Chapter Thirteen
RIVER
“What did he say?” I ask as soon as Elliot ends the call. He removes his glasses and rubs his eyes before leaning back in his chair.
“He said that the place they have in Camber Sands is having the kitchen renovated for Jessica as a surprise, but they do have a new place in Torquay. And they’ve offered it to us for as long as we need. He can have the housekeeper go in and stock up on necessities, too.”
I let out a whistle. “Oh, how the other half live,” I reply, resting my arse against his desk and crossing my ankles.
Elliot smiles. “Seems to me they’re just putting down roots. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“No, I guess not.” I study him for a moment as he pulls his glasses back on. “Is that something you’d want to do?” I ask.
He looks at me quizzically. “What do you mean?”
“Lay down roots. Have somewhere you can call yours?” My eyes flick over his face. “Somewhere to call home.”
He shrugs. “Yeah, maybe it would be nice. What about you?”
I nod. As convenient as it is renting through Jax, it would be nice to have somewhere to call home.“Yeah, I’d like that,” I admit. “One day.” But I omit that I would like that to be with him. Maybe it’s too soon after my declaration of my feelings for him, but I know I see a future with him. Lily also pops into my head at that revelation, but I shake it away. I know Jax said he would share, but isn’t that for Lily to decide? Besides, right now, we have other things to worry about, like getting her somewhere safe to start healing while we sort out the bigger issues at hand.
The alarm on our phones simultaneously ping, alerting us to the main gate being accessed.
Elliot is the first to bring up the CCTV footage where Tommy waves in greeting, followed closely by Avery’s vehicle.
“Fuck,” Elliot curses under his breath.
“You can say that again.”
Jax texted us while Lily was in the shower to let us know Avery was returning with Tommy. He wanted us to have her pack Lily some stuff for the safe house.
We both wait for Tommy to join us. Avery is hot on his heels, and her face is a storm of emotions.
“Avery,” Elliot says, moving to his feet.
“Elliot, River,” she replies curtly. “I need to grab some stuff for Lily from her room.” She points her thumb towards Tommy. “Chatty Cathy said she’d need enough for a few weeks at least... is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?”
She puts her hands on her hips, looking ready to go into battle for our girl, and it makes something in my chest constrict.
“We will. Can I get you a cup of tea or coffee?” Elliot asks, walking towards the kitchen.
“I’d much prefer something stronger, but caffeine will have to do as I’m driving. Coffee, milk, one sugar, please.”
I can’t help but cock a brow, surprised, for some reason. I would have thought she’d want one of those fancy coffee pods from the machine.
“Oh, don’t give me that look, River. It’s rude to stereotype. ”
Holding my hands up in surrender, I can’t resist smiling at her outburst. She unzips her coat and shrugs out of it, tossing it onto the end of the sofa.
“I never said a word, Princess.”
Her eyes narrow. “Don’t call me Princess, pretty boy.”
With that comment, Tommy laughs, trying to cover it with a poor excuse of a cough.
“And you can fuck off, kid,” I say to Tommy, but he just flips me the bird in response. “I’ll have a tea, please, El.”
Tommy joins him at the kitchen counter, and they exchange words under their breaths as Elliot makes us all drinks.
“Well?” Avery asks, tapping her foot.
“Avery, why don’t you take a seat.” I nod towards the sofa.
She sighs but does as I suggest.
“Start talking.” She waves her hand out in front of her, motioning me to hurry on with it.
“Lily won’t be coming back here when she’s discharged tomorrow, we’re going to take her to a safe house.”
She sits forward. “What do you mean a ‘safe house’? And where exactly is this safe house?”
I raise my brows. “You really expect me to tell you where?”
Huffing, she throws her hands in the air before they fall into her lap with a soft slapping sound. “Well, yes and no. I’m her best friend. I need to know she’s safe. I’m sorry if my faith in you all dwindled when I found out she was laid up in a hospital bed after her stepfather beat her. Here, I might add, right under your fucking noses.”
I cringe at her venomous words, but she’s not fucking wrong, is she?
“Avery, no one feels worse about that than we do. We had no idea he was a threat.”
I scrub my hand through my hair and let my head hang. “I hate myself more than you could possibly know,” I admit, grabbing the back of my neck .
“Here you go,” Tommy says. I look up, and he hands her a cup of coffee.
“Tea,” Elliot says, joining me on the sofa.
I take my mug from him, and he moves his hand to my thigh, giving it a supportive squeeze.
“Well, I hate myself too,” she replies, her tone less angry than before, more defeated. “I’m meant to be her best friend, but I had no idea. I mean, I always knew he was a wanker... but not that.”
She hugs her mug.
“She never told you?” Tommy asks, sitting in the armchair.
“No, not until today at the hospital. I could have helped—told my parents, they would have done something. I just always thought she was grieving from losing her mum.”
Her teeth dig into her lower lip as she blinks rapidly before sniffling and pulling her shoulders back.
“But this isn’t about me. It’s about her. So, this safe house? How long will she be gone?”
I glance at the guys and then back to Avery. “Until the threat is taken care of.”
“And Mia, what are you doing about getting her back to Lily?”
“Everything we can,” Elliot interjects. “But of course, finding Richard will lead us to her.”
Blowing on her coffee, she takes a tentative sip.
“I just hate the thought of Mia being alone with him if he’s capable of doing something like that.” Avery swallows hard. “Mia literally thinks the sun shines out of the man’s ass.” The way she says arse with an American accent almost has my lips twitching, but the thought of Mia ending up at the receiving end of Richard’s wrath doesn’t bear thinking about.
It’s why we need to find him, to get her away and to somewhere safe. I don’t even realise I’m bouncing my knee until Elliot stills my movements with his palm.
“We all do, but until we have an exact location, we’re plucking at hairs. As soon as Tommy and Lily are somewhere safe, the rest of us can put everything we have into tracking the arsehole down,” Elliot says, his jaw ticking.
You could cut the tension in the room with a fucking knife. We’re all strung so tight. Elliot helped me take the edge off earlier, but it’s back with a vengeance now.
“We know we failed her, Avery. But we’ll do everything we can to ensure she’s safe,” Tommy says, holding her gaze.
She tilts her head. “Yeah, something tells me you will. But it doesn’t stop me from being mad at you.”
He nods his head in acceptance. I mean, what can we say to that?
She studies Tommy for a moment, holding his gaze when she says, “So, what’s going on with you two? Are you and her, you know?” The corner of her lips lift into a smirk as she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.
I put my mug on the coffee table and push to my feet. “And on that note, let me walk you over. I’ll help you pack Lily’s stuff.”
“Fine.” She takes another swig of her coffee before placing her mug next to mine and then grabs her coat. “But don’t think you’re getting out of this. I know chemistry when I see it,” she says. I know she’s trying to defuse the atmosphere a little, but I don’t think Lily would appreciate us all discussing her love life, at least not until we all understand what this is between all of us.
We cut through the back door. Malcolm is the only one still allowed access to the property, he’s aware of what happened with Lily. We needed to cover all bases, which meant finding out how much he knew. He was the one who explained about the hidden door in Lily’s room, the same as in Richard’s suite and Mia’s, which leads to a secret passageway that takes you to the kitchen. We never knew about it, and it wasn’t on any of the specs or blueprints .
I follow Avery up the stairs, and she takes a deep breath before pushing Lily’s bedroom door open and entering.
It’s still a bit of a mess. When I returned to grab some essentials for Lily, I stripped her bed and dumped the discarded gauze in the bathroom, but that was the extent of it.
Tommy couldn’t bring himself to come back here, and I can’t say I blame him.
Avery claps her hands once, all business. “Can you please grab the large holdall and small suitcase from her closet?”
I arch a brow, her accent becoming Americanised around the word ‘closet’.
“What? More hands make light work or some shit.”
“Closet?”
She rolls her eyes. “Wardrobe then, don’t be so pedantic, River, it doesn’t suit you.”
I laugh at that. “You know you’d make an excellent school headmistress,” I retort instead as I walk backwards towards the wardrobe. I try to do anything to dispel the engrained images of finding Lily’s body almost lifeless.
“Yeah, no. Thank you.”
“How long have you lived in England?” I ask, dragging out the case and bag as requested.
“Since I was twelve, but we travel back to the US a lot,” she says with a sigh, taking the case and sitting it open on the bed. “Hence my accent, but when I’m there, people say I sound posh, go figure.”
She walks around me and into the bathroom, coming to a halt when she sees the state of it.
“Shit, sorry.” I rush around her, grab the bin, and start stuffing the gauze with dry blood into it.
Her face pales, and she covers her mouth with her hand, her eyes filling with tears.
Since I’ve met Avery, she’s always been the epitome of strong, giving off don’t-fuck-with-me vibes, but seeing the aftermath of her best friend being hurt cracks through her hard exterior.
Dropping the bin, I pull her into my chest, and she wraps her arms around my waist.
“Fuck, Avery, I was meant to clean it up, but between the hospital and trying to search for the cunt I didn’t get around to it.” After grabbing the basics for Lily, I didn’t want to return.
“I-it’s not your fault.” She sniffs, pulling back and wiping under her eyes. “She didn’t deserve that. No one does.”
She looks around the bathroom once more. “I can see why you don’t want her coming back here,” she says.
I nod in agreement. “Come on, the sooner we get what we need, the sooner we can get out of here.”
There’s no way we’ll be bringing Lily back here—to this. With Camber Sands no longer an option and Torquay being further away than initially planned. I’m going to suggest to the guys about her coming back to our flats in the city for a day or two before setting out with Tommy.
Jackson had all of the flats above our offices renovated, where we each have one. Not only is the security tight, but we’re also all on the same floor. She’ll be safe there with us until they need to leave.
After everything, I think we could all do with having her with us, even if it’s only brief, a way for us to be close and a chance to say goodbye.