He gently opened up the clamps and removed them, pain flowering in each nipple as the blood rushed back into them, but I hardly noticed it. All I could think of was the eyes upon me, all knowing who I was…all knowing my dirty little secret.

So ends my public persona, I thought to myself, as Nat led me away through the club and towards the lifts. I’d just be the next Kitty Arterton now. The thought made me want to cry, as I realised just how terrible it must have been for her, and that everything she’d experienced, I had coming.

‘Don’t worry too much,’ said Nat, as we got into the lift. ‘The people here are a tight-lipped bunch. It’s in no one’s interests for the nation to find out what goes on. You’re hardly the first celebrity to visit Dominion. I’ll kill Alex, though, when I get hold of him. Look what he’s done to your face.’

I looked at him, confused, for a moment. ‘Oh, no,’ I said, as realisation dawned. ‘That wasn’t Alex, honestly. It was Leo, earlier.’

‘Oh,’ he said, his eyes darkening quite alarmingly. ‘It was, was it?’

‘Yes.’ I faltered, wishing already I hadn’t mentioned it, but I hadn’t wanted him to blame himself for it. ‘But leave it, please. I don’t need you beating him up again.’

‘Beating him up?’ Nat shook his head. ‘I didn’t beat him up. No one laid a hand on him.’

‘Don’t say that,’ I said. ‘I saw him. He was in a terrible state. Covered in scratches and bruises, limping…’

‘It wasn’t us.’ Nat shrugged. ‘First time’s a warning, always. He’s had his first chance.’

I shook my head. ‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s over between us. He knows that now. Just leave it.’

‘I can’t.’

‘You must.’ The enormity of what had happened down in Dominion was starting to sink in. The welts on my breasts were throbbing and tears were pricking at my eyes. ‘Please, Nat. Promise me.’

He shrugged. ‘Whatever.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. By this time tomorrow, Leo would be out of my hair for good. He simply wasn’t worth the trouble. Besides, I had other things to worry about now. I was dangerously close to becoming known as the Filth Monger’s Slut. The thought made me shudder.

‘I’m tired,’ I said. ‘I think I’d like to go home, now.’

Nat looked rather crestfallen. ‘You don’t want to come upstairs and let me have a look at those injuries?’

I shook my head. ‘I have no clothes with me,’ I said. ‘And I have things to do in the morning.’ I didn’t think I’d better mention that I was planning on going back to Leo’s.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Come on – I’ll drive you.’

    Fifty One

Him

I dropped her home. She was subdued, to say the least, but that was hardly surprising. I could have killed Alex. If he wanted to get back at me, he should’ve done it directly, not via Grace. It just went to show how well he knew me, though. He’d realised already that she was my Achilles heel.

I’d cuddled her for a few minutes outside her house in Chiswick, but she’d seemed restless and so, despite my misgivings, I’d let her out and walked her to her very purple front door.

Once home, I couldn’t settle. My head was still aching from earlier in the alley, and I kept seeing Alex ripping Grace’s mask off, the thick mauve welts across her tits, her swollen eye. For some reason, of everything, it was the eye that really did it for me. I was so angry with Sparkes. He’d been frightening her ever since I’d met her and, even now, he was still bullying her. It was time to put him in his place, once and for all.

So, when morning finally came, I got ready to pay him a visit. Breaking my word wasn’t something I ever did lightly, but sometimes it was necessary, despite my misgivings. This was one of those times.

I drove across to the flat, the early morning sun appearing between the buildings from time to time and semi-blinding me. I wondered if he’d be there. I was hoping to catch him still in bed, to really frighten him, but it depended on what time his training sessions were.

When I reached the building, I walked straight in, without as much as a glance at the security desk. The guy behind it was reading the paper, anyway, and he didn’t seem to notice me. I got in the lift and headed up to their floor, stopping outside their front door and listening.

I couldn’t hear anything, so I let myself in. For a high-security building, their locks were laughable. Even I could undo them, without so much as breaking a sweat. I entered the flat stealthily, looking around for any indication that Sparkes might be about.

I saw none and, when I went upstairs, it was obvious he’d gone out in a hurry. The place looked as if a hurricane had blown threw it. I guessed he’d still been in a temper, when Grace had left yesterday, because he seemed to have thrown her stuff all over the place.

Despite the mess, the place was empty and still. I headed back downstairs and sat on the sofa to wait. I must have dozed off for a while because I suddenly came to to hear the front door opening.

I sprang up, still groggy from my sleep, and headed towards the nearest door. Someone came in, but it wasn’t Sparkes. It was a woman – her voice high-pitched and querulous. It was Grace.

‘But, Jimmy,’ she was saying. ‘If you’d told me that ad was meant for Kitty, I’d never have accepted it.’

There was a pause for a moment, as she listened to his answer.

‘I know,’ she said. ‘But even so. Please, don’t put me in a situation like that again.’

She sounded pissed off to the max, and she could have been talking to me, after last night. I hardly dared think what she’d say if she caught me here, after exhorting me to leave Sparkes alone. On balance, I decided it was probably better if she didn’t find me here at all. I’d already left her to be abused and exposed by Alex last night, and I hadn’t got the feeling she was too pleased with me after that.

I opened the door to hide in whatever room it gave on but, to my dismay, it didn’t open out into a room at all. It was a coat cupboard.

Grace’s footsteps were getting closer and, at the last moment, I took a deep breath and slipped into the cupboard, closing the door behind me. She walked up, almost to where I was standing, and stopped outside but, after clearly deciding that she didn’t need anything inside it, she stomped off again.

After that, she seemed to be stomping all over the place. I wondered what on earth she was doing, and how long she was going to be doing it. The longer I waited, the harder I found it to breathe and, little by little, panic set in. Her footsteps grew more muffled as my breathing became more laboured and finally, for the second time in two days, I saw the ground rising to meet me, as I fell to the floor in a faint.

    Fifty Two

Her

I couldn’t believe Jimmy had done it. In some ways, I could see it wasn’t his fault. The cosmetics company had changed their mind about Kitty, after her behaviour had made front page news. I was the obvious replacement, being new to Jimmy’s books and the nation’s freshest darling, but even so. He’d known we were friends – of sorts. I couldn’t suppress a grin at that expression. It reminded me so much of Nat, when he’d been talking about Max. Seems I’d know what he meant all along, without quite realising it.

I’d only found out about Kitty and the cosmetics ad, because Jimmy had rung, on my way over to the flat, with a friendly warning.

‘My dear,’ he’d said. ‘I know you’re single and that you’ve every right to have a social life – dare I say it, even a sex life – but you must keep it private. There’s been whispers, Grace. Nothing that’ll get out, but I have my finger on the pulse of this city and it’s taken, what, less than twelve hours for me to hear about last night. Now, I’m not saying it’ll make the papers – not this time, at least – but you must be more careful. You can’t be seen to be doing things like that…consorting with people like that. I mean, a suspected murderer, of all people! Look at how quickly Kitty was dropped from that cosmetics campaign.’