“Charlotte?”
She shook her head, tears dripping off her cheeks and dropping onto her exposed chest. Jesus, even in grief she had to flaunt her fucking assets. “I didn’t know where else to go.” It actually disgusted me that she’d come straight here. Three years and I hadn’t made one single effort to contact her. Then after just one meeting she’d had the nerve to come straight to me.
“Sure. Come in.” I moved aside, the scent of her regular perfume making my gut twist.
She squeezed past me even though I had left her enough room to pass without touching, and she made sure to graze her tits against me as she stepped inside.
“Drink?”
She nodded, already making herself comfy on my sofa. “Please. Something strong. Do you still drink Johnnie?”
I nodded and turned my back on her to head into the kitchen. The sound of her sharp intake of breath curved a smile on my lips.
“Jobe?” Her voice was trembling, her shock evident.
“Hello, Charlotte.”
I left them to reacquaint themselves as I poured three glasses. The last time all three of us had been in the same room together, things had been said, and actions had been set into motion. Actions that Jobe and I would never falter from. Our code had been etched into our souls that day, the day we began a protocol that would forever change our lives.
“So,” I chirped happily as I placed the three glasses onto the table. “All of us together again. How awesome.”
Charlotte’s wide eyes shot to mine. She hadn’t missed the sarcasm, and realising her stupidity at coming here tonight, she snatched up her glass and downed the contents in one fluid swallow.
Jobe leaned back into the sofa and chuckled. “Who’d have thought. Me, you and him, all together again.”
She shifted uncomfortably. “I thought, I thought that you wouldn’t…”
“We wouldn’t what, Charlotte?” Jobe asked, a chill in his voice that didn’t go unnoticed by either of us. “You thought you could drive a wedge between us. You really didn’t know us that well, did you?”
“I…” She shook her head again, and then groaned. “I need your help.”
Jobe glanced at me before turning to Charlotte. “Oh?”
She picked up her glass again and tipped it high, her tongue flicking out to catch the last dribble of whisky. She looked at me expectantly, as if I was going to top her up. I smiled and sat back into the chair. “Go on.”
She scraped at her fingernails and stared at the floor. “Gareth,” she said quietly. “H-he was murdered.”
Both Jobe and I gasped in mock surprise. “Oh no, how awful.”
Charlotte, catching the derision in Jobe’s tone, frowned, but she was too stupid to work it out. Then again, she always had been. “Uhh, he left a lot of…”
“Debt?” I finished for her. Stupid, stupid bitch. Did she think I didn’t know that?
She nodded, picking harder at the skin beside her perfectly manicured nails. “Yes. And now, now they’ll…”
“Make you pay?” Jobe asked, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on his knees. “Oh, Charlotte.” He sighed, shaking his head and giving her a pitying look.
Looking at me, she ran her tongue over her bottom lip. Used to work once. Not anymore. “I wondered if…”
I quirked an eyebrow and shook my head, pretending I didn’t know what the fuck she was on about.
“I wondered if you could, you know, help me out.”
“Help you out?” Jobe asked innocently. “Not sure I follow, babe.”
She swung her arm out. “This place must be doing good. It’s the best club in London. All my friends come here, and…. And…”
“And you thought we’d have the spare cash to pay your brother’s bills?”
She tensed but nodded. “Well, yeah. I wouldn’t usually ask but….”
“Yes, you would. You really would, Charlotte.”
“I don’t know who else to turn to,” she screeched suddenly.
“Are there no others that you’re playing against each other at the moment?”
She froze, her jaw dropping with Jobe’s taunt. Words seemed to fail her as her mouth opened and closed but nothing came out. Eventually scrambling to her feet, she grabbed her bag off the floor. “I’m sorry, this wasn’t a good idea.”
“No.” I gave her a wink. “No, it really wasn’t, babe. You can see yourself out, huh?”
Her face blanched at my amused expression. She really thought that Jobe and I would come to her rescue, after playing us both so well?
“Hope you find the eighty K!” I shouted, just before the door slammed. The daft fuck hadn’t even realised I knew exactly how much her brother actually owed.
Jobe leaned back and spread his arms over the back of the sofa, his eyes alight with glee. “Stupid fucking bitch!”
“Does revenge always taste this sweet?” I asked, shaking my head and laughing.
Jobe groaned when a knock at the door echoed through the apartment. “Oh, God. That didn’t take her long.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed as I opened the door, but stilled in surprise when Alec stood with a frown on his face. He handed me an envelope. “Young lady was adamant you got this. I have a feeling it’s important so I brought it straight up.”
I nodded, taking it from him and thanking him as I closed the door and tore the envelope open.
My eyes flew over the small piece of paper, my heart fighting to gallop and stop simultaneously. “No.”
Jobe frowned, coming to stand beside me and read the note over my shoulder. “Shit. Fuck,” he choked out when his eyes landed on the name. The same name that had been handed to me not an hour ago, the same name that had hired me to take out Harley Davids. The same name Harley now handed to me as her Number Three.
“Fuck!” Jobe hissed, snatching up his jacket and following me out of the apartment.
I stopped him, grabbing his wrist. “You sure you’re ready to do this?”
“Never more sure.” He fixed me with a stare that told me he wasn’t lying. “She needs to know. She needs to know.”
I nodded. My heart didn’t quite agree with him. This would change everything. Everything. Yet, thought didn’t even come into it. Harley had uncovered Number Three. Mole. The most notorious of the underground hackers. And if he knew she’d discovered who he was, then there was no doubt he would be more than eager to stop her running her mouth.
Twenty-five
Plum smelled the Chinese as soon as I closed the front door behind me and came racing around the corner, her loud mews giving me a much needed smile. “Hungry, puss?”
She purred louder, stroking the top of her head over my leg before pressing her nose to the white bag in my hand.
“Jesus, I swear Evan lives inside you.” I laughed at her ‘grabby hands’, remembering when Evan would do the same. He would have already been snatching the bag out of my hand and diving into each plastic container.
Grabbing a bottle of wine out of the fridge, I sat Plum on the table and shared out the food.
“You know,” I said to her as I watched her shovel down every piece of chicken before she even contemplated the vegetables. “You’ll get acid reflux eating like that.”
Her severe green eyes lifted at my voice and I swear she flipped me off with a look.
I laughed, scooping up my own chicken and loading her plate back up. I wasn’t really that hungry, and I leaned back, drinking the wine as I watched my cat demolish my dinner.
Staring at my phone, I growled in frustration again. It had been two hours since I’d contacted Michael. But nothing. I knew he was playing me, making me work for him. I just wanted it to be over now. Carter would take care of Number Three, and Number Four was mine. Except it wasn’t going as I thought it would.
Grabbing the bottle and my glass I left Plum to finish off as I opened the basement door. Pushing the stump across to hold the door open for Plum to join me when she’d finished, I stepped down. The lights
flicked on with my descent, the room brightening a little more the further in I got.
My kit fired up, activating Spotify as music started to hum through the various speakers around the room, and I sighed as I looked over at Evan’s desk when one of his favourite tunes filled the silence. I couldn’t find it within me to break his shit up yet. I frowned; there was something different, yet I couldn’t put my finger on it. His desk was still exact. Evan had OCD, his desk had to be to his spec at all times, things placed in their correct space and his litter bin no higher than halfway before he would empty it.
I froze.
There it was. Sat precisely in the centre of his desk was his watch. Ben and I had clubbed together one Christmas to buy it. It had been a whack but something Evan had been drooling over for months. And it had been on his wrist when I found him in my hallway. Subconsciously I rubbed at the scab on my arm where I had nicked my skin when I had pulled Evan’s body into my lap.
Closing my eyes, I blew out a breath.
“Hello, Harley. Took you a while, princess.”
The sound of Mole’s voice behind me didn’t make me jump. My heart didn’t gallop. My body didn’t lock down in panic.
I was angrier that I hadn’t seen it, seen him. Once again my stupidity had outdone me.
“I was giving you a head start, Mole.”
I needed to move but my legs wobbled, my feet unsure if they would hold me up if I did.
He laughed, the sick sound making the few items of Chow Mein I had eaten force their way up my dry throat. Swallowing, I finally turned. His smile morphed into a grin where he sat on a small chair under the staircase.
“Always in the dark, Jamie?”
His real name from me made him narrow his eyes, and he tutted. “You know better than that, Queenie.”
I stood firm when he lifted his large body out of the chair, the wood creaking in appreciation after such a weight removed itself. His t-shirt clung to him, huge patches of sweat making the material almost see-through.
Yet, for such a fat guy, he could move. My throat was crushed under his fist in moments. “Now see, I’m a little concerned that some dumb bitch has been tittle-tattling.”
“That would be me.” I had no idea why I said that. I had no idea why I chose to wind the prick up, but hey, that’s the way I, very stupidly, did things.
He quirked an eyebrow at my tone and tightened his grip. “It was all such a long time ago; you should have left it where it was. But you had to dig. You had to push. Michael is not very pleased.”
“Fuck Michael!” I hissed, the sound of his name making my anger flare. I had got myself into this mess and it would be up to me to figure a way out. Although I wasn’t doing such a great job right then. “He should be here, not you.”
He laughed and my feet skidded when he started to push me backwards, the one hand around my throat holding me up. He was strong, as well as obese, I’d give him that. His eyes glinted when he pressed the edge of a blade between my breasts, slicing a nick into my t-shirt. “You really think that you were in control? You’re even more stupid than he says you are.”
“Oh, I’m stupid, alright. Just a dumb bitch me.”
“I’ll admit you’re right there. You see, all your suffering was for nothing. I didn’t make Michael suffer by fucking you; I never intended to. You were just part of the plan. He played you, you fell to his whim and just like that-” He clicked his fingers in my face. “My partner and I ruined Frank Davids’ daughter. We could no longer ruin the man himself, so his offspring became the sacrifice.”
“Don’t mention my dad’s name.”
I spat in his face, gasping when he tightened his hold. The blood began rushing to my face, my cheeks swelling, eyes popping under the force.
“Frank fucking Davids. How’s that Harley Queen?” I would have cried, but Mole held my bodily functions hostage. “What do you think good ol’ Frankie would have done if he saw his precious daughter’s cunt fucked raw? What would he have done if he walked in on your gaping arsehole, puke-covered sheets and your tear-stained porcelain face?”
I needed to cry. I needed to scream. I needed to do something, but I was captured, not only by Fat Jamie, but by the grief that slammed into me with the realisation that I’d missed it all.
“What did Frank have to do with it?” he asked as my mouth moved continuously, trying to form the first ‘w’ of the question. “Well, maybe something. Maybe nothing. But knowledge will cost you, princess.”
The blood drained from his face when my knee found his dick, his jaw dropping with the force as I rammed it into his groin. The second his hand loosened, I dipped under his arm and raced across the room. I just needed to reach my desk drawer. That was all I needed to do. I knew what he intended to do. He’d made me pay before and I had no intention of settling another debt that wasn’t mine to suffer for. I ran as fast as I could, cursing my shaking legs and tight lungs.
Stars burst across my vision when my forehead smacked the edge of the desk and I was hoisted back by my ankles. My nose thudded on the tiles and the sudden pain made my brain squeal.
“That wasn’t so wise,” Mole growled as he pulled me harder. “Now you’ll have to make the pain go away.”
My eyes shot wide and I shook my head. “What? No, you can’t…not again!”
His laugh made my blood freeze and I kicked out at him, but he caught my feet together, grasping them in just one of his giant hands as he grappled with the button of my jeans.
“No!” I screamed as he tore at his own trousers, pulling himself out and battling with me at the same time. He had a strength I was struggling to fight with, his total domination of a situation I thought I had been ready to control was my undoing.
I scratched at him, bit him, hit out at him but he laughed, and he took it like it turned him on, which in hindsight I knew it did. Would he have been so determined if I’d laid meekly and opened my legs for him? I couldn’t answer that, because I would never know.
In one single movement, he flipped me over so I was face down. My heart stopped and my eyes closed as I forced myself to see Evan, to see the image of his handsome face, to hear the echo of his laughter in my head, and to feel his hand slip into mine as Mole kicked my legs open and crushed my face to the floor with a hand to the back of my head. The knife he’d ripped my shirt with dug into my ribs as he shredded my blouse and it fell away, leaving me cold and exposed.
“Time to play again, Harley Davids,” Mole whispered in my ear as the head of his cock rubbed between my legs.
All I heard was my own whimper. All I felt was a complete numbness that trickled into my veins. All I saw was Evan’s face. And all I wanted was to die.
But….it never came. Death, or rape. Neither found me. But insanity did.
Mole’s weight suddenly vanished.
I rolled over, gasping for breath as I sought him out. I found him.
And then I found him…. No. I found them. Two of him. Two Carters staring down at me. The man I had found myself falling in love with was not one person, but two. Two men. Identical. Both with one blue eye and one green, both of them staring at me warily. Waiting for me to figure it out.
Stupidity. Stupid. I’ve been so damn stupid.
I couldn’t look at him—them. It was too implausible. Improbable.
My heart stampeded. The roar of blood pounded in my ears. Tears fell from my eyes as I stared in horror, the sharp sting after not blinking for so long making my vision blur at the edges. The tightness in my chest grew and my lungs started to constrict as the bile stuck in my throat obstructed the oxygen needed to fill them.
I couldn’t look away from the grotesque form laid out before me like a gift - which in a way I suppose he was, his very last breath an offering to me.
His dead eyes fixed on my horror-stricken ones, the blank stare mirroring mine. His head was bent at an angle that couldn’t, shouldn’t, be possible, the severe twist in his neck making his chin rest perfectly between his shoulder blad
es.
My head shook so hard the impact made my body tremble, my muscles constricting to stabilise the rattle in my bones. My jaw clenched when my teeth started to chatter. I was cold; so cold, the icy panic and reality of what lay before me seeping into the marrow of my bones and making me numb. The bass of the music beat in time with my heart, the sharp notes of whatever the singer was saying piercing my soul with every screech and squeal, every sensual hum that filled the void in her song. But not in me. I felt hollow, I felt empty; I felt like a part of me had evaporated when he died. When he was murdered. His life stolen from him before my eyes.
“Harley.”
I blinked once, twice, as he called me again. His voice, low and seductive, firm and unforgiving, sent goose bumps to flare over my skin and burn against the coldness I felt. Finally, my stare shifted to find the source of the soft, coaxing voice. Eyes void of remorse bore into me, stealing the breath I was desperately trying to draw. He held me captive in his gaze, keeping me frozen to the spot, until he took a step towards me. On instinct, I shuffled back.
“No.” I wasn’t sure if I had even managed to speak the word or if my mind had just ordered it because I knew I should want him to stay away.
Nothing was real. Nothing made sense. But then, in so many ways, it did. While my eyes were struggling to define, my mind was sighing in relief. Every single one of my unanswered questions were finally satisfied. So many things that had made me doubt myself slotted into place, yet, still none of them made any sense. The conflict between my eyes and my brain was making me nauseous, and my stomach roiled as I fought to keep a retch contained.
“Let me…”
My head shook harder and I lifted my hands from where they rested on my stomach, attempting to stop him getting any closer. Of course he didn’t obey my silent command…had I expected him to? Did I want him to? In my desperation to figure this out, rationalise what was happening, and force my mind to catch up to grant me some mercy, I needed to look away. I needed to not see, like I had been doing for so long. I needed the ignorance that once felt like a niggling ache for the truth; now it felt like I was being trampled by my own stupidity. They say ignorance is bliss…I could attest to that. I should have run while I had the chance.
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