Fortitude (Heart of Stone)

by D H Sidebottom

  “Oh my god…”

  She nodded slowly. “I knew he didn’t love me, Ava. I knew it in my bones and I selfishly hoped the baby was his but then as soon as I found out, I lost it.”

  “Oh…”

  “Yeah, nothing more to say really is there. Anyway, it had been my only hope of... of holding onto him. I knew he would never turn his back on a child so…”

  “So?” I urged her on.

  “So, I slept with someone, became pregnant again and told Mason it was his.”

  Silence descended. Rebecca never removed her eyes from me as she gauged my reaction.

  “I loved him so much Ava, I need you to understand that. I needed him with an ache that was physical. It tore at me daily, and it broke me down so much until there was nothing of me left. I turned into the crazy woman who would do anything to get the man she loved. He turned me into that woman.”

  “I…”

  “He knew though.” She smiled sadly. “He knew it wasn’t his even before you threw that paternity test at us. He’d known long before that…”

  “Rebecca…”

  She continued, whether she hadn’t heard me or whether she chose to ignore me, I would never know… but her next words blew my world apart.

  “He always knew, Ava. We’d never in six years used a condom, and I’d never got pregnant before, so he knew.”

  “You’re not making sense.”

  She frowned at me. “Well he would never be the dad to my baby if he can’t have kids, would he?”

  I stared at her, my mouth open, each particle of air in that room whooshing towards me as my vision tunnelled and I struggled to remain conscious.

  “W..what, but… George… Katie…”

  Her eyes widened on me and her own mouth fell open. “Oh my God, he never told you.”

  I shook my head at her. The last twenty years now became a nightmare, a hole in my life where memories now became lies and family moments teetered on the edge of my sanity.

  “Ava… shit. Why did he never tell you? I thought you knew. I thought… I thought…”

  “Are you saying he knows?”

  “Yes,” she nodded. “He had an inkling at the beginning, when I never got pregnant. And when I told him I was pregnant he went and got tested. His swimmers don’t swim Ava. Mason is infertile.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Despair

  Mason

  Nate and Greg grabbed an arm each and tackled me to the floor. I had broken, finally, after three days of hell, my sanity had ruptured and brought on my wrath with no limits.

  The arsehole in the club should have taken my mood into consideration before he had slammed my sister up against the wall and stuck his hand under her dress.

  What the fuck was wrong with some people? Arseholes! The lot of them.

  “Get the fuck off me!” I roared at my friends as I struggled to slip from their grip.

  “Calm the fuck down, Mase. Then we’ll let go. You were gonna kill him.”

  “Good!”

  Kerrie shook her head at me, “For Christ’s sake Mason, go and cool off. I can handle things myself.”

  “He had the whole of his damn arm up your dress!”

  “Yes,” she huffed. “And if you had given me a moment, it would’ve been wrapped around his throat. Go back to the warehouse; kick the shit out of something in there. But don’t ruin the club in your breakdown!”

  So I did just that.

  ***

  “How do you think Ava’s coping with Rebecca?” Greg asked when he passed me a bottle of water. I kicked at some of the corrugated walling I had pulled off, moving it to one side and sank down next to him in a clear space on the floor.

  I laughed loudly, “Well, I would have thought by now she’s killed her.” I answered openly and honestly.

  Greg nodded in agreement. “But aren’t you a little worried?” I shook my head and frowned at him, not understanding his question. “Well, your ex and your wife in the same room. An ex who I may remind you was hell bent on splitting you and Ava up in the first place.”

  “It’s crossed my mind.” I rolled my lips and turned to him, “But really, there’s nothing Bec can say or do that Ava isn’t already aware of. She found me with Rebecca in the Panther. She saw the lines of coke on the table. She knows.”

  We both drank and lost ourselves to our thoughts for a while before Greg turned to me. “Well now we know that it isn’t Etta doing this, have you any fresh ideas?”

  I shook my head and rubbed at my chin as I stretched my knuckles to alleviate some of the soreness from my destruction. “No, and that’s what scares the shit out of me. Not how Ava is coping, cos’ I know my wife, I know her limits. It’s the unknown that I fear. Hope, everyone says is a wonderful thing, hell we even gave it Katie as a middle name, but hope right now is the epitome of evil to me, because what if it’s false, what if hope is a lie, an illusion of what could be when the reality is hopeless?”

  “You know,” Greg sighed. “When you both gave up, when Ava pushed you away and you pushed yourself further away, there was one thing that was always there, was always ready and waiting for you to find it.”

  “Yeah,” I questioned, “what was that?”

  He smiled at me softly as he tapped my cheek then pushed himself up, holding out his hand to me. I gripped it and let him pull me up. “Hope, Mason. Hope.”

  Chapter Thirty One

  Reconcile

  Ava

  The door swung open and I frowned as panic started to set in. Rebecca and I weren’t greeted with the single man this time, there were three that walked in. All three were tall, built like brick shithouses and curiously each one sported blonde hair and square chins, making them almost identical. They each ignored us. Two stood either side of the door as one big guy pulled out a phone from the pocket of his jacket.

  I flicked a glance at Rebecca who was glancing at me nervously and then to each of the men. I wanted to tell her to calm down. I could literally see her heart pumping through her breastbone as perspiration beaded her brow, her eyes anxiously widening then narrowing as too many deliberations rushed her brain. Her body wasn’t strong enough to cope with the adrenaline surge. I ignored the men and grabbed her attention. “Rebecca, calm down.”

  She gulped and nodded but I could see the fear in her, smell it even. “It will be okay, hun, you need to calm…”

  I hissed as a foot connected with my jaw, cracking my cheekbone as my face swung to the side and smashed against the metal column I was tied to. “Shut up.”

  “Hey,” Rebecca growled. “Leave her alone, she didn’t do anything.”

  The man turned to her and laughed, his Russian accent rebounding loudly off of what little objects littered the room.

  He smirked as he dropped to his haunches in front of her and gripped her chin. She whimpered loudly when he smeared the tears she had shed across her lips with his thumb, “You wanna make me angry, pretty lady? Go ahead, I bet I can make you angrier.”

  “Hey…Hey…” I intercepted. “Pick on me, you obviously know who I am.” He turned to me and sneered, his top lip curling with disgust. “You want a challenge? You look like the sort of man who does. So come on, big guy, pick on the bigger woman.”

  He tilted his head slowly, the malevolence in his expression causing me to shudder. “But, you see I prefer a woman who still has tits, so I’ll pass.”

  “You bastard!” Rebecca exclaimed and then spat in his face.

  Ahh Shit.

  His blows on her exhausted body were cruel and quite horrific. He didn’t take into account the fact that she was a woman, or that her already frail body couldn’t cope with his assault, he just punched her over and over.

  I yanked at my restraints when her lip burst open and blood sprayed over his face. He stopped, swiped at his cheek with the back of his hand then looked at it. His head tilted as though Rebecca’s blood was something of great interest before he slowly ran his tongue over his hand and lapped at her bl
ood.

  “You sick fuck.”

  Rebecca was hardly even whining, her head drooped as her chin rested on her chest and her blood smeared onto her already ruined shirt.

  He just shrugged then stood up and swiped at his phone screen. “Your husband’s number, Mrs Fox, if you please.”

  “What?”

  “I require your husband’s phone number. You want to talk to him, do you not?”

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked as I kept my gaze trained on Rebecca, checking her over to distinguish if her injuries were life threating. It seemed he’d only done damage to her face and not her body, lessening any chance of internal injury.

  “All in good time. Now…” He bent and seized my face, his fingers digging into my cheeks cruelly, “…Mason’s phone number.”

  I relented and gave it him. Mason was our only hope now but I hated to do this. Putting Mason’s life in danger had been the last thing I had wanted but now he was all the hope I had left.

  He punched in the numbers then turned the phone towards me. “Video call is so much fun, don’t you think?”

  I whimpered when Mason’s face filled the phone screen as he answered the call. “Hello?” The uncertainty at the unknown number giving his tone an edge of puzzlement. “Oh my god,” he choked out when my image filled his own screen. “Baby?”

  “Mason….” I sobbed out as I saw his beautiful face, the most handsome face to ever grace my life. “Mason…”

  The Russian guy rolled his eyes. “Mr Fox,” he interrupted without turning the phone for Mason to see him. “I’ll make this quick…”

  “You fucking cunt. When I find you…”

  “All in good time, Mr Fox. In the meantime, I want three million transferring within the hour.”

  “What?” I choked out. “This is all for cash? For money? My God, you’re no more than a petty fucking thief.”

  I cried out when his foot slammed into my jaw, the pain so fierce that I choked on the bile that forced itself up my throat and my brain cried out as too many pain hits clashed with the adrenaline now coursing through me as well as Rebecca.

  “Okay…Okay,” Mason yelled. “Fine… fine… I can get it to you.”

  “And by the way, Fox. Don’t think you can double cross me.” He turned to Rebecca and pointed the phone at her. “Another of your lovers Mr Fox, although I know this one doesn’t mean quite as much as your wife.”

  I watched in horror as he pulled his gun from the back of his trousers and pointed it at Rebecca. “Nooo,” I screamed as he shot her in the thigh, no hesitation, no feelings shown on his face and no acknowledgement to what he had just done in his eyes.

  “You have one hour before your bitch bleeds out and then I move onto your wife…”

  “Oh fuck… Bec? Becca?” Mason choked out.

  I stared in shock as Rebecca writhed in agony, her tears thick and rampant as she screamed and cried out, trying desperately to draw her legs towards her body instinctively to aid her pain.

  “Now,” Russian carried on nonchalantly. “Bank number 08-96-69-42, account number 5673991763534…”

  Mason’s survival training kicked in suddenly as instinct hit the part of my brain that was still coherent. I closed my eyes and prayed that it wasn’t the last time I ever spoke to my husband. “MASON,” I shouted quickly. “FIFTEEN MILE RADIUS, RURAL OUT-BUILDING, RAPESEED TANG TO THE AIR. THREE RUSSIAN BROTHERS…..”

  Everything went black when one of the other Russians punched me in the temple but before I went out, I heard Mason shout out an order to someone. My glorious bastard was back, doing what he did best…

  Saving his little warrior.

  ***

  “Rebecca?” I hissed at her as I came round. “Wake up!”

  She murmured something I didn’t catch, her voice low and grating as her mouth struggled to move. “Honey, look at me. Look at me Rebecca.”

  Her eyes opened slowly, way too slowly. I glanced at the pool of blood she was sat in; too much, way too much.

  “Fuck!” I hissed.

  “Ava…” she whispered. She lifted her heavy eyelids and stared at me as she blinked slowly. “I’m…” She swallowed, the action torturous to watch as her body had accepted this was the end.

  “Hun…” I choked out. I couldn’t reach her. I couldn’t get to her and I so desperately wanted to hold her hand. She needed that, she deserved that.

  I accepted it now. I admitted to myself that my husband had created a monster in both of us, had morphed us both into women that needed him to survive, to breathe. She had done what any of us would have done, she had fought for her man, she had used what weapons had been available to her and she had never given up, even when cruelty and humiliation had eaten at her, she had pushed on and that in itself deserved my respect.

  “I’m sorry, for everything… Ava. I…”

  “Shush,” I sobbed as I watched her slipping away. “Hey, you… you and me, Rebecca, we’re the same, we’re both creations of what love does to us all. I forgive you, for everything and I know Mason does too.”

  She shook her head slowly as a single tear rolled down her face. “I loved him so much Ava but it was never… enough… I was never enough…”

  Her eyes closed slowly and I knew, I knew. “But he always came back…. He always came back to you Rebecca…” I whispered as she slipped away.

  The sobs that racked my body hurt, they hurt like fuck, each one ripping at me, tearing at my soul as devastation consumed me and crippled me, each breath as debilitating as the previous.

  I understood now. She had been guilty of loving and that was all. She had loved too much and in the end it still hadn’t been enough.

  “I’m sorry,” I sobbed as I frantically tried to reach her. But as in life, I’d never been able to reach her. She’d never been able to reach herself. She’d never had a moment’s peace from the torture of heartache but now as I whispered a silent prayer for her, I knew she was finally granted the peace that she’d always sought in life.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Carnage

  Mason

  I rolled my fingers around, catching their attention. Numerous affirmatives were whispered in my ear as we all turned to night vision. As soon as the lights snapped out in the building we went in silently.

  The first Kenin brother went down easy with a single bullet to his forehead. Sam waved him down and the other’s moved forward as I went in search of Ava, furiously pulling at each door. There were so many different corridors and rooms that led to other rooms.

  Kade had done a brilliant job of narrowing down the area we needed. My amazing fucking wife was still the warrior we had both created in her, giving me pride at what she had learnt and managed to initiate even during periods of horror, she had once more come into her own and done what was needed.

  We’d found the farm, based on her clues, and I was astounded at what had been created underneath it. It was a quarry of corridors, rooms and the place even housed a drug factory.

  Three rooms I tried before I found her, each holding a horror in each, each as stomach curling as the last as emaciated bodies, blood splattered walls and beaten girls drugged out of their minds greeted me.

  I was starting to panic, these men weren’t two bit crooks; they were mean and hungry, taking away their conscience and just filling it with detachment and indifference, making them extremely dangerous.

  And I knew I was in trouble when I opened the door and found the third brother stood behind Ava with arm around her neck and a gun embedded in the middle of her breastbone.

  “How nice of you to join us Mr Fox,” he sneered into the darkness. He was well aware of my available vision, hence why he was stood using Ava as a shield as well as a bribe.

  I swallowed quietly when Ava lifted her hand to me. I wanted to drop to my feet and fucking idolise her, worship her fucking strength and fortitude.

  “But you see,” he continued. “I did warn you about double crossing me. I also gave you an ho
ur to come for your bitch. And I’m afraid you’re a little too late now.” He turned to Ava and smiled, “You should have bought your husband a watch for his birthday.”

  Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Even the air that my lungs sucked at trickled down my throat at a torturous pace, as my heart rate slowed to complement the pace.

  I watched his finger press against the trigger as I started to move. I watched in horror as Ava lifted both hands, one out straight in front of her to stop me. The other seemed to move even slower but was in fact immeasurably fast as she brought it up to the muzzle of the gun that was pressed against her chest.

  The heel of her hand nudged the gun and I screamed out when the bullet fired straight through her shoulder. She cried out and fell forward leaving Kenin staring open mouthed behind her, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth as a hole appeared in his chest.

  I reached Ava, pulling her against me as Kenin dropped to the floor, his eyes still wide but the light in them extinguished.

  “Fuck Ava, what did you just do? What the fuck? You just shot yourself.”

  She stared at me, her eyes wide in panic as her hands lifted to my face. “Mason? … Mason, I’m so sorry…”

  “Shush. Save your energy, baby. We need to get you to hospital.”

  She shook her head furiously, tears streaming down her face as I pressed my palm over the bullet wound just above her collarbone. “She’s gone, Mason. I tried… I tried so hard for her…”

  I nodded. I’d already seen Rebecca’s body through the goggles, but she hadn’t given off any thermal light. “I know, baby. Shush, it’s okay.”

  “I’m so sorry…”

  “Ava!” I scolded as she became hysterical. “Calm down, you need to save your energy. Do as you are fucking told!”