Nameless (52 page)

‘This isn’t over,’ he said hotly, dusting himself down.

‘Yeah, it is,’ said Rob, and shut the door.

133

Michael came by a few days later. ‘So, Rob been looking after you OK?’ he asked.

‘Rob’s a diamond,’ she assured him.

It was a sunny day, hazed with gold as only an autumn day can be, a day when anyone would feel glad to be alive. They took their coffee out onto the terrace, lapping up the warmth and the countryside views. They stood in front of the balustrade and gazed out, looking down towards the russet, bronze and bright yellow woodland and the glinting river down in the dip of the valley.

‘And Daisy’s OK?’

‘Daisy’s wonderful,’ said Ruby with an unstoppable grin.

‘But you’re pushing your luck having her here with you,’ Michael reminded her. ‘You know Bray hates the idea. He’s made
that
clear enough.’

‘I don’t care what he thinks,’ said Ruby. ‘And, Michael, the babies are so beautiful, I’ll take you up to see them in a while.’

‘Not yet, hm?’ Michael pulled her into his arms. She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of him. Tobacco, Old Spice and clean skin.

‘I love you, Michael,’ she murmured against his neck.

‘I love you too, honey. You know that.’

Ruby turned away, picking up her coffee cup from the table beside the old, comfy wicker chairs. She smiled at him. ‘I think Daisy’s rather impressed by Rob,’ she said. ‘He tossed Simon Collins out of here like an empty tin of beans last week.’

‘What, was he cutting up rough?’ asked Michael in concern.

Ruby sneered. ‘He’s the type who only ever throws his weight about with women. He wouldn’t risk it with a man.’

‘Then I’m glad Rob marked his card for him.’

‘It’s Vi’s party this weekend, you still on for that?’ asked Ruby.

‘Of course.’

Michael picked up his cup and it was then, at that precise moment, that Ruby felt something zing past her ear – maybe an insect or something? She flapped a hand, and then she heard another sharp report and a loud
crash
as a pane of glass in the French windows shattered. She looked at Michael and he was turning back to her – it seemed like he was moving in slow motion – and grabbing hold of her, pushing her to the floor.

Ruby’s coffee cup exploded, then something went
whumph
into the cushion on the chair right beside where she lay. Michael pressed her face harder into the cold York stone of the terrace.

‘Shit! Keep down, keep still,’ he muttered beside her ear.

‘What’s happening?’ asked Ruby, petrified.

They could hear that Rob was dashing through the drawing room and Michael shouted: ‘Gun, Rob. Watch it! Ruby – just crawl back towards the door, keep as flat to the floor as you can, OK?’

Ruby did as she was told. More zings were whipping off the stonework; dust cascaded onto her head and hands as she crawled back indoors. Once inside, Rob grabbed her and pulled her out of sight of the windows, and Michael got back to his feet. He hugged her, hard.

‘You OK?’ he asked urgently.

‘Fine, fine,’ she muttered, shaking.

Rob was peering out around the edge of the French doors. The firing seemed to have stopped, for now.

‘Probably down in the woods there – plenty of cover,’ said Rob, and he ran back through the drawing room and out of the front door, slamming it closed behind him. They heard his car start up in the driveway and roar away, tyres squealing.

‘Sure you’re OK? Don’t worry about this mess, we’ll get it all fixed up,’ said Michael, guiding her to a chair.

Ruby looked at his face. He thought she was worried about the
mess
? That was almost funny. But he didn’t look amused. In fact, she had never seen him look so stony, so grim.

Someone had just tried to kill her.

This was the second attempt.

Pretty soon, she was sure there would be a third.

‘It’s him again, isn’t it?’ she asked unsteadily. ‘It’s Cornelius.’

Michael looked at her. It was without a doubt Tito’s boys doing this, but yes, Bray was at the back of it. He stared out of the shattered window. Bray meant to see Ruby dead, and he would go on with this until he succeeded. It destroyed him to see Ruby so shaken up. He knew he had debts to pay, promises to keep, traditions to uphold. But some things, you just couldn’t tolerate.

134

‘Take out Tito and the whole thing stops dead,’ said Kit.

He and Michael were in the office behind the restaurant that evening, Michael sitting stony-faced at his desk, Kit lounging in a chair opposite.

Kit wasn’t sure
how
he felt about all this. Someone had tried to hit Ruby again. And Ruby . . . Ruby was
his mother.
Again he felt the confusion, the bitterness, the anger towards her. But if she were to die . . . he didn’t want that. He didn’t want a damned thing to do with her, but for sure he didn’t want her laid out on a slab.

‘Boss? You hear me?’ said Kit, because Michael seemed lost in thought.

Michael gave a slight smile.

‘I heard you. You’re like a fucking parrot with this thing. “Hit Tito! Hit Tito!” Kit, I know you’ve got your own axe to grind here. The Gilda thing. But the time isn’t right yet.’

‘What, you’re putting business ahead of Ruby’s safety?’ demanded Kit.

‘Tito and I got a deal or two cooking,’ said Michael. ‘That much is true. But I have other concerns regarding Tito. Things you don’t know about. And come on – what do you care about Ruby? You’ve already told me you wished she was dead and gone. What’s changed?’

Kit shook his head. ‘I didn’t say that. I don’t want her
dead
, for Chrissakes. She’s nothing to me, nothing at all. But I don’t want
that
.’

Michael looked at his boy curiously. No longer a boy, though. Now, Kit was a force to be reckoned with and he was proud of him. Kit had been a bolshie nineteen-year-old tearaway when they first met: now he was in his thirties, and he was a man everyone treated with respect. He was Michael’s right hand, and was greeted with deference everywhere he went. Only Tito dared do otherwise, giving him that mocking, shit-eating grin whenever their paths crossed. And Michael knew that it was because Tito believed Michael’s hands were tied, that he would always restrain Kit from retaliation.

Tito thought he was safe.

‘Yet you’ve been friends with Ruby,’ said Michael. ‘Her
and
Daisy. Now you’re just going to cut that off, are you?’

‘Yeah. I am.’

Michael let out a sigh.

‘Tito’s taking the piss,’ said Kit. He looked down at his hands, at the angry scar tissue there. A constant reminder of what had been done to him, and to Gilda. A touching little memento of that
fuck
Tito. ‘You know he is.’

Michael nodded in agreement. It killed him to admit it, but he knew Kit was right.

135

‘I cannot believe that you would actually
do
this to me. Me, your friend. Of all people,’ snapped Ruby.

It was the weekend. Vi and Ruby were standing in the long gallery of Albemarle House, looking out onto the estate. In the distance, far beyond the knot garden and the ha-ha, were the woods; they could just see the beaters moving along the edge of the trees, driving the birds towards the guns far beyond. Vi’s husband Anthony was out there, ready and waiting with a few other weekend guests, including Michael.

‘Anthony invited Cornelius and Vanessa at the last minute,’ said Vi.

‘Oh God.’ Ruby paced around.

Daisy was settled in one of the many rooms here, with the twins and Jody the nanny. She – and Ruby – had come face to face with Cornelius and Vanessa in the hall when they’d all arrived at the same time. To say that it had been
awkward
was putting it mildly.

Ruby’s first instinct was to flee, go home. But Michael was already out with the guns; she couldn’t go out there and order him to take her home, right now. It would look odd. And she didn’t want to order a taxi and go without him.

‘You don’t understand what you’ve done,’ said Ruby, trying to keep her voice even, though she was starting to panic.

‘What do you mean? So what if Vanessa’s here? It’s about time you came face to face and buried the hatchet.’

‘Vi, she wants to bury it in my
back
.’

‘You’ve got to kiss and make up some time.’

Ruby stared at her friend in exasperation. She hadn’t told Vi about the attempts on her life and now she could see that she really should have. Maybe
then
she would begin to understand.

‘Look, it isn’t that simple. There are things going on, things you don’t know about.’

Vi was staring at her in wide-eyed incomprehension. ‘Things like what?’

Ruby gulped down air, feeling panic take hold.

‘I was warned off contact with Daisy. I mean
seriously
warned off.’

‘How seriously?’

‘Cornelius has friends . . .
gangland
friends.’

‘You’re joking.’

‘Do I look like I’m joking? There have been a couple of incidents.’

‘Go on.’

‘Well, three. At first I think he only meant to scare me, but they’ve become more serious. Someone shot at me, Vi.’ Ruby could see it all again, the terrace, the glass of the French doors shattering, Michael hurling her to the ground to protect her while bullets whizzed past her head. Rob had driven top-speed down to the woods, but had found no trace of the gunman. ‘And someone tried to run me over.
That’s
how I hurt my arm.’

Vi’s mouth dropped open in shock.

Ruby nodded. ‘It’s true. And now look at this situation. I’m here, Daisy’s here with the children, and Vanessa’s here too. This is just going to antagonize Cornelius even more.’

‘God’s sake, Rubes.’Vi looked appalled. ‘You should have told me this before.’

‘What good would that have done?’

‘Well, for a start I wouldn’t have invited the Brays here at the same time as you.’

‘So you
did
do it.’

Vi held her hands up. ‘All right. Anthony knows Cornelius and he just suggested it vaguely, then I insisted because I thought that what was going on was just a remnant of all that’s happened between you, and this would be a chance to put it to bed and forget it, once and for all. I had no idea it was this
serious
.’

Vi looked at her dear friend, her best friend in all the world, her lips thin with fury.

‘Jesus,’ she burst out, ‘that
bastard.
I didn’t have a clue. How could he
dare
do that to you?’

Ruby was staring dismally out of the long-gallery windows with their old, distorted diamond-shaped glass panes. ‘Look, when the shoot’s over and Michael’s back – after dinner, OK? – I’m going to get him to take us home. I’m sorry, Vi, but I can’t stay.’

‘No. Of course you can’t. I do see that, now.’ Vi squeezed Ruby’s hand. ‘I’m so sorry, Rubes. For getting you into this situation.’

‘You didn’t know.’

‘God if I
had
. . .’ Vi flushed angrily.

‘What could you have done?What could
anyone
do?’ Ruby sighed.

They both gazed out of the window into the misty distance. Suddenly, the white flag went up. The shooting began; the carnage had started. The beaters had driven the birds into the path of the guns. Ruby felt that Vi had just done something very similar to her.

‘Sounds like they’ve started,’ said Vi.

‘So long as they hurry up and finish,’ said Ruby grimly.

136

Ruby had never endured such a long, awkward day in her entire life.

‘Good job it’s a big house,’ said Vi at one point, when Vanessa had passed Ruby straight by, snubbing both her – and Daisy – totally. ‘At least you can more or less keep out of each other’s way.’

The early break for elevenses was a nightmare. While Jody took the twins down to the kitchens to get their food, Daisy and Ruby had to endure light chat at the table with Vi’s husband Anthony, Michael and the many others attending the shoot – but also with Cornelius and Vanessa. Afterwards, the men went out for the second drive of the day.

Michael paused with Ruby in the hall.

‘Did you know they were going to be here?’ he asked her.

‘Not until we got here, no.’

‘You want to go home?’

‘No. Not yet.’ She did, but she didn’t want to spoil his enjoyment. ‘After dinner.’

‘Rob will stay with you.’

‘Yes,’ said Ruby. ‘Please.’

‘Go and have a lie down in your room or something. Read a book. We’ll have dinner, keep his lordship sweet, then we’ll be away.’

Daisy had Jody put the twins down for their nap, and gratefully she settled down for a quiet rest in her room. Ruby did the same, pleased to see that Rob was taking up station outside her door. She lay on the bed and listened to the distant crack of the guns and thought about being here, so close to Vanessa and Cornelius.

It had been a shock, seeing him in the flesh after all these years. He was still handsome, but bulkier, the lines of dissipation embedded on his face, his cheeks mottled with red spider veins. Too much wine, too much low living, she guessed. His hair was pure white now. He was still a huge presence, louder than anyone else in the room, charming on the surface – but deadly underneath. Ruby imagined that women still found him attractive. But where once she had felt an overwhelming tug of sexual desire for him, now all she felt was hatred and fear. When Ruby glanced at him during lunch, she saw her own hate mirrored in his eyes when he looked back at her.

He’d tried to have her killed, after all.

And next time, he might even succeed.

137

Ruby must have slept. When she next looked at the clock it said nearly one in the afternoon. She couldn’t hear the guns any more. She got up, splashed water on her face, and stepped outside into the hall. Rob looked up at her.

‘They’ve finished shooting then?’ she said.