32
I’m sat on the tailgate of the ambulance, my feet dangling less than an inch from the ground as the male paramedic listens closely to my lungs through the stethoscope while another bandages my forearm. I hadn’t even realised I’d cut myself until they began tending to it.
I have a few minor burns but nothing to be worried about. My body’s already a canvas of scars, what’s a couple more?
“Breathe in,” the one with the stethoscope says. “And breathe out.”
I do as he says, repeating it a couple more times before he pulls away.
“Your lungs seem fine, but I would still like you to get checked out properly at the hospital.”
“No, thank you.”
“I really advise that you do.”
“I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine. I swear if I experience problems or if my lungs hurt I’ll go to the hospital.”
Displeased by my answer, he gives me a reluctant nod before stepping away.
I look up at the house. That beautiful house that now stands mostly in ruins. The firefighters continue to tackle the blaze that has slowly began to fizzle out. The once bright white cladding on the front of the house is now charred, caked in scorch marks and a thick layer of black soot. Part of the roof has caved in and now lies in a pile of rubble in what was once the living room. All the windows have been blown out as a steady cloud of thick smoke billows out.
Alec’s childhood, all those happy memories he made here. All that history… It’s all gone.
My eyes blur with tears. Today was perfect, and it should have ended as such, but instead it ended in disaster.
How has it come to this?
How did they find us?
“May I have a word with you, Ma’am?” A male police officer asks me. “I understand this is a distressing time for you.”
“Where were you?” I ask.
He frowns. “I don’t understand, Ma’am.”
“I called you guys. I called you telling you someone was trying to break in and I was told a patrol car was five minutes out. What took so long?”
The young officer reaches for his radio that is attached to his chest. “Dispatch, this is Russo, did you receive a call about a break-in at this address sometime ago?”
“This is Dispatch. Yes. It was made at ten-thirty three p.m. but it says here it was logged as a hoax call shortly after.”
“A hoax? Does it look like a hoax to you? Who would do that?” I yell, my throat burning.
“Dispatch, who logged it as a hoax?”
“That would be… Officer Paul Jenkins,” the woman on the radio replies.
“Jenkins?” I gasp.
“You know him?”
“He was poking around here about a week ago. He said that a neighbour was concerned about there being squatters staying here since it hasn’t been lived in for so long.”
“Ma’am, to my knowledge, there have been no complaints or concerns raised in this area, especially not recently.”
My blood runs cold. “Then why was he here?”
“I have no idea, Ma’am.” Another officer calls him over, and after excusing himself, he turns and leaves.
Oh my God.
That’s why he was sniffing around the other day. He was seeing if we were here or not so he could report back to Austin.
I feel sick.
Did Austin pay him off? Blackmail him? How did Austin even find out where we were?
I shiver. Is there anybody we can trust? Not even law enforcement now apparently.
I clutch the foil blanket they gave me and pull it tighter around my body, my head drooping forward as I release a yawn.
I’m so tired. All I want to do is go to sleep but my mind is running at a hundred miles an hour it would be impossible to sleep now.
A shadow falls over me and I look up to find Alec peering down. “Hey, princess,” he says with a smile. “They done checking you over?”
I nod. “And you? You were bleeding.”
“One of the fuckers stabbed me. It wasn’t deep but it hurt like a bitch.”
“Jesus,” I breathe out.
“I’m okay, I was more concerned about you.” He takes a seat beside me and pulls my hands between both of his and holds them up to his lips.
“Jenkins was part of it,” I say.
Alec stiffens. “What?”
“I called the cops when you left the bedroom, but they never showed. Apparently Jenkins logged the call as a hoax and the patrol car they sent was called off.”
“Son of a bitch,” Alec spits, shaking his head. “I knew there was something up with that bastard.”
“Austin’s either paid him off or has something on him.”
“I’ll get Derek to have another look into him again, failing that, Max might be able to shed some light. Oh, they found this on the ground where we jumped,” Alec hands me my phone, the screen is cracked but it’s still usable.
The screen lights up to show both Gage and Rafe have tried calling me several times between them in the past half an hour. I hit call and Gage answers on the second ring.
“Si?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Oh, thank fuck. Where have you been? Why haven’t either of you been answering?”
“Um, we’ve had a slight situation over here. Austin’s guys came for us tonight. They broke into the house and there was a fire. The house… the house is gone, but we’re both okay, we made it out.”
“Jesus Christ. I figured something happened, it did here too,” Gage says.
“What? What happened, are you all okay?”
Alec’s face snaps to mine, his expression hard.
“Fine. The girls are shook up but we’re okay. Is Alec there?”
“Yeah.”
“I need to speak to him. I’m glad you’re both okay, and I’ll see you soon, Sis. I love you.”
“Love you too,” I say before handing Alec the phone. “It’s Gage, he wants to talk to you.”
“Gage? Yeah we’re both okay… Four of them… The house is largely destroyed.” Alec squeezes my hand as he talks into the phone, explaining what has transpired in the past hour. “Of course, first thing in the morning. See you tomorrow.” He hangs up and hands me the phone.
“What did he say?”
“He wants us to come home. I said we’ll be there tomorrow afternoon. We’ll crash at my uncle’s place tonight, I’m sure he won’t mind us being there until morning.”
“Okay. What about the house? The bodies? Won’t there be an investigation? Won’t it look a little suspicious if we skip town?”
“Max is sending some of his guys down, they’ll be here in the next few hours. They’ll handle it. The case with Sloane is out of the PD’s jurisdiction. It’s a Federal case so they’ll take over when they get here.” He rises to his feet. “I’m going to speak with the cops, tell them we’re leaving. I won’t be long.”
Alec is only gone five minutes before he comes back and tells me we’re leaving.