Touch of Eden (11 page)

Tuesday passes so slowly. Probably because I'm dying with anticipation and more than a little excitement. I go home a little early as I need to do some things before I get too distracted by what I'm going to do with Eden to think.

I give Luke a quick call.

“Hi Luke, busy?”

“
Not at the moment, I'm just about to make dinner.”

“
I dropped in to see Sarah. She gave me her legal notes and I've had a good read through... I've also spoken to my friend again and she's told me why she can't leave.”

“
And what is that reason, do tell?”

“
She thinks he may harm her family. Her dad owes him a lot of cash, he's also a dodgy money lender, and her brother works for him, drug running, in a big way.”

“
What a delightful family. Why on earth do you want to get yourself mixed up with these dregs of society Josh?”

“
It's something I need to do. I want to help her. She's a good person, innocent, despite her family and what you may think.”

“
And tell me honestly... She wouldn't be young, beautiful and on your 'must have' list, would she?”

“
She is definitely young and very beautiful, but no, I don't want anything from her.”

“
Forgive me if I don't believe you. So what do you want to discuss with me anyway?”

“
What can we do about getting her and her family some protection?”

“
Nothing if they don't all want it... and it sounds like her brother might be a problem, if he's doing well out of this arrangement.”

“
But if they all do?”

“
I'll talk to my friend in the Met. He'll know.”

“
What about drug arrest charges...”

“
They need to be sound. He'll have to be found in possession of a large quantity, stashed on his registered premises.”

“
How long a sentence would  he get?”

“
For the combined drug and imprisonment charge I'd say 10 years, if it's his first offence. A minimum of 6 served.”

“
That's not long enough is it?”

“
No, he'll be out before you know it and very keen to find you Josh. Maybe he won't wait and he'll send someone after you whilst he's in prison. Don't get involved with this. Please. I'm feeling very concerned.”

“
I'm in it now Luke, sorry. Should I tell Father?”

“
I'll do it. This is serious. He needs to know.”

“
Thanks Luke. Speak to you tomorrow. Bye.”

I click off and have a think. Yes, it is serious. And I need to tell Eden. But definitely not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

I hop in the shower buzzing with sexual energy and excitement and then get ready. I'm taking her out to a rather lovely restaurant I know not far away. I'm pulling out all the stops tonight. If Eden wants a wild time, she's getting a very special one on the Courtauld estate. I have the most perfect idea which I hope she'll love... and I can offer her a table experience she'll never forget... the huge mahogany one next door. Oh yes indeed... I've got her 'up the wall' and 'on the floor' scenarios covered, as well as a few juicy others around the house and garage... And the four poster guest bedroom is just the place to finish up in...
On second thoughts, maybe the hot tub might be even better...

It's just after half past six and I am about to pick up my car keys and leave when I hear a knock at the door. I never get callers, not even dedicated Mormon missionaries come out here...  I start to open the door wondering who the hell it could be, and before I know what's happening, it's thrust open hard, sending me flying backwards with a force. I'm faced with a very tough looking hairless brute with a deep scar on his eyebrow. I can guess who this is without any introduction.
Carter, the minder. He pushes me back roughly as another person enters my stable uninvited.
Well hello Andrew, so nice of you to drop in.
I wonder for a brief moment how the hell he found me, but I suppose for someone of his means it must be a piece of cake.

He's not your typical villain. This guy is something else. He takes bad ass to a whole different league. He is dark and seriously good looking. Short slicked back hair. A single diamond earring. Immaculate and expensive state of dress. A 'don't fuck with me' expression plastered across his face. He's the devil incarnate. Mr Seduction of the corrupt underworld. I can see why Keira found him attractive, most women would. He's well built, moody, dangerous and obviously filthy rich. He looks me over with a dismissive gaze.

“I think you might have overstepped the boundaries of a personal trainer Mr Courtauld.”

“
I haven't overstepped anything Mr Knight.”

“
The fuck you have. Keep out of my private life - leave my fiancée alone, she belongs to me.”

Fiancée...? Well this is news to me... A minor point Keira may have forgotten to mention perhaps?

“I have no interest in her in that way. Or your private life for that matter.”

“
No interest? Don't insult my intelligence. How could you not be interested in Keira? I know about the private phone...  Been having some intimate conversations together have you?  Trying to persuade her to leave perhaps? I'd say you were interested all right, you piece of shit.” He looks around my modest stable and smiles smugly to himself. “From what I can see, I don't think you have the means to keep her in the style she's accustomed to Joshua... She's a woman with very expensive tastes... Do you honestly think you can compete with me and all I can offer her?” I'm suddenly very worried what he threatened Keira with to get her to spill the beans,
God, I hope he hasn't hurt her...

“
Perhaps you didn't understand me
Andrew
, let me put it another way... I don't fucking want your bitch.” I suddenly receive a hard punch in the gut which makes me bend over, sick with pain. I drop to my knees on the floor breathing heavily.

“
Show some respect.” Carter barks in my ear.

“
Oh go fuck yourselves, you low-life pair of dickheads...” I don't know what compelling force is making me say these provocational things... anger, pride, fucking insanity??  I know I could die at Carter's hands. Here and now. I need to shut up, get some self preservation going on. He painfully drags me up to my feet by my hair. “Shit, get off me you ugly mindless ape....” I can't help it... I must have a death wish.

“
Last chance saloon kid...” He snarls.

I try to stand up as straight as I can and turn to face Andrew. “Let Keira go. She doesn't love you or want you. You're keeping her prisoner for godsakes! Go and find someone else who wants to fuck you. Whatever you may think, she doesn't.” He suddenly laughs. A deep throated scary kind of laugh that makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. His eyes blaze with anger and he narrows them in on me with a demonic expression.
Fuck, he really is the devil himself...
I suddenly understand why Keira is scared of him. He is menacing, threatening, more than a touch evil. I'm expecting him to sprout horns and spear me with a flaming pitchfork any second.

“
How amusing you are. And so very wrong about all of that. I'm not going to discuss my sex life with you, but I'll tell you this, she is very keen in that way.  And for your information I don't keep her prisoner, she goes out to see her friends, shopping, dinner and other things with me... I am merely protecting her, from dirty scum like you who want to get their hands on her.” He pauses and smiles to himself broadly exposing his exceptionally white and perfect teeth. “And here's some news for you... We've just found out she's pregnant, only yesterday. Maybe that'll change your mind about her, hmmm? You'd better think on that. It puts a different spin on things, doesn't it? Now listen carefully... Don't ever contact her or come anywhere near Buxlow again. You're dead if you do...” He moves towards me and spits two final words out, close up into my face. “Understand... fucker?”
So he's got her pregnant somehow has he... to tie her down even more and make her stay put. The bastard. More emotional blackmail to double lock her prison door...

“
I understand all right, now get the fuck out of my house.”

He motions at Carter with a small nod of his head and I'm suddenly in real fear of what's coming next. Andrew leaves the stable and Carter lays into me with his iron fist and steel capped shoes. My eyes and head ache with the heavy pounding they are receiving and I feel things crunching in my chest. Such intense pain... it's unreal. I try to defend myself and hit back, but he's a trained fighter, a thug. I don't stand a chance despite my muscular size. My mouth takes a direct hit and I taste blood and feel a piece of broken tooth on my tongue.  I take another hard and painful punch in the gut, followed by a sharp kick in the knee. Then, as I'm falling to the floor, clutching my knee in pure agony, out of the corner of my eye I see his fist coming straight for my head, fast and hard.
Shit, this is it... I think I'm going to die now... and I never got to make love to Eden...
That's the last thing I think as my world turns black.”

I don't know how long I lie there unconscious on the floor. But I'm suddenly aware of hands on me. Of someone touching my face... I try to open my eyes but I can't, they're swollen shut. Everything is throbbing in agony. I try to speak but my mouth won't move. I lift my finger and someone touches it. I start to focus my hearing. I can hear my name being spoken over and over, and someone is crying. I smell her perfume. It's her. I know I'm not dead anyway, I wouldn't be in pain like this if I was.

“Josh... Josh... Please... Joshie baby... Speak to me...” She chokes out the words between sobs.

I try to speak again. “Hospital, Luke, no police,  phone, there, somewhere.” I manage to whisper into her ear through my almost closed up swollen mouth. I point my shaking finger and force one eye open a fraction.

“Okay. Hold on baby I'll get it.” She returns a moment later and holds my hand again. I can hear her call for an ambulance and then speak to Luke, tearfully explaining my beaten up state.

“
Sorry, tell you, tomorrow... Love you...”

“
Shhh, shhh... I love you too. Don't talk. Tell me later. Just keep still. Everything's going to be okay. I'm here and your dad and Luke are coming home.” She lies down next to me on the floor kissing my hair and hugging me gently. I drift off again in a strangely contented mood. I am feeling deliriously happy, maybe I'm just plain delirious because my brain has suffered a severe beating. Whatever, I'm safe in the knowledge that she is looking after me and help is on it's way.

Two days later, I'm actually sitting up in my hospital bed without screaming in fucking agony. I think the morphine has helped a lot with that. I've felt kind of high on the stuff to be honest. I know I look a state as the bruising is really up now. I've never seen so many colours on my face, I was quite horrified when I visited the bathroom today and forced myself to look in the mirror. I daren't look at the rest of me in case I cry like a baby. Two broken ribs, a broken tooth, hairline fractured jaw, swollen knee, a broken little finger... All in all I got off lightly, lots of painful internal bruising but nothing important ruptured, thankfully.

I look at Eden asleep in the visitor's chair, her long hair sweeping down, almost to the floor. She has hardly left my side, holding my hand for hours on end. I take a deep breath as the strongest wave of love washes through me. I look in the other chair. Lorraine is sitting there reading. I touch her shoulder and smile at her as best I can and she smiles back. She really is such a sweetie mum.

I told Eden all about it yesterday evening. She listened without throwing a fit when I explained that our gym client Keira was in fact a beautiful girl, imprisoned by a wicked drug lord, who apparently wanted to kill me for trying to help her escape from his evil clutches. I took her through it all, from the very start. Leaving out the mutual attraction parts... that's not relevant any more. No point upsetting her over that.

She didn't say I shouldn't have got involved, she didn't judge my actions at all. Perhaps she's giving me a break from abuse while I recover or maybe she's still a little shocked by my near death experience in her arms.

I'm so fucking grateful she came to find me so fast. When I was only half an hour late and she couldn't get me on my phone, she was in her car like a shot, driving to my place and ready to give me a piece of her mind for falling asleep when I should be taking her out on her sex fantasy date. I had a bloody good excuse for falling asleep, had that been the case, as we hardly slept a wink Monday night, talking about everything under the sun... Except my worst secrets of course. Some things need to be kept secret. They are too bad to tell anyone, ever. Anyway, falling asleep would have been a nice alternative to the reality. Being badly beaten up doesn't do much for me at all. Hopefully it's a one off in my life.

Nate and Callum have just visited me and were more than impressed with my colourful appearance. Nate brought me some hard toffees for a joke. My fractured jaw and broken tooth were not amused. A stab of pain shot through them at the thought of chewing it. I had to tell the whole story again, from the beginning, for Cal's benefit. My jaw aches like hell from talking.

And Luke and Father. What a team they are. I challenge any drug lord to try and get by the pair of them when they're on the rampage. But ARK & Co
will
escape my legal wrath, because I'm not pressing charges. Despite my father's passionate reasoning that the law will protect me and Keira too, I'm not going there. I've done what I can, well almost all I can. I'll leave another phone for Keira. Because I think there's a small possibility she may still want to leave. But it's going to be so difficult for her now. Having his baby will change things for her, and for him, I'm certain of that. I'll call her one last time from a public phone and leave her one more secret phone and tell her if she ever needs to talk I'll be there. This time I'll impress on her the need to more careful with it than before. But something tells me she won't leave. She'll marry him and stay. Stay with her millionaire, good looking, fucker of a drug smuggler, loan shark and whatever other corruption he's into. I do believe he loves her in his own perverted way. Maybe she might even love him too. I don't know. Who am I to judge anyway?

One thing's for sure, I'm not going to be the one to bring his empire crashing down around his feet. I have other things to consider. Other people. Eden and her mum. Luke and Father. My extended family. I don't want to cause any more trouble for them or put anyone in danger. Including myself. One beating is quite enough.

I bring myself out of my thoughts as Eden wakes up, stretches out in the chair and gives me a lovely smile that makes my insides melt faster than ice cream in the Sahara.

“
Hey baby, have I told you that you look so beautiful today?” I can almost speak normally now that my mouth and jaw are not so swollen, thanks to the anti inflammatory drugs they've been pumping me with.

“
Have I told you that you don't?”

“
Don't worry baby, soon I'll be all handsome again. Apart from the tooth.” I flash my broken front tooth at her.

“
It's kind of sexy. The tooth I mean.”

“
It is?”

“
Yeah. I like you having an imperfection.”

“
I'll leave it then. If you like it.”

“
Let's see what it feels like for the both of us shall we...?”

“
I'm so sorry I missed our date. I was really looking forward to it.”

“
So you keep saying, at least twenty times already. Stop reminding me about it. What's done is done.”

“
I can't help it. I'm very, very sorry. It was all my fault. I feel bad.”

“
You know, I wish we'd gone the whole way on Monday night now. Then I wouldn't be dying for you so much. It's almost unbearable.” Her eyes stare into mine and I see the longing in them. I suddenly remember Lorraine is there. She seems to be blissfully engrossed with her Dan Brown novel, unaware of the topic of our conversation. I hope she is anyway. I lower my voice a little, just in case.

“
I'll be out of here soon, back home. I'm a fast healer and I'll be back on form before you know it. You can come over and help me recuperate, if you like. Nurse me better. Rub me all over with cool sponges, feed me little meals in bed. Perhaps you can give me some gentle physio here and there... to help me get back in the swing.”

“
Are you joking? I'm not being your slave. Waiting on you hand and foot.  Exhausting myself getting all the working parts of your body back to life.  What planet are you living on... hmmm?” She gives me a rather irked look.

“
But I thought you might like looking after me?” I can't help but look and feel highly disappointed at her reaction. I want her to love and care for me, even though I can probably manage to get by on my own.

Her mouth curves up in a cute impish smile. “Give me your door key honey, I'll move my stuff in tomorrow so we won't waste any time with your specialised after care.”

“You're a proper little bitch at times, aren't you?” I smile with some pain at her wicked, wind up sense of humour.

“
A lovely bitch, who loves you madly.”

“
Mmmm, come here and kiss my broken tooth. It feels imperfect and unloved.”

“
Like the rest of your face, you mean?”

“
Please be nice, I'm a touch sensitive about my looks today.”

And she's very, very nice after that. I love the tooth kiss and the all over my bruised face kiss. The bonus head rub and hair tug are so sweet and sexy I almost pass out with love. I can't wait to get out of here and place myself in her very capable healing hands.