Fortitude (Heart of Stone) (17 page)

She gulped and nodded but I could see the fear in her,
smell it even. “It will be okay, hun, you need to calm…”

I hissed as a foot connected with my jaw, cracking my
cheekbone as my face swung to the side and smashed against the metal column I
was tied to. “Shut up.”

“Hey,” Rebecca growled. “Leave her alone, she didn’t do
anything.”

The man turned to her and laughed, his Russian accent
rebounding loudly off of what little objects littered the room.

He smirked as he dropped to his haunches in front of her
and gripped her chin. She whimpered loudly when he smeared the tears she had
shed across her lips with his thumb, “You wanna make me angry, pretty lady? Go
ahead, I bet I can make you angrier.”

“Hey…Hey…” I intercepted. “Pick on me, you obviously know
who I am.” He turned to me and sneered, his top lip curling with disgust. “You
want a challenge? You look like the sort of man who does. So come on, big guy,
pick on the bigger woman.”

He tilted his head slowly, the malevolence in his
expression causing me to shudder. “But, you see I prefer a woman who still has
tits, so I’ll pass.”

“You bastard!” Rebecca exclaimed and then spat in his
face.

Ahh Shit.

His blows on her exhausted body were cruel and quite
horrific. He didn’t take into account the fact that she was a woman, or that
her already frail body couldn’t cope with his assault, he just punched her over
and over.

I yanked at my restraints when her lip burst open and
blood sprayed over his face. He stopped, swiped at his cheek with the back of
his hand then looked at it. His head tilted as though Rebecca’s blood was something
of great interest before he slowly ran his tongue over his hand and lapped at
her blood.

“You sick fuck.”

Rebecca was hardly even whining, her head drooped as her
chin rested on her chest and her blood smeared onto her already ruined shirt.

He just shrugged then stood up and swiped at his phone
screen. “Your husband’s number, Mrs Fox, if you please.”

“What?”

“I require your husband’s phone number. You want to talk
to him, do you not?”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked as I kept my gaze
trained on Rebecca, checking her over to distinguish if her injuries were life
threating. It seemed he’d only done damage to her face and not her body,
lessening any chance of internal injury.

“All in good time. Now…” He bent and seized my face, his
fingers digging into my cheeks cruelly, “…Mason’s phone number.”

I relented and gave it him. Mason was our only hope now
but I hated to do this. Putting Mason’s life in danger had been the last thing
I had wanted but now he was all the hope I had left.

He punched in the numbers then turned the phone towards
me. “Video call is so much fun, don’t you think?”

I whimpered when Mason’s face filled the phone screen as
he answered the call. “Hello?” The uncertainty at the unknown number giving his
tone an edge of puzzlement. “Oh my god,” he choked out when my image filled his
own screen. “Baby?”

“Mason….” I sobbed out as I saw his beautiful face, the
most handsome face to ever grace my life. “Mason…”

The Russian guy rolled his eyes. “Mr Fox,” he interrupted
without turning the phone for Mason to see him. “I’ll make this quick…”

“You fucking cunt. When I find you…”

“All in good time, Mr Fox. In the meantime, I want three
million transferring within the hour.”

“What?” I choked out. “This is all for cash? For money?
My God, you’re no more than a petty fucking thief.”

I cried out when his foot slammed into my jaw, the pain
so fierce that I choked on the bile that forced itself up my throat and my
brain cried out as too many pain hits clashed with the adrenaline now coursing
through me as well as Rebecca.

“Okay…Okay,” Mason yelled. “Fine… fine… I can get it to
you.”

“And by the way, Fox. Don’t think you can double cross
me.” He turned to Rebecca and pointed the phone at her. “Another of your lovers
Mr Fox, although I know this one doesn’t mean quite as much as your wife.”

I watched in horror as he pulled his gun from the back of
his trousers and pointed it at Rebecca. “Nooo,” I screamed as he shot her in
the thigh, no hesitation, no feelings shown on his face and no acknowledgement
to what he had just done in his eyes.

“You have one hour before your bitch bleeds out and then
I move onto your wife…”

“Oh fuck… Bec? Becca?” Mason choked out.

I stared in shock as Rebecca writhed in agony, her tears
thick and rampant as she screamed and cried out, trying desperately to draw her
legs towards her body instinctively to aid her pain.

“Now,” Russian carried on nonchalantly. “Bank number
08-96-69-42, account number 5673991763534…”

Mason’s survival training kicked in suddenly as instinct
hit the part of my brain that was still coherent. I closed my eyes and prayed
that it wasn’t the last time I ever spoke to my husband. “MASON,” I shouted
quickly. “FIFTEEN MILE RADIUS, RURAL OUT-BUILDING, RAPESEED TANG TO THE AIR.
THREE RUSSIAN BROTHERS…..”

Everything went black when one of the other Russians
punched me in the temple but before I went out, I heard Mason shout out an
order to someone. My glorious bastard was back, doing what he did best…

Saving his little warrior.

***

“Rebecca?” I hissed at her as I came round. “Wake up!”

She murmured something I didn’t catch, her voice low and
grating as her mouth struggled to move. “Honey, look at me. Look at me
Rebecca.”

Her eyes opened slowly, way too slowly. I glanced at the
pool of blood she was sat in; too much, way too much.

“Fuck!” I hissed.

“Ava…” she whispered. She lifted her heavy eyelids and
stared at me as she blinked slowly. “I’m…” She swallowed, the action torturous
to watch as her body had accepted this was the end.

“Hun…” I choked out. I couldn’t reach her. I couldn’t get
to her and I so desperately wanted to hold her hand. She needed that, she
deserved that.

I accepted it now. I admitted to myself that my husband
had created a monster in both of us, had morphed us both into women that needed
him to survive, to breathe. She had done what any of us would have done, she
had fought for her man, she had used what weapons had been available to her and
she had never given up, even when cruelty and humiliation had eaten at her, she
had pushed on and that in itself deserved my respect.

“I’m sorry, for everything… Ava. I…”

“Shush,” I sobbed as I watched her slipping away. “Hey,
you… you and me, Rebecca, we’re the same, we’re both creations of what love
does to us all. I forgive you, for everything and I know Mason does too.”

She shook her head slowly as a single tear rolled down
her face. “I loved him so much Ava but it was never… enough… I was never
enough…”

Her eyes closed slowly and I knew, I knew. “But he always
came back…. He always came back to you Rebecca…” I whispered as she slipped
away.

The sobs that racked my body hurt, they hurt like fuck,
each one ripping at me, tearing at my soul as devastation consumed me and
crippled me, each breath as debilitating as the previous.

I understood now. She had been guilty of loving and that
was all. She had loved too much and in the end it still hadn’t been enough.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed as I frantically tried to reach
her. But as in life, I’d never been able to reach her. She’d never been able to
reach herself. She’d never had a moment’s peace from the torture of heartache
but now as I whispered a silent prayer for her, I knew she was finally granted
the peace that she’d always sought in life.

I rolled my fingers around, catching their attention.
Numerous affirmatives were whispered in my ear as we all turned to night
vision. As soon as the lights snapped out in the building we went in silently.

The first Kenin brother went down easy with a single
bullet to his forehead. Sam waved him down and the other’s moved forward as I
went in search of Ava, furiously pulling at each door. There were so many
different corridors and rooms that led to other rooms.

Kade had done a brilliant job of narrowing down the area
we needed. My amazing fucking wife was still the warrior we had both created in
her, giving me pride at what she had learnt and managed to initiate even during
periods of horror, she had once more come into her own and done what was needed.

We’d found the farm, based on her clues, and I was
astounded at what had been created underneath it. It was a quarry of corridors,
rooms and the place even housed a drug factory.

Three rooms I tried before I found her, each holding a
horror in each, each as stomach curling as the last as emaciated bodies, blood
splattered walls and beaten girls drugged out of their minds greeted me.

I was starting to panic, these men weren’t two bit
crooks; they were mean and hungry, taking away their conscience and just
filling it with detachment and indifference, making them extremely dangerous.

And I knew I was in trouble when I opened the door and
found the third brother stood behind Ava with arm around her neck and a gun embedded
in the middle of her breastbone.

“How nice of you to join us Mr Fox,” he sneered into the
darkness. He was well aware of my available vision, hence why he was stood
using Ava as a shield as well as a bribe.

I swallowed quietly when Ava lifted her hand to me. I
wanted to drop to my feet and fucking idolise her, worship her fucking strength
and fortitude.

“But you see,” he continued. “I did warn you about double
crossing me. I also gave you an hour to come for your bitch. And I’m afraid you’re
a little too late now.” He turned to Ava and smiled, “You should have bought
your husband a watch for his birthday.”

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Even the air that
my lungs sucked at trickled down my throat at a torturous pace, as my heart
rate slowed to complement the pace.

I watched his finger press against the trigger as I
started to move. I watched in horror as Ava lifted both hands, one out straight
in front of her to stop me. The other seemed to move even slower but was in
fact immeasurably fast as she brought it up to the muzzle of the gun that was
pressed against her chest.

The heel of her hand nudged the gun and I screamed out
when the bullet fired straight through her shoulder. She cried out and fell
forward leaving Kenin staring open mouthed behind her, blood seeping from the
corner of his mouth as a hole appeared in his chest.

I reached Ava, pulling her against me as Kenin dropped to
the floor, his eyes still wide but the light in them extinguished.

“Fuck Ava, what did you just do? What the fuck? You just
shot yourself.”

She stared at me, her eyes wide in panic as her hands
lifted to my face. “Mason? … Mason, I’m so sorry…”

“Shush. Save your energy, baby. We need to get you to
hospital.”

She shook her head furiously, tears streaming down her
face as I pressed my palm over the bullet wound just above her collarbone.
“She’s gone, Mason. I tried… I tried so hard for her…”

I nodded. I’d already seen Rebecca’s body through the
goggles, but she hadn’t given off any thermal light. “I know, baby. Shush, it’s
okay.”

“I’m so sorry…”

“Ava!” I scolded as she became hysterical. “Calm down,
you need to save your energy. Do as you are fucking told!”

She blinked at me but her lips twitched as I brought my
mouthpiece to my lips and pressed the button on the side of my earpiece.
“Target three down. I need an ambulance… fast.”

Furious assaults of acknowledgements hissed in my ear and
I switched it back off as I pulled Ava harder into me. “I love you, Ava.”

She nodded weakly against me, her sobs quiet now as her
vigour depleted. “And me, you.” She whispered before the door flung open and my
men stormed the room.

Sam shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Jesus Christ,
Ava. When the fuck are you gonna stop causing so much damn trouble?”

Her lips twisted as she raised her eyes to him. “Ahh
you’d get bored without my adventures.”

He laughed loudly as he crouched before us and patted her
cheek. “We would, we so fucking would. Nice to have you back Mrs Fox.” He
winked.

“And it’s nice to be back,” she whispered as she palmed
my cheek, her eyes telling me everything I needed from her, her love and
remorse open and honest. “But this time,” she scowled at me. “Try to hold on to
me a bit longer, eh? It’s not really much fun without you.”

I stared at her open mouthed. She giggled and fuck me, if
that wasn’t the best damn sound in the world. “Yes, of course, baby. I’ll try
to do better next time.”

“Good boy.” I shook my head and lifted her into my arms.
“Ahh fuck, watch it, I currently have a damn hole in my shoulder you know.”

I growled at her as I walked us through the corridors to
meet the ambulance. “I can’t believe you did that, Ava. Jesus Christ.”

“Hey,” she defended. “It was an awesome move.”

“It was damn stupid!”

“Nah, if Bruce Willis can do it, then so can I.”

“What?” I scoffed at her. “You copied a move from a damn
film?”

“Excuse me,” she protested. “It wasn’t just a
damn film
,
it was Die Hard.”

“Well,” I shrugged. “That’s okay then, that makes all the
difference.”

She grinned and nodded at me. “You can’t beat Bruce
Willis.” I narrowed my eyes on her. “Sorry, after Mason Fox, of course.”

I gave her a stern nod and held her firmer, just inhaling
her, just taking her essence and feeding my soul with it. I was never letting
her go again, ever. Kicking or screaming, my little warrior would now be
attached to my hip, our souls linked mercilessly.