It was considerably later than he had expected by the time the car swung into her small road. From outside, he could see that lights were on. ‘You can leave,’ he told his driver. ‘I’ll get a cab back to my house.’ He slammed the door and watched as the Jag slowly disappeared around the corner.
If there was a small voice in his head telling him that his appearance on her doorstep made little sense, given the fact that she had never been destined to be a permanent feature in his life, he chose to ignore it. Finding answers seemed more important than debating the finer points.
He leaned his hand on the doorbell and kept it there for an inordinately long time. Where the hell was she? If the lights were on, then she was home. She had a thing about wasting electricity, just one of her many little quirks to which he had become accustomed. He scowled at the very fact that he was remembering that at this juncture.
Chase heard the insistent buzzing of the doorbell but it took her a second or two before she generated the enthusiasm to get the door. In the lounge, a fuming Brian was filling a bin bag with whatever he fancied he could take from her. There was nothing she could do about it; he was bigger and he had no conscience when it came to violence.
She’d have done anything to get rid of him, to have him out of her house. He told her to get rid of whoever was at the door.
‘Too busy here for visitors, darling. Still a lot to get through before I leave!’
Chase pulled open the door and her mouth fell open in shock. Alessandro was the last person she had expected to find on her doorstep.
‘You’re not getting rid of me until you tell me what the hell is really going on with you!’ were his opening words.
‘Alessandro, you have to go.’
She was scared stiff; that much he could see. He pushed past her and halted as a man in his thirties sauntered out of the living room. In the space of mere seconds, Alessandro had processed the guy and reached his verdict. This was no smarmy, overpaid young lawyer. This was a thug and, whatever was going on, Chase was afraid.
‘And you are...?’ If there was going to be a fight, then he was more than up for it.
‘Not about to tell you, mate. Hang on...thought you said you’d broken up with lover boy? Lying to me, were you? Don’t like lies...’
Alessandro clenched his fists. Chase had backed away and was stammering out some sort of explanation which he barely registered. No, this wasn’t going to do. He had hold of the man’s tee-shirt and felt roughly one hundred and forty pounds of packed muscle try to squirm away from him. Escape was never destined to be. He propelled the man back towards the sitting room. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the room had been decimated. A black bin bag was stuffed to overflowing on the ground. Another was half-full. Was this the ‘spot of bother’ she was in?
‘You’re going to tell me what’s going on...’ He addressed her but kept his eye on his frantically writhing captive. The man was a bully; Alessandro could spot the signs a mile away. The sort of loser who didn’t mind throwing his weight around with anyone weaker than him but would run a mile if faced with stiff competition. Alessandro prided himself on being stiff competition. He listened intently while Chase babbled something about Brian wanting money...taking her stuff...
The missing pieces were beginning to fall into place. So the money had been a legitimate request. She hadn’t been trying to con gold out of him. ‘Here’s what you’re going to do, buddy.’ His voice was low, soft and razor-sharp. ‘You’re going to unload that bin bag and return all the nice lady’s possessions to her. Then you’re going to apologise and, when you’ve finished apologising, you’re going to leave quietly through that front door and never show your face here again. Do you read me loud and clear?
‘And just in case...’ He tightened his stranglehold so that the man was gasping to catch his breath. ‘You get it into your head that you can ignore what I’m telling you, here’s what will happen to you if you do. I’ll employ someone to dredge up every scrap of dirt on you—and I’m betting that there’s a lot—and then I’m going to make sure that you get put behind bars and the key is conveniently thrown away. And don’t think I won’t do it. I will. And I’ll enjoy every second of it.’
He watched in silence, arms folded, as his orders were obeyed. Out of the bin bag came all the bits and pieces which, Alessandro knew, would have taken Chase years to accumulate. Some were worthless, some—such as her computer, her tablet, the plasma-screen television which she had laughingly told him had been an absolute indulgence because she really didn’t watch much TV—weren’t.