by S. R. Jones
Yet, if I get on the plane with Howard’s men then once the threat is neutralised from Nick, she’s going to be out of my life.
I lean over to her and whisper my secret into the dark between us. “I don’t want to let you go.”
She doesn’t turn to look at me, but she whispers her own confession back.
“I don’t want you to let me go.”
Chapter Twelve
Abi
What are we doing? This thing between Liam and I is spiralling quick. We’re getting in too deep. I know, I’m a mess over it. I’m someone whose mother didn’t even love her, so the moment some big strong man comes along to protect me, it’s no wonder I’m finding myself falling.
I should run a mile from this. I’ve got the worst judgement when it comes to men. It wouldn’t be a surprise to find Liam collects severed dolls heads or something the way my luck with the male of the species runs. The thought makes me giggle-snort and he turns to look at me as the film ends and the credits roll.
It seemed okay, what I took in of it. Mostly I simply enjoyed being somewhere with Liam, doing something normal people do and stuffing my face with popcorn.
We exit the movie theatre and the bright light outside hurts my eyes. It’s a uniquely disorienting experience coming out of dark cinema into the bright reality of mid-day.
The place we are staying is in a seedy part of town, and yeah, that makes me stupid for going outside last night, but it’s Salt Lake City, for God’s sake. I thought it would be pretty damn safe everywhere.
“Want to get some food?” Liam asks me.
I’m stuffed full of popcorn, but don’t want this to end yet, so I nod at him. I can always order a salad.
We end up eating and then walking Boo around a small park we find before having a coffee. By the time we are heading back to the motel, we’ve been out for around five hours.
“Are we staying here tonight or moving on?” I ask. I’m kind of beginning to enjoy this. We’re like Bonnie and Clyde, but not killers or psychopaths.
“I think we’ll stay one more night and see how Howard and his guys, along with Reece, are getting on with their investigation tomorrow before making a decision as to what to do next.”
I nod, and inside I’m doing a happy dance. I get more time with him. We reach the motel and Liam puts the key card in the door. As it clicks open five men come around the corner to our right, from the same place the guys grabbed me last night.
“Liam,” I whisper a warning but he’s already moving.
He kicks out with his right leg as one of the guys sprints at us and hits him in the guts. The man goes down with an ooof.
Two more reach us, and Liam swings straight into them, his fists hitting them both in rapid strikes as he moves on the balls of his feet. The other two men are almost upon us and Liam might be good, but I don’t think even he can fight five guys. The man on the floor is still down but he might get up at any moment.
I push the door to the room open and rush inside. I know Liam has a gun in here. He left it when we went out today. I’m not sure why. He had a smaller one he took with him on an ankle holster, I saw him put it on. But the big gun he used on the guy at the boat, he didn’t bring that.
Desperately searching through his stuff, I find it in a small, black leather bag. I grab the gun and run back outside. Liam takes a punch to the gut from one of the men and he bends over in time for another to hit him in the face.
I raise the gun and fire. The sound of it isn’t as loud as I’d imagined but it sends a kick right up my arms. I stumble backwards, and one of the men advances on me laughing.
“You ought to be sure you’re willing and ready to use that thing before you start waving it around firing warning shots, sweetheart.”
My heart is pounding, and my mouth is so dry I can’t swallow, but I won’t let any more men hurt me. Furthermore, I won’t let them keep hurting Liam who right now is taking a real beating. I aim the gun at the man’s lower body, and fire.
“Fuck!” He screams the word and hits the ground, rolling around.
The next moment all hell breaks loose. One of the men goes for something under his shirt and I see him pull out his own gun.
“Abi. Run!” Liam shouts, and I hesitate for a moment.
I see Liam grab his trouser leg and pull it up, taking the smaller gun out and firing at one of the men. It hits him in the side and he falls back against the wall.
“Motherfucker.” The biggest man advances on Liam and his face is grim.
Liam takes a knife from behind his back, and swings at the guy. In the distance I hear sirens and the men freeze.
“Fuck. We’ve got to get out of here. Get the girl.” The big man points at me. Two of his colleagues are down for the count, but the guy who Liam kicked is now back on his feet and he advances on me.
I aim the gun and look him dead in the eyes. “Move another step and I’ll shoot you right between your legs.” I’ve seemingly found my inner bad-ass. Where the hell was she all my time with Nick?
Then I understand something. My bad-ass came out to protect Liam. She also came out to make the plan to leave when I had to protect Boo. So why hasn’t she ever come out to protect me? Maybe, I took on board the messages from my mum that I was a useless waste of space. They were compounded by Nick telling me the same things for years. My God. I do have strength in me, only I never found the will to harness it until someone else was threatened.
The thug in front of me is uncertain, his eyes darting around. He pauses and raises his hands. “We’re taking you somewhere safe.”
The sirens are growing louder, and panic is bleeding into me, taking away my ability to think. They’ll arrest us. Liam will go to prison for shooting someone, and so will I.
He takes another step and I shoot the gun at the ground near his feet.
“Shit.” He dances back a couple of steps as if the ground is on fire.
“Fucking get out of here, you dipshits, before you get locked up.” Liam is panting as he stands but he’s also got his gun held on one of them.
They look to the big guy who jerks his head in the direction of the corner they appeared from. “Get the car.”
The one who’d come after me peels off from the group and goes running around the corner. None of us move. Big guy is staring daggers at Liam.
“It seems we have us a real Mexican Standoff,” he drawls. “I’ll say goodbye for now, but there’s a ton of people after you, and you won’t be able to fight them all off.” He smiles at Liam, showing a missing tooth right in the center of his mouth.
A huge black SUV with tinted windows pulls up and the guys climb in, all except the one I shot in the lower leg. He’s dragged in by big guy, and the car takes off with a squeal of tires.
The moment they’re gone, Liam grabs my arm and pushes me inside the room. “Get your stuff. We’ve got a minute to get out of here.”
I do as he says, hauling up my clothes and stuffing them in a bag. The sirens approach and they’re almost on top of us. We aren’t going to get time to get away. I stand and look at Liam who is listening, his whole body on alert.
The sirens are right there and then they carry on. Going past us. Liam looks at me and his face cracks into a smile. He starts to laugh. “Fuck, we’re lucky.” But then it drips from his face, and for the first time since I’ve known him, he looks uncertain. Scared almost.
“I can’t keep you safe,” he says.
He sits on the bed heavily and looks up at me through weary eyes. “There’s a leak in Howard’s operation. Got to be. It’s the only way those idiots could have found us. They will have been hired by Nick. They’ll be on the phone to him as soon as they can, and he’ll only send more after us or send them back when they’ve re-grouped. I need to make some calls, but I think we either need to get out of the country or we need to bring my friend at the FBI in officially, and that will mean protective custody.”
My heart sinks. Protective custody. I know what that means
. Changing my name forever. Never seeing Liam again, or Jay, or any of the very few people I care about. Starting over with no one in my life.
He takes his iPhone out of his pocket and makes a call. He presses the speaker phone button so I can hear it ringing clearly.
A man with a gruff voice and a Yorkshire accent answers. “Yeah.”
“Ethan, mate, I need your help.”
“Yeah.”
I smile a little because Ethan seems less of a talker than Liam if that’s possible.
“I’m on the move with Abigail Madison, she’s Nick Madison’s wife.”
“Yeah. I know. Reece told me all about your little jaunt. What the fuck? I know she’s hot, seen the photos, but fuck me, you’re off the reservation with this one.”
Liam interrupts him. “You’re on speaker so watch your mouth.”
“Whatever.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Liam spits.
“Nothing. I’m worried about you. This isn’t you. You’re the rational and collected one out of all of us. The one who keeps it together. Like I say, it’s not you.”
“Well it is now. I need your advice. I’m going to call Reece and put you on hold for a moment, then we’ll all be able to talk. I need help here.”
I hear the intake of breath. Subtle, but there. I doubt Liam utters those words often.
“Go on,” Ethan says, all surly. I don’t think I like him much.
Another moment and I hear a phone ringing. It’s answered by a much more jovial sounding man. “Yo boss.”
“Reece, I’m on with Liam, too. Going to patch us all in.”
“Can you both hear me?” Liam asks.
Reece says yes, and Liam moodily grunts.
“Okay, listen up.” Liam starts to walk a little back and forth as he talks. “There’s a leak somewhere in Howard’s operation. Five goons just jumped us. No way they could have known where we were unless it came from Howard or one of his men. I told Reece to let Howard know where I was. This is spiralling out of control. Nick lost his shit, told the Russians Abi might have some info on him, and now they’re after her. These idiots definitely weren’t with them. I think these guys were working for Nick. But if someone is leaking info to Nick, then it won’t be long before the Russians get the info too, and then it won’t be untrained fools coming after us.”
I give a small cough at his words as I choke on my own saliva. Shit. This is getting out of hand. Maybe I will have to take the protective custody? I can’t keep putting Liam in danger this way. It’s selfish. I look at Boo and blink back the tears. At least I’ll have him. Or will I? Can you take pets with you?
Liam carries on. “Thing is, I have few choices. I can keep Abi with me and you guys get out here to back me up, but that’s going to take time. I can keep moving with her for now, and not let anyone but you guys know where I am, but the risk is too big if the Russian’s find us. We’d be a sitting duck if it’s just me and her. I can put her in protective custody if Jill at the FBI will agree to it, but then she’s going to have to cut a deal and testify, and we both know when it comes down to it, if the Russian’s really want to get to her, they can do it years down the line. They are tenacious bastards.”
“True.” Ethan’s muttered word is of little comfort.
“Or…”
“Yeah.” Ethan drags the word out, apprehension clear as day in his tone.
“I get her out of here and to the UK, and you call in your Russian contacts.”
“Excuse me?”
“You fucking heard.”
“Liam, I’d lay my life down for you, brother, but they aren’t exactly contacts.”
“You know if you call that big, ugly Bratva motherfucker, he’ll come and talk to us. Especially if we make it worth his while in some other way.”
“What could we possibly offer him that he’ll want?”
“Nick,” Liam says.
My heart stutters. I don’t care what happens to Nick. I genuinely don’t. In fact, I think I must be sick, because if I heard he’d been run over and was out of this world for good, I think I’d be relieved. But this? It doesn’t make sense to me.
“Nick is someone the Russians over here have groomed for years. They’ve been using him, and he knows a lot about that. Enough I would think to put quite a few of them behind bars for a long time. You and I know there isn’t one Russian mob. For fuck’s sake, it’s lots of families and oligarchs fighting for territory. Territory that now includes parts of the UK and the United States. We give those guys you know in the UK Nick, and they have a fuck ton of leverage over the guys here.”
“It’s about the craziest thing I’ve ever heard you come up with,” Ethan replies, and I agree with him. Liam has lost his mind.
“You’re not thinking straight. You want to get involved directly in a turf war with the Russian fucking mob. You think you can trust these fuckers?” Ethan’s tone is pure exasperation.
“I think they have a strange code of honor they live by. The other thing we could offer them is intel.” Liam’s stopped pacing, and I can tell by the way he’s holding himself that he’s said something bad. I don’t understand.
“Intel.” Ethan’s word is heavy, loaded with meaning. “Do you mean let them know that the guy I set them up with to do their money laundering is being investigated and watched? You don’t think it will put a massive target on my back? On Isla’s back?”
“No. It won’t. Trust me, they can’t know or prove we knew before now. We can say we want a meeting with them. We’ve found something out and we will share the info for their help. If that big bastard you dealt with promises to make it safe for Abi, she can go home.”
“It might work. It’s risky, but it might work. I don’t like having anything to do with those fuckers.”
“I know, brother, I know.” Liam shakes his head.
“But,” Ethan continues. “You came through for me, and for Luka when we needed you. I’ll do it so long as we can make it crystal we didn’t know anything about this until recently. I won’t risk Isla. As long as she’s safe, though, I’m in.” His words are heavy. Reluctant.
“I might be able to help here.” The cheerier man, Reece, cuts in, but his voice is dead serious now. “I know someone much higher up than the muscle you guys know in the Russian organization. He is involved in territory from North of London right up to the border of Scotland, and he’s got a lot more sway than your man.”
“How the fuck do you know some Russian mobster?” Moody Ethan asks.
“Need to know basis, my friend.”
“Why did you wait so long to tell us this snippet of info?” Ethan grouches.
Reece gives a deep chuckle. “I wanted to see if you said yes or not.”
“Fucking arsehole.” Ethan’s voice holds a hint of humor though, and I think the bond between these men runs deep. “So, I ask again. How do you know him well enough to bring him into this?”
Reece sighs. “Let’s simply say, I saved his life and he owes me. He’s also got a weird code of honor that he upholds, which makes me trust him more than the usual men of his type. No women or children.”
“No women or children what?” Ethan asks.
“No hits on women or children.”
“Shit. Reece. You want to alert a Russian hitman to all this?” Liam has stopped pacing and is staring at his phone. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”
“You trust me, right?” Reece answers. “This guy…he’s not all bad. It’s complicated.”
“Is he one of our guys?” Liam asks. “Undercover?”
“Not exactly, but he’s not what he seems either. Look, you’re going to have to trust me on this. I can’t say any more.”
Liam nods, even though the men he’s talking with can’t see him. “Okay. You say he can be trusted and he has sway? He’ll make sure Abi is safe so far as the Russian connection goes if she returns home?”
“Yep. I’m sure of it. I’ll call him and let you know. I think we can sweet
en the pot if we do as you suggested earlier to Ethan. Give him the info we’ve been gathering on the guys over here. I’m sure for that kind of leverage and his debt to me he’ll help.”
“Thanks.” Liam hangs up. No goodbye or chit-chat.
“I don’t understand,” I tell Liam.
So, he explains. He tells me how Ethan got involved in making a deal with some guy in the Russian mob back in England to save his girl, and to help her dad get out of a money laundering position he was in with them. The sting in the tail being that the guy Ethan put them onto to replace Isla’s father was already being watched and investigated. Liam was proposing to tell them the guy they were using to launder their dirty money was being investigated, and in return for the heads up they offer me protection from any Russian guys still after me so long as I am on their turf. But Reece knows a much higher up man in the Russian family who controls a big swathe of the country, including Yorkshire. So, he is going to talk to him.
He seems to think it will work. He says different gangs carve up different territory, and are in constant flux and battle for that territory. If the guys currently controlling the North of England give me haven status there, then the other crime families will start a war if they touch me.
It means no protective custody, but I can’t say yes, because it means danger for Liam and his men.
I shake my head. “I appreciate it, I really do, but you can’t do this for me. You can’t. It puts you in danger, and Reece, and Ethan, and maybe even his wife.”
“It can work. I’ve thought through the permutations.”
I’m torn. Part of me relishes the idea of getting back to the UK, and being safe and free of Nick. The other part of me doesn’t want Liam or his guys to take any of the blame. My inner bad-ass bitch has made a vow. I won’t let anyone else get hurt because of me, and from now on I’ll also cherish myself enough to fight back if anyone tries to hurt me again.