by Beth Wynne
The door slammed and two heavy feet pounded into rooms, looking for us, then he began to roar. His face turned to pure fury when he saw us sitting together. “What the fuck is that bitch still doing here?”
Chapter 24
Jake
I lay in serene peace, listening to Bella’s slow, deep breaths. We’d just had the best sex of my life and I was content, knowing the woman laying beside me was so deeply satisfied. Bella, I loved the sound of that name, it was calming, almost soothing. Bella. I started to drift over to sleep myself, but was woken by the vibrations of my phone on the floor.
“Nev.”
“I’ve got your file ready, Jake. Do you want me to drop it over tonight or in the morning?” Nev, as always was straight to the point.
I made my way quietly out of the bedroom and down the stairs. “Well bud, is that woman of yours gonna let you go out to play at this time of night?”
We’d agreed to meet early the next morning at the gym. I lifted Bella’s rucksack and gathered her clothes from the lounge. I’d be gone before she’d rise tomorrow morning and I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be as keen to walk around my home naked to retrieve her things then. I put her clothes in the room and took one last look at her pert, round ass.
A selfish part of me wanted to stay, to slip my hands around her through the night and make her moan again… but doing that was unfair on her - she would assume I would want a relationship - women always did if you actually slept with them. No, I would go back to my own room.
There was a chill in the air so I pulled the covers around her, closing the door behind me as quietly as I could before going to my own bed.
In the morning I dressed and left as quietly as I could; I’d be back with the file before she’d be awake. As soon as the Blue tooth connected in my car, I phoned Louise. I knew my home was secure, Bella would be fine for the hour I’d be gone, but with the death threat last night, I wanted her to feel safe - with company.
When I arrived at the club, da’s car was already there. That wasn’t normal - he didn’t come around here, let alone this early. I walked into the back office, where he was milling around.
“The girl is playing you, son,” he said regretfully. “Ye’re too young to mind them, but I recognized her when I saw her. She’s Sarah White’s wee girl, Sarah’s her real name too.”
The name didn’t mean much to me, but I’d known I’d recognised her face at the start. I’d seen her around… school, maybe? Was he right? Why would she lie about her name? She looked like a Bella - Sarah was foreign to the woman I knew, the woman I’d made love to.
“And what?” I didn’t like his tone, and sure as fuck, I wasn’t going to let him see that he’d hit something I’d already wondered about. So what if she’d changed her name - I’d still call her Bella tho, I mused.
“And, Jake, it wouldn’t mean a fucking thing… except that she’s lied to ye.” He raked his hands through his hair. “Oh aye, and except I remember reading about Ryan White, her brother, getting put away a few years ago for his part in a bust on a McCauley robbery.”
The hurt felt like a massive punch to my stomach. She would have known all about us, about them, yet acted so innocent to it all when Louise and I went to her flat.
She must have known Denver, the thought bubbled in my mind, in fact, she probably wasn’t being blackmailed by him at all - she staged the whole thing. I replayed the images of last night through my head. I was played, she knew exactly what she was doing last night. Probably even knew when they’d ransack her home - maybe even tipped them off that I’d been there.
And to think I’d actually thought she could be anything more to me than a fuck. I’d actually considered…
Rage practically blinded me, my fists found the table in the office, beside him. “I’ll fucking kill her, and then I’ll kill that cunt, Denver.”
My office door made the mistake of being closed, it nearly came off its hinges as I stalked through it and back to my car. She had better be gone before I got back.
Chapter 25
Jake
Louise looked at me in complete shock with her mouth gaping open. Bella didn’t even have the good fucking grace to look me in the eye. She sat there, head down with her hair covering her face.
Blood pounded in my ears, “Do I have to lift ye myself and throw you out?” I felt my hand fist in anger. “Or are ye waiting to get some more info to feedback to yer wee buddies.” I looked at Louise as I nodded at Bella. “I don’t suppose she’s told ye that she’s involved with the McCauley’s? Her brother did a bit of work with them a while back? Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” My focus returning to the only person who had managed to hurt me so deeply in years.
“Never thought to mention your waster of a brother, did ye? Surely ye’re not embarrassed?” Resentment and bitterness clawed up my chest. “Was it really a burglary he was sent down for or was there a deal done with the cops? I hear the boys inside don’t take to well to dealers who sell that shite to kids? That’s what the McCauley’s do, isn’t it?”
“He never…” I cut her off by lifting my hand up, signalling her to stop speaking.
“Don’t ye even fucking dare try to lie to me in me own fucking house.” I paced the floor again, “Are ye gonna sit there all fucking day? Get the fuck out of my house and you’d better hope I never see your face again.”
“Jake…” Louise said softly, “Jake, I think you might have things a bit wrong.” She was still sitting beside Bella - how could she? Louise was not easy to fool, but she’d swallowed whatever rubbish this bitch had spun her - I watched as Bella lifted her hand to wipe her still hidden face. Tears: the ultimate woman’s weapon.
“Ye think?” I said, sarcastically. “Well, did ye know about her brother then?”
“Yes.” Louise said simply. “We’d been talking about him - what he’d done and his upcoming parole. She’s told me that she grew up around here too.”
“Convenient that it comes out now, isn’t it? It’s a bit late to start telling the truth.”
Louise, my cousin, but who I held as a sister, still remained sitting beside Bella. “Go on, you need to tell him… everything.”
For the first time since I’d came in, Bella lifted her face to look at me and a tiny part of me twisted. Apart from a couple of tears she’d just wiped away, she hadn’t cried since I came in. But her face told a completely different story - puffy eyes and red cheeks showed that she had been crying before I’d came in. There was fear in her eyes, but how could I know that wasn’t fear of having being found out. She’d have known what the Kindred Sons did to informants - even women - not that it was something I agreed with, but the family came first. Always. Blood and Loyalty.
I wanted to believe her as she found her voice, talking about her childhood in this very area. Her stories about her parent’s breakup, her grandmother taking custody of her and Ryan, how her alcoholic mother drank herself to an early grave. She cried as she told me about meeting a guy - someone her grandmother disapproved of and her brother hated, but she’d left her family for him. She didn’t even come back when Ryan had phoned her for help when he’d owed the McCauley’s money. As Bella told me about how the guy she’d been with ended up knocking her about. I wanted to kill the bastard myself. To do that to an innocent was unforgivable.
Something shifted in the way she spoke about how she ended up in hospital - she was still hiding something. That incensed me again, for a moment I had wanted to believe her, despite myself… but she never said any of this before - what makes it true now? Knowing she was hiding something more still made me loose complete trust. What a great little actress.
“Aye, sure that’s a real tear-jerking story, Bella. Had me choked up.” I stood up again, “Look, I only listened to ye for Louise’s benefit. Now, Bella, it’s only for Louise here that I’m being so nice to ye, so thanks for yer wee stories but I want nothing more to do with ye. Get your stuff and get out.”
She rose quietly and fu
mbled around, gathering her things together. Louise spoke quietly with her, asking where she was going and what she’d do, all the time, Louise was flashing irritated expressions at me - she clearly had bought everything “Bella” had said. When Louise asked if she needed any money, “Bella” shook her head and straightened her back, the last bit of pride and defiance coursing through her. “I don’t need anything.” As she made her way towards my door, to leave forever, I felt the urge to hold her, to kiss those lips for one last time and to somehow forget the lies and deceit that had brought us to here. My father’s image came into my head, I knew what needed to be done.
I had followed her to the door, drawn to her even as I knew she needed to go. Then one last thought passed through - if there was any hope for redemption here, if she truly was being honest, then she’d tell the truth on one question. “I’m gonna be nice and ask ye one last question before ye go. We both know the honest answer to it and if ye have any sort of decency, to tell the truth, now’s the time to do it. Now’s the time to try and redeem something. So, Bella, are ye working for them?”
She looked me in the eyes as she lied to me: “No.”
“You’d better leave now, Sarah White. Before I have to do something you really wouldn’t like.”
I walked away, watching as Louise’s face filled with confusion as she looked at the woman she’d took as a friend. “Bella? Sarah?”
I chose to walk away, uninterested in what words were then exchanged between them, but voices were raised, then I heard Louise opening the door and throwing her out, the door slammed shut straight after. I put my ear buds in and began another tormenting workout in my home gym. I needed to forget her, I needed to forget everything about her.
Chapter 26
Jake
In the week that followed, I’d expected Bella to surface somewhere. I couldn’t bring myself to calling her Sarah when I thought about her - which was often. Louise had stayed at the house for the rest of the day after I’d threw Bella out, but I’d seen very little of her since and spoke with her even less. I reasoned that was because I’d been busy - I’d intensified the Kindred Sons training. The guys were getting beatings from me every night, but on the plus side, the training was getting better.
From what I understood, Denver still had no idea that Louise was linked to us, but even still I had made sure the guys kept a close eye on her just in case. Nev had been assigned to watch Bella’s flat. That had not gone as smoothly. It turned out that she never returned to it, and as she hadn’t collected the key for the new locks on her doors I was certain she hadn’t slipped in and out without our notice. I was disappointed, believing that she must have been with the McCauley’s, but an email that was sent to my work account from a throw-away address raised my concerns.
Subject: BW - return to original condition
Jake,
Regarding the assistant that you intercepted recently, I would insist you return this person to their original condition and back to their original abode. I am aware that their venue is being watched and should this person not appear in public, safe and well, I will have no other option but to report them missing. I’m sure you are well aware that images such as what were previously shared are not the only ones from the final night this person was seen alive and well.
It has been a week. I expect her to be safely returned to the destination discussed above within five days.
Further, you’ll remember the agreement, which I strongly believe extends to this person. I believe Carrick would concede that any disappearance would constitute your withdrawal from said agreement, leaving the responsibility of repercussions wholly with yourself.
Kind Regards,
My head reeled. If Denver had her, he was now trying to frame me for her disappearance and possible death. The Polaroid he’d left in Bella’s flat clearly wasn’t the only one showing us together - but it would prove nothing to the police. But the McCauley’s would believe that I had something to do with her disappearance, bringing the Kindred Sons and McCauley agreement into meltdown. This would be enough to break the uneasy alliance, and it would all fall on me. Yes, I wanted a fight with them, to remove their blot from my manor, but hell, it would be on my terms: the only way to fix things right now was to find Bella.
A small voice within me kept repeating the things I didn’t want to think.
Maybe she really wasn’t working for OtherGang.
Maybe she’d told the truth.
Maybe she really was dead.
I couldn’t just sit around, waiting for something to happen. So I went for a walk as I called Nev, again. Still nothing from around her flat. I’d already redoubled the amount of guys I had looking for her. We’d been searching the street and in hostels too - if she was still around here and had no money, we would have found her. Even our bent cops were on it, as were the tech guys who were running traces. It started to feel a bit too much like before and I found myself walking along the riverside. I thought of Cassie - she just hadn’t been the girl for me but she didn’t deserve how things ended up for her; her bloated body retrieved from the water. I gritted my teeth against the mental image of Bella’s limp, lifeless body. That can’t happen again. It won’t. I won’t let it.
My head was so mixed up with everything that had happened: Bella’s lies and what might have been truths. She made me feel so angry that I wanted to find her safe and well just to kill her myself. Well, not kill her exactly, a good hard punishment fuck for wrecking my head would be a good start. Stop it. I reprimanded myself as my cock took an interest in the memories flicking in my head like a cinema screen.
That evening I sought out Denver. I decided it was time to face him once and for all.
He walked with his usual arrogance. Little prick. I took satisfaction in the brief stutter in his stride when he saw me, even though he still continued to his car. When I heard the click of the doors unlocking, I got into his passenger seat.
“Jeysus, it smells like shite in here, or is that your wife’s perfume?” My stomach lurched as I was greeted by overly heavy floral scent, making a poor attempt to cover the stench of sweat that assaulted me.
He stared out of the window, “Don’t get my car without an invitation. Say what you need to, then fuck off.”
“Ever the gentleman, eh? Denver?” I goaded him, dramatically waving my hand to waft the smell away. “Or have you put that much shite up your nose that you can’t even smell anymore?”
His soft hands gripped the steering wheel, even though we weren’t moving, his knuckles white already from the tension. “I bet you don’t get much action in this car, or do they have to be out-of-it before going anywhere near you?”
“Mr. Anderson,” he said professionally, “What are you doing in my car?” I knew I got to him - I always had, which made me smile grimly. I hated him. The only thing keeping him alive right now was the treaty and the fact he might have Bella. For the Kindred Sons to be the ones to break their honour, their word, would have killed Pops, and then he would have killed me himself.
“I got your email.”
For the first time since I’d got into his car, his eyes darted in my direction, confirming exactly what I knew already. “Email? I’m sure it was from one of my assistants, probably about your returns I assume? Really, you could have just phoned.” He said icily.
“You know the email I mean, and I thought it deserved a little face to face.”
He shrugged, “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“I think you know which exact “return” I’m talking about, and I wanted to let you know, in person, that I’m watching you. If you think for one minute you’re gonna pin something on me…”
He lifted his hands off the wheel in, palms facing out. “You’ve got me very, very wrong, Mr. Anderson, I can assure you I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have no interest in your affairs… maybe your conscience has finally got to you.”
“Like fuck you don’t ye wee prick.” I unclenched my jaw, “
Last time I saw your…” I struggled for the right word, “Acquaintance, she was alive and well, and walking away from me.”
His stoic face gave nothing away… except it told me everything. He really had believed that I had Bella.
So where was she?
Chapter 27
Jake
I had been so angry with Bella the last time I’d seen her. No one lies to me, people have paid a heavy price for doing that. She’d lied to me, so that would only mean one thing if the family found everything out - and Da, the only one that really mattered, was the one who’d told me. But was lying by omission really lying? Sure, she didn’t tell us that she’d grew up around here; that her brother had been involved with the McCauley’s; or even that Bella was her middle name, not her actual name. We weren’t exactly close - except for that one, glorious night, so why would she tell me everything? She never said she’d grew up elsewhere, instead, she just talked about where she’d lived just before coming here and then let us come to our own conclusions. How bad must things must have been for her in Enniskillen that coming here was even an option to consider?
