“Yep, imagine my surprise at seeing his girlfriend or should I say fiancée? Winter’s right, you’re an asshole.” Keely leaves the coffees on the table and exits the conference room.
“Damn, you’re all like incestuous rabbits.” This comes from Sabine who is looking at Asher with such contempt that I’m actually surprised that she hasn’t leapt across the table to bitch slap him.
“You can only be incest if you’re related.” Her husband Dwayne informs her.
“You are all family. One big fucked up, incestuous family.” Ah, she’s right. Everyone at this table has been with someone in this family. Well except for the newbie’s.
“Talking about family. One of us needs help, and I’ve promised that we will.” That gets all our full attention as Oscar begins to place a photo in front of us all.
“Who is this and what has he done?” Patrick asks the question I’m wondering.
“That is Misha Brezhnev; he’s a former KGB member in his late forties…” Oscar tells us, and I’m still wondering why that’s of any importance to us.
Sabine lets out a low whistle, “Damn, that man is fine for nearly hitting fifty. He looks to be in his early thirties.”
“Well, Misha was last seen throwing Addison Taylor’s cell into the river Thames two nights ago. Addison is missing, and the house she was staying in is a crime scene.”
I’m up on my feet, “Where the hell is Skye?” Where is my wife?
“She landed in London around seven this morning our time.”
“And you’re only telling me now? What the fuck is wrong with you?” I start pacing the room; he let her go to London by herself when someone could have hurt her sister.
“Okay, calm down! This isn’t helping anyone, Oscar, tell us everything.” Soph says, and I know that she’s barely able to control her anger too, we are family and when one of us needs help we all help.
“When Skye got home last night her parents were waiting for her. They were due to meet Addison at JFK and when she didn’t show they tried calling her but got no answer. They then went to Skye’s house, and Skye traced her cell to find the last place it pinged was from a tower was at three in the morning UK time from the Royal Docks in London. Not only was Addison’s cell there, but Addison’s friends was too.” This is a clusterfuck of all proportions.
“Henry and I managed to get into London’s CCTV footage of the Docks, and we saw Misha stamp on the cell phones and throw them into the river. When he turned to get back into his car, we saw this.” He hits some keys on his laptop, and the big screen lights up, and there is that Misha dude, and he’s covered in blood.
“Shit, Skye can’t be dealing with this. The stress isn’t good for her or the bab…” I watch as Morgan launches forward and puts her hand over Sabine’s mouth trying to block what she was saying and then when she’s satisfied that Sabine won’t say anything more she punches her in the arm for good measure.
“Wait, Skye’s pregnant? That is so cool.” Maisey says with a huge smile, but the look on Morgan’s face makes that smile vanish pretty quickly.
“How far along is she?” It’s not a question; it’s a demand. I need to know, and I need to know now, I look at Morgan, and she just stares at me with stubbornness.
“Oh my God, Moy. You don’t stare at the beast. It’s like poking a bear with a stick, are you crazy?” Sabine says to her, and I see Dwayne’s shoulders start to shake as he tries his hardest to keep his laughter under control.
“Seventeen weeks.” My head swings to Oscar.
“You knew, and you never told me?” Seventeen weeks, that’s roughly when we were in Vegas, the baby’s mine. Not that it would matter, Skye’s mine and any kid she has will be mine too.
“She never told me if that’s what you're thinking. It was easy to see; how no one else saw it I don’t know.” He starts shaking his head at us as if we're the ones that have done something wrong.
“Look, Ryder; she was going to tell you. She needed to come to terms with it herself first and then she wanted to get the courage to tell you and have the strength to stand up to you.” Morgan explains it doesn’t help though.
“Stand up to me?”
“Yeah, you can be a bit controlling in certain situations.” Morgan is trying to be diplomatic, but it isn’t working, especially when Sophia starts laughing. “You have to understand, Skye loves you and I mean loves you like I love Luke loves you. You rejected her on more than one occasion and in doing that you ripped her self-esteem to shreds. So, when you got married and told her that you two wouldn’t be together, but you won’t get a divorce or an annulment, you killed her. Then she finds out she’s pregnant and she’s finally happy, the happiest I have ever seen her, and she has you to deal with. So yeah, she doesn’t want you coming in and taking over her life, she wants to be able to make decisions herself.”
“I wouldn’t have done that.” I implore but no one believes me, they’re all looking at me with disbelieving faces.
“Yes, you would have, and we get that, it’s who you are, and Skye gets that too, but she doesn’t need the stress of having to deal with your craziness while she’s carrying your baby!” Damn, Morgan’s threatening me.
“Fine, I’ll let her set the rules, and I’ll tow them. Now, what do you need us to do?” Not that I’ll be doing much over the next few hours, I’m getting the first flight available to London. I’m not letting Skye go through this herself, even if she wasn’t pregnant I’d still go; she’s my wife, and I love her.
“Maisey, can you call your contact in MI5 and see what they know about what happened in the house and if they know of Misha? All the information is in the files I have in front of you all.” Maisey nods and picks up the documents before leaving the room.
“Sam, you still have a contact in Interpol, right?” Sam nods, and I watch as Winter takes his hand into both of hers. “Find out what they know about Misha, if anyone’s going to know about him, they are. I want to know who his associates are.” Sam nods yet again, and both he and Winter leave the room.
“Patrick, Steven and Morgan, do any of you know anyone in the Metropolitan Police Department in London?” Patrick raises his hand, and Steven nods whereas Morgan shakes her head. “Well can you all work together, we need every bit of information about what happened in that house as we can get if you don’t have contacts; make them.” Geez, someone got bossy overnight. Steven, Morgan, Luke and Patrick leave but not before she gives me a look that tells me I’m dead if I hurt Skye.
“Want us to liaise with Henry and see if any of our contacts know anything?” Nathan says, and it’s actually a clever idea, someone has to know something and the more people we ask, the better chance we have of finding something.
“Yeah, that would be awesome. I take it Soph will be going with you?” Sophia doesn’t say anything, but we both know that means yes. “Okay, we’ll do a conference tomorrow morning, and we’ll get Skye on the line, I spoke to her this morning, but she was tired, and we decided that a conference call tomorrow would be better as she’d be able to do a bit of recon tonight.” The members of P.I.G.S leave and take Sophia and Sabine with them. Damn, this room is emptying quickly, leaving only Will, Gareth, Oscar and myself left.
“You two see if Henry needs any help,” I tell them as I want to speak to Oscar alone, the two of them waste no time in rushing out of the room. “I’m going after her; I can’t let her be alone.”
He smiles at me and throws another file in front of me, “I knew you would say that, so I have you on the next flight that leaves for London, so you have three hours to get ready.” He walks out to leave me alone as I look down at the two files on the table along with the picture of Misha.
I hate flying, and a seven-hour flight is the worst flight in the world. It’s eleven in the evening here and knowing Skye she’s probably in the middle of nowhere seeing what she can find. I take out my cell and call Oscar. Hopefully, he knows where she is and can point me in the r
ight direction.
“Hey, I’m just out of the airport; do you know where Skye is?”
He sounds as though I’ve woken him up; he knew I’d be arriving at around this time, so he should be alert just in case I need him, hence the call. “Hey, how was the flight?”
“Crap, do you know where Skye is?” I’m tired and hungry, and my legs are cramped from sitting in those shit economy seats.
“Let me call her, and I’ll call you back, start heading toward the hotel as that’ll be central to everywhere you’ll need to go.” He doesn’t even wait for me to respond before hanging up.
It’s easy enough to find a taxi; I can’t be dealing with getting on public transport right now because I’m dog tired and all I want to do is see Skye and make sure that she’s alright.
“Is this your first time to London?” The taxi driver asks me, does he expect me to answer him? “Hmm?” He actually does what the hell!
“Yes, it is.” I sit back in my seat and close my eyes; it’s a sign that I don’t want to talk.
“You’re in for a real treat! London is one of the best cities in the world; there’s nothing to compare it to.” Fucking hell, why is it that out of all the taxi’s I had to get the chattiest fucker in the world? I keep my eyes shut but don’t answer him; I don’t do small talk. Hell, I hardly fucking talk on a good day.
Thankfully the driver got the message and turned the music up; the downside to that was him singing along to Taylor Swift. I tip him well, as I was an ass but hey, nothing new there. The driver looks as though I’ve made his day, “Thanks, man, I really appreciate it. Have a good trip.” He smiles at me and drives off. At least I’m at the hotel, but Oscar hasn’t called back yet, and I’m getting anxious. Where the hell is Skye?
I check into the hotel, and I’m on the third floor, it’s not the best room I’ve stayed in, but it’s a hell of a lot better than some of the places I’ve stayed before. I strip down and have a quick shower, hoping that it will ease some of the tension in my body. Feeling the water cascading down onto my shoulder blades, I’m taken back to my senior year in high school and the car crash that killed my mom.
“Shut up, just shut up; I’m sick of your goddamn excuses!” I turn and shout at her, and I watch as the tears roll down her face, I can’t seem to bring myself to care anymore. She’s lied to me so much already, I hate her, and I’ll never forgive her. The sound of the rain battering against the car is loud compared to the silence coming from this woman in behind me.
I hear a car horn and I quickly right myself as my mom screams. All I can see is bright lights; they’re way too close to me. I swerve to try and get out of the way but it’s too late, we’re hit at full speed! The screams are getting louder as my Dodge Charger is flipped and it rolls, and rolls and I don’t know if it will ever stop. The screams that were coming from the back have stopped, I try and move, but my legs are trapped. I need to move, I reach down and try and pull my legs free but it’s no use.
“Mom? Mom, talk to me, mom!” I scream at her, why isn’t she talking to me?
That day, a part of me died! I killed my mom, and it’s something I’ll never forgive myself for. Sometimes when I hear the sound of rain or water running takes me back to that fateful night where my entire world changed. So much for easing some of the tension, if anything it’s made it worse.
I quickly finish in the shower, and once I’m out I wrap a towel around my waist and check my cell, and there are no missed calls. What the hell is going on, why hasn’t Oscar called me? How long does it take to locate someone? I call him, and it just rings out… What the fuck is happening. Fuck it, I pull up Henry’s cell and call him instead. My temper has risen through the roof, and I’m ready to lose it altogether.
“Boss…”
I cut him off; he was probably going to give me some excuse as to why Oscar hasn’t his cell. “Where the hell is Oscar?”
“Um boss, he’s kind of caught up with something at the moment.” He seems nervous, and that’s something I hate especially when I’m not there.
“Put him on the goddamn cell now.” I can hear a muffled conversation in the background. I don’t care what the hell he’s doing; I want to know where Skye is.
“Fucking hell Ryder! I’m busy that’s why I didn’t answer your call.” The asshole bites my head off as soon as he comes on the line.
“Yeah, it’s been well over an hour! Where the hell is my wife?” Yeah, two people can play an asshole, but you won’t win. I’ve been like this since I was seventeen and nothing can change that.
“She’s on her way back to the hotel; she should be there in about ten minutes. I’ll let her fill you in on what she’s found out. Oh, and she knows you’ll be waiting for her.” He hangs up, and he’s lucky he’s not near me right now, I’m pissed off, and I feel like hitting something to get rid of this damn anger.
I walk down to the lobby of the hotel; I hate being stuck in a damn elevator when I don’t need to be. Being enclosed like that reminds me of being trapped in my car, so I take myself out of situations like that plus using the stairs is a great form of exercise. I decide that I’ll wait for her outside, fresh air may just be what I need, that and I want to lay eyes on her as soon as she gets here. I’m not waiting too long as a taxi pulls up outside the hotel and out steps Skye.
As she starts to walk towards me, I look into her eyes, and I try not to flinch as they look haunted. She looks devastated and heartbroken and the last time I saw her even anywhere close to this state was in Afghanistan where she had given up on herself and life and wanted our torment to end. As I look over the rest of her body, I see that she has gotten a bit curvier and I’m kicking myself for not noticing before now. When it comes to Skye, I’ve made a hell of a lot of mistakes, and I don’t know if she will forgive me or even if I’m worthy of being with her. I don’t want to hurt her, and anyone I care about gets hurt. Skye means more to me than anyone has, and that is what scares me the most.
“Hi, Ryder.” She sounds lost, and I do the only thing I can think of, I open my arms, and she walks straight into them.
Chapter Nine
Ryder
“So, tell me what you’ve found out so far?” I ask her as we take a seat at some fast food joint; I hope we don’t get food poisoning. It was the first one we came across, and the both of us are really hungry, and it’s pretty late, and the hotel’s restaurant was closed.
“I went to the bar that Addi, Gloria and I went the first night we were here. I was there at about eight, as it’s the time it generally gets busy; I was going to ask some of the customers if I couldn’t find anything. The bar is where Gloria met that Misha guy. I was hoping that the bartender that was flirting with us would remember us and may have remembered if both Addi and Gloria had gone back there or if Misha had.” Her voice hitches every time she says Addison’s name.
“Okay and was that bartender there?” I try and keep the disdain out of my voice as I say, bartender. It’s my own fault that he had the chance to flirt with my wife.
“No, but there was a different one, and I showed him a picture of Addi first, and he remembered her. He told me that she and her friend were regulars, they’d come into the bar every night after Addi finished work.” She stops talking as our food arrives and we both start to eat, it’s not that bad.
“I showed him a picture of Misha, and he told me that Misha was always with Gloria and Addi whenever they came in. Also, he told me that Misha’s friends would come in and he was really nice and let me email the footage to Oscar, who is going through it and seeing if they can find out who they are because so far they haven’t found out anything.” She can’t hide her disappointment at them not finding anything out, and I can’t blame her. They’ve all got contacts, and they all should have found everything there is to know about this fucker by now.
“You’ve got some good information that hopefully, they can use to get more. Now, what is your next step?” She’s leading this inve
stigation, and I’ll give input as to where I think it’ll be needed but other than that, I’m following her lead.
“Tomorrow, I’m talking to Gloria’s neighbors. They have to know something especially as one of them called the cops.” She’s got a plan, and it seems solid.
“That’s a great idea, have you thought about talking to the cops?” I think if she can talk to a cop and hopefully get them to tell us what they know we may get further.
Her eyes light up with my praise, “I have thought about it, but I wasn’t sure how well it would go down.”
“It’s something to think about; I know that Patrick, Morgan and Steven were either talking to their contacts or making contacts within the Met police. Hopefully, they’ll have something for us, if not we may have to contact the police ourselves. Addi is officially a missing person; you may want to make a report.” Making a report could help them give her info.
“Okay, we’ll wait for the conference call before we make any plans although I think making a missing person’s report will be good and help push the investigation into hers and Gloria’s whereabouts.” She seems positive, and I want to keep it that way, we finish eating and leave the fast food joint, I may come back again if we can’t find a restaurant.
We need to talk, and I want to do it tonight, but I’m going to have to test the waters first. I don’t want to cause her any more hurt. We start walking back to the hotel, and I decide now’s the time to try, but fuck me I have no idea what I’m going to say. So, I say whatever comes to mind, “Skye, I know that you’re pregnant and don’t want me to boss you around or anything, but I’d love to be a part of my baby’s life.” Shit that came out wrong.
She looks at me like I’ve lost my damn mind and I think I may have, “Ryder, I want you to be a part of our baby’s life. I want our baby to know his or her dad, why did you think I wouldn’t let you be a part of it?”
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