Page 35 of Heart of a Devil

Obviously, he makes that difficult dressed as he is in a muscle-skimming designer suit that perfectly offsets his gentleman-thug physique. It’s difficult not to notice the strain his thighs put on the fabric or the way the jacket clings to his wide shoulders. I make myself a deal—it’s okay to notice, but it’s not okay for him to notice me noticing. Apart from anything else, we are all here for one thing, and that’s to help Caroline and Nicky.

“How are you, love?” Seb asks, crouching down so he’s at her feet, deliberately making himself smaller and less threatening. Gabriel has no such luck, but at least he keeps his distance. “He’s been home, has he?” He gazes up at her pretty face, holding her shaking hands in his. He hasn’t missed the scab on her ear, and neither have I.

“Yes, briefly,” she murmurs, her voice croaky and hoarse. “He… He wasn’t happy. Something went wrong, I don’t know what. I didn’t want to know. The less I hear about his business, the better. He was mad, though, and he was screaming at Nicky for making too much noise. He wasn’t, honest, he was just watching videos on his tablet like a normal kid—he’s not a naughty boy.”

“Don’t care if he was making more noise than a fucking jet plane landing in the middle of a Foo Fighters gig, it’s no excuse to scream at him or lay a finger on him. You got in the way, did you?”

Her hand flutters up to the roll-necked sweater she’s wearing, and she hesitantly pulls it down to reveal livid finger marks all across her throat. That explains the voice. “I sent Nicky off to his room and told Ivan I lost one of the diamond earrings he bought me. It wasn’t true—I’d taken it off and put it in my pocket. I knew it would distract him. After he did this to me, he tore the other one out of my earlobe and rammed it down my throat.”

I hear Gabriel gasp from the back of the room, and Samantha shoots him a soothing look. We all know exactly how he feels, but we need to keep Caroline as calm as we can. Seb nods and stands up, meeting my eyes for the first time.

“What would they do to him in Florida?” he asks. I know what he’s referring to, but nobody else does. They probably think he’s talking about different legal systems.

“They’d do what they had to do—but only when there was no other option.”

Sam follows our conversation with a mild frown on her face but wisely keeps her concentration on the matter at hand. “So, are you sure now, Caroline? You want us to move forward?”

“I’m… Sometimes I am. I need to protect my son, and that’s getting harder every day. Ivan is unpredictable, and I’m never sure when he’s going to be home, when he’s going to stay away, when he’s going to throw one of his parties…”

“We understand. Can we convince you to leave the marital home now, for your safety?” Sam asks.

“No. Not yet.” She shakes her head. “I’m watched too closely. I couldn’t pack a bag or any of Nicky’s toys, and he’d have to drop out of his school, and… It’s complicated. I know I need to leave, but everything feels too dangerous.”

“We get that,” I say calmly. “We’re here to help. How long do you have today, Caroline?”

She glances at her phone. “Maybe another hour? I said I was bringing Nicky into town to buy a birthday gift for his father. The driver brought us to Mayfair, and we arranged to meet him later.”

“Will they check?” I ask quickly. “Will they expect shopping bags, gift boxes?” She looks suddenly horrified, and I call our receptionist in and hand her the company credit card with instructions to go shopping. Beth looks thrilled and promises to find exactly the right kind of thing.

“Make it flashy,” Caroline adds with a weak smile. “He likes flashy.”

“Talking of which,” she says, reaching into her Prada bag. “I have these for you.” She places a handful of necklaces and rings on the table, gaudy diamonds and rich gold chains glinting under the overhead lights. “I don’t have any cash of my own to pay you with.”

“That’s not something you need to worry about right now,” I assure her. “Let’s get this done and think about payment later. In the meantime, though, we’ll keep these safe for you. It might be a nice nest egg for you and Nicky in the future.”

Her face lights up at the idea of building a future with Nicky, and my heart constricts in my chest. She doesn’t want much, this woman. She told me that she hopes for a small house in a place where nobody knows her, near a good school, away from unlawful wealth and the abuse that underpins it all. She wants to feel safe and to be able to raise her son in peace. Her dreams are small, and everyone in this room wants to make them come true for her.

We discuss timing and our legal options. All she wants is a divorce—she has no interest in taking half of her husband’s properties or capital, but we’re here to protect her, and we insist she should at least seek enough of a settlement to secure her short-term future. Samantha and I have discussed this in advance, and we both recommend applying for a restraining order at the same time she files for divorce. “He won’t take any notice,” Caroline argues. “He says the law doesn’t apply to him.”

“I know that’s what he thinks,” I reply. “But we’ll prove him wrong. Before you leave today, Caroline, we’ll need pictures of what he’s done to you since you were last here.”

She laughs bitterly. “Pictures of my neck, my ear? That’s easy. I can’t help you with pictures of him raping me with the barrel of his Makarov pistol though. Didn’t have time to whip myphone out and capture the magical moment.” She immediately apologizes for her outburst and starts to cry, huge sobs racking her slender body.

I go to one side of her, Samantha to the other, both of us murmuring words of comfort and stroking her arms. “Oh god, what have I done?” she wails. “Why did I let that man poison my life? My son’s life? We’ll never be free of him. You don’t know what he’s like.”

“Caroline, love, look at me,” says Seb, his tone sharp. It’s like a slap across the face, and she obeys straight away. It hurts me to see how broken she is, but Seb has no intention of doing more damage. “I know a lot about your husband, actually, Caroline. I know a lot of his dirty little secrets, and I know you’re not the only person who hates him. Not by a long score. There’s a queue of people who’d like to see him go down, and a few of those people are equally powerful. He might have friends in high places, but he has enemies there too. In the police, in the legal system—even in his own household.”

I share a look with Samantha, and she shrugs in a clueless way. Gabriel doesn’t look surprised, so I’m guessing this has been a boys-only deal.

Caroline has at least stopped weeping. “In his own household?” she echoes as I pass her a box of tissues.

“Yeah. Do you know Irina and her husband, Vladimir?”

Looking confused, she nods. “Of course. Vladimir does the gardens, and Irina is his wife. She cooks and cleans, that kind of thing. They’re not my friends. They don’t speak English. That’s one of the ways he controls me, you see? He surrounds me with people I can’t communicate with.”

“I know. But just because people can’t speak English doesn’t mean they don’t have eyes. They’ve seen what’s going on. And yes, they’re scared, but they’re also angry. Irina has suffered at his hands too. She was working one of his dinner parties, andone of the bastard guests took a shine to her. Next thing she knew, she was forced into his car, driven away, and raped in the woods. They told her they’d kill Vladimir if she went to the police.”

Caroline sucks in a shocked breath and holds her hands to her mouth. “Oh no. Oh no, no, no. I think I remember that night. She was just doing her job, and the guy was clearly making her uncomfortable. I was so worried about what might happen to me that I didn’t give it a second thought, and when I was allowed to go to bed earlier than usual, I remember feeling relieved. It didn’t occur to me that some other poor woman was suffering instead. Oh, poor Irina. I feel terrible.”

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