Ghost Sight

[TelephotoMarigold]

 

 

Chapter 30

 

 

 

“So what are you telling me Jacko?”

“Mark is still alive,” Jacko said again looking uncomfortable as he sat in Catherine’s pristine living room.  White leather furniture and chrome made up the décor and mentally he compared it to Ella and Roman’s place.  Their cream sofas were designed for comfort, scotch-guarded against the numerous spills from the numerous kids, one was big enough for Hardcore to lay down full length and the other easily sat four people, or a dozen little ones. Multi-coloured cushions and throws adorned them just waiting for when someone wanted to snuggle down. 

He mentally tried to picture Hardcore in this setting and failed.  Roman wouldn’t be comfortable here, despite the impressive looking kitchen he’d passed through moments ago, gleaming red countertops and top of the line saucepans.

“How can he be? Didn’t Roman shoot him?”

Jacko flinched wondering why he found this so hard.  Maybe it was the thought that he was betraying his best friends.

“He was shot, Gardy covered up that he was still alive and smuggled him out of Afghanistan.” Jacko said quickly.

“So what do you want with me?”

“He was your husband,” Jacko frowned.

“Was,” she enunciated clearly. “Although luckily I haven’t remarried,” she drawled pinning him with her intense gaze.

“We wanted to let you know in person,” he murmured, although he suspected that she knew he was lying.

“I don’t want to see him or Roman,” she said quickly. “Did he send you here?”

“He?”

She gave him one of those looks, as though he should know who she was referring to with her comment and he grimaced. “Roman,” she muttered pulling out a cigarette from the packet she was clutching in her hand and using a gold lighter to ignite it. As the curl of grey smoke reached him Jacko felt himself cough.

“No he didn’t.”

“Is he married? What was her name? The one he was so mad on, Eliza?”

Jacko nodded once.

“Ella,” he murmured.

“Oh that’s right. Ella.  I bet he has kids now?” she gave him a sly look.

Jacko nodded again, “Twins,” he said slowly and added silently in his head, three sets of ‘em, plus a handful of others.

“I see,” she muttered drawing on the cigarette deeply.

Jacko watched as he saw her eyes flick to the picture of her son on a small corner table.

“He kept his word,” Jacko said quietly.

“Not if you know about it,” she shot up from her seat and glared at him.

“Can’t hide the resemblance,” Jacko said slowly as he too stood up. “How did you persuade him? Does the boy know?”

“Persuade him?”

“Hardcore wouldn’t have …”

“Are you inferring that I somehow blackmailed him?” she muttered taking a step back and glaring at him like she wanted to kill him.

He was never one to back away from a fight, “Did you?” he asked her.

“Mum,” a voice called as a door opened and shut in the background.

“He doesn’t know that Mark isn’t….” she hissed out and glared at him.

Of all the women that had given him a similar expression over the years, Ella included, and he’d never learned to keep his mouth shut because of it. “Maybe you should tell him,” Jacko said before moving over to the front door and slipping out of it.

Pulling the burner phone from his pocket he walked down the street to where he’d been dropped off by the taxi earlier and made a call.

“Yeah it’s done,” he announced. “Not sure what she’s going to do. Seems to think the boy isn’t aware who his father is.  No way he looks like Mark.”

“Hardcore is going to kill you,” Pete said from the safety of the house he shared with Charlie. “Is she going to come to Summer Bay?”

“I don’t know, she didn’t ask and the boy came in meaning she was reluctant to continue the conversation.   Planning to drop her a message tomorrow before I get the flight back,” Jacko continued.

“Keep in touch,” Pete murmured ending the call.

Jacko grinned briefly before flagging down a taxi and giving it the address of the hotel he was booked into.

 

 

 

Roman allowed himself to be escorted into his house and paused for a second as though he’d sensed something before turning his head and paying the taxi driver for his services.  He closed the door slowly and made his way over to the sofa where he apparently collapsed on to it.

“Not with your kids?” Mark’s mocking voice found him.

“Not tonight,” Roman sighed. “Thought we could have a beer and catch up,” he added sarcastically.

“Just like old friends,” Mark moved out of the hallway and past him before heading into the kitchen. He took out a couple of beers and opened them before moving over to Roman’s side and pressing a bottle into his hands. “Met some other friends of yours,” he added slowly.

“Do tell,” Roman drawled drinking from the bottle.

“Just someone who says they would like to say hello again,” Mark muttered moving to a chair and sitting down in it.

“You should introduce us,” Roman muttered.

“Is there a certain something in your voice? Fear maybe? No, of course not. For Hardcore to be scared he would have to risk losing something he cared about. He knows of course that I wouldn’t go after his kids so… that leaves his wife.”

“Yes it does. Except you’ve killed her, remember Mark? Or do you think that I would actually go to the trouble of staging a memorial service? Inviting her father to it? Putting him through that?”

Mark took a long drink, “Always had a soft spot for the General.”

“Colonel,” Roman corrected automatically stifling a smile as he also automatically straightened up.

“Yeah, Michael’s old man. How does he feel about you getting Mike killed?”

Roman allowed himself to finch at the mention of Ella’s brother before he sipped from the bottle.

“Michael? You think I killed him?”

“Wasn’t anyone else in charge, you had to drag his ass through a minefield. God didn’t think you were that stupid.”

Roman shot to his feet and glared at Mark, more approximately at a spot just past his ear, only just remembering at the last minute he was still supposed to be blind. 

“Gardy killed Michael,” he shot out with; “He lured him into a minefield and killed him because the kid knew about Gardy dealing arms.  Gardy made it easy you see. He went after Ella and Michael called him out.”

“Ha, as if you know….” Mark scoffed at him. “Gardy and Ella hooked up behind your back.”

“He told you that did he?”

“He told me in great detail how he nailed her at every turn,” Mark laughed. “He even did her in the shower block whilst you were in the next stall.”

Roman felt himself getting angry, first because of the insult to Ella, then because of what Gardy had said about her let alone done to her and then because Ella was the mother of his children and no-one was ever going to talk like that about her.

“Gardy had a vivid sense of imagination. Ella didn’t look twice at him.”

“I saw them together…”

Roman nodded slowly. “When? Because the only time that you were around Mark was after Michael was killed and Ella had gone back to Aus with his body. Couldn’t have seen them.”

Mark looked shocked for a moment before assuming a neutral expression again.

“Still how certain can you be…”

“How certain? One hundred percent certain. Ella didn’t have anything to do with Gardy. If you don’t believe me then ask Jacko or Pete.”

He still felt a slow burning anger in his gut and tempered it down.  Now was not the time for a confrontation.  Not with William Gardner out there too.  He owed that man more than a few bullets for what he’d done last time in the Bay.

“Ah yes, your little minions,” Mark muttered giving him a look. “I haven’t forgot what I owe them either,” he added.

Roman nodded and forced himself to sit back down despite wanting to smack the other man about until his face fell off.

“They are their own men Mark, with more up to date training than you or I combined.  Ella set them up with their own outfit after they came out of the Army.” He knew that he wasn’t giving out any information that Mark couldn’t find out on his own but even so he felt a strange sense of betrayal in telling the other man about Jacko, Pete, and James’s business.

“But still come running when you click your fingers, what do you have on them?”

“Have on them?”

“Sure, something you know about them they wouldn’t want coming out, something like that,” Mark sneered.

Roman shook his head, “If they help me out it isn’t because I blackmail them. Think you are confusing me with Gardy there.  Jacko, Pete and James have been around us for so long they are considered part of the family.  You know how families go, they do things for each other with barely an ask. Oh, sorry…” Roman pinned a contrite look on his face as though he regretted the reference to Mark’s brother Elliot.

“Yeah, sure.” Mark muttered draining his beer as he shot hate filled looks at Roman.

“Well this has been fun but I’ve got the kids tomorrow so I’m going to head to bed.” Roman stretched as he stood up. He paused for a moment before stepping over to the dining table one hand outstretched in front of him as though to guide him as he placed his bottle on there.  He turned in a full circle and paced slowly to the stairs letting his feet shuffle on the floor before he got through the door. He didn’t need his performance to be Oscar worthy he just wanted to convince Mark he was still blind.

Staggering he made it to the stairs and slowly walked up them and into his room. Collapsing tiredly on to the bed he closed his eyes and slipped into sleep. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike wasn’t expecting the car to swerve into him. He felt the impact first before registering the breaking sound of glass and the strange sound of metal colliding and crumpling in on itself. The momentum of the crash had him propel forward with enough force to cause his brain to slam into the front of his skull causing immediate bleeding.  His neck snapped, the tendons stretching almost to breaking point before his head landed on to the airbag. He bounced one, twice and then landed again. He blinked against the 101 and different messages his body was sending him, from the pain in his knees from hitting the dashboard, one ankle twisting and then snapping as he tried to slam on the brakes and his foot became entangled with the pedal.  Turning his head he saw the undamaged back door being yanked open and a dark figure grab hold of his sister, Meggy.  She was barely conscious as he undid the seatbelt and dragged her out of the car.  Forcing himself to focus he looked at the others in the car, Sammy was unconscious.  Lily, Liam, the twins… he tried to reach for them over the seat, tried to say something to stop Meggy being taken but as he opened his mouth a trickle of blood ran down his chin and he too collapsed into unconsciousness.

 

 

 

 

Ella walked into the hospital and over to where Roman was lifting her hand she slapped him hard around his face and knew from his expression that he was expecting it.

“You promised me,” she hissed at him.  “You promised that the children would be safe.”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “This wasn’t Mark.”

She gave him a look, “who?”

“William Gardner,” he admitted in a shocked sounding voice. “He drove the car into the side of ours. Mike was driving. He was taking everyone to school.”

“Sophie? Georgie? Were they…”

“No, the older twins were on a study day at home. It was just… the younger ones and…” his voice broke as he tried to explain and she could see him shaking.  A part of her that was angry at him wanted him to feel pain for what happened, what he indirectly caused but she was also to blame too. She could have told someone about Gardy back in the day and maybe forestalled this.  Still, these were her babies. She’d gone to hell to bring them into the world.

“What are you telling me Roman?” She knew her use of his name would break through the shock he was in.  Just as he used Elizabeth to get through to her.

“Liam, Lily, the younger twins.”

She read the truth in his face, her babies were gone. They were dead. But still she needed him to say the words.

“Roman,” she prompted.

“They are dead. He killed them.  He killed our babies,” Roman finally broke down. His head was lowered and he was shaking as he reached blindly for her.  She sidestepped his outstretched hand.

“Where are they?”

Taken aback by her tone, he nodded once and moved with her over to the reception desk before guiding her down the long corridor and back stairs to the morgue.  The staff there jumped up ready to help but Ella walked past them and into the back room. She looked at the slabs set out, and moved over to the first table drawing back the draped white sheet.

Fleur looked so still and pale on the silver table. She’d never smile that cheeky smile again. Ella reached down and took her small hand within her own and looked down, seeing the small hairband on her wrist, purple because that was her favourite colour. Her fingers traced the fabric of the hair tie, a solution for her teachers because they couldn’t tell her wonderful twins apart.  Turning around she pulled the sheet away from the next table and looked down at August. Her precious bundle, rescued from her kidnapper only to go through trauma like this. She moved her hand down to touch the pink hair band on her wrist.  The girls had only just realised that if they swapped them then they could get out of lessons they didn’t like.

“El,” Roman said quietly.

“I need to see them,” she replied.

News of the crash had reached her an hour after it happened and then even longer before James had managed to bring her home. Roman had by then dealt with it, arranged for Sammy to be transferred to the city where he was undergoing emergency surgery and Mike was somewhere awaiting more scans and tests.

Pulling the third sheet towards her she slowly revealed Lily’s body, her heart breaking at the loss of another child.  Her fiery child was so still, so silent.

Finally she pulled back the final sheet and saw Liam, her little prince Liam. Her special child and all the control she had was now broken by the sight of her precious boy and she lifted him from the mortuary slab cradling him to her as she sank to the floor and sobbed. Looking up at Roman she saw his tears and held out a hand to him.

He moved to her side sinking down next to her and holding on to her and their dead son for as long as he could. They cried together despite the fact that she wasn’t ever going to forgive him for this.

“He has Meggy,” he finally told her.

“You promised me Roman, you broke your promise to me,” she stuttered.

“I know,” he said in a broken voice.

“We can’t ever be together again,” she said slowly. “Not now, not after this.”

“I know that too.”

She nodded and looked down at Liam as though her tears could have healed him somehow. Roman stood slowly and eased her to her feet before taking Liam from her and placing him back on the slab. She watched as he pulled the sheets up covering each of their children reverently like he was tucking them in for the night before guiding her back through the hospital and over to where Mike was. 

[TelephotoMarigold]

 

Chapter 31

 

Roman woke up alone in the dark, his heart pounding in his chest.  He shook his head as the dream slowly receded and reached blindly for the burner phone that Jacko had provided for him.  Dialling the number from memory he called James and waited precious moments for the call to connect before hearing James’s voice through the speaker.

“Funny you should call, Ella’s crying and I can’t get a word out of her,” James said instead of the usual greeting.

“Hand the phone over,” Roman instructed.

“Hang on.”  There was some fumbling as the phone must have been handed over.

“Roman,” she sobbed.

“I dreamt it too,” he said to her his voice sounding shaken to his own ears.

“You have to stop it, please don’t let it happen … I can’t… not…”

“I know Ella, I know. I’ll stop it I promise.  I’m heading to Mike now to stop him from driving tomorrow, well today.  I’ll tell James to bring you back.”

“Roman,” she sobbed.

“El please, please,” he gasped out the dream still vivid in his head.  Sammy injured, Mike paralysed with brain damage. Lily, Liam and the twins dead.  His hands shook as he remembered the fragment from his dream where he’d drawn the white sheets over their still cold bodies.

“Meggy,” she gasped out.

“Meggy is fine, I’m heading for her now.”

“Roman he’s going after Meggy. He’s not going to stop.”

“El,” he moaned feeling sick.

“We … have to protect her.”

“I know,” he began to drag on his clothes feeling his hands shaking and hearing the muffled sobs from his wife wasn’t doing anything to calm him down.  They could take anything, he and El, that had been proved time and time again but losing their children was something they wouldn’t survive.  She’d forgiven him everything over the years but if anything happened to them she would die of grief. Hadn’t he seen that after losing their first baby? After losing Francesca?

“Roman,” James came on the call.

“Pretty crazy, huh?” Roman found himself saying.

“You both dreamt the children dying?”

“Yeah,” Roman admitted.

“I can’t… I was here and I saw her but I still don’t know if I believe it…”

“Sophie and Georgie are on a study day tomorrow and Mike was due to drive the others to school.”

“That is exactly what Ella just told me once she’d calmed down. How could she know that Roman? How the hell could she know that? Or that William is back? We didn’t tell her!”

“If I wasn’t so shocked myself I would laugh at you for all the times you picked on me when I told you my wife was a witch.  She has a connection with each of the kids.”

“And you,” James muttered.

Roman could imagine the other man rubbing a hand over his face as he absorbed the information before running that same hand through his hair. He could imagine the shocked look on his face and smiled grimly.

“Yeah, we have a connection too,” he admitted. “This isn’t the first time that we’ve dreamt together. The night Sophie and Georgie were born.  I was in Afghanistan but mate I swear it was like I was next to her.”

“I… we just had no clue. This is like…” James trailed off and suddenly Ella came on the phone.

“I need to speak to Mike,” she announced.

“Soon, I’m just heading home now.”

“Roman it can’t happen…. It just can’t…” her voice broke.

“I won’t let it,” he cried out as he ran down the stairs and out the door. The sky was just starting to light up in the pre-dawn. He didn’t have a car with him, maintaining the ruse of being blind and he cursed before starting to jog towards Charlie’s place where he could get hold of Pete.  It was the quicker of the options open to him and he cursed when he felt the tug of the unexpected exercise on his un-warmed up muscles.

“Where are you?”

“I was at my house last night,” he said knowing that his breathlessness was coming through the call.

“You… what…”

He heard her panic coming through the phone and silently cursed inside his head.

“I’m on my way to get Pete and then we’re…” he missed his step as he focused on the call and tripped over his feet, falling face first down on to the road, his head smashing into the tarmac. He felt blackness descending as he struggled against unconsciousness and tried to focus on Ella’s voice through the phone. There wasn’t time for this, he thought with a groan even as he sank down into the darkness.

“Roman, Roman….” Ella called out sounding panicked.

 

 

 

 

Mike turned off the alarm and climbed out of bed careful not to disturb Danni beside him. The two of them had moved temporarily into the main house to be nearer the kids for when Roman wasn’t around. Not that he approved of his plan to keep Ella out of town for so long. The kids missed their mother and he knew that she did too.  Heading into the shower he quickly washed up before grabbing a shave and then dressing.  He chose smart trousers and a plain shirt liking how he’d adopted his own form of a uniform for work.  Thanks to his mother he had an appreciation for clothes, avoiding cheap materials and lower quality items instead opting for well-known brands. After dressing he added a black leather belt through the loops of the trousers, a handkerchief in his pocket along with wallet, phone and keys.  A glance at his designer watch confirmed that he’d taken exactly half an hour to get ready and he made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen where he brewed a pot of coffee and began sorting out breakfast.  Toast and cereal for them all.

When he’d been at home his mother had sometimes managed cheese on toast for breakfast or eggs on toast as a treat, but more often than not two blackened things would be littered somewhere in the kitchen as she tried to stop the smoke alarm from going off. That was when he’d challenged her to undertake the cordon bleu cooking course run by her godfather, Harry.  The first few meals she’d brought home had looked impressive but tasted foul.

After that she got determined to learn how to cook and banned takeaway for three months. She’d bought basic cooking cook books and poured through them trying recipe after recipe before attending the course again.  Surprisingly she passed it and although takeaways were reintroduced into their diet she did occasionally enjoy cooking.  Even if sometimes a blackened unidentifiable object ended up in the bin at the end of it.

“Morning,” Sammy called as he reached the table and grabbed toast for himself.

“Where’s Marcus?”

“He’s not well,” Sammy frowned. “Think he’s missing Mum,” he added with a shrug.

“We all are,” Mike murmured quietly.

“Even you?”

“Even me,” Mike confirmed grinning at his brother’s shocked expression.

“Cool,” Sammy grinned.

“I’m going to go get the twins sorted out,” he murmured heading for the stairs.

“Don’t forget….”

“I know the hairbands on their wrists so their teacher can tell them apart. I bet they didn’t have a problem with Sophie and Georgie,” Mike murmured hearing his brother laugh at the joke as he walked out of the room and up the stairs.

 

 

 

Roman walked in through the front door, a towel pressed against the bleeding cut on his forehead.

“Dad…what…”

“I tripped as I was running,” He quickly explained to Sammy. “Has your mum called Mike?”

“No… I don’t think so he’s with the twins,” Sammy looked puzzled as he ate his toast.

“I’ll call James and tell him we’re here and everything is okay,” Pete announced from the doorway.

Roman nodded and cursed under his breath as he felt the sting of the gash on his head again. He looked at Sammy and grinned.

“We’re declaring a snow day,” he announced.

“But school…” Sammy groaned as he heard Meggy laughing from the hallway before she joined him at the table.

“It’s the parents, they are being weird and oh my god you are bleeding…” she gasped as she saw her Dad.

“Go get the mirror off your Mum’s dressing table,” he instructed her watching as she nodded and sprinted out of the room.

“What’s going on?” Sophie asked having come down the stairs passing Meggy on the way.

“Haven’t got a clue,” Sammy called out before sitting back at the table and eating his toast again.

“It’s a snow day,” Roman murmured.

“So…. Does that mean I don’t have to do study?”

“Sit down,” Roman gestured to the table watching as Sophie daintily sat too.  He moved into the pantry and drew out the first aid kit he kept in there. The general one was in a kitchen cupboard but this one was similar to what he would have carried in his pack when he was in the army and he sighed as he opened it clumsily using only one hand, the other being used to apply pressure to the cut on his head.

“Spoke to James they are about halfway here,” Pete announced shutting the front door behind him before moving over to help him with the kit. “Wish you’d let me get you checked out, get Aden here at least,” Pete muttered.

“I’m fine, just a touch of a headache.” He said as Pete frowned at him.  “Besides if you weren’t a ‘morning man’ we would have been here sooner….” He added chuckling as Pete blushed.

“huh like we haven’t heard you and….” Pete began before noticing the children present and listening intently to their conversation.

“Does that mean Mum is coming home?” Sophie picked up on.

“She’s Ella’s kid alright,” Pete muttered moving away as Meggy arrived in the kitchen and handed her dad the Mirror.

Roman used it to check the cut on his head before he gave the mirror back to her. “Hold it just there,” he murmured checking the angle.  He washed his hands and donned surgical gloves before taking out a surgical needle and thread.

“Er Dad I think I’m going to …”

“Pete,” Roman murmured watching as Meggy disappeared and Pete took over the mirror holding duties.

He cleaned the wound and pressed the edges of the cut together before administering three stitches to keep the edges together. From there he placed a plaster over the top and put the whole kit away before stripping off the gloves and cleaning up.

“Dad just sowed his head up,” Sammy called out to Georgie as he surfaced in the dining room.

“What?”

“It was gross and apparently we are all having the day off school,” Meggy muttered looking pale.

“What?” Georgie said again before grabbing a seat and looking around the others.

“Snow day,” Roman called out before he too sat at the table.

“Mum is coming home,” Sophie said excitedly.

“Okay, I clearly woke up in a parallel dimension where my Dad is a doctor and Meggy looks like she wants to go to school…”

“God no!” Meggy stuttered glaring at them all as they laughed at her.

Roman looked up as he heard Mike bringing the children down and he quickly moved over to where the twins were, hugging them tightly even as they squirmed in his hold.  Lily and Liam were next to get the same treatment.

“Love you too Dada, but you’s squishing me,” Liam muttered squirming out of his grasp.

“Dad what is it?” Mike said giving him a concerned look.

Roman nodded once and stood up turning away from them as he wiped away his tears. He swallowed the emotional lump in his throat not surprised it was taking time to clear.

“Your Mum and I just needed to see the kids today, call Miles and tell him you can’t go in.”

“Dad?”

“Just do it Mike, doesn’t look like I’m getting to go to school either,” Sammy called out.

“Are we all sick like Marcus?” Lily muttered slowly offering her dad a sly look.

“No, just … need to have a snow day,” Roman murmured.

He guided the younger ones to the table and helped them into their seats, making it seem routine as he organised breakfast, noticing of course that Pete had guided Mike away and explained the situation to him.

What could he say, using a dream for guidance seemed insane but there were other times he and Ella had similar experiences. Or at least Ella did, remembering her getting them to the beach when Danni had been in danger of drowning or the way she’d felt pain when Lily had fallen and broken her arm. 

Then again how many times had he sensed when there was a sniper out there with him on a mission or just known where to look.  Of course he’d often put it down to just training but just thinking about the connection he had with his wife, a connection that drew them back together time and time again.

Even now he turned his head and looked at the door as it opened and Ella walked in. She burst into noisy sobs again and ran over to his side clinging to him as she cried.

“They are fine,” he murmured to reassure her.

She eased back after a time and nodded before going over and hugging each of the children in turn including Mike, which was followed by her hugging the younger children again, for even longer this time as she reacquainted herself with them and reassured herself that they were fine.

“See, told you that we’d been replaced,” Sophie murmured to Meggy smirking as Ella flushed at the comment.

“No, no…” Ella began before lapsing into silence and sinking into a chair next to them.

“Ella?” Marcus called from the doorway choosing that moment to come down the stairs.

“Hey,” she called back grinning as he ran over to her.

“So yeah, let’s get some food sorted. I think I need to cook,” Roman murmured heading into the kitchen and opening the fridge.  He blinked a couple of times as though to clear his sight before he collapsed on to the floor unconscious.

“Roman, Roman…” Ella cried out rushing to his side.

He didn’t hear her, didn’t feel the coolness of her hand on his head as she touched him carefully.

“I’m calling…” Mike began reaching for his phone.

Pete swore, “I knew he should have seen a doctor.”

“Is that because he hit his head?” Sammy was asking.

The panicked voices continued as he lay there. When he came too he was in hospital, lying stretched out on another uncomfortable hospital bed. His head was throbbing and a drumming pain was behind his eyes. As he opened his eyes he groaned with relief at seeing Ella beside the bed.  At being able to see.

“Please stop scaring me like this,” she moaned before resting her head on top of him and sobbing.

“Had to get to the kids,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“They redid your stitches. Aden will be having words apparently,” she murmured when she was in better control of herself.

“Kids?”

“All okay,” she began and a note in her voice alerted him to something.

“What?” he muttered.

“Meggy found out about William being back, she wants to do a DNA test,” Ella cried out.

“It will put her mind at rest,” he said slowly.

“And ours?”

“No, she’s mine. She’s 100% mine,” he growled out.

Ella drew away from him and smirked at the possessive note he knew had entered his voice.

“Okay dear,” she said patting his hand.

“When can I go home?”

“I think you need to ask the doctor,” she murmured grinning at his discomfort.

“Woman!” he grouched before smiling as she leaned over and kissed him.

“You scared us all,” she murmured.

“So you aren’t killing me just yet then?”

“No,” she said slowly, rolling her eyes at him. “Not yet anyways,” she added.

“Did Mike stay home?”

“They all did. We got the ambulance for you just in case,” she admitted biting on her bottom lip.

Did she really not realise what that did to him he thought with a muffled groan.  How he’d catch himself sucking on her lip as they kissed, biting it just like she did. Tasting her lips. Dammit, he thought with another groan, what was he turning himself on like this when there was other stuff to worry about.  Sitting up in the bed he looked around the room and then at the drip attached to his arm.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Aden muttered from the doorway.

“I’m fine, I need to …”

“Let me be the judge of that as I’m the doctor. Despite your apparent need to sow yourself up.”

He found his cheeks warming as he must have blushed under the glare from both Ella and Aden and decided it was best to keep quiet.  He underwent the ministrations of Aden as he was checked over again and then the drip was taken out and he was allowed up.  He dressed slowly, grateful that someone had the presence of mind to get him clean clothes, in her panic over the children Ella had ignored the blood stains on his shirt stemming from the cut on his head but he knew that she still had a phobia over it.

“Set?”

“Yeah,” he nodded.

Ella led him out of the hospital via the back entrance and once inside the car she set off home. Her hands seemed nervous on the wheel he noticed and thought to who was out there to get them. William, a self-trained sniper who’d stolen their babies and then shot them before he’d disappeared.  She’d had to ‘bury’ him unaware that he was in Witness Protection.

“Are you okay?” She murmured probably noticing that he was lost in thought.

“I’m not going to let him near my family,” he muttered rubbing his hands down his trouser legs to dry his suddenly sweaty palms.

“William or Mark?”

“William,” Roman growled out, “Mark I can handle.”

“And you can’t handle William?”

“He wants something different to Mark.”

“Roman, please….” She gave a gasp and shot a look at him even as she drove inside their gates. He watched as she hit the button on the remote and the gates slid shut behind them before she parked the car.

“What do you want?” He found himself asking her.

“I want to be involved. I want to... be here and help,” she murmured.

“I can’t send you away again,” he admitted rubbing a hand over his face.

“Then you’ll accept my help?”

He knew that he had a pained expression on his face, “Do I have a choice?”

She shook her head at him as she climbed out of the car and moved into the house with him following on slowly.  

[TelephotoMarigold]

 

 Chapter 32

 

 

In the safe house Mark had rented privately so they would be off the grid, although dive was more like it, he looked over at William and smiled slowly.  The other man was sitting on a hard chair opposite him and drinking whiskey like it was going to run out at any moment, slurring his words as he outlined his latest plan.  It would have been so easy, he’d muttered explaining that he’d intended to run them off the road and snatch Meggy.

There was a draft that blew through the house which Mark suspected was due to the rotten windows and tonight as a sharp breeze came off the sea it was rocking the single lightbulb that lit the room.  Shadows crept around the room darkening corners and adding light and shade to the man sitting across from him.  Knowing that Gardy was dead and yet seemed to be sitting in front of him was a surreal experience. He knew what Hardcore must have gone through when looking at him for the first time.  No wonder he thought he was seeing a ghost.

“You do know that she’s not your brother’s brat don’t you?” Mark found himself asking.

He was beginning to lose his patience for the other man; not liking his one-track obsession for the kid.

“She’s his alright. He took the mother hostage and then nine months later little Meggy popped out,” William slurred.

“I see,” Mark gave a half shake of his head. “Tomorrow you need to keep a watch on the house,” he instructed.

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to be off making a little deal,” Mark said.

“Something I need to know?”

“Just picking up some more weapons. Tell me William, when you went after Hardcore what….”

“Did I do to them?”

“Yeah,” Mark reached for the bottle and took a drink from it feeling the heat of the alcohol burn down his throat.

“Took the brats.  Messed with their heads. Then I killed him. Pity he didn’t stay dead.” William pinned him with his gaze.

“That seems to happen a lot. From what I heard he went into Witness Protection,” Mark drawled.

“What’s your plan?”

“I’m not after the kids,” Mark began.

“Then you miss out on Hardcore’s weakness,” William shot back at him. “His family is his weakness, especially with his wife out of the way,” he muttered snatching the bottle back.

“I ain’t killing kids,” Mark muttered.

“Don’t have to kill ‘em, just threaten them a little.”

Mark glared at the other man before grimacing. It was true; he could push Hardcore’s buttons with a threat to the kids.

William continued talking even whilst he was lost in thought, “Last time I put a bomb in their car. Made it go off just before they got into it.  Scared the crap out of them.”

“You are sick my friend,” Mark found himself saying as he took another drink.

“Not as sick as my brother,” William drawled with an exaggerated accent.

“Now he was sick.”

Mark thought back to some of the things he’d seen Gardy do.  The story that Hardcore had told him made a strange kind of sense when he considered it after all hadn’t he seen Gardy get off on torturing woman personally? If Ella had been having an affair with Gardy then why did she end up marrying Hardcore?  Not only once but many times?  He laughed as he thought about the collection of wedding dresses she must have stashed away somewhere.  The one he’d seen her wear in Hawaii was designer, having been following her when she walked into the boutique to buy it.

Maybe his focus should change he thought looking around the condemned building he was currently in and go after some of the money. 

“He did it you know,” William said with a slight slur to his words, “He kidnapped her and …”

“Raped her?”

“Yeah, Meggy is my brother’s kid. Sure of it.”

“So if you know Gardy wasn’t innocent why do you want…”

“Revenge?”

“Well yes, mate it don’t make sense. Gardy was sick freak. He lied and used people.”

“Doesn’t matter what he did in the end he was still my brother and he didn’t deserve to die,” William muttered leaning forward in his chair as though to emphasise the point.

“Maybe he did,” Mark groaned. “He left me in some prison taking the rap for what he did.”

“He….”

“Nah mate, Gardy was a freak,” Mark insisted.

The harsh yellow glow from a cheap lightbulb, the room’s only source of light, added planes of light and shade to their faces as they looked at one another.

“My wife and kid died. I want Meggy.”

Mark stifled a laugh, “Why not just get married again?”

“No-one like my Rebecca,” William fell back in his seat releasing a small puff of dust from the cushions as he did so.

“My wife had a kid with someone else,” Mark groaned.

“What?”

“Kid is blond with blue eyes. Born a few years after my death. Guess we know who the Daddy is, eh.”

“How many kids is that now?”

“She was pregnant when I had to go back to Afghanistan.  I didn’t want to go, tried to get it stopped but their unit had lost someone and they needed a replacement.”

William remained silent as he recounted the details of his shooting and how he’d ended up with Gardy. The whiskey lubricated his memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roman watched his kids with Ella. He was happy she was back and at the same time terrified.  If he lost her again then he had no idea how he’d cope not after going through witness protection and then the divorce. As if she could read his thoughts she looked over at him and smiled. 

“Dad,” Mike murmured from beside him.

“I can’t lose anyone Mike,” he said quietly. “Not again. I’m not strong enough….”

Mike nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We won’t let it happen.”

He nodded like he believed him before glancing around the lounge.  Because of the building work all the ornaments and pictures had been packed away giving the room a bare look.  They had yet to use the new rooms and the kitchen was still unfinished. 

“It’s time to do them some food,” Ella said moving over to his side.

“What? Cook?” Roman murmured glancing at the younger children. “Can’t we just order pizza?”

“Daddy,” Meggy groaned as she glanced at him from the table where she was sitting doing homework.

“I didn’t marry you again just to keep ordering pizza you know,” Ella murmured.

Roman gave her a look before glaring at Danni who was sitting the other side of the room and had giggled at them.

“Come on.” He reached out and tugged on her hand pulling her into the kitchen.  “So what do you fancy?”

He heard her snigger even as she opened the fridge and looked inside. “There is plenty of salad stuff in here.”

“How are we for peppers? I could stuff them and …” Roman stopped and looked at Ella as they heard the gatebell go.

“I’ll get it,” Mike called out.

“Mike…”

“I doubt Mark would announce his presence at the gate,” Ella pointed out.

“Still,” Roman bit the inside of his mouth to stop himself from saying anything else. The kids were within earshot and Ella, he had to protect her.  He found his hands curling into fists as the gatebell went again.

Ella nodded at Mike and he moved to the door and out of it.

“El,” Roman began also walking to the door feeling Ella step up behind him but remaining out of the line of sight. Not that the news that she was actually alive not somehow get to Mark.

“Not everything is going to be them,” she pointed out.

“No, but…” he trailed off as he saw Mike walking towards the house with two people following behind him.  Recognition held him still and he shot a horrified look to Ella.

“Mum, Dad,” Mike said as he reached them.

“Catherine,” he said feeling his breath leaving him in a tortured sigh. His gaze went to the boy standing next to her. His son. There was no mistaking the resemblance between them.

“Roman,” Ella muttered stepping forward.

“This is…” he paused and urged her not to well divorce and killing him were vying for equal dominance in his head.

“Mark’s wife,” she finished for him.

“Yes,” he said just as they reached the front veranda. 

“Better go see if you have the ingredients for a cheesecake,” she hissed at him before pinning a neutral expression on her face.

“Roman,” Catherine said as she reached his side. “After Jacko’s visit I… thought it was time you met.”

“Jacko,” Roman muttered under his breath at the same time as Ella stepped forward.

“I’m Ella, Roman’s wife.”

“Hello,” Catherine murmured, her eyes flicking to her son.

“Won’t you come in?” Again Ella took control of the situation and he was grateful because he’d never expected this day to happen.  Unlike when Marcus had appeared in their lives and he’d wanted to get to know him this other boy was different.  He didn’t want him here. Didn’t want him to meet the family. Didn’t want Ella to like him.  Not that Ella wouldn’t like him; she was that sort of person. All of which made it impossible for him not to welcome them into their home.

Even as they came inside Ella guided them all into the study away from prying eyes.

“Would you like a drink?” Roman found himself asking them.

“Coffee,” Catherine instructed him or at least that was what it sounded like. He looked at Ella and saw from the minute flicker of her eyes as she met his gaze that she’d picked up on the same thing he had. Lowering his head slightly before turning to the boy he found his mouth drying up.

“Can I get a soda or something,” the boy muttered.

“I’ll sort out drinks,” Mike was saying.

“No, it’s okay,” Roman eased out of the room and to the kitchen leaving Mike no choice but to follow and leaving Ella alone with them and even though she’d hate that he’d done that she’d know that he needed the time it took to make the drinks to get himself together.

“Dad?”  Mike asked giving him a pitying look.

“Order food for the kids,” Roman instructed, “Keep them occupied if you can. We need to…” His eyes strayed to the closed study door and he frowned.

“She’s nothing like Mum.”

Roman’s gaze shot to him and he found himself unable to talk just nodded redundantly.

“Were you expecting her to be?” He said finally.

“Maybe, I mean for you to go against…”

“Go against?”

“Come on; tell me you never expected to see Mum again? You and her….”

“It wasn’t a choice between Catherine and your mother, Mike.”

“Seems like it was, surely you knew if this …”

“What?” Sammy gasped as they both looked at him.

“We’ll finish this discussion later,” Roman announced taking the drinks through to the study where the others were waiting. Placing the tray down on the coffee table placed between the sofa and the armchair he met Ella’s gaze and tried to smile.  This wasn’t what he wanted and he wondered if the past ever really stayed buried.

“Here,” Ella stepped forward from her place next to her desk and poured out the drinks placing the cup in front of Catherine before offering her the jug with the milk in. 

Roman watched as Catherine added milk and then a cube of sugar before fastidiously stirring the cup. She tapped the spoon on the side of the china cup when she’d finished before it clattered against the saucer.  He picked up every nuance of her movements in the few seconds it took before looking over at Ella.  His wife had poured out a coffee for herself and placed the cup on the desk before she pulled out the chair and sat down, one leg crossing over the other.

There was nothing fussy about Ella’s movements, nothing contrived. She was naturally graceful and he found himself smiling as he added the caveat inside his head, even when she managed to trip over her own feet.

“What is your name?”

“Jason,” the boy answered sullenly as he sipped from the can, forgoing the glass that Roman had placed on the tray for his soda.  He saw Ella’s eyebrow twitch as she tried not to display any emotion but he could read her mind.  Gabby, Sophie and Meggy had their stroppy moments and up until now he put that down to Ella’s genetics, ignoring Nic of course.

“So Jacko visited you I believe,” Ella murmured in that prissy accent of hers. Roman hid his smile as he glanced at his wife before looking back at Catherine. 

“Yes he imitated that you would pursue…”

“Pursue?” Roman prompted.

 “Custody,” Catherine muttered.

“On the contrary,” Ella began, “with all due respect to Jason I believe that the agreement you had with my husband was that he was not to have contact with the child.”

Roman glanced at his wife and smiled briefly.

“We haven’t even told our children about you Jason, we were respecting the agreement we had with your mother,” he said smoothly despite the emotions churning inside of him, “Obviously should you have one day decided to track us down we would naturally have welcomed you.”

He caught Ella leaning forward from the corner of his eye and he turned his head to look at her.

“I’m sure that you are feeling overwhelmed right now, perhaps in a day or so you and your mother could join us for dinner and meet us properly,” she suggested.

He picked up on the cues from her and stood up slowly from his seat watching as Jason stood up too. Catherine of course remained where she was and he almost grimaced before Jason spoke quietly.

“Could I use your bathroom,” he murmured still using a sullen tone of voice.

“Roman,” Ella prompted.

He nodded and eased out of the room showing Jason where the main bathroom was before re-joining Ella and Catherine.  There was no contest between the two women; Ella was beautiful from the tips of her candy-floss pink painted toenails to the top of her head. When she smiled it felt like it was illuminating something inside of him.

Catherine on the other hand was serious looking, pristine and untouchable.

“So what is the real reason you are here Catherine?” He asked her.

“What?” she gave a shocked sounding little gasp.

“There is no way Jacko would have said anything about custody. Obviously you want something.”

“My son to meet his father,” Catherine muttered.

Roman couldn’t work out verbal clues from the other woman, it had been too long since he’d had anything to do with her and a large part of him wanted to deny that he was anything to do with the sullen teenager.

“Then perhaps you should have made other arrangements apart from turning up here,” he found himself saying.

Ella narrowed her eyes before speaking again, “Money,” she murmured standing and moving to Roman’s side.

“Money?”

“She wants money.  The pension from Mark would have stopped. She’s wearing designer shoes but the handbag is chain store. New, but chain store.”

Catherine shot to her feet, dislodging the cup from her lap. The contents spilled over the cream carpet but she didn’t even look at it as she gave another little gasp, “What?”

“Is that it Catherine? I don’t have the paperwork here but we agreed no financial settlement,” Roman muttered.

Ella placed her hand within his and he gave her a smile of gratitude in return.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Catherine muttered giving them a glare.

Jason chose that moment to re-enter the study taking in the scene before him before he gave his mother a look.

“Let’s go,” he said to her.

“Jason,” she protested.

“What? Come on,” he turned and headed to the door.

“Roman,” Ella prompted softly.

He nodded knowing what she was thinking and moved quickly to Jason’s side.  “things aren’t good at the moment but give us a chance,” he began. “We’d like to get to know you.” He lied hoping his revulsion wasn’t showing on his face.

“Let’s go,” Jason said again walking out the door ahead of his mother. Catherine shot them a look before she followed walking up the driveway in her expensive shoes.

“I’ll go let her out,” Mike called from just behind them.

Roman nodded stepping aside to allow his son to slip out the door and head over to the gate.

“That was interesting,” Ella murmured.

“I…”

She looked at him, “She blackmailed you obviously, my question is, are you going to let the boy suffer for it?”

“Ella? What…” he couldn’t help the puzzled look on his face as he thought about the all the nuances of the conversation they’d just had with Catherine and he turned to Ella before walking into the study and he didn’t have to look behind him to know that Ella had followed. “Blackmailed?” he asked her.

“Roman whatever you were going through actually donating and bringing a child into this world where you agreed to take no active role? After missing out on Nic?”

“I… “ he paused and looked down before collecting the dropped cup, checking the china to make sure that it was undamaged. Placing everything on the tray he stopped and looked down to his scared knuckles.  “I didn’t think that I was ever going to see you again,” he said slowly.

“I’m not an issue,” she muttered folding her arms across herself.

“Yes you are, I saw you with someone and …” he closed his eyes remembering the scene and how he was too scared to go over to her. Too… his eyes shot open when she pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

“You were broken,” she whispered.

“I was,” he gasped out.

“I understand now. And she makes sense. You were trying to fix things.”

“Was that what it was El?”

She nodded at him before putting her arms around and holding him. He felt the pounding of his own heart and tried to stem all the memories rushing through him.

“You don’t want anything to do with that boy do you Roman? But you know you are going to have to step up. He can’t just have this mess dumped on him and not get any support,” she said quietly.

“Will I lose you?”

“No, my soulmate, no,” she kissed him again before a knock sounded at the door and Mike peered around the edge of it.

“Pizza is here,” he murmured.

“About time,” Ella eased away from him and moved through the house to where the food was. He followed her at a slower pace watching the children for precious moments before joining them. 

[TelephotoMarigold]

Chapter 33

 

Roman awoke slowly the remains of a bad dream luring him away to depression land he thought with a wry humour before getting out of bed and stretching.   He took his time to stretch letting the kinks out of his back, letting himself feel slightly ready for the day ahead as he moved into the en suite and took a long hot shower.  Wherever Ella had slept he didn’t know but he guessed that she would have been in the children’s room somewhere.

It had felt strange not to have her in his arms as they slept but after finally getting the younger children settled, the older children had wanted explanations as to who Jason was and just what he was playing at, to quote Georgie, he’d fallen deep asleep worn out by everything that had happened. 

Blinking at his reflection in the mirror he tried to tell himself not to panic at his blurred sight.  The head injury yesterday had resulted in concussion and it was not a return to the dark world he’d been in when he lost his sight before. Still he decided not to bother shaving and risk dragging a razor over his face when he could barely see.

As he dragged on clean clothes he wondered about the new bedroom at the other end of the house.  He hadn’t had a chance to go and look at it yet or alone discuss with Ella how they were to decorate it but then again maybe after dumping her into this mess he didn’t have a right to plan a future with Ella.  Already he’d let her down, hurt the kids and messed up. What kind of husband and father was he?

Feeling himself sigh he walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs. The older kids were seated around the table with their schoolbooks in front of them. He almost flinched as they all turned and looked at him at the same time.

“So you’re up then,” Meggy muttered at him.

“I am,” Roman nodded and then silently cursed as he felt his head throb in response. Concussion was never fun, he mocked himself as he walked into the kitchen and began to search for tablets and coffee.

“Mum has taken the little ones to school but we have to stay home,” Sammy said an accusing note in his voice.

“Well that’s good that some kind of routine …” Roman said trailing off as he managed to miss his cup and pour coffee over his hand.

“Dad what…” Sophie was standing in the archway between the kitchen and dining room watching him. “Here let me,” she muttered coming over and taking the coffee pot away from him.

“I’ve just got a headache,” he said quietly.

“I’m sure,” Sophie replied giving him the same disbelieving look that her mother would.

He smiled slowly hoping that he didn’t look as rough as he felt. He was no position to do anything right now, not even protect his family he thought with a groan.

Accepting the cup from Sophie he used the hot liquid to swallow the tablets knowing that she was looking at him with concern.

“I’m okay Princess, just got myself a killer headache from yesterday.”

She uttered a muffled word he suspected that Ella would ground her for before stomping into the dining room and sitting back at the table.

“Any idea when your Mother will be back?”

“No,” Georgie’s voice was curt.

“Any idea …”

“No,” Georgie muttered again cutting him off.

If Ella were there she’d give him that look, the smug all-knowing kind because after spending time with his family she knew that Georgie was just like him.  Taking a long drink from the cup he grinned.

“….what time the tides are for a quick surf,” he murmured, “but hey if you don’t want to go.”

Georgie muttered something suspiciously sounding like the swearword Sophie had just said under her breath and again he grinned before moving to the table and sitting with them.

“Dad,” Sam began.

“I don’t know kids. I don’t have a plan. I never… foresaw William coming back,” he admitted.

“So you’re going to come up with a plan though aren’t you? Mum can’t lose the twins again…”

Meggy looked up from her books and glanced around at everyone, “He’s not after the twins is he Dad?”

“William isn’t no,” Roman bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from crying out at the expression on his precious daughter’s face.

“What… oh,” Sophie reached out and caught hold of Meggy’s hand. “no,” she muttered sounding as fierce as her mother. “He isn’t going…”

“It’s okay,” Meggy sounded sad, “He won’t get me but…” she bit her lip as she looked at them. “I want to do a DNA test.”

“You’re Daddy’s,” Sammy insisted.

“You’ve got our eyes,” Georgie added quickly.

“I know, but.. I want to have that piece of paper.”

“Dad she can’t…”

“Sophie, kids,” he took a breath and looked at them. “When Meggy was born I had Jacko prepare fake DNA results stating I was her father. It didn’t matter to me but I knew that if she was Gardy’s then, well it would hurt your Mum.  I know that it was wrong. I wanted to protect everyone.”

“The way you couldn’t protect Mum when the bad man had her?” Georgie guessed giving looks to each of his siblings in turn.

“Exactly.  Only your Mum surprised me and when she had a check-up she collected the real results from Rachel.”

“How bad were the bruises when she discovered what you tried to do?”

Roman found himself smiling at Georgie’s question. The boy knew his mother alright.  “It was a few years later I confessed.  Meggy I look at you and I see you.  I see your Mum in the way you hold your head, in your sassy answers and most definitely in that innocent expression you try to get away with.”

“But…?” Meggy choked out.

“Look,” Roman placed his hand flat on the table next to hers.  He knew that they were all looking and he half smiled. 

Meggy raised her eyes and gave him a look. “Daddy?”

“Look,” he prompted.

She looked down at their hands before grinning and then another second passed and she giggled.

“I’m yours,” she stated with confidence in her voice.

“You were always mine Megs, from the very first moment I held you.”

“We have the same hands,” Meggy cried out before she burst into tears.

Sophie placed her arms around her sister and held her.

“What is going on?” Ella called out coming in through the front door and hearing the commotion.

“Daddy is mine,” Meggy cried out.

“I see Megan Hope Harris,” Ella murmured quietly heading to the kitchen and getting herself a drink before joining them at the table.

“And even if you weren’t its only genetics. It would have stopped me being your dad.” He found himself saying to his daughter and sighed when he felt Ella’s hand stroking down his back.

“So you need a plan,” Sammy muttered.

“Is William working with Mark?”

Roman turned his head at Georgie’s question and slowly nodded.

“So whatever Mark says  William will…”

“No,” Meggy interrupted sounding as fierce as her mother with just that one word. “William wants me. He should find out that I’m doing a DNA test,” she wiped the last of the tears from her face. “When he comes for me that’s when you get him.”

Roman half turned his head and looked at Ella, “Now those are definitely your genetics,” he commented.

Ella grinned. “Nah, she’s far less blood thirsty than me.”

“I know that one.”

“Hey!” Ella grumbled.

Roman smiled over at her and was rewarded when she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips.

“So today,” he prompted glancing at the kids.

“The younger ones didn’t need to hear this stuff,” Ella began to explain. “And with the track record of these lot plotting and planning behind our backs…”

“Hey,” Sammy muttered going red in the face as the others laughed.

“So er.. “ Meggy said pushing her books away and looking at them.

“I’ve booked you an appointment with Rachel,” Ella explained quietly.

“We should find a way of letting him know and then Daddy can kill him,” Meggy muttered.

“Hey, two seconds with your mother in the room and now you want to kill him?”

He watched as his wife and daughter shared a look before chorusing together, “Kill, maim, whatever…” 

“Mother,” Sammy muttered in disapproval.

“Anyway, you guys need to finish up. Mike is going to bring you assignments at lunchtime. Your Dad and me need to have a discussion,” Ella eased up and gestured to him to follow her and despite his initial reluctance he did so.

She moved to the other end of the house and through the new doorway into according to what he planned would be the new lounge. Looking around the room he sighed thinking of her doing this just the way he wanted when he’d ditched her.

“El?” he whispered his voice hoarse.

“We need to decide a colour scheme. I want to get it decorated so we can use it whilst the builders are renovating the kitchen.”

He gasped, “What?”

“We can’t solve anything else except this. Can’t go after Mark or William. Catherine and Jason are still going to be there after everything else is done so…” she spread her hands out and gestured to the room.

Roman sucked in a breath, and then another one.  As always she was right. He didn’t even have a plan for dealing with the other men aside from a half arsed scheme to drive Mark somewhere into the bush, just like Elliot had done to him a lifetime ago.

“Okay, so ruling out magnolia as a colour scheme then, why would you need my input?”

He grinned as she started to blush before she pursed her lips and glared at him. Even a slightly blurred outline of her was enough to make him happy.

“I was thinking of maybe using a dark colour on this wall making it a focal point. If we keep it to just…” she trailed off when she noticed that he was grinning at her.

“What dark colour?”

“Er… maybe a green?”

“A heritage green or something else?”

“What do you mean by heritage?” she frowned at him.

“A colour that would have been around when the house was originally built,” he murmured. “Maybe a sage green or a grey?”

She peered at him with that look on her face that meant she was thinking about something and he smiled back at her as he waited for her to speak.

“I like this colour,” she murmured finally pointing out a blue-grey in one of her catalogues.

“That’s nice, what colour will you team with it?”

He found himself relaxing and grinned again because his wife was sneaky enough to know that he needed some mundane things to focus on instead of trying to second-guess Mark’s next moves.

“Maybe a cream,” she shrugged.

“So is that like magnolia?”

“Oh shut up if you aren’t going to help,” she stomped over to where her pattern book was and began going through it.

“What sofas are we going to put in here? I’ve got the one at my place, we could….” He stopped talking when she looked at him.

“I don’t want anything from your house,” she muttered biting on her bottom lip.

“Okay,” he nodded and moved over to where she was.   Upending a packing case he perched on it and picked up a furniture catalogue from the pile of other catalogues she had on the floor.

“This colour?”

He nodded at her as she pointed out a dark blue shade of colour.  “I like it but you’d have to avoid pinks and reds in your…”

“I hate you,” she glared at him. “I want this to be…”

“Classic? Unfussy? With our kids? I bet there is an unwashed sports kit under Sammy’s bed as we speak.”

“There isn’t!” Sammy’s high pitched squeak reached them from the other side of the door and they both laughed.

“Well what do you suggest?” She muttered the question before going to the door and opening it to peer through over at the suddenly quiet and busy children sitting at the table the other side.

“I think we should go with a grey, and then we could get these….” He gestured to the catalogue in his hand before he noticed the price of the two sofas he’d been looking at. Swearing under his breath he was forced to keep hold of the catalogue when she moved over and began looking at it. Two months of his salary at the diner for one sofa, let alone the second one and did he have to point out he wasn’t even working at the moment because of …

“Ella,” he muttered.

“What?”

“Put $50,000 in my account,” he murmured quietly trying not to raise his voice mindful of the kids sitting the other side of the door.

“I’m not buying sex from you …” she said a hint of mischief on her face.

“Yuck, so not doing this anymore!” they heard Sammy mutter before it went quiet again.

“El…”

She placed her finger on his lips to shush him before pulling her phone out of her jeans pocket and using it.

“I assume you have a plan,” she said slowly.

“I may have,” he smiled.

“Done,” she put her phone away and went back to looking at the catalogue. “I like them but you can’t really sink into them.”

He grinned at that before turning the page and pointing out a second set of sofas. Still as expensive but in a neutral grey with a higher back that would allow her to add the bright colourful cushions she liked.

“These?”

“Ouh yes,” she gave a little gasp before groaning as he laughed. 

“Okay then we’ll have those and this one,” he turned another couple of pages and showed her another sofa before lifting his hand and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked over at him before leaning forward and pressing her sweet lips against his.  Dropping his hold on the catalogue he put his other arm around her and pulled her closer to him as the kiss deepened.  “Hey you,” he said softly when they broke apart.

“Hey,” she said back before giving him another shy kiss.

“I missed you last night,” he commented before he could stop himself.

“Yeah, well… I slept with Lily.”

“Your favourite daughter,” he murmured trying to keep a straight face when she glared at him before poking him in his ribs.

“Didn’t want to freak the twins out and it meant that I was close to my little prince…” she murmured primly.

“You know that I would have…” he began and was forced to stop when she kissed him urgently.

“I know my husband, I know,” she stroked her hand down his face.

The conversation returned to the décor of the room and together they picked out colour schemes, furniture and curtains for the long windows. The room was the entire length of the house and he smiled at the way he imagined it would look with enough seating for an army and the extra-large television set that would dominate one wall. He knew enough about Ella to know that she’d be happy in whatever setting as long as she had her family around her. 

“The bedroom?”

“Okay,” she grimaced for a second before speaking, “I may have ordered the bed already,” she added taking him back through the original living room before heading up the stairs and along to what would be their new bedroom.

Heading ahead of her he noticed the highly polished floorboards, reclaimed from a demolition they’d been sanded down and given several coats of hard waring varnish.

“I thought we were going with carpet for the bedroom?”

“The boards were too nice to cover up but I did….” She moved over to the dressing room and showed him the deep cream carpet in there. He walked over to it and began checking the various wardrobes and cupboards.

“Do we have enough storage space?”

“Well I do, but I’m not sure where your clothes will go,” she grinned at him.  

He went over to the dressing table and peered in the mirror. He looked old he thought with a sudden depression, and still slightly blurred he taunted himself.

Turning to her he distracted himself with asking another question, “What bathtub did you go with?”

“The one you wanted,” she murmured having no idea she’d screwed her nose up in dislike. 

The bathtub he’d chosen was modern as was the power shower.  The kinks in his back needed extra help to go in the morning, reminding him again of his age and just how he’d abused his body over the years.  Heading through to the en suite bathroom he checked the fixtures and fittings.

“Are we keeping our old room as a guest suite?”

“I did wonder if we should put Mia in there with the baby but that didn’t seem fair on our other kids,” she murmured before biting her bottom lip.

“Our other kids?” He asked her resisting smiling.

“Look Mia… “ she carried on with biting her lip, chewing on it nervously, and he moved swiftly over to her side and pulling her hard against him he kissed her deeply.

“When is she back?”

“Mia? I’ve suggested that she stays another couple of weeks. We’ll start remodelling the kitchen then so when we go back to stay at the studio she’ll meet us there.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to start the build…” he murmured as he moved back to inspecting the fittings in the shower. He turned it on to test the water more for want of something to do than actually wanting to check it out.

“We had to move forward. Look forward…”

“El?”

“So anyway, I’ve ordered the bed because of your frame.  We need to decide on curtains and a sofa for in here,” she looked away from him as though she couldn’t make eye contact before she paced out of the bathroom and over to the long window at the side of the room. He saw her open it and step out on to their own personal veranda.

He followed at a slower pace, “I won’t be offended if you want to go with something floral,” he commented stepping out to look out himself.

It took barely a second to imagine putting a table and chairs out here and having breakfast together, maybe on a lazy Sunday morning. The rest of the week would be taken up with the kids but Sundays they tried to spend just a little time as a couple.

“Leaving the bedroom to me?”

“You have wonderful taste El, so yeah, as long as I get to be with you I don’t care what the bedroom looks like,” he murmured.

“And yet you queried me over the lack of carpet.”

“Because you get cold feet…”

“Is that some kind of metaphor?”

It took him a moment to realise she was teasing him and he groaned before changing the subject. “Have we decided who is getting the attic bedroom?”

“I though Sammy, then we could move Liam in with Marcus.”

“Meggy staying in with Sophie?”

“They are fine. I’m sure Meggy would say something…”

“She was …” he paused wondering how to phrase the next bit. Guilt had kept him defensive for a long time over this subject and he thought about it would have felt if he’d gone ahead with the fake results.  Would he have somehow destroyed their marriage out of guilt? “talking about taking the test. I told them what I did.”

“The fake results you mean?” Her eyes accused him even when she remained silent about some things.

“Yeah,” he rubbed a hand across the back of his neck.

“Tell me Georgie did the arms at you?”

“No, he was remarkably restrained.  They probably figured that you gave me enough grief over the years for it dear,” he smiled feeling a sense of relief.

“That’s debatable.”

Taking hold of her hand he walked back along the corridor and up the stairs to inspect the attic room.  He imagined it with Sammy’s desk and furniture in before grinning at the expression on her face.

“Why did we have so many kids Ella?”

“What?” She tugged on her hand and glared at him when he didn’t let go.

“Why did we have so many kids? What made us keep trying? Sammy? The twins? Even Lily, you had to know we were risking it when we made love that time.”

“I…” she blinked as thought getting rid of tears in her eyes before swallowing. “I didn’t want to not..”

“not?”

“Be able to have kids. I didn’t want to feel that way again. Maybe subconsciously up until Liam I was trying to replace what I had already lost, first the miscarriage then Gabby and Toby,” she gave a big sigh before stepping closer to him and into his arms.  “What about you?”

“I just always wanted to make you happy,” he said leaning his chin on the top of her head, “I hated seeing the pain that the miscarriage brought you.”

“And yet we’ve added Danni, Mia and Marcus to the hoard!”

“Because we know that we can love that many kids.”

“Jason,” she whispered mentioning the child he’d had with Catherine and he shuddered with reaction.

“I don’t even like him, still… he deserves a chance and even if I never get on with him he’ll have you.”

“If you weren’t holding me I’d poke you in the ribs and give you a talking to,” she muttered. They both laughed

[TelephotoMarigold]

Chapter 34

 

 

The best part of a week had passed since spending the day talking normal stuff with Ella and now he was sitting in his living room in his house.  He felt like waving at the camera he knew was in the corner of the room but the fact that he still had to pretend to be blind kept him from making any movement out of the ordinary. Not that Mark was there at that moment but there were signs he’d been in the house.

Post had been opened and spread out on the table, including the bank statement he’d ordered especially to alert the other man to the fact that he had a substantial amount of money in his bank account.  It was quite surreal to see the end total, Ella had not only put in the $50,000 he’d requested but she’d also made earlier deposits to ensure that his mortgage was paid.

He’d tried not to be angry about it. The fact that Ella had more money than him was something that he’d had to cope with throughout their relationship. She’d used it against him during the divorce and then when they were secretly dating she’d ended up throwing money at him.

Just as he was thinking about everything the door swung open and Mark walked in.

“Well well well… thought you’d be off with your kids,” he drawled.

“Because you killed my wife you mean,” Roman drawled from his seat across the room.

“How could your wife put money in your account being dead and all….” Mark muttered as he helped himself to a drink.

“What?”

“Your bank statement….” Mark gestured to the dining table where the statement was and Roman tried hard not to follow the moment with his eyes.  He focused on a spot somewhere past Mark’s head as though he were trying to make eye contact with the other man and failing.

“What are you talking about Mark?”

“There’s a nice little amount been put into your account.”

“Nice little…” Roman trailed off and rubbed at his face. “50 grand?” he asked the other man.

“Yeah,” Mark shot him a puzzled look before gasping.

Roman seemed to crumple in on himself, he imagined how he would feel if Ella really were dead, tapping into the emotions he’d felt over the years, her cancer diagnosis, her disappearance when Elliot had her, when she’d been shot by William. He thought of all those moments and let that emotion flood through him.  The tears that were falling down his face were real; if anything happened to Ella he would die himself.

“Its…” he gasped out between sobs, “It’s an automatic transfer to cover the bills whilst…” he gasped again feeling his chest tighten with emotion. “Whilst her estate is being distributed.”

“What?” Mark sounded more confused.

“The money its… an automatic transfer to make sure that the children are looked after.”

Mark stepped towards him.

“So you can pay me some of that to tide me over…”

“No I have to..” Roman sucked in a breath like he was struggling to get his words out.  He imagined Jacko and Pete over in the surveillance van laughing their heads off at seeing him this way and for a second he almost lost himself.

“What Hardcore?”

“Account for every penny. It comes out of any settlement I get from her estate.”

“So if this money were to disappear you’d be in trouble…” Mark grinned suddenly before he headed over to the table and retrieved the bank statement. He folded the paper up silently and placed in his back jean pocket. 

Roman stood and paced awkwardly to the kitchen. He knocked through discarded glasses and cups before he found the whisky. Wiping at his face he unscrewed the cap and lifted the bottle to his lips taking a long drink.

“Well been good catching up,” Mark grinned as he finished his own drink and just as sudden as his arrival had been he marched back out the door.

It wasn’t long before Pete and Jacko came in and Roman stood in the kitchen drinking from the bottle preparing himself for their ribbing.

“Did you get it?” He asked.

“Mark took the statement. He’s going after the money.”

“So you’re plan worked.”

“Part of my plan.”

The conversation drifted on until Jacko led him out of the house and over to his car.  Within moments he was home and amongst his older kids, he’d missed the younger ones because it was past their bedtime.

Ella stood and gave him a searching look, “Roman?”

“What?” He grimaced at his tone before feeling the kids looking over at him.

“You look…” she didn’t finish the statement as he spun away from them and went over to the hallway to where they had a mirror. 

“I’m fine,” he called out rubbing at his face. The tracks of his tears were still on his face and he scrubbed at them uselessly as he tried not to hum the stupid song that had just sunk into his subconscious.

“Really fine?”

He turned as Ella handed him a wetwipe from the packet she kept for the kids and he wiped his face feeling instantly refreshed.

“I had to look … distressed.”

“In that case I think you succeeded,” she made a small moue of disapproval and he resisted the urge to kiss her.

“Thanks,” he muttered knowing he sounded sarcastic.

“I need you to stay at the house,” she bit her lip as she spoke.  It didn’t thrill him like it normally did; now he found it irritating.  Like she was using her lip biting habit just to try and get round him.

“I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t Roman? Having you here is …” she paused before submitting to silence and spinning around she paced back to where the children were, seating herself back on the sofa.

A glance in the mirror told him that he looked as fierce as he felt.  He could understand her fear; she wanted to protect the kids.  But what the hell did she think he was doing?

Striding into the kitchen he stopped when he felt the buzz from his phone. Pulling it out of his pocket he read the incoming message.  Mark had accessed his account withdrawing the whole $50,000.   James would go to work now, tracing the transactions.  He would use that to map out Mark’s full financial records and from there he would pass the information on to the right authorities.  He’d already spoken quietly to Ella’s dad about who were the best people to deal with it.  Not that he’d mention that bit to Ella, especially not with the mood she’d been in for the past few days.

“Does anyone want a drink?” He asked keeping his voice normal.

A chorus of no’s and thank-you’s headed in his direction and he decided to skip the coffee he wanted and headed straight for the whisky. Another choice of his that would make Ella mad at him.

 

 

 

Three days later, in the warehouse with the boys he and someone called Jake McCaffery were going over the account information they had managed to get from Mark.  He’d been tempted to close his accounts and limit Mark’s access to money but this was better.  One of the last transactions had been to a property company who under duress had provided an address for them. They were going to check it out as soon as they’d finished the meeting with the army’s forensic accountant. 

“Now that we know he’s alive will his family have to pay back any benefits they claimed?”

“I understand that they are looking into that, probably with an aim to sorting out a payment schedule.”

Roman nodded and eased away, it was time to get himself another coffee and have a chat with the others, distracting himself from what was going on with him and Ella.   Problem with inviting someone ‘official’ into their playhouse meant they couldn’t get out the big toys, he thought with a grin his eyes flicking to the corner of the room where their weapons were stored away from view and covered up with a tarpauling. Pete had even swept up the dust from another part of the warehouse and sprinkled that on the top to help camouflage it.

They’d gone from laughing at him to thinking he was a clever… well he wouldn’t repeat the words they’d used he thought with a grin.

As he made the drinks he caught sight of his expression in reflection. He was smiling, happy almost.  God, no wonder El was backing off. He looked like he was enjoying himself. Pulling his phone out of his pocket before he changed his mind he called Ella.

“’lo” she mumbled distractedly.

“Have I called at a bad time?”

“No, sorry just packing up the kitchen.”

“Oh well I’ll …”

“Roman what did you want?”

He heard the huff through the phone and knew she was angry at him again. “What’s the matter?”

“Oh nothing, what did you want?”

Sucking in a breath he paused before sighing. “Nothing that can’t wait. I’ll speak to you later,” he hung up the phone feeling all kinds of frustrated. A glance at Pete and James as he handed out the drinks told him that his expression wasn’t as neutral as he thought.

“So do we have enough evidence?”

“As soon as I’ve spoken to my superiors I’m convinced that we will be issuing a warrant for his arrest.” Jake McCaffery answered his question.

Roman found himself sharing a look with the others before speaking again, “What is the next step?”

“We track him down. As long as he is fixated on you we should be able to find him.”

“Well thanks for that, but I do have a family to protect and with him on the loose…”

“We can provide witness protection if that is…” Jake trailed off as Pete and James burst out laughing.

“Ella would have a field day with that offer…” Pete muttered.

“Thank you Gentlemen,” Roman groaned. “No, we’ll tough it out.”

Jake nodded slowly before returning his attention to his laptop as he transferred the data across.   After another hour he gathered up everything and prepared to leave with James showing him out.

“Witness protection? Seriously you have to tell Ella that one,” Pete drawled as they moved over to the weapons cache and took out Roman’s sniper rifle.

“Want me to use this on you?”

“Come on its funny.”

“Not if you are still getting flack for it and it wasn’t even your decision,” Roman groaned again.

The conversation moved on and Roman was grateful. The last thing he needed was to be forced to remember the year he’d been in exile. He’d set up the targets and did a few hours of target practice before Jacko arrived to take him home.

Walking into the house he sensed an atmosphere as soon as he put a foot inside the door. The kids seemed subdued and Ella was quiet.  He almost wished he was back in witness protection for a fraction of a second before he moved over to her side.

“Hello,” he said instilling a tone of happiness in his voice.

“Hi, I’ve ordered pizza, just got to pack the rest of the kitchen up.”

“Okay, do I have time to shower?”

She nodded at him and he shot up the stairs to their old room. He stripped off in the bedroom and padded through to the en suite. A quick shower refreshed him and also managed to remove the smell of being on a gun range.   Walking back through to the bedroom he stopped and looked at Ella, she was sitting on the bed waiting for him.

“What did you want when you called me?”

He flinched at her question, no, not her question, her tone of voice, her body language.  She was mad at him. 

“I was going to tell you that I’m not enjoying this,” he muttered only just avoiding folding his arms even though he was feeling defensive.

“Enjoying? You think that is what I’m mad about?”

“I have no idea El, you aren’t talking to me.”

“You’re not talking to me Roman.  I was only allowed to come home because of a dream we had. You haven’t told me where William is…”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh please, don’t try and …”

He felt at a disadvantage, he was wearing a towel slung low around his hips and Ella was dressed in black jeans that clung tight to her shapely legs, high heeled boots and a black silk blouse she was wearing untucked.  He could only imagine the underwear she had on underneath knowing her penchant for black lace. Not to mention the stuff she wore when she really wanted to seduce him.  He remembered the lace corset set she’d worn the first time they ever made love and had to move to disguise the fact that he was turning himself on with his own thoughts.

“I don’t know where William is. We don’t have eyes on him.  We have a possible address for Mark that we are going to check out.”

“You’re going to check out? Shouldn’t you pass that information to the authorities?”

“We’re working with the Army and Police Ella.”

“I’m sure.”

She gave him one of those looks that told him she doubted he was telling the exact truth and he resisted the urge to smirk.

“No, we are.  We had an army accountant with us today to review what we found out about Mark’s financials.”

“Does this mean I’m getting my money back?”

“Eventually,” he murmured giving his attention to opening the drawer and getting out clean clothes instead of fantasising what underwear she had on.

“Well, you need to go over the final plans for the kitchen tonight before work starts tomorrow.  The kids have said they want to stay here until the weekend so the younger ones are going in with Gabby and Jacob. The boys are in with my Dad and Irene leaving Sophie and Megs with Danni and Mike.  I’m sure we can manage staying in the house for a few days whilst the work starts.”

“What about going to the studio? I thought that was your plan?”

She gave him another look before uttering a loud sigh, “Going to take them there at the weekend. It would be much easier if I were ‘alive’,” she muttered miming speech marks around the word alive. “Mike is going to take us on Friday after school. Still that way you can go off and play soldiers again.”

“Do you think I’m actually enjoying this Ella? That I’m getting any pleasure out of this situation?”

“I think there are parts of it you are enjoying.”

He wanted to deny it, wanted to slam around and state that she was being unfair but she knew him better than anyone else.

“Being with the guys, sure but…” he half turned his head and looked at her.

“I’m sure,” her words dripped with disapproval and he groaned. “By the way I have no idea what you were thinking about earlier but that towel was very revealing….”

He felt his face growing hot and knew he was blushing. “High heels? At home?”

She glanced at her boots before giving him a grin. “I found them in the back of the wardrobe. Thought I would try them on,” she stood and began a slow walk back and forth giving him a display of those boots, and her long legs and everything else and he found himself watching her closely. “Why? Are you getting ideas?”

Roman stood in front of her and dropped his towel to the floor giving her a display in return. He could tell from the way she’d paused just as she was about to say something else and the fact that she was licking her lips that he had her attention.

“I might be,” he confirmed.

“What are you thinking about right now?” She asked him a husky voice.

“Dad,” Sammy called out from outside the room. “Mum… When’s dinner?”

Roman gathered the towel up from the floor and wrapped it back around himself just as the door crashed open and their son walked in.

“Sammy,” Ella muttered.

“Well the twins and Lily are hungry and …”

“The twins, huh?”

Roman chuckled. “I can’t cook with the kitchen packed up so it must be time to pizza.”

Ella groaned before walking out of the room, taking their son with her.  He waited a moment before dragging on clothes and heading down the stairs to spend time with his family. 

[TelephotoMarigold]

 

 

Chapter 35

 

 

Roman rolled over and dragged Ella with him.

“I definitely would have lasted longer if you hadn’t spent so long teasing me,” he grumbled hearing her laugh in response.

“I never knew that you had a thing for boots.”

He’d let her go up to bed an hour earlier than him thinking that she needed her space, but he’d been the one to get a surprise when he’d walked into the bedroom and found her sitting on her dressing table stool in nothing but those black high heeled boots. He’d seen in various cartoons a person’s mouth dropping open in shock never realising that it really happened but the sight of her sitting there, legs slightly open, a sheen on them from the moisturiser she used. Her shoulders were pushed back emphasising her breasts.  He was struck by the lack of tanlines and felt an instant of jealous reaction before losing all rational thought as she stood up and walked over to him. 

“Ella…” he gasped out her name feeling his throat closing.

“Yes?” She paused in front of him and as much as he wanted to look down her naked body again his attention was captured by the intense blue of her eyes.

“Are… you…” each word he tried to utter seemed to clog in the back of his throat. “planning on us making love?”

“Well… maybe… do you think you can manage it?”

Roman groaned and began to strip off his clothes dropping them on the floor. With another groan he lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist before landing almost awkwardly on the bed.  

Coming back to the present he sighed as he felt her pulling up the covers over them.

“I am enjoying it,” he sighed.

“I know, it is okay, it’s a part of you. Just,” she bit her lip as she looked at him, her head resting on her pillow and her hair framing her face.  She looked ethereal and sad and beautiful and… so many other things that he didn’t have words for.  He took a mental photograph and swore that he was going to paint her portrait one day.  “Remember to come back to us,” she finished softly.

“I’m still with us,” he said knowing he was speaking the truth. “I’m not one or the other I’m…”

“Both?”

“Yeah, I’m a package deal El, and if that isn’t what you want, if it’s not what you can cope with then say so now and we’ll …”

“I’m not splitting up with you again!” she gasped out.

“El, it’s not fair to ask you to accept me, to accept that inside I’m still a solider.”

“I fell in love with you when you were a solider Roman,” she yawned suddenly.

“Go to sleep,” he said sighing when she moved in the bed and snuggled up to him.

“I married you again knowing your past, your history. I knew what I was getting,” she muttered her voice sounding drowsy.

“You didn’t know you were getting this,” he pointed out thinking of Mark turning up.

“Pah, it was either someone from your past again or Lily’s sworn enemies.”

He laughed and felt her giggle beside him as he wrapped his arms tighter around her.  “Okay but..”

“No buts Roman, you’re my husband, forever and always remember?”

He wanted to speak more, to go over what was on his mind but he was exhausted and she was asleep in his arms where she belonged, he thought quietly.

Mark watched the house from across the road, the kids had been despatched to school including the one William was interested in, Meggy, leaving behind Hardcore. At first he’d been puzzled about what was happening when the first trucks arrived on site and then he realised that there must be more building work planned.  The electronic gates slid open and he caught site of Michael’s dad coming out with his wife. 

He had no issues with the Colonel; he’d barely had any dealings with Michael himself only hearing about the other man from Gardy during long nights when the other man had been talkative. He’d even confessed to leading Michael into a minefield to keep him from talking about the other man’s gunrunning operations.

The callousness of Gardy had shocked him; the man was twisted and sick.  He knew that Ella hadn’t been his only victim. Gardy would refer to the rape and torture of women after a mission as a ‘victory lap’. 

Unlike his present conspirator William, he hoped that Hardcore was the father of Meggy because God help the kid if it had Gardy’s genes in it.  Waiting to see if Hardcore was going to recover his sight was wearing on his nerves.  He has a bone to settle with the other man and couldn’t do it with him blind and practically helpless. No, after finding out what his brother Elliot had gone through he wanted nothing more than to repeat his brother’s plan. Give Hardcore a taste of déjà vu. 

First he would string him up over the same cliff Elliot had used and then he’d chase him through the bush until he couldn’t run anymore and then, well then he’d take him on one on one.  He even had a special knife just for the job, sharp and lethal, the blade coated with smooth black Teflon and just six inches in length.  Although it hadn’t been popular when both he and Hardcore had been in service, Mark knew this was one of the preferred weapons for the Australian SAS.  Especially the dark coated surface which aided a guy when it came to Covert Ops.

Although it had been a long time since he’d been taking part in any of them he bet he was fitter than Hardcore. How could a family man have any level of fitness, he asked himself scoffing at the image of the other man surrounded by kids.  Just when would he have time to go to the firing range or practice hand to hand combat?   Nah, Mark scoffed to himself, he had training and recent experience. Hardcore had been out of the game too long to pose a threat to him.

 

 

 

Jacko grinned as Roman put on the mirrored sunglasses that were part of his disguise before allowing himself to be led out to his car.  He couldn’t see behind the glasses but he knew that Roman was scanning the area for signs of Mark or even William.  The man had a second sight about him back in the day, working out where snipers were before they could get a shot off and although they put it down to his training it still felt supernatural sometimes.

“So tell me about you are Riasma,” Roman prompted as they set off.

“She’s great, really is. But…” Jacko grimaced slightly.

“Distance?”

“That and she’s got a calling. Working with those kids is her life.  Not mine. I couldn’t do it Roman.”

“Ella changed for me,” Roman said quietly.

“Which was fine ‘cause you did your share of changing for her.  Never had you pegged for a family man or living in a town like this.”

“Why?”

Jacko paused as he negotiated a busy junction. “Because up until Mark happened you got off on the action.”

Roman sucked in a breath besides him at his words and he instantly felt like dragging them back as though he could somehow unsay them.  But Hardcore didn’t get that nickname from hanging back in the shadows.

“Ella thinks I’m enjoying this,” Roman said finally.

“I am, not that some guy is after your family but that we are together and… “Jacko stopped talking as he pulled in behind the white van he knew the others were in.

“I guess I can get that.”

Jacko grinned before climbing out of the car and walking over to the van.  He glanced around him and looked at Roman as he got out and walked to the van himself.  

“Gentlemen,” Pete murmured as they got in the back of the van. 

The array of surveillance equipment they had in there always surprised Jacko especially the range of high tech gear and he knew that was down to James and his love of shiny things. 

“Is Mark in the house?” Jacko muttered his eyes on a screen.

“No, he left early this morning.”

“Any sign of William?”

Pete shook his head, “How’s your girl doing?”

“What’s the plan Hardcore?” Jacko finally asked even though he was glared at by the others.

“I need to deal with William separate. Last time he came after us he’d been practicing his snipping skills. This time I don’t know how he’s going to start.  Mark I want to kidnap and suspend off a cliff.”

“Oh well yeah, sounds like something we can do.”

Pete laughed at his sarcastic response.

“Ella wants us to leave it to the police and army to deal with.” Roman pointed out.

“Like that’s going to happen,” James drawled.

 

 

 

 

In the small confines of the van as they waited for signs of Mark returning to the house he’d rented, Roman went over what Elliot had done to him the first time he’d pitched up in the Bay.  He knew he’d told them before but this time he was able to tell them what it had felt like.  Knowing that Nic was in trouble and he was helpless, even more so when he’d been hanging over the edge of the cliff.

“So that is the start. I want Mark to be arrested. To be charged and taken care off.  But I owe him for all the years he put me through thinking I’d killed him.”

“Ella in favour of this plan?”

“You think I’m stupid enough to ask her Jacko?”

“Do we have to answer that LT?”

There was a smattering of laughter before James turned abruptly and looked at one of the monitors.

“He’s here,” he announced redundantly.

“Okay,” Roman stretched his hands out before flexing his fingers.  He itched to pick up one the guns he knew was stashed in the van.

“Your call Hardcore,” Pete said quietly.

“Let’s take him for a hike,” Roman said standing up and getting out of the van.

The others followed him and walked casually across the road like they were out for a walk.   Roman lifted his hand and knocked politely on the door.  He heard the others laughing before their laughter was cut off when he lifted his foot and kicked the door in.   The force of the door flying inwards must have caught Mark by surprise because they heard muffled swearing and then saw the other man lying prone on the floor.

“Hardcore,” he stuttered.

“Expecting someone else Mark?”

“You can see…”

“You’d think he would have noticed that months back,” Jacko drawled.

They saw the other man scrambling about on the floor and knew from their collective training that he was searching for his dropped weapon.

“Say goodnight,” James said stepping forward into the dimly lit room.  He lifted his hand and fired two shots from his tranquiliser gun into the prone man grinning as they immediately took effect and Mark lapsed into a drugged unconsciousness.

[TelephotoMarigold]

 

Chapter 36

 

“Wakey wakey,” Roman called prodding Mark with a branch watching with satisfaction as the body of the man swayed back and forth suspended over the edge of the same cliff where Elliot had hung him years before.  Unlike when Elliot had done it he knew that the knots would hold the other man’s weight safely.  Even years after the even that taunt from Elliot that he didn’t know if the knots would hold still rang in his ears. The fear he had as he struggled to get free knowing that he had to survive to get to his daughter.   

The other man blinked slowly as he came back to the present. He must have realised what was happening pretty quick because he didn’t panic straight away, his ankles tied with thick rope that was keeping him dangling over the edge like bait on a fisherman’s line.  His hands also bound, not behind him like Elliot had done him but in front, giving Mark more of an advantage than Elliot had given him.

“Hardcore,” he gasped out.

“This is what Elliot did to me Mark.  Are you proud of your kid brother?  You could have come home at any time and stopped this.”

He knew what Mark saw, the edge of the cliff, the long drop below him. The disorientation from hanging upside down and seeing the world turned around.  The way the air would feel sucked into his lungs as he tried to get free.

“The only reason Elliot didn’t manage to kill you was because he wasn’t trained like me.  He wasn’t a killer.”

“Just keep telling yourself that Mark and when you get free we’ll go for a nice little run through the bush.  Of course it’s been a while and I’m not sure that my knots are going to hold so maybe you should be quick about getting yourself free.”

Roman watched the changing expressions on Mark’s face before he turned and walked away. The taunts Mark was throwing out ringing in his ears as he cut through the first part of the shrubs nearest him and then as though he were part ghost he simply disappeared through the undergrowth.  Mark would be coming soon and he didn’t want to make it too easy to find him.  His sniper training came to the fore, more so than any other. A sniper had to blend in to any background, to use anything to their advantage from urban camouflage to using camo paint to cover his face.  He had a ghillie suit sitting in the attic at the house but taking the time to fetch that would have alerted certain people to his plan.

A ghillie was an item of clothing that went over the top of his uniform.  If anything it resembled almost a fur coat, with draped fabric on it making it look like he was covered in shrub or moss.  When wearing it he could lay undetected in the undergrowth for hours, looking like just another part of the landscape. There was even cover for both his head and his weapon. A sniper had to be invisible to be effective and the lessons he learnt for his craft he employed now as he sunk back into the undergrowth and waited silently.

It took almost an hour before Mark escaped the bounds and began crashing through the bush.  Roman knew that there was a false trail up ahead that was set by the boys, if Mark followed that he would be led around in circles ending up back in the very spot he was trying to escape from. 

He waited; feeling his legs starting to cramp, and that dry tickle in the back of his throat telling him he needed to get a drink.  His eyes were burning from glancing this way and that through the bush checking on what Mark was doing. 

Double-checking he was alone he eased his weight from one leg to the other carefully with the minimum of moves before stretching them out and finally easing to a stand. From there he moved quietly making sure his weight was distributed evenly on each foot and composing every movement to ensure that he was as quiet as he could be.  A broken twig could sound as loud as a gunshot when you were out in the bush simply because every sense was on alert, adrenaline was coursing round your bloodstream keeping you psyched up. Anything could be something, a something that he had to listen out for, to be aware of, keep an eye out for.

It had been years since he was in combat, but his training made it seem like just yesterday he was in the SAS.  Just yesterday he was in some jungle waiting for his target to emerge. Although the jungle, the bush, wasn’t his normal area of conflict remembering the many years he’d spent in various deserts.

He heard the rustle of leaves being disturbed and grinned.  Mark seemed to have forgotten his training as he panicked. Without stopping to check the terrain or even which was the best path to choose the man began to run through the bush.  He chose the circular route and Roman had to put his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing.  There were tripwires strung across the path that would set off Flash Bangs.

Roman had to wonder why the boys were still buying them and just who they were expecting to come after them next.  Maybe they got a discount for a bulk buy he thought grinning to himself.  No sooner had he had those thoughts than the first one went off.  Even from his position he heard Mark swearing.  The second and third one exploded.  Mark would be disoriented; his hearing and eyesight would be compromised.  Now he would panic, he would make further mistakes. 

Now Roman would start his pursuit.   Once before he’d done this, the pursuit through the bush and then afterwards he’d turned Elliot over to the police after he’d been so angry that Elliot had nearly killed Ella twice that he’d almost beaten him to death with his bare hands.  Each hit had felt good.  Each punch, slap, chop had released some of his anger but not all of it.

At the time he’d been informed by Ella that she was going to leave him and even that couldn’t stop him from the beating he knew he was giving Elliot.  Walking in and finding her there waiting for him had cracked the hold he had over his emotions.  He only hoped she’d still be there at the end of today after dealing with Mark, Elliot’s brother. 

Another explosion was triggered indicating that Mark was at the third checkpoint they’d set up.  Moving silently through the bush Roman Harris the former soldier came out to play.

 

 

 

Across the Bay William watched the house as the children were brought home and filed inside.  Mark had promised him a sniper rifle and he had yet to deliver otherwise things could have been much different he thought as he watched the electronic gates slide closed.  He’d take out the son, Mike and then he’d wade in swapping to a handgun, maybe shoot a few of the others to inflict fear to control them.  He’d grab Meggy and escape in one of their cars before parking it up in one of the many dodgy areas he knew about leaving the keys in plain sight. With any luck someone else would take it after he used it. 

From there he would lay low in a couple of places moving between the two and making sure that Meggy was kept out of sight.  Maybe he would cut her hair and dress her in boy’s clothes to stop her being recognised.  Refer to her as his son or nephew.

It would take a few months before Meggy acknowledged him as an authority figure, even longer before any real bonding would take place. By then Stockholm syndrome would have kicked in and she’d do what he wanted.

He didn’t know that if any of them had read his thoughts at that moment they would have willingly handed over Meggy just to watch him try and control her.

 

 

 

 

Mark collapsed in a heap as the fifth flash band went off.  He scrambled on all fours a sob tearing through his throat as the disorientation triggered his PTSD.  Getting back on his feet he began to run blindly through the bush, forsaking the path he moved deeper and deeper into the foliage looking for places to hide, to escape.

“Hardcore,” Jacko muttered into his mic.

“I see him, guiding him back to the path now.  I think he’s ready to be dropped off at the station,” Roman said back as he moved to follow Mark.

“Are you sure you are thinking of the station there? I saw the expression on your face when we strung him up.”

“Jacko clear the comms….”

Roman heard laughter coming through the earpiece and grimaced. For a second he had felt like he wanted to throw Mark off the cliff, not just for the guilt of thinking he’d killed him but the way he’d missed out on raising Toby and Gabby, no wait, no it was the way that Ella had missed that.  Had he not been forced to fire the gun then he wouldn’t have been off his face drunk when Ella needed him.

He carolled Mark back on to the path noting that it took more time that necessary. The other man was in panic mode which made it difficult to know just what his reaction was going to be.  Finally heading towards Jacko and Pete; James was a little further off, he managed to steer Mark towards them. 

“We’ve got him,” Pete called out.

There was a strange sense of duality about the call, hearing Pete’s voice both ahead of him and also coming through the earpiece and he slowed for a fraction of a second. Just long enough to miss Mark stopping on the path and turning. 

The light in Mark’s eyes, the expression on his face and his grasp of the only weapon he could find a long but thick branch made Roman pause again. He planted his feet firmly on the ground and waited. Mark swung the branch using two hands. 

Roman felt his ribs take the force of the blow even though he made a sweeping motion with his arm to try and fend it off.  He gasped and sucked in a breathe in reaction feeling the expansion of his lungs inside his damaged ribs making pain explode through his body.  He exhaled noisily as the second blow came.

This time he caught it with his arm and knew instantly that his arm was now broken.  The blows continued and it took a moment for Roman to get back his footing and focus his attention on Mark.  A left hook landed, his right arm hanging uselessly by his side.

Mark was unable to stop or counter the blow with his hands busy gripping on to the branch. The same branch Mark was even now swinging dementedly back and forth trying to hit him with.

Roman backed up, half turning his body to protect his arm and ribs to make Mark reach forward.  As expected it lured the other man in closer and now using only his good arm he grabbed hold of the end of the branch and tugged it towards him feeling Mark’s response as he pulled back on it.  They wrestled for a minute or two over the branch before Roman let go of it.

The surprise release caused Mark to lose his balance and he tumbled backwards landing on the ground with a loud thump losing his grip on the branch. He scrambled around trying to get his improvised weapon back before Roman was able to subdue him.

“Too late Mark, you should have worked just a bit harder!” As a tagline it left a lot to the imagination Roman thought with a groan but with a busted arm and ribs he didn’t have a lot of energy left to come up with something witty. 

Looking up he grinned gratefully at Jacko and Pete as they came to his side, then it was transferring Mark to the car where James and Jacko were going to drop him off at the police station leaving Pete to take him to hospital. He wondered if he could get away with Ella not finding out how hurt he was before sinking down in the car and closing his eyes tiredly.

[TelephotoMarigold]

Chapter 37

 

 

Roman eased down beside Ella on the long sofa, an empty plate in front of him containing the remains of the Chinese takeaway they had for dinner.  He looked at Ella and she had that disapproving look on her face again. She really hadn’t been impressed when he’d pitched up with his arm in plaster and his ribs taped up. 

“That was good,” he murmured grinning as Lily gave him a look.

“Dada…” she began.

“What is it squeals?”

“Does your arm itch?”

“Not yet but I’m sure it will soon,” he murmured remembering the last time he had a cast on.  Before… Francesca. He grimaced and caught Ella placing her hand on his knee as though she was remembering too.

“I helps Dada,” Liam announced getting laboriously up and picking up his plate to take through to the kitchen.  He came running back after a moment and grinning innocently at Lily as she glared at him.

“Thank you,” Roman said quietly his eyes flicking to Ella knowing his words weren’t just for their son.

“So he’s out of the way?” Sammy asked again from his spot at the table.

“Not in front of the little ones stoopid!” Meggy shot out.

“Yes and please Megs,” Roman said easing slowly to his feet and walking over to the table. He perched on a chair and looked round at his elder children.

“Sorry Sammy,” Meggy said quickly.

“That’s okay Megs,” Sammy said equally quickly back.

“The guys took him to the station so he’s sorted.”

Georgie shot him a look before glancing at the younger children sitting around the coffee table, “And the other one?” He asked pointedly.

“Hey, one bad guy at a time,” Roman said grinning as Georgie flushed.

“So are we still…”

“We’re still going to the studio,” Ella murmured moving to stand next to Roman. She held out her hand and he saw two of the pain pills he’d been prescribed. Knowing it was better than to argue with her he took the tablets and washed them down with a drink from the bottle of water she also handed him.

“Thanks and yes, if you’re out of the way the builders can work quicker on the house.”

“Did…” Sophie stopped and looked around everyone, “I remember…”

“What Sophie?”

“The house, I remember … oh I don’t know.”

“We had building work done on the house before.  Before Sammy was born,” Ella said quietly.

Roman found himself flinching before he grinned at Ella.  A gunshot hadn’t stopped him did she really think a few busted ribs and arm would. He saw that she’d read his mind because her cheeks tinged with pink as she started to blush. God, he loved his wife.

“Oh that must be what I remember. We didn’t stay here did we?”

“No, we went to your Dad’s old house for a while whilst it was done.” Again Ella spoke.

Neither of them wanted to think about why they had to move out. Gardy had escaped from prison and come after them almost getting him and Jacko killed in the process before succumbing to the gunshot wound. He’d been so determined to protect her and in the end she was the one who’d held on to him and protected him.

“I thought so, I remember Daddy coming home covered in dust and not being able to hug him.”

Roman grinned at his little girl, she may be 15 he thought with a sigh, but she was still his little girl.  

“I would work at the diner in the mornings and then come here to help the builders until about six each evening.”

Sammy pouted, “And I wasn’t born yet?”

“Well you were conceived…” Roman told him watching as he gave him a look of disgust back in return.

“Roman,” Ella groaned and rolled her eyes, “Anyway,” she changed the subject. “Take your plates through to the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher please.  Then I need you all to pack what you need until the weekend. On Friday we’ll be heading to the studio just after school but you’ll have time to get your things.”

“What about school?” Surprisingly this question came from Meggy.

“Mike and Miles are going to provide you with assignments on Friday to cover the next two weeks.”

“Can we visit Mia?” Sophie asked at the same time as Marcus spoke, “Maybe I should go to my Dad?”

“No,” Lily cried out from the other side of the room obviously listening in.

“Yes to Mia and no,” Ella leaned down and hugged the little boy. “We’re going to have fun and it will be like a holiday.”

“Except with homework,” Meggy grouched.

Roman laughed at his daughter before stilling. He put his good hand in his pocket and slowly drew out his phone giving the display a puzzled look before answering the call and easing away from the kids. 

“Is this Roman Harris?” A voice asked.

Walking through to the hallway he paused, “Who is this?”

“Sir, I’m at Yabbie Creek hospital. We have a Jacko Thompson and a James Taylor-Barnes brought in and they requested that I give you a call.”

Roman swore under his breath. “What happened?”

“I don’t have those details Sir, I’ve been told that I can….”

His attention wavered as he heard the gatebell go. He opened the door cursing as he used his bad hand and looked out seeing Pete at the gate.

“I’ll call you back,” he informed the person disconnecting the call and running to open the gate. Cursing again but this time at the pain in his ribs he took one look at Pete’s face and flinched.

“Mark escaped. William must have been waiting at the station. He took out two of Charlie’s officers. Jacko was winged and James is critical.”

“Charlie?”

“She took a shot but she was wearing a vest,” Pete shook his head again seeming to go pale.

“Come on let’s get inside.”

“Was that the hospital? I just left there. We have to make statements and.. “

“Pete come inside. Let’s get a drink in you and ..” Roman closed the gate before leading Pete indoors. He guided him over to the sofa grateful that Ella must have taken the younger children upstairs.

“Dad?” Georgie shot up and came over to them.

“Can you run down and get Mike and your Granddad for me please Georgie?”

His son nodded and shot out of the room.

“What can we do?”

“Find out where your mother has hidden my whisky and pour two glasses.”

“No way Dad you’ve had painkillers,” Sophie said bossily.

Pete looked at him and laughed some of his shock wearing off.

“We’re here,” George muttered coming to stand with them next to his two grandsons.

“George, Mike,” Roman acknowledged them. He debated on telling them what had happened and then repeating it for Ella before deciding to wait. Sophie meanwhile had got drinks for everyone, beers for George and Mike, whisky for Pete and for him she’d presented him with his bottle of water and given him a glare.

Mike shot him a curious look, “What’s going on Dad?”

“Roman?”

He stood up at Ella’s questioning voice and looked at her meeting her suddenly worried gaze.  “William helped Mark escape,” he announced. “Some police officers were killed. Charlie was shot but she was wearing a vest.”

“Jacko? James?”

“Jacko is injured and James is critical,” Pete supplied.

“What do we have to do to get this man out of our lives?” Ella asked scathingly.

George glared at him at his daughter’s words before he pulled his phone out of his pocket and made a call.  They heard him ask for Military Intelligence before walking away from them into the hallway to finish his call.

“We need to make sure that James is taken care off. Has his wife been told?”

“Yes I’ve done that and Raisma. Dario is flying over.”

“Dario?”

Pete grinned, probably at the fact that they didn’t know something Roman thought.

“Dario is Raisma and Jacko’s kid,” he murmured.

“He has a son?” Meggy gasped out.

Ella smiled at their daughter and nodded. “You have a sort of cousin then,” she murmured covering for their daughter’s jealous outburst and assigning Jacko with the role of uncle.

Roman nodded. “Do you want to call Aden or Rachel?” Ella nodded again and eased out of the room to make the calls, both of them wanting the best of care for their friends. “Kids, need to go pack your bag. We’ll arrange for someone to be at school with you tomorrow and then go to the studio as planned.”

“What about telling William about my DNA test …”

“You’re getting my granddaughter involved now?” George’s scathing voice muttered as he walked into the room overhearing Meggy’s comment.

“I’ve always been involved Granddad,” she muttered in response putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

Roman was familiar with his daughter’s pose having seen Ella doing it many times when she was mad at him for something. Including tonight when he’d walked in with the cast on his arm unable to disguise it.

“Megs, please we’ll talk more tomorrow. For tonight we need you to go get sorted for the week.”

The children trailed out slowly and reluctantly. He shared a look with Mike as they heard the very slow progession up the stairs.

“How you doing Dad?” Mike asked him.

“I’m okay, but your sister seemed to think that I shouldn’t have a drink on top of my pain pills, she’s probably hidden the whisky again.”

“Too bloody right,” Ella muttered walking back into the room.

“How are they?”

“Aden says that Jacko is already being a pain to the nurses,” she grinned as he and Pete both laughed. “James is out of surgery. They had to remove his spleen. Apparently you are going to have to stop getting him shot.”

“Well that is one thing,” George muttered.

She shared a look with him before asking, “Pete, how is Charlie?”

“She’s okay, she’s home with her daughter. Ruby and Xavier are heading over for a visit. Apart from being shaken up she’s doing okay.  Losing her officers was…”

“I can bet,” Roman found himself saying with feeling. He felt his gaze drawn to George at that moment as he remembered crawling through the minefield to try and get to Michael.

“What are we going to do Hardcore?”

“Come up with a better plan obviously,” Roman murmured.

“We have to take the pair of them,” Pete grimaced.

“We need to get some rest tonight and sort it out tomorrow.”

“The army is sending some people,” George announced.

“Well then sounds like everything is getting sorted. Dad I’ll see you tomorrow. Mike if you could call in on Gabby and tell her and Jacob what has happened please,” Ella announced. “Pete if you want to stay there is the bed in the study.”

“I’m going to go be with Charlie,” Pete murmured standing up and looking at them a dejected expression on his face.

Roman gave him a sudden smile. “Remember Iraq?”

“Which time?”

“The second time.”

“When you had to be rescued by the Brits that time?”

“Just before then.”

“The bar brawl? What…”

“Our commanding officer walking into the barracks. Jacko on crutches, Mike’s arm in a sling. You had black eyes and various other bruises, James was still drunk so we didn’t find out until three days later that he had busted ribs.”

“You’d broken your hand punching that American jerk,” Pete said slowly.

“And he just turned around and walked out.”

“You went after him and asked what the mission was,” Pete groaned rubbing a hand over his face, “And came back in telling us to get ready because we were going out. I swear we were going to kill you just for ‘volunteering’ us again.”

“But we did it, a three-day excursion where we found a major weapons cache and persuaded some wonderful Iraqi gentlemen to refocus their patriotism.”

“So you’re saying…?”

“We’ve been battered before. We’ve had loss. We’ve been beaten but we’ve never given up. Mark and William. Two men. We faced a whole army before so why are we scared of two men. They can’t go back to the safe house because we busted it.  They have no money because between us and the Army accountant we froze Mark’s accounts. There are warrants out for their arrest meaning that between us, the Army and Charlie they are going to have to lay really low if they don’t want us to catch them.”

Ella groaned at him, “And what exactly can you do with one arm?”

He grinned at his wife before smirking as she blushed. “Quite a lot,” he said slowly.

“Thanks Dad for the mental image there!” Mike muttered.

Roman chuckled as he saw Ella blushing bright red colour, before turning and looking back at Pete. “We’ll talk in the morning. We’re not defeated yet. Have I ever let you down before?”

“Never Hardcore, never,” Pete said quickly and Roman knew that his comment was directed towards his father-in-law having picked up on George’s animosity. “Although if you hadn’t have volunteered us so many times you wouldn’t have had to keep bailing us out.”

“There is that,” Roman clapped the other man on his back with his good arm before leading him out to the front gate. He stayed there watching as Pete got into his car and drove off before closing the gate and heading back inside to where Ella was waiting at the bottom of the stairs having seen Mike and George out whilst he was with Pete.

“You okay Roman?”

“I’m scared El,” he admitted to her.

“Let’s go to bed and in the morning you can come up with one of your plans,” she smiled at him before switching out the lights as they moved up the stairs. 

“Your Dad hates me,” he commented.

“Nah, you’re still alive aren’t you? Don’t think you are the only one who is trained to kill.”

“No, he’d just send me to Afghanistan and hope that the Taliban do his dirty work.” The joke was old but just as effective he thought when he saw her smile at him.

“You need help getting undressed?”

He grimaced for like the 10,000^th time, “I’m going to need help with a lot of things,” he admitted.

“Better not let your stupid pride get in the way then.”

She pushed him into the bedroom and over to the bed until he was sitting and then achingly slowly she took off his shirt checking the strapping around his ribs before making a ‘tsk’ sound.

“What?”

“I thought you were smarter than to get injured.”

“I’m slowing down,” he murmured.  “Besides it was just a lucky strike.”

“And the broken arm,” she muttered piecing him with her gaze.

“I was trying to protect my ribs after the first whack.”

“Anywhere else I should know about?”

“Depends,” he murmured, “Are you planning on kissing it better?”

She gave him a shocked look before slowly smiling. “You think you can manage it solider?”

“I can do impossible missions Ella Harris, didn’t you learn that yet?”

He leaned forward and kissed her slowly on the lips despite his ribs protesting. Even if he ended up in hospital in a bed next to Jacko and James because of making love to his wife he knew it would be worth it.

[TelephotoMarigold]

 Chapter 38

 

 

 

Roman stretched his arm feeling the unaccustomed exercise flexing unused muscles and tendons.  The cast had finally been removed and not before time, he thought with a groan remembering trying to scratch inside it with a chopstick he’d found.  Thanks to Lily’s repeated questioning about it itching he’d found the last six weeks unbearable.

“How does that feel?” Aden was asking him.

Roman nodded, “great. Hell of a lot better,” he muttered before reaching over and giving his arm a good scratch.

Aden laughed at him as he cleared away the debris of his cast and restored order to the examination bed and he groaned.  “How is everyone doing Roman?”

“Kids are driving Ella nuts. They want to come back to the Bay but with Mark and William still on the loose it’s better that they are away and as Mark didn’t know anything about my parents staying with them means they are pretty safe,” Roman grimaced thinking of the conversation he’d had with his parents when he’d explained about his past and the various people that had come after them during the years.  His father had been understanding and supportive but the same could not be said for his mother.  She’d just given him that look, like she was disappointed in him and if Ella hadn’t been standing next to him he knew he probably would have told her to go to hell.

“Staying near your parents is a good thing though isn’t it? They’ve managed to spend time with them.”

“They call my mother ‘Granny’,” Roman murmured, “Can you see her as a ‘Granny’?”

“No offense Roman but I’d rather not see your mother at all,” Aden said, “I thought Morag was strict but well your mother scares me.”

“She scares everyone,” Roman chuckled, “Maybe I should set her on to Mark?”

“I know the man is a psycho Roman but does he really deserve to have both your mother and Ella pissed at him?”

“Don’t forget Lily,” he added.

“Are you sure you don’t want to kill him just to put him out of his misery?”

“I can’t kill again Aden,” Roman admitted suddenly.

“It’s okay old man,” Aden reached out and patted him on his shoulder. “I know…” he admitted.

“I can’t go back to being who I was. Killing Alexi, well it freed us from worry about him coming back but..”

“We saw you after you came back from Witness Protection, and when you left Ella well we knew that you were hurting. No way would you have split from her unless it was the only way you could deal with what you were going through.  The divorce was a shock though.”

“I bet Nic had a few choice comments?”

“Not just a few,” Aden admitted grinning suddenly.

“If I’m honest I didn’t expect El to divorce me.  Even when we were sitting with solicitors and dividing up possessions I thought any minute now we’d talk and sort this out.  Even when I signed the papers I just couldn’t believe that …” Roman swore under his breath as the memories swamped him. “I went to see her after the divorce and it was good. We had a conversation. She made arrangements for me to see the kids and then we..” he frowned for a nanosecond, “we made love and in my head I was planning how I’d come home and how everything was okay.”

“Not what Ella was thinking?”

“She just told me it was over,” he knew he had curled his lip in distaste, “and that we’d never be together again.”

“That must have hurt.”

“For a while it did but then I realised that she was protecting herself and the kids, and in a sense me.  She knew I hadn’t dealt with what happened with William and Alexi. With Witness Protection. If we’d got back together then I don’t know, I probably wouldn’t have been able to cope when Mark appeared.”

“What are you going to do with Mark?”

“He has to be taken back to the army. That is something that he can’t face. That is the way to deal with him.”

“We, Geoff and I that is, want to help you with him and especially William.  You shut us out the last time and we lost you.   Ella was injured and you were gone.”

“I know and we shut you out again with Alexi. Although that was Ella arranging that. She knew I couldn’t take the family being hurt again.”

“And now you have both of them.”

“And now there are both of them.”

Aden looked at him as though expecting more comment. He didn’t have a plan and he had no idea where either William or Mark were let alone how he was going to deal with them.  Nothing that he could share anyway. 

“Let’s get a coffee,” Aden suggested.

Roman nodded and the two of them moved out of the examination room and along to the café.  He ordered a tall coffee for himself and Aden, moving over to sit at a free table.

“So army.  Have you spoken to George?”

“Not a lot. He’s still pretty upset with me.”

Aden laughed out loud before murmuring, “Just wait until your Meggy brings home her first boyfriend!”

He found his face flushing at the comment and acknowledged how lucky he was that Ella was the one who handled Sophie’s first boyfriend.  Had it been down to him he would probably have ended up sitting just behind them in the cinema acting as chaperone.

“Yeah well,” he took a drink of his coffee and looked over at Aden suddenly.

“Roman?”

“How would you like to join the army?”

“Not sure Belle would appreciate me doing that,” Aden answered slowly.

“Trust me it would just be temporary!” Roman murmured before he gave voice to the plan that had just come to him. He grinned at Aden’s expressions especially the light that had come in the other man’s eyes.

“Geoff too?”

“Of course can’t do this without our very own superhero,” Roman murmured.

“Oh god I thought we didn’t mention his bucks night!” Aden groaned covering his face as he must have been instantly reminded of an embarrassing tattoo he had. 

“I’ll let you tell Geoff,” Roman stood and moved away to throw his empty cup in the trash. He raised his hand in salute before leaving Aden and heading back to the house.

 

 

 

 

After another week of organisation involving Jacko, a still recovering James, and Pete, he had the makings of a semi-decent plan in place.  Georgie, Brett, and Mike refused to let him work alone and when Toby joined in, well that was when Ella had one or two choice words for him, one of them being divorce and the started with a ‘C’ and involved a surgical procedure.  He grimaced as he thought of his wife. She was still with the majority of the kids staying up near his parents place. 

And he.  Well he was in the middle of the bush that had been the staging place for much of Georgie’s cadet outings with the exception of now it resembled the base camp.  The surrounding grass and plantation had been cut back, not just cut back but levelled out and mowed like on a real base.  Tents had been set up with cots in, footlockers and associated military equipment. It looked so realistic that he would find Jacko and Pete catching their breath as they moved across the portacabin that doubled as the ‘base’ headquarters.

“Hardcore are you sure this is going to work?”

Roman put down the file he was scanning through and looked at his former comrades. “Shouldn’t you be saluting me?” he asked with a smirk on his face referencing the uniform he was wearing.

Jacko groaned as he caught himself lifting his hand before he managed to stop the familiar action. 

“So where are they?” Pete asked looking over at James.

Roman smiled as he nodded at his friend giving him ‘permission’ to answer.  How they soon slipped back into patterns of learned behaviour. 

“We’ve got them tracked to a warehouse the other side of Yabbie Creek.  They have weapons as far as we can tell and access to transport.”

“So we need to be smart when we go in and get them.”

“Let’s go over the plan one more time. We bring them to this army base and convince them that they need to turn themselves in.”

“Something along those lines. Mark has PTSD.  Bringing him in is going to trigger it. I expect him to fight back up until an episode starts. He’s so busy hating on me that he can’t see what past he had in that whole mess.”

Pete and Jacko shared a look before glancing at James.  “I’m cool,” he said quietly. “All healed up.”

“Still you are in here as our eyes and ears mate, can’t afford you getting shot again.  Seems our respective wives are now in contact.” Roman said quietly mindful of the other man’s pride.

“Strewth,” James groaned as the others laughed at him.

“You think William is going come quietly?” Pete asked slowly.

“James?”

James nodded at the cue and hit play on a video.  Meggy’s face came on screen and it was obvious she was sitting in a hospital room from the pale green walls and the various medical equipment around the room. 

‘I’m making this recording for William,’ her voice intoned gravely. ‘I know what your brother did to my Mum.  I’m here today to get a DNA test but I know that my Daddy is Roman Harris.’

Roman found his hands clenching as he watched.  A swab was placed in her mouth and cells removed from the side of her cheek before the camera moved to him and he was tested with a new swab.  The camera panned out to where Aden was labelling up the test showing that no substitutions were made. Once done Rachel stepped forward and signed on the paperwork. The recorded ended then and James paused it but he knew the next bit, Rachel’s office with envelopes containing the results.  Conclusive proof, not that it was needed, that he was Meggy’s father.  Even though they’d both been sure it had still become emotional, for both of them.

“Hardcore?”

“William gets to see this, not that he will believe it and then Charlie will be contacted. George is also on standby, as soon as we get them he’s going to bring in the real troops.”

“And we’s not going to be in trouble for wearing this gear?”

Roman grinned, “Well I’m in the reserves so no, I’m not going to get in trouble.” He murmured hearing Jacko curse him.

“Why the hell are you still in after all this time Roman?”

He turned at James’s question and sighed loudly, “Because a handful of years ago I slipped over the border into Pakistan and assisted some nice American gentlemen with a mission. General Bailey, as he was a few years ago, decided that he should keep me in so I wouldn’t blab and get him into trouble for his part in it.  Like the fact that he didn’t mention it was an unauthorised mission in a so-called friendly country.”

Jacko whistled through his teeth.

“The bast….”

“Made General, yes he did.  He was camp commandant when I had to go over and rescue Mike out of a cave.  Tempted as I was to pop up and say hello George seemed to think that if I did then he might lose his pension.”

“I takes it that operation rescue the stupid one wasn’t sanctioned?”

“Hey!” they heard Mike mutter from outside just as the door opened.

He was standing with Toby and Brett, all of them in uniform.  Brett had even sacrificed his hair for the operation having had a short cut in place of his normal shoulder length surfers do.  Looking at them Roman felt immensely proud of his boys and mentally poked himself in the ribs on Ella’s behalf.  From having one son and potentially another in Georgie now he’d conscripted all of them.

“Got your vests on?” He asked them quickly.

“Are you kidding? Do you think Mike is actually this buff?” Brett laughed as he playfully slapped his hand against Mike’s chest to indicate the Kevlar he was making them wear.

“Yeah if only you’s was as concerned about us,” Jacko scoffed sharing a look with James.

“For the last time I distinctly remember teaching you how to duck. Not my fault if you don’t remember.”

Mike and the others laughed at the banter and he too grinned.

“Georgie is….. well he’s drilling Aden and Geoff worse than if you were doing it Dad. What the hell are cadets being taught now?”

Roman gave a half shake of his head.

“Still don’t know how he got passed his mother. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to argue with him. Check they are wearing vests when you go back,” Roman said slowly.

“We have, they are.  I could make them wear two vests if it will put your mind at rest.” Mike murmured.

“Not really, he’s worrying what your mother would say,” Pete called out.

“About that,” Toby said slowly adjusting the green combat shirt he had on, “I’m not sure I’m going to be around for Christmas for a couple of years.”

Mike laughed, “We said don’t listen to your voicemail.”

Roman perched on the side of the desk and cast a look around the small room, noting of course that it seemed so much smaller with all the bodies in it.

“Years ago El hit her head and suffered some amnesia. Managing in the process to forget that she was the one who dropped Mike off at the recruiting office.” Roman paused as Mike chuckled obviously remembering the story. “She saw a picture we had of him in his uniform. I think it was taken at his passing out parade. This ended up being thrown the other side of the room.  If I hadn’t been ill in bed with man flu then I’m sure that she would have killed me.”

“That just goes to show what a wuss he is,” Mike butted in, “I was in the middle of Afghanistan at the time and my phone rings.  Before I can answer it the call goes to voicemail. Mother left me a very clear succinct message that to this day I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much swearing in my life!”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Toby held up his phone, “I’ve got three messages on here.  The first one was bad enough that I haven’t listened to the other two.”

Brett gave a loud sigh.  “Foster grandsons don’t matter then.”

“She probably doesn’t have enough swearwords left.”

There was more laughter amongst the group before he left them to check on Georgie.  Ella wasn’t the only one to be concerned that their son had decided to join in with his plan.  He took a moment to watch as Georgie schooled both Geoff and Aden in marching and other drills and sighed because he knew this was just a forerunner. Georgie was army bound and nothing he could say would change his boy’s mind.

 

 

  

[TelephotoMarigold]

Chapter 39

 

When Mark opened his eyes he saw Roman dressed in uniform standing in front of him.  He would have felt the secure bonds keeping him tied to the chair that was pitched in another of those porta cabins they’d brought in.

“Hardcore,” he drawled out in a voice that was hoarse from the tranquiliser gun they’d used.

“That’s Lieutenant Harris to you squaddie,” Roman barked out gesturing to the rank insignia on his uniform.

Mark blinked up at him the fog of confusion he was in reflected in the expression on his face.

“Wah…?”

Roman took a half step forward.

“Seems that when you **** off the army, they like to recall your ass. Just to make sure that you answer the charges brought against you!” Roman snarled out. “Ever since I killed you Mark the Army has owned me. Every year I get to relive my finest moments by dragging on this,” he gestured to his uniform, “run a few K in these,” again a gesture to the boots that were strapped to his feet, “and make you puke your guts up. Now how would it be that you miss out on the fun that I’ve been having for 20 years?”

Roman stepped back and allowed Jacko to escort Aden inside.   His foster-son looked and sounded the part of an army medic as he gave Mark a thorough examination before ‘declaring him fit for PT’.  The confused look was now replaced by a look of horror and Roman almost felt pity for him.

Almost. 

He nodded at Jacko as he released his hands and feet from the zip ties they had secured him with. 

“Get a good nights’ sleep Mark because you’ll need it.  Reveille at 05 hundred hours.” Roman nodded to the others as he too moved to the door with them.  “Oh and if you think about trying to escape we have guards on your door.  Food will be brought into you.”  Roman paused just long enough in the doorway to give Mark a glance outside where he saw army tents, other porta cabins and ‘squaddies’ running around giving him the impression that it was a functioning army base just like they wanted.  He put his beret on as he stepped out of the door returning the salute that Mike and Brett gave him before he continued along to the other porta cabin.  He didn’t have to turn his head to know that the door was shutting behind him keeping Mark inside.

“Keep an eye out, he’s…”

“It’s okay Dad we’ve got this. Go get some rest.”

Roman nodded at Mike’s words before slipping over to the porta cabin they were using as their HQ.  He stepped inside and saw James sitting at a desk looking at a computer screen.

“Didn’t I tell you to go get some rest?” He grimaced as he found himself paraphrasing his son from a moment earlier.

“William is out there somewhere,” James groaned as he ran a hand over his face sitting back in his chair.

“And we’ll get him tomorrow.  Tonight you need to get some sleep mate, you’re just out of hospital and if I know my son he’ll be having words …”

James grinned at him. “Which son are we talking about? Mike seems to be worse than his other dad. Toby is scared about what his mother is going to say next. Aden may have to administer medical treatment to himself after Georgie finished drilling him.”

“Any one of those but I was thinking of Aden.”

“What about me?” The subject of their discussion was standing just outside the door.

“I was just trying to get James to go get some rest,” Roman murmured stepping to one side to allow Aden to walk in.

“And I just came to check him over. Not to mention you.”

“Let me guess you promised Ella?”

“God no, we’re all avoiding Ella,” Aden grimaced. “Apparently letting my son get involved in your mess was a big no no!”

James looked at him grinning at the tortured expression he no doubt had on his face.  “My wife has expressed certain viewpoints,” Roman admitted. “Which made it far safer for me ..”

“Mark had weapons Roman, William is a self-trained sniper.” James pointed out.

“Exactly, safer to face them than Ella,” Roman punned although he knew that if he somehow ended up shot getting Ella to forgive him wouldn’t be easy.

Aden grimaced and smirked at the same time before asking, “Do we know where William is?”

“He’s got to be laying low somewhere,” James said shooting him a look.  “Did we catch Mark too quickly? Too easily Hardcore?”

“It took three men to subdue him. I don’t think he was coming quietly,” Roman commented.

“Anyway, I need to check you both over and then get the hell out of this uniform.  How did you guys manage to wear these for so long?”

“I could point out that Ella….”

“James however you were going to finish that sentence just remember that is Ella you are talking about,” Roman muttered quickly.

James’s face went scarlet as both he and Aden glared at him before Aden gave them a quick physical.  From there it was a quick trip to their respective tents. In just a few hours it would start to get light and the plan to get Mark focused on what he’d done before the Army pitched up in the afternoon to cart him off. 

Roman waited until he was sure that most of the camp was asleep before he eased out the back of his tent.  Grabbing his equipment that included his ghillie suit, provisions, and his rifle, he slipped unnoticed into the bush.  Knowing William as he did, he knew that the other man was out there waiting for a chance to free Mark again.  They had just missed William by moments when they went in to catch them.

Although it had been pointed out that technically they were ‘kidnapping’ them.  Whatever, Roman thought, as long as Ella and his kids were safe he’d deal with whatever fallout came his way. 

It was keeping them safe that was powering him now. He’d had no sleep for over 24 hours and his body ached in certain places, his ribs for a start and his arm.  His feet had adjusted well to being back in regulation footwear although Aden was right, the material of the uniforms felt uncomfortable next to the skin.  Ella had obviously decided against fabric conditioner to resist them smelling of flowers as they ran through the bush playing soldiers or maybe she’d added extra starch to teach them a lesson.

He paced through the bush slowly, first he didn’t want to alert anyone that he’d left camp and that included William and second he needed to know he could do this. Revert back to being a solider.

More than that, a sniper, someone who’s training was to deliberately hunt, and if ordered kill. Throughout the years he’d put up with Ella’s unease with the Army.  He’d endured her rants and threats to leave which even though he half knew she didn’t mean still hurt like hell.

Looking around him he checked the bush for signs that someone had been through it. Over and over again he looked for footprints in the soil, disturbed leaves, and broken branches, anything that would indicate someone had been through there ahead of him.

He found himself peering through the bush as though he knew exactly where the other man was placed.  There were a mere handful of locations that a sniper could set up. Most of the terrain afforded deep cover but the routes in and out of them caused issues, gave strong indicators of your route when you noticed broken branches, fallen leaves, and flattened patches of undergrowth.

All of which was way he’d had moved slow enough to drive himself crazy and cover up each movement, checking what trace he was leaving behind himself.  It was so much easier working in desert terrain when all you had to worry about was brushing away trace of your own footsteps.   

Lying slowly down he settled in position and covered himself with his ghillie suit to begin the long wait for William to show himself.

It was over an hour later that his mike burst into life. The last thing he’d done in camp was place the throat activated mike and earpiece in and now he heard the buzz of the connection in his ear followed by Jacko’s unimpressed voice asking him what he was playing at.

“Clear comms,” he whispered knowing that the mic would pick up the hushed words. Its very design made that possible.  How many times had they relied on similar equipment to this he wondered silently inside his head? 

He heard a loud sigh come through his earpiece and knew that Jacko et al would be having words with him later but for now he eased even further down in the small nest he’d made for himself and with slow hand movements he put on the thermal imaging night scope, a piece of equipment he was sure that William wouldn’t have access too.  Especially considering that it was still in the testing phase in the army.  He silently thanked his father-in-law knowing that the contacts Pete and others had used to get this equipment had somehow involved him.

The sky darkened further and above him the full moon rose in the sky. It afforded little extra light where he was laying and didn’t affect the use of the nightscope but still served to remind him that he hadn’t had any sleep for longer than he could remember.  He felt his eyes drifting shut and knew that his focus was slipping. 

‘Wake up LT,’ he heard a voice inside his head calling out and his eyes shot open as he tried to place it.  Blinking back sleep he peered through the scope and tracked movement diagonally across from him.   Without good reason or intel he knew instinctively that it was William. 

The vantage point that the other man had selected gave him view of everything happening in the camp not least including aim on Mike or whoever else had assumed guard duty outside where they were keeping Mark.

A shudder ran down his spine at thought of the other men being in danger.  Even though he’d double and triple checked they were wearing Kevlar, protective body armour to the civilians, nothing could stop a headshot.  William was skilled enough to deliver a fatal shot having proved that when he’d shot him.

Every instinct screamed at him to move to make some action but he lay still and composed. No point going to all this trouble if he were just going to advertise his position with a half-arsed move now. 

It wasn’t the only thing going through his head, his trigger finger twitched as though it was restlessly telling him to take the shot.  Difference between self-defence and murder a voice insisted in his head.

“Jacko,” he whispered quietly.

“Here LT.”

There wasn’t a moments’ hesitation between his radio call and Jacko’s response he thought feeling a touch of pride along with that nostalgia stuff that had been coursing round his veins for the past few months.

“I’ve spotted the fox.  He’s got his eyes on the hen house,” Roman found himself saying in a sort of code just for the hell of it.

He heard Jacko chuckle before he asked for co-ordinates and a sit rep. Roman relayed the information aware that his voice had sunk into a monotone.

“Your call Hardcore,” he heard Jacko say quietly.

“I can take him,” Roman announced.

“But?”

If this was a mission there wouldn’t have been discussion or debate. He would have taken the shot and be damned. The only exception to that had been Alexi and look how that turned out but now, well now he was different. He was a family man and killing Alexi had taken him away from Ella and his family. It had damaged him.

“Ella,” he found himself whispering.

“Hang tight Hardcore, we got your back,” Jacko muttered in his ear.

Roman half nodded, just the merest movement of his head as he acknowledged the other man’s comment before he stilled and focused on William.  If he had to he’d squeeze the trigger and extinguish the man forever whatever the cost to himself, thinking of Ella again and how she’d put up with so much from him already.