Oh Jesus…
Annie braced herself and stepped inside the room. There was the table, just as she remembered, and the chairs. Gary was seated in one of them, Tony in another. Another man stood at the window, his back to the room.
‘Blimey. Looks like a fucking courtroom in here,’ said Annie. She glanced around at them all, a bright smile masking the awful fear that was gripping her guts. She felt almost unable to move, she was so frozen with apprehension.
‘So who’s on trial?’ she quipped.
The man at the window turned and stared at her. Black hair, deep tan, dark navy-blue eyes and a piratical hook of a nose. Her husband.
Ah shit, she thought.
‘Looks like you are,’ said Max Carter.
65
‘Hi,’ said Annie.
Max didn’t say another word. He just stared at her.
‘You want us to step out on the landing, give you a bit of privacy?’ asked Steve, directing the query to Max, not her.
Max nodded. One by one they rose and left the room. Gary gave Annie a smirk as he passed by.
‘How are your two boys then, Gary?’ she asked, quick as a flash.
He paused. ‘What?’
‘The one with the eyebrows and the bald one. Your doormen. They OK?’
He hesitated. Knew that she was on to him, that he had ordered that going-over after she’d cut up rough with his girlfriend at Dolly’s. She could see it in his eyes.
‘They’re fine,’ he said.
‘What the fuck’s all this?’ asked Max irritably.
Annie turned to her husband with a bright smile.
‘Nothing! Just me and Gary having a little conversation,’ she said, and her eyes were resting on Gary’s face again, telling him this wasn’t over, this wasn’t finished, not by a long shot.
‘Fuck off, Gary,’ said Max.
Gary went, minus the self-satisfied expression. Annie was delighted to have wiped it off his face. It made the hot twinging pain of her broken rib more bearable, just to see that shadow of emerging fear on his ugly mug.
She watched the door close behind Gary, then turned to Max.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ she asked. ‘And what are you doing, checking me out of hotels without my say-so?’
Max’s eyes narrowed to angry slits. He shook his head.
‘Oh, no. That won’t wash with me, you ought to know that. Turning the tables, making out I’m the one in the wrong? I don’t think so.’
‘I’m just asking, that’s all. You left Prospect without a word, not even a note. What was I supposed to think?’
Annie saw his eyes flash over her, take in the dried mud on her skirt suit.
‘Am I supposed to give a shit what you think? I had some calls from Gary saying that something was going on, so I went and checked it out.’
Yeah, he knows.
Annie could feel her heart beating very fast. She could hear Max’s boys talking in hushed whispers out on the landing. She felt sick now, really sick and terrified. She swallowed hard and managed to get the words out.
‘Checked it out where?’
‘Sicily.’
‘What was it all about then?’ she asked.
‘About you,’ said Max. ‘And about Constantine Barolli.’
Annie could only stare at his face. ‘Constantine? What about him?’
Max crossed the room and came and stood in front of her, very close. Annie forced herself not to take a step back. Fury radiated off him like heat from a fire.
‘He’s not dead, is he? He’s alive.’
‘Max-’
‘Don’t “Max” me. You know he’s alive.’
‘Look,’ said Annie desperately. ‘I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t tell anyone.’
He grabbed her upper arms, bringing her still closer, cutting off her words. She felt the jolt of it all through her abused body; her damaged rib gave a red-hot spasm of protest that made her wince. His face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. This was the man she loved, Max Carter; she had grown so close to him that she hardly knew where she ended and he began. Now he was glaring at her with total hatred, and it chilled her to the marrow.
His head dipped down and she felt a shiver as he whispered in her ear.
‘Now you have to scream,’ he said. ‘Loudly. Make it good, so they hear it.’
‘Wha-?’ Annie’s eyes met his as his head drew back.
Without warning he shoved her backwards. She hit the wall hard, off-balance, and her broken rib set up a shriek all of its own. The pain was severe, and Annie screamed.
‘Again. Louder,’ said Max.
‘You bastard,’ she choked out, realizing what this was for; so that he looked the big man to the men out on the landing. So that they heard her being disciplined, and thought he was top dog, no question, tough as old boots for giving his lying old lady a thorough going-over.
‘Do it,’ he said, and shoved her against the wall again. It wouldn’t have hurt, not really, but her already beaten body felt it all and she screamed again in real anguish.
‘Shit, you bastard,’ she panted as he let her go. She sagged there, feeling bile rising in her throat, feeling sick with the pain. She felt a prickling of cold sweat break out on her brow and wondered if she was going to pass out cold.
‘You utter fucking…’ she gasped out, her voice trailing away to nothing, glad of the wall now because it was all that was holding her up.
He grabbed her chin, turned her face up to his. Out on the landing, all was quiet. They were listening. Just as he’d intended.
‘So he’s alive?’ Max’s voice was a low, angry hiss. ‘Well, not for very fucking long – and that’s a promise. I’m going to finish that cunt. And you know what? Then I’m going to finish you. But right now, there’s just one thing I want off of you.’
‘What? Ow!’ said Annie as the pain lanced through her mid-section again.
‘Oh, don’t give me that,’ he muttered by her ear. ‘I barely touched you. Don’t milk it.’
‘What do you want?’ asked Annie, gasping the words out, thinking that yes, she was going to faint, she felt that rough now, that shaken up.
‘A divorce,’ he snapped. ‘We’re through, you hear me? This fucking marriage is over.’
Then he let her go and surged past her, out the door, slamming it hard shut behind him.
66
Annie staggered away from the wall and slumped down into one of the chairs at the table. Her head was humming, her heart was crashing around in her chest, and she thought, That’s it, I’m going to pass out now. She heaved in air and put her head between her legs, which set up a fresh surge of agony in her middle. She stopped like that for a long time. Wincing, hurt, shocked, she straightened up again, feeling a little steadier.
Jesus, he knows, he knows…
The panicky phrase kept boomeranging around her head. Max knew about Constantine, and he wanted to divorce her. Of course he did. That was why she had made sure he would never know. But somehow it had all gone wrong. Now he was thinking all sorts, and accusing her of things, and this was where they’d landed up. Scuppered. Finished. Max wasn’t the type to make empty promises, either. He would kill Constantine. And then he would kill her.
‘Oh, Christ,’ she wailed, and slapped a hand over her mouth because she wasn’t going to give those clowns on the landing any more satisfaction.
She could hear them out there, talking in low voices. She thought that Max had gone straight out and down the stairs and away, she’d heard the front door slam after him; but Gary, Tony and Steve were still there.