“I want to go home,” I told him when he pulled back. “To Portugal.”
He nodded, closing his eyes in relief at my words. “I love you, baby,” he breathed against my ear.
“And me, you,” I returned as I snuggled into the crook of his arm. “So damn much.”
Four
Mason
Layla grinned up at me from where she sat at the bar in The Panther. “Hey, babe.”
Kissing her forehead, I took the stool beside her, thanking Oliver when he slid me a whisky across the bar. “I need a favour.”
She nodded instantly, “Anything.”
“Me and Ava are returning to Portugal. I need you to take care of Katie for me.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “But you’ve always managed to do that from Portugal.”
Nodding, I agreed. “I know, but she’s struggling. After Steed, I worry about her.”
“She’s tough, Mason.”
“No!” I snapped, making her blink at me. “No one is that tough, Lay. That’s the mistake I made, for a long time. Expecting people to be tougher than what they really are. She’s my baby. And she’s in so much damn pain. I need you to promise me.”
“Mase, what’s going on?”
“Nothing’s going on. Katie is hell-bent on retribution. So much so that I know it’s going to take over her life until there’s nothing left. Ava and me, we have fought so many things, for so long, that now, now there’s nothing but emptiness left. I don’t want that for my daughter.”
She watched me closely for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, I promise.”
Smiling, I took a drink. “So how’s you and Lucas? Anything I need to take care of before I leave?”
“Nah, we’re good. The ass wants another baby, but I’m too damn old for that shit.”
Her words pulled at my chest. “Do it, babe. One day life won’t be what it was. And all you’ll have left is your kids. Cherish them, Layla.”
“I do, Mase.” She nodded, sliding her hand over mine and giving it a hard squeeze. “Have you been to see, Greg?”
“No,” I bit down on my lip in anger. “But Ava has. Although she swears she hasn’t. She has a black eye, told me she’s fine, but I know it was Greg.”
“This is all so fucked up.”
“Yeah,” I sighed before downing the rest of my drink. Turning to Oliver, I asked, “Is William in?”
He nodded in reply. “Want me to buzz you through?”
“Please.”
Grabbing Layla, I pulled her into my arms, holding her close. “Thank you for holding me up. I love you, babe.”
Tears flooded my eyes and I walked away, leaving her reeling with the swiftness I took off. She couldn’t see. I wouldn’t let her.
~~~
Greg sighed angrily when he opened the door and I pushed my way in. But his sigh turned to a gasp when his back slammed against the wall and my fingers tightened around his throat. “You ever touch Ava again and I will personally hurt you!”
Glaring at me, he shook his head. “Get the fuck off me!”
“You think this is on Ava?” I snarled. “You think she wanted Courtney dead? How fucking stupid are you?”
“Whether she wanted her dead or not, it doesn’t matter. She knew, she knew what George had done. Yet she didn’t tell me. She hid it from me, Mase!”
“And have you never asked yourself why? Why she didn’t tell you?”
“To cover for him,” he spat, his hands pushing me away. I let him move me, needing to get some distance between us.
Shaking my head, I scoffed. “Shame, Greg. Fucking SHAME!”
He stilled, closing his eyes for a moment.
“What about Harry and little Mason? What if they turned out… bad?”
“They won’t.”
“How can you know that? How can any parent know that? You think I’m not ashamed of my own son? Because I am. But it doesn’t mean I don’t love him – didn’t love him. No matter what he did to me, I still fucking love him, Greg. So if you have a problem, then you come to me with it, not Ava. Never Ava!”
“Don’t you ever see the mess you leave behind, Mason?” he said quietly, “The rubble you leave us all buried under? I’m not sure I’m strong enough to rebuild now. I don’t want to rebuild without Courtney. She was it for me. My structure, my foundation. I can’t build on nothing.”
“You don’t have nothing. You have your boys. You hold them so close that it crushes you, Greg. And I promise, with the love of your children, you’ll always have a base to establish so much.”
“Mason?”
Sighing, I closed my eyes. “Ava and me are going back to Portugal. You won’t have to see us again. I just came to say goodbye.”
He swallowed, but he nodded.
He held out his hand, but pushing it away, I pulled my friend into me. “I’m so sorry, Greg. I really am. Take care, mate. And, well, thank you. For everything. You’ve been there, from the start, right to the end.”
“You retiring?”
“Yeah. It’s time. Katie has it. Nate and Liv are happy in the US. It’s time to bow out now.”
Emotion clouded his face. Tears glistened in his eyes. Because he knew. He knew I wouldn’t return this time. But he nodded. “Go find your peace.”
Locking eyes, I smiled sadly. “We had a good run, Greg.”
“That we did.” He nodded and we both grinned. “We fucking did.”
Five
Ava
Katie grinned at me when I perched on the edge of one of the barstools. “Hey,” she greeted, leaning across the bar to kiss her dad and me. “Drink?”
“Sure.”
I scanned the room. It was busy. The Fox, Katie’s pub, was notorious, a meeting place for all the Faces in London. I was so proud of her; of what she had established.
Sam beamed at me from a table in the corner, and Marcy waved us over.
My eyes filled with tears when one by one, everyone stepped out from behind a wall.
Greg.
Liv.
Nate.
Kerrie.
Kade.
Grace.
Layla.
Lucas.
William.
They were all there. Apart from my son, and my best friend.
Mason swung his arm around me when my knees buckled.
Greg came to me, a soft but sad smile on his face. “I’m so sorry, Ava.” He broke, falling into my arms as we both shared our grief for the most beautiful woman that had graced this sick fucking planet. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me.”
“Shh. It’s okay. It’s okay. I love you. I couldn’t ever hate you. You kept me alive at the worst time of my life, nothing can ever come between that bond we shared, Greg. Nothing.”
He nodded, his fingers squeezing into the tops of my arms. “I love you, babe.” Leaning back, he smiled. “You take care of him. Wherever you end up. He needs you, Ava.”
“I know. And I need him.”
“Beers up!” Katie shouted as her and another one of her bar staff brought over trays with various drinks. “Tonight, we drink,” she declared. “Tonight we drink to friends, old, new and lost. Tonight we drink to my brother, and to Aunt Courtney.”
Everyone lifted their glass. And as I looked out, at each of my friends, I realised that I wasn’t empty. Far from it. I was leaving with a full heart. How it should be.
“You okay, sweetheart?”
Kade’s soft brush of his knuckles against my cheek made me turn and reach up to him. He kissed me, softly, but knowingly. “Are you coming home?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s time.”
Catching my gaze, his own filled with tears, he smiled. “He’s always with you, Ava. Your children never leave you. Ever. Whether they’re here or not, in your heart they’ll live forever.”
“You know,” I sighed, “Once, long ago, I hated myself for falling in love with you. Now, I can’t imagine never loving you.”
He swallowed, wiping the tea
rs from my eyes with his thumb. “Back at ‘ya, sweetheart.”
“We did okay, didn’t we?”
He nodded, smiling widely. “We fucking did. Very okay.”
I was swung up and around and I laughed, slapping Nate on the arm before he pulled me in for a hug. “I missed you. America has lots of things, but it doesn’t have my best friend,” he said in my ear. Putting me down, he frowned. “So you’re leaving us, huh?”
“Yeah. We need this, Nate.”
“I know you do. And I’m happy that you are.” His eyes roamed down me, and that mischievous smile tilted his lips, along with one of his eyebrows.
Sighing, and shaking my head in humour, I rolled my eyes at him. “One look. I do owe you, after all.”
He slapped his hand on his chest and grinned. “Twenty-four years. Twenty-four long years. And now, now I get to look up your skirt!”
Slinging my hands in the air, I laughed and turned. Bending right over, I snuck a look between my parted legs. Nate’s face peered back at me, a huge grin on his handsome face.
“That was worth every damn year!”
Liv laughed, shaking her own head in amusement. “It’s no wonder I’m bloody grey!”
“That’s just cos your old, Liv.”
Her eyes widened on me but then she barked out a laugh. “Damn, tell it like it is, hun.”
“I always do.”
“Yeah,” she smiled.
Hugging me to her, I whispered in her ear. “Love my best friend for both of us, Liv.”
“Always,” she whispered back. “With all my heart and yours.”
A sob rippled from me and I nodded wildly. Her own tears flooded down her cheeks as she nodded with me.
My friends drank. My friends laughed.
And an hour later, Mason and I slipped quietly out of the back door, our hearts and souls still with our best friends.
“I need to go somewhere before we go.”
Mason frowned but nodded. “Okay.”
~~~
Mason knelt before the grave, plucking at the weeds that had found their way through the ground, and placed the single white rose upon the headstone.
I gave him a quiet moment, time for just the two of them. For him to say what he needed to. He muttered quietly, his voice low and soft as he tended lovingly.
The cemetery was quiet, the clouds overhead bringing with them a chill to the air. I always wondered where my little spot would be, and for some strange reason, my eyes filtered down to the headstone, reading the words that were etched in my heart.
Rebecca Grace Delaney
Loved, and never forgotten
We had shared so much, our love for the same man giving us a bond of love and hate that wouldn’t ever be severed, even in death.
“She loved you so very much,” I whispered as I knelt beside my husband.
He smiled, and nodded. “Yeah. I know.”
“Life’s cruel, Mason.” Taking his hand, I brought his knuckles to my lips and gently kissed them. “She knew that, I know that. You know it. But she never gave up. And now, Debora and Becca are there to hold her hand. She’s not lonely anymore.”
He nodded, wiping away the single tear that he allowed liberation. Bending, he kissed the name of the other woman that held his heart, and then taking my hand, he took me home.
The Final Chapter
Ava
Mason pulled the car to a stop in front of the tiny Portuguese cottage George had lovingly left me. I always felt closer to him here, and as I stared out before me, over the edge of the cliff to the ocean that spread before me, I felt his heart beat alongside mine.
I had been lucky, so very lucky. Life hadn’t started out great, but then, gradually, it had become so very great. I had been loved by so many people. I had loved so many people. My heart had created two beautiful children, and my husband’s heart had been the very thing that had kept mine beating.
“You ever wished we’d done things differently, Ava?” Mason asked quietly as he held the same gaze I did, the soft pull of blueness making my soul let go.
“No. Yes. Sometimes.”
He chuckled. “My thoughts exactly.”
“Do you think we’ll go to heaven or hell?” I asked on a whisper.
He pondered my question, then turned to me. “Maybe somewhere in between.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I like that. A place of our own.”
“I’ll never stop fighting for you, my little warrior. Wherever we go.”
“And me, you.”
We sat as a peace settled around us. It’s funny but the end felt so very much like the beginning. In that single moment I fell in love with Mason Fox all over again. Once again I was the girl with the striped blouse, gazing across at a table at a man that would become my very life.
His soul slipped into my own and reassured it. His heart held mine, each hard beat filling me with hope for the first time in a long while.
Reaching for the stereo, Mason pressed play and the car filled with Jackie Wilson, Your love keeps lifting me higher.
I laughed and cried. I cried and laughed.
“Ready?” he whispered.
I nodded. “Yes.” Touching his face, I smiled. “Yes.”
On 16th May 2016, at 12.52pm, Mason Fox took his little warrior’s hand.
And he pressed the accelerator.
The End
Finally.
They say Silence is Golden.
But not this silence.
This silence is black,
And it hurts.
Resurgence (Heart of Stone #9) Page 3
