Learning To Fly (Fated Love Book 1)

by Lauren Firminger

  When Ellie returned to the camp drunk out of her mind and screeching about Maddison hooking up with Morgan Young, my heart stopped. My own fucking cousin and my ex. Sure, I knew he was going to be in Australia but never in a million years did I think he would find her. The next morning, I was on the first flight out of here. I had to be there. I needed to bring Maddison home where she belonged. If it had really happened, then Morgan could offer her the life I never did, and yeah, I just couldn't have that. Maddison was mine even when she wasn’t. She would stay here and drown in the sorrow I encased her life in. Her dreams would remain just that. Dreams.

  Touching down on the Gold Coast, I hired a car and drove to the middle of nowhere. Why these girls insisted on doing this was beyond me. It wasn’t Ellie or Jasmine’s style. I called Ellie when I got there because Maddison hadn’t picked up her phone and Morgan wasn’t answering his. I was hoping Ellie had done what I asked her to do and kept Maddison with her but when I found Jasmine and Ellie and no sign of Maddison told me she’d failed. Such a simple thing and the idiot couldn’t do it. I had gotten the hysterics to stop long enough for Ellie to tell me she had pissed off Maddison who reacted by hitting Ellie. This didn’t surprise me. Maddison had a fiery temper.

  “Jas, where are Morgan and Maddison?” Jasmine wasn’t my biggest fan but I didn’t lose sleep over that. She had picked Maddison’s side in the break up. That again wasn't a surprise. They had been friends for so long. Neither of them could be in the same room with me and not glare at me. While she narrowed her eyes at me, she helped Ellie get cleaned up and continued to ignore me. “I asked you a question Jasmine!” My voice rose, and she didn’t flinch. I guess having a dad who beat on your mother every night would make you void of any reaction.

  “I heard you asshole and I am choosing not to answer you. If I knew, which I don’t, anywhere would be better than here.”

  I went to take a step toward her and took a breath. No, I wouldn’t lower myself to that.

  “Why do you care Joshua? You are with me. What does it matter who that slut is doing?”

  “Bite your tongue. You have done enough.” I snapped. Ellie’s head dropped, and she sat back down which only made Jasmine more pissed off.

  “Maddison is better off without you. If Ellie had half a brain, she would leave you too. I know you are already playing around on her. If she is foolish enough to turn the other way, then that is her stupid fault, but I will not let you destroy Maddison.”

  I watched Jasmine turn and move to her car. Quickly, I grabbed her arm. Shoving her against the car, I gripped her other arm tightly.

  “You are going to tell me where she is, or you are going to call her and get her to come to you. You understand me?” She tried to shove me backward but I just tightened my hands more. I felt a tapping on my shoulder and when I turned around to see who it was, I felt a fist against my jaw. I let go of Jasmine and she moved away from me. I looked up and saw my baby brother standing over me, looking down.

  “You need to take your girlfriend and leave. Jasmine is staying here.” I stood up straight and narrowed my eyes.

  “Would you look who it is.. its Morgan’s guard dog.” He stepped toward me and I shoved him backwards.

  “Don’t do it Lucas. You may do this professionally but that doesn’t mean I’m not trained.” He took a step forward and swung at me. I knew he was just trying to distract me long enough for Jasmine to get away. If Maddison had been hanging around Morgan then Lucas would know that Jasmine is the one person she couldn't leave. When his fist connected with my jaw again, I lunged, hitting him in the stomach with my shoulder. Falling to the ground with him, I curled my hand into a fist and hit him. He was smart though and turned his head so I couldn’t do much damage. Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, I slammed his head into the ground and swung again. Bastard kept moving though so I couldn’t connect and do the damage that I wanted to. When he kicked me in the nuts after getting in the right position, I rolled off him and he got up. Taking hold of Jasmine’s hand, he got her in her car and told her to go and get as far away from here as she could.

  “What about Maddie?”

  “She is fine. Please. I need you to go. When it’s safe, we’ll call and then you can come back to her. I just need to get you away from him.” He moved back over to me as I went to stand up and he kicked me in the stomach. As Jasmine drove away, I glared up at him.

  “I will get her. Even if I have to kill whoever stands in my way.”

  “You can’t touch her where we are going asshole, so just take your girlfriend and go,” said Lucas.

  He turned to walk away from me and I saw red. Who the hell was he to tell me what to do? Tackling him to the ground again, I picked up a nearby rock and cracked him over the head with it. Dusting off my hands and standing up, I snapped my fingers at Ellie and motioned for her to get in the car. There was only one way out of the campsite, and I was going to sit there and wait for them to come out. They couldn’t stay in there forever.

  Sitting in the silence, well almost silence, Ellie sat beside me sniffing as she tried to cry silently. Had this been any other time I may have tried to comfort her, but my focus was on Maddison and getting her away from my cousin. After his actions just now, Lucas was no brother of mine.

  “What am I to you, Josh?” I turned and looked at her and raised my brow. Did she seriously want me to answer that question because right now, she wouldn’t like it too much. “Am I just a way to pass the time until you can convince Maddison you have changed and are sorry for cheating on her? That I was just some big mistake?”

  “Pretty much.” I turned my head and looked back out the window to the entry. Some people were still here but most of the crowd had left by now. This place was now just for the VIPs. I turned my head and looked at Ellie when she went silent. No sniffling. Nothing. She was looking down at her phone and doing something with it. “What are you doing Ellie?”

  “Making your life easier.” Before I could ask what she meant, she hopped out of the car as another pulled up beside us. She got her bag from the car and moved to get in it.

  “Where are you going?” I asked as I hopped out with her.

  “I am not sitting around waiting for you to break my heart like you did with Maddison, Josh. I am going home. Stay and wait for Maddie if that’s what you want, but we are done. Good luck getting near her, though.” She got in the other car, and it pulled away. Shaking my head as I got back in the car, I took a deep breath. I didn’t need the distraction. I was better off not having her here. She was right. I had made a mistake.

  I should have never let Ellie get inside my head and convince me she was better for me than Maddison was. Ellie and Maddie had been friends for years. I should have wondered why she was saying that. To this day, I still didn’t know. Even when I was with Ellie, Maddie would be in the back of my head. Hearing my phone go off, I pulled it from the center console and saw a message from Ellie. I was going to ignore it, but she might have finally made herself useful.

  “You only want what you can’t have. You lost Josh. Maddie is long gone. Have fun waiting around for nothing!”

  I punched the steering wheel. How the hell had she managed to get away without me knowing! Was Ellie making this up, or did Maddie leave before I got there? Fuck! I had no way of knowing. If I left and she was still in there, then I would never find her, but if I stayed here and she had left, then she got further away. Son of a bitch!

  CHAPTER SIX

  Morgan

  I sat down beside Lucas and ran my hands over my face. Shit. If he could do this to his own brother, then God knows what else he is capable of. “What happened?”

  “I went to check on your girl for you. I know you said to leave her be, but I had to go and make sure she was okay. I know you. You would have beaten yourself up not knowing…” I took a breath and nodded so he would know it was okay and to go on. “When I got there, I saw two girls and Josh standing there arguing. I didn’t get close enough for them
to see me, but I heard one, Jasmine, tell Josh that even if she knew where Maddison was, she wouldn’t tell him. When he grabbed her and shoved her into the car, I hit him. Once I got her out of there, I went to come back here. He wasn’t happy that I’d let the only one who could get to Maddison go, so he tackled me from behind, and I was out cold before I could do anything. When I came back around, he and his girlfriend were gone, and I have no idea where they are now. Morgan… I am so sorry.”

  Resting my hand against his shoulder I spoke, “It's okay bud. You did good. You okay?”

  “How did I do good? I have no idea where he is or where Maddison went. What if he finds her before we do? I have seen what he is capable of. He doesn’t care who he hurts to get what he wants. She could get hurt Morgan! Or worse...”

  Before I could say a word, his eyes went wide, and I looked over to see Maddie standing there. I moved to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. I knew by the look on her face she had heard the whole lot. “Lucas, meet Maddison. Maddison, this is my cousin Lucas and the brother you didn’t know existed.”

  I watched his hand ball into a fist as Maddie moved to the bathroom. When she came out with a wet towel, she moved over to Lucas and started to clean up the blood. “Nice to meet you, Lucas. I wish it could have been under better circumstances though, but it’s still a pleasure.”

  Rather than standing there like a stone statue, I moved to the bar and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. Pouring some into a glass for Lucas, I handed it to him and sat down beside him.

  “We need to get out of here and as far away as possible. Maddie?” She had gotten Lucas cleaned and was checking his head to make sure he didn’t need stitches or anything.

  “Yeah?”

  “I think you should call your girl Jasmine and make sure she got away okay.” She stood up, nodded and tossed the towel in the sink before moving into the back and got her phone. She was quiet for a minute while her phone turned back on and she gave it a minute.

  “For the love of all that is holy!” I shot up and moved into the back with Lucas on my heels.

  “What? What happened?”

  Maddie looked up at me. “Getting out of here is going to be a lot harder than it sounds.. he is at the entrance waiting.”

  I frowned. What the hell? Maddie held the phone up and showed me the message from Ellie. She had gotten away from him and texted Maddie a warning. “Well hell!” I sighed and turned to look at Lucas. “Do we have another car? We need a diversion. Someone needs to drive the bus out and take Maddie’s truck. When they are clear and Josh is following them, we will get out and away. They need to be able to take whatever Josh throws at them so it will have to be security.”

  “I’ll sort it now,” said Lucas.

  I nodded as he moved back to the front and started making some calls. There was a reason he was my head of security. If anyone could make this happen, it would be him. I knew him though. He would be the one to drive Maddie’s truck out of here so he could face Josh again and do what he didn’t get a chance to do the first time. I looked back to Maddie, and she was chewing her lip. Sitting down beside her on the bed, I pressed my lips to her temple as I pulled her close to me. “Don’t worry. We won’t let him get to you.”

  “I can’t let anyone get hurt for me Morgan. I don’t care how much they get paid.” My hand rubbed her back as she laid her head against my shoulder.

  “Hey now. Don’t you worry about that. These guys won’t let Josh anywhere near them. It’s Josh who needs to be worried. All my team were raised by people who believed men should never hit a woman or treat them as anything less than a Queen.” Maddie nodded and curled a little more into me. I looked down as she played with her phone and she pulled up Jasmine’s number. I went to move away to give her a chance to talk to her in private, but Maddie pulled me back to her and silently pleaded for me not to go. God, she must have been so scared.

  “Maddie! Oh. My. God. Where are you? Please tell me you are far away from that hellhole!”

  “I wish I could Jas, but I’m okay. I’m safe. Where are you? Are you okay? Lucas told me what happened! I am so sorry you had to get caught up in this. I shouldn't have lumped Ellie with you so you could have gone with the other girls.”

  “Oh hush up. You know I would go to the moon for you, girl. I’m fine. I got in the car when I was told to and got my ass out as far away as I could without copping a speeding ticket!”

  “Yeah, because God knows you don’t need any more of those!”

  “Bite me woman!”

  “Yeah, I will pass on that thanks.”

  “Um, Maddie?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Ellie called me… She told me Josh was waiting for Morgan's crew to come out… Please tell me you didn’t go back to him?”

  I heard her sigh and pressed my lips against her head once more. “Again I wish I could Jas, but I am with Morgan and Lucas right now. We are getting out of here soon.”

  “Call me when you’re safe? I need to know you’re okay.”

  “I will, babe. Drive safe, yeah?”

  “I will, Maddie. You be careful, and make sure Morgan takes good care of you or he will have me to answer to.” I couldn't help but chuckle at that. “He heard that, didn’t he?”

  “Yeah, Jas, he did.” I heard the groan and felt Maddie relax a little. With Jasmine safe, there was one less person in Josh’s path that he could get to. “I’ll talk to you soon, Jas. Message when you are safe.”

  “I will honey. Love you.”

  “Love you too, babe.” When she hung up the phone, Maddie dropped her hands in her lap, and she closed her eyes.

  “We’ll get him away from you, darlin’. I promise.” She nodded, I heard footsteps and I looked up as Lucas came into the back of the bus again.

  “We have a plan, but Maddison? Think you can call or message Ellie for us? Chances are if she has left Josh, then she may be willing to trick him for us. No way she would stick around after this…” Maddie nodded and pulled up her messages.

  “What am I asking her to do?”

  “Tell Josh that you aren’t here anymore and that you are long gone.” Maddie nodded and I watched her type out the message to Ellie and hit send. I didn't blame her for not wanting to talk to her after the fight they had this morning.

  “So what’s the plan?” I asked, trying to break the silence somehow while we waited for Ellie’s reply.

  “We have a convoy of trucks. They are all the same as Maddie’s. We will be in one while each of the guys drive another. We will all leave and head in different directions. Hopefully, Ellie can get him to leave, but just in case she can’t, then he will have a one in nine chance of picking the right truck that Maddie is in. When we give the all clear, then all the guys and the buses will head out and head for Brisbane. They are all headed back home.”

  I nodded. One in nine chance. I wasn’t really a fan of that, but it was better than nothing. When Maddie’s phone went off, she read the message and looked up at Lucas “She sent the message. I don’t know if he bought it or not.” Lucas nodded and left us again. I lay back and pulled Maddie with me. Wrapping my arms around her, I closed my eyes as she curled into my side and slipped her legs through mine.

  “I’m sorry I am putting you all through this… I had no idea.” Her words were whispered and she took a deep breath.

  “None of that, darlin'. We’ve got you. I am just glad you came back here. If this was happening and I couldn’t keep you safe...” I didn’t want to think about that. I couldn’t think about that. Now that I’d found Maddie and had her in my arms, there was nothing and no one who could change that but Maddie herself. Until she told me she didn’t want me around anymore, I would move mountains for this girl. She tightened her arms around me, and we just lay there curled into each other until it was time for our shell game.

  I don’t know how long we lay like that for because I must have started to drift off listening to Maddie’s calm breaths. Feeling someone shake my a
rm, I looked and made sure Maddie was still with me. Great job of keeping an eye on her. Looking to the side, I watched Lucas crouch down and he whispered.