Deadly Hunt (Deadly #1) (3 page)

“He can’t go on a date with you because he promised our daughter that she would be the only lady he would take on a date besides me. Now that you have finished trying to be a home wrecker can you please leave?” Smithy swings his head to me in shock, we have never gone this far before. Sierra’s eyes glass over like she’s about to cry.

“Oh you have a child?” She seems shocked, Smithy just nods.

“Okay, but when you are able to date, can you call me? I’d love to be a mother. It was a pleasure John. I hope to hear from you soon.” She then walks up to him and kisses him. He stands still like a moron.

When she finally pries herself away from him and leaves, he faces me.

“Daughter? We have a daughter? What the hell is wrong with you?” What the fuck?

“Are you serious? What is wrong with me? That fucking crazy was in my home. She wouldn’t have left otherwise. She wants you.” I’m still in shock, I have never met a certified crazy before.

“This is not funny Soph. That woman scares the ever loving shit out of me. We’re moving.” I burst out laughing. Aw bless him, my big bad soldier is scared of a tiny woman.

“I’ve got to go. Next time, think with your other head. Stop being led by your dick.” He walks over to me and wraps his arms around me and lifts me off the ground while hugging me.

“You are the best Soph, I love you. Thank you.” I hug him back. I love how sweet he gets.

“I love you too Smithy.”

“I love you John ‘Smithy’ Smith. You will always hold a place in my heart that will never change. I’m so sorry I failed you. I will see you soon. Bye Smithy.” The tears fall silently.

Then I make my way up towards another grave, this grave I hate coming to. I’ve been to the grave four times in the past five years. This grave is the reason I ran towards the army as fast as I could. I look at the headstone, and I talk to it.

“Hi mom, I know I’ve been a terrible daughter. It’s hard coming to see you like this, knowing the first person to show me kindness is no longer alive, it hurts.” I sit at the grave just looking at it. I don’t know how much time has passed, but I get up to leave, “I’ll be back soon mom, I promise. I love you, I miss you.” I wipe my eyes and head back to my car. Whichever dickhead said it gets easier with time was a lying bastard.

My mom died from cancer when I was 17, that was eight years ago, I still haven’t fully come to terms with it. I know you’re meant to grieve, and I have to a certain extent, but how do you grieve the loss of someone you owe your life to?

I remember the day she told us she had cancer.

Mom and dad have called a family meeting and we’re all currently sitting around the kitchen table. Mom loves the kitchen, she says it’s the heart of the house, the walls are a soft yellow and the cupboards are white with a yellow trim. I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, something is wrong.

“So we have something to tell you, we have been hoping we wouldn’t have to, but we have no choice.” The words seem to catch in her throat, her once long blond hair is now shorter with grey streaks, she says they add to her looks. Dad reaches over and takes her hand, he brings the back of it to his mouth and places a kiss on it. He looks ready to cry.

“My beautiful babies, I’m so proud of each and every one of you, I want you to know that no matter what happens I’ll always be proud of you and I’ll always love you.” That bad feeling, I felt, it’s turned into a tight knot. I look around the table, dad’s still holding mom’s hand, his head is bowed, he’s not looking at any of us. Luke looks worried and Scott looks confused.

“This is so hard for me to say. I have stage four ovarian cancer, by the time it was caught it was too late, stage 4 means it has spread to other organs. It has spread to my liver. I had a 17 percent chance of a relative five-year survival rate. That means 17 percent of the time I’ll live for five years. However, when I went back to the doctors, it had spread even more, they are giving me a year at the most. I never wanted to tell you if there was a good chance at survival.” She has tears in her eyes as she tells us.

I take a look around the table: Luke is crying his head buried in his hands, Scott is frozen to the spot, just sitting there, white as a sheet and tears running down his face. I look at dad whose head is still bowed, his shoulders are shaking, he’s crying silently. Finally, I take another look at mom, she is staring at me.

“Baby, it’s going to be all right, you have your dad, Luke and Scott. I promise baby, it’s going to be okay.” I laugh, it’s a sad laugh.

“It’s not going to be okay, you’re not going to be here, how will anything be okay? Mom you’re dying, you’re leaving us, and you’re never coming back.” She starts crying harder, dad’s head pops up and I see the tears in his eyes. Both Luke and Scott are sobbing hard, I can’t take it.

“Look around mom, does this look like it’s going to be all right? You promised us that you would protect us from anyone who tries to harm us, but you can’t, you dying is what’s hurting us. Nothing is ever going to be okay ever again.” She looks like I slapped her. She gets up and walks over to me. I can’t take it, I stand up and place my hands in front of me, a silent plea for her to stop, she does. I take the opportunity to run. I leave the house and run all the way to Winter’s.

Winter opens the door, she takes one look at me and holds her arms open. I run into them and break. I crumble to the ground, sobbing my heart out. Winter sits down next to me and takes me into her arms.

“I’m sorry Soph.” I nod; I don’t know what to say to her, we sit like this for a while.

“What am I going to do Wints, she saved me, but I can’t save her. I hurt so bad. My heart feels as though it’s splitting in two.” Winter doesn’t say anything; she just strokes my hair, trying to soothe me.

I stayed at Winter’s that evening, she held me throughout the night when I woke up with nightmares, she was my go to person when things got rough. I didn’t accept mom was dying for a long time. It was finally when I saw the weight loss and the pain in her eyes that I finally accepted the truth, my mom was dying. Four months after she announced to us she had cancer, she died. We all were wrecks. But my dad, he was our rock.

I cannot imagine the pain he went through, burying his wife and trying to help his kids heal. I miss her every day and I don’t think that will ever change.

Her funeral was hard, none of us had spoken much since she died. We all went on separately, I still hadn’t come to terms with the fact she had died.

I kept thinking she would come back, even now I still have hope, I know she’s dead, but knowing and accepting are two completely different things.

“Why, does she stick her tits in my face every time she gives me something?” I ask my friend and work colleague Connor Murphy.

“Because she thinks sleeping with the boss will give her some sort of self-worth.” Ah that sarcastic, bitchy reply came from my sister Katrina or Kat as we all call her.

“Yeah Nath, she just wants you to screw her so she can act as though she is better than all of us.” There comes Connor’s answer. He always has to have the last word.

“Jesus, do you two have to gang up on me, I haven’t, and won’t ever sleep with Selena, she is an employee and I’m not attracted to her.” I see the sparkle in my sister’s eye, “I’m not interested in Scarlett either Kat.” So she pouts, immature as always.

I run a multi-million-dollar private investigator and bodyguard service company. What Connor doesn’t know is, I’m making him a partner. He’s been with me from the very beginning.

I didn’t want to be a cop; I went straight to Quantico. You’re not meant to become a special agent until you are twenty-three, but because I was so determined, also dad was friends with the director at the time. I managed to get in. I trained as an FBI agent, I was young only 18 but I was one of the best. It was going great, until the Lawson case. David Lawson haunts my dreams constantly. He’s the one that needed to be caught sooner than he was. He is the man that killed at least ten children aged between three and eleven and is suspected of at least six more. That case broke me. I couldn’t act as though being part of the FBI was what I wanted anymore. I couldn’t deal with the fact that we were always late, the kids were already dead and we were called in too late to stop it.

I wanted to help and protect people. Connor and I trained as PIs and Bodyguards. We trained with the best PI around; Shaw, no first name, just Shaw, we were with him for three full years. See the requirement to obtain a New York PI licence is you have to have trained and been employed for three years with a licensed PI, then you have to be 25 to take the test. So, the day I turned 25 I took my test, I passed with flying colors. The body guard training was only a few months, but the PI training helped.

Three weeks after my 25th birthday I purchased a Building that overlooks the Manhattan Skyline. My Grandparents left each of their grandkids money, mine went into my business. It took six months to fully set up, we did it though, P.I.G.S was born, Private Investigative Guard Services.

I’m fucking proud of me and my boys, we are the very best of the best. We are the go to PI and bodyguards in New York, hell anyone on the East coast needing a PI or Bodyguard comes to us. I have 10 men working for me, including Connor. Connor is second in command, then there is Dwayne, he’s our tech guy, he can get in and out of the NSA Database in less than 10 seconds and he’s never been caught. Then I have Tommy, Scott, Liam, Drake, Andy, Jamie, Asher and Selena.

“Aww come on Nath, you need to get laid, we should go out on the town.” Typical Connor, ladies’ man, he’s interested in fucking and that’s it. I’ve had enough of the easy lays, I want a proper relationship, I want a woman who will accept me for who I am, not the money I make.

My office door opens and in walks Brody. He’s my older brother, he’s also a detective with NYPD. “Did you lose your hand?” He looks down at his hand, the fucking moron.

“No why.” Is he for real? Seriously he must have been dropped a few times when he was a baby, it’s the only reason I can think he’s this freaking dumb.

“You didn’t knock you moron.” He looks at me like I’m the mental one.

“I don’t need to knock, we’re brothers.” Like that makes everything okay. Seriously I’m reckoning dad dropped him because I don’t think mom could have because she likes him too much. I love him, I really do, but he really does annoy the ever loving shit out of me.

“Whatever, what do you want?” He looks around and notices Kat, he walks over and side hugs her, she rolls her eyes like she always does.

“Mom asked me to tell you that you had better be there for dinner.” Never, and I mean never, disappoint Kitty Slade, she is hell on wheels.

“I won’t, now all of you leave and let me get to work.”

Kat’s the first one to leave, tossing over her shoulder “I’ll see you tonight, don’t be late.” I just give her a look.

“Later Nath.” That’s Connor leaving, so I’m staring at Brody, wondering why he’s still here.

“Yo, Brods, you need anything else?” I startle him.

“Huh? What? Uh... No, later Nath.” Then he leaves. Finally, I have some peace, well until I go to my parents.

I head out of my office and into the lobby, most of the guys are packing up to head home, some are staying working on their current assignments. As I’m at the door I catch Connor coming out of his office.

“Yo, Con, you coming to my parents for dinner tonight?” he looks up and smiles, he loves my mom’s cooking, but he doesn’t like sitting around Kat.

“Hell yeah I’m coming for dinner, Mrs. Slade makes the best home cooked food ever, she’s a real life June Cleaver,” He says on a laugh, but he isn’t joking, my mom is a home maker. I think it’s her mission to be better than June Cleaver.

As I’m headed out the door I see Selena being her usual bitchy self. I edge up closer to her, she’s going off on Dwayne. Now Dwayne is your typical preppy looking kid, but he is a computer genius and has a heart of gold. “Ugh, why must you be so annoying, you’re only a child!” She’s working my last damn nerve.

“SELENA, talk to my employees like that once more and you’re fired, now go home.” She huffs and heads out the front door. I turn to Dwayne.

“Kid, you’ve got to start sticking up for yourself.” He has a big smile on his face.

“It’s okay boss, I got it covered, she’s playing hard to get, that’s all.” Damn the kid is funny as fuck.

“Ok Dwayne, whatever you say, I’m done for the day and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Later, boss.”

I pull up to my parent’s house and everyone is here before me including Connor, the jackass. I walk into the house without knocking, I see my father in the sitting room with a beer. I walk over “Hey old man, how you been?” He pretends to be hurt, putting his hand by his heart.

“Old man? I’ll have you know I’ve still got it, just ask your mother.” Dad says and I think I might throw up in my mouth.

“Hey Kitty, come here honey.” He calls for my mom. Oh God I need a fucking drink.

“Yes, sweetie what’s wrong?” Mom says as she enters the room he smirks at me.

“Tell your son, I’m not old, tell him about last night.” He says as he slaps her on her ass, I’m gagging.

“Stop, enough of that shit, can’t you act like parents?” I leave the room and head to the kitchen and get myself a drink. My mother comes back in and says dinner is ready to be served.

We head to the dining room, I sit next to Connor and my mom. Thank God, otherwise it will be either the pervy old man or the idiot brother. “Any big cases Brody?” My mother asks my dopey brother. He leans back in his chair, and acts like he owns the NYPD.

“Nope, no major cases, crime isn’t as high as it used to be.” Like he would know, the damn moron.

“What you been up to Kat?” My mother quickly changes the subject because even Kat is giving Brod’s the stink eye.

“We have a new sale on this week; the place is doing really well.” Kat owns a boutique, it does really well apparently. Mom looks over to me and just smiles; she knows I don’t talk about cases, you know, client confidentiality and all.

Kat is really protective of me, she had a problem with a guy she dated for three years. She was in love with Jack and he was in love with her money and her best friend. She is now bitchy to anyone and everyone who gets close to any of us. I know she is just trying to protect us but she takes it too far. Once at an event we went to she made my date cry with her bitchiness. Dinner runs smoothly for a change, except dad groping mom every chance he gets, the dirty fucker. That is one thing a child does not need to see. Well it was going fine until Connor opened his mouth the damn moron, “So are you going to come out with us this weekend Brody? I need to get laid.” He has a big smile on his face as he asks my brother.

My eyes sweep to Kat I see the hurt in them before she shuts it down, stands up and says, “I hope your little pecker falls of you disgusting fucker.” Then she leaves the room leaving everyone looking at Connor. The fucker has no idea my little sister is in love with him. That wraps dinner up and we all say our goodbyes and leave. I’m dog tired, so when I get home I take a shower and collapse into my bed.