The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (257 page)

“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.

Chapter 5

Ava

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.

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 the 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 hunter 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.

Chapter 6

Mason

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.

I didn’t even bother with the handbrake as I screeched to a halt above the steep incline and fell from the car in my desperation to get to her. I could hear the guy’s shouting behind me but they wouldn’t stop me, Satan himself wouldn’t stop me from getting to her.

My feet skidded and slid on the muddy grass as I tore down the slope, my calves screaming as my muscles tensed and tore against the sharp angle of the incline. I must have fallen three or four times but my resolve and fortitude picked me up time and time again, my fear pumping the blood through my veins at an astonishing rate as my heart tried to keep up.

The final stretch to the car seemed to drag me back, my dread slowing me but the need to save her pushing me on. The saying one step forward, two steps back filtered through my head somewhere and angered me. If the roles were reversed, Ava wouldn’t let any amount of fear hold her back and I dug my heels into the ground and surged forward, dropping to my knees and sinking into a deep muddy area beside the driver’s side of the car as I yanked at the door.

Everything slammed to a halt. My vision blurred as my brain disputed what my eyes were relaying to it. My heart was frantic as the chill in my veins cooled my blood and sent a deep shiver through my body. My head shook as I turned around and scanned the area. “What? No. What?”

I pushed upright as Nate came hurtling towards me, his feet sinking into the mud and trebling his strenuous efforts.

“She’s . . .” I stuttered. He frowned at me before his face contorted into a mask of so much pain I had to reach out to him. “No, Nate. She’s not here, she’s not there. I . . .” My head whipped from side to side as I tried to focus against the dark of the night and communicate with Ava’s best friend.

“Wh . . . What?” Nate managed before he pushed me out of the way and looked into the car himself, wanting to verify my words. He gagged then turned and wretched into the mud, the sound way too vulgar in the quiet of the night as his fear was overcome with relief.

Sam and Greg reached us and both frowned when they peered into the car. “What the hell? Where is she?” Sam snapped as he spun in a circle to examine the vicinity.

“I . . . I don’t . . . know” I whispered as another dread took over.

I scrambled around the rear of the car and crouched down. Scratches, dents and indentations decorated the bumper and my eyes narrowed on the mess. I worked my way back around to the driver’s side, my shoes sticking and squelching in the mud. I cursed at the stuff but then shook my head as I realised the thick substance had probably saved Ava’s life, slowing the speed of her descent when the wheels would have struggled to turn as easily in it.

I leaned into the car and ripped the airbag out of the way, forbidding my eyes to look at the blood on it. Ava’s bag and phone were in the passenger footwell, the contents thrown across the floor but it was the sight of something else that created my wrath, the deep rooted fury that was always simmering beneath the surface of my skin exploded into a roar of despair as I reached out and touched my fingers to the bullet hole in the passenger door.

Chapter 7

Ava

MY RIGHT EYE wouldn’t open, I could feel blood trickling down the side of my face from a taut spot on my temple and my body ached in a way it never had before. I could feel the blood congealing against my thigh from where the bullet had torn through the fleshy side of it, ripping an open wound near to my hipbone. All down my left side, even my hair, was thick and brittle with dried mud and my toes smarted from the exertion of trying to place them properly on the floor to relieve the pressure in my arms.

I opened my left eye, but it was pointless, the room was too dark to see anything beyond the two inches directly in front of my face.