Mason
“Fuck!” I hissed as the throbbing grew more intense.
After Danny had stabbed that damn syringe into my arm, I had woken in – Well, I had no idea where the hell I was, but it was definitely a house and not an outbuilding – with half my fucking hand missing. Ava was going to hit the roof when she discovered I was missing my wedding ring!
I was in no doubt that my little warrior was going to bulldoze her way in at any moment. It hadn’t taken a genius to realise that Danny had left my finger as a gift, prompting Ava to forsake common sense and come all guns blazing – quite literally. But I prayed that she saw his taunting for what it was. He’d dangled a carrot in front of her face and lured her in, that was inevitable knowing my woman, but she needed to be vigilant. Not do her usual and run into the trap before considering other options first. Impatience had always been Ava’s downfall. Now, though, she needed to be calm and play these bastards at their own game.
“Ah, you’re awake.”
“What great detective skills you have. You should consider becoming a cop!”
Danny laughed as he shut the door behind him. Taking a chair from the corner of the room, he placed it in front of me and sat down. “And you’d make a great comedian.”
“I’ll give it some thought! I’ve been looking for a new career.”
“You’ve also been looking for something else, haven’t you?” Although it was a question, I didn’t answer him, and he sighed. “Did you think faking your death would fool her?”
“Etta knew we were alive?”
“Of course, she did. Ever since you went to France to track down Frank. You think it was a mere coincidence that she was in Kirkingham when you joined Ava there?”
I groaned under my breath. I was sat, urging my wife to be vigilant, and I had well and truly fucked up when I’d gone to France to find out what I could about Frank, Etta’s father.
“As soon as Frank told Etta he had spotted you leaving a restaurant, she was like a dog with a bone.”
Parts didn’t make sense, and I probed him while he was so willing to share. “But I got word that Etta had been spotted in Kirkingham before Ava went to check it out! Before I went to France!”
Danny shrugged and then sat back, crossing his arms over his chest. An arrogant smirk tilted the edges of his lips. It was good that he’d taken my left ring finger because when I got out of the ropes that bound me, I was going to lay this prick out with a right hook in his smug face!
“It was quite funny actually. She was in Kirkingham visiting… relatives, when she got word from Frank that he’d seen you. Then,” he slapped his knee like he was in a fucking pantomime! “Like a revelation, who did she see slinking out of the pub? The very people that took Frank out of commission. Brilliant. Couldn’t have written a twist in a storyline better myself!”
Closing my eyes in dismay, I nodded. “What else can I say but congratulations.”
The cunt was pushing his luck when he leaned forward and smacked my thigh, his perfectly straight teeth beckoning for my fist to feed them down his throat. “Have to say, getting close to Ava was child’s play. Then again,” he shrugged, “she always was an easy lay!” Fuck dangling the carrot in front of Ava, he was practically shoving it up my left nostril. The growl that left me was loud and Danny, finding this thoroughly entertaining, laughed harder. “Or maybe she was panting for it because she wasn’t getting any from you, eh?”
He scuttled back when I lunged forward, taking the chair with me. I spat on his shoes when I fell face down and he stood over me. “Now, now, not a good idea to bruise that pretty face of yours. When your wife gets here, she’ll get the wrong idea!”
“Fuck you, you cunt!” I shouted after him when he left the room and the sound of bolts sliding into their housings heralded his exit.
“Fuck!” I yelled, trying to shuffle around.
I couldn’t understand how Danny was connected to Etta. He was twice her age, so I doubted he was screwing her, and if he was, then he wouldn’t be breathing for long when Jason Fordham found out.
Like a smack in the face, his words flashed in my head and I stopped writhing around. “The very people that took Frank out of commission.”
Frank Scott was dead? It also sounded like Etta was putting the blame on me and Ava, hence why I was locked up in this shithole. So, if it hadn’t been us that had offed Frank, that left only one person.
My heart swelled with pride and I started to laugh. The term ‘like mother like daughter’ hadn’t ever been truer.
“Good girl,” I whispered into the air. “One less for me to worry about.”