Tired as she was, Ella was up early the next morning. Dreaming of a certain man and waking up with tears on her cheeks hadn’t put her in a good mood.
Boof was in just as foul a mood when she bundled him into the cat basket and drove him to the vet for his vaccination and health check. Looking balefully up at the vet, he dared him to come forward.
“You’re looking good, old son,” Gus said happily.
He wasn’t so happy when he’d been left with a bleeding hand from a bite, the vet nurse had several nasty scratches along her arm, and Ella had to shove Boof back into the basket with help, resulting in blood smeared across her once-white t-shirt.
“Sorry about that,” she apologised.
Washing his hand under the tap, the vet eyed Boof, who hissed back at him. “Maybe next time we’ll take him out the back and do it.”
“How about we just do him in the basket?” Ella suggested.
“How about we sedate him and do a dental at the same time, a scale, polish and vaccination all in one hit.”
Feeling both sorry for the vet and nurse, but unable to help being a little amused by Boof’s aggressive stance against the rectal thermometer, Ella added, “How about you give him the worming tablet at the same time?”
“How about you just do the spot-on worming,” Gus shot back. “Put the stuff on his skin at the back of the neck.”
“I may need reinforcements for that.”
“Good luck finding someone.”
“You know, Gus, it’s a good thing I know you secretly love Boof.”
“It’s a good thing I allow you back in here with him.”
“Aw, you don’t mean that.”
Gus shot Boof a glare.
“Seriously, I’m sorry.” Ell picked up the cage. “I owe you.”
“You have no idea.”
“Remember when I found him on the front lawn and brought him in, a scruffy mangy cat with an ear ripped half off, bleeding, one eye hanging out? Remember how you ranted and railed about drivers who hit animals and didn’t stop to help them? Remember that?”
Gus poured antiseptic over the bite on his hand. “Remember he was almost dead and didn’t rouse?”
“Remember how I always pay my bills on time, no complaining, no matter how astronomical it is?”
“I remember a time before you and this feral walked through my door.” He sighed dreamily. “Those were the days.”
“He’s not feral.” Ella made kissy noises down at Boof, where he kept his one eye on Gus and continued hissing before settling to a low growl. “Aw, Mummy’s widdle baby, aren’t you? Mummy’s little tiddle-dums. Gussie doesn’t mean it.”
“Gussie bloody does so.”
“Okay. I’m sending you a cheesecake, all right? Geez.”
“You think a cheesecake is going to fix it?”
“How about a box of chocolates?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I’ll even throw in a bottle of antiseptic and some gauze.”
Gus rolled his eyes.
Settling the basket in the passenger seat, Ella slid behind the steering-wheel and looked at Boof. “Do you know how much you cost me?”
Boof hissed.
“At this rate, Gus might toss us out on our arses. Now I have to swing past the cake shop and put an order in to sweeten up your doctor. I don’t even do that for my doctor.” She paused. “Mind you, I’ve never bitten her. Apart from during the Women’s Health Check, that can get dicey. That duck-bill…” She faked a shudder.
Boof glared at her, turned his back and settled with a thump to stare moodily into the corner of his cage.
“Cripes.” Grinning, Ella drove to the cake shop. Parking right in front where she could keep an eye on the car, she went inside, ordered cheesecake and a sponge cake filled with cream to be delivered to the vet clinic immediately, paid and got back into the car. “It’d be cheaper to hire a male pro for company,” she informed Boof.
He wasn’t talking to her.
“This is going to cost me steak to get back into your good books, isn’t it?”
Still not talking.
Grinning, she drove home. Man, she loved the big cat ever since the day she’d almost had to scrape his blood-drenched hide off the lawn and took him to the vet. Not meaning to get a pet until she’d settled down, she nevertheless couldn’t bear to see the big tom put to sleep and had urged Gus to save him. That had resulted in surgery, sterilisation, vaccination, worming, microchipping, daily visits to stroke him and get him through his recovery and used to her, and finally taking him home. His Majesty had surveyed her house with an air of ‘I guess this will suit me’, chowed down on mince steak, and after exploring the house had made himself comfortable on her bed.
He’d been her beloved companion ever since. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for the furry man in her life. He was there when she cried, laid on her bed with her, flopped on the sofa when she watched TV, and allowed only Ella to stroke his belly and fondle his ear. Anyone else tried and he nearly took their hand off, as Tom and a neighbour had found out. And Gus. And the vet nurse. And the gas meter reader. And the mechanic who’d called around when her car battery had died. And pretty much anyone else.
If Boof was Ella’s furry man, she was his, well, woman in a totally non-creepy way. She sometimes wondered who was the actual pet in their relationship, especially when he nudged her hand, licked her wrist, and sometimes even laid his paw on her hand and purred up at her. She swore if he could stroke her hair he would.
Back home, she let Boof out of the cat basket, fed him the promised steak she’d had ready to win her way back into his good graces, and went out to check the mail. She was standing at the letter box when a chortle had her glancing up.
Wonderful. The street dickheads were standing there, two older teenage boys with attitude and no brains.
“Saw someone left a little message on your house,” Billy sneered.
“Yeah, some illiterate drongo.” She checked the back of one of the envelopes, saw it was from a charity. “’Illiterate’ means unable to spell or read.”
“I know what it means.”
“Education is a wonderful thing.” Turning, she started back up the path.
“Think you’re so smart, don’t you?”
“I’m educated, so I figure I’ve got a decent head start.”
“You might want to be careful who you dob in around here,” Justin called. “Bad things happen.”
Time to nip this in the bud.
Returning to the letterbox, she surveyed the two sneering teenagers.
“Now, boys,” she said pleasantly. “I know you painted my wall. I know you’re upset that I told your parents that you two tore up Mr Harris’s garden. I know you’re probably planning something else for me.”
“Scared?” Billy scoffed. “You should be.”
“Annoyed, I’d say. But I’ve something to show you.”
“You’re too old for us.”
“Thank God for that, too. Now come on.” With that, she walked back to the house and placed her hand over the top part of the sticker placed strategically in the corner of the lounge room window.
Curious, the teens followed, mocking her the whole time.
Placidly, she waited for them to come to a stop. “Now, I presume you boys have a mobile?”
“’Course we do,” Billy replied. “What kind of a dipshit question is that?”
“Your vocabulary astounds me. Get it out.”
With a roll of his eyes, he did so.
“Now Justin, if you’d be so kind as to read out the phone number on this sticker for your good mate?”
Bored, Justin monotoned it and Billy dutifully dialled then stood there waiting.
Man, Ella did enjoy the look of first astonishment, then horror that crossed his face as his phone call was answered.
She enjoyed it even more when he hung up abruptly.
“What?” Justin demanded.
“Now look up there.”
They both looked up at the corner of the house, right at the camera.
“Shit!” Billy swore.
“What?” Justin groused.
Removing her hand from the sticker, Ella gestured to Justin. He looked, Billy took a look, and the sneers were wiped off their faces.
“Yeah,” Ella said. “Wells Security is watching the house, and they now have your faces on record.”
“You can’t do that!” Billy protested angrily.
“Can, did. They’re monitoring the house, they now know your faces and they also know your names and where you live, courtesy of my dobbing. So if you’d kindly leave me alone, this doesn’t have to get nasty, now, does it?”
“You bi-” Billy caught himself.
“Come on.” Grabbing Billy’s arm, Justin started dragging him away. “We’re done with her anyway. Old tart blabs too much.”
“They also know I have Boof.” Ella calmly proceeded to flick through the few envelopes in her hand. “They know what he looks like and if he disappears they’ll know who to look at first.” Idly, she started tearing open one of the envelopes. “I’m sure you’re well aware of Wells Security’s reputation.”
Billy glared at her, but followed his friend from the yard.
Satisfied, knowing she’d have no trouble around her home and her cat was safe from Justin and Billy, Ella went back inside the house. True, the cameras were simply recording the property and re-recorded every forty eight hours, it wasn’t monitored, but the pair of dickheads didn’t need to know that. It certainly wouldn’t hurt if knowledge went around the neighbourhood that Wells Security was established at Ella’s house. The sticker would be a deterrent, but knowing her cat was safe was a huge bonus.
Wow, the day was just getting brighter and brighter.
Now with the rest of the day off, she could sit and decide her next step.
The saying was that revenge was a dish best served cold, but she was all for letting it simmer for awhile and then strike. Time to decide when the next strike was going to happen, and which one was going down next.
~*~
The spy base outside the city was guarded well, the fence around it set far back enough to stop gawkers from getting a close look. Not that there was much to see, for there was simply satellite dishes and closed buildings above ground. Below ground, well, that was a whole other matter.
Wells Security guarded the spy base, experienced ex-military and ex-law enforcement men and women who rotated shifts and kept an eagle eye on everything from the air to the ground. Cameras continually swept the area, Aaron ensuring that they crossed over so no part was ever left unattended. Control Centre monitored the cameras while security guards also monitored the cameras from one of the buildings. Foot security patrolled regularly, the whole thing timed so that not one area of the compound was ever without either a guard or a security camera sweep. Several Wells Security vehicles also did rounds further out.
It was just one of the reasons why Wells Security was so in demand. The fee for this kind of thing was high, but the result was, as Marietta had so eloquently put it, security tighter than a fish’s arsehole and that was water-tight.
It was also why a bunch of protesters was caught a full four miles off the base and waylaid and held in one spot by Wells Security until the police came and carted the protesters away.
Leaning against the ‘roo bar of the work vehicle, Ryan entered data on the iPad, sending the basic report directly to Aaron’s computer. When he got back he’d complete a more in-depth report, but for now his boss would have the basics in case anything came up.
Standing beside him, Marietta asked, “Did you see what that turkey did?”
Ryan didn’t reply.
“Raymond sent that ridiculous photo around to everyone.”
He continued keying in details.
“You need to talk to him.”
Ryan slanted her a brief look. He knew exactly who needed a talking to.
“I mean, hells bells, where does he get those perverted ideas?”
Like she could ask that seriously.
“I’ve been getting these emails ever since.” Scowling, she planted a hand on one hip. “Are you listening to me?”
He gave a barely discernable nod, because really he wasn’t. Well, he was, but pretending gave him some amusement. Listening to Marietta ranting was always a little amusing, mostly because she brought just about everything on herself. Plus he liked her. Woman had a big mouth, a teasing nature, but she was both loyal and lethal when she needed to be. And amusing. Definitely amusing.
“I swear you men stick together like shit to a blanket.”
Out of his peripheral vision he watched her fling her arms up in the air.
“You keep getting me to read the section on sexual harassment in the workplace. Well, I think this qualifies Raymond for it, too.”
“Do you?” he murmured.
“Yes, I do.” When he continued keying in information, she demanded, “So?”
He quirked an eyebrow.
“Are you going to make him read it?”
“Yes.”
“Huh!” With immense satisfaction, she folded her arms and propped her hips back against the ‘roo bar. “See how he likes it for a change.”
“About as well as you will.”
“Huh?”
“You’ll be reading the section on professional conduct in the work environment.”
“What?”
Powering down the iPad, Ryan walked around to the driver’s side.
“You can’t be serious.” Poking her head through the passenger side window, she scowled. “You’re not serious.”
He looked at her.
“Okay, you’re serious. But hell, Ryan, the entire chapter on professional conduct? Seriously?”
He slid behind the steering-wheel.
Throwing herself into the passenger seat, Marietta buckled the seat belt and rested her forearm on the door frame.
Starting the car, Ryan drove towards the spy base.
Marietta could never sulk for long. “You know, he asks for everything he gets.” She fiddled with the radio. “Man doesn’t just have a stick up his arse, he has the whole damned tree.”
Woman was amazing. She just had to turn it back on hapless Raymond.
Finding a rock channel, she turned it up, opening her mouth to get ready to sing loudly. Ryan looked at her and she turned it down, miming zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key.
“Sorry.” She immediately broke the gesture she’d just made. “On the job.”
Returning his gaze to the road ahead, Ryan relaxed back in the seat. He didn’t mind background music, but Aaron made it a rule that on the job every person had to be able to hear their mobiles or communication devices on the first alert. Vigilance was never relaxed at any time, and if anyone was caught doing it their arses were fired, no second chances. On the job meant on the job. He paid top wages for experts and expected them to conduct themselves as such when working.
Ryan would have ripped Marietta except he knew full well she was trying to get a rise out of him, plus she’d been ready to turn down the radio almost straight away, her fingers had never left the volume knob.
Woman was a tease through and through, but she never crossed the security line.
“So,” she said brightly, because she could never shut up for long, “got yourself a girlfriend yet?”
He kept driving.
“Blonde? Brunette?”
He didn’t answer.
“You’re not into blokes, are you?”
He cast her a sidelong glance.
“Not that I’m judging. Just that, you know, some women would find the brooding, dangerous type really attractive. So would some blokes.”
Unbelievable. He returned his gaze to the road.
“You could have any sheila you wanted, tough bloke like you.”
There’s only one woman I want, and she’s in this very city.
The sudden thought caught him by surprise.
The mobile rang right at that moment, and Marietta answered. “Marietta.”
Grateful for the chance to divert his disturbing thoughts, Ryan listened to her talk.
“We’re checking in to the spy base. Yep. Ryan’s here, you want to speak to him? No worries, I’ll tell him. Right. ‘Bye, Aaron.” Flicking the mobile off, she returned it to the holder. “That was Aaron.”
Undoubtedly.
“When we’ve finished here, he wants you back at the office.”
“Okay.”
“I’m to continue the rounds of the security areas around town and meet up with Ben.”
Ryan nodded. Obviously Aaron wanted him to attend to whatever needed doing.
The rest of the trip to the spy base was spent in silence while Marietta worked on something on her mobile. At Ryan’s glance, she explained, “Getting a head start on my homework, Sir.”
He almost smiled.
“Jesus. Was that a quirk I spotted on your lips?”
She was incorrigible.
Marietta lifted the mobile, aimed it at him. “Can I take a photo and send it to everyone? They’ll never believe me otherwise.” This time Ryan cut his eyes to her. “Right. Forget I asked.” Mumbling to herself, she relaxed back in the seat and started reading.
At the spy base they checked in with the security guards, Ryan assessed the monitors and cameras, and then they drove back to the city. Ryan swung past the office, getting out so that Marietta could take his place behind the steering-wheel. He was just starting to open the office door when she called to him. “Hey, Ryan?”
He looked inquiringly at her.
“Can you do me a favour?”
He waited.
“Can you wait to tell Raymond he has to read the sexual harassment section until I get back into the office? I really want to see his face.”
“Go to work.”
“Geez, you’re no fun.” Putting the car into gear, she pulled out into the traffic.
Entering the cool interior of Wells Security, Ryan saw Raymond sitting at his computer looking smug. Fun time was over. “Marietta is dealt with. You can review the section on sexual harassment.”
“Thought that might be the case,” Raymond replied gloomily, then brightened a little. “Just tell me she was spitting chips.”
“She was spitting chips.”
“Then it was worth it.”
Having dealt with that entertainment, Ryan went through to Aaron’s office in the back of the building.
“Shut the door,” Aaron said pleasantly as he entered.
Ryan complied, then took the seat angled next to the one Aaron’s visitor occupied.
Edward, the plain-clothed Australian Federal Police officer and Aaron’s friend, nodded at Ryan. “Hey, how’s it hanging. Left or right?”
“Hi.”
“It’s high? That’s tough. Mine hangs to the right.”
“I’m happy for you.”
“I’m happy for my nut sac, too. Sorry about yours, though.” Edward’s face was serious, but his eyes twinkled. “Was it fright?”
Very droll.
Aaron smiled slightly.
Resuming his usual posture of palms on his thighs and back straight, Ryan waited for his boss to explain. One thing was for sure, if Edward was here and Ryan had been called in, that meant someone in the AFP wanted the help of Wells Security. Or information.
It was no secret amongst the higher law enforcement officials that Wells Security operated honestly, did bodyguard work, static guard, retrieval of kidnapped clients, but also other secretive work. Several teams moved in the grey zones, several teams worked undercover. Several teams did things no one else wanted to touch. That was a huge bonus to the enforcement agencies that needed things done quietly, quickly, and without causing a ripple or being tracked back to them.
It was why Aaron hired not only ex-military, but also ex-SAS, ex-Special Forces, ex-mercenaries, even ex-AFP and ex-cops. There were even a few ex-fire fighters and paramedics thrown in for good measure, all highly trained for security and the dangers that could bring with it.
Aaron himself was a bit of a mystery to enforcement. An ex-cop, he’d progressed to bodyguard, been in fights to protect clients and done retrievals in third world countries, slipping in under cover of darkness to rescue and extract.
Ryan knew, because he’d done it with him. They’d first met when he came face-to-face with Aaron in the dark, both facing each other, both caught by surprise. He could still remember both of them standing there looking at each other, both of them dressed in black with ski-masks, weapons pointed directly at each other’s hearts.
No one had ever gotten the drop on Aaron, the same for Ryan, and to find themselves facing a fellow predator was something for the books. Ryan had been working for a shadowy retrieval system loosely linked through the military, Aaron for a law enforcement agency. Ryan was there to take out the leader of the militia group and plant a bomb, Aaron was there to retrieve the kidnapped daughter of a client. They’d looked at each other, something unspoken passing between them, recognition of a fellow-predator. Aaron had slowly raised his gloved hand and made a sign recognised only by those moving through a particular grey zone. Friend…of a sort. Certainly not an enemy, both had a job to do, and they were both centred on the militia camp nearby. Ryan had returned it, they’d nodded at each other and both faded back into the trees. It was something neither of them could ever explain to this day, an instinctive trust that was almost paranormal
Ryan had done his thing, cut the captain’s throat, planted the bomb and got the hell out of there. At the tree line he waited, something he didn’t normally do, but somehow he was drawn to Aaron. No one knew anything, all going about their business. They didn’t see a guard vanish in the dark, another guard, nor did they notice a dark figure materialize out of the shadows, slip into the hut, and seconds later slip back out this time with a woman in tow. Aaron and the woman disappeared into the trees and Ryan pressed the detonator.
The camp ignited, a flare of orange, the air rumbling, the screams and yelling.
Job done, Ryan melted into the shadows.
Those were the days. Good days, bad days. But he was who he was. Aaron was who he was.
That night Ryan was sitting on the plane back to Australia, the seat beside him empty. Never one for liking company after a mission, he always ensured the seat had been paid for so it remained empty. Then Aaron had sat down next to him and looked at him. Though they’d only met in that dark forest, both wearing ski masks, he’d found out who Ryan was, and Ryan instinctively knew him, the glint of the pale blue eyes unmistakeable. Neither spoke of what happened. Aaron leaned his head back and closed his eyes, Ryan did the same, and both rested.
They hadn’t worked together immediately, at first intermittently crossing paths, but later they went on same missions several times, even ending up on the same bodyguard detail in the Middle East as their agencies sometimes worked together.
He couldn’t say when it really happened, but over the next couple of years they’d become friends. Friends of a sort, anyway. Ryan had never been one to make many friends for a long time, and certainly none close. It was better that way. Aaron, just as quiet, just as thoughtful, never asked questions unless it was necessary. They understood each other.
Aaron finally stopped working for others and set up his own security business.
On a particular bloody mission, in the aftermath of a fight, with bodies on the ground and his team sweeping through the gully, there came a minute, a spilt second in time, that Ryan knew he was close to crossing a line. As the prisoners knelt down in surrender, he looked down at the leader, knew he was wanted alive for information, but his finger tightened on the trigger, went white. The need to shoot, to end his miserable life, then kill the rest was very near, very real. These prisoners, these scum who had killed so many, protected the worst of the worst, callously killed children, men, women - it didn’t matter who, they’d leaked information that had cost lives and now they knelt there, still alive, probably already getting ready to yammer about rights and shit when innocent people had died by their very hands. He’d always figured they were better off dead, but for a few brief seconds as he’d stood there in the hot night, the scent of dust and blood in the air, death hovering, a red haze had slipped over his eyes, seeped through him, the killer he’d become rising slowly to see these people in a new light. He actually contemplated it, thought how easy it would be to walk up to each and every person, male and female, and simply put a hole in their brains and rid the world of their murdering, vicious souls. He’d actually been getting ready, bringing up his gun, but at that precise second his commander had walked directly in front of him speaking on a communication device, and that brief flash of camouflage combat clothes, the voice, the orders, had snapped through the red haze, made him blink and realise what he’d nearly done, of the line he’d nearly crossed to killer. That he didn’t have far to step was a cold truth he accepted. He’d killed on orders, was one of the best snipers, had stealth and cold control on his side, but he acted under orders. There was no order to kill the prisoners, no need, but he’d been so close, so very close to doing it anyway.
For the rest for that hellish time he’d worked on automatic in that gully, done as ordered, did his job thoroughly as always, but after that mission he resigned from the agency, simply walked away from it all and knocked on Aaron’s door looking for a job.
The rest, as they said, was history.
He’d been as at peace as he ever would be, though there was still an empty place in his heart, a place he never looked at, never probed for fear of disturbing the echoes that could so easily rise up to torment him. He’d locked the door on those memories a long time ago, and until recently those echoes had never sounded.
“So,” Edward said cheerfully, “thought anymore about transferring across to us?”
“No,” Ryan replied.
“No, you haven’t thought about it, or no, you don’t want to?”
“The last one.”
“You have no idea what you’re missing.”
Ryan was settled with no intention of leaving Wells Security.
“The sheilas dig Federal Police. It’s the ‘federal’ part, the rep. And our uniforms. I can get you a real sweet uniform.”
Ryan gazed levelly at him.
“Just sayin’.” Edward held up his hands.
Aaron arched an eyebrow at him. “If you’ve finished trying to poach my second-in-command, can we get down to why you’re here?’
“God, you’re so touchy when it comes to your precious kids.”
Aaron smiled slightly.
Knowing full well that Edward hadn’t come here to shoot the shit, Ryan kept his attention on the fed cop.
Growing serious, Edward took a file off the desk and flicked it open. “I’ve already been through this with Aaron, and we decided you needed to be brought up to speed. You’ve heard of the lawyer caught with underage girls.”
“Yes.”
“He’s not the only one in that deviant club. In fact, he’s the second person caught. The first was a psychiatrist, very wealthy, very respected.”
Ryan nodded.
“Each time we’ve been tipped off. We’ve tried to catch these bastards, been watching but unable to discover all the members and nail them until we got these tip-offs. We’ve been trying to catch every man and woman in that damned club, but no one talks. It’s one of the best secret societies we’ve come across and believe me, we’ve come across a few. These members are wealthy, have high contacts, and a couple we suspect are high up in government. And you know where money is involved, a lot of people will look the other way.”
Nothing new about that observation. Ryan patiently waited.
“We’ve gone through the backgrounds of these two, their clients, everything. We discovered one couple who saw both the lawyer and psychiatrist. Another couple were represented by both the lawyer and psychiatrist.”
Ryan nodded.
“But we don’t think they’re the ones.” Edward looked down at the open file. “We cross-checked quite a few things. Interestingly, one person seems to just pop up now and again.”
“You found the suspected informer.”
“Could be.” Edward handed the file to Ryan. “What can you tell us about Ella Attwood?”
What the hell? Ella? Only his iron control prevented Ryan from revealing shock.
He regarded the contents of the file. Inside were a typed report, notes, and several photos. Slowly he reached out, lifted each photo, studied them. Ella on a dark street, entering a pub he recognised immediately, on a mobile, going into her place of work for night shift, coming and going from her house. Going to the airport.
“She’s under surveillance?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You bugged her phone?”
“No landline. Her mobile is basic conversation, nothing incriminating. If she’s using a burner we haven’t yet found it.”
“You think she’s involved with this club? No.”
“Not as a member, no, just as a person of interest.”
Closing the file, Ryan placed it on the desk. “And you’re showing me this, why?”
Leaning back in the chair, Edward regarded him coolly. “You have past links with this woman. I thought you’d be likely to know what she’s thinking, if she’d be capable of this.”
“Of what?” It clicked. “Being the informer?”
“Yes.”
Not the Ella he’d known. Sweet Ella with her love of life. Sweet Ella with her kindness, her gentle ways. But it had been a long time, a lot had happened, and the woman he’d met several times in the last week was a long way from the woman he’d loved.
Still loved.
A wisp of thought, an insubstantial emotion that was immediately slammed down.
“It was a long time ago,” Ryan said evenly.
“No chance, you think?” Edward eyed him shrewdly.
“A lot has happened to her.”
“Yes, it has.”
“How is she linked to these criminals?”
“The lawyer and the psychiatrist.” When Ryan didn’t blink, he continued, “The lawyer represented her, was supposed to do his best to get the men who stabbed her, broke her leg, and left her on the side of the road to die, the longest gaol term he could. He did a shonky job, the worst job you could imagine, almost impossible for such a prestigious, well-known lawyer.”
Even though he’d read about the attack, it didn’t stop Ryan’s fingers from pressing deeper into his thighs, his blood surging up to rush through his ears though his face remained blank.
“The men,” Edward continued, “who did so much damage to her she had to have a hysterectomy. That’s a lot for a young woman, any woman, to bear. The chance to procreate denied to her, the suffering she endured while lying on the side of the road until someone stopped to help her. The psychiatrist she saw after the attack and trusted, but the way he portrayed her in court was a subtle but unmistakeable twist on her thoughts and emotions of the time. Between the lawyer and psychiatrist, and someone higher up the chain pulling some strings, those men got a reduced sentence. This hints that they, too, may be involved somehow in the club.”
He couldn’t get personally to the men who’d hurt his Ella, but there were ways to see justice done inside a gaol. There was only one huge bloody problem, and that was the fact that if those men got shanked by an inmate, the story would kick up again and Ella’s name would be right at the top, which would mean hounding by journalists all wanting an interview, throwing her right into not only the spotlight to relive everything, but also a possible investigation and putting her right in the crosshairs of dangerous people looking for an informer.
His hands were bloody tied. But he could do something, and that was protect her as much as he could from whatever shit she might have dug herself into. He’d give his life for her without a second thought.
“Now, do you think she’d be capable of finding information on the lawyer and psychiatrist and feeding it to us?” Edward asked.
“If she is the informer, isn’t that a good thing for you?”
Thoughtfully, Edward rubbed his jaw as he studied Ryan.
Yeah, the fed might be all jolly, might be Aaron’s friend, might joke and be a total dick at times, but he wasn’t stupid. He hadn’t risen through the AFP ranks by being dim-witted. Jolly Edward was sharp, ruthless when required, and saw a hell of a lot more than people gave him credit.
“Yes,” he replied. “It helps us, has helped us. But she’s putting herself right into the middle of an investigation, putting herself in the middle of a danger I don’t think she realises, if she is, indeed, our informer. And if she is, then she may know more that we need to know now.”
“I knew her a long time ago, things have changed. I don’t know if she could be your informer or not,” Ryan said honestly.
“You’ve been at her house a couple of times recently.”
That didn’t surprise Ryan. If the feds had been watching Ella, they’d have noticed him. “We put security cameras up.”
“You don’t normally follow-up another guard’s job. Kent did it, and he knows his job.”
Ryan studied the fed.
Exuding calm confidence, his hands linked loosely on the desk top, Aaron waited quietly.
That his boss would be on his side, Ryan had no doubt. As long as it was the right side. Cooperation with enforcement agencies was something he fostered, but Ryan knew deep down Aaron wouldn’t throw any of his staff to the wolves unless he’d first investigated things himself, talked to them. He’d deal with them himself.
He had a feeling Aaron was going to talk to him after this meeting.
He had nothing to hide. “I met Ella the first time when she walked in here for security cameras for some vandalism trouble she was having. She wasn’t happy to see me, refused to have the cameras when she knew I worked here, I went around to her place and ended up speaking to her landlord. We had a relationship years ago, and I was curious about her, so I did a bit of internet searching and found the article on her attack.” His fingers tightened almost indiscernibly on his thighs, but there was no other sign betrayed by his tone or eyes. “I went back to see her, she wasn’t interested in telling me anything about the attack and I left. I haven’t seen her since or been in contact.”
Edward looked at Aaron who simply retained his stoic expression, doing, as his younger brother Luke often said, ‘his zen thing’. Calm even during a shit storm.
“Okay.” Edward nodded. “Things are moving fast, Ryan. We need to wrap this club up before anyone else is hurt. If Ella knows how to get information, she needs to talk directly to us. She needs to reveal her sources and everything she knows, not keep feeding us tid-bits. These people she’s messing with are dangerous. By now some of the members will be getting jittery, wondering if there’s a link, and if they start to connect the dots they’ll be hunting for the informer, and when they find her - or him - they’ll snuff them out without a thought. Plus we may never catch the ringleaders, resulting in more underage girls being hurt.”
Ryan switched his gaze to Aaron. “We need to change the cameras on her home from simple security to monitored.”
“If she’s the informant, yes,” Aaron agreed. “It hasn’t been established. Yet.”
And there it was. He should have connected the dots sooner. “You want me to ask her.”
“Edward wants,” Aaron corrected. “You know her, he thinks you might have more sway to get her to reveal her sources. If she has any.”
Ella tell him anything? The amount she hated him, she’d probably spit in his face and slam the door. But if her life was in danger, if she was going into pubs to get - He stilled as the memory surged to the surface. That night she’d come home, the smell of cigarette smoke on her clothes, the alcohol. None of it on her breath, only on her clothes. The photo of that pub… Could it be? And something else, something odd… Flicking her keys onto the kitchen table, it had bounced onto a sheet of paper with a name on it. He wouldn’t have noticed the beer stain on it except he’d made sure the keys didn’t land on the still damp stain.
He didn’t want to say anything yet, wanted to check for himself. Have time to digest what he’d heard. Normally he was quick, decisions fast and decisive, but he was also cautious.
And this was Ella. His Ella.
No, she’s not yours anymore, remember?
The hell she isn’t. She’ll always be my Ella.
“Ryan and I will discuss a few things and get back to you,” Aaron said.
Edward was no fool. “For now, this discussion goes no further than we three. Only a very small group of us know about this. Until we can establish exactly who is involved, it goes no further. Hence another reason I don’t want to bring her in unless needed. The less who know, the better.” He stood. “I’ll just add, Ryan, that if you don’t talk to Ella, then she’ll be brought in for questioning if we believe she’s hiding information we deem pertinent to the case. Withholding information can be seen as perverting the course of justice.”
Ryan cut his eyes to him.
“If she is the informer, she doesn’t want that. If she’s a friend of yours, I don’t want that and nor do you.” Whatever he saw in Ryan’s eyes gave him pause, then Edward nodded and walked out, closing the door behind him.
Ryan’s eyes cut back to Aaron.
His boss leaned back in the chair, cocked his ankle on the opposite knee, rested his forearm on the desk and rubbed the back of his thumb across his bottom lip as he surveyed Ryan.
No pressure. No immediately launching into questions and demanding answers. He just waited patiently, those calm, all-seeing pale blue eyes missing nothing.
For the first time in years, Ryan was too restless to sit. Hands in pockets, he crossed to the window to look out at Shea’s shop next door. Shea, his boss’s beloved wife. Ryan had thought back then that getting involved with a con artist could be tricky, but compared to what Ella was - might - be involved in, Shea’s deception rated minor on the shit scale. Her danger, however, had been just as real, only she hadn’t seen it coming whereas Ella was knowingly skirting the edges of a very dangerous game.
No. No, not a game.
As he stared unseeingly out at the shop, he heard Aaron get up, the sound of the little ‘fridge at the side wall open then close. Turning, he watched his boss sit back in one of the two comfortable, old, battered brown armchairs in the corner of the room. He was opening a small carton of Iced Coffee. On the small table between the two armchairs was a second unopened carton of Iced Coffee.
Informality gone, though there had never been formality between them. Mostly because Ryan did the job, stayed quiet, and didn’t question his decisions, mostly because he agreed with them. Both being quiet men who played their cards close to their chests, they’d never joked much, never traded insults. They respected each other.
This was about as informal as it would get, and he saw it as a sign of Aaron showing him that he was willing to listen to whatever Ryan had to say. But the levelness of those pale blue eyes, now somehow turning dark as the shadows of the corner fell over half his face, said that he expected answers.
Fair enough. This was his business, and if one of his employees was involved with someone who could, in turn, be involved in a federal case, he needed to know. Couldn’t fault a man for being thorough, and Aaron was as thorough as a man could be.
Ryan sat in the chair, picking up the Iced Coffee and opening it. As he leaned back in the armchair, feeling the comfortable old cushions sink around him, he noted his boss resuming his classic Aaron pose.
No time to waste. Ryan started talking. “You know my background. You had me investigated before you hired me.”
“As everyone is.”
“You knew me before I even came knocking on your door.”
“Yes.”
No surprise there. “Did you know I was engaged to Ella?”
“Yes.”
Ryan knew exactly what he wanted. “How much?”
“You be the judge.”
Taking a mouthful of the delicious, cold milk drink, Ryan let it wash down his throat, pool in his belly, took another mouthful before resting the carton on his knee as he relaxed his legs, stretched them out and crossed his ankles.
It wasn’t a pose he normally adopted while on the job, but this moment was anything but normal.
“Ella and I met at high school. We clicked instantly, became best friends that blossomed into something more. I knew we’d get married, knew we’d have a family together. I had dreams of a life in the Army and my Ella waiting for me back home.” He didn’t even realise his slip of the tongue until too late, but Aaron said nothing, so he continued. “I joined the Army - first general then into the Commandos. I’d go home on leave, Ella was always there. We got engaged, moved in together. We rented while saving up a good down payment on a house of our own.” He didn’t have to be telling this much but now that he’d started, now that Ella was so fresh in his mind, he spoke as he remembered. “We were happy, but training changes you. Missions change you. The more dangerous the mission, the more it was sometimes hard to come home and act like you hadn’t been a sniper picking off the enemy. When people you were mates with die in enemy fire, it changes a man.”
Aaron nodded. Yes, he knew. His boss had never been Army but he’d worked with enough ex-military to know, and one of his brothers was Army. He’d have an understanding. That plus the work they’d both done outside the military. They’d both had times of completing their assignments with bloodied hands and a smoking hot weapon or bloodied blade.
But Ella…
“She never seemed to mind that I wasn’t as easy going. Was there when I woke up from a nightmare. She seemed to know when I needed quiet time and would even turn the phone off the ringer and steer people away from the house. She had no idea I knew, but I did, and I loved her understanding more than you could imagine.” Ryan traced a fingertip down the damp carton. “Loved her so much. So damned much…” His voice trailed off as he was caught in memories of her smile, the echoes of her laughter, their lovemaking, the way she accepted him. “Even my darker moods didn’t phase her, she just kept right on going. She accepted me.” Lifting his head, he gazed at the far wall. “I knew what I was becoming. I was efficient, I had the skills of a sniper, was one of the best in my Commando unit. Then came the day my parents were murdered. Murdered by a terrorist who knew I was in the Army. An insane bastard who got back at me by murdering my parents. Do you know how that feels? How bloody helpless when you get the news and you’re standing in the dust and shit and filth thousands of miles away, unable to see them? Fearing for the life of Ella, wondering if she’d been targeted. My unit leader got me home fast, Ella was under guard. Yeah, by the time I got home the brother of the same murdering bastard that killed my family had tried to take out Ella.” Ryan took another mouthful of coffee, the fury that always banked at the back of his mind simmering to the surface at the memory. “They took him down, but it was done. I stood there beside my parent’s graves, stood there in the bloody pouring rain with Ella beside me, hanging onto my arm, trying to support me, and all the time I knew it was because of me. My parents were dead because of the work I did, the fact they were so proud and told everyone and anyone their son was a Commando.”
Silence fell in the room as the pang of loss scoured through him before he once again pushed it into the little locked box deep inside his heart. He stared at the far wall. From beyond the door came a murmur of voices, a door shutting, the sound of one of the work cars driving past to park behind the building. More voices, then everything settling except for the intermittent ringing of the phones. All became quiet once more as the work ran smoothly and efficiently.
“I was still in the Commandos. My girl by my side, targeted because of who I was. My parents dead because of who I was. I know it wasn’t really my fault. I know what the psych said who debriefed me. I know what Ella said.” Pain roiled up only to be swallowed down. When he spoke, his voice was harsher, deeper. “I knew I couldn’t just come home and work a nine-to-five job. Guilt ate at me then, the need for revenge. The need to protect those left behind. I looked down at Ella, she smiled up at me, so much trust and love in her eyes, and I waited until we got home. I waited until the next day. Then I told her…” He swallowed, throat unexpectedly tight, his inner ears hurting as he again forced the lump down. “I told her we were over. She begged me, said she understood, but how could she? I didn’t want her to die, too, but I was also a different man. Grief does things to a man, killing does things. At the time the decision was right. Looking back…well, she was safe. She was no longer a target. I packed my bags and left.” His hand tightened on the carton, eased only when the coffee welled out of the spout to trickle over his hand. “I cut all communication, took another mission as soon as I was able, returned her mail. Any contact went through a lawyer. I couldn’t let go straight away, though. I had her watched, made sure she was okay, made sure she was completely in the clear before I lost track of her. I lived for the job. Every mission I went on became more deadly, every kill I made in the name of our freedom I freely claim. I was the best at what I did.” It was no boast, just a fact. “Eventually I left the Army, started doing the other things. Slipping in and out of grey areas, living the life.” He looked at Aaron. “I met you.”
“You did,” Aaron agreed.
“You ever wonder why I left that life when I did?”
“We all have our reasons.”
“I was becoming a killer. And not just for the job.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“So why did you hire me when I was on the edge?”
“Because I saw you,” Aaron replied simply. “When a man realises how close he is, accepts what he’s becoming and has the strength to pull back, to seek a way out, that’s a man I want as a workmate, as a second-in-command, as a trusted friend.”
Every word sank into Ryan, the sincerity of it warming him, and for the first time he smiled slightly. Just ever so slightly. “Like taking risks, don’t you?”
“Some are worth taking.”
“Is this a moment?” Ryan surprised himself by asking.
Aaron actually cracked a grin. “Don’t ever tell Luke.”
“Never.” Ryan’s slight smile vanished far more easily that it had appeared. Then again, he hadn’t outwardly smiled in a long time. “I never had contact again with Ella until I saw her in here talking to you. I had no idea she’d shifted here from Victoria. No idea at all.”
Aaron nodded.
Ryan drained the last of the Iced Coffee, crushed the carton in his fist. “She has good reason to hate me. But she’s changed, too. Tougher, harder. She went through hell and I wasn’t there for her.” He looked at Aaron. “If she’s in danger this time, I’m protecting her whether she likes it or not.”
“Agreed.”
“I won’t lie to you. For a second there I thought about getting those bastards shanked.”
“I know.”
“I won’t do it to her. For what shit it’ll bring to her doorstep.”
“I know.”
“You know too much.” Getting to his feet, Ryan walked to the bin to drop the empty carton inside. “I’ll talk to her, see what she knows.”
“You may have to wait awhile.” Tossing his own carton into the bin, Aaron crossed to his desk and sat down. “Ella went to the airport yesterday. No one saw her get on the plane, but no one saw her leave the airport either. Her name was on no tickets, so she caught a plane, destination unknown. Her car is at home, she got a taxi. Her cat is at a boarding cattery but the woman didn’t know where she went, has only a few rough dates she’d be back. The contact number for emergencies is the vet she uses. They don’t know anything. Ella took a week’s leave and her employer has no idea where she went.”
Damn it to hell. So close, so much information, her possibly being in danger and now she disappeared? “I thought the feds had her under surveillance?”
“She’ll return.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“We look for her. Meanwhile, we’re taking over the stakeout on her house, on the airport, and I’ll send her photo out to the teams across Australia.”
“Feds won’t like that.”
“Due to the sensitivity of it, only Edward’s team know we’re getting involved. They want our help, they’ll let us operate as we choose. They know their intel is secure.”
“There’s a lead I need to follow.”
“What do you know?”
“The photo showing Ella entering the pub. The other day she’d been out all day and came home late. Her clothes smelled of cigarettes and alcohol, but none on her breath. I’m going to the pub tonight to see what I can pick up on her presence there.”
The gossip wouldn’t start until tongues were loosened by alcohol late at night. If she’d been present, a word here or there, a listening ear, something was bound to slip.
“Do that. Make sure you write a report. Her safety is our case until we know she’s in no danger.”
Meanwhile, there was still work to be done in the office and in the field, different jobs and continuing jobs still requiring attention, security agents to organise and coordinate, a million and one things, among them setting stakeouts to watch for Ella Attwood.
At the door he hesitated, hand grasping the door knob before he glanced over his shoulder to where Aaron was working the keyboard as though Ryan hadn’t just laid bare his heart to him, told him everything, told him more than he’d ever said to anyone else. Everything except that he still loved Ella. “Aaron?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks.”
Aaron’s gaze remained on the computer screen as his hand worked the mouse. “It’s between us, goes no further. It won’t come up again unless you wish to talk.”
“I won’t.”
Without removing his attention from the computer screen, Aaron just smiled slightly.
Exiting the room, Ryan left the door open.
Today he’d start organising the stakeout, tonight he’d go to the pub in that dangerous district and see if he could discern what the hell his Ella was doing amongst such low, sometimes outright vicious company.
And find out he would.
I’m coming for you, Ella mine.