38. Nicole
NICOLE
I burst through the back door of our house and fly toward the blonde bitch sitting at my kitchen table.
She raises her gaze to mine, her eyes wide and red rimmed.
My hand lifts of its own accord as I get to within inches of her, and I bring it down and across her face.
The slapping sound ricochets around the silent room, and my palm starts to sting as a red handprint burns on her cheek.
I raise my hand again, this time my fist clenched, but it stays in mid air.
Turning my narrowed eyes to the right, a figure looms over me, lowering his mouth to growl into my ear.
“One was enough. She’s not worth the extra time away from Lucky, Nico.
He needs you here. I need you. We both want you here, not in a prison cell.
” His mouth brushes against the outer shell of my ear and a shudder rages through my body.
Dammit, even though I’m pissed off with him, I still want him.
“The satisfaction it’d give me would be worth it. Trust me, Owen.”
“I do. And I’ll spend eternity proving that to you, but I can’t let you do anything that would take you away from us. Not now, Nico. Not when I can’t live without you.”
His fingers slide from around my wrist and circle around my clenched fist. My eyes meet his and it’s impossible to ignore the pleading swirling around in his beautiful blue eyes. I can’t fight him on this. He’s right. I need to be here for Lucky.
Ignoring the way his touch sets my body on fire and how his words send my pulse soaring, I snatch my hand away. My skin burns from his touch and I mutter ‘fine’ before taking a step away from Lily.
“Why did you do it?” My fingers are digging into the counter, as if it can anchor me to the spot and stop me from doing anything to hurt her. “How did you even get involved with my dad?”
“I didn't. I don’t know him. I didn’t want to be involved, but I had no choice,” Lily whines, and I spin around and storm over to the table. I slam my palms on the tabletop and push my face as close to hers as it can go without touching her.
“Talk now,” I spit through my teeth.
She gulps and her words come out muddled and tangled together. “I, there was, they phoned me.”
Her flustered state isn’t helping anyone, so I move my face slightly away from hers. She takes a breath and starts again.
“I got a text from a number I didn’t know.
It said I had to snatch Lucky and take him to this address.
I thought it was a prank at first. I thought Brady and the guys were tricking me.
But when I texted back no, they said if I didn’t do it, they’d release footage of us.
It was then I realised it wasn’t the guys.
That it was my ex-boyfriend, and this was very real.
“But I still refused. Nicole, I promise you. I told him no.”
She places her hand tentatively over mine but I snatch it away and point in her face. “Touch me again and I’ll knock your teeth so far into the back of your throat you’ll be choking on them as well as your lies.”
Her mouth gapes open and I glare at her with narrowed eyes until she starts to speak again.
“I’m not lying. I swear, I’m not. And, I don’t expect you to believe me either, but I’m not.
My ex decided to fight dirty. He always gets what he wants one way or another.
He paid a visit to the nursing home my father lives in.
He has Parkinsons. He sent me picture after picture of them together.
He threatened me and him. Said he’d show him the videos he had of us, intimate videos.
And it would be a shame if ‘something were to happen’ to him.
I’d never told him where my dad lived. He found it out for himself. I was so scared.”
Emotions choke her words up, and as tears start to fall down her cheeks, Brady hands her a tissue. I snap my gaze to him, the narrowed slits and gritted teeth are enough to make him hold his hands up in surrender.
“Whoa, Nicole. I’m just trying to do the right thing here. Mama Brady’s instilled a decency in me that I can’t switch off. I’m sorry.” Brady smiles awkwardly and then darts his eyes away from mine and looks down at his hands in his lap.
“Show me the pictures.” Owen stands next to me, his voice as angry as mine, and I’m grateful he’s on my side. That we’re in this together and I’m not alone in this fight.
She searches through her bag and finds her phone. Her hands shaking as she scrolls for a second, she shows us two pictures of an elderly, frail looking man and a younger guy with a sinister glint in his eyes.
“Who’s your ex? Some wannabe gangster?” Owen asks first, and I kick myself for not thinking of that question from the mention of an ex.
“I didn’t know it at the time I was dating him, but he’s not a wannabe.
He’s a local loan shark with links to the wider criminal world.
When I found out, I walked away. But he promised me he wasn’t finished with me, that no one walked away from Rocco Burns.
I was scared, Lockheart. My dad means everything to me.
I couldn’t let him get hurt because of my own stupidity.
I’m sorry. You have to believe me. I’m sorry. But I was so scared.”
Her pleading doesn’t make Owen flinch, but my own stupid heart feels her pain.
I know what it feels like to be alone. To put your trust in a man and to have it obliterated.
To have a secret that no one else can know about.
I want to believe her, forgive her, but an image of Owen’s pained eyes flashes in my mind.
A magnitude of pain, fear and anxiety wash over me as I recall being told that Lucky was missing. Taken by someone. Someone we knew. I close my eyes and clutch at my heart, the pain so visceral it brings a cold sweat out on me.
Owen touches my shoulder, bringing me out of the stupor, and the sympathy I had is gone, my anger winning out.
“I bet Lucky was too when you kidnapped him.” I force the words out of my mouth even though they make bile rise up my throat.
“He wasn’t. I made sure of it. At first it was just my job to find out info. When he started school, what school he was going to. And when I got that, I thought I’d be free. But Rocco told me he wanted me to take him. To prove a point to Lockheart that he couldn’t tell him what to do.”
My eyes snap to Owen, my tongue ready to defend him from himself, from the guilt I know he’s feeling right now.
But it’s too late. The guilt in his eyes makes me hold my tongue.
Instead I grab his hand and squeeze it tightly and don’t let go.
I will him to feel my love through our entwined fingers.
Wanting him to shred the guilt away and put the blame where it belongs.
With my dad, Doc, and her shady as fuck ex-boyfriend. Not him and not even me.
That realisation nearly knocks the wind out of me, and as I let it settle in, I stand straighter and hold my head high, ready to listen to the rest of the story.
“I told him no. I couldn’t see Lucky hurt.
I sent him a message telling him he can do what he wants, but that I was going to the police.
You can see the messages for yourself. But he kept on with the threats.
I had people following me from the stadium.
People outside my dad’s home. Everywhere I turned, his goons were there. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
As I scroll through her conversation, I feel a flicker of empathy for her situation.
Like myself, she was left at the hands of a loan shark through no fault of her own.
I believe her when she says she didn’t know what he did before they started dating.
Call it naivety or stupidity, but it’s the age-old story of a jumped-up man asserting his toxic masculinity over a woman by lying and abusing her trust.
“How did my dad get involved?” My voice is a little gentler and she turns her thankful eyes toward me.
“Rocco said he needed Lucky as leverage over Lockheart. When I asked why, he explained about your dad and his debt and how he was left out of pocket because Lockheart wouldn’t let you foot the bill anymore.
I don’t think it was anything to do with money to be honest. He hated that you both got one over on him.
He has to win at everything. And when he doesn’t, he throws a hissy fit.
He doesn’t care who gets hurt along the way.
“It’s why I suggested he find your dad, use him as a scapegoat and frame him as the kidnapper while he walked off with your money.”
“Why?” Owen’s deep voice rumbles through his chest and comes out as an angry command.
“I didn’t think Nicole's dad would hurt Lucky. But I know Rocco doesn’t have a kind bone in his body. Trust me, I bore the brunt of his temper plenty of times when we were dating.”
Owen’s body vibrates, his jaw clenches and his eyebrows form an angry V on his face. Brady is a mirror image of him, and I find myself relaxing my stance toward Lily a little.
“I managed to convince Rocco that if he let your dad take the blame, he’d get the money and the bragging rights that he fooled you as well.
I knew Lucky would be returned unharmed and I’d be free, to an extent.
I had every intention of going to the police once Lucky was returned though. I want Rocco out of my life for good.
“Your dad wasn’t supposed to phone you. I think he was trying to pull one over on Rocco.
Take the money and leave without a care for my dad, me, Lucky or anyone.
” That definitely sounds like my dad, so I don’t doubt that for one minute.
“And when he did and the police found Lucky before the money had been exchanged, Rocco got angry. He told me if his name was brought into this, my dad would be dead and everyone would know what a dirty little slut I was. I’d have nothing.
No job, no dad, nothing. I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry. ”
Her shoulders shake as sobs heave from her chest and she hides her face in her hands.
I let my gaze flit to each of the guys. Brady shuffles on his chair, his eyes wide and his mouth set in a tight grimace. I glance over to Owen, who has a frown that makes his normal one look like a smile, and I don’t know what to think or feel anymore.
On one hand, she was involved in helping to kidnap my son.
But on the other hand, she was forced into it and did everything to keep him away from the bad guy and as safe as one can be while kidnapped.
I bite the inside of my cheek, anger at her involvement flooding through me but also feeling sorry for her and wanting to wrap my arms around her and tell her it’ll all be okay.
I shuffle from foot to foot, unable to settle the warring emotions inside of me. I don’t trust my judgement right now, so I don’t speak. I remain silently rooted to my spot, as do Owen and Brady, until a buzz on the intercom makes us all jump.
“The police are here.” Owen’s short staccato sentence breaks us from our trances.
I take a step closer to Lily and place my hand on her shoulder, not knowing whether it’s for comfort or to make sure she remains where she is. Everything is so confusing.