Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
MY FIRST JOB for Blackwood was a custody case, a young boy who’d been taken by his father while on visitation.
“The mother’s distraught,” Black told me. He leaned back against a bench press machine while I kept running on the treadmill. “The father called her to tell her she’d never see the kid again.”
“How did we get involved?”
“An old comrade of ours from the teams. His wife’s a friend of hers.”
“Do you think we’ll find him?”
He grinned at me. “Already did. The father’s a convicted drug dealer, and he’s surfaced in New Jersey. He just can’t keep his nose clean. Quite literally, as he has a habit of sampling his products.”
“So where do I come in?”
“I need a hand with retrieving the boy. When I snatch him back, I’ll need to pick the right moment, and I can’t spend too much time hanging around kids on my own without some over-zealous parent calling the cops.”
I saw his point. Being arrested as a suspected paedophile wouldn’t exactly help our case, and although I understood why parents got twitchy, I also knew firsthand that the most dangerous child molesters selected their victims in more devious ways.
But thankfully, nobody in New Jersey batted an eyelid at Black and me strolling hand in hand along the street, or out shopping, or in the park, gazing adoringly past each other to our target as he played on the swings.
I snapped a few photos of Black and got a good one of the child as well. His mother confirmed almost instantly by return email that we had the right boy.
Now all we needed to do was get him back.
Our chance came two days later. The father catered to the upmarket set, those whizz kids who couldn’t get through a Friday night without snorting their bonuses. At nine, he swaggered out the door in a cheap-looking suit and drove his Mercedes to a party ten miles away.
“It’s a work night for him. He’ll be there for hours,” Black said. “If we move fast, we can clear the state line before he realises what’s happened.”
Under cover of darkness, I broke in through a back window. Black skulked in the shadows outside, ready to alert me if any unexpected visitors stopped by.
Just to demonstrate how right the judge had been to grant the mother custody, the child was home alone, huddled on a threadbare sofa under a blanket that was too thin. He looked at me with wide eyes.
“I’m here to take you home,” I whispered. “To your mom.”
He stayed silent, with not a murmur of protest as I picked him up and carried him out of the back door. The first time he spoke was when he saw his mother, six hours later, and the huge smile that erupted as he ran into her arms was enough to make the last five months worth it. When I looked at Black, the king of the blank mask, just for a second, I saw the same joy I felt on his face.
Black gave me more work from that day on. A surveillance shift here, a touch of breaking and entering there, maybe a bit of search work on the computer. He also let me loose with clients, even if it was only to give them updates and act as liaison for the others. I slowly began to master the art of being polite and making inconsequential small talk, much to his relief.
“I don’t worry about you putting your foot in it when I take you out in public any more,” he told me one evening as we were getting ready for a black-tie affair.
When he bought me another dress for the occasion, I’d even managed to stare down the snobby shop girl.
Each time a new person started at the company, I gained another friend. My colleagues became the family I’d never had, and work wasn’t some nine-to-five chore. Blackwood was where I belonged.
Despite feeling like I’d found my calling, I struggled to settle. Black stayed worryingly quiet about my future, and if he told me to leave when my six months was up, devastation wouldn’t have begun to cover it. Just thinking of that possibility made my chest go tight.
Then one week before my deadline was up, Black asked me to do another job with him and Nate.
“We’re after a grade-A freak who’s jumped bail. A cool million. We get ten percent if we bring him back.”
“What did he do?”
“Double murder. His wife and her lover. Hammered a stake up the guy’s rectum, by all accounts, and made the wife watch.”
The logistics of that made my stomach turn. “How on earth did he get bail?”
Black shook his head. “The stupidity rife in our legal system never ceases to amaze me.”
I sat on the edge of Black’s desk and swung my legs. “So, when are we off?”
“As soon as you can get your bag.”
For the last couple of months, Black had made me keep a “go-bag” packed with essentials ready and waiting in case I needed to take off at a moment’s notice. “It’s in the trunk of my car.”
Crunch, the freak in question, hung with the Hell’s Angels in Randomville, North Carolina, a town famous for its annual hot dog festival and a serious drugs problem. Black wanted me to travel with them to this delightful place to take Crunch into custody. Problem was, he spent all his time with his biker brothers, who carried enough firepower to give a small army cause for concern.
“Why do you need me?” I asked. “Can’t you catch him on your own?”
I’d worked with Black a few times now, and his ability to reduce grown men to shadows of their former selves within two minutes of meeting them was almost disturbing. I thanked my lucky stars I was on the same side as him, and from what I’d seen of Nate, he was just as tough.
“Dealing with the bikers isn’t a problem,” Black explained. “But we’d prefer to avoid bloodshed if possible. The paperwork’s a nightmare.”
“That’s where I come in, isn’t it? You need a distraction?”
He gave me a cunning grin. “You’re good at driving grown men crazy, Diamond.”
With hindsight, I’d rather have filled out the forms.
Crunch spent his evenings in a biker bar, and the only thing he’d leave his pack for was a woman. Lucky for us, he seemed fond of jailbait, and that was why on a muggy June night, I popped open another button on my checked shirt and bent over the pool table in Lou’s Hog Shack. I had a nicely placed red in front of me and a dozen of the ugliest, meanest men I’d ever had the misfortune to meet staring at my sweet patootie.
Black had helped with my outfit, which meant the shirt was two sizes too small, my D-cups stuck out the top, and when I leaned forward to pot the ball, the whistles from behind told me my knickers were clearly visible.
Fifteen minutes later, I’d successfully manoeuvred my bottom into Crunch’s fetid crotch, and between fetching him drinks and waving my girls in his face, I hinted I wouldn’t be averse to a trip out to the parking lot.
Where Black and Nate were waiting.
After I’d sunk my last shot, Crunch snatched my pool cue and threw it down on the table. My stomach clenched as he grabbed me with his clammy paw and shoved me roughly towards the door. So far, so good.
Well, not good, exactly, but you know what I mean.
Thanks to Nate, Crunch’s Harley had developed an engine problem, so the ugly freak had driven to the bar in an ancient Ford pickup. Apparently, he didn’t understand the concept of DUI. The truck was parked in the shadows created by a spreading maple tree, and as we got closer, I expected Black and Nate to step from the darkness and relieve me of my pervert.
But they didn’t.
We reached the truck, and without further ceremony, Crunch yanked the door open and threw me backwards onto the bench seat. He followed me in, landing on top of me and forcing his tongue into my mouth. As the taste of beer and stale cigarettes invaded my mouth, I struggled to keep from gagging.
“Fancy another game of pool instead?” I mumbled as he rasped a breath.
His only response was a grunt, which might have been appreciation since he’d paused to squeeze my girls. It would seem he didn’t know the meaning of taking it slow, because his hands soon wormed their way downwards.
Black and Nate obviously didn’t know the meaning of taking it fast because WHERE WERE THEY?
Suddenly, my mind filled with an image of mother’s disgusting boyfriend crawling over me when I was ten, and my heart stuttered as panic welled up inside me. I wanted to tell Crunch to stop, but with his mouth on mine, I couldn’t form words. Then, before I was able to process things, he was touching me down there.
“Get off!”
I tried to push him away, but he weighed three hundred pounds to my one twenty, and I couldn’t get the leverage. What to do? What to do? What to do? Finding my senses, I bit his tongue hard, and he reared up. The back of his hand crashed across my face with enough force to make me see stars.
“I like a girl with some fight in her,” he said, moonlight glinting off his grimy teeth.
He forced me down again, and his sweat mixed with mine, a juxtaposition of excitement and fear. Even today, the stench made me gag whenever I thought about the incident. I squirmed, sliding on the cracked leather seat, and finally got a hand free. My fingers raked over his cheek, gouging, and he roared like a demented gorilla as an acrylic nail snapped off and embedded itself in his pudgy face. I was trying to get at his eyes when Black and Nate hauled him off me.
In my peripheral vision, Nate stun-gunned the freak then hog-tied him like the pig he was while I crawled out of the truck and puked in the bushes at the edge of the parking lot. The low rumble of our SUV drowned out my retching as Black manoeuvred it to block Crunch’s twitching body.
“You okay?” Black asked.
What a stupid question. Possibly the stupidest question in the whole of history.
I tugged my torn shirt around me, not trusting myself to speak as Black hauled me to my feet and brushed gravel off my knees.
“Emmy?”
I shook my head, and he scooped me up in his arms. Crunch had wet himself and the delightful aroma of urine drifted over from the boot of the car. Black climbed into the backseat with me clinging to his neck.
“Is he going to wake up?” I croaked.
“Not with the amount of ketamine I gave him,” Nate said. “He’ll be out the whole trip.”
Black held me on his lap all the way back to Virginia. I made a half-hearted attempt to move to my own seat, but he wouldn’t let me go, so after a couple of tries, I gave up and dropped my head against his chest. The sound of his heartbeat soothed me, so steady in comparison to mine.
At the precinct in Richmond, we offloaded our package. Crunch had snored so loudly on the trip that Nate had suggested strapping him to the roof—the only lighthearted moment in a dark day—although I think he might actually have been serious. Black stayed with me while Nate got the body receipt, then we went back to Riverley. Home, sweet home. But for how long?
Nate drew up outside the house, and Black carried me inside. It seemed as if he, like me, knew my legs weren’t to be trusted tonight.
“Drink?” he asked after he’d set me on the sofa.
He didn’t bother to wait for an answer before he poured two glasses of Scotch. His preference, not mine.
“Are you going to speak? What happened back there?”
He moved me back onto his lap, but I couldn’t look him in the eye. My gaze fell to the far wall where the second hand of the grandfather clock ticked its way through the numerals.
“I panicked. I thought you weren’t going to come.” A little hiccup escaped. “I’m sorry.”
“We had to wait a minute because half a dozen of Crunch’s buddies walked out front for a smoke. We’d never have abandoned you. You have to know that.”
“Logically, I do. But I just couldn’t think. It brought back memories, and I freaked out. I’m so, so sorry.”
“What do you mean, brought back memories?” Black’s voice turned low and dangerous.
Oops. I’d never intended to pop the top on that can of worms.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does.”
I’d kept my secrets for years, but now I owed Black the truth. After all, he’d given me a chance and I’d screwed up.
“It’s not the first time I’ve been in that position,” I said quietly. “It’s happened twice before. When I was a little girl.”
“How far did it go?”
He turned colder than liquid nitrogen, and I stayed frozen in his arms.
“All the way,” I whispered.
His glass flew across the room, smashing in the fireplace on the far side. I’d never seen him lose his cool like that, not once, even when I was deliberately winding him up. “You never said anything.”
“What was I supposed to say? It’s not exactly something you drop into casual conversation.”
“I’d never have asked you to do that tonight if I’d known.”
“Which is partly why I didn’t tell you. Bad enough that it happened, without it affecting the rest of my life. I promise I won’t react like that again. Crunch just surprised me, that’s all.”
Black turned me on his lap and cupped my cheeks in his hands. “Emmy, you need to talk in future. Seeing you practically catatonic on the ride back scared me half to death.”
“I didn’t mean for you to worry.” My fingers twisted in the remains of my shirt. Dare I ask? I didn’t want to, but I had to know. “Is there a future, then?”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s nearly been six months. I’m not sure if you want me to stay.”
“Of course I want you to stay, you mad little brat. Never doubt that for a moment. You’ll be a big part of the business going forward. I’ve spoken to Nate, and we want to offer you shares in the company if you’ll join us permanently.”
“Even after my performance tonight?”
“Especially after your performance tonight. You were battling demons no one else knew about, but you still got the job done. Will you stay?”
“Yes, I’ll stay.”
“Thank goodness for that.” He pulled me tighter against him and held me until the chiming of the hour broke the spell. Then he pulled back and looked me in the eye. “What happened to the man who attacked you?”
“Men.” The muscles in his jaw clenched, and I hurried to continue before he cracked a tooth. “Two different ones, two years apart. I don’t know what happened. I never saw either of them again.”
Black fetched another glass and filled it almost to the brim. No ice, just fifty quid’s worth of Jura. Then he made me tell him everything I could remember about my mother’s boyfriend and the care worker who’d attacked me. I’d never had much faith in the old adage of “a problem shared is a problem halved,” but as I spoke, a little of the tension that wound around my guts loosened. Perhaps there was some truth in it after all?
“Do you believe in karma?” Black asked once I’d finished spilling my soul.
“Do you?”
“I believe in justice.”
Exhausted as I was, his words barely sank in. And the next morning, he was gone.
At seven a.m., Alex walked into the gym, drinking a smoothie rather than his usual protein shake.
“Today we do running. And maybe some weights. Just the light ones.”
“What’s wrong with you? Why are you being so nice?”
He shrugged. “Boss told me to take it easy.”
Oh he did, did he? Because of last night? Because he thought I couldn’t handle the load? Well, screw him. I didn’t want special treatment over something that happened four long years ago. That made no sense.
“Forget Black and his ‘take it easy.’ Train me how you normally would. No slacking.”
Alex picked up the pace, although I knew he was still holding back. Nobody crossed Black, even a brutal ex-commando.
And speaking of my darling mentor, where was he? I asked Nate when he stopped by after breakfast to pick up some files.
“Have you seen Black?”
“Something urgent came up overseas. He said it wouldn’t take long.”
I didn’t bother asking for details because I knew I wouldn’t get any.
The next day, a courier arrived with an envelope. Apart from a Christmas card from Jimmy and Jackie, that was the first piece of mail I’d received. Ever. Inside, I found a statement for my new bank account, balance two hundred thousand pounds, as well as a charge card for Black’s account and a note from him saying to spend whatever I wanted. After the initial temptation to buy myself a shiny new sports car wore off, I vowed not to use any of his money. I decided I’d rather make my own.
After all, I’d done it, hadn’t I? Somehow, against the odds, this little girl from the rough end of London had crossed the Atlantic and survived.
That sense of achievement beat any buzz I’d get from buying a Ferrari.
A week later, I came down to breakfast and found Black sipping an Americano as he read the paper. No cuts, no bruises, and for Black, he looked remarkably relaxed.
“How did it go?” I asked. “You know, whatever it was?”
“Problem’s dealt with.” He smiled and poured me a glass of juice. “It’s about time I bought a new car. Want to take a trip to the Porsche dealership?”
“Why not?”
That evening while Black used the gym, I ran a couple of computer searches, curiosity driving me now the past had been dredged up. My mother’s disgusting ex-boyfriend, the one who attacked me, had died of a drug overdose three years ago—there was an appeal for relatives in the local paper. Neighbours took five days to find the body, and in August that couldn’t have been pretty.
And the care worker who’d forced himself on me in the back of his ancient hatchback had, by some freakish coincidence, come to a nasty end just two days ago. His car had left the road and crashed into a ravine, and the police were searching for witnesses.
I knew they wouldn’t find any.
Black was too careful for that.