Healing Danger (Fortis Security Series, #1)

by Maddie Wade

  “Michaels, Griffiths has my daughter,” Marcus stated without emotion, “I don’t think he will kill her straight away, but eventually he will and I still need to deliver her to the Watchers in one piece. Have everyone, and I mean everyone, checking Griffiths’ background. I want every rock uncovered.” Michaels nodded like the dutiful little minion he was. “Do a good job and I will reward you later.” Marcus said running a hand along the bulge in Michaels’ trousers causing the man’s hands to tighten on the steering wheel. He loved manipulating people and he always found Michaels worked better with an incentive.

  ~~~

  Dane was leaving the hospital when he got a call from Smithy, who was watching Marcus, to say that they were currently following Marcus and he was headed their way.

  “Okay, change of plan, you and Tucker stay on him and Sly will pull the rest of the team in to help me.” He hit the disconnect button and immediately it rang again.

  “Yes,” he said abruptly.

  “It’s Drew,” a voice said, “where are you?”

  “I’m just leaving the hospital; Nate is going to be okay after a lot of enforced rest.”

  “Well, I’ve done something and you’re not gonna like it, I need to see you. Can you meet me at Fortis?”

  Dane paused, this did not sound good. “Yes okay, 10 minutes?”

  ”Yes, that’s fine, see you then.” They both hung up.

  ~~~

  It had been a two long hours since Lauren had been taken, he could feel his stomach twist at the thought of her in the hands of that lunatic for even a minute. He’d made a complete mess of things and needed to put it right, starting with getting her back home. Maybe then, he could fix some of the damage he had done by being such an ass.

  He loved her, she’d somehow slipped under his skin, like she belonged there and he didn’t want to know what it felt like without her in his life now. Oh please god no! Please let her be okay, he would spend every day for the rest of his life making it up to her if she would just be okay. She was his soulmate! Dane drove quicker now as if this revelation made everything more urgent.

  Fortis was lit up like Christmas as he entered. Sly and Lucy, their heads close together, were hunched over the surveillance computers that were hooked up to the city. Zack operated a don’t ask don’t tell policy with Will Brightman their tech guy. He carried on past leaving them to concentrate and went into the conference room.

  Crossing to the back he got a cold bottle of Energy drink from the fridge, it was gonna be a long night and he needed the caffeine. It had cooled slightly after the storm relieving the muggy feeling in the air and Dane felt better for it. He sat waiting for Drew and wondering what the hell the kid had done now, he felt sorry for him and admired his computer skills which had turned out to be just as good as he had said, and would with time rival Will’s, but he didn’t trust him in full. He had a slightly wild untamed streak in him that could be either very good or very bad. Drew walked in a few minutes later and sat down catty corner to Dane. He looked like he was about to face his executioner, and he figured out why when he spoke.

  “I got a hold of Marcus and told him what happened and asked for his help,” said Drew in a rush.

  “You did what!” he exploded at the top of his voice.

  “He has contacts everywhere and he already knows Griffiths, you said yourself this plan would work,” Drew defended as, Lucy and Sly came running into the room.

  “What the hell, bro?” his sister said.

  “This moron has contacted daddy and told him what happened,” said Dane, his voice dripping with scorn as he pointed a finger a Drew. Lucy looked at Drew, and shook her head.

  “Jesus Drew, I like you but you really have a gift for winding him up.” she said jerking her thumb at her brother. “Okay, tell me everything?” Drew explained the conversation with Marcus, finishing with when and what time they were meeting.

  “This could work in our favour,” Sly said, “the kid’s got a point about his contacts, and his connection to Griffiths. We’ve had some run-ins with The Divine Watchers and from what we could ascertain they have people from all occupations as members. If we were to get ears in her flat and maybe bug Marcus this might help us bring them both in.”

  “I agree,” said Lucy, and then turned to Drew. “But you’re putting yourself in an awfully vulnerable position Drew, Marcus won’t trust you now and you could be in danger.”

  “I don’t care” he said with all the nonchalance of a 21-year old, “and anyway he’ll only rough me up he won’t kill me.”

  “What about Michaels, he’s already shot you once?”

  “Yeah, I have been thinking about that and I think it was a test to see if Lauren could actually heal me.”

  “That’s quite a risk though, don’t you think?” he said unsure and knowing Lauren would never forgive him if he got her brother hurt.

  “No he only nicked my leg; I don’t think it was meant to kill me. Please guys let me do this?”

  “It’s our best chance.” Lucy surmised.

  Dane paced the room “I don’t know, this plan was good before Lauren was taken, but now we could be putting her right in the crossfire.” After another minute of pacing, he sat down again

  “Fine, but I want eyes in there in case something goes wrong, and you’ll need to get him to make calls to his contacts before he leaves. That way we will get the help and then we can pick him up. We don’t have long so let’s get moving.”

  Everyone started gearing up with comm-units, bugs, and weapons and were on their way twenty minutes later.

  ~~~

  Pulling up around the corner from Lauren’s the team, which now included Drew it seemed, approached the flat from the back in case anyone was watching the front. As they approached, Drew tripped over something.

  He reared back and had to stop the bile that rushed up into his stomach. In front of him were the open sightless eyes of a young man. He was missing his shirt and had a bullet hole in his chest. The others rushed up to him. “Shit!” exclaimed Sly as he bent over the body “This must be the original pizza delivery guy.”

  Dane swore, “Fuck this is the sick son-of-bitch that has Lauren. We’ll put a call into the locals as soon as this has gone down with Preedy. We can’t afford for them to come waltzing in now and fucking this mission up”. Lucy and Sly nodded their agreement.

  Drew stepped away and followed them up the back fire escape to Lauren’s flat. For the first time since this started he was scared. Seeing his first dead body didn’t help, and the realization that he might never see his sister again almost made him drop to his knees. For the first time in his life he felt like he belonged, but he knew he had a way to go to convince Dane. Nevertheless, he still treated him with respect. Fortifying himself for the coming confrontation, Drew vowed to himself that he would do whatever it took to get his sister back.

  Entering the flat, they could see the crime scene techs had left and all that remained was crime scene tape and blood by the door. The room looked normal except for the small amount of white dust used by the forensics people, but it looked like they had been hastily pulled away because there was only dust by the door. Drew watched Lucy, as she went round the flat sweeping for bugs just in case, and was actually surprised when she found one in the phone in the living room. She crushed it under her high-heeled boot and swept the rest of the house.

  “I found one bug by the phone, over there,” she said indicating the living room side table. “But the rest is clear; it was pretty basic-but would have done the job.”

  “I guess we know how Griffiths knew they were having pizza then.” Sly said.

  “How was it missed on the other sweeps?” Dane queried, “And how for that matter did they miss the dead body in the alley out the back?”

  “Not sure, the bug could be a new plant, and maybe the crime scene techs came through the front. It doesn’t look like they did much before they were pulled away. Could be they hadn’t got that far.” she said, shrug
ging, “we’ll have to ask Nate when he’s up to it.” Quickly Lucy planted her much more sophisticated bugs around the flat and tested the feed.

  “I can probably get one camera in by the DVD player but it means you’ll need to try and keep him in here as much as possible,” she said to Drew who nodded. 15 minutes later, they were all done and quietly left, leaving Drew alone to wait for Marcus.

  Dane, Sly and Lucy quickly ran over to the hotel on the corner where Sly had secured them a room.

  “Wow!” Lucy said, walking in to the plushest hotel room she had ever been in. “This is amazing, what a waste to come here for this, I’m definitely coming back here when I get married.” She said breezily, causing Sly to grind his teeth imagining her with Nate. Tamping down his jealousy, and his vision of Lucy crying over Nate, he abruptly started putting all the gear together so that they had sound and visual in Lauren’s living room.

  ~~~

  What’s got his panties in twist? Thought Lucy as she came over to stand next to him. Honestly, men were a complete mystery to her. They watched Drew pace on the live feed. Dane was watching the window intently for any sign of Marcus. His phone pinged with a text. He had texted Tucker earlier and told him to let him know when they were five minutes out and then to pull back.

  “Okay, heads up, he’s on his way,” He said to, Lucy and Sly.

  “Sly, get yourself into position by the bedroom window, it has a better angle. Tuck’s team is already in position on the other major exits. And Eidolon is covering the wider perimeter.”

  “Thank you, boss, I have been the sniper on the team for 9 years, you know.” Sly said dryly.

  “Yeah, sorry, it’s just that this is really important to me.”

  “I know man, I got ya back, don’t worry.”

  Luckily being close to the cathedral meant that this was a dead end street for vehicles, but they could still have someone run and didn’t want to let this chance to capture Marcus go. Sly set up his scope and L96 sniper rifle from the bedroom window. Then they all sat and waited.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Drew couldn’t hear them, but he was sure that they could hear him. They decided not to put a receiver on him, in case Marcus noticed and realised it was a trap. He didn’t know why he was so nervous, he’d faced Marcus a thousand times and each put down or beating had just made him hate him more until all he felt now was loathing for the man that had spawned him.

  Maybe it was because so much was riding on this. It hadn’t always been like that though. When he first went to live with him after his mum died he’d constantly sought his father’s approval-he’d wanted to please him.

  He had quickly realised that Marcus only tolerated him because he was blood and as soon as Drew had started to have an opinion or push back against anything Marcus wanted him to do, and then Marcus would lose it and hand out one of his beatings.

  The only people who had shown him any kindness were the staff, except Michaels. Michaels hated Drew and was jealous of him. Drew suspected that his feelings for Marcus were not exactly that of a boss. He’d seen Michaels leaving his father’s room one night at three in the morning-clad only in his boxers. Not that he’d cared what they got up to.

  Drew’s musings were interrupted by the sound of several vehicles outside in the quiet street. Crossing to the window, he watched Marcus and Michaels get out of the big Land Rover and then Michaels said something to the four goons in the second vehicle.

  Drew walked to unlock the door and opened it to let Marcus and Michaels come in. Drew watched Marcus as he stepped over the threshold with Michaels behind him, careful to avoid the blood. He was dressed in his usual bespoke black suit and designer shirt, his shoes highly polished. He looked around with disdain clearly written all over his face and walked around going into each room checking that nobody was in there.

  “So this is how my baby girl has been forced to live.” Marcus said, mainly to himself with a sniff of distaste. Drew didn’t respond knowing that one wasn’t required. This was not a social call and he had no interest in catching up with his father.

  Marcus had come to stand in front of Drew with Michaels beside him. He knew what was going to happen next, it was the standard procedure.

  Michaels grabbed Drew by the arms, forcing them behind his back. Marcus removed his jacket, folded it neatly and placed it over the chair. Turning back to Drew he let his fist fly, splitting Drew’s lip with the first punch, he then kneed Drew in the stomach, causing all the air to leave Drew’s body. He followed this up with an uppercut to the jaw. Blood was flowing out of Drew’s mouth and he spat it out as Michaels dropped him to the floor. Marcus stepped back, rolled his shoulders, and continued pacing around the room.

  “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in you, Drew. I have given you everything and all I have gotten in return is betrayal, lies, and bad attitude.”

  “You have given me nothing but abuse,” Drew spat, “you have put me down, beaten me, and used me as your free muscle not ever giving me the love and caring of a parent.”

  “Love,” Marcus laughed, “Love is for the weak, it makes you trust people who don’t deserve it. The only person I ever loved betrayed me and when she left she took my daughter.”

  “What about Lauren?” Drew asked

  “What about her? I don’t know Lauren to love her, but she is mine and her place is with me. That is why I have called all my contacts to find her.” Marcus had still not given away his association with Griffiths and Drew knew this could be the last time he saw Marcus. He didn’t feel any pain or hurt from that just relief, but something had always bothered him and now seemed like a good time to confirm it.

  “Did you kill her, did you kill my mother?”

  Marcus laughed “More like put her out of her misery. That whore helped my Martha leave me, and then insinuated herself in to my life and gave me you,” he spat “I did you a favour when I had her killed.”

  Drew felt rage like nothing he had ever felt before and in a show of complete adrenalin lunged at Marcus pummelling him with his fists. He managed to get some hard blows in before Michaels hauled him off him, with a gun to his head. They then proceeded to kick the crap out of him. Drew lay there not feeling most of the blows that rained down on him. He had done all he could now.

  ~~~

  Watching through the camera and listening on the coms, Dane was disgusted as he listened to Marcus talk about Lauren as a possession and hearing how he had treated Drew sickened him. It made him thank God for his own father and gave him a lot more sympathy and understanding for Drew.

  As soon as he heard that Marcus had called in his contacts, he yelled “go, go, go” into the comms. Tuck’s team moved in to secure the four goons by the entrance, while Sly and Dane moved towards the flat.

  When they burst in the door Marcus was so engrossed with beating Drew that he and Michaels never saw them coming. Yanking Marcus off Drew, Dane landed a few vicious blows before putting Marcus in a back hammer lock and zip-tying his wrists. He turned to Sly who had easily subdued Michaels.

  “Let’s get these two to Fortis and get Marcus’s phone to Lucy so she can monitor it.” Preedy had gone deathly calm now.

  “You have just signed your own death warrant boy.” He aimed at Drew. Dane pushed him towards two of Tuck’s team members.

  “Take this trash to Fortis and hold him until I get there.” He knelt down to Drew, the kid was a bloody mess, his face already swollen from all the damage inflicted on it, his lip split open and bleeding, both his eyes were swelling shut and he probably had a few broken ribs. Dane was glad he’d managed to get a couple of blows in on Marcus and wished he’d landed a few more but time was not on their side unfortunately.

  “Hey, kid can you sit up?” he asked. Drew groaned and tried to move. “Lucy,” he said into his comms, “get a medic up here.”

  “No,” groaned Drew, “I’ve had worse, just get me some ibuprofen and I’ll be fine after a few hours.”

  Dane paused “
Okay, let’s see how you are in a few hours then. But I want Sly to check you over when we get to Fortis.” He gripped Drew’s shoulder tightly then. “Well done Drew, your sister would be very proud of you, it was incredibly brave. You really proved yourself tonight. I’m sorry for not trusting you sooner.

  Thank you.”

  “Just hope it helps find her. You will find her won’t you?” Drew said sounding young and frightened for his sister. Dane nodded, hoping like hell that he was telling the truth.

  ~~~

  Lauren woke up as she heard Terry come down the steps.

  “Ah you’re awake, good I have some food for you. Firstly, though I would like to apologise for my reaction last night. I fear it was all the excitement of the evening.”

  “What time is it, please?” she asked politely, not wanting to set him off again.

  “Its 7am my dear. Here I brought you some breakfast, its only toast and tea, but I don’t want you spoilt, you are here to suffer after all. However my lovely Claire wouldn’t understand, so I will try and treat you well until it becomes time for this to end.”

  Lauren trembled. She knew that the end would probably involve her painful death. She accepted the toast and tea because she wanted to keep her strength up in case an opportunity to escape presented itself.

  “Thank you,” she said, nibbling on the dry toast as he held it out to her.

  “I’m going to go out in a bit, but first I will take you to the little girl’s room to relieve yourself.” He untied her legs, but left her wrists bound in front of her. Taking her by the arm, he guided her up the steps into the main house, which was filled with old dated furniture from the 80s. The walls were all mildewed and stained and it smelled damp.

  “Here,” he said, pushing her towards a small room that contained a toilet and sink, “do your business and don’t lock the door or I will punish you.”

  Lauren quickly relieved herself and washed her hands, she splashed her face with water and after eyeing the stained towel decided to air dry rather than catch something from that. She opened the door and Griffiths walked her back down to the cellar. He went to tie her legs back up.