Finally, she pulled the glove off and threw it down the hallway. The blade in the glove replaced some of the strength she felt was missing with only having one hand. As she looked at her prosthetic, she sighed. Really, this should be enough. Why she’d needed to add blades to the glove was ridiculous. However, her perceived weakness had made her vulnerable. She blinked back the tears, wiped her wet cheeks, and picked up the glove. Just then, there was a knock at the door.

‘Zara, it’s me, Victor. Are you okay, love?’ he called out.

Wiping the tears that had flooded her face, she opened the door. The sheer size of the man, taking up the entire doorframe, blocked out the sun’s rays.

‘Come in.’

‘Are you okay, love? Only I saw that mate of yours, Eric, flying down the drive like a looney-tunes. He almost hit my cab.’

Zara saw the expression of concern on Victor’s face and gave an almighty sigh. ‘Yes. I slit his wrist for him.’

Victor tugged her shoulder before she walked off. ‘You did what?’

She sighed once more. ‘I slit his wrist open. He’s probably gone to get it stitched up.’

‘He didn’t hurt you, though, did he?’ His eyes scanned her body before they settled on her face. ‘That’s not your blood, babe, is it?’

She touched her cheek and felt the sickly remnants of Eric’s claret. ‘No, it’s his.’ She shook her head. ‘No, he didn’t hurt me. It was an accident, I suppose. Anyway, come through, Victor. I was hoping you would arrive soon. I need to tell you about an earlier incident at the restaurant. We got ambushed. The Lanigans and I were having a meeting at Antonio’s, but before it had even got underway, two carloads of men turned up, ready for a serious fight.’

Victor’s expression was one of shock. ‘What? What happened? You didn’t get hurt, did you?’

‘No, not at all. Neil popped his internal stitches, but that’s about it. As for the thugs who came to take us on, though, they were pretty well fucked up. The stupid bastards. As if a bunch of hooligans could even think they could take on the Lanigans? Anyway, they won’t fuck with my business. And Antonio is going to open as usual.’

‘So what happened to this gang? Did you have them killed?’

‘I couldn’t say what happened to them, but they took a serious bashing. Anyway—’

Before she could change the subject, Victor was on to her again. ‘If you let them go, they’ll come back, ya know. I tell ya, Zara, if it’s this gang, they ain’t goin’ to give up, love. They’ve too much to lose.’