The slope of the hollow dropped away in front of them towards the Merediths’ cottage, a solitary outside light casting a hazy amber glow over the front of the hous
e, lending them just enough light to see by as they slipped down the embankment at the building’s rear. Red led the way as they crept around toward the front, the shotgun held in both hands like a quarterstaff, fingers clenched tight over the cold metal. Ian followed just behind, the flashlight now stuffed away in the pocket of his rain jacket.
Red reached the corner of the house and peered out into a small courtyard.
A black Nissan stood parked in the rain, outside a closed garage that made an L–shape to the house. Red glanced up at the house. The three upper floor windows were dark, but a glow hung in the air outside one of the two downstairs.
‘Well, looks like the whorehouse is full.’
Red started out towards the front door, motioning for Ian to follow. He dropped low to his haunches, a soldier creeping up on the enemy.
‘How do you plan to do this?’ Ian whispered, dropping down behind him.
‘Easy. We knock.’
Ian shook his head, but continued to follow.
He glanced up at the dark downstairs window as they passed, hoping to get some idea of the house’s layout, but a curtain blocked his way.
When Red reached the front door, he stood up to his full height, and glanced over at Ian.
‘Keep an eye out,’ he said. ‘In case one of them is outside. Let me do the rest.’
Ian
felt a terrible sense of foreboding, not just for his friend but for everyone. Bad things floated in the air tonight.
Red lifted one big hand and knocked on the front door, keeping the strength to a minimum so not to alarm anyone inside.
Ian moved a couple of steps closer.
They heard a voice from inside telling them to
hold on, won’t be a minute
, then a figure appeared behind the frosted glass and they heard the door handle click.
The door swung open, and everything happened very fast.
7
Liana was dozing in her chair when the knock came. Elaina had been gone for almost an hour, off, no doubt, on another of her mischievous errands. Only a minute earlier Liana had checked on Jack, made sure he was sleeping soundly, and switched off the light in his makeshift nursery. She had gone back to watch television, found nothing on except soap omnibuses and
Bargain Hunt
reruns, so settled for a little nap instead. She felt exhausted. She often did these days when Elaina was in another of her moods.
The knock broke her reverie, and at first she thought it was her sister returning, having fo
rgotten her key, but Liana knew her sister would never lock the door, oh no, far too sensible. Must be a visitor, but who would ever call by to see them? They didn’t have friends, only a handful of casual acquaintances and a lot of people who kept their distance. She thought salesmen, perhaps, or Jehovah’s Witnesses; she could just send them on their way or perhaps even invite them in for a coffee if she fancied a chat. She would have a look at them first.
So it came as rather a surprise for Liana to open the door and, instead of a short, mi
ddle–aged man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, to find a hulking, bear of a man standing there, holding a shotgun in his hands.
She barely had time to register the man’s identity as the butt of the gun jerked up and struck her across the side of the forehead.
She cried out in pain as the blow shot sparks across her eyes, and her legs crumpled beneath her like cardboard. The floor loomed up to meet her, but her hands wouldn’t work to break her fall, wouldn’t respond. She landed in a heap, her head striking back against the wall. Somehow she stayed conscious, helped by the sudden agony she felt as the big man took hold of her hair and dragged her backwards into the house.
She knew him.
Among many other things he was Ian Cassidy’s friend and Bethany Cassidy’s former lover. Red.
Jack’s father.
Panic enveloped her; fear for what the man might do to her, especially if he found the child. She reached out with her mind, pulling all the magic she could muster. To hell with Elaina, her sister would just have to manage. She pulled it out of the air and sent it streaming through to the baby’s room, allowing it to
cloak
him, to remove his existence from their gullible eyes. That would keep him safe until she could understand the situation a little better.
It would keep the baby safe
. A good enough reason. Wasn’t it? It didn’t matter that she wanted to keep Jack for herself, never give him back, never give him to anyone. That had nothing to do with anything.
Of course not
.
‘You better start to talk to me you fucking bitch,’ Red screamed at her, hauling her through into the lounge with one powerful hand.
‘Where’s that whore of a sister of yours?’
Tears of pain and terror welled in Liana’s eyes.
‘She’s – she’s out –’
‘Good.’
Red pulled her backwards until her shoulders pressed against the seat of the sofa. He pulled her hair taut, stretching her head back. He bent down to his knees and glared into her face. Liana cried out as her neck jarred. She could almost feel the discs in her vertebrae grinding together like whetstones. She smelt alcohol on his breath.
Red dropped the gun down beside him.
He kept hold of Liana’s hair with one hand, and gripped her chin with the other, squeezing hard until the pressure forced her mouth open.
‘Now then, you bitch.
I have just one question.
Where’s my baby?
’
Liana stared at him, eyes wide, the whites
showing as bright as fresh paint. Blood dribbled down the side of her face from a cut that had opened up on her forehead. She worked her mouth as though to speak, and his grip relaxed a little.
‘I – I –’
Red started to stand up and his hand dropped from her jaw. For a moment she thought he would release her completely, then his hand whipped back, slapping her hard across the left side of her face.
The blow resounded with a sharp thwack, like a loose plastic covering cracking in the wind.
Liana was too stunned to cry out. She felt her senses leave her, and the room blurred and spun. Then fingers closed on her jaw again and the world drifted back into focus.
His eyes gleamed with a violent madness.
‘Don’t try to tell me lies, you fucking witch. I know he’s not dead. You have him. I’ll be asking you just exactly
why
when I have him back. Now, for the last time, where is he?’
Again, Liana’s mouth moved, but the words, jumbled up inside, wouldn’t come out straight.
‘He – he – I –’
‘Okay, I see.’
Red straightened again, but this time his hand balled into a fist. ‘I asked you nicely. I asked you one simple question and wanted one simple answer. Now, if you won’t cooperate, we’ll have to try a little persuasion –’
His arm tensed.
Liana’s eyes closed.
‘Red, for God’s sake, stop it!’
Liana opened her eyes. The blow had never landed. She looked up, eyes widening in surprise.
For the first time she noticed Ian Cassidy in the room with them.
He must have come in with Red.
Ian had hold of Red by the wrist and was holding his arm back.
His friend no longer looked at Liana but up at Ian, and Liana could feel the sudden traitorous hatred that emanated from every inch of Red’s body.
She knew why they had come; the baby lay sleeping in the other room, protected from their sight by a little of her magic.
But she also knew they had come here together, as allies against a common enemy.
In Red’s eyes, Ian had just switched sides.
Red’s words lasted forever. ‘
What – are – you – doing
?’
Ian stared him down.
As Liana watched the two big men, she couldn’t pick who she thought might win if their sudden confrontation escalated into a fight. She assessed her own chances: not good. Although Red’s shotgun lay within her reach, she could never get into a position to fire it before it was kicked out of her hand. Not that she could shoot one of the men anyway, murder was as impossible an option to Liana as flying to the moon with only her arms as wings. If Elaina were here, things might be different.
Where was she
?
Ian met his friend’s fiery gaze, refusing to back down, despite the unhealthy level of anger in Red’s face.
He had crossed the line by protecting her, Liana knew, and in doing so he had pushed Red over his own edge. Now insanity glowed in the big man’s eyes.
Ian had risked his own safety, but Red no longer held the gun.
Neither had any advantage that Liana could see. It was stalemate.
Ian’s words were level, even.
‘I don’t care what she’s done. I’m not going to watch you beat her to a pulp.’
‘She deserves everything she gets, and more.’
‘That’s not for us to decide. Let her answer before you assault her.’
Red hesitated for a moment before turning back to Liana.
Ian slowly let go of Red’s arm, and Red shook it free of the last of Ian’s grip as though it was dirty, shameful. He glared at Liana and knelt down. His fingers closed once more over her hair, but his grip was palpably lighter. The assurance in his eyes had gone too, replaced, she thought, by something else.
Humiliation.
‘Talk,’ he said. ‘No lies.’ His other hand dropped to the gun, the movement made obvious as though to let her understand.
‘He’s with my sister,’ she said.
Well, there was one
.
‘And where, exactly, is
she
?’
Liana shook her head a little, the movement restricted by the grip on her hair.
‘I don’t know. She went out a little while ago and hasn’t come back.’ At least that was true.
‘And why has she got my baby with her?’
‘I don’t know. He wasn’t sleeping too well. She thought the air would do him good.’
Red nodded.
‘Thank you, though I don’t believe any of it. Ian, search the house.’
Ian shook his head.
‘And leave you alone with her? You search the house, I’ll keep an eye on her.’ Red narrowed his eyes suspiciously, so Ian added: ‘Take the gun with you if you like. We won’t go anywhere.’
Red scowled at him a moment, then shoved Liana’s head away and picked up the gun.
‘Very well.’ He gave Ian a long, hard parting stare, then walked out of the room.
Liana breathed out softly.
‘Don’t try anything,’ Ian said. ‘I might not want to see him hurt you, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’ve stolen his child. That’s my grandson too, remember? Just sit still and stay quiet.’
Liana reached out with her mind to check her magic, ensure it was strong enough to hold for a while longer.
It was, but she had nothing left, no more to give. She could do nothing but wait to see what they would do, or hope that her sister came back soon. She leaned her head back against the edge of the sofa, and began to cry softly into the velvet material that smelt sweetly of dust and perfume.
From the end of a hallway that led out from the lounge and down to a lower kitchen, they heard a muffled grunt of frustration, then the
thud thud
of Red’s feet ascending the stairs to the upper floor.
Ian sat down on the edge of the sofa.
He looked at the woman, felt a sudden nostalgic sympathy towards her as though being near her somehow brought him closer to Gabrielle. ‘I’m sorry he hit you. It’s not . . .
like him
. You know, to hit a woman.’
Liana said nothing.
‘I won’t ask you to understand.’
‘It has something to do with my wife, doesn’t it?’
She stared at him wide eyed. ‘Y–yes,’ she stammered finally. ‘I don’t expect you to understand.’
Somehow Ian had known it all along.
He nodded. ‘It’s still wrong,’ he said. ‘To steal someone’s child. For any reason.’
Liana sniffed, and nodded.
‘I know that too.’
They heard a muffled crash from the room directly above them, followed quickly by a
nother. They glanced at each other, then upwards at the ceiling. It sounded as though Red had vented his frustration on some furniture. Liana unconsciously rubbed at her face, her left cheek red and sore.
‘Don’t antagonise him more than you have,’ Ian said, voice deliberately low as Red’s feet began their descent.
‘Don’t lie to him either. He’s not acting rationally, and to be honest, you can hardly blame him. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to protect you.’
Liana nodded as Red walked into the room.