Endurance (Heart of Stone) (3 page)

I nodded against him, my cheek brushing against the
dusting of hair on his bare chest, “We always do, Mason.”

I grinned widely as the door to the upper floor at the
club opened and my ‘
family’
descended into the room. I heard Ava’s
squeal over the music and from across the room as she darted through the hoard
of teenage dancers currently gyrating to some techno shit on the dance floor
and leapt at Nate, her legs instantly wrapping around his waist as he hugged
her hard. “Fuck, sweetheart” Nate laughed as he spun her round.

I was aware of Ava’s need for her best friend’s. It had
been too long since their last visit and her spirit had darkened in their
absence. If anyone could talk some sense into my wife then this was the man.

I was squeezed just as hard from both Courtney and Greg,
both of their smiles as wide as mine. “Where are they?” Courtney demanded as
her eyes scanned the room.

Her face broke into a brilliant beam as she spotted her
Godchildren across the room. The air stilled and my eardrums burst when she
slipped two fingers into her mouth and whistled at such a high pitch I’m sure Greg
and I felt blood drip down our inner ears. “Shit, Courtney, couldn’t you just
have walked up to them?” She waved me off as Katie flung herself at her and
Greg seized George, pulling him hard into an embrace.

“Look at you two,” Courtney smiled with a few tears as
she held Katie at arm’s length and studied her. “God, you make me feel old.”

“You are old, Aunt Court,” George laughed as she swiped
her hand at his shoulder then pulled him into her.

“You may be sixteen now but you aren’t too old for a
beating, boy.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her and chuckled as she scowled
at him. Why couldn’t my relationship with George be this easy and relaxed? He
hated me, couldn’t stand the sight of me but now I was beginning to understand
why. Yes, it hurt but I also understood it.

“I’m old enough to drink beer over here so I’m old enough
to take you on,” he joked as Courtney gasped.

She snapped her eyes to mine, “He can drink alcohol in
Portugal at sixteen?”

I nodded but then narrowed my eyes on George, “Only beer
and wine, no spirits.” I warned him. He shrugged without even giving me his
attention and turned to face Etta who had come to stand by his side. He slid
his arm around her waist and pulled her to him, the look in his eye the mirror
image of how I looked at his mother. My heart clenched as I saw the replica
expression on Etta’s pretty face.

Greg shot me a questioning look but I shook my head
slightly. The rest of the group had come over to us, Nate still with his arm
around Ava as Sam hugged me and gave me slap on the back, “Mase.”

I smiled at him. I missed them, all of them and I was dismayed
Kerrie couldn’t make it but she was eight months pregnant. Her doctor as well
as the airline had advised against flying, however, my heart skipped a beat and
my throat ached when Layla tilted her head to me with an overwhelming smile on
her face. “Babe,” I whispered as I wrapped her up and held her close. She
sighed with contentment and gripped me hard. She felt it, my pain, I knew she
did, her grip hardened and she gasped.

“You okay?” She narrowed her eyes on me but I gave her a
warning expression. She understood and nodded back with a small wink. I knew
she would tackle me when we had time to ourselves.

“Now the party can begin,” Ava beamed and her stunning
smile made my heart stutter. Her eyes hadn’t been this alive for a while. I got
that mine and George’s constant battling was dragging her down and I would give
my last breath to make her smile that way again. But now, maybe she understood
why I had done what I had done. I glanced at my watch, Frank would now be
walking the long corridors of Lisbon prison and hopefully the half dozen young
girls in the crates aboard the boat he had pulled them in on would now be on
their way back home or somewhere safe at least.

***

“You bastard!” George roared in my face before I felt the
full force of his strength on my chest and I was shoved backwards into a
melamine table holding the mass of food. “You couldn’t keep out of it, could
you? You have to fuck up everything that walks within ten inches of you.”

I let him have a punch, making sure it hit my jaw to let
him pursue a slight amount of vengeance but my hand shot out and seized his
fist when it came back for seconds. “I’ll let you have one George but no more.”

“You are scum!” He hissed as he shook his head angrily,
“You aren’t content in fucking up my mother’s life as well as mine but now you
have to ruin Etta’s. Who the hell do you think you are?”

“George!” Ava exclaimed as she came to stand in front of
me. What the fuck! I gripped her arms and moved her to the side.

“Stay out of it Ava, let him have his say.”

“Yes,” George sneered as he turned to Ava. “Stay out of
it mother, after all it was a slip of your tongue that has ruined mine and
Etta’s relationship by telling this cunt what I told you in secret.”

She gasped as hurt covered her face and her stunning
green eyes dulled when tears pooled in them. I grabbed the front of his t-shirt
and yanked him towards me, my wrath gravely on the precipice of danger. “You
ever -  
EVER
talk to your mother like that again I will cut out your
tongue and shove it so far up your arse you’ll be licking seats until your
eighteenth,” I warned him with a low snarl. “Apologise!”

He scoffed. He wasn’t quite so confident when I wrapped
my hand around his throat and pushed him in front of Ava. The slow trickle of
fury was rising and although I was doing my all to dampen it, I was also
relishing in its potency. It had been too long, way too long.

“APOLOGISE, NOW!” I roared as my body began to tremble.

We had gathered an audience now, all of their eyes
expectantly on George awaiting his apology. I groaned as I saw Katie watching
from the edge of the room, a guy trying to wrap his lips around her throat not
even aware that she was paying him no attention. “BLAKE!” I roared. The stupid
fucking cocksucking scrote snapped upright and turned to me, his face and neck
blushing fiercely. “Get your filthy paws off my daughter!”

He nodded and scurried away as I turned my attention back
to George after I heard him heed my wishes and say sorry to his mother. “Get
out and when you’ve calmed down, come back and we’ll talk about this properly.”

He glared at me angrily, his solid chest even at his age,
rising and lowering harshly, his own unique fury taking him places I had never
wanted him to see. “Fuck you!” he spat as he yanked out of my hold and stormed
from the room.

I turned to Ava. Her face was so dark and painful my
stomach revolted and I had to hold back the vomit as it coiled in my gut.
“Baby,” I groaned as I reached for her.

She closed her eyes, her determination to hold back her
tears both enraged me and crucified me. She rolled her lips then opened her
eyes slowly. I gasped at the emptiness and ache that took me hostage under her.
“Ava?”

She shook her head sadly, “I’m so tired, Mason.” She then
turned and walked from the room, the heavy double doors swinging loudly shut
behind her.

Fuck – my – fucking – life!

Here we go again.

The road blurred under the vision of my many tears. I
knew where all this was heading, I could see it happening like an action movie
on the big screen, or when you watch one of those stupid horrors where the
female dipshit heads into the abandoned house. Well, that was like my life at
the moment and I longed to find the remote and press pause, or maybe even
rewind, anything to give my family another chance at happiness or even
normality.

I gasped and swerved to miss the dart of a rabbit as it
sprinted across the dark lane in front of me, its reflective eyes stunning me
as they redirected the glare from my headlights. My eyes shot to the rear-view
mirror to check I had actually managed to miss it as I carried on. To my relief
it blinked back at me from the edge of the road, another cars headlights behind
me giving the rabbit enough brightness to relay its thanks to me.

I blew out a breath and turned the music louder, the
heavy thrum of
Edisun
filling the small interior of my car and the
lights of the following car slightly blinding me through the mirror.

My attention wouldn’t shift from Etta. What the hell was
she going to do now? She was close to Frank, less so with her mother, and with
a baby on the way she would now struggle. She had to know I would be there for
her, but I doubted that would be of much comfort to her right now. Her father
was facing life in prison, her child’s grandfather now just a number in a large
foreboding building, and I was positive that would be a difficult thing to
share with a child.

I glanced at the car through the wing mirror this time as
it approached to a miniscule distance behind me. “Back off, mate” I said to
myself but frowned when it inched closer and closer, virtually riding on my
bumper. Something didn’t feel right; it was way too close to me on these tight
winding roads, a sheer drop on one side of the lane and a large incline into a
mass of forest to the other. Nobody was stupid enough to drive like that around
here.

My heart sped up and I jolted when his front bumper met
my rear, the nudge driving a small squeal from me. “Shit!”

I hit the Bluetooth on the dash, “Dial Mason.”

Ringing filled the confined space now instead of music as
I tried to negotiate more twists in the road whilst keeping my pursuer at bay
but he was more skilled than me. I yelped when he hit me again and the car
veered towards the worst of the two evils on either side of the road.

“Ava.” Mason’s soft voice from the speaker soothed my
nerves slightly.

“Mason, I have a tail.”

He was silent for a moment and I pictured him closing his
eyes and swallowing his fear back. “Where are you?” He demanded as his natural disciplined
instincts kicked in.

“The dirt track behind Bennett’s,” I answered quickly as
I jammed my foot harder on the accelerator and tried to outrun my shadow.

“What the fuck are you doing there?”

“Well I was planning on visiting Bennett,” I answered
with sarcasm as I grit my teeth and skidded around another bend. I was now
thinking my idea to visit my friend had been a bad idea.

I could hear Mason’s fury through the speakers, his wrath
literally crackling the energy in the limited space around me. “I told you that
you weren’t to visit him anymore.” He paused and if I wasn’t in such need for
vision right then I would have closed my eyes in dismay, “Are you fucking him,
Ava?”

I sighed heavily as I risked a quick glance in the
mirror. The car was still riding my arse and I bit my lips harshly. There was
nowhere around here that would help me rid him, and I swiftly scanned the area
around me; nothing but trees on one side and… nothing at all on the other,
“Mason, now is not really the time to discuss this but no, I’m not fucking
Bennett.”

I screamed as I struggled to keep hold of the steering wheel
when the front grill of my predator fixed itself to the back of my car and
started to steer me towards the deep ravine.

“Ava!” Mason shouted, “Ava!”

“I…” I grabbed at the wheel and desperately fought to
pull it the other way, the sweat coating my hands making it impossible. My
strength was no match for the sheer power of a SUV. “Baby,” I whispered as I
closed my eyes and refused to watch myself disappear over the edge of the
cliff, the end of my life closer with every inch of my descent. A choked sob
clawed its way up my throat when I felt the entire car shift and surge. “I love
you, Mason.” The four little words my last.

I felt the single tear cascade over my cheek as my mind
gave me solace in my final moments, its reprieve filling me with beautiful
images of my family before I felt the almighty quake and everything ceased to
exist.

For a sports car, it didn’t move nearly as fast as the
salesman had assured me it would. The 120Mph displayed on the speedometer
seemed to be taunting me and calling its analysis of how quick the wheels were
turning a liar.

“Damn it, come on!” I barked as the palm of my hand hit
the steering wheel for the twelfth time throughout the crazy long journey. What
usually took around twenty minutes appeared to be taking four times as long.

Sam chewed rapidly on his lower lip beside me as Greg and
Nate sat in the rear, silent and pensive. I swallowed back the bile as Ava’s panicked
and disturbed scream filled my head once more, torturing my soul with the
clarity of the memory and almost convincing me I was hearing it all over again.
It was our fourteenth wedding anniversary next week and I was determined I
would be spending it with my wife.

My eyes scanned the area around me, looking for what my
soul didn’t want me to see. I was almost tempted to turn the car around and go
back just so I didn’t have to physically see the sight of Ava battered and…
dead.

“There!” Sam shouted from beside me, breaking me from the
dark visions tormenting me. He pointed to the side of the road and down towards
the forest on the right hand side.

“Ahh shit… Noooo!” Nate choked from behind me as we all
turned in the direction of Sam’s finger.

I refused to see the twisted wreck of Ava’s car, the
mashed bonnet crumpled and smoking against the thick trunk of a tree as the
headlights still flickered and lit the area around it. All I allowed myself to
think was that she hadn’t gone over the cliff on the other side. She had a
greater chance of surviving this way, the impact against the tree healthier
than a few thousand foot drop towards angry rocks and an angrier ocean.