by West, Jade
And there he was.
The cunt himself.
His tie was loose around his neck as he stumbled his way down the road, and I knew straight away where he was heading. His path was from Oscars to Casey’s Casino, with two of his suited idiot mates rocking along at his side.
They were oblivious, all three of them, clearly off their fucking heads as they made their way out for more of the same.
It would have been so much better if he hadn’t seen us standing there, but unfortunately Anna was looking divine enough to stop the world in her burgundy satin and heels.
He stopped in his tracks the very moment he saw her, and his jaw tightened as he looked her up and down. Angry, and bitter, and pure fucking spiteful.
His two friends tried to call him along with them, but he wasn’t having any of it, just kept on heading over towards us.
I pulled Anna closer to my side, and stepped ahead of her, but the prick was oblivious. His eyes were burning right on her as he closed the distance.
“So-called rape?” he sneered, and jabbed a finger at her. “That wasn’t fucking rape, Anna. You were fucking begging for it. I told the fucking police so, too. Good job they fucking believed me.”
“Stop,” I told him. “Seriously, Maitland, just fuck off and leave us, please.”
Anna pressed up close to me, edgy with nerves, but her voice was so fucking tough when she answered him.
“That was fucking rape, Seb, and you know it. I wasn’t begging for anything, you disgusting prick!”
His friends tried calling him over again from the street corner, but he gave them the middle finger.
“You’re a slut,” he sneered at Anna. “You’re a slut, and you were begging for it. And this is the loser you spread your fucking legs for, isn’t it? Lucas fucking Pierce, the pervert freak.”
He glared at me, and he was so vile. So fucking vile.
“Shut the fuck up,” I said to him. “Honestly, you need to fuck off now before this escalates. Call me whatever you like, but don’t you dare think of speaking to Anna like that again. Not if you’ve got any sense in that cuntish head of yours.”
“She’s a slut,” he spat. “A filthy, little, invalid slut.”
My gut twisted and my fists clenched. “Shut your fucking mouth right now.”
But he didn’t.
The cunt didn’t.
“You’re an ungrateful bitch,” he sneered. “You know that, Anna? You’re an ungrateful fucking bitch and always were.”
I was so fucking ready for him when he reached out to grab for her.
I twisted his arm behind his back, wrenched it hard and cut him off in his tracks. “Just get the fuck away from here,” I snapped, and shoved him away.
Still, he fucking didn’t.
He swung for me as soon as he spun around, teeth bared and eyes fucking wild as he came at me. Again, I was fucking ready for him.
I shouldn’t have taken nearly so much pleasure as I did from slamming a fist into the cunt’s jaw and sending him flying from his feet onto the goddamn grass.
I definitely shouldn’t have taken so much pleasure as I did from grabbing him by his shoulders and dragging him through the soaking wet lawn, muddying his suit to fuck as I wrenched him over to the fucking water.
“You can sober the fuck up,” I barked at him, and plunged his face in the fucking pool.
“Lucas!” Anna shouted, but I was on a fucking mission.
The piece of shit spluttered and squirmed, but I didn’t let him come up for air. Not until he’d well and truly taken a gulp full.
He spat and retched when I let him up, and I gave him the option to walk away again.
“Leave,” I told him. “Just fucking go, yeah?”
But still he was a cunt, glaring up with spite towards Anna.
“She’s a fucking slut! Nothing but a pathetic little slut!”
I plunged his head back under.
The next time I let him up he was squirming worse, and the rage in his eyes was nothing short of primal.
“I’ll take you fucking down for this, Pierce!” he choked. “The police won’t do shit about Anna’s bullshit claims, but they’ll fucking listen to me when I tell them about your fucking assault. Believe me, they’ll listen to me!”
“Lucas!” Anna called out again, but she was the only one intervening. His so-called friends had bailed to the street corner at the conflict and were hovering well and truly on the outskirts. Typical for his bullshit circle and its bullshit loyalty.
Sebastian was still too wrecked to swing for me when I leaned in close and pressed my mouth to his ear. I felt him tense as soon as I started speaking, and I shouldn’t have taken nearly as much pleasure as I did from his panic either. But holy shit, how I did.
“Nobody is going to give a toss for what you say, Maitland,” I hissed at him. “The police may not have any evidence to prosecute you for rape, but I swear to God they’ll have enough evidence to prosecute you for fraud. I made sure of that when I submitted it.”
“Fuck off,” he spluttered. “You don’t know shit about me.”
“Quayside Finance,” I whispered. “Sound familiar? Quayside Finance and Logan Randall? Don’t suppose you siphoned off a few mill from one to the other last September by any chance, did you?”
Oh fuck, how he tensed up at that.
“I know everything about you,” I told him. “If you have any fucking sense in that cuntish head of yours, you’ll fuck off from here and never even breathe Anna’s name again. You go anywhere near her and I’ll be pulling a whole load worse up to slam you with. I’ll burn you alive, I fucking swear.”
I dropped him on the lawn, and he was a wreck, coughing and trying to scrabble to his feet.
I walked right on past him with Anna’s hand firmly in mine.
“You have a few days tops to get your things in order. They’ll be coming for you,” I told him.
“I’ll tell them it was you!” he snarled, using the fountain bannisters to get to his feet. “I’ll tell them it was you who fucked with my affairs and take you the fuck down with me!”
“You can try.” I shrugged with a smirk on my face. “We’ll see who they are most interested in, shall we?”
“I’ll take you the fuck down!” he yelled, but he was still stumbling around on his feet like the idiot he fucking was.
He didn’t intimidate me. Nothing about that cunt intimidated me and never would.
I shoved him back to the floor on our way past, beyond giving a shit for any useless bullshit the cunt had to say.
I’d have happily torn his limbs apart, but a swollen jaw and soaking wet suit would have to do. That and taking his career and freedom away from him for all fucking time.
It was Anna that surprised me as we walked on by, hanging back just long enough to spit at him on the floor.
“You disgust me,” she hissed. “Don’t ever fucking come near me again, you vile piece of shit!”
The other suited pricks were still hovering on the corner, pretending to be busy on their phones when we walked on by.
“If you have any sense, you’ll keep your distance from that cunt,” I told them.
And then we went home.
It took a few more days before the Sebastian Maitland headlines hit the local papers.
He’d been arrested and charged with fraud and bribery, and had been detained behind bars until the court trial.
It appeared he didn’t have all that many real friends after all – since not a single one of them came forward to pay his bail charges.
It was a few days on from that still when Moose, the introverted work genius, cornered me in the meeting room when Keith and Ralph had made their exit after our weekly debrief.
I was still packing up my laptop when he cleared his throat and stepped up close.
“Saw the Sebastian Maitland shit going down on Gloucestershire Live TV,” he told me. “Got well and truly shafted by an anonymous email, didn’t he? Weird that.”
<
br /> I shrugged. “Yeah, pretty damn weird, hey? Still, the guy always was a cunt.”
His smirk was eccentric, and his eyes were strangely bright. “Seems there was a system glitch around your login in the last week or two,” he said. “Seems the Sebastian Maitland searches were spiking all over the place from your account. Pretty big coincidence.”
My blood turned to ice, but I kept a calm face on it. “Really? That’s quite strange, Moose. Quite strange indeed.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It is. I was thinking that you were checking it out via enough proxy that hardly anyone would have ever been able to see the action, especially not from our team login. But with me putting the automation protocols in place and tracking user behaviour… I guess it puts me in prime position to pick up any glitches like that.”
“I guess it does. And what are you going to do with that prime position, Moose?” I asked him.
He shrugged, and his eccentric smirk grew bigger. “Well, I fixed the glitch,” he said. “Don’t want our system throwing any other little balls ups like that around, do we? So, I made sure I cleaned it up. Not a single Sebastian Maitland glitch to be seen now.”
I was surprised.
Surprised enough for the shock on my face to be seen, I’m sure.
Moose shuffled on the spot. “Won’t be any more glitches now though, will there, Lucas?”
I shook my head. “Absolutely not, Moose. I’m sure the system is well and truly fixed now. No more glitches to be had.”
“Good,” he said, and then he nodded his head at me. “Sure nice to have you back, boss. Keep up the happy, will you? It’s a whole load better than the sads.”
He was at the meeting room door when I called his name.
He turned to face me and I realised for the first time in a long time that I really did have true friends. I’d lost sight of just what they were over the years.
“Thanks, Moose,” I said. “It means a lot that you cleaned that up for me.”
He shrugged at that. “No biggie,” he said. “Can you just make it to quiz night next week please? Marketing team caned us last month and I want to come out with the trophy.”
I laughed out loud and gave him one hell of a smile.
“I’m damn well sure I can be there.”
Anna was looking incredible, head to toe in a cream dress suit when I met her outside her office that evening.
I leaned in to kiss her and she lingered for a few beautifully long seconds.
“Good day?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Very good day,” she said. “Got an invite from Mum and Dad for Sunday dinner over the next few weeks.”
“Nice,” I said, and took her hand as we set off on our walk to the car park. “You haven’t been to dinner at theirs for a few, have you? About time they started back up again.”
She stopped me in my tracks, and shook her head, and she was so alive. So fucking alive that it took my breath.
“No, no, no. I’ve got an invite from Mum and Dad for us to go to Sunday dinner,” she told me. “Both of us.”
Jesus Christ, it took me a second to digest it.
“You’re serious? Your parents have invited me for Sunday dinner?”
She nodded. “Yep, sure have. Took me quite by surprise as well.”
My smile was all genuine. “I’d be very honoured to accept the invitation.”
“I know,” she said. “I’ve already said we’d love to be there, just need to get it pencilled in. Can’t wait to get you suited and booted for the big event.”
My heart was already absolutely pounding at the thought. Jim and Terri must have absolutely despised me for a whole damn decade, and I didn’t blame them. I never would.
The very thought of them welcoming me across their threshold was quite surreal.
Anna pulled me back in my tracks again before we rounded the corner to the car park.
“Can we just take a detour?” she asked me. “I have a wish for the fountain…”
I looked at the sky, such a lovely day in spring. The clouds were pink and the air was warm, and the city was bustling just right with evening life.
“Sure, let’s go see Neptune,” I said.
I don’t know what her wish was that she made that evening. I just watched the usual addictive sparkle in her eyes as she pulled that coin from her purse, gripped it tight, then tossed it into the water.
She turned to me, just like always, and asked me the question, just like always.
“You going to make a wish today, Lucas?”
The words were right there, right on my tongue ready to flow, just like always.
The universe isn’t responsible for my road ahead, Anna. I am.
Only today those words didn’t come.
I surprised myself as I reached into my pocket and dug around for a coin.
Her eyes widened in shock as I held it up in front of her, and I loved it. I loved the gorgeous enthusiasm on her face.
I loved her so fucking much it hurt.
So, I wished.
I wished to the universe that Anna would one day be my wife, and Millie would love her almost as much as I did.
I wished that our road ahead would be long and blessed, and I’d be every scrap the man I’d intended to be for her before I fucked up the past decade.
I wished to be her world, and everything she ever deserved, and make right all the stupid wrongs I’d ever pushed on her.
“Made your wish?” she asked, and I nodded, and kissed her head.
“Made several of them actually,” I told her.
Then I tossed that coin into the water and took my beautiful Anna home.
Epilogue
Anna
A few weeks later
Amy Miller’s face was a picture of mischief as she slammed a pint glass full of wine down onto Nicola’s coffee table.
“Exactly what’s going on between you and Lucas Pierce, Anna? Truth or dare?”
Nicola laughed, and so did Vicky, and so did Vicky’s new flatmate, Claire.
And so did Yasmin Boyle. Freshly down for a weekend from Newcastle and sitting across in the armchair on the other side of the table.
I tipped my head to the side and pretended to think about it.
“Well… I dunno… that’s a tough question…”
“Truth or dare, truth or dare, truth or dare!” the girls chanted, but we were all giggling like fools.
Because we all knew the answer.
Every single one of us knew the answer beyond all doubt.
“Everything,” I told them, and pushed the wine away. “Everything is going on between me and Lucas Pierce.”
“Including Sunday lunch at your parents’ place tomorrow, right?” Vicky asked, and I nodded.
“Including Sunday lunch at my parents’ place tomorrow.”
And that was indeed going on.
I was crapping myself about it going on, but it was. Picturing Dad and Lucas making any kind of conversation over roast potatoes and broccoli was enough to bring me out in tremors, so hell knows what it was doing to Lucas.
He was pinging me right through the evening, sending me snapshots of him and Millie in front of the TV and saving me some popcorn, and every one of them had my tummy fluttering.
I’d met her once and she was incredible. A pretty young princess with a feisty little mind and a fiery little heart to go along with it. We’d taken Bill and Ted out on the hills for a great afternoon walk, and topped our own pizzas to eat for dinner when we got home.
I think she liked me.
I hoped she liked me.
Lucas sure seemed to think she did, and she was keen enough to come back and stay over, so at least round one was a success.
Maybe, just maybe, we’d be lucky enough to make another sweet young prince or princess to share family life with her one day. Hell knows, we were having enough sex to practice.
He’d dropped her back at Maya’s, so was more than happy enough to come and grab me from Nicola’s fr
ont door at 2 a.m. It was hilarious being the taxi service to Amy and Yasmin along with me, and I laughed along with their silly sing songs in the backseat like we were teenagers all over again.
“Tomorrow is the big showdown, then?” Amy quizzed as we headed to hers, leaning through to the front seats with a big grin on her face. “Do you think Daddy Blackwell is going to kick your ass tomorrow, Lucas?”
He shrugged, and flashed a grin right back at her. “I’m sure we’ll find out. I’ll be expecting it, that’s for sure. I’ll give him three straight punches on my jaw before I bail and run like a wimp.”
“He isn’t going to punch you,” I laughed. “He might call you a prick and spit in your carrots, but I don’t think he’ll floor you in the hallway.”
“We’ll see,” he said, and squeezed my knee.
We dropped Amy and Yasmin off at theirs then headed out to home. The dogs jumped up at us as we walked on through to the kitchen, and I fussed them like crazy, loving the furry bundles of fun more and more each day.
It was still so weird so see the house so fresh with all my stuff in there. My pictures up on the wall – my favourites of magpies, and a giraffe in a hat, and a photo of me, Mum and Dad at my school play when I was seven. My books on the bookshelves next to his. My clothes in the wardrobe next to his. My tennis racket permanently hung up above the shoe rack in the hallway, right next to his. My cutlery in the drawers, and my plates in the cupboards.
I was grabbing myself a juice when Lucas arrived behind me from the living room. His smile was magic as he held up a piece of paper, bright with wax crayon.
“Millie drew this for you,” he said, and pointed to the sketched out people. “You, me, her.”
It made my heart do a strange little flip in my chest.
He pointed across the page. “Bill and Ted.”
“She drew this for me?”
He nodded. “She said she really likes you. That you’re one of her bestest, bestest people.”
“Aww,” I said, and took the drawing from him with a tear in my eye. “She’s one of my bestest, bestest people too.”
He pulled me close. “And tell me, Anna, who else is one of your bestest, bestest people around here?”
