Ollie’s face fell, and he put his hands in his pockets. “You fucked things up for me, sweetheart.” He shook his head in disappointment. “I had a plan. I had everything all worked out. A smooth and seamless execution.” A dark shadow crossed his face. “But I hadn’t considered Adley.” He said the name with pure hatred in his tone. “I hadn’t counted on you fighting my men on your hen do. Frankly, I hadn’t thought you had it in you to get away, pelting down the alley like that.”
The spa. He was talking about the spa. I shut down my emotions, held back the tears that threatened to fall, when it fully hit me. It was Ollie, Ollie Lawson, who had ordered the deaths of my dad and Hugo, of Arabella and Freya.
He stepped closer still. “And I didn’t expect you to go crawling to Adley. The motherfucking bane of my life.” He sucked on his teeth. “That wanker’s always getting in my way.”
“You killed them,” I said, voice weak. “Arabella and Freya were your friends, and you killed them. Ruthlessly.”
“They were collateral,” he said with such nonchalance that it set me alight. I felt my organs burn and re-form with the hatred and fire that was igniting in me. An internal eclipse smothering any light that lived inside my soul.
Ollie pushed a piece of hair from my face. I wanted to launch at him, kill him for the things he had done, all the sadness and pain he had caused. “I always wanted you, Cheska,” he said and yanked my head back. He smirked as a pained moan slipped from my lips, and I had to breathe through the urge to attack him. I felt Gene standing stoically behind me. I had to protect Gene too. I had to stay alive for Arthur.
It felt as though the bracelet pulsed around my wrist, promising me that he was coming. That he would find us here and destroy the men that had brought us all so much pain.
“I had to make a lot of plans to finally get you. For years I craved you. And this time I wasn’t going to fail in making you mine.” He shook his head and laughed without mirth. “The first time it was Adley who got in my fucking way too. I hadn’t counted on that twat being around. Or even caring about you.” His hands curled into fists as he spoke of Arthur. “I should have known. The fucking Adleys were always in our way in this city. Thinking they controlled it all. Making everyone in the underworld piss themselves with fear.” His expression grew icy. “Well, not fucking me. Not my organisation.”
Ollie Lawson … I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that the enemy, the shadowy force who had caused so much devastation, was Ollie and his family. He’d attended Hugo’s school. He had a successful business. They had it all. Apparently it wasn’t enough—they had delved into the darkness of the underworld to sate their malevolent desires.
They trafficked humans as if they were nothing.
“It was all going to work so well,” he said, pulling me back to the moment. The harsh winter wind whipped around us as I listened to the mad man before me. The devil who had tricked the world into thinking he was some kind of benevolent god. But here he was in front of me, showing me his fanged teeth, scales and horns.
“They would attack you, and I would save you. That was the fucking plan—simple, but effective. I would save you, and you would see me.” I froze, trying to cast my mind back to whatever he could be talking about.
Harlow cunt …
The way my attackers had spat my name at the spa. The way the men in Marbella, all those years ago, did too. “You?” I said, shock rendering me almost speechless. “You set that up? In Marbella?”
“I did,” he said, almost proudly. “But Adley stuck his bastard nose in where it didn’t belong.” He smiled softly at me. “My old man wasn’t happy about that little stunt I pulled. Not when your old man had just come to us for help with his failing business.” My heart thudded slowly, as if my chest had become quicksand and was denying it air. “He’d gone to one of our more obvious associates, one of our fronts, and our man led him straight to our door.” My blood ran cold. “Our fathers ended up doing quite a lot of business together—”
“You mean you lent him money you knew he could never pay back,” I spat.
Ollie shrugged. “It was your father’s choice, and the start of a beautiful working relationship.” He paused. “Until it wasn’t, of course.”
“You killed them,” I hissed, nausea rolling in my stomach as I saw my dad and Hugo take bullets to their heads in my mind.