Atonement (Heart of Stone)

by Sidebottom, D H

  I turned and entered back into the salon as Courtney slammed the door behind me. “God, I hate that bitch” I snarled as my fists clenched, my fury nowhere near sated as I drove my new nails into my palm and relished at the pain, the sting taking my attention and calming my heart back to its normal pace.

  “Ava…” Courtney said with a slight grimace.

  “Don’t” I said with a shake of my head. I knew what was currently flittering around her head. It was the same thought that was bouncing around my mind. “She’s just winding me up… Good God, when is that bitch ever gonna be out of my life?”

  Courtney scoffed as she led me back to the treatment table, “Well Mason didn’t help when he employed her again at Allure.”

  I nodded in agreement as I took a long inhalation and worked my way up to what I had to say. She looked at me with a slight pull on her brow as though she sensed my discomfort, “Out with it, babe.”

  My lips lifted instinctively on one side as her familiarity with my body language heartened me. “We need to talk about Kade.”

  She sighed as she proceeded to buff my nails, “Why? It’s over between me and him, Ava.”

  “But it isn’t between him and me.” I gulped as her wide bright eyes locked onto mine, the worry and unease ringing alarm bells in her head.

  “Jesus, Ava, do you never learn?”

  I shuffled my chair further towards her and dropped my voice to a whisper. I didn’t want my private life, never mind my sex life, reverberating around the room. The women who attended Courtney’s nail parlour were the type to spread the gossip faster than a whore spread her legs. “Mason wants a threesome.” I revealed openly. Mine and Courtney’s relationship was brutally open; we could tell each other anything; we shared everything… even our sex life at times, regularly indulging in foursomes with our men.

  She paused for a long moment, her eyes as wide as her mouth whilst her fingers halted over mine, “Okayyy, and Kade? What does he want?”

  “The same” I whispered, “I wanted to tell you before it happens. But I don’t want to hurt you Courtney, if you still have a thing for him, I will make sure it doesn’t happen.”

  Her tongue curled around the edge of her lips as she frowned in thought, “But do you think that’s wise after what Kade revealed to me? He still loves you, Ava.”

  I nodded faintly as I lowered my eyes to my hands, regarding my fake nails as though they were the crown jewels, “And I do him.”

  She groaned and palmed her face, her head shaking marginally as she gulped heavy breaths to ride the curse she wanted to throw at me, “For fuck’s sake, babe. Do you thrive on it?”

  “On what?” I asked with slight indignation at her tone as I lifted my gaze back to her.

  “Drama, Ava,” she shook her head and shrugged as if defeated. “Hey, it’s not my life. As long as you all know what you’re getting yourselves into.”

  “I don’t think they do. Mason’s so damn hot for Kade and Kade’s so fucking desperate to get back into me that they’re not looking at the whole picture.”

  She sucked her teeth but a small sexy smile materialised and her eyes twinkled mischievously, “I’d love to look at the whole picture Ava, you wanna do another DVD?”

  I slapped her arm but laughed, “You dirty ho, but yeah, I agree, it is something I’m eager to go with. Both Mason and Kade get me hotter than hell and both together… Jesus, Courtney.”

  She winked and giggled with me as we each pictured the two stunning men, naked and hard, their impressive muscles and magnificent bodies on display just for me; both of them attending to my every want and desire as they brought me to a new level of ecstasy.

  Christ!!

  “Don’t forget it’s our anniversary party Saturday night; make sure you’re there hun” I informed her as I rose from the chair to leave and passed her my debit card.

  She nodded but her worried eyes gave away her nervousness. “Is Greg going?”

  “Yep” I nodded to her, “But then that’s a good thing, give you both a chance to talk.”

  She snorted but didn’t respond as she ran my card through the system. Her face tightened as she pulled a frown and removed my card from the machine and slipped it back in. “There’s something wrong with your card, babe. It’s declined it twice.”

  “What?” I examined the card as if that would make it work before I popped it back in the card reader and tried again. It declined it again. “What the hell?” I grumbled as I passed her my credit card.

  “This one’s fine, just your debit card that’s the problem. You skint babe?” she joked, knowing my bank account was far from empty.

  “I’ll ring the bank when I get home” I moaned with the idea of sat listening to Cliff bloody Richard for forty minutes whilst I was put on hold.

  Courtney followed me outside as I left the salon and pulled me into a hug before pulling out a packet of cigarettes and lighting one. “What? Since when have you smoked?”

  “Since my life hit the gutter” she replied with regret.

  I shook my head at her in disapproval but didn’t comment further as I kissed her goodbye and walked towards where my car was parked.

  I heard the pop before the white hot pain hit. The blazing tearing sensation in my side splintered my mind at the same time as the agony seared through my brain and took my consciousness.

  Chapter 33

  mason

  I drove my hands through my hair in distress for the hundredth time in the last three hours. This was fucking torture; listening to Courtney’s distraught sobs as my heart shattered and my world disintegrated. Greg crouched beside her, his hand in hers as he held his wife tight in the worst three hours of her life.

  Watching the terror on Nate’s face as his best friend and my wife lay on a fucking soiled tin table in a grubby theatre in a dingy fucking hospital was as torturous as listening to Courtney fall apart.

  The only consolation was that Mary Thornton, Gary’s mother, was operating on Ava and my mother was keeping me up to date; her consultancy in this hospital allowing her access to information quickly.

  Whoever drove that bullet through my wife was going to die so horrifically and so excruciatingly that they would be begging me to finish them as they watched their own blood trickle drop by drop from their mangled body until the very last drop stained my hands.

  “Where the hell were you?” I roared at Wes as he came through the hospital waiting room door out of breath.

  My fingers curled around his neck severely as I pinned him to the wall, his feet elevated inches off the floor as I fought to restrain myself from killing the bastard.

  He tried to speak but all that came forth was a strangled choke. “Mase let him go” Greg urged as he wrapped his fingers over mine and tried to prise them open.

  “Where were you?” I asked again as Greg continued his efforts to disengage my hands from Wes’s throat.

  I relented slightly and loosened my death grip but retained my hold on him. “She told me to go, she visited Courtney and said she would be okay” Wes exposed as his eyes bulged and his body struggled under me.

  “And what, you just left her?” I barked in incredulity. Jesus Fucking Christ!

  He shrugged under me as he continued to wriggle and Greg carried on his attempts to remove my crush from the idiot’s neck.

  “I’m sorry, Fox, I thought she would be okay, she was with her friend.”

  “You fucking fool. I told you Wes, I fucking told you to stay by her side twenty four seven. I pay you to watch her twenty four seven!”

  His eyes shadowed before he nodded, “I know, I’m so sorry.”

  I roared out a growl as I let him drop. His hands instantly gripped his own neck as he rubbed at the bruise that would be appearing any second.

  I barked out a laugh when Nate’s fist connected with Wes’s cheekbone and he hit the floor with a heavy thud. “Nice” I said to Nate as I turned back to Wes. “Get out, you’re fucking fired.”

  He sighed an
d pulled himself upright before he hauled his arse back through the door as my mother walked in.

  “She’s out. She’s lucky Mason, just a flesh wound. The bullet missed anything of importance and just seared the edge of her hip bone. She’s had a few stitches and she’ll be allowed home in a couple of days.”

  My legs wobbled and Nate caught me before I crumpled in a heap on the dirty floor, “Thank fuck!” he murmured with a long breath.

  I nodded, unable to speak as my brain punched my heart to restart the beat. “Can I see her?”

  She nodded and smiled before she led me through the hospital to my wife, my beautiful tortured wife who was paying the price for my fucked up life once again.

  I took my first full breath when I saw her, the first since I had been informed by my mother that Ava had been shot. Her sheer beauty fisted my heart, her soul surrounded me and sought its mate and the sight of the tubes running into her body clenched my gut.

  Closing my eyes and pulling myself together I strode over to her swiftly and took her tiny hand in mine, threading her fingers through my own as my mother placed a chair beside the bed for me.

  “Hey baby” I whispered as I brushed a strand of hair from her forehead so I could kiss it. “You’ve done it again. You are in so much trouble my little warrior, I’m gonna spank that bloody arse of yours for this.”

  My mother kissed the crown of my head and squeezed my shoulder before she left the room, leaving me alone with Ava.

  I stared at her, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest as I savoured each of her intakes of breath and appreciated the flow of blood through her system.

  “Christ baby, I love you so much. I can’t keep doing this; I’m putting an end to it, Ava. Finishing this fucking screwed up life once and for all.”

  I stroked the ridges and bumps of her knuckles, amazed at the softness of her skin after all the fights she got into. Hell, her knuckles should be rough and calloused, and I chuckled to myself with the thought.

  She groaned and I cupped her cheek, giving her the sensation of touch in case she couldn’t hear me, “Ava?”

  She swallowed and her eyes flickered as she fought to open them, “I’m here, baby.”

  I smiled at her when her eyes found mine and tears pooled in her eyes, “Mason?”

  “Ssshhh, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

  “I can’t keep doing this Mason, I’m sick of being terrified at leaving you and my babies behind” she choked out with a rasp and I gripped her head in both my hands and drove my face into her hair.

  “I know Ava. I finish this, then we’re done, baby. I can’t keep doing this either. Fucking terrified constantly in case I lose you, petrified that you’ll finally realise what destruction I bring to your life and leave me. Always scared to fucking death that this life will finish either one of us.”

  I placed gentle kisses down her cheek and ran my nose under the dip behind her ear, my whole body sighing in serenity with the contact and the familiar scent, “I love you more than fucking life Ava, my heart aches with love for you. I idolise you my little warrior and I can’t breathe when you aren’t near, my heart refuses to keep beating without you and I’m not prepared to do this anymore. We end it. We find this bastard, we finish him then we go Ava. We go to Portugal and do what George wanted you to do all those years ago. We start again in his cottage, beside the sea baby, with our babies. We live again, Ava.”

  Her eyes widened but she nodded briskly as tears streamed her face in her relief and happiness, “God, yes, yes….”

  Her choked sobs ripped through my very core, making me hate every minute of the past eight years of hell I had put her through. She deserved so much more than this shit. She should be worshipped endlessly, adored and treasured constantly and I would make damn sure the rest of her days were spent in peace and shelter, no more running, no more pushing through this life just to survive.

  My wife and children were my life, not his fucked up shit.

  It was time to give my family the freedom they deserved.

  It was time to end this once and for all.

  It was time to concede.

  ***

  She stepped out of the en-suite Saturday night, our anniversary night, and took my breath straight from my lungs. She was the most utterly beautiful creature I had ever seen.

  Her deep green dress hugged every inch of her delicious body, her eyes reflecting the same shade of jade as they shined brightly. The sheer material embraced her glorious breasts and skimmed over the curve of her hips, hugging her supple thighs and then resting just above her sexy little knees. Her hair was hung, long and free down the curve of her back and slightly touching the arc of her tight bum.

  Her smoky eyes twinkled as she limped towards me, her stunning face alight with love and adoration for me as her eyes perused the length of my body.

  “Mr Fox, you are just so beautiful” She whispered as she reached me and tilted her head back for me to kiss her.

  I obliged, feeding on her tiny tongue as I feasted on her mouth, taking the kiss she offered with no holds barred as I braced her tightly to me. Her arms wrapped around my back, her palms sliding over the thin cotton of my shirt and warming me with each touch of her fingers.

  “That’s because you make me beautiful, my little warrior” I told her when I pulled back so I could touch the softness of her lips with my fingers, needing to feel the smoothness with not just my lips.

  She tilted her head in thought then her eyes dulled and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention with the expression held on her face. “I need to tell you something” she said quietly and I nodded in encouragement for her to continue.

  “Someone…” she chewed her lower lip and I pulled the plumpness from behind her teeth and cocked an eyebrow, “Someone’s emptied my bank account.”

  I stared at her in confusion, “What do you mean someone has emptied your bank account?”

  She shrugged and swallowed harshly, “I’m so sorry Mason, I don’t understand it either. I tried to pay for my nails with my debit card and it declined. Then with the shooting I forgot about it and when I remembered this morning and rang the bank they said someone had drained it, all £987,000. I’m sorry… I….”

  “Hey,” I pulled her into me; the worry on her face was haunting as she faced the nervousness of telling me. “This isn’t your fault. What did the bank say?”

  “They’re looking into it and because it was an unauthorised transaction I will probably get it refunded but…”

  She paused abruptly and her eyes widened as her mouth dropped open, “Mason! The money… ‘Find the money and you’ll find who is doing this’. Do you think Mickey meant my money, not the money from years ago?”

  “Holy Fuck!”

  I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialled the one person who could find Ava’s money, his expertise at hacking and Technology Intel was superb, “Kade.”

  Chapter 34

  Ava

  I moved around the caterers currently filling my house with the most exquisite delicacies as Mason followed, picking numerous goodies off plates and cramming them in his mouth. That sweet tooth of his would be the death of him.

  “Will you stop” I chastised playfully when he popped another spiced chocolate ginger in his mouth. He winked and beamed at me as he retrieved another. The waitress giggled seductively, flirting with my husband in front of me. Nice.

  Greg, Sam, Trevor and Brad all stood like tin soldiers on guard by the front door and the sight brought a smile to my face. I loved these guys, they were my extended family and they all loved me in return. I smiled at Greg and tipped my head in gesture for a private word. He nodded and followed me into the meeting room where it was quiet and empty.

  “How are you?” I asked as he perched his backside on the edge of the old mahogany table and crossed his arms in front of him as though protecting himself from my questions.

  “I’m good, we’re talking if that’s what you’re asking” he smirked, r
eading my motive correctly.

  “Good, I’m glad. She’s hurting cos’ she hurt you Greg, hear her out.”

  He nodded and smiled gently, “Yeah, I know.”

  I swallowed back the nerves as I approached the next subject, “What I pulled you for is… uhh, Kade’s coming in tonight. He’s not here for the party but will be in Mason’s office all night.”

  He pursed his lips and hissed through his teeth loudly, “I’m sorry Greg, I didn’t do it on purpose but we need him, it’s important.”

  He shrugged, “It has nothing to do with me Ava, so long as he stays out of my way, I’ll stay out of his.”

  I nodded firmly, “I’ll tell him but… well, you know how I feel Greg. I can’t get involved; I’m personally drawn in as it is.”

  He stood and pulled me into a side hug, “We all make mistakes Ava, and yours are usually epic but…” he smirked at me with a wink as I slapped his arm.

  “Well, I don’t do things by half” I laughed as we joined the others back in the entrance hall.

  “We’re gonna take this in my office, baby.” Mason informed me as he kissed the top of my head and cupped my backside, squeezing my flesh gently in his large hands as his face burrowed into my hair.

  Brad rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Leave her alone Fox, Christ!” He laughed as Mason scowled at him.

  “Jealous, Brad?”

  Brad shrugged with a hint of nonchalance, “Who wouldn’t be Mason, Ava’s hot.”

  My eyebrows lifted along with the other guys when Brad dared to speak his open opinion of me around Mason. Sam sucked air through his teeth but Brad just shrugged and ventured up the stairs, leaving an open-mouthed Mason scowling at his retreating back.

  Greg started to laugh as he slapped Mason on the back then followed Brad up the stairs, along with Trev. “Come on Mase, I’m eager to get the party started.” He shouted over his shoulder as he took the steps two at a time.