The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  She flinched when I growled at her. “Ava,” I warned as my wrath banged against my skull and told me to spank the living fuck out of her.

  Her phone rang in her bag and she held up a finger to me when she checked the caller’s name. I frowned when she paled, “I uhh, I have to take this. I’ll be right back.” Without another word she disappeared into the kitchen and out of the back door, her fingers wrapping around the doorframe to support her when her legs wobbled.

  What the hell?

  “Where do you want them?” Barlow growled at me.

  I winced as his breath hit me full in the face. “Want what?” I barked at him, annoyed that he wouldn’t allow my pursuit after Ava.

  “Your order.”

  “What fucking order? Jesus Christ!” Were they all fucking simpletons?

  He took a step towards me then took one back when I sucked air through my teeth angrily and curled my lip at him. “Look Fox, don’t shoot the delivery boy. Just gimme a clue as to where you want them and I can get the fuck out of your miserable face.”

  “Barlow!” Steed warned.

  I snapped my head towards him and narrowed my eyes. I was slowly losing the ties that were holding my rage back. “Did you touch her?”

  Steed gave me a perplexed expression and just shrugged. The back of his head bounced off the wall just under the wedding picture of Greg and Courtney as my hand wrapped around the arseholes throat. “I asked if you touched her?” I repeated slowly.

  “Who?” he choked out as his eyes widened on me.

  “My wife, you fucking idiot!”

  “What the fuck! No!”

  “MASON!” Ava cried at me as she appeared beside me and placed her fingers gently around mine as she tried to prise them off. “Get off him, he hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  I scoffed at that. Steed? Done nothing wrong? That would be a first. He was a fucking leech where women were concerned and his taste in the kink was way beyond what Ava would ever be able to handle.

  “He was helping me out, helping us out.”

  “And what could he possibly have that would be of any benefit to us?”

  “Men, your fucking militia what you always wanted.” She retorted, “You wanted an army Mason, well I have just fucking bought you one.” She spun round and held an arm out to Barlow. “And I have just secured us enough firepower to take out the fucking Taliban, so don’t you dare insult or even hurt . . .” Her voice broke as her legs gave way and she sank down the wall until she was in a broken heap, staring up at me. I hadn’t noticed before but her eyes were black and her whole body was shaking. Her skin was almost translucent and yellow, and her chest heaved as though she was having a panic attack.

  “Ava?” I crouched before her and cupped her head, “Tell me what’s wrong.”

  She continued to stare at me, her eyes wide as they silently screamed at me for help. “Baby, please. What is it?”

  She shook her head and stuttered as though she couldn’t phrase what she was desperately trying to tell me. “I . . .”

  I waited as patiently as I could. Nate squatted down beside me, “Sweetheart, what is it?”

  She continued to shake her head as a choked sob rumbled away inside her but she refused to let it out as I watched her physically order herself to get it together.

  “Nothing!” she eventually said as she pushed on her hands and lifted herself off the floor. “Nothing.” She gave a simple nod and a fake smile as if confirming her answer before she turned back to Barlow. “Just get the men to bring them in and dump them over there,” she gestured to Barlow with a point of a finger.

  “Ava, we need to talk.”

  She nodded but refused to look at me as she turned to Steed. “Bring ’em in.”

  Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong. My little warrior was acting like a beaten victim. The false smile, the artificial bravado and the frenzied way she flicked her thumb against her finger alerted to me to more than what she was letting me see.

  This was more than Greg. And I had the awful feeling it was worse than Greg.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ava

  I PALMED THE cold tiled wall in the shower and turned up the power on the shower until the strength of the spray beat against my sensitive skin.

  I wouldn’t allow the tears to come. They would do no good, they wouldn’t bring Greg back, they wouldn’t fix Courtney’s heart, they wouldn’t help me and Mason through the next journey our lives were about to take.

  “Why?” I asked no one through clenched teeth. “Why are you doing this?”

  I felt him before I heard him when he slipped in behind me. Mason’s arms immediately snaked around my waist and I snuggled back against him, letting the water drench my face and wash away the tears that had liberated themselves without permission.

  “Talk to me, baby.”

  How could I talk to him? This would break him, finally destroy him and I couldn’t—wouldn’t do that to him.

  “This isn’t you.” He continued as he reached for the shampoo on the shelf. “You’re too hard, too tough. I like you soft.” He nuzzled my neck and poked me in the stomach humorously.

  “This is me now, Mason.”

  He sighed behind me as he started to massage a quantity of cherry foam over my hair. His fingers twisted down the length and I shivered every time his fingertips brushed against the top of my bottom. “No Ava. We’ve been to hell and back in the last twenty years, but you always stayed true to yourself. You always kept what was in your heart open and free, but now . . .”

  “Now?” I asked as I closed my eyes and swallowed back my despair. My heart was crumbling inside me, the specks of dust swirling down the drain with the suds and water.

  “Now, you’ve lost who you are.”

  I turned to face him and took his beautiful face in my grasp. “Whoever I am or whoever I have lost, I’m still yours Mason. I will always be yours. You never ever forget that . . . Ever!”

  My jaw trembled and Mason caught me as I sank to the floor. “Ava?” he asked almost desperately. “Please . . .”

  I climbed onto his lap, needing to be as close to him as was physically possible. He felt my need and drew me in deeper as his arms almost caged me in and he pulled at me. “Tell me what’s wrong, Ava.”

  “I need to do this, Mason. Greg wasn’t just my friend, he was in my soul. He was there, when I was at my lowest. When Dane . . . when Dane . . . Well, Greg, he got me through it. He made me look at him and only him when Dane was doing those awful things.” I couldn’t control my sobs as Mason held onto me for his life. “Greg took the pain and made it his own. We shared something that day, something that only he and I have ever shared and now . . . now it’s like it’s all been given back to me.”

  Mason’s hands were as fluid over me as his kisses. I didn’t just break, I shattered over the one person who had the ability to kill me in more ways than anyone. “I . . . I don’t know what to do other than this. It’s all I can see and all I can feel inside me. It’s like the hatred is eating me up and the only way to stop it is to hurt and wound.”

  “I get that, Ava, honestly I do. But you can’t do this all by yourself. I won’t push you out, you know I won’t, and when I decide the time is right, then you’ll be right there beside me. But we’re a team, baby. We’ll always be a team. You need to let me in.”

  I nodded into him, “I know. I wouldn’t have gone against Oswald alone.”

  He reared back and gripped the tops of my arms. “But you went into bad territory, Ava. I’m so angry with you for what you did alone. You never have to do anything alone, baby, never. I’m here, you share it with me.”

  “Why is life so hard?” I asked quietly as I became drunk in the beauty of my husband’s face. He was so damn handsome. He made me, me. He was my breath and my soul. As I was his, and that’s what would make this so difficult.

  He blew out a heavy breath and tapped the tip of my nose, “Because if it was easy, you would be bored to
tears.”

  I shrugged and smiled, “Yeah.”

  I looked up at him as he continued to watch me, his eyes soft but strong on mine. “Are you always horny?” I asked when I felt his erection throb against my bare thigh.

  His lips twitched, “You can feel that, huh?”

  “Mason,” I pursed my lips as I tried to control my humour. “It’s pretty hard not to know about something when it’s stuck in you.”

  I rolled my eyes when he laughed, “Oh baby, you’d know about it if it were stuck in you.”

  He grinned at me when I chuckled. “Good god, you’re a monster. Do all of our discussions have to end in sex?”

  He quirked a brow at me and held his palm flat against his chest. “You wound me. I’m not that shallow. We had a conversation about green beans on Monday and that didn’t end with my cock buried inside your lovely little pussy.”

  I rolled my lips and smirked, “If I remember rightly, it ended with your tongue inside my pussy and your cock inside my mouth.”

  “Ah,” he popped his lips and shrugged. “So it did.”

  “It’s okay,” I sighed heavily as I shook my head. “Take me if you must.”

  He laughed so loudly and happily that my own lips twitched with him. “You are so good to me.”

  “A woman knows her place,” I whispered against his ear as I nibbled at the lobe with the tip of my teeth. “And her place is right here.” I slid down on him, his thickness stretching my inner walls almost unbearably.

  His head fell back against the tiles as his eyes fluttered closed. “Jesus Ava.” The groan that came from him provided all the lube I needed to work him harder.

  “My god, you are so fucking stunning” I breathed. My tongue lapped at the rivulets of water that ran down his chest, each perfect muscle providing many contours and lines to follow.

  His hands came up to cup my breasts, his fingers kneading gently at the flesh. “Fuck, I love your tits,” he whispered before his tongue traced around the edge of the swell and I quivered over him. He studied me and I knew he was watching the pleasure he bestowed on me cover my face.

  My jaw dropped and my breathing sped up as he dipped his hips and changed the direction his cock was brushing against me, his upward thrusts meeting me as each of my plunges took him deeper and deeper. “I need to feel you, Ava. Come for me, baby. Make me feel what I do to you.”

  I shivered as my orgasm hit, my nerve endings crying out at the overwhelming sensation. Mason cried out my name when his own climax took his eyes from me.

  I wiped at the stray tear as it rolled down my cheek before he reopened them and caught it. He wasn’t to witness anymore of my tears. I was hurting him too much. My pain was his pain, my heartbreak his own and I didn’t want that for him. He had given me too much these last twenty years for me to repay him with even more pain.

  “I love you, Mason.”

  He opened his eyes and smiled tenderly at me, “And me, you. Forever and always.”

  I nodded, “Forever and always.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Mason

  “WE ALL DIE,” Connor started bluntly as he stood looking over the huge mass of people that had squashed into the small chapel in Scotland, his and his brother’s hometown. “But this time, it is my brother.”

  He glanced down at his paper resting on the lectern before him. I caught Ava slip her hand into Courtney’s and I copied her pose, sliding my fingers between hers in her free hand.

  “This time, someone took something very special from us.” Connor paused and I closed my eyes as all the sorrow in the room compressed my chest. “My brother wasn’t just another being on this sorry planet, he was one of its pillars. His strength held up those around him, his generosity gave others the encouragement they needed to go on but it was his love that he gave so freely that deserved him a place . . . up there.” He smiled as he looked up.

  I watched the tiny tear slide out of the corner of his eye and trickle down his face until it fell from his chin and splattered onto his neatly written words. His hands grabbed the wooden structure before him when his knees buckled and a choked sound echoed around the room.

  Ava shot up from beside me and took Connor in her arms, before leading him back to his seat and then replaced his position at the front.

  She smiled out at everyone as she slowly scanned the cool room. “Someone took my friend. Someone took your friend.” She continued to smile as a tear dripped off the tip of her nose. “But I won’t ask you to pray for him. Greg doesn’t need our prayers. He has the golden ticket, he is already laced with scotch and . . .” She turned to Courtney and smiled, “Forgive me, Hun but your husband already has the Angels on their knees.”

  Courtney let out a loud sob but nodded and laughed.

  Ava grit her teeth together, “But it is us that is left to suffer without him. It’s us that grieve and hurt so tremendously the pain seems unbearable.” She placed her palm on her chest over her heart. “But you know what. He’s still here. I still feel him; laughing at my antics, shaking his head at my wrongdoings, tutting when I drink too much. And gazing at his beautiful wife with so much love that she will forever feel that with her.”

  She paused and rolled her lips then turned and placed her hands on the coffin. I tipped my head and strived to listen to what she said. I knew she was saying something when her lips moved but I couldn’t distinguish it so I left her to make her own peace with him. She then turned back around and looked up to the sky and let out a sob. “And now it’s our job to watch over his family whilst he prepares our own beds up there for us.”

  She held out her hand to Harry as he climbed the three steps onto the podium. He leant in and kissed Ava on the cheek before he took his own position. “Thank you Aunty Ava.”

  Ava grabbed almost frenziedly at my hand when she sat back beside me. “I’m proud of you, baby.”

  She gave me a soft smile before turning back to Harry. He looked around the room but then rested his gaze on me. “My dad was loved by many and he loved many. But after my mum and I, there was no greater love he held than for Mason and Ava.”

  Oh Christ.

  I shook my head at him. “Don’t do this,” I begged. Ava crushed my hand as I tried to rise from my seat.

  “Mason, sit down.”

  “No,” I shook my head when the guilt tore at my throat and made it difficult to breathe. “I won’t listen to this. It’s time, it’s time to make them pay, Ava.”

  She stared at me as confusion and disbelief marred her beauty. “Now?”

  “Now!”

  “But . . .”

  “I don’t care about the time, I don’t care if I look rude, Ava. I need to do this. I can’t endure this anymore.”

  “Okay,” she soothed gently as she stood beside me. She slid her thumb across my cheekbone and wiped the forbidden tear away. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ava

  I DOUBLE CHECKED Barbara and the other two guns tucked securely into my clothing for the fourth time as I tapped my foot and remained back.

  This was torture. Mason hadn’t let me go in with the initial team and I bounced on the balls of my feet as the adrenaline made me twitch.

  “How much longer?” I asked him.

  “Calm down, baby.”

  “I can’t Mason, I need him. If they take him down before I get to him, I’m gonna go crazy.”

  He smirked at me, “You’ll get your turn, I promise.”

  I nodded. My ears picked up a slight sound and I frowned as the faint crack sounded again. I had always trusted my instincts, and Mason had always told me to trust them, so when my senses flared once more I pulled Barbara out, spun round and pointed in the direction of the sound.

  Movement caught my eye as Mason pulled me down behind him and Sam, “Sshhh.” he whispered into the air almost soundlessly.

  Sam nudged further towards Mason until they provided a wall in front of me. “Move,” I whispered back. “I need
to be in front.”

  “Ava!” Mason warned with a quiet hiss, “Do as your fucking told or you go home.”

  What the hell?

  My anger flared with him then. I wanted to hit him round the back of the head with a sharp instrument. “I’m not a child, don’t push me out, Mason.”

  “I’m not!” he turned and glared at me. “I’m trying to keep you safe, not fucking omitting you!”

  “Will you two shut the fuck up!” Sam declared as another crunch echoed around us. My eyes caught a shift in my peripheral view. The crafty bastard. I’m sure I looked like one of Charlie’s Angels when I spun on my bent legs and took him out with a single bullet to the forehead. Barbara had been silenced, much to my chagrin when Mason had said all females should sport a silencer.

  Mason flicked an eyebrow at me when all three of us scanned the perimeter for more guests. “Well done, Ava.” I said to myself when the men just turned back round to wait for our signal.

  “Fuck this!” I huffed. Mason was on my tail when I clambered over the electric fencing that been disabled by one of our guys on the inside.

  “Ava!” He grabbed at my arm and pulled me back but I shrugged him off.

  “Mason, I’m warning you, if you don’t let me go, I’m gonna blow a hole through your own damn head.”

  I watched as his body locked up. His eyes glazed over, his fists tightened around the handle of his gun and the temperature around us dramatically dropped. I smiled slyly, “There you are, it’s about fucking time.”

  He narrowed his eyes on me as his jaw clenched. “What?”

  I shook my head at him in frustration before I continued to stealthily edge around the garden. “Well come on, look at you. Someone took out your best friend and so far I haven’t witnessed anything that reminds me of the sadistic, merciless bastard that I fell in love with.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” He barked as he tried to keep up with me when I skirted the building and approached the back door, grimacing at the security light that slicked on.