He might have taken her to the nearest quiet place, killed her and buried the body, thought Max. She could be dead already.
That thought filled him with anguish. He’d returned only for Layla’s sake, and it had shocked him to discover that his feelings for Annie, even after eight years apart, were as strong as ever. He wanted, needed, loved her.
Whatever had gone on between her and Golden Boy in the past – and he was starting to think he’d been wrong about that all along – he no longer gave a shit. She was his. He was hers. But had he come this close, only to lose her?
‘We have to check every place we can think of,’ said Layla. She was staring at Junior in disgust. She felt sick to her stomach at what he’d said. ‘So you helped that awful bastard? Against us? Against your family?’
Junior squirmed, shrank into his seat.
‘Oh God, I can see it now. That night when he hurt Precious,’ she said, advancing towards him, ‘you were skulking in the toilet because you couldn’t face looking at those monitors, seeing what he was going to do. You didn’t even have the balls for that.’
Junior looked up at her, his face red with shame.
‘Look, what I did was nothing. I just started the fire in your office and a couple of other little things. It was money for old rope. I didn’t know he’d actually kill…’ He hesitated.
‘Her name’s Precious,’ Layla said through gritted teeth. ‘You let him beat Precious to a pulp. You let him kill her.’
‘I didn’t know he’d go that far! I swear it.’
‘No? But if you’d stuck around in the monitor room and you’d seen how far he was going, would you have tried to stop him? I don’t think so. You’re a coward and a bloody traitor.’
Max was watching Molls throughout all this. She was staring at the floor. Her cheeks were pink. He went and stood in front of her. He was getting a strong feeling about sneaky, goofy-looking little Molls. She looked up, then quickly away, her eyes darting sideways.
‘Where would he go, Molls?’ Max asked her, his voice low and dangerous. ‘You got any ideas?’
She shrugged, hugging her arms around her body as if she was cold.
‘Where?’ repeated Max.
Molly said nothing.
Max reached down and yanked her upright. She let out a yell.
‘Hey!’ said Junior, jumping to his feet.
Alberto placed a hand on Junior’s chest. ‘You want to start something?’ he asked, and Layla was struck by his voice – so cold. She looked at him. This Alberto was frightening. His gaze as he stared into Junior’s eyes was lance-like, threatening as a viper’s. Suddenly, she felt she didn’t know him at all.