Ethan
I feel great as I pull up outside the house. I’ve sorted a new job. And Luka and Liam have made headway with Rick Smythe. The little shit is behind hiring me, but it gets way worse. So is Isla’s father’s business partner, Dave Dunn. The fucker. I’m glad I didn’t let on to anyone she was still here. I don’t like lying to Selina, even stringing her along by pretending I’ve no interest in Isla, but until this is sorted, Isla’s in danger. Dave’s a bit of a man about town, or so the twat thinks. Balding, in his late forties, and a real sleaze, he thinks he’s special because he’s got some cash to flash.
Climbing out of the car and heading to the door, I grin when I try it and find it locked. Good girl, she kept locked up. I put my key in and head inside, calling out to Isla. My two run up to me and I wonder where Sadie is.
“Isla?” I hope she hasn’t taken Sadie out. I doubt Dave knows she’s here. But she gave her father Ann’s full name, meaning it’s not as safe as I’d hoped.
Halfway into the room, I toss my keys on the table, look up, and my blood runs cold. There’s a picture of Isla, two pictures of Isla, next to one of Selina. all stuck to the wall. The first of Isla is her doing that selfie pouting thing at the camera. The second is her doing the same, but with a scowl and her middle finger front and centre. What the fuck? She looks stunning with the pillar box red lipstick all over her blowjob lips, but I drag my mind from that thought, because…what the fuck?
The picture of Selina has something taped to the bottom of it, and I go over to look at it. As I do, my eyes keep returning to the giant lettering scrawled all over my expensive paint job on the wall.
You lying filthy bastard. Rot in hell. Love, Isla xxx
I’m fucking shaking. I’m that angry at her. Stupid little girl. She’s clearly run off, and she’s no idea of what danger she’s possibly put herself in. Up close to the picture of Selina, I see what she’s pinned to it. My message stringing Selina along, and telling her I’ll see her again soon. Which means that sweet and innocent little Isla has been snooping.
I should have known it would never work. She didn’t trust me. Couldn’t let go of what I did in the past for a living, and now she’s put herself in danger.
I should leave her to face whatever is coming her way. I should walk away from this right now. But as livid as I am, as angry and betrayed as I feel, I can’t. They are going to hurt her, to show her father what they can do, and then they’re going to demand the business from him.
Shit! I punch the wall and pain blooms across my knuckles. The one thing I can’t figure out in all of this is, why pick me? Why didn’t they pay someone to attack her, or harm her? There are enough thugs in their world to do such a job. I’ve got Luka digging closer into both men to see what the fuck is going on. And I’ve got Liam’s team behind me too, my team as of next month.
I grab my keys again, checking briefly that the girls have enough water, and them I’m jogging back out to my car. The tyres spin on the gravel as I shoot out of the drive, and speed far too fast along country lanes heading for Isla’s house. She’s in so much fucking danger, and despite my anger, and the realisation this can’t work, my gut is still churning. If they harm one hair on her head they are dead men.
As I’m getting to about five minutes away from her house, my phone rings, and I punch the on button on the hands-free set.
“Hey, Wolf.” Luka uses my nickname from our forces days. One day someone commented I wasn’t wily like a fox as Luka could be, or strategic like Liam, but more straight up aggressive, like a wolf. The name stuck.
“Not got time now.”
“Yeah, well make it. You need to hear this. Liam’s guys have turned something up on Rick Smythe.”
Suddenly I’m all ears. “Yeah?”
“You were right, him hiring you makes no sense when he could have hired some goon to rough her up or assault her. But it was a double takedown. Her for business, to give him leverage over her father, and you for personal reasons.”
“What the fuck?” My mind whirls. I already considered Smythe myself. He’s got no links to me at all. Of course, I had wondered if this might be to do with my job, but the only woman in Smythe’s life is his eighty-year-old grandmother, and I’d remember if I’d serviced her!
“Smythe has never wanted to get married. According to his secretary, who I wined and dined and sixty-nined last night, so you fucking owe me for making me break my vow. According to her, he’s a real dick. She was happy to spill the beans on him, once I assured her no harm would come to her. She loathes him. He’s a pig. Always touching her up in the office. Loses his rag and screams and shouts at the staff, but anyone who has ever left, he’s given them a terrible reference and they’ve lost the new job. He’s a real psycho according to her. Can’t even stand to let a member of his staff move onto another job.”
“This is all very interesting, but does it have a point?”
Luka sighs. “Impatient. Yeah, it has a point. Imagine if he gets that bent out of shape over an office boy leaving what he’d do to someone who took a woman from him?”
He pauses to let his words sink in. I frown, and indicate to turn onto the main road into the modern housing development Isla lives on. Not one of the houses on this estate is worth less than half a million, and her father’s joint is worth around two million. There’s serious money at play here. My own place is worth a fair whack and I prefer it by a mile to these soulless, flashy homes.
I go back to what Luka says. I don’t know any woman who was involved with Rick Smythe. My clients are either married, or long-term single. Nothing in between.
“You know your friend Selina?” His voice rings out in the car.
Oh, shit. I should have known she’d be trouble one day. “Yeah?” My tone sounds as cautious as I feel about where this is heading.
“She’s been unfaithful to her boring old hubby for years. You’re not the first person she’s messed around with. She stays with him, though, God knows why. She earns more than him, and could afford to move out if she wanted to. But she stays. Closest we can seem to find out from asking around, is that she genuinely loves him as a friend, and so they have a kind of open relationship where she messes around behind his back discreetly and the hubby turns a blind eye. Now, Selina uses you, as we know, but before she found you, she went through a series of flings. The last of which became a feature of town gossip and nearly cost her marriage. The husband doesn’t mind her fucking someone else, but he doesn’t want the town knowing it. She ended it and moved onto you.”
I know what he’s going to say. “Don’t tell me, the affair was with Rick Smythe?”
“Yup. According to his secretary, he loved being with Selina. She’s hot, and he’s not. He’s also apparently a bit of a filthy-minded little runt and shares Selina’s kink. And Selina is a top research scientist. Rick loved that about her. He got a little too happy to flap his gums, hence why she ended it. But, she went straight on to you, and our guess is Rick couldn’t have that. He decided to get you back somehow. And this was his perfect opportunity. Two birds with one stone. He puts you in the frame for assault, or worse, and Isla is terrorised, and he doesn’t have to get his hands dirty doing it himself, or directly hiring someone to do it.”
He sighs. “So far as we can guess, the plan was for you to do your thing. Even if you didn’t go the whole way, Isla would be scared to death. She’d call daddy dearest. Uncle Dave would swoop in like some sort of hero, and then turn the screws even more. Isla’s father would be out of the country, terrified for his daughter and willing to do anything.”
“Christ, Luka. What is Isla’s dad into?”
“Money laundering. Got involved with some nasty people. Rick’s involved with those same people. Pete, Isla’s dad, has been trying to get out of it for the last few years, and this meeting in New York is part of that. He’s trying to go legit, and that’s where good old Uncle Dave comes in.”
I pull up outside Isla’s house as Luka continues talking.
“Dave doesn’t want to go legit because they’re making too much money. And he’s teamed up with Rick, who Pete screwed over big time a few years back, to basically get Pete to hand the business over to them. They know the only thing he cares about is Isla. He may well be a dodgy fucker in his business dealings, but Pete loves his daughter, that much is clear, and now because of that, she’s a pawn in a very dangerous game. Some very unsavoury people are linked to Dave and Rick. We’re not sure how involved they are in all this, but you need to be careful.”
“Thanks, Luka. I’ve got to go, but can you email me everything you’ve got?”
“I’ll send you flow charts with nice arrows on them linking everyone up and everything,” he deadpans.
“Later.”
“Hey.”
His voice stalls me.
“Do you need me there, mate?” he offers.
“No time. I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as I can. I’m at Isla’s now. Speak later.”
I hang up and climb out of the car. I’m wearing cargo pants with a long shirt over them. There’s a Sig Sauer tucked into the holster under my shirt at my hip, and a knife on the opposite side. My Beretta back-up is in my ankle holster. None of which is legal in the UK. If I need to use these, I could be looking at a long stretch inside, but I’m not going to risk Isla’s life. Hopefully, I won’t need them.
Getting to her door, I try it and it’s locked. No surprise. I run around to the back and scale the wooden fence surrounding their garden. I use my knife to jimmy the French windows leading into the conservatory, and I’m in luck because when I try the door from the conservatory to the dining room, it’s unlocked, which surprises me.
I enter quietly, in case she’s still here and not alone. Sadie trots over to me and whimpers at me as her whole body wriggles side to side with her wagging tail. I stroke her head, all the time being alert for any sounds or movement in the main body of the house. I do a quick sweep of the downstairs. There’s no one here, and I head upstairs. It’s empty. I frown and look around Isla’s room. Nothing seems particularly out of place.
Clearly, she came back and left again, but where has she gone? Back downstairs, I notice a printed-out news site page on the coffee table. I see a familiar picture. It’s the picture of me, Luka, and the guys from when the shit went down in Afghanistan. We were investigated for it but in the end found to have acted in accordance with the regulations. Luka even got the fucking St. George’s Cross for what he did. But this print-out tells a different story. It states we were under investigation for murdering and raping citizens in Afghanistan. That fucker, Dunn, must have doctored this. He showed it to Isla when she was already upset and paranoid about me.
I jog back out to the car and punch in Liam’s number.
“Ethan.” He picks up on the first ring. “What can I do for you?”
“Can you run a trace on a mobile phone if I give you the number?”
“Sure.”
I rattle Isla’s number off and wait. It seems to take forever as he does his thing. About five minutes later, he speaks up. “She’s moving. Seems like she’s heading toward York.”
Fuck. I gun the engine and shoot out into the quiet road, putting my foot down.
“Send me the details of the route she’s following.”
“You want back-up?”
I hesitate. It might take some time to wait for Liam and Luka to reach me, but going in alone is reckless, and puts Isla at more risk. “Yeah. Be good. Call Luka, too, can you? I’ll start heading in her direction, let me know when you’re on the road and we can meet up. And bring some flash bangs, we need a distraction.”
“Will do.”
He hangs up, and I take a right to head toward York.