Cace got out of his truck and walked the perimeter fence of their property line. He breathed in the aroma of baked bread fresh from the oven, coming from one of the small industrial units on the next block. The smell always reminded him of late-night visits to the park with his friends as a kid and stopping off to get freshly cooked doughnuts as they head home.
He knew the cameras they’d installed would pick up everything, but he always liked to walk around the grounds when it was his turn to check on the property, especially at night when it was quiet after everyone had left the park and pub across the street. Tonight would be the first night he’d get to sleep in his own bed in a long time. Things were finally coming together. His only regret was that he hadn’t been able to find his woman, Frankie.
Not that Frankie was his woman anymore, but he hadn’t been able to forget her since she’d ended what she’d called their friends with benefits relationship. He’d never considered it that as neither had seen anyone else while they had been together. They had been neighbours as kids; she was two years younger, and their friendship had grown into more as they’d got older. They both had busy lives building their careers. Frankie had wanted to go into law. Her thoughts had been heading towards becoming a lawyer and he’d joined the military like the rest of his family.
They got together whenever they could, a night here and a weekend there. Towards the end, it was almost like everything was against them. He hadn’t been with anyone seriously since she’d stopped returning his communications and disappeared off social media five and a half years ago. He missed her, especially on nights like this when the light pollution was low. These were the nights they would lay on the ground or the back of his truck and look at the stars. She was the only woman who had taken a piece of his heart.
He hadn’t realised until it was too late and now, she’d disappeared from his life and he’d never told her how he felt. The memory of how her body would brush against his as she slowly dropped to her knees to take his cock into her mouth made him hard just thinking about her on many a lonely night. She loved it when he pulled her hair to let her know he was close to coming. She would dig her nails into his arse, taking him deeper until he emptied his load and then lick him clean. She was a screamer when she came, especially when he would play with her clit. He loved to watch her pleasure herself, as he fed her pussy his dick. Memories were all he’d had over the last few years. He’d had the occasional one-night stand but not even that got him off anymore so instead, he’d focussed on the next job and the future.
He'd been an idiot; he was older and wiser now and could kick himself that he’d let her go so easily and not fought to keep her. He knew they had been drifting apart as the calls and visits became less frequent. He’d taken her for granted when he should have made more of an effort. She’d called time on them when she’d told him she was moving to Manchester to join a law firm as a paralegal. He’d let her go without a fight; he knew she wanted a career. The first thing he planned to do once they’d finished the building work was ask Michael to work his computer magic and start looking for her. If she was happy, he’d leave her be and stay away. It’s the least he could do. If not, he’d take a chance and see if she’d let him back into her life and try and win her back.
Frankie radioed the control room. “731, where’s my backup?” Frankie struggled to try and keep hold of her first suspect as he tried to keep moving from the bench. She heard rustling coming from the bushes as she waited. “Markson, is that you?” Frankie shouted. She turned to see who was there, but couldn’t see anyone. Where the fuck was Markson!
The second suspect came running towards her with a fallen branch in his hand. “Let my brother go!”
Frankie pulled out her baton and tried to speak calmly. “You need to stay back.”
The suspect’s brother just looked at her as he ran towards her. She pushed her prisoner to the side of the grassy bank as he encouraged his brother to take her down. Swinging the branch at her from side to side as he moved closer, she blocked his attack with her baton, catching his elbow as she moved away, and the branch fell from his hand. As he bent to pick it up she tackled him to the ground.
Cace heard shouting and a woman’s cry from behind the fence line, on the other side of the canal. It didn’t sound good; he could hear police sirens and a police helicopter overhead, but they weren’t close enough to see her. He climbed the fence and dropped to the ground on the other side. Cace pulled out his phone to see if the fence cameras were picking anything up on the other side of the canal. One camera picked up people fighting when he heard the woman shout again.
He called his cousin. “Michael, can you access all our cameras at the back of the factory and direct them towards the park, someone’s in trouble.”
“I’m on it cuz, do you need back up?” Michael asked as he accessed the cameras.
“No need. I’ll call it in if you can watch the cameras, please?” He hung up and headed in the direction of the fracas taking place.
Frankie felt like she was in a fight for her life. Reaching for her radio she pressed the emergency button, she just needed to hold on until the other officers reached her and they would, it was just a matter of how quickly and how close they were. Her first suspect had now joined the fight and kicked her in the back, catching her in the head with the toe of his trainer.
She knew she’d been stupid, but she wasn’t going down without a fight. She kicked out, trying to keep him back. “Richie, get the keys and get these cuffs off me.”
“Steve, you stupid prick, she knows my name now. Try and hold her legs still.” Frankie thought she was defending herself against two of the most stupid men on earth.
They’d already managed to get a couple of good blows in. They knew how to fight as a team; one at her front and one at her back. Richie kicked her as his brother tried to uncuff him. Rolling into his kicks, she managed to grab his legs as tight as possible. He tipped forward and unable to break his fall as he was still handcuffed, fell face-first into the hard ground. He screamed in pain, kicking himself free from her grip. Se caught her in the chest, winding her as he clambered from the ground ran off.
She prayed her colleagues could hear her as she made as much noise as possible, breathing heavily as she got to her knees. The pain in her head made her want to throw up, and as her vision began to blur, she could hear the police chopper and saw the searchlight as a dog barked in the distance. Frankie hoped it was a K9 unit and not a nearby resident’s dog. Hopefully, they would get here soon, because she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up.
She heard a scream in the distance. “Get him off me.”
A K9 and his handler must have taken Richie down. As she managed to block a punch coming at her head from his brother Steve, she missed the kick to her stomach and went to the ground again taking him with her. With one last burst of energy, she landed short sharp blows, blocking several of his strikes to her torso and face. She heard a voice shouting and as he got off her, giving her final kick, he ran off. She heard someone shout again in the distance and thought that it couldn’t be him as she fell to the ground and passed out.
CHAPTER TWO
Cace waved his torch ahead of him as he ran. As usual, someone had smashed the footpath lights, but he could just make out someone laying on the ground. “Oi, you!” he yelled as he saw a man kick someone on the ground before he ran off.
He ran over to the body on the canal footpath and kneeling he could make out it was a female police officer. He sighed with relief when he felt her pulse. At least she was alive. He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialled 999.
“You have a female officer down, on the footpath opposite the old factory. Send an ambulance now.”
Cace looked around to check they were alone, and her attacker hadn’t double backed. As he listened to the responder at the end of the line, he answered their questions. “Name is Cace O’Reilly; I own the old factory and heard your officer call out but couldn’t get here fast enough. I saw the attacker head up the canal bank near the willow trees, towards the running track.”
He waited for the next question. “Sir, can you tell me the officer’s number on their shoulder? Officers and an ambulance are on their way and will be with you momentarily.”
Cace placed his torch and phone on the ground on either side of the officer’s head to get optimal light to check her injuries. He’d had basic medical training in his early army days.
Placing his phone on speaker he continued talking to the emergency operator. “731, her number is 731. Tell them not to confuse me with her attackers. I’m 6ft, white, brown hair. I have a beard, I’m wearing black cargo pants and a black polo shirt with my company logo, Phoenix Security. Shit, I know her! It’s Frankie, your officer is Francesca Matthews.”
“Sir, can you tell how badly she’s hurt?” Cace felt a shock to his heart as he looked down at the woman he’d come back for lying on the ground.