. She’s bright, robust and assertive. For Vanessa, I think Daisy came as a bit of a shock.’
‘She’s been pretty wild in the past,’ said Kit, unable to suppress a slight smile.
‘Those days are behind her. Having the twins settled her right down, there’s no doubt about that. It’s sheer hell for her, you know, being separated from them. Still, she’s a work in progress.’ Ruby squeezed Kit’s hand. ‘We all are, son.’
Kit’s eyes grew cold and he snatched his hand away. ‘Don’t call me that.’
Ruby shrank back. ‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘It’s what you are.’
‘Yeah. A fact you conveniently forgot for most of my lifetime.’
‘I never forgot it. Never.’ Ruby stared at his face, closed off with anger. ‘I… I went to see your uncle Joe yesterday.’
‘That wife of his! What a slapper. My God, I thought she was going eat Rob or me whole.’ Then Kit sobered. ‘It’s good you went, anyway. He’s pretty rough.’
‘He’s running out of time fast,’ said Ruby sadly. Then she brightened. ‘But you’re not. You’re on the mend.’
‘Yeah, with my fucked-up life,’ said Kit.
‘Don’t give up yet,’ said Ruby. And then she told him what Thomas had told her about Bianca.
102
Reg drove Ruby home. There had been such sadness, such awful stress lately that she felt wrung-out, ready to crumble. She thought of the horror of nearly losing Kit; Joe, who was on his way out of this world; of Michael, who was gone, never to return; and Thomas Knox who had seduced her utterly, then ruined everything.