Page 102 of The Black Trilogy

With that in mind, I fired off an email to Bradley to let him know I was back. If he found out last, he’d never forgive me, but if I phoned him, that would be the entire day gone. Okay, one final call left to make. Would it be as painful as talking to Mack? Time to find out. I’d lived with Jimmy and his wife, Jackie, for almost two years, until just before my sixteenth birthday. He was the closest thing I had to a father.

“Jimmy?” my voice cracked, and I took a sip from the glass of water on my desk.

“Amanda, that you?”

Few people knew me as Amanda. My birth certificate agreed with them, but I hated the name. Why? Because my mother chose it. And by chose it, I mean she opened a book of baby names and got bored before she’d got to the end of the A’s. But Jimmy had always called me Amanda, and so I let it be.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Blimey, girl, you had us worried the way you dropped off the face of the earth.”

“I needed to be on my own for a while. I’m sorry.”

“I get you, sweet thing, but next time you gotta promise to call Jimmy, you got it?”

“Hoping there won’t be a next time.”

“You won’t be replacing that husband of yours in a hurry, then?”

“Doubt I’ll ever replace him. He was one of a kind.”

“That he was, girl. That he was. Now, you know I wasn’t keen on him at first, but he grew on me over the years. He did you proud.”

I choked back a laugh. Wasn’t keen on him? A bit of an understatement from Jimmy. When my husband announced he wanted me to move to the States with him, Jimmy had threatened to fold him in half, hang him from the ceiling, and use him as a punchbag. They were about the same size. It would have been an interesting match.

“I know he did me proud,” I sniffed.

“No tears, girl. Gotta keep your chin up. You in town at the moment?”

“Yeah, working.”

“Well, try and fit in a few minutes to come see us.”

“I’ll try, Jimmy. I’ll visit as soon as I can. I promise.”

Something else for my to-do list. At least Jimmy didn’t sound as unhappy with me as everyone else. Meanwhile, I had to sort out this mess with Tia so she and Luke could get on with their lives while I got on with mine.

Whatever was left of it.

CHAPTER 31

THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.

One last roundhouse kick to the punchbag, and I stripped off my boxing gloves. A good session in the gym always made me feel better. Took some of the edge off. An edge so sharp right now that it could slice through titanium. A quick shower to get rid of the sheen of sweat, and I was ready to face the world again.

But first, food.

We always kept the staff kitchens fully stocked, but when I opened the fridge on the fifth floor, all I found was turkey on rye, falafel with carrot, chicken salad sans mayo, apples, grapes, celery.

“Has Toby been here?” I asked Tina, one of our London assistants.

“He sent a directive. The catering staff took all the junk food out an hour ago.”

“But I need cookies.”

“I think that’s why he did it.”

Gah. I also craved a meatball marinara sub, but I didn’t have time to go out and buy one. Instead, I grabbed a bowl of fruit salad and headed for the conference room. Judging by the glum faces looking back at me from around the table, frustratingly little had happened.

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