Elsie
“Are you fucking crazy?” Felicity yelled, staring at me across the table with wide eyes as we all sat drinking coffee the next morning.
“Nope.”
“Sister, you can’t just walk in there for tea and cake. Denny isn’t going to offer you a fucking chocolate muffin and ask if you take sugar with your frigging cuppa!” Ebony argued, her eyes full of scepticism.
“You have any better suggestions at the moment?” I fought back. “Denny has his hand into everything, if anyone knows where Frank is, then it’ll be him.”
Ebony shook her head angrily. “But this is Denny Wells; you can’t just walk in uninvited. He’s a lunatic, Els. This is sacrifice.”
I smirked, shaking my head in disappointment. “You think I can’t handle myself?”
Ebony threw her hands in the air, her anger with me peaking. “I know you can, Els, you know that. But Denny will be kitted up to the hills, his goats nibbling at his ankles. There’ll be too many for even you to take on!”
“His goats?” I laughed at her term for Denny’s men. “I’m not going in there to shoot the fucker, Eb, I just want some intel.”
“Like Denny ever gives information for free!” Tehni remarked. “He’ll want your ass, Elsie.”
I scoffed. “May as well, it’s paid for Frank’s mistakes before.”
Ebony’s eyes widened on Euan when a faint growl rumbled from his chest. Turning to him, I frowned. “Sorry?”
He appeared to be angry; his face screwed up in rage. “Fuck this shit. I have a better idea.”
Sighing, I crossed my arms over my chest and sat back. “Go on then.”
Placing his cup down on the table, he narrowed his eyes on me. “You go meet your grandfather. Peter O’Keefe rules the fucking underbelly of the criminal world, if there’s anyone out there that can get any intel on Frank, it would be him.”
I stilled, his plan sounding not half bad.
Ebony nodded, and Felicity looked at me with hope in her eyes. “It’s the safest option we have right now. All we need is to find out where Frank is; then we can start moving with this bullshit.”
I had to acknowledge the fact that I was intrigued to meet my grandfather. Maybe I could find out a little about my mother. I had only a handful of memories; her beautiful smile and the silkiness to her voice when she would sing to me. I remembered her soft laughter and the way she would look at my father with such love. Yet, I knew nothing about who she really was, and that had pained me over the years.
“Okay.” I nodded to Euan and smiled when relief covered his face. “It’s worth a shot, I suppose. We need to find Sally, and if he’s the quickest way to do it, then we go for it.”
“Good.” He returned my smile and pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll set up a meet.”
There was still a niggle in the back of my mind that wouldn’t let up, a gut feeling that I was missing something important. I had learned to trust my instincts over the years, it had my life on more than one occasion, and again, it made my heart beat that little bit quicker.
Ebony frowned at me when she spotted the customary gnaw of teeth on my bottom lip, exposing my worry. “We’ll find her, I promise.”
I nodded, yet still found it difficult to hold her level of faith.
“You two go meet Mr O’Keefe,” Felicity said as she pulled on her boots. “And we’ll see if our contacts have anything. Worth a shot, either way.”
I watched Euan as he left the room to make his call, my gaze dropping to the swell of his arse. My lips pursed with admiration at what my eyes found, the perfectly rounded buttocks making me sigh.
Tehni laughed and nudged me with her elbow. “Careful, you’ll eat the poor guy alive. We need him for his skills.”
“Fuck off!” I grumbled playfully.
“I swear we’re all gonna get a tan off the heat you two are producing around each other.”
“What the hell you on about?” I mumbled, hating that my Sisters saw so much of me.
She didn’t answer me, just gave me a sly smirk.
Shaking my head, I looked away from Tehni, towards Ebony. She was glaring at me with a fierce look in her eyes, but catching me looking; she blinked and smiled.
“Everything okay, Eb?”
“Course.” Her broad smile was back, her previous contemplations gone. “Just thinking that Euan will probably need some clothes. We didn’t bring him any; we didn’t think he’d be coming with us. I’ll leave Tehni and Felicity to do the sweep of contacts, and I’ll go shopping.”
All our heads snapped round to regard Ebony with disbelief. “You? Shopping? You loathe shopping!”
“Well,” she muttered, “the poor guy still needs a change of clothes and some toiletries!”
“All set!” Euan declared when he stepped back into the room. “Got to get a shift on though, he’s pretty eager to meet you.”
“Well, he’s waited this long, I’m sure a few more hours won’t hurt him!”
Silence broke the previous loud banter, and each person gazed at me with puzzlement, my tone a little too harsh.
“What’s wrong?” Euan asked softly, his grey eyes warming with compassion as he peered at me.
“Nothing’s wrong; I just need to take a bath!”
He stepped towards me. I couldn’t move when, very gently, he took my hand in his. He was warm to the touch, my usual cold hands feeling the effect even more, and I couldn’t hold back the shiver that ran over every inch of my skin. “Don’t be scared, Elsie.”
“I’m not scared!” I snapped when my heartbeat backfired.
“He’s just one man,” he appeased. “If you don’t want to see him again afterwards, then you don’t ever have to. And, I can stay by your side the whole time, if that helps.”
Hating myself, but unable to stop it, I nodded my head. I refused to give him any words. The truth was, he was right, I was scared. Really fucking terrified. This man was the only family I had left, apart from Sally. What if he didn’t like me? What if he was a dickhead? What if he only wanted to meet me so he could sell me to the highest bidder? His corrupt little business dealings could influence how ruthless he truly was. What if he’d found out I was a Weapon; we were all worth millions in the right hands!
“Stop it!” Euan chastised as if he could read every thought rambling around in my head. “Stop considering the maybes before confronting the reality!”
My eyes narrowed on him, but I smirked. “That was pretty deep.”
He chuckled, dropping my hand. The chilliness that always consumed me crept back in and for some insane reason I wanted to grab back hold of him.
“Oh, I can go deep, Elsie,” he stated slowly. “Really. Fucking. Deep.”
I wasn’t sure if he smiled or smirked, maybe a mixture of the two, when a funny squeak sounded in my throat. I coughed, covering it up, and wet my dry lips.
“Okay.” I winced, the restriction in my throat making my voice go funny. “Let’s go then.”
I turned to my Sisters. Each one looked like they were chewing on a laugh, their eyes wide with amusement and their lips twisted tightly.
“Fuck off!” I mouthed when Euan turned away. “You’re all dead to me.”
The laughter that they’d been holding onto exploded from them in a fit of giggles.
Euan, however, didn’t pay any attention, apart from shouting over his shoulder, “Come on, Els. I have a date with a Weapon.”
“Watch it, Els,” Ebony cackled when Euan stepped out of the room. “’Double Deep Sinclair’ wants to shove his huge bullet straight up your hairy muzzle.”
“Jesus Christ, can you get any damn weirder?” Tehni shuddered and curled her lip in disgust.
“Ah, you all love my weirdness.” She laughed and gave me a wink, before finishing off her weirdness by pressing both her index fingers together and making kissing sounds.
“Sometimes it scares the shit out of me that you can hit a target at a range of two point two miles, yet you have the mentality of a four-year-old.” Felicity chuckled.
“Hey, if I didn’t entertain you, you know your lives would be lacking.”
Shaking my head, I sighed. “I’d take that lacking right now.”
Ebony grinned at me. “Change that A for an I and you know I’m your girl.”
“Heaven help me.”
I blew out a breath, shook my head, and followed Euan out when Ebony retorted, “A night in my bed and you know I’ll take you straight there, babe!”
“I’d rather go to hell, Eb,” I shouted over my shoulder.
“And may this little devil ride your ass all the way there, Sister!”
I chuckled to myself; my Sister was right; my life would certainly be lacking without her.