Arran spent the rest of the drive repeating orders and putting in an earpiece that had been in the glove box of the car. Using an app on his phone, he hooked it up to the security networkthat Joey and Dom had already been linked with, via their own earpieces, when they were working security back at the house.
By the time we pulled up, the three of them were able to communicate, which made my nerves feel slightly less frayed. I was wishing I hadn’t taken more pills after showering less than an hour before. With my adrenaline rising, they seemed to be having a different effect, making me feel a little jittery and nervous.
Arran pulled me from the car before I even realised what was going on, my right hand clutched tightly in his left. We exited the car and moved fast into the tube station as Arran told me we needed to. I didn’t look behind me, because I knew it would be obvious, but I felt sure Joey was behind us somewhere, watching our backs.
I fought not to panic as we got to entry barriers and Arran scanned us both through with his phone, but the station was busy, people queueing at both sides of the barriers and seeming to close in around us as we moved through them, and into the chaos of the station. As we pressed into a large, but packed elevator that would take us deeper underground, I found myself releasing Arran’s hand so I could instead grab onto his arm with both hands, clutching onto him desperately, my anxiety only seeming to get ratcheted higher by the jittery feeling pulsing through me, from my adrenaline and the drugs too. At home they seemed to have numbed me, but there, with my own fears making my adrenaline surge, they just seemed to be making things worse.
“Breathe fer me, lass. I’m no’ gonna let anythin’ happen to ye,” Arran whispered close to my ear as the lift descended.
“Sorry,” I told him as I lifted my head to meet his eyes. “I’m okay.”
“Brave wee thing,” he uttered as he placed a kiss on my temple.
I carried his words with me as we exited the lift and walked onto the platform, which was, luckily, pretty quiet.
“There he is,” I uttered quietly, nodding down the platform.
I had spotted Hilt instantly, standing at the darker and more deserted end of the platform. He was dressed in dark colours, his frame bigger and wider than I remembered him. His hair was shorter too, shaved short to his scalp.
He looked wary as Arran approached, keeping me pushed back behind him, my hand firmly wrapped in his.
“Just let me talk to him, please,” I pleaded as we got closer. Arran just nodded his ascent, but I’d take it.
“Hey,” I greeted Hilt nervously when we were just a few feet apart. His dark eyes were watchful, sizing Arran up, his expression cold and unreadable, but that wasn’t anything new.
“You should have come alone,” he grumbled as his eyes finally returned to me.
“You taught me to be smarter than that,” I reminded him. “I’m not exactly safe right now. This is Arran. He’s not going to do anything, as long as you don’t give him cause to.”
“You don’t trust me?” he questioned.
“I don’t trust anyone. You taught me that too.”
“Glad to hear you were listening after all,” he said with a slight rise of his lips that was the closest thing to a smile I had ever seen from him.
“What you taught me has saved my neck more than once, Hilt. I’ll always be grateful to you for that. I’m hoping you’re about to save it again though.”
“You were always a smart kid,” he told me. “Smarter than to touch drugs. What are you on right now?”
“Nothing,” I answered way too quickly.
“Come on, wild girl. You know lying to me isn’t smart. Has this asshole got you hooked on something? Your pupils are blown and I can see your pulse thrumming in your neck from here. I don’t even need to point out how badly you’re fidgeting,” he scoffed.
“I’m not on anything. It’s just my anxiety!” I cried looking from Hilt to Arran who was assessing everything about me that Hilt pointed out.
“Fucking shite!” Arran hissed. “How could I have missed that?”
“Just tell me what you came to tell me, Hilt!” I growled.
“You need to be smarter, Cara,” he said instead, looking so disappointed in me, it actually cut deep.
“I was!” I cried. “I was smart and careful and everything you told me to be, and all it got me was more shit! More abuse! It broke me, so now this is who I am. Please…” I had to pause to take a breath to stop the tears that threatened. “Please just tell me what I need to know so I don’t get broken all over again.”
“Christ, kid. You really were dealt the shittiest hand this life could have given you, weren’t you?”
“Please, Hilt. Just tell me,” I uttered shakily.
“We’re doing everything we can to protect her, but if ye ken something that can help us do that, then just gi’ it to us,” Arran added as he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me against his side.
