Page 56 of Captive Hearts
Gina raised an eyebrow. ‘I reckon she was hoping he was bisexual.’
‘He’s really not,’ Greg told her.
Leanne was livid. ‘Fuck off, all of you!’
Sam shook his head. ‘I can’t believe I nearly went with your dumbass plan. Thank god you tried to shag me, or I might have done it!’
Leanne huffed. ‘Coward,’ she hissed at Sam.
‘I don’t care if you think I’m a wimp,’ Sam said. ‘You’re not a very nice person. You’d have let me die.’
Greg beamed him, eyes shining. ‘Oh my god. I think that was personal growth.’
Sam was confused. ‘Eh? Growth? Do you mean my lats? Because I’ve been working on them.’
Greg kissed him on the cheek. ‘Sure. Your lats.’
The coup was defused, Ashley was relieved to see. Though she thought they shouldn’t take their eye off Leanne too soon. She was a rogue element.
Ashley felt someone gently take her hand under the table.Gina. She squeezed it back, though she didn’t look at her.
The phone abruptly banged down across the room, and everyone turned to stare at Pete, or rather his back. He wasn’t moving, and Ashley couldn’t read him at all. But then he straightened and turned around with a smile. He slapped his hands together. ‘Right, I need a fucking beer. I never did finish that last one.’ He went to the bar. ‘Who’s joining me?’
Ashley looked around at everyone, trying to shoot an instruction through her eyes.If he thinks we’re his buddies, he’ll be much happier.Everyone seemed to catch her drift, and Gina was the first to say. ‘YouknowI’ll have one.’ ‘I’ll have a beer, thank you,’ Ashley said. ‘Mm, yeah. I’d go for one,’ Sam said. ‘Me too,’ Greg added. ‘I suppose it might be nice,’ Tina said. Leanne was the last to respond. ‘Yeah. Fine.’
Soon enough, everyone gathered around the bar while Pete played barman. As Ashley was handed her drink, she tried to think of some way to gauge what the son, Liam, had said to his dad. A lot might depend on it. But it might be a bit delicate, she was gonna have to be subtle. But it wasn’t really her forte. So she just went for it. ‘So, Pete… what did Liam say? If you don’t mind me asking.’
Everyone tensed. Pete paused, beer to his lips. ‘You really wanna know?’
‘Of course she does,’ Gina jumped in. ‘We all do.’
Everyone nodded. Luckily, Pete thought it was simply concern for him rather than everybody trying to glean if the kid had made a case for letting them all out. He seemed touched by their care. ‘Well, I’m sure you can guess a lot of it. Predictable shit. He loves me and all that.’
‘Does he?’ Leanne asked, a bit too sceptically.
Pete blinked. ‘Yeah. He said so.’
‘Didyousay it back?’
Pete shrugged. ‘He knows. Anyway, then he said he wanted me to put the gun down and come out. But I told him what would happen, that they’d…’ He made a gun shape with his hand - the hand that wasn’t actually holding a real gun - and aimed it at his head. ‘And then he said that fucking copper promised she wouldn’t shoot me. She’d obviously fed him all that before we even talked.’
‘But if she promised Liam, maybe it’s true,’ Ashley tried.
‘You think she cares about keeping promises to kids that their dads won’t get their brains blown out? Does she fuck.’
‘So you don’t believe him?’
‘He’s a puppet. He might not know it, but he is. No, that bitch can do what she said and get me my plane and my money.’
Ashley internalised a sigh. Liam had tried, but it was no good. Pete was clinging to his fantasy and clinging hard. Ashley had to try and pick up where Liam left off though. ‘But you do realise… if you get on that plane, you might never see Liam again.’
Pete frowned. ‘He can come visit me.’
‘I don’t know if he’ll be allowed. I mean, they know where you’ll be going, the pilot can tell them. They might ban him from visiting your new country.’
‘Can they do that?’ Pete asked, frowning.
Ashley wasn’t sure, but she ran with it. ‘Pete, come on. I mean, even if this all goes off without a hitch, they won’t justforgetabout you. They’ll have to see you punished somehow. Even if it’s only making sure your son never sees you again.’
