Maria meets us at the hospital; she is in the worst state out of us all. This is her brother, the man she has depended on her entire life. She is sat with Brad on one of the cold seats. He doesn’t want to leave her and has sent Luke to deal with things at the mansion.
We have been waiting for two hours for some news. Antonio has been in surgery for that amount of time. I sit and watch the clock on the wall ticking so fucking slowly I’m sure I could walk the length of the corridors in one of those dreary seconds.
“For fuck sake, will someone please just tell me what is going on.” I can hear Maria shouting at no-one in particular. Her patience is wearing thin.
“Baby, calm down, he’s going to be okay. Shhh, come on, it’s going to be okay.” Brad’s soothing rich voice nurtures her. I turn to look at the couple seated next to me. His arms are wrapped tightly around her; her little body sat on his lap, curled up like a scared foetus.
I sit there for another two hours, just staring at the white walls. Occasionally I will glance over at Maria, still sniffling or trying to sleep on Brad. Then I will look across to Debbie sat opposite me. She will sporadically lift her hand to her cheek to wipe away the tears trailing there. The odd little sob will break free and she will turn her head to me and give me a sad look that breaks my heart.
I am trying my very hardest to keep it together, to not cry, scream and kick out like I want to.
The door of the waiting area creaks open and a man in green scrubs walks in. “Family of Antonio Little?” he asks looking to all of us. Maria jumps awake and from her seat faster than a bolt of lightning.
“I’m Maria, he is my brother,” she says hastily, I can see the tension pouring from her at wanting to know how her sibling is doing.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Zaidi; I performed the surgery on your brother Antonio. Now we have had some complications. The bullet skimmed his liver, so there was an extensive amount of bleeding during surgery. We have managed to repair all the damage but he will be very weak for a long time.” Maria’s tired and shaky form falls to the floor instantly.
She begins to sob loudly, her entire body shaking violently. I crouch down with her and pull her into me, her head on my rounded stomach. “Shhh, Maria, he’s fine, he’s going to be fine.” I sit rocking her for a good twenty minutes, waiting for the tremors to subside.
She eventually looks up to me, and smiles weakly. The beautiful girl I had come to love so fiercely is peering back at me for the first time since yesterday evening. “There you are,” I say, stroking her cheek tenderly.
I assist her to stand and then sit back with Brad while I turn my attention to Debbie, who is awkwardly looking out of the window, not quite sure what to do with herself. I tap her shoulder causing her to jump and then turn her head to me.
“Come here,” I gesture for her to hug me. Her lip trembles and shakes and then she begins to cry. No one has paid any attention to her, to everyone else she is new and she is the outsider. I have seen the love Antonio and her share, he loves her something fierce and it wouldn’t surprise me if he had jumped in front of that bullet for her.
She falls into my chest and holds onto me tightly, squeezing at the clothes on my back as she soaks my top with her salty tears. “He’s alive, Debbie, he’s still here. It’s going to be all okay.” I reassure her, showing her the attention she needs now. She has been so strong for me, now it is her turn to rely on someone.
“I was so scared Abbi, I thought I had lost him. I can’t lose him, God I love that man with everything I am. Why did he have to do that, why does he always have to be the fucking hero?” I knew it, I knew he would have seen it coming; he is trained to be one step ahead.
In my head, that bullet was meant for Debbie, another message no doubt.
“That’s our Antonio; he has to always be the hero. We aint ever gonna change him.” I cuddle her tightly once more and then pull away to look at her face. I wipe away another bunch of tears from under her eyes and then ask her, “You going to be okay babe?” She nods her answer and then walks over to Maria to introduce herself.
Antonio has kept her from us for weeks, so no doubt he hasn’t introduced his sister and the woman he loves.
I hear the door open and look to see who is there. My beautiful Leighton walks through the opening along with Luke. His hair is dishevelled and his face sports a light dusting of scruff. His aqua green eyes warm me instantly.
“Angel,” he practically runs to me, picking me up and placing a hard kiss on my head.
“God, Leighton, you’re here. He’s going to be okay.” I smile into his chest as a little thankful laugh breaks through.
“I know baby, I know. He’s my boy, I can’t lose him.” He sits himself down on one of the chairs in the waiting room and pulls my hippo self onto him.
His hands automatically surround my bump and rub it lovingly. He places gentle kisses on my head, neck and cheeks.
“I love you Abigail. So God damn much.”
“And I you Leighton, forever and always.” My eyes feel so heavy I am wondering how they are even still open.
We are all sent home after seeing Antonio alive and well-ish. He looks so frail and really pale. His usual Italian complexion he shares alongside his sister has deteriorated to a white hue.
Maria and Debbie really didn’t want to leave him, but they were assured by the doctors and nurses he is safe and well, and that if anything did happen they would be first to be called.
Debbie drives the Range Rover home to hers; her children are due home from her sister's any moment. Leighton drove down with Luke, so we got a lift back to the mansion from the twins and Maria before the boys took their woman home to shower her in affection and distract her from the heartbreak she must be feeling.
I barely get two hours sleep when I arrive home, before I am awake again. The baby has started engaging and is making me feel so uncomfortable I can’t do anything, can’t sleep or relax in the slightest.
It is now lunchtime and Leighton has gone off to work as usual, a little pissed off maybe because of the whole Antonio thing but nevertheless he went. I am left with three of the body guards as the other three are resting from being up all night.
I have showered, got dressed in comfy clothes and I am sitting at the kitchen bar munching away at some granola for breakfast. I miss eggs like crazy, but no matter how far along I am they make me feel violently sick. I am flicking through my phone, checking my messages from Maria, and my now new friend Debbie, the memories of having to call my practically sister last night haunt me. The thought causing me to shiver.
This whole mess has gone on far too long. Too many people are getting hurt, first Maria last year, then Antonio shot at, then Thomas’s poor brother found murdered, then me, being sliced and nearly losing my child, then Antonio nearly being killed. I can’t stand to live in fear anymore it is getting beyond a joke.
I know who it is threatening and attacking us, Leighton has disclosed that with me. I search online and through all of the telephone directories to find some number connected to that family of psychopaths. I find just one number, belonging to a Mr. Slade Blackman. Even the name sends shivers down my spine. The men we are dealing with have that last name, well the majority do. I haven’t ever heard of Slade but I have heard of a Phillip, Dominic and Jeffery Blackman.
I dial the number, ready to end this shit once and for all, maybe, just maybe I can bargain with them, make them see how stupid this has gotten.
“Blackman!” A harsh voice answers the phone.
“Hi, I’m, I’m Abigail Adams, Leighton Lock's fiancée, I was wondering if I could speak to a Phillip Blackman please?” I try to still my shaking hand by placing my other one alongside it, clasping the phone tightly.
“What a pleasant surprise Abigail. I didn’t think I would hear from you today, well never actually. Heard about Antonio, how very awful.” The snide, slimy voice on the other end of the receiver has my skin crawling.
“Listen, can we meet, we need to sort this out once and for all. I can’t be bothered with this shit anymore.” I am getting to my wits end; I just want to wake up and not fear anymore for the lives of everyone I loved.
“Oh I’m sure we could come to some sort of agreement Abigail, meet me at my office at two o’clock, the industrial estate off of Sycamore Street. Don’t be late. I’ll be waiting.” Finally this is going to end; I will make sure of it.
“Ok.” I hang up the phone, looking at the time to see it is already quarter to one in the afternoon. I have just over an hour to get there. I get my things together and jump in the car.
I arrive at the estate a little before two. I sit in my car and try my damn hardest to still the nerves that are shaking me. I remind myself constantly why I am doing this, that I am doing it for everyone. Not just me, but my child, Leighton, Maria, Debbie and Antonio, all of Leighton’s men. They deserve for it to end. They deserve to have happy lives.
I open my purse and pour a few too many of my anti-anxiety tablets onto my hand and dispense them into my mouth, swallowing them down dry. I hope they will relieve the panic that is beginning to build. I know I’m not supposed to take them, I have been warned of the side effects, including but not limited to; dizziness, drowsiness, impairments to judgment and decision making, memory troubles and foggy vision. But as I think repeatedly about it, I decide, all of those side-effects are worth it, they will help me get through this without my morals and feelings hindering me. I have already told myself I will do just about anything to stop this and I intend to. I just hope and pray Leighton will understand why I have to do this.
I have packed my piece in my bag, my glock, my pride and joy in this precise moment. I don’t know how I managed to sneak past the three security guys. My beautiful car is parked in its designated space but I decide against using it, knowing Leighton would probably have placed a tracker in it now, to follow my every move.
I already feel like I am betraying everything we are and everything we have become. He had specifically ordered me to not leave the house for anything, even with security. It is too dangerous now.
I turn my phone off completely, kissing the screen once before chucking it in my bag. I hope I get out of this okay and hope that I haven’t just risked my own child’s life.
I get out of the sleek black Audi. Placing both shaking feet to the ground, I manage to get them to move with confidence across the car park and to the only renovated building. Every other structure is rusted, closed or smashed up.
I push open the glass door that stands beside the huge shutter that is currently down. Seated behind a desk is a beautiful dark haired woman, a woman I recognise. The fake nails, hair and tits should give it away, but the face is one I can’t mistake easily.
“Kalina?” I ask, “What are you doing here?” I am confused; she is supposed to be Scott’s fuck buddy.
“Nice to see you again, whore.” The malicious tone to her squeaky voice is a clear sign of the jealousy she still feels.
“You too,” I answer snidely, “Can you get Phillip for me please?” I request politely, but a sarcastic catty look mars my face. The bitch is a traitor, a two faced slut.
“Sure, why not, might knock that child right from your fat fucking stomach.” God the woman is pure evil, if I wasn’t carrying this baby, my glock would be in my hand and have had released a round into her fake bloody chest.
She presses a button on a phone and waits for an answer, “Phillip sweetheart, the whore's here for you.” Does she ever give it a rest? seriously, she is so pathetic.
“See her through Kalina,” he demands her before she hangs up.
She walks around the desk and clasps my arm with her inch long acrylic nails. She tries to drag me along behind her. “I can walk perfectly fine Kalina.” I pull my arm free and then carry on following her, the nerves I had been feeling have now turned to pure anger at the fact Kalina is here and she has been in on everything these animals have been doing.
“So how’s Leighton? I miss him.” Is she for fucking real?
“He’s perfect now you’ve fucked off away from him; you always were a clingy little slut.” Well that come out of my mouth before I could stop it, but the ‘woman’ is starting to get on my last nerve just by me looking at her let alone when she speaks in that irritating thirteen year old voice.
“Hmm, yes, I’m the clingy slut? Says the girl he rescued from the streets, you’re a scummy little street rat.” I want to knock her face in and stamp the heel of my boot into her skull until she is unrecognizable, but I can’t, I won’t.
Since yesterday the nice, peaceful side of me has been swept under the rug. The angry, bitter young girl I once was has taken hold again and is now willing to fight for her family. No one including this little whore is going to bring me down from that.
We reach a large solid metal door, which has no handle might I add. Kalina presses a buzzer outside with her perfectly manicured fingernails.
Go and scratch your own eyes out you stupid bitch.
The door creaks open on the huge hinges and a man stands before me. I know him as one of the men who had sneaked into my house, who had beaten and nearly raped me. He is one of the animals who has left me with these horrible scars on my chest.
My hand instinctively reaches up and holds on top of the fading scars.
“Phillip.” I greet him, nothing more nothing less.
“Abigail, such a wonderful pleasure to see you again.” I can hear the scoffing of Kalina behind me, even in this fucked up mess she is still the bottom of the heap, a little plastic toy to be fucked and chucked.
“Goodbye Kalina, so kind of you to show me the way.” I want to slam the door in her face but I can guarantee the thing wouldn’t shift if I tried.
“If you need me to do anything Phillip just ring me, I’m more than willing to break her face a little.” She strokes her thin scrawny fingers up his arm.
“Goodbye Kalina. Go back into the slimy hole from whence you came.” I wave her out of the room, wanting to get this over and done with as soon as possible and get back in time for when Leighton got home.
Phillip closes the door and then sits behind his huge desk. His whole demeanour is malevolence and pure demonic evil.
“So, Abigail, what do you think you can do to ‘stop this’ ‘situation’?” He uses his fingers to make quotations. The smile lacing his stupid fucking face makes me want to reach into my bag and push the gun to his God damn skull and pull the trigger.
Some other girl has taken over my body, reached inside my soul and rid me of any humanity, I am on a mission. If he won’t listen, I’m sure Mr. Glock will be more than happy to take control of the situation.
I can feel my tablets taking a strong hold on me. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will change what will happen today, unless it puts my child in danger. I have already risked its life a little by taking too many Clonazepam, possibly giving it the chance to become addicted itself, but it is the risk I am willing to take to stop all of this crap. Without my meds I won’t be able to see this madness through.
“I’ll do anything; I just want this nightmare to stop. No more, I’ll get Leighton to stop, but I need you to stop as well. I’ll make sure what happened with Antonio is forgotten, but I need your word this will be over.” I will do anything.
“Anything?” he asks, his slimy eyebrows raising high, a dirty smile on his face.
“As long as no harm comes to my child.” I have to reiterate that point; I am not risking its health any more than I already have.
“Interesting.” He stands from his desk and walks to where I am stood. “Okay, well, what I suggest is you get on your knees and suck my dick and then we’ll see where we go from there.” I want to throw up in my mouth, I want to cut the fucking thing between his legs off, but I have to do this, for everyone’s sake.
I place my bag on the floor by his feet and fall to my knees, thankful his office sported a thick
, lush carpet.
“Open them.” He gestures to his smart, work suit trousers. I gulp down the vomit that has risen in my throat as I move my hands to the buckle of his belt, undoing the metal clasp and pulling it open. I pop open the buttons on his trousers and then slide the zipper down.
I have to steady my nervous breathing; to force myself to carry on, to follow this through. It is the only way we are all going to be free. Leighton might hate me forever, and he may never forgive me, but at least he will be safe, and alive.
I slowly draw the material down his legs, trying to avoid looking at him. His dick springs free from within the confinements of his trousers. The foul bastard isn’t wearing any underwear so his cock practically smacks me in the face as it juts forward, begging for me to swallow it.
I breathe out long and hard before bringing my hand up and wrapping it around his firm erection. The guy might be a slimy bastard, but by God his cock is glorious, all long and thick with the perfect amount of veins. It is so wrong of me to, but I am growing damp and hot between my thighs in preparation for him.
His face isn’t all that bad either, he has a few scars covering his cheeks and neck, but his eyes, God they are beautiful, a piercing icy blue framed by the longest lashes I have ever seen. I could get so lost in them.
I concentrate on those innocent, misleading depths as I lean forward and take him in my mouth for the first time, his moans of pleasure as I consume him have me wanting to reach between my legs and relieve some of the pressure growing there.
I am certainly blaming the pills for that reaction, because there is no way I would find him a turn on. EVER!
I want to stop myself from feeling the way I do at this precise moment, to tell myself to re-think this all through. I love Leighton, I love him with everything I am, he is my entirety, my soul and every breath I take. But as I take Phillip's cock deep in my throat, his salty essence on my tongue, I can’t help but think how wrong this is for me to do, but how fucking good it feels to be doing it. It makes it so much easier to get through this. I can just fuck him and this will all be over, finally.
Deliverance (The LockDown Series Book 1) Page 29