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I have no idea what kind of code I imparted to Gary in our brief telephone conversation, but with the mention of The King’s Head’s back stairs, he’s at the pub, which is not called The King’s Head at all but the Crown and Roses, before I am.
“Talk, Hunter. How the fuck...?” His mouth drops open. His face is ashen white when I hear the heavy footsteps I’ve come to recognise as Davey’s approach from behind me.
“Gary.” Davey nods with the greeting, walking all the way up to the man beside me, his gaze fixed.
“No,” Gary whispers. “No, no, no.” He’s shaking his head, his eyes wild. “You...it...can’t be...I went to your funeral.” Anger colours his cheeks. “I went to your fucking funeral!” he roars, shaking with rage. Davey doesn’t even flinch when Gary’s fist smashes into his nose, causing blood to stream over his chin.
“You bastard!” Gary screams. I step in closer but Davey holds up a hand without a word. “I should fucking kill you!”
Again and again, Gary’s fists find a target. “I held them up! You know that? Mum and Eva. I physically held them up while they put you in the fucking ground!” His voice cracks, and as soon as he stops fighting, Davey pulls him into a fierce hug.
“I missed you too, man.”
“Bastard!” he sobs, but all the anger has gone. “Bastard,” he cries again as his arms tighten around Davey’s back, and they stay locked together like that for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry. I had to do it. He wasn’t going to get away with it.” Gary steps aside, wiping his streaming eyes on his arm as Davey swipes the bloody from his face and wipes it with his T-shirt.
“You know? About that?” Davey nods once in response. “I... I wasn’t there... I... fuck, I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault. And he paid. Big time.”
“You found him?” Davey gives him a sinister smile.
“Me and my crowbar.” I clear my throat and they both look at me. “But we have a problem. He’s back in town. He knows Summer is his.” Gary’s gaze hits mine, full of accusations. “But it seems he still has a problem with you. We need to keep you safe. And Bells.” Gary’s eyes narrow. “Congrats by the way.”
“Bastard,” Gary spits again, but this time, he’s half smiling. “I can look after myself.”
“You can,” Davey agrees easily. “But here’s the problem. It seems Dan has left the organisation with you in his sights. I think they followed, and they will do anything to convince him to come back.”
Gary tips his head with a groan, sending his gaze to the cloudy sky as he sees a connection I don’t.
“You want to fill me in?” I ask, agitated again.
“Let’s get a drink. You’re both gonna need one,” Davey says, already moving towards the front door of the deserted-looking pub.
––––––––
“So, let me get this straight. De Luca is armpit-deep in a mafia-style drug ring. He was going to leave once before... for Eva... but they convinced him to stay, because they need him. Because they are all as good as dead without his protection, and you think they did that by telling him Gary was sleeping with Eva?”
Davey sets his empty glass on the table and nods. I have a million questions.
“Why?”
“Because he was always jealous of their relationship—”
“No, I get that bit. I mean why would he believe that?”
“No idea.” Davey shrugs.
“But you suspect...” Gary prompts.
“I suspect...” Davey growls, “that they presented some kind of case for it.” He looks at me. “You said he told you he has evidence.” I nod. He did say that, but he wouldn’t tell me what. “They knew Dan wanted out before he did. I suspect that happened when he decided he didn’t want kids if they’d be drawn into the ring, and they made sure every surgeon out there knew what would happen if they actually gave him a vasectomy. When Eva fell pregnant, he had to believe the baby wasn’t his. I suspect if Summer had been born a boy, we’d have had this conversation already. They’d already have tried to take her. No matter which De Luca was the father.”
“Summer would give any boy a run for his money.” Gary smiles fondly.
“Takes after her uncle.” Davey beams with pride.
“She does. This uncle.”
“So!” I interrupt their playful squabble. “You think that the organisation will try to take Summer before Dan gets to them?”
Davey’s voice drops to a low growl. “I think they want Eva just as much as they want Summer. And she’s a harder one to pin down. But, if they were to take Summer before Eva, all hell would rain down on their heads.”
“Why?”
“Eva is the daughter of an SAS commander. The sister of an SAS captain. Even if the organisation still believes that I’m dead, she was basically raised in the military. She knows every member of my unit, and our dad’s, on a Christmas-card basis. My commander is her godfather.
“But, if they took Eva and then reunited her with Summer, she’s less likely to put up a fight, as long as it keeps her daughter safe. They would have her in chains. She’d do whatever she had to, to keep Summer safe. But if she thought Summer was hurt or dead, she’d fight them all the way. And that didn’t work out so well for them last time.”
“And if they have both of them, they have Dan for life,” Gary finishes for him.
“Yep.” Davey nods gravely. “As fucked up as he is, he thinks of Eva as his. And now that he knows about Summer...” Davey blows out a huge breath, his eyes going wide, and he slumps a bit on his seat.
“Last time?”
“They...tried to take Eva once before. As a kid. When our dad infiltrated and left their ring.” Huh.
“Why are you not in then?” I ask Gary, suspicion colouring my words. “You’re his brother? A male heir to their throne?”
Davey half smiles and stands. “I’ll get another round.” I keep my eyes on Gary, waiting.
“I got out young,” he says, draining his glass. I sit patiently in silence before he continues. “I asked Evan to take me with him,” he says quietly, then spins the empty glass in his fingers in contemplation for a full minute.
“Our dad,” Davey clarifies as he takes his seat.
“He was undercover. I... got hurt,” Gary continues. “Evan was sitting up with me one night, playing nursemaid, and I asked him to take me away. I had no idea who he was, only that I felt safe with him. I knew he would never hurt me. And when he got out, he took me with him. I was seven years old.”
“And they just let you go?”
“No. No one just lets you leave. Not ever. Not even a child. Definitely not the eldest son of the boss. Evan and Joyce, they knew the risks. They knew what they were putting their family into, but they did it anyway. For me. Because I begged them to. They are my family now. Davey is the only brother I have. And Eva is my baby sister.”
He looks at me hard. “Now, do you get it? I love her. I love her so much, because she’s my sister. So, you can stop following us all over town, wondering about our relationship. But I am interested in yours.”
“Oh, it’s simple really, Gary. I love her too.” And she’s definitely not my sister.
“Did you tell her that?”
“No. Not yet. I think she hates me,” I admit, my shoulders slumping.
“Nah,” Gary and Davey say together and then smirk at each other. What? Davey chuckles at my questioning frown.
“Eva—she doesn’t have it in her to hate anyone. She can’t hold a grudge for more than five minutes. Even when she should. For life.”
“Do you remember the time you broke her iPod?” Gary chuckles and Davey nods, his eyes widening.
“Oh. Yeah. Apart from then.” He leans back, straightening out his legs. “Dad made me buy her a new one with my savings. I remember going into that shop with a black eye and Eva seething beside me. The girl serving really got on her nerves too, cooing over me and giving her evils.” He shakes his head, smiling fondly to himself.
“She got you good, brother.” Gary laughs and raises his glass. “To Eva Adams. And her right hook.”
“She got you too.” Davey smirks.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“At least I could still have sex with a black eye. I can’t imagine you got any for a month.”
“Eva?” I ask, hardly able to believe it.
“Oh yeah. That little blonde thing? Fucking lethal when provoked.” Davey takes one look at my confused face and grins. “Mate, our dad was a special forces commander. He taught us all how to handle ourselves in nursery school. And I taught her myself too.” Gary shifts uncomfortably and my attention goes to him.
“My family has always been a threat. To all of us. He was trying to keep us alive,” he says dejectedly. “That’s why he taught her to climb trees. To hide if she had to. He told her they were a safe place.”
“He’d bloody love Summer.” Davey changes the subject and smiles around the table. “Feisty little thing, she is.”
I sit and listen to tales of a younger Eva for another hour before I make my excuses and leave. It’s not until I’m in the car that I can pinpoint the cause of the unease in my stomach.
They’re her family. Not me.
They’ll have her forever. I won’t.
––––––––
When I make it back to Escape that evening, having collected Mae from Mary’s, Bells is here, drinking a cup of something in the coffee bar.
“Hi!” Bells’s eyes flick from me to Mae and back again, full of questions.
“Mae. My daughter,” I explain. Bells sucks in a breath. “We’ve just been to see Eva and Summer.” I can hear the sulky tone of my own voice and glance at Bells. I’ve never seen her stunned before. Her mouth is as wide as her eyes.
“Um...” she stutters and inspiration strikes. Maybe Bells can help?
“Mae, do you want to run up and choose a film? I’ll just be a minute.” We both watch Mae scurry away, her doll caught under her arm, and I murmur, “She told me about her ex.” Bells reaches a hand behind her, blindly fumbling for a stool. Her eyes stay on mine as she leans back against it, but she says nothing. “She said he...attacked her?” Bells snaps her mouth shut and swallows hard. “Bells! What the fuck happened!”
“She told you...?” She swallows again, her eyes sweeping from side to side across the oak floor. “Will...I can’t tell you that.” She shakes her head firmly when I open my mouth to argue. “If she told you that...Will... I don’t know how to explain how huge that is for Eva... other than to say you make a grand total of three.” She’s talking so quietly I can barely hear her. “Three. As in, you’re the third person to know about this in the entire world. You, me and Gary. That’s it.”
“Joyce?” I remind her, assuming her mum must know. Bells shakes her head, her dark hair bouncing.
“Joyce knows nothing. She doesn’t even know that Eva married Dan. She went... away. It was all very fast. Eva was...” She trails off and looks up at me sharply. “I’ve said enough. You want to know what happened? You should speak to Eva.” The look she gives me is assessing. “But I’m guessing from the despondent thing you’ve got going on, that the conversation didn’t go so well? She crosses her arms, a sarky eyebrow cocked.
“No.”
“Because?”
“Because...she wanted to know about Mae’s mother.”
“And that’s an unreasonable question? I’d want to know about that situation too, if Gary had a child.”
“No,” I concede. My shoulders stoop and I fall onto a stool beside the one Bells is leaning on. She hops up on hers and waits. “I... Look, if I’m the third, Eva would be the second. Only one other person alive knows Mae’s story.”
“Her mother?”
“No. I said alive.”
“Will...” A warm hand settles on my shoulder and I glance at Bells, her dark eyes full of...sorrow. “I’m sorry. For whatever happened, I truly am sorry for you, but Eva... she’s been through a lot too. If you can’t give her honesty, you’d be doing everyone a favour to walk away right now. She doesn’t need... secrets.”
“I can’t do that.” I look right in Bells’s eyes. “I’m in love with that woman and I’m fucking terrified.” Bells nods, her expression as soft as her voice.
“Imagine being her. The last man she loved...” I nod, filling in the blanks myself. He nearly fucking killed her.
“Thanks.” I lean across and kiss Bells’s head, before forcing my legs to stand and take me upstairs to Mae. My family. My only family.
I pull my phone from my pocket when it buzzes, hoping for Eva and getting a withheld number. I tap on the message.
ID will be with you Monday.
I need to verify it. I have to see that the man in the photo is you.
––––––––
I wait for his response as I drag my feet slowly towards my suite and my daughter.
Kings Cross. 07:00. Platform 4.