Elsie
The wind caught my hair and Devon giggled when it tickled his face. Euan’s smile was wide at the sound of his son’s laughter, the sound therapeutic after such a gruelling week.
My body still ached after the fight with one of the Russian cartel, his skill a match for my own, and I peered down at my bikini clad body and grumbled at all the bruises.
“I look a right bloody mess. I should have worn a full swimsuit,” I moaned to Euan as Devon wriggled out of my arms, his eagerness to destroy the sandcastle his daddy had just built his principal mission. I was no longer entertaining.
“You’re beautiful,” Euan remarked as he pulled me onto his lap and dropped a kiss to the centre of my chest. “Flawless or wounded, you still make my cock fucking hard.”
Rolling my eyes, I smirked at him. “Always the romantic, Mr Sinclair.”
“You’re always the nectar to my damaged soul and the ointment to my aching body, Mrs Sinclair.”
I pursed my lips, approving his line. “Impressive.”
“See, I can be.”
“I know,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his lips.
“Has your contact heard anything from Felicity?” Euan asked, making me dizzy with the sudden change of conversation.
I shook my head, looking out to the ocean wistfully. For three years, I had searched for Felicity. In one way, I was proud of how she had managed to drop off the edge of the earth, yet, now, I was ready to have my friend back. Life was too short to hold grudges, never mind that we all missed her so very much.
“Yo, my dudes!”
We both groaned with the sound of Ebony’s loud voice.
“And the peace is shattered,” Euan moaned with a sad pout.
“Stop it!” I whispered with a laugh, lightly slapping his arm. I knew he didn’t mean it. Euan and Ebony’s banter was the highlight of everyone’s day, and, although they would both never admit it, they would take a bullet for one another.
“Thought you could keep your location private, huh?” She narrowed her eyes at me as she plonked her lithe body down beside us. Her body was impeccable; big tits and a small arse, complimented by a flat stomach.
“You’re eating me up with your eyes again, Els.”
Scowling at her, she pulled her sunglasses down a little and winked at me. “Admit it, you’re both glad I’m here.”
“Of course we are,” Euan replied sarcastically. “The sound of the waves crashing on the rocks at night as we sit on the beach and drink cocktails. The soft way the birds sing us a song every morning as we eat a breakfast of fresh bread and homemade jams, and the fact that there isn’t another person within a five-mile radius was just sooo boring. We were just praying to God that he would send you along to shatter the tranquillity, Eb.”
“You know you can shatter my tranquillity any day of the week, Mr Sinclair.” She blew him a kiss and grinned at me.
“Are you flirting with my husband again?”
“Well someone has to. The man needs a break from your miserable face, Els. I feel for him.”
“You mean you’d love to feel him,” I snorted.
“Girls,” Euan sighed. “You don’t need to fight over me. You know I’m man enough for both of you. After all, it was this cock that changed Ebony’s views on what the man can do for her.”
“Smug bastard.” I scowled playfully, and he dug his fingers into my ribs.
I squealed and writhed around, fighting with him to stop. Devon shrieked and came running over. “Tickle time. Tickle mummy.” Like father, like son.
“Nooo!” I screeched.
“Tickle time!” Ebony shouted as she swooped up my son and started a relentless torture of tickles over his body, the tears that ran from his eyes and the fits of giggles that came from him a match for my own.
“Any idea what you’re doing for Sally’s sixteenth?” Ebony asked when we settled down, and Devon continued to wreck a perfectly good mound of sand.
“Not a clue,” I answered, leaning back on my hands and admiring the setting sun as it began to drop behind the horizon.
Euan and I loved it here, and we retreated to our holiday home in the Bahamas as much as we possibly could. It was a vast contrast to the other side of our lives. As much as we thrived for violence and bloodshed, our souls always need this little bit of heaven to recover.
Working with the secret service had definitely been an eye-opener, and, I’ll admit, a move for the better.
Three Blades and the MI5 coexisted perfectly, surprisingly. We gave each other strength and support. Weapons no longer tolerated the cruel training Frank had seen as a vital part of our lives, although I was hard on them I would never push what wasn’t there. Hilary had made an excellent Weapon, one of my best, and I made sure she knew how proud of her I was. She was the only one, out of all of us, that no longer had family left. So, I made sure she was part of mine. In fact, all Sisters were my family.
A silence descended, and we all looked out to sea. The union we had often found us thinking the same thing, and I knew from the sorrow that came in like a mist around us, that our minds were all in the same place.
“I miss her,” Ebony whispered, the lump in her throat identical to the one in my chest.
Euan blew out a long, sad breath as I forced the tears away. It had been eight months since Tehni had taken two bullets in the centre of her heart. By the time I got to her only fifteen seconds later, she was already dead. The only thing I could gain solace from was the fact that she’d been reunited with her family, and she had lived life to the full for the final two years of her life.
Euan passed us both a bottle of lager, and clinking them together, Ebony smiled with softness. “To you, Sister. May you be raising a riot wherever you are.”
“Oh, give over,” Euan chuckled. “She’ll be showing fucking Satan how to party.”
I nodded, laughing. “That she will.”
“This is why we need Felicity back. I don’t want to lose another Sister.” Ebony sighed. “I don’t think my heart could take any more pain.”
Reaching over, I squeezed her hand. “I’ll find her, Eb, I promise.”
I would make it my mission to find her. Hopefully, now we had the help from MI5, it might make the task a little easier. I knew in my heart that one day I would find her. I just prayed it was one day soon.
Euan’s phone rang, and glancing at the screen, he groaned.
“No!” I protested. “We’ve only been here two days.”
“You know the agency dislikes our days off, sweetheart. They do this on purpose, I’m sure of it.”
“It’s just rude,” Ebony declared. “How the criminals create mischief when they know we’re topping up our tans. You’d think they’d have some consideration. Selfish twats.”
Sighing, I scooped up our things and took Devon’s hand. “No rest for the wicked.”
Euan stuck out his lip at Devon. “Sorry, mate, but mummy and daddy have to work.”
Devon made fists and jumped up and down in excitement. “Yay, granny’s.”
Ebony howled with laughter.
“What amazing parents we’ve made,” I murmured to Euan, watching the delight on my son’s face at the thought of getting rid of us in favour for his grandma.
“Ahh, you’re kickass at that too. You know it. It’s only because your mother allows him ice-cream before bed, and lets him eat it in bed for that matter,” Ebony commented.
I laughed. My mother doted on my little man, as he did her. They were inseparable. But I knew he was in safe hands while Euan and I worked. She was one tough cookie, and I knew no harm would ever come to Devon while in her care. She was also the most patient woman I had ever met, which benefitted Devon also.
Ebony scooped Devon up as I jumped onto Euan’s back for a piggyback.
“You think we should try for another?” he asked, surprising me. “I mean, maybe we’ll eventually get one that loves us.”
I laughed. “We’ll never allow ice-cream in bed. We’ll always be inferior for that.”
Nodding, agreeing with me, he laughed. “Maybe we should buy a dog.”
“It’ll still be allowed ice-cream in bed at my mum’s, you know it!”
“We’re doomed.”
“Ahh,” Ebony cut in. “You have me. I’m not bothered about ice-cream, but you know I love your cream in bed.”
“Jesus Christ!” Euan groaned. “You’re like one of our damn children anyway.”
“See,” she grinned broadly. “I knew you loved me.”
Rolling my eyes when their bickering carried on, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Life was good, better. It was hard to say it aloud, but I missed Frank too, I couldn’t help it. He’d been my family for so long, and just because he was a selfish man, it didn’t mean he didn’t deserve to be loved. This life had turned my father into a shell of who he once was, yet I had always loved him, even through the dark times. And, as much as Felicity had betrayed me, I still missed her in the very core of me.
We were a family. Right or wrong, good or bad, family was family. They were what made each of us who we were.
As my husband carried me across the sand, I clung to him even harder, needing his calmness to soothe the rage that always lived in me. As if instinctive, he took my soul and kept it warm, ready for the upcoming fight. As he always did.
But it was this next fight that would take my soul and shatter it. It was this next assignment that would be the knife that severed mine and Euan’s intense bond.
The fight that would see me up against the one person I could never hurt.
My own husband.
The very man who kept my soul warm would be the very one to splinter it with shards of ice.
And destroy me.