Page 38 of Revenge

I only had one text message from Anton which was strange. He would have arrived at the apartment to find I wasn’t there. I was due to make us dinner. Would he not have seen the abandoned groceries by the door? Maybe Kai instructed his goons to sweep the area of fingerprints and signs of unrest. The mafia were very good at making it appear like they had never been there.

Anton’s text was brief,I’m on my way back. Be there in 10 mins xxx. We always addedexactlythree kisses to any messages we sent so that we knew the texts were genuine. Not the hardest code to crack but it had worked so far.

As I shuffled up the bed and crossed my legs, I wondered whether to reply; the fact that he hadn’t sentanythingafter that one message worried me.

Should I call the number or rip out the sim and destroy it?

Fuck it, I swiped the screen and called Anton.

Closing my eyes, I waited for the line to connect. It did so quickly and then started to ring. The dial tone sounded exactly like it usually did. After a few more rings it went to a standard voicemail. I wished Anton had left a personal recording so I could, at least, hear his voice.

Damn! My insides started to churn and I felt sick. I had no other phone and no way to buy one.

After several minutes of debating what was best, I pushed the phone onto the bedside table beside the glass of water I’d had earlier.

I would have to wait it out.

I was tired and my head wasn’t clear. I wouldn’t usually go to bed so early but the drug had wiped me out.

I thought back to my conversation with Kai. His level of calm surprised me, I had imagined him wringing my neck when he got his hands on me.

Maybe there was a way out of this if I played his game. It wasn’t like I wanted anything to do with his organisation and I wouldn’t tell the authorities shit. Yes, I hated the mafia but the only reason I had outed Gerard was to get him away from my mother.

I wondered how Kai had turned his father’s business around. He was always so clear about his intentions to set up legitimate companies. But then I’d sent his father down and he had stepped into Gerard’s questionable shoes. I imagine his dreams of becoming legitimate were ripped away at that point.

And it was all my fault.

Drat. I felt thoroughly confused. I so wanted to keep hating Kai but seeing him again and my body’s reaction to that had knocked me off kilter. He didn’t appear to be the beast I had believed he’d become. He had looked after my mother when she needed help.

Maybe he was playing nice until he got what he wanted from us. And by us, I meant Suki and me, I wouldnotallow Anton to be dragged into anything.

Dear Anton. He had been my rock and I couldn’t fail him now.

We had me at The Kings School in Brighton, the boarding school my mother and Gerard had ferried me off to when I turned fourteen and we’d just clicked.

It turned out that the school was a popular choice for the spawn of the underbelly of London, as several kids from rival gangs also went there.

They knew who I was and had attempted to make my life hell. Strange considering there was a peace agreement between the Kinlan family and the other Gangs of London.

On one weekend home, I’d tried to tell Gerard but he’d waved me off and Kai had told me to get a backbone, no longer the protective older brother figure.

I thought back to how very different things had been between Kai and me at first.

I met Kai when I was thirteen years old and felt an immediate connection. He was so welcoming towards both me and my mother.

The Kinlan Estate in Twickenham was the first place I had ever lived that, at first, felt like home. My mother had been so happy and, for the first year, Gerard seemed OK. I had thought him way too old for my mother, but he doted on her and made her smile. At that time, Kai had an apartment in the city centre but he still came back to the Twickenham mansion at the weekends.

I was homeschooled during that first year and when Kai came to stay, he’d help me with my homework. He’d also drop me off at my friend's houses and pick me up (I use the term friends loosely). We watched movies and TV shows together, swam in the pool and even went to the races to see the horses.

Those days had been precious. My mother had Gerard and I had Kai.

And then, just after my fourteenth birthday, Gerard and my mother announced they were getting married and almost overnight, everything changed.

Kai was no longer warm and accommodating; he made me feel like I was an annoyance.

My stepbrotherfrozeme out. He hardly said two words to me during my mother’s wedding to Gerard and I didn’t understand what I had done.

Kai then started to boss me around and criticised everything I did and of course, I reacted to that treatment.

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