“Ava, what’s going on?” I asked as soon as she closed the door behind me.
She tilted her chin towards a chair and I seated myself as she took the chair next to me. “Your brother,” she started and I nodded at her, “is his surname Sykes?”
“Yeah” I answered cautiously and my stomach dropped when she moaned and ran her hands over her face in distress.
“Ava, you’re scaring me now, will you just tell me.”
She pulled in a heavy breath and looked at me. “He has a contract out on him, Lay” she whispered as though it was highly classified information.
My stomach dropped and my heart beat wildly “Fuck! Who?”
She nodded and her expression looked pained. “This is really hard for me Ava but it’s…” she exhaled heavily now and I knew before she told me. “…Mason.”
I closed my eyes and groaned “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
She nodded.
We both knew Mason didn’t back down on any contract he initiated, his merciless reputation became him. He was ruthless, cold-blooded and uncompromising and if he had a vendetta against anybody, then he saw it through to the end, no matter what.
“Why?” I asked as I fought against the urge to vomit; my nerves and worry swirling my stomach relentlessly.
“The robbery he got sent down for, the gang he was involved with took down one of Mason’s friends. He’s been after each member of the gang for over eight years now and he’s been waiting for Kenny to be released. I know he was approached about having Kenny finished in prison but Mason was adamant he did it himself. He really wants him Lay, and I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to change his mind. I feel as though I’m betraying him for telling you but,” she rubbed her face again and looked at me intently “you need to get him out of here before Mason gets to him.”
My head spun at her revelation and I was struggling to process any thoughts that were rapidly firing through my mind.
Kenny was going to die, no matter what I could do to help him, I knew it, just as Ava did but I was grateful for her heads up.
“Do you think it’s worth talking to Mason?” I asked her but I knew the answer by the look on her face.
“It means a lot to him Lay, Andy was one of Mason’s best friends and they just took him down in the robbery for no apparent reason. He was just stood, minding his own and someone from Kenny’s gang realised he was Mason’s best friend and just shot him, just for being involved with Mason. So of course Mason blames himself and is determined to bring every one of them down. As far as I know, there’s only Ricky, Mickey and Kenny left.”
Something didn’t make sense and I cocked my head in thought. “But if that’s the case, that Andy was killed because of his involvement with Mase, then surely Kenny knows who Mason is?”
She furrowed her brow and pursed her lips in thought.
My heart stopped right then as the reason for Kenny’s visit hit me like a fucking freight train.
“FUCK!” I shouted as I flew out of the room and made my way to the elevator, Ava hot on my trail.
Chapter 42
Lucas
I’d heard Red shout ‘fuck’ and then she seemed to have disappeared.
The way she had shouted it had made my stomach clench, her terror or shock at something had been evident in the way she sounded, but I was damned if I could find her.
What the hell was going on?
I had repeatedly rang her, texted her and looked everywhere for her but so far, nothing and I was starting to get worried.
I climbed in my car after telling Nate something was wrong and my floor was unmanned. He had told me Ava was missing as well and then urged me away to find them both. The man was an epic boss and I knew I owed him a decent bottle of whisky.
My first port of call was Mason’s, that being where she was staying at the moment and my heart started beating again when I saw Ava’s jeep parked up outside.
I just hoped Red was with her.
I went to knock on the door but it was already a little open, and I stilled when I heard Red’s desperate pleas.
“Kenny, please don’t do this.”
Something was going down and I crept slowly into the hallway, trying desperately to keep my breathing quiet so I could hear what was going on.
The voices were coming from the living room and I slowly tiptoed across the hardwood floor, silently cursing Mason for getting the noisiest flooring possible.
“Kenny, no. He’s my friend, Ken, one of my best friends. I will never forgive you for this.”
“Yeah Kay, but he took down all my friends, one by fucking one.” Kenny spat and I frowned at the anger towards Red. She was his sister, why was he angry with her?
“Please…” Ava now begged and I could hear the fear in her voice, the choke of a sob being released as she pleaded.
I stopped dead when I saw the scene in the room reflected into the huge hall mirror and I closed my eyes for a moment to steal myself.
Anger and fear choked my throat and I desperately tried to control it. I needed to keep calm now.
Think Lucas, think.
Kenny had an arm around Mason’s throat and a gun pointed into his side. Red was stood in front of Ava protectively as she tried to calm her brother down, but she was inching closer and I knew what she was going to do.
My heart exploded in my chest when Kenny realised what she was doing and he shook his head sinisterly at her. “Plum, don’t do it. I can’t protect you against Ricky. You know him; he’ll expect me to take you with him.”
“You take Mason, Kenny, then you take me as well. I won’t stand here and let you do this.” She said and I knew it was a promise.
I noticed Ava stealthily sneaking her hand into her bag, her action being hidden by Red’s body and I wondered if Red knew Ava was going to take out her brother.
I didn’t blame Ava, her loyalty and love lay with Mason and anybody would take out somebody else’s brother to save the person they loved, but it was Red I was worried for.
I knew she was going to lose her brother or her best friend today. Only one of them would survive but the question was which one?
“I can protect you, Kenny. If I’d known you were Lay’s brother then you wouldn’t have been on the list. You wanna job with me, you’re in” Mason told him and Kenny frowned at him as he turned to look at him.
I knew as soon as Kenny looked at Mason what was coming and I tried desperately to get my legs to move but they just seemed to stumble as I strove to take the distance between Red and her brother.
Red flung herself at Kenny; both of them seemed to spin in the air slowly before they fell to the ground, Kenny landing heavily on top of Red.
Two gunshots resounded and my legs quavered when I saw blood pool on the floor beside Red.
Both she and Kenny were still and I couldn’t move, my whole body stood stock still as I shook my head at Red’s motionlessness.
“No” I whispered, the hoarse sound all I could manage as Mason bent beside them both.
“Call an ambulance, NOW!”
“Fuck!” Ava declared as she pulled out her phone and I forced my legs to carry me across the room towards the still rigid Red, underneath Kenny’s obvious dead body.
His back was covered in blood, his shirt now a deep red colour as his veins emptied rapidly out of the hole Ava had put in his back.
Mason rolled Kenny from Red and my legs completely gave way when the cavity in her stomach was revealed to us.
“No… No…” Mason choked out as he pressed his fists against Red’s wounds.
Ava dropped to the side of him and bent her ear to Red’s mouth “She’s not breathing Mason, she’s not breathing.”
“Shush baby, calm down.”
I just sat there, my legs under me as I stared dreamlike at the scene before me.
No, Red was fine, she was okay. It was just Kenny’s blood, it wasn’t Red’s, no it wasn’t, it wasn’t Red’s. She was just fine, she was good, she was fine, fine. Fin
e.
“R..R..Red… Baby, p…p..please look at me… Red…” I don’t know if I vocalised or imagined the words but nobody turned to look at me. I wanted Red to look at me but the stubborn woman was refusing to look at me. Always so bloody obstinate, she was.
I was going to spank her arse ten ways to Sunday for doing this to me.
I was almost trampled in the rush from the paramedics as they stormed past me and I watched from afar as they pulled Mason out of the way and started to work on her, one of them desperately trying to find one of Red’s veins as the other pulled out the defibrillator.
What the hell did he need a defibrillator for? Red was fine, she was just asleep, she was just tired, that’s all, tired.
Her body jerked as an electric current flowed through her and I clambered onto my hands and knees, frantically crawling across the floor to help her. They were hurting her, her tiny little body jolting wildly with each shock they put her through.
I could hear a funny noise, it was kind of low and long but at the same time high-pitched and I squinted at it as I unsuccessfully pulled myself along the floor towards her.
“Red... wake up now baby, they’re hurting you.” I tried to say but the sound was getting louder and something was bubbling up my throat.
I reeled back in shock when my stomach pumped its entire contents all over the floor just as the high-pitched sound turned into a scream and left my throat at an alarming velocity.
Mason was crouched before me saying something, his lips were moving but I couldn’t make out what he was saying as my ears roared and my blood pumped wildly.
“No…” I managed to choke out this time. The scream had seemed to clear my airway and I grabbed hold of Mason, “Help her, please… help her… Mason, please….”
His face was pained and he turned to Ava, utter desolation and alarm expressed openly.
Ava now appeared beside me and she wrapped both arms around me.
It was only then I realised how badly I was trembling, my whole body seemed to quake and shake violently as she pulled me against her.
“Shush Lucas, they’re doing everything they can for her, I promise, I promise Lucas.”
“You have to help her Ava, they’re hurting her. She won’t like the electric thing, she’ll hate that. It will hurt her…”
She nodded and gestured her chin towards the paramedics “They’ve stopped look, they’re not using the defibrillator now, look.”
I turned to look but the whine came back and I quickly diverted my gaze again. Every time I looked at Red, my heart seemed to stop beating and my ears pounded as a high-pitched whine came from inside me, choking me and suffocating me.
So I didn’t look.
I refused to look.
I refused to acknowledge.
She was fine.
She was fine.
Chapter 43
Layla
So dark. Everywhere, darkness flooded me and I squinted to find anything I could concentrate on.
“Hey, baby.”
“Ry?” I gasped as I turned to the voice behind me.
His deep laugh made me smile. “What are you doing here, Ry?”
“I should be asking you that, Kay. What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”
“I’m not even sure where we are, Ry.”
He patted the bench beside him and I frowned, I was sure that wasn’t there a moment ago.
I settled beside him and curled into his strong chest when he lifted his arm for me.
His hand stroked my hair gently and I calmed immensely and relished myself in his scent and hold.
“I miss you” I whispered to him and his arm tightened around me.
“Me too, baby.”
We remained silent for a while, both of us revelling in each other’s presence. “You need to go back now, Kay. You don’t belong here.”
I turned to look up at him, “But…”
He shook his head firmly, “Not yet, Kay. I’m doing okay without you, you need to get back. Lucas needs you.”
I nodded but didn’t move. “Will you look after Kenny?”
He nodded. “And you Todd?”
I nodded in acknowledgment before he kissed the top of my head and pulled back.
“Oh, and by the way, don’t be a bloody hero again” he scolded softly.
I nodded “No, it wasn’t one of my best ideas.”
He chuckled lightly then pressed his mouth against my forehead as he took my hand in his, “Always, Kay” he whispered.
“Always, Ry.”
***
His back was to me when I opened my eyes. His gaze through the window, his shirt was wrinkled and plastered to his strong back with his sweat and his hand was running through his wild hair.
I knew then how much I loved him and how much he loved me, and I knew I would never find another man who loved me as much as Lucas did.
I felt Ryan’s hand slide from mine as he handed me over to another, to a man who would protect me with his life and his very soul, and I, he.
As if he sensed my consciousness, he turned slowly and gripped the window frame as he saw my open eyes.
I tried to say something but the tube that fed through my nose, and lined my throat into my lungs prevented me.
“Red?”
I smiled slowly but I managed it.
“Oh God, Red…” he choked out.
He stumbled over to me and dropped to his knees by the bed as he took both my hands in his. His head came down to rest on top of them and then he cried, loudly and uncontrollably, as he chanted my name over and over.
“Red, baby. God, I love you, I love you…” over and over until I slid one hand from his and lifted it to my mouth, kissed two fingers and placed them on his lips.
He stood and leaned into me, his face hovering over mine as he returned my kiss with a soft gentle touch of his lips on mine. “You are in for one hell of a fucking spanking, Red.”
I smiled and nodded as eagerly as I could, then flinched at the pain in my stomach.
“Hang on baby, I’ll get a nurse.”
He disappeared and I smiled gently as Ryan blew me a kiss from the corner of the room and then vanished.
“Bye, baby” I whispered to him, knowing he was okay, he was doing fine and he would wait a while longer for me.
Lucas would just have to share me when we got up there.
That would be fun and I felt a grin lift my lips at the thought.
Two men in my bed in the afterlife.
No complaints from me.
***
Kenny’s funeral was hard. The hospital had released me for the day and wheelchair bound, Lucas had refused to let me do anything, never letting me out of the chair, and lifting me in his arms whenever it was necessary.
My Dad had refused to even acknowledge me and my mother was nowhere in sight. No surprise there then.
She had left us when I was five and we had never seen her again. My Dad had brought us up single-handedly but when I had ran off to Gretna Green with Ry to get married he had disowned me and held it against Kenny for his knowledge of what I had done.
The only good thing to come out of the whole thing was Sara. She had turned up at the hospital, a mess, and held onto me for hours and hours and then we had talked, both of us hashing out our thoughts, grievances and apologies. We were taking baby steps but I knew we would get there.
Mason didn’t know what to do with himself every time he visited. His pain and guilt over what had happened ate away at him and I could tell Ava was growing concerned and we both hoped it wouldn’t see Mason delving back into his old habits.
I had told him over and over that it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t pushed me into Kenny; it was Kenny’s gun that had gone off and shot me, not Mason’s or Ava’s and it was me that had invited Kenny into his home, not knowing what Kenny’s hidden agenda actually was.
Lucas refused to leave my side and eventually the nurse had physically dragged him out of my room so he wo
uld go home for some rest and clean clothes. But he had returned within the hour and snuggled on my bed, gently pulled me against him, then slept for twelve hours solid.
I had been lucky really. The bullet had done some substantial damage but it was all repairable and everything inside me still worked properly after the three operations I’d had to have.
I was a lucky girl.
***
I was released five weeks later, just in time for Lucas’s birthday. He had told me in his dominant way that I would be staying at his apartment until I was 100% better.
I hadn’t argued; I was looking forward to lots of amazing sex if I was honest. Five weeks was a long time to go without, especially when you were sharing a bed, even if it was a hospital bed, with the Sex God that was Lucas.
“Holy… Wow…” Lucas mumbled when I stepped out of the hotel suite’s bathroom where we were staying for Lucas’s birthday party.
I smiled wickedly at his face. The tight red sleeveless calf length dress I was wearing was sexy but very classy. It hugged me like a glove and the side split reached up to the top of my thigh. I had teamed it with elbow length black gloves and five inch black stilettos, with red heels.
Lucas stalked across the room looking particularly sexy himself in tight arse hugging black trousers and a black shirt that stretched deliciously over his chest.
The Hunt for Summer (NSC Industries) Page 25
