'Is that so?' Morgan sniffs disdainfully. 'You're having sex with each other. That makes it entirely believable, even to Art.'

I gasp, seeing at last the cleverness of her plan. It fits in with what Art expects me to do. He won't like me going away with Lorcan, but he will believe it.

'It will seem odd though, just running away without saying goodbye to anyone.'

'Not really,' Morgan sneers. 'Everyone who knows you, or anything about you, thinks you're unstable.'

'No, they don't.' I stare at her. The wind rustles the leaves of the nearby hedge, its dark edges silhouetted in the car lights.

'Yes, they do,' Morgan insists. 'Everyone, from your best friend who thinks you're obsessed with the baby who died, to people who've only heard about you or met you once, like Bitsy and Bobs.'

I shake my head. 'What about O'Donnell?' Even if people think I'm unstable, no one will believe I'm capable of murder.'

'For goodness' sake,' Morgan snaps. 'Your prints are on his phone and his clothing. The police hardly needed my tip-off. The taxi driver you used to get to the lock-up will remember dropping you . . . not to mention witnesses to the argument you and Lorcan had with O'Donnell in London.'

My stomach falls away from me as I remember the small crowd watching when Lorcan slammed Bernard against the wall near his house. How does Morgan know about that?

Morgan sees my confusion and smiles. 'Bernard explained what happened just before he died.' She pauses, pressing the gun harder against my skin. 'So you see, they might not understand your motive, but you and Lorcan look guilty as hell.' She turns to Jared. 'We need to get them through there,' she orders, pointing to a particularly thick set of bushes.

Jared has finished binding Lorcan's wrists again. He shoves him along the road. Morgan drags me after them.

My mind whirls. I can't focus. What can I do?

'Why on the other side of the bushes?' I gasp.

'It's where you and Lorcan die.'

Jared and Lorcan reach the row of bushes. Lorcan is straining to turn round . . . to see me.

Tiny dots of light appear on the lane ahead. They're heading towards us. My heart leaps. It must be another car. We'll be seen.

We'll be saved.

'Shit.' Still gripping my arm, Morgan turns to Jared. 'Quick, get him out of sight.'

The headlamps are bigger now, like the eyes of a prowling animal. The car they belong to must be travelling very slowly. Jared drags Lorcan behind the biggest bush. As they vanish from view, I can see Jared has managed to bind Lorcan's mouth again. Morgan holds her gun against my ribs. I let her push me out of sight, behind a bush a few metres along the row from the others. She places her hand over my mouth.

I imagine shoving her away, grabbing the gun, running out in front of the car.

My heart races. I don't know if I have the nerve to do any of those things with Morgan's gun pressed into my side.

The car is getting nearer. A slow car is good. It means more likelihood that the driver will notice me if I jump out.

The car's headlamps grow bigger. The 4x4 is parked to one side of the track, and the car coming towards us will have to drive carefully to get around it. I can't see the driver but he or she has obviously clocked the big car in front and has slowed further.

'Get down.' Morgan pulls me down beside her.

I'm hunched over, my knees pressed into the mud. Through the leaves of the bush in front of me I can just make out the car travelling towards us. I don't have much time left if I'm going to make a move. My heart is pounding in my ears. How can I possibly get away from Morgan without her shooting me? Her gun is right against me.

I have to stop the driver. This is our last chance. The headlights are two moons now. The car is crawling along. So slowly.

And then it stops, just in front of the 4x4.

Yes. Maybe the driver senses something suspicious. Or maybe he just can't get past the big car. It doesn't matter. If he gets out of the car we have a chance.

Beside me I feel Morgan stiffen. I strain my eyes, peering into the darkness. The headlights of the car are so bright I can't make out the shape of the car, let alone how many people might be inside.

The car door opens. The engine is still running. The 'door open' indicator sounds, punctuating the still night air. The driver emerges into the glare of his own headlamps. I'm about to leap up . . . to yell a warning . . . to push Morgan out of the way . . . and then I see who it is.

Art.

Immediately Morgan stands, dragging me up beside her. Her gun is in plain sight, pressed against my side. Art and I stare at each other. He walks towards us.

'Art?' Morgan's voice is brittle. 'What are you doing?'

Art's eyes are on the gun. 'I guessed you'd be here. I came to help,' he says. 'You were right.'

I stare at him, horrified.

Morgan frowns. I can tell she's not sure whether to trust him either.

'It's time,' Morgan says. 'We can't wait any longer.'

I want to yell out to Art to save us but my throat is twisted into knots.

'Give me the gun, then,' Art says. 'I'll shoot her myself.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

Art must be bluffing? Surely he's bluffing?

Morgan gives him a sceptical look. 'All of a sudden you're prepared to shoot her? I don't think so.'

Art keeps his eyes on the gun that Morgan is still pressing against my ribs. 'There's no choice and there's no time.' His voice is steady. 'Though we should deal with Lorcan first; he'll be harder for us to control physically.'

Morgan stares at him. I can see she doesn't believe him.

'Jared will do it,' she says. 'You wait there.'

A cold sweat rushes over me in a wave. Jared and Lorcan are both, still, on the other side of the bushes. Lorcan's muffled yells are the only sound in the night air.

'Fine.' Art holds out his hand. 'I'll watch Gen while you help Jared.'

I stare at him in horror. 'You can't do this,' I breathe.

'Shut up,' Morgan hisses.

She gives me a shove. I stumble forwards. Art steps up and grabs my wrist as Morgan half turns back to the bushes.

'No.' The word sounds strangled, as though all the breath is being squeezed out of me. And then I find my voice. 'No!' I scream.

'Keep her quiet, Art,' Morgan says, as Jared hauls Lorcan out from behind the bushes.

Art clamps his hand over my mouth.

'No!' My cry is a low moan. Unheard. A terrible fear swamps me. Not Lorcan. I can't lose him. It's my fault he's even here. 'No!'

Art pulls me against him, holding me fast. I watch as Morgan reaches Lorcan and Jared. She points her gun at Lorcan's chest. His eyes above the gag are wild with fury, but he stops struggling.

I try to pull away from Art but he holds me still. 'Stop it,' he hisses in my ear.

I kick out, making contact with his shin 'Ow.' Art swears under his breath, then he leans in closer to my face and whispers, 'For Christ's sake, Gen. Trust me.'

What? As Morgan fishes in her pocket, Art, still holding me tightly, takes a step backwards, away from her.

I have no idea what he's doing. I'm transfixed by the sight of Morgan slowly drawing the lethal Swiss Army knife out of her pocket. She holds it out to Jared.

'Here,' she says.

Art, his hand still over my mouth, pulls me back another step. We have reached his car, but I barely notice. My whole focus is on Lorcan. Morgan can't make Jared kill him. She can't- Art opens the car door.

'Get in,' he hisses.

Morgan turns. Her roar fills the air.

'Art!' she yells. 'What are you doing?' She points the gun at me.

'Get in,' Art orders.

I scramble inside. An empty click sounds as Morgan fires. She runs towards us. I slam the door shut as Art dives across the car, into the driver's seat. Morgan is still charging towards us. Almost here. The split second that passes lasts an eternity, then Art turns the ignition and the car pulls away.

I look round. Morgan is standing in the middle of the track behind us, her face consumed with rage. I grip the sides of my seat, frozen with shock.

What about Lorcan?

'I took the bullets out of her gun after O'Donnell,' Art explains in a low voice, his hands gripping the steering wheel. He glances sideways at me. 'Gen, I'm so sorry. I didn't know things would . . . would go this far.'

The car is already travelling at nearly sixty miles an hour, far too fast for the bumpy lane we're driving along. My breath is coming out in short, jerky gasps.

'We have to go back.'

Art ignores me and swerves the car onto the main road.

'Please, Art, she'll kill Lorcan.' I turn and look through the back window of the car. The 4x4's headlights are visible in the distance.

'Morgan won't hurt Lorcan. Not until she's got you back," Art says. 'Making sure you don't get away will be her priority.'

I look round again. The lights in the distance are getting closer, though from the jerky way they're moving, I'm guessing Morgan hasn't yet manoeuvred the 4x4 onto the main road.

'Where are we going?' I ask.

'To Morgan's house,' Art says. 'To get Ed.'

What is he saying? My mind careers about, a million thoughts and feelings colliding with each other.

'Get Ed?' I say.

'You're going to have to take him away,' Art says. He glances round at me and I'm shocked by the agony in his eyes. 'I've screwed everything up, Gen. This is the only option now. I see that. I should have stopped Morgan before but . . . but it was impossible.'

My guts twist into a knot. I glance out of the window. The Somerset countryside is zooming past. Is Art really taking me to Ed? My head is a chaos of fears. And yet, bizarrely, there's something so familiar about the two of us driving along. This could be any night from the thousands we have spent together.

'God, Art, how could you do . . . what you did with Morgan? How could you have let her take our baby?'

'I told you.' Art shoots me a grim glance. 'Morgan threatened you. She made me choose between losing Ed to her and losing you altogether.'

I don't believe him. Not now.

'But I've seen the film of you and Morgan,' I look down at my chewed fingernails. For some reason I can't explain to myself, I feel utterly humiliated. This is Art's wrong, I tell myself. Art's and Morgan's. And yet I feel shame at the thought of what they did as if it's my wrong too. My darkness. 'Morgan showed me and . . . I saw what you did and it's obvious she was blackmailing you. I mean, taking Ed wasn't about protecting me, it was about protecting yourself . . . wasn't it?'

Art ignores me, his eyes on the wing mirror. We are still some way in front of Morgan's car, but its twin headlamps are visible as bright disks on the main road.

'Jesus, Art.' The words escape me in an angry burst. 'She was your sister, for God's sake.'

'I know,' Art says, his voice a mix of shame and defiance. 'But you have to understand she was also beautiful and available and she didn't feel like a sister. I didn't even know her, remember?' He pauses. 'I've thought about it a lot, though, and mostly I think it was revenge.'

'Revenge?'

'On Brandon,' he says. 'My dad. Our dad. It took everything I had to get up the courage to knock on his door. I knew he'd think I was after money, and I said I wasn't, straight off . . . but he just didn't want to know.' He hesitates. 'The truth is I'd built him up in my head. I'd thought he was this great man . . . captain of industry . . . like he was some amazing guy who'd be delighted to meet his long-lost son. You know, like in a fairytale. I was so stupidly naive. And then, after he'd rejected me, I was so angry. You have no idea, Gen I've never hated anyone like that in my life. I'd gone off the rails and hurt Mum by pushing things to the edge and it was only Kyle and his family looking after me that stopped me ending up in jail when I was sixteen . . . seventeen . . . I was still out of control though I thought I was such a big man . . . I mean, I was already really screwed up, and Brandon acting like I was a piece of crap he was trying to wipe off his shoe made me even more screwed up. I stayed screwed up for years . . . until I started working in the City, really . . . then setting up Loxley Benson finally straightened me out, and by then I'd almost forgotten about Morgan and the abortion . . .'

'But she hadn't.'

'She told me she was going to take our baby when she came to see us in that place we rented in Oxford. At first I thought it was a joke, then she told me how she'd already bribed Rodriguez, offered to give him enough money to retire on. And how she and Rodriguez had found a nurse and an anaesthetist to go along with the plan.'

'So you knew she was serious.'

'Yes.' Art swings onto a much busier road than the one we were on before. The landscape is suddenly illuminated. I look around at the trees on either side of the road. Cars are visible both ahead and behind us. I check the wing mirror again. The 4x4 containing Morgan, Jared and Lorcan is just a few cars back. Is Art right that Morgan won't hurt Lorcan until she's got me back?

'I told you, Lorcan will be fine as long as you're alive.' Art's voice cuts sharply across my thoughts. Again, it strikes me how well we have come to know each other. And how little this fact has meant . . . how easily I have been kept in the dark . . .

'He's such a chancer, Gen,' Art mutters.