Page 47 of Fearless

We both know he’s just saying that to save face, but I go along with it. “Alright mate.”

With that, I follow Derek through the club and let out a breath when the cool night air hits me. It’s summer, but that means nothing in this country. There’s frost forming on the pavements, making them shimmer in the orange streetlights. Groups of smokers laugh and joke, girls in heels linking arms so if one of them slips there’s only a fifty-fifty chance they fall on their arse.

I’m looking around, but I don’t see anyone. Anyone important. And then I do.

Headlights reflect against the buildings lining the narrow street, making the cobblestones glow white as a black Jag XJ approaches. I can already tell that’s for me, I just don’t have a fucking clue who’s driving it. The back seat door swings open, but the lights don’t go on inside.

I don’t hesitate before crossing the pavement. Stupid? Probably. But honestly, at this point, if it’s some unknown enemy fresh out the jail who wants to take me out into the fields and shoot me, I’d probably thank him.

The second I’m in the car I realize it’s not.

I wasn’t expecting anyone in particular, but on my Cluedo list of suspects, she was my Colonel Mustard in the library with a fucking machete.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” saystheeFirst Minister Helen Ford in that clipped tone of hers. “I wanted to see if the man measured up to the stories.”

I look straight ahead. I can’t actually stomach the sight of her, but I chuckle anyway. ”And how does that feel? Meeting the one person in the country more notorious than you?”

She smiles grimly. “You’re smaller than I expected.”

“Aye, but I try to make up for it with my tongue.”

Her eyes are on me, but I look out of the window. Shops shutting up for the night. People stumbling out of clubs in a cloud of vape smoke. Buses making an arse of pulling into narrow stops. The odd police riot van.

“So are we going back to my place? Yours? West Virginia? Atlantic City? Train bound for fucking nowhere?”

I look over at her now, and find her looking out of the window just as I was. She’s wearing jeans and a white cotton long-sleeved t-shirt, and it feels all sorts of fucking wrong. Like seeing your teacher at the shops on a Saturday morning.

“There’s a lesson in that last song,” she says, as if she’s been deep in thought about it. “What is it… The Gambler? About knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.”

I laugh but it’s humorless. The woman disgusts me. “You’d know all about what to throw away, wouldn’t you?”

“And, clearly, you don’t know enough.”

She looks back out the window, expecting me to bite.

Fuck, I’m going to bite.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

She turns back around to face me. “You can’t be that stupid? Surely not, Kill. I can call you Kill, right? That brother of yours calls you Kill.”

I stare at her.

She smirks. “Oh God, you really are that stupid.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

The car slows to stop at a set of lights and she glances out the front window before settling her eyes back on me. “I’m talking about Cole. He’s a liability.”

I laugh at her, right in her face, and crack my hand down on my knee for added effect. “Jesus. Divide and conquer? Is that what this is? Oldest trick in the book, sweetheart. Do you think you’re the first person to try this?”

She smiles. “Not at all. Merely the smartest one.”

I shake my head and go back to looking out the window. “Don’t waste your time. People have been trying to split us up and turn us against each other since before we could walk.”

“Oh, I know all about that,” she says. “The file I got from Child and Family Services on you two was thicker than the bible.”

My teeth clench. “But still not thick enough to get us the fuck out of there, am I right?”

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