Chapter 14 #2
But here I am. A hostile takeover under my belt.
My old boss locked up for assault. My dad dead.
Sandy working for a woman I hardly know because I couldn’t give her a job.
I’m in love with a morally grey man with a past so dark, he won’t dare reveal it.
And I’m a murderer. Now everyone I love is being dragged under the bus with me.
No matter how long I lean back in my chair, staring at the ceiling, I can’t locate Scarlett Heath.
She seems so far away, further even than my rapidly disappearing sanity.
And I’m wondering now whether the real reason I haven’t given Neil my decision about Dubai is because deep down, a part of me thinks it could be a fresh start, a clean slate.
But a flight won’t hide me from a murder charge.
That’s just about the only thing I can be certain of right now.
I’m trying to pinpoint the last time I knew myself and the only place I get to is the boardroom. My pitch in the boardroom of Eclectic Technologies. I wonder whether it would’ve been better for everyone if Gregory hadn’t walked into my life.
That thought kills me.
Finally, the dams disintegrate and two silent tears drip from the corners of my eyes.
This will break us. Now. Next week. Next month.
When I’m rightly behind bars for killing a man.
This will break us because one person’s love can’t defy the order of the world alone.
My silent tears build to a sob and I drop my head to my arms on my desk.
Despite everything, I need him and I hate myself for being that dependent woman.
I ignore my ringing phone. I don’t want to speak to him.
I can’t. I’ve got no idea what I want to say and I’m afraid of anything that might leave my mouth.
I’m not thinking straight. It’s getting late, the sky is pitch-black and the sensor lights are out in the corridor.
Wiping tears, and no doubt mascara, from my cheeks with the backs of my hands, I sit up and grab my phone as it starts to ring again.
But it isn’t Gregory.
‘Sandy, are you okay? I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.’ My tears are flowing from a bottomless well.
‘Oh deary me, stop that. I’m fine, it wasn’t so bad. Quite exciting in places, really, like being a police show.’ I know what she’s doing but I can’t muster a smile.
‘Were they nice to you?’
‘That Barnes is a nice chap. He knows Geoffrey.’
‘DI Barnes. I know.’ And there’s something highly coincidental about that. ‘Was there a woman too?’
‘Oh, yes, she was a nasty piece of work but nothing I couldn’t handle.’
‘What did they ask you?’
‘Nothing of much consequence: how I know you, Gregory and Geoffrey, whether I think you and Gregory are in love.’
‘Enough to do anything for each other is what they really mean.’
‘They implied things, yes. But I told them you always do what’s right, Scarlett. They, erm, they asked me how your father died.’
‘Did they… were they… did they make a connection?’
‘No, I explained he had Alzheimer’s.’
I hadn’t realised my shoulders were up by my ears but now they sag. ‘I’m so sorry you got dragged into this. I’m sorry for everything.’
I can hear Jackson in the background; he sounds like he’s talking on his phone.
‘Are you home?’
‘I’m at the Shard. I’m going to stay here tonight with Geoffrey.’
‘You call him Geoffrey.’
‘That’s his name.’
‘He’ll always be Jackson to me.’
I can hear a soft smile in her voice. ‘I thought I might see you here.’
I stand and walk to my office window. ‘I’m still working.’
‘Scarlett, you can’t possibly be concentrating with everything that’s going on. Come home. It’s late. Gregory tells me his housemaid has made salmon en croute. That’ll be nice, won’t it?’
‘You’re not going to lure me back with salmon en croute.’
‘Well, what if I made you some pancakes?’
‘Sandy, you’ve just been to the police station and questioned. You must be exhausted. Let Jackson look after you. Go put your feet up.’
‘It’d be a lot easier to relax if I knew you were okay, sweets.’ I can hear her moving, then her voice drops to a whisper. ‘I’m worried about you. Gregory said you two had words.’
I sigh. ‘Sandy…’
‘I’m here, sweets.’
I pause, debating whether to share the truth. ‘I don’t want to go home.’ A lump forms in my throat and I swallow hard to prevent it from rupturing.
‘Oh, Scarlett, I know you love Gregory, it’s written all over that pretty little face every time I see you but if you need some space, if you want to get away, you can stay with me. Or if you don’t want to stay at Lara’s house, I can stay at home with you… at our old home.’
‘I’m fine. I’m being silly. I’m going to go and finish my work. I’m glad you’re okay. I really am sorry, Sandy.’
‘Now you listen to me, missy: you’re not to blame for all this.
You’ve gotten yourself mixed up in something…
someone—’ She stops herself before she says what I know she’s thinking.
I know because everyone will be thinking it.
Amanda has said as much. And however idiotic it might seem, I can’t stand people thinking badly of Gregory.
‘He’s a good man, Sandy. This isn’t his fault.’
‘I wasn’t going to say—’
‘Yes, you were, or at least you were thinking it. I get it, I do. But there was nothing we could do. Maybe he made a mistake taking over that company and maybe I made an even bigger mistake helping him.’ I offload with an odd sense of relief, finally articulating what’s been eating me up.
‘If I’d walked away, he might’ve never gone through with it.
But I understand why he needed to. That deal was his vengeance, Sandy, and I…
I… with Dad, when he… I can understand how desperately he needed to take revenge.
’ I’m close, too close, to telling her everything.
This is Sandy, Sandy who’d stand by me no matter what, probably the only person in the world who would.
‘Sandy… I know because that night, I wanted revenge too. I hate Kevin Pearson for everything he did to Gregory and Lara and for what he did to Dad. Gregory isn’t to blame for all this. ’
‘Neither of you are to blame for that man trying to kill you all, Scarlett.’ Her words are louder, almost shouting, cutting me off.
‘Sandy—’
‘Enough! Young lady, what if he hadn’t been shot? What then? Geoffrey was already hurt. That man would’ve killed him and I’m sure he would’ve killed you too. So stop! Just stop it!’
‘Sandy, it wasn’t Gregory, it was—’
‘Stop it now! I won’t listen.’
My eyes are on fire, my hand clamping my open mouth shut. The line is silent but for Sandy’s breathing and I realise mine has stopped but my heart is thudding in my chest. My lungs fill on a gasp. ‘You already know Gregory didn’t take that shot. You know.’
‘I have to go, Scarlett.’ The call beeps to an end.
I don’t go back to the Shard. I sit in my desk chair as I’ve done all day and lean back, my head turned to one side, staring at the orange lights flicking on and off in the high-rise buildings nearby. Sandy knows our dirty little secret. She knows and now she has to lie too.
Jackson kicks open the door and a gun fires. He falls to the floor, blood immediately pooling around his leg. A scream lingers in the back of my throat but fails to make it to my mouth. Frantic and with shaking fingers, I attempt to tie a tourniquet around his punctured thigh.
Gregory and Pearson crash out of the bathroom, bashing against the walls, growling, snarling.
They’re trying to kill each other. They fall into the gym room and I’m staring helplessly when they burst back through the door, eyes wild, raging, as they thrash around the floor.
Pearson pulls a chain tight around Gregory’s neck, causing the skin beneath it to flame red.
He’s struggling to breathe. The chain is killing him and all I can do is watch in horror.
Jackson shouts, screams at me to retrieve the gun he dropped to the floor.
I can hear him but my limbs refuse to move.
He tells me the safety is off, to use two hands and only fire if I have a clear shot.
I pick up the gun but Gregory’s broken free and Pearson’s body lies lifeless on the floor.
Gregory slumps back against the wall to catch his breath, then forces himself up to make sure Jackson’s okay.
Pearson moves in the background. I’m sure of it. My feet carry me towards him. Then his arm is raised, the gun aimed directly at Gregory.
I pull the trigger, the bullet bursting through Pearson’s skull almost instantaneously with the bang of the gun and the reverberations through my arms.
I’m sitting on the sofa, staring into darkness. The distinct smell of lilies invades my nose. There’re voices behind me, numerous male voices, mumblings at first but the sound sharpens.
‘Greg, we can clean this up. Don’t be fucking stupid!’
‘I said no. This is my past and I’ll fucking kill myself before it haunts her. Call the police, Jackson.’
‘Motherfucker! What the fuck is wrong with you?’
‘Jackson, look at her. For Christ’s sake! She’s not like us. She’s better than us, better than both of us.’
‘That might be so, kid, but she can be better than us without anyone going to fucking prison.’
‘No one’s going to prison. It was self-defence. I shot him in self-defence.’
‘You’re crazy. I’m not gonna help you ruin your fucking life!’
‘Jackson, if we don’t do this, her life will be ruined and I’ll have another fucking life on my conscience.
The only way she’ll get through this is if we do it through the police and she realises that what she did wasn’t wrong.
I’ll be cleared. This will end and she can leave me if she wants to; she can move on knowing she did the right thing. ’
‘Then I’ll make damn fucking sure you’re cleared, you crazy bastard.’
‘Right. But it has to be the police.’
‘You’ve known her two minutes, Greg.’