Pitch Black: A Romantic Thriller (Blackwood Security Book 1) (39 page)

“I missed you,” she sniffed.

“I missed you too.”

“Ash told me you went to deliver the ransom?”

“Yeah, I did, but it went a bit wrong.”

“You were so brave.”

He didn’t want to let on he’d been terrified the entire time. “I’d have done anything to get you back.”

Nick came into view, tapping his watch, and Luke steered Tia towards the door. “Let’s get you to bed. We can talk more in the morning.”

“Okay. I’m really tired but I didn’t want to go to sleep until I saw you.”

The instant his sister was tucked under her duvet, Luke sprinted for Nick’s car. As they left the drive, a screen on the dashboard displayed several pulsating blobs. Nick pointed at a white blob, a few miles behind the others. “That’s us, and the other white dot is Dan.”

“Is the red one Ash?”

“Yeah.” It was ahead of Dan, moving steadily.

Their strange convoy continued for half an hour, when the red blob suddenly stopped. From the map, it looked like the van had pulled up in an area of woodland.

“Oh fuck, he’s planning to shoot her like he tried with me,” Luke said. Panic rose inside him, cold fingers grasping at his insides.

Nick looked at his watch. “Ten twenty. My pool time wasn’t until eleven. Crap. I’ll be losing that one unless a miracle happens.”

Luke stared at him. “You’re insane.”

They rode on in a tense silence for a few more minutes until Nick’s phone buzzed, and the woman’s voice Luke heard earlier filled the cabin.

“Time’s ten twenty-six, Nicky. So, tell me, who got the pool?”

“Pool?” Nick said, acting innocent.

“I’m crazy, not fucking stupid.”

“Fine, it was Luther.”

“Didn’t he win the last one, too?” the soft voice asked.

“Yeah, lucky git.”

“Gotta go. Jason’s just turned up. See you in a minute.”

Nick turned to Luke. “Told you she’d be fine.”

“That was Ash?”

The woman on the radio sounded so different from the Ash Luke knew, confident and self-assured in contrast to his Ash’s sweet hesitancy.

“Yeah, it was. She changes her accent more times than she changes her mind.”

Why would she need to do that? Luke was about to ask when Nick pointed out their destination just ahead. “We’re heading for a clearing just around that bend.”

When they arrived, Nick held Luke to his promise and made him stay in the car. Luke watched Jason and another policeman ask Ash questions as she perched on the bonnet of their car, eyes downcast. Was she okay? Had the kidnapper hurt her? He looked over at the van, slewed at an angle with its doors wide open. Was that the kidnapper on the ground next to it? He pressed his face against the glass to get a better look. It was him!

“Is he dead?” Luke asked, pointing.

“Don’t think so,” Nick said. “He’s got cuffs on. Those cops next to him are waiting for him to come round.”

Luke’s hands subconsciously curled into fists as he thought of what he’d like to do to the man. How dare the bastard hurt his family? If the police hadn’t been present, he’d have marched over and punched him. Instead, he had to settle for watching as the guy slowly stirred and was hauled to his feet by two officers.

He passed close to Ash and paused. Her lips moved then she shrugged and laughed. The bastard tried to lunge at her, but the police held him back. What had she said? Why was she laughing? And more to the point, why did the man hate his family so much?

The kidnapper got closer, and as he passed by Dan’s car, the headlights lit up his features. Of all the shocks Luke had received in the last few days, that one was perhaps the most unexpected. He froze, unable to tear his eyes away from the man’s face. It was almost, but not quite, like looking into a mirror.

“What the…?” Luke started. He stepped out the car, Nick not trying to stop him. “Who are you?”

The prisoner glowered back, unspeaking.

Ash stepped in to do the honours. “Luke, meet Simon Howard, your half-brother. Simon, I’d introduce Luke, but I’m sure you already know who he is.”

“You’re a bitch,” was Simon’s only reply.

“Oh you’re wrong there. I’m not a bitch. I’m
the
bitch. The queen bitch, in fact. I lost my crown for a while, but I need to thank you for helping me to get it back. It was almost a pleasure doing business with you.” Ash took a mock bow and laughed gleefully.

Was there something in the water? That wasn’t the Ash Luke knew. Simon looked like he wanted to punch her as the police marched him towards their car.

“See, fucking crazy,” muttered Nick.

Who was he talking about? Ash or Simon? Luke felt like he’d fallen down a rabbit hole and ended up in one of the circles of hell.

He faced his…girlfriend? Ex-girlfriend? “You okay?”

She shrugged, looking at her feet. “Yeah.”

“Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head and followed up with a bark of laughter. “No.”

Christ, he’d never been in this situation before. What was he supposed to say? He barely knew her any more and right now he wasn’t sure whether to love her for helping save Tia or hate her for lying to him. He should ask her to come home, so they could talk. That would do for starters. “Will you…”

One of the cops interrupted. “Good to see you!” He clapped Ash on the back like she was one of the guys. “Can I borrow you for a few minutes?”

“Sure.” She practically ran off.

Great. That went well. Still, it gave Luke breathing space to work out exactly what he wanted to say.

On the far side of the clearing, Simon Howard was unceremoniously loaded into the back of a police van, and before Luke could stop her, Ash climbed into an SUV with Dan and took off after them. He was left with little choice but to ride with Nick.

“Do you think he’s really my half-brother?” Luke asked. He was still giddy from the revelation.

“Yes, we do.”

“How did you find him?”

“I don’t have all the details. We’ll have to get Dan to fill us both in when we get back to the house.”

The background chatter on the radio provided a soundtrack to Luke’s thoughts. He was so engrossed in trying to unravel the mess in his mind he barely noticed Dan’s car parked in a lay-by a few miles down the road.

“Why have they stopped?” Nick muttered, pulling in behind them.

They both got out and walked to the driver’s side, where Dan sat with both hands on the steering wheel, staring pointedly out of the windscreen. In the passenger seat, Ash had her hands in her lap and her eyes fixed forwards.

“Are you two okay?” Nick asked.

There was no answer. Then Dan glanced over at Ash, catching her eye, and the first hint of giggles escaped from her lips. That did it. Both Ash and Dan collapsed in hysterics, with Dan laughing until tears fell from her eyes.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, what?” Nick asked.

Dan waved her hand in front of her face, signalling she couldn’t speak.

“Maybe it’s some kind of delayed shock?” suggested Luke.

“No,” spat out Ash. “It’s just he was the worst kidnapper ever.”

Between bursts of laughter, Ash continued. “He was waving the gun around, and he had the safety on. The safety!” More laughs. “It was my lucky day when he agreed to take me instead of that poor policewoman.”

“Saved us the trouble of looking for him tomorrow,” Dan said.

“Yeah, and I got to spend a little alone time with him.”

 
“But you were handcuffed,” Luke said. “And tied up.”

Ash rolled her eyes. “I used my handcuff key, and when I tied my feet together, I used a quick-release knot. The idiot didn’t even check it.”

“What about when he opened the door? He had a gun.”

“I’d got out of the van by then. When he stopped, I climbed out the back door and onto the roof. My only regret was missing his face when he realised I wasn’t in there.”

“I’d like to have seen that, too,” said Nick.

“When I dropped down behind him, he tried to swing the gun round, but I twisted it out of his hand. And it still had the fucking safety on.”

There was another pause as Ash and Dan dissolved into laughter again with Nick joining in this time.

What did Ash know about guns? Luke didn’t even know where the safety was. How did she?

Once she’d recovered, Ash continued, “When I got him with an uppercut, he dropped faster than a second rate hooker on a deadline. He’d even given me the cuffs and rope to tie him up with.”

“Not bad, baby,” said Nick.

“Three minutes, Nick. Shame it was over so fast—I was having fun.” Then she smiled brightly. “I wonder what the prison doctor will make of his mysterious groin pain?”

She turned to Dan and they high-fived.

Another vehicle pulled up behind Nick’s. Jason unfolded himself from the passenger seat. “What’s this, a convention?”

“Oh, just feeling a little car sick,” returned Ash, sweetly.

“Strange that. The prisoner’s complaining he feels sick, too, except my officer reports he’s clutching his balls. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Ash studiously kept her gaze away from Dan and Nick as she replied.

“Can’t help you there, I’m afraid. Maybe he caught himself on the door sill as he fell?”

Jason didn’t look convinced, but he let it go. Everyone climbed back into their respective cars, Ash driving this time. Her car shot off into the distance, leaving Luke more confused than ever. Who was Ash, really?

Chapter 37

I PULLED AWAY from the lay-by with Dan beside me, leaving Nick and Luke behind to get into their car. I saw Jason watching me in the rear view mirror. He wouldn’t be happy when he found out I wasn’t going back to the house, but he knew how to get hold of me if he needed to. I made a mental note to give him a call later to smooth things over.

Dan reached over and keyed our destination into SatNav. At least Howard chose to hold his final showdown forty minutes from the airbase so we didn’t have far to travel. Today turned out to be a good day, and I felt more upbeat than I had in ages. Not only was Tia back in one piece, but I’d also proven this morning with Jimmy that I still had a good fight in me. And best of all, Luke’s crackpot half-brother was making friends with his new cell mate, who I hoped was six foot seven with a penchant for tall, blonde and grouchy.

Nope, not a bad day at the office.

Of course, the day wasn’t without its low points. My life wouldn’t be complete at the moment without a dash of blackness to even out the light.

The first low occurred when I was handcuffed in the van—not through fear of being trapped, but because my handcuff key was built into my wedding ring. Freeing myself brought back memories of my husband and the heartache that came with losing him.

When we first got married in Vegas, we’d had crappy off-the-shelf rings. They were engraved on the inside with “CB & MB 4EVA”—Crazy Bastard and Mental Bitch Forever. It was Nate’s idea of a joke. We didn’t manage forever, though, did we? Although the rest of my life would feel like forever without my husband in it.

We put up with the shitty rings for about a week before deciding that if we had to wear a permanent reminder of our supposed undying love, we’d prefer something that didn’t look like it came from an arcade machine.

My husband’s new ring was titanium with two bands, one made from dinosaur bone and the other from a meteorite. The designer told me it would symbolise our love lasting for all time. At the time I thought he’d been talking shit, but it turned out he was right. When I gave it to my husband, I told him I wanted to get something almost as old as he was—he may have only been nine-and-a-half years older than me, but that didn’t stop me from reminding him about it, constantly.

My platinum ring with its hidden handcuff key was beautiful as well as practical. And of course, we’d had the engraving transferred over as a reminder of our drunken wedding.

When I unlocked my handcuffs in the van, I sent him a silent thank you. Was he up there somewhere, watching me? If so, I hoped I’d redeemed myself just a little with today’s performance.

The next low point was leaving Luke and Tia. It wouldn’t be easy for Luke at first, dealing with the revelation that his brother was a head case, but he had the strength in him to deal with it. I knew that much.

He’d lent me some of that steel over the past few months and helped me through the worst time of my life. I’d always be grateful to him, but the kindest thing I could do now was to let him go. He didn’t need me and my troubles weighing him down further. My problems were my own, and I needed to face up to them.

Luke and Tia would at least have each other for support. I’d watched them grow closer over the last two months, and now they had the relationship a brother and sister should have. They’d get through this together.

And me? Well, Luke had dug the pit in my chest a little bit deeper. My life would be worse for not having him in it, but the time had come to go home to Virginia. Luke’s life was in England, and I couldn’t ask him to change for me.

And I couldn’t change for him. I’d been away too long, and while I’d salvaged my relationship with Nick and Dan, I still had a way to go with Mack and Nate. That was something best done face to face.