Diamonds Forever (24 page)

This made her heart drop. The only person she could think of was her dad.

‘So let us go then,' said Deano.

‘Oh, I intend to. But first I think we need to make a few gentlemen's agreements.'

‘You can only make those with gentlemen,' said Kayley. ‘Which leaves at least two of us out of the running.'

Harville ignored her.

‘First of all,' he said, ‘I want your assurance that you will forget all about the little … incident … upstairs. I never intended that you should get hurt, except as part of my plan. I wish you'd gone along with it, but …' He shrugged. ‘I'll get that little scumbag some other way.'

‘I'm not interested in your revenge plots,' said Deano.

‘But that little shit is fucking your wife. Doesn't that mean anything to you?'

Kayley felt him wince.

‘Jenna has her own mind,' he said, but his voice shook a little. ‘It can't be made up by force. If she wants Jason, then I just have to wear it.'

‘You've changed your tune,' said Kayley in some surprise.

‘Yeah, well, I'm a musician, aren't I? If I don't change my tune now and again the fans get bored.'

‘Good point,' said Kayley, her lips twitching upwards despite their dire circumstances.

‘Where are your balls, man?' exclaimed Harville. ‘You came here to get her back, for God's sake! And now you're just going to sit back and let that dirty little bastard shag her senseless to his heart's content?'

‘Stop trying to wind me up, Harville. Jenna will get tired of him in the end. All I have to do is wait.'

‘And in the meantime,' said Harville, taking out his mobile phone and showing the screen to Deano, ‘Jenna's the hot topic all over the world – for all the wrong reasons.'

Deano tried to snatch the phone from Harville's grasp, but he held it away, hopping to his feet when it looked as if Deano was going to try to use force.

‘Yes, take a good long look,' he taunted, still aiming the picture at Deano. ‘That's your wife. Stark naked, covered in sweat and spunk, after a hard shagging from that council estate ne'er-do-well. There'll be more of those, I daresay. We'll get to see her on all fours, sucking his cock, taking it up the arse …'

‘Shut up!' shouted Deano, now up on unsteady feet.

‘She'll have a worse reputation than Kayley there, by the time he's finished with her. She won't be a famous talent spotter any more – just a famous slut. Oh, do sit down. You look as if you're going to keel over.'

Kayley leapt up to Deano's aid. He did look extremely pale and sweat was beading on his brow.

‘Deano, chill,' she said urgently. ‘Come on. Sit down now.'

She put an arm around his waist, helping him back down to the bed, then turned to Harville.

‘Why are you doing this? I don't get it. Just let us go.'

Harville replied with a cold stare, before casually enquiring of Deano, ‘Has she opened her legs for you yet?'

‘Fuck off, Harville.'

‘Oh dear. Well, you know, all you have to do is ask her. Kayley is extremely obliging. Aren't you, Kayley? I've got some photographs of her you might like to look at, Deano. Specialist, if you know what I mean.'

‘I don't want anything from you,' muttered Deano. ‘I just want out of here. For Christ's sake, do you really think I won't be missed? Save yourself a shitload of trouble, Harville, and just let us go.'

‘I'm going to,' said Harville. ‘I wasn't planning on having permanent house guests anyway. But first, that assurance I was asking for – that nothing will be said about what has happened here.'

‘Fine,' said Deano. ‘Let us go and we'll forget it ever happened.'

‘Thank you.' Harville's smile was bright, but his eyes had a fevered brilliance that took it beyond urbanity. ‘And secondly …'

‘Don't push your luck,' snapped Deano.

‘Please, hear me out. Secondly, I want you to help me with a little project.'

‘The fucking talent show's off, if that's what you mean. I'm not working with you.'

‘Oh, shame,' said Kayley. ‘That was mine and Jenna's idea to begin with, though. We can do it ourselves.'

Deano nodded briefly, smiling at her.

‘I don't mean your precious talent show,' said Harville. ‘I want my family home back.'

‘The Hall?'

Lawrence nodded.

‘Well, what the bloody hell did you sell it for, then?'

‘At the time, I needed the money. But a certain ship's come in since then, and I can afford to buy it back. The chances of your wife selling to me, though, are vanishingly slim.'

‘Not very surprising, from what I've heard,' said Deano.

‘No, but think about it, Deano. You don't want her to stay there, do you? It would be good for you if she sold up.'

‘She won't, though.'

‘Why don't you buy it off her? Tell her you're going to turn it into a, I don't know, a school for talented underprivileged youngsters or something. And you'll name it after Jason Watson. Her heart will bleed. She won't be able to say no.'

‘But it's not true. I'm not about to do anything like that. I can't go around opening schools.' Deano frowned.

‘Of course you won't actually
do
it.' Harville was impatient. ‘You'll sell it straight on to me. And I hope you'll ask me a good price for it.'

Deano was quiet for a moment. Kayley couldn't help noticing that he was still holding her hand, quite tightly.

‘Well?' said Harville with urgency. ‘It's not a lot to ask, is it? Will you do it?'

‘D'you know what?' said Deano. ‘I would have done it like a shot, if you'd asked me this morning, or yesterday. Like you say, no skin off my nose, and it gets Jenna back where I wanted her. If she agreed to the sale … which I think she might, if I spun the school for talented kids line.'

‘It's good, isn't it?' interjected Harville eagerly, but Deano waved a hand, silencing him.

‘But things have changed since then. So the answer's no.'

There was a long, cold pause.

Then Harville said, ‘I'll show you those photographs.'

‘No!' cried Kayley, at the same time as a shout echoed down the stairs from above.

Harville stood still, apparently torn between continuing to torment his prisoners and finding out what was going on upstairs.

‘Excuse me one moment,' he said, leaving them and locking the door behind him.

Dusk had fallen properly now, and the lights were on in the front window of the cottage, so Jason and Mia could see the figures of Ross and Harville through the panes. Harville looked disgusted and Ross was wringing his hands, doing his best to extend the encounter for as long as possible, as Jason had suggested.

‘Wonder what they're talking about,' he muttered to Mia, leading her around the side of the building.

‘Drugs. Money,' she said dully. ‘The usual.'

‘But you're out of all that now,' he said.

‘Well out of it.' She shuddered. ‘For good.'

‘This must be the kitchen.'

He peered into a darkened back window, standing on a broken rabbit hutch to get a better look. He could see a light through the half-open door, but nothing more. He pressed his ear to the glass, hoping to catch some of what was being said, but it was no use.

‘You really think Deano's here? I couldn't see him in the front room.'

Mia was plucking at loose threads in her jumper, apparently keen to put an end to the foray.

‘We haven't seen the bedrooms yet,' he said. ‘He'll be in there, I suppose. Reckon the back door's unlocked?'

He tried it and, to his great surprise, it was.

He turned around, eyes widened at Mia, and stepped quietly into the dark kitchen.

‘I'll stay out here, in case,' she whispered, and he nodded agreement.

He shut the door gently and stood behind the fridge, listening.

Now he could hear voices from the living room, though he couldn't make out every word they said. Ross was whining and pathetic, Harville barking back at him.

‘I can't keep bailing you out,' he heard Harville say. ‘You've had thousands of pounds worth of free gear from me. I'm not some kind of charity for hopeless losers.'

‘But we're friends,' said Ross. ‘The old school, dorm mates, everything. Doesn't that mean anything to you?'

‘It means I should have had better dorm mates,' said Harville. ‘I'll sue that school for putting your sorry arse within a mile of me. Now get out.'

‘I'm not leaving,' he heard Ross vow, then there was a scuffling sound.

‘For fuck's sake, get off your knees.' Harville sounded utterly appalled. ‘Get up, man. Didn't our alma mater teach you anything about self-respect?'

‘Didn't it teach you anything about compassion?' said Ross, with what sounded like a sob.

Jason had to hand it to the guy. He was playing a blinder in there.

But he mustn't get distracted by the amateur dramatics. Somehow he had to find out where Deano was, and try to get him out. If he was still alive.

He tiptoed towards the door, putting his eye to the crack to try and work out what lay beyond. It was a hall, off which all the other rooms of the house lay, apart from an upstairs area in the roof. Nobody appeared to be in the hall, which was only lit by the shaft of brightness spilling out of the open living room door.

He took a deep breath and nudged the kitchen door open further, stepping into the hall. It was shabby, with fraying carpets and peeling wallpaper. A photograph of some old-fashioned guy in a military uniform hung cockeyed over a broken umbrella stand.

There was shouting coming from the living room now, and Harville appeared to be ordering his goons to get Ross out of there. Shit.

Jason opened the nearest door, which proved to be a broom cupboard, and stuffed himself into the narrow space.

More scuffling and shouting, and what sounded like punching, ensued.

Christ. He hadn't meant for Ross to get himself beaten up. He itched to leap out of the cupboard and join the fray – but that wouldn't solve the problem at hand.

‘Get out of here,' shouted Lawrence. ‘No, don't get up. Crawl. On your hands and knees. It's all you're good for. Boys, give him the order of the boot.'

From the crack between the hinges of the slightly ajar cupboard door, Jason saw Ross crawl out, his nose bleeding and his glasses broken, while the two hulking goons followed him, aiming kicks at his backside to hurry him along.

Harville laughed as he watched, then he came into the hall and opened a door opposite the cupboard.

Jason had presumed this to be another cupboard, because it was right next to the kitchen door, but apparently it wasn't, for a light was snapped on and the sound of feet descending stone steps could be heard.

A cellar! He narrowly avoided saying the words out loud.

The goons were occupied with Ross. It would be him – and hopefully Deano – against Harville. Jason flitted back into the kitchen and found the biggest, sharpest knife in the block, then returned to the cellar door and opened it, heart thumping.

Harville had gone into a room at the bottom of the stairs and shut the door.

He thought of a phrase Mia had used a lot:
don't be a hero.

Had he ever taken any notice? No, and the result had usually been detention, or suspension, or arrest.

Mia had never wanted a hero, but he thought Jenna would. Jenna wanted to respect him and admire him. And he wanted, more than anything, to be respected and admired by her.

But he would have to make sure nothing happened in the heat of the moment with that knife. It was purely for leverage or self-defence, not for actual attack.

Or so he hoped.

Jenna was at the hotel in minutes.

Before asking to be shown up to Parker's suite, she had a quick word with the receptionist.

‘Are you sure?' she said, having found out what she wanted to know.

‘Oh yes. A very smartly dressed man, thirties, brown hair, blue eyes. They definitely seemed to know each other. And they left together.'

‘Thanks. Could you let Parker van Steenburgen in Suite 2 know that Jenna Myatt is here, please?'

Parker came down in a flap, hugging Jenna far too tightly and sobbing all over her T-shirt.

‘Parker, it's OK. Deano did meet up with Lawrence Harville. The receptionist saw them together.'

‘Oh my God, really? Seriously? But I asked him – I mean, Harville – and he said they hadn't …'

‘I know,' said Jenna, leading Parker to the sofas and sitting her down. ‘And the question is, why did he say that?'

‘I can call him and ask him again,' said Parker, flipping out her phone and dialling. ‘He's not answering,' she said sadly, a few moments later.

‘Perhaps he'll answer me,' said Jenna grimly. ‘Shit, I blocked his number and now I can't remember it. Can you …?'

Parker recited the number and Jenna punched it into her phone.

Again the phone rang. But this time it was answered.

‘I found those photographs,' said Harville, waving a plastic wallet at Deano and Kayley. They were still very close together on the bed and seemed really very friendly for people who barely knew each other. If Harville didn't know differently, he'd think Deano was seriously interested in the slag. ‘Why don't you take a peek? They're not really up to
Playboy
standard, but maybe they'd make Readers' Wives in one of the more downmarket wank mags.'

Kayley had buried her face in Deano's shoulder. He put an arm around her.

‘No?' said Harville. ‘Are you sure? Come on. I'll show you a little taster.'

He opened the wallet and drew out a handful of photographs, all enlarged and glossy.

‘What about this? A fellow at each end.'