I claimed it and shrugged it on.
Luke shook his head. “How’d you manage that without smearing blood everywhere?”
“Blood?” I followed his gaze to my knuckles. They weren’t badly cut, but sticky blood was oozing from the scrapes and nicks. “Oh. I didn’t notice. That’s what you meant by cleaned up, huh?”
“No, that’s what I meant by ‘you’re bleeding.’” Luke climbed over me and rummaged around in the van. He turned up a first aid kit and returned to do his best Florence Nightingale impression.
He dabbed my knuckles with an antiseptic wipe, while I watched, morbidly fascinated by the sight of my own blood. I’d always been a weirdo like that. For years I’d told anyone close enough to listen that I enjoyed pain. Then I’d fallen off a garage roof and smashed my shoulder to bits, and spent the next six months eating my words.
A shudder passed through me. Out of habit, I looked for Gus to comfort me, but he wasn’t there. In fact, I hadn’t seen him since he’d pressed a bottle of water into my hands to put over Jessie’s back. “Where’d Gus go?”
Luke kept his steady gaze on my knuckles. “I don’t know. Back to work, maybe? Mia’s deliveries are stacked today.”
I knew that. It was why I was spending my Saturday up to my elbows in petals and grief, but it didn’t explain his fleeting appearance at the fair. I’d assumed he was done. Where the hell had he gone? “Maybe he went to get lunch. He seemed pretty hangry back there.”
“He does get emotional when he skips a snack.”
“What’s your excuse?”
“Same as yours, brother. I’m an arsehole.”
I’d called Luke worse many, many times, but I’d never meant it. Or at least, he was the sweetest, kindest arsehole I’d ever met.
I let him finish cleaning my hands, then I gave him a hug that seemed to take his breath away. I squeezed him hard. Cos that’s what you were supposed to do with people you loved. Hold them tight, and never let them go.
Gus
I eased Mia’s crappy hatchback into the northbound motorway traffic and called Luke from the ancient hands-free contraption she’d taped to the dashboard. “It’s done. My cousin will have her in Brittany by the morning.”
“She wasn’t chipped?”
“Nope. Just that fancy-pants collar.”
“What did you do with it?”
“Tossed it in the sea.”
“Good man.”
“Am I? I just stole someone’s dog.”
Luke snorted. “Nah. You just rescued a dog from people who would rather go shopping than take care of it. If they gave a crap, you wouldn’t have been able to lift her from the garden in the first place.”
“True that.”
“And you stopped Billy from doing something really fucking stupid. I know he seemed pretty reasonable earlier, but it won’t last. I give it till midnight before he’s hatching a plan to do what you’ve just done, but without the cousin in Kent willing to forge a pet passport, and definitely with more violence.”
“That’s not fair. Billy’s not violent.”
Luke sighed. “Look, I appreciate you trying to believe that, but it’s not true. He kicked someone in the head the day before he got here—”
“He had good reason.”
“Agreed. But that’s my point. There’s always a reason, good or otherwise. That kid doesn’t know how to solve a problem without making it a hundred times worse.”
“Maybe he needs his big brother to teach him.”
“Doubt it. I’m a hundred times worse than he’ll ever be.”
“Because you’re a reticent motherfucker?”
“Given that you don’t swear unless you’re plastered, and you’ve never used the word reticent in your entire life, I’m gonna assume you’re throwing Billy’s words at me.”
“Okay, you got me.”
Luke huffed out a laugh. It was hard to tell if he meant it. “Whatever. Just keep him close tonight, or closer than you already do. There’s gonna be some blowback on this for sure, so he’s gonna need an alibi.”
“What about me? Don’t I need an alibi too?”
“Nah. You’re the nicest guy in the world, mate. No one’s going to think you stole a man’s dog.”
Luke hung up, leaving me to ponder the closer than you already do. Though it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Mia had probably discussed her suspicions with him at great length over dinner, or whatever they did when they weren’t fighting or making up. My sister was the only person on earth who could make being deliriously happy look like hard work.
Grumbling, I changed lanes, gazing longingly at KFC as I passed the service station. I’d long ago accepted that I’d do anything for Billy—Luke too—but missing lunch and dinner was about my limit. Screw it. I’m getting a pizza on the way home. But as hungry as I was, I couldn’t go another minute without seeing Billy.
I ditched Mia’s car in Luke’s garage and jogged home, searching for any reason I could give for bursting in the front door and scooping Billy up in the kind of bear hug he deserved. The cul-de-sac I lived on was quiet. Only the neighbourhood cats raised hell. Billy occupied my mind so entirely, I didn’t notice the blue lights until I was almost on top of the riot van.
For the second time that day, the police were waiting for me, and this time they were outside my house.
Chapter Nineteen
Gus
The police tossed my house. They even looked in the loft. For a dog. As if we’d rolled her up in cavity insulation and tucked her behind the hot water tank. I’d never been on the hate-the-police bandwagon, but these representatives of the county’s finest were absolute clowns.
They pinned Billy to the side of the riot van and searched him but found nothing in his pockets at all, not even a handful of change.
I laughed. “What are you even looking for?”
An officer spared me a glance. “We’ve had reports
