The House Guest - Mark Edwards Page 0,85

to his lips. ‘Hush.’ It was Callum he was focused on now. He slowly circled him. ‘I know what you did to her mother too. Your wife. Mary, wasn’t it? All the beatings. The abuse. The control. I heard about how you made her take off her top and poured hot oil on to her skin because she burned your dinner. How you made her clean your shit stains out of the toilet with her bare hands. How one Christmas you hurt her so badly you almost went to jail, but your wife wouldn’t testify against you because she was too scared.’

Callum’s expression hardened. ‘Don’t come over all morally superior, Gabriel. You’re the leader of a cult. I bet you do exactly the same to anyone who fucks with you.’

Gabriel stopped moving. ‘I never – never! – hurt members of my family. People who join me need never worry about their well-being again.’

‘Tell that to Detective Krugman,’ Callum said. ‘Now, I want to see my daughter. Like Adam says, I just want to know she’s happy. To look her in the eye and believe she wants to stay here. And then I’ll go back to California and leave you alone.’

‘Bullshit,’ said Emilio.

We all turned to look at him.

‘He doesn’t care if she’s happy. He’s scum. He killed his wife . . .’

Callum frowned. ‘She killed herself.’

‘Because you drove her to it. Eden told me—’

‘Enough!’ The roar came from Gabriel. His face was purple, a vein throbbing on his brow. ‘I’m sick of listening to—’

Callum took a swing at Gabriel, who tried to step back but was too slow. Callum’s fist connected with his cheekbone.

Within a second, Emilio and Brittany had Callum on the floor. Gabriel stood there, stunned, nursing his cheekbone.

‘Give me the gun,’ he said, taking a handgun from his security guy, who had been standing guarding the door throughout.

Emilio had Callum on his front, pinned to the ground with his arms behind his back. ‘Doesn’t Eden want to do it herself?’ Emilio asked.

Gabriel lowered the gun. ‘Let him up.’

Emilio and Brittany got to their feet, leaving Callum on the ground. Slowly, he pushed himself into a sitting position. Gabriel pointed the gun at Callum’s face.

‘Get up,’ he said.

Slowly, Callum did as he was told.

‘Emilio, get Eden. I want this done now.’

Gabriel and Emilio led me out, leaving Callum behind with Brittany. Then Gabriel’s security guy came with us into another room. As we entered, Gabriel turned to Emilio and said, ‘Get everything ready.’

Emilio nodded and walked away before Gabriel shut and locked the door. Now it was just me, him and the security guy.

‘Ready for what?’ I asked.

He didn’t reply, and as he looked at me, it came back to me. I had thought he looked familiar when I first saw the photo of him. Now I knew where I had seen him before.

‘You were in the park. When Ruth’s phone was stolen.’ He was the man who had given chase, the one who had spoken to us and told Ruth to report it to the police. He’d been clean-shaven then and had been wearing sunglasses. But it was definitely him.

‘Well done. You clearly have a better memory for faces than Ruth.’

‘Why were you there? Because you wanted to get a proper look at her? In the flesh?’

I guessed he had stolen Ruth’s phone so Eden could give her a new one with a tracker inside, in case he needed to keep tabs on her. And as a bonus he had got access to all Ruth’s private photos.

‘You’re disgusting,’ I spat. ‘When did you first become obsessed with her? Was it before or after the cruise? Did Mona tell you about her existence?’

He didn’t respond. Instead he walked over to the window while I continued to rant at him.

‘What have you done to her?’ I demanded. ‘Have you brainwashed her? Forced her to join your cult?’

He pressed a couple of buttons on a panel on the wall and, to my astonishment, the glass slid away and a balcony emerged, jutting out into the open air. I was silenced, staring out at the night, the illuminated city, as wind gusted into the room.

Gabriel grabbed me by the front of my shirt. I tried to resist but he was stronger than he looked, and the security guy stepped forward, gun in hand.

Gabriel pushed me on to the balcony and against the thin rail, gripping my throat, breathing in my face. I could feel the fifty-storey drop behind me, hear the