Fool’s Errand: Cartwright Brothers, Book 4

by Anderson, Lilliana

  “The ones you spent your summer school holidays with?”

  “Yes. We reconnected, and now—”

  “The shit has hit the fan.”

  “A little. But it was a means to an end and it’s because of your help that my child will grow up knowing his father.”

  “You’re pregnant to that guy in there?”

  “Engaged to him too.” I held up my hand, showing him the ring.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose, the way he always did whenever I frustrated him. “Jesus, Sloane.”

  I smiled. “I never did do things by halves.”

  “That’s true.” He took the last drag of his cigarette then flicked the butt somewhere into the damp grass. “Are you happy at least in this…this chaos?”

  “Yes,” I said, biting my lip to stop the smile from taking over. “Very.”

  “OK. I guess…” He leaned his elbows on the railing and ran his hands over his face. “I never wanted to hurt you,” he said suddenly. “You know, over the whole marriage and kids thing. I…I never thought I wanted it.”

  “Then you met her and you did.”

  He pressed his lips together and nodded.

  “I get it,” I said with a deep breath. “At the time, I really didn’t understand at all. But, now I do. It wasn’t right with us. We weren’t right for each other.”

  “Probably should have stayed just friends.”

  I nodded. “Yes. We were only ever friends with blurry lines.”

  “You really think this is the right guy for you though?”

  “I don’t think it, Mark, I know. And if there’s any part of you who still cares about me, I need you to never breathe a word of what happened here tonight. Not even to Terry.”

  “I get it, Sloane. Your secret life is safe with me, I promise. One last secret for the best-friend vault.” He held out his hand and I took it.

  “One more for the vault.” We shook twice then hugged, a final goodbye to a lifelong friendship. I wasn’t sad. I was only grateful. This was a better way to say goodbye, knowing that everything that had happened between Mark and me had led me to Abbot. Back to Abbot. There was only happiness in that.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  War is Coming

  The next morning, Mark left the safe house giving strict instructions on Abbot’s care to ensure he recovered properly. “Call me if he has any difficulty breathing.”

  “I will. Thanks again, Mark. You are truly an amazing friend.”

  “Yeah, remind me of that while I’m in the doghouse with Terry.”

  “Tell her you were called to the scene of an accident. Then you aren’t lying.”

  He gave me a half-smile before he enveloped me in a hug. “Good luck with the baby. You’ll make a great mum.”

  “You think?”

  “I know.” When he let go, he looked at the farmhouse and frowned. “Goodbye, Sloane.”

  When he drove off, I waited until he was off the property before I went inside to the rest of the family, the last few bikers all being transported back to their world before the sun came up. Breaker was still here, but there were whispers about him leaving too. The drug heist and the resulting shootout was all over the news. Both the smugglers and the Grim Order had suffered casualties and the heat was on, so all involved would need to lie low.

  “What about us?” Holland asked, her primary concern of course being the baby, who was only a couple of months away from being born.

  “We need to lie low too,” Jasmine said. “Grey is still a problem and my guess is we’ll be questioned at some point. But if we keep our heads down and deny any involvement, there’ll be no reason to link us.”

  “What about blood at the scene?” I asked, worried about Abbot.

  “The truck was torched,” Breaker assured us. “The rest of the place was a blood bath of my boys and Grey’s boys. But, war’s comin’. I promise you that.”

  Jasmine set her jaw. “No one crosses us and gets away with it.”

  I imagined tough times ahead, especially for the Grim Order guys. They were rarely out of the papers normally and today were splashed all over it. Drug Related Massacre: Smugglers vs Grim Order, the most prominent headline.

  “You know, I don’t think they did get away with it,” Alesha said, holding the folded broadsheet in her hand. When she turned it to show the rest of the room, a different headline jumped out, Related: Couple Found Dead in Torquay Home.

  Ronnie rushed Alesha and took the paper from her hands, scanning the article with desperate eyes. “Oh no,” she gasped, her hand over her mouth. “Maree.”

  “I’m sorry, doll,” Kristian said, sliding his arms around his wife. She turned and dropped the paper on the floor, sobbing against his chest.

  I wasn’t fully aware with her involvement with these people, but I knew enough to know she felt responsible for the job going sour. I felt terrible for her, from what I’d gathered, she’d done what she could to save these people. It was their greed that had gotten the best of them.

  War is coming…

  Touching my hand to my stomach, I pushed my fear down, hoping we’d all survive this period of retaliation. It was a scary time to be bringing a baby into this world.

  “I should get back to Abbot,” I said, turning away from the living room scene.

  “Mark get off OK?” Jasmine asked before I made it to the door.

  “Yeah. He’s trustworthy, won’t say a thing to jeopardise his career or his marriage. So…” I shrugged, feeling the emotion in the room pushing in around me.

  “We’re going to be fine,” she assured me, guiding me to the kitchen by the elbow. “Breaker’s men won’t allow anything to happen to us or your babies.” I bloody hoped so.

  “What about your sons?”

  “This is their fight, too. But I have the utmost confidence they’ll teach those smugglers a lesson they’ll never forget.”

  “Because they’re dead?”

  “A dead smuggler is a good smuggler.” She grinned and placed some food on a tray before holding it out to me. “I was in there while you spoke to Mark. I gave him his meds.”

  “He’s awake?”

  “Hasn’t been for long.”

  I felt bad that I wasn’t in the room with him when he woke, but the drunken smile he gave me when I entered told me I needn’t have worried. “Those painkillers are good, huh?” I asked, bumping the door shut with my hip.

  “Want some? I got a bunch.”

  “Not sure that’d be good for the baby.”

  “Oh my God. Yeah! Oh, blue, I’m so spun out that we made a baby. Did you know that it’s only the size of a pea right now? I read all about it before the job, and that really weirds me out. It started out as a tiny dot and one day it’ll grow to be as big as you and me. That’s fucking wild.” He held his fingers to his head then motioned away, opening his hand and making an explosive noise with his mouth. “Magic.”

  “It is magic. The magic of creation.” I chuckled as I took his tray to the bed. “I think we’d better get some food into you. How are you feeling today?”

  “Better now that you’re here, beautiful blue. I love you.” He sing-songed the last part.

  “I love you too. Even though you’re high as a kite right now and scared the shit out of me doing this job.”

  “Fucking job. I thought I was a goner, Slater. I got hit and all I could think was no, it’s too soon. I only just found you and we have a baby coming who I want to teach to surf and how to pull chicks. I wouldn’t get to do that. I was cryin’, blue. Then Tobes, he went mad like those guys in the movies, walking through the middle of everything like nothin’ could touch him. Amazing. Wait. Where is he? Toby! I need to tell him he’s the wind beneath my wings.”

  “Why don’t you eat some of this toast and I’ll go find him, OK?” I put a piece of toast in his hand while he hummed the Bette Midler tune.

  “This toast. Is the best toast.” He took a bite and closed his eyes chewing. I kissed his forehead
and chuckled as I stepped out the door.

  “His Royal Highness would like to see Toby.”

  “He being a pussy in there?” Kristian asked, sitting on the sofa with his arm around Ronnie, who seemed to have calmed.

  I smiled and shook my head. “No, he’s just off his face on pain meds.”

  “Oh, I get it.” Holland giggled. “Royal highness. Well done.”

  I smiled in her direction while Nate frowned and said, “Sam, you see Tobes this morning?”

  “Not since late last night. Said he was getting some air.”

  “Did you see him come back?” Alesha asked, standing to look out the window.

  Sam shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

  “Jasmine?” Alesha called out, walking through the kitchen to the laundry where Jasmine and Breaker were in quiet conference. “Did Toby say he was going somewhere?”

  Jasmine stepped out into the open, her brow dipped in concern. “He’s not here?”

  I shook my head. A sense of loss creeping over me. I’ll make them pay. “I think he’s gone.”

  “What do you mean, you think he’s gone?” Jasmine demanded, sounding a little panicked. “He can’t be gone. Cartwrights don’t leave.”

  I picked up the paper and showed her the article. “He mentioned cleaning this up.”

  “Oh.” She lifted her chin, understanding what he’d done. “We should find him.”

  Part of me wanted to agree and the other part was hoping he’d tied up what he considered a loose string and left. He’d done more than his fair share already. I didn’t think his soul could take any more battles for a cause he didn’t believe in. “Maybe he just needs some time to clear his head. I think he’s a bit traumatised over everything that happened yesterday,” I pointed out.

  “The boat,” she blurted, her eyes sparking as she looked at Breaker.

  “I’ll go,” he said, but Jasmine placed her hands against his chest.

  “You can’t. You need to get out of here yourself.”

  “I’ll go,” Nate said, standing up. “I’m the reason all this shit happened, so it should be me.”

  “But—” Holland started, grabbing for Nate as he stood and picked up his jacket.

  “Duchess,” he said, turning to face her.

  “What if the cops are looking for you?”

  “Then they’re looking for him, too, and I owe him. You know I do.”

  She frowned but nodded, obviously warring with her emotions and understanding Nate’s need to find Toby. I hope he’s long gone. As much as I’d wanted to run away to an island paradise with Abbot, I wanted that for Toby even more. We could stay and fix this. He could be free.

  “When you find him, take him back to my house,” Jasmine said, nodding as she pressed her hands to the side of her jeans. “We should all go back there. Business as usual, understood?”

  Everyone in the room nodded. Except me. “What about Abbot? We aren’t supposed to move him for a few days.”

  “We have to, Sloane. He was shot at the scene they’re processing right now. We need to get him home and out of sight before they even think to question us.”

  Fuck.

  “Wait. Why will they question us again?” Holland asked.

  Sam scrubbed a hand over his stubble jaw. “Even though the truck was torched, there’s a slight chance they could find some blood or DNA. Not to mention the fact we’ve been consorting with the Grim Order for a few months now. We might already be on their radar,” he pointed out.

  “Then shouldn’t we be fucking off?” Holland asked, eyes wide.

  “Running looks guilty,” Jasmine stated. “We stay put unless we don’t have an option.”

  I closed my eyes, releasing my breath and telling myself that everything was just fine. There’d be no DNA pointing our way, Abbot would heal, the Grim Order will get rid of Grey, and we’d get married and have our baby, and we would never do another job again. Happily ever after. Just like that.

  It was a crazy dream, but it would keep me sane.

  “OK,” I said. “Let’s get him home. But not to your home, Jasmine. To ours. I’ll take care of him myself.”

  Jasmine immediately shook her head. “I don’t think—”

  “That’s fine,” Nate said over the top of her. “I actually think everyone should go back to their own houses. As you said, Jazz, business as usual, and we don’t live with you.”

  “But Grey—”

  “We’ll get people watching Grey,” Breaker said. “I don’t want you girls stressing about safety. Especially you, Ronnie. I promise to keep you safe, OK?”

  Ronnie nodded and thanked him.

  Then Jasmine pressed her lips together. “Fine. Go to your own homes. Rest up and we’ll discuss the next steps when the heat dies down.”

  A low murmur of agreement went around the room, and I took that opportunity to slip back into Abbot’s room to let him know he needed to be moved. He was sleeping and woke up with a start when I closed the door.

  “Blue,” he said, voice a little slurred. “Did you find him?”

  “Toby left,” I told him, moving closer to we could talk without anyone listening in.

  “For good?”

  “I hope so,” I said with a small smile.

  “Me too. He deserves the chance to be happy. It was never gonna happen for him here.” Even though he was still high on morphine, he made sense.

  “You think we can be happy here—in this life?”

  “We’ll be happy anywhere, blue. But this is only a temporary setback. We’ll leave once we know everyone is gonna be OK. Then we can be happy without feeling guilty about it.”

  “You’re very wise on drugs.” He moved his mouth like he was thirsty, so I offered him water.

  “I’m wise all the time. You’re just too busy talking over the top of me most times.”

  I smiled. “You’re probably right. Listen, you can’t go back to sleep just yet. We have to get you home and hidden away in bed before the cops come to question us.”

  “Why are they gonna question us? They torched the scene.”

  “Grim Order affiliations.” I left out any other concerns, because he didn’t need those on his mind right now.

  “Fair enough. Help me up then.”

  “Not so fast, big guy. We’ll get everyone packed up then Sam and Kris will help you out, OK?”

  “Sure, blue.”

  We reclined the seats as much as we could in Alesha’s people mover and settled Abbot inside, his bag of IV antibiotics hanging on the coat hook.

  “I wish you’d reconsider coming to stay at my place,” Jasmine said, worry setting her expression as she tried to stand back and let me fuss over her son. “I could help you with him when you need a break.”

  “You’re welcome to come and help at our place during the day, Jasmine. But I think sleeping in his own bed is best, don’t you?”

  “He has a bed at—”

  “Mother,” Nate cut in, warning in his tone. I understood Jasmine’s desire to keep her boys close, but she needed to understand that her boys were men now, and they had lives of their own. There seemed to always be dangers out there, it was a consequence of the life they led. And she couldn’t control those things no matter how much she wanted to. My mother had told me that Jasmine was looking to retire from the life herself. So, there had to be a time when she let go and handed the reins to her sons. After this shitshow, now just might be that time. Revenge against Grey and his men was inevitably going to happen, and I imagined it would link us to the Grim Order forever. And as much as I kept running from this life, even I understood that there would always be ‘one more job’.

  This life was in our blood after all. Whether we were lying low or fighting hard, we needed to live it. No regrets.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Willow

  “Mum,” I said, half-asleep as I sat up in bed, achy all over.

  “I came as soon as I heard,” she whispered, glancing at me before her gaze
was drawn elsewhere.

  “Hi, Emma,” Abbot said, standing from the chair he was reclining in, my beautiful giant man. Mum leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

  “May I?” she asked, indicating the bundle of soft skin and long lashes in my husband’s arms. After all, the birth of our baby girl was the entire reason she was here. Nine pounds and seven screaming ounces of pink skin and dark hair came into the world in the early hours of the morning. We named her Willow for no other reason than the fact that we both liked the name. We’d been calling her that ever since we had found out she was a girl at our twenty-week ultrasound. Abbot spent months talking to my belly and singing to his little girl—it had been incredibly adorable. He was going be the best father a girl could ever have whether she turned out to be a tomboy like her mum, or the princess her dad was already calling her.

  “Watch her head,” Abbot murmured, handing his precious daughter over to my mother, who cooed and tickled her chin. Then he sat next to me on the bed and held my hand as we chatted to my mum about the birth and life in general. While we spoke, he lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles while I leaned into the warmth of his body. I loved that man even more than I did the day before.

  Each day I thought that. And each day I thought I couldn’t possibly have more love to give, but then it would grow, and I realised there was no limit to the amount of love I had to offer. Abbot was the man of my dreams.

  Ever since the drug job, the entire Cartwright clan had put a hold on the thieving side of their criminal enterprise in favour of focusing on our growing families. Nate and Holland had a boy six months before, who they named Daniel. He was dark haired like all the Cartwright boys and had honey-coloured eyes like his mother. He was always happy and loved to sing in a high-pitched baby squeal whenever there was music on. Three months after that, Ronnie gave birth to a boy she and Kristian named Oscar. He had the trademark dark hair and blue eyes, but he had his mother’s curls. Now, we were adding a girl to the mix. Fitting, because I was that original girl, running around with a bunch of Cartwright boys. I wondered what life would bring for this new generation of Cartwrights that was due to grow again in only a matter of days. Alesha was still pregnant, the sex of their child a planned surprise. Sam was so ready for her to go into labour that he kept running drills to make sure he had chosen the fastest possible way to the hospital. Some habits never changed, and planning things meticulously was always one of the Cartwright’s fortes.