VIOLA
Iwas wrong about the hit.
A new recruit can be just effective…if you give them a bomb.
Lorcan calls me from Windsor General Hospital just before midnight, finally answering my messages. There was an explosion on the news just outside of Ascot Hills.
My first thought was that Dante had gone after Lorcan for my father. But Dante doesn’t do bombs. He sees them as messy, and he much prefers the cleanliness of a gun with a silencer attached. It was also Gordon Duke’s vehicle that was rigged with an exploding device that went off just before the boys got to the family home.
If Adrien doesn’t have a hit out on Lorcan, and it’s his grandfather, Gordon Duke that he wants dead, then this whole charade is a play for the Duke empire.
With my father at the helm of it all, pulling at the fucking string
I say this to Lorcan, who takes it in his stride. “My grandfather’s alive that’s what matters,” he says. Apparently, Gordon heard the trigger just before the key turned, and managed to jump out. “I’ve got to talk to the police and then we’ll be coming back to the school. Just tell me you are okay? Quinn said Dante fucking escaped?” he adds, the edge of fear in his voice crystal clear on the phone.
I give him my usual answer—yes, and then wait for him to keep probing me for more information to make himself feel better, but he doesn’t. He just sighs with relief. “Look I have to go. There’s fucking police everywhere…I’ll be home soon.” There’s a pause. “Where are you? You sound like you’re in a car?”
I am in a car. I’m driving Jude’s Aston to visit Rebecca. Quinn gave me the address the day after I got back, but there was no time to see her until now. I give him some bullshit about popping out for a coffee, and then hang up.
When I get to the assisted living residence Quinn moved her to, I park up and walk straight to the reception of the refurbished stately home, through the tranquil gardens full of squat trees shaped into animals of all things.
My phone lights up with a message from Lorcan just as I walk through the doors to the place.
This isn’t a time for secrets. Where the fuck are you?
Oh but it is. I haven’t told the boys where my mother is. I’m not telling anyone. The last thing I need is for Adrien to find her again and use her to control me. She’s the only one who can tell me the truth. I’m just hoping that my mother is having one of her good days so I can get to the bottom of all the lies.
Lies I keep on adding to.
I click my phone off and then sign my name on the register as using the fake one I use sometimes just for this purpose.
“Oh, you must be her daughter?” asks the pretty brunette nurse, reading the name I’ve given her from the registration form. It’s the same surname as the name Rebecca’s is while she’s here. A temporary measure until I take her away for good. I nod at her, forcing out a plastic smile, and the nurse beams. “You’ve come on a good day. She’s going to be over the moon to see you.”
She leads me into the main room where most of the residents are watching TV and points out Rebecca in her chair next to the window.
“I can go over there myself,” I say to the nurse.
The brunette nods. “Okay, call me if you need anything.”
I won’t but I tell her I will, and then make my way across the room to where Rebecca’s chair is parked. My mother is reading which is a good sign.
“Rebecca,” I say as soon as I’m within hearing distance.
She looks up, a frown creasing her brow as soon as she sees me, but it turns into a wide smile immediately. “Viola, oh, my baby girl. Come here.” She drops the book on her lap and opens her arms.
I hesitate for a second, but then make myself physically available to the woman who birthed me, bending slightly to allow her to put her arms around my shoulders. She smells of linen and lavender and feels fragile, even with the weight of her body bearing me down in a hug, which is not a lot. I’m stiff in her arms but she doesn’t seem to notice. Rebecca never seems to mind anything, and that’s always been her downfall.
I count to ten in my head. Ten seconds is long enough to be affectionate with family, surely? While I’m counting, I check that what I came for is still around her neck. It is—golden and warm against her skin, the pendant I found in my father’s office long ago and have been wearing ever since. It’s also the necklace that Quinn installed a listening device in for me when Dante was stalking us the first time and I needed something to make him bite.
I asked Quinn to leave it with Rebecca for safekeeping while I was at St Michael’s.
And now I need it back.
I wait until the embrace starts to feel clunky to pull back. Rebecca’s grin broadens as soon as she gets a good look at me, brushing the hair out of my eyes. “I’ve missed you so so much,” she says, voice cracking, her eyes moist.
I look at her in the same way, minus the tears. “Do you have everything you need?”
Rebecca nods, smiling and crying at the same time like she can’t quite make up her mind about what to do. “Yes, it’s great. There’s an amazing library which I’m sure you know about,” she says, touching her thumb to my chin as she used to when I was a kid.