Текст книги "Disgraced"

Автор книги: Annabel Chant

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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

    Forty Seven

Him

She looked breathtaking, standing there under the spotlights.

‘Spread them, Angel,’ I said. ‘I want that pretty little cunt on show for everyone’s pleasure.’

She gave a tiny gasp and shuffled her feet apart.

‘Wider, gorgeous. They need to be as far apart as the bottom of the cross. The time for modesty is over.’

She wriggled her legs further apart and I strapped them to the cross. By now, she was spread-eagled, her arms and legs stretched open and her naked crotch on show. When I’d made sure she was safe, I stood up and looked at her thoughtfully. Was I doing the right thing? If she hadn’t been wearing a mask, I wouldn’t have dreamed of it. She’d looked slightly small and lost, up there on the stage, and, for a moment, I’d seriously considered calling the whole thing off. But then, I’d felt between her legs. She was so wet and, as I touched her, she let out a groan of pleasure and I changed my mind. She was loving it, in her own mixed up way. What harm could it do?

Her tits looked beautiful, encased in their strands of leather, her creamy skin peeping out from between them. I took the tops of the cups in my fingers and pulled them down, exposing first the nipples, then the whole breasts. The cups shrank down to nothing under them, and my cock, which had been at half-mast ever since I’d seen her, stiffened until it was almost painful.

‘This isn’t punishment, Angel,’ I told her, taking a pair of nipples clamps from my shirt pocket. ‘This is playtime.’

They were linked by a heavy steel chain and, as I tweaked her nipples, they bunched up into hard little points, perfect for my purposes. As I snapped on the first clamp, she drew her breath in sharply.

‘Does that hurt, gorgeous?’

They were alligator-style clamps and I knew damn well they had a firm bite. She nodded, her breath coming short and shallow.

‘Excellent,’ I said. ‘Get ready – here comes number two.’

As I clipped the second clamp onto her tight little nipple, she let out a sigh and tipped her head back.

‘Good girl,’ I said, stroking her between the legs with my fingers. ‘Do you like that?’

‘Yes, Sir,’ she breathed. ‘I love it.’

I took hold of the chain and pulled it upwards. As her nipples stretched with it, she looked down at herself.

‘That’s it, Angel,’ I said. ‘You’re going to take this in between your teeth and hold it there. Understood?’

She nodded, opening her mouth for me to place the chain inside it. Once it was in there, she bit down on it, the ends pulling the sides of her mouth down. Her eyes sparkled up at me through the mask.

‘Perfect.’ I took hold of the back of her hair. ‘Now, tip your head back.’

As I said it, I pulled her hair. Her head tipped backwards, the chain stretching her nipples further upwards, until the underside of her breasts were on show. I went over to the table to get the tool I’d had my eye on since I got there. Once it was firmly in my grasp, I walked back over to her and held it up, level with her eyeline, to make sure she could see it.

‘A cane,’ I said, to really ram the point home. ‘Perfect for the tender flesh under…here.’

I ran it under her tits and she shivered slightly, keeping her head where I’d told her to, but looking downwards as best she could.

‘Nervous, gorgeous?’ I asked her.

She didn’t reply – the chain made it impossible – but her eyes widened briefly.

‘Don’t be,’ I said. ‘Enjoy it – you’re the centre of attention.’

I pulled the cane back and smacked it across her tits. She flinched briefly, then looked at me in surprise. I could tell she’d been expecting it to hurt a lot more than it had.

‘I’m not going to do it too hard,’ I said. ‘I want you to love every moment.’

She shot me a smile.

‘Get ready, Angel,’ I said. ‘This is just the beginning.’

At that moment, Ronnie came across the dance floor. ‘My love, I’m sorry but there’s a disturbance outside. Some guy, saying he knows something about the tape.’

I looked at Grace, shackled there, so trusting and vulnerable. I couldn’t leave her. ‘It’ll have to wait,’ I said.

‘It can’t.’ Ronnie sounded agitated. ‘He says he’s got a copy. Of the tape. He wants to talk to you now.’

I looked around me again, not knowing what to do. Then, I saw Alex, still standing by the side of the stage. ‘Alex,’ I said. ‘Deal with this, please.’ I threw him Grace’s thong. ‘I’m sorry, Angel,’ I murmured into her ear. ‘This is urgent. I’ll be right back.’

I got down off the stage and headed for the exit. Outside, a short, swarthy man stood in the shadows. I didn’t recognise him.

Matt was on the door. ‘He says he wants to talk to you alone, Sir,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea.’

‘It’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘Stay there.’

As I walked towards the man, he drew further back and turned into the alley that ran down towards the road. Something didn’t feel right, but I knew I had to talk to him. If he really had a copy of the tape, it put us right back to square one. My heart sank at the thought of it.

As I turned the corner into the alley, something hit me over the head. For a moment, everything stood stock still, then a searing pain split my head in two and I looked down to find the ground rushing up to meet me.

    Forty Eight

Her

I couldn’t believe Nat had gone. I was left standing there, naked and helpless, strapped to the St Andrew’s cross. The spotlights were dazzling me. All I could make out were the rows of eyes staring at me, so it was with some relief that I saw the man, Alex, coming over to stand in front of me.

Hurry up and get me down, I thought. Now Nat had gone, my excitement had evaporated as if it had never been. My wrists were starting to hurt and I didn’t know what was going on. The crowd seemed to be loving it, although a few of them had turned around, presumably to see where Nat had gone.

‘All right, folks,’ called Alex. ‘Nothing to worry about. Now, where were we?’

He turned to face me, an evil glint in his eyes. I felt my pulse quicken, as the implication of his words dawned on me. He strode over to me and I let the chain drop from my teeth, ready to beg him to let me go.

‘Uh-huh,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Put it back in, there’s a good girl.’

I looked at him, still not quite comprehending. The way he stared back at me made me shiver, involuntarily. He lifted the chain back up to my mouth. ‘Open wide,’ he said. ‘Don’t keep your audience waiting.’

He took the cane from where Nat had thrown it and paced up and down in front of me for a moment, running it across his palm.

‘I don’t get the feeling Master Nat was really putting his all into it,’ he said, hitting his palm with the cane. ‘You know, a split cane…’ Here he lifted it up and brought it down hard across the table. ‘…can cause a quite extreme amount of pain.’

He held the cane up to my face. The ends of it had splayed, separated into wicked looking fronds. ‘Split like this,’ he said. ‘Let me show you what I mean.’

He stood back from me and raised the cane. As he brought it down across the underside of my right breast, I flinched away. But it was no good – I couldn’t move. I was literally helpless and all I could do was to steel myself for the blow.

When it came, it was excruciating. The split flails at the end of it burnt into my skin in strips of fire. Alex’s eyes were hard and unseeing, as if he’d forgotten I was actually a person. I didn’t get the feeling he was angry with me, more that he was taking his anger out on me. I wondered who had pissed him off so badly. From the way he was acting, it seemed it was Nat, and I wondered what he’d done to make him so bitter.

Alex raised the cane again, and brought it down across the underside of my breast for the second time, its fronds searing into my exposed flesh and making me wince. I bit down on the chain to stifle my cries. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of showing him how much he was hurting me.

The audience were cheering and whistling, seemingly oblivious to my pain and humiliation. Or not, I realised, suddenly. This was what a lot of them got off on. No wonder they were enjoying it. Christ – I’d thought I would. It wasn’t a world away from my original fantasies. I could almost hear Valentina, the counsellor’s, words:

‘A good fantasy is safe…controlled by you. If you go out there and find it somewhere else, it won’t be safe. It won’t be anything like you imagine.’

She couldn’t have been more right. As Alex tore into my breasts with the cane and the audience screamed with excitement, I writhed on the cross, wishing I was a world away from Dominion.

Finally, he stopped, and let the cane drop to the floor. He seemed nervous, hyped up, and kept looking over at the door. I guessed he was wondering how long Nat would be. He wasn’t the only one.

He turned to the audience. ‘I think it’s about time we saw what lies beneath the mask, don’t you?’ he said, before turning back and walking around behind me, full of purpose.

    Forty Nine

Him

I don’t know how long I was out cold. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, because nobody had come looking for me, but my neck was stiff and the arm I’d landed on was numb. I put my hand up to my head. There was a lump on it, and smears of blood on my fingers but, all in all, I’d got away lightly.

As I pulled myself to my feet, I wondered what it had all been in aid of. Did the guy really have a copy of the tape? If he did, why’d he done a runner? My head was thumping but, as my brain cleared, it became evident to me that it had been a set-up – I’d sensed something was off from the get-go. I headed back into the club, trying to figure out what was behind it all.

It wasn’t until I got inside that I remembered Grace. I’d left her on the stage, shackled to the cross and exposed. What had I been thinking of? At least Alex had been there, to sort things out and see she was safe. I heaved a sigh of relief, as I entered the club proper.

The sigh died on my lips as I glanced across the dance floor towards the stage. What the fuck? Grace was still bound and naked, Alex behind her, presumably undoing the bindings on her wrists. And yet…

Something wasn’t right. For a start, to unshackle her wrists before her ankles would be unsafe. She could pitch forward and hurt herself – Alex would know that. Secondly, she seemed to be shying away from him. I didn’t like her defensive posture one bit. She should be feeling safe, but she evidently wasn’t.

As I neared her and saw the purple lines across her breasts, I let out a yell.

Alex looked up at me and grinned in an imitation of affability which would have rivalled Giles’s. As I got closer to the stage, I realised what he was doing. He was undoing the laces on the back of Grace’s mask. Evidently, I’d done a good job, because he seemed to be having difficulty getting them open.

Just as I reached the stage, he gave a cry of triumph and turned to the audience. They were looking on, bemused, at the turn of events. None of them looked comfortable.

‘Here’s the Filth Monger’s slut,’ shouted Alex, as he put his hands either side of her head, as if to pull off the mask.

As he started to lift the leather, I leapt onto the stage and threw myself at him. As he fell backwards, he had a satisfied gleam in his eye and I noticed he was looking down at his own hand.

I was too late – he was holding Grace’s mask.

    Fifty

Her

When he pulled my mask off, I simply froze. There was nothing I could do and, as the eyes of the audience widened as they realised who I was, I could only stare back, realising at last how awful it really was to have no recourse to modesty.

It was bare seconds before Nat was upon me, trying to cover me with his jacket as he bent down to undo the straps binding my legs.

‘My God, Grace.’ He stood up and started to untie my wrists. ‘I’m so sorry. Alex…I should’ve realised.’

Once my wrists were free, he pulled me towards him, wrapping me in his jacket before putting his hand to my mouth. From between my teeth, he pulled the nipple clamp chain. I looked down at it, numbly. I hadn’t even realised it was still there – I’d been so caught up in the horror of the moment.

He gently opened up the clamps and removed them, pain flowering in each nipple as the blood rushed back into them, but I hardly noticed it. All I could think of was the eyes upon me, all knowing who I was…all knowing my dirty little secret.

So ends my public persona, I thought to myself, as Nat led me away through the club and towards the lifts. I’d just be the next Kitty Arterton now. The thought made me want to cry, as I realised just how terrible it must have been for her, and that everything she’d experienced, I had coming.

‘Don’t worry too much,’ said Nat, as we got into the lift. ‘The people here are a tight-lipped bunch. It’s in no one’s interests for the nation to find out what goes on. You’re hardly the first celebrity to visit Dominion. I’ll kill Alex, though, when I get hold of him. Look what he’s done to your face.’

I looked at him, confused, for a moment. ‘Oh, no,’ I said, as realisation dawned. ‘That wasn’t Alex, honestly. It was Leo, earlier.’

‘Oh,’ he said, his eyes darkening quite alarmingly. ‘It was, was it?’

‘Yes.’ I faltered, wishing already I hadn’t mentioned it, but I hadn’t wanted him to blame himself for it. ‘But leave it, please. I don’t need you beating him up again.’

‘Beating him up?’ Nat shook his head. ‘I didn’t beat him up. No one laid a hand on him.’

‘Don’t say that,’ I said. ‘I saw him. He was in a terrible state. Covered in scratches and bruises, limping…’

‘It wasn’t us.’ Nat shrugged. ‘First time’s a warning, always. He’s had his first chance.’

I shook my head. ‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s over between us. He knows that now. Just leave it.’

‘I can’t.’

‘You must.’ The enormity of what had happened down in Dominion was starting to sink in. The welts on my breasts were throbbing and tears were pricking at my eyes. ‘Please, Nat. Promise me.’

He shrugged. ‘Whatever.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. By this time tomorrow, Leo would be out of my hair for good. He simply wasn’t worth the trouble. Besides, I had other things to worry about now. I was dangerously close to becoming known as the Filth Monger’s Slut. The thought made me shudder.

‘I’m tired,’ I said. ‘I think I’d like to go home, now.’

Nat looked rather crestfallen. ‘You don’t want to come upstairs and let me have a look at those injuries?’

I shook my head. ‘I have no clothes with me,’ I said. ‘And I have things to do in the morning.’ I didn’t think I’d better mention that I was planning on going back to Leo’s.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Come on – I’ll drive you.’

    Fifty One

Him

I dropped her home. She was subdued, to say the least, but that was hardly surprising. I could have killed Alex. If he wanted to get back at me, he should’ve done it directly, not via Grace. It just went to show how well he knew me, though. He’d realised already that she was my Achilles heel.

I’d cuddled her for a few minutes outside her house in Chiswick, but she’d seemed restless and so, despite my misgivings, I’d let her out and walked her to her very purple front door.

Once home, I couldn’t settle. My head was still aching from earlier in the alley, and I kept seeing Alex ripping Grace’s mask off, the thick mauve welts across her tits, her swollen eye. For some reason, of everything, it was the eye that really did it for me. I was so angry with Sparkes. He’d been frightening her ever since I’d met her and, even now, he was still bullying her. It was time to put him in his place, once and for all.

So, when morning finally came, I got ready to pay him a visit. Breaking my word wasn’t something I ever did lightly, but sometimes it was necessary, despite my misgivings. This was one of those times.

I drove across to the flat, the early morning sun appearing between the buildings from time to time and semi-blinding me. I wondered if he’d be there. I was hoping to catch him still in bed, to really frighten him, but it depended on what time his training sessions were.

When I reached the building, I walked straight in, without as much as a glance at the security desk. The guy behind it was reading the paper, anyway, and he didn’t seem to notice me. I got in the lift and headed up to their floor, stopping outside their front door and listening.

I couldn’t hear anything, so I let myself in. For a high-security building, their locks were laughable. Even I could undo them, without so much as breaking a sweat. I entered the flat stealthily, looking around for any indication that Sparkes might be about.

I saw none and, when I went upstairs, it was obvious he’d gone out in a hurry. The place looked as if a hurricane had blown threw it. I guessed he’d still been in a temper, when Grace had left yesterday, because he seemed to have thrown her stuff all over the place.

Despite the mess, the place was empty and still. I headed back downstairs and sat on the sofa to wait. I must have dozed off for a while because I suddenly came to to hear the front door opening.

I sprang up, still groggy from my sleep, and headed towards the nearest door. Someone came in, but it wasn’t Sparkes. It was a woman – her voice high-pitched and querulous. It was Grace.

‘But, Jimmy,’ she was saying. ‘If you’d told me that ad was meant for Kitty, I’d never have accepted it.’

There was a pause for a moment, as she listened to his answer.

‘I know,’ she said. ‘But even so. Please, don’t put me in a situation like that again.’

She sounded pissed off to the max, and she could have been talking to me, after last night. I hardly dared think what she’d say if she caught me here, after exhorting me to leave Sparkes alone. On balance, I decided it was probably better if she didn’t find me here at all. I’d already left her to be abused and exposed by Alex last night, and I hadn’t got the feeling she was too pleased with me after that.

I opened the door to hide in whatever room it gave on but, to my dismay, it didn’t open out into a room at all. It was a coat cupboard.

Grace’s footsteps were getting closer and, at the last moment, I took a deep breath and slipped into the cupboard, closing the door behind me. She walked up, almost to where I was standing, and stopped outside but, after clearly deciding that she didn’t need anything inside it, she stomped off again.

After that, she seemed to be stomping all over the place. I wondered what on earth she was doing, and how long she was going to be doing it. The longer I waited, the harder I found it to breathe and, little by little, panic set in. Her footsteps grew more muffled as my breathing became more laboured and finally, for the second time in two days, I saw the ground rising to meet me, as I fell to the floor in a faint.

    Fifty Two

Her

I couldn’t believe Jimmy had done it. In some ways, I could see it wasn’t his fault. The cosmetics company had changed their mind about Kitty, after her behaviour had made front page news. I was the obvious replacement, being new to Jimmy’s books and the nation’s freshest darling, but even so. He’d known we were friends – of sorts. I couldn’t suppress a grin at that expression. It reminded me so much of Nat, when he’d been talking about Max. Seems I’d know what he meant all along, without quite realising it.

I’d only found out about Kitty and the cosmetics ad, because Jimmy had rung, on my way over to the flat, with a friendly warning.

‘My dear,’ he’d said. ‘I know you’re single and that you’ve every right to have a social life – dare I say it, even a sex life – but you must keep it private. There’s been whispers, Grace. Nothing that’ll get out, but I have my finger on the pulse of this city and it’s taken, what, less than twelve hours for me to hear about last night. Now, I’m not saying it’ll make the papers – not this time, at least – but you must be more careful. You can’t be seen to be doing things like that…consorting with people like that. I mean, a suspected murderer, of all people! Look at how quickly Kitty was dropped from that cosmetics campaign.’

‘Which cosmetics campaign, Jimmy?’

He’d blustered briefly, but then it had all come out. As I collected up my things from where Leo had thrown them, ready to bundle them into the waiting taxi, I couldn’t stop thinking of Kitty and what she’d been through.

In the end, I felt so guilty, I decided to call her. Amazingly, considering it was still early, she answered the phone straight away.

‘Grace, darling,’ she said. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m…’ I hesitated, not sure how to word what I wanted to say. ‘I’m fine, Kitty. Listen, about that make-up ad, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realise it was meant to be you.’

‘Make-up ad?’ She sounded puzzled for a moment, and then… ‘Oh, that. Christ, Grace, don’t worry about that. I didn’t want to do the fricking thing anyway. I’ve been too busy.’

‘You have?’ I breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Yes,’ she gushed. ‘Getting ready for my wedding. Johnno and I…we’re tying the knot, and Hello is interested in the photo rights.’

‘They are?’ I was aware of how slow I sounded, but I couldn’t help it. How had things changed so quickly? ‘But, I thought you said…’

‘I said a lot of things, Grace.’ Kitty sighed. ‘I said I’d never forgive him, I know that, but then I thought he’d never forgive me. We’re two peas in a pod, Johnno and me. We suit each other.’

‘But…’ I shook my head in disbelief. ‘…what about Hull?’

‘Hull?’ The phone went silent for a moment, as if she was trying to think what I meant. ‘Oh, you mean that business with the tart?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘The business with the tart. Exactly.’

‘Well.’ She gave a giggle. ‘I mean, it’s not like she’s going to bother anyone again, is it?’

I didn’t speak for a moment. I felt like I was missing something. ‘What do you mean, Kitty?’

‘Well…’ She gave an impatient sigh. ‘Don’t tell me you don’t know?’

‘No, I…’

‘Christ, Grace. How can you not have heard? She was murdered. Last week. Turns out she was from London. Christine something. You must have seen it on the news.’

‘Christine Fielding,’ I said, heavily. Charlotte. The tart in Hull had been Charlotte all along. ‘But how? She was with Nat on the Sunday night.’

‘It didn’t happen on the Sunday night.’ Kitty spoke slowly, as if to a child. ‘They tried to cover it up, and make out it did, because of the pre-match rule, but it happened on the Saturday night.’

At that moment, I heard the front door open. Shit – Leo. He was supposed to be at training. What the hell was he doing here?

Kitty’s voice came high and tinny through the speaker, as I held the phone away from me slightly. ‘That’s part of the reason they got in so much shit – doing it the night before a game.’

‘So, it would’ve made no difference if Leo’d come home on the Sunday,’ I said, more to myself than to Kitty.

‘No,’ came Kitty’s voice, from my hip. ‘The deed was done, by then…Grace? Grace?’

I switched the phone off, as Leo sauntered into the front room. ‘Thought I might find you here.’ He leaned against the wall and folded his arms.

‘You said you’d be at football training,’ I said, trying to sound cheerful.

‘Yeah, well, I lied about that, I’m afraid.’ he let his arms drop and walked across the room towards me. ‘I didn’t get the transfer. There’s no point in going to training anymore. Sam’s dropped me from the squad. What are you doing?’

‘I’m collecting my things.’ I couldn’t keep my voice from trembling. ‘You told me to, last night.’

‘You’re joking, right?’ He gave a laugh of disbelief. ‘Listen, Grace. You can’t leave me, whatever you think. You don’t know what I’ve done for you.’

His words sent a chill through me. ‘What have you done, then, Leo?’ I asked, hardly wanting to hear the answer.

‘I’ve sorted things,’ he said, looking down at his hands. ‘I’ve sorted everything.’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ I said. ‘You can’t sort us. It’s over.’

‘I can, and I have.’ He shook his head, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was saying. ‘The club got her address. They thought they could hush it up.’

‘What, Leo?’ I stepped back away from him. ‘Hush what up?’

‘Hull,’ he said. ‘She wasn’t interested, the dumb bitch.’

‘What are you saying?’

He came towards me, his hands upturned and open in front of him. ‘You were so upset. I had to deal with it. I had to get you back.’

‘Oh my God,’ I said, shaking my head as his words tumbled into place in my mind. ‘It was you, all along.’

‘She deserved it.’ Leo’s voice was hard. ‘That’s what happens to women who shit on me.’

‘Now, Leo…’ I started to edge around him. I needed to get to the door, but it seemed miles away, suddenly.

‘She shit on me,’ he said, his eyes as blank and staring as Alex’s had been, the night before. ‘And now you’re doing the same.’

He looked up at me, surprised, as if seeing me for the first time. ‘You’re shitting on me too, Grace. I’ve done everything to get you to come home and you’ve been out there, screwing around behind my back.’

‘No.’ I shook my head, desperately. ‘You’re wrong. You’ve got it all wrong.’

‘I haven’t.’ He gave a mirthless chuckle. ‘I watched you getting into that Bentley last night. I had the car. I followed you to a hotel. Don’t fuck me about.’

‘I’m entitled to a social…’ Even as I started to say it, I seized my chance and ran for the door. I was almost there, when he grabbed me by the arm and dragged me back into the flat.

‘You’re not going anywhere,’ he snarled. ‘You’re staying here with me. Forever. D’you understand?’

I nodded, trying not to cry. I understood, all right. As he pushed me to the floor and got on top of me, I knew I had to do something, before it was too late.

‘Help!’ I yelled. ‘Help me!’

‘No one’s going to hear you in here,’ said Leo, looking down at me, his hands at my throat. ‘These flats are sound-proofed, as well you know.’

‘Help,’ I screamed.

As he struck me across the face, I thought sadly of the one person who’d always been there for me, who’d always had my back. ‘Help me, Nat,’ I yelled, hopelessly. ‘Help me, Filth Monger!’

At that, Leo’s fingers closed around my neck and, as I fought for my breath, my nails clawed at his face. So that’s whose DNA was under Charlotte’s fingernails, I thought vaguely, but the significance of it was lost on me. Everything felt distant and distorted. My legs kicked and my head shook, as I tried to fight him off, but it was useless.

Just as I’d given up all hope of survival and almost as in a dream, Nat appeared, like some sort of knight errant, over Leo’s shoulder.

‘Get off her, Sparkes,’ he said, calm as you like. ‘I’d seriously advise against pissing me off any further.’

Leo pushed off me with his knee, winding me completely as he did so, and sprang at Nat. I didn’t have time to wonder what he was doing there – I was too busy trying to get my breath back.

As I whooped and barked, my lungs struggling to take in enough air, I was dimly aware of them crashing into things as they fought for dominance. Finally, I managed to drag myself up onto the sofa, still gasping. Nat had the upper hand, it seemed, but Leo was fuelled by madness and he had no scruples – as I’d just found out.

Just when it seemed that Nat might finally have subdued him, pinning him bodily against the wall, Leo dodged out from under his arm. He ran through to the kitchen and returned with a knife he’d obviously grabbed from the knife block on the worktop. He stood staring at Nat, his face deadpan, his eyes on fire. ‘So you’re the one that’s been fucking my bird.’

It wasn’t a question and Nat didn’t try to deny it. He just stood there for a moment, before Leo started to walk towards him.

‘No, Leo,’ I said. ‘Please, no.’

He turned to look at me. ‘I’ll deal with you in a minute,’ he said, and turned back to Nat, who finally started to edge backwards away from him.

‘Not so fucking brave now, are you?’ Leo followed him, jabbing at him with the knife. ‘Look at you – you’re shit scared.’

‘You’ve got a knife, Leo,’ I said. ‘What d’you expect? For Christ’s sake – put it down.’

‘Why?’ He continued to jab at Nat, who inched backwards away from him.

‘Get out of here, Grace,’ he said. ‘I can deal with this.’

‘No way,’ I said. ‘I’m not going anywhere without you.’

That seemed to be the last straw for Leo. He lunged at Nat, screaming in fury. Nat ran towards the kitchen, Leo hot on his heels and still brandishing the knife. I followed behind him, not knowing what to do, but not wanting to leave Nat. As he reached the kitchen, he slipped on another pile of wet washing, and fell to the floor.

Leo sank down above him and raised the knife into the air. As I watched, and almost in slow-motion, he brought the blade down onto Nat’s shoulder. As Nat struggled, I saw a bloom of red appear on his shirt, its centre a small tear in the fabric, where Leo had pulled the knife out. He crouched over Nat, staring at the blade in satisfaction before holding it up again, ready to drive it back home.

I searched around me desperately for something to stop him. All I could see was the knife block. I almost considered taking a knife from it myself, and stabbing him, but, in the end, I couldn’t face the thought of it, and grabbed the knife block itself. As Leo lifted the knife higher, ready to stab Nat again, I brought the block down, hard and heavy on Leo’s head.

He gave a jerk and sat there for a moment, as if in surprise, before slumping forwards onto Nat, the knife skating across the floor as he went down.

I stood there for a fraction of a second, not sure what to do.

‘Grace.’ Nat’s voice was quiet and muffled. ‘Get loverboy off me, there’s a good girl.’

I came to and did as he asked, heaving Leo to one side of Nat. As he rolled over onto his back, I realised his eyes were sightless, staring at the ceiling without seeing. ‘Oh my God, Nat.’ I could barely speak. ‘I…I think he’s dead. I think I’ve killed him.’

‘It’s okay.’ Nat heaved himself over onto his side. ‘Just listen to me.’

He was struggling to speak himself and, as he moved, the patch of blood was growing larger. I knelt in close to him. ‘What, Nat?’

‘Do as I say,’ he said, through gritted teeth. ‘I know I said never outside the bedroom, but this time, you have to obey completely. No questions.’

‘Okay, Sir,’ I said, trying not to cry as the enormity of the situation hit me. ‘Anything.’