48. Lincoln
LINCOLN
I burst into the car park at a dead run, sprinting towards my SUV. Mike was gone, co-ordinating a raid on the Culverhouse properties in Wiltshire, and I was the only person who could stop my father. I had to trust that the Hoytons had the situation at the rink handled, but this part was down to me.
“Bellingham!”
Whirling around, I found Ryker Thorpe bearing down on me. I came to a stop, vibrating with tension. “What is it? I have somewhere I need to be.”
“Dan asked me to make sure you left the rink.”
My heart skipped a beat. “He’s not in danger, is he?”
Ryker shook his head. “He’s fine. The Hoytons have it covered. I’ve confirmed that backup is on the way, and we have Dr. Attwood on standby in the car park.” He glanced towards the far corner, where a large black Volvo was parked.
“Okay. That’s good. I, uh, I need to stop my father. I know he has something planned. I found papers, and my uncle’s been investigating, and— Fuck. I don’t want Dan and his family to be hurt because I didn’t do enough to stop him.”
Ryker studied me in silence, his face grim. Finally, he nodded. “You care about Dan.”
“More than anything.”
“Alright,” he said. “In that case…give me your phone.”
I handed it over, watching in disbelief as he input his number into my contacts. When he was finished, he glanced up at me, smirking at the expression on my face.
“Nothing about the two of you together makes any fucking sense, but somehow, it makes perfect sense at the same time.” He nodded at my phone as he passed it back to me.
“It’s fucked up, and I don’t get it, but— Whatever.
If you get into trouble, phone me. Dan’ll kill me if I let anything happen to you. ”
“I’m going to stop my father from doing anything stupid,” I said. “I can handle him.”
“Good. Stay safe, for Dan’s sake.”
“I will.” We nodded at each other, an understanding passing between us, and then he turned away, jogging towards an SUV idling beneath one of the security floodlights. I didn’t bother hanging around, running straight for my Aston Martin.
As I drove, I replayed the text in my head over and over again. The text that had been waiting for me when I turned my phone on after the game.
Dad:
The Hoytons will pay for their crimes tonight, and the Bellingham name will be avenged. You played your part, and for that, I thank you.
It was the first time he had ever praised me.
Pulling to a stop outside the mansion, I stared out of the windscreen, unseeing, clenching and unclenching my fists around the steering wheel.
Eventually, I turned off the engine, unclipped my seat belt, and went to face my father.
Everything inside was so quiet. I ascended the stairs, taking a right towards my father’s office. Lifting my hand, I knocked.
“Enter,” came the muffled voice, and I swallowed hard, turning the handle.
My father came into view, standing behind his desk, staring out of the window at the gardens.
“Close the door behind you,” he demanded. When the door had shut with a soft click, he sighed. “So you can obey some orders.”
“What do you mean?”
“It took you long enough to ensure Michael would investigate the Hoytons.”
“But I did it.”
“Hmm.” He turned around then, and I was taken aback at the malice in his eyes. “Finally, all my plans are falling into place. As of tonight, the Hoytons and the Culverhouse Network will cease to be a problem, and we can return to our lives without the threat hanging over us.”
“The Culverhouse Network? That group you represented in court years ago? What about them?”
“They required my services more recently,” he said. I knew this, thanks to the papers I’d taken from this very office, but what I couldn’t work out was why he’d risk working with a known criminal group.
“Services?”
“Hmm, yes. Frank Culverhouse made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. A chance to rid the Hoytons of their assets—all their properties, bar their house. Those assets will go to Mr. Culverhouse, as far as he is aware, and I…well. I’ll be a very rich man when all is said and done.”
“How is that possible? Aren’t their properties legitimately owned?”
“Lincoln, it’s time for you to learn an important life lesson. You can do everything by the book, but if you want to get ahead in life, in law…sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.” He chuckled. “Preferably using someone else to take the fall. In this case, it will be Mr. Culverhouse.”
My brows pulled together. “How?”
“Simple. I laid a trail. Frank Culverhouse thinks he is getting the Hoytons’ assets.
In fact, the only thing he will be getting is a prison sentence.
You see, I knew that once Michael began investigating the Hoytons, he would eventually notice the link to the Culverhouse Network.
Frank couldn’t resist antagonising the Hoytons, and as we speak, Michael and his team are in Wiltshire, raiding the Culverhouse stronghold—or the Cartwright stronghold, if you prefer. ”
“So you double-crossed Frank Culverhouse? Why?”
“Why?” His fist slammed down on the table, his expression turning thunderous. “Why? Because that bastard thought he could blackmail me, that’s why!”
“What?” I stared at my father, open-mouthed.
“Lincoln. You know that reputation is everything in our world. Without our reputation, we wouldn’t have the connections. We wouldn’t have the money. We wouldn’t have the power.”
I tried to make sense of his words, to hear what he wasn’t saying out loud. “So…he had something on you that would ruin your reputation?”
“Not only mine. Your mother’s. Yours. Everything we have worked for all our lives…gone.” His shoulders slumped, the fire leaving him. “Frank Culverhouse has enough dirt on us to bury us six feet under.”
“Dirt?”
“Yes. He…well, he faked his own death, a long time ago. Disappeared for years. Long enough that I became complacent, to my own detriment. He gathered reams of evidence. Deals I’d made without going through the proper channels.
Cases where clients had been quietly paid off.
Photographic and video evidence of your mother’s indiscretions—”
“My mother’s what?”
My father laughed humourlessly. “Your mother and I… We have an agreement. Our marriage is a business partnership, first and foremost. Love matches—I’m not sure they exist. They’re the fantasy of foolish people.” He chuckled again.
“What…?” I was lost for words, but he was on a roll, barrelling on with his rendition of the facts.
“We each take lovers—” I shuddered at my father’s use of the word, and he rolled his eyes.
“—discreetly. Unfortunately, your mother wasn’t discreet enough, but that’s beside the point.
We built our career, our social network, our lives together.
We’re a formidable team. If anyone were to discover that wasn’t the case, then our reputation would be in tatters.
We would be no better than the Hoyton mob.
Who would want to hire us if we couldn’t be trusted? ”
You couldn’t be trusted if Frank Culverhouse had enough material to blackmail you with. “I see,” I said.
“Do you understand? We would lose everything. Our standing in the community, our—”
“But that’s all built on a lie, isn’t it? You call the Hoytons criminals, but they’ve never hidden who they are. They never pretend to be people they’re not.”
My father’s face grew redder and redder during my tirade. “You will not speak to me this way in my own house. Do you need me to teach you a lesson again, like I did when you were younger?”
I straightened up to my full height. My father was an imposing man, still a little taller than me, but I had athleticism and muscle mass on my side.
“What lesson are we talking about? The one where you broke my arm when I was ten? The one where you beat me until I was unconscious when I was eleven? I don’t know if it’s escaped your notice, but I’m older and bigger now. Try it, and you’ll regret it.”
“Don’t you dare threaten me.” My father stalked out from behind the desk, shoving at my chest. I shoved him back, freezing in place as the full implication hit me.
I’d fought back against my own father.
There was a faint creak from somewhere behind us, but neither of us paid it any attention, my father throwing his torso into mine, spitting in my face. “How dare you,” he snarled. “Your brother would—”
“My brother is fucking dead.”
“And it’s a damn shame! I wish you had died in his place!” He swung his fist at me, but I ducked.
“I fucking know!”
He came at me again, throwing his bulk into the move and sending us staggering into a filing cabinet.
Even now, I held back, years of conditioning keeping me from physically attacking the man who had never hesitated to get physical with me when he thought I needed to learn a lesson.
When I didn’t retaliate, he bared his teeth, his face twisting with loathing. “You will apologise right now.”
“No. I’m not the one who fucked up. That was all you. Yeah, I’ve fucked up in other ways, and I lost someone who means everything to me, thanks to your fucking blackmail schemes—”
His hand swung out, smacking me across the face, sending a stinging heat searing across my cheek. I grabbed his wrist and twisted, and he roared, tearing his hand away.
“You dare to— You dare to—” He seethed, clutching his wrist, his face almost purple. “I will make sure you lose everything. Your university education—gone. Your ice hockey hobby—gone. Your money—gone. Your home—gone. Everything. Gone!”
I slumped back against the filing cabinet, the fight draining out of me. “Do whatever you want. I don’t care. You already cost me the love of my life.”
“Harold!”
My mother’s cry tore through the air, freezing us both in place, and then armed officers were spilling into the room. Mike? What was Mike doing here?
“How dare you!” my father screamed as he was handcuffed, my mother clinging onto him and sobbing brokenly.