Sean returned the look without smiling. “Oh no,” he said dryly. “It’s only just beginning. We’ve left a trail of bodies halfway up the damned country. Whether we were actually responsible for them or not, the fallout from this is going to be practically nuclear.”
Paxo just groaned and closed his eyes, letting his head fall back against his seat.
I turned to find William watching me intently.
“What?” I said. “What have I done?”
“I don’t know how you can ask that,” William said quietly, “after what you did back there.” His eyes flicked to take in Sean as well. “Either of you.”
“We did what was necessary,” I said, a bit sharper than I’d intended but I was getting past caring. “What would you rather we’d done?” I went on, jerking my head in Jamie’s direction. “Left him?”
“I’m not talking about that,” William said, still in that infuriatingly even tone. “We watched you break a guy’s arm – his
“I didn’t plan it that way.” I let my breath out through my nose. “Besides, these were not nice people we were dealing with, William,” I said, trying to hold back my temper. “You give them an inch and they’ll take your bloody head off. You can’t play by the same rules as everyday life. They just don’t work.”
William looked wholly unconvinced. “I was right about you, Charlie,” he said, a little sadly. “You’re one scary girl.”
He stood and headed for the door but was barely halfway there when Sean’s voice stopped him.
“You can’t do that do her,” he said and I was surprised to hear the thread of underlying anger. “You can’t pick Charlie up when you need her and throw her down again when you’re done.” He met my eyes and I saw a challenge there that was not just intended for William, but maybe for me as well. “We’re who we are. What we are. And, like it or not, you needed someone like us to sort out the mess you’d got yourselves into. Don’t lay your guilt on us now it’s done.”
William didn’t immediately respond, just paused a moment, ducked his head in a way that was neither acceptance nor denial, then pushed the door open and walked out.
Daz stood, too, looking awkward. “Look, we know what you’ve done for us. We’re just not . . . used to this like you are,” he said, hunching his shoulders. “Shit, I’m still shaking to think about it. I’m going to wake up seeing it for months. You two just look like this is, well,
As Daz pushed open the door, he nearly collided with a woman who was just walking in. He stepped round her without looking and kept going, but as Sean and I recognised her we both came to our feet, tense.
“Isobel?” I said, incredulous. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“What did you think I was going to do?” she threw back, brusque as she advanced, her eyes locked on her son. “As soon as you’d finished talking to Jacob I drove up to Troon and got straight on the first ferry. I saw you driving on board so I never got off. Did you honestly think I was going to sit by and do nothing while my boy was in danger?” And with that she enveloped Jamie in a big bear hug that he didn’t look entirely comfortable with.
Sean and I exchanged glances. If Isobel had found us so easily, what about Eamonn? The anxiety that had almost dissipated after our fight and flight was suddenly at full rev again.
“We’ll leave you to your reunion,” Sean murmured. Mother and son were too preoccupied to answer him. I glanced at Paxo as we went past but his head was still tilted back against the seat and he seemed to be asleep. We left him undisturbed.
As soon as we were outside the lounge, Sean said, “We need to do a quick sweep of this place, just in case we’ve any other surprise visitors. You take the starboard side, I’ll go port. OK?”
I nodded and moved away.
The ferry had cleared the coast now and was moving into open water. I looked out of one of the large side windows and saw the sea flecked with white horses. The motion had become more violent and I had to match my stride to the roll of the ship. People were already gathering up their sick bags and one or two looked as though they were just about ready to use them. I wondered how Jamie was faring.
I found nothing untoward as I checked the bar and restaurant areas, the shop and the amusement arcade. I spotted Daz and William out on the deck, standing close by the rail with their backs to me. Daz was doing the talking, waving his hands as he spoke. I didn’t feel inclined to interrupt them.
I tried to be annoyed at William’s comments but what I really felt, I realised, was hurt. Hurt that he could look at me and see someone who would cold-bloodedly target the man’s arm purely in revenge for Gleet’s injury, when I hadn’t done so. I’d just reacted to circumstance. Hadn’t I?
And, with a jolt, I recognised that maybe that was why Sean had responded badly when I’d tackled him over his treatment of Eamonn that day at Jacob and Clare’s place. I’d accused him of going in too hard and he’d taken offence. Now I could begin to understand why. Not only that, but it dawned on me slowly, unpleasantly, that other people looked on me in just the same light.
Sean was already waiting for me outside the First Class lounge when I got back there. He cocked his head on one side.
“What is it?” he asked. “You look a bit fazed.”
“I suppose I am,” I said, rueful, pulling the door open for him to walk through first. “I was just—”
We both stopped dead.
The lounge seemed empty apart from the cabin crew member William had called Jo, who was sprawled across the floor in front of us, as though trying to crawl towards the doorway. Her tights were torn at the knees and her neat pillbox hat was askew. There was a trickle of blood rolling down the side of her face and she stared up at us with unfocused eyes that were wide with shock and fright.
Sean stepped round the pair of us as I crouched in front of her. “Jo! Are you all right? What happened?”
