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“What do you want?”

“It’s more a question of whatyouwant.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m here with your family. Do you want to see them again?”

“No...” I whispered it to myself, but he heard me.

“What did you say?Non?”

I came to my senses enough to answer. “You can’t be there. They’ve got bodyguards.”

“Ah,oui, the two idiots in the car outside.” He tutted down the line. “I’d have expected better from Blackwood. They gave up without a fight.”

My pulse pounded in my ears as my heart raced on ahead of my thoughts. He’d got my family? That man had my family?

He carried on without waiting for me to answer. “Your father, your mother, Dorothy, Mary, Bernie. They’re all here. Although your mother’s sleeping right now. She wouldn’t keep quiet, so I had to encourage her.”

“You...you bastard! If you hurt them—”

His laughter cut me off. “Again, that’s up to you. Thanks to your meddling friends, my options are limited, and I need money. Your father has a safe deposit box, and I need you to bring me the contents.”

“What safe deposit box? I don’t know anything about it.”

“No matter—he’s told me what I need to know. The box is in Harrods, and you’re able to access it in an emergency. I’d class this as an emergency, would you not?”

My knees gave way as I slumped onto the chair in front of the desk. A vague memory came to me of my father many years ago, telling me he’d stored jewellery and cash away for safekeeping, just in case.

He’d never elaborated on the “just in case” part. I’d guessed at a problem with the financial system, not threats from a madman intent on destroying my family.

“How do I get it?” I whispered.

“I can’t hear you.”

“How do I get into the box?”

My mother might have been an irritation lately, but she was still my mother. And my father, and the household staff... I couldn’t let anything happen to them.

“You get into your car, and you drive home. I’ll leave the key and instructions in the front porch. You go back to London, you get the contents of the box, and you bring it to me. Then I’m gone.”

My legs shook as I tried to stand. “I’m coming. Just don’t hurt them. Please, don’t hurt them.”

“Augusta?”

“What?” I spat the word. I’d never hated anyone as much as I hated Leroux right now.

“You’ve got one hour to get here. If you breathe a word of this to anybody, I’ll kill one of my companions. Who do you want me to shoot, Augusta?”

“How can you even ask me that?”

“Because we’re a team now. We need to work together to resolve this problem and the clock’s ticking. Who do you want to die first?”

“Nobody. I’ll get the damn money, okay?”

Perhaps hanging up on him wasn’t the best move to make, but I was so angry I didn’t care. What gave him the right to come into my family’s life and ruin it?

Calm, Gus. Breathe. I couldn’t afford to get upset, not with my family being held hostage and so little time. An hour? Had that bastard ever tried driving in London traffic? And more to the point, how was I supposed to get to Sandlebury? I last drove my car to the apartment I was sharing with Emmy, and although I’d seen it in the underground parking garage here, I had no idea what she’d done with the keys. I could hardly ring and ask, could I?

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