Then I thought of Nick and the bullet still in his body from Levi's gun. I thought of Katie and the bullets that damaged her BMW and came so close to her beautiful body as she drove past Nick's house - all because of Levi's instructions to Leo. And Bailey at my house, trying to break in and kidnap me, planning on tying me to a bed for Levi to do God knows what. And now I knew how Levi had felt about me all these years, that whole bedroom scene took on a whole other tone.
Then I thought of my Dad and the sheer hell Jessie and her boys had put him through those last few pain-filled days of his life, all because he had a couple of thousand dollars in the bank and they thought it was their God given right to demand he hand it over - because Gabe was in prison and I was in Nashville.
This had to stop. And I had to stop it. It was because of me, but I reminded myself, that even though I was complicit - in an entirely unconscious and innocent way - it was because of the twisted, greedy, maniacal machinations of the Russell family themselves, that it had gone on this long. And finally, I couldn't stand the thought of Levi getting away and having further opportunity to shoot at someone I loved, to mess with someone who was important to me, or to get his hands on me and prove just how much he "cared".
I took a deep breath in, then forced the door open silently and crouched down as I snuck out under the darkening sky overhead.
It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dimmer light outside. The sun had set, having lowered so far in the sky during the time I climbed those stairs, that I was caught unaware by the twilight. But nothing rushed me, no one fired a gun at my head or wrapped an arm around my throat. For a moment I felt relief, then quickly felt unbridled frustration that Levi was not even here.
But I wasn't alone.
"Where is he?" I asked the woman who had been a thorn in my family's life since before I was born.
"He's gone mental," Aunty Jessie said, shaking her head and wringing her hands, a look of wild anxiety obvious in her once-upon-a-time steely gaze. She looked haggard and worn out, and as though she'd been in a bit of a scuffle. Her top was ripped, a scratch mark evident on her neck and smudges of dirt streaking her cheeks. As though she'd been crying and they had smeared with the track of her tears.
"What are you talking about?" I demanded, scanning the area of the rooftop for further evidence of Levi's presence, but Jessie sobbed uncontrollably, making my eyes dart back to her. I couldn't help it. I hated the woman with a bitter hatred, but I couldn't stand seeing her so distraught. She was my father's sister after all, and I knew how much of a let-down her eldest son must be.
"I tried, Eva. I really tried." She almost pleaded for my understanding. "He's changed. It must be drugs. Meth or somethin'. All the kids are doin' it. I don't know. But he's gone crazy. I told him not to go down this path. I told him it wouldn't end well. But he don't listen to his Mamma no more. It’s as if I don't exist."
I felt my heart crack a little at her admission. How hard would it be for this stoic woman to admit these things to me? She hated me and here she was apologising for her less than perfect son.
"He has to be stopped, Aunty Jessie," I said, noting my voice had softened perceptibly. She stiffened slightly, then seemed to admit defeat, her shoulders slumping and her head dipping down. "He tried to kill my boyfriend," I added, rubbing more salt in the wound, but she had to be made aware.
Aunty Jessie was making progress admitting how much she thought Levi was out of control, but was it enough to save her other sons? They may have all followed Levi's instructions blindly and made my formative years a living hell, but they were my cousins. If I could help them I would. And maybe, through a more perceptive Jessie, it was possible to stop the rest of them walking the same mentally unstable path their older brother had already tread.
My eyes skipped over her defeated and hunched frame, a lump forming in my throat at the change in her physique. Having just lost Dad it was almost too much to see his sister so distressed and broken. Then my eyes caught on a smear of blood off to the side. Not Jessie's, she had superficial scratches, nothing more. This was all Levi's.
I lifted my head, as Jessie said something I was no longer listening to, and spotted another smear of blood. Bigger, longer, heading away to the back of the building's roof. I started following the trail, Jessie yelling at me to come back and help her down the stairs. I ignored her demand, said in a tone of voice I vaguely acknowledged was familiar to me. The blood smears led to a ledge over the side of the rooftop. More blood pooled there and then as my eyes slowly lifted to follow the trajectory of blood, I spotted more still on the ground at the rear of the building.
It would have been difficult to climb down there. It would have taken time and care. But it would have been worth it, because no cops or AOS, or any of Nick's ASI guys, were around the back here.
But Levi was. Limping significantly at the end of a short alley. He turned his face once he reached the entrance, looked over his shoulder and directly at me.
Son-of-a-bitch! He'd been here all along and Jessie had been distracting me while he climbed that treacherous route down to freedom.
I spun on my heel and glared at the now smug looking face of my Aunt.
"You're really a piece of work, aren't you, Jessie," I said through gritted teeth.
"And you've always been a hoity-toity little miss," she spat back. "I hope he fuckin' beats the shit outta ya. Brings you down a peg or two."
I lifted my gun and made a show of taking the safety off, and then wiggled it in front of her beady little eyes.
"We'll see who gets taken down a peg or two," I taunted.
"You little cunt," she exclaimed, making me wonder for the thousandth time how I could be related to such scum.
Then she flew at me. Determined scowl on her pudgy face, eyes narrowed in fierce concentration, hands clenched into claws. I couldn't shoot her, she was unarmed. Discounting her nails, I thought, as they raked down my left cheek. I swatted at her with my free hand, landed a solid slap to her own cheek, but received a punch in my gut for my efforts.
I was holding back. Jessie wasn't. And Jessie knew how to play rough.
We tumbled to the rooftop, as Levi got away. Jessie was desperate to keep me from following him. But I was just as desperate to get on his trail again and end this once and for all. I whacked her hard enough to knock out an ape with the butt of my gun, but she just grunted. Thick headed Neanderthal. We rolled, her fists connecting with my ribs and kidneys, making me cry out in acute pain.
But I'd had worse beatings at the hands of her sons. I wasn't going to curl up into a ball and let her win. Another solid whack to the head, this time aimed at the sensitive and delicate temple. The butt of the gun connected in a loud crack, which made my stomach roll. Before unconsciousness overtook her, a beefy arm swung out reflexively and knocked the gun from my hand.
Jessie landed hard on top of me, momentarily pushing all air from my lungs, as my gun flew over the side of the rooftop and disappeared from sight. I struggled for several seconds, demanding the stupid, unconscious bitch trapping me go on a friggin' diet, then finally scrambled out from beneath her bulk. Panting, gasping for air, and feeling like I had been in a fight with an ape after all.
I stood up on shaking legs, bent over and clasped my knees, struggling to draw in enough breath so I wouldn't faint, but not so much to make my ribs hurt. That was not nice. And I had a sudden fierce desire to kick Jessie's prone form in the ribs as payback.
Son-of-a-darn-bitch! Levi had got away, thanks to his mother. But I was nothing if not persistent. Show me a cowgirl-in-the-rodeo-ring who isn't. I struggled upright, hand gripping my side painfully as I took the stairs two at a time down. I crashed through to the top floor, making the restaurateurs all swivel to glare at me in shock. Ignoring them, I tripped over the privacy chain and made my way full speed - or as full speed as my ribs would let me - down to the ground floor.
Levi Russell may have got a head start, but he was limping, bleeding more profuse
ly and heading towards Eden Terrace. He would not get away. I would not let him.
I careened out of the front double doors to the restaurant and slammed into a dark figure on the footpath before I could stop my forward momentum.
"Oomph!" escaped my lips as my lungs protested as painfully as my ribs. A sharp cry swiftly followed the expelled air.
Then thick arms surrounded me, holding me captive as a familiar, and oh so wonderful, deep voice said, "Going somewhere, angel?"
Chapter 31
Just As The Kauri Tree Came Crashing Down
"Get out of my way!" I demanded of Nick.
"No. Let the professionals handle this," came his level and totally unreasonable request.
I struggled futilely in his arms, aware he was still stronger than me even with a bullet wound in his shoulder. I stopped all combative movements immediately on that awful thought.
"He's getting away," I said in a more controlled voice.
"We'll catch him. He's injured. Blood trail here indicates he's been hit bad."
Worse than he thought, from what I'd seen over the side of the rooftop.
Still. "I have to do this," I insisted softly.
"I won't let you," Nick replied, lips firmly clamped in a thin line.
"I need to face him, Nick." I lifted my gaze finally to his. Eyes the colour of winter frost met mine. God, he was truly beautiful. But wrong. "Levi is what made my growing years a living hell."
He stared at me, immobile.
"Please, Nick," I pleaded, letting him see all of me in those softly spoken, but emotion-filled words.
I watched as the frost melted and his arms shifted from bands of steel to warmth and comfort and love.
"Which way?" Nick whispered, his forehead coming forward to rest against mine.
"Eden Terrace. The Reserve. Where it all began." I knew instinctively where Levi was running to. His old territory, where he ruled with an iron fist. Even if it was his brothers' fists, on his orders, which inevitably landed the blows while I grew up.
Nick pulled back and looked over his shoulder, where I belatedly realised several ASI men waited for his command.
"Get the cars and follow us, we'll go on foot," he instructed them, slipping his fingers down my arm smoothly, and grasping my hand.
I felt larger than life, filled with enormous amounts of joyful emotions, on hearing his words. Nick Anscombe, the most capable security expert in the city, was backing me. The love I felt for this man in that second was limitless. It filled me up inside and simply overflowed, coating me in a delicious warmth and acceptance, which I had never before believed I would have.
Our feet pounded on the footpath as we followed the blood drop trail left by Levi. Nick had released my hand when he noticed my body curling in on the side Jessie had hit. Each thump of my boots on the pavement sent a shock through my side, which only my hand pressing against my chest wall could assuage. As soon as Nick released my hand from his, I clasped my ribs, easing the stabbing a little.
"Can you make it on foot?" he asked, not looking a hell of a lot better than me. His arm, the one which had taken the bullet from Levi's gun at the shoulder, was held rigidly against his side. And sometimes he'd even grab hold of the opposite shoulder to take some of the weight. I was sure Brook would have placed it in a sling, which I was equally sure, Nick would have discarded.
"I'll be fine. What about you?" I asked back, struggling in the dark to locate the next drop of Levi's blood.
Our pace had slowed as the drops became harder to see in the diminished light. Neither of us had a torch, so we had to rely on the street lamps overhead to shine off a blood drop at just the right angle to catch our eye.
"Don't worry about the blood trail. You're right," Nick said, picking up the pace again. "He's going to the Reserve."
I grunted in acknowledgement and then pointedly looked at his arm again. He chuckled, as though we were having a casual evening walk discussing what we'd eat for dinner and not chasing down my gun-toting, evil, crazy cousin.
"I had Brook dig out the bullet," Nick admitted, making me suck in a breath of air at how much that must have hurt. "My woman had just taken off after the arsehole who'd just shot me. I had to get after her and save her gorgeous, but heading for a spanking, ass."
I cringed at, yet again, being the reason why he'd suffered more pain.
"Is it better now?" I asked, in an effort to soothe my ragged nerves.
"Doesn't grate when I shift it anymore," he said with a shrug of his shoulders which he instantly regretted, by the look of the grimace on his face. Yeah, sure it didn't grate when he shifted it. Darn stubborn cowboy.
I was huffing and puffing by the time we made it to the street where the Reserve lay. Nick's men hadn't caught up with us, which was strange. And the street was unnaturally quiet, as though the neighbourhood knew what was coming. The end of years of torment at Levi Russell's hands.
"Location?" I heard Nick mutter quietly as we came to rest behind the stonewall that surrounded the Reserve. He was talking into that earpiece to Eric at ASI again. "Fuck," he muttered, pulling his gun from his belt - a replacement one, I'd lost the other one - and checking the safety and magazine.
"What's happening?" I asked, then added, "Got a gun for me?"
Nick swung Arctic blue eyes in my direction and scowled. "What happened to my Glock?" he demanded, in a low whisper.
"Aunty Jessie," I replied, holding out my hand for his spare one, the one he always has at his ankle holster.
He growled on hearing Jessie's involvement, then said on a sigh, "This is all I've got, angel."
I narrowed my eyes at him, then promptly reached forward and lifted the leg of his jeans. No holster, so I switched my attention to his other leg. Empty holster. Darn it all to hell.
Throughout my attack Nick just sat back and watched me with an amused glint to his eyes.
"You done doubting me?" he said, but it was laced with humour. I huffed and crossed my arms.
"Where's the team?" I asked, not making eye contact, but staring out across the wall at the empty Reserve. Maybe one of them will have a spare gun for me.
"Stuck back at the traffic jam caused by the police roadblocks," came his surly reply.
I did look at him then, sure he could see the fear and alarm I felt evident in my eyes. He reached forward and brushed his fingers across my cheeks, gently swiping a strand of hair behind my ear and then coming back to cup my face.
"We could wait for them. Levi probably won't go anywhere. There could be time," he suggested gently, but the use of probably and could ruined the softening effect. Levi was here for a reason and that reason would be met in soon enough time.
He was stupid, he probably hadn't expected to face off against us here, or at least thought he could get here and get out before we arrived. And had we all gone by car that might have been the case. But Nick and I were here. Already. No car, no roadblock. So, Levi wouldn't expect us. And I knew that he would move on if we waited for the others. I also think, Nick knew that too.
"We finish this now," I said with conviction Nick obviously didn't possess.
"I go in alone, then. You wait here for backup to arrive."
Na-ah. Not happening, cowboy. I shook my head at him and clenched my fists.
"You go in first with the gun and confront him, distract him. I come around from the side and disarm him." I showed Nick my fists.
He simply reached up and wrapped one of his much larger palms around one of my fists, engulfing them in that one move and making it obvious what he thought of the size of my mitts and their ability to do damage. I glowered at his impassive ice-blue gaze.
"Cowgirl," he said softly. "I know you're capable of doing damage." His words belied his palm engulfing touch. "But bullets against fists won't do." A valid point, but one I couldn't subscribe to.
We stared at each other for an extended moment, neither willing to back down. And then I did the most unconscionable thing. I lied.
&nbs
p; "OK. You win. I'll wait here for the others, but once they come, I'm arming myself and coming after you. Don't think I won't."
Nick held my gaze for several more soul-wrenching moments and then sighed.
"Fucking hell, Eva!" Obviously he saw through my lie. "Stay behind me and as much out of sight as your cowgirl sense of courage can handle. We'll just try to talk him down."
Yeah, good luck with that, but at least I had permission - albeit reluctant permission - to come to the dance.
We skirted the edge of the Reserve, staying in the shadows and far away from the well worn path in the grass that led to my spot in the trees by the stream. The spot I sung in and strummed my guitar at. And had been beaten to a pulp, teased and tormented, and had my homework thrown in the stream and my guitar strings broken. All because of Levi Russell and his need for my attention and revenge.
There was no sound. No rustle in the trees, no quiet scrabble of tiny creature's feet in the dead and drying leaves at their base. No groans of a bled-out Levi. No stomping of feet and war cry on his lips as he pounced. Not even a heartbeat. For a moment I thought I'd been wrong and Levi hadn't come here at all.
And then he walked out of the darkness, as though he had no care in the world and had been waiting for the exact moment we arrived. Nick raised his gun, eyes sighted down the barrel, muzzle pointed at Levi's chest. Levi simply chuckled in dark amusement, made a show of his own gun in his hand and stood with legs wide spread and stance relaxed. Where had he got this self-possession from? He hadn't even limped. But blood soaked the bottom of his trousers. He was injured, but not showing how bad. Maybe he wasn't as thick as I had thought.
Then he opened his mouth and removed all shadow of doubt.
Sweet Seduction Serenade Page 32