Chapter 16
Molly found herself driving a BMW SUV beside Alasdair Buchanan with Rose in the back. Leo had wanted to tag along, but Knox had called a meeting and demanded he be there. Something about Cramer Barker.
Leo had lent Molly his SUV with its tainted windows and apparently bulletproof glass. Why Leo owned something like this, she didn’t know. The brothers had assured her they all had a vehicle like this one.
Aren’t you jet-lagged? she asked Alasdair who was staring outside.
Used to it now.
You travel a lot?
He turned towards her, a wide smile on his face. He patted his chest. I am the global security lead for Buchanan Security. It’s nice to meet you.
Molly laughed. Ah.
He ran a hand through his hair. I took the job because you get to travel the world. And I loved the prospect of leaving grey Glasgow behind. Still, last night Paisley was a sight for sore eyes.
Yikes. Molly grinned. That’s one way to figure out travelling can get boring too.
A harsh reminder, that is. Alasdair looked in the backseat where Rose was staring out the window. How old is she?
Almost three. In fact, she’ll be turning three in a month. Molly smiled. Time had flown by so quickly. Despite everything, she’d go through it all again if it meant she had Rose. She’s a gem.
Leo’s smitten, Alasdair muttered. Didn’t know the man had it in him. But that explains everything.
Everything? Molly indicated left. She had to take the upcoming exit to leave the motorway and head into the city centre.
She stopped behind the small queue of cars exiting.
Aye. Leo never hangs out with us after work.
When we meet up, it’s always for lunch. He doesn’t work himself to the bone like Knox.
And when Knox wrung his neck about not giving his one-hundred percent to work, Leo turned his life around almost overnight.
You don’t do that until you’ve got strong motivation to do so.
Molly rubbed her palm over the steering wheel then followed the road towards the Royal Infirmary, before zipping down High Street. She knew how hard Leo worked, and still managed to show up for her and Rose. He’s just amazing. Whoever he ends up with will be lucky.
Alasdair shot her a look that she attempted to ignore. She turned right towards George Street, then parked the car outside the nursery.
Alasdair stopped her from exiting the car. You insisted you drive, now let me just ensure there isn’t litter on the road before you step out, okay?
Molly nodded and watched Alasdair peeking through the various mirrors to study the street in the back. He then turned his attention to the cars in the front, then frowned. Why don’t we take a small circle around the block?
They were in the city centre. Finding a parking space in the middle of the day that was this close to Rose’s nursery had been a privilege. If they left, she’d lose the spot. Still, she’d rather give up the space than expose Rose or herself to Johnny.
Molly pulled out into the street and headed up towards High Street. They might have to take a longer detour to get back there. This particular area sat on the slope of a hill, and the university buildings took up large blocks with little access for cars.
She indicated left. I’ll go uphill and towards the east end before looping back, if that’s okay. It might be quicker than—
Alasdair simply nodded. He sat forward in his seat, his eyes trained on the side mirror.
With his head like that, Molly couldn’t exactly see through the mirror herself. But she didn’t voice her complains. Instead, she used the rear-view mirror to navigate.
When they were uphill, Molly cleared her throat. Is someone following us?
Alasdair straightened, then pointed to the mirror. See that white van? I spotted them on the motorway just as we entered it earlier. They took the exit with us, and now here they are heading towards the east end behind us.
Do you know how many white vans there are in the city?
Most of them have brand names on them. This one doesn’t. Besides, I saw the number plate, and this one is the same. Alasdair had shed his happy-to-talk-and-cut-about persona. Now he was the part owner of a security company. Are you taking a right at the Cathedral?
Molly nodded. That road went past the Necropolis, and to John Knox Street. She’d chosen it because it didn’t have as many traffic lights and cars as the loop around the city centre did.
Keep an eye on them. Alasdair certainly was. I don’t think this is some mere exercise in surveillance. If they think you’re Leo’s girlfriend or secret family, spying on you isn’t going to do him a load of good.
Molly’s instinct was to ask him what he meant by that. But she knew what he was saying. Johnny knew where Leo lived and where Leo’s secret family lived. So why would he follow them?
The moment she took a right at the Cathedral Square, with tourists milling about, some taking pictures with the TARDIS-like booth café, the van behind her sped up.
Molly’s muscles tensed, but she pressed down on the accelerator. The traffic in front of her wasn’t going so fast, though, and the road sloped downwards. The more she accelerated, the more of a chance the vehicle could lose control.
The various tombstones lining the wee hill on the left came into view. Glasgow’s Necropolis stretched wide, looming over the city where most of the people buried there once lived, studied, and worked.
Molly bit her lip as she stuck to the road, ensuring she didn’t bump into any corners or into oncoming traffic from another road merging with them on the left.
As was her habit, she checked in the rear-view mirror and almost gasped. The van was directly behind her and— Fuck!
Without indicating, Molly whirled the vehicle into the next lane. The car behind her honked. She didn’t give two damns.
Nor did the van driver. They drove up directly next to her.
The Tennent’s Brewery came up ahead. Smoke emanated from the large machines where they brewed the beer.
If the brewery was to her left ahead, that meant the signal for the turn was coming up. With the pavement to the left of her, Molly knew she was in the weak position, open for an attack on her right. Behind her, there were a slew of cars. Fuck.
She gritted her teeth, then prayed this bulletproof SUV came with more chops than its high-end glass.
Brace yourself, she muttered as she pressed down on the accelerator.
Molly, the signal’s turning to red, Alasdair called out, pressing himself back into the seat.
She knew it, just like she knew the driver thought she’d stop. The car ahead of the van started to slow down for the light. The car in front of Molly was already idling at the signal.
But Molly accelerated, praying the car’s engine revved up faster than a fucking van’s. They jerked forward—
Molly, there’s no space to—
She pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor, hit the third gear, and, right when they neared the traffic lights, bolted through the gap between the car waiting at the signal and the one coming to a near stop next to it.
Holy—
They screeched through the red light and darted to the right just as the light for the oncoming traffic turned green.
She spotted the van, having taken a right to follow them, stuck behind traffic. But it wouldn’t be for long. They weren’t in the bustling city centre anymore.
Alasdair stared at Molly with wide eyes. What the hell was that?
Behind him, Rose’s attention was now on them. In the mirror, Molly caught her daughter’s trembling lip. If you don’t want to burst your eardrums, you’ll shut up.
She turned her attention on the road, her finger tapping on the steering wheel.
She was sticking to the traffic rules, waiting.
But the van never showed. Even as she took a longer route down High Street then Ingram Street before heading up via Shuttle Street to George Street, there wasn’t a single unmarked white van in her rear-view mirror.
Shite! She spotted the damned vehicle not in her rear-view, but in front of her. The eejit had worked his way to George Street, knowing Molly, being the rat, would eventually return to her burrow. Alasdair, I need you to get in the back and stay with Rose.
He gritted his teeth. Let me drive. I know how to—
Get. In. The. Back, Molly repeated, thrusting her thumb towards the backseat. Or if you want, get Rose to the front and be her shield.
Maybe she was asking too much of the man. But he had volunteered to come as her bodyguard. And keeping Rose safe was his job.
This time, they had no chance at stopping and helping Rose into the nursery. She had to figure out why Johnny had sent a van after them. It could contain goons who wanted to hurt them, or goons whose sole aim was to hurt Leo. Either way, Molly and Rose would be their targets.
She tried to see inside the van when they passed it, but it had dark windows. Not as good as hers, though, thankfully.
The moment she crossed it, the van driver screeched the car into a three-point turn and followed behind her.
She had escaped before, but it had been sloppy and dangerous, relying on her knowledge that signals in Glasgow dawdled before switching.
Now with Alasdair in the back caring for Rose, she could focus.
The van stuck to her back all the way to the motorway.
It could have sped up and crashed into her, but there wasn’t much room for it to cause any damage.
Besides if Johnny didn’t know Molly was Leo’s secret family, he was probably thinking she was some poor hussy who’d freak at the slightest whiff of danger.
Like she had predicted, the danger came, not on the traffic spotted roads in Glasgow’s city centre, but on the fucking M8 where the traffic hurtled down the road at crazy speeds.
It was a rule to maintain enough space between the cars in case of an emergency stop. But the van driver had no such qualms. They came close to her car’s bumper several times in a clear act of intimidation.
Alasdair squealed for her to speed up.
Molly wouldn’t take the bait. This might be a fast-moving road, but there was traffic ahead of them, particularly in this stretch of the M8 which had several exits into the city centre. And most of these exits, plus the roadworks, would mean the traffic was backed up.
The faster she went, the more of a sitting duck she’d be for the van driver. So she became smart.
When the van sped up to come close to her again, she took the split-second opportunity and changed lanes, easing on the accelerator. That brought her car abreast with the van.
She still couldn’t see inside, but sitting in the middle lane, she had a few options.
She accelerated, ensuring she wasn’t parallel to the van, in case the eejit thought of ramming her on the side.
Besides, in the back, Rose was sitting to the left, leaving her vulnerable if they did hit their car on the side.
The van clearly wasn’t like the others. It probably had some sort of a special engine, because it also accelerated and came up next to her. Keeping up with a top-model BMW SUV was no easy feat for a rattly van.
She was just about to indicate to the right and hit the fast lane when the van swerved and crashed into their side.
I got Rose! Alasdair shouted, just as her daughter let out a wail.
Molly’s heart pierced with pain. Is she—
She’s fine. But I think I—
She drowned out Alasdair’s order of taking over the car and focused on the road.
The van driver wasn’t done, repeating their move and crashing into Molly’s car again. The bulletproof glass was still holding itself in place.
Molly hit the accelerator, winding her way close to the car in front of her, then swivelling into the fast lane and protecting them between the car in the middle lane and the car in the back.
But fuck, that left them open for the van driver to come up ahead of them and box them against the threshold of the road. Police used such T-pack manoeuvres to stop speeding drivers all the time.
She couldn’t play this game anymore. They had to lose the tail.
Molly put the car’s engine to the test and let it soar. Sixty miles per hour? She was flying at double that.
The van matched her for speed.
They were gifted with several horns as they wove between cars. The van driver even used the hard shoulder to keep up with her.
Then she came up to the problem she’d been avoiding.
The overhead board indicated the exit at Charing Cross was a couple miles ahead.
The only issue was that the traffic had backed up, straggling all the way down the M8, thanks to roadworks.
She had no choice but to cool it all the way down to the forty speed limit.
The fucker in the van took his chance and rammed into them.
Molly, Alasdair screamed over Rose’s cries.
Shut the fuck up! Molly watched the van coming at them again, ready to smash into them again. She waited for it to near, then swapped lanes. The van came up next to them.
Molly sped up. The exit to Charing Cross coming nearer. It would be now or never.
This situation was déjà vu to a different time but same spot. The memory came to her in that moment. As adrenaline spiked her blood, her heart pumped, her muscles kicked into gear.
Checking her rear-view and seeing a lull in traffic, she hit the brakes, startling their car into almost coming to a halt. Up ahead she could see the dome of the Mitchell Library peeking out from behind the Charing Cross bridge. They were at the exit.
The van driver hadn’t expected her to cool it, not when they’d been busy ploughing into her car. And they certainly hadn’t expected Molly to swap lanes and come up behind them.
Molly used the momentary lack in the driver’s focus. She had timed it perfectly, just like she’d done when she’d saved a woman from her abusive partner all those years ago. That memory felt like a dream now.
But it hadn’t been. Just like back then, Molly split from the motorway, once more revving up the car’s engine and barrelled towards the road that exited the M8.
The move had been so last minute, they almost scraped the barricade that ran along the road. But that was a deliberate manoeuvre.
With them being behind their attacker, the eejit had no recourse but to continue down the M8, even as she exited the motorway.
Molly didn’t stop to celebrate losing them. Just like before, these eejits knew where the hell Molly was going.
She sped up again, the car now battered and bruised, groaning a wee bit.
At the major intersection at Charing Cross, she cursed. What the hell is this? Which signal do I even follow?
Looking a little starstruck, Alasdair showed her. It’s red.
She didn’t care. Molly surged forward and merged with the traffic coming from the right. Call Leo, tell him what happened. We need someone to open the gates, then shut them behind us as soon we get in. I don’t want the morons in the van to follow us in.
Alasdair, his jaw still on the floor, simply nodded as he called Leo. Molly drowned out their curse-laden conversation and focused on getting home.