The Salvation of Daniel (The Blue Butterfly Book 2) (25 page)

“I admit to you, I was a crap husband.” I nodded when he lifted his eyes to mine. “But I was always a loving father, Con. Always.”

“Were.”

He nodded slowly. “Yes.” He shrugged, taking another drag. “It all became quite a mess really. I was called in one day, at work. It must have been sixteen, seventeen years ago now. I was to go undercover to gain evidence in a sex slave business that had come under the radar of the Met.”

“Daniel’s father.”

“Yes, and Franco. The force supplied me with references from criminals who were already locked up, reducing their sentences and giving me an in with Franco and the Shepherds.”

“Shepherds? Plural?”

He squinted at me. “Yes, Robert and Miriam. Daniel’s parents.”

“His parents? As in father
and
mother?”

He pursed his lips. “He never told you about his mother?”

“No,” I whispered. Things started to slot into place. Miriam’s death, Daniel’s refusal to talk of his mother but then his next words exploded into me and everything snapped together.

“I was having an affair with Miriam. I loved her.”

“What?” I choked out as I stared at him with wide eyes. I groaned and rubbed my face with my hands. “I never saw it. I...
Fuck!
”

“Miriam hated it all. She hated that Robert had got Daniel involved. She threatened to go to the police with everything. She was a ticking time bomb with the stuff she knew. She would have ruined it all, years of hard work, the money we had made, the clients we had gathered; everything including our freedom would have been lost. Robert wanted to get rid of her, his own wife.”

“Talk about a cliché,” I spat at him.

He nodded but didn’t offer words to my hatred. His eyes saddened as he looked to the floor. “Daniel overheard Miriam and myself in her room one night. He didn’t know it was me. He went to find his father at a casino he ran at the time and told him about his mother’s lover. Robert knew it was me but he never told Daniel. He turned it all around to look like Miriam was trying to kill Helen and Daniel, trying to get rid of her kids so she could run off with her lover and ruin the family business. He told him Miriam was just out for herself, that she wanted nothing but the man she was in love with and that she was going to go to the police and tell them everything to get both Robert and Daniel out of her way. Daniel thought I was having an affair with Franco’s wife. Fuck, even Franco thought I was.”

I leaned forwards, trying to hold on to my hatred. “You allowed Franco to keep thinking that to save Miriam.”

“Yes.” He nodded but swallowed when he realised I finally understood.

“And in that allowance, you sacrificed your children. You chose a woman over your fucking daughters!”

“Yes.” He stared at me, no regret or no guilt covering him.

I shook my head, my mouth open in disgust or shock, or maybe even rage, it was all clashing together and I was unable to process anything.

“The night the Phantoms came for me. I thought it was over your debts to Franco, but it wasn’t, was it?”

He shook his head slowly. “No. It was Robert who had sent them to take you from me, like I had taken his wife from him. I didn’t realise what they were doing at first. I heard Robert had taken out a contract on you both and I tried to protect you as much as I could but they never came.”

“THEY DID COME!” I screamed at him. “They came and they exchanged mine and Mae’s life for the promise that I would go with them at fifteen.”

He nodded. “I know this now. But you must understand, it’s rare for a Phantom to ever do what they did that day. If they came, you were dead!” He shook his head, tears pooling in his eyes. “They never ever took a child and trained her up for two years then sent her back.”

“They took
me
.” I spat at him. “Isaac took me, and trained me. It was only his love for me that gave Mae a chance.” A tear trickled down my cheek and I swiped at it angrily. “I knew what was to come when I hit fifteen. I knew there was no point hiding, or even denying them. But Isaac, he came, time after time, training me in readiness for them. He would sneak out, sneak to see me. For eighteen months he showed me how to fight, how to plot, how to shoot and finally how to let someone into my heart after hating for so long. And I did it, every - fucking - damn - day, so Mae could live a full life! Isaac risked his life for me, and he continues to do so every day. That…
That
is love! Not some piss take that ruins people… and families!””

He continued to watch me, his face pale, and his eyes so very sad. “Then I hit fifteen and they came for me. It was six months before you died that they told me all about your sordid fucking life, and your willingness to give up your children for a woman you were fucking!”

“And you plotted my death?”

“You’re damn right I did!” I spat at him. “But you… you even ruined that! Do you know how many nights I have slept properly since my mistakes killed my own mother, and which then lead to the life Mae was to lead? Do you?
DO YOU?”
He blinked at me. “None. Not one single night.”

“Your mother was having an affair.” He looked away, pain in his eyes. I wanted to laugh at his double standards. “The night I was due to be at work, she came running into the kitchen with some half-baked story about needing to get to hospital because a friend of hers had been taken ill. There was something wrong with her car and she begged to take mine.”

I squeezed my eyes closed, the pain inside ripping me apart. “Don’t,” I whispered.

“I didn’t know, Connie. I DIDN’T KNOW! She picked him up and they were on their way to some smutty hotel to fuck!”

“No,” I choked out, each word slicing into me deeper and deeper until I could feel my soul bleeding.

“I knew then, after she died with her lover, after Miriam was killed at the hands of her only son, after your lives were put at risk, after my death was on the cards, even after the dreadful things I had done, that it was time to go. I took the opportunity when the bodies in the car were too badly burnt to be recognised and it was presumed that I was with her. I walked away. From everything. From death.”

“From me, from
Mae
! You chose your own selfish needs instead of us!” My mouth watered and I breathed against the violent need to vomit. “And let me guess.” I licked at my lips, holding him with my eyes. “Franco found out. Robert found you.” His nod gave me the encouragement to voice the sickening knowledge that battered into me. “And you gave Mae to Robert in exchange for your life.”

He stared at me, his throat bobbing before he nodded. I wanted to die right then. I wanted it all to end, for life to be over, for the pain of it all to cease. So when he lifted the gun, I didn’t move. I only smiled.

Yet when my father’s blood sprayed across my face, the bullet forced by his own hand firing through his brain and then the gun slipping from his fingers and onto the floor, I prayed that him taking his own life would see him in hell because I wanted him nowhere near my sister.

FRANCO SMIRKED AT me, his arms pinned behind his back as Panther held him. My eyes shifted around my childhood home, the entrance hall exactly as I remembered it. Family portraits still hung from the walls in chronological order up the stairs, the awful chandelier my mother had insisted on still swung from the chain and the air still smelt of sin and corruption. Voices echoed around me, women’s screams, men’s moans, girls’ whimpers, my own cries and Helen’s frantic sobbing when she found me with our mother’s lifeless body.

“Where is she?” Panther snarled at Franco, his grip on his face making Franco appear deformed.

He snorted and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You’re too late. She’s gone.”

“No.” I grabbed him by the throat, my fingers so tight they threatened to puncture his neck any second. “She was here. Where is she? Where’s Helen?”

He just smiled at me, his smug expression snapping my patience. He started to choke as I leant into him and squeezed tighter. “If you’ve hurt her, I will personally rip your heart out and force feed it you.”

His lips were turning blue, the colour so satisfying to my dark side. The power to hold someone’s life in your hands, to decide whether they lived or died was the ultimate pleasure. Watching as the heart took its final beat, the soul shrivelling in their eyes and each organ shutting down one by one was euphoric and rapturous.

“Daniel,” Panther warned. “We need him, let him…”

We all froze when a gunshot rang out from the direction of the kitchen. Panther’s eyes shot to mine as Bullet took off at speed.

Franco laughed as I released him, his gasps for breath squeaking with his amusement. “He did it then.”

The kitchen door opened and Connie stepped out. She was covered in blood, her face pale and startling against the deep crimson.

“Shadow?” Bullet asked as she held Connie’s upper arms, her voice tight as her eyes rapidly scanned her friend.

“I’m okay,” Connie whispered. “I’m okay.”

Her gaze turned to Franco before she slowly walked over to him. “Tell me why he killed himself.”

Franco looked saddened for a moment before it disappeared and he tilted his head, mocking her, a cruel smirk twisting his face. “Well if you think he did it because of guilt, think again. He was dying… painfully.”

He and Panther flew backwards when Connie smashed her fist into his face. “He had cancer didn’t he?”

Franco nodded as Panther shifted them both upright. “Brain cancer. He was going the same way as his daughter. Ironic huh?”

“You bastard!” she spat. “He didn’t deserve to die so fucking easily. He deserved nothing but pain. He was a coward!”

“Shadow,” Bullet urged as she took Connie’s hand. Connie shook her off and stepped into Franco.

“Tell me where Annie is.”

He shook his head slowly. “You’ll never find her.”

Connie took a deep breath and looked at Panther. “The interrogation room ready?”

“Yep.”

“Take him. I’ll be over in an hour.”

Panther nodded and pulled Franco towards the door before turning back round. “Isaac’s on his way. I’ll take the van, he’ll drive you.”

“Yeah. I…” She closed her eyes and shivered, her skin becoming paler by the second. “I need a few moments.”

He nodded and left. Bullet pulled Connie into her arms, hugging her. “Are you sure? I can stay.”

“No, go. I’m fine.”

Bullet sighed, debating whether to follow orders or deny Connie. “I’ll stay with her,” I offered.

“I need a few moments alone.” I nodded when she gestured towards the kitchen with her chin. “Time to say goodbye.”

“Are you okay?”

She sighed and nodded slowly. “Yeah.” She looked like she wanted to say something, the anguish written on her face but she smiled softly and disappeared into the kitchen, closing the door quietly behind her.

Ascending the stairs, I smiled at each picture, each photograph of my family making my heart heavier and heavier the more I climbed. Then I reached their bedroom. My mouth dried as I slid the handle and pushed open the door.

It was the same, exactly as we had left it fifteen years ago, the day after my mother died. The day of my eighteenth birthday. The day I killed her.

My feet seemed to be glued to the spot, forbidding me to go any further. The bed was still made, her perfumes and cosmetics were still laid out on the dresser waiting for her to spray liberally as she always had. Her gown still hung from the bathroom door, the tiny blue butterfly silk choking me.

Finally taking a step inside, I walked over to the mural that hung over her bed. Each butterfly appeared to move as the rising sun sprung from the ground and blasted the room in light and heat. Reaching towards it, I stroked the tip of my finger over the largest.

“Holly Blue,” her voice whispered to me as I watched her gently pin the dead insect to her project. “They usually live in groups, Dan. But this one, she was on her own, lonely. She called to me, asked me to take her to the others.”

I nodded, not really interested. I thought it was cruel how she would kill them then stick them to a piece of wood, as though relishing in the ability to kill a living creature.

“Can I go see Thomas now? He’s waiting for me.” She scowled at me. I lowered my eyes, contrite. “I’m sorry, Mummy.”