His breath was hot on her face until he backed off, laughing. ‘I need a drink.’ Without turning his back on Evie, he opened the fridge and took out a beer, put down the knife and cracked the bottle open against the bench. He snatched up the knife again, and when he’d taken a few glugs of beer he heard the door go and was there like a shot.
‘I got it.’ Nicole came in and walked confidently past him and over to the kitchen table. Evie tried to read her face but couldn’t.
‘You stay there,’ he ordered Evie, and waved the knife at her before following Nicole over to the table where she upended her purse. Notes flew out across the glass top.
‘There, it’s as much as I could get.’
‘It’s not enough,’ he growled, roughly estimating how much was there when he put down the knife and flicked through the notes. It only looked to be a few hundred. He grabbed a fistful of Nicole’s hair, tipping her head back, exposing her neck. Evie could see the knife beneath the money, but she knew if she tried to get to the weapon, he could snatch it up and hurt Nicole, and she couldn’t risk that. She’d brought enough hurt into her home already when all Nicole had ever done was to go out of her way to help her.
‘I’ll get more,’ Nicole pleaded.
‘Too bloody right you will.’ He pushed Nicole’s head away and she screamed. Evie rushed to her side and held her. Her body was shaking. Evie’s wasn’t, almost as though she was numb to the damage he could do now.
‘It was all I could get from the one account,’ said Nicole. ‘I need to take my other ATM cards.’
‘Why didn’t you take them in the first place?’
‘I thought they were already in my purse.’ Her voice shook. ‘They’re in the kitchen drawer. The top one,’ she explained as he began pulling each drawer open. ‘They’re right at the back.’
He pocketed the extra three cards. ‘This time, we’ll all go together.’ He scooped up the money from the table, shoved it into the sports bag he’d used to stash the jewellery he’d already taken, a silver-plated photo frame with a picture of a young boy and Nicole.
Evie saw the moment Nicole spotted the photograph. ‘You don’t need the picture,’ she said. ‘Leave the picture, keep the frame. Do something half decent for once in your sorry life.’
‘I’m the one with the knife, remember. So you’d be better off shutting the fuck up!’
Nicole pulled at Evie’s arm. ‘Leave it, it doesn’t matter.’
But Evie could tell it did.
Uncle Brett opened the door and pushed them into the corridor, but as Evie reached to hold Nicole’s arm, she saw two men swoop on her uncle. It was Jack and Kent, one coming from the left, the other from the right.
‘He’s got a knife!’ Nicole shrieked.
Evie screamed, stumbled back in the commotion, falling to the carpet. Kent held the arm with the knife firm, Jack had Uncle Brett in a headlock and they disarmed him within seconds. Evie scurried forwards on her hands and knees and retrieved the knife out of harm’s way. And then everything happened in fast forward. The elevator opened again and three police officers stepped out in front of Reggie, who rushed to Nicole’s side. Uncle Brett was cuffed by one officer, restrained by another and the third took both women inside the apartment where Nicole leant against Evie, sobbing in relief. And then she fell to her knees and unzipped the holdall, took out the photograph and clutched it to her chest.
It was a good hour or so until the women, Kent, and Jack were left in peace at the apartment. The worst was over, Uncle Brett had been taken away and Evie had no choice now but to tell the police everything and hope that they could stop the photographs from ever appearing and robbing her of the life and friends she couldn’t imagine being without.
Nicole and Kent had sat and told Evie everything too, all about how their lives were linked. Nicole had gripped hold of the photo of Noah that Evie’s uncle had almost taken away from her, and when they’d finished their tale, Evie had hugged Nicole tightly. ‘You should’ve told me,’ she’d said over and over, wishing she could’ve absorbed some of the pain for her friend.
*
As the atmosphere in the apartment returned to normal, as least as much as it possibly could, Nicole and Kent went into the kitchen to fix up food and drinks. Nicole had offered her homemade coffee cake and a fresh pot of coffee, and Jack took Evie through to the living room.
‘Sit in front of the fire, warm up,’ he told her. ‘You’re shaking.’
‘I’m not cold,’ she insisted.
‘It’s probably the shock. Please, sit.’
She did as she was told and plonked herself down on the edge of the couch. ‘Those photographs will never go away, you know. It’s not like the olden days with negatives and only one or two copies. In the digital age it’ll never be over. He will do his time in jail, whatever that is, then he’s free to do exactly what he said he’d do. He’ll end up ruining me as soon as he can.’
Jack sat next to her, and she was surprised at the feel of his skin on hers as his hand covered her own. ‘Evie, I don’t know enough about the law to know what he can get away with when he’s out of jail, but I do know I have enough money to help you out.’ He raised the hand not holding hers when she began to protest. ‘No, money doesn’t make you happy, I realise that.’ He beamed a smile at her, eyes melting her like hot fudge. ‘Will you let me help you?’
She nodded.
When his phone bleeped, he took it from his pocket and read an awaiting text. ‘Sorry, it’s Todd checking when I’ll next be at the house.’ He tapped out a reply. ‘I’d told him I’d be there tonight, but I’ll tell him I can’t make it.’
‘How’s he getting on?’ Evie asked as Jack finished and put his phone away. Even though she’d told Jack not to judge all homeless people as one, she felt an affinity with the boy, knowing what it felt like to be in his situation.
