“Ollie …”
“No, listen to me for a second.” He threaded his fingers with mine. “No matter what happens, we’re going to get through it. Look at how far we’ve come. We’re a force, love. A force no one will be able to withstand. As long as you’re by my side, I’m not scared, are you?” Biting my lip, Ollie smoothed his hand down my hair before clutching the ends as I slowly shook my head. He kissed my forehead before saying, “I’ll get us out, Mia. I promise to do whatever it takes to keep you safe, and me out of this fucking mess.”
The temperatures were below fifty in the night as we exited the old car. I had to give it to him, though. The beater managed to survive many miles so far without any problems. Ollie grabbed the luggage from the trunk, and we walked through the gate of our unnamed cottage. When we made it through our front door, he flipped on the light and released a long exhale. “Home sweet home,” he said through a sigh, but all my attention narrowed to the gift left in our living room.
Over our coffee table sat a dozen pink roses in a vintage glass vase, and I walked over to the flowers and picked them up at the base. “Oh, Ollie, they’re beautiful. Did you have Travis leave these?”
Looking over, I caught Ollie scratching the back of his head. “I don’t think so.”
I arched a brow. “You don’t think so?”
“Mia, I’m so tired, I honestly don’t remember, but it does look like something I’d do.”
Laughing, I examined the flowers for some sort of note or card. “There’s no note,” I said, and Ollie yawned from the entryway before I set the vase back over the table. “Alright, Romeo, let’s get you off to bed.”
“I’ll call Travis in the morning.”
Halloween had passed, yet the spooky vibe lingered among the streets of Surrey as I drove to Thurrock to meet Dex for a job. Between traveling and working on preparing for a new volume of poetry, I’d blown off most of Dex’s calls.
I couldn’t keep this up, and Dex only grew more annoyed with where he stood on my list of priorities.
The group of men huddled around the bar at Jack’s Pub, and I spotted Adrian with an easy smile and glazed eyes. Dex and his two other men pushed drunken Adrian around in amusement, and I stood over them, most of the blokes shorter than me, to assess the situation.
Smith, one of his men, noticed me first and squeezed my shoulder. “Nice of you to show up, mate.”
“I was busy,” I said, my voice vacant. There were a million other things I’d rather be doing right now.
Dex stood from his barstool, and the men subconsciously took a step back. “How was the wedding?” he asked with an all-knowing grin. Bloody hell, he knew. And if it were up to me, and under entirely different circumstances, the whole world would know Mia Rose was my wife. I’d climb the tallest mountain with a smile and six-pack of Red Bull to chisel our two faces into the rock with those exact words etched above our heads. But this very news was enough for Dex to know how deep my love for Mia ran. It meant another card in his back pocket, and another lure to keep me coming back. His sinister gaze confirmed it. “Ah, I understand. Our friend here gets married,” he turns back to face me with a hand over my shoulder, “and what happens in Gibraltar, stays in Gibraltar.”
Smith slid a shot in front of me, and I picked it up and slammed the liquor down the back of my throat. “Something like that.”
Adrian shot up from his chair and held his drink above his head. “To endings and new beginnings,” he shouted in amusement, but his eyes reeked of grief, still mourning the loss of our mate, Reggi. I’d been gone for weeks, and Adrian was left alone to deal with the pain after I’d kicked James to the curb for switching teams.
The next breath I sucked in filled me with guilt, and it slid down to my lungs and fed my heart. I pulled Adrian off to the side, and his dead stare never faltered. “How are you doing, my friend?” I asked, low, hoping he was sober enough to make conversation.
“Fuck you,” he spat, shrugging my arm away. “All this talk about brotherhood and trust, you’re just like the rest of them, so you know what? Fuck you, and fuck your new wife too.”
As soon as the words left him, my hand snapped over his jaw, squeezing it in a firm grip, and I twisted his head to the side and lowered my mouth to his ear. “You’re hurting right now, I know. I feel it, mate. But if you so much as disrespect her again, that pain your feeling? Nothing less than a glorious high compared to what I could do.”
Shoving Adrian’s head backward, I let go and returned my attention to the group. Dex’s gaze was fixed on me, an amused smirk playing behind his shot glass. I adjusted my hoodie before throwing my finger up for another drink. With Adrian drunk, James gone, I was on my own, and the night was still young—and a job still ahead.
After about an hour, I’d walked Adrian to my car and let him pass out in the backseat. Dex and I were going over plans. “The thing is, Ghost doesn’t make appointments. As soon as I get the time and address, I’ll call you, but you need to pick up your bloody phone,” Dex lifted his finger in my direction, “are we going to have any problems?”
“No.” I wanted this to end as much as he did, and I’d realized the only way for that to happen was to kill Ghost.
Dex rested his glass over the bar. “I’m going to need more than that.”
I leaned in and squinted my eyes. “You think I get off on your presence? I can’t fucking stand you. Trust me when I say, there won’t be problems. I’ll answer, kill that bastard, and be done for good. And if it were up to me, it would have been done months ago.”
“Situations such as these need planning. Ghost won’t be alone, you know. As soon as you walk in and take the shot, his men will kill you before you’re able to take a step in either direction. You’re an amateur, Oliver. The reason why you’re in a mess, to begin with.”
The thought of Mia ever losing me punched a hole in my chest. The pain and suffering I knew she’d face were enough to call back the fear. A month ago, I’d told her I wasn’t scared anymore. But I was a fucking liar. I was terrified. “Then why choose me to do your fucking bidding,” I nudged my head toward his entourage, “why not them?”
“It’s simple. If the plan goes up in flames, you’re disposable,” Dex scoffed. “Plus, don’t forget what I’ve done for you. You made your bed, now shut the fuck up and lie in it.”
“You still haven’t told me this plan of yours,” I pointed out.
“I’m working on it.”
Since Adrian was in no shape to take on the job tonight, I left him at the Links house and drove with Dex into BOG’s territory with Smith behind me in the backseat. Deliberately, Dex was moving his chess pieces across the board, taking out competition one by one. Once Ghost was killed, the BOGs would still be an issue on the east side of London. As far as I understood, no one within the Links knew of Dex’s devious betrayal aside from his inner circle, which, unfortunately, consisted of me.
This all started with me.
Me and my desperate deal to find Mia had been the first move in his inconspicuous game, giving Dex all the tools he needed to take over and light a match under the Links from the bottom.
Under Dex’s instruction, I turned off the headlights and pulled up to an abandoned warehouse on the opposite side of town. Magazines loaded, first round chambered, the ominous sounds of criminals handling illegal weapons played in the car, having a much better beat than any MGK song. Dex’s eyes slid over to me. “Going in clean, baby O?”
“I have one bullet, and I’m saving it for Ghost.”
Dex chuckled under his breath and turned to face Smith in the backseat. “Alright, simple grab and go,” he tossed black cloths over our laps, “we’ll take him back to the house and question him. They’ll be in the middle of a deal inside that building, and I prefer taking him after, not before. The other player can’t know.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Smith confirmed.
Then Dex added, “My sources say James may be with him for training, which could be a
snag. And if that’s the case, we have to separate the two. Oliver, that’s where you come in. James is useless to us. He’s new and won’t know anything. After the buyers leave, we’ll snatch the BOG while you get rid of James.”
“What do you expect me to do with him?” I asked, having no intention of murdering anyone tonight, especially James. He may have been responsible for Reggi’s death, but I already had enough blood staining my conscience, and plans for the bullet burning a hole in my pocket.
Dex’s black brows pinched together. “I don’t care what you do with him. Kill him, turn his lights out, fuck him in the arse. Just be quick and get back to the car.”
The three of us abandoned the car and surrounded the building. I went in through the back while Dex and Smith went in from the side. Hidden behind a wall, I peeked around the corner to see four men in the middle of a drug deal, James present. I shoved the black cloth over my head and lifted the hood of my hoodie, spotting Dex through a window at the side door, waiting.
It felt like forever had passed as the four chit-chatted inside the empty warehouse, their voices hushed. I wiped my anxious palms down the front of my hoodie as sweat built inside the black cloth over my face. At this point, we didn’t have a clue which way they would leave, and I bounced on my toes in anticipation.
Finally, the blokes broke apart. The two buyers left out the front, a large duffle under one of their arms, most likely containing the drugs. James’s eyes bounced around the warehouse as the other BOG’s lips moved beside him, recounting cash before walking in my direction. It made sense why Dex wanted to grab afterward, may as well take the filthy lucre too.
I pulled back my head and glued my body against the wall until a shuffle echoed off the cement walls, which was my cue. I walked out from the direction James hadn’t expected and appeared behind his back while Dex, head covered, tried to get control of the BOG we needed. Smith had his weapon pointed at James, and James had a chance to retrieve his pistol, but it only hung from his hand, pointing at the floor. Smith had full control of him, and I came up from behind, grabbed the gun from his hand, and slid it across the floor toward Smith.
James turned to face me, and I grabbed him from behind in a chokehold and dragged him back into the hallway as the other two moved out with the captured BOG. James was stronger than me, always had been, and he fought against my hold until I pulled his arm behind his back into a lock, where one simple move would snap it in half.
Once the sound of the door closing reached my ears, I knew the other three were out of the warehouse and on the way to the car. I didn’t have much time. My back slammed against the wall, and I slid down with James’s back to my chest, both of us on the ground. He struggled, but I had control and wanted to get this over with. With James’s entire weight on top of me, my lungs crushed, making it harder to breathe. I fought for air and the moment to pass, and as my arm around his neck tightened, I counted down the seconds before he was out.
“Oliver,” he rasped, his free hand clawing at my arm around his neck.
With my cover blown, my eyes briefly closed in an attempt to detach myself from the situation emotionally. James had been one of mine. I trained him. I was there during his drunken episodes when he confessed his fears and weaknesses. I used to be someone he looked up to. And, here I was, the one who had two proper grips on him at the moment, one on his neck, the other on his arm behind his back, and I twisted him to the side to ease him off my heaving chest so I could gather enough oxygen. “Stop fighting me. It will be easier for you.”
“He’s going to kill Adrian.”
I’d barely made out his gravelly statement and eased up my hold around his neck. “What are you talking about?”
“Dex,” he said in a collected breath. “Adrian and I know too much … Dex never planned on taking us with him. Once you finish off Ghost … Adrian’s as good as dead. I heard everything, mate. I didn’t have a choice … but,” he croaked, “there’s still time for Adrian.”
“Know your target, you always have to be ten steps ahead,” I’d repeated to Dex, to my boys, to Oscar. Except I hadn’t been the one ten steps ahead, I was far behind and just now catching up as it hit me all at once, and I let go of James.
Dex had planned on killing off my three boys all along.
Adrian, James, and Reggi never stood a chance.
An enraged tornado touched down inside me, and I stood, throwing my fist into the cement wall. Over and over, my fist pounded, hand deforming, but I couldn’t feel a bloody thing. James pushed me forward, and my body slammed against the wall before I flipped around and turned my anger on him, and with one clean hit against his skull, James fell back. His massive body thumped against the concrete floor with a loud echo mocking me.
I waited a few minutes to cool off before heading out of the warehouse and back to the car.
Sliding into the passenger seat, Dex was leaned back behind the wheel, flipping through stacks of cash. “What took you so long?” he muttered, and I turned back to see the black sack over the BOG’s head with Smith beside him, a gun clenched in his hand over his lap.
“James is strong, gave me a run for my money,” I said, casually, holding my fist out in front of me to examine the damage. It wasn’t the time to confront him, not with his mate behind me and a dodgy drug dealer at his side. Smith could very well be on his hit list too, or the only man he wanted to bring along on the ride to rule.
And the entire way back to the Link’s house, I kept my mouth closed and eyes out the window, devising a plan of my own. It was too late to save Reggi, and James had made the impulsive decision to switch teams. Good for him, but where did that leave Adrian? My only option was to get him out before I’d pull the trigger on Ghost.
The house had always been a large heap of trash, but the neglect only worsened since I’d been here last. Empty bottles and take-out rubbish scattered across tables and counters, and more holes decorated the walls meant for hanging pictures of loved ones. Dex sat the BOG over a chair and tied him up. Once the BOG was secure, Dex turned his attention to me. “You can go now, baby O. I got this.”
I pulled bottled water from the fridge, unscrewed the cap, and took a gulp with a raised brow. “No,” I chuckled, “I’m staying if that’s all right with you.” Dex planned on exhuming details from the BOG, and it was time for me to be in the know. With a flick of the wrist, I pointed the base of the bottle at him. “Carry on.”
For half an hour, I grimaced as Dex tortured the man for information, demanding names, locations, and dealings of their boss—the BOG’s leader. Dex wanted to know who was in charge, and his sick, menacing smiles only confirmed he was enjoying it as my stomach rolled from the heart-wrenching screams. By the time the man passed out from the pain, Leigh had strolled through the door with my mum on her tail.
Rolling my head back, I reached for my bottled water sitting over the counter beside the whiskey. I would need something heavier to deal with the two of them, but the only thing I wanted was to be back home with Mia, sober. Dex greeted my mum with a smack on her backside as Leigh approached me with a smile, and I stood from the barstool to leave.
“Holy shit, what happened to your hand?” she asked, taking my injured hand into hers. The blood had since dried, and I couldn’t move my fingers without searing pain shooting up my arm. It wasn’t broken. It was shattered.
I pulled my hand from her grasp. “I’m fine.”
Dex washed his hands in the sink, looking between us. “The BOG isn’t talking.”
“I’m told I have a way with people. Perhaps I could give it a go,” I offered.
My mum approached the kitchen, glancing over at me as she wrapped her arm around Dex’s waist, and he flashed her a short-lived smile before his eyes returned to mine. In an instant, the mask he’d wore dropped, and his expression turned cold with a void. “He’ll be out for a while. You should go. Better not keep the wife waiting.”
My mum’s head jerked to mine when Leigh gasped.
; “You married her?” Leigh asked, a frown marring her features.
I dropped my elbow over the table, and pain skyrocketed from my fingertips to my shoulder. I winced, saying, “Of course, I married her.”
“Yeah,” Dex chuckled, “and that’s the problem because the only person you should be committed to is me.”
“Oliver?” my mum asked, her voice small and careful, and it sent my heart into my throat. “You got married?”
“It wasn’t what she said, Mia, it was the way she said it,” I explained as Mia wrapped my hand. She was sitting over our bathroom counter as I stood between her legs with my arm out between us. “Four years, Mia. For four fucking years, and she didn’t visit me once. Hell, she testified against me when everything went down with Oscar and Brad. Even when I saw her at the funeral, she could barely look at me. But as soon as she found out I got married …” I shook my head, “it was almost as if she cared.”
Gently, Mia pulled my double-wrapped fist to her lips, kissing my knuckles lightly. “All better.”
A grin fought through my perplexity. “Thank you.”
“What happened after she said that?”
Breath rushed out of me, and I lifted a shoulder. “Left without saying anything.” I leaned my good hand over the edge of the counter beside Mia. “You know, she lost touch with reality a long time ago. Paranoia, hallucinations … it almost killed us both, and all I ever wanted was for her to quit using and get help. But, Mia, that look in her eyes tonight—”
“You think she stopped?”
Pushing off the counter, I scratched the back of my head. “I don’t know. Maybe Oscar dying woke her up. Or maybe I’m that six-year-old again, getting his hopes up. I can’t be sure, but I can’t trust her either.” Every time I saw her, torment broke out inside me. Multiple times, Mum had tried to kill me, and those were memories that could ever be erased. Time and time again, Mum had proved she was a hopeless, incurable disease, one I’d never want in our future. But the way she looked at me …
Now Open Your Eyes (Stay With Me series Book 3) Page 29