Boys of King Academy

by Rose, Louise

  “I’ll see you at work later.” Lucas quickly kissed me and left.

  “Who was that, Mummy?” As I shut the front door, I jumped at the voice behind me. I whirled round to see Amber.

  “Oh, it was just a delivery.”

  Amber frowned. “So, where’s the parcel?”

  I mentally kicked myself for raising a child who was so quick witted. I’d always encouraged her to question everything, including me, but it was already starting to backfire at moments like now. I didn’t want her to know Lucas had stayed over until I was a little more secure in our relationship.

  I thought fast. “He had the wrong house. He was looking for Uncle Archer. I gave him the right address so Uncle Archer will be able to get his delivery. Now then, little madam, rather than you asking me questions about things which are none of your business, why don’t we go and get you some breakfast? You’ve got a big day at nursery. It’s your trip to the local aquarium, remember? Do you think you’re going to see a shark?”

  “Oooh, yes! Sharks!”

  That was it. Amber was off, happily babbling away about all the sea creatures she was going to see at the aquarium. They’d been doing a project about the sea at nursery and she was really excited about being able to meet all the fish she’d been singing songs about for weeks.

  Once Amber was in her stride, she didn’t really need much input from me other than the occasional grunt and ‘mm-hmm,’ so I was free to process the discussion Lucas and I had had that morning. While it made sense for us to keep our relationship on the downlow for the moment, the second Amber found out about us, it was going to be common knowledge. I knew from painful experience that she couldn’t keep a secret and had long since learned to keep any unflattering opinions or gossip to myself if Amber was within earshot.

  While I was going to respect Lucas’s wishes, with Amber around, I wasn’t sure how long that could last.

  “Have a good day at the aquarium, sweetie.” I gave Amber a kiss and cuddle before she happily trotted into nursery, waving her shark-shaped lunch box at all her friends. I’d seen it in a Facebook ad a couple of weeks ago and ordered it for her as a surprise. Her face when she saw it was a picture and I could have cried with how happy she was. She was going to have the best day trip ever.

  “Be good!” I called after her, but I wasn’t even sure she heard me she was so caught up in talking to one of the nursery teachers about all the fish she was going to see.

  “She always is.” Kym, another of the teachers overheard me and smiled reassuringly. “Amber’s a little angel.”

  “For you, maybe,” I said. “If I were to take her to the aquarium, I’d spend the day running after her, trying to keep up!”

  “The children know to stick together when we go out,” Kym reassured me. “Amber is buddied up with Daisy. They’ll be holding hands the whole time and we have a high adult/child ratio, so she’ll be with one of us at all times. She’ll have a ball.”

  “I’m sure she will. Thanks, Kym.”

  As I walked away from the nursery, my phone beeped with a text. I pulled it out to see that my father had messaged me.

  I have the name of Lucas’s sister. Come and see me after work and I’ll give you all the details x

  Hands shaking with excitement, I quickly tapped out a reply.

  That’s amazing! I’ll let Lucas know. We’ll come by later x

  I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face as I hurried over to Lucas’s office. I wanted to see his face when I told him my father had done what his investigators couldn’t. His door was open and I knocked on it as I walked in. Lucas was tapping away on his computer, but when he looked up to see me, he got up and came to close the door behind me.

  He pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply.

  “Wow,” I said when we broke apart. “What was that for?”

  “It’s just the effect you have on me.” Lucas shrugged. “You’re going to have to get used to the fact that ever time you walk into my office, I’m going to want to kiss you. In fact, I have a rather large desk and we could…” His voice trailed off as he raised his eyebrows suggestively and nodded his head towards his desk.

  “No, we couldn’t. I’ve got class in ten minutes and I need to get ready,” I reminded him. “But I have some news. Dad’s found your sister.”

  “You’re kidding?” Lucas grabbed my arms, then spun away from me, biting down on his fist to contain his happy cry.

  “I would never kid about something like that,” I told him. “Dad said that he’ll give us all the information he’s got if we go and see him tonight.”

  “That’s incredible! I can’t believe he found her so soon. I’ll have to do something nice for your dad to say thank you.”

  “Don’t worry – I’m sure Dad will find a way of making sure you pay him back.” Knowing my father, he’d extract a very high price from Lucas, although the way Lucas looked right now, I really didn’t think he’d care.

  “What’s the earliest you can get out of here?” Lucas asked.

  “Amber’s on a field trip and they’re not due back until five,” I told him.

  “Five?” Lucas’s face fell. “Can’t you get Claire to pick her up?”

  “Normally I would, but she’s on leave this week. There isn’t enough time to get to my dad’s and back before I’m due to pick her up. I’m sorry, Lucas, but you’re going to have to be patient just a little while longer. You’ve waited this long to find your sister. A couple of hours isn’t going to make any difference.”

  Lucas sighed. “You’re right. I just really want to find my sister, you know? All this time I thought I was alone in the world and it turns out that I have a family after all, a real one. She’ll be able to tell me all about my mother – she must have so many stories to tell. I can find out about where I came from. You have no idea how much it means to me to be able to learn things I never thought I’d know. I want to give my sister a big hug and tell her how much I love her, even though we’ve only just met.”

  “I get that.” I smiled at Lucas. It was hard for me to understand what he was going through. Growing up in a large family, there were plenty of times I wished my siblings would disappear, but the truth was that I loved them all to bits and I couldn’t imagine what life would be like without my family, let alone having the kind of abusive upbringing Lucas had endured.

  Lucas was about to say something else, but the bell rang to indicate the start of the school day, interrupting him.

  I put my finger over his lips. “Hold that thought,” I said. “I’ll come and see you when I’ve finished teaching and maybe we can kill the time checking out that desk of yours.” I stood on tiptoe and dropped a quick kiss on his lips before leaving to go to my first class of the day.

  “You look happy, miss. Have you got a new boyfriend?”

  “N-no.” I flushed at the question from Charley, one of my pupils. “What makes you think that?”

  “You’ve just been smiling all day and you’ve got that far away look in your eyes.” Charley exchanged a look with her friend, Maya. “We just thought you might have a boyfriend.”

  “And we’re happy for you if you have,” Maya put in. “It’s about time you were with someone. You deserve to be happy. You’re our favourite teacher.”

  “That’s very sweet of you to say, but no. I don’t have a new boyfriend. Now get along before you’re late for your next class.”

  I covered my bluster by shuffling together papers on my desk as Maya and Charley slouched out of the room in that way only teenage girls can, giggling and nudging each other. Had it really been that obvious that I was seeing someone? If my pupils could tell that something was up, I wouldn’t stand a chance of hiding it from my friends and family.

  For the rest of the day I was like a bear with a sore head, snapping at people in an attempt to pretend I wasn’t all that happy. It was exhausting – and it wasn’t fair on my poor students either who really didn’t deserve it. By the time the bell rang to signify th
e end of lessons, I wanted nothing more than to go home and put my feet up, but I had to hang around for Amber to come back from her trip.

  On the upside, Lucas would still be in his office and he did have that very large desk…

  Smiling, I grabbed my things and made to go over to see Lucas when my phone rang. Pulling it out, I saw someone was calling from a blocked number. Normally, I wouldn’t answer if I didn’t know who was calling, but some gut instinct told me this was important.

  “Hello?”

  “We have your daughter. Tell no one and wait for further instructions.”

  Chapter Eighty-Four

  My blood turned to ice in my veins as I stared at the phone in my hands. It had to be a joke. A sick one, but a joke no less. I couldn’t believe someone had taken my beautiful child.

  My phone rang again, this time with a number I knew. Hands trembling, I swiped the screen to answer.

  “Hi, Kym. Is everything okay?”

  The teacher was doing her best to sound professional, but I could hear the unmistakeable tremble in her voice.

  “I don’t want to worry you, but we can’t find Amber. We need to send the rest of the children back to school because the driver can’t wait around much longer, but I’m going to stay here to help look for her. We’ve called the police and-”

  I hung up on her. I didn’t need to hear anymore. They weren’t going to find my daughter. She was in the hands of some criminal gang and I had to get her back.

  There was a knock on the classroom door and I looked up to see Lucas smiling at me.

  “Hey. I thought I’d come and see if you fancied a coffee while we wait for Amber to come back?”

  I felt like someone had stabbed me in the gut and was twisting the knife when he said our daughter’s name, but the kidnappers had told me to tell no one, so I did my best to pretend nothing was wrong.

  “That was Kym from nursery,” I told Lucas, waving my phone at him. “Apparently there’s been a bit of a delay, so it might be a while before they’re back.”

  “Is that right?” Lucas moved towards me, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Well, I can think of a good way to kill the time while we wait.”

  Sex was the last thing on my mind and I knew I wasn’t going to fake enthusiasm, so I was glad when my phone beeped with a text, giving me an excuse to keep Lucas at arm’s length. I stepped back, holding up a finger to let him know I would just be a moment while I read the text.

  The last warehouse on the right. Dauphin Trading Estate. Twenty minutes. Come alone and don’t be late.

  Once again, the number was blocked, but this had to be where they had Amber.

  “Everything all right?”

  I quickly tucked my phone away so Lucas wouldn’t see the message.

  “Fine, fine. But I’m going to have to go. Rain check?”

  “Where are you going? I’ll come with you.”

  I thought quickly to come up with an excuse to stop him. I couldn’t risk anything happening to Amber because Lucas had tagged along. He might be Amber’s father, but until the kidnappers told me I could involve him, I wasn’t taking any chances.

  “It’s Ivy,” I said. “She needs to talk to me about something. It sounds serious.”

  “I hope everything’s okay.”

  “So do I.” I didn’t need to fake the worry in my voice.

  “Well, I’m not going to come between two friends when there’s a crisis. Tell you what. I’ll pick up Amber from the nursery and meet you back at yours if you like.”

  “Yeah, that would be great.” I knew full well he wasn’t going to be able to do that. I could only hope that he’d forgive me when he discovered what had happened.

  I drove to the trading estate as fast as I dared, pushing the speed limit but not so much I’d attract any unwanted police attention. I could pull rank as Knight heir, but then they’d start asking awkward questions and I didn’t have any time to spare if I was going to get to the warehouse within twenty minutes. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if I was late.

  I took the turn off into the trading estate. I didn’t know what types of business Romy’s family housed here, but it was quiet. Too quiet.

  I slowly drove through the estate, looking out for the warehouse I needed. I followed the road to its end and on the right was a large warehouse which didn’t look like it was being used for anything. The lights were out, there were no vehicles parked outside and I couldn’t see any sign of human activity.

  Still, if I had the right building, there was something going on here all right. Some evil bastard had my daughter held captive and I was going to get her back, no matter what.

  I parked in front of the warehouse and hurried inside to the reception area.

  “Hello?”

  My voice echoed back to me, but there was no reply. There was a desk opposite me, but it was unmanned. There was a door behind it and I went through to find had my child.

  My phone beeped with another text.

  You’re getting warmer…

  “So you like to play games, do you?” I muttered. “This is one game you’re never going to win.” I raised my voice. “Where’s my daughter? Come out and show yourself!”

  I heard a crash off in the distance and I ran in the direction of the sound. Corridors and rooms blended into one as I frantically searched for my baby. As I raced past a door, I heard another crash coming from behind it. I yanked the door open and went in.

  The door slammed behind me, plunging the room into darkness. I whirled round, fumbling for the handle. When I found it, I tried to open the door again, but it was jammed shut. I was trapped!

  There was a click and suddenly the room was filled with light. I turned around to see a window opposite me which looked out over another room. Amber was tied to a chair in the middle of the room, a large piece of duct tape over her mouth.

  “Amber!” I screamed and ran over to the window, banging on it to smash the glass, but it was too thick. “Hold on, baby. I’m coming!” I looked to the side, trying to find another door that would let me be reunited with my daughter, but there was nothing. I couldn’t see any way out of the room aside from the door I’d come in and that wasn’t opening. The room was completely empty, so there wasn’t even anything I could use to smash the glass.

  “So you’re Milly Knight. I have to say that you look even more unimpressive in person than you do in photos.”

  A woman I’d never seen before stepped out from the side of the glass and went to stand next to Amber, lightly resting a hand on her shoulder. Amber jerked away from her, but the woman grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her back into place. Amber’s face creased up in pain, but the duct tape muffled her cries.

  “Don’t hurt her, you bitch!” I pounded on the glass, hating that I couldn’t protect my daughter.

  “Now, now.” The woman tutted and waggled a finger at me. “We’ll have none of that kind of language here. Not when there’s a child present. What kind of mother are you?”

  “One who’ll do anything to protect her child,” I yelled. “And if anything happens to Amber-”

  “You’ll what?” the woman sneered. “What exactly are you going to do? You’re trapped in that room. You can’t get out unless I let you out and trust me, honey. I’m not letting you out any time soon.”

  “I’m going to kill you!” I banged on the window again, desperate to break through.

  “No, you won’t.” The woman laughed. “Instead, you’re going to call Lucas Donatello and tell him to get his arse over here. Because if he doesn’t get here within twenty minutes, I might just have to give him a little incentive…”

  She grabbed Amber’s ear, twisting it painfully.

  “Stop it!” I screamed banging on the glass. “I’ll call Lucas, okay? Just leave Amber alone.”

  “And make sure you tell him to come alone and tell no one. I’ll know if he does.”

  Hands shaking, I took out my phone and dialled his number.
<
br />   Chapter Eighty-Five

  Lucas

  Blue lights lit up the interior of the nursery from the flashing lights on top of the police cars parked outside. Everywhere I looked there were policemen. Over to one side, Kym was struggling to keep it together as she went over her story one more time, My fingers itched to throttle her. How could she have lost my baby girl? I’d only recently found out I had a daughter but already that child was my world. If anything happened to her, I’d burn this whole town to the ground if it meant getting revenge on the person who had her.

  My phone rang. My heart dropped when I saw Milly’s name on the screen. How was I going to tell her that my staff had lost Amber?

  “Milly? I’m so sorry but I’ve got some bad news.”

  “It’ll have to wait. Are you somewhere no one will overhear you?”

  “Milly, this can’t wait. It’s Amber. She-”

  “I know. Lucas, get somewhere private.”

  I looked around, wondering where on earth I could go in this chaos that would give me the privacy Milly was so insistent about. In the end, I went to the children’s toilets and pulled the door to.

  “What’s this about, Milly? How do you know about Amber?”

  “I can’t explain right now,” she said. “I need you to trust me. You have to come out to the Dauphin Trading Estate.”

  “What – now? I can’t do that. The police are here. They said they weren’t done talking to me.”

  “I don’t care. You have to find a way to get out of there without telling them where you’re going.”

  “How am I going to do that, Mills? I’m the father of the child who’s gone missing and the head of the school which lost her. It’s going to look really suspicious if I suddenly leave.”

  “I don’t care how it looks, Lucas. You need to leave. Now.”

  I was taken aback by the violence in Milly’s tone. I’d never heard my mild-mannered girlfriend be so aggressive.

  “Milly, you have to tell me what this is about, otherwise I’ve got no choice I’ve got to tell the police.”