Free Playing Dead by Jessie Keane

there; something bruised, something covert and uncertain. But then the shutters were in place again and Cara just stared at Annie coldly.
    ‘Like you care,’ she said, and looked pointedly at Annie’s hand resting on her arm.
    Annie removed it. ‘I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.’
    But Cara was right: Annie’s words were a lie. There was just something about Cara’s own personal fuck-you demeanour and the swanky pea-brained friends she hung around with that put Annie’s back up.
    ‘I told you. I’m fine .’
    Yeah, and I’m the Queen of Sheba , thought Annie. But fuck it. Did she really want to know what petty concerns went on in the life of someone so vacuous, spiteful and vain?
    Answer: no.
    Cara hurried on by. Annie heard her go into the bathroom at the head of the stairs, slamming the door behind her – and then she heard retching.
    Annie paused there on the stairs, frowning. Maybe Cara was pregnant? But Annie sort of doubted that. So maybe Rocco had upset her . . . but then, Rocco was so mild, so practically invisible as a personality, that Annie couldn’t imagine him upsetting anyone , far less his notoriously difficult wife.
    In the downstairs hall, Annie found Nico sitting patiently on guard outside Constantine’s study.
    ‘Is he free?’ Annie asked him.
    Nico rose to his feet and gave her a smiling half-bow. ‘For you, yeah – he’s free.’ He turned and tapped at the door.
    ‘Come!’ came from inside the study.
    He looked up as she came in. She stood there leaning against the door. He pushed himself back from the desk and stared at her.
    ‘Mrs Barolli,’ he said, his eyes playing with hers.
    ‘ Mr Barolli,’ Annie greeted him.
    ‘And to what do I owe this unexpected honour?’ Constantine made a ‘so come here’ gesture with his hand.
    Annie went over to the desk.
    ‘Closer,’ said Constantine.
    Annie stepped nearer.
    ‘Not close enough,’ said Constantine.
    Annie went around the desk, sat in his lap and put her arms around his neck. ‘Close enough now?’ she asked.
    ‘Barely,’ he complained, nuzzling her neck with his lips. ‘Something bothering you?’
    ‘Not really.’ Annie thought briefly of Cara’s face, but then it was gone, forgotten.
    ‘The baby?’ said Constantine, anxiously. He glanced down, concerned, at the small neat bump beneath her light lilac shift dress.
    ‘I just wanted to see you.’
    ‘Mrs Barolli, I love you very much,’ he said, and kissed her, and Annie found herself remembering her first pregnancy, when she had been expecting Layla; and Max had been so delighted, just as Constantine was now.
    A sharp pang of sadness and regret struck her heart as she hugged her second husband and whispered her love for him, because once there had been Max, owner of the East End streets around Bow in London; Max Carter, gang lord, lover – and her first husband, her first true romance. And she had loved him too. Oh, so much.
    She shivered, and clung to Constantine.

Chapter 17
     
    Rocco got called to the hospital at two in the morning. Cara was asleep beside him when the phone rang. He flicked on the bedside light. She stirred sleepily and looked at him as he spoke into the phone. When he put it down, his face was ashen.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Cara.
    ‘It’s . . .’ Rocco paused, shook himself. His eyes were distant. He looked like a man who had seen a brief glimpse into hell. ‘It’s one of my friends. He left the poker game and he’s been attacked in the street.’
    Now Rocco was throwing back the sheets, getting out of bed, hurrying to pick up his trousers and put them on.
    ‘Is . . . is it bad?’ asked Cara innocently. She knew exactly how bad it was. Here was the reward for all her suffering; here was her revenge. Fredo had slashed up Rocco’s little fag friend . . . before driving her home and then forcing himself on her once again in the garage. She shuddered to think of it.
    She had told Fredo that this would be the last time. And,