‘Like I said, expensive,’ Lilith reiterated. ‘And I’ll tell you why, shall I?’ she asked pleasantly. ‘No? Well, I’ll tell you anyway.’ She pulled an overnight bag from where she had dropped it in the doorway and threw two packages across the table. ‘Twenty pounds on presents for my favourite boys.’
Henry got a baseball cap decorated with a flashing Tower Bridge. I got a t-shirt that read ‘My friend went to London, and all I got was this fucking t-shirt.’
‘Another twenty for enough speed to let me drive three hundred miles nonstop without falling asleep at the wheel,’ Lilith continued. This shocked me. Lilith was the second straightest person I knew after Henry – God knew what she’d been up to for her to end up scoring a bag of street phet. She pulled her hair back into its ponytail and looked me straight in the eye. ‘And thirty eight thousand in used notes to buy a thirteen-year old rent boy from Blaine’s London brothel.’
I thought I’d misheard. By Henry’s nonplussed expression, he felt the same.
‘You did what?’ I finally managed to ask, searching Lilith’s face for any sign of a wind-up. I found none, but in truly looking at her for the first time I realised her nonchalance was only skin deep. In reality, she was completely wired: her pale eyes glittered in an unnaturally wan face. Too slowly, I began to understand. ‘Jesus Christ, Lilith, what did you do?’
Lilith
‘Oh goodness, what... I mean where... I mean, how?’ Henry babbled. All Finn could do was slump mutely into the nearest chair and stare at me.
As a precautionary move I used my inhaler before I began. ‘I waited until the paps had set up camp on Gabe’s doorstep, then left by the fire exit. I went to Marley’s, spoke nicely to the doorman, started bidding at ten grand, and kept going up until I found his price – a one-way ticket back to Poland and a small apartment in Lodz, apparently. He brought Jake to me, I bundled him into a taxi - which is where the last thousand went, incidentally – and sent him to a safe house in Brighton.’ I started to laugh. ‘My safe house. My conscience-appeasing, sorry-for-being-rich charity. I’m bloody glad I didn’t invest in a cat shelter – I’d have been totally fucked for somewhere to send him.’
‘Does Blaine...’ Henry began, but I was ahead of him.
‘No-one does. Even the place itself doesn’t know I’m its benefactor. My agent’s always given me hell for not using it in my publicity – it would give me a ‘much-needed human face’ apparently.’
‘So he’s truly out of her reach?’ Henry asked, and I could hear the fragile, unfamiliar hope in his voice.
I nodded. ‘And if... when the worst comes to the worst and Blaine finds out that he’s gone, even Gabriel’s in the clear – it just looks as though I did a runner on him after we shagged.’ I quickly looked at Finn. ‘Even though we didn’t, much to his disappointment.’
In fact, for a man who had thought his luck was in, Gabriel James had been a perfect gentleman. Forbidden to ask any questions whatsoever, he had simply provided me with an internet connection and made coffee whilst I went about my clandestine work. By the time I left his mews apartment at three in the morning, he still didn’t know where I was staying, or why I refused to talk. Most importantly, I had never once mentioned Blaine’s name.
‘Strictly speaking, there’s nothing to link any of it to me until Blaine tracks down the doorman and has him shot in the head – it could simply be a coincidence that I was in London at the same time. Although that might be being a little optimistic. And that’s about it.’ My heart began to pound as I addressed them both. ‘Beyond that, I have no idea how much shit this is going to cause for any of us, but it was the only opportunity I was going to get.’ I placed my hand over Finn’s and this time he didn’t pull away. My voice began to break as I pleaded, ‘And for God’s sake would you say something!’ Even his fury was preferable to this wall of silence as he stared at me as though I were an alien being.
Suddenly he leapt to his feet. I stood to meet him and he flung his arms around me, burying his face in my hair. ‘You came back,’ he whispered. ‘You did all that, and you still came back.’
I felt my legs buckle with exhaustion and relief, and still he bore my weight. I let my arms slip through his, reaching around his slim waist to return the embrace.