“Cheska.” Ollie gave me the same smile he’d always worn around me. The one that used to upset Hugo so much he would talk about his hatred of Ollie for days afterwards. Ollie flicked his chin at Freddie. “Take the tape off her mouth, then get back.”
Freddie’s eyes were molten as they fell on me, but he did as Ollie had commanded, dropped the tape to the ground, and walked to the barely standing garage-looking building across the yard.
What was happening? What the hell was happening?
Ollie stepped closer to me, my frantically beating heart trying to coax my hazy brain to catch up with what was staring me right in the face. He looked down my body, that heated gaze he always had for me still burning like hot coals. “I’ve missed you,” he said, and I tried harder to understand what the bloody hell was happening.
Then Ollie lifted his hand and ran his fingers over his mouth … and I saw it. I saw the circular brand on his wrist, the brand that I had come to despise, to associate with death and pain and devastating loss.
The thing that linked Ollie to a devilish operation that had killed so many people, our families … and trafficked women. So many innocent and helpless women …
“You?” I asked, my voice a mere whisper.
Ollie’s face fell, and he put his hands in his pockets. “You fucked things up for me, sweetheart.” He shook his head in disappointment. “I had a plan. I had everything all worked out. A smooth and seamless execution.” A dark shadow crossed his face. “But I hadn’t considered Adley.” He said the name with pure hatred in his tone. “I hadn’t counted on you fighting my men on your hen do. Frankly, I hadn’t thought you had it in you to get away, pelting down the alley like that.”
The spa. He was talking about the spa. I shut down my emotions, held back the tears that threatened to fall, when it fully hit me. It was Ollie, Ollie Lawson, who had ordered the deaths of my dad and Hugo, of Arabella and Freya.
He stepped closer still. “And I didn’t expect you to go crawling to Adley. The motherfucking bane of my life.” He sucked on his teeth. “That wanker’s always getting in my way.”
“You killed them,” I said, voice weak. “Arabella and Freya were your friends, and you killed them. Ruthlessly.”
“They were collateral,” he said with such nonchalance that it set me alight. I felt my organs burn and re-form with the hatred and fire that was igniting in me. An internal eclipse smothering any light that lived inside my soul.
Ollie pushed a piece of hair from my face. I wanted to launch at him, kill him for the things he had done, all the sadness and pain he had caused. “I always wanted you, Cheska,” he said and yanked my head back. He smirked as a pained moan slipped from my lips, and I had to breathe through the urge to attack him. I felt Gene standing stoically behind me. I had to protect Gene too. I had to stay alive for Arthur.
It felt as though the bracelet pulsed around my wrist, promising me that he was coming. That he would find us here and destroy the men that had brought us all so much pain.
“I had to make a lot of plans to finally get you. For years I craved you. And this time I wasn’t going to fail in making you mine.” He shook his head and laughed without mirth. “The first time it was Adley who got in my fucking way too. I hadn’t counted on that twat being around. Or even caring about you.” His hands curled into fists as he spoke of Arthur. “I should have known. The fucking Adleys were always in our way in this city. Thinking they controlled it all. Making everyone in the underworld piss themselves with fear.” His expression grew icy. “Well, not fucking me. Not my organisation.”
Ollie Lawson … I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that the enemy, the shadowy force who had caused so much devastation, was Ollie and his family. He’d attended Hugo’s school. He had a successful business. They had it all. Apparently it wasn’t enough—they had delved into the darkness of the underworld to sate their malevolent desires.