by Beth Abbott
“Jeez, you’re so kind.” Ellen mumbled, as she walked out to clear the last of the tables. “Not!”
Although, when she thought about it, now she knew what a good tipper he was, maybe she’d make more of an effort to be friendly to Mr Tall, Dark and Moody next time!
Chapter 6 - Luke
Luke woke the next morning with the hang-over from hell. After three pints of lager at the restaurant, and the frustrating news that the road he had been looking for didn’t even exist anymore, he’d hit the mini bar in his hotel room.
Not one of his best ideas.
“Fuck my life!” He groaned as he rolled off the bed, barely getting his feet underneath him before he hit the floor.
A couple of aspirin, a half an hour and several cups of coffee later, and he’d started to resemble a human being.
A buzzing noise coming from his trousers, hanging over the back of the chair, alerted him to a call coming in. As he grabbed the trousers, the phone fell from the pocket, and he scrambled to pick it up before the caller rang off, the ringtone already telling him it was his former commander and now business partner on the other end.
“Yo, JT! Gimme some good news, man!” He growled, by way of a greeting.
“Well, good fucking morning to you too!” JT sounded way too chipper for this time of morning!
“No shit, man!” Luke growled out. “Tell me you’ve got something for me. I’m dying here!”
“Ok, Ok! Jeez, give a guy a break.” JT chuckled. “Ok, so I’ve been talking to our guy at the Met again.”
“Do I even want to know how we have a contact in the Metropolitan Police?” Luke interrupted.
JT stopped, surprised at Luke’s interruption. “Oh, well, I guess technically he’s Danny and Matt’s guy really, seeing as he was in their regiment. But since we’ve done some ‘liaising’ with them over the last few months, they’ve agreed to share information with us about George Drayton, at least, when it’s to their benefit to do so.”
Even after eighteen months as business partners, having all got out of the military roughly around the same time, Luke was still amazed at what resources JT and Danny brought to the table. JT had mad IT skills that probably would have gotten him arrested many times had he not been using them on behalf of a grateful nation. Danny’s contacts in and out of the military amounted to the best “little black book” Luke had ever seen. There was nothing they couldn’t acquire once Danny set his mind to it.
Alpha Company Security and Technology Services Ltd was now a well-resourced company, and one that was already gaining a solid reputation in the industry.
Matt was still enlisted, but on the homeward trail, and would be free and clear in just a few weeks, ready to join the team. Luke couldn’t wait.
“I’ll bet they’re gonna share.” Luke snorted. “I can see how our helping them nail George’s ass would qualify us for a mutually beneficial ‘understanding’.”
“Fuck, yeah!” JT laughed. “Anyway, as I was saying before some rude asshole interrupted me… ‘Our guy’ says, that with the case against Georgie Drayton going to court next month, they’re stepping up the search for the money man, David Lansing. They’re desperate for him to testify as he knows where all the money came from, and where it went.”
Yeah, they weren’t the only ones who wanted David Lansing. Georgie’s men had been looking for him for as long as Luke had. Since the day the man had slipped out of the hospital where he was recovering from gunshot wounds.
As JT had said, Lansing had enough intel on Georgie and his crew to put the guy and most of his men away for life. Not only that, he was there the night Casey was murdered, so if he had nothing to do with the shooting, as Luke believed, then David Lansing was a witness to Casey’s murder.
Luke desperately needed to know what his brother had been doing in that house, and why he had died.
The police had refused to acknowledge that Casey could have been anything other than one of Georgie’s thugs. Even though there was some evidence to suggest that Casey had died in an exchange of fire with Lomax, one of Georgie’s known ‘Enforcers’, the police had refused to accept that he could have been an outsider, believing him to have been part of the crew. Their theory was that he died in some internal bullshit that had gone down, some kind of territorial in-fighting that had gotten out of hand. It was all fucking bullshit!
“And?” Ok, so Luke wasn’t willing to wait for the long version.
“Jesus! What died and crawled up your ass?” JT laughed. “Ok, Ok! Here’s the abridged version. Our friend at the Met told me that they’re closing in on Thomas, but they always seem to turn up a day late and a dollar short. But, and here’s where I AM the fucking man, I finally tracked down Lansing’s secretary. She’d been living in Portugal for a few years, but recently came back when her husband died. Anyway, I put on my uniform, and went and had a little chat with her. I made out I was some long lost nephew, son of the brother who tragically died twenty years ago, yada, yada, yada. Had her eating out of my hand in no time.”
“And….?” Luke’s patience was just about at zero by now.
“And she remembered some summers when he’d taken his kid to the beach. They regularly stayed at a cottage, somewhere in West Wales. She couldn’t give me an exact address, but I’ve narrowed it down to a very small area, and should be able to pin him down soon, even if I have to head down there myself to have a scout about.”
Luke let out a sigh. This was really good news. They’d been trying to track down the elusive money man for so long, and this was a definite breakthrough.
“Did she say anything about the daughter?” Luke asked.
“Yeah, she confirmed that he’d gotten in touch to say the daughter had died. He told her not to come back for the funeral though, as it was just going to be a small family gathering.” JT confirmed.
This was the second time Luke had heard this story, and yet when they’d tried to check it out, they hadn’t come up with any official record of her death. Luke wasn’t buying it.
Emma Lansing was out there somewhere. Luke just knew it.
He just had to find her before Georgie did.
“I’m still not buying the daughter being dead.” Luke said, shaking his head for emphasis, even though nobody was in the room with him. “Somehow, the day Casey died, her old man managed to get in touch with her and got her out of town. He must have been aware of the dangers and made provision for her somewhere.”
“I agree, but where?” JT asked, for probably the hundredth time in the last three years. “We know she didn’t have a valid passport when she left, as her expired one was found at the house. His bank account hasn’t been touched in that time, nor has her savings account. So if she’s still in the country, she has to be living under an assumed name or else living off money that was set aside. She sure as shit hasn’t left any sort of electronic trail in her own name.”
“I’m still trying to track down the occupants of Hanson Road.” Luke confirmed.
Hanson Road was where the last person to place a call to David Lansing’s phone had been, at the time that the call was made. Subsequently, that same phone had only popped up maybe half a dozen times in the last three years, always within a ten-mile radius of Hanson Street, but never for long enough for them to get a fix on it. The only other time it had stayed on longer than a few seconds, the signal had been moving, so being over a hundred miles south in London at that moment, Luke hadn’t been in a position to try and track it.
“I thought we ruled out all of the residents ages ago?” JT mused.
“The police did that for us.” Luke agreed. “But when I looked at the report, they’d only checked the owners. Two of the properties were being rented out. I got shut down completely when I tried to get information from the letting agent, so I thought I’d try chatting to the locals, to see if any of them remembered a tenant that resembled our girl.”
“Ok, cool.” JT couldn’t argue with Luke’s plan. It made sense. “So how much
longer are you going to be up there?”
“A day, maybe? Two tops?” Luke confirmed. “Why, something come up?”
“Shit! You totally forgot!” JT accused.
“Forgot what?” Yeah, whatever it was, Luke had no clue.
“The 1st Annual Company Dinner! Fuckwit!” JT laughed.
“Aww, shit, man! You know how I hate that crap. Do I gotta go?” Luke whined.
“Damn straight you gotta go.” JT was using his Captain’s voice now. “Matt is finally home from the sand-box, and he and his wife are coming down for a meet and greet, and we’re all going out to dinner on Monday. A kind of ‘Welcome to the firm’ for Matt, and a chance to reassure his wife we aren’t gonna get has ass shot off on some mercenary assignment.”
“Shit! Does she realise that she’ll be the only woman there? I don’t want her throwing a hissy fit if we use a few colourful expletives. We’re not exactly the ‘best behaviour’ type of guys.” Luke pointed out.
“Look, Matt says she’s cool, and she won’t be expecting us to turn up like James Bond and charm the pants off her. Just be yourself, and Matt says she’ll be fine with us.” JT reassured him.
“Be myself?” Luke grumbled. “Fuck! Do I even know what that’s supposed to mean?”
“Nope!” JT popped the ‘p’ as he spoke. “But you’ve got two days to figure that shit out!”
As JT ended the call, Luke flopped back on the bed. Give him a bolt hole in the desert and a three day ‘watch and gather’ mission any time. He’d take shit rations and a bottle to piss in any day, over a civilised dinner with a female.
This was so not his bloody style.
Chapter 7 -
Ellen
“Hullo?” Ellen murmured into the phone. She could hear a lot of noise, but it sure wasn’t in her ear.
She cracked an eye open and noticed she was holding the damn thing upside down. As she turned it the right way up, she could hear Suzy’s voice on the other end.
“Ellen, Ellen!” She screeched. “Are you there? Yo bitch! Did you hang up? Ellleeennnn!”
“For God’s sake, Suze, give it a rest. What time is it?” Ellen rolled over to look at the curtains. There was barely any daylight cracking through them. She held the phone away from her ear so she could check the time.
“Suzy, this had better be good! It’s seven o’clock on a Sunday morning, and we didn’t close the restaurant until gone one.” Ellen groaned, pulling the quilt back up over her head.
“He’s home!” Suzy squealed. “Matt’s home! He came home last night and surprised me. I wasn’t expecting him back until Wednesday. Oh, I’m so happy!”
Ellen couldn’t help but smile at Suzy’s excitement. She and Suzy had talked a lot about Matt in the last year, and how his deployments had often left Suzy feeling scared and vulnerable. Once she’d known that Charlie was on the way, she’d become a nut-job for a few months, convinced that something terrible would happen to Matt before the baby was born, and he’d never get to hold his child.
Thankfully, that had all been down to stupid damn hormones, and she had eventually calmed down without Ellen having resort to a straightjacket or Sectioning, but it had definitely been touch and go there for a while.
“That’s great, Hun.” Ellen mumbled. “So happy for you. So, is he good?”
“Good?” Suzy giggled.” He’s freaking amazing! You know, I haven’t even been to sleep yet? Five times we, well you know, and you know twice, I actually had multiple…”
“Jesus, Mary and bloody Joseph, Suzy!” Ellen screamed, interrupting the monologue. “I do NOT want to know about your sodding sex life! Ever! Do you hear me?”
“Ellen Thomas!” Suzy was laughing so much she could barely speak. “Such blasphemy! And here was I, just sharing the love with my bestie…”
“Well, don’t!” Ellen interrupted. “Don’t share the love, talk about the love or show me the love, Ok? What you and Matt do behind closed doors is private. I really don’t need or want details.”
“Oh, honey.” Suzy sighed. “You really need to get laid more! You do know that if you don’t use it, the bloody thing will shrivel up and die, don’t you?”
“Hmm-hmm? Is that so?” She deflected. “Well it’s been six months since yours got any action, and from the sound of it, Matt had no complaints that any shrivelling had been going on, did he?”
“Ahh, yes…” Suzy purred. “But that’s because when Matt’s not around to help out, I’ve always got my Bobs to see me through.”
“Bobs?” Ellen knew she didn’t want to, but couldn’t help but ask.
“Yup, my battery-operated boyfriends.” Suzy giggled. “I’ve got a long blue one. A pink twisty one, and don’t forget the clear coloured one with bunny ears! That’s for…”
“I know what the bunny ears are for!” Ellen shouted, not sure whether to be appalled or amazed at what Suzy classed as ‘suitable’ information to share with her bestie.
“Aha!” Suzy announced triumphantly. “So, you have got your own Rabbit!” She giggled.
“No, I do not have a bloody Rabbit!” Ellen yelled, aware that the conversation was getting more out of control by the minute.
“OK, Suze, I’m guessing that you didn’t just call to gloat about your resurrected sex life, or that you have your man back in your bed to snuggle with at night? And as happy as I am for you, and you know that I am, I could really do with another hour or five of sleep, so if there’s another reason for your call then you’d better spill it, because I’m about to hang up.” Ellen pushed the quilt off her over-heated face.
“Oh, yeah. Well, there is another reason actually.” Suzy hedged. “You know my mum has gone to stay with her sister for a few days and won’t be back until Tuesday?”
“Hmm.” Ellen agreed, vaguely aware of something of the sort.
“Well, Matt has some meeting down in London he has to go to on Monday, followed by a dinner he’s going to with the guys he’ll be working with. He thinks all the paperwork will be signed during the day, so Monday will be all about celebrating the next chapter of our lives with his new workmates.”
“Oh, cool.” She said, “I didn’t realise he was out of the military yet.”
“Well, officially, he’s got a few more weeks, but he’s in a kind of transition phase, plus they owe him a shit-load of time off, so he’s already got one foot out of the door.” Suzy paused. “I know it will be tough for him to adapt for a little while. It’s been ten years after all. But I think this new set-up will be good for him. He’ll be with some of his former teammates, so I’m sure it will still have a military feel to it.”
“That’s really great Suze. It’ll be good for you and Charlie to have him around more.” Ellen smiled to herself. Charlie hardly knew his dad, so it would be good for them all.
“Well, that’s the thing. Matt wants me to go down to London for this dinner with the guys. I’ve heard all their names for years but never actually met them. Matt thinks I need to meet them from the start, so I’ll know who he’s getting into bed with, so to speak.” Suzy giggled, and Ellen had to smirk at the idea of Alpha Matt in bed with a bunch of guys. That was so never going to happen.
“So, could you please, please, please have Charlie for an overnighter for me?” Suzy begged. “I have plenty of milk pumped and all he has besides is a bit of boiled veg or mashed fruit and a rusk. Hell, you know the drill. So, could you? Pretty please, with whipped cream and a cherry on top? I’ll be your bestest friend for ever and ever and ever!”
Ellen couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s whining voice.
“Jeez, Suze.” She moaned. “Enough with the sad loser voice already. I’ll do it. On one condition…”
“Anything!” Suzy butted in. “Anything at all.”
“Ok.” She sighed, trying to sound as serious as possible. “My condition is, that you never, ever, EVER, try and discuss your sex life with me again. And that includes any trysts with your Bob’s too. Got it?”
“Bi
tch!” Suzy laughed. “Ok, deal.”
“Ok, now sod the hell off, and let me sleep, woman!” Ellen griped.
“I hope, Miss Thomas,” Suzy was doing her best impression of a school teacher, “that you don’t use that kind of language in front of my son when you babysit for him.”
“Hell no!” Ellen laughed. “No need. Since you’re the cause of most of the profanity that comes out of my mouth, when you’re not around I turn into Julie bloody Andrews when she was in Mary Poppins.”
“Well, as long as it’s Julie when she’s Mary Poppins, that’s Ok!” Suzy chuckled. “Cos there was that other film where she went topless, and if you were doing that shit in front of Charlie…”
“Bye Suze!” Ellen interrupted, cutting her off mid speech. She disconnected the call, throwing the phone down on the bedside table. As Ellen curled up under the duvet, hugging her pillow as she tried to get back to sleep, there was a huge grin on her face.
She got to have Charlie for an overnighter! Baby snuggles beat man snuggles hands down!
Chapter 8 - Luke
Luke stared in the mirror, trying to straighten his tie.
“Shit!” He yanked the damn thing off to start again. Thank God, they didn’t have to do the whole ‘monkey suit’ thing too often.
When he and the guys had talked about setting up their own business after they bugged out, JT had promised Luke he wouldn’t have to handle the corporate schmoozing side of the business. Luke’s speciality was field work, and as they were working in the security and protection arena, he got plenty of time out of the office.
He supposed later on, once they were fully established, they could hire more guys and he would get more involved in the tactical and planning side. But, at the moment, he was quite happy doing grunt work, and surveillance and recon was his speciality. Ok, he’d prefer to be doing it with an automatic weapon over his shoulder, but that wasn’t going to happen on home soil. He had a license to carry a side-arm, but rarely carried a gun these days.