Inevitable (9 page)

‘Alex asked me to come and find you, he’s in the office with Nathan, Scott and Edwards.’ My heart plummeted at that piece of information. It was like receiving a call late at night, you always worry that something has happened to someone you love.

‘We’d better go down then, hadn’t we?’

Frankie didn’t release my hand as we made our way silently downstairs and across the huge hallway in the centre of the vast house to the office. The door was pushed to and with a hell of a lot of trepidation, I pushed open the oak door.

The sight that greeted me was diverse. Alex was in shorts and a T-shirt, but wearing a severe expression. Edwards was in his normal suited, almost FBI-looking attire, and was expressionless. Scott was in his casual clothes, but he did at least offer me a reassuring smile. Nathan was back in his black leathers, complete with biker boots. There was no easy way to put it, he looked like shit, we probably looked like a couple of bloody bookends. We had both obviously had no sleep last night, and not in a good way, not in the way that adds a glow to your skin and a rosy hue to your cheeks. No, we both had a pale pallor and huge dark lines under our eyes. His hair was its normal mess and he had crossed his arms over his chest as he leant on the back wall, his face was like thunder and his eyes never left my face. His hand was holding a tin of Altoids and he was opening and closing the tin with his thumbnail. The constant clicking seemed to be the outlet for his anger.

‘Thank you, Frankie. You can go back to bed now if you want?’ I heard Alex say. I watched with an almost macabre interest as his gaze lifted up from the desk to her.

Oh this should be good.

‘Not on your bloody life, just because we’re bloody married now, don’t think you can get away with that sort of crap!’ She squeezed in behind me and shut the door behind her with a resounding bang.

‘OK, baby… come on in. I was just trying to keep your blood pressure down,’ Alex hastily added. ‘Right you’re up, John.’ I had to look around to see who the hell Alex was talking to. As Edwards started to shift I realised, probably for the first time, that he had a Christian name. Situations like this made me want to laugh with nervousness as it was, and that thought didn’t help.

‘Early this morning I was made aware, by my contacts back in the UK, that Ioan Antonescu and his father, Marku had been released by the British court…they have been released on bail. My contacts have reason to believe they have purchased flights and will arrive over here within the next couple of days,’ stated Edwards.

I felt to the side of me for the chair and sat down quickly.

‘But they promised, they said if I gave Queen’s evidence… they promised…’ I managed to squeak out.

‘Oh my God!’ I heard Frankie expel next to me. She squeezed my shoulder, trying to offer reassurance.

‘OK, we have a huge security team, between us… we will protect you, Bella. We always look out for our own, don’t we?’ Alex didn’t look at his brothers but I watched Scott nod his agreement. ‘You need to leave here though, we need time for John and his team to work their magic.’

‘She’s coming with me.’ The only voice I didn’t want to hear those words from suddenly jumped into the conversation, and as if to add strength to the statement he pushed himself away from the back wall. ‘Bella is coming back to the racetrack with me… I have the perfect cover for her.’ All eyes were on Nathan now. ‘She can be Frankie, my physiotherapist… Brock offered her a job, she's coming back with me to take up the position.’

‘I refuse to touch you!’ The sentence that had just gone around in my head spilled out now for all to hear. That one statement would tell everyone we had fallen out again.

‘Not even if your life depended on it… darlin?’ I could hear the smile threatening the corners of his mouth.

‘I told you not to call me that anymore,’ I childishly added.

I watched as Nathan made his way through the crowded room to stand in my personal space once again. He looked down to where I sat. ‘It’s the only thing I can call you, if you’re pretending to be Frankie, my physio. I can hardly call you Bella, can I? … It makes perfect fucking sense to me.’ He didn’t move away from me and I wanted so much to grab hold of his front pockets and bury my face into the abdominal area in front of my eyes, to drink in the reassuring smell of him. I fisted my stubborn hands together on my lap, refusing to give in to my desires.

‘John?’ I heard Alex question.

‘I think it sounds like a brilliant idea… it will give us the time needed to sort out the whole situation.’ I glanced at Edwards who was nodding his head. ‘The two of you will have to go on your bike though, Nathan… that will be the easiest way to disappear,’ he added.

‘Bella?’ Alex asked.

All eyes fell to me now. There really was no other choice, I couldn’t just think about me, I had to think about those around me, too. I needed Nathan, I needed his help and his support and for the first time, whatever our differences were, I realised he was the one who made me feel more protected than anyone else in the world. I just hoped I could cope with the whole togetherness of the bloody shitty situation.

‘I’ll do it,’ I said with more confidence than I felt. ‘My family?’ I added, as a thought rushed into my head and a cold shudder went down my spine.

‘Your family boarded a cruise this morning from Southampton, we have some men on board with them… but really we moved them too quickly for anyone else to know where they are,’ Edwards answered.

The room full of people started to file out, discussing plans for our trip as they walked. I stood sluggishly, probably still in shock, all too late I realised that Nathan still hadn’t moved away from in front of me. He used a boot to quickly kick the chair away from behind me. Slowly, very slowly he backed me up against the wall.

Taking my chin in his thumb and fingers, he tilted my head gently up to meet his gaze. ‘Know that I will look after you… Know that we will clear up all this shit in between us.’

I jerked my head forcibly out of his hold and stared defiantly back into his face.

‘Resist me if you can…darlin,’ he whispered. I stood frozen to the spot as he vacated the room.

BELLA

I
stared at the small rucksack I had just been given. This was so completely alien to me it was almost laughable.

Pack lightly, oh ha-ha, bloody ha.

Frankie and her aunt were sat on the bed in my room, just waiting for me to spring into action. I could see there was so much they wanted to say about my current situation, but they just didn’t know where to start.

‘Ideas, ladies? Because I sure as hell don’t know what I’ve got room for. Not a lot looking at the size of this stupid bag.’ I glanced at them both, hoping to ease the tension consuming the room by expertly changing the subject.

Aunty Jean stood up after running a reassuring hand down Frankie’s back. ‘Leave it to me, I’m an expert packer. You just need to roll things up and choose light fabrics. I’m sure I can fit enough in there for seven days.’ I watched as she started to busy herself going through my clothes. I decided to leave her to it, as quite frankly the very idea of packing light left me in a cold sweat. I plonked my bum down next to Frankie and gathered her into a hug.

‘Someday soon, you and I will get to spend some actual time together, without me running off somewhere.’ I squeezed her a bit harder to reiterate my point, and pushed her long hair away from her face, smiling gingerly at her.

‘Seven days? California is a long way away, Bella. You’ve never even been on a motorbike for seven bloody minutes, how the hell will you cope with seven days of riding?’ We both glanced up at the sound of Aunty Jean as she tutted at my underwear drawer.

‘How you girls wear these things is beyond me.’ We watched as she held up a pink lacy thong, pinched in between her finger and thumb of both hands. She wiggled the flimsy scrap of material around in front of her eyes. ‘But, on the bright side they will pack up really easily.’ She wasn’t talking to us, but to herself and she busied herself again with the huge task of trying to pack everything she thought I would need.

I looked back at Frankie and grinned at her. God only knows what I would end up with in the miniscule bag, but I had neither the time nor inclination to care.

‘Truth be told, Frankie, I’m terrified of going on the bike but they’re right, it is the easiest way for us to disappear. I trust Nathan… it seems like the best option. I just need to know that you will be safe and looked after while I’m gone. Hopefully this whole situation can be sorted out and we can move on.’ I sounded so much braver than I actually felt.

‘I’ll be fine; you know that Alex won’t let anything happen to me?’

I stood up suddenly. ‘I call bullshit, listen to us trying to convince the other one that this is all going to be OK, when really we haven’t got a bloody clue that it is!... I’m so sorry I brought this to your doorstep, Frankie. What’s that old saying “Never shit on your own front step?” That’s exactly what I’ve done to all of you.’ I’d sat despondently back down next to Frankie on the bed, when Aunty Jean interrupted. She didn’t turn from her task, but continued to collect clothes and roll them up, so they could be stuffed into the almost full bag.

“The saying, my dear is “Never shit on your own doorstep” and you haven’t, we are all family here. From what I’ve seen so far, the fact that you now have those Blackmore men for back-up, you will stay safe, we will all stay safe.’

I couldn’t believe she had sworn and burst out into a cathartic laugh.

I picked up my rucksack, sunglasses, phone and the leather jacket Edwards had dropped off for me. On the way out of my lovely blue bedroom, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. I was wearing leather trousers, so skin tight I reminded myself of the character Sandy in the film “Grease”. It was laughable. I understood the need for wearing leathers on a bike, but surely not this tight. I was convinced Nathan had chosen them. I made my way out and down the stairs, listening to my boots clop on the marble stairs. The echo was the only sound I could make out in the otherwise peaceful silence. Silence that was suddenly broken by a very loud, perceptible wolf-whistle. I stopped walking immediately and leant over the rail of the banister to fix my “you didn’t just do that” glare at the culprit. He was leant against the large oval table in the middle of the foyer, leather-clad legs extended in front of him and thumbs pushed down into his front pockets. He had a clear view of the sweeping staircase and had obviously been watching my every step.

‘Well, darlin, you’re a fucking sight for sore eyes, I must say… you really shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble. I can remember every contour on your body, I can still feel the way your skin quivers, just by closing my goddamn eyes… but wrapped in soft leather, I can see my memories are not as fucking good as reality, you’re giving me some really good new visuals for jerking-off.’ I knew he was teasing me, baiting me almost, so I decided there and then, that if we were going to survive this seven-day nightmare, I had to curb my temper. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I had to at least try.

‘Well I’m sure you’ve seen the trousers before, Nathan. In fact, knowing my bloody luck they’re probably Candy’s spare pair that she leaves around here for when you bring her back for a quick fuck.’

Ok, this curbing my temper wasn’t going quite as well as I had hoped.

I finished walking down the stairs and reached the hallway, adding a bit more wiggle than usual. I could feel his eyes following me and knew he damn well deserved the show.

‘I don’t do quick fucks… darlin. I do hard, thorough ones.’

A sudden movement from the office caused me to turn around. I avoided making any more eye contact with Nathan and met the faces of the people filing out of the door.

‘Right, Nathan, you’ve got the route plan, phone and the cash you need so that neither of you have to use any of your plastic?’ questioned Alex, as he strode over towards us both, followed by Edwards.

‘Yes, big brother, I have them.’ I watched as Nathan offered a sarcastic grin to Alex, who it ignored it completely. I wished deep down inside, that I could also ignore him so easily.