Mason
The scent of orchids assaulted my senses, and a broad smile covered my face. Memories of the night I had proposed to Ava filled my mind, and I welcomed them. The night visions and the daydreams that I suffered with now made my blood freeze with disgust, so the happy thoughts were an appreciated relief.
As planned I had landed in France at night. It was safer that way, my arrival unannounced, and I had parked the hire car at the end of the road. Frank wouldn’t assume I was in the same country as him as I was presumed to be dead, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t take risks where he was concerned. He was a sly bastard, and when I had received information that he had been released early, it hadn’t taken a calculator to work out that he was in Henry Stillman’s pocket. The new police commissioner was as corrupt as Robert Delaney had been, and when I had checked on Frank’s whereabouts, I hadn’t been surprised to find that Stillman was in France at the same time as my target.
I wasn’t just here to find Etta, as Ava thought. My gut twisted with repulsion every time Frank Scott’s name was mentioned, and it didn’t take a genius to find out he was still up to his old tricks. Trafficking young girls to be specific.
The thin gravel driveway that led to the chateau was dimly lit, but I still saw her the moment the front door opened. Quickly hiding in the bush, my heart leapt with the sight of my beautiful daughter. She wore a figure-hugging dress, something I would never have pictured Katie in. She reminded me so much of a young Ava, from the way her long hair fell down her back, to the way her small nose upturned slightly. From the confidence in her stride to the way she held her shoulders with poise.
However, it wasn’t seeing her again that took the breath from my lungs. It was the man that followed her out of the house and climbed into the car beside her.
“What the fuck!” I stepped out of cover for a few seconds to get a better look when Katie reversed down the drive. “Tristan Hope!”
Fuck! Did she not know who he was? Had she not received the letter I had left with William to give her?
Keeping myself pressed close to the wall that secluded the row of houses from the road, I dived into my car and swiftly pulled away.
It wasn’t long before I caught up with Katie, and I remained a little way back, out of sight. When she pulled into the lane towards Frederik’s bistro, I found a space to park on the road and thought about how I was going to do this. I couldn’t expose myself, but I had to protect my daughter. Or the very least find out if she knew who Hope was.
I knew I could trust Frederik, and I figured the fact that Hope could be out for Katie and was playing her outweighed the risk to me.
Staying back a little, I waited for Phillipe, the valet I knew well, to take the car keys from Katie and as she climbed the steps into the restaurant, I rushed up behind him. His eyes appeared too big for his face when they widened on me. “Mr Fox?”
Placing a finger to my lips to shush him, he blinked with confusion but nodded. “I wasn’t here.”
He nodded again. I shouldn’t have been worried about him alerting anyone to my presence, he was too struck dumb to do anything.
“I’ll take Katie’s car around. Don’t tell anyone you saw me!”
Thrusting fifty euros into his palm, he confirmed my order with a nod and gave me the keys to my daughter’s car.
Only the valet and a few members of staff had access to the rear of the building, and luckily it was much darker there than the brightly lit front.
The kitchen staff disregarded me as I made my way through. Some knew me, so didn’t react to me, and few were also unaware that I was ‘dead’. Technically I was their boss, and any bullshit wouldn’t be worth losing their jobs over, so no one bothered me as I stood to the side of the door that led to the main restaurant and discreetly peered out.
“Shit!” I hissed under my breath when I saw Frank Scott and Henry Stillman sat at one of the tables under the large mirror that hung on one wall. I knew what that mirror hid. Behind it was a private dining area where Ava and I had eaten and made love on many occasions. Ava found watching the obliviousness of the other diners through the one way mirror a massive turn on. Images filled my head, memories of my wife pressed up against that glass as I fucked her hard and fast from behind. My dick stirred, and I bit the tip of my tongue to force it back to sleep. Of all the fucking times I had wanted a hard-on but couldn’t, now was not the time to make me wonder if what I had considered impossible may actually be within my grasp.
Not allowing myself to think of sex, I compelled myself to block out the erotic images and looked around the restaurant for Katie and Hope.
“They’re both hidden away in your private dining suite,” Frederik whispered in my ear from behind me, making me jump.
Spinning around, a grin grew on my face when I was met with Frederik’s wet brown eyes. A tear rolled down his cheek before he huddled me into a hug. “Dear God,” he breathed as he grasped the tops of my arms and held me at arm’s length. “I thought you were dead!”
“You’re the only one that knows I’m not, including my daughter. I need to keep it that way, Frederik.”
Shock covered his face, but sensing my need for secrecy, he nodded and guided me back through the kitchen and into his office.
Switching on one of the monitors, I gasped when the screen filled with a close-up of Katie and Hope.
“Does she know who he is?” I asked without removing my gaze from the screen.
“They were talking as I seated them, and she called him Hope,” Frederik revealed. “One of her men contacted me earlier to make the reservation for your suite, and I was informed to sit Mr Stillman under the one-way mirror.”
Spinning on my heels and facing Frederik, I narrowed my eyes. “Katie is staking out Stillman?”
“Her and Mr Hope are watching both Mr Stillman and his guest.”
“Frank Scott.”
“Mmm.”
I couldn’t help but smile. My smart girl was ahead of me, her intel as hot as my own. Or perhaps she was just trying to find Etta, the same as Ava and me.
“Do you know why she’s tailing Stillman and Scott?”
“Forgive me, Mr Fox,” Frederik said quietly. “But in my profession, I hear things.”
“Things?”
“Unsavoury things regarding the men whom both you and Miss Fox are interested in.” A sly smile grew on his lips. “But, now that Miss Fox and her companion are aware of the men, I know that the ‘problem’ they represent will swiftly be contained. If you get my drift?”
Nodding, I patted his shoulder. “I have no fear that my daughter will take care of it. However, I’m more concerned about her dinner companion.”
“Mr Hope?”
“Hmm,” I replied vaguely as I glanced back at the monitor. It appeared that Katie and Hope were arguing.
Frederik chuckled. “You needn’t worry, Mr Fox. They have been bickering all evening, but I can assure you that Miss Fox knows exactly who the man sat opposite her is,” he paused, “and what he has done.”
Evidently, Frederik did hear things.
“And what else have you heard, Frederik?”
Lifting a carafe and offering me a whisky, he poured us both one and handed me the glass as he gestured for me to sit down.
“Between you and me, it has come to my attention that Mr Stillman is as corrupt as his predecessor, Robert Delaney. Mr Scott and Mr Stillman have dined here on many occasions over the last few months, and that got my senses on alert. There is talk…”
“Go on,” I urged when he hesitated.
“Talk that Henry Stillman was responsible for the death of Mark Hodes, Miss Fox’s friend. And, also, that Mr Hope’s sister went missing a while ago. She was merely a child.”
“Fuck!” I murmured.
“And if the murmurs about Mr Scott are true, and he traffics young girls…”
“And he’s now associated with Stillman,” I mused, following Frederik’s unspoken hint. “So…”
“So,” Frederik went on, “I do believe your daughter, and the man who killed her husband, have joined forces on this one.”
“Well, fuck me!” I couldn’t help but grin as my heart swelled with pride. I’d always believed Katie had inherited my ruthlessness and my violence, but I knew she also had her mother’s strength and her compassionate genes. This only proved to me that my daughter was stronger than me and Ava put together. If she could partner with a man who had killed her husband, just so that he could have his vengeance, then whatever else she could be capable of was implausible. Patience was the strongest emotion and skill one could ever possess. And Katie fucking Fox had endurance beyond anyone I had ever known.
Ava and I hadn’t created a monster as we had initially thought. We’d forged a glorious warrior out of the depths of hell, together with a soldier from the realms of heaven. And that was one hell of a fucking conception.