by Aubrey Rose
It was amazing how one simple sentence could bring everything flooding back. Or was it just the proximity to family that did it? Stuart had pushed them all away for a reason, after all. Was coming back here a mistake?
If it was, then the sooner he got out of here the better.
His head was suddenly filled with a vision of dark hair and sparkling eyes. The girl from the diner... He didn’t know her and yet there was something about her that felt familiar. Something that made him want to get a little closer to her and discover just what had her running so scared.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ellie pushed the alarm clock off the small bedside table, its shrill ring continuing despite its aggressive meeting with the floor. Frustrated, she threw off the blankets and dropped her legs out over the edge of the bed. She scooped up the alarm and hit the silence button on the top.
It had been pointless setting the alarm. It wasn’t as though she had slept during the night. Every time she’d closed her eyes, Ellie had found herself plagued with images of Ricky’s panicked face. She should have helped him, given him the money he’d asked for. If he really was in as much trouble as he believed he was then he would need all the help he could get to escape Grey’s far reach.
The sound of breaking glass had Ellie bouncing up from her position on the edge of the bed. She grabbed a sweater and dragged it on over her head as she ripped the bedroom door open and bounded out into the hall.
From her position on the top of the stairs, Ellie could see the front door as it swung open on its hinges. Glass covered the floor inside the door and as she peered over the edge of the banister she could see someone moving back through the hall. The crunch of footsteps over glass had Ellie shrinking back and out of sight.
“Eleanor Blair, we know you’re up there. Either you come down and tell us where Ricky is, or I’ll come up there and drag it out of you.”
The voice that drifted up to her didn’t sound familiar but Ellie knew it had to be one of Grey’s men. Her mind instantly conjured an image of the man from the diner, though his voice hadn’t been harsh or frightening.
“I’m calling the cops. You’d better get out of here,” she called down as she headed for her bedroom and the cell phone she knew she had sitting on the locker.
A frightened moan had Ellie’s heart hammering in the back of her throat. She quickened her pace, grabbing her cell phone and running for the bedroom at the far end of the hall as the sound of footsteps pounded on the stairs.
Ellie reached the bedroom and pushed in through the door as the man on the stairs reached the top step. She had just enough time to watch as he swore and barrelled down the hall towards her.
“Don’t make me hurt you, he hissed, as he ran full tilt. Ellie pushed the door closed and flipped the lock on the inside of the door. She turned her gaze, scanning around the room as she searched for something, anything she could place in front of the door to keep him out.
His body collided with the door, or at least Ellie assumed it was his body. The flimsy wood rattled in its frame but it seemed to hold and for that she was grateful. Silence followed and as Ellie strained to listen she could make out some sort of whispering from the other side of the door.
How many are out there? she pondered as she punched in the number for the emergency services and held the cell to her ear.
Another frightened moan drew Ellie’s attention again and she hurried over to her mother’s bedside. The older woman lay propped up on several pillows. She’d once had the same long dark hair that Ellie now had but her mother’s hair was streaked with grey as it fanned out across the pillow.
It broke Ellie’s heart to see her mother so frightened and helpless but the stroke she had suffered after Ellie’s father had washed up on the beach dead had left her utterly dependent. Ellie couldn’t bear the thought of her mother being alone in a strange environment and so she had taken it upon herself to look after her at home. Of course as the medical bills built up, Ellie was finding it more and more difficult to pay for the nursing care her mother required. The situation was rapidly growing hopeless.
“Mom, it’s alright, I’m here, I’ll look after you.”
Ellie soothed her mother, stroking her fingers across the other woman’s cheek as she smiled down at her.
Rosalind’s eyes darted towards the door as it once again rattled in its frame and another low frightened moan escaped her.
“Breaker’s Point emergency department, how can I help?”
The woman on the other end of the line sounded vaguely familiar to Ellie but she didn’t have time to try and figure out why.
“Police, I need the police, someone has broken into my house. My address is 45 Walton Road.”
“And what’s your name?”
The woman on the other end of the line sounded so calm it made Ellie want to scream at her that it was an emergency.
“Eleanor Blair.”
“Ellie?”
The woman on the line had a sudden moment of recognition.
“Open the door, Eleanor, we just want to talk!”
The door rattled again making Ellie jump enough to almost drop the phone.
“The police are on their way!”
Ellie called out in the hopes that the threat of the police would be enough to frighten them away.
Silence followed and she swallowed hard.
“Ellie? Ellie! Are you there?”
Ellie became suddenly aware of the woman on the phone again and she placed the cell phone back against her ear.
“I’m here... I think they’re gone.”
“Well you just sit tight. I’m sending a car straight over. Dickerson should be with you in a few minutes.”
Rosalind moaned once more, her already pale skin growing whiter. She began to thrash in the bed, and it took all of Ellie’s strength to hold her mother in place in an attempt to stop her from hurting herself.
Ellie continued to hold her mother as she seized in the bed. It wasn’t the first time she had done this but it didn’t make it any less frightening for Ellie to deal with. She wasn’t a nurse and the only training she had was the first aid course she had taken before she finished college.
“Mom, it’s OK, you’re safe.”
Ellie spoke to her mother, she had no idea if it helped or not and perhaps deep down she did it more for her own sake than her mothers. The sound of footsteps crunching through the glass downstairs filled Ellie with dread. She had images of the strange men coming back for round two. If they broke through the door, Ellie had no idea how she would look after her mother and fight them off.
“Please, Momma, I need you to hear me, I need you to be alright.”
It was pointless and as the footsteps drew closer it felt as though the world itself was closing in around her.
“Ellie, what happened downstairs? What happened to the door?”
The sound of Selena’s voice had Ellie practically sobbing with relief. With the commotion of the morning, Ellie had completely forgotten that Selena, Rosalind’s day nurse, was due in early to help Ellie prepare her for the day.
The door handle rattled and Ellie had no choice but to release her mother and race over to flip open the lock.
“Selena, she’s seizing and I...”
Ellie didn’t even get the rest of the sentence out before Selena was in the room and making her way over to Rosalind’s bed.
“How long, Ellie?”
Selena pulled the pillows from beneath Rosalind and began laying her flat in the bed.
“A minute... Not long...”
Ellie’s chest hurt as she watched Selena work with her mother. Ellie knew what it meant if her mother continued to seize and all she could do was pray that it stopped.
Rosalind stopped as suddenly as she had started, the convulsions that had raced through her body only seconds before finally subsiding.
Ellie hurried around the bed and took her mother’s hand in hers, squeezing her fingers gently. Her skin was cold and clammy to t
he touch and as Ellie reached down and helped Selena to roll her mother into the recovery position she could feel the cold sweat that had soaked through her thin night gown.
“You’re alright now, Rosie, we’ve got you.”
Selena spoke softly as she worked, smoothing back the dark strands of hair that clung to Rosalind’s face. She shot Ellie a look, one that told her she wanted a word, a look that told Ellie that whatever she was going to say wouldn’t be good.
A knock on the front door had Ellie turning from Selena and her mother.
“Miss Blair, Eleanor Blair, Sheriff’s Department.”
A voice from downstairs drew Ellie from the bedroom and reluctantly she left her mother in Selena’s capable hands.
“And they just burst in?”
Will Dickerson watched Ellie with bright grey eyes from over the top of his notepad.
It was the third time that he had forced Ellie to go over the story once more and each time he seemed to believe her less and less.
“Yes, I heard the glass break and when I made it out to the top of the stairs they were already inside.”
He nodded and pursed his lips.
“And you didn’t recognise them?”
“No, but I know they were Grey’s boys.”
Dickerson shook his head and flipped his notebook shut.
“Miss Blair, if you didn’t recognise them, then how could you say with any certainty that they were Grey’s men? And anyway, why would a man like Grey be sending his security men over here...” Dickerson looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on Ellie’s barely constrained breasts beneath her sweater. “What would they want with you, Miss Blair?”
There was something in the way he said her name that instantly made Ellie’s skin crawl. She folded her arms across her chest without really thinking about it and suddenly Dickerson’s attention flipped back to her face once more.
“They wanted to know where my brother was. I told you this already, something happened...”
“But your brother doesn’t live here, so why would they come here looking for him? There had to be something else these men wanted. There’s a reason for everything, Miss Blair, and I just hope for your sake that you’re not spinning me a story.”
The look in his eyes darkened as he looked Ellie up and down once more. She fought the overwhelming urge to smack him right between his eyes but it wouldn’t do any good. The last thing she needed right now was to find herself locked up in jail. What would happen to her mom if she wasn’t there to look after her?
“Ellie, can I have a word?”
Selena’s voice drifted down to her from upstairs, dragging her from her reverie.
“I’ll leave you to it, Miss Blair. I’ll file the report and we’ll call it an attempted robbery.”
Ellie sighed and shook her head. It was pointless fighting against Dickerson’s pronouncement of an attempted robbery. He didn’t want to hear that it was Grey’s men. At the end of the day, no one wanted to hear it. He was an upstanding citizen, and upstanding citizens didn’t do things like this. They also didn’t have men murdered but if Ellie brought that up Dickerson might not even file the incident.
Ellie started for the stairs when Dickerson’s voice halted her.
“You know, a young woman like you should consider getting herself someone who can look after her. It would certainly put paid to these sorts of incidents and you’d be safe.”
Ellie turned on the steps and stared at Dickerson’s earnest face. This time he didn’t even try to hide the interest in his eyes and Ellie found her stomach churning uncomfortably. It was like being a prize cow put up for market.
“If it’s all the same with you, I think I’ll invest in a baseball bat.”
Dickerson’s expression turned sour and he turned on his heel, crunching out over the broken glass in the doorway.
Ellie hurried up the stairs and met Selena in the hall.
“You really think it was Grey’s boys who did this?”
She gestured to the still open front door. Ellie nodded and chewed her lip.
“I don’t think, Selena, I know it was them. It’s too much of a coincidence. Ricky came to me last night looking for money and then this morning this happens?”
Ellie dropped her face into her hands, pushing them back through her hair as she sighed.
“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it all...”
Selena nodded sympathetically and placed her hand on Ellie’s shoulder.
“I know you’re struggling. You’ve done the very best for your mom and for Ricky. And as strong as I think you are, Ellie, I’m not sure how long you can keep this up for.”
“What do you mean?”
Ellie’s heart sank to her stomach. She didn’t want any more bad news. The last thing she wanted to hear was how her mother wasn’t getting better. Deep down she knew it all but keeping her at home still felt like the right thing to do.
“Ellie, you know I’d do anything to help keep your mom here. But we’re going to have to face the truth soon...”
“And that is?”
Ellie struggled to keep the emotion from her voice.
“She’s not getting better, Ellie, she’s getting worse. Every seizure she has is a little worse than the one before and each one takes a little more out of her...”
“I told you, she’s better here. I remember what she was like in the hospital right after she had the stroke, Selena. I’m not bringing her back to that. I couldn’t do that to her... Home is where she belongs.”
“And I admire that, Ellie. I love that you want to keep everything around her so familiar, to give her the chance to have her old life around her but how long can you keep paying for this? As she gets worse she’s going to need more care, more equipment and you’re already stretched to breaking point.”
“I’ll get another job. I’ll do whatever I have to do, Selena. I don’t care...”
Selena cut her off and dragged Ellie into a hug.
“Ellie, when will you learn that you’re not Superwoman. You know it’s coming and if you don’t and Rosalind isn’t getting the care she needs then she’s going to get worse a lot faster... One of these seizures might be one too many.”
“No, don’t say that. She’s strong.”
Ellie struggled to pull out of Selena’s arms. She pushed past the other woman and hurried into the bedroom. She dropped into the seat beside the bed and took her mother’s hand in hers.
“Mom, I’m sorry. I’ll do better I promise.”
There was nothing from her mother, not even a flicker of recognition, but that wasn’t unusual. The seizures sapped her mother of what little energy she had. She would sleep for hours now and when she did awake again, Ellie knew that she would be a little weaker than before.
“Grey’s men did this... They took my father and now they want to take my mother too... I won’t let him get away with this—I can’t let him get away with this. Someone has to stop him, Selena.”
Ellie stood and leaned down over the bed, pressing her lips to her mother’s forehead in a gentle kiss.
“I promise no matter what, I’ll put a stop to all of this. I’m not going to let him rip my family completely apart.”
Ellie turned and strode back out into the hall. She moved into her bedroom and Selena followed her.
“Ellie, promise me you’re not going to do anything stupid?”
“Not stupid, just something I should have done a long time ago. I’ll get dressed and then I’ll come and help you with Mom.”
Selena shook her head.
“No let her sleep, I’ll get Megan to come over. She owes me a favour anyway. We’ll work faster together and your mom will be able to rest.”
Ellie smiled and Selena slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.
The smile on Ellie’s face quickly faded away and she dropped onto the edge of her bed once more. She knew Selena was right, her mother would be better off if Megan helped instead but in th
at moment all it did was compound the issue for Ellie. She was so incapable of caring for her own mother that Selena preferred to call someone else in...
Was she really doing the right thing for her mother? Would it be better if she allowed the insurance to step in and cover her care in a hospice? Ellie knew it wasn’t something her mother would ever have wanted but then she wouldn’t have wanted her life to turn out in this way to begin with. It was all such a mess. If Grey hadn’t killed her dad then her mother wouldn’t now be lying in the bed practically unconscious after a seizure.
It seemed so unfair...
How do I do what’s right? Ellie wanted to scream the words aloud but Selena was just down the hall and if she heard Ellie questioning things she would simply ramp up her persuasion. This was something Ellie needed to decide for herself, so the last thing she needed was to be swayed by someone else’s opinion.
She would go and see Grey and she would put a stop to it all. He owed her satisfaction after everything he had done and Ellie would have it, no matter the cost. In the end she had already lost almost everything...
But not everyone...
The small voice in the back of her mind piped up and Ellie paused. It was true, she hadn’t yet lost everyone. It had almost all been taken from her but her mother was still alive and so was Ricky... But if Grey had his way, how long did either of them have?
It was a hopeless situation, or as close to hopeless as Ellie had ever come, but if she could change it then she would.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Stuart, you’re going to be late.”
Riley’s voice came from far away and Stuart shifted position. He became suddenly aware of the cramped position his body was in and groaned.
“There’s coffee in the kitchen and if I were you, I’d get a shower... You look terrible.”
Riley’s voice faded as he moved from the room and Stuart slowly opened one eye and took in his unfamiliar surroundings.
The night before came flooding back to him as he pulled himself upright in the chair he had spent the night in. Bleary-eyed, he stared around the room, his gaze coming to rest on the empty bottle of brandy that lay on its side on the table.