‘You can’t be seen,’ said Ivy. ‘Sit back down, dear.’ She put a shaking hand to her forehead. ‘Ahab, I don’t know what game you’re playing, but —’

While he looked as shocked as the rest of them, Mackenzie was alert to the opportunity. He lunged across the table and grabbed the shotgun. In an instant, he was levelling it at Ivy with steady hands.

Everyone went still.

‘You killed Kane. This is all your fault,’ said Mackenzie. ‘What have you done with our boy? Where’s our Forest?’

Davey leapt up and moved towards the door, but Mackenzie turned the gun on him. ‘Stop or I’ll blow your head off, Davey.’

‘I have to go to Shelby,’ Davey moaned. ‘Please . . . please, bro.’

‘You’re not going anywhere,’ said Mackenzie. ‘Where’s our boy?’

‘My son . . . I have to see my son . . .’

Ivy licked her lips and gave a piercing whistle.

Two men appeared from the bedrooms at the back of the house. They had rifles, and they aimed them at Mackenzie.

Mackenzie’s arms didn’t move an inch. ‘I hear a gunshot and he dies.’ He kept his shotgun trained firmly on Davey. Something really had changed in him – he looked like a different person. ‘Don’t test me.’

Ahab stopped cutting at De Corrado’s bonds, and she went still too. He held the knife aside – if they started shooting, he’d have to throw her to the ground with him and try to find cover under the table.

‘What should we do, Blackbeard?’ asked one of the men, slowly, as though Mackenzie were a horse that might be spooked easily.

‘Don’t worry. He won’t shoot anyone,’ said Ivy. Her voice had lost its playfulness, but not its authority. ‘He’s never killed anyone. He wouldn’t have the balls to shoot his own brother.’

Mackenzie shifted his grip on the shotgun, but the barrel never swayed. His eyes remained level. ‘Davey, she’s evil. She did all of this to us.’

‘Kane can’t be dead . . .’ said Davey. ‘I need to get to Shelby.’

‘Go,’ said Ivy to one of the armed men. ‘Find out if what Ahab says is true and report back. If my grandson has been killed, bring the man responsible to me. By any means. I’ll deal with him myself.’

The man didn’t hesitate, dashing out of the room, but his mate stayed behind, his gun still on Mackenzie.

Ahab felt like the room was an overfull balloon – about to pop – when the front door slammed open.

Light footsteps pattered down the corridor, and then there she was. Shelby Dempsey.

Her chest heaving, her eyes wild, she took in the whole scene. Mackenzie with the shotgun on Davey, Ivy’s henchman with his own gun, Ivy with a knife, Davey halfway to the door, De Corrado bound.

Shelby simply fell into an empty seat at the table.