The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  He hesitated for a fraction before he looked over at me with a fake smile plastered to his face and nodded, “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

  I knew he was lying. Mason did too as his face darkened and he followed Greg into the corridor.

  Chapter Two

  Mason

  GREG’S EXPRESSION GAVE away his worry and I was quickly concerned. “What?”

  He sighed as his eyes roamed over my shoulder. “George didn’t OD.”

  He said it so bluntly that I immediately believed him. My heart soared as I realised my son hadn’t purposely tried to take his own life. “How do you know?”

  He sucked air through his teeth and gestured for me to follow him. “Not sure about you mate, but I could really go a drink.”

  I tilted my head and frowned, “That bad?”

  He nodded slowly, “I’m afraid so. I need to talk to you.”

  His face was tight with worry as his adam’s apple bobbed up and down relentlessly. “Greg?”

  He squeezed his eyes closed and sank his teeth into his lower lip. “Can we do this over a drink?” he asked when his eyes opened and locked onto mine. There was a desperate appeal in his expression and I nodded.

  “Yeah. Let me tell Ava and I’m all yours.”

  * * *

  “So.” I knew what was coming when Greg smirked at me. “How’s Kade?”

  I shook my head but couldn’t help the chuckle. “Good God, does the miles between us mean nothing to secrecy.”

  He laughed as he took a sip of his drink, “Mase. I . . .” He stopped suddenly and swallowed heavily. His expression brought an ache I couldn’t describe. Greg was many things, but very rarely did he show any weakness in this life. Yet, as he sat opposite me at the small round table in some random pub we’d found, every inch of his anguish, pain and fear flooded his features.

  “You know, all those years ago when I joined you, I just thought it was a new job, something to pay the bills, you know?”

  I nodded and waited patiently for him to get out what was desperately banging on his brain to be freed.

  “But . . .” His cheeks flushed as embarrassment overtook him. “But it never turned out to be a job. It turned into my life . . . you all, well you all turned into my family.”

  “Greg . . .”

  “No,” he shook his head. “Let me say this, Mase.” His eyes roamed the room as he tried to find the words he needed to say. My senses were on alert. Something was bothering him and by the looks of his distress it was something big. “We were young back then, ruthless and merciless. But I enjoyed it, it was in me, the hunt and chase for violence. We were unstoppable, respected and I fed from it, it became sustenance to me. My daily diet was blood spilt by me from them.”

  “Do you want to quit?” I asked quietly. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  “No,” he shook his head slowly as he brought his eyes back to me. “I . . . I need to ask something huge from you.”

  “Anything. You know that, Greg. We’re brothers . . . family.”

  He paused and took a breath as one of the barmaids came and took our glasses, placing fresh ones before us as had been ordered by Greg. “I have to start at the beginning.”

  “I’m here as long as you need me, mate.”

  He smiled, but it was sad. My worry was growing more by the second but I held out and settled down to make him know I was with him for the duration, my ears his soundboard.

  “About six months ago, Kerrie got news of some dodgy heroin doing the rounds.”

  I frowned when he refused to look at me, his eyes anywhere but on me. “Right.”

  “One of her friends got caught up in the stuff, as I’m sure you’re probably aware?” I acknowledged him with a nod. “The family is newish in the circle but they’re another level, Mason. Nothing like us. They don’t have an ounce of empathy. They want something, they will take out anyone that gets in their way, whether it be another family, or even the fucking Queen, they’ll shoot their own in the back so long as it guarantees their pockets get lined.”

  His eyes finally met mine. “Kerrie gave me an in. I was planted in the middle of their group as a runner, just to get the ins and outs so she can take them out.”

  I sighed heavily, “Jesus Christ. When will my sister learn that she can’t rule London?”

  “It’s not because she wants London, Mason. They killed her friend, this is personal to her and to be honest, I’m behind her one hundred percent.”

  “And what do you want from me?”

  He hesitated and rolled his lips. I could see the heartache on his face and as one of my own; I physically felt each fracture with him. “George came in for a fix.”

  I stared at him as my body locked up. My heart rate sped up at the same time my blood thickened and slowed down causing my brain to panic.

  “I didn’t know what to do. I knew the heroin was dodgy. They’re distributing it through Trevor Hayford’s circle, trying to pin the defective heroin on him to get rid of him so they can move into his zone.”

  His eyes scanned the room again. I knew he was scoping the place out, making himself aware of all exits, hunting for any rival gang members and that worried me.

  “I stepped in and tried to ruin the exchange. I really thought George would . . . well his face showed his recognition, and they caught it.”

  “Oh fuck!”

  “Yeah.” His eyes slowly lifted and seized mine, “They’ve marked me, Mase. I’m dead by the end of the week.”

  My blood tingled as my stomach plummeted. I tried desperately to swallow past the lump that had formed in my throat. “Oh fuck.”

  He nodded, “I need you to promise me that Courtney and Harry will be looked after.”

  “Greg . . .”

  He shook his head rapidly and leant towards me angrily. “Mason, now is not the time for bullshit. Don’t tell me it won’t come to that when we both know it will. They’re bigger than us, Mase and they don’t have a conscience. They spill blood and they lick the fucker off their shoes.”

  “We can . . .”

  He gripped my hand on the table and yanked himself further into me, “Promise me, as my brother. Promise me!”

  His desperation ate at my soul. I was struggling to hold in the panic as well as the tears. I gave him a nod, just a simple nod but he knew, he knew I would do as he asked, without hesitation.

  He returned my nod as he pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket. “You know what to do,” he said as he handed it me.

  “Yes.” I slid the simple white letter with Courtney’s name on into my own pocket as Greg lifted his glass.

  He gave me a nod as tears filled his eyes. “Brother’s,” I whispered as we sealed the promise.

  Chapter Three

  Ava

  THE ATMOSPHERE WAS thick and ugly as Mason stared through the window. The local news was playing in the background on the TV, its blare blinding in the dark room as I once more attempted some sort of conversation.

  “Me and Courtney have sort of agreed to disagree over Debora.”

  Mason mumbled something but didn’t divert his gaze from the window. The rain was relentless as it bounced angrily off the glass, its mood feeding from Mason’s. I wasn’t sure if he was still angry with me for my behaviour in the hospital or whether he was just worried about George. I had the slightest feeling though that it related to his chat with Greg earlier.

  I slid off the sofa and crawled across the floor until I was knelt at his feet. He finally broke from his daze and turned to look at me. The pain behind his eyes splintered my heart. “Tell me, please. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  He smiled softly and cupped my cheek. The reflection from the TV flickered across his beautiful face, giving him an almost angelic appearance as his usual tanned skin became white and eerie. “You ever wonder what you would do if I wasn’t here?”

  His odd question caught me off guard and I couldn’t hold back the small gasp. “”Why say that?”

  He sh
rugged and turned back to the window. “I . . . I dunno, Ava.” His sadness enveloped me and twisted my insides until nausea flooded me. “I once thought . . . no that’s a lie, I once knew I was it, I was the one in London they feared. I became selfish, cruel. I didn’t give a damn who I hurt or who I took down to get to the top.”

  He moved round and patted his knee. I crawled up and snuggled into him when he immediately brought me into his arms tight and secure. His chin rested on top of my head as a deep sigh rumbled through his chest against my ear. “I built the family. Brought in men and women to help me gain ground and who would help forge my future reign.”

  I tilted my head and smiled up at him. “You built this for a family?”

  He shook his head, “No, that’s not what I mean. At first, I went for the strongest, people who could give me what I needed; strength and respect, an army so to speak.” His eyes dropped as did his lips and he rested them against my forehead. “But they gave me so much more than a militia, they gave me a family.”

  “Mason . . .”

  He shook his head, “It took me too long to realise it, Ava. Then you came along. You changed my whole world. It was no longer about getting to the top; it wasn’t about monetary things or even respect. It became a fight for more than power. Life stopped being about battles and rule; it started to be about happiness, your laughter, and your beautiful smiles. It mattered more to me that you were content and safe than how much I could scam this person out of or how much violence I could bestow on that person. Life became you, and my army became my family.”

  “And we’ll always be there for you.”

  He shook his head and closed his eyes. “But that’s just it, Ava. I thought I was building a family, a circle of friends and people who matter. But all I did was build a weapon that would one day destroy me.”

  I didn’t understand what or even where he was at mentally. He wasn’t making any sense and I doubted any questions would give me answers.

  “Has something happened?”

  “No, I . . .” He faked a small laugh then rested his lips against mine softly. His heartache flowed through his kiss and brought tears to my eyes. He was breaking, slowly and painfully. I could read it and feel it in him. It was rippling from him in thick waves and I didn’t know what to do to help him. “Christ Ava. We left all this behind ten years ago. When does it ever stop hurting? When will it ever stop trying to fucking break us?”

  I couldn’t hold back my sobs at his anguish. “Mason, please . . .”

  “It’s destroying me, baby. It’s fucking eating me alive. I don’t know what to do.”

  He broke then. My glorious bastard fractured and shattered beneath me as a low keening noise came from him. “I just wanted us to be happy, Ava. That’s all I ever wanted.”

  “I know, Mason. And we are.” I covered him in tender kisses as I tried to soak up his despair. “You’re my life. You gave me a life that I love, that I fucking breathe for. Your love feeds me and keeps me living, baby. I’m nothing without you.”

  “And what about everyone else?” he spluttered angrily. “What has my life done to them? I’ve slowly destroyed everyone I love bit by bit.”

  “No . . .”

  He framed my face with his large hands tightly as both anger and devastation crushed him. “Don’t let me kill you too, baby.”

  “Mason, I . . .” I was sobbing with him now. His soul grappled with mine for solace and comfort but I was just as broken as him and I couldn’t give him what he needed.

  “Promise me Ava, promise me you won’t ever die and leave me.”

  I shook my head as I captured his own face in my hold, “You know I can never promise that Mason, but I can promise that I’ll do whatever it takes to stay here with you.”

  He nodded then pulled my mouth to his. His tears ran onto my lips as he endeavoured to take strength from me and I strived to give it him. “I love you, I love you so much baby,” he whispered against me as his fingers slid into my hair and he held me close to him.

  “And me, you.” I whispered back as I mirrored his pose and slipped my hands into the thickness of his soft brown hair. “Wholly and entirely.”

  He moaned against me as I slid my tongue against his and wrapped him in love. His arms encased me as he crushed me to his chest and held on for his life. I kissed away his tears, lightly licking at each one and tasting his soul as my heart hungered for him.

  “Baby . . .” he groaned as my teeth grazed his strong jawline.

  “Let me help you, Mason. Let me take it away.”

  He sucked air through his teeth as I lifted his t-shirt and continued my journey down his chest and across to a nipple. His fingers tightened in my hair as he lifted his hips, rubbing his erection into my bottom until I twisted my body and straddled him. “Oh, baby . . .”

  I slid down until I was resting between his thighs on my knees. He watched me with a soft gaze as I unbuckled his belt and lowered the zip of his jeans. We were both silent as I took his thick cock into my hand and stroked slowly, pressing my thumb over the end as I collected the pool of pre-cum. His eyes darkened when I slipped my thumb into my mouth and tasted the familiarity of him, the essence of just him.

  “Take me in your mouth, Ava.”

  His soft demand stimulated each of my senses and ignited the fire in my belly. My pussy throbbed furiously as my arousal dampened my thighs in preparation for my man.

  I leant in and ran the tip of my tongue around the groove of his head, flicking gently down the thick protruding vein underneath until I was lightly sucking on his balls.

  His head fell back in the chair as his eyes closed and he sighed deeply. I smiled to myself, knowing I could take him somewhere he longed to be, somewhere far away from his daily nightmares.

  I pulled at his jeans until they were gathered around his thighs and then traced along his scrotum with the tip of my finger until I reached the spot that I knew made him crazy.

  His groans became louder and deeper until he pulled on my hair and directed my mouth over the head of his cock. “I asked you to take me in your mouth. Do as you’re told.”

  My veins tingled with excitement. His dominance and authority lit the fuse inside me and I held his gaze as I slid my lips around his shaft and plunged down slowly, taking in as much of him as I could. I wrapped my fist around the rest of his length and squeezed tight as I slid my other finger into his anus.

  His hips bucked sharply as his face tightened and his teeth sank into his lower lip. “Fuck my arse, Ava.”

  I continued at a slow pace until he was grinding himself wildly onto my finger and into my mouth, his groans becoming wilder and louder.

  I was suddenly on my back with my skirt around my hips and Mason’s mouth on my pussy.

  I gasped loudly when he became almost animalistic. His tongue was doing crazy things as his rage simmered beneath the surface and he turned the adrenaline from it into lust. His teeth nipped at my clit as his fingers pounded in and out of me. “Mason . . . Fuck!”

  He was driving me wild as he kept my orgasm on the edge, refusing me any release until he allowed it. His fingers gained pressure and speed as his mouth moved along the inside of my thigh, his tongue peeking out to taste the arousal that had dripped from me. “Tell me, Ava.”

  I didn’t hesitate. I was too wound up to hold back as I grabbed at his hair feverishly, “Bite me, baby.”

  He obeyed immediately as his teeth sank into the soft flesh above my knee. I screamed at the pain in my back when my spine arched so severely there was only my shoulders and bottom on the floor.

  “You always taste so fucking good,” he whispered as his cock sank inside me and his mouth covered mine. The taste of my cum on him heightened another feverish arousal and I was soon rocking against him as angrily as he was taking me.

  This was how me and my husband made love. Angrily, feverishly and wildly but with so much connection that I was sure our souls fucked at the same time. My heart belonged to him when we united, his
own beating against mine as he joined me in nirvana.

  “Fuck baby,” he growled as his mouth suckled on my neck. “You’re my life, my love.” I nodded, unable to form any words as my body soared into the heavens. “Wherever you go, I’m going with you. You’ll never be free of me, never. You’re mine.”

  He cried out as he swelled inside me and took me to the place where we always danced together—ecstasy.

  There was no other place I ever wanted to be than beside the man that gave me a soul. The man that had taken my faults and constructed them into strengths, a man that had seen my ugliness inside as a hidden beauty within me and a man I wanted to take into bliss every time he smiled at me.

  His forehead dropped against my shoulder as he struggled to gasp for breath. “You’re getting old,” I giggled against him.

  He growled playfully without looking at me and nipped at my shoulder blade. “And you’re coming along for the ride, my little warrior.”

  “Damn right I am. I’m hoping for one of those speedy disabled chariots.”

  He reared back and stared at me with a small smirk, “I better get one reserved then.”

  I beamed at him, “Aww, you’re such a good husband.”

  He rolled his eyes and flopped onto his back beside me. “Anyway, I thought you and a friend had decided you were getting golfing carts?”

  I shrugged as I curled into his side, “Well yes, I mean I can’t mow down enemies with a bloody wheelchair. It depends what kind of mood I’m in when I choose which vehicle I want each day.”

  He chuckled. “Okay, so if you ask the butler to get the cart ready I know I need to stay out of your way.”

  I smiled into his chest. “That you do, my love. You know me so well.”

  Chapter Four

  Mason

  IT WAS LIKE staring through a mirror to the past as I looked at George. He was still unconscious after three days and hooked to every damn machine the hospital had in their possession.

  His chest rose and fell with each compression the machine fed him with but it was the tinge of blue around his eyes and mouth that broke down each cell in my body until I was entirely empty inside.