The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  She shook her head sadly, “I’m so tired, Mason.” She then turned and walked from the room, the heavy double doors swinging loudly shut behind her.

  Fuck—my—fucking—life!

  Here we go again.

  Chapter 5

  Ava

  THE ROAD BLURRED under the vision of my many tears. I knew where all this was heading, I could see it happening like an action movie on the big screen, or when you watch one of those stupid horrors where the female dipshit heads into the abandoned house. Well, that was like my life at the moment and I longed to find the remote and press pause, or maybe even rewind, anything to give my family another chance at happiness or even normality.

  I gasped and swerved to miss the dart of a rabbit as it sprinted across the dark lane in front of me, its reflective eyes stunning me as they redirected the glare from my headlights. My eyes shot to the rear-view mirror to check I had actually managed to miss it as I carried on. To my relief it blinked back at me from the edge of the road, another cars headlights behind me giving the rabbit enough brightness to relay its thanks to me.

  I blew out a breath and turned the music louder, the heavy thrum of Edisun filling the small interior of my car and the lights of the following car slightly blinding me.

  My attention wouldn’t shift from Etta. What the hell was she going to do now? She was close to Frank, less so with her mother, and with a baby on the way she would now struggle. She had to know I would be there for her, but I doubted that would be of much comfort to her right now. Her father was facing life in prison, her child’s grandfather now just a number in a large foreboding building, and I was positive that would be a difficult thing to share with a child.

  I glanced at the car through the wing mirror this time as it approached to a miniscule distance behind me. “Back off, mate” I said to myself but frowned when it inched closer and closer, virtually riding on my bumper. Something didn’t feel right; it was way too close to me on these tight winding roads, a sheer drop on one side of the lane and a large incline into a mass of forest to the other. Nobody was stupid enough to drive like that around here.

  My heart sped up and I jolted when his front bumper met my rear, the nudge driving a small squeal from me. “Shit!”

  I hit the Bluetooth on the dash, “Dial Mason.”

  Ringing filled the confined space now instead of music as I tried to negotiate more twists in the road whilst keeping my pursuer at bay but he was more skilled than me. I yelped when the he hit me again and the car veered towards the worst of the two evils on either side of the road.

  “Ava.” Mason’s soft voice from the speaker soothed my nerves slightly.

  “Mason, I have a tail.”

  He was silent for a moment and I pictured him closing his eyes and swallowing his fear back. “Where are you?” He demanded as his natural disciplined instincts kicked in.

  “The dirt track behind Bennett’s,” I answered quickly as I jammed my foot harder on the accelerator and tried to outrun my shadow.

  “What the fuck are you doing there?”

  “Well I was planning on visiting Bennett,” I answered with sarcasm as I grit my teeth and skidded around another bend. I was now thinking my idea to visit my friend had been a bad idea.

  I could hear Mason’s fury through the speakers, his wrath literally crackling the energy in the limited space around me. “I told you that you weren’t to visit him anymore.” He paused and if I wasn’t in such need for vision right then I would have closed my eyes in dismay, “Are you fucking him, Ava?”

  I sighed heavily as I risked a quick glance in the mirror. The car was still riding my arse and I bit my lips harshly. There was nowhere around here that would help me rid him, and I swiftly scanned the area around me; nothing but trees on one side and . . . nothing at all on the other, “Mason, now is not really the time to discuss this but no, I’m not fucking Bennett.”

  I screamed as I struggled to keep hold of the steering wheel when the front grill of my hunter fixed itself to the back of my car and started to steer me towards the deep ravine.

  “Ava!” Mason shouted, “Ava!”

  “I . . .” I grabbed at the wheel and desperately fought to pull it the other way, the sweat coating my hands making it impossible. My strength was no match for the sheer power of a SUV. “Baby,” I whispered as I closed my eyes and refused to watch myself disappear over the edge of the cliff, the end of my life closer with every inch of my descent. A choked sob clawed its way up my throat when I felt the entire car shift and surge. “I love you, Mason.” The four little words my last.

  I felt the single tear cascade over my cheek as my mind gave me solace in my final moments, its reprieve filling me with beautiful images of my family before I felt the almighty quake and everything ceased to exist.

  Chapter 6

  Mason

  FOR A SPORTS car, it didn’t move nearly as fast as the salesman had assured me it would. The 120Mph displayed on the speedometer seemed to be taunting me and calling its analysis of how quick the wheels were turning a liar.

  “Damn it, come on!” I barked as the palm of my hand hit the steering wheel for the twelfth time throughout the crazy long journey. What usually took around twenty minutes appeared to be taking four times as long.

  Sam chewed rapidly on his lower lip beside me as Greg and Nate sat in the rear, silent and pensive. I swallowed back the bile as Ava’s panicked and disturbed scream filled my head once more, torturing my soul with the clarity of the memory and almost convincing me I was hearing it all over again. It was our fourteenth wedding anniversary next week and I was determined I would be spending it with my wife.

  My eyes scanned the area around me, looking for what my soul didn’t want me to see. I was almost tempted to turn the car around and go back just so I didn’t have to physically see the sight of Ava battered and . . . dead.

  “There!” Sam shouted from beside me, breaking me from the dark visions tormenting me. He pointed to the side of the road and down towards the forest on the right hand side.

  “Ahh shit . . . Noooo!” Nate choked from behind me as we all turned in the direction of Sam’s finger.

  I refused to see the twisted wreck of Ava’s car, the mashed bonnet crumpled and smoking against the thick trunk of a tree as the headlights still flickered and lit the area around it. All I allowed myself to think was that she hadn’t gone over the cliff on the other side. She had a greater chance of surviving this way, the impact against the tree healthier than a few thousand foot drop towards angry rocks and an angrier ocean.

  I didn’t even bother with the handbrake as I screeched to a halt above the steep incline and fell from the car in my desperation to get to her. I could hear the guy’s shouting behind me but they wouldn’t stop me, Satan himself wouldn’t stop me from getting to her.

  My feet skidded and slid on the muddy grass as I tore down the slope, my calves screaming as my muscles tensed and tore against the sharp angle of the incline. I must have fallen three or four times but my resolve and fortitude picked me up time and time again, my fear pumping the blood through my veins at an astonishing rate as my heart tried to keep up.

  The final stretch to the car seemed to drag me back, my dread slowing me but the need to save her pushing me on. The saying one step forward, two steps back filtered through my head somewhere and angered me. If the roles were reversed, Ava wouldn’t let any amount of fear hold her back and I dug my heels into the ground and surged forward, dropping to my knees and sinking into a deep muddy area beside the driver’s side of the car as I yanked at the door.

  Everything slammed to a halt. My vision blurred as my brain disputed what my eyes were relaying to it. My heart was frantic as the chill in my veins cooled my blood and sent a deep shiver through my body. My head shook as I turned around and scanned the area. “What? No. What?”

  I pushed upright as Nate came hurtling towards me, his feet sinking into the mud and trebling his strenuous efforts.

  “She’s
. . .” I stuttered. He frowned at me before his face contorted into a mask of so much pain I had to reach out to him. “No, Nate. She’s not here, she’s not there. I . . .” My head whipped from side to side as I tried to focus against the dark of the night and communicate with Ava’s best friend.

  “Wh . . . What?” Nate managed before he pushed me out of the way and looked into the car himself, wanting to verify my words. He gagged then turned and wretched into the mud, the sound way too vulgar in the quiet of the night as his fear was overcome with relief.

  Sam and Greg reached us and both frowned when they peered into the car. “What the hell? Where is she?” Sam snapped as he spun in a circle to examine the vicinity.

  “I . . . I don’t . . . know” I whispered as another dread took over.

  I scrambled around the rear of the car and crouched down. Scratches, dents and indentations decorated the bumper and my eyes narrowed on the mess. I worked my way back around to the driver’s side, my shoes sticking and squelching in the mud. I cursed at the stuff but then shook my head as I realised the thick substance had probably saved Ava’s life, slowing the speed of her descent when the wheels would have struggled to turn as easily in it.

  I leaned into the car and ripped the airbag out of the way, forbidding my eyes to look at the blood on it. Ava’s bag and phone were in the passenger footwell, the contents thrown across the floor but it was the sight of something else that created my wrath, the deep rooted fury that was always simmering beneath the surface of my skin exploded into a roar of despair as I reached out and touched my fingers to the bullet hole in the passenger door.

  Chapter 7

  Ava

  MY RIGHT EYE wouldn’t open, I could feel blood trickling down the side of my face from a taut spot on my temple and my body ached in a way it never had before. I could feel the blood congealing against my thigh from where the bullet had torn through the fleshy side of it, ripping an open wound near to my hipbone. All down my left side, even my hair, was thick and brittle with dried mud and my toes smarted from the exertion of trying to place them properly on the floor to relieve the pressure in my arms.

  I opened my left eye, but it was pointless, the room was too dark to see anything beyond the two inches directly in front of my face.

  I had already concluded I had been taken from the wreckage by someone, the gunshot and pain from the bullet as I tried to escape the car verified that much but the way my hands were clamped above my head in a chain similar to the one that had tortured me many years ago also confirmed it.

  I shook and rattled them again, the soreness in my upper arms as they held all my weight was getting worse and I knew within the hour I would be hung limply with no more strength to hold myself up. I wasn’t sure how long I had been here, but by the way my stomach rumbled with hunger and my bladder groaned in protest to its fullness, it had been a while.

  I took a deep steadying breath and tried to figure out the layout of the room without seeing anything. I coughed loudly, then whistled low and turned my head with each tone. I figured the space around me was maybe ten foot square. The cold and damp had to mean it was below ground or maybe a garage. I scoffed to myself; my luck didn’t stretch to a garage, the easier of my two conclusions for me to escape from. From the lack of any light in the room, there were no windows either and this bothered me. I knew from Mason’s training, there would be a single door in and out of my prison, therefore hindering my chances of fleeing.

  I jumped as much as I could, lifting my knees high to give me better bounce and tested the sturdiness of my restraints. It gave the slightest of groans but enough to bring a small smile across my lips and an extra surge of energy with my next jerk of the chain.

  I stilled immediately as a door opened and light blinded me for a few brief seconds. When my vision focussed I wished I had been left blind. The cruel cold smirk across Vickie’s face iced each separate cell in my veins and if it wasn’t for Dane’s training on my bladder, I knew I would have wet myself.

  Never show fear, Ava. Even when you are facing death, never divulge your weaknesses to your opponent.

  Mason’s voice filled my head and I returned Vickie’s cruel smile, “How lovely of you to call in Vic, did you bring biscuits for our coffee?”

  I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting the spit that hit my face; luckily I’d managed to shut my remaining good eye before her toxic saliva burnt it to the back of my skull.

  “You fucking bitch. You deserve to pay, you and Mason for what you’ve done. And what better way to hurt Mason than by hurting you.”

  I didn’t reply, not wanting to antagonise her further but I kept my eye on her and my senses sharp. There was nothing I could do to stop the launch of her fist into the side of my face and I bit my lower lip as my cheekbone splintered and sent a shockwave of piercing agony through my face as my body pivoted with the swing of the chain. She took my breath next as her foot met my right lung and snapped a rib, causing a high-pitched wheeze to erupt from my mouth. My body cracked against the stone wall behind me and I groaned as my back exploded in fits of excruciating pain.

  I was now struggling to control my bladder but I forced myself to hold on, I would rather suffer her painful beating than be humiliated and piss myself in front of her and her lackeys.

  She continued her assault for another fifteen minutes until my body could take no more and shut down, but not before the horror of my bladder taking offence at my pride and releasing its contents down my leg and onto the floor below me.

  Chapter 8

  Mason

  THE BEDROOM DOOR gave way quite easily under my weight but I refrained from stepping inside, turning my back and giving a small slice of dignity to the couple scrambling to pull on some clothes.

  My brain registered the scoff before Sam stepped up beside me and pushed me aside to grab hold of the fist that was taking direction at my head. I still lingered in the hallway as Sam shook his head beside me and sighed heavily.

  “You never cease to amaze me.” George hissed with disgust and a tinge of sadness.

  “I’m sorry George, but I need to do this.”

  “Do what?” he barked as he sidled up beside me, his fingers working feverishly at the buttons on his jeans. “Embarrass me? Scare Etta half to death?”

  I sighed and chose to ignore him as I turned to Etta, her body now covered with a robe. “Where is she?”

  She frowned and stared at me, her eyes flicking very faintly to the side of my head giving me all I needed to know. “Lay!” I shouted as I turned back to Sam, “Get him out of here.”

  He closed his eyes briefly but gave me a simple nod before he turned and took George’s arm, “Come on, son. Let’s give them a moment.”

  George struggled, bucking Sam off with a harsh shake before turning back into the room and taking a stance in front of Etta. “You touch her and you’ll regret it!”

  The overwhelming pain was clawing at my insides. What I was about to do would finish mine and George’s relationship completely but I needed to do this. I would suffer the consequences for a very long time, I knew I would, but my wife and George’s mother needed me, she would never cope with captivity again, not after Dane. I needed to get to her before her mind replayed the previous torture and finally shut down.

  I looked at him, taking in his handsome features for probably the last time, the mirror image of my eyes glaring at me with a hostility I had only ever witnessed in the mirror, “Your mom is missing.”

  I watched his throat bob harshly as a white sheen covered his eyes, his jaw twitched agitatedly and his fists clenched, the white of his knuckles taunting me as I observed my son turn into his father.

  My feet edged apart and my muscles tightened in readiness, my lungs thickened helping me to deal with the rapid intake of oxygen as I felt each bone in my body strengthen and stabilise in preparation for the oncoming fight.

  He flew for me before anyone had chance to react but I remained upright and lifted my hand to Sam and Greg as th
ey moved in. Their eyes questioned me but I hardened my stance further and took the beating. He was relentless, resolute in his fury to hurt me, to make me pay finally, for the ruin of his mother. He rained fist after fist on me as he screamed and howled but I closed my eyes and accepted it, let him gain the fuel he would need for the approaching storm. Eventually his fingers started to claw at me instead of hit and his body stooped in towards me as his devastation rose over the hatred and he fell into me.

  I hesitantly closed my arms around his already muscled frame and held him, every one of my senses relishing in his unique scent and vitality. Although he broke my heart I would forever be proud of the man he had become, his morality and decency were something that separated him from my double, and I would forever be grateful to whichever source had deemed him that way.

  He pulled away and peered up at me. “I . . .” He frowned at himself and struggled with his words, “I know you have to do this, and for the first time I understand why, but I meant what I said, hurt her and I will bring you down.”

  I gave him a simple nod before he glanced at Etta, his eyes relaying some hidden exchange before he turned and left the room.

  Layla took a step into the room and Etta’s legs wobbled. “Sit down, I won’t hurt you” Layla disclosed as she led Etta to the edge of the bed.

  I crouched before her, letting her feel in control as she peered down at me. “Etta, if you know where she is, you need to tell me.”

  She gulped and rolled her lips but turned her head away. Before I had a chance to request an answer again, Layla had Etta’s hair in her fist and pulled her face to the side. “Let’s get one thing straight love, I know you are George’s girlfriend but Ava is my friend, she gets hurt then the repercussions for you and your mother will be beyond grim.”