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Ghost Sight


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Chapter 20

Charlie knocked on Roman’s door and waited. Her eyes flicked back and forth checking for signs that they were being watched but aside from the obvious white van parked up the road there was no one about.
“Doesn’t sound like anyone is home Sarge,” her constable murmured behind her.
“Give it a minute,” Charlie said back as she knocked a second time.
There was some muttering from the other side of the door before it was opened and Roman stood there obviously just out of the shower a towel around his hips and his chest bare.
“Yes?”
“Roman, it’s Charlie and Constable Wilkins, we’re here to take you don’t to the station to answer some questions,” Charlie explained giving her colleague a quick glance before looking back at Roman.
“Sure, want to go now or can I finish my shower and get dressed first?”
She recognised the sarcastic tone in his voice and grinned.
“Well,” she tilted her head to one side and took her time to look up and down his torso before meeting his gaze again.
“Do I have to talk to Pete about this?” Roman asked folding his arms across his chest.
“What?”
“You eyeing me up,” he murmured smirking at her and she knew that she looked flushed.
“You can see?”
“Oh yeah and you were obviously checking out the view,” he shot back before turning around and heading back the way he came.
Charlie pushed open the door wider and stepped inside, gesturing to her colleague to do the same and they waited in the lounge.
“So you know Harris then?”
Charlie grinned, “very well. I’m engaged to his best friend,” she murmured.
“It certainly looked like you were close Sarge,” the teasing continued.
“Somebody seems to be volunteering for traffic duty,” Charlie said a good natured grin on her face.
“Not me,” the constable held up her hands before lowering them again as Roman walked back into the room.
He stuffed his phone in his pocket and grabbed his keys before adding dark sunglasses to cover his eyes.
“Shall we go?”
“Just to be clear Roman, last time you were at the police station you tried to kill two of my officers, we’re not going to have to deal with that today are we?”
Roman shook his head, “never going to let me live that down are you?”
She grinned at him before catching the concerned look on her constable’s face. “Relax; we can call Ella, she’d get him to behave!”
Roman cursed under his breath, just loud enough that Charlie shot him another mischievous look. “By the way, if anyone asks I still can’t see,” he said quickly.
“Got it,” Charlie murmured, “Constable please escort this blind individual to the car; make sure you guide him carefully.”
She saw that her officer understood from the expression on her face before she moved to Roman’s side and placed his hand on her forearm leading him out. The discussion as they moved out ahead of her was peppered with ‘careful’ and ‘mind the step’ before Roman was seated in the back of the car. Charlie ensured the door of his house was shut behind them before she joined them in the car and they set off to the police station.

“Please take a seat Roman, we have to ask you some questions about Mark Gillen,” Charlie said formally.
“For the benefit of the tape, present in the room is Constable Wilkins, Sargent Buckton and Roman Harris,” the constable intoned formally.
“Not you understand that this is an informal interview, and that we’ve approached you as a witness,” Charlie said slowly.
“But you are going to ask me about Gardy and Mark Gillen aren’t you?”
“That will be our main concern. Let’s start with Mark. How did you meet?”
Roman groaned and rubbed anxiously at his face.
“Mark Gillen was assigned to us after Michael Addison was killed in action. He was part of another SAS unit and we’d been out with him before.”
“And?” Charlie prompted after he’d gone silent.
“He was quiet but then we’d just lost Mike so we weren’t in the best of shape. Personally…” Roman swallowed as though to clear his throat.
“Do you want a drink?”
He nodded at the question looking down at his hands resting on his legs. He rubbed them down his thighs noting that the palms of his hands were damp with sweat. His thoughts went back to all the discussions he’d had with Louise, his counsellor and how hard they had been at times.
“For the benefit of the tape, Constable Wilkins has left the room to fetch a drink. Interview paused.”
Roman groaned unable to hold back the rush of emotion he was feeling. Ella. This was how he lost Ella. How the babies were taken from them and no matter how many times they told themselves that it worked out this way for a reason he could never forgive himself for not being there so she could raise Gabby and Tobias.
He looked up when the constable returned and took a grateful swallow from the bottle of water she’d provided.
“Interview resumes 14:22.”
Roman nodded, “Ella Addison, Mike’s sister was my fiancée at the time of his death. She accompanied the body back to Aus. I was distracted because I couldn’t get hold of her so I didn’t notice that Mark Gillen wasn’t just quiet he was becoming …. Well he must have been suffering from PTSD.”
He drank some more water before meeting Charlie’s eyes. She looked at him like she didn’t know him and for that he couldn’t blame her. He never should have had a relationship with her when he knew that he wasn’t capable of anything meaningful. He wanted to apologise but now wasn’t the time. Sucking in another breathe he released it slowly before speaking again.
“We were on patrol. It was supposed to be routine sweeping of the valley. Before we knew it we were under mortar fire. Mark panicked and climbed inside the vehicle. He started the engine and began to move forward. Gardy was crouched down in front of the vehicle; if Mark had gone any further he would have hit him. I called out a warning before I raised my weapon. The first shot was a warning but the second… I remember broken glass, the thud of the mortar fire, shouting. Gardy got up and they manoeuvred Mark’s body into the back of the multi terrain vehicle. Jacko I think, got me inside whilst James and Pete covered us before James got behind the drivers and we got out of there.” He drained the bottle and looked down at the small blue label encircling it. “Gardy announced that he was dead. We, the team decided that I would report his death as by enemy gunfire. I got back to base and did just that. I don’t even know why. I’ve never lied before and…” he stopped his eyes filling with tears. He tried blinking them away but they trickled down his face anyway. “The guys had to put up with me going on a three day bender. I drank anything I could get my hands on and in the middle of it Ella appeared. I refused to see her at first but then… she was pregnant. That’s what she wanted to tell me. By the time I sobered up enough to see her she’d been taken ill and medivacked out. I got more missions but I just wasn’t the same. Maybe it was thinking that El had left me or … Mark’s death… or just feeling like a murderer I managed to last for another couple of years before I quit. I didn’t even tell Jacko or Pete that I was leaving, took a desk assignment for three months before they let me out. Then I travelled around for a bit, surfing, camping out.”
“And ended up in Summer Bay?”
“After a time. I did odd jobs around the place never settling for long. Wasn’t short of money so I didn’t bother looking for a house or anything. Sometimes I stayed in a hotel but the rest of time I lived in my panel van. A few years into this lifestyle and…” he looked up at the ceiling, “Well I found Ella had a book signing and I went along. Saw her and like a coward I just couldn’t… but it did spur me into contacting Nic. So after a time I looked for something else, somewhere close enough so I could see Nic but near a beach. I came here.”
Charlie looked at him and he could see from her expression that she’d been moved by what he’d said and he hoped that in some small way it explained to her why he’d been so emotionally distant from her.
“Whilst you were in Summer Bay you contacted a former comrade of yours, can you tell us about that incident?”
“The car I was travelling in as a passenger was hit by a projectile coming from a slingshot. The broken glass triggered memories of the incident with Mark. As a result I lost my sight.” He detached himself from the retelling and knew that his voice had taken on a mechanical sound as he spoke. “I contacted David Gardiner. I wanted to come clean about the Mark shooting but he convinced me not too, later on, he blackmailed me into committing armed robberies. By the time I came back to my senses Gardy had done a disappearing act and that is when you arrested me.”
“What happened next?”
“I faced a court martial. It was found that although I had acted in self-defence when firing the shot the fact that I covered it up,” he shrugged, “they decided to offer me a deal where I was retained in the reserves after serving a period of time behind bars. I was found not guilty over the robberies on account of Gardy’s blackmail and because I came forward and admitted the crimes.”
“Moving on then, can you explain the current situation?”
“Mark Gillen is alive. He was in Hawaii and saw Ella and myself and decided to follow us. I must have been aware of him because I began to have nightmares about his killing. I had to collect some post from my house on our return. I remember looking up and seeing him in the doorway of the house. We exchanged words and in a panic I crashed my car on the way home. I sustained a minor head injury that resulted in a coma and another period of blindness. When I realised he wasn’t just figment of my imagination I knew that he had to be stopped,” Roman rubbed at his face again, answering more questions before the interview ended and the constable left the room.
“It was always Ella wasn’t it?”
He nodded at her, “I’m sorry, you deserved better.”
“I have Pete now and for that I have to be grateful that we met but you treated me and every other woman appallingly and you know it.”
“Charlie, it wasn’t like there were conscious decisions going on about who I was dating. I liked you a lot, even started to love you but Ella, well whatever it is we just seem to find each other.”
“So it would seem. What is the story with Catherine?”
“Mark’s wife, Catherine?”
“You know others?”
He felt the sting of accusation in her voice and grimaced at it, “She lost a child, asked me to donate sperm for IVF so I did. The agreement was that there would be no contact.”
“Does Ella know?”
Roman rubbed at his face, the area where Ella’s slaps had landed, “she does now,” he murmured ruefully.
“I guess that was a conversation and a half,” Charlie gave a small laugh.
“More like assault and battery,” he shot back.
The awkwardness of a few moments before had disappeared and for that he was grateful, this business was hard enough without having to face all the people that had gotten hurt over it.

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Chapter 21


The news of Ella’s fatal car crash came as a shock to everyone, including Ella herself. She winced at the sound of her hand connecting with Roman’s face the first time and now three slaps in she only stopped hitting him because her hand hurt.
“What the…” she swore at him again.
“Let me say this one more time, I’ve killed you. I’ve deliberately sabotaged the brakes on your jeep and….”
“My jeep. The same jeep that I’ve had since Mike was three….” She screeched.
“Yes, and I’m sorry but it’s a write off,” he said patiently.
“I’m going to …… kill you!”
“Ella this explanation would go much easier for both of us without you swearing and shouting at me. I understand you are angry but you wanted me to come up with a plan.”
“And the children figure in this little scheme of yours did it?”
“The children are fine, Jacko is with them.”
“Jacko isn’t their father … although you aren’t much better,” Ella screeched out.
“I was prepared for the slapping and the shouting but Ella tone it down will you and let me explain. Mark was …”
“I don’t care. Take me home to my children now,” she folded her arms across herself and glared at him.
“Ella, sit down and I’ll explain,” he began.
She shook her head at him and began to tap her foot on the floor.
“Fine,” Roman moved away from her and over to the small kitchenette in the motel room he’d brought her too. He made two cups of coffee leaving hers next to her whilst he sat on the only chair in the room and sipped at his. She continued to stand opposite him, her arms folded and her foot tapping on the floor, shooting him poisonous looks.
Finally she blew out a long breath and reached for the coffee taking a drink before moving over to the bed.
“We’re so divorced after this,” she ground out.
“If that is what you want,” he inclined his head.
“Oh no, don’t turn this on me. I could actually kill you right now. I could….”
“Ella,” he murmured in his ‘understanding’ voice. She narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
“What do the kids know?”
“That there has been an accident…” He was forced to duck when she threw the cup at him. It smashed harmlessly behind his head and he looked at the stain of coffee it left behind before he stood up and walked over to her side.
“I hate you,” she muttered her arms folded around herself once more.
“Listen to me Ella; Mark was going to come for you sooner or later. We both know that. I’ve just taken you out of the equation. At the moment the kids know there has been an accident and that you are “dead” because we needed to have a realistic reaction from them. This afternoon I’ll be sitting with them and telling them the truth. You’ll be here, safe.”
“I’ll be with the children,” she shook her head, “You don’t know…”
“Don’t bring that up, my going into Witness Protection. Emotional blackmail isn’t going to work.”
“You bastard,” she screamed out slapping him around his face again.
He took it. The first slap, the second and the third one again before she collapsed sobbing in his arms.
“I was never going to let him get to you, never,” he said as he guided her to the bed and eased her down to sit on the blue stripped cover, “you are my life, my soul, I need you to know that, to trust me just for a little while,” he eased back and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “please?”
“I can’t have them think I’m dead… not after what happened before…” she sobbed.
“Just for a couple of hours, the guys are looking after them.”
“So what is your big plan?”
“Mark is going to be blamed for your murder. We’re going to drive him out of town.”
“It’s not going to work,” she eased back and glared at him again.
“Well I could just set you on to him,” Roman said quietly rubbing his bruised face and smirking at her.
“He’s not the one I want to kill right now,” she sniffed and heard Roman give a sigh before he tugged her back into his arms. She swore silently that she wasn’t going to sink into them and let him comfort her, a nano-second before she sank into his arms. She was such a pushover when it came to him she thought trying to give herself a severe talking to. He’d actually killed her and she couldn’t let him get away with it.
As soon as those thoughts went through her brain she dissolved into giggles, albeit slightly hysterical ones.
“El, come on,” he murmured after a few minutes.
She peered at him from under her lashes and heard him swear quietly before he placed his fingers under her chin and tilt her head up. Looking into her eyes he lowered his lips to hers and kissed her gently. She hated him, she reminded herself just seconds before she returned his kiss, feeling the pressure of his lips against hers changing, becoming more demanding. When her hands moved around his back and under his t-shirt she knew she’d finally lost all sense of reason. Why the hell was she making out with him when she was so mad at him, she asked herself before kissing him again.
Roman eased away first a faint smug expression on his face before he assumed a neutral look.
“I know El, I know this is going to be hard for you. I promise …”
“Another stupid promise that you aren’t going to keep?”
“When have I ever not kept a promise?” He shot back immediately.
Ella glared at him and pulled back away from him folding her arms around herself again.
“All the time. Like now, you were supposed to not let me down again. You were supposed not to hurt me. You were supposed to live with me and be my husband and instead you ran away to your house at the first sign of trouble.”
“So tell me Ella are we going to rehash witness protection whilst you are throwing accusations at me?”
“No we’re going to talk about the kid you have out there that you never told me about.”
Roman groaned and rubbed at his face before he stood from the bed and pulled out his phone from his pocket.
“Charlie is at the crash site, I need to go,” he announced.
“I’m going home.”
“No you are staying here. Don’t fight me on this El, you’ll ruin everything if you do and we’ll lose the chance to get rid of Mark.”
She flinched at his tone of voice and pressed her lips together to stop herself from saying anything. When Pete had driven her here she had no idea what Jacko and Roman were up to, James obviously keeping an eye on Mark whilst they plotted. She thought of her jeep being wrecked, her one last connection with the life she’d made herself before meeting Roman again and she let out a sob. It seemed symbolic that he’d destroyed that somehow.
He gave her a last look before walking out of the door and closing it quietly behind himself. It took her an age to get herself together enough to search for her phone. Her frustration increased when she couldn’t find it. The motel phone was missing too so she couldn’t use that and when she checked the door she found it locked. Dammit, he was so going to die, she promised herself.


Roman sat in a chair in his lounge waiting. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before Mark walked through the door thanks to James’s surveillance and this was where all his planning was going to come in. He tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair impatiently before forcing himself to relax, breathing out a long held breath through his lips. He closed his eyes briefly, before his lids flew open again at the sound of the door opening.
“Hardcore,” Mark drawled before switching on the light.
Roman watched him carefully for a second before he stood up, the chair flying backwards with the force of his sudden movement.
“Why did you do it Mark?” He shouted out the question.
“Do what?” Mark sounded genuinely puzzled and he forced himself not to react to it.
“Kill my wife,” he shouted out.
“What?” Mark stuttered.
“You heard me …” Roman paced forward clumsily pinning Mark up against the wall, making out he still couldn’t see, except of course the expression on Mark’s face was one he wouldn’t forget. Puzzlement and fear. Fear for the first time since he’d come to the Bay to come after them. He would have smiled at that but he couldn’t let on he could see.
“I haven’t done anything to your wife, are you deluded?”
Roman swung a deliberately mistimed punch missing the other man by millimetres; he swung again this time hitting him in the face.
“My wife is dead,” Roman ground out, “You ran her car off the road just like your scum of a brother!”
“I didn’t lay a hand on her,” Mark shot back.
Roman allowed himself to be pushed off the other man and pretended to collapse backwards his hands shooting out to guide himself over to the sofa.
“No one can hear your pathetic attempt to claim innocence here Mark, my wife is dead. You killed her, just like Elliot tried to.”
Mark gasped and paled before he glared at him; an assessing expression crossed his face as he checked what was being said to him.
For his part he looked at a spot just beyond Mark’s head and glared,
“Her car, she was in her jeep…” Roman used the time he had lost El for those six months to colour his voice with emotion. He could feel tears pricking his eyes and he blinked as though being overcome with emotion. “it went off the cliff, you were threatening her Mark. You. No-one else… just you!”
“I’m telling you I didn’t do this,” Mark shrieked out.
“The police are on their way…” Roman muttered, “They want to talk to you…”
“I’m telling you Hardcore you ain’t going to pin this on me, I didn’t do it!” the first real sounds of panic were entering the other man’s voice.
“Tell it to someone who cares Mark! What did she ever do to you? What? Why did you kill her?” Roman turned away and lowered his head knowing he looked dejected, “I hope to god my sight comes back soon because I’m going to kill you for this….”
Mark stammered some incoherent words before a loud knock at the door sounded. He gave a panicked glance in Roman’s direction before he raced out of the back and scrambled over the back fence.
Roman waited a few heartbeats before he moved to the door and opened it. On cue stood Charlie and the constable from the other day and he gave them both a look.
“You just missed Mark he shot out the back when he heard you knock,” he murmured calmly.
“We’ve just come from the scene of an accident,” Charlie said slowly.
“Ella’s jeep,” he nodded.
“Jacko reported it. Seems it ran off the road, luckily no one was injured.”
“Let’s just keep that last bit of info to ourselves shall we,” Roman gave her one of his cajoling looks and hoped she’d go for it.
“I hope that there won’t be an insurance claim,” she added indicating she knew who’d done it.
“Nope,” Roman said quietly tilting his head to one side as he heard a noise behind him, “besides my wife took care of that sort of thing,” he added using past tense to refer to Ella before he placed his finger to his lips.
Charlie indicated with a nod that she’d picked up on his hint.
“I’m sorry for your loss, we’ll come back later,” she added.
“Thank you Sargent,” Roman closed the door and staggered back into the room. He made his way over to the stairs bumping into the chair he’d knocked over earlier before he headed up the stairs. He made a sound like a muffled sob as he moved and was rewarded when Mark spoke up.
“I didn’t kill your wife,” he muttered.
“no one else is after us…” Roman said bitterly, “and this seems to run in the family. Elliot did the same.”
He heard Mark swear before he continued his trip up the stairs and into his room closing the door behind him. Getting out his phone he sent a message to Pete and Jacko. The plan was in motion. Just a pity that now instead of Mark wanting to kill him he would have to deal with Ella’s anger.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Chapter 22

Roman sat looking at his children, Sophie had her arms folded and was tapping her foot on the floor, Georgie had his arms folded too. Meggy was openly glaring at him and Sammy had retreated to a seat the other side of the room his back to him.
“Did you …”
“We heard,” Sophie muttered.
“Your mum is going to skype you later,” he continued.
“And you think that is in some way going to make up for what you’ve put us through?” Georgie scoffed.
“Look, I know okay, but I needed to get your mother somewhere safe and …”
“He put her in his own witness protection,” Sammy said in a quiet voice.
Roman sucked in a breath understanding the nature of Sammy’s hurt didn’t make it go away. He remembered back to the time they had lost Ella before. Sam had been small, barely 4 years old. He hadn’t understood Ella’s apparent death, becoming more clinging as time went on and every day he’d felt guilty because he’d been so wrapped up in his own grief he hadn’t been able to care for his boy. When Ella came back to them he’d let Sammy’s clinginess act as an anchor point for his wife. She’d focused on the children and he’d not even noticed the absence of her photography or her studio.
“But you let us think she was dead,” Sophie snapped out, “how could you do that to us? Let alone you aren’t apparently blind anymore!”
“Yes I did, for …” Roman looked at the clock on the mantelpiece, “one hour and 42 minutes,” he murmured. “I would have been here sooner but your mother needed some reassurance,” he added.
“Reassurance? That probably explains the bruises,” Georgie muttered giving his twin a look.
Sophie sighed before she moved over to the table and sank into a chair next to Sammy.
“We trusted you not to screw things up again Dad,” Meggy said in a quiet voice, “and not five minutes after you married Mum….”
“Megan,” Roman used her full name, “I had to protect you and your mother, and I couldn’t have coped if anything happened to any of you. Yes, there were other things I could have done, no doubt but at the time it was safer for you if I wasn’t here.”
“It’s never safer without you,” Sammy muttered his voice still quiet.
“Sometimes it is,” Roman contradicted.
“How are we safer without you dad? Alexi still came here…”
“There was Elliot…” Meggy added.
“Before you list them all I’m going to check on the younger children and then get a bag of stuff to take to your mother,” Roman murmured.
“I’ll get her stuff,” Sophie said giving him a look before she stepped carefully out of the room and up the stairs. He watched her go for a moment before giving the rest of his kids a look as he left the room himself.


Despite the fact that each of them wanted to kill him he still thought it had gone better than he’d expected. Luckily they had kept Lily in the dark because she was scarier than any of the bad guys he’d faced when she got going.
He couldn’t help but mentally compare the house to how it used to be, the builders having made the bulk of changes to the place and even though he’d been the one to come up with the design he still felt disquiet. Had Ella begun decorating their new bedroom he wondered, had the kids decided who was moving into the attic bedroom? Lily he knew had designs on Sophie’s room when she moved on and although he hated to think about the children growing up and moving out he supposed it would happen sooner than he was ready for.
Walking into the nursery he paused for a second having to hide his smile at the way Lily paused in her game and looked over at him. She glanced at the other children, Fleur and August along with Liam before stopping and announcing to them that he was there.
“Dada,” Liam cried happily rushing over to him and reaching for his hand. “I helps you,” he added giving a glare in Lily’s direction.
“Thank you but Daddy is fine, I can see again,” he said softly leaning down to Liam’s level. He grinned as Liam waved his hand in front of his eyes as if to check.
“Oh,” Lily muttered scuffing a foot on the floor as she tried to look innocent.
“So anyway, I’ve come up to tell you that Mama is staying with me for a few days. Mike and Danni are going to look after you.”
“Mama?” August and Fleur said at the same time.
“That’s right, Mama is staying with me. She’s going to call you tonight to say ‘goodnight’ to you. When she sees you she’ll give you a big extra hug to make up for not being here.”
He watched the twins as they absorbed what he’d told them and grinned as they nodded at him.
He hugged them in turn before hugging Lily and Liam reminding himself that it wasn’t that long ago that he’d hugged the other children just like this, that they’d been this young and now they were ready to kill him. He supposed it could be worse; Georgie had just been through his first weapons training with the cadets. Not that they’d told Ella about it. He grinned again as he watched the children run back to where the doll’s house was and were back playing before he’d even left the room.
Satisfied that the children were okay he collected the bag for Ella from a still sullen Sophie before pressing a swift kiss to her head and leaving.




Ella paced.
Ella walked back and forth repeatedly, until she had covered the whole of the hotel room with her footprints. She’d kill him she decided and she’d make it look like Mark did it. As she mentally catalogued every conceivable and painful way to kill him she saw the door handle turn and Roman easing in through the opening.
“I know,” he said looking over at her.
She thought of every curse she’d ever thrown at him over the years and as they hovered on her lips she bit them back as she devised new tortures inside her head.
He closed the door behind him and moved over to the bed, placing her bag on there before taking her phone out of his pocket and putting that next to it.
“The children?”
She saw him flinch as he heard the prissy note in her voice and almost grinned at his discomfort.
“They are fine. I’ve told them that you’ll message them tonight before bed.”
“Oh no, I’m going home.”
“Ella, I explained…”
She held her hand up at him before fixing him with a look.
“Did you bring me any food?”
Roman’s mouth dropped open at the change of subject and she had to hastily hide her smirk.
“No,” he drawled folding his arms across his chest, “but I’ve ordered pizza.”
She spun around quickly so he couldn’t see her expression and used stalking to the bed to pick up her phone as an excuse. She saw the tonne of missed messages on there before looking in the bag that he’d presented her. Spotting her tablet she drew it out and began checking for wi-fi signals before connecting it to the internet and looking at her emails. Without looking at him she eased down and sat on the bed focusing on her work.




Roman watched his wife cautiously before he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Taking it out he looked at the message and half-nodded before going out the door. Resisting the urge to lock her in for a second time, like he would survive that, he made his way over to the car park and climbed in the back of Pete’s car.
“How is she taking it?”
“She’s planning on killing me,” Roman murmured not altogether sure he was joking.
“I’m sure Jacko would have said he told you so…”
“Where’s Mark?”
“We tracked him to a property outside the Bay. He’s going to come after you Hardcore,” Pete said slowly.
“I know that but I couldn’t let him go after Ella. She’s the priority here. When I’m not with her you make sure someone is.”
“The kids?”
“Mike is with them at the moment and Jacko. If Mark wanted to go after them he would have already made a move.”
“So what is the rest of your plan?”
“I’m talking to George and we’re looking into what charges the army are considering. AWOL, desertion, fraud,” Roman grimaced, ”not to mention that I was accused of his murder.”
“Seems like enough to start with.”
“Maybe but we need to find out what else he did over the years. Gardy was in Africa a lot…” Roman bit back the swearwords that usually came with the mention of the other man.
“He doesn’t know that Gardy is dead does he?”
“If your next sentence is involving William in some way then the answer is no. I nearly lost Ella and I know she can’t take…”
Roman stopped talking when Pete held up his hand.
“Your Mrs said the same thing. No, I was just talking aloud. Anyway you better get this food to your wife before she decides to kill you again.”
He let out a small laugh before reaching into the back seat and taking the bags and pizza boxes from there.
“I’ll text you later,” he promised and headed back across the carpark to the room he and Ella were in. Not that he expected an easy ride to get her to agree to him staying the night. Walking in through the door he saw Ella still in the place where he’d left her, her head down and she was crying. Dropping everything to one side he kicked the door shut behind him and moved quickly to her side.
“El?”
“I so hate you,” She muttered.
“The kids are fine, I promise you,” he murmured easing down in front of her.
“Your stupid promises, gah!”
She pushed at his arms as he reached towards her and felt himself falling off balance. As he landed on his backside he looked over at her and couldn’t help grinning at her affronted expression.
“Come on, I’ve got dinner,” he murmured easing up and holding out his hand to her. She gave him a glare for a moment before accepting his hand and standing up next to him.
“Better have extra cheese,” she warned him as they moved over to the small table and chairs the other side of the room.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Chapter 23

Roman stirred in the chair he was napping in. Obviously he hadn’t made it into the bed the mood Ella had been in even after eating a full pizza and drinking two of the beers the guys had provided.
“What’s the matter?” he asked hearing her sigh.
“Cold,” she muttered.
She was cold; he asked himself silently, when he was the one stuck in a chair without even a cover over him. Easing up out of the chair he stretched and moved over to the heater the other side of the room. According to the dials it was supposed to be on but there was nothing coming out.
“I’ll go get you another blanket,” he murmured slipping his trainers back on his feet and heading out of the door.
Ella watched him go before she eased up in the bed. A second later she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up and made a dart into the bathroom, without taking the time to find the light switch she used the toilet and then washed her hands. Fumbling because of the dark she finally found the towel and dried her hands.
“El? Ella?”
She flinched at the panicked sound in his voice as he called her name and hurried out of the bathroom.
“I’m here,” she said quickly.
“I thought….” He gave a sick sounding moan before shutting the door firmly behind him and moving over to the bed.
“Thought what? That Mark had me?”
“Something like that,” he confirmed.
As if suddenly remembering she was freezing she shuddered and dived back under the cover.
“Here,” he said spreading out the thick quilt he’d just fetched from reception.
She gave him a look from under her lashes before patting the bed next to her and then frowned as he half shook his head.
“Normally you don’t need a second invitation to get into bed with me,” she pouted.
“You are still mad at me,” he muttered.
“Not anymore,” she gave him another flirty look before sliding down and sighing as she began warming up.
Roman groaned before succumbing to temptation and after kicking off his shoes and sliding out of his clothes he got in beside her. She immediately turned and snuggled in his arms, her head on his shoulder her hand trailing down his chest in a slow caress.
“What are you doing?”
She grinned at his question before leaning up and kissing his chin, then along his jaw before finding his lips.
“Didn’t,” she kissed him again, “think,” and again, “you needed to,” another kiss pressed against his lips, “ask that kind of question?”
Roman groaned against her lips as she kissed him again before he turned to her and wrapping his arms tight around her he rolled them over in the bed, his hands roving over her slim body as he aroused her, as he aroused himself.
He told her he loved her with every glide of his fingers across her silken skin, with every kiss, every word he whispered as he loved her with his body.
Later, as they lay in the afterglow of lovemaking, she turned her head and looked at his profile.
“El?”
“You didn’t look … how I expected, you were …”
“What do you mean?”
“Just now, when you panicked. I’ve never seen you look like that. Like you were heartbroken and desolate and…”
“I couldn’t handle if anything happened to you, not… again.”
“But we have to handle things happening to you?”
“I’m different, El I’ve done bad things in my life…”
“And you have to be punished for it?”
“No, no not like that, I don’t think I deserve this, whatever this is but if in some way I can make up for what I’ve done by sacrificing my life so you and the children are safe then…” he stopped and looked down at her and she knew that he was seeing the tears on her face.
“I don’t want you to think like that Roman. We can’t go through losing you again,” she moaned as she cried.
Roman leaned down and kissed away her tears before he found her lips and kissed her again.



Mark scrambled down to where the wreckage of the car was and began searching through the debris with no idea of what he was looking for. The burnt out shell emitted that bitter burnt smell and he recoiled as distant memories drifted along the back of his subconscious, other times when he’d smelt this bitter black smell, when he’d been the cause of something burning. His eyes caught the glimmer of something silver in the debris and he bent down to retrieve it. Rubbing off the soot he traced the small silver circle. A ring.
Peering at it he spotted the hallmark that told him it was actually silver and not some other precious metal. A google search would tell him that the melting point of silver was less than would render a human body to ashes. It would tell him that the car crash was faked. That Ella Harris was alive and well, and after it told him all that he would start to plan his next move. Roman’s Achilles heel was Ella. Take her away, just like his kid brother had done, and the man fell apart.
As Mark sat at the bar located in Yabbie Creek a glass of whisky in front of him he traced the small silver circle with his fingers. Ella Harris was his new target and the twinge of guilt that ran through him at the thought of taking her away from her children slipped away with every drink from his glass.



Roman woke up when it was still dark, his eyes scanning the room for signs of what woke him. For a horrible fleeting moment he thought that Mark had tracked them down but then he realised it was James approaching the bed from the open doorway.
“What?” He asked in a soft whisper, his eyes flicking to Ella who lay still asleep beside him.
“Mark climbed down to the car. Don’t know what he saw but I suspect that Ella isn’t safe here.”
Roman swore before frowning as Ella stirred beside him.
“I’ll get her ready. You’ll take her to…”
“No,” Ella muttered sitting up and glaring at them both, “I’m not running away. I’m stronger here with my kids. He isn’t..”
“He’s coming after you El, no two ways about it.” James said using the diminutive version of her name.
Roman swung his legs out of the bed and tugged on his shorts covering up his nakedness as he stood up and looked over at James.
“She won’t leave the kids,” Roman murmured.
“I know but Mark…”
“Stop talking about me, stop plotting about me and just….. listen to me. Mark wants me then let him have me. Once he makes a move arrest him.”
Roman swore again before he turned and after switching on the light he looked over at his wife.
“What you don’t seem to understand Elizabeth is that when Mark makes his move he isn’t going to kidnap you, he isn’t going to shut you in a dark room he’s going to kill you. Mark doesn’t do subtle, he will take you and you will die. Do you honestly think I would ever have done this if there wasn’t another choice out there? I don’t take risks with you. Not ever.”
“Bulldust Roman Harris. Complete horse….” Ella swore fluently first in English and then in Spanish as she glared at him. “And never, never call me Elizabeth again!” she added in a hiss.
“I will call you anything I want if it means you get the message.” He grated.
“I hate you, I hate everything about you.”
Roman flinched as she screamed at him again before he faced her and nodded. “Then it’s not going to make any difference if I ship you off with James is it?”
She screamed again throwing the pillow at him and then casting a frantic look around for other things to throw.
“I’ll be outside,” James murmured easing out of the door he was standing next too.
Ella glared at him before fixing Roman with a look.
“Don’t bother Ella, seriously don’t bother. We both know you aren’t going to forgive me for this so stop,” he held up his hand to her before casting a look around and locating his t shirt. Pulling it on over his head before he moved to the chair he’d been in earlier and sat down to pull on his trainers.
“You can’t just do this to me,” she cried out.
“We’ve had that discussion. You know Mark will kill you and yet you can’t let me take care of you can you? You can’t trust me enough to let me keep you safe can you? Admit it,” he muttered as he fiddled with his shoe laces, making sure he kept his head averted from her so that he didn’t have to see her face.
“So wait, has this suddenly become a test of our marriage? How is that fair?”
His head shot up and he pinned her in place with his stare.
“Fair? When you are screaming at me El? I’ve made mistakes I know but so have you and it’s so funny how we don’t talk about your mistakes, we don’t discuss what you’ve done wrong during out marriage. You should have told me about being pregnant back in the day. I had a right to know. You accused me of being unfaithful but you were the one rolling around on a bed with someone else. You say you accept the army stuff is a trigger for me but it doesn’t stop you throwing it back at me every time there is an argument.”
He flinched at the look of raw pain on her face at his words and knew he’d just hurt her deeply.
“I see,” she whispered, before she shook her head as though to stop herself from crying. “Perhaps you can wait outside whilst I get dressed?”
Roman looked at her and tried to say something before he too shook his head and with that he stood and moved over to the door and out of it. Minutes later the door opened and Ella walked out, her bag in her hands. She gave him a look before looking over at James.
“Can you tell me where we are going?”
“Not until we get there,” James said quietly.
She nodded again before walking with him over to the car. James opened the passenger door for her and she made to climb inside before dropping her bag and spinning around, sprinting over to Roman she launched herself into his arms and clung to him for precious seconds.
“I love you,” he said as he held her.
“My god Roman you can’t make me do this. I need to be with my kids, I need to be here,” she cried.
“The kids will be safe,” he promised.
“And you? Will you be safe?”
He paused before answering and felt her immediate emotional withdrawal from him before her physical withdrawal as she pulled away and ran back to the car, climbing inside it. A minute later and she was gone leaving him alone. He looked down at his hands surprised to find them shaking. Her anger had been expected but he didn’t think it would hurt so much to make her go with James.
He thought about earlier and being with her in the bed, the way she’d turned to him and told him she loved him with her body even though she was still angry at him, still hurt. He moved back into the hotel room and looked over at the bed and only then did he spot the ring she’d left for him on the pillow. Her wedding ring.
He closed his eyes at the pain that washed through him before stuffing it down inside him. Pain meant weakness and he had no time for weakness now with Mark still on the loose.

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  • 2 months later...

Chapter 24

Roman allowed himself to be lead to the car; he was wearing dark glasses over his eyes, still pretending he was blind. Others beside him were Nicole and Geoff, neither of them happy at the deception they were now a part of, Aden and Belle, then Danni and Mike along with Gabby and Jacob all dressed in formal clothes. Toby and Amy-Belle had elected to stay behind with the little ones back at the house.
Casting a look around the small group he half nodded as Rachel and Tony stepped away and over to their car, followed by Leah and then Irene with George. This mock memorial service for Ella had done its job, in so far that it had drawn Mark out of hiding. Jacko’s voice boomed once more in his ear and he resisted the urge to tilt his head to one side as he listened to the report.
“It was a good service, I think Ella would have liked it,” Geoff said slowly as he pulled away from the kerb and drove off.
“I don’t think Mum was actually impressed with this plan,” Mike said softly his eyes scanning the road ahead before he pinned his gaze on Roman.
“Impressed wasn’t one of the words I’d use either,” Jacko’s voice boomed in his ear.
“Keep out of this,” Roman said earning glares off Mike and Nic in turn before he gestured to the earpiece.
Nic glared at him some more, “How many people are you having a conversation with right now?”
“You are all right, Ella didn’t like this plan okay,” Roman muttered feeling defensive.
“That explains the bruises,” Mike added.
Roman shot him a look before half-nodding. “She’s safe, that is the main thing. There has been a sighting of Mark so this has been worth it.”
“Worth Mum divorcing you again?”
He flinched at Danni’s soft spoken comment before nodding again.
“I know you don’t agree with this plan but anything that means she’s not at the mercy of someone again is worth it to me.”
“We have to trust you dad but seriously we’re on Mum’s side in this.”
“Thank you Nicole,” he drawled before grinning as she flushed when she’d realised she’d referred to Ella as her mother. Although he felt a smattering of pride that his daughter thought so highly of Ella.
“Mum? You called her Mum?” Mike murmured, “You do know she would have put you up for adoption don’t you?” He shot out.
“Ha as if, she would have kept me and chained you up in the attic.”
“Er….” Danni muttered giving them a look each in turn.
“Where is Mark?” Jacob interrupted.
Roman shared a look with Geoff via the rear-view mirror or he would have done without the dark glasses still covering his eyes. “Jacko and Pete are tracking him,” he told them sounding cautious.
From Danni, “So tell us again why he’s not going to come after us?”
“Because he can’t afford the bloodshed. He wants me to suffer, to take away something from me and emulate his brother. That’s why he targeted Angel first of all and when he didn’t get very far with that plan we knew, I knew, that he would then go after Ella.”
Nic sucked in a breath at the mention of her daughter and Roman watched as she reached out her hand and touched Geoff’s knee in a replica of what he and Ella did. He found a lump in his throat as he thought of his wife, or if she had anything to do it, soon to be ex-wife.
“You sure he won’t come after the kids?”
Roman turned his head at Gabby’s question looking over the back of his seat to her. “Positive, otherwise I would have had them sequestered somewhere.”
“You have to be totally certain Dad because if anything happens to any one of them Ella would never forgive you,” Nic gasped out.
“I’m totally certain Nic,” he murmured hearing Jacko’s chuckle in his ear.
“Forgive you? She’d rip of your…”
“Thank you Jacko,” Roman muttered sitting up straighter in the car.
He knew full well what Ella would do and he was more scared of her than anyone he’d ever faced before. Mark was someone he knew inside and out. Someone who just wanted to make him suffer in a way that he’d suffered. The difference was that Mark had chosen that life for himself. He could have come forward years ago and been with his wife, stopping Elliot from choosing revenge over having a life.
What if he chose revenge for the wrongs done to him, Roman pondered. Ella being out of his life. Gardy coming after him. Losing the twins because of Ella’s mother. He glanced out of the car window and blinked as he felt the sting of tears in his eyes. Whatever the reason her mother had no right to keep Ella’s kids away from her. To inflict that pain on Ella. Yeah, maybe he could understand the need to get revenge thinking of the tears Ella had shed over the children throughout the years, that alone made him mad enough to want to hit people responsible for her pain.
“So what do we do now old man?”
Roman flinched at Mike’s soft spoken question before he nodded; “now we pretend that we don’t know Mark is going to come for me,” he said quietly.
“And then what?” The question came from Geoff.
“Then you let him, whatever he does you let him.”
He saw half shakes of their heads before they exchanged looks amongst themselves.
“Roman?” Jacob muttered.
“No, he has to believe he has the upper hand, he has to think that we are, that I am vulnerable.” Roman heard Jacko sniggering in his ear and frowned.
He didn’t see them exchange looks before Geoff asked, “Are we taking you back to your place?”
“Not yet, but yeah, that is where he’s going to come for me.”
“What are you going to do Hardcore?” Jacko’s muttered question came through his earpiece repeating a question that the others had asked him over and over again. He hadn’t answered then and now, with his kids in the car, albeit the older ones, he wasn’t going to answer now.
“What do you need us to do?”
Roman inclined his head at Mike’s question.
“Be safe,” he answered slowly, “I need you to be safe because I promised your mother.”
“Dad…” Mike protested.
“Not your fight Mike, seriously, you have a family now. Protect them. I’ll be okay,” Roman said quietly to the other man knowing he’d just dented his pride. When he’d gone to Afghanistan to find Mike after he’d been reported missing he’d naturally read his file and spoken to the men in his unit. His son was a gifted soldier and a natural leader. There was no doubt in his mind that if Mike had stayed in the SAS he would have been in charge of his own squad by now.
“We can still help,” Jacob shot out.
“You can help by making sure the kids are okay, keep them focused on school and someone needs to check on Mia,” Roman outlined quickly.
“I’ll go up and see her,” Nic offered.
“Marcus …” Roman paused as he heard a grunt in his ear.
“Okay Hardcore,” Jacko said after a minute, “Just changing positions,” he added.
“What about Marcus?”
“He’s a little lost without Ella,” Roman continued.
“I’ll take him to the art studio in Yabbie Creek. Ella has left a load of instructions about the exhibition for me.”
“Babe,” Aden muttered.
“She asked if I would help,” Belle said sounding self-conscious.
“Cool,” Mike grinned.
“Cool?” Aden shot out, “It’s freaking awesome. About time you got your camera out again.”
Roman smirked as he remembered similar conversations with Ella and then his expression changed to a neutral one as they arrived at the house. He saw the door spring open and Sophie, Meggy and Georgie coming out. They were wearing their best outfits; Georgie looked surprisingly smart for a change. Getting out of the car he allowed himself to be led over to the house and inside the door. From there he walked through to the small lounge and saw the other kids sitting on the sofa, a film playing on the TV.
“We’ve done food,” Sophie announced.
“She did food, we just got in her way apparently,” Meggy corrected.
“I’ll organise drinks,” Mike announced.
Toby came through from the kitchen catching Mike’s statement, “Drinks are done,” he murmured. “Tea, coffee or beer.”
“No vodka?”
They turned at Nic’s question as she and Geoff were the last to come through the door which they closed behind them.
“You think Ella wouldn’t find out?”
“No, we’ve just come from her memorial service. I think she’d be offended if we didn’t toast her in vodka.”
“She’ll so kill you,” Mike shot out a grin on his face.
Roman could feel his lips twitching at the conversation. Ella would kill them for touching her vodka. It was her only rule.
“We had whiskey when Dad died,” Sammy pointed out from the other side of the room, the most words he’d said in the past two days.
“What? My whiskey?” Roman muttered pretending to be offended.
“You were totally dead, I think it was our whiskey at that stage,” Georgie murmured.
“Fine break out the vodka,” Roman nodded.
Lily shot up from her seat and ran towards the kitchen before she stopped as they all looked at her and began laughing, and Roman suspected that his expression was what they were laughing at.
“Lily,” he called.
“What’s? I was getting chocolate,” she murmured.
“Of course you were,” he murmured and moved over to her, finally taking off the dark sunglasses as he went into the kitchen with his daughter and after getting out the vodka and shot glasses he took out the secret chocolate stash handing it over to his daughter to carry.

Mark looked behind him and grinned. The car was still there. A dark blue four door non-descript everyday run of the mill car. How could they think he was so stupid as to not notice them following him? Obviously they wanted to know his plans for Hardcore and maybe he’d give them a little taste.
Opening the glove box he took out the 9mm Beretta, his gun of choice. He’d spent an hour last night cleaning and loading the weapon before trying it out. It hadn’t been easy to get the weapon. Contacts that he’d had before were either dead, missing or in prison. If he’d still been in contact with Gardy the other man would have arranged for a gift wrapped shipment of all of his favourite weapons.
Gardy. The only other man who’d hated Hardcore as much as he had. Roman was such a self-righteous wowser. So up himself and the others followed him about like puppies. Gardy was right, Hardcore deserved everything he got. First he stole Ella from Gardy and then putting them all in danger with mission after mission. They’d needed rest especially after Hardcore got Michael killed on that pointless recon, but no the fool just signed them up for more missions.
He hadn’t meant to panic but they were pinned down. Hardcore wouldn’t listen not to any of them. He couldn’t take the sound of the gunfire anymore. That incessant bang bang bang over their heads, around them. The ping as the bullets hit the remains of the building they were using as cover.
Call in arty, Jacko had screamed at Roman. The fool had ignored him, had talked about flanking them. Flanking them when they didn’t know how many they were facing? It was like he had a deathwish. No, Gardy had been right it couldn’t go on.
He’d felt like his heart was going to explode if he didn’t get out of there. Of course he hadn’t wanted to leave the others stranded, he just couldn’t cope anymore.
Those few moments he’d felt like had been etched on his soul. Getting into the vehicle, turning over the engine and then seeing Hardcore standing in front of him. The last thing he remembered was him raising his gun and firing.
Finding out what the other man had done to his brother, Elliot, had been the last straw. He was just a messed up kid until Roman had turned him over to the cops. He could have let him go but no, he’d wanted Elliot to suffer. The year that Roman had spent inside prison had been nothing compared to the years Elliot had been inside. His poor brother.
Well no longer would Hardcore get away with it. Mark stroked the gun he had on his lap and looked out and over to the car. He contemplated shooting Jacko or Pete for a second but dismissed the thoughts as easily as he had them. No, he was after Hardcore. Roman was his target and he was going to get him. He was going to teach him a lesson he would never forget.
And then he was going to kill him slowly.

Ella looked around the small cabin James had booked them in under an assumed name. The small place was on the beach of a small town similar to Summer Bay but far enough away that she wouldn’t bump into anyone apparently. She reached for the bag he’d provided for her and placing it on the bed she unzipped it slowly. Inside was a selection of brand new clothes with tags still attached. Roman must have chosen them because they were the opposite of what she would have done. Not as in a random guess about what she wore but had to be from someone who knew her tastes well to provide clothes that were the exact opposite to what she would have chosen. She pulled out the long dress, in hot pink, and was thankful it was that crinkle fabric as she shook out the creases and hung it up in the small wardrobe. Of course all these clothes were in her size and she groaned that she couldn’t use that as an excuse as she took out miniskirts, shorts and t-shirts. There was only one pair of jeans in the bag and they were those skinny ones that not only she hated but had made Sophie take back to the shop when she’d brought home a pair. Her eyes narrowed at the thought of Roman buying these.
“Here,” James called from just outside the bedroom door.
Ella spun around and marched to the door, the jeans still in her hand. She pulled the door open and glared at the other man when he handed her a second bag.
“What’s this?”
“Your other stuff,” James said slowly in that drawling voice of his.
She gave him a suspicious look and took the bag from him, slamming the door afterwards and striding over to the bed. Top of the second bag was a long blonde wig and she swore.
“I’m not wearing this,” she screeched out.
“Then you don’t get to go outside,” he called back.
Ella glared at the door like she was actually glaring at him before she swore under her breath. Grabbing the phone that had been provided for her she dialled Roman’s number from memory and waited for it to connect.
“Hello?”
She grinned at cautious note in his voice, “It’s me,” she spat out, “You are joking. Like I’m going to wear any of this tat you’ve chosen for me!”
“You can’t blame me….” He began.
“I do blame you. I blame you for everything. I hate you, do you hear me I hate you. We’re over.” She screeched out and cut the connection.
“If you’ve finished yelling at Roman there’s some food out here,” James called out.
“Oh for….” Ella swore before she threw the phone on to the bed and paced out to where James was. He handed her a beer and she narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. “Don’t you dare! You’re on my list too,” she muttered at him.
“Eat your food Ella, you’ll need to keep your strength up if you are going to kill us all,” he said gesturing to the sandwiches on the small round table in the corner of the room.
She would have said something else but her stomach rumbled loudly reminding her that she hadn’t eaten since pizza the previous night. She sat down and picked up the salad sandwich before taking a delicate bite.

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  • 2 months later...

 

Chapter 25

 

Roman watched as the front door of his house opened slowly and Mark stepped inside.  He made no move, gave no sign that he saw him just sat in the chair next to the sofa with an open bottle of whisky in his hand. 

“Hardcore,” Mark drawled.

“About time the worm turned up,” Roman muttered taking a long swig from the bottle.

“You know for someone who was so dismissive of his marriage just a while ago you seem awfully cut up that the Mrs is dead,” Mark ground out.

“I have kids, you’ve killed their mother,” Roman shot back taking another drink.

“Yeah… kids.  My wife had a kid.  A blond haired brat.”

Roman smirked, “She begged me…”

“I bet,” Mark pulled out a gun and waved it in his general direction.  For his part Roman remained impervious to the intended threat after all he wasn’t supposed to see that Mark held a weapon.

“She was quite willing, said it was the best she’d had,” Roman taunted.

Mark growled under his breath making Roman chuckle.

“Maybe I should take a leaf out of my brother’s book and have a piece of…” he paused for effect, “Nicole wasn’t it? But then there are so many others I could choose from, Sophie, Meggy, Gabby, Danni. Tell me Roman is that son of yours any match for me? Mike I mean. I heard he was in a squad out there. Maybe I should test out his skills,” Mark perched on the arm of the sofa continuing to face him, the gun still in his grip but now resting on his lap. 

“Mike? For a minute I thought you meant Georgie. No, well… I can’t talk about Mike.”

Mark sneered, “Can’t?”

“Security classification and all that.”

Roman accompanied the words with another swig from the whisky bottle.

“So tell me Roman what this whole act is about? You really expect me to believe that I killed Ella?”

“Want to tell me that you had no hand in my wife’s murder?” Roman shot up from his seat, his body weaving as though he’d had too much to drink. “Want to tell me that you aren’t a cold bloodied killer? Especially as we know what Gardy was into?”

“Gardy? I hadn’t seen him in years; we parted company in a small village in Nigeria. Not through choice, the bastard left me behind.”

“Still you were there, with him. He was psychotic and you went along with him. What does that make you?”

“It makes me dangerous,” Mark raised the gun and pointed it straight at Roman’s head.

Roman took another swig out of the bottle ignoring that he had a gun pointed at his head, 9mm Beretta with full clip from the looks of it.  He could see the safety was off and there was probably already a round in the chamber. Mark could kill him at any time.  He could squeeze the trigger and he would be gone.  Pretending to be blind meant that he couldn’t give away any clue that he could see the gun pointed at him, or even start to make evasive moves.  No, he had to see this thing through. If Mark wanted to kill them then he would have fired, he told himself and mentally apologised to Ella for taking such a risk. 

After being shot and waking up in witness protection followed by the divorce he’d sworn never to let bad things happen to them again and yet just moments after Ella had trusted him to marry him again he had let Mark rip them apart. He knew she didn’t want the wedding, not risking another divorce. He’d only seen the whole situation through his eyes not realising how hurt Ella was. First she’d allowed him to heal, and then after some time she’d let him back into her life, into her bed and then she’d let him move home.  She’d given him time, precious moments with her as his wife and not the wonderful mother to their children when she’d booked for them to go to Hawaii.

“No reaction,” Mark muttered.

“To?”

“I’m pointing a gun at your head,” Mark sneered waving the gun back and forth as though for emphasis.

“Sorry, maybe you should … I dunno, threaten me in braille?”

Mark let out a belly laugh before reaching across and grabbing the whisky bottle from his grasp.  He took a long drink before putting the bottle back in his hands.

“This isn’t as much fun as I expected,” Mark muttered.

“Murder usually isn’t,” Roman drawled.

“Murder? No I don’t want to kill you Hardcore, not yet anyway.”

“So that gun you said you were waving at my head isn’t loaded?”

“Of course it is, just because I’m not going to kill you yet doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

“In another time and place this conversation could be funny but right now, after what you did to my wife I’m not seeing the fun side,” Roman bit out, standing unsteadily from his seat and taking a staggering step towards the stairs.

He allowed himself to hit the doorframe as he moved through it, swearing under his breath as though he were mad at himself for doing so.  More stumbling followed before he reached his room.  He saw the tripwire immediately and followed the line across.  Mark had rigged up a flash bang.  The grenade that emitted a loud bang accompanied a bright flash designed to disorient the enemy. 

He knew Mark would be waiting for the grenade to go off, if he were blind then he wouldn’t see the nylon line stretched across the doorframe. Lifting his foot he closed his eyes as he triggered the grenade, allowing himself to fall to the floor in an untidy sprawl on the floor.

“What the ….” He called out as though shocked by the explosion.

“Now now Hardcore, just keeping you on your toes, next time it might be the real thing,” Mark threatened from behind him having come up the stairs after the ‘explosion’.

Roman eased up slowly shaking his head letting it appear as though he was in shock. He clutched at the bottle of whisky, it narrowly escaping smashing in the fall.  He collapsed on his bed and took a drink.

“Enjoying yourself Mark?”

“Immensely!”

Roman glared at him for a second before he allowed his gaze to return to his usual unfocused look, “Soon be my turn, what you going to do then?”

“Bring it on old man, I’m waiting for you,” Mark laughed before he turned and left. 

Roman sat on the bed for a long time listening to the retreating footsteps on the stairs and then the slam of the front door.  He sat still just listening, as though expecting Mark to still be there, waiting for him to slip up before he carefully placed the bottle on the bedside unit and pulled out his phone.  Dialling Jacko he filled him in on the evenings events and warned them to be careful, despite the fact he was Mark’s main target the others could get themselves hurt or killed.

Call ended his fingers ran over the display screen contemplating calling Ella but one call to Jacko could be explained if Mark had come back, a call to a dead woman couldn’t. That was the excuse he used but in reality he was scared.  He’d put her through so much already and depriving her of her kids was the worst thing he could do. She’d never forgive him for that.

 

 

 

 

 

Ella lay on the bed in the small shack, James was her constant companion his bed just the other side of the door.  She thought about everything, about Mark, her kids, Roman, revenge. All the people who’d come for them and sighed. It was never ending. She shouldn’t put her kids through anymore. She should …. What? She asked herself mockingly. What should she do, divorce Roman? Leave? Take the kids away from everything they knew? It wouldn’t be fair on Marcus to leave his Dad and Mia had the baby to worry about. She couldn’t take them away from the Bay any more than she could stop breathing. Besides she still loved her husband, even if, she paused, he was a jackass for doing this to her.

“I know you aren’t asleep,” James called through the door.

“Could hear me thinking huh?”

Ella stood from the bed and moved over to the door opening it up and looking at the man Roman trusted to take care of her.

“Something like that, Jacko has just texted me to say that Mark has made his move,” James murmured.

Ella gasped her eyes closing against the quiver of pain inside her. Her brain immediately put in an image of Roman lying on the ground covered in blood and she cursed silently.

“He’s okay,” James said hurriedly putting out his hands and steadying her as she must have swayed.

“And my kids?”

“All present and accounted for. Pete and Mike have babysitting duties. Was just going to be Mike but apparently Lily decided otherwise,” James drawled.

“She does have a tendency to do that.”

“Let me get you a drink.”

She walked through to the small table and chairs and gratefully sank into a seat.

“What the hell is my husband playing at James? I can’t sit back whilst this is going on,” she muttered her head in her hands.

“He’s protecting you Ella.”

“There is no point protecting me if he gets himself killed James, I can’t go through that again, I can’t…” she bit her lip but couldn’t stop the tears slipping down her cheeks.

“He knows. Remember he lost you to Elliot. He’s not stupid, El, he knows what he’s risking but he doesn’t intend …”

“Doesn’t matter what he intends James, he barely had a plan for Alexi when the man turned up. Mark has been here all along he’s bound to have made plans. Have back up. I can’t ..” she broke off and sipped from the glass James had placed in front of her.

“You can’t be there El, I’m sorry but you can’t. Roman needs to do this for himself. That is part of why he got you out of there, and well, he needs to know you are safe.  Yeah, we know Mark. He’s not exactly a genius and his contacts in Australia are either dead, in prison or retired.”

“So we have an advantage?” She peered in the glass trying to get some courage from his words.

“We do. Mark has to make his moves so we can make sure when he’s arrested nothing else is going to happen.”

Ella groaned as she drank the last of the brandy.

“And then we all return to normal?”

“That is a conversation between you and your husband.”

She looked at him meeting his blue eyes and nodded again, “I’m not sure that he’s going to be my husband.”

“Ella don’t make…”

“Make what? Decisions like that without speaking to Roman? Pity he didn’t have the same consideration for me. He chose this without talking to me. I could have stayed inside the house with the kids. I could have…”

“Ella,” his voice cut through her tirade.

“You think I would have done anything to…”

“Roman needed you safe. There is nothing he couldn’t bear except losing you again. He’s gone through it more times than he can count. Back in the day he tried…”

“James?” she prompted.

“After you’d gone, been medi’vacced out although we didn’t know that. Roman was different.  He’d killed Mark, lied about it. Lost you. He was… darker. He didn’t care anymore. Drinking before missions and you know how uptight he was about them, no way would he risk anything happening but now, he didn’t care. He was lost.”

“Lost to the darkness,” Ella whispered.

“Yeah, if that’s what it is. You know how he can get. He took chances and it’s no lie we think he’s lucky because some of those missions should have had him in a body bag. Then he disappeared and we got the message he’d quit. He walked out on us. The rest you know.”

“No, not really. We don’t talk about it.”

“Still?”

“He needs it separate.”

“Then you know why he needs you safe.”

Ella lowered her head for a moment, “He left you behind and you are still here for him?”

“He left us yeah, but it was either he got out or he got us killed and he knew that. He knew he was on the edge and he would never have come back if one of us died because of him. So he walked away from something that was a part of him.”

“I … why can’t he just talk about this James? I didn’t even know he was still seeing Louise until a couple of months ago.”

“Because it’s like you talking about what your mother did or Gardy. It’s so deep inside of him that even remembering it hurts let along revealing it to someone else. And what if you’re disgusted by it El? What if it makes you stop loving him?”

“I would never…”

“No, but he can’t risk that because he lives and breathes for you. You are his entire world it’s why he’s got the big house and numerous kids, why he plugs away at the diner to provide for you. He’d do anything for you.”

“That makes me sound selfish.”

“No, we know you aren’t. You chose the Bay for him. You and Mike both, we know that too and you provide the safe haven he can come back too. Too halves of a whole and that is what he is protecting and fighting for. Don’t go back to the Bay Ella, don’t risk it. He needs you here, safe.”

She nodded again the words sinking in, it didn’t stop her being mad at him she told herself but her anger was deflating. Roman needed her alive and well and more than that, he needed her safe. 

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Chapter 26

 

 

 

Roman looked over at James and Ella on the beach together from his position on the headland. They were playing beach tennis, batting a ball back and forth.  Ella looked happy, smiling at James and then she’d stop to laugh as she collected the ball and hit it again. He knew there was nothing going on between them but he couldn’t help the jealousy that ran through his system.  Watching their easy relationship seemed to highlight all the things that were wrong between him and Ella.  He knew that communication was still an issue for them even twenty years later he thought with a groan. Sometimes they just never managed to be on the same wavelength which made those moments when everything was great so amazing.

He got back in his car and debated going down to them but he knew he couldn’t waste this chance.  Mark was seen on a flight to Perth meaning that he had the opportunity to check on Ella and make sure she was okay. Although James seemed to be doing an excellent job of taking care of her he thought with a burst of jealousy running though him.

Parking the car next to where James’s car was he switched off the engine and climbed out before heading over to them.  He waited precious moments because he wanted El to somehow sense he was there and groaned at his neediness.

“Roman?” He saw Ella mouth his name before she dropped the bat she was using and ran over to him. 

The force of her hug drove him backwards two steps as he caught her, his arms enfolding her and lifting her up to hold her full length against him.

“It’s not over but..” he began in case she thought he was there to take her home.

“I know,” she eased back and looked at him before kissing him.

“Well I was sorta expecting you to kill me,” he said returning her kiss.

“I’m planning on killing you later,” she promised and he knew from her expression that she wasn’t altogether joking.

“Roman,” James greeted him before leading them all inside the beach house. The white painted wooden house had seen better days and he was reminded of the shack he’d lived in when he’d been in Witness Protection.  Glancing around he noticed immediately all the little ways that James had already modified it with extra security measures that included alarms on all the windows, pressure pads near the front and back doors and a panic button. Knowing James as he did, he suspected that there were a number of concealed weapons about the place.  Aside from that the place was decorated in shades of cream and blue. Typical colours for a beach house although he liked the coloured bottles along one wall, different patterns and different shades of blue and green.  Seeing how they were place he imagined that the light would catch them at certain times of the day and cast hues around the room.

As he sat there musing, James had arranged drinks and they sat around silently, looking at one another before he rushed to break the impasse.

“Mark was seen on a flight to Perth,” he murmured slowly.

“So you came here?”

“I…” he found his throat constricting before giving El a grin. “Thought you might be missing me,” he said slowly.

“Not really, James is very good in bed,” she shot out before standing up and darting out of the beach house.

“She’s definitely joking,” James held his hands up.

Roman glared at the other man for a long second before getting up and heading out the way his wife had gone.

He found her sitting on the sand near the shore, her head was downturned and he knew she was crying. He hated her tears, especially when he was the cause of them.

“Tell me you weren’t jealous,” she whispered.

“I might as well tell you I’ve stop breathing.”

“Why Roman, why?”

“Because I love you, because you are amazing, because you …”

“I’m your wife though,” she gasped out.

“And how many times have I screwed up things between us El? How many times have I made you cry?”

“Hundreds,” she shot out.

“Exactly and one day you might decide that we’re not worth the effort.  That you are better off with someone else.  Maybe,” he shrugged before sitting down next to her. “But my innate sense of jealousy isn’t the reason for these tears is it?”

“I thought I could do this, that I could be understanding until you sort out the Mark stuff. But it hurts Roman, not being with my kids, not being with you? What if…”

“I always keep my promises don’t I El?”

“Yes,” she sniffed.

“I promise that I won’t do the self-sacrificing stuff that makes you crazy.”

She looked at him then, her mouth dropping open.

“And you expect me to believe you?”

“I’ve promised. You have to believe me.”

She glared at him wiping at her eyes before sighing. “I think this is a wait and see situation solider,” she muttered.

“Come on I don’t have long,” he stood and held out his hand to her trying not to sigh when she stood up and moved back to the beach house with him.  She snuggled into him and he sighed.  He’d missed her more than he knew.

“It’s going to get bad isn’t it Roman?”

“Yeah, yeah it is.”

“He’s…”

“We don’t know what he’s going to do El,” he admitted.

She gave him another look, “Did you come here to make sure I behaved?”

His laughter made her blush and storm away from him into the beach house. He followed her at a slower pace; checking around him even though he knew that Mark wasn’t around the feeling of being watched was forever present.

“Really? Behave?” he asked her.

“I can behave,” she said primly before blushing as James choked back a laugh.

“So what is the plan here?” James asked when he stopped sniggering.

“I’ve got to go back tomorrow. I was thinking dinner and…”

“And what exactly? Because you are so sleeping on the sofa,” Ella glared at him again.

“That’s fine,” he folded his arms across his chest and grinned at her discomfort.

“We should go get some food,” James murmured slowly as Ella swore and disappeared into her room.

“Okay,” Roman followed James out, the two of them heading to the shops giving Ella some space.

 

 

 

 

Mike looked at his car feeling that something was wrong.  Finally he noticed it, a greasy fingerprint near the front grill. His eyes scanned the horizon, looking for anything that would indicate he was being watched and although he couldn’t spot anything he still felt like there were eyes on him.

Danni’s voice cut through his absorption, “Are you ready?”

“Let’s take your car,” he said quietly.

“Okay, I’ll get my keys,” she agreed, “You hold Jennie.”

He accepted his daughter from her and cradled the toddler on his hip as his wife moved into the pool house.

Looking back at the car he frowned and made it look like he dropped his keys on the ground as an excuse to look underneath it.  There was nothing dripping indicating a sabotaged fuel line or tampered with brakes. Collecting his keys from where he’d dropped them and tucking them in his pocket he straightened up, balancing a fussy Jennie on his hip. 

“Maybe Daddy is imagining it,” he murmured even as his eyes strayed to the fingerprint mark on the hood of his car.

“Imagining what?” Danni asked from beside him.

“Oh nothing,” he said before giving her car a slow walk around her car before strapping Jennie in the back seat. He took the keys from Danni and climbed behind the wheel again pausing as he looked around him. Putting the keys in the ignition he turned the engine and frowned as it stuttered.

“I think it’s time I retire this car and get a new one,” Danni grimaced.

“Retire the butterfly?” He asked referring to the name she’d given it.

“Hey,” she groaned as he looked at her before smiling at him.

“So glad I had a hand in naming our daughter or we could have ended up with something…”

“Careful Mister, Ella told me who handled her divorce you know,” she murmured.

“Mother wouldn’t do that to me,” he groaned.

“If Roman doesn’t watch his step I’m sure she’ll be giving him a call herself,” Danni murmured.

Mike nodded as he started the car and putting it in gear he pulled away from the house and up the long driveway. Indicating he headed out on to the road.

As soon as they reached the diner and ordered food he made a reason to slip outside for a few moments, placing a call to Jacko. Roman he knew was incommunicado having left his phone behind in case it was being tracked.

“What’s up?” Jacko’s voice sounded far away and Mike grimaced.

“Not certain, probably just being messed with. Found a fingerprint on my car. Didn’t check it out because I didn’t want to worry Danni.”

“Maybe it was…”

“I had the car detailed at the garage a week ago. No-one has had a reason to lift the bonnet so it shouldn’t be there.  It’s not the first time our cars have been targeted. Elliot planted something in Roman’s car and William blew up Mum’s…”

“Kid you know that when you are pissed at him you call him Roman don’t ya?”

“It helps keep him focused,” Mike admitted. “Might be some day that some guys come after me for what I did…”

Jacko chuckled down the phone at him, “I’m sure your mother would say that Roman can **** off a saint.”

“Not in those words she wouldn’t. She doesn’t swear,”

“And your first word wasn’t ‘crap’,” Jacko said still laughing. “Your mother could make a sailor blush when she gets going. You forget we knew her back when…”

Mike grinned, “Well I know her now and with kids under ten she doesn’t swear. In fact the only times I’ve ever heard her swear is at Dad.”

“You mean Roman,” Jacko pointed out.

“Whatever, where is he by the way?”

“I imagine that he’s off learning some new swearwords,” Jacko shot back.

“I see, well if you check out the car and find anything. Don’t tell him until he’s back.”

“Got it kid,” Jacko murmured. “Mark is currently in Perth we’ve got eyes on him so why don’t you and the other kids relax a bit.”

“Sounds like a plan I’ll organise something for tonight,” Mike said before ending the call and re-joining Danni and Jennie. His burger had arrived and suddenly he was famished.

 

 

 

Mark crawled into the last bar on his list and looked around. The lighting wasn’t that great giving the place a lot of dark corners where people could hide.  He moved to the bar and ordered a beer before looking around the place taking sips from the bottle.  Finally he saw her and grimaced. They really did look alike he thought with another grimace before approaching him.

“Hey,” he began.

“Not interested,” came the response.

“Not even in Roman and Ella,” Mark offered a teaser.

“Who are you?”

“Another interested party.”

The floor was sticky underfoot like it hadn’t had a good clean for ages and there was the tint of yellow on the walls from cigarette smoke.  He’d been in some dives in the past few years, places where the authorities didn’t rush too and this place was no different.

“How did you find me?”

“We had a friend in common, his name was Gardy,” Mark murmured. “He took care of me after Roman Harris tried to kill me. I’d like to ..”

“Listen mate, I don’t know you. I don’t know no Roman Harris. Far as I was concerned he’s been dead…”

“He’s not dead,” Mark intoned before sitting down on a stool and facing the other man. “It was all faked. He’s alive and living in Summer Bay. I’m…”

“You’re what?”

“I’m going to kill him. Eventually. After I’ve finished messing with him.”

“Great so what do you need me for?”

“Oh I don’t need you, just thought you’d like to come back and finish what you started a few years back,” Mark drained his drink and put the bottle on the table before leaning forward and looking at William Gardner.

“On one condition, the kid Megan. She’s my brothers brat. I want her.”

“Anything you say mate, anything you say!”  Mark held out his hand and the two men shook on it, the deal done.  Hardcore was going to pay, Mark thought with a grin. Before he killed him slowly. 

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Chapter 27

 

 

 

Ella tiptoed silently through the beach house and over to the sofa.  She grinned as Roman lifted the covers and she slipped on to the narrow sofa, ending up half-lying on top of him.

“I seriously hate you,” she grumbled.

“I know,” he sounded smug and she glared at him for that.

“Roman, how are we going to get through this? Not being with my kids is like…”

“El I know okay,” he said quickly.

“Then tell me? I’m trying to be understanding but I’m so angry at you,” she moaned.

“Be angry at me. If that helps you get through this then be angry at me.”

“I don’t want to be angry at you,” he heard her sigh, “We’re too vulnerable,” she added before pressing a shy kiss to the side of his neck.

“We’re strong, the strongest we’ve ever been,” he contradicted her.

“Then why do I keep having the urge to kill you?”

Roman laughed. “When don’t you have those urges?” She chuckled before slipping out from underneath the covers and standing up. Holding out her hand to him she led him into the bedroom and closed the door behind them.  “Are you about to kill me?”

“I’m about to do something to you.”

“Should I be scared?”

Ella laughed before pushing him back so he fell on to the bed and joined him there.  She ran her hands down his bare chest.  He reached for her and pulled her into his arms before kissing her. Rolling them over in the bed until he was on top he ran his hands all over her body as he kissed her. She felt her soul shudder and knew that she was going to be ravished by him in one of those lovings where he spent all night pleasing her.  Ella sighed and gave into it.

 

 

Ella rolled over waking up alone; she sat up clutching at a sheet to cover her naked breasts. Looking around she saw her nightdress at the bottom of the bed and reached for it pulling over her head before climbing out of bed and heading through to the kitchen. She saw James sitting at the table drinking a coffee and gave him a look.

“Please tell me that Roman hasn’t left yet?”

“No he’s in the shower,” James said giving her a look back. “Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

“Yes thank you,” she said primly as she turned and headed into the kitchen to pour out a coffee for herself.  She took some sips from the cup as she sat at the table opposite him.

“So you forgave him then?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your nightdress is on inside out,” James said slowly.

Ella swore as she looked down and saw the seams showing. Glaring at him she debated rushing into the bedroom and changing before aiming for a nonchalant look, not that beetroot colour rushing to her cheeks would promote that image.

“Morning,” Roman said as he walked out of the bathroom.  He’d dressed already and she knew that meant that he wasn’t playing on staying around long.

“Heading back?” She blurted out.

“Soon,” he murmured imploring her with his eyes to understand and she did, on one level but as a woman being denied her kids she knew she hated the situation.  And well, him.

“I see,” she pressed her lips together.

“El, it won’t be long I promise. Just another couple of weeks,” he moved to sit next to her, taking the last chair at the table.

“I don’t like this Roman. I feel…”

“I’ve promised; nothing …”

“Heroic?”

James sniggered.

“Self-sacrificing was what I promised,” Roman muttered before glaring at James.

“Yeah that’s going to work Hardcore,” James said quietly into his cup.

“I’m with him,” Ella resumed her glare. “Especially …” she went quiet but knew the blush had returned to her cheeks. What was last night apart from Roman saying a form of goodbye to her? Did he think she’d forgotten what he was like from back in the day?

“Ella, don’t do this okay, I’ve got to go back and sort this.”

Turning her head dismissively she looked at James, “You approve of his plan?”

“Don’t know his plan,” James said quietly. “He hasn’t seen fit to tell me,” he added.

“Or I’m keeping you out of it so you don’t blurt it to my wife,” Roman said quietly. Neither of them knew at that point that in the haste to keep Ella safe Roman hadn’t even got as far as thinking of a plan. Neither of them knew that Roman had been acting on sheer panic because if anything happened to his wife he wouldn’t be able to cope and knew that fact from when Elliot had taken her before.  Knew it from the few moments that Alexi had his hands on her and neither of them could do anything about it.  That was going through his head all the time and now, with her safe he could focus on Mark.

James gave Roman a narrow-eyed look and slowly inclined his head, “I see, so you won’t need me around for the next hour or so whilst I go for a swim.”

Ella shot them both a look.

“Seriously? You believe him? And you…”

Roman responded by leaning over and kissing her into silence whilst James abandoned them and slipped out of the beach shack.

“Don’t do this El, don’t…” he implored her.

“Before a mission,” she began her voice a tortured whisper, “You’d make love to me as though it was the last time you’d ever see me again,” she finished just as a single tear slipped down her cheek.

“That was not what last night was about,” he insisted.

“That’s exactly what it was. But you’re right, I’m emotional,” she gave him a look before picking up his cup and throwing it across the room until it shattered into a million fragments. She did the same with her own cup, cursing silently as she hadn’t finished her coffee and then to add to that she dragged off her eternity ring, the only jewellery James had allowed her to keep and threw that too.  “We’re over,” she told him as she stood up and walked away from him.

She came out of the bedroom after an hour and looked to where she’d thrown the cups.  Someone had cleaned up after her and there on the table was her ring next to a sheet of paper.  Walking slowly over to it she picked it up and read the words on it.

‘Throw your ring at me one more time and I won’t give it back. Rxx’

“He’s gone then,” she said quietly looking up as James walked into the room from the kitchen.

“He’s gone. You can’t provoke him like this El, you can’t keep doing this. Roman has to bring the soldier out if he’s going to protect you.”

Looking James in the eye she whispered, “Who’s going to protect him?”

“He doesn’t need protection.”

“Not even from himself?”

“No,  He knows what the risks are. He knows what…”

“He can lose?”

“You keep telling him he’s lost you,” James gestured at the ring.

“Maybe he has,” she said quietly.

“Then why are you so scared?”

She flinched from the question and ran back into the bedroom.  Too much. They expected too much of her.

 

 

 

 

 

Roman left the hire car in the long term carpark and took a bus across town to where the specialist’s office was. He booked himself in and sat in the waiting room thinking about Ella. Maybe her being mad at him was a good thing he told himself with a rueful smile just as his name was called and he was ushered inside the office.

His history was gone through, not just the past few years as a civilian but further back all the way to his military days. The many times he’d had concussive injuries were noted down in front of him and as he recalled each one he could see the specialist look more and more concerned.  Within moments it seemed that he was swiftly booked in for a head CT moving back into the waiting room.

“Hardcore,” Jacko muttered coming in through the door.

“Trouble finding the place?”

“Just a bit.”

“Doc wants me to have a CT scan. Something about concussive injuries…”

“Ha, more likely he wants to see if you have a brain in there.”

“So James has been in contact then.”

“Why didn’t you tell Ella that your eyes were …”

“Giving me trouble?”

“Yeah, Hardcore we’re in this together and that means you have to tell us what is going on, you get me?”

“If I’m blind, for real then there isn’t a lot you can do. I’m going to have to cope with it.”

“And Mark?”

“We’ll have to find…”

“Knew it, you don’t have a plan do you’s?”

Roman grimaced at what he’d let slip, “No, I just needed to get Ella safe.”

“After Alexi you mean?”

“I can’t lose her,” Roman confessed, “Not after the heartbreak of us falling apart. Not after…”

“Going through hell to get her?”

“Not quite but,” Roman swore under his breath as his name was called and he went in for the scan.  The long drive from seeing Ella had given him a migraine and he could feel his head throbbing and his vision blurring. If this was going to happen then he needed to prepare himself before he told Ella and the family. 

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Chapter 28

 

Roman had sat opposite the specialist hearing words like optic nerve damage, temporary to permanent blindness, traumatic optic neuropathy drifting over the top of his head.  Strangely he felt no fear as he sat there just a strange detachment. His only thought was that if he were to be blind then he wouldn’t see his children growing. With Gabby resembling his wife so much he had been looking forward to seeing how much Sophie and Meggy would resemble her.  Lily he knew had more of him in her features, although a feminine version and the twins still had some growing to do before they took after either parent. 

“So what is the verdict?” Jacko asked as they climbed into his car after the appointment.

“Blind as a bat,” Roman said quietly.

“What no?”

“No. But a severe warning to be careful and not get my head knocked in again,” Roman sighed slowly.

“Like you’d heed any warnings given to you,” Jacko sniggered.

“I have on occasion,” Roman shot Jacko a look when the other man laughed at him.

“So now we have that out of the way what’s your plan?”

“Killing Mark won’t be an option,” Roman grimaced.

“Is that what Ella told you?”

“No she hasn’t.”

Jacko started the car and slowly pulled out of the parking space, joining the traffic and heading back to the bay. “Mike…” he began.

“Mike what?”

“He thought that someone might have tampered with his car.”

“What? And you …”

“He said not to bother you with it whilst you were with Ella. Didn’t want his mother to worry.  Mike needs to be involved in whatever you are planning Hardcore, can’t cut him out of this one.”

“When he got beaten up by Alexi’s guards I saw the look on Ella’s face. I can’t take her kids…”

“He’s your kid too Roman, you know that. The boy would be hurt if you don’t include him. And he’s got a right to protect his family too.”

“What have I done to him Jacko?”

Jacko turned his head and looked at him before looking back at the road again, “Ain’t nothing you’ve done Hardcore, he used to ask me about the army stuff before you and Ella got together.”

“And in your wisdom what do you tell him?”

“That it was a wonderful experience unless you get an LT like you,” Jacko muttered.

Roman couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped. He could depend on Jacko for the sarcastic responses.  “I was the highlight of your career,” he murmured.

“So anyway,” Jacko indicated and joined the slow stream of traffic heading on the highway.

“A plan?”

“Yeah, we can’t go back without one,” Jacko glanced at him and then back at the road.

“Was his car tampered with?”

“Yes it was. Nothing serious just so that it wouldn’t start.”

“So Mark is playing games.”

“As always. Remember the boats he put in the briefing room?”

“What is Charlie’s take on the situation? I’ve already jeopardised Pete’s relationship with her once.”

“She’s issued a warrant for his arrest but as soon as she slaps handcuffs on him the army will be beating down her door.”

“If it was just a case of hog tying him and delivering him to the cop shop,” Roman rubbed a hand over his face.

“Why can’t we do that Hardcore?”

“Because Mark will have a back-up plan. I taught him too well for him not to have to have something in place.”

“You taught him, isn’t that something we can use?”

Roman shook his head.  “Too many years have flowed under that bridge. No, Mark would have spent time researching what contacts are still around. He will have guns and ammo sorted out along with that back-up plan, whatever it is. Do we know what he was doing in Perth?”

“Apart from pub crawling not a clue,” Jacko looked worried.

“That doesn’t seem like Mark.”

“No it don’t,” Jacko eased the car to the side of the road and indicated that he was going to stop before finally doing so. He eased his phone out of his pocket and answered the incoming call but not before Roman managed to see the name on the display. John Smith one of his former soldiers, acted as a spotter for him on occasion. Last time he’d seen him had been when William Gardener had been bothering them.

 “What’s up John?” he heard Jacko ask and could feel his fingers twitching from wanting to take over the phone call especially when Jacko climbed out of the car and walked a little way away from it as though wanting privacy.

Of course it wasn’t about that, no doubt it was to do with the phone signal, Roman told himself even as prickles of unease crawled down his spine.  Watching Jacko pace he felt the anxiousness of not being in control. His family was in danger and Ella was not likely to forgive him for separating her from their kids.  He had never felt so out of control in his life. 

Whenever something had happened in the past he’d always thought of a back-up plan, always found a new way to do what he needed to do.  There was nothing like that now. 

“Hardcore?”

Looking up he saw Jacko standing by his open door.

“What is it?”

“William Gardener,” Jacko said slowly.

“What about him?”

“Looks like Mark has tracked him down. He’s …”

Roman swore and climbed out of the car walking slowly around it to where Jacko was standing. “If that man sets foot in the Bay I’ll kill him,” he promised.

“Hardcore you know you can’t do that. Ella…”

“He stole Ella’s babies,” Roman growled out unconsciously rubbing his shoulder where he’d been shot.

“And killed you,” Jacko said quietly.

“He..”

“Your Meggy,” Jacko said slowly when Roman broke off what he was saying and pacing off a ways.

“She’s mine,” Roman told him.

“But even Ella wasn’t sure.”

He turned and glared at the other man. “Meggy has my eyes, she’s got my hands.  I made love to my wife twice before Gardy took her. We did not use birth control. We did a DNA test.”

“Which Ella wanted to redo.”

“Meggy knows,” Roman said slowly. “She knows her mother was raped and we thought she might be….” He stopped sucking in a deep breath to try and calm himself down. “Tell me what is it like with Raisma?”

“Rai?” Jacko looked puzzled before his face cleared and he shot him a hate filled look.  Mentioning the woman they’d met in Bosnia that Jacko had a part time relationship with. She’d gone through some awful things in her life including rape.

“Because that is what it’s like with Ella,” Roman finished.

“And William?”

Roman cursed again, “Looked just like his brother.”

“And had a hard on for you Hardcore, don’t forget that one. He may want your Meggy but he taught himself to be a sniper jus’ like you.”

Roman walked away from Jacko and looked across in the distance.

“That’s the plan,” he said quietly.

“Hardcore?”

Roman turned and looked at him, “I’m a sniper, I have to take them out.”

“I don’t get it,” Jacko muttered looking puzzled.

Roman spoke quickly and quietly. He outlined the plan to Jacko. Starting with taking William out. That man was not to get near his family he stated softly, promising himself.

“You think Ella would like this plan?”

Roman grinned, “She’s already divorcing me.”

“You wish, a divorce would be a lot less painful compared to what she could do when she’s pissed at you.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meggy flounced into the dining room and looked over at Mike who was marking papers. “When is Dad going to be back?”

“Not sure why?” Mike looked up at Meggy.

“I need to talk to him.”

“And it’s something you can’t tell me? No scrap that, there is Danni?”

She sank down into a chair opposite him and gave him a look.

“I need to …” she stopped talking and looked pained.

“Anything you need we can sort out,” Mike said slowly.

“I doubt it. I need Dad.”

“He’s on his way back.”

“But where has he been?”

“You know where,” Mike murmured. He put his pen down and looked at Meggy. “Are you sure it’s nothing we can do?”

“No there isn’t.”

“Megs,” he began.

She shot up from the chair and ran over to the door as Jacko and her father came in. Grabbing hold of her Dad’s hand she pulled him towards the stairs.

“So you want…” Roman began to ask.

“Shut up and come on,” Meggy cried out yanking on his arm as she paced up the stairs taking them two at a time until she was at the top her Dad following at a slower pace.

“What is so urgent?” he asked her.

“I need,” she stopped, looking around she saw Jacko and Mike giving each other curious looks and felt herself blushing. Leaning up she whispered in her father’s ear and then giggled as he blushed.

 

 

 

“Jacko give me a phone,” Roman called out.

Jacko muttered something as he headed out to the car and returned a few seconds later handing over a burner phone to Roman before the other man walked back up the stairs and guided Meggy into their bedroom.

“Do we want to know what she said to him?”

“No we don’t,” Mike answered.

“So why are we still here?”

“Haven’t got a clue,” Mike shrugged. “I need to start doing dinner for the other kids.”

“Chinese or pizza?”

“No I’m cooking, come on old man you can give me a hand,” Mike said dragging the reluctant man into the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

Roman dialled James’s number from memory and waited until the call connected.  He spoke briefly and then Ella came on to the call.

“Meggy needs to talk to you,” he said quickly before she could shout at him.

He handed the phone over to his daughter and listened as they greeted each other. Listening to his daughter’s emotional voice as they spoke brought a lump to his throat and all he wanted to do was hug her.

“She says there is a box in the wardrobe,” Meggy announced.

Roman nodded and moved over to the double wardrobe opening up all the doors and looking inside.  Their new bedroom the other side of the house had a walk in wardrobe so that Ella could have more space for all her clothes, even though she barely had any chances to wear most of them here in the Bay with him. When this was over he was going to take her out dancing he decided ignoring the fact that she hated him.

“What does it look like?”

“A round box like with hats in or something,” Meggy paraphrased.

“Okay got it,” Roman picked it out and placed it on the bed next to his daughter.

“Now you have to explain what everything is,” Meggy said quietly.

“I do?” Roman lifted the lid on the box like he was defusing a landmine and saw all the feminine products inside before he glared as Meggy giggled at him when he dropped the lid back down and took a step backwards.

“Mum said she’s got it and you can go,” she announced.

“Fine,” he muttered before taking the phone from her, “thanks for that,” he told Ella.

“No worries, hand the phone back.”

“El,” he began.

“Later Roman,” he heard her say and sighed before handing the phone back to his daughter.  His teenage daughter. 

Leaving her in the room he headed down the stairs and into the kitchen taking out a beer for himself and opening the bottle.

“Do we need to …”

“She’s growing up,” Roman murmured in answer to Mike’s query.

“Ah,” Mike nodded.

“Ah?” Jacko gave them a puzzled look.

“Where are the others?”

“Sophie is with Danni, Gabby has all the little ones and Jacob has taken the boys out for a run.”

“Including Marcus?”

“Yeah, when Lily let him go. Liam too.”

“I need to spend some time with them,” Roman beat himself up.

“Did Jacko tell you about the car?”

“He did. Do you…” Roman stopped and looked at his bottle of beer. He’d drained it whilst he’d been standing there and had to resist taking another one from the fridge.  “I think we have a plan but I’ll need you to help.”

Looking at Mike’s face he saw the relieved expression on there and knew that Jacko was right.

“Aden and Geoff too,” Mike murmured quietly. “Find something for them to do because …”

“Because they weren’t there to help when William killed me?”

“Exactly,” Mike pulled away from the cooker where he was stirring at the pasta sauce he was making and looked at him.

“We have news,” Roman said quietly.

“What is it?”

“Mark has been recruiting. He’s found William Gardener.”

“Damn,” Mike swore bitterly. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

 

Chapter 29

 

 

Dressed in black trousers, boots and a black t shirt, Mark watched their house from his vantage point, hidden by bush and scrub he felt relatively safe.  He noted down the time that people left for school or work.   Followed by the builders turning up to finish off the work that had been started. He had no idea that 15 years earlier it had been Gardy standing outside their house, albeit the other side of the bay, Gardy watching them and taking notes looking for a chance for revenge.  

He’d told Gardy ‘number 2’ about the builders and the other man had tried to get on the crew turning up at their officer with fake credentials and CV.  Mark had to admit it felt strange working with the other man; he looked so alike his brother but without the training.  Things he could have said in shorthand, and been understood, went over this guy’s head. Still it saved him from being totally alone in his battle with Hardcore and besides it never hurt to have a fall guy around to take the blame.  Gardy ‘original version’ had taught him that lesson in a small village in some rotten piece of jungle in South America. 

That had been when he’d ended up spending a year in rat-hole prison learning Spanish proficiently and trying not to get shanked or worse, until he’d broken out to find an ironic kind of justice in the fact that Gardy was locked up himself.  He’d visited the man spending just long enough to gloat at him before heading back overseas, first to Shanghai, then Russia and other places where his services were required. 

He remembered back further, to the first time he went out with Roman’s unit. Jacko and Pete were like schoolboys with Hardcore acting as their dad half the time. James was the quiet one. Gardy was over confident and headstrong, always looking for a fight.  Michael was like a choirboy.  Married young, he steered clear of some of their antics. Had a meltdown when Hardcore started dating his sister for example, shame he didn’t hear what Gardy said about her because then he’d know just what a slut she really was. 

Frowning because he had got side-tracked he found himself looking back across the road and over to where Roman was being led out by Jacko.  As suspicious as he was he didn’t think Hardcore could keep up the pretence he was blind for this long, Mark thought with a groan.  It made plotting the next moves hard because there was little fun in torturing the blind man.  No fun because he wanted to see fear in the other man’s eyes.  Even when he’d held a gun to Roman’s head the other man hadn’t even blinked.

Watching Jacko get behind the wheel and drive off made him curious to know where they were going and he eased slowly up, easing the kinks from his body before stretching and making his way to his car.   If he were quick he’d be able to pick them up at the junction at the top of the road.

 

 

 

 

“What is it?” Jacko muttered giving him a look.

“We were being watched,” Roman said slowly.

“Got your second sight on again? Good.”

“Second sight?”

“Whatever it is, the senses you’d use when we were out on a mission. You’d scan the area as though you were looking for another sniper.”

“Sometimes I was,” Roman said quietly.

“You’d know where to look because of where you’d choose to be.”

“Yes, is this conversation going anywhere?”

“We need a plan. Aside from you declaring that you are going to snipe them, we have no actual idea of what you are going to do,” Jacko declared before glancing in the rear view mirror.

“He’s behind us,” Roman confirmed. “The blue car.”

“He’s an idiot. Like I’m not going to notice that,” Jacko said scathingly before he indicated and pulled over to the side of the road.  Climbing out of the car he made a call on his phone to Pete giving him the make and registration number of the other vehicle.  He barely glanced at the traffic as it filed past giving Mark or William, whichever one it was, the impression that he’d merely pulled over to answer a call.

Waiting until their tail had no choice but to go past he finally disconnected the call and got back in the car before re-joining the queue of traffic.

“Sargent?”

“Pete is on it, makes it fun now there are two of them to keep us on our toes,” Jacko drawled. “Who do you think it was watching the house?”

“Mark.” Roman answered immediately.

“Come on Hardcore, what is his profile?”

“Back in the day?” Roman flinched as he heard the words coming from his lips.  “He was a coward. He…”

“Carry on,” Jacko negotiated a difficult turn before shooting a look at him.

“He suffered from PTSD. He was afraid to commit. Gardy used that against him no doubt.  Keeping him as some sort of back-up plan.  Not, to fight but …”

“As a scapegoat,” Jacko smirked.

“Yeah, just like Michael. He used his death to throw us off.”

“So why is Mark defensive of Gardy?”

“He can’t help it. The man took him out of Afghanistan away from the front lines.”

Jacko pulled up in front of a non-descript building and parked the car before turning and looking at Roman.  For his part Hardcore maintained a blank stare

“So what is your plan?”

“Luring them somewhere where I have the advantage. Taking them out,” Roman said in a stuttered voice.

“No, sounds too much like you are going to sacrifice yourself. We aren’t going through that again,” Jacko muttered climbing out of the car and walking round to Roman’s side. He opened the car door and ‘assisted’ Roman out of the vehicle and over to the building, opening the door for him and helping him inside before firmly closing the door behind them. He paused for a long moment checking the traffic going back and forth along the road.

“No sign?” Roman asked.

“None.” Jacko confirmed before catching Roman smirking at him.

“I promised your Mrs,” Jacko confessed.

“I’m scared to ask what you exactly promised her,” Roman shot out with.

Jacko knew that he flushed bright red. Although he and Hardcore had never had a discussion about his attraction to Ella it was still there between them.  He suspected that the reason Roman hadn’t spoken to him was because Ella wouldn’t like it rather than anything else.  “Come on.”

Walking past a row of chairs and a couple of offices, the place looking like a doctors surgery or something, albeit they were empty offices they moved through the back and into the attached warehouse. The location selected for its resemblance to something official looking at the front and the attached warehouse building where they were really located.

“Harcore,” Pete greeted them as they came through.

“Got the weapons?” Roman barely acknowledged them as he approached the table where a large bag was stored.   It was the only piece of furniture in there, that and on the wall opposite a target had been hooked up. The improvised shooting range hastily put together so that Hardcore could practice.  To the side of them was a small space partitioned off that had formally been used as a rest area for the employees. Pete was using this as his base of operations.  A timeline of Mark’s movements was carefully penned on a grey painted wall from the information they’d sourced starting with his time in Afghanistan to when he showed up in Hawaii.

James had managed to get the passenger manifest and passport information from his flight back to Australia and together with that they’d managed to get a resume of what Mark had been up to for the past few years. Before then although sketchy they had cobbled together other information on the man.  Bank records with transfers between accounts had provided them with a few other of Mark’s suspected aliases giving them dates and locations where he’d been.

“We could do with James here,” Pete commented gesturing to the area where the information was displayed.

“I know but I have to protect Ella,” Roman said slowly.

Jacko scoffed, “Protect her when you’ve just visited her location?”

He flinched from Roman’s glare but maintained his stance.

“My wife,” Roman muttered stressing the wife part of the sentence “will not be at the mercy of anyone else because of me.”

“Let’s get set up,” Pete said into the sudden silence leading the others to the table and removing the gun from the bag. Jacko recognised it was a standard issue SR-25, Roman’s

weapon of choice.

It felt strange watching as Roman picked up the rifle and checked it over before he tested the mechanisms and loaded it.  He gave them a look before setting up the weapon at the target.

“Fire in the hole,” he called with irony in his voice.

Jacko stepped back along with Pete both of them sharing a look as Roman fired some test shots.  He adjusted the sights and within minutes had decimated the target at the end of the room.

“Guess it’s true, we shouldn’t **** him off.”

“And you haven’t learnt that lesson until now?” Roman called out as he reloaded and fired again.

“Let’s go get a seat I think he’s going to be here a while,” Pete muttered leading Jacko into the side room and organising drinks for them. 

Jacko sipped from his coffee as he looked at the timeline they’d constructed for Mark.

“He certainly got around didn’t he?” He mused.

“James thinks we should freeze his assets,” Pete said slowly.

Jacko picked up on the note in his voice and gave the other man an assessing look. “What else does James think?”

“That maybe getting Catherine here would be a good move,” Pete’s voice was deliberately quiet.

“What about the boy?”

“That is what is holding him back, there’s no way he won’t be able to realise who his real father is.”

“Ella wouldn’t be able to cope with it,” Jacko said slowly sinking on to a chair.

“She came around to Marcus.” Pete shrugged.

“Harrumph,” Jacko muttered. He drank from the cup and peered at Pete. “What is Charlie’s take on all this? Are you two still getting hitched?”

“As soon as Ruby comes back we are,” Pete grinned unable to stop himself it seemed, “As for all of this, well she’s handed over the investigation to the army. Aside from the assault charge from Ella the rest of the charges against Mark are all army related.”

Jacko nodded.

“Maybe we should speak to Catherine,” he once more mentioned Mark’s wife “Seems a shame to let her hear from them when we could soften the blow.”

“Jacko you’re getting more devious than Ella,” Pete said grinning at him.

 

 

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