Page 20 of Revenge

“That’s because you didn’t know where I was mother,” I pointed out with raised brows, “And he’s about as charming as vaginal thrush,” I added, my lip curling in disgust. Kai had been desperate to find me to wring my neck no doubt, not because hecared. But my mother wouldn’t know that. And by the sounds of things, she still had no idea I was the one who put her now dead husband behind bars or who shot her stepson. And it needed to stay that way.

My mother shuffled uncomfortably, the mattress bouncing with her slight weight. “As I said, he looks after me,” she repeated in a small voice and my temper soared.

“Thehellhe does.”

“Look, I know Kai can be quite the character,” Suki said,againdefending him.

I snorted, “That’s just a nice way of calling someone a dick, mother.”

There was an awkward silence, rudely interrupted by a chime. My eyes darted towards where the noise came from as I spotted the old-fashioned grandfather clock sitting in one corner of the room. It was almost five in the evening.

“Anyway, I’ve missed you,” Mum sighed, leaning over to place her hand over mine.

A million thoughts seemed to be rattling around my mind, but the most prominent one was that I had to get out of there and take my brainless mother with me.

“I’ve missed you too and I’m so sorry that I wasn’t here for you but I had to get away after Gerard went to prison,” I explained.

“You did promise to tell me why one day,” Suki said.

“I know I did but it’s all water under the bridge now. I just needed to get away from the heat of London. All the crazy shit was driving me mad and you know I hated that school. The thought of another year there was suffocating me. When I got to Italy, I liked my independence. And you knew I was OK, I kept in contact. I needed some teenage me time. Surely you understand that?”

“I understand,” my mother said softly. She wasn’t one to pry. Suki preferred not to know. It was easier that way. “I hated that the school was so far away and I didn’t get to see you as much, but Gerry wouldn’t listen. He was hard to handle at times.”

Hard to handle; talk about the understatement of the century, like Suki hadevermanaged to do that. My mother had feared Gerard, not at first, but after the wedding when he’d put a ring on it. She tried to hide it from me.

I knew Gerard had mistreated my mother one night but I didn’t know to what degree. I’d heard him yelling at her and the next morning she’d been like a shell of the person she once was. Gerard had been all over her like a rash. He’d clearly done something major if he wasthatfucking sorry about it. When I tried to bring it up, Suki had a full-on panic attack.

We so needed to get out of there.

My criminal stepfather used to use my mother to control me and there was no doubt in my head that Kai would do the same. Otherwise, why were we there? Kai had said that he didn’t intend to kill me and I believed him. But would he really let everything I had done go unpunished?

That was a resounding no.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and we both turned to the sound as it opened. A tall, broad man leaned into the room through the doorway. He had dark hair, greyed at the temples, and was handsome in an older roguish way. He wore a suit and an expression stamped with authority. I’d never seen him before.

“Susannah, you have five more minutes,” he stated. His tone was authoritative as he looked down his hawk-like nose between us. The man’s expression softened as his eyes fell upon my mother but as they shifted to me, I captured a twinge of something which suggested he didn’t like me. Odd, considering we’d never met, but who knew what Kai told his men about me? Probably not that I was the one who shot him. That would make him look like a pussy to have been wounded by a woman. I imagined he’d sworn Lester and Sean into secrecy; two of his men there that day. There had also been Gabriel Knight, the son of his father’s lawyer and of course the young woman, Kai had kidnapped. Kai had believed that the son of his father’s lawyer was the one who had built up the dossier to send Gerard down. How wrong he’d been. I had been the one to drag Gabriel into it for backup. Something which had gone pear-shaped quickly.

I couldn’t see my mother’s face as she was facing away from me but from her tone, I knew the manmeantsomething to her. Suki wore her heart on her sleeve.

“Yes, Cillian, of course. I’ll be out in a minute,” she replied softly.

“See that you are. I’ll be waiting to escort you to your room.” Escort her to her room, like a fricking prison guard? That suggested my motherwasn’tfree to roam the house, which would also make her a captive. That thought didn’t sit well with me, especially if she didn’t realise it. My mother was easily blindsided by good looks and money.

“Thank you, Cillian. I’ll look forward to it,” Suki said sweetly. FFS!

‘Cillian’ as she called him gave her a swift nod, but I saw how he lingered for a moment longer.

That’s it, buddy, back the fuck off.

What the actual hell? Were they together? It wouldn’t have surprised me as men had always flocked to my mother, but if he was one of Kai’s men, that meant he was a killer or involved in nasty shit. Why the hell couldn’t she meet a nice, normal man?

I wanted to be free from that suffocating life of being connected to the mob, for both of us. The dream of living a normal life and working in a coffee shop or some shit like that lit me up. That’s how I earned a living in Milan, but it had been a bookshop. I missed the smell of those crusty leather books, their disorganised chaos and even the constant smudge of lipstick on Signora Romano’s teeth. I owed the woman a debt. She gave me a job when I had no credentials. Without her and Anton I would have been fucked.

As Cillian withdrew and the door clicked closed, Suki turned back to me with flushed cheeks.

“Sorry. Cill can be so bossy. He’s Kai’s top enforcer,” she beamed with a fond smile.

‘Cill’ may be Kai’s top enforcer and he was clearlyfuckingmy mother.

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