Saviours

by Beth Abbott

  “I’ve got so many ideas I wouldn’t know where to start.” Kellen grinned, his mind only going in one direction.

  He wondered if she’d ever played naked Twister in the dark!

  The End

  Don’t go just yet…

  Keep reading for an early glimpse of Demons…

  Demons – Chapter 1 – Suzy

  “When he gets here, I’m seriously gonna have words with him.”

  Suzy smiled across the table at her teenage son. How the hell did she and Matt manage to create such an amazing kid?

  “Don’t keep smiling at me, mum.” Charlie scowled at her. “This is the second time he’s blown off an important family event this month. He missed Taylor’s Christmas concert last week, and it was the first time she’d had a speaking part. And now he’s not even bothered to show up for Rory’s birthday.”

  “Your father had the Alpha Company’s Director’s meeting down in London yesterday, so we knew he wasn’t going to be here this morning for Rory’s birthday. And it’s not like this is the Alpha babies’ party.” Suzy pointed out. “The get-together for all the babies first birthdays is in London on the weekend and your dad knows that. This is just a little celebration we were having for us and Rory. It’s just a pub outing really, with the bonus of a ball-pit to keep Rory happy. Not that important in the big scheme of things.”

  “Yeah, but that ‘us’ you were talking about is supposed to include dad.” Charlie pouted. “Only he seems to be forgetting that a lot lately.”

  “Charlie, that’s so not fair.” Suzy frowned. Had Matt really missed that many events to have Charlie so pissed at him? “Dad works really hard, you know that. And there have been a lot of problems at the football club lately, with some serious threats against one of the players. Alpha Company is providing security there, so he has to take something like that seriously, doesn’t he?”

  Charlie sat staring at the ball-pit where his ten-year-old sister was happily playing with their one-year-old baby brother, Rory.

  “Look, he’s obviously not going to show up now.” Suzy sighed, glancing at her watch. “I’d better pay the bill and then we can go home. We can have some dessert when we get there.”

  Suzy fished in her bag for her purse and walked up to the counter.

  “Can I settle up?” She smiled at the cashier.

  “Sure.” The woman smiled. “I’m afraid our card machine isn’t working at the moment. There must be a storm coming in, because it’s kicked out our internet, which means that the card machine’s gone down. I don’t suppose you have cash, do you? Or there’s a cash dispenser around the corner you can use.”

  “Hang on, how much was the bill?” Suzy opened her purse to check what notes she had on her.

  “Fifty-five pounds and some change.” The woman smiled sympathetically, obviously embarrassed to be making life difficult.

  “You’re in luck.” Suzy smiled. “I have sixty on me. It doesn’t leave much for a tip, I’m afraid, but that’s all I’ve got. Keep the change.”

  She walked back to the table, pulling her phone out to check it for the fiftieth time. Still no messages or calls from Matt.

  She placed her bag on the seat, deciding she needed to use the bathroom before they headed out.

  “I’m going to pay a quick visit to the little girls’ room.” She nodded towards the ladies’ toilets on the far side of the room. “Can you get Taylor and Rory out of the ball pit and get their coats on? I won’t be a minute.”

  Charlie grumbled a reply as she wandered off, and Suzy headed towards the toilets, glad of a few minutes respite from her son’s annoyance.

  He was a great kid, and he would do anything for her, but just lately he seemed to have gone from being her cuddly little boy to her second protector. She didn’t like him growing up if he was going to be so serious and responsible all the time. That should be the job of the parents, not the kids.

  At fifteen, he was already six feet tall, and like Matt, would probably not stop growing for another couple of years. With Suzy being only a few inches over five-feet, he towered over her, and in the last few months, he seemed to be taking on the typical mantle of an Alpha-Stalwart male, becoming quite protective of her.

  His idea that his dad was neglecting them was worrying.

  Ok, Matt had missed a few things lately, and if she was being honest, she’d been pissed at him a few times recently herself, sometimes for changing plans at the last minute, or skipping lunches with her with virtually no warning.

  But Charlie knew nothing about those cancellations. His annoyance was purely about what he had personally witnessed.

  She was seriously going to have a word with Matt herself, although she’d probably have to call his PA, Lacey, and make an appointment.

  She finished in the toilet and washed her hands.

  Glancing at her reflection in the mirror, she tried to look for signs of wear and tear.

  Her shoulder-length blonde hair was nicely cut and highlighted, and her blue eyes still had that mischievous twinkle in them.

  Just the hint of crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes was about the only change to her appearance in the last ten years, and she liked to think of them as her laughter lines.

  Otherwise her skin was still as clear, her body slimmer, if anything, than when they’d met, and the only real difference was that her boobs were still bigger since she’d had the kids.

  If only that was enough to hold Matt’s interest, she thought, turning away from the mirror.

  As she made her way back across the bar, she could see Rory sitting on Charlie’s lap, sucking on her phone as usual.

  It was a damn good thing that her phone was waterproof, because since he’d started teething, he seemed to love gumming up her phone more than he liked his teething ring, straight from the freezer. Now his teeth were in, she decided he must just like the hardness of the frame.

  “Mama!” Rory yelled in delight at seeing her, and as he did, he threw his arms forward, as if holding them out for a hug.

  Her phone slipped out of his soggy grasp as he wiggled his chubby fingers, and it seemed destined to fly the fifteen feet across the room towards her.

  Suzy made a lunge for it but was still about five feet short.

  She saw the corner of the phone hit the solid slate tile of the pub floor and watched as the screen cracked into a million pieces.

  By the time she got to it and switched it on to check the damage, the black liquid inside seemed to be leaking all over the place, and nothing seemed to be working. Only the screen protector was preventing the pieces of shattered screen from falling out.

  “Mama!” Rory was still beaming at her, unaware that he’d just destroyed her one and only communication device.

  “Is it broken?” Charlie looked worried as she reached the table.

  Suzy turned the phone around and watched her son pale.

  “I’m sorry mum.” Charlie said quietly. “I only gave him your phone to stop him squawking at everyone. You know how noisy he gets.”

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart.” She smiled, covering up her annoyance. “If you hadn’t given it to him, I would have. These things happen.”

  They gathered their belongings together and walked out to the carpark, Charlie carrying Rory. Suzy had just about had enough misery for one night and the only thing she wanted now was to climb into her pyjamas and curl up on the sofa with a good book.

  She looked around the carpark for her car.

  “Mum, we came by taxi, remember?” Charlie sighed. “Dad was supposed to be driving us home, so you could have a drink.”

  Suzy almost groaned. She’d forgotten all about that when they’d ordered their drinks with the meal, and she’d had the same soft drink as the kids out of habit.

  “You’ll have to call a taxi to take us home.” Charlie pointed out.

  Suzy held her phone up, reminding him that she had no way of phoning anyone.

  “Well, it’s no good looking at us.” Tayl
or announced. “You wouldn’t let us bring our phones because it was supposed to be ‘family-time’.”

  Yeah, Suzy thought. Sometimes her rules tripped them all up!

  “Would the people in the pub call a taxi for us?” Charlie suggested.

  “They probably would.” Suzy nodded. “But I just used the last of my cash to pay for the meal. We’ll have to go around the corner to the cash-machine first.”

  “Well, can we go then?” Taylor sulked. “My hands are cold, and I forgot my gloves.”

  Suzy led her kids around the corner to the supermarket, where the cash machine sat in the front window.

  ‘OUT OF SERVICE’

  Suzy read the sign and could have wept.

  “Let’s see if I’ve got this straight…” Charlie stared at her. “We’ve got no phone, no cash, no car, and you’ve got no clue where your husband is. Have I missed anything out?”

  “Couldn’t you go back inside and ask them to phone grandma?” Taylor suggested. “She would come and get us.”

  “Grandma and Aunty Pat have gone on a Christmas shopping weekend in London, baby.” Suzy smiled. “There’s nobody home for us to call.”

  “So, what do we do now?” Charlie glared at her.

  Suzy looked around for inspiration, but nothing came to her.

  “I guess we walk.” She shrugged. “I know it’s a terribly old-fashioned concept, and not something you kids have had much practise at, but perhaps it’s time you went old-school, like I had to when I was your age.”

  Suzy took hold of Taylor’s hand, and ignoring the griping from her oldest children, she started trudging back up towards the main road. It wasn’t the shortest route home, but on a dark December evening, at least the road would be well lit.

  “How far is it?” Taylor whined.

  “It’s no more than three miles.” Suzy said with a smile. “We’ll be home in less than an hour.”

  Ignoring the occasional whimper, Suzy kept hold of Taylor’s hand, while Charlie carried Rory behind her. None of them was really dressed for walking outdoors, but at least Taylor and Rory had warm coats and hats on.

  She and Charlie had thick jackets on, but neither of them had gone out with walking in mind.

  About twenty minutes into their walk there was an almighty clap of thunder, and the sky lit up with a flash of lightening right in front of them.

  Taylor screamed and Rory burst out crying, and Suzy remembered that the woman in the pub had guessed that a storm was coming.

  She calmed them down and kept on walking, wondering how the night could possibly get any worse.

  Twenty minutes later, when they walked into a wall of rain which left them soaked to the skin within seconds, she had her answer.

  Obviously, the world hated her.

  Ten minutes later, when she finally turned into her driveway, it wasn’t only Taylor who had tears running down her face.

  Suzy was just about ready to scream at the first person who looked at her sideways, and she just wanted to get out of her wet clothes and into a hot bath, neither or which would happen until she had sorted her kids out.

  The four of them looked like bedraggled urchins, and she and Charlie were probably blue with cold from trying to give Taylor and Rory more cover under their respective jackets.

  If she had to guess, her chest and stomach were probably frozen solid from where the driving wind had been slapping the soggy material of her shirt against her skin for so long. She’d given Taylor her gloves and surrendered her scarf to the baby long since. He was probably the warmest of the four of them, with Charlie cuddling him inside his jacket.

  She glanced at her man-sized son as they reached the front door.

  “Thank you, Charlie.” She half-smiled. “You’re my rock, you know that, right?”

  Before he could answer, there was a screeching of tires, and a shiny black BMW pulled into the driveway.

  Suzy watched as the passenger door opened, and the interior light came on.

  Matt’s PA waved at her from the driver’s seat as her husband climbed out of the fancy car, walking to the back where he retrieved his overnight bag and briefcase.

  Suzy watched her husband lean back into the car and say something to Lacey, and then shut the door with a flourish.

  Suzy couldn’t stand to watch as he waved his PA off, instead turning to unlock the door to get them all inside.

  “Did you hear on the news that the stadium gates were hit by lightning, and blown off their tracks?” Matt shouted to her as he made his way up the path. “Luckily Lacey had parked her car in the visitor carpark across the street from the stadium, because all of our cars are stuck in the club carpark going nowhere.”

  Suzy didn’t bother to turn around.

  Taylor’s hand was like a block of ice, and they were both shivering like crazy. She pushed the door open and they stepped inside.

  “Run up to your bedroom and strip off.” She smiled at her daughter. “Start running your bath and I’ll be up in a minute.”

  She turned to see Charlie unwrapping the scarf from around Rory’s face, and her baby son’s toothy grin appeared, even though he was half-soaked.

  “I’ll take him.” She reached out to Charlie, taking the baby from him. “Go and have a hot bath and warm yourself up. Come down and get a nice cup of hot chocolate when you’re done.”

  She thought her son was going to argue for a moment, but finally he handed Rory over to her just as Matt walked through the door.

  “Man, that weather was ridiculous!” Matt exclaimed, closing the door behind him. “The roads in the village were almost all flooded.”

  Yeah, Suzy thought. We know!

  She watched her husband shrug off his coat.

  “So, what did you guys get up to tonight?” Matt turned and grinned at her. “You look like you got caught in the rain.”

  She watched Charlie’s jaw drop open and could see his cheeks grow pink.

  “Are you for real?” Charlie walked straight into his father’s personal space, and despite being six inches shorter, got right up in his father’s face. “You’d know exactly what we got up to tonight if you hadn’t pulled such a dick move and not bothered to show up.”

  The look of surprise on Matt’s face was a picture.

  “I…” He obviously had something to say, but Charlie wasn’t having any of it.

  “Save it!” Charlie stomped towards the stairs. “We’re all too cold and wet to care what excuses you’ve got this time.”

  Suzy continued to remove Rory’s clothing until he was down to his t-shirt and jeans, which were dry, thank goodness.

  She walked up to Matt and held him out.

  “Can you get one of his soft blankets out of the airing cupboard and wrap him in it to get him warmed up?” She started to unfasten her jacket. “Once you’ve got the blanket, give him a warm drink and a cuddle. I’m going to give Taylor a bath and then I’m going to take a shower.”

  Matt stared at her as though she was talking a different language, before finally taking Rory into his arms.

  “I’m not even sure what I walked into here.” He admitted. “Did I miss something?”

  Suzy paused on the first stair but didn’t turn around.

  “Yeah, you did.” She said quietly before carrying on walking.

  They were fast approaching the time when they were going to have to talk about whatever was going on, but right at that moment, she had kids to look after, and then she needed to try and avoid catching her death of pneumonia.

  A showdown with her husband was quite low on her list of priorities for tonight.

  A message from the author.

  Hi there,

  If you’ve just read Saviours, then I’m guessing you’re already familiar with the Alpha-Stalwart family, and if that’s the case, then a warm welcome back.

  I hope you enjoyed the second book in the new Guardians series and I honestly can’t wait to get your feedback on the new characters. It’s always important to me t
hat you can relate to them, and that’s no less true about my new family members.

  So, if you’d like to get in touch with me to let me know what you thought, I would love to hear from you. (I really do write back!)

  Or, if you loved the stories and want to encourage others to read the Alpha-Stalwart-Guardians books, why don’t you go and leave a review? It’s more important for prospective readers to hear about the books from you, than from me.

  Finally, if you want to be added to my mailing list to know when I have new books being released or even offers (freebies!) on different sites, just e-mail ‘List’ and your name to the email address below.

  You can find me here;

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  Or E-mail me here;

  bethabbott2016@yahoo.com

  Or check out my Author pages on Amazon.

  Only people on my mailing list or those who have contacted me directly are invited to check out the latest info on the secret page on my website, where I sometimes post a teaser from an unreleased book.

  So, what are you waiting for?

  I really hope to hear from you soon.

  Take care,

  Beth

  xx

  Read on for a new Q&A with Beth

  Q&A with Beth (Christmas 2018)

  I asked you to let me have your questions for a new Q&A, on anything you wanted to know, book related or not. Here they are, in no particular order;

  Q1; Are there any regular characters you’ve created that you don’t like, or, with the benefit of hindsight you would have made different?

  A; None. That’s easy to say, I know, but as I create them, I try and give them positive characteristics I’d want to find in my friends and family. Loyalty, strength, sense of humour, compassion… and so on. They’re not all perfect as human beings, but that’s true of all of us. None of us is perfect.

  Q2; Coffee or tea?

  A; Tea mostly. Weak, milky, no sugar. (My husband refers to it as gnat’s p*ss, it’s so weak. But then, he likes a drink you can stand a spoon up in.) I do like coffee, but I’m allergic to caffeine, and decaffeinated coffee is just pointless.