by Maddie Wade
They walked outside into the beautiful sunshine and quickly walked to the truck. Stopping next to the car Lauren turned to him.
“He’s lying,” she said, in frustration.
“Yeah, he is.”
“So what now? Shouldn’t we show the picture round the hospital?” Lauren said, planting her hands on her hips.
“No now we wait! I want to keep an eye on Hale and see what he does next. We can come back later and show the picture round. ”
“Ugh, I’m rubbish at waiting,” she complained and threw her hands up.
Dane took her hand and pulled her to him, dropping a kiss to the crown of her head. He loved the feel of her against him. He couldn’t wait until all of this was over and he could just immerse himself in her, without the threat to her hanging over them.
He hated feeling as if he was putting his life on hold, but he had no choice but to put the brakes on. For now, he would just have to take stolen moments like this and make them count. He was finding it harder and harder with every minute to keep that distance from her emotionally, it was as if she was burying herself into his heart. A floodgate had opened up and he was having trouble stemming the tide of his emotions, but knew he had to for her sake.
Lauren was facing away from the hospital with her head on Dane’s chest and her arms around his waist, so she didn’t see Edward Hale scurry to his Jaguar XE, but he did.
“Come on, let’s follow the good Dr and see what he’s up to.” They jumped in the truck and Dane pulled out a few cars behind Hale. They followed him for about five miles, before they saw Hale turn into The Badger’s Arms pub. He drove past and then turned around in a layby and drove back to the pub.
He parked near the front exit so that he could see who came and went and make sure Hale couldn’t leave without them seeing him. Hale still sat in his car, which was parked at the furthest end of the car park. Hale appeared to be waiting for someone or something.
“So what’s the plan now?” Lauren enquired excitedly.
“I want to see who he’s meeting, so we wait.”
She groaned “More waiting!”
Dane laughed “Is someone enjoying the adrenaline of the chase, cause I gotta say I can think of better things to chase than this idiot?” He trailed his fingers over her thigh causing her to shiver.
Just then, a big black SUV pulled into the pub. It parked two cars over from Hale and a stocky man in his 40’s with a dark T-shirt and combat trousers got out. This guy had mercenary written all over him. He scouted around to make sure nobody was watching and then approached the Jaguar. Dane had made sure he positioned his vehicle so that anybody looking wouldn’t be able to see her past him. It was unlikely because of the tinted glass, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
“Do you recognise him?” Lauren asked, as she watched the man intently.
“No I’m gonna get a couple of pictures and send them to Lucy.” Using his phone he snapped a couple of pictures and quickly sent them . They weren’t the greatest because of the distance, but he hoped Lucy could clean them up enough to get an ID.
Hale hadn’t got out of his vehicle, but rolled down the window. He and the mystery man where in a heated exchange of words by the looks of their body language. Dane was pissed that he couldn’t hear them. Maybe if they could get an ID on this man it wouldn’t be a total loss. Hale seemed to hand something to the man through the window, but it was too small to identify. Maybe drugs, he thought. The man got back in his vehicle and left a few minutes later.
Lauren turned in her seat to look at him.
“So what was that all about?”
“Not sure, but if I had to guess, I would say some sort of drop.”
She nodded her head, “Yeah, I wonder what he gave him?”
“You saw that, huh?” She nodded.
“You have good instincts. What’s your take on this?”
She snorted, “Yeah, right of course I do.”
Dane frowned, then “I’m serious,” he said, feeling a bit annoyed.
“I think it was a drop of some sort, maybe drugs, or information.”
“See good instincts, I thought the same.” He smiled then and he could tell she was pleased by the compliment.
They followed Hale back to the hospital then and nothing of any interest happened. “Come on, let’s head home. I know the perfect little pub in Ross-on -Wye, right by the river and they do the best ploughman’s lunch ever.” he said. He knew he probably shouldn’t, but they had to eat. Right?
On the drive to lunch, Dane called Lucy and asked her to get a tap put on the doctor’s home and work phones, and run a background check on him. He also asked her to make the picture of the mystery man a priority.
Sitting on a wooden table by the river in the sunshine, with a soda and lime, watching children play on the park nearby, Lauren realised that she had really needed this bit of normal today. She and her mum would often spend a Sunday afternoon in a beer garden in the summer, just having lunch and catching up.
It wasn’t fancy or anything, but sitting with a cold drink and listening to children play on the play area and families having fun was nice. She hadn’t done this since her mum died and she missed it. She was glad he’d suggested it. It balanced her equilibrium and gave her a minute to just sit and think.
Dane had been wonderful since all this had started. She was shocked at how quickly things had moved between them, but when you know, you know, and she had known he was special for a long time.
He did seem a little pre-occupied today though. It wasn’t anything obvious, just subtle nuances, like his reserved response to Daniel about their relationship status. Maybe he was just in combat mode. She would try not to over-react to it though. It was normal for people to have things on their mind, she couldn’t be the centre of his attention all the time. Maybe she could distract him, from whatever had caused the quietness on the drive over.
“Tell me something that you’ve never done, that you would love to do?” She asked him.
Dane looked at her “That’s tricky, there isn’t much you don’t do in the Special Forces. Um, okay.” He sat quietly while he gave it some thought. Lauren liked how he took her seriously, even silly questions like this.
His eyes lit up, then, “I’ve never seen the Mappa Mundi in the Cathedral and would love to.” The 13th century map had been exhibited in the Cathedral since before 1855 and was the largest medieval map known to exist.
She sat forward abruptly “How is that possible? You’re 38-years-old and live in the city where it’s exhibited. Most of my year one class has seen it! We need to remedy this first chance we get,” she said using her teacher voice.
He laughed and held up his hands in defeat.
“Okay, what about you, what would you love to do and have never done?”
“Oh, that’s easy, drive an articulated lorry.” Ever since she was a little girl, she had loved Lorries. Not cars, but Lorries. Her mother had taken her to The Three Counties show in Malvern and she had been smitten since. She even had a small collection of special edition models. All her girlfriends thought she was mad; it had perplexed even her mum. Lauren was so girlie in every other way.
He burst out laughing then, “That’s hilarious, you are the biggest contradiction, all feminine and soft and then you go all trucker on me.” She tried to look indignant but failed and ended up laughing as hard as he did.
“I guess I should probably learn to drive a car first though.”
“That would definitely be a good place to start.” He laughed.
The server bringing the ploughman’s lunch to them interrupted their discussion. He was right, it was the best she had ever eaten. There was home-baked ham, three different cheeses, fresh baked bread, farmhouse chutney and pickles. Lauren tucked in greedily only stopping when she looked up to find Dane looking at her.
“You’re stunning,” he said, with what she thought looked like regret in his eyes. She blushed and looked away
“Uh, thanks.” She said, fe
eling a little self-conscious and unnerved by what she saw in his eyes. What could he be regretting?
~~~
Finishing their lunch in silence, each was lost in their own thoughts. They had both finished their lunch, when the young server brought them over a bottle of champagne and two glasses.
“Sorry, we didn’t order this,” Dane said kindly, poor girl was rushed off her feet; she must have got the wrong table.
“No the gentleman over there sent it.” She said pointing to an empty space. “Oh, I can’t see him now.” She said looking around.
He was instantly on alert. Standing and putting himself between Lauren and the way the young server pointed.
“What else did he say, what did he look like?” he said his voice rising.
“Um, just that you were newlyweds and he and his wife, Claire I think he said wanted to congratulate you.”
“What did he look like?” Dane practically growled.
“Um normal, average height, blonde thinning hair, pale looking with big glasses.”
Throwing two £20 notes on the table, he grabbed her hand.
“Thanks,” he said to the startled girl and pulled Lauren quickly towards the car.
Putting his body in front of hers and holding her close to his side. He constantly scanned their surroundings for threats. Practically throwing her into the truck, he jumped in after her and floored it out of the car park. He reached over and unlocked the glove box, pulling out his Browning and placing it in the centre console for easy reach.
“It was him wasn’t it, the man from the picture?” Lauren asked him, already knowing the answer.
“Yes, I think it was. We are going to have to seriously limit your exposure until he is found.” Dane stated almost angrily.
“Did I do something?” she asked, hating that she sounded so weak.
“No, you didn’t do anything,” he stated, more gentle now. “It was me; I should have been doing my job not having romantic pub lunches.” Lauren flinched at his tone.
Dane had no sooner finished berating himself for losing focus, when the Black SUV they had seen meeting Hale, came barrelling down on them. It came out of nowhere, he cursed and grabbed for his firearm.
He could see her looking frightened as she realised what was happening.
“Is it the man from the car park?” She asked and he could hear the fear in her voice.
“I think so. Just keep your head down and hang on, it’s gonna get a little bumpy.”
Lauren immediately ducked her head against the seat and ducked down as far as she could. She wasn’t ready to die. He could feel the calm come over him as he went into mission mode. He was completely focused on what he was doing. He didn’t feel an ounce of fear or uncertainty, just complete surety in his ability to get them out of this.
Dane swerved as the SUV behind tried to ram them off the road. The vehicles were matched for weight and power and he felt certain that he wouldn’t be able to push them off the road as long as he kept up some evasive manoeuvres. This prick was good, but he was better.
He heard her let out a scream when the back windshield exploded as a bullet hit. This guy couldn’t hit a barn door with a tractor. Dane decided to opt for a move his old OC had shown him in training.
He swerved the car to the far side, making sure to keep Lauren the furthest away from the other vehicle. Then when they were side by side, he slammed on the breaks. His vehicle came to a thundering stop as the other carried on going. In the blink of an eye, he shot out the back tyre of the SUV, causing it to swerve dangerously towards the verge. It rounded a corner and he lost sight of it.
He turned then to check Lauren, who was still ducked down with her hands over her head. He could see that she had little cuts on her arms from the glass windshield.
“It’s okay, you can sit up now. Are you okay?” His words were gentle and his gaze assessing as he let his eyes wander over her as if to reassure himself she was okay.
“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” and despite the shaking, he saw the determination in her eyes and gratitude.
“Come on, let’s get back to Fortis.”
“Shouldn’t we go see if we can catch him?”
“No, it’s too dangerous, I’ve already nearly gotten you killed twice today. I’m not taking any more risks.”
Lauren could see that he was blaming himself for this, but couldn’t figure out why.
“This isn’t your fault, Dane.”
He rounded on her then and she could see he was furious, not with her but himself.
“Of course it’s my fucking fault, I’m meant to protect you not get careless and put you in danger. I’ve been selfish and it nearly got you killed. It won’t happen again.” He said, with an air of finality.
With that, he put the vehicle in gear and drove back to Fortis.
The drive home was tense and silent, he was pulling away from her, and she could feel it.
Dane mentally chastised himself for allowing this to happen. He should have been on guard at all times. His job was to protect her. He’d been followed, twice, but how? He might have been distracted, but he had been watching for a tail, it was almost second nature. Then it clicked, his truck must have a tracker on it. That was the only explanation.
He banged his hand on the steering wheel in frustration, causing Lauren to jump. “Sorry.” He said quickly, regretting scaring her. Driving straight to Fortis, Dane jumped out of the vehicle and came round to Lauren’s door before she got her seatbelt off. Positioning his body in front of her, he helped her from the car and ushered her inside, constantly alert. Walking into the tech room, he yelled.
“Lucy, Lucy!”
“Yes,” she said, poking her head up from a computer hooked up to multiple monitors.
“Get Drew and Nate back here now.” She raised an eyebrow. “Please.” He said.
Chapter Nineteen
Pacing the conference room, Dane tried to calm himself, but he was so angry. How had he not noticed him? He was fucking trained for this for God’s sake, best of the fucking best and he couldn’t spot a someone watching them.
Zack should kick his ass up and down the ‘Pen Y Fan’ for this. He was going to have to stay away from her. Even though it broke his heart to do it. He had to have a clear mind if he was going to keep her safe and the only way to do that was to keep his distance.
Nate could take over her close protection, he trusted Nate with his life and hers. Calmer now that he had made his decision and had a plan, he looked at Lauren and knew he would have to be brutal to make her accept this was happening. God he didn’t want to hurt her, but he couldn’t lose her to a mad man. If he broke her heart at least he could go on knowing she was okay and living a happy life and not dead.
“Dane please sit down, you’re making me nervous.” He took a seat opposite her. He knew she would see it as a rejection, but he had to start pulling back from her. He was conscious of her uncertainty in the car and his heart ached. He would prefer it if she was angry, this wasn’t her fault he was the one being a jerk, even if it was for her own good.
Drew walked into the conference room and as if sensing her pain, sat next to Lauren, he frowned noticing the obvious tension in the room.
“What happened?” He asked Dane in a not too friendly way.
“Let’s wait for Nate.” Lucy said trying to diffuse the atmosphere in the room. “Pepsi anyone?” she said reaching into the fridge at the back of the conference room. Dane just shook his head no, Drew and Lauren nodded and Lucy brought them round to them, seating herself on the other side of her and smiling and winking.
“Ignore grumpy,” she said in a stage whisper, causing her brother to give her a filthy look. Lauren tried to smile at her but it came out more of a grimace.
Lucy was gonna kick his ass if he kept this up.
Nate strode in, “What’s happened?” he said echoing Drew. Grabbing a bottled water from the fridge, he sat down next to Dane, completely oblivious of the dirty look Lucy was giving hi
m.
Dane stood up and started pacing again, he explained to the rest of them what had happened with their meeting with Edward Hale and then what happened in the pub and on the drive back.
“I think my truck has a tracker on it! I want all the vehicles, company and personal checked.”
Nate Nodded “I’ll make it a priority.”
“I also want to know if there is a connection between Griffiths and this Mystery Man, Hale met. There is no way this is all coincidence.”
Dane looked at Lucy “Tell me you got something?”
“Well I looked into Edward Hale he has a nasty gambling habit and was up to his eyes in debt until 18 months ago when all his debt was cleared. He now has £10000 go in to his bank account every month from an off-shore account. I’m still trying to trace it, but I think it’s linked to Redcast. Also interestingly I managed to get some security footage from the burial ground and look,” she clicked a button on her lap top and an image came on her screen, “the man from the photo was at Claire’s funeral.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck” Dane swore, “He’s everywhere.”
“Well I talked to Sly,” Nate said, “and he’s gonna get a friend of his in the forensic team to try and get some prints of the photo or box, but he thinks it’s unlikely, as too many people watch CSI these days. He said to say ‘HI” by the way and that you still owe him around of golf.” Sly was always busting his balls about golf when he was home.
“I’ll call him soon as this shit is done,” he said.
Everyone turned to Drew.
“Well bad news, I talked to Rose who works for Marcus and she said he left late last night on a business trip with Michaels in tow. He told her to ready one of the spare rooms, that his daughter was coming to stay.” He said the last with an apologetic look at Lauren. “I’m so sorry.”
“Stop stop, this is not your fault, you’re as much his victim as I am.” Everyone went quiet while they all processed the new information. Dane rubbed a hand over his face tiredly.
“So we are assuming that Marcus and Michaels are already here then as the drive is only 130 miles or so.,” he said, not to anyone in particular. Drew nodded.
