Aftermath (Dividing Line #6)

by Heather Atkinson

  “Thanks,” she replied miserably, accepting the drink. “Is your arm better? The sling’s gone.”

  “Yeah, fine. I heal really quickly. Why do you look so pissed off?”

  “Are you serious? My lunatic husband is hunting me down, Ryan hates me and I might not leave Devon alive.”

  “Ryan hates everyone except Rachel. I wouldn’t worry about him.”

  “Doesn’t he frighten you?”

  “No.”

  “He really tried to strangle you?”

  “Yes but it was a bit half-hearted. I knew he wouldn’t go through with it, I saw it in his eyes.”

  “He scares the shit out of me.”

  “Don’t let him bully you. He’s all bluster and noise.”

  “No he’s not, he’s bloody Ryan Law.” She lowered her voice. “He killed Alex Maguire, I overheard them talking.”

  “I know, I saw it. He nearly cut his head right off,” replied Jules cheerily before taking another glug of wine.

  “Oh my God,” whispered Lexie before draining her glass. “I thought I was escaping a violent man and I ran right into another.”

  “Ryan’s not like Cole, he’s a different breed,” said Jules, refilling Lexie’s glass. “Cold, controlled violence rather than just hurting people for the sake of it.”

  “I wish Riley was here.”

  “Your other brother?”

  She nodded, eyes filling with tears. “He’s the only person I’ve ever been able to rely on.”

  “At least you have one person,” said Jules bitterly.

  “You never had that?”

  “No.”

  “What about Dane?”

  “He’s helped me out in the past but I wouldn’t say I rely on him. We’ve spent more time as enemies than lovers.”

  “You’re so lucky having a magnificent man like that. He came down here for you.”

  “Did he fuck. He was worried I’d mess up his nice new business deal.”

  “What about your ex, Jasper? Couldn’t you rely on him?”

  “Jasper,” laughed Jules. “Pathetic, inadequate and a dick that was so small it was practically invisible.”

  Lexie spluttered into her wine, which Jules once again topped up for her. “I bet you couldn’t say that about Dane?”

  “Oh no. The Great Dane really is something.”

  “Great Dane? I take it that refers to…”

  “It certainly does. He’d scare the shit out of you though.”

  “Why?”

  “He likes to chain women upside down and flog them.”

  Lexie’s jaw fell open. “Upside down?”

  “If you’re lucky he’ll put you the right way up before he starts fucking you.”

  Lexie attempted to puzzle that one out but the alcohol was taking effect so she was unable to.

  “Oh dear, little sweet vanilla girl,” teased Jules.

  “Vanilla?”

  “Straight boring sex.”

  “No, I wouldn’t say that. I like a spanking.”

  “Do you now?” smiled Jules, tilting her body towards hers and refilling her glass again. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, there’s so much more to explore.”

  “Like what?” purred Lexie, realising she was flirting and unable to stop herself. After all the recent pressure it felt good to relax and have a laugh.

  “There’s a whole world of pleasure out there that you’ve been denied. I bet Cole’s not that great in bed?”

  “He’s…okay.”

  “Does he make you come?”

  “Jules,” she exclaimed. “I can’t have this conversation with you, I hardly know you.”

  “We’re just having a bit of a girlie chat. I’ll tell you all about Dane if you want.”

  “I’m tempted,” she said with a mischievous smile. “Is Dane like Ryan and Mikey, you know, a criminal?”

  Jules flashed her an impish smile that delighted Lexie. “He’s dangerous if that’s what you mean.”

  “I like a bit of danger.”

  “Which is probably what attracted you to Cole.”

  A jolt ran through Lexie. “Oh my God, you’re right. I sensed something was wrong about him but it just made him more attractive to me. I spent years around dangerous men, my dad knew lots of them, he was one himself. I wonder what that means?”

  “It means you’ve got daddy issues. Here, have some more wine.”

  “Thanks,” said Lexie absently as she topped up her glass. She took another swig and smiled. “It’s going straight to my head.”

  Jules flashed another impish smile.

  “I’ve always had bad luck with men,” said Lexie sadly. “I pick the wrong ones, men I know my dad would have hated. How pathetic am I? Still trying to piss off my dad when he’s been dead for years.”

  “You need a change. There’s so many different and exotic fish in the sea and you’re so beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” Lexie replied coyly.

  “I mean it baby girl. You’re gorgeous and you could have anyone you wanted.” Jules rested her hand on Lexie’s knee but she didn’t seem to notice. “Cole doesn’t deserve you.”

  When she tried to kiss her Lexie jerked her head away. “What are you doing?”

  Jules’s eyes slowly rolled open, the force in them pinioning Lexie. “Instructing you.”

  “I don’t want or need instructing, especially not by another woman.”

  “What’s your problem? We’re both consenting adults.”

  “You’re a woman.”

  “Doesn’t matter. We‘re just having a bit of fun.”

  “It matters to me.”

  “Your pupils are dilated, your cheeks are flushed and your impressive bosom is heaving. I don’t think it does.” Her hand slid up Lexie’s skirt, making her eyes widen. “Your damp panties tell me you’re lying.”

  “Listen, I’m not really into…oh my….women,” she gasped as Jules’s hand worked. “This isn’t…I don’t…” Deciding to give in, she flopped back onto the couch. “Oh my God,” she groaned when Jules’s head disappeared between her thighs.

  The door burst open. “What’s going on? We heard… Jesus Christ,” said Battler.

  Bruiser stared at the oblivious figures writhing on the couch, his eyes popping out on stalks. The brothers backed out of the room, quietly closing the door behind them.

  “Bloody hellfire,” said Battler. “We don’t mention this to anyone, especially not Ryan.”

  Bruiser nodded, eyes still wide. He took out his mobile phone.

  “What are you doing? You can’t bring Daina here,” said Battler.

  Bruiser sighed and replaced his phone in his pocket.

  “Don’t tell me that show turned you on?”

  Bruiser avoided his brother’s searching gaze.

  “Jesus. This could all be a distraction set by Jules. Stay alert,” said Battler before returning to his vigil by the window, walking stiffly.

  Rachel moaned as Ryan’s lips glided down her bare skin, his hands sliding beneath her to cup her backside, loving how her breathing increased and her moans grew louder as he moved lower, her fingers tangling in his hair to push his head further down, lifting her hips up off the bed in eagerness.

  “Soon,” he mumbled into the skin of her belly.

  “Now, please,” she groaned, stretching up her arms to grasp the bars of the bed head.

  He blew on her skin, scattering goose pimples across her body. When she tried to sit up he kept her pinned to the bed by her wrists, grinning down at her as she struggled beneath him.

  Her eyes rolled over black, but this time the overriding emotion wasn’t anger. It was something even more powerful. “Ryan. Now,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “You’re close already, aren’t you?”

  “No.”

  “Yes you are,” he said, pressing down harder on her wrists when she continued to struggle, her hands snapping shut into fists.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist and pull
ed him against her then tutted when his phone started to buzz insistently.

  “Don’t you dare pick that up now,” she said when he reached for the device sitting on the bedside cabinet.

  “I have to check. The new security system automatically sends an alert to my phone if it’s breached.”

  “Oh…alright,” she muttered.

  He released her and squinted at its glowing screen.

  “Shit,” he said, whipping back the duvet.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The motion sensors in the garden have been tripped. Thank God we had that new system installed.”

  In an instant Rachel was out of bed. She threw on her nightie and dressing gown and rushed out the door to check on the children while Ryan called Fletch.

  “I’m on it,” said Fletch’s voice over the line. “I’m in the garden. My phone got the alert too. Only thing is, I can’t find Leo.”

  “Fuck. You start searching, we’ll join you in a minute.”

  Ryan hung up then hurried after Rachel, finding her in the boys’ room checking the fire escape. After fire destroyed their last home they’d specifically chosen this house because of the fire escape.

  “It’s still locked,” she whispered so as not to disturb the two sleeping boys, jamming a chair under the handle of the fire door.

  Together they rushed down the hall to Leah’s room, who was safely sound asleep.

  “Thank God,” breathed Rachel, sagging against the wall.

  “You wake Mikey and Jez while I pull on some clothes,” said Ryan.

  Rachel nodded and rushed into Mikey’s room to find him sprawled out on the bed snoring, one arm flung out beside him, the other resting on his stomach.

  “Mikey, wake up,” she said, shaking him.

  “What is it?” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

  “Someone’s got into our garden.”

  His eyes snapped open and he jumped up, Rachel averting her eyes when she saw he was stark naked.

  “Sorry,” he said, cupping his genitals.

  “I’ll meet you downstairs,” she replied, hurrying across the hall to Jez’s room. “Jesus, does no one wear pyjamas anymore?” she said when Jez flung off the duvet then quickly pulled it back over himself when he recalled he wasn’t wearing any clothes.

  “Sorry Rach.”

  “Get dressed quick. Someone’s in our garden.”

  She came out of Jez’s room just in time to see Ryan - now wearing a t-shirt and jogging bottoms - race downstairs and into the kitchen and she went after him, managing to grab his arm before he went out the back door.

  “Wait for Jez and Mikey,” she told him.

  “I have to get out there.”

  “Don’t be so reckless. Wait for them,” she said, maintaining a tight grip on his arm.

  Ryan wrestled with himself, desperate to protect his family but not wanting to do anything that might put them at risk.

  “Fletch and Leo know what they’re doing. For all we know it could be a cat. Just wait for them, please.”

  “Alright Babe,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Have you got your taser?”

  She nodded and produced it from the pocket of her robe.

  “I’m beginning to wish I’d let Dane stay here. We could have used his back-up.” He’d arranged for Dane to stay in a hotel they owned because, after his deception about his relationship with Jules, neither of them trusted him enough to let him stay in their home.

  A loud banging announced Mikey and Jez were charging down the stairs, pulling on their clothes.

  “Will you two keep the noise down? We don’t want to wake the kids,” said Rachel.

  “Sorry,” replied Mikey, descending the last few steps with much more stealth.

  “There’s someone in the garden,” said Ryan. “Mikey, stay with Rachel. Jez, you’re with me.”

  “No,” said Rachel, pulling him back when he moved for the door.

  “I have to find who’s out there.”

  “Let Fletch and Leo handle it.”

  “Fletch is on his own, he can’t get hold of Leo.”

  “Why do you have to go? Ryan please don’t leave me,” she exclaimed.

  Ryan hesitated, Jez and Mikey looking away in a futile attempt to give them some privacy, feeling awkward. None of them had ever seen Rachel this way before. She was usually so quietly brave, never complaining. She just accepted a fucked-up situation for what it was and dealt with it. Now she was begging Ryan to stay with her. Rachel never begged.

  “If you go out I’m scared you won’t come back,” she told him.

  “Stay with her bruv, we’ll take a look,” said Jez.

  Both Mikey and Jez patted Rachel on the arm as they walked past her to the back door.

  “I’m sorry,” she said when they’d gone. “That was weak and hysterical.”

  “Not like my Rachel at all.”

  “Our luck’s got to run out one day Ryan. When it does I don’t want you to step outside and get your head blown off or a knife between your ribs. I want it to be me who goes first. If you…I couldn’t…” Tears spilled down her cheeks as she recalled the moment she’d thought he was dying in her arms after being shot in the chest, just like Danny, only the pain had been ten times worse.

  He gazed into her upturned face, skin so white it only made her eyes seem even blacker.

  “I know, me too,” he said softly.

  “I’m so tired of this,” she rasped.

  He cradled her to his chest, resting his cheek on the top of her head. “No one’s getting the better of us, you hear me? No one. Remember, they come after us we put them in the ground first.”

  “Dad?”

  Leah was standing on the bottom step looking small and frightened in her pink onesie. It said a lot that she was clutching the cuddly yellow duck she’d used as a comforter since she was tiny.

  “It’s okay Cupcake, come here,” he said, holding his arm out to her.

  She ran to her parents and flung her arms around both their waists, burying her face in her dad’s side. “What’s going on? Why are people outside?”

  “It’s just Uncle Mikey and Uncle Jez going for a walk.”

  She looked up at him, skin as pale as her mother’s, eyes heavy with fear. “Don’t treat me like a silly little girl Dad.”

  Rachel and Ryan were dismayed by how grown-up she sounded, how world-weary.

  “Sorry Leah,” he said. “Something outside set off the motion sensor and they’ve gone to see what it is. It’s probably just a cat or a fox.”

  “Or a person.”

  “If it is they’ll catch them. You’re perfectly safe Sweetheart.”

  Leah looked to her mum for confirmation, who nodded.

  “It’s nothing, really,” said Rachel. “Why don’t I take you back to bed? You’ve got school in the morning and you’re going on that trip to the museum.”

  “Okay,” she said reluctantly. “Can I sleep in your bed?”

  “Course you can love. Come on.”

  Rachel took her hand and Ryan watched them head upstairs, his girls, both scared to death and so sick of feeling that way. He hoped Mikey and Jez found whoever was lurking out there because he wanted to rip their fucking head off.

  He turned off the kitchen light and stared out into the darkened garden, unable to make anything out.

  “Ow, shit,” whispered Mikey.

  “You okay?” Jez whispered back.

  “Yeah. Tripped over a root.”

  They’d been creeping about in the dark, not wanting to use torches for fear of drawing attention to themselves. If it wasn’t an animal that had set off the sensors it had to be Cole’s men. Mikey thought that would be preferable to facing a wild animal. As he picked himself up he put his hand down in something warm and sticky and realised what he’d actually tripped over was someone lying on the ground.

  “Fuck, who’s that?” he whispered.

  Jez took out his mobile phone and shone the light on the
body. “Leo. He’s breathing. Looks like he’s taken a whack to the head.”

  “We’ll come back to him. We need to find who did this first.”

  They circled the garden, straining to hear the slightest sound. When they detected a slight rustle to the right they froze.

  Mikey indicated for Jez to circle from the right while he took the left and silently they made their way through the bushes, simultaneously pouncing on a big black shape. A bellow of shock and rage made their eardrums throb as they wrestled the figure to the ground.

  “Oh fuck,” said Jez, shining his light in the man’s face. “Fletch.”

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Sorry mate,” said Mikey.

  They released him, allowing him to get back on his feet. “I saw someone, I was tracking them round the side of the house,” whispered Fletch.

  Together the three of them made their way through the undergrowth until they came to the back of the house and saw one of the bedroom windows half open.

  “Oh holy fuck,” said Jez, frantically calling Ryan on his phone as they raced round the house to the back door. “Ryan, they’ve got in through an upstairs window.”

  Jez heard the phone drop then running footsteps.

  CHAPTER 25

  It didn’t take Leah long to drop off, despite how scared she’d been. Rachel thought it a blessing children were so resilient. She sat by her daughter’s side watching her sleep, sunk into their big bed, making her look small and fragile. At least all seemed quiet outside. Maybe it had been an animal after all.

  Rachel considered bringing the boys in here too. She didn’t like the thought of them being alone. Both were heavy sleepers, she could carry them in and they wouldn’t wake.

  Decided, she got to her feet and opened the door. As she stepped into the hall instinct made her hesitate and she turned her head to the left, towards Leah room. A man was standing there clad entirely in black. A black balaclava covered his face but she was certain it was one of the men who had attacked her and Jules. He seemed equally as surprised to see her as she was him but he soon recovered and advanced on her, halting when she pulled the taser out of her robe and pressed the button, its menacing crackle reassuring.

  Rachel was torn about what to do. She could scream and shout for Ryan and he’d come tearing up the stairs, but that would wake the children and having three young kids running into the fray would only make the situation ten times worse. For all she knew the man had a gun, he might threaten them, even shoot them. No, she would handle this herself, nice and quietly.