Chapter Twenty-One The Gun

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE GUN

I poured all of my concentration into the back of Robbie Stenson’s stupid round head. Even though I still couldn’t remember anything from that night, I felt angry just looking at him. It was like my skin was burning at the memory and my brain was struggling to catch up. Beside me, Millie’s raucous laughter was buzzing in my ears. She was blissfully glued to the movie.

‘Why aren’t you laughing?’ she asked.

I scanned the screen, where a bunch of British knights were harping on in comical French accents. Strange . ‘I’m distracted.’

‘What are you trying to accomplish by staring at Robbie’s head like that?’ Millie shovelled another handful of caramel popcorn into her mouth. ‘Are you trying to make him explode with your mind?’

‘I don’t know.’ I scrunched up my face in an effort to find the memory that was hovering just outside my realm of consciousness. ‘I’m trying to remember.’

Millie stuffed another handful into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. ‘Don’t,’ she said, letting sticky kernels spew across the blanket. ‘Just try and forget about it. You’re here to unwind, remember?’

I did my best to follow her advice, but still, something wasn’t right…

After almost an hour, the screen blackened to text, which signalled a short intermission. ‘Taco?’ I offered, feeling the need to stretch my legs.

‘If you insist,’ Millie replied, reclining. ‘Get me two, please.’

I brushed the crumbs off my clothes and walked across the grass, taking my place at the end of the taco line; soon after, I was wedged between a girl with bright pink hair and a heavily tattooed man.

‘This register is open!’ a wiry voice shouted. A slew of people from behind me parted and shuffled into a second line, and suddenly I was standing almost side by side with Robbie Stenson.

He glanced at me and then quickly looked away, but not before I caught sight of the yellowing bruising around his eye sockets and along his thick jawline. What the hell happened to him?

The register chimed and the line moved forwards, taking me with it. Robbie caught up on his side; he was swirling a red cup in his hands, making the liquid slosh back and forth. He lifted it to his lips, smacked them against it, and began gulping down its contents greedily. The more I saw the red cup bobbing back and forth towards his mouth, the more I fixated on it.

Then it all came flooding back to me.

I remembered going into Millie’s parents’ room and coming face to face with Robbie Stenson. I spilt some beer on myself – wasn’t that what he had said? But he had been holding two full cups in his hands. And he told me he hadn’t even been drinking. I grimaced as the memory of the sweet, fizzy liquid glided into my mind, reminding me of how he had urged me to drink it and how, as we sat on the bed, I had become uncomfortable with the way he watched me. And then everything in my memory went dark. I realized, just as the register rang again – echoing the alarm bells in my brain – that Robbie Stenson had drugged me that night and then orchestrated our walk home together so that he could assault me. There was nothing innocent or na?ve about it.

And worse, I felt sure that if Luca hadn’t intervened when he did, things would have gone from bad to awful.

The line pushed forwards.

‘Move,’ the man behind me whined, but I couldn’t move. I was rooted to the spot. ‘Hey, come on.’ He prodded me.

Bile rose in my throat. Beside me, Robbie was shuffling forwards, dangling the empty red cup back and forth in his hand. It had become a pendulum hurling explosive memories at me, one by one, and before I knew what I was doing, I was shoving him out of the line.

‘What the hell?’ His stocky frame stumbled sideways. He tripped and landed on the grass, clutching at his ribs.

‘How could you?’ I lunged again, but this time he was prepared. He pulled himself up and backed away from me, away from the crowds. I followed him.

‘What the hell is your problem?’ he spat through gritted teeth.

‘You tried to assault me!’ I hissed.

‘No, I didn’t,’ he returned so evenly that I might have doubted the memory if it wasn’t pulsating against my brain. ‘I was walking you home when your boyfriend beat the crap out of me for no reason. You’re lucky I didn’t report him.’

So Luca had caused Robbie’s injuries, and by the looks of things he hadn’t held back. But stranger than Luca’s likely status as a psychopath was the realization that somewhere beneath my conscience, I felt a wisp of satisfaction. Robbie Stenson hadn’t gotten away with trying to violate me.

‘I know you drugged me.’ I was vaguely aware of hysteria rising inside me. Thanks to Luca Falcone, Robbie might have paid for what he did, but he hadn’t paid for what he’d planned to do. ‘You set up the whole thing! I remember what you gave me.’

Robbie snorted and his features shrunk into his face. ‘Do you?’ Still holding his sides, he rounded on me like a vulture circling its prey. ‘Well, I doubt that would stand up in court.’

‘So you admit it?’ I returned furiously.

He shrugged and then I was hurling myself at him again. A sharp pain rippled through my left shoulder as I landed against his chest with a thud. He grabbed me, his hands digging into my ribcage.

‘Stop it!’ His face contorted in pain. His hands squeezed tighter in warning. ‘You’re making a fool out of yourself. Let it go.’

I struggled against his arms. ‘Get off me!’ I shrieked. I dug my nails into his fists as hard as I could until they snapped away.

‘Fine,’ he replied. ‘Just get out of my face.’

I jumped back, widening the gap between us. ‘You’re a sick freak!’ I shouted, raising a fist at him as adrenalin pumped in my veins. ‘How could you do that to me? To anyone?’

Robbie’s grin stretched into his bruised cheeks. ‘Oh, come on. You must know that banging Michael Gracewell’s daughter means serious novelty points.’

‘You mean raping ,’ I spat, circling him.

‘Don’t tell me you’re going to try and fight me?’ he sneered.

He was the ugliest person I had ever encountered. ‘I hate you.’

‘Relax, Sophie. I wouldn’t even touch you now.’

The way he said my name like it was some dirty word made me feel physically ill. ‘You’ll pay for this!’ I watched with satisfaction as the colour drained from his face. His eyes grew wide and he hugged himself tighter. But I was wrong to think my words had suddenly started to scare him, because Robbie wasn’t looking at me any more; he was looking over my shoulder.

Out of nowhere, a third voice joined our conversation. It was eerily calm in contrast to our heated exchange.

‘ Ciao , Robert. Long time no see.’ I would have mistaken the dulcet tone as familiar – friendly, even – if I weren’t so sure it belonged to Luca Falcone. I watched Robbie throw his hands up and recoil as Luca stepped out from behind me like he had just sprung up out of the grass. How long had he been there, listening? I turned around, searching for his brothers, but he was alone. ‘I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation,’ he said calmly. ‘I hope I’m not intruding.’

‘Get the hell away from me, dude, or I’ll call the police.’ Robbie’s voice quivered an octave higher than usual and the smugness rapidly vanished from his face.

‘Robert,’ Luca said. ‘I think you need to calm down. You seem very highly strung.’

‘You broke my ribs!’

‘Only a couple,’ said Luca dismissively.

‘What do you want?’

Luca’s fake-friendly voice was almost more harrowing than his threatening one. ‘I just want to talk to you about something, is that acceptable?’

He took another step forwards and Robbie stumbled backwards. ‘I don’t know you. What the hell would we talk about?’

‘Doesn’t your dad own a furniture business?’

Robbie’s eyes widened. ‘How do you know that?’

Luca took another step, closing the gap between them. ‘It’s common knowledge, right?’

‘I guess.’

‘And you work for him, don’t you?’

By now I could only see the back of Luca’s head as he made his way forwards, ignoring my presence completely.

‘Yeah, I do,’ Robbie said, sounding fractionally more confident.

‘Good.’ Luca crossed his arms. ‘Let’s put our little bit of history aside for just a second, OK? The past is the past, and I think we should move on from it. This is really none of my business anyway.’

Robbie nodded like one of those bobble-head dogs on car dashboards.

‘I’m in the market for some new furniture, believe it or not.’

‘Really?’

‘And I thought, to make up for our unfortunate run-in a little while ago –’ Luca pointed his finger at Robbie’s bruised face, twirling it round and round for added effect – ‘Do you remember that?’

‘Y-yeah.’

‘And that?’ He indicated towards his ribcage.

‘Obviously,’ Robbie hissed, cradling himself with his meaty arms.

‘Well, I thought, to make amends, that I might send some business your way. I need a lot of stuff.’

Robbie relaxed his shoulders.

‘I’m not a bad guy,’ Luca continued, and I got the sense he was smiling – an event rarer than a solar eclipse. ‘So why don’t we talk some stuff over?’

‘Now?’ Robbie cocked an eyebrow. ‘The movie’s about to start again. Why don’t we do it when I’m at work?’

‘The matter is time-sensitive, so let’s talk now.’ Luca clapped his hand on the back of Robbie’s neck. ‘Come on.’ He pulled him away from the park and towards the trees. ‘Wave goodbye to Gracewell,’ he prompted. ‘She’s going to be staying here.’

I sensed the warning in his words, but as I watched them disappear behind the taco truck, I found myself contemplating an unexpected dilemma. The movie’s about to start , I reminded myself, yet my feet were leading me towards the trees and not back to where Millie was sitting on the lawn, waiting – impatiently, no doubt – for the tacos I now had no intention of buying her.

The way Luca draped his arm around Robbie’s shoulders made them seem almost like friends, and I had to admit there was something undeniably convincing about the way he had spoken to him. I, unlike my assailant, was not dumb enough to fall for it. I knew, better than most, that Luca had no need for friends. Or furniture, for that matter. Whatever was going to happen in those trees was unlikely to be a business transaction – for Robbie, at least. But like a bona fide idiot , he let Luca lead him away, and I couldn’t not follow them.

Hurrying my pace so as not to lose them completely, but keeping far enough behind that they wouldn’t notice me, I slipped around the back of the taco truck just as the movie flickered to life over my shoulder. Up ahead, I could see Luca and Robbie disappearing between two overhanging trees. I hung back again, tiptoeing across twigs and dry leaves as I followed their voices.

After several minutes of sneaking around, their conversation reached me through a small clearing. They had stopped walking, so I did too. Between the break in the trees, they were standing across from each other; Robbie had his hands folded around his ribs, while Luca’s were resting casually by his sides.

I crept closer.

‘But I thought you wanted to know about furniture,’ Robbie was protesting.

‘I just remembered,’ Luca replied. ‘I don’t need any furniture.’

‘Then why are we—?’ Robbie’s breath was knocked out of him before he could finish his sentence.

I watched in muted horror as Luca slammed his fist straight into Robbie’s stomach, making him crumple in half on to the ground. He rolled over on to his side and moaned into the dirt.

‘We’re here, Robert, because I heard what you said to Sophie.’ Luca’s voice was eerily calm. He stamped down on Robbie’s foot, but the dirt muffled his scream. ‘And if there’s one thing I hate, it’s drug pushers.’ He rounded on him, obscuring him in his shadow, and kicked him hard in the shoulder. ‘ Especially someone who drugs a girl and then assaults her.’ He pulled his foot back, and this time he hurled it into Robbie’s stomach. There was an audible crack. Robbie screamed into the dirt as Luca used his shoe to roll him on to his stomach. ‘I mean, it was bad enough when I thought you were just trying to hit on her, but now?’ He stamped down on Robbie’s back so that he was spluttering into the dirt and weeds. ‘Now you’re the lowest of the low. You are scum .’

I started to stumble forwards, half paralysed by fear yet determined to do something . But my attempt to assist the sobbing bundle of cracked ribs was short-lived as another figure entered the clearing.

‘Get up!’ he roared, and his voice stopped me dead.

‘Nicolò, I told you to stay behind!’

But Nic wasn’t listening to Luca; he wasn’t even looking at him. He was looking at Robbie’s crumpled frame, his eyes full of hate as he charged.

‘Get up, Stenson!’ he yelled in a voice I barely recognized; it was like glass, and edged with a kind of rage I had never known. ‘Stand up and look me in the eye or I’ll come down there and cut you open!’

Slowly, Robbie heaved himself off the ground. He managed to half lean against a tree by sticking his fingers into the bark and bending his knees in front of him. He puffed hard as Luca moved away from them, clasping his hands behind his back and tilting his head like he was watching a puppet show.

I tried to move, but I couldn’t. My legs were shaking violently beneath me and I had to claw against a tree to stop myself from falling to the ground in fear.

‘I said stand ,’ Nic seethed.

‘Nicolò,’ Luca cautioned, but he didn’t move. ‘Be careful.’

Groaning, Robbie pulled himself up, the strain contorting his face. ‘My ribs,’ he sobbed. ‘Please.’

Nic grabbed him and shoved him into the bark. Robbie’s face was beginning to bleed. He closed his hands around Robbie’s throat. ‘Do you think it’s OK to put your hands on someone who doesn’t want your hands on them? How is this for you?’ He tightened his grip on Robbie’s neck.

‘Nicolò,’ Luca muttered. He stepped closer and put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, like a chaperone. ‘ Stai attento .’

‘What is that?’ Robbie gurgled as his face began to turn purple. ‘Is that a—?’

A flurry of rushed movements followed, so I could only discern two things. The first was the appearance of a black metal object against the side of Robbie’s head. The second was the sound of a click.

And then, in a measured reply, I heard Nic confirm everything I had just witnessed: ‘It’s a gun, you fucking idiot.’

Robbie tried to scream, but Nic moved the barrel into his mouth so fast it choked it right out of him.

‘Listen up, you piece of scum,’ Nic snarled. ‘This is your final warning. I’ll be watching you. If I ever hear of you attempting to handle drugs again, then you’re dead. If you try to give a girl any kind of drug, requested or not, you’re dead. If you attempt to force yourself on anyone ever again, you’re dead. And if you so much as glance at Sophie Gracewell again, I’ll rip your heart out and stuff it down your fucking throat. Do you understand?’

Robbie nodded.

‘The police might not have enough to go on to convict you of attempted date rape, but I do. And I’m not a big fan of trial by jury, Stenson. So I’d advise you to use this final warning as a gift from God. Change your life. And if you so much as breathe a word of this to the police, you’ll be shot by one of my brothers before you fall asleep. That, I can guarantee .’ Nic leant forward in what felt like slow motion. ‘Or maybe I’ll just shoot you now and do the world a favour.’

I pushed my jelly legs forwards, intent on stopping whatever was about to happen, but Luca got there first.

‘ Basta! ’ he said, pulling Nic’s hand away from Robbie’s mouth; Nic let it drop willingly, but he didn’t relinquish the gun, and Luca didn’t force him. Instead, he kept his hand on his brother’s shooting arm, so he couldn’t raise it again. I stood frozen in my new spot, half in and half out of the clearing, watching Nic’s chest rise and fall as he stared unblinkingly at Robbie’s whimpering face.

Nic finally moved his arm away from Luca’s hand, uncocked the gun and stashed it in the waistband of his jeans. The movement looked like second nature, and I found myself wondering whether he had been carrying a gun the last time he held me in his arms. He shook out his hair and stepped back, gripping his chest, and turned away from Robbie. ‘Luca, get rid of him before I change my mind.’

Luca stepped forwards and slapped Robbie on the cheek in a bizarre show of camaraderie. ‘You get all that, Robert?’

Robbie started to wipe the tears from his face with the back of his hand. ‘I p-p-promise,’ he faltered.

‘Good.’ Luca lifted his arm and pointed behind Robbie to where the rest of the sprawling park continued. ‘Now run like your life depends on it. Because it does.’

And that’s exactly what Robbie did. Without sparing another second, he pitched himself forwards and hurtled clumsily through the trees until he was just a dot hobbling into the darkness. When the sounds of his uneven footsteps had disappeared entirely, Luca removed his attention from the space between the trees and settled it on Nic.

‘I told you to stay behind.’ He sounded weary rather than angry, like he was used to this kind of behaviour.

‘You told me he tried to take advantage of her. You didn’t tell me he had drugged her!’

‘I didn’t know that then. And you shouldn’t have been eavesdropping.’

‘You shouldn’t have expected me to stay out of it.’

‘ Sei un pazzo , Nicolò.’

‘This is different.’

‘You always say that.’

‘This is different.’

‘She’s not yours.’

‘She’s mine to protect.’

‘You would have killed him,’ Luca hissed.

‘He deserves it,’ Nic returned evenly – casually, almost.

‘What happened to laying low? You could have ruined everything. And I told you, it’s not your concern.’

‘ She is my fucking concern! ’

‘She won’t want to have anything to do with you now anyway,’ Luca continued, a sudden airiness in his voice.

Nic snapped his head up; his eyes were frantic. ‘Why not?’

I felt my heart constrict in agony as I realized what was about to happen; and it was too late, there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Luca raised his arm until he was pointing directly across the clearing. ‘Because she’s standing right there.’

Nic followed Luca’s finger until his gaze found mine and, just like the night he discovered my name, horror possessed his features, warping them as we stood apart from each other, both of us heartbroken for different reasons.

‘Sophie…’ he whispered, but it was too late.

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even open my mouth I was so petrified. I started to back away.

He stumbled forwards.

‘Let her go,’ Luca cautioned. ‘She’s terrified.’

I faltered back into the shadows between the trees. My retreat turned to reckless abandon. I careened through the park, racing towards the flickering of the screen. When I passed the final scattering of trees, I sprinted around the taco truck, where I collided with Millie.

‘Careful, Soph!’ she screeched as I tumbled backwards and landed against the grass beside the taco I had just knocked from her grip. Groaning, she stuck out her hand and hoisted me up from the ground. ‘Where the hell have you been?’

‘We have to go,’ I explained, springing forwards. ‘If you knew what I just saw…’

‘What’s going on?’

‘Come on!’ I pulled her towards the grass. I threw everything back into my bag, watching the trees every few seconds for the reappearance of Nic and Luca. ‘I’ll explain everything when we’re out of here.’ And then I was off again, dragging Millie as I raced down the winding paths.

‘What’s going on?’ she whined in between heaves. ‘I’m. Too. Out. Of. Shape. For. This.’

‘Just come on!’ I navigated our way back through the walk-ways until the entrance to Rayfield Park edged into view.

Before we passed through the arch, Millie stopped and clutched at her sides like she had been punched in the stomach. ‘Stop,’ she wheezed. ‘I need. A minute.’

‘Can we please just keep going?’

‘I think. My feet. Are bleeding.’ She brushed her hair away from her face, which was glistening with a fresh sheen of sweat. ‘What’s going on. With you?’

Before I could answer with an explosion of everything I had just witnessed, someone grabbed on to my arm and yanked me away from her.

‘Hey!’ I protested as Nic pulled me into him.

‘Whatever you’re about to say to Millie, don’t,’ he urged in a voice so low only I could hear it. He tightened his hands around my wrists and held them against his. ‘Please.’

Behind us, Millie was noticing the sweat stains pooling out from under her arms and the bleeding along the straps of her sandals. ‘Gross,’ she moaned as she sank to the grass, panting.

‘You can’t tell me what I can and can’t tell my best friend,’ I snapped, shaking him off me.

‘You promised,’ he said quietly. ‘That was supposed to mean something.’

‘I promised when I thought you were an inactive member of the Mafia, which you clearly are not! This is completely different. I will not be bound by that!’

‘Sophie,’ he said, his voice full of strain. ‘I really need you to be quiet about what you just saw.’

I could feel my face growing hot with anger. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him around the side of the arch. ‘You lied to me!’

His hands shot up in surrender. ‘I didn’t lie, Sophie. I just… left out certain things. Let me explain.’

I shoved him. ‘You made me believe you were good!’

‘I am good!’

‘No, you’re not!’ I shoved him again. ‘You made me think you were innocent. You made me believe you weren’t part of all that crazy Mafia stuff!’

Cautiously, Nic removed my hands from his chest. ‘I never said that.’

‘You had plenty of time to set the record straight.’ I wanted to slap him. It took every ounce of my self-control to curl my hands by my sides.

‘I know.’

‘But you didn’t.’

Purpose and defiance flashed in his eyes. ‘I didn’t have enough time to explain everything. But I didn’t lie to you. Everything I said was true, just not in the way you might have taken it.’

‘I asked you if you hurt people! You said no!’

He came closer. ‘I said it wasn’t like that. And it’s not. Everything I do is about protection.’

‘Protection,’ I scoffed. ‘Is that what you tell yourself when you put your gun in someone’s mouth ?’

He pulled me into him. ‘Listen to me.’

‘Don’t,’ I cried, feeling the tears swarm behind my eyes. ‘I’m scared of you.’

He recoiled like I really had slapped him. ‘I told you I would never hurt you.’

‘How do I know that?’

He stared at me so hard it took my breath away, and after an agonizing moment, he responded quietly. ‘Because you’re a good person.’

I glowered at him. ‘That makes one of us.’

‘I’m a good person too.’

‘You just put a gun in Robbie Stenson’s mouth,’ I hissed.

‘I’m sorry you had to see that, but it was inevitable.’

‘ How is an assault like that inevitable?’

His eyes darkened, but he didn’t respond.

‘You must know how totally unacceptable that was. I have to report it to the police.’

‘Sophie, it was for you . How could I let him walk away from me after I found out what he tried to do to you?’

I backed away from him again. ‘Are you insane, Nic? You know you can’t just go around pulling guns on people for me. I can take care of myself!’

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. ‘That was a service to society. Stenson is the type of character who won’t stop at just one girl. It was everything I could do shy of actually blowing his head off.’

I gasped. ‘Can you not be so graphic?’

He scraped his hands through his hair. ‘Sorry.’

‘I don’t think you are.’

He wasn’t looking at me any more and I knew I was right. He wasn’t sorry; he was sorry I had seen it. ‘I know I have no right to ask anything of you,’ he said, ‘but please don’t tell anyone about what you saw. It will make trouble.’

‘No kidding. I witnessed a crime. And even if the victim was someone I hate, it still doesn’t make it right. I won’t keep it a secret. I won’t be your accomplice.’

‘Then wait at least.’ He grabbed my hands and closed his around them before I could pull them away. I tried to avoid his dark eyes. ‘Sophie, I’ll break the vow. I’ll tell you as much as I can,’ he whispered urgently. ‘I need you to understand who I am. Please just give me the chance to show you.’

‘It’s too late,’ I said, but my resolve was as unsteady as my voice.

He moved my hand to his heart so I could feel it hammering in his chest. ‘I’m not a bad person. I know you can feel it. I admit I lied to you by letting you believe what you wanted to. I needed you to feel happy and secure, and I didn’t want to take that feeling away from you after everything you had discovered about our fathers. I’m not ashamed of who I am or where I come from, but I was afraid of you knowing about it and not giving me the chance to help you see what it really means. I was terrified that the truth would change the way you look at me. But you deserve it all, and I’ll give it to you if you’ll let me.’

My defiance was crumbling and we both knew it. I pulled my hands from him and folded them. I knew there had to be more answers, but I didn’t think he would admit it so freely after lying to me for so long. Now, the way he was convincing me was working – he was pushing all the right buttons. He had me right where he wanted me. I hated it and I burnt for it.

‘You get one chance.’