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“This is it then?” Dean asks as the car pulls away.
“This is really it,” I say.AlexanderMy heart thumps when their cab pulls up outside the house.
I tell Brutus to behave. Tell him to sit fucking down and be nice for once.
I unbolt the front door with a smile, bounding out without thinking to help them inside with their cases, and a tap on my fucking shoulder nearly gives me a fucking heart attack.
Ronald fucking Robertson outside my fucking house.
His gormless photographer snaps a shot of us with the cases and I nearly knock his front teeth out.
I send Melissa on in with Joe and wait till the boy is out of earshot.
“Don’t you even fucking dare think of printing that,” I say.
Ronald shrugs. “I think we can keep it out of the final draft if you’ll give me a few words about what’s going down? Family feud, right? Is it true you’re gonna expose your father’s gangland clients?”
“Like fucking hell it is,” I say. “Not that it’s any of your fucking business.”
He holds up his hands. “Just saying what I heard, Henley, that’s all. Can’t believe you’re getting a fucking conscience at your old age.” He laughs. I hate his fucking laugh. He gestures to my front door as Dean lugs the last of the cases inside. “That pretty little thing got anything to do with it?”
“That pretty little thing is none of your fucking business, either.”
I leave him at my gate where he belongs.
“Give me a scoop!” he shouts. “Your side of the story!”
“I have no fucking side of any story,” I say. “I’m fucking done!”
I close the door behind me, and close the fucking curtains so the cunt can’t see inside.MelissaIt’s so nice to be back in Alexander’s house.
It’s so nice to wander around the rooms and smell his bedsheets for one last time.
They won’t be his bedsheets in the new place, they’ll be ours. The thought makes me giddy.
I show Dean around the place I’ve come to know so well, and he knows we’re just killing time, chasing away the nerves that are thrumming from Alexander even though he tries to hide them, but we play along anyway.
Even Brutus is a good boy as we introduce him to Joe. He doesn’t even snarl at Dean either.
It’s like he knows.
Dogs know their own people, just as I said to Alexander, and Brutus knows us. He knows we’re all bound together, destined for pastures new. I can tell by the way he sniffs the cases, his tail thumping at the leash draped over the top, just waiting to go.
“Are you sure we can trust the guy?” Dean asks as Alexander lets Brutus out into the garden.
“I’d trust him with my life,” I say, and I would. I’d trust him with anything, even Joseph’s.
“Alright,” he says. “This is some crazy ride.”
It is, and I know it’s about to get even crazier. Good crazy.
Just as soon as we’ve left the city behind.
“The hire car arrives at ten,” Alexander tells us when he heads back in. “We should be safe to go then. We’ll have to be quick.”
I nod. “We will be. We’ll make light work of it, the three of us.”He paces as the evening draws in. He smiles but I know he’s edgy.
I settle Joseph down on the plush cream sofa, and try to settle down with him, even though my nerves are on fire.
Dean talks about everything, waffling on about inane crap to keep us all from fizzing over. His jittery fingers are the only tell that he’s not as calm as he makes out.
But that’s okay.
He’s doing a great job.
Alexander sighs with relief when the knock comes at ten to ten.
He tells me to hold Brutus back while he takes the keys from the driver and I do. I leave Dean with Joe in the living room and take tight hold of Brutus in the kitchen. I crouch to the floor along with him and hope he doesn’t drag me right out of there.
“Be a good boy,” I say. “Please, Brutus, don’t be a dick.”
But he is a dick.
I feel it in every fibre of him when Alexander heads to the front door.
His snarl is vicious and his muscles are wound up tight, much tighter than I’ve ever seen him.
Alexander looks back at me as he slides the bolts open. “Keep hold of him,” he says, and I nod.
And I do. Even though it’s hard. Even though he’s pulling like a truck and I have to dig my heels into the floor to stop him tearing his way down the hallway. Even though he’s so savage he shows every single one of his teeth.
“Calm down!” I hiss but he doesn’t listen. “Brutus, please,” I say, but he doesn’t want to know.
He lurches forward and I shunt along with him, and I have to tug him back with all my strength as Alexander pulls the door open.
