“No idea. Get inside, love. I wish we could drive away right now, but I think we need to stay and answer some questions.”
“I should get out of this uniform before someone arrests me,” Charlotte said, undoing her vest and letting an eager Beth finish the job of stripping her down to her bra.
“Good thing I’m gay,” Nick muttered. “Someone tell me what’s going on? The short version?”
“Evil doctor holds innocent vees to milk them of useful blood,” Beth said. “Heroic spouse and friends break in to save missing guys. The end.”
“Useful for what? Oh God—not that fountain of youth shit? I told you that would make my life a misery.”
I hugged him close, kissed him a couple of times just because I could, at long last. He felt so good against me even if he smelled wrong. “We think so, but we haven’t proven that part yet. You’ll need to wait for the longer version if you want more.”
Charlotte was now modestly dressed in a jumper and padded filet vest, and Beth had found another blanket for Nick. I waited another fifteen minutes, cuddling my husband and enjoying the sensation of holding him again. He seemed content to be with me, but it was Charlotte who finally grew impatient.
“Maybe you better go find out if they need us to hang around,” she said. “Nick needs to get out of here, and it’s cold.”
“Yes, you’re right. Look after him for me.”
“And you two ladies can tell me what’s been going on, too,” Nick said.
Charlotte turned to grin at us. “Yes, sir.”
I reluctantly left Nick in the charge of the women while I went in search of Andy. I found him deep in conversation with Chris Stevens.
“Hello, Chris—why are you here?”
“A little bird hinted that if we wanted to solve our missing persons case, this was the time and place to be here.”
“A little bird called Andrew?”
He smiled. “No comment. Actually, it’s because we learned something interesting about Luis Oliveira earlier today. We checked his phone records, and it showed a large number of calls to one Annette Clarke, who just happens to be the project secretary on that ISH study. She’s also Oliveira’s sister-in-law. When we questioned her, she broke down and admitted that she and her husband owed Henry Burton a lot of money. Her sister—Oliveira’s wife—knew they were about to lose their house, and Oliveira had arranged for Burton to offer them a remortgage at no interest, in exchange for a little bit of help with his clinic’s needs. Her husband forced her to go along with the idea, and by force, I do mean he used actual force.”
“Lovely,” I said.
“Yeah, a real charmer. Clarke admitted the whole thing less than half an hour ago, including where Nick and Gordon were being held. I called Andy to tell him we were moving in, only to discover you guys had beaten us to it. Burton’s under arrest, and so is Oliveira. So is the night manager and the security staff, and when we find them, the other staff involved in all this.”
“And us?”
“Who?”
“Us. I mean, me and my friends. The ones in uniforms.”
“The role players who have carefully broken no laws except possibly causing a breach of the peace which we will overlook in light of the much greater crimes uncovered? Oh, you can all leave. I suggest you do that pretty damn quickly before my sergeant changes his mind.”
“Andy wasn’t involved in this at all.”
“So I heard. I’m only a lowly senior constable, Anton. The doings of my betters, I don’t ask questions about.”
Andy grinned. “Wise man. Anton, take our boy home. I’ve been onto Gordon’s sister and he’s being driven home tonight. Someone will call you two tomorrow and ask some more questions. But for now, enjoy having him back.”
“I plan to.” I stuck out my hand. “Thank you.”
“Thank you. Go on. I’ll let Harry and the others know.”
I ran back to the car, and stripped out of the hazmat suit before climbing back inside. “We’re free to go, so let’s get out of here before they change their minds.”
It was a long drive back to Battersea. Nick stayed firmly wrapped in his blankets and in my arms as Charlotte drove us home. He let me make the phone calls that had to be made. This time, it was a real pleasure to deliver the news.
“Robert? Nick’s home. He’s here with me now.”
“Oh God, Anton. You’re serious?”
“Completely. He’s been through a lot so I thought I’d call you now and let you talk to him tomorrow. But he’s safe, well, and here.”
“I can’t believe it. You’re not pulling my leg?”
Nick roused. “Gimme,” he muttered, so I held the phone up to him. “Dad, it’s me. I’m shattered and cold, but I’m fine. I’ll call tomorrow or you can call me at the house. How’s Mum?” He listened to his dad, then said, “Love you too, Dad. Talk tomorrow.”
I took the phone back. “Robert, I have to ring a couple of other people now.”
“Right you are, lad. This is wonderful news.”
“Yes, it is. See you soon.”
Nick had his head on my shoulder again. “I don’t think he’ll believe it until he sees me.”
“Then we’ll arrange it. They’ve been through a terrible time. We all have.”
“Tell me about it.” He said no more. I stroked his hair and wondered what that bastard Burton had done to him.
I called Karl, then my parents. By the time I finished telling everything to my mother, we were in Hammersmith. “We’re nearly home, Mum,” I said.
“Then I’ll let you go. I think you two will want to be alone for a while.”
“I think so.”
“Give my love to Nick. He missed Rosh Hashanah but we’ll do something for Hanukah for him.”
I grinned. “I think he’ll love it. Bye, Mum.”
“What will I love?” a sleepy voice near my navel asked.
“Mum putting on a special Hanukah thing for you.”
“Yeah. Nice. Don’t care so long as you’re there. Never leaving you again.”
“Technically you didn’t leave me this time...uh, did you?”
“No. Bastards got me in a lane near work. Paralysing injection, breathing bag, nasty.”
“They sent me a text from your phone saying you’d found someone else and were leaving me.”
He twisted to look up at me. In the flickering traffic lights his green eyes looked huge and intense. “You knew it was fake?”
“Instantly and completely. Never believed it for a second. Never gave up.”
“He really didn’t,” Charlotte said. “If I ever get kidnapped by an evil doctor, I want Anton on my side.”
“Hey!”
The back of Beth’s neck was stiffly indignant. “I took your help for granted, darling.”
“Damn right.”
Nick was still staring at me. He reached for my hand and I squeezed his tight. “Not for a second,” I whispered. “I would never have stopped until you came home.”
“I have the world’s best husband and I will bite anyone who disagrees with me.”
“And that’s why I love you.”
Beth made a gagging noise. “Guys, we don’t force you to listen to this kind of thing.”
“Oh, leave them alone, Beth,” Charlotte said. “It’s not every day Anton gets his man back from the bad guys. Nick, they paralysed you?”
“Yeah. Couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. They could do what they bloody wanted with me, and did.”
“Hmmm. Then I think I have an idea what might have killed that poor man they found in the burning car.”
“Killed?”
“Uh, we think it was their first attempt to kidnap one of you,” I said, wishing Charlotte had been a little more discreet. “Maybe we should talk about this tomorrow.”
Nick sat up, frowning. “Whoever’s investigating this better not fuck up the case because I want these guys to be put away for the rest of their lives.”
“I
don’t think you need to worry about that. Andy’s been kicking arse.”
“Huh.” I sensed that Sergeant McDiamond would have a persistent former partner adding to the butt-prodding when Nick was back on line. But that could wait.
Charlotte pulled up outside our house. “Here you go, boys. Beth and I will supply the champagne tomorrow night. Nick, are you sure you’re feeling okay physically? Do you want me to check you over?”
“I’m fine, Charlie. I’m just unfit because I’ve been mostly sitting on my arse for weeks. But they didn’t drug me except for that one time.”
“All right. Anton, what are you waiting for?”
“Aye aye, cap’n.” I pushed Nick out of the car, and draped the blanket around him again. “I’ll ring you, Charlotte. Thank you, ladies.”
“Have a good night, boys. You deserve it.”
Beth blew us a kiss as Charlotte drove away.
“Inside,” Nick said, shivering.
I unlocked the front door. “Welcome home, love.”
Nick walked in, waited until I was inside too, then kicked the door shut and grabbed my face so he could ravish me. I manfully failed to put up any resistance. I may have even assisted.
“I used to hallucinate seeing you,” he whispered against my neck. “I knew they were planning to kill us when they were done with us. But I still dreamed about getting out. Mind you, you weren’t wearing a hazmat suit in my dreams.”
“See? That’s how you know it’s real. Living room? Bedroom?”
“Bathroom. Please. I want to get out of these damn clothes and wash my own hair and shave.”
The way he said it made me realise offering to do that for him wouldn’t be a good idea. “Can I watch?”
“You better. I don’t want you out of my sight.”
“Funny you should say that.”
Chapter 10
Nick wasn’t the only one who’d dreamed about being back together again. However, on those rare occasions when I’d let myself fantasise about that happy time—a time I never allowed myself to admit might not ever come—my imagination had been content with thoughts of wonderful sex, lots of cuddling, and a long, peaceful night’s rest wrapped in each other’s arms.
The cuddling was the only thing that I’d imagined correctly. Nick hadn’t given me any signal that he wanted more than kisses and lots of full body hugs. It worried me only insomuch as it might worry him. After over two months of being allowed no bodily autonomy at all, it didn’t shock me that he needed time to relearn peace in his own skin. I wanted him, but I wanted to be with him much more.
He fell asleep clutching my hand. It took longer for me, partly because I wanted to enjoy the sensation of his touch, and partly because I’d been relying on sleep pills for so long, I had trouble feeling drowsy without them.
But eventually I fell asleep, only to be woken by Nick’s shifting around. I rolled away from him to check what time it was, and he grabbed at me.
“It’s okay, I’m here.”
He didn’t say anything. I suspected he was embarrassed.
“Keep touching me, love,” I said. “Remind me you’re here.”
“Okay. Sorry I woke you.”
“You could lie there pinching me all night and I’d never complain.”
He chuckled, a sound that made my heart beat faster with joy. “Not tonight, honey.”
I stroked his now smooth face. “Go to sleep, Nick. You’re home.”
He settled again. I kept up a gentle stroking on his arm and side to let him know I was there, until his breath deepened into a sleep rhythm.
But when I woke again, it wasn’t his movement that had disturbed me—it was his total absence. Panicked, I threw the light on. “Nick? Are you in the bathroom?”
I hastily dressed and flew downstairs, relaxing a little when I realised the light in the kitchen was on. Nick wasn’t there, but I looked through the back door. He was sitting on one of the garden chairs, staring at the sky. I went back and fetched my coat, wellies and a couple of rugs from the living room, then tapped on the door to give him some warning before I opened it.
He didn’t turn around. “I had to get outside,” he said. “I needed to see the sky.”
I laid one of the rugs over his knees, then took the other chair, pulling it close to him. Heavy clouds obscured the full moon. “Not much of a view.”
“It’s beautiful, trust me.”
It was less than three weeks before Christmas, and the forecast was for snow in the next two days. It was fucking freezing. But if my husband needed to sit outside until his balls fell off, then I’d sit there with him. I put the other blanket over his shoulders.
“What about you?” He turned to look at me for the first time.
“I have extra body fat. And besides, I like the cold. Do you want your gloves?”
“No. Anton, I’m not crazy.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I mean it. I don’t want you to force me to go to a psychiatrist or anything. I don’t want to go back into a hospital.”
“I wouldn’t allow it unless your life literally depended on it. Love, this is nothing more than I’d expect. I freaked when you weren’t there though.”
“Sorry.”
“I’ll survive.” I took his hand, but kept it under the rug. “Does it help, being outside?”
“Yeah. Being cold does too. It was so...climate controlled. Quiet and the same temperature, and everyone wore masks.”
“Masks?”
“Yeah. Surgical masks and caps. Every time. I never saw a face, except that other guy just the once. His name was Gordon?”
“Yes. Gordon Dangerfield. You weren’t allowed to talk to him?”
“The only time I left that room was to use their gym and shower every other day. Once I was going in and I saw Gordon being led away in the other direction. I could tell he was a prisoner too. I knew better than to try and talk to him.”
His hand had tensed up. “They hurt you?”
He hunched under the blanket. I moved closer and put my arm around his shoulders, then waited.
“The first time they tried to draw blood from me, I fought like hell. So they injected me with something that totally paralysed me—same as they did the night they grabbed me. They let me choke for a minute or so and then put a breathing bag on me. They did the same when they caught me trying to pick the lock—they had cameras everywhere—and another time when I tried to attack the man guarding me while I showered.”
“Jesus, Nick. You told Charlotte—”
“Yeah. You tell her and I’ll get cranky. She’d only fuss and it’s all over now. Anyway, they found something that worked better.”
“What?”
“They showed me live film of you, said you were under surveillance, and that you’d get beaten up every time I caused trouble. It might have been a bluff, but I couldn’t risk it. It was then I realised they were probably going to kill me anyway. The only thing I could do was make sure you weren’t hurt.”
I was lost for words. To hear he’d been tortured, then he’d submitted because of me, was too much. Too much after everything else.
He saw my expression and squeezed my hand. “Look, the last thing I want is for you to start getting all guilty over this. It was them, not you.”
“I know. But fuck...Nick. No one should have to go through that for any reason.”
“I told you people would get crazy over this fountain of youth bullshit.”
“This isn’t crazy, it’s pure evil.”
“Yeah.”
“I think you might be wrong about one thing. If they were hiding their faces, maybe they really planned to let you go. If you couldn’t identify them and didn’t know where you were....”
“I don’t know. I didn’t know what to think. They never answered any questions, told me why they wanted my blood, or anything. They never even used my name. It was always ‘you’—‘you get up’, ‘’you behave’, that kind of thing. They gave me books, and a
tablet with games on it, and they let me use the gym, but it was all so callous. Like I was a lab rat who had to be kept healthy but not happy.”
“That’s all you were to them, but not to the rest of us. You should have seen our war council in action. And Charlotte with fake tits and a blond wig.”
“Now that I’d like to see.” His voice was harsh and the humour forced, but if he wanted to change the subject, that was fine. “Tell me how you found me.”
I kept it light, skipping the gory details in Brazil, and emphasising the exciting aspects of the caper. But as soon as I mentioned Andy helping us with costume detail, he stopped me with a slashing movement of his hand.
“You shouldn’t have involved Andy. He could lose his job.”
“We didn’t involve him. And none of us broke the law. We were careful.”
“You could have been hurt. What if someone had rumbled the girls?”
“You seem to think I had control over them, Nick. I can assure you they were fully independent and determined to get you home as much as I was.”
“You shouldn’t have risked yourselves. Wasn’t worth it.”
“Nick!”
“I was trying to keep you safe, damn it!”
He threw off the blankets and stomped down the path to the end of the garden. I didn’t follow. To be honest, I was just a little bit pissed off with the man. Sure, Chris and his team had got the conformation on Nick’s whereabouts from someone other than us, but he only found that someone because Charlotte and Beth had put themselves on the line for him. For both of us.
But it only took me a few seconds to calm down. It was freezing outside, and I couldn’t let Nick stand in the dark all night. I picked my way carefully down the paving stones, and wrapped my arms around him. He was shaking, and when I put my face against his, I realised he was crying.
“Come back inside, love. Come on. We don’t have to thrash this out tonight.”
He nodded against my cheek, so I led him back, grabbing the blankets and bringing him and them back into the house. He went into the living room, carrying the rugs. I put the kettle on, then went to find him.
Next Of Kin (Unnatural Selection #3) Page 11
