“I think it was your sales technique that needed a bit of work. Clearly she didn’t value being in your cage that much. Although, I imagine the real problem is your lack of experience at hearing the word no.”
“Do you know who I am?” It was the loaded question I was expecting—the double-edged sword that was going to upend the balance of this meeting and set the tone for the rest of our time together.
“Absolutely,” I threw back at him confidently. His initial shock turned into understanding and we were both on the same page.
“I rarely pay attention to anyone in my club’s employ. I have a very capable house manager who does the recruiting, and the dance thing was just a whim she suggested we try. I went with it. After all, every successful business needs a USP.”
“So, fast forward a bit and you figured you’d force people to dance for you. Again.” I watched as his eyes flashed with anger. I was doing my best to lay my cards on the table. This was becoming a chore and I just wanted out of here so I could go back to her, and I couldn’t do that without cutting to the chase.
“Do you think I had personal approval of all the ventures associated with my past? I didn’t. I knew, though, the minute I laid eyes on her, who she was.” Mansion was swirling his drink around the crystal glass, looking at the patterns it made as it slid around with the ice cubes.
“Tell me what you want.”
“I need to find my family, and she’s the only link I have that can deliver me that information quickly. A condition of the new identities when we went into hiding was that we never contacted those who helped us. Breaking that condition means jail time for us all and I won’t do that to my brothers.” Yeah, Jonas was smart. He helped them, threatened them and walked away although it wasn’t lost on me that he didn’t mention his sister. “I’ve tried in vain and I’m running out of time. Raven—”
“Her name is Rebecca,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Rebecca was the first real lead and I couldn’t ignore it. I’ve no other options.” His angry eyes turned desperate, almost pleading, and I felt the atmosphere change. This meeting posed no threat to me. Cara was right about him.
“Rebecca can’t help you with that. She was a casualty of your fucked up family. Trying to grab her, scaring her and tossing her place should have shown you she had no information.”
“I asked for a discreet search,” he said, confused.
“Your fucking lap dogs destroyed her home.”
“I will apologize as soon as I get the chance and reprimand those responsible.”
“So this was never about the dancing?”
“The business man in me knows she can dance and it did wonders for my takings, but I want my family and can’t wait for them to surface organically.”
I felt a level of anger that I was barely able to suppress. “She is not your fucking bait.”
“I was going to keep her safe, monitor her just on the off chance.”
“You can forget that idea. Your lot did that once before, and back then it wasn’t on her terms and conditions either.”
“Then you need to convince your brother to amend his arrangement. I need to locate my family. It’s him or Raven.”
“Fucking Rebecca!” I bellowed and launched my whisky glass at the wall beside him. It smashed on impact and the liquid inside dripped down the wall to join the sparkling bits of glass all over the floor.
And Mansion never even flinched.
“Tell your brother I need my family. I have nothing to lose and I’m prepared to do whatever is necessary. I’ll wait to hear back from you.”
Mansion had made his demands and was dismissing me, just like that.
I was still flexing my fists in an attempt to calm down when I left the club through a rear door into an alleyway. The brain-dead beefcake pulled the door shut behind me as soon my feet hit concrete. The flashing of car headlights attracted my attention and I jogged over. Oli Hart was sitting behind the wheel. As I opened the door and climbed in, I heard him say, “Got him, he’s good. We’re clear,” into his cell and then hang up. He looked at me to check I was in one piece. “Time to go home. You wanna call it in?”
“No, I want to calm the fuck down first.”
Oli nodded and pulled into the main traffic. He was silent and contemplative for a few minutes. “You’ve got about two hours to get it out of your system before we get to the airport.”
The more I thought about the way Mansion was looking to use Rebecca and how scared she was, the less I got it ‘out of my system’. The fucker knew that putting her picture on posters would bring the worms out of the woodwork and he’d catch a real lead on his family in the end. A lucky break for him, but shit for her—once again she was just bait.
“Fuck!” I snapped and slammed my palms on the dash of the car. Oli pulled over immediately. “He was gonna use her to bait the rest of them out,” I said in disbelief.
“They were ruthless people and used to getting what they wanted. You got in the way and stopped that from happening.”
“Wait a second. How did you know I’d be coming out of that door?”
“Didn’t… We had both covered.”
Well that was good to hear. “We?”
“Yeah, me and Jack.” I looked at him, fucking amazed. Not once had he returned a text or answered my calls but when it mattered, he was there for me. “I get that you two are having some issues, but family is important. Jonas didn’t have to persuade him to help.”
It all made sense then, what Mansion was doing. He didn’t know Rebecca or have any interest in her welfare. What he had was a desperate need to track down his own family.
His family was important to him.
Trying to fight against someone with that sort of motivation wasn’t going to solve this problem. Trying to find the best solution for everyone was, including Rebecca.
My twin brother hated me. I’d blown his trust and our relationship to pieces but when I needed him, he was there.
I hated to admit it, but I could understand Mansion’s desperation to get his family back. Once again, though, Rebecca had been caught in the crossfire. She didn’t have a family to protect, only herself, and she wouldn’t get his frenzied obsession with finding them, but Jonas would and that was why I hoped he’d come up with the best solution for all of us.
I knew then that, more than anything, that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to give Rebecca the family that mattered and was so important to the rest of us. I wanted to be the one who made her life worth fighting for and living. My anger subsided at this flash of inspiration. It all clicked into place in my head. My life could finally have some purpose and I knew how.
Rebecca
I’d assumed this was going to be a group trip to Hawkstown, but I was wrong. Cara wanted to come but Ross was having none of it. His argument wasn’t unreasonable either—they were a family, they had kids to look after and above all else, he was trying to keep them all safe. Ross wanted to make sure that her new life did not pop up on anyone’s radar and seemingly, following me into the unknown flew in the face of that.
I thought about this as we hit the highway. It looked like she was a prisoner in Rockton. She didn’t leave out of fear, yet it must have seemed like freedom compared to what she’d lived through before. Being forced to marry and live a life designed by someone else was no one’s idea of a future. Raising a family in that environment would have been hell. She would have been expected to pop out kids and breed the next generation of the criminal underworld. It was that kind of life that perpetuated the rot in society and Cara chose to live differently. She went after the game changer to force a different dynamic for herself and her future. She hadn’t swapped one form of prison for another; she had the simple life now, one she’d always wanted and she was living it on her terms.
That would be the best possible outcome for me—square off my troubles and just live my life for me. No looking over my shoulder and no compromises unless I chose to make them, and a
bsolutely no half versions of life.
I couldn’t just exist anymore. I was only going to be here once and this wasn’t a rehearsal. I wanted to live.
And I so desperately wanted to do all of that with Jake.
I had no idea how long the journey to Hawkstown was going to take but I felt the squeeze in my heart lessening the closer we go to Jake’s hometown. My body and soul sensed I was getting nearer to him. If that wasn’t a sign that he was my soul mate then what was? I only prayed—and I didn’t do that often—that Jake felt the same way. I was terrified that he wouldn’t want me when he made it home, or that his normal life would cause him to regret what we’d done. If that was the case then I’d consider asking him to run with me again, just so we could stay in our bubble. In reality, I wasn’t selfish enough to keep him obligated to me so I needed to hope and pray that he still wanted me around.
Ross and I chatted about everything and nothing as we ate up the miles, and whereas I was getting more apprehensive and excited the closer we got to Hawkstown, he seemed more and more uncomfortable. The more miles he put between him and his family, the more it became evident that he worshipped her. I felt awful that he was leaving them to keep me safe again but he assured me that they were in safe hands with his dad.
That loving connection he shared with her was the sort of thing I wanted to feel. Right now, it felt like some kind of craving, just a tenuous link that could be formed or fractured in an instant. I’d had a brief taste of it, just the smallest touch, and I wanted so much more of it.
Our road trip required frequent stops for bathroom breaks and food. Only once did Ross rent us motel rooms. I knew he was flagging and needed at least a few hours of sleep. I’d have been happy to pull over whilst he got his head down in the car, but he wanted us off the road and out of sight. Generally, the trip was uneventful and I was thankful for that, but the closer we got to Hawkstown, the more I felt I was heading towards something worth building and fighting for.
His cell beeped often and it was usually Cara. Only once was it for me. He flipped it open expertly while handling the steering wheel. “He made it in and out of Mansion’s in one piece,” Ross said nonchalantly, like I was silly to be worrying about him going back into the viper’s nest. I’d been shitting bricks about it and Ross was completely the opposite. He was calm, like he’d just asked me if I wanted cream and sugar in my coffee.
I peppered him with questions, such was my need to know more, and in the end, he burst out laughing, saying, “Did I look like I was reading a book or a two-line text message? We’ll know more when we get there.”
“Okay, sorry.” As I sat in the car, bursting with questions, I wondered why the car wouldn’t go faster, or the miles weren’t passing by quicker or why no one had successfully invented fucking teleportation so we could hurry the hell up.
By the time we rolled through the town limits, I was practically bobbing up and down in the car seat. I nearly exploded when I saw the words Hawkstown on a pretty crafted sign. My nerves were at their end. I was nervous about seeing Jake again and even more worried that it could be where it all ended.
I watched in awe as kids wandered near the high school and moms laden down with younger children did normal mundane stuff near the supermarket. I was so eager to soak it up and be a part of it. None of them had a care in the world, and were blissfully unaware that mine was facing some pivotal decision point. The easy, breezy sight of people just living life, though, was always fascinating to me. I’d always people watched, even from a young age, trying to figure out who was friend or foe. I tried to figure out whether anyone else had a shady back story like I did. As we journeyed through, I tried to picture Jake growing up here with his family and wondered how such a fascinating, cool guy had come from somewhere so normal.
The wonder of watching the townspeople stopped after a while as we headed into ranch territory and the place suddenly reminded me of Rockton. It was all views and open space mixed in with a lot of fresh air.
Swerving sharply past a sign saying ‘Hales Ranch,’ I knew that we were getting closer to our destination. Before we reached the end of the drive, though, we turned sharply again and began to drive deeper into nothingness. The wilderness of the trees took over in stark contrast with the smooth road, and looking around I could see the odd strategically placed camera.
“Yeah, not a lot gets down here unannounced,” Ross commented.
Ten minutes later, the trees parted and the most amazing ranch house appeared in front of us. It was like a big secluded slice of heaven built from someone’s dream for the future.
As Ross pulled the car to a stop, the front door started to open. “Like I said, no one gets up here unannounced.”
I remember the man stood in the doorway. Like Ross, he was impressive in size, but a gentle giant. Even though he was a bit smaller than Ross in stature, he looked just as lethal. His buzz cut hair and harsh features were both scary and alluring. He was like a Venus flytrap—pretty, but you just knew somehow you were going to end up in serious trouble. I knew as soon as I saw how he was standing that this man had been a big influence on Jake’s life. It all felt familiar.
“Rebecca,” he said, walking towards me, the corners of his smile twitching because he knew I was totally checking him out.
“Hi,” I replied shyly.
“Jake isn’t that far away.” As soon as he mentioned Jake being close, I couldn’t stop the smile of relief and excitement from taking over my face. This, however, caused his face to change and become all moody and cloudy looking. He was unhappy with Jake’s arrival for some reason.
Suddenly, there was a small commotion from behind him and a mini commando girl appeared wearing a sweat band and war paint on her face. She was gripping a stick like it was her life’s most treasured weapon and it was her job to defend us from an attack.
“Dammit!” I heard from inside the doorway, and a beautiful, curly blonde appeared behind her. “I remember telling you, young lady, not to disturb your daddy.”
The thundercloud on Jonas’s face disappeared instantly when he turned around, and I wasn’t sure whether it was love for the child or the woman. “Sorry, baby,” she whispered, sidling up to him and folding herself underneath his arms.
“My wife Dalton and one of the mischief makers,” he told me, the look of love on his face now warring with pride.
“The other one is inside. Come on in,” Dolly said, smiling. “Apparently, there is no leaving the dinner table before her dolls have finished their supper.”
Ross stepped forward and did some kind of man nod of confirmation with Jonas. Once that moment was over, we all followed Mr. Universe and his wife into the house, with the mini commando bringing up the rear of the party, making sure our six was secure.
The house was just as beautiful inside, and in the kitchen, an identical child sat proudly at the head of the table, pouring imaginary tea and berating a table full of dolls for their bad manners. She was dressed in a what I assumed was a Disney princess outfit.
“Can I get you some tea? Coffee?” Dolly asked as I watched the princess.
“Uh sure, thanks,” I mumbled, noticing that Jonas and Ross had disappeared from the room, leaving me behind.
“People call me Dolly. Only Jonas calls me Dalton,” she affirmed. “I’m sorry about all the troubles you’ve been having, but if I know these guys, they’ll have it covered.”
I took the drink, suddenly feeling thirsty, and followed her lead as we headed over to the tea party where the princess offered us both a seat. “This is Anna. We call her A, and the one over there on guard duty is Bea, goes by the code name B.”
“I’m Rebecca. Thank you for, well… this intrusion.”
Dolly brushed it off like it was nothing. “So, Jake… How’s he been?” she asked, concern etching her face.
I furrowed my brow, unsure about the question. “Uh, good, busy, thoughtful. Sorry, I’m not quite sure how to describe his job.”
“My Uncle Jake
is really handsome, like my Uncle Jack and my daddy,” the princess began. “Are you his friend?” A asked.
“Yes,” I replied. I definitely classed us as friends. I was beginning to realize I was unsure about a lot and I needed to sort that out.
“Or are you his girlfriend?” the commando piped in, squinting her eyes like she was gearing up for an interrogation. Had I not been so nervous, the good cop, bad cop thing would have been funny.
“B, don’t be nosy,” Dolly chided and the girl slumped off, muttering something about perimeters and safe zones. “And guess who that one takes after?” She giggled.
As I was sipping my drink, the princess continued to chatter. “Do you live here, Rebecca? Do you have a job? My mom takes really pretty pictures and my daddy is really strong.”
“I go to college, but what I really want is to be a dancer.”
At that, her little eyes went wide and lit up. “Me too! Me too! If I don’t marry a prince and become a princess, I’m going to be a ballerina.”
Even if you had a heart of stone this kid would melt it and make it beat again immediately. “I think that’s an excellent idea. I like ballet but it’s not my best dance.”
“Can I show you my parrots?”
I looked around for a birdcage and Dolly started to chuckle. “She means pirouettes, but can’t say it. I’m a cruel mom for not making her try but there has to be some payback for the hours I spend at dance class. The teacher is old and crusty and A doesn’t have an ounce of coordination in her body, but God loves a trier.”
I stood up and watched as she began to turn like an out of control spinning top in the center of the room. After just three rotations, she was so dizzy that she ended up on her butt. Dolly got up to help her while desperately trying to hide her laughter. I felt bad for not getting there quicker because I knew as soon as she started what was going to happen.
“I always fall over,” she grumbled with her bottom lip jutting out, and because she was so sad, I couldn’t stop myself from squatting down on the floor with her.
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