Loaded by Niki Mackay

Author:Niki Mackay [Mackay, Niki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409195276
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2021-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Three

Vella’s

Marshall knew Jimmy Rose was looking for him and so seemed to somehow remain elusive. I didn’t see him again after that awful night, until his arrest. I hated to admit it, and wouldn’t have said it out loud to anyone, but I was nervous. I hadn’t been back to the office on my own since.

I sat at the bar, where I’d been for the whole evening, when Devlin leaned over, looking at me intently. I smiled at him, but he didn’t smile back.

‘Baby girl, why you down here?’

‘Not up for my help tonight, eh?’

He smiled. It was gentle, almost fatherly. ‘I don’t mean that and you know it.’

I swallowed, but it felt thick.

‘Are you all right, Faith?’

The desire to confide in Devlin was strong, but enough people had already been dragged into this. I didn’t want anyone to know what had happened between Marshall and I, either. For reasons that escaped me then, I felt a mish-mash of emotion about it. Most surprisingly, shame. That I had somehow let it happen. Put my own safety in jeopardy. That it was my fault. I had no idea how Shirley had managed to hold her shit together for so many years. No idea how any of those girls with hard lives, hard insides and soft, pliable bodies managed to do their jobs. I was tough as nails. I’d made myself that way. But, as it turned out, I wasn’t untouchable.

It was important then that we carried on as usual. Me, Vincent, Rae and Frankie. Shirley too, but no one was going to question her, unless Marshall turned up there, and even then I’d seen her lie to him many a time before, so she could do it again.

Rae was keeping an eye out. He seemed to have no trouble listening to Vincent. Vince had a way of making you feel like things were your idea and Rae responded well to that. They’d spoken on their own the day before. I’d been worried about how that would go, but when I asked Rae afterwards what he thought of him, he said he seemed OK. He was also sober, or not fall-down annihilated, which was a vast improvement on how he had been.

Drunkenness wasn’t something Vincent tolerated and I assumed it had been spoken about. Though how he’d got through, I’d never know.

I smiled at Devlin, ‘I’m OK. Honestly.’ I put a hand on his arm and he squeezed it with his free hand, keeping eye contact. He’d have been good for my mum, but, I consoled myself, things were about to change. I grinned at him for real then, ‘Really, Dev. Thanks for checking, though.’

He didn’t fully believe me and that was all right. Dev knew when to keep his nose out, which was part of his appeal.

Vincent had told me the night before that we were ready to go, but everyone was freaked out about the girl in the Thames right now. Shirley had taken a personal interest in that

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