Alive

by Victoria Johns

  Immediately, I tried to work around him and get out of the grip he was holding me in. “What the fuck?” The rumbling of his voice caused the words to vibrate by my head. “Raven?”

  Looking up through wet eyes, I could see Agent Ross Wilkes looking down at me. He was still just as huge, with tattoos I vaguely remembered focusing on the night I’d danced for him, and a neatly trimmed goatee. I sunk my arms around him in relief, the shiny, gold sheriff’s badge he was wearing smacking me in the face.

  “They’ve found me, Ross. Fucking help me. Get me out of here,” I begged, rushing through the words and trying to convey how urgently we needed to act.

  “Hey, calm down,” he replied.

  “Did you say Raven?” the woman asked him. She was moving my way at speed, followed by Jake and a couple of kids.

  “I did. Although, I wasn’t expecting to spring her on you in public, babe.”

  Ross called her babe.

  That sick feeling returned again. They’d finally broken him. My honey trap from that awful period of my life had worked and now he was indebted to them, too. My limbs all started moving at once to wrestle free again, but there was no way I was hustling around Ross. He was like an immovable boulder.

  “Someone better tell me what the fuck is going on right now?” Jake finally intervened, pulling me back from Ross by my shoulders in a possessive manner. His face showed a level of anger that I’d not seen before.

  “Jake, Raven, meet Cara Wilkes, my wife.”

  The murderous glare on Jake’s face was replaced with shock and disbelief, and I knew it was matched by my own. Before either of us could ask anything else, the small boy pushed his way into the middle so he was stood in front of Ross.

  “Are you going to arrest them? They used naughty words.” The boy then turned to Jake with his finger pointed and continued. “My dad’s the sheriff. He won’t stand for no messing. He’ll arrest you, won’t he, Mom?”

  My capacity to take in any more craziness was at an end. Seizing my moment, I shrugged out from under Jake and ran for the door, desperate for some distance. This was fucked up and the only thing that could save me now was the amount of miles I could put between us.

  “Fuck,” I heard Ross shout, followed by, “Naughty word, Daddy!” Knowing that he was on my heels forced me to sprint quicker. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long but I needed a decent head start.

  It was a pathetic plan.

  Ross caught up to me easily. “Stop running and let me explain,” he demanded, pulling me to a dead stop.

  “Get your fucking hands off her!” I head Jake shout from behind Ross, and before I could argue, I found myself stood behind him while he faced off against a man built like an apartment block. Jake was leaning in close to Ross’s face and he was vibrating with anger. “You touch her again and this shit storm will get really ugly. You’ve got five fucking seconds to explain what the fuck sort of circus is going on here before Rebecca and I drive away.”

  Princess Acerbi had left us to it and I could see her hustling their kids into a truck while Ross was struggling to contain his amusement at Jake threatening him. “Raven—”

  “It’s fucking Rebecca!” Jake finally bellowed, his nostrils flaring with fury.

  “Rebecca,” Ross conceded. “You can trust me. You can even trust Cara. I know you know who she really is, but she’s good. The family think she’s dead. She ran away from them, too. If I didn’t think you were safe here, you wouldn’t be here. But you two have something in common. Benton Mansion and how we move forward affects you both, okay?”

  “You married her?” Jake asked.

  “Of course I did. You’ve seen her,” Ross said, shaking his head like Jake had lost the plot. “You’re not staying at the house. I suspected you might go off the deep end when you found out, so for everyone’s safety I’m putting you off the radar. We good?”

  Jake looked at me for confirmation and I realized I didn’t exactly have a choice. I could run again but I’d still have no answers, and with Jake determined to protect me, I’d just dragged him further into it. I also had to remember that Ross had helped me before and have faith that he was still the same good guy who would help me again.

  I slowly nodded at Jake who was searching my eyes for the tiniest spark of negativity, and he spun back to Ross. “We’re good, for now. Anything about this feels off or you go back on your word and then… well, let’s just say I’m feeling unpredictable.”

  Ross smiled at him. “I see your big brother is teaching you well. You become half as scary as that motherfucker and I might not be inclined to take you seriously. Welcome to Rockton. I’m Sheriff Wilkes and like my son says, ‘You’re naughty and I’ll arrest you’. Now follow my truck.”

  Jake

  As soon as the engine was running on our rental car, I did the one thing I’d should have done when I’d first laid eyes on the apparently dead Cara. I reached out for answers. If I’d been thinking clearly, I wouldn’t have overreacted and we could have already left town easily and sorted out a new plan.

  “You made it,” Jonas guessed on answering.

  “Yep,” I snapped curtly. “You never told me that people came back from the dead in your line of work. I mean C—”

  “Do not fucking say her name,” he barked back at me. “Put me on speaker, now.” After I did, he continued the conversation with less aggression. “Rebecca, you okay?”

  “Not really. I’m feeling a bit frying pan and fire at the moment.”

  “I assume that means you recognized her?”

  “Yeah, and—”

  “Don’t use the name on the phone. We don’t know what we’re dealing with at the moment. I’m sorry you got a fright, but I think our mistake with you was only making you disappear versus dying. People tend to stop looking when the second one happens.”

  This was patient and professional Jonas at his best. He was being very gentle with her but all I wanted to do was ball him out and yell down the line at him. He’d always worked on a need to know basis and I had to have faith right now that I didn’t need to know everything. “I wouldn’t have asked Jake to take you somewhere that wasn’t safe. We hadn’t agreed whether to introduce you to his family yet, but best laid plans sometimes take a natural course. I know you don’t know me, but Ross and I go way back. I trust him. You need to know I helped her the way Ross helped you, okay?”

  “Uh, okay,” she returned cautiously.

  “Stick it out with Jake just a little bit longer. Jake, off speaker,” he commanded.

  “Done,” I confirmed.

  “Do not let Rebecca out of your sight unless it’s with Ross or his wife. You won’t be in Rockton long—a day or two at most. I think we’ve found the connection and I don’t think either of those women will like it. Rebecca’s instinct will be to bolt so keep her in your sights.”

  “Will do.”

  “I’ll be in touch. Oh, and don’t threaten Ross again. I’ve seen him dismember people without breaking a sweat. You don’t have the skills to deal with that shit. Yet.” And in his usual style, he hung up.

  We were still following the Rockton Sheriff’s jeep, who I believed was following closely behind his wife and kids. When we arrived at an old junkyard and passed through the gates, we all parked up next to each other, but at the last minute, I had second thoughts and pivoted so we were facing the gate. If we needed a quick getaway, I was giving us every chance at a successful one.

  An old man in a boiler suit appeared in the doorway and proceeded down the steps of the porch, heading straight for the car containing Cara and the kids.

  “Grandpa! Mom and Dad got into a spat in the diner and the girl tried to run off but my dad stopped her,” the child said, all proud. “That guy there tried to threaten my dad and he’s brought them here instead of locking them in jail. I think they should be in jail.”

  “Did you protect your mom?” the old guy asked seriously.

  “Yeah, until Dad turned up, then he to
ok over. But I would have helped him put the bracelets on,” he said, animatedly.

  “Glad to hear it, boy. You’ve had a busy old time. How about you take the other kiddies and go play in the back yard?”

  “Can I build something?”

  “Sure. I’ll be round in a few.” He smiled and waited for the kid to wander off before starting towards Rebecca and me. He approached me first with his hand extended. “Sam Wilkes, and you are?”

  “Jake Griggs.” I watched as Sam looked over to Ross, raising an eyebrow with some silent question.

  “One of the brothers under Drakeson’s tutelage,” Ross confirmed.

  “Fuck me,” he mumbled. “That lunatic is teachin’ others now. And you must be Rebecca,” he said, finally approaching the beautiful girl who was so close to me we could have been conjoined twins. She was still uncertain and right now, the only person in this whole fucked up mess she was comfortable with was me.

  “How do you know who I am?” she asked him.

  “I helped keep Cara safe and part of that deal was keepin’ tabs on you. That nutcase, Jonas Drakeson, provided me with sporadic updates so I could reassure Cara that you were safe. She never knew you, but hated what her family had put you through.”

  Things were starting to click into place but I was still missing major pieces of the puzzle. The ‘nicey nicey, let’s make friends’ routine was still messing with my head. “Can we get down to business? I haven’t said we’re staying yet.”

  The old guy burst out laughing. “Shit me, he’s definitely gettin’ lessons from the big guy. Always said J was a functionin’ lunatic and now there’s a fuckin’ carbon copy. The world is goin’ to hell in a fuckin’ hand basket.”

  I was conscious that we needed to get things straightened out. Knowing that Rebecca was feeling unsafe was doing odd things to me. I mean, I’d just threatened Ross Wilkes. The man was built like Dwayne Johnson and I was pretty sure he could have snapped me in two with ease, but still, seeing him touch Rebecca and try to calm her down did not sit right. That was my job.

  The old guy was still chuckling to himself as he disappeared to join the kids, and Cara finally joined us with a tray of drinks. “Do you mind if we sit on the back decking? I like to watch them play, and in any case, Jake is extremely nosy for his age. If he can see us it means he won’t come looking for us.”

  I did a confused double take until I realized she was talking about the little boy. “You named him Jake?”

  “Yeah, when Ross and I met he was using an old undercover alias. Rightly, he sensed I was carrying some serious baggage. After I took Jonas’ offer of a fake death, I found out we were expecting.” Ross joined us on the decking and sat in a chair beside her. The look in his eye was the same one he’d had when they’d come to Hawkstown together, just a hell of a lot more intense. The guy was completely sunk for her then and nothing had changed. “Anyway, I needed to let him grieve for real in case my family were watching him. It was hard to stay away, but you do crazy things for those you love. So when I gave birth to our son, I named him after the guy who’d saved me—Jake.”

  I knew what Rebecca was doing beside me. She was taking it all in and trying to decide what her next move should be. She said nothing so I continued asking questions to gather information until she was comfortable enough to get involved.

  “And who would your family be?”

  “Honestly, you want me to say it? Raven knows,” she said, nodding with an apologetic look on her face.

  “Rebecca,” the girl glued to my side corrected her.

  “Rebecca knows what they’re capable of. They were responsible for the downturn in her life and I don’t blame her for freaking out when she realized who I was.”

  Even though Cara was answering me, she was providing measured responses intended for Rebecca alone, desperate to try to make things better.

  “Let me get this straight. I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings. You’re part of the family that basically enslaved her?”

  “No!” she bit back, and Jake leaned forward to defend her. “I used to share a name with them and that name filled me with the same fear it did Rebecca. I might have been born with it, but it still meant the same thing—oppression, fear and forced labor. A life with no hope for happiness.”

  “What did you do for them? In that kind of family, everyone has a role.”

  “Not important,” Ross interrupted for her.

  “Did you know what they were doing to her?” I asked. I was desperate to know if she played even the smallest part in what Rebecca went through

  “No. I think I was already on the run when they recruited Rebecca.”

  “They did not fucking recruit her,” I spat back. “She didn’t attend an interview after willingly applying for a job opportunity.”

  “Hey, settle down. This is just as hard for Cara. Remember that.” I knew Ross was right but I wanted someone to bear the brunt of Rebecca’s hurt and pay for the unlucky life she’d led so far.

  “Maybe we should take a break?” I finally suggested, but Rebecca shook her head. She needed this over with. For someone I’d only just met, Rebecca was someone I was starting to share an intense connection with. “Let’s get to the point then.”

  “Sure. I’ll be back in a minute,” Ross agreed and then left us with Cara. That was when Rebecca finally spoke.

  “I’m sorry I reacted so badly at the diner, but I could see him in your eyes.”

  “Who?” Cara asked.

  “Guiseppe,” she whispered, clearly scared.

  Cara inhaled sharply when she heard his name. “I need to ask this… Did he ever hurt you?”

  “Hurt me? He forced me to do things I’ll never be able to forget,” Rebecca bristled.

  “I mean physically. Did he hurt you?”

  “No, but—”

  “I can’t defend his actions. I spent a lot of my life being as afraid of him as you are now. But even people like Guiseppe find themselves living in a version of hell that they can’t get out of. He grew up surrounded by people who were true monsters and they had some horrible expectations and demands of him that I never understood until I met Ross.”

  “I’m glad he’s dead,” Rebecca replied bluntly, looking Cara in the eye just to hammer the message home.

  I was so fucking proud of her right then.

  Cara looked torn. She was chewing on her lip after Rebecca’s declaration as Ross reappeared and stopped her from replying. He dropped a file on the table in the middle of us. “Let’s get down to business. I need Rebecca to look over the photos in the file and see if she recognizes them.”

  Pictures were passed over and I watched as Rebecca separated a pile of thirty mug shots down to less than half, discarding those she didn’t recognize. The very last photograph was the younger mug shot of Mansion that Jonas had asked me about days earlier.

  “I think I’ve seen all of those in the club at some point. The last one is old, but it’s Benton Mansion.”

  Ross took the pictures from her and removed them all apart from the last one. He then carefully slid it over to Cara, who went ghost white when she saw it. I was beginning to fear that we were dealing with some enemy of her family until she smiled and ran a single finger down the face of the photo.

  “Is this him?” she asked, “The guy who’s had you so worried?”

  “Yes,” I answered for Rebecca. “Although I’d say trying to force her into an employment contract she didn’t want then force her into a limo full of heavy set fuckwits before trashing her place has definitely had her more than ‘worried’.”

  “Benton Mansion’s real name is Matteo Acerbi. He’s my brother. We were close. I was closer with him than my other brothers and he would never hurt anyone.”

  “Bullshit,” I said, outraged, standing up and reaching for Rebecca’s hand. “We’re done here. This is pointless.”

  “Matteo took more beatings for me than I can remember.” She smiled a sad, reflective smile. “You see, I
wasn’t a very compliant child growing up and after we lost our mom, that only got worse. I can’t believe that he would intentionally hurt you.”

  When I finally felt Rebecca’s fingers interlock with mine, I stood firmly beside her as she listened to this insanity.

  “I should reach out to him,” Cara suggested and the atmosphere in the room plummeted. Ross looked like he was about to Hulk out of his skin and smash the place up.

  “Over my dead fucking body,” he disagreed fiercely.

  “But—”

  “I’ll find another way. You do not fucking exist for them. So help me God, Cara, if you go against me on this…” Ross’s threat told me it was an appropriate time for us to leave. We all needed some space and each of us needed to think on what we’d learned.

  “Rebecca, your choice,” I told her. “We stay somewhere or we get in the car and keep moving.”

  “Stay,” she said decisively.

  “Rebecca can stay in my dad’s guest room tonight and you’re in the trailer in the lot,” Ross told me.

  I was already shaking my head before he finished. “Not happening. I’m not leaving her alone. We’ll go to the motel in town.”

  Rebecca clearly felt the same need I did because she gripped my fingers tighter, confirming she was on board. Feeling in complete harmony with her was amazing. Whatever it was about this girl, we were meant to look out for one another. Even in the middle of all this drama and uncertainty, I’d never felt more grounded and sure of what I was doing.

  “They can stay in the cabin,” Cara suggested with a dreamy look in her eyes, while Ross looked at her like she’d gone mental before finally shrugging and agreeing.

  “We own a cabin off the beaten track. It’s comfortable but it’s a hike. It’ll take us a bit to get there but it will attract less attention than a motel.”

  “That’ll do,” I agreed.

  I watched as Ross said goodbye to Cara. It was intimate and loaded with hidden promise. It hit me like a truck that he had found that kind of love and so had Jonas. I was suddenly infested with a jealously I’d never experienced before and it was overwhelming. They’d found enough satisfaction and love with just one person that the thought of being apart, even for a short amount of time, caused them a discomfort so deep that the only answer was to never be apart in the first place.