The Contract (Nightlong #1) (27 page)

“If Ted knows about your sideline, he could have sold you out–”

“Yeah,” Dante said, “but I don’t believe it.”

“People can make themselves believe anything, it doesn’t make it true. Like your mother telling me I mattered as much as her career, her children… when she damn well emotionally cut me off after one slip. That was it, we were done. Never mind she neglected me so long…”

I looked at Dante who was finally getting an insight into why his father was so fucked up. My lover seemed, I don’t know, disturbed as Dick continued…

“If I have one piece of advice son, never love a real woman, a woman with the potential to beat the pulp out of your guts with one look. Things go wrong with the one woman you care about and everything else fucks up, too.”

“I’d take relationship advice from anyone but you, thanks,” Dante retaliated.

“Yeah, well…” Dick took another hearty gulp of brown liquid.

Dante continued, “Anyway, our number one client was being scammed by our thief. A spectrum analyser found a couple of bugs hidden shoddily in his car.”

“The law,” Dick said.

“Yeah.”

“So the new Mr Fixer isn’t so handy? What other clients did you have?”

“We had several, but none with recent activity. The aforementioned, he was probably the biggest and most high-profile, not to mention most sensitive profile to deal with.”

“Roman Sinclair… he just came out, didn’t he? I bet he did that to undo himself of all the hassle and blackmail…”

He caught on quick.

“Precisely. I had to advise him. Without powers, I can’t help him anymore.”

“This person took everything?” Dick asked, incredulous. “Emptied your offices and killed your staff and just… took off? Without any comeback whatsoever?”

“I checked security footage… nothing. Wiped.”

“This is where my son fails,” Dick looked at me, “this is why he needed all those people when I needed no more than three managers to run an entire clothing empire.”

“I don’t fix people up with rags. I am in control of lives. I needed a big team.”

“Whatever,” Dick said, and grabbed a laptop off a cabinet beside him, “nothing is ever deleted off the internet. Understand?”

“Why would my security data be on the internet? It’s private.”

Dick tapped away, loading up his computer. “That’s what you think. Do you have the phone you had linked to your security feeds?”

“It’s in my luggage.”

“Go get it. Don’t worry… Cleo’s safe with me.”

Dante bit his lip but I nodded I’d be okay.

As soon as he left the room, Dick looked at me with stern contempt. “What’s your impression of my son’s current state of health?”

I stared back, shocked he still had the ability to form complex sentences despite the bourbon, having just had sex and the cigar smoke rattling his brains about too. Not to mention, five minutes ago he said he was done with life outside this sordid place… clearly he’d just forgotten that he enjoyed real life.

“He seems okay, I think.”

“You think?”

“Well, what are you getting at? I don’t know what you mean unless you tell me.”

“Dante is prone to anger… to outbursts. He has fits of rage. Have you noticed that recently?”

I shook my head. “No. He’s been as gentle as a teddy bear, until we got here anyway.”

“Fine,” he said, and began tapping away at his machine, tap-tap-tapping away.

I twiddled my thumbs while waiting for Dante to return, trying not to think about his absence when I was in the attic room alone. Was he out somewhere those nights, fighting, or something? I didn’t know.

When he came back into the room, he handed his father his old phone and remarked, “Battery’s dead.”

“No matter.”

Sinclair Snr attached a cable to his PC and plugged the phone in.

He worked fast and Dante came back to sit in the chair next to me. He bit his thumb, trying not to get his hopes up. I wondered whether Dick fucked, worked and slept… all in that same chair. He could probably control the world from it.

“What’s your darknet software password?” Dick asked.

Dante reeled off some long-winded password with lots of numbers and letters and upper case, lower case, dashes, etc… and Dick plugged it all in. I assumed darknet was some sort of backup security, I wasn’t sure.

“The last recording made was a couple of weeks ago, that sound about right?”

We looked at one another. “Yeah.”

“It’s downloading. It might take a while.”

We all waited in silence while the files downloaded and Dick apologised, “The service round here is a bit slow sometimes.”

“Probably the heat,” I joked, failing to disperse the awkward feeling in the room.

Dante held my hand and looked down at his lap still, trying to keep his cool.

“How much longer?”

“We’re at seventy-five per cent. A couple of minutes.”

“Why would Dumpy put our stuff on a backup server?” Dante whispered to himself.

“Who was Dumpy?” I asked.

“Our tech guy,” he said.

“Dumpy probably did it for the reason we’re seeking it now… just in case something catastrophic happened. It’s what I would have done. Had you received threats recently?”

“We had actually.”

“There you are then.” The laptop made a pinging noise and Dick said, “Hold on.”

He peered at the screen, unable to see much. He fast-forwarded the footage and shook his head. “It can’t be. What the hell?”

“What? What?” I asked, while Dante started shaking beside me, wondering what the hell was going on.

Dick looked out of the windows and into space. “Here, see for yourself.”

With Dante immobile I leapt from my chair to grab the laptop and rewound the footage to see a figure all in black approach the attic door at the Elstree mansion. The intruder seemed to know the code to the door, plugging it in right away. He or she also wore a gas mask, their face rendered unidentifiable. The door to the office open, the intruder threw in a couple of canisters and white clouds filled the frame.

The fog cleared to reveal the team, every single one of them, laid on the ground. The gas they’d been administered must have been a knock-out agent.

One by one, the figure dragged their twelve bodies to line them up, and once they were all laid together, he or she shot them all in the head to make it look as if it had been a threatening killer who had walked in and rounded them up. Disposing of the gas canisters, the killer checked the team was really dead.

The killer was dressed all in black, their head covered by a balaclava and the mask too. I saw a function to switch cameras so I switched between the one on the stairs behind the keypad entry door, to the camera inside the office which provided a face-on shot of the figure. Even their eyes were mostly shadowed by dark make-up… but it was clear the figure was female from the shadows falling on her body, outlining breasts and hips.

“A woman,” I said, gasping, “it was a woman!”

“I’D ASK IF THERE WERE any women you’ve scorned, but we both know the answer to that, don’t we Dante?” his father said.

“She knew the code,” I whispered, an awful feeling of recognition settling in my veins. “She just tapped it in, walked in… and shot all those people. How… why would a woman do that?”

The figure had the same slim frame as Shay; small breasts, slender hips, trim waist, narrow shoulders. She was so tiny really, how could she have killed all those people?

“She was desperate,” I whispered, “so very desperate.”

Dante said nothing which only gave me more food for thought.

“Say something!” I demanded, pacing the room in a panic.

“I can’t believe it. I trusted her… and she broke that trust. I don’t care so much about that, but she actually killed people. Innocent people.”

I looked at Dick whose eyes said more than his mouth could. This was always going to come down to a woman. Driven by jealousy… 

She also might have overheard Daltrey trying to threaten Dante over Pernox… and rather than be torn away from her job and the boss she loved, she got rid of the competition for Dante’s time and affections.

When she realised what Dante and I had was real, she decided to cut her losses and began extorting money to make her escape plan… to get away for good.

“What if…” I voiced my fears, and the thought seemed to have entered my head and Dante’s, too – going by the look of fear in his eyes.

“She could have killed Daltrey. If she’s psychotic, she might have found reason to,” Dante said, his eyes searching listlessly around the scruffy office.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“I could have her gotten rid of. It’d be clean, swift,” Dick said, “I’ll pay. It’s no problem. If she did kill my eldest boy, it’d be an honour.”

He poured more bourbon, his hand shaking as he did.

“Poor Daltrey,” I murmured. “You said it yourself. He was good, clean… he helped people. Why would she do it? I mean she seems nice… she…” The more I thought about it all, the more I worried Dante had done something terrible to her, to make her like this. What goes through someone’s mind to make them kill?

“WELL, OBVIOUSLY SHE IS A PSYCHO!” Dante yelled, shocking both me and Dick.

“Daltrey stood in her way of seeing Dante regularly,” Dick said in his craggy voice, “and I’m assuming that more recently, newspaper reports of a new love in his life drove her to the edge. When you can’t kill what you love, you damage everything that matters to them instead… to make them reach out for help.”

“Teddy must’ve known. Maybe he knew but didn’t want to get Shay killed. Does he feel sorry for her? Why would he feel sorry for her? I mean… she did break his heart, too. It’s never one-sided is it?” I clutched my stomach, my pain increasing, my loss indescribable. Would my baby still be inside me without all this recent upheaval in our lives? My nerves felt tattered. Why hadn’t Dante considered her a suspect? All this time, Pernox’s loyal manageress was another in his confidence and he’d failed to admit she could have done this – and all by herself.

Dante kicked the floor, hands in his pockets, face red with shame. He couldn’t look at me and I muttered, “I don’t even know you, do I?”

“I can’t… I’m not in her head. I don’t know how you expect me to be a mind reader as well as everything else. How was I to know she’s harboured hatred all these years… so many years. I thought she remained at Pernox because it was her preferred lifestyle.”

“You told me yourself, girls come and go, so you didn’t think it was a bit weird she was clinging on, hanging around, all this fucking time?” I screeched. “She’s rather old to be doing all this still?”

“I like this girl, Dante,” his father added, pouring more liquor. “You should always tell her the truth if you want to keep her… before it gets too late. Like it is for me.”

Dante nodded in agreement and asked for me to take a seat, which I did, while he remained standing, looking out of the blinds at the desert outside.

“I was young and immature but I always knew there was something strange about her I couldn’t quite put my finger on and still, I never imagined her capable of something like this, a massacre for fuck sake. We never even fucked, never… and she wanted it that way, not me. She kept her distance even though she loved me. We were friends, we talked all night sometimes. Then when Daltrey was gone, I pulled away completely and only paid her visits for business reasons. I couldn’t cope… I was hospitalised. I still take medication for my rage. What happened to my brother was so out of the blue and so help me, if she did all of this alone, I don’t know what I will do.”

“Rage?” I questioned.

Dick’s rough Cockney accent cut through. “He couldn’t accept the death, I suppose… none of us could.”

I stared at the floor. “This explains everything. It explains it all. All those years, when I thought there was something wrong with me–”

He stood at the window, hands in his pockets, my beautiful man all sad and alone. “Yes. I can’t take the real world. It’s painful to live, everyday. He was like my soul mate. We fought like cat and dog, but… now you see, don’t you? I just… I know I’m not perfect but what
she
did, it wasn’t my fault, was it?”

“Nobody pulled the trigger but her.”

I accepted what he was saying as truth. He was nothing but a husk when I found him but then he became more.

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Nothing,” he assured us, turning to look between me and his father.

“You know anything about her background?”

“Not enough.”

“Was she abused? Maltreated at some point in her life?”

Dante threw his hands up. “I didn’t find any record confirming this sort of background.”

“Well something fucked her up,” I shrieked.

“Cleo’s right, son.”

“Fuck you, Dad.”

“Well, what about this little bitch? Am I putting a hit out on her, or what?”

Dante shook his head. “I still can’t believe it. I need to look into her eyes when I ask her.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near her!” I exclaimed. “Put this in the hands of the police.”

“No law,” both men said at the same time.

I guessed that was out of the question then.

“I live outside of the law. This is the life I chose,” Dante reminded me, “beyond rules.”

“What? You’ll live like this forever then?” I asked, baffled.

“I’ll torture her so she tells me, to make sure she really did kill Daltrey,” Dante told his father, like this was nothing more than a business transaction.

“My thoughts, too,” Dick agreed.

Dick by name, dick by nature.

“Tell no-one,” Dante asked, “no-one.”

“Have it your way, son.”

“Let’s go, Cleo. I’ll deal with the bitch and be in touch.”

Dante grabbed my hand but I felt like I was agreeing to something bad, just going along with him.

“Here’s your phone,” Dick said, passing it to Dante.

“Thanks.”

We left the
Day Care
compound and I was in such shock, I couldn’t drive, so Dante took the wheel and began driving us back to Las Vegas.

Something about all this didn’t figure in my head. There was something wrong about it all.

Why hadn’t Shay just killed me, too? Problem solved.

WHY?

“Pull over,” I asked him, “pull over!”

“Why, what’s wrong? Unless there’s something wrong, I’m not pulling over in the desert.”

“Shay hasn’t touched me. She hasn’t done a thing to wrong me.”

“Maybe she feels some affinity, you know? I don’t know,” Dante said firmly.

“Was that footage real? What if it wasn’t her? Just someone that looked like her.”

“You said it yourself, darling… it had to be an inside job. We should’ve realised she was a threat, too… but I–”

“I can’t believe she’d do it. What if someone made her do it?”

“I don’t know, just listen. I’d fly us right back if I could but the pilot can’t until he’s had a rest stop. We’ll have to stay in Vegas tonight. Any preference for hotel?”

“I’ve always wanted to stay at the Bellagio.”

“Fine, no problem.”

Dante concentrated on driving while I told myself this had to be a terrible dream.

“What if the footage was faked? What if–”

“Stop it, Ciara.”

“And why did you call me Cleo in front of him?”

“Because I don’t trust him…”

“All the more reason…”

Dante pulled over and held his head in his hands. “What do you want me to do? Tell me! I’ll do it. I feel insane. I don’t know who to trust. The only person I do trust is you and I’m trying not to drag you into it all… but I can’t help it! This is my worst nightmare come true. I have no idea what’s best! NO IDEA!”

He banged his fists on the steering wheel and I asked calmly, “If she is a killer… why didn’t she kill me?”

“You don’t understand, Ciara.”

“Try me.”

“She messed with my mind; made me interested in her, intrigued even, but never gave me enough info to make me love her. You can’t force yourself to love another, can you? Like
you
can’t unlove a wretch like me, I couldn’t love her.”

“Don’t say that, Dante. I’ll always love you. I have always loved you.”

“I think she despises men, I think she does. I don’t think she would ever hurt you. I’ve always thought there was a reason she chose to fuck women and not men, even when she prefers men.”

He noticed it was starting to get dark and immediately pulled back onto the road.

“Women are as capable as men,” he ranted, “don’t think they aren’t. Don’t pity her, Ciara.”

“I’m just trying to think. Somehow, I don’t believe she did this. I trust her more than I trust him, right? Why is that?”

“I don’t trust him either but I trust her less having seen that footage.”

“On the other hand,” I paused, “what if your father just wants to fuck up your life–”

“Dad wouldn’t do that,” Dante said, his voice hollow. “He wouldn’t hurt his own son. Not as deeply as this. Snide remarks, cutting put-downs yes, but not
this
. Only a monster would contrive the death of twelve souls at the hands of my ex.”

“I swear, I don’t think she’s a killer. I swear it, Dante. On the other hand, your father makes me feel sick. Just him breathing in the same room as us… made me ill.”

“Here, call Pernox,” he said, passing me the phone, “ask her. Now.”

I looked through the phonebook of his burner phone and dialled.

“Hello?” she answered, sounding groggy. Looking at my watch, I knew it’d be very early morning in the UK.

“Shay, listen to me very carefully.”

“Why… what’s happened?”

“Put it on speaker,” Dante asked, so I did. “Shay, listen. Where were you the night Daltrey got shot? Can you recall?”

“Yes. I was with you, remember?”

I saw him tapping his head, trying to remember. “I remember nothing about that whole week.”

“We–we–” She tried to hold back her emotions; I heard pain in her voice. “We were in the dungeon that night, just watching, drinking, larking about as normal. We came back up into the spa house around midnight and both of us passed out cold, too much drink. There are others who remember… Sexton arrived in the morning to tell us, remember? He found us sleeping together and told us it was all over the news about a junior doctor being gunned down as he came off a night shift, early one morning.”

Dante grabbed the phone and put the call on hold.

“That’s all bullshit. We never shared a bed. She’s lying. Why is she fucking lying, even now!”

Sensing his rage rising out of proportion, I quickly grabbed my own phone and asked, “Wait a minute.”

I picked up my phone and quickly texted Sexton:

Are you awake?

I am now.

Were Shay and Dante together the night/morning Daltrey was shot?

I don’t know.

What do you mean?

I used to drop him at the male entrance… remember? Nothing but a hut. I never knew where it led… until recently.

Okay.

I gave Dante a warning look and he nodded.

“Shay, you still there?”

“Yes,” she said, sounding calm.

“We’re coming home… we have some news.”

“Oh yes?”

“Yes. We’ll see you soon.”

She was silent for a number of seconds before she whispered, “I won’t be here when you get back.”

The line went dead and I looked at Dante who was in complete despair.