Gentleman Sinner(63)

‘God, Izzy, I know it’s not what you want to hear right now, but you can’t blame Theo for losing his shit if Sugden attacked you.’

‘No, but I can blame him for losing my job.’

She falls silent for several seconds, but I can hear her breathing. She can’t argue with me. Because I’m right. She knows it, I know it, and I’ll make damn sure Theo knows it when I see him. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘I have no idea, Jess,’ I answer wearily, because I truly don’t. My verbal pleas to Theo, calling him off Sugden, were words. Hearsay. Unprovable. Sugden’s injuries are physical and visible, hard evidence if ever there was any. I’m screwed, and for the first time, I’m wondering who the hell I’ve really gotten myself involved with.

‘Go home,’ Jess says. ‘And get a bottle of wine on the way. I’m off shift in a couple of hours.’

‘Okay.’ I exhale, hang up, and mentally calculate how many bottles of wine I can carry by myself. I’m going to need more than one.

What a fucking mess. My feet are heavy as I start my walk home, my mind weighed down, too, and as I reach the end of the road, I slow to a stop, seeing a familiar Bentley rounding the corner up ahead. My shoulders drop. I’m too tired to have an argument, and that’s exactly what we’re going to have. I follow the path of the big, posh car, slowly turning on the spot until I’m facing the road and it’s pulling up in front of me. The door opens and Theo slides out, my eyes lifting to accommodate his height. He looks smart, his deadly body encased in a grey three—piece suit. Today, I can’t appreciate the finely tuned man before me. Today, I can only wonder with increasing worry how damaged my career will be because of him. And, annoyingly – because I’m mad with him – whether Theo will be taken away from me. Arrested. Thrown in jail. As I said to Jess, you can’t live by the sword and never get cut.

His deep blue eyes glimmer with delight until he clocks my expression, and then the brightness dulls, his dimple fades, and his forehead furrows. ‘Izzy?’ He closes the door softly and takes a step towards me. ‘What’s wrong, sweetheart?’

‘Why didn’t Callum go to pay for the ticket?’ I ask, cutting straight to the point. If I don’t start getting answers, I’m going to explode all over Theo.

His head turns to the side, but his eyes remain on me. ‘What?’

‘Yesterday when you picked me up from work, after you held a man at gunpoint. Why didn’t Callum go pay for the car park ticket?’

‘Why are you asking such a trivial question?’

‘Just answer me!’ I yell, finding anger amid my exhaustion.

His jaw ticks. ‘Don’t take that tone with me, Izzy.’

‘Why, what will you do?’ I ask, stepping closer, bold and brave. I won’t back down. Never. Besides, isn’t my bravery one of the things Theo claims to love about me? Let’s see how much he loves facing my wrath. ‘Pull a gun on me?’

Nostrils flaring, he takes one step back, putting the space he needs between us again. He doesn’t like this. My rage. He doesn’t know how to handle me. ‘I went because it was easier.’ He takes another step back. ‘Callum was driving. What the hell is wrong with you?’

‘I’ve been suspended,’ I declare evenly.

His forehead wrinkles. ‘What?’

Taking a deep breath, I repeat myself, though I know he heard me just fine. ‘I’ve been suspended from my job because the man who you held at gunpoint last night has lodged a complaint, not just with the hospital, but with the police, too.’

Theo laughs a little under his breath. He actually laughs. Lord, give me strength before I lose the plot. ‘He can’t prove that I held a gun to his head.’

‘He hasn’t mentioned the gun in his statement, and he doesn’t need to. He doesn’t have a gunshot wound,’ I tell him, my jaw aching from tenseness. ‘But he does have countless broken bones.’

Theo recoils. ‘Say what?’

‘How could you?’ I ask, forcing my voice not to shake with the anger bubbling up. ‘I told you to leave him, but you still went right ahead and—’

He seizes me by the tops of my arms, and I jump, yet I don’t break free from his hold. It’s too firm. His face, tight with frustration, comes right up close to mine. ‘I never laid a finger on him.’

‘Liar,’ I spit back. ‘You conveniently left us in the car for a few minutes. Where did you go?’

‘To pay for the parking.’

‘You sure?’ I ask, wrenching myself free from Theo’s hold with some serious effort. ‘Because Sugden’s injuries suggest otherwise.’

‘What fucking injuries?’

‘Broken jaw, nose, arm. He’s reported it to the police, Theo. You’ll be arrested, I’ll lose my job, and probably be arrested, too, as a damn accomplice.’ I raise my hand in anger and panic, forgetting myself for a moment, and launch it at his shoulder. It’s a stupid move, fuelled only by hopelessness.

He catches my arm by the wrist without even looking, his eyes developing an edge of lunacy, and I withdraw my body, wary, my wrist still stuck in his viselike grip. His lip curls. ‘He’s made a statement saying I kicked the shit out of him?’

I nod, not daring to speak. He looks homicidal.