apart from being nosy.
“Steve’s not my brother!” snorted Kelly. “He’s only half a brother.”
“We’ve got a different mum,” said Bonnie.
“Have you got a brother?” Kelly asked me.
“Naw,” I said. “No brothers, no sisters, no folks, just me.”
“Oh,” said Bonnie.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Mostly.” I could tell that, like most kids, they found the thought of being all alone in the world quite scary. So did I, sometimes. I glanced at Victoria, but she didn’t ask any questions. Just as well: I didn’t really want to explain in front of Bonnie and Kelly how my parents had been murdered. “You a friend of the family?” I asked her.
She hesitated. Maybe I should have asked her something harmless, rather than put her on the spot; but tomorrow the Guvnor was taking me to an execution, and I might end up being one of the bodies left behind. I didn’t feel like discussing the weather.
“My dad…he knew Mr. McGovern back in…They were business associates.” She floundered to a halt, blushing. So her father was a gangster too? I thought. A dead one, by the sound of it. Amobi had warned me long before that the Guvnor was dangerous to know, and I’d ignored him. And now here I was.
“Don’t suppose I could borrow your mobile a minute?” I asked.
This time when Victoria looked at me there was asteely glint in her eye, as if now I really was going too far. “I don’t have one,” she lied.
“Hey, you two! Have you been good?”
We looked up from our food to find the Guvnor’s young trophy wife, Cherry, entering. She still looked like a supermodel, all dangerous curves and golden skin, but her glance slid off me as if she didn’t want to acknowledge my presence.
Her kids leaped in delight from their chairs to greet her, and while Victoria explained what they’d been doing that day—playing and watching TV, mostly—I took in the minder who had entered with Cherry. He was a tall tanned bloke in his midtwenties, with curly dark hair and flashing brown eyes. Like most of the Guvnor’s retinue, he wore a suit, but he wore his better than any of the others wore theirs. He looked at me, reached inside his jacket, pulled out a toothbrush in a cellophane-sealed packet and tossed it to me. “Thanks,” I said. He grinned, cocky as a rock star.
Cherry was collecting the kids to take them home, letting their nanny have the night off; they said noisy goodbyes to Victoria, embracing her while Cherry looked on, obviously keen to get the hell out of the house. I knew how she felt. Finally she led themaway up the corridor, leaving just me and Victoria and the tall tanned minder. Now he reached into a side pocket and produced a DVD in a clear plastic sleeve, labeled with a marker scribble.
“I got the next few episodes,” he said to Victoria, as if I wasn’t there.
“Great,” she said, blushing sweetly. She didn’t bother introducing us, which was fine, because I really didn’t care who this guy was. She just said, “See you later, maybe, Finn,” and went off with him down the corridor to a bedroom opposite the one Gary had shown me, closing the door behind them. It didn’t look like they were going to spend their evening watching a pirated DVD: I hoped the walls had decent soundproofing.
Then I thought of Zoe, and felt a twinge of shame for leching after some girl I’d just met when I’d only left her that morning. But she was in a safe house, I knew, surrounded by cops, while I was banged up here—pretty much the exact opposite of a safe house—for what might be my last few hours on earth. And anyway, she’d never have found out….
I left the scattered dishes in the kitchen—Victoria was being paid to tidy up, I wasn’t—headed back down the hall to my cell, and unwrapped my toothbrush,then realized I’d forgotten to ask for toothpaste. I scrubbed my teeth with water, tossed the toothbrush in the sink, pulled my clothes off, lay on the bed and stared at the
“Steve’s not my brother!” snorted Kelly. “He’s only half a brother.”
“We’ve got a different mum,” said Bonnie.
“Have you got a brother?” Kelly asked me.
“Naw,” I said. “No brothers, no sisters, no folks, just me.”
“Oh,” said Bonnie.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Mostly.” I could tell that, like most kids, they found the thought of being all alone in the world quite scary. So did I, sometimes. I glanced at Victoria, but she didn’t ask any questions. Just as well: I didn’t really want to explain in front of Bonnie and Kelly how my parents had been murdered. “You a friend of the family?” I asked her.
She hesitated. Maybe I should have asked her something harmless, rather than put her on the spot; but tomorrow the Guvnor was taking me to an execution, and I might end up being one of the bodies left behind. I didn’t feel like discussing the weather.
“My dad…he knew Mr. McGovern back in…They were business associates.” She floundered to a halt, blushing. So her father was a gangster too? I thought. A dead one, by the sound of it. Amobi had warned me long before that the Guvnor was dangerous to know, and I’d ignored him. And now here I was.
“Don’t suppose I could borrow your mobile a minute?” I asked.
This time when Victoria looked at me there was asteely glint in her eye, as if now I really was going too far. “I don’t have one,” she lied.
“Hey, you two! Have you been good?”
We looked up from our food to find the Guvnor’s young trophy wife, Cherry, entering. She still looked like a supermodel, all dangerous curves and golden skin, but her glance slid off me as if she didn’t want to acknowledge my presence.
Her kids leaped in delight from their chairs to greet her, and while Victoria explained what they’d been doing that day—playing and watching TV, mostly—I took in the minder who had entered with Cherry. He was a tall tanned bloke in his midtwenties, with curly dark hair and flashing brown eyes. Like most of the Guvnor’s retinue, he wore a suit, but he wore his better than any of the others wore theirs. He looked at me, reached inside his jacket, pulled out a toothbrush in a cellophane-sealed packet and tossed it to me. “Thanks,” I said. He grinned, cocky as a rock star.
Cherry was collecting the kids to take them home, letting their nanny have the night off; they said noisy goodbyes to Victoria, embracing her while Cherry looked on, obviously keen to get the hell out of the house. I knew how she felt. Finally she led themaway up the corridor, leaving just me and Victoria and the tall tanned minder. Now he reached into a side pocket and produced a DVD in a clear plastic sleeve, labeled with a marker scribble.
“I got the next few episodes,” he said to Victoria, as if I wasn’t there.
“Great,” she said, blushing sweetly. She didn’t bother introducing us, which was fine, because I really didn’t care who this guy was. She just said, “See you later, maybe, Finn,” and went off with him down the corridor to a bedroom opposite the one Gary had shown me, closing the door behind them. It didn’t look like they were going to spend their evening watching a pirated DVD: I hoped the walls had decent soundproofing.
Then I thought of Zoe, and felt a twinge of shame for leching after some girl I’d just met when I’d only left her that morning. But she was in a safe house, I knew, surrounded by cops, while I was banged up here—pretty much the exact opposite of a safe house—for what might be my last few hours on earth. And anyway, she’d never have found out….
I left the scattered dishes in the kitchen—Victoria was being paid to tidy up, I wasn’t—headed back down the hall to my cell, and unwrapped my toothbrush,then realized I’d forgotten to ask for toothpaste. I scrubbed my teeth with water, tossed the toothbrush in the sink, pulled my clothes off, lay on the bed and stared at the
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