by Sarah Bailey
“Okay, okay.”
Gingerly, I stumbled out of the car. My vision blurred for a moment as I held onto the side of the car to steady myself, but I kept the gun pointed at him. At least my legs weren’t injured. Just my chest and my head still pounded. I must’ve whacked it against something when we spun out of control.
“What the hell are you doing here? How did you find us and why the hell did you ram our fucking car?”
He laughed. He had the fucking audacity to laugh.
“Oh, Ash, don’t you know? Gianni sent me to hunt you down and end you. Looks like we’ve scored a bonus by catching you with one of them, doesn’t it? Kill two birds with one stone.”
My heart lurched. Rory had still been breathing when I checked on him. He had to be alive. He just fucking well had to be. I couldn’t survive it otherwise. He’d be okay. I’d get him help as soon as I got rid of fucking Carlo.
“Gianni send you?”
“You think your father is the only one looking for you? Oh no, we don’t want you coming back to the fold. You’re weak and pathetic. No one wants you leading our family.”
I almost laughed but it would hurt too much. Keeping myself upright as I leant against the car, I glared at him.
“Don’t you know I already disowned your fucking family? Don’t you realise I don’t want to be the fucking heir? You’re an idiot, Carlo. You and Gianni have old fucking news. I’m done with Frank Russo and his bullshit. He means nothing to me. So you can fuck off back to where you came from.”
Carlo blinked and frowned.
“You’re talking like this isn’t your family too. What’s gotten into you?”
Then I did laugh until I dissolved into a hacking cough, pain ripping through my chest. I hoped I wasn’t seriously injured, but I didn’t have time to focus on that.
“What’s gotten into me? Only that I opened my eyes to the truth after all these years. Frank doesn’t care about any of us. He’s a psychotic cunt who can’t stand the thought of any one of his toys getting out of line. Make no mistake, we’re all toys to him. You included.” I shifted, pushing myself upright as I tried to keep a steady aim on him. “I suggest you run back to Daddy and tell him I’m coming for him. I’m coming for all of you.”
Never before had I been so certain. The whole Russo clan deserved to be put down like the dogs they were. It wasn’t going to end with Frank. I had to destroy them all. Everyone who thought I was weak. Everyone who’d sneered at and belittled me. Everyone.
“Oh yeah, you and what fucking army?”
That’s when the hold I had left on my temper snapped. I shifted the gun to the right and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out, the bullet lodging itself in a tree behind him. The kickback had me almost dropping the weapon, but I stayed steady. Carlo’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. I aimed the gun back at his chest. If he thought for a second I wouldn’t shoot him, he was stupider than I’d imagined. My protective instincts were on high alert. I’d do anything to keep my Rory safe from this dickhead.
“I don’t need an army. I have me and my men. We’re enough. We’ll always be enough. And if you don’t leave, I will end you right now.”
I swear he was contemplating staying for a moment before he shook his head and put his hands up.
“Jesus, okay… fuck, who’d have thought you’d turn into a psycho bitch.”
This fucker really was trying my patience. I’d had enough. My chest ached and I needed to attend to Rory.
“Watch what you fucking say to me or you’ll be the first to die. Mark my words, Carlo, your days are numbered. Run along to Daddy now. And tell Frank I don’t give a shit if I’m on his death list. He can try and take me out. He can fucking try. He’ll see what kind of woman he raised. And trust me, when he takes his last fucking breath, it’ll be me standing over him watching him. It’ll be me who sends him to his fucking maker.”
Carlo looked at me like I’d lost the fucking plot. Maybe I had. Maybe seeing Rory slumped over the steering wheel made something inside me snap.
I was done being the pawn.
I was the motherfucking queen.
And this queen would protect her kings to her last breath.
“Leave. Now.”
He put his hands up.
“Okay. Okay. Jesus, you’re fucking crazy.”
He backed away. I watched him leave, making sure he got in his Jeep and drove away. I could see dents in it and I wondered how he was going to hide that.
The fucker.
I dropped the gun into the footwell and crawled back in the car. Rory was still slumped against the steering wheel. There was a trickle of blood falling down his forehead. That worried me. Everything about this worried the hell out of me. I didn’t want to move him for fear that he was gravely injured.
“Ror.” I shook him again. “Ror, wake up. Please.”
I needed to get him help. Fumbling around, I found my handbag and pulled out my phone, about to dial 999. Then I remembered I had a gun and they’d asked me what happened. And I wondered how the hell I would explain this. Explain how I knew who’d rammed us off the road caused the crash. If we got the police involved, we’d be in trouble. I couldn’t tell them why I had a gun with my prints all over it.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I had to get Rory help. He needed medical attention. I didn’t know how to handle this. Everything was so fucked up.
“Ror… please hold on.”
So I rang someone else and the minute they picked up the phone I almost started crying.
“Little girl.”
“Quinn,” I choked out. “We’re in trouble.”
Chapter 35
I looked down at my watch. Ash had texted me half an hour ago to let me know her and Rory were on their way back. Having dealt with temperamental Quinn last night and this morning, I was fucking glad of it. Thankfully he was now in his office dealing with our plans so was distracted from pacing the house. Xav was right. Quinn had always been uptight, but when it came to Ash, he was like a bomb going off every time he thought she might be in danger.
I flicked through the TV channels, landing on the news and my stomach dropped out from underneath me. There, clear as day was Julian’s mugshot. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I turned up the volume and listened to the broadcaster.
“A manhunt has been launched today as police have revealed a dangerous criminal has escaped. Julian Scott, who was convinced of two counts of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence at HMP Belmarsh, escaped in the late hours of last night. He’d been admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Greenwich for an undisclosed illness and was due to be discharged and returned to Belmarsh this morning. Police are cautioning the public not to approach Mr Scott as he may be armed and dangerous.”
I blinked. What the actual fuck? Julian had escaped. How the hell had this happened? I thought he’d already been discharged from the hospital. He should be back in prison not out on the fucking streets. Could we get any more bad news right now? This made me sick and the thought of what it would do to my boyfriend killed me inside.
I jumped up from the sofa and went in search of Xav, but I needn’t have bothered as I bumped into him coming into the living room. His eyes were wild and he looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“Xavi?”
“I just got off the phone to the prison… Julian escaped.”
“I know, it’s on the news.”
He stared at me for a long moment before walking by me and looking straight at the TV. I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched but I knew it wasn’t about me. He was in shock.
“That motherfucking bastard,” he ground out. “Of course he had to fucking well escape. Quinn was damn right. He must’ve dobbed us into Russo in exchange for helping him get out of hospital. Motherfucker.”
Another shitshow we really didn’t need to be dealing with. With Julian out on the streets, we were all in danger, especially Xav.
“The fucking police will be here soon, asking me questions no doubt. Fuck. We don’t need this. We’ve already got enough going on. Jesus fucking Christ. I can’t deal with this. For fuck’s sake. I should’ve known he’d try this shit. I should’ve fucking known.”
I squeezed his shoulder.
“I thought he’d got discharged days ago.”
Xav shook his head before dropping it to his chest.
“He was meant to but the doctors kept him in as he didn’t respond to the medication at first. They say he’s okay now.”
“Did they tell you how he escaped?”
His whole body shuddered. I dropped my hand from his shoulder, wrapping myself around his back. He took a deep breath and clutched my arms.
“No, they wouldn’t give me details, but I’m damn fucking sure it’s Russo. It has to be.”
It made perfect sense. I thought maybe things hadn’t got to that stage, but clearly, we’d both underestimated Julian. We shouldn’t have. It was a grave error of judgement and now we were fucked. Even more so than we had been before. And, to be honest, we were pretty damn well fucked already. None of us had any idea if our plan to take down Russo would work. Julian was just another thorn in our sides we’d have to deal with.
“What the fuck are we going to do, E?”
“The police will be hunting him.”
“So fucking what? If Julian doesn’t want to be found, he won’t. That man is fucking crafty and if he has Russo on his side… we’re fucking doomed.”
“Hey, none of that. We are not giving up, you hear me?” My hold on him tightened. “We are not going to let this defeat us. We’ve got through worse, Xavi. We can get through this. Together. Just like we always do.”
I wanted to be optimistic but even I knew we were skating on thin ice. One more wrong move and we’d all be done for. I couldn’t let Xav down though. He needed me to be the strong one here.
“We need to tell Quinn.”
He sounded so defeated and it cut me. Quinn was already in a foul mood. This would likely make him hit the fucking roof.
“Tell me what?” came Quinn’s voice from behind us.
I let go of Xav and turned, finding Quinn with his hair half sticking up like he’d ran his hand through it multiple times and his eyes wild.
“Julian has escaped and the police have launched a manhunt.”
Quinn stared at me for a long moment.
“We don’t have time to deal with that.” That’s when I noticed his voice was all high-pitched and panicked.
“Why not?”
He walked further into the room as Xav turned and took him in. Quinn was as white as a fucking sheet.
“Ash just called me… Her cousin, Carlo, tracked them down and ran them off the road.”
“What the fuck?” Xav exclaimed.
“The car is a wreck and Rory is unconscious.”
“Tell her to call a fucking ambulance then.”
Quinn shook his head.
“She can’t… you should know that. How is she going to explain what happened? We need to go to them. We have to go now.”
Quinn was right. She couldn’t explain that shit away, although we were going to have to at some point. Surely someone would find the car and the police would track us down. Right now, we needed to make sure Ash and Rory were okay.
“Is she okay? Fuck.”
“No, she isn’t, but I’m more fucking worried about Rory right now.”
“We’ll talk about it in the car, come on,” I said.
Quinn walked out with Xav and me on his tail. We got coats and shoes on in record time and were out in the car the next minute. I made sure to grab a first aid kit on the way. Rory had taken the Audi so we took the Range Rover. Probably good to have more room if we were going to transport both Ash and Rory back here, especially with them both being injured.
“What the fuck happened?” Xav asked from the back as I drove and Quinn sat next to me.
Quinn stared out the front window with his fists clenched in his lap. His face was still white like this whole thing had shaken him to the core. I reached over and squeezed his shoulder.
“It’s going to be okay.”
His shoulders slumped forward and he looked down at his hands.
“Is it? It’s my responsibility to look out for him. He has to be okay. He just has to be.”
Quinn and Rory had always been close. Probably closer than me and Xav in some respects. Rory was pretty much a little brother to Quinn. He was super protective over our quiet friend and we couldn’t blame him for it after we’d all seen what Rory had gone through. That’s why Quinn had done everything in his power to make sure Rory had comfortable surroundings at home. Given him whatever he asked for.
“Will you tell me and Xav what happened?” My voice was soft. If I lost my shit like Xav had, it wouldn’t help anyone. One of us had to stay calm, which is why I was driving. “Also, do you know where they are?”
His fists unclenched and he fiddled with his phone before he leant over to the console and input the address into the SatNav. It’d take us at least an hour and I wasn’t sure how bad Rory was. This was fucking shit. What if he didn’t regain consciousness? What if we couldn’t help him? Maybe Ash did need to call an ambulance even if it would cause us a headache.
“I made sure to track her phone,” he told me by way of explanation, which I was hardly surprised about considering this was Quinn.
“And you didn’t check up on them before?”
“I was trying to be respectful of Rory even if I was angry at him.”
Who’d have thought after the hissy fit Quinn threw last night, he’d actually let Rory off the hook and respect his choices.
He rubbed his face and set his phone down.
“She said they were on the back roads when a Jeep came out of nowhere and rammed into the side of the car twice before smashing into the back and causing them to spin out of control and then they drove into a tree. She has no idea how long she was unconscious for.”
My blood ran cold. How someone could just fucking crash into them astounded me.
“Rory wasn’t awake, but she had no choice but to confront the person who did it. Seems Rory told her about the gun in the glove compartment and she used that to threaten her cousin into leaving. Then she realised she couldn’t call 999 as she has the gun and that’s when she called me. As far as I know, Rory is still out cold and Ash is too scared to move him.”
I glanced at Xav in the back. He’d gone pale too. The whole thing was crazy and all I could think was how our girl had done so well in the face of all of this.
“Should we call her again? Make sure things are okay? Did she get hurt?”
“She’s hurt, but she’s more concerned about Rory. Fuck. Fuck. I can’t… if we lose him, E… if we…”
Xav reached forward and gripped both of Quinn’s shoulders.
“Hey man, shh, it’s okay. We’re going to get to them and make sure Rory is fucking okay, right, E?”
“Yeah, Quinn, we got this. And he’s got Ash. She won’t let anything happen to him.”
Ash would fight for Rory. She would keep him safe. I had to believe that and so did they. A world without our Rory would be dark as fuck. Even though he was quiet and withdrawn, he was still our family. An integral part of our world.
Quinn’s phone rang and he fumbled with it before answering and putting it on speaker.
“Little girl… is everything okay?”
“No… Quinn, I can’t do this. He won’t wake up. I’m so scared. I can’t leave him like this in the car. What if it catches fire or something? I need you.”
“Shh, it’s okay, we’re on our way.”
“But he needs help now. What if I did call an ambulance? He needs medical attention and we can’t give him that. I don’t know what to do.”
Quinn looked at us, his eyes wide with fear and worry lacing his features.
“Ash, it’s Eric… are you able to move him at all so you can maybe see what’s wrong?”
“I can try… hold on…” we heard movement and then her voice calling again, “Okay, I’ve managed to make him sit up. His head has stopped bleeding and it doesn’t look like he’s got any other injuries that I can see… Ror, come on, wake up for me, please.”
We could all hear the panic in her voice.
“Do you think we should get her to move him more?”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Quinn said shaking his head.
Then we all heard a very faint groan down the phone.
“Ror! Hey, hey, it’s okay. Can you speak?” came Ash’s voice. “I think he’s waking up…”
“Thank fuck for that,” Xav said.
He was still holding onto Quinn and honestly, I didn’t think he should let go. Quinn looked like he was about to fall apart.
“We’re going to get there as fast as we can, Ash, okay? Just keep him awake,” I told her as I navigated my way through over a busy intersection.
“Ror… can you hear me? Ror?”
I swear all of us had our fingers crossed, hoping beyond hope our Rory was going to be okay. And I no longer cared how fast I was driving or if I broke any speeding laws. Ash and Rory needed us and I was fucked if we were going to let this shitty traffic get in the way of us being there for them.
Chapter 36
I groaned, pain flooding my chest, my head and my limbs. Why did everything hurt? What happened to me? I opened my eyes, trying to focus on what was in front of me. A vision of blonde hair leant over me, eyes frantic and I could hear them talking to me.
“Ror, can you hear me? Can you talk?”
I groaned again, trying to work out how I could speak and why it hurt to move. My fingers twitched. I shifted a little. Pain ripped through me and a low moan of pain escaped my lips.
“Shh, shh, don’t try and move, okay? Ror, look at me. Open your eyes properly.”
