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Eventually, Imran sits down with an exasperated “no more questions”.

Leah turns to look at Bren. Maybe she sees fury in his eyes. Maybe love. Maybe forgiveness. Whatever it is, it’s enough to make her pass out in the witness box. Still, it doesn’t matter. She’s done her job.

TWENTY

Back at The Windmill after court, I fire up my laptop and throw on my workout gear. For the first time in weeks, I’m feeling calm enough for yoga, rather than trying to take out my stress on high-intensity cardio.

Forty minutes of Ashtanga, the inevitable long soak, and a chicken salad from room service later, and though it’s only nine PM, I’m basically ready for bed.

With crushing inevitability, my phone rings just as I’m slipping into my favourite nightie. I’m expecting it to be my mum or sister—the idea that I’m trying to keep my distance doesn’t seem to be getting through to them—but when I glance at the screen, it shows that ominous X.

I ignore it, even though my subconscious is itching to pick up, and my conscious mind wonders if the message could possibly be important. The phone’s innocuous ringtone reverberates through me like a warning bell. It rings until my voicemail picks up. I allow myself to breathe again as soon as it stops, but a few seconds later, it starts again. Still, I hold my nerve.

The cycle repeats twice more, while I make myself a hot chocolate, wash my face, and try to pretend it’s not happening. I could turn the phone off. I could block the number. But I can’t quite bring myself to do either of those things.

On the fourth ring, I grab the phone. “What?”

“You were terribly impressive in court today. And outside of it, presumably, if you managed to make Leah talk.”

I lean against my desk and resist the urge to throw the phone out of the window in the hope it would take all my problems with it. “I’m hanging up and turning off the phone in thirty seconds. If you’ve got a point, make it.”

“I still think it’s basically an unwinnable case. But you put together enough of a defence that I need to take precautions just in case he gets off.”

“What sort of precautions?” I hate the fact I’m engaging Gabriel in conversation, but I need to know.

“I’m going to bring the Dome down. Tonight.”

I sink onto the floor. He’d threatened as much on the drive back from our… whatever it was, but I hadn’t taken him entirely seriously. Now though, there’s an air of finality in his tone.

I want to shout questions. I want to beg him not to do it. But I take a deep breath before my racing heart explodes and try to focus.

“Then why are you doing the Bond villain thing? Telling me seems a bit counterproductive?” I aim for my best lawyer voice, but I probably sound about as panicky as I feel.

“The blood of you and your family is in the Dome. A side effect of its collapse will be the death of anyone who contributed to its creation and maintenance, if they’re inside its perimeter at the time. You need to get out of town, fast.”

I drop the phone. My hands are shaking. Is he really saying he’d condemn my whole family to death? I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. All the blood is rushing to my head. I want to lie down and sink into the floor. I want to run out into the street screaming for help. Somehow, after a few shaky breaths, I manage to pick the phone back up and force some words out.

“Why do you care?”

“You know why I care. And get your family to leave for the night, too. This isn’t an exercise in punishing the Sadlers. It’s an exercise in stopping a massacre.”

I close my eyes and wrap my free arm around my body. It’s impossible to tell whether Gabriel’s convinced himself that Bren is really going to expand the Dome and this is the only way to stop him or is playing me yet again. “And if I stay?”

For the first time in the conversation, he hesitates. “I’d mourn you for the rest of my life, but I’d still do the right thing.”

The certainty in his voice makes me shudder. I’m going to be sick. I never should have opened myself up to him, even a little. “My family’s safety aside, you’d be condemning Mannith. You love this town. How will you feel when you see it decline?”

“Heartbroken. But it’ll still be the lesser of two evils.”

“How are you even going to do it?” My words are barely audible through my encroaching tears.

“I’m stupid enough to tell youwhenso you can get to safety. I’m not stupid enough to tell youhowso you can attempt to stop me. Just get out of Mannith by midnight. I’ll come and find you when all this is over.”

He rings off, denying me even the small satisfaction of hanging up on the bastard.

* * *

There are times for keeping secrets and keeping people at arm’s length, and there are times for accepting you’re part of a family, part of a team. I change back into proper clothes, dash downstairs, ignoring the patrons’ worried looks, jump into the car and drive over to my parents, phoning Chrissie on the way. Inevitably, she already knew I was about to call.