Her body wavered. Adrian had pulled free.
“It’s okay; I’ve got you, sweetheart.”
It was Seth, and she realised he was holding her, encouraging her to put her arms around his neck. Gratefully, she sighed and rested her arms around him wearily, her body too heavy to move. Her heart brimmed, the rush from her orgasm dancing with her emotions. “Good job you’re here, because you’re going to have to carry me to the bed.”
“Me too,” Adrian said.
Seth laughed at that, and she ate it up with her eyes, because he looked so happy, and she’d never seen him look quite that way before.
Chapter Sixteen
Lily awoke when the central heating kicked up a notch. Blinking, she looked over at the bedside clock. It was seven. The morning was overcast. A moment later she carefully extracted herself from her spot on the bed, where she was comfortably ensconced between he warm, supine bodies of the two men.
Standing beside the bed she looked back at them. Deep in sleep, they gravitated towards each other as if looking for her warmth, not realising she had gone. Any standoffishness about touching each other was slowly evaporating. That felt good. In fact, that felt like quite an achievement.
Slipping on a pair of socks, she reached into the carrier that she’d left hanging over the dressing chair and pulled out a pair of her new fancy undies. Opting to borrow a large sweatshirt as a dressing gown, she slid it over her head, breathing in the scent of male cologne. It was loose on her, covering her to mid thigh. She’d seen both men wearing it, and assumed it was Seth’s. They were time sharing it, a bit like they were time sharing her.
They slept soundly still, so she wandered to the kitchen and put the kettle on. While her tea brewed, she looked out of the window longingly. It was a crisp winter morning, with icing sugar frost on the grass. The grounds looked beautiful and she longed to be out there, exploring. It was a crime to be here in the beautiful Welsh countryside and not engage with it. Her mind flitted back to when Seth had let her out there.
Two minutes wouldn’t hurt, surely? Taking her mug of tea with her, she walked quietly to the hallway and opened up the control box, remembering how Seth had switched of the alarm for her to visit the patio the day before. The alarm was clearly marked and she clicked it off, then went into the sitting-room, and opened the French windows. The brisk air hit her lungs, exhilarating her, and she stepped out onto the patio, looking out across the sky. There was a glare behind the scudding clouds, and it made her want to walk for miles. Even if she could, would she feel free?
Deep inside she recognised that this was more than a safe house, this was her love nest. Her emotions were well and truly tangled and even if she was able to leave now, what they had shared was inescapable. She’d bonded with these two, here in this safe house, and even if she’d wanted to break free she couldn’t. Even if the opportunity truly was here, because she didn’t want to leave them. Was it Stockholm syndrome? No, she’d wanted Adrian through his words alone. He’d proved just as attractive in real life, and even more easy-going than she had thought. And Seth—well, she’d practically jumped him the minute she saw him, back in London, and that was before any of this locked-up-together business. Being forced to be here this way had only made things evolve quicker than they might have in ordinary life. Would they have all bonded this way, as a threesome, in ordinary life? Maybe not, maybe circumstances had allowed that side of things to happen more readily than it might have done.
She could hear a bird twittering from beyond the patio, where the bare limbs of the trees meshed together in her vision. The cold, frost-covered stones beneath her feet iced through her borrowed socks. With her hands wrapped around her mug to keep them warm and Seth’s long sweatshirt draped over her fingers, she stepped from one foot to the other, resisting the cold for as long as she could before she had to go back inside.
I want to come back here, in the summer, she thought. It was a beautiful place, and she’d never forget it. Never forget this time she’d had with Adrian and Seth, either. How could she? It was all her fantasies and more. Her love life had been on hold for a while, until she and Andrea had got the business up and running. That’s why she had turned to the internet for some fun. Before that, in her nursing days, things had never been easy. She’d always been too involved in her job. Relationships had been all about blowing off steam and they hadn’t lasted long. The nearest thing she’d had to a true love had been back in her college days, when she’d had a relationship with one man throughout. After they’d graduated, geographical distance had made that one slowly dissolve. And now she had two lovers, two good men. Sighing wistfully, her mind wandered.
They’d been flung together, but they’d clicked—all three of them had clicked into place with each other. Strange, but true. However, she doubted either of them would be interested in seeing her again, after all of this was over. Adrian was having fun, but this wasn’t what he’d signed up for and deep down she felt guilty about that. Seth…well, Seth was a different kettle of fish altogether. She suspected he was just keeping himself amused, or keeping them all amused, or something. Whatever, he’d made it clear he wasn’t taking it seriously. Even so, she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be with them both under normal circumstances. Would it be the same? Maybe not, but she’d like to find out. She saw Adrian teasing Seth, Seth being put out, but silently accepting the more gentle man’s opinion. Like a subtle exchange between bonded friends. The fact that they did it in front of her was a strange and unexpected aphrodisiac. Breathing deep, she savoured the image, locking it into her heart where she would treasure it, always
Somewhere behind her, a twig snapped.
Seth? She glanced over her shoulder, but not quite quickly enough.
She saw a fast moving figure dressed in black, and a flash of ice-blond hair.
Her mug crashed to the ground.
A large, oppressive hand fell over her mouth, and her body was crushed in a death-grip. When she tried to cry out, her breath was choked out of her lungs.
* * * *
Adrian woke up, and immediately knew that Lily wasn’t close by. He sat up and checked. Seth was lying a foot or so away, and there was a space in between them. The door was ajar and cold air funnelled through it. He listened for Lily, but couldn’t hear anything. Something told him this wasn’t right.
“Wake up.” With one hand on Seth’s shoulder, he whispered the words.
Seth lifted his head off the pillow. “Huh?”
“Wake up. I have a bad feeling.”
Seth was upright inside a heartbeat. “Where’s Lily?”
“I don’t know. Woke up and she was gone.” He shook his head. “Not in the bathroom, and I can’t hear her.”
Seth was on his feet pulling his jeans on. Adrian did the same. Seth pulled his gun out of his boot, where he deposited it each night, and then shoved his feet into the boots. Adrian was just about to reach for a T-shirt, when a sound reached them, a shattering sound, and a muffled scream.
“Outside,” Seth said through gritted teeth. He stalked to the hallway, half dressed, gun in hand. Adrian followed, but at the doorway Seth turned and stopped him, pushing him back into the room. “You stay here, and lock the door behind me. Go into the bathroom and lock that door as well, and don’t come out until I tell you to.”
Adrian shook his head, moving forward against the hand Seth had up against his chest. “It’s my fault that she’s here at all. There is no way I’m going to do anything else but come and help.”
Seth’s eyes blazed. “The hell you are. You are my primary witness. It is my duty to make sure you are safe, even if that means putting my life on the line. Deal with it.”
Adrian swallowed, but it was Lily out there. To hell with Carlisle and the court case. “It’s Lily.” He locked eyes with Seth and they stood silently sparring, the tension soaring.
“I’ll find her.”
“I’ll help.”
They were squaring up to ea
ch other, but Seth shook his head. “I’m not above knocking you out cold to keep you down and safe.”
“It’s Lily,” Adrian repeated, empathically, “and if you were me you couldn’t just sit here and wait. Face it, as soon as you leave, I am following.” The door could only be locked from the inside. Seth didn’t respond to that one, unable to. Adrian continued quickly. “We’re wasting time. I’ll stay behind you, but you could really use a second pair of eyes right now.”
“Jesus, you two are the most pain-in-the-arse witnesses I have ever experienced.” Seth shook his head, his eyes flickering as he looked into the hallway. “See that you do stay back,” he added over his shoulder, “and keep your eyes peeled.”
In the hallway, the control box was open. Seth stared at it, muttering to himself. “This is my fault.”
With his back against the wall, he moved slowly along hallway to the residents’ lounge. Dipping his head inside, he held one hand up, indicating that Adrian wait. The cold air was definitely coming from that direction. A moment later, Seth moved into the doorway, cocked gun in front of him. Then he disappeared into the room.
When Adrian followed, he saw that the French windows were wide open, the open curtains lifting on the winter air. However, it was the silence, and not the cold, that made him shiver.
Seth quickly pointed at him, and then pointed behind the bar, indicating he take cover there. Adrian was unwilling, but Seth glared at him. He did as instructed, dropping to his knees behind the bar, whilst watching Seth’s manoeuvres over the edge. It occurred to him in a moment of extreme irony that there wasn’t much point in keeping him protected right now, seeing as he didn’t give a shit about anything but Lily’s safety.
Seth hadn’t even got close to the French windows when a shot rang out. Had they left the doors wide open like a trap? Adrian felt sick. The hairs on his back stood up. Was Lily even alive? He crushed the thought that it was otherwise.
The back of the bar ran up to the edge of the curtains, further along the room, where the casement window ended, and he headed in that direction. Seth had his back against the curtains, a few inches to the side of the open glass doors. From memory, Adrian recognised that he was against the wall flanking the French windows. “Nice try,” Seth shouted, “but you seem to keep missing your targets.”
Silence.
“You make me sick, Lavonne,” Seth shouted, “selling out like this.”
Seth knew the man? Confusion hit him, but he continued to creep along behind the bar, desperate to be sure that Lily was unharmed.
A gruff laugh came from beyond the window and then a muffled cry. Lily?
That sound fuelled him. He glanced at Seth. He was pinching his forehead, teeth gritted. Anger and regret poured out of him, and inside a heartbeat Adrian knew that his guardian was in love with her too.
“Give me Walsh,” a voice shouted from beyond, “in exchange for the woman.”
“Do it,” Adrian hissed. “I’ll go.”
Seth shot him the blackest look he had ever seen, shaking his head. “Even if I could let you do that, it wouldn’t help. Lily can identify him, as can I.”
Adrian’s hands fisted at his sides.
“Now why on earth would you do that?” Seth shouted back through the open doorway.
He’d managed to sound much more self-assured than he looked, Adrian noticed.
“All I needed is to keep the witness under my protection,” the man outside responded, “until after the trial. You know it makes sense.”
Seth’s head went back against the wall. Adrian watched, wondering how he would respond. Adrian didn’t even know the guy, and he didn’t believe him. It was pretty obvious Seth didn’t believe it, either.
Rising up, Adrian took a chance, lifted the curtain and peaked out the casement window. He caught sight of them immediately. They were behind the largest of the nearby trees, some ten feet away from the open glass doors where Seth was standing. The man who’d been on the fire escape outside his office had Lily crushed against the tree, one hand over her mouth. The other held a gun to her head. She was alive, but who knew for how long? The bloke holding her looked as if he wanted to blow her away and then walk over here and shoot the lot of them. He was merely using her as a shield, and if he got brave, he wouldn’t need that shield anymore.
Adrian had to swallow down the bile that rose in his throat. Forcing himself to take another glance, it occurred to him that if he had the gun, and knew how to use it, he could shoot the guy. From this angle, the bastard was pretty much totally exposed, while Lily was partly-obscured between his body and the tree.
Taking a deep steadying breath, he stepped back along the bar.
Waving frantically, he attracted Seth’s attention. When Seth looked his way, he pointed at the edge of the curtain and beyond to where the tree was.
Seth’s eyes flickered, and then he nodded. “You’re scum, Lavonne,” he called out. “Why would I even begin to believe in you and your so-called deal, tell me that?” After he’d shouted the question out through the open doors he darted across the room and levered himself over the bar.
Adrian stood close by as Seth moved into the position he’d vacated.
“Because you have no choice,” came the response. “Carlisle’s men are following me, you either do as I say, or you will all die.”
Adrian’s blood ran cold. More of them? He exchanged a glance with Seth.
Seth’s jaw turned to granite. Then he was at the curtain, his gun easing into the gap.
Unease swamped Adrian. Would he be able to get a shot off without injuring Lily? It might take time, and meanwhile that guy out there was waiting for a response. Bracing himself, Adrian headed across the room and took up the position Seth had left. Adopting Seth’s voice, he shouted out, “You’re scum, Lavonne,” repeating Seth’s earlier remark.
“Fuck you, Jones,” came the bitter response.
“Nice work.” It was Seth, and Adrian caught the comment in the split-second before he heard the sound of shattering glass and a single shot rang out.
Please let her be safe. Please.
The sound of a woman’s scream took away any last vestige of responsibility he had, and he darted out onto the patio, just in time to see the man’s body slump away from the tree, blood staining his forehead. Lily was running in his direction, and he opened his arms and held her.
Her entire body was shaking and cold, her forehead damp with sweat, her face scratched. She stared up at him, eyes wild, confusion and fear filling them.
“You’re safe, he’s gone.” Hushing her, soothing her, and holding her close, he thanked God. Seth pushed past and jogged over to check the body, removing the gun as he did so.
Seconds later they heard the distant noise of sirens, and a loud thrumming sound.
Seth joined them.
“I’m sorry,” Lily whispered, looking at Seth, choking on her tears.
Seth didn’t let her say more than that. Instead, he reached in to give her a passionate kiss on the mouth, hands wrapped around the back of her head, before nodding at the sky, where a police helicopter was moving in. “The cavalry,” he commented with no small amount of irony. “I guess that email made it through after all. Better late than never, hey.”
* * * *
It took a long time to give her statement, but the police woman who worked with Lily was patient and understanding. They’d wrapped a blanket around her, and someone brought her a sweet cup of tea.
Too much sugar, she thought, as she sipped it, not like Seth made it.
Everything had happened so quickly and it was hard to make sense of it all. She’d found herself being led inside the house by a police officer. They took her to the office, a room she’d only seen once or twice during her stay. When she glanced out the window there, she saw that there were police cars parked in the driveway, beyond Seth’s Land Rover. It was local constabulary. The vehicles were marked ’police‘ in both English and Welsh.
Adrian had been led
away when she was. She remembered his fingers slipping from hers, and hated it. They were safe, though. Even so, it felt like the world she had got used to over the last few days was being fractured, and there was an ache in her chest that just got heavier. The last she’d seen of Seth he was with a man in a shirt and tie who had arrived with others in the helicopter. The two embraced each other. Was that the boss, the one with the little girl Seth had sent the message to?
“You’re doing well,” the policewoman assured her. “Take a minute to have your tea. Once we’ve finished your statement, I’ll arrange for you to be taken home.”
“Thank you.” Home? Where was home, now?
The police woman stepped out of the room for a moment, and Lily wrapped her hands around the mug, sipping the tea, taking strength from it.
Home was with Andrea, she reminded herself. Yes, with their business and their flat and all the pride and hard work that went with that. It would be good to see her friend, but at the same time Lily felt distanced from her life because so much had happened in the few days she’d spent with Adrian and Seth. She’d been opened to new experiences, and she felt enriched, both emotionally and sexually, after the time she’d spent with them.
If only I hadn’t turned off the alarm, if only I hadn’t gone out on the patio. Her mind kept flitting back to what had happened out there. They cared, and their actions showed her how much. That gave her strength.
When she was finally done and they let her leave the office, encouraging her to gather her things, she went to where she’d last seen them, the lounge, and looked there and beyond, on the patio. They’d gone. Her heart sank.
“Of course they’ve gone,” she said to herself, feeling as if someone had pulled the earth from under her feet. “Gone to a new safe house, without me.”
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