Ridge Creek Reunited (Ridge Creek Duology) (10 page)

Oh.

Shit.

Well at least he didn’t chase Anton down the street for a
chat.
That could’ve been awkward.

“Seriously?” I mumble as my eyes dart to the window as if I’m suddenly going to see Anton standing
right there
staring at me.

“The pub
’s about six doors down on the other side of the street Arianna,” Jake chuckles as he watches me eye the window.

Quickly assessing the situation for what it is, I inwardly decide Jake has made the right choice. In all honesty I
don’t
know who Stephen Bradford is and I don’t know if Anton is a good guy. “Right then, aisle it is” I announce as I sway back away from his face and shift my attention to Emma. “What are we eating?”

“Steak. With salad. A big, thick chunk of cow’s ass that will take two days to digest,” Emma answers without hesitation as she sits her IPhone flat in front of her and starts fiddling with
the screen. “I’m gunna Google Stephen Bradford. I’ll find out more later when I get back to my computer, but let’s start with Google.”

“Good idea,” I agree as I lean forward to see her screen. Sensing me hovering close, Emma lifts her eyes and scowls at me.

“What? Mine’s still at Jake’s house?” I scowl back at her.

“Oh. Yeah.” She grimaces. “Forgot that.” I then watch as she leans back down to her handbag and resurfaces with yet another IPhone. Switching it on, she types in her passcode and places it down in front of me. “I always carry a
couple of spares,” she announces with a grin.

“Seriously?” I ask as I hit the Safari button on the screen in front of me.

She doesn’t reply.

The next hour flies. We order and receive our food. We eat, we enjoy, we Google. We read a plethora of information on the Bradford family. We even find two references to the tragic death of Carolyn Bradford following the disappearance of their daughter Penelope. Stephen Bradford’s story
seems to add up.

The men seem happy to leave Emma and I to our Googling selves and spend their time discussing boring men’s business. During the few times I bothered to pay attention to their conversation, I got the distinct impression they were talking business. In among their casual rambling there were underlying currents that I realized were covers and they were efficient in the art of conducting covert conversations within seemingly random conversations.

It is only as my dessert, a delicious looking Crème Brulee lands gently in front of me that I sense an abrupt swing in the mood at the table. The men’s quiet conversation stops and I hear Luke hiss, “You have to be fuckin’ shitting me.”

Jake’s body zaps from relaxed to alert. Zane sits up straighter and all three men start staring out the window and
up the street at something of interest. Emma and I look at each other and lean forward to look out the window as well.

The street looks normal. Cars have parked all the way along both sides. The restaurant around
us is booming with patrons and it’s that time of the evening, just on dark, when folks are strolling up and down the street on their way to and from food and drink venues. Wondering if Anton is close enough to be pissing the boys off I rescan the street.

No Anton.

What am I missing?

The only thing I can see that appears slightly out of the norm is a red Honda Accord sitting
half way down the street with its brake lights on. Which isn’t exactly unusual on a street with food outlets. The driver may just be looking for a parking space.

“Maybe she missed us brother,” Zane murmurs still staring out the window and down the street. I look at the three men again and I’m
instantly convinced they are staring at the Honda Accord.

“She’s got fuckin’ eagle eyes, there’s no way she missed us bro,” Jake mutters sounding angry. “This is not going to be cool.”

I swing my eyes to Jake and see his lips curling in a savage grimace. He looks
pissed.
Luke is shaking his head as he announces, “And there it is.”

I follow his eyes back to the Honda Accord and see that it is now reversing up the street. Fast. So fast that cars traveling along the street behind it are now slamming on their brakes, honking and then angrily overtaking it to get out of its way.

Whoever’s driving that car is an accident waiting to happen.

“She might just be looking for a car park,” Zane murmurs, his eyes pinned on the car.

“I don’t see any parks do you?” Luke replies as he too stares at the red car reversing rapidly down the street towards the restaurant.

“We shouldn’t have sat at a fuckin’ window table,” Jake hisses angrily, the venom in his voice alarming me.

“Um… Jake,” I ask placing a hand on his arm. “What’s going on?”

Jake doesn
’t register my contact on his arm, or my question. “The bitch wouldn’t set foot in the Harley shop if her life depended on it. She won’t fuckin’ hesitate to come in here though. Fuck.”

Emma and I share a confused look and watch as the red car finally stops in the middle of the street direct out front of the shop. We can now see the driver’s window is down and a beautiful woman with long, glossy red hair is glaring at us all through the window.

Giving Jake’s arm a little pat, I try to gain his attention again. “Jake?” I ask a little louder this time. “Who is that woman staring at us?”

And that’s when I hear it.

The growl.

That sinfully deep growl a man does when h
e’s mad. Raging mad. Livid. Ready to rip someone’s throat out mad.

Retracting my hand slowly, I decide that perhaps now is not the time to ask who the beautiful woman is sitting in her car staring at us. “She’s beautiful,” Emma announces as I return my attention to the woman in the car as well.

“In a box jellyfish kind of way, sure.” Zane mumbles as he flicks Emma a warning glance to keep quiet. We both see his look and grimace.

Okay then.

“She might just glare and move on,” Luke says hopefully a millisecond before the driver’s door flies open and the woman lifts herself gracefully from the car. Wearing a knee length black skirt with a white button down shirt and matching jacket, she exudes a look of style and elegance. Ignoring the traffic honking and roaring around her, she storms across the street and stops in front of the window. Her brown eyes lock on Jakes.

Oh dear.

“The wife?” I mumble quietly as I roll my eyes to Emma.

“The wife,” Jake grunts angrily and I
’m surprised to realize he heard me. “Luke, you fuckin’ mozzed us.”

“I heard that mother fucker!” The woman at the window snarls as her eyes narrow on Jake. Which shocks me. Really shocks me. She looks a
whole
lot classier than that. It just goes to show that you should never judge a book by its cover.

Jake shakes his head slowly. “I forgot about the superhuman hearing abilities.”

“Let’s just ignore her,” Zane announces turning his chair and looking away from the window. “Perhaps she’ll go back to her lair.”

I send Zane a wide-eyed look and then watch as a smile starts forming on his face. The
strange thing is, it’s not directed at me. It’s somewhere behind and to the left of me. His eyes start to sparkle in amusement.

Wondering what could possibly be so amusing when Jake is sitting there ready to
explode,
I look over my shoulder. “Okay then…” I murmur as I see what he is smiling at.

Ellen.

Ellen who is calmly closing the front doors to the restaurant and sliding the draw bolts firmly into place. Oh my God, she’s pulled up the drawbridge and closed the castle gates. Some patrons are watching her with interest wondering what’s going on. Straightening from locking the last draw bolt in, she announces to the room, “A free drink to all our patrons while we wait for a dangerous storm to pass.”

Several patrons murmur their appreciation of a free drink and Ellen calls the wait staff to start taking orders quickly. With most patrons now preoccupied with ordering their free drinks, Ellen moves
to our table and lays her hand on Jakes shoulder.

The woman in the window, having witnessed the front doors closing looks
volcanic.
I swear to God I think her shiny red hair is about to burst into flames and if looks could burn, the entire restaurant would erupt in flame.

“You fucking bitch!” She screams as she jabs the window and points at Ellen furiously.

“That’s not a box jellyfish, that’s a fire-breathing dragon,” Emma announces almost nonchalantly.

“Nah, it’s a box jellyfish,” Luke responds turning his chair to face away from the erupting volcano in the window. “She’s got enough venom in her to kill everyone in this room. It would be a shockingly painful death too
.
”

“Crikey,” I mutter as I watch the woman continue to fume in the window. I can see her mind plotting as she assesses her situation. Clearly livid that she’s locked out, she looks to me like she’s considering getting back in her car and ramming the building.

“What should we do?” I ask now doing my best to keep my eyes averted from the window.

“Ignore her,” Ellen replies softly. “It cuts her deeper when Jake pays her no attention at all. She can’t stand that she
no longer affects him.”

“She affects me,” Jake murmurs quietly settling back into his chair but still staring at the window. “Just not in the way she w
ants to affect me.”

“I can hear you you know,” the woman in the window snarls again. “Open the fucking doors Ellen. I need to speak to your son.”

Ellen shakes her head sadly and gives Jake’s shoulder another squeeze. “Just sign the paperwork Victoria and let it go.”

“Over my dead body,” the woman who I now know as Victoria spits. Moving closer to the window she directs her venomous words at Ellen. “I know you’re covering for them. I
know
you know there’s more money and I
will
find it. If he thinks he can get me to go away with a pissy two-hundred thousand, he’s
wrong.”

“Enough,” Jake growls angrily as he starts to lift from his chair. Luke and Zane both jump up at the same time, their hands flying out to try to stop his ascent.

“Jake, no.” Luke says. “Don’t let her get to you brother. She’s not worth it.”

Shaking everyone off, Jake lifts angrily from the table. Surprising me, he leans down and whispers in my ear. “Stay put. I’ll be back.”

Something that I immediately wish he hadn’t done.

This is because suddenly I hear a loud bang followed by the noise of smashing glass and we both turn to see a large hole in the restaurant window. Shards of glass have flown everywhere, hitting the pavement and landing on our table and the carpet around us.

What the fuck?

Everyone is suddenly moving.

In a lightning response to the window exploding, Jake grabs both me
and
his mother, one of us in each of his arms and pulls us both towards the center of the restaurant. No mean feat considering I was sitting when he managed to haul me into the air.

Depositing us both on our feet, he turns and without a second of hesitation storms straight back across the room towards the front door.

Shocked at the speed at which I am now standing in the middle of room I look to see Emma moving towards us, her face shocked. “That’s one
crazy
bitch,” she announces as she moves to stand by my side and watch the action.

Luke and Zane are already at the front door with Jake as he rips the draw bolts open and slams his way out the front door. As soon as he
’s on the move so are they. That’s when I decide to flick my eyes back to the window and look for the crazy red head and that’s when I get a shock.

She’s not moving.

Not at all.

She’s frozen like rock. A statue in the restaurant window. Standing with her hand held out in front of her, blood pouring from multiple cuts where she punched the window in her anger. But that’s not the shocking part. The shocking part is that she’s not even looking at Jake anymore. She’s looking at
me.

Looking like she
wants me dead.

Squinting my eyes, I pin mine
on hers.

Is she serious?

What the hell did I do?

“Uh oh,” Emma mumbles as she flicks her eyes between mine and the crazy woman standing in the window. “Dragon woman is looking like she wants to scorch
you
now.”

“I see that,” I mumble as I turn to Ellen. “Shouldn’t we be calling 000 or something.”

“No Police,” Ellen announces quietly as she suddenly fires to life and swings her attention to the room full of customers now all talking rapidly and staring at the front window. Some are even taking photographs on their phones. I don’t blame them. It’s not often you see such a stunning looking woman punch her fist through a glass window.