Off the Record (28 page)

‘No!’ Kate surged to her feet as she saw the glint of a knife. Roxanne struck out at her mother kneeling at the altar rail, and raised her hand to strike again as Alex slumped forward.

People were shouting and screaming. Kate threw herself at Roxanne, grabbing her wrist and twisting, pulling her away from her mother. The priest was calling for calm as the people around them scattered.

‘Let me go!’ Roxanne screamed.

‘Not in this lifetime!’ snarled Kate, hanging on for dear life as the other woman kicked out, anger giving her strength.

Roxanne lashed out with her free hand, catching Kate a glancing blow. Kate saw stars and felt herself fall, but refused to give up. She pulled Roxanne with her, shifting so that the older woman landed beneath her.

The more they struggled, the angrier Kate became. This was the woman who had stalked Johnson; who had attacked Paul when he was just a boy; had stolen from her mother and ruined her home and her reputation;
had attacked her in the hotel!
The woman’s perfume was unmistakable.

Even as they fought, Kate’s mind was working overtime. This woman had hurt everyone she loved. What she’d put Paul through all those years ago had ruined Kate’s chance of happiness with him. As Roxanne twisted and screamed obscenities at her, Kate’s fury made her stronger.

She used her body weight to pin her down as she swung back her arm and threw a punch at Roxanne’s jaw. The blow was enough to stun her, and she slumped back, silent at last, the knife falling from her hand with a clatter as it landed on the stone floor in front of the altar.

Kate raised her arm to swing again, wanting to beat her to a pulp, to see her bruised and bloodied, to punish her for everything she’d done to Paul and the others, but her hand was caught in a firm grip.

‘Kate, it’s OK.’ Jake told her quietly. ‘You can get off her now. I’ll hold her.’

‘Where’s Mum?’

‘Charlie’s with her. She’s still breathing. An ambulance is coming.’

Kate put a hand to her chest. ‘Thank God,’ she breathed. ‘Help me up.’ She put out her other hand. Jake swore as they both realised it was covered in blood. ‘I’m all right,’ she said. Adrenaline pumped through her body, her mind still reeling from the fright of seeing someone stab her mother. She stood up. Her mother was still, slumped over the altar rail, a pool of blood covering her back. The priest was standing over her, his hand on her head, praying. Kate’s head began to swim. ‘Mum?’ she whispered as she fought to breathe.

Moments later, Jake caught her as she lost consciousness.

Chapter Thirty-four

Hours later, she awoke to find Paul sitting by her bed, gently holding the fingers of her bandaged hand, his eyes closed and head bent as though he were praying. She watched him unobserved for a few moments, happy to see him, until she tried to move her other arm and saw that she was attached to a drip. Memories of the scene at the church rushed in and she gripped his hand hard.

‘Where’s my mum?’ she demanded.

Paul opened his eyes, a welcoming smile spreading across his beautiful face. ‘She’s with Dad, talking to the police. She’s OK,’ he reassured. ‘You pulled Roxanne off her before she could do more than nick her.’

‘Oh, thank God!’ she breathed, closing her eyes in relief.

‘Yeah, I’ve been doing that a lot since I got here.’

‘You’ve been praying?’

‘You bet your beautiful ass I have, Armstrong,’ he said. ‘All the way to the hospital, and then thanking the guy upstairs since the doc said you were sedated but OK.’

Kate told herself not to get carried away with the thought that this was the old, annoyingly macho, gorgeous Paul. ‘So Mum’s really OK?’

‘Absolutely. The doc stitched her up and gave her a clean bill of health. She came off better than you in the end. They’ve had to do some repair work on your tendons. You’ve been in surgery. It’s going to hurt like hell when the anaesthetic wears off. Don’t worry about your mom. Dad won’t leave her side. The doc says you can both get out of here in a few hours.’

‘What about the tour? You should be in Germany.’

‘Cancelled.’

‘Just like that?’

He shrugged. ‘There were only a few dates left. We’ll reschedule later in the year. But right now you and your mom are more important to us than disappointed fans. They wouldn’t have seen him at his best, in the circumstances,’ he pointed out. ‘You made the headlines again, by the way.’

Kate groaned. ‘Don’t tell me. For every paper except
The Globe
.’

‘OK, I won’t tell you that someone used their cell phone to get a shot of you wrestling Roxanne in the church. Every paper from here to Chicago bought it.’

‘What?’ She tried to sit up, only to fall back down again.

‘Easy, honey. Are you in pain?’

‘No. I don’t know what they put in that drip, but I’m feeling no pain at all. Now stop changing the subject and tell me how Roxanne knew where we were.’

Paul didn’t look convinced, and she wasn’t about to tell him that actually she was bloody sore. She needed to know how Roxanne had managed to find them. ‘Come on, Brand. How’d she do it?’

He looked grim. ‘Greg.’ She must have looked confused because he went on. ‘Our lead guitarist?’

‘I know who he is,’ she grumbled.

‘He just forgot to mention that his wife is Roxanne’s cousin, and that he and his wife borrowed a lot of money from Roxanne’s dad. When the old man died a few months ago, Roxanne inherited the debt, and she’s been pulling his strings ever since. He’s been feeding her information all along.’

‘But … she’s a crazy woman. How could she manipulate Greg like that? Why didn’t he tell anyone?’

Paul shook his head. ‘I have no idea. She may be crazy, but she managed to fool a lot of people. Whatever she did, he was more scared of her than he was of us.’

‘Maybe she threatened his family. We all act irrationally when someone we love is threatened.’ She held up her injured hand. ‘I didn’t even know she’d got me, I was so angry that she’d hurt my mum.’

Paul looked grim. ‘Yeah. I know. I guess there are a lot of people like her out there – just look around the world and you’ll see whole countries being undermined and destroyed by madmen who somehow convince perfectly rational people they’re the answer to their problems.’

‘So don’t vote for Roxanne, eh? What a frightening thought!’

‘Well, there’s enough evidence, not to mention a whole church full of witnesses, to guarantee she’ll never bother us again. And Greg is history. He blew it, big time. He’ll be charged as an accessory.’

‘Roxanne was the woman he’s been getting calls from?’

‘Yeah.’

‘How did you find out it was him?’

‘Roxanne’s phone. He’d called her this morning, just after he heard Dad talking to Jake about the church you and your mom were going to visit. She’s been hanging out in London, waiting for him to tell her where you were. When Jake checked it, he recognised Greg’s number.’

Kate felt for Paul. He was obviously angry, but she suspected that he was also hurt that someone he trusted had betrayed them like that. ‘Hang on a minute. Greg’s been with the band for, what? Five years? But he wasn’t with the band when she attacked you. Does that mean there’s someone else involved?’

He looked sick. ‘Yeah,’ he said quietly. ‘That was Mick.’

‘The drummer?’

‘Yeah. He finally ’fessed up. He had a fling with Roxanne when she worked for Dad, before anyone realised what she was really like. She blackmailed him to report on Dad’s movements. When she was committed to the hospital he just kept his mouth shut, and carried on as though nothing had happened.’

‘Saved his marriage,’ she murmured, remembering their conversation at the club.

Paul shrugged. ‘Well, him and Greg have got a lot of explaining to do – to us and to their families.’

‘Where are they now?’

‘Helping police with their enquiries – isn’t that what you Brits say?’ He flexed his hand and Kate saw the bruises on his knuckles.

‘Which one did you hit?’

‘I got Mick, Dad got Greg.’

‘Did it feel good?’

‘Hell, yeah!’ he laughed, then sobered. ‘Actually, no.’ For a moment he looked bleak. Then he seemed to shake himself out of it and reached for her hand where she had a matching set of bruises on her own knuckles.

‘I heard about your violent streak, Miss Armstrong,’ he said as he placed gentle kisses on her hand, carefully avoiding the drip. ‘Jake told me you knocked Roxanne out cold before he could get to her.’

‘Hell, yeah!’ she mimicked. ‘That woman stabbed my mum!’

‘And it just had to be done,’ he agreed.

‘You understand,’ she grinned, and they laughed together.

But the memory of the blade flashing towards her mother robbed Kate of her smile.
How can I be laughing about this?

‘Kate, don’t. It’s OK. It’s over.’

She looked at him, sitting there, holding her hand.
Understanding
.

‘Until the next time?’ she reminded him of his own words. ‘Our parents are getting married, you know.’

‘Yeah, I know.’

‘So how many more Roxannes are going to come crawling out of the woodwork to threaten my mother?’

‘I don’t know. I’m sorry. I wish I did, but I don’t.’

She lay still, staring at the ceiling. For the first time she understood why he had sent her away. ‘But Johnson said this was his last tour. Surely if he’s not in the public eye it won’t be so bad?’

‘Yes, he’ll definitely retire after this. But what do you want me to say?’ he asked. ‘I hope you’re right. But I don’t know. I can’t tell you your mom will be safe. All I can tell you is my dad would die before he would let anyone harm her.’

She was silent for a while. She knew he was right. Johnson would do everything in his power to protect her mother. And even if the worst happened, she knew her mother would never regret taking the risk to be with the man she loved.

She turned her head to look at Paul, and knew. She knew that even if it all ended badly – as it very nearly had today – she would rather risk being by his side than not being with him and living a safe, lonely life without him.

The question is, are you prepared to take a risk on me?

‘Good question.’

She gasped. ‘Did I say that, or are you a mind reader?’

‘Now there’s a thought,’ he said, one eyebrow raised. ‘What do you think?’

She narrowed her eyes, refusing to be seduced by the tenderness in his.

‘Whatever,’ she waved her bandaged hand, and then regretted it as she felt the stitches in her wound pull. ‘Ow!’

He wagged a finger at her. ‘Don’t you go changing the subject on me now, Armstrong.’

She rolled her eyes. He leaned close, resting his head on the pillow beside hers.

‘Will you promise me something?’ he asked.

‘I might. What are you after?’

‘Next time I act like a jerk and try to send you away, sock me with that right hook.’

‘Knock some sense into you?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I think that could be arranged. Does that mean you’re going to keep me?’

‘If you’ll have me.’

‘Well, I’ve always wanted a brother,’ she said.

‘I never wanted a sister. I still don’t.’

‘So what do you want?’

‘For you, Kate Armstrong, to marry me.’

‘Until a few hours ago you wanted me out of your life. You didn’t want any baggage,’ she reminded him. ‘You accused me of not knowing what I want, and insisted that you wanted to be alone.’

‘You know what a stupid jerk I can be. I thought it would keep you safe. I can’t promise I won’t have days when I get scared and irrational again.’

‘And that’s when I have to smack you?’

‘Yeah. Will you do it?’

‘It depends.’

‘On what?’

‘I can’t go through it every week. You’ve got to sort yourself out, Paul. It’s not realistic to expect either of us to be happy if Roxanne’s influence is going to live with us.’

He was silent for a moment. Kate wondered whether she’d pushed too far. She wanted more than anything to be part of his life, but she knew that they had to have this out first. Otherwise, they would never be free of the woman. She wanted Paul’s love unconditionally, and wanted to be able to love him freely and without worrying that he could change his mind if something happened to remind him of the dangers people like Roxanne posed.

‘I was wrong,’ he said at last. ‘I thought I could keep you safe by pushing you away, but I just made myself miserable, and I couldn’t stop worrying about you. You were right. I let Roxanne lock me up in a prison of denial. I guess I’m not free of it yet, but I’m getting help. I know I need it.’

Kate smiled at him, so relieved that he had taken that step. ‘Just accepting that you need help means most of the battle is won.’

‘Yeah. It’s taken a long time, but I guess I needed you to make me see that,’ he smiled back. ‘I talked to someone a couple of days ago, and he confirmed what you’d already seen – I’m showing symptoms of delayed post-traumatic stress. I just bottled it all up ten years ago, and these past few weeks brought it all bubbling up to the surface. I’ve been like an oil well, waiting to blow. Just talking to this guy for an hour made me realise I don’t have to live with these god-awful feelings for ever. But I need to work at it, and I want to, Kate, for you, for us.’

‘You do realise,’ she said slowly, ‘I’m probably going to need to work on this too?’ She closed her eyes, seeing in her mind the blade flashing down into her mother’s flesh. ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get the sight of Roxanne attacking Mum out of my mind.’ She opened tear-filled eyes and looked at him. ‘I need you to help me.’

‘I need you too, Kate. We can work it out together. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you. Without you by my side my life has no meaning. Marry me, Kate?’

She opened her arms and welcomed his embrace.

‘Hell, yeah!’

STOP PRESS!

Rock Legend Marries Woman Priest! Producer Son Also Engaged.

Sources close to Johnson Brand announced that the star has married his childhood sweetheart, Reverend Alexandra Armstrong, a Church of England priest; and his award-winning son, music producer Paul Brand, is engaged to his new stepmother’s daughter, Kate. The couples were brought together when journalist Kate Armstrong interviewed Brand senior for a feature in
The Globe
at the beginning of his first European tour. Miss Armstrong has resigned from the paper, stating that she is now writing the long-awaited official biography of her new step-father. Her mother has given up her parish duties in order to travel with her new husband.