Just then Ben and Amber came running out and stopped in their tracks.
‘OMG,’ they both said together, ‘what happened? Who did this?’
‘Not sure babies, Dad is going to look at security tapes so it looks like we’re not going to the woods yet,’ she said with a sympathetic look on her face.
‘Don’t worry mum, we can spend the day in the pool instead and have the picnic on the lawn,’ Amber said as they kissed her on the cheek and ran off toward their bedrooms to get changed. Alexia went inside the house and joined James in his office as he was just about to dial Matt’s number. She crossed the office to sit on his knee and he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. ‘Are you ok baby?’
‘Yeah, the kids are going to spend the day in the pool instead and eat their picnic on the lawn.’ He nodded and kissed her again then hit the speakerphone button to ring Matt.
‘KNOB,’ Matt answered.
‘Cock! Alexia’s car has been vandalised.’
‘Oh fucking hell....hang on I better put it on speaker for Tracy to hear otherwise she’ll kill me,’ Alexia and James laughed as he sorted the phone out and they heard Tracy asking him who it is and what was going on.
‘Right, sorted explain all,’ Matt said.
‘Someone has thrown paint all over it and slashed her tyres.’
Tracy still has not caught up with the conversation, ‘What are you going on about?’
‘Alexia’s car has been vandalised,’ Matt said.
‘WHAT! We’re coming over!’ Tracy shouted and the line went dead.
James and Alexia looked at each other, ‘Best get the kettle on then,’ she said and he chuckled, ‘Do you think those four will get back together again too?’ she asked him.
‘Yeah, they’re meant to be, just like us and they have been spending a lot of time together,’ he smiled. ‘I’ll just phone Sam.’
‘OK,’ she kissed him and went in to the kitchen.
‘Dude, what’s up?’ Sam answered the phone.
‘Alexia’s car has been vandalised.’
‘Be there in ten,’ he said and hung up.
James walked out to the kitchen and grabbed Alexia into a hug and kissed her deeply, when he pulled back she was breathless. ‘We’ll get whoever did this baby, I promise.’
‘I know, just don’t get yourself in trouble.’
‘I haven’t yet,’ he said with a smirk.
*******
Sam and Matt turned up ten minutes later and went into James’ office to look at the security tapes whilst the girls and children sat out in the garden.
‘I bet it was psycho bitch,’ Tracy said.
‘I was thinking the same thing,’ Sarah agreed.
‘Well hopefully she’s been stupid enough to get caught on camera,’ Alexia said just as the guys came out, ‘No....well the person was dressed in black and was covered up so we couldn’t see,’ James said as he sat next to her.
‘Typical,’ Sarah said.
Alexia sat watching the children whilst James concentrated his attentions on her, he ran his fingers down her face, ‘You ok? You look deep in thought.’
‘Yeah, just shocked. Come on let’s go join the kids in the pool,’
‘Dad watch me,’ Ben shouted as he took a run up to the pool and jumped, making one hell of a splash that got James soaked.
‘RIGHT COME HERE,’ James bellowed crossly at him, everyone went silent and Ben went red in the face and swam slowly to him.
‘James, he was just messing about, go easy on him,’ Alexia said but he didn’t answer her.
Ben got to James and looked at him like he was going to cry. James started laughing ‘Gotcha! Had you going then didn’t I?’
‘James that was mean!’ Alexia said ‘The poor boy thought you were going to go mad at him.’
‘Sorry son, I was just trying to have a laugh,’ James said as he hugged him.
‘It’s ok dad, I won’t to do it again,’ he said as he jumped out the pool. The rest of the afternoon was spent with them having a splashing competition followed by a BBQ.
*********
As they sat on the grass to eat their food, Sarah and Alexia noticed they had a missed call from the same number just as the same number rang Tracy’s phone, ‘Hello......Yes this is Tracy speaking...’ She listened to the person on the end and then gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, ‘Ok we’ll be there right away,’ she said hanging up, ‘Oh god Alexia that was the police, the dance studio has been set on fire, we need to go now!’ They all ran round like headless chickens, getting in the cars and rushing to the studio. As soon as they pulled up the girls jumped out the car and ran towards the building but the police stopped them. ‘That’s our building, I’m the owner,’ Alexia said with tears running down her face.
‘I’m sorry but I can’t let you through, it’s too dangerous. I will get the officer in charge to come over to you.’
She nodded at him and then felt James’ arms go around her and she fell into full blown sobs, ‘It’s going to be ok baby, I promise.’
‘How can you say that James? It’s all gone.’
‘It can be replaced....I will get on to it first thing in the morning.’ He pulled back from her and kissed her, ‘Come on, let’s go find the officer in charge.’
She nodded again at him and they went and spoke to the officer, who told them they thought it was arson and asked if they knew anyone who would do something like this. They told them that about James’ recent divorce from Rachel and the damage to the car. After putting Ben and Amber to bed James and Alexia cuddled up on the sofa with a glass of wine. ‘Are you ok baby? James asked her.
‘Umm I am now we are home,’ she replied as she moved her head to look up at him.
‘Umm I know what you mean, it’s been one hell of a day. I hope to god they catch that psycho cow before she does anything else.’
‘You know I hate her so much and I want nothing more than to beat the crap out of her but I kind of feel sorry for her.’
‘What!’ James said looking confused, ‘How the hell can you feel sorry for her?’
‘Because I understand why she’s doing it, she has loved you for as long as I have and I come back into your life and snatch you straight from her. She’s hurt and she wants nothing more than to hurt me back. I know how she’s feeling because god knows that is how I felt when I caught you two, god I really wanted to beat the living crap out of her.’ She instantly sees guilt across James’ face so she moves so she’s looking at him, ‘Look I’m not saying I will ever forgive her and I’m still very tempted to run her over if I ever see her in the street, I’m just saying I understand her wanting to take everything from me.’ James ran his hand down her face and pulled her in for a kiss. As he pulled away he rested his forehead against hers, ‘I’m so sorry I hurt you, I honestly never meant to but I can’t change the past, all I can do is make it up to you. But I really hate that I can’t do anything to stop her from hurting you.’
‘Well let’s hope the police get her soon, there’s enough evidence pointing to her. Now go back to the bit where you said you can make it up to me because even though we’ve had a god awful day, I’m now feeling very horny, can you help with that?’ she said with a smirk.
James looked at her with a straight face for a few seconds then stood up quickly, picking her up to and taking her to bed where he could spend the night making it up to her.
********
The next morning James was up early and straight on the phone making the necessary arrangements for the dance studio whilst Alexia was still in bed. The children have stayed at Tony’s for the night so they wouldn’t get too wrapped up in what happened and get scared. When he’d finished he went back to bed and gave Alexia the best wake up call she had ever known.
‘Well good morning to you too,’ she said breathlessly and smiled at him. James chuckled, ‘Good morning baby, everything is sorted for the dance studio,’ he said as he rolled onto his side and pulled her i
n for a cuddle.
‘Thank you,’ she said looking at him, ‘I wish you didn’t have to go to LA next week now but I suppose I’ll have Tracy and Sarah here and Dad of course.’ He nodded and sighed, ‘I know how you feel baby but I need to go. When I get back we can look into me retiring.’
‘You really want to do that? Retire? But you enjoy it.’
‘Yeah I do but you and the kids are more important and after yesterday, if something happened to either you or the ki.....’ She put her finger on his lips to stop him from saying anymore, ‘ssshhhh, it won’t baby, please don’t think like that.’
‘I can’t help it,’ he shrugged, ‘after your car and studio, it’s set me on edge.’
She kissed him and they made love again.
22
The morning after James left for LA Alexia pulled up on the drive from taking the children to school and noticed the front door was slightly ajar. But as she had left her keys in the door the day before she thought she’d just forgotten to close it, then remembered it was Ben who was the last one out and he’s forever forgetting to close the door behind him. As she walked into the house she looked round and nothing seemed out of place so carried on with sorting the laundry out and went out to hang it on the line. As she walked back in, she headed into the kitchen to start cleaning and tidying up when she heard a loud bang from James’ office, making her jump out of her skin. She slowly opened the door and cautiously poked her head around the door, someone grabbed her by the hair and dragged her in. ‘AAAARRRGGGHHH,’ she screamed as she was thrown to the floor, the next thing she felt was a pain shooting through her ribs, legs and head as she realises somebody was kicking her. ‘Please...stop....please,’ she cried, screaming out in pain. A fist connects with her cheekbone and she felt the crack, she groaned as her world darkened. When she came round she slowly opened her eyes and after a few seconds she managed to focus on the person in the room, ‘Rachel?’ she whispered
‘Well hello there Alexia,’ she says through gritted teeth, ‘Thought you were never going to come round, I’ve been waiting two hours,’ she sat on James’s chair with her feet on his desk. Alexia looked around and saw that she had trashed the place... emptying all the filling cabinets, smashed his computer, ripped all the photos of her and the kids and sprayed graffiti on the walls.
‘What do you want Rachel? Why are you doing this to me?’
‘Oh please, are you really that stupid!’ Rachel said with a slight chuckle.
‘What?’
‘Ermmmmm,’ she said sarcastically, ‘I had my husband, my house, my life! Everything was just perfect before you came back and then James dropped me like a stone. Do you have any idea how much I really want to fucking hurt you or even better kill you, you stupid fucking whore.’
‘Rachel, he divorced you because he doesn’t love you, he never has. For god sake you slept in separate bedrooms. How’s that my fault?’
‘Because it was you!, It was always you that he loved!’ she stood up and kicked Alexia in the face again, ‘BITCH!’ she shouted as she pointed the gun at her “Oh fuck! A gun! Oh no no no please god no! Please someone save me, please please please” Alexia thought to herself as she was frozen in place staring at the gun as Rachel continued, ‘And now after nine years he thinks he can take everything away from me because he tricked me into signing a pre-nup....I don’t think so .....He’s going down hard Alexia and so are you!’
‘Rachel, please don’t, I have two children.’
‘Yeah his fucking children! I should have his children not you, I was his wife!’ She watched as Alexia started crying, ‘AAAwwww the poor little baby. You’re not even feeling anywhere near as much pain as I do but this may just help.’
‘RACHEL NO!’ she cried out and then she started screaming as Rachel fired the gun and her whole world went black once again.
*****
James is sat in his room in New York wishing he had Alexia, Ben and Amber with him. He still had to pinch himself sometimes to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming having Alexia back and being a dad. He loved them so much, they were his life. He really didn’t want to leave them after everything that had happened with Rachel and he knew he wasn’t going to relax until he got home to them. He picked up his phone to ring Alexia knowing she would be back from dropping the kids off at school but there was no answer. After several attempts he started to panic, he’d been calling Alexia for the last half an hour but there no reply from her phone, the house phone or his text messages. So he called Tracy to see if she has seen or heard from her.
Tracy had just finished making a drink for her and Sarah when she answered her phone, ‘Hello.’
‘Hi Tracy.’
‘Hi James, how’s it going?’
‘Erm...I’m not sure at the moment, is Alexia with you? I’ve been trying to call her and she’s not answering.’
‘No she said she was going home to sort the laundry out and have a quick tidy up before she was coming to join me and Sarah for coffee. Want us to run round and check?’
‘Yeah please, it maybe nothing, she might have the vacuum on or just gone shopping and forgot to take her phone, she’s been really forgetful lately.’
‘Oh no she’s not pregnant again is she?’ she laughed. ‘We’ll go round now and I’ll give you a ring back.’
‘Thanks Tracy,’ he said and thought about what Tracy said, “Alexia pregnant? Again? Really? Well she could be we weren’t always careful at the beginning when the mood took us.” He smiled as he remembered taking her on his desk and the time the children nearly caught them.
Tracy wondered out to the garden where Sarah was, ‘Hey Sarah, that was James, he can’t get hold of Alexia so I said we’d pop round to check on her.’
‘That man worries too much, but it’s really sweet actually,’ Sarah grinned. ‘Well we best go see what she’s up to,’ she jumped up and helped Tracy lock up.
When they pulled up they saw Alexia’s car, ‘Well she’s here. I bet she’s left her phone in the car again the silly doughnut,’ Sarah joked but as they got out they heard a loud bang that made them panic.
‘What the fuck was that?’ Tracy said looking at Sarah with worry etched on her face, and then they heard Alexia scream which instantly made their blood run cold and run towards the door.
‘ALEXIA!!!!!’ They were shouting and screaming as they ran inside into James’ office and stopped when they saw Rachel with the gun, Alexia on the floor screaming and blood everywhere. Tracy, without thinking, ran toward Rachel and grabbed her. She tackled her to the floor whilst Sarah dragged Alexia out into the front room, grabbing the house phone as well and called for an ambulance. She heard Rachel shouting at Tracy, ‘OOOOOouuch, get off me you bitch!’
‘I don’t fucking think so Rachel, You are not getting away with this,’ Tracy shouted back as she continued to fight with her, trying to get the gun, both of them had their hands on it trying to aim it at each other.
‘999 what’s the emergency please?’
‘I need an ambulance...my friend...she’s been shot and she’s bleeding badly and unconscious. I need the police to...the armed person is still in the house,’ Just as she finished the sentence two more shots were fired, ‘OH MY GOD! TRACY!!! Come quickly….please hurry!’ she screamed. The person speaking to Sarah reassured her that the police were on their way.
As she waited for the ambulance and police, she tried to stem the flow of blood and keep Alexia warm. When the office door opened she froze. Tracy dragged herself out holding her hip where Rachel had shot her.
‘She’s gone,’ Tracy whispered. Within a split second the house was eerily quiet. Sarah looked towards Tracy and noticed the amount of blood everywhere, all over the floor from where she had dragged Alexia from the office to the front room, it had even gone up the walls as well. She can only imagine the amount in the office but she wasn’t about to go find out.
Sarah heard the ambulance and police pull up and ran to the door ‘Please my friend’s are in there,
they have both been shot.....the armed person is in the office but she’s dead,’ Sarah told them with panic in her voice. The police went in first to check the area was clear before they allowed the ambulance staff to go in.
Sarah grabbed her phone to call Sam.
‘Hey baby,’ he answered
‘SSSSSam?’
‘Sarah, what’s the matter baby?’ he asked knowing instantly something is very wrong.
‘A-Are M-M-Matt a-a-a-a-a-n-d J-J-James with you?’ She can’t stop shaking and was struggling to get her words out.
‘Yes, baby please tell me what's going on? You’re scaring me. Hold on I’ll put you on speaker.’
Sarah broke down in tears as she told them what had gone on, ‘Rachel (sniff) shot Alexia and Tracy (sniff) blood... everywhere (sniff) office... smashed (sniff) Rachel dead,’ she sobbed.
‘Sarah, are they alive?’ A strangled voice said, she couldn’t work out who it was but she didn’t have time to think.
‘Yes, Alexia has been beaten real bad and shot in the shoulder and Tracy has been shot in the hip,’ she said calming herself down long enough to tell them. ‘We are still at the house, the police and ambulance have just got here, I’ve come out to phone you.’
‘Sarah tell me everything you know,’ James begged.
Sarah told them what she could and stayed on the phone with them until it was time to go to the hospital, she promised to keep them updated.
23
The next several hours were a hurried haze of doctors rushing in and out of theatre with Alexia and Tracy and nurses in scrubs and phone calls... Sarah was keeping the guys up to date as much as she could whilst organising her mum to collect the kids early from school and look after them. The guys were running round in a panic trying to organise getting back to the UK and keeping in as much contact with Sarah as possible, as well as cancelling the fights, booking flights, packing, getting to the airport and the time difference didn’t help. James packed his suitcase and was having trouble fastening it so he started punching it, ‘GOD DAMN IT! Why do we have to be so far away!’ he shouted taking his frustrations out on the bulging case. They fell silent knowing they are all feeling the same frustrations. Sam sent a few personal text messages to Sarah whilst they waited for their transport to the airport. Just as they were getting into the taxi Sarah rang Sam. ‘It’s Sarah,’ James and Matt and they hurry into the taxi and close the door. Sam answered it on speakerphone, ‘Babe, what’s going on?’
Forever Love (Fghter Club 1) Page 8