Conviction: Devine

by Sidebottom, D H

  Closing my eyes I breathed hard, allowing for the rage to simmer and for the first time allowing my hatred to feed the darkness inside me. My eyes opened slowly and I refocused on the paused picture.

  I smiled at the calmness inside me, the way my body accepted the pure evil inside me making me shiver in delight. My exhalation was long but steady and I rolled my head around my neck.

  “It’s time to end this shit,” I whispered to myself. “You’re finally mine, bitch.”

  Then I walked out.

  PLACING THE PHONE BACK down on my desk I rubbed at my eyes. I was exhausted, each of my muscles ached and my eyes felt like grit.

  Adam popped his head around the door. “He’s ready.”

  “Good.”

  Quickly I got up, pulled off my shirt and pulled one of the grey t-shirts from the pile of twenty I kept in my cupboard for reasons like these.

  “You okay?” Adam asked as we strolled down the worn concrete steps hidden behind the large bookshelf at the end of the corridor.

  “Yeah, just tired.”

  “No word about your mom or the guy who emailed you?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing.”

  “Jake, why don’t you just ask your father? Maybe . . .”

  “You really think he’ll tell me?” I scoffed as we pushed through the soundproof door. “I don’t want him to know that I’m aware she isn’t dead. He wanted me to think it for some reason and until I know why, I’ll keep it to myself.”

  He nodded, understanding.

  Keegan smiled sorrowfully at us when we stepped into the cold brick room. A pain tore through my head and I winced, pressing my fingers into my temple to alleviate it. It was the first time I’d suffered with a migraine and it had me wondering how the hell my beautiful wife coped with them.

  “You okay?” Adam asked, his face full of concern as he propped me up when I fell against him.

  I nodded, grimacing at the pain then turned to the man strapped to the wall. I smiled and shivered against the chill of excitement.

  “Never trust family, you fool,” I mocked Seth as I smiled gratefully to Keegan.

  Keegan sighed and lowered his eyes. Patting his shoulder, I gripped his chin. “Your loyalty to me won’t be misplaced, Kee. Maisie is waiting for you in my office. Go fuck her into next week then she has some keys for you. My villa in Hawaii is at your disposal for as long as you need it and my plane is on standby whenever you’re ready.”

  “Thanks, Jake.”

  I closed my eyes and turned, giving him a moment when he looked at his twin for the last time. They stared at each other before Seth nodded, giving his forgiveness to his brother before Keegan sighed and walked away. They both knew how it worked, as we all did in this business. Family was nothing unless they gave you their loyalty and allegiance. If they didn’t hold your heart then they could turn on you just as powerfully as your worst enemy.

  “So here we are,” I finally said to Seth.

  He smirked at me but shrugged. “Here we are. Took you long enough.”

  “Maybe, but I’ve been rather busy screwing my wife.” I knew Seth had a thing for Isla; the way his eyes darkened with my words confirmed it. “Quite a little goer when she’s in the mood. And she will always . . .” I snapped my fingers around his throat and squeezed. “ . . . always come before anyone.”

  Seth laughed, even through the tight restriction of his throat. “You are so easy to read.”

  I narrowed my eyes on him, his words confusing me. “What?”

  His smiled mocked me, his laughter loud as his body trembled with amusement. “Your commitment to Isla,” he said. “You’ll never live peacefully, Devine, because everyone will come for her to get to you.”

  “And then everyone will die,” I hissed back.

  He nodded but tutted. His eyes held a sparkle. My heart beat quicker, the rapid thud in my chest matching the echo of Adam’s footsteps across the room when he sensed the room chill.

  “You wonder how easy it was to capture me, Jake?”

  “What?” Adam asked quietly.

  Every bone in my body cracked as my gut clenched. The restriction in my throat matched that of my prey when I looked at the vicious smile on his face. Leaning forward as much as he could, he whispered. “While the cat’s away, the mouse will play.”

  “What have you done?” Adam asked as he fisted Seth’s hair and yanked at him.

  Seth shook his head slowly. “I haven’t done anything.” His grin grew wider. “However, we each knew you’d personally want to get revenge.” The more the cunt spoke the more each of my hairs stood on end. “You’re the most blinded man I have ever known, Devine.” He chuckled coldly. “Could never see what was in front of you, could you? For years they’ve been at it. Since you were young and stupid they were fucking away.” He pursed his lips and shrugged. “Gotta give her credit though, she played you well. So did he.”

  I knew he was talking about Gen but who the hell else he was gibbering on about had me confused. “Who?”

  He grinned. “You just handed him the keys to your holiday home.”

  Adam stumbled back as did I, both of us staring at Seth. “What the fuck? Kee? No way, he’s been like my brother for years.”

  “Never trust family,” Seth mocked. “Especially not when they work for your father.”

  The walls seemed to rush at me as my heart stopped beating. “What? “Adam asked when he sensed my inability to.

  “Who the fuck do you think told Michaelson about Isla’s involvement in Dwaine’s death? How did he get inside evidence to pin you for Seb and Marianne’s murders? How the fuck do you think he knows that Isla is right now on her way to save her beloved Kris?”

  I couldn’t breathe. My blood ran cold inside my veins. “She’s . . . she’s what?”

  “Your stupid wife just received a call from Kris. Aww, how sweet that she thinks she can save the day and rescue him from the tower he’s trapped in.”

  “How do you know all this?” I shouted as I pulled out my knife and held it to his throat, his nonchalance angering me.

  “Oh, come now. What the hell do you think Kee and me were talking about before you came in? I mean I know we’re brothers and all but we’ve never been the closest of siblings. He’s more enamoured by your father than he is our own.”

  His blood sprayed my face before Adam and I ran from the room.

  Her voice on my voicemail had me both praising her and shouting at her.

  “Baby, don’t be cross but Kris needs me. I’m going to look for him. The address from the trace software is 125 Benjamin Way. I promise I’ll be careful.”

  “They know you’re coming!” I screamed back to her voicemail when it clicked in. “Isla, baby. Stop, please. STOP!”

  But I sensed deep within my bones that I was too late.

  I SQUINTED AS I drove along slowly, my headache hampering my ability to see the house numbers clearly. The houses along the private gravel road seemed to stop when they reached the low hundreds.

  “What the hell?” I grumbled when I looked around for 125. Staring at the number 123 on the last house, I looked across the road at number 124. Then nothing. “Argh,” I cried in frustration as I pulled to the side of the road and got out.

  The streetlights flickered, making my head hurt more when I tried to see through their annoying flashes. Checking the houses again, I pulled out my phone and dialled Jake. I frowned, pulling my phone away from my ear to check it when it beeped at me.

  “What the fuck?” I said when ‘SIM INACTIVE’ glared back at me. Turning it off and on, it still wouldn’t work and I rubbed at the back of my neck. That was when I saw the signpost I stood under and I moved back to read it. Apparently, according to the sign, 125 Benjamin Way was down the long dirt track at the side of 123.

  “Isla!”

  I turned around to find Keegan running up the road towards me. “Hey,” I said, sighing in relief when he reached me.

  “Jake told me to meet you here,�
�� he puffed out as he tried to get his breath back.

  “Oh, thank God.” I chuckled. “I’m a bit nervous about going in there on my own.” He nodded and climbed in the passenger seat of my car as I climbed in the driver’s side “Where’s your car?” I asked as I shifted into first and slowly nudged the car up the narrow lane.

  “I left it back there, ran out of petrol,” he murmured, rolling his eyes at himself.

  I stared at him and shook my head. “You need a woman, Kee.”

  He laughed. “Nah, I’m gay!”

  “Are you?”

  He nodded and huffed. “Yep, you’re the only one out of all at Devine who has bothered enough to ask.”

  I stiffened at the tone in his voice. “Maybe no-one wanted to pry.”

  He scoffed. “No, I just never quite fitted in to the inner circle and nobody cared enough to ask.”

  Giving him a sad glance as I pulled the car closer to the dark house opening up to us, I patted his hand. “Well, to me you’re still you and I care about you.”

  He blinked at me, his brows twitching as his expression grew a little intense.

  “Here we are,” I said quickly when he started to give me the creeps.

  We both peered out of the window, our lips curling with the sight of the rundown house that did nothing to welcome us. “Surely he can’t be here,” I said quietly, more to myself than Keegan.

  “We won’t know until we look,” he said with a smile before he jumped out of the car and came round to open my door.

  I was glad Keegan was with me. I’m not too proud to admit that I was sacred shitless. Although I knew I could handle Genesis, it was who else was with her that was the problem.

  I rolled my eyes when the front door creaked open and Kee made stupid ghost sounds. “Bloody hell.” He chuckled. “It’s like being in a movie.”

  “And the big bad wolf is going to get us.” I laughed back.

  He turned to me with a huge grin as I stepped into the dark foyer, a small dusty lamp the only thing that provided any light. “I don’t know about wolves.” He smirked, giving me the shivers. “But you should be frightened of friends.”

  Just as I squinted at him, wondering what the hell he was on about, he slid a knife out of his pocket and as if in slow motion, he pushed it straight into my stomach.

  ADAM GRABBED CARRIE’S ARM and pulled her back. “Wait,” he warned when she tried once more to run up the driveway.

  I could see Isla’s car at the top of it, the headlights still on and lighting up the front of the house. I knew Keegan already had her because we’d had to walk most of the way when he’d blocked the road with his car.

  I couldn’t think straight, all the thoughts in my head jumbled and making my wrath grow with each passing second. I was as eager as Carrie but I pulled in another breath and once again checked my watch. “Where the fuck is she?”

  “Calm down,” Adam said as Joel, Carrie’s brother, held on to Carrie. “Rushing in will ruin everything. That’s what they’re expecting of you, to go in all guns blazing . . . but ill equipped.”

  We all turned when the beam from a torch flashed across the concrete road. “Jake,” Katie Fox greeted as she brushed her long red hair off her face and dropped the large duffel bag at my feet.

  “Thank you.” Unzipping the bag, I took the shotgun and ammo out before I kicked the bag towards Adam to take a piece.

  Katie nodded as she pulled both guns out of the back of her jeans and clicked the safety off. “This is Jarred and Mark.” Both her men nodded civilly as they loaded up their own guns.

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’re in there with you,” she stated casually.

  “What? Why?”

  She glanced at me. Katie Fox was known for her lack of empathy. She took after her father in many ways but it was her hunger for blood and carnage that saw her ruling South London. She’d been my neighbour for a couple of years and her allegiance right then meant more to me than anything else in the underworld. “Because we’re friends.” She locked my gaze as she ran the tip of her tongue across her blade then shivered as she swallowed her own blood. “And also because your wife has a hot ass.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, even though my heart was dying and my soul was raging for a fight, I had to agree with the little Hells Angel beside me. “Then let’s go save that hot piece of ass.”

  She grinned at me. “Lead the way.”

  I nodded and pulled in a deep breath. “By the way,” I spoke to them all as we quietly made our way up to the house. “Keegan is mine.”

  “You need to concentrate on Isla,” Adam said.

  I stopped and turned to him, my eyes narrow as the twist in my gut started and my veins stretched with the rush of blood when the rampant beat of my heart alerted me to the wrath taking over. “You save him for me Adam.”

  “I think you might have someone else to worry about,” Carrie said in a hushed voice.

  I glanced at her. She tipped her head to the car at the rear of the house as we moved round the back.

  The wrath that had slowly trickled in surged at a velocity I struggled to control when my eyes landed on the silver Merc. In the many years I’d been in this business, the darkness inside me had been what had got me through, but when I spotted my father’s car, it possessed me with an intensity I knew I could never come back from.

  “He’s mine.”

  They all turned to look at me when the tone of my voice reflected the hatred taking over.

  “Carrie,” Adam ordered when he realised I’d lost it and succumbed to the rage. “You take Genesis.” She nodded. “Joel, you get Isla out and Keegan’s mine.” Everyone nodded. “And Katie, if you could take anyone else and just have our backs.” Katie nodded.

  I moved forward, my soul hunting for its mate and my heart trying to hear the beat of its twin. I didn’t see anything through the white mist that had descended, only bloodshed and a deep hunger for pain and destruction.

  I was calm when I kicked the back door in. I was calm as I took out the men sat waiting for us. I was calm as I put a bullet through every single head on my way through the house. I was calm as I searched each and every room.

  However, when I opened the door to the final room and found my father stood over my dead wife, the calmness slipped away and the crazy slipped in.

  “ISLA.”

  My eyes opened as his smooth voice filtered in to my dreams. “Seb?”

  “You’re not supposed to be here.”

  “Aren’t I?”

  Shaking his head, he slipped his hand into mine. “Not yet, sis.”

  Another hand slipped into my other. “You need to go home, honey.”

  Turning at the sound of my mother’s voice, I shook my head and reached out to touch her beautiful face. “But I don’t want to. I want to stay here with you.”

  “No you don’t,” she whispered as her clear, seeing eyes roamed my face. “Henry and Jake need you. Seb and I have each other. We’re happy. We need you to be.”

  “But I miss you.”

  “We’re always with you,” Seb whispered as he kissed my head. “But right now you need to open your eyes and fight.”

  I frowned. “But my eyes are open.”

  “No, honey,” my mum said. “No they’re not. Open your eyes, Isla. Open them. Open them . . .”

  “Open your eyes . . .”

  My eyes snapped open when I heard Kris desperately pleading with me. “Isla . . .”

  The pain that wrenched my stomach blurred my vision but I was numb to it all when I focussed on the hell before me.

  The room was dark, the light subdued by just another simple lamp but still providing enough for me to make out the silhouettes. Kris was laid at the side of me, his pale face telling of his own pain as his hands pushed into my stomach. Looking down I frowned, wondering what he was doing but then I looked up again, the room swimming before me.

  Ted Michaelson stood grinning at Jake as he held a gun to Jake’s c
hest. The shotgun in Jake’s hand was low by his side as he regarded his father with dead eyes. I could see the rage in him, the fury an actual entity that had seized my husband and refused to let go. I could see it drowning him, his own soul haunting him.

  “You never had any patience,” Ted said with a chuckle. “Even as a child you had to rush in, all guns blazing, burying yourself before you’d even fought.”

  Jake remained silent, his blank expression making me wonder if he was actually listening. “Help him,” I whimpered through the pain to Kris. “Jake needs you.”

  “Shush, Isla.”

  A cold sweat covered me when Ted thrust the gun harder into Jake. “You were always a selfish little bastard too. Although I’ll admit you get that from me.” He laughed. “You should be grateful that you never got any of her genes.”

  “Hers?” Jake finally spoke but the tone in his voice surprised me. It was dull and void of any emotion. I’d never once seen him this way. Before when he welcomed his fury, he used it to feed the fight in him but now, it was as though he didn’t care, that whatever happened he just wasn’t bothered.

  “Your simpleton mother,” Ted hissed nastily.

  Jake’s eyes finally glinted and he turned slowly to look at his father. “Simpleton?”

  Ted curled his lip and shivered. “Stupid bitch tried to kill herself. The docs said she was depressed.” He blew out a disgusted breath. “She wasn’t depressed, just fucking lazy.”

  “Lazy?”

  Ted nodded and rolled his eyes. “They blamed you, of course. Well actually, so did I. She was never right after she had you.”

  “Me?”

  “Mmm,” Ted mumbled as he started to reminisce, his mind taking him back long ago. “She tried to top herself when you were four months old. Didn’t quite make a decent job of it, fucked up her brain but unfortunately, she didn’t fuck up her lungs.”

  “Her brain?”

  My heart beat hard as I watched the fog seep into Jake’s eyes, his gaze cool but I could see it. I always saw it. The sin in his soul. The malice in his heart. The debauchery that ran in his veins.