It was only a short flight compared to some, but it gave me enough time to think about everything that had happened in five days. The last five months, actually. Ever since Danni had come swirling into my life, I struggled to believe that she hadn’t been there before. I couldn’t think about her without smiling. Before I went to Greece, my reactions to her were because she made me laugh. Her no-nonsense attitude and the way she always seemed to have so much get-up-and-go made me feel enthusiastic about life. But since Greece…

Since getting close to her, being inside her, sharing her breaths, her lips, her body…

I couldn’t take the grin from my face whenever I realised that I’d had her, even if she was now gone.

At least I had had her. That was what I had to focus on. Something told me that Danni didn’t just give herself over to anyone the way she’d done with me.

Small victories and all that jazz.

When the plane landed back in Leeds, and we returned to the predictable showers of April, misery reigned over us like a dark cloud.

“It’s colder here,” Suzie mumbled while Paul wrapped his arms around her from behind.

Alex was on his phone a lot, taking sly glances at his girl when he didn’t think anyone was looking, but I saw Nat. She was always looking his way, and the nervous way she shuffled beside him had me catching her eye at one point and silently mouthing her a quick, “Are you okay?” All I got back was a nod followed by a smile, but she knew I saw her worries there. It just wasn’t my place to be concerned for her that way anymore. It didn’t seem to take long for Alex to catch her eye, too, though, and when he saw what I saw, his arm went around her shoulder before he pulled her closer, mumbled some words I couldn’t hear and kissed the top of her head.

Whatever he’d said, it worked. Her shoulders relaxed as soon as she had hold of him. Her rock was there. His was there, too. They were strong when they were together and weak when apart. It was powerful as hell to watch.

Once we had our cases, we made our way out to the car park together where Sammy volunteered me to drive Natalie and Alex home, saving Paul the detour. It made no difference to me. I had nowhere else to be.

We said our goodbyes to Suzie and Paul after promises of getting together next week for a drink, and the remaining four of us made our way over to my car. After it beeped open, Alex and I threw the cases into the boot while the girls climbed in the backseat. Natalie muttered something I didn’t quite hear to Sammy before my little sister shushed her and glanced back my way. I pretended I hadn’t even noticed anything, although it didn’t take a genius to figure out it was probably to do with Cameron.

I climbed behind the wheel, put the radio on, and smiled to myself when I heard Simple Minds singing back at me. It was a sign from the gods, like Danni herself had chosen that track especially for me.

“What’s with the smug grin?” Alex asked from the passenger seat. When I looked up at him, he had a brow raised and was smirking. He already knew the answer.

I shook my head. “No reason.”

He didn’t say anything for a few minutes after that, and I thought I’d gotten away with it until we hit the first red light of the day.

“Glad to be home?” he asked, his voice low so only I could really hear him. With one glance in my rear-view mirror, I could see the girls were busy chatting to themselves. Natalie was leaning in while my sister whispered hushed words to her.

“Umm,” I started, glancing forward again. “Sure.”

“Going to miss Danni?”

“She’s a good girl,” was all I could think to say. I blinked slowly to compose myself before I set off driving again as the light quickly turned to green.

“You guys seemed to grow closer in Greece.”

You have no idea, pal.

“Danni knows how to handle me when I’m being flaky.”

“That girl knows how to handle everyone.”

“No kidding.”

“It’s a shame she has to be away from us so much.”

Yeah.” I swallowed. “But she’s got a dream, this huge dream, and she’s catching up to it. There’s nothing that earns my respect more than someone who isn’t afraid to get burned and just keeps on chasing the sun.”

“Funny,” Alex muttered to himself, looking straight out the windscreen as I briefly turned his way.

“What is?”

“What you just said about chasing the sun.” Alex looked at me, flashing his scrutinising hazel eyes my way. “Danni told me to look after the moon for her until she brought the sun back home.”

The weight of her words pressed down on my heart in an instant, but I had no words of my own to share. No witty comeback. No jokes. No dismissive huff of breath or denial. All I could do was sink back into my seat, stare out at the world in front of me, and smile.

“You have any idea what she meant?” Alex asked.

“No,” I answered quietly, my grin growing by the second. “Not a clue.”

The rest of the journey was mainly small talk, and it wasn’t long before we were driving through the familiar streets of Calverley back to Tom and Rosie’s house. Sammy and Natalie were chattering away in the background, not making any attempts to stay quiet anymore as they pulled Alex into the conversation and reminisced about the holiday and the time when Alex had jumped out behind Paul and managed to throw him in the pool.

My mind, however, was on memories of the moonlight cascading over Danni’s naked body as she lay on the bed staring up at me with lust in her eyes and fingers reaching out to pull me closer.

My mind was on the memory of her lips.

My mind was on the smell of her skin.

My mind was on the way she tasted.

The way she moved.

The sound of my name being whispered into my ear as we sat upright, making love in the middle of the bed, my arms wrapped around her as she rode my lap slowly, gently, teasingly, her soft, wavy hair falling down around us as she held on tight and refused to let me go.

“Marcus, look out!” Alex cried.

Both girls screamed behind me.

In just a split second, Alex grabbed hold of the steering wheel enough to take control, yank it to the left and pull the car back on track into the middle of the road where it was supposed to be.

I didn’t breathe as the bollard we almost crashed into whizzed past my window, taunting me with its bright yellow colour as the whispers of an almost-tragedy sailed on by without a care in the world.

“Jesus, Marcus!” Sammy cried.

“Fuck,” was all I could whisper, stunned by the near miss as I curled both hands tight around the wheel and tried to breathe.

“You okay, man?” Alex asked, his voice heavy and rushed.

I tried to blink back into conscious thought, but the reality of my own mortality was trickling down my spine, forcing a shiver to run through me.

“Yeah,” I eventually breathed out, shaking my head as I turned into Nat’s street. “Fuck, I’m so sorry, guys.” When I pulled up outside Rosie and Tom’s house, I turned off the engine and inhaled slowly. Alex’s eyes were fixed firmly on me. I could feel his gaze burning holes in my skin, but I turned in my seat to focus on the girls. “You two okay?”

“No,” Sammy said just as Natalie reassured me she was fine. “What the hell was that?”

“I just… I drifted off.” I winced. “I’m really fucking sorry.”

“What were you thinking about that was worth risking my life?”

I didn’t have time to answer. And Sammy didn’t have time to question me again. The sound of Natalie’s troubled whisper of Oh my God as she turned to look out of her window had us focusing on her immediately. Her skin paled, and her eyes were wide as she unclipped her seatbelt and leaned forward, placing her hands on Alex’s shoulders before she spoke again.

“Alex.”

“What, baby?”

“Your… your dad is here.”

Just like that, we all turned to look at the house, and sure enough, there stumbled a drunk man, his whole body listing to one side as he slapped one foot in front of the other on Nat’s parents’ pathway.

“No,” Alex growled quietly.

“Alex, wait…” Natalie called out, trying to grab him by the shoulders, but it was no good.

In the time it took for Sammy and me to look at one another in confusion, everything had already happened. Alex was jumping out of the car, his body tensed, strong and challenging as he marched forward towards Nicholas Law. Natalie’s door was the next to open and shut, her feet scurrying behind her man as she called out his name over and over again and told him to calm down.

“Oh, shit,” Sammy muttered from the back seat.

“Double shit,” I mumbled.

We both scrambled out, not wanting to leave Nat and Alex completely alone, but not sure we should get too close, either. Family was family. Their business wasn’t necessarily ours.

“Alex, leave him,” Natalie begged, grabbing hold of his arm as she tried to pull his attention back to her, but it was no good. I could tell Alex’s face, even from where I was standing behind him, had gone dark. It was a side of him I’d never seen, and the contrast of it against the man I now knew was frightening. His whole body permeated with anger and strength. My hands balled into fists by my side on his behalf, a sudden need to protect my unlikely friend from harm should he need me.

Nicholas didn’t see any of us for a while. Wearing an oversized worn and dirty black trench coat that dragged on the floor, he struggled to stay on his feet as he twirled some keys around in his hand and shouted over his shoulder.

“You Vincents. Always thinkin’ better than us’rest,” he slurred, not making sense before he stopped dead in his tracks, turned back to look at the house just as Tom and Rosie opened their front door. Nicholas wobbled as he stared them down and gave them the harshest, dirtiest middle finger salute I’d ever seen.

I instantly took a step forward, my own eyes narrowing with disgust, aimed solely at that man. I didn’t get very far before Sammy grabbed hold of my wrist and held me in place. When I looked at her, she carefully shook her head and whispered, “Not our fight.”

Even though I knew where she was coming from, I disagreed wholeheartedly. Some things, even though they didn’t involve us directly, were our fight. Their family may not have been my business, but they were my friends and I wanted to protect them. I had a right to. That’s when you know you care for someone… when you’re willing to step up and save them from a danger you don’t know the full force of.

“Natalie,” Rosie cried, taking a step out of her front door as she locked eyes with her daughter at the end of the garden path.

“I’m okay, Mum,” Natalie called out in reassurance.

Nicholas’ eyes popped open, his sadistic smile rising into his sweaty cheeks as he turned back around and saw Natalie and Alex for the very first time.

“Natalie!” he practically sang, pushing his arms up in the air and stumbling to the side. “You’re back. Jus’ in time to give me one of your fuckin’ lectures, s’no doubts.”

Nicholas laughed to himself, his ankle giving way on the pathway edge and forcing him to stumble backwards onto the grass. When he regained some sort of balance, he looked down at his feet and started laughing maniacally again. “Oops. Definitely not okay to walk home.”

“Dad,” Alex said in warning, his voice low and threatening.

Nicholas’ head shot up, his eyes glazing over when he looked into his son’s face. “You,” he spat out.

That was it. You. No reference to Alex’s name. No terms of endearment or displays of gratitude for the life Alex had put on hold for so long in Nicholas’ name. Just… you.

It made me sick.

I took another step closer, watching the way they glared at each other. It was impossible to imagine hating the man who’d brought me into this world and have him hating me. I’d never been more grateful for Raymond Anderson and his stoic silence as I was while watching the contempt roll off Nicholas in waves.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Alex snapped.

Natalie ran her hand up and down his back, but it wasn’t doing him any good, and I wasn’t at all surprised when he carefully glanced back at her, shook his head and peeled her hand away from his shoulder.

I wouldn’t want the woman I loved near me when I was that angry, either.

Sammy rushed to Natalie’s side, wrapping her arm around her as she guided her a few steps away from Alex, and I took that as my cue to move forward. Screw what my sister thought. It was time to give Nicholas double the trouble.

“Nicholas?” I said calmly as I took my place behind Alex.

His bloodshot eyes snapped my way like a rabid animal’s, his head rolling limply. It moved so frantically I couldn’t believe it was actually attached to his body. “Fuckareyou?” he slurred. “Let me guess. ‘Nother hero?” He rolled his eyes so far into the back of his head, it caused his body to stumble back a few steps again, and Alex released a sigh of exhaustion from beside me.

The sight of the car keys in Nicholas’ hand caught my eye as he faltered, and I leaned into Alex discreetly. “Are those car keys?”

“Yeah,” Alex answered. “That’s his car over the road. The BMW.”

Sure enough, an old BMW sat crooked on the other side of the street. The front end was up on the pavement while the back end hung off, like it had been parked by a toddler.

A toddler could have done it better.

“Shit,” I whispered, bracing myself for a showdown.

“Dad, why are you at Tom and Rosie’s?” Alex asked slowly and loudly, making sure he was heard.

“What-you care?”

“Dad…”

“S’none of your business,” he snarled back, keeping his head down as he made his way to the small gate at the bottom of the pathway and tried to open it. His coordination was off in every sense, though, and the small latch on the iron gate proved too much for him to figure out. There was no way we could let him behind the wheel of a car.

Tom Vincent came running down the path, leaving Rosie standing in the doorway of their home. “He came here asking for money, Alex.”

“He what?” Alex’s head snapped up to Tom.

“He’s been demanding we loan him some money. Saying he’s family now. I don’t know what he wants it for, but he’s been asking for a lot,” Tom told Alex, his breaths heavy as he came to a stop right behind Nicholas.

“What the hell do you need money for, Dad?” Alex snapped, struggling to hold on to his temper.

Nicholas tugged at the gate, his frustrations growing as he failed to open it. “Still none of your business.”

“I swear to God…”

“What?” Nicholas growled, snapping his head in Alex’s direction. “I did what I had to do. Witnesses don’t come cheap, sunshine.”

Alex’s eyes closed for the briefest of moments, the reality of what his dad had just said sinking in at once. He’d bought a witness. He’d bought his way out of a trial. Now they were no doubt asking for more money in order to remain silent—money Nicholas didn’t have.

“You’re scum,” Alex said, his face creasing as he snarled and spat the words out in his father’s direction.

Nicholas rolled his eyes, turning to give Alex his full, lopsided attention. “And you… are… a waste of oxygen. You should have been the one to drown yourself. Not your mother.”

His words hung in the air for all of us to suffer.

I suddenly wanted to kill the bastard myself.

“Now that’s enough!” Tom snapped, stepping up behind Nicholas and slapping a hard hand down on his dirty shoulder.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion then. Alex’s hand reached out into thin air, his cries of “No!” surely heard for miles around before anything even happened—like he knew what trigger Tom had just pulled without intending to the moment he’d dared to touch Nicholas in any way.

Between one breath and the next, Nicholas’ elbow had come up behind him, swinging high and hitting Tom straight under the chin with all the surprising strength he had left in his used and abused body, knocking Nat’s dad flying before he landed on the paved pathway with an almighty thud, his eyes closed as his skull hit the ground with a thunderous dull crack that seemed to echo around us.

Then there was a suffocating silence.

I remember the silence.

It lingered for far too long. It dragged. Each of us still as we tried to see clearly through the fog of the disaster in front of us, as if someone had just pressed pause on the worst moment any of us could dare to imagine before they decided to press play again and everything came screaming back to life all at once.

Sammy and Rosie screamed.

Alex sprinted forward to go to Tom.

Nicholas ran.

And me? I just stood there. I stood there for a split second longer than I should have done, unsure whether to run to Tom and check he was okay, or chase after Nicholas and beat the ever-living shit out of him.

In the end, I moved to my right, foregoing overcrowding Tom who now had an army of four people around him, instead, taking off after Alex’s dad.

He’d jumped the wall surrounding their garden, and had just opened the car door when I jumped out into the road of the quiet street and caught his eye, but I was too late. Before I could get to the car window and bang on it several times, demanding he turn off the engine and get out, Nicholas had taken off at full speed. The wheels of his car spun erratically, creating a cloud of smoke and a wall of mind shattering sound before he swung the car round into a straight line, knocking off two wing mirrors of the neighbours’ cars. Then he grew smaller, eventually disappearing into nothing.

No way.

No way was I letting him get away with hurting anyone else.

No way was I letting him get away with killing another innocent or hurting someone who got in his way.

Pulling my keys out of my pocket, I beeped my car open and ran to it. I was just about to open the door, when Alex slid in front of me, snatching the keys out of my hand. He stared into my eyes wearing a look I’d never seen before in my whole fucking life.

It was a look that told me he was done—the look of a son who was willing to give up his father for good.

“He’s my problem,” Alex said firmly. “Let me go after him.”

“Not on your own, man.”

“You stay with the girls. Sammy has called an ambulance. They need you.”

“No fucking way. I’m not leaving you alone with him.” I glared back at him with equal intensity, not weakening my stance one bit.

“This isn’t your fight.”

“If it’s yours, it’s mine.”

“Marcus,” he ground out through gritted teeth.

“We’re wasting fucking time, Alex. Let’s go.”

Alex took one more second to tense his jaw before he closed his eyes, sucked in a breath and gave me a nod. Then we moved. Alex called out to Nat telling him he loved her and he was going to end this.

“Don’t go, baby,” she cried, tears streaming down her face. “Please. Stay.”

“You know I have to,” he told her. “I’m not letting him hurt anyone else, Nat. I’m not letting him take anyone else’s mother away from them. I’m not letting him make orphans of any more babies.”

I climbed into the front seat, fastened my seatbelt and took a deep breath as I stared at my sister who was now consoling a hysterical Nat while she and Rosie remained over Tom.

I had no idea how we’d gone from Paradise to the darkest recesses of Hell so suddenly, but as I stared back at the scene in front of me, I realised Hell was exactly where we were.

It was where Alex had spent too much of his life.

When he slid into the driver’s seat and pushed the key into the ignition, I turned to look at his pale, ashen, angry face, and I felt my heart tighten for the guy.

“You sure you want to drive?” I asked carefully. “I used to be a pro at Grand Theft Auto.”

“I know where he’s going,” was all he told me before he turned the key and brought the car to life. And just like that, we were off, chasing after a drunken madman, hoping he didn’t hurt anyone else before we got to him.

Or worse…

Kill another innocent.

I wasn’t sure how any of us would move past it if he did.