‘Jarvis, go and sit by Callie. You too, Eva,’ Jon ordered. ‘In fact, why don’t you all sit together? Nice and cosy.’

He waited until we did as directed. Sonny gathered up two single chairs and placed them either side of the couch Callie was sitting on. I sat as far away from him as I could get. Sonny deliberately took up residence in the single chair next to me. On the other side of me was Callie, then Tobey, then Eva. Jarvis sat himself down in the other single chair.

After making sure we were all properly seated, Jon made his way to the desk to retrieve Eva’s gun, never taking his eyes off any of us. The man now had two weapons, one in each hand. Pocketing his own one, he swapped Eva’s gun to his right gloved hand, quickly examining it as he did so.

Tobey rocked forward, but he was at least three metres away from Jon. There was no way he could cross that gap before Jon put a bullet in him. Tobey obviously reached the same conclusion because, though he was still leaning forward, he didn’t stand up or move further. Thank God. Any bullets that missed him were more than likely to hit my daughter.

‘If there’s any more shooting to be done, I’ll use this gun,’ said Jon.

The one with Eva and Jarvis’s fingerprints on it. Jon was no fool. I couldn’t help wondering how many more would die before we left this room.

‘Why, Jon?’ Callie asked, bewildered.

Jon shrugged. ‘For the money, of course. What other reason is there?’

fifty-nine. Tobey

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I’d let myself get distracted and missed my chance to disarm Jon. God only knew if I’d get another. And, now that we were all seated, it made it that much harder to take him by surprise.

‘Tobey, Eva was going to shoot you in the back just now,’ said Jarvis quietly.

I turned to her. She looked at me with defiant contempt.

‘Why would you do that?’

‘Because I despise you and your kind.’ Eva shot me a look of pure loathing, the mask finally removed.

‘My kind?’

‘You think you’re something, don’t you? You think you’ve got it made in the shade. You’re the same as me, but you think you can be Prime Minister of the entire country?’ Her every word dripped with scorn. ‘You’re nothing but a jumped-up blanker who’s forgotten who and what he is. You’re a sell-out.’

What the actual hell? Had I heard this woman correctly? ‘That’s why you hate me? Because I worked my arse off and did something with my life? Seriously?’ Was she for real?

‘Who d’you think you are, Tobey? You’re a nought. Nothing more,’ said Eva.