Dauntless (The LockDown Series Book 2) (28 page)

He holds his hands up in an offended gesture, then rifles through his jacket to find his phone. He clicks the screen and then raises it to his ear, his other hand reaching to turn off the recently turned up music.

“Hey baby…yeah…I’m going to Surrey…yeah…with Leighton. Yes my brother. Okay…I don’t know when I’ll be back, sweetheart. Yes I love you too.” He mumbles through the speaker before hanging up and sliding his phone into the inside pocket of his pristine pressed suit.

“Turning a bit soft in your old age are you, bro?” I ask him, teasing his wet sickly talk with that sexy wife of his. Damn I bet she does wet well.

“No, not soft, quite hard actually,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows. The dude has become a full on man in the last five years. His nerdy, socially awkward persona disappearing and a full-grown bloody man taking his place.

“So, brother of mine, what are we to do about this shitty problem of yours?” I ask him, referring to the reason they called me. After we had sorted through all of the past issues and rekindled our bond with one another and met my son, he had sat down and told me about the terrible situation that had occurred.

I have found out my darling, innocent brother has also begun to work in the same business as me, starting his own ‘secret’ company, because let’s face it, what we do is fucking illegal. He doesn’t necessarily do the ‘jobs’ himself, he is into hacking accounts and setting people up for ‘coincidental’ meetings. I am damn proud of how well he can fool the people he is targeting, altering their schedules and meetings to his convenience to get the job done. He and Thomas would be an awesome duo, invincible. I have known Thomas to change video footage to set people up, changing dates, times and even morphing people into the recording.

Going back to why my siblings called me in. Our father’s sister, our Aunt Mandy was found dead and murdered in her home. Brandon knew exactly who it was and why it’d been done. It was retaliation, once again. This business was very dangerous and you had to expect the unexpected. Never rule anything out, and always, always cover your back and even more so the people you loved, because they were always prime targets, an easier way to get to you than actually going directly for you.

“Fuck if I know, I know my boys are good, but even they can’t handle the extent of this. I need you in this Leighton, if you can. I don’t want to cause your family any harm but this guy isn’t laying off. I have tried everything and he just isn’t getting the message.” Brandon reveals to me, I sense a little fear mingled with the anxiousness of leaving his wife.

Of course, I am helping; they killed my Aunt with my son there, my fucking son.

“Brandon mate, chill. Let me get home, sort out whatever has happened there, then I’ll come back with you and sort it out. It’ll be fine.” I reassure him, willing to leave my Abbi and Melissa to help my family out, to make them safe, without fear.

As I think of my fiancée sitting at home now, probably scared to death, my body feels cold and numb. I thought all the shit was behind us, that those idiots had moved on. Clearly I am wrong and need to bring security back in to protect my family. I’m not having another repeat of our past.

“I know you’re worried Leighton, but I’m sure its fine. It’s probably some dickhead trying to scare Abbi, that’s her name right?” he asks me, turning his body slightly to face me. It still astounds me at how big he has become, how powerful and solid his body is. Why he didn’t actually do the jobs himself I have no idea, he can knock some pretty big people on their arse that is for sure.

“Yeah, let’s hope.” I grit my teeth, begging my car to hurry the hell up and get me back to my beautiful fiancée.

“Want me to drive mate?” Brandon asks me, his eyes weary and wide.

“No, its fine, we’ll be there in twenty minutes. I’ll be okay.” I am trying to convince myself that’s for certain. I just pray to God it’s nothing, just some stupid twat trying to get into Abbi’s head and scare her.

“Leigh, I know we haven’t talked in years, but you do know you don’t always need to be so strong, sometimes it’s okay to be scared,” my wise arse brother informs me. It feels good to have him by my side, risking his own safety to assist me in whatever shit maybe needed. It is mad how the last five years of hurt and hate are, in the blink of an eye, wiped out. I just wish I had stopped being a stubborn arse and gone to see him sooner, sorting this bullshit out.

“I’m fine; seriously Brandon. Abbi and I have been dealt worse this past year. I just need to see what in the hell this is about and then I’ll sort things out your end ‘kay?” He returns to sitting normally in his seat, the leather squeaking a little as his expensive suit rubs against it.

“Okay, as long as you’re sure Leigh.” He gets his phone out again, flicking and swiping the screen like a lunatic.

“What the hell are you doing Brandon? You’ll break that thing if you’re not careful.” I can feel the raw rage emanating from him. Something he is looking at clearly upsets him.

“Motherfucker,” he shouts aloud, slamming his phone down on the dashboard. “Fuck, I need a computer Leighton.” He is scarlet red, his teeth clenched so tight I think he might crack a few.

“What the hell has happened, Brandon?” I ask him, trying to keep my eyes on the country lanes of Surrey as they whiz past my screen. I am exceeding the national speed limit by a good forty miles per hour, but I couldn’t give a shit about a few points to my licence or a fine.

“The fucking cunt has cleared out Georgia’s account. Every penny she’s got has been removed. I need a computer to try to trace the transaction and reverse it. God, this is such a clusterfuck, when will it end?” He seems distressed as well as lethally angry.

“Fuck! Shit, don’t worry mate, Thomas is at mine, he has his gear in his office there. I’m sure you can use that without any problem.” I wink to him, making a little chuckle leave his lips.

“Really mate? Jesus I’ll be running circles around him, no one out there is close to my mad skills. He better have some decent equipment or I’ll go out and buy some.” Jesus, men and their toys, give me a nice Ferrari and I’m good to go.

“Techno snob, much?” I say to him, scoffing mockingly at his attitude. It is quite admirable to watch really, seeing the passion he holds in his eyes, the raw need he holds inside, to put his fingers to keys and create magic.

“Yeah, and what Leigh, you got your cars, clearly. Me? Well I’ve got my machines.” He beams a smile at me, his fingers fidgeting in his lap, twirling his hand around in his palm.

“Brandon, stop bloody moving. God you’re driving me insane. I thought you would have stopped those bloody nervous jitters by now.” I place my hand on his knee, pushing down a little to stop the repetitive juddering of it.

“Sorry, I’m just anxious. There is so much shit going on, I can’t keep up with it all. I have to plan a bloody funeral now, get Georgia’s money back, kill this fucker once and for all and then get your family safe. Sometimes I wonder why the hell I even followed your dumb arse into this line of work.” He shrugs his shoulders, agitated to hell.

“Because I think, subconsciously, you knew I wasn’t to blame for our family’s problems and maybe you wanted to be like me.” I wink at him again, socking him on the shoulder teasingly.

“Yes, Leighton, I want to be just like you. You are amazing, oh powerful one.” He bows, his hands flat, reaching his knees as he bends at the waist, in his seat.

“God, you take up too much room in this car. Why did you have to one up me?” I ask him, comparing my body to his. I am by no means small, in fact, I am pretty Hench
to most people, but when I look at Brandon and Antonio, who are about the same size, they are un-humanly. They look more like mutants.

“Well, stop the car, get out and walk to yours, let me drive. I’ll get her there in one piece, I promise.” He smiles at me, rubbing his hands over the plush interior of my baby.

“She is a beautiful car, I must admit. Wait till you see my garage.” I bite my lip, thinking of my cars, they are my pride and joy, coming quite close to my daughter and future wife.

“So, tell me about this lady of yours, and your daughter,” Brandon asks me, a keen interest in his eyes.

“No need mate, we’re here,” I tell him, pulling into my driveway, switching the car off and jumping quickly outside. I hear the passenger door slam on the other side of my Bentley and Brandon’s heavy footsteps following me, his boots thudding against the paved ground.

My front door is ajar when I approach it, my internal alarms sounding. “Abbi!” I shout through the barren hallway, looking either way towards the two ends of my house.

“In here mate!” I hear Antonio’s distinctive voice call out.

“Here, would be where Ant?” I shout back, the noise amplifying and flying all over the house.

“Kitchen.” His one word reply doesn’t do much to calm my anxiety. I power walk the length of the right corridor towards my kitchen, scared for what I will see. I don’t know the extent of what has happened whilst I have been gone.

“Oh baby,” I say almost in tears as I see my beautiful girl on the floor, in a ball. Her body is shaking and convulsing as she sobs aloud. “Abigail, baby, it’s me. Shhh, it’s okay baby. I’m here now.” I pick her body up from the tiles, lifting her into my lap. “It’s all okay, baby, I’m here, no-one can hurt you Angel. Shhh.” I rock her in my lap.

“I was so scared Leighton,” she attempts to say between her frightened tears. “I nearly took some,” she tells me.

“What was that baby?” I ask her, not quite clear as to what ‘some’ is.

“Pills, I nearly took some. I was so fucking scared I couldn’t stop the anxiety and panic.” She sniffles loudly, trying to clear her nose so she can try to drag oxygen through it.

“But you didn’t?” I question her.

“No, Antonio made me see sense, but fuck baby, I need them. Help me,” she begs me, helplessly. It breaks my heart that she has fallen once again so deep, without me being here. If Antonio hadn’t turned up I dread to think where she would be now.

I look to Antonio, mouthing ‘thank-you’ to him. He is casually talking to Brandon, probably reacquainting themselves with each other. “We’ll leave you to it boss. The guys are sweeping, Brandon said he needs the tech suite so I’ll take him there.” I nod to him, so grateful to have such an awesome bunch of friends and now family.

“See you in a minute bro. Take care of her,” he says to me, nodding towards my shaking fiancée.

“Always, now sort out Georgia’s problem okay.” He nods to me once, before leaving with Antonio. The pair of them trying to get out of the doorway together, jamming one another in, makes me laugh a little.

When I am alone with Abbi, I stroke the wet hair from her face, placing my hand under her cheek to lift her face to mine. As her sparkling blue eyes look to me, drowning me in their despair, I kiss her forehead trying to diminish the demons that have taken route there.

“Baby, look at me,” I instruct her as she lowers her head again.

She looks to me immediately, her training still fresh in her veins. “Tell me what happened sweetie.” I nod to her, trying to encourage her to explain the events of the last 12 hours.

“Leighton, I was so scared.” She starts crying again.

“It’s okay Abbi, you don’t need to be scared anymore, you’re safe. Now tell me baby, when did it start?” I ask her, trying to picture in my head a timeline of events.

“Well the first thing that happened was,” she breathes in through her hiccups.

“The first thing that happened was, well there was this funny noise through the baby monitor, like interference, but I went to check on Mel and she was sound asleep. I thought I had imagined it, because Maria hadn’t heard it. So I just let it be.” I breathe out a sigh of relief as I push past the first minuscule incident; it is the next ones that will be hard, reliving those moments when I thought my child was missing. I inhale and exhale deeply; drawing in some much needed oxygen to my lungs and to my brain, settling the cloudy feeling that is settling there.

“Okay, what happened next, Abbi, what made you so afraid?” Leighton is holding me tightly, protecting me in his cocoon.

“Well, when I went to bed, the lipstick heart you left me on the mirror, well it was smudged. I knew someone had been in our room.” He looks at me angrily, his green eyes turning black as rage overcomes him.

“Abbi, sweetheart, I didn’t leave anything on the mirror.” I feel sick to my stomach. The one, sweet loving gesture I had thought Leighton left me, is now tainted with a harsh sickness in the pit of my stomach. I feel the contents of my tummy rise up in my throat, the Chinese from last night finding its way through my oesophagus and out onto the pristine tiles of my kitchen.

“FUCK!” I scream. I feel so nauseous, anxious and frightened that the entire time someone has been in my house, had made me feel that the heart was from my fiancé. Leighton lifts us both up from the floor, stepping over my pile of sick, and walks through the kitchen towards the bathroom. Sitting me down on the toilet seat, he strokes my head and wipes the sweat-ridden hair from my face. He uses a damp flannel to clean my sick away, brushing my teeth for me.