Nemesis: Katie's story (Heart of Stone Book 15)

by D H Sidebottom

  “For Sarah,” he echoed with a nod. The grief in his eyes made my heart ache. Like me, Hope had no family left, and I knew how painful that was.

  However, when I dropped my hand from his face and he turned away, I stroked my belly and smiled.

  It seemed, sometimes, fate did have its own way of rewarding us.

  Twenty-five

  Tristan

  Stillman walked into his office, yawning and kneading the nape of his neck with his fingers. Sliding the door lock closed behind him, he then threw his jacket onto the back of the couch I’d just eaten Katie’s delicious cunt on. I couldn’t help but smirk at that, and when I flicked a glance at Katie, the twist of her lips told me she was thinking the exact same thing.

  The rest of Katie’s crew would, right at that minute, be disposing of the security men that had escorted Stillman home, and now the rest was up to us.

  Finally, Stillman looked up. He froze when Katie wiggled her fingers at him from where she leaned leisurely against the wall behind his desk. “Evenin’, officer.”

  Instantly, he reached for the gun that was strapped to his back. I stepped up behind him and pressed my own gun into his back. “Not wise.”

  Looking over his shoulder at me, his teeth gnashed together and the low growl that left him made me chuckle. “Nice of you to bring a friend,” I taunted as I slid his gun away from him and inspected it. Impressed with the quality, I nodded in admiration and tucked it into the back of my jeans. “Thank you. That will do nicely to set you up with later. I gather it is specifically allocated to you, Stillman. That each of the precious bullets is assigned to you.”

  The look on his face gave me his answer.

  Katie laughed and pushed off the wall. Stillman looked back to her and I could practically feel the rage pouring off him from how close I stood to him.

  “You know,” she spoke as she calmly walked towards us. “I like you, Henry. I thought we were good mates.”

  “Mates?” He laughed and shook his head. “You were just another pawn in the game, Miss Fox.” He tutted and sighed dramatically. “I’m sorry, forgive me. Mrs Steed,” he rectified with a smirk. “And how is your dead husband doing?”

  “I’m sure he’s pretty excited for me right now.”

  I’d expected her to lose her shit to him, but she remained calm and smiley.

  Drawing a knife from its sheath, she twisted it in her fingers. “I’d like you to meet someone pretty special to me.”

  Stillman tipped his head, watching her as she slid the blade through her fingers and a trickle of blood bubbled on her skin. Bringing her hand to her mouth, she slowly licked it clean. “This is Thelma.” Pulling out another blade, she held it up. “And this is Louise.”

  Stillman stared at her with wide eyes, contemplating her sanity. Even I had to admit that it took one hell of a crazy chick to name each of her weapons. Still, it kind of endeared me to her even more.

  “And do you know why they’re special to me, Henry?”

  He didn’t move, refusing to entertain her.

  Except, when she pointed the tip of Thelma at his Adam’s apple and pressed, he definitely did move. I moved behind him, denying his intent.

  “My husband bought me Thelma and Louise.” She smiled lovingly at both the knives. “So, I’d say my dead husband is doing pretty okay. He’s here with us anyway, and it will be by his hand that you die tonight. Theoretically speaking anyway.”

  “I should have finished you and your family a long time ago, Fox. “

  She chuckled and nodded, keeping her focus on how she stroked the tip of her blade down the front of Stillman’s throat. “I agree, you should have. I’m surprised by what a coward you really are, Henry. Maybe if you were a little tougher you wouldn’t be stood here now, with my knife teasing your gangly throat.” She flicked her glance to me over Stillman’s shoulder. “Do you think he has a gangly neck, Hope?”

  I leaned forward to look, and nodded. “Well it’s definitely ugly at any rate.”

  Looking up at me, she smiled and stepped back, giving Stillman to me completely. “You’re good at making things pretty, Hope.” She held out her hand, gesturing to me. “Decorate his neck with his own blood.”

  Pulling out my own blade, I pressed to the front of his throat and secured him with my other arm. He stiffened, hissing through his teeth as I applied more pressure.

  “Mark my words, Stillman. Every single one of those children that you have sold, I will find them all. I will make it my mission to bring them home and tarnish everything you ever stood for. I will bring your name down in every sense of the word. Right at this very minute, the books you kept, your sick trophies of each sale, are being delivered to the high court, with enough evidence to sink your reputation to the ground.”

  Katie lifted her eyes to mine, and gave me a single nod.

  “This is for Sarah,” I said quietly as I slid the blade across the front of Stillman’s throat.

  Letting him go, I watched him drop to the floor. His hands groped at his throat, as if pushing his fingers into the chasm across his neck would stop the river of blood flowing over him and soaking into the deep-pile cream carpet.

  “I’m surprised you let me have him,” I said to Katie as I stepped back with a look of disgust at Stillman’s dead body.

  Her eyes dropped to the floor for a second before she lifted them back up to me. “I didn’t want to get too close to him in case his filth contaminated our baby.”

  Her words didn’t register for what felt like an hour passing by, even though it could only have been a matter of seconds. I stood still, confused, my brow furrowed as I tried to decipher what she had just said.

  “I’m pregnant, Hope.”

  The gasp that burst from me informed her, and me, that, finally, what she was trying to tell me had touched the part of my brain it needed to for me to comprehend.

  “Fuck.” I hadn’t meant to say that, but it was the only word my shocked mind came out with.

  She flinched and lowered her gaze. “Perhaps now wasn’t the best time to tell you.”

  My mouth was so dry I couldn’t get my tongue to unglue from where it stuck to my palate. “Wow,” I managed.

  Turning away from me, Katie spoke quietly into her earpiece. “Polly is taken.”

  Within seconds the room was swarmed with a clean-up crew, any evidence we may have left behind being wiped and cleaned away.

  I stood in the middle of the mob for a long time, my mind raging as hard as my heart.

  It wasn’t until the final cleaner remaining asked me to leave so she could complete the clean-up, that I realised Katie had already left.

  Twenty-six

  Katie

  “You have her?” I asked into the phone, blowing out a steadying breath.

  “I do,” Grace confirmed with a hint of excitement in her voice. “We’re on our way in now.”

  “Okay, I’ll meet you there.”

  I ended the call, grinning to myself, and turned back to Nate and Liv where they sat at my kitchen table.

  “And you’ve heard nothing from him?” Liv asked me, continuing the conversation we were having before I had to break off to answer Grace’s call.

  Shaking my head, I sighed and fiddled with my coffee cup. “Nothing.”

  It had been two days since I had told Hope I was pregnant. The fact that he hadn’t been in touch hurt, but, as my father had always said, at the end of the day the only person you could truly rely on was yourself.

  “Give him time, sweetheart.” Nate smiled and gave my hand a squeeze. “But, whatever happens, you have the support of every one of us.”

  “Have you thought anymore about what you’re going to do now?” Liv asked, watching me closely over the rim of her cup.

  I nodded. I’d done nothing else but think. In my heart, I knew what I was doing was the right thing and in the end, it hadn’t taken much deliberation.

  “It’s time to lay the Fox empire to rest.”

  She smi
led, a shimmer of tears in her eyes. “Good.”

  “Your mother only ever wanted you to be happy, Katie. I think what you’re doing is right.”

  “I have to concentrate on this little one now.” I smiled and ran my hand gently over my stomach. “This business is too dangerous, and it’s not fair to bring that into any child’s life. I feel guilty about ending what my dad started all those years ago, but…”

  “But,” Nate cut in, “he would absolutely agree with you on this.”

  “I know. He practically said so in his letter. I’ve lost too much to this life, I’m not prepared to lose my child too. However…”

  They both narrowed their eyes. They knew me too well, and had been expecting something.

  “Grace has approached her organisation, Memphis, about the books.”

  Nate quirked an eyebrow. Sam had safely managed to get Stillman’s ledgers from my garage, and he had copied every single entry before they had been sent to a high judge – the only one I could trust with such important shit.

  “And,” I continued. “I’m going to be working with them occasionally to find each and every one of those poor kids.”

  The smile that lit Nate’s face surprised me. “You’re so much like your mother that, sometimes, it scares the shit out of me. She had such a gentle heart.” He snorted, and added, “And a mean right hook.”

  I laughed, nodding. My mother had been the only person who could rock my father, in more ways than one.

  “I miss them so much,” I confessed. “But, I’ve reached a point where I can now smile at the memories. And, surprisingly, with Steed too.”

  “Steed loved you insanely, Katie,” Liv stated softly. “That’s something that should make you smile, not sadden you. What you shared, some people never experience in a lifetime, and that should be cherished.”

  Subconsciously I ran a finger over the scar hidden by my shirt, the final scar that had said goodbye to a man that had held my heart for so long. He would always have a piece of my soul, but now, with the help of my child, it was time to move on and be happy.

  “Anyway.” Nate clapped his hands, putting an end to our sadness, and stood up. “You have some business to take care of, I believe.”

  Smiling, happiness and eagerness changing it into a huge grin, I nodded. “Yep. I do. And I’m so excited.”

  I left the room to use the bathroom and when I returned Nate and Liv had vanished, and Hope was stood in my kitchen.

  “Hey,” he whispered.

  “Hi.”

  Closing his eyes, he sighed. “I’m so sorry, Katie.”

  I shrugged and shook my head. “Don’t be. I was an idiot for bursting it out like that. It wasn’t the time or the place, especially with that cunt bleeding out all over your lovely new boots.”

  His lips twitched. “I was shocked…”

  “I gathered,” I butt in with a small smile.

  “But,” he continued, “that doesn’t excuse my reaction. I hurt you, and that was so wrong of me.”

  “Yes,” I replied honestly. “You did.”

  “You have to understand.” He fidgeted with his fingers. “All I could think of was how I wished Sarah was here to share it with me. She’s the only family I have left. I want to shout it to the world, that I’m going to be a father, but…” His eyes clouded over and he swallowed. “I realised, I don’t have anyone to shout it to.”

  “Hey,” I soothed, quickly moving to him and wrapping him in my arms. “You’re not alone, Hope. You never will be.”

  Taking his hand, I snatched up my car keys and guided him out of the front door.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’re going to shout your news from the highest rooftop. That’s where we’re going.”

  He stared at me, then grinned, then laughed and pulled me into his side. “You’re the craziest bitch I’ve ever known, do you know that?”

  “Oh, I know.”

  Forty minutes later, when I led Hope into the hospital room that contained his sister and told him to shout out his news, he collapsed into Sarah’s arms, and whispered in her ear, “This crazy, amazing, beautiful woman is carrying your niece or nephew.”

  And this crazy woman sat, looked up to the ceiling, and smiled.

  Epilogue

  Katie

  7 months later

  “Quite the expert,” Sarah commented, smiling at Hope as he changed Evie’s nappy.

  “He’s got no choice,” Aunty Kerrie laughed. “Katie won’t let him be anything else.”

  “I’m not that bad!” I retorted with a rebellious glare.

  When every person in the room scoffed, I glared at them all.

  “Really, sweetheart, you are,” Kade muttered and turned to Grace. “Isn’t she?”

  Grace slapped his arm and walked over to me where I sat on the sofa surrounded by my family and friends. “Ignore them. It’s your first day home with Evie, you’re bound to be over-protective of her.”

  “I’m not over-protective!” I declared, shifting off the couch to make sure Hope had remembered to apply cream to Evie’s bottom.

  “Did you make sure to use talc?” I asked him when he tenderly fastened the poppers on her vest.

  The room burst into laughter and I blushed.

  “Ignore them, tiger,” Hope whispered in my ear, placing a gentle kiss to my forehead after. “One of the many things I love about you is your protectiveness. With Evie and everyone else you love.”

  I smiled up at him, the devoted way he looked at me displaying every bit of his love for me. “Our lives are complete.”

  He nodded and drew in a huge contented breath. “It really is.”

  Nate got our attention as he tapped a glass with a spoon.

  “Well, congratulations to the new parents.” he started, looking around the room. “We’re all so very proud of you, Katie. With what life brought to the Foxs, I wasn’t sure you’d ever get to be so radiant and happy. But, fuck, it’s been one hell of a ride getting here.”

  “I’d call it a fucking saga, not a ride,” Greg piped up. “It’s gone on that bloody long.”

  “Oh, shut up, you grouchy fuck,” Layla laughed. “It’s been a legend in the making.”

  “The Fox chronicles,” William chuckled, taking a sip of his champagne.

  “Someone should write a book,” Marcy shouted from the back of the room where she stood huddled in Sam’s embrace.

  Hope picked up Evie and came to stand beside me. “Maybe you could write it.” He winked at me. “After all, it’s you who has lived it.”

  “Nah,” Liv sighed wistfully. “There’s only Mason and Ava that lived it all.”

  Tears shimmered in my eyes, and I smiled. Lifting my glass to the room, I swallowed down the pang of sadness and said, “To my amazing parents, Mason and Ava Fox. Their legend will never die.”

  “Mason and Ava,” everyone echoed.

  The room filled to the sound of Jackie Wilson’s, your love keeps lifting me higher and higher as the doorbell rang.

  “That’ll be Lucas,” Layla shouted to me as I went to answer it. “Always fucking late that man!”

  Opening the door, I laughed when a huge pink balloon bobbed about in front of me, hiding him.

  But, when the balloon moved, the glass of champagne in my hand slipped from my grasp, and his smile had me grabbing hold of the doorframe to stop me from falling to my knees.

  “Hey, peanut.”

  Irrevocably, resolutely, and irrefutably,

  The End

 

 

 
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