AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yes, I’ll have to fix the parts of my life that Alistair can’t.
And yes, I’ll eventually have to face the reality of who I am versus who Alistair Ravenscroft is, but today isn’t that day.
Today is the day to grab on to the lifeboats of hope and love and longing.
I’m about to put the phone down to get up and get ready for my appointment with Dr. Sandringham when it starts pinging like mad. I hope it’s Becks, but it’s an unknown number, and the messages are set to disappear.
Fear chokes me. My whole body prickles with anxiety. The messages must be from Jeff. Who else could it be? Just thinking about him makes me start shaking. Somehow, I feel his evil has leaked into me, has poisoned my blood. Ironic, given his nickname for me.
I open the very first message from the unknown number. It’s a snapshot of a text conversation between Lucky and Alistair from the day we discovered Jeff had hired a hotel room below the penthouse.
LUCKY DIREKO
Tracker on Bates’s vehicle done.
ALISTAIR RAVENSCROFT
Good work. Watch him closely. I don’t trust the fucker.
Hotel security briefed. He won’t get back in.
If he so much as touches a hair on Ivy’s head, I’ll kill him.
Seeing it in black and white like that jars me. “I’ll kill him” is hardly ever meant literally, I know. But in this case, the opposite is true.
There is nothing surprising about the actual exchange. I knew they had somehow attached a tracker to Jeff’s car. That was how they found me at Jamie’s house. The more puzzling thing was who had access to this conversation between them, and then sent it to me. I was pretty sure Alistair’s phone settings were fixed to the highest security possible. I needed to tell him that his privacy had been breached.
The next message was in the late evening, a few hours after the attack.
LUCKY DIREKO
Target captured. I’ve taken a tooth as directed. Advise next steps.
ALISTAIR RAVENSCROFT
I’m on my way.
I can take care of it. I have everything I need.
No. I’ll take care of it. It’s personal.
[Location pin]
I’ll alert the cleaner.
This takes my breath away. They had tracked Jeff’s vehicle and found him just hours after saving us, if this is accurate. I tried to think of where I was when this was going down. Syd was treating me for smoke inhalation, and caring for my various cuts and bruises. Then the emergency dentist replaced my missing tooth. There were a good few hours where Alistair hadn’t been in the room. I had assumed he was next door. He came in afterwards, after everyone had left, and kissed and cuddled me until I ran out of tears. He didn’t let me go all night, like I’d disappear if his skin wasn’t touching mine.
The next message is a soundbite. It’s so disturbing that I let the phone drop onto my lap as if it had burnt me. It’s of a man begging and pleading for his life. Jeff.
He was crying. He was desperate and in pain.
I thought I’d feel sorry for him. I’m shocked that I don’t.
I could maybe have forgiven Jeff for what he did to me, but not for trying to kill Jamie.
Jeff terrified my brother in a way that will scar him for life. Burnt down his special home, a lifetime of art, and almost killed his beloved carer. There is no space in my hardened heart for him; he made it that way.
I hesitate to open the last message. It’s a video clip. My heart is racing. There’ll be no unseeing what’s in it. There’ll be no more denial of Alistair’s capacity for violence if I watch it. My new, hopeful world will crumble beneath my feet. Who sent these, and what is their end game? They want me to know what kind of man Alistair is.
