Ninja School Mum

by Lizzie Chantree

  ‘He was killed on a job when Leo was a baby. I crawled home to a tiny cottage my parents had bought on a whim one year. I hadn’t ever got round to selling it as it was unregistered and probably illegally built. The architects had conned dad and made him pay in cash, so there was no trail to me. As soon as the builders had the money, they abandoned the place. My parents didn’t seem to care as they thought it was a romantic setting. They planned to leave it for years so that the site became legally theirs and they could finish building their dream home. They died before this could happen. I carry the property deeds with me everywhere. Mum and dad would have been glad to know the house kept Leo and me safe. I stayed there licking my wounds. I must have known I would need the old place one day.

  ‘I couldn’t even have a funeral for Reece, as he didn’t officially exist. There was an explosion when he was killed, removing all traces of him. My whole field team was gone and I was the only one who survived, as I wasn’t there that day. I blamed myself for years. I still do in a way,’ Skye mused sadly. ‘If I had set the meeting up, maybe something wouldn’t have gone wrong. Instead, I was sitting at home with a baby I had no idea how to look after, feeling responsible for killing his father.’

  ‘One day I woke up, looked at my son and decided that I needed to start my life again before Leo’s world crumbled to nothing, or someone worked out where we were. It was only a short while after Reece’s death, but I knew that the people who killed my team were probably looking for me, too. I went in to work once after Reece had died, and they offered to hide me, but the only way our target could have found the team was for them to have had someone on the inside. The only people left were me and our handler, Marcus. It had to be him,’ Skye said, with such hatred in her voice that Thea shivered. ‘I couldn’t risk him knowing where I was, so I disappeared. I’d cultivated a few tricks of my own over the years and had memorised everything in case I ever needed it. I had never been so thankful that I’m a quick study after Leo and I were alone. The agency wanted me to come in for a debriefing, but I told them I was too filled with grief, which was true, and they had no choice but to give me time to heal. I used that to run.’

  Skye was emotionally exhausted and rubbed tired eyes, as her bones had become heavy and lethargic. ‘I’m mentally drained now. It’s been years and, although I’m good at hiding, if they wanted to find me, they would have done by now. I’m tired of running and Leo needs a home.’ Thea got up and walked round the table, pulling a reluctant Skye into a warm hug. After a moment’s hesitation at the unfamiliar contact, Skye sank into Thea’s arms and let her friend comfort her. She hadn’t realised how much she had missed having someone hold her until this moment, but there was no going back now. Her heart was slowly thawing and maybe she could finally re-enter the real world.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Thea slumped onto her couch in exhaustion. Flo had been really grizzly tonight and she’d felt a bit hot. It had taken ages to cool her off and bath time had been a struggle as they were both tired after a long day.

  She thought back over the conversation she’d had with Skye and felt warmth spread in her stomach as she remembered the way her friend had trusted her with her life story. She felt proud that Skye had opened up to her. The story was so tragic, with both her parents and husband dying suddenly. She felt it in her bones that Skye was telling the truth but, as with many former agents, the lies were ingrained after years of being someone else and memories, many of which could be violent and disturbing, got distorted, lines became blurred and the real person inside could easily get lost.

  Some of the people Thea worked with were positively glad to leave their old lives behind, but Skye was different. Thea could tell she still mourned the loss of her parents, and her husband must have been pretty special to have taken on a woman like her. From the love in her voice when she described him, Thea could tell he was the love of her life. Thea bit back the bile that rose in her throat as she thought about the man who had been the grand passion in her own life and sunk even further into the couch when she acknowledged, humiliatingly, that she had been used. A tear escaped from her eye and she angrily brushed it away. He’d had enough of her tears. She was stronger now and refused to cry over such a heartless man again.

  She had thought she had found a love like Skye’s, but she’d been so wrong. How she could have thought a man like Flo’s dad would be interested in a fat dumpling like her, she would never know. She had grown in confidence over the years at LUCAN, but had been surprised when he pursued her. She had been so overwhelmed with lust that she hadn’t questioned it. He was a professional liar and she should have known better.

  She might hate her old boss for telling Thea she was sleeping with him too and was bored with sharing, but at least Thea had had the last word and left with her head held high. She had made ardent love with him one last time and then coldly told him she didn’t want to see him again. She ignored his shocked expression and pleading tones and had literally disappeared. She knew how to erase any trace of her former life and, as he hadn’t known her then, he couldn’t start now. Not that he had looked for her anyway, as far as she could tell. Why would he? He didn’t love her and she hadn’t told him about Flo. What a chump! He’d said time and time again that he didn’t want to bring children into this world after the atrocities he had seen. So, as far as Thea was concerned, she was protecting her child from a father who didn’t want her and preventing her own heart from being broken into even more pieces than it was now. A wall of ice had encased her heart, until the moment she held her daughter for the first time, and it had come crashing down. The love she had for Flo was unparalleled by anything she had felt before. It was the one thing she thanked him for.

  Thea derided herself that she could have probably given birth and barely noticed as she had so much blubber around her waist. She was going to stop eating cakes and start getting fitter, she decided tiredly, not having the energy to lift the glass of wine she had grabbed from the fridge in desperation before she sat down. She kept an emergency bottle in there, which was for times when she almost picked up the phone and told her ex about his daughter but, as she was breastfeeding, she hadn’t even had the balls to take more than a sip each time. Thea pushed the glass away in disgust. She had finally begun to wean Flo onto solid food and formula, so she would soon be able to enjoy a glass without feeling like a bad mother. She’d been stuffing her face with cake to help with her desperation over her latest predicament, but if Skye could overcome what she had been through, then the least Thea could do was try harder.

  She felt her eyelids begin to droop and she closed her eyes and sank deeper into the folds of the soft blue couch. If she could just rest for an hour or so, then she would have more energy to sort her life out, instead of existing from day to day in a haze of misery.

  Thea started thinking back to the first day at work where she had walked into the discreet reception at LUCAN and a smile lifted her lips. It had been a fabulous time in her life back then and she had felt, perhaps for the first time ever, that she was competent and useful and could conquer the world. She had held her shoulders back and portrayed an air of confidence that she hadn’t really felt. It was a new start for her and she had grabbed it with both hands.

  Thea had been introduced to her team and told how the training would work. She had a room of her own onsite with everything she could need. It was like a small town and she couldn’t believe she was part of such an important scheme. They had picked her for her ability to analyse problems and find a rapid solution and, over the coming months, she had honed her skills until she was the best she could be in her field. There was no more walked-all-over Thea, she was at the top of her game. Then her ex caught her eye and, although she was surprised he was interested in her, she grabbed him too. He had told her, much later, that he liked her calming influence and delectable backside! Thea’s face had flamed with mortification but, in reality, she had been secretly flattered as nobody had spoken to her that way before.
He said she reassured him and ignored his impulsive mood swings and crazy ideas about putting the world to rights. Thea listened without judgement and gave him the stability he needed to stop him from jumping into every dangerous situation he encountered. What Thea got from him, she now realised with clarity, was the amazing sex that had been missing in her life and, if she had to soothe him to get his beautiful body in her bed every night, then the deal was well worth her effort.

  Thea had smiled constantly for the two years they were together, and must have looked a bit smug right up until the day her boss, Lexi, had strolled in with her skinny jean-clad body and her sneering face, lips plastered with red lipstick, to taunt her. Thea had gasped in shock at the news although, if she was honest, she had always been waiting for this moment. It was as if she had expected that this happiness couldn’t be real or last. Flo’s dad was too wild and dangerous to be tamed by one woman and she had been a fool to believe she had finally been the one to do it.

  Thea drifted off to sleep, remembering what it felt like to be desired by a man like that. He had made her feel like she was the only woman in the world for him. If only she had been.

  Chapter Twenty

  Skye and Thea had slipped easily into a routine over the last two weeks and Skye felt that they were connecting in a way she had steered well clear of in recent years. They were forming a strong friendship and had begun to rely on each other. Skye hadn’t needed anyone for years and was nervous about being vulnerable again.

  Skye walked Leo to school and felt physically drained. She had lain awake every night thinking about what Thea had said. How had they both turned up here? Was it some sort of test? Had they both been sent here on purpose? She recalled how she had found this place and chosen the estate cottages to live in, and her blood ran cold. She had used conventional methods, and not the internet, to find a new place to live. She had looked at newspapers and gone into the library of her old town and seen a poster about the estate and cottages and how they were being refurbished and would be ready for new tenants soon. She had also seen an article in a country magazine about an eccentric old man who owned the estate and cottages. It certainly hadn’t been about Zack, as women would have flocked from far and wide if there had been a picture of his muscular frame and moody countenance, although the man in the photo did have Zack’s dark eyes, she now recalled. He’d been about seventy and was dressed with the flair of the eccentric, with brightly coloured clothes and a cravat tied jauntily at his neck. He had been beaming into the camera and she had been drawn to him immediately. Skye had squirreled the magazine into her coat and taken it out to read in detail when she got home.

  Skye’s stomach flipped; could the article have been a plant? She used the library regularly, although she visited it at different times out of habit, so that anyone planning to grab her couldn’t bank on her movements at any one time. Could they know her phone number and have seen the quick photo she had taken of the estate? She changed her number every time she moved, as she cut contact with everyone she left behind without a backward glance. She didn’t keep their details, what would be the point? Skye generally became someone new every time she moved, but for the last two years she hadn’t bothered to change things again. Leo was getting fed up with remembering each new name and history and she’d decided enough was enough. Only Reece knew the pet name her father had called her: Skye. He knew he could use it when they were alone and had loved their secret. He used to say she lifted him to the sky and the stars when they were together and the name was perfect for her.

  Could LUCAN have used the photo to tempt her here? Hundreds of questions filled Skye’s mind and her heart started hammering in her chest. Had Thea been planted here to remind her of her old job? Had they been placed together to make them realise that they could never really escape that world?

  As they drew near the school, Skye bent down to kiss her son, who scowled with embarrassment and hurried off, stopping suddenly to send her an apologetic grin before seeing one of his friends and rushing up to greet them. Skye smiled at his sudden independence, then turned sadly away as she realised that he would be a grown-up before she knew it. He might want to travel and his plans would most likely not revolve around her. She would have to stop being so paranoid and make a life of her own someday soon and stop concentrating her efforts on her son.

  Turning towards home, Skye kept her eyes on the ground. She wasn’t in the mood to be polite to anyone today, not that this day was any different from any other, but she wanted to be alone to process what she had learned and assess their vulnerability.

  As she turned the corner at the bottom of the road towards her cottage, the hairs on the back of her neck started to stand on end, and she instinctively looked around in time to see a man turn and cross the street in the opposite direction. She wouldn’t normally make anything of this, but something about the way he turned at the exact moment he did, made her think he had been following her. She picked up speed and walked towards a different lane from her own, darting behind a low hedge as she passed, then slipping into a nearby field to place her back up against a tree and check carefully to see if he was following her. After an age of watching and waiting, she chastised herself for becoming so paranoid since she had met Thea. Why would someone be watching her after all this time? It was ridiculous!

  Staying towards the edge of the field and then doubling back towards the road, Skye found a gap in the prickly green hedge and briskly jogged home, letting herself in with practised ease. Scoping the room and checking for any irregularities, she let out the breath she had been holding and sagged in relief when everything was as it should be. Out of habit, she ran up the stairs two at a time and flung open the wardrobe, sighing in relief that the suitcase she always had packed and ready with spare clothes and essentials was waiting patiently for her to grab at a moment’s notice. Anything else they needed could be bought along the way. She would miss Thea, Flo and Allie, but Leo was her priority.

  Throwing herself down onto the bed and putting her head in her hands, Skye felt like she wanted to weep. She had stayed strong for so long, but since she had come here, she had felt herself soften and some of the old Skye return. She had been called Sasha back then but, because her dad had said her eyes were as bright as the summer sky, the nickname had stuck. She wasn’t sure why she’d chosen the name to use now but it had felt right, just as it had also been time to begin surveying a different area to start a new life.

  Reaching into her jeans pocket for her phone, Skye wondered if Thea could get her a fancy one like hers, as she was pretty sure that Thea’s phone was about as secure as you could get and was a better idea than Skye’s burner model. She dialled Thea’s number from memory. It was an old trick she had acquired, she never wrote anything down but memorised things, sometimes for years. She had put occasional numbers in her old phones, but mainly ones which she didn’t use regularly, to throw anyone off her scent.

  Thea answered after the third ring and sounded surprised to hear from her so soon, as they had spent all of the previous day together eating cake and enjoying the view of the muscly men that kept appearing at the door of the gym opposite the coffee shop they’d been in. But Thea had wondered aloud if Skye would panic about the bond they were forming and the secrets they had shared and said she wouldn’t have been astonished if the next time she visited the cottage it was empty. Skye knew it was ingrained for agents to keep moving their base and to abstain from making real friends. It was safer for everyone that way.

  ‘Thea,’ said Skye urgently. ‘Can you come round? Bring some ice cream and chocolate if you have any. It’s either that or vodka and I know that you’re not keen on alcohol at the moment. I’m feeling like running,’ she said honestly.

  Skye had put gravel on the little winding pathway up to the front door a week ago, and just ten minutes later it crunched underfoot, alerting her that Thea had arrived. Skye peered into the tiny glass spyhole she had discreetly drilled into the door and opened the door wide, just
as Thea raised her arm to knock. Thea was dragging the pram along behind her, with a huge slab of chocolate cake balancing on Flo’s legs, and the roses she had hastily grabbed from her garden on the way past were rammed in the basket underneath. Dragging the pram inside and knocking a few of the blooms off as she passed, Thea reached down and handed them to Skye with an apologetic smile at the state of them.

  Skye took the offering with a wonky smile and walked the few strides into her kitchen, to see if the landlord had thought to add a vase to the cottage’s inventory. Luckily, he had. It looked like it belonged to the original cottage as it was cut glass and didn’t fit with the clean lines and minimal décor of the rooms inside. Skye held the vase under the kitchen tap, filled it and then placed the roses, almost reverently, into the water. Her eyes watered and she squeezed them tightly shut.

  Thea came up beside her and touched her arm in concern, seeming surprised that bringing flowers had upset Skye so much. ‘I assumed from the phone call that you were jittery from our daily conversations, or that you’d found out something more about Miles being a pain at school and decided you had had enough?’ The tense line of Skye’s shoulders and the tears in her eyes told another story. ‘You’re so strong, Skye. I thought you were joking around when you said you were thinking of running. A woman like you wouldn’t be scared of what I told you about my past, surely?’ Thea looked really troubled now and started pacing around the small room.

  ‘Reece used to bring me roses,’ said Skye, sniffing unflatteringly into her hand and wiping the tears with the back of her arm, leaving streaks of mascara running across her face. She placed the vase of scented blooms in the centre of her tiny dining table, underneath the window in the kitchen.