Deadly Obsession (36 page)

‘You disgust me. You take something as precious as life so lightly. Families, lives have been ripped apart because of you. Even if you kill me here, someday you'll get what you fucking deserve. I know it ...'

‘All I know is that you're the reason Laura is dead. You should have taken that bullet, not her. She could have been mine again. But she stupidly chose to save you. So now you have to die too. I need to finish off what I started six months ago.'

G
rant pushed
the tip of the barrel of the gun against the side of Amy's head. There was an iciness about it. Amy knew that it might be the last thing she ever felt.

‘But I'm not ready to die ...' There was defiance in Amy's words. Inside she was broken, every fibre of her being crushed by Grant's confession, but if she was going to lose her life at the waterfall then there was no way she was submitting without a fight.

She stared into Grant's face – a face that only days before she had found so handsome, yet all she could see now was a monster. Women across the country would have moved mountains to be that close to the TV heartthrob of their dreams, but Amy would rather have been anywhere than just inches from the face of Grant Wilson at that moment.

‘... So go to Hell ...' said Amy, her voice calm and without waver. As she spoke she drew her knee up as swiftly as she could, connecting squarely with Grant's groin. She prayed that as Grant doubled in pain, the contact would not make him squeeze the trigger. She cowered, expecting the sound heralding her own demise. Nothing came. It was the slim opportunity she needed. Catching Grant off guard she slammed her body against his, using all of her might to push him towards the water.

Grant stumbled backwards, hands clutching his crotch as the pain in his groin shot through his body. ‘You fucking bitch!' he cried, swinging the gun back towards Amy. As he squeezed the trigger, one of his feet slid on a wet rock beneath him. The bullet fired into the air.

Amy watched as Grant's body fell towards the water, his foot twisting on the rock and giving way underneath him. The edge of the river, although not great in depth, hid a myriad of rocks and stones underneath its surface. As Grant landed with a splash, the back of his head smashed against one of the rocks. A trickle of scarlet leaked away from the underside of the actor's skull and flowed with the current of the stream. His hand unclenched, allowing the gun to fall from his grasp into the water. Amy watched as it sank beneath the surface.

For what seemed like an eternity, Amy was unable to move, the truth of all that had happened saturating her brain. The only noise around her came from the gushing of the river. She watched as Grant's body, apparently lifeless, was taken by the current and moved towards the edge of the waterfall. Within seconds it had toppled over the spray of water lining the horizon of the river and disappeared.

Carefully retracing her steps down the path by the riverside she found herself at the edge of the waters below. A body lay face down in the water, a thicker stream of deep red blood flowing from the burst at the back of his skull. There was no mistaking the body this time. It was Grant and he was definitely dead.

W
ard 44
came
off air and all further production ceased forthwith as soon as the news of Grant's death broke. It was never reported exactly how Grant had died. The newspapers said it must have been a horrible accident, the actor slipping to his death at a remote waterfall where he had taken some much needed time to relax away from his busy filming schedule.

There was no weapon found at the scene, Amy had made sure of that, returning to the top of the falls and fishing the gun out of the water. She had disposed of it accordingly after returning to the cottage, grabbing her suitcase and locking the closed door behind her.

She had been careful to wipe away any fingerprints on anything she had touched at the cottage. She wanted nothing to link her to the scene where Grant had, as she saw it, rightfully died.

Having left the cottage, she walked to the train station, not wanting to call a taxi. It was a good two miles, but the journey passed quickly, Amy's mind still crammed with every hideous detail. She was back at her flat in London within hours.

Grant's body was not discovered until a few days later by the man renting out the cottage. When the key wasn't returned he headed there to see what had happened. The near-frozen body of Grant Wilson was found washed up along the riverbank. Amy didn't attend his funeral.

T
he Rich family
home was put up for sale by Caitlyn Rich. After the death of Lily and the disappearance of her husband, Caitlyn had no reason to keep the house. She hated everything it stood for and couldn't bear to sleep under the same roof where her daughter had so brutally died. If Adam had been there to argue with her, she wouldn't have changed her mind. It was made up, the house was to be sold.

Three months later, when Adam still hadn't been seen, Caitlyn closed the doors on the house for the final time, having sold it to a footballer and his faux-blonde girlfriend. Caitlyn had already set up home with Jona in London, a place that was already filling up with her prized mosaic statues. Some things would never change.

Caitlyn filed for divorce from Adam, having to sign an affidavit swearing that she didn't know the location of her absentee spouse. She didn't. Even after the divorce was made official, Adam Rich never reappeared. He seemed to have simply fallen off the earth.

T
he only person
who knew where Adam had ended up was Jarrett Smith. Not that he would ever tell. He was just elated that justice had finally been served for the killing of his son.

Manchester was now Jarrett's for the taking. The criminal wanted to expand and securing Dirty Cash gave him the perfect opportunity. After the death of both Tommy and Jemima Hearn, the ownership of the casino reverted back to Amy, thanks to a clause that Riley had inserted into the contract when Adam signed the building over to him in order to keep the details of Weston Smith's death a secret. With Tommy and Jemima childless, the ownership reverted to Adam, who had signed it over to Riley. As Riley was now dead, the entire building went automatically to his widow, namely Amy.

The shell that had once been the location of all her dreams, The Kitty Kat Club, was hers again. She didn't want it, it held too much painful history, and Jarrett Smith was the perfect buyer, offering her above the asking price. He wanted the building in order to undertake some renovations before making it the base for his Manchester operations. Amy knew that this meant digging up the floor and searching for Weston's remains and part of her felt that he had every right to do so. Why should anybody, no matter how corrupt they are, not be allowed the chance to give their only offspring a proper burial? The signing of the contract passing the building to Jarrett was the only time Amy returned to Manchester.

G
enevieve's business
went from strength to strength, with a chain of Eruption stores doing just that – erupting across the country. In the months after finding out that Emily's father was indeed dead, Genevieve was determined to make sure that she could cater for her daughter's every need on her own. She took control of her life and started to attend AA meetings, willing herself to jettison the demons of drink that so often ruled her.

Emily continued to live with her grandma at first while Genevieve stood back on her own two feet and kicked the booze. A year on and the three generations of women were living together in a palatial house deep in rural Cheshire. It was the perfect place for Genevieve to employ a nanny, cook and maid to look after Emily when the demands of her ever-growing and increasingly lucrative fashion empire became too great and took her on trips across the globe, ably assisted by her ever loyal Meifeng. It was all paid for with her own money. There were to be no childcare payments and Genevieve knew that she would never allow herself to feel beholden to anyone else's cash handouts again.

In time, Genevieve would expand her business internationally with stores in virtually every major European capital city, and a fully-trained Meifeng would leave her to open her own designer boutiques. But for now, most of Genevieve's time was spent travelling between her two flagship stores in Manchester and London. The Carnaby Street location was a prime site and made Genevieve a massive profit. Life was good, with a never-ending deluge of parties, celebrities to kit out and fashion shows to attend. She was just careful to stay off the booze, avoiding any temptation to slip back into troubled ways.

T
he one place
that Genevieve didn't frequent in London was a new club, just off Carnaby Street, called Anno Domini. Despite being no more than five minutes' walk from her own store, the club was a place she chose to avoid. She had no desire to see the club's joint-owner, Amy Hart, ever again. Her hatred towards Amy had died with the news that Riley was indeed no more. Emily had no connection to Amy any more, and Genevieve just wanted to put the entire sorry affair behind her.

Amy had opened the club with Dolly Townsend, the name of the club shortened to ‘AD' after their joint initials. With the money given to the women by Jarrett Smith and the substantial amount Amy was given by Jarrett for buying Dirty Cash, the start-up of the club was an easy process.

Amy liked Dolly but could see that she would spend her money from Jarrett in a matter of months and probably have little to show for it. With a little persuading, Amy coaxed Dolly away from Manchester and the two women went into a seventy-thirty partnership in Amy's favour to open a new London club. The investment money was mostly Amy's after all. Not that Dolly minded. She was more than happy to sit back and watch the thirty per cent of all profits from the club being deposited into her back account. That was still more than her odious sisters would ever have.

The opening night of AD was a huge success. Amy's track record with The Kitty Kat proved that she had kudos when it came to running a nightspot and the queue around the block night after night kept the club well into the black. While Amy and Dolly schmoozed the clientele, the general running of the club was organised to almost military precision by a young lad by the name of Jimmy, who was enjoying his first major job in London. With Dolly and Jimmy by her side, Amy was making new friends.

Within weeks of opening, Anno Domini was receiving major write-ups in nearly every influential magazine, newspaper, website and blog, including one in
Mixmag
which said that ‘AD is the kind of happening club London has been waiting for' and that ‘it has taken the expertise of Manchester's Amy Hart, former owner of the infamous Kitty Kat Club and its famed theme nights, to make it a reality'. Within a few years, AD would be opening clubs in Ibiza, Hong Kong, Las Vegas and Stockholm and Amy Hart would become a clubbing legend.

Amy was back on top and back in business. And, it seemed, with a new best friend. Despite their many differences, she and Dolly were a good team and it felt comforting to have an ally she could really rely on, one who always wore her honesty on her now-designer sleeve. Perhaps it was Amy and Dolly who were really the two different facets on the same gemstone, now both shining bright in their own unique ways. Amy thought she had achieved that with Laura. How wrong she'd been.

Amy could have crumbled, but after everything she had been through, she was stronger than ever. Invincible. Her parents would have been proud. All she lacked now was a good man to share her newfound life with. She was sure that it would happen with time. When she chose to let it happen. When the timing was right. Yes, she'd look forward to having another man in her life should it occur, but this time around she would definitely find out exactly what he did for a living before committing.

H
ello there everybody
! Hopefully you enjoyed spinning around on the dance floor with my latest glam-packed novel,
Deadly Obsession
. I really loved writing it as anything that involves a wonderful set of strong female characters like Amy, Laura, Caitlyn, Genevieve, Lily and the dodgy, devious men around them, all set to a backbeat of pulsating nightclub beats and lashings of murderous action is mighty fine with me!

Writing
Deadly Obsession
was a true blast as it was wonderful to immerse myself in such a gritty story. Did you see the ending coming? Were you able to work out exactly what the story was behind Riley's mysterious letter? And were you rooting for a big reunion or not? I hope you gasped at every page-turning moment of the action.

If you enjoyed the book I would LOVE you to leave me a review on Amazon (UK and USA or no matter where you are around the world). Hearing what avid readers think is one of the many things I absolutely love about crafting a tale and being an author. Who was your favourite character? Could you sympathise with Amy, did you think Laura was a total man-eater and which of the men did you fall for? Personally I have to say I was totally Team Caitlyn, with her fabulous mirrored statues and no-nonsense attitude. And did you spot the characters from any of my other novels popping up too?

If you were entertained by my latest book, then perhaps you'd like to read more of my stories! Plus, let's chat – I'd love to talk all things blockbuster and glamour-soaked fiction on Twitter (you can find me at @Nigel_May), Facebook and Goodreads. The world should always shine with glamour!

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Thank you for reading my latest scandalous novel and I'll see you soon with another one – the action is never going to stop, I promise! I'm feeling in a tropical mood for the next one I think …

See you in paradise, love Nigel x

• @Nigel_May
  
• nigel.may