“You, Lottie?”
Lottie shook her head as well, and I could tell that she’d been crying. “I’m always with Vicky, and she’s right – that coward is terrified of her. But when I started here, I knew I recognised him. I was a waitress at one of Ollie’s bars, and Will was one of a table of blokes who harassed me until Ollie put a stop to it. Will wasn’t the ringleader, and he hadn’t done anything directly so it didn’t seem important. I didn’t want to snitch before I’d even started in the role. And yes, he sometimes stood too close and gave me the creeps, but I couldn’t exactly complain about him being a mouth breather with a shonky vibe.” She lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “And I needed this job.”
I closed my eyes slowly. How had I fucked everything up so badly? “Your job would never have been in question, Lottie.”
“I’m not good at reading people,” Vicky said to the police officer. “I don’t pick up on nonverbal cues. I have a…” she closed her eyes for a moment, a frustrated expression crossing her face, “I have a condition. Sometimes I don’t see things other people can see. I don’t judge social situations in the right way.” It was the first time I’d ever heard Vicky fully acknowledge her difficulties and certainly the first time I’d heard her describe it as a condition. She turned to me again. “Felix, I don’t think I should be overseeing people. People are not my strong suit. Even with Lottie helping me, I’m not…” she broke off, and I watched her swallow. “This is my fault,” she said in a quiet voice.
“We’ve been over this, hun,” Lottie said gently, laying her hand on Vicky’s arm. “You don’t have to carry all the responsibility.”
“Right, we’re heading back to the station,” Grant said. “We’ve got all we need for now.”
“The footage?” I asked.
“I’ve got it, Felix,” said Vicky, opening up her computer. The police left as Vicky opened the file, and then I watched the woman I love be assaulted right under my nose, right down the corridor from where I was bitching about her over some stupid irrelevant corporate spying. Because, just like my father, I prioritized my business over the people I cared about. Just like my father, I demanded absolute perfection from everyone around me, or else deemed them irrelevant.
When Lucy’s head bounced off the wall, I actually did retch and was nearly sick all over the desk. Then I watched as Lucy ran out of shot. Ran tome.I jumped to my feet then, pulling my phone out of my pocket as I strode towards the door. My only thought was to find her. To make sure she was okay. To look after her. I was at the lift when I dialled her number but stopped short when I heard a familiar ring tone from back down the corridor. Spinning on my heel, I followed the sound of the ring until I got to Lucy’s desk.
“Shit,” I muttered as I ended the call and reached for Lucy’s bag that was on top of her desk. I looked inside, and my heart sank when I saw her wallet and phone in there. How had she got home? Then my gaze fell to that bloody notebook, and I felt another flash of doubt. What if…? I picked it up and flicked it open to the first few pages. There were spider diagrams and maps covering every inch of the paper. It reminded me of the notebooks Lucy used to keep as a child, full of her story ideas and the details of the complicated worlds she created. Sprawled across the pages were what looked like character descriptions, story arcs, outlines of some kind of magical kingdoms and fictional family trees – what there wasn’t was any classified company information. Nothing that York would find in the least bit interesting. What the fuck was going on? What even was all this? I was so engrossed in studying Lucy’s intricately detailed pages that I didn’t hear the approaching footsteps. It wasn’t until I’d taken the punch and staggered back, dropping the notebook, that I was aware of my surroundings again.
“What the fuck,” I said, my hand not holding Lucy’s bag flying to my nose and coming away covered with blood. “Mike?”
Chapter 24
“LP Mayweather?”
Felix
“Fuck you!” shouted Mike Mayweather, snatching up Lucy’s notebook where it had fallen on the floor and then bearing down on me again. I held up my bloody hand.
“Hey, Mike listen, I don’t want to fight you. Is Lucy?—?”
“Don’t youeversay her name to me ever again,” he said, grabbing her bag from my hand and then stepping back as he shoved her notebook inside it. “You stay away from my family, you spineless prick.”
“Mike, you’ve got to listen to me,” I said, feeling really desperate now. I needed to find out if Lucy was okay, and clearly Mike must know as he’d come to pick up her stuff. His gaze shot from the bag to me and the fury in his eyes almost made me take another step back, but I stood my ground. Mike and I had fought plenty over the years. We’d grown up practically as brothers, and we’d always been evenly matched. As adults, we were still the same height and build. Mike used physical labour to give him his body whilst I had my own state-of-the-art gym, but the results were thesame. We both were a formidable prospect in a fight. I had no intention of fighting him now, though. All I cared about was his sister.
“I had no idea what had happened.”
He snorted in disbelief, and I started to panic as he turned to walk away. I strode after him, grabbing his forearm to try to slow him down, but he shook me off. “Please Mike, is she okay? I’m losing my mind here.”
He turned to me then, his muscles bunching and a vein throbbing in his forehead. He looked about ready to explode.
“You’relosing your mind, are you?” he said in a low dangerous voice. I’d never heard him so furious before. I mean he could be a grumpy git, but he rarely went nuclear like this. “You’re worried about her now, are you? After you threw her out of your fancy fucking office when she’d just been assaulted?”
“I didn’t know she’d been?—”
“You didn’t let her speak, you prick!” he shouted. “You and that stuck-up bloody weirdo were too worried about your precious company secrets.” I glanced beyond him and saw Vicky, Lottie and Tabitha a few steps away, having emerged from my office. Mike followed the direction of my gaze and gave a derisive snort when he caught sight of them before turning back to me. “I told Mum this was a stupid idea. I told her that Lucy would be eaten alive in this world. That she’s better off in Little Buckingham away from sharks like the lot of you.”
Vicky cleared her throat. “We had evidence. She met with Harry York. We saw her pass him information. We didn’t just?—”
Mike started laughing then, cutting Vicky off. “Oh my God, you fuckingidiots. Are you telling me that you honestly think Lucy would sell information on your shitty company tosome finance dickhead? You think she’d do that for money?Lucy?”
“It’s irrelevant now,” I put in. “I don’t care what Lucy thought she had to do. I just want to know she’s okay. Please Mike?—”
“She did not sell anything to anyone,” Mike said.
“Mike, I’ve seen where she lives,” I said quietly, not wanting to anger him further but also knowing that we’d been right, at least in this. “The rent for a flat like that is through the roof. There’s no way Lucy could afford some?—”
Mike started laughing again. “Jesus Christ, you really don’t know?”
