Baby Be Mine

ago.
    ‘Whoa! Calm down.’
    ‘Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down! I just spoke to Christian.’
    He tenses.
    ‘It’s the first time I’ve managed to speak to him since . . .’ My voice trails off. ‘He hates me,’ I say painfully.
    ‘Even more than you hate me?’ he asks drily.
    ‘I don’t hate you,’ I sniff.
    ‘I know. And Christian doesn’t hate you, either,’ he says firmly. ‘No one could hate you, Meg.’
    ‘Christian does,’ I say fervently. ‘He definitely does.’
    ‘He doesn’t!’
    ‘We’re not going to have an argument about this as well, are we? We’re going,’ I tell him determinedly. He puts his hand up to stop me speaking, but I continue, ‘This isn’t going to work.’
    ‘Stop,’ he says. ‘Don’t say that. I know Saturday night was fucked up—’
    ‘And Sunday morning . . .’
    ‘And Sunday morning,’ he concedes. Finding him in the bath is a memory that won’t quickly leave me. ‘But it won’t happen again.’
    ‘How can you say that?’ I stand up. ‘How can you ever say that to me, ever again? I’ve been through this already with you, Johnny! How many more times are you going to—’
    ‘I’ll get help,’ he interrupts.
    ‘You got help! Then you met Dana! Fat lot of good that did both of you!’
    ‘You can’t blame her.’
    ‘I don’t,’ I tell him calmly. ‘I blame you.’
    I meet his eyes for a long moment before looking away again.
    ‘Stay another week,’ he begs quietly.
    ‘No.’
    ‘Just one more week.’ His words pick up speed. ‘If you still want to leave, I’ll arrange it for you. You can have the jet – go anywhere you want to go.’ He takes my hand and presses it. ‘But you can’t go back to a normal life now,’ he says gently. ‘You’ll need security, protection . . . Barney is a kidnap threat.’
    Fear grips me once more.
    ‘I’ll make sure you and Barney are set up with a house – a safe house,’ he adds. ‘If you still want to leave after a week . . .’
    I stare up at him, and for the first time in what seems like a very long time, I feel like I see him again. He’s blurry when he’s with her.
    ‘Please, give me another chance to make it right for you here,’ he adds.
    ‘What about Dana?’ I ask flatly.
    ‘She’s leaving.’
    ‘For good?’ My eyes widen and my heart quickens.
    ‘No,’ he says edgily, and my senses return to dull. ‘Just for now. But she’ll be out of your way.’
    ‘Okay,’ I nod. ‘I’ll give it a week. But only so we have time to sort out security and everything else. We’ll still be leaving at the end of it.’
    ‘If that’s how you feel, so be it,’ he says bluntly, releasing my hand and taking a step backwards. He stares at me with his piercing green eyes and I feel uneasy. ‘As long as we’ve got a week.’

 
  Chapter 42  
    Eddie is the last person to leave that night and I breathe a sigh of relief as the house at last falls silent.
    ‘I’ll join you in that,’ Bess says, exhaling loudly. I suddenly remember something.
    ‘Oh, God! Bess, I forgot about you and Eddie!’
    ‘It’s alright,’ she brushes me off. ‘Small fry compared to what’s going on now.’
    ‘No, no, no, it isn’t.’ I sit up with urgency. ‘Have you spoken to him? Did he say anything to you?’
    She laughs it off. ‘Meg, seriously, it’s fine. We don’t need to dissect the whole thing. It really is fine. We had a bit of a laugh about it in the kitchen earlier.’
    ‘Did you?’ I ask with relief. ‘What did he say?’
    ‘Neither of us said anything,’ she replies. ‘We just gave each other a bit of a look and then laughed. It’s done. Over. What about you?’
    ‘What about me?’
    ‘What happened with Johnny earlier?’
    I fill her in on the details. ‘Aah, that’s good.’ She sighs, putting her feet up on the coffee table. ‘I wasn’t ready to swap LA for miserable old London just yet.’ I nudge her roughly on her arm and she laughs. ‘You know I’m joking. I’ll go whenever you want me to.’
    ‘I want you to stay,’ I say.
    ‘Really?’
    ‘As long as I’m staying.’
    ‘We’ll be out of here in a week, then,’ she says.
    I nod. ‘That’s the plan.’
    My phone beeps.
    ‘Message from Joseph,’ I tell Bess.
    ‘About time! What’s he saying?’
    ‘He’s asking me if I’m okay.’
    ‘Better call him back. I’ll look after Barney,’ she tells me, ‘you know, seeing as I’m your live-in nanny, and all.’
    We smirk at each other and