Dirty Angel-BarbaraElsborg (36 page)

“Are you hurt?” someone asked.

He shook his head. All the blood was Aden’s.

“Come and sit down and tell us what you know.” A police woman took his elbow and guided him to the ambulance.

He slumped on the step at the back and someone else came up to him. “Dr. Sanders?”

Brody looked up to see PC Willets. Brody had just been to the station in Caterham and reported Aden as missing even though he’d known there was nothing the police would do. Except Willets had told him Aden had arranged to meet Matt at the common. If Brody had got here faster, if…

“I’m sorry,” Willets said. “I thought it was a lovers’ tiff. I had no idea there’d be any violence. Did you see what happened?”

“I saw Matt hit Aden, stab
Aden, and I started running. Matt stabbed him again and again. They were struggling and Aden slid backwards. There was blood everywhere. Is Matt…?” Brody still had to ask.

“Yes.”

Brody held back the word good. He wanted to feel relief but instead it was as if the world was closing in on him, choking up his lungs, squeezing his heart, making his head ache. He wanted to go to Aden, but no matter how much he pleaded, the police insisted he went to the station to give a statement first. When he found out there was only one knife and Aden had been holding it, he groaned. Matt fucking things up even after he was dead.

Only when he learned Aden was in the operating theatre did he allow himself to breathe more easily. It was time for the truth and he told it all. Every dirty, twisted secret. When the police finally let him leave, Des was there waiting. Brody’s knees almost buckled when he saw the look on his brother’s face.

“No,” Brody whispered.

“It’s okay,” Des said quickly. “He’s still in theatre. East Surrey Hospital. Only a couple of miles away. I’ll take you there.”

Brody climbed into Des’s Land Rover.

“I brought you another shirt, a different coat,” Des said. “I didn’t think about your trousers.”

Brody looked down and saw the blood. Aden’s blood. He didn’t want to change, but knew he had to. Des had to help him fasten the buttons, even clip his seatbelt in place. He felt helpless. He
was
helpless.

“What happened?” his brother asked as they set off.

Brody thought he’d finally made sense of it, but not shared his theory with the police. He wasn’t sure whether to tell Des.

“Aden went to the police station in Caterham this morning and told them about me and Matt.”

“That it started when you were at school?”

“Yes.”

Des let out a choked groan. “I wish I’d told the police all those years ago. If I—”

“Don’t, Des. You told our parents. It was me who managed to convince them not to go to the police. This is on me, not you.”

“You’re my little brother. I should have protected you.”

“Hard to protect someone who didn’t want to be protected.” Brody sighed. “The policeman Aden spoke to didn’t take it seriously. Well, he took the sexual assault seriously, but after this length of time there was little hope of prosecuting Matt unless someone else was involved. Matt wasn’t interested in anyone else.”

“I sort of wish he had been. This would have ended so much sooner.”

“Matt called Aden while he was in the station and the cop knew where they were meeting. When I went to report Aden missing, I spoke to the same cop and he told me they were on the common. I got there in time to see Matt stab Aden. Then Aden stabbed Matt. Only in the thigh, but he must have hit his femoral artery. Matt bled out.”

“Christ. Why was Aden meeting Matt there?”

“I think he wanted to persuade Matt to leave me alone. But I also think he probably provoked Matt into lashing out.”

“Intentionally?”

“Maybe. Though I can’t think he intended Matt to kill him. But he had some plan in mind. When all this blew up about the pets being healed, though before it was in the papers, Aden deliberately rowed with me and walked out. He’d told me more than once he needed to stay under the radar and yet now he’s going to be plastered all over the news.”

“So whatever he was up to, job or no job, it’s over?”

“I guess.” A sob escaped from his throat. “I don’t want him to die.” Brody bit his lip. “I know how much blood he lost. If he’s still in theatre, it’s bad.”

“If he’s still in theatre, he’s alive. He better not die. You’re my brother and I won’t let anyone else break your heart.”

* * * * *

Aden walked out of the bathroom in the Octoplex with a smile on his face. That young guy had an inventive tongue and a beautiful arse. An added bonus had been that while Aden was fucking him, he could still hear Thorstrom’s heavy rock playing on the stage several walls away. It had been hard not to fuck to the beat.

The sudden loud popping noise brought Aden up short. He stood in the middle of the corridor trying to work out what that had been. Firecrackers? When they came again accompanied by screams, Aden’s senses shot onto alert. People emerging from the bathrooms were walking back toward the arena in the direction of trouble.

“Hey,” he called. “There’s something wrong. That sounded like shooting. We need to go another way.”

A few followed him, including the blond guy he’d just fucked. Aden wasn’t waiting around to persuade those who didn’t want to come.

“What do you think—?” a girl asked.

“Keep quiet. Hurry.”

Aden had no idea where he was going. When there was more noise, more screaming, the group was filled with a greater sense of urgency. Walking fast turned to a stumbling run until Aden heard more of what he thought were shots coming from the direction in which they were heading, and he skidded to a halt, grabbing the arm of a girl who was about to run past him.

“Not that way,” Aden whispered.

“Where shall we go?” asked the guy whose arse Aden had just reamed.

“We need to get out of the building, and hide if we can’t.”

A few yards away was an alarmed emergency door and Aden pushed it open onto a stairwell. In a snap decision based on the theory that anyone entering the building would be doing so from the ground floor, he headed up the stairs. Not everyone followed. He was in full out flight mode, attuned to his instincts, his heart racing. As they flung themselves up the concrete stairwell, he heard the clatter of someone coming up behind them. He wasn’t going to wait to find out if it was others fleeing like them or someone with a gun, and quickly cut in on the next level.

They bolted down the corridor and when they’d turned a corner, Aden tried the doors until he found one that opened. He fumbled for a light switch and cursed when he saw there were no windows, though they were probably too high to jump. But there was another door in the far corner. They seemed to be in some sort of storeroom filled with deep metal shelving units stacked with boxes and black plastic bags.

The door they’d come through wouldn’t lock. If they used something to block it, maybe it would signal to whoever the fuck was out there that there was someone inside. But it might give them time. He dashed to the other door which opened onto a small closet.

“In here,” he whispered.

He and the blond guy pushed four women and two men inside, no room for more, then they lifted a photocopier in front of it. That was the only thing heavy enough to put in front of the main door but Aden figured those in the closet had a better chance with their door partly hidden. Aden piled boxes around the copier and on top. The guy who’d helped him lift it had disappeared. He looked around for somewhere to hide and spotted a young girl and a guy crouching behind bulging plastic bags in the corner. They’d be seen instantly if someone came through the door.

Aden went over to them. “You can’t hide there. Climb up the shelving. Lie on the top.”

The guy hauled himself up and Aden helped the girl get to him. She looked no older than seventeen. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and she was shaking violently.

“Not a sound,” Aden whispered.

When the pair was out of sight, he looked for somewhere for himself. He could hear those outside getting closer, the sounds of banging and clattering, the occasional rattle of gunfire. He yanked open the door of a small low cupboard, quickly put the contents on the top, ran back to switch off the light, then wedged himself inside. He hardly fit. He couldn’t get the door completely shut so held it in place and held his breath at the same time.

What the fuck was happening? A terrorist attack like the one in Paris? If there was another explanation Aden couldn’t think of it. It felt like ages since he’d fucked the guy in the bathroom and yet from there to here had probably taken not much more than ten minutes. The light went on and he stopped breathing. Though the tiny gap between the doors of the cupboard he was in, Aden saw legs clad in dark jeans going past.

“Oh God,” a guy whispered. “Shit.”

When he tugged at the doors of Aden’s hiding place, Aden’s hold on the metal slipped and the cupboard opened. The face that stared at him belonged to a boy in his teens. His eyes were wide. He had blood all over his T-shirt. Aden rolled out of the cupboard and shoved the kid inside. This time he managed to close the doors.

He’d taken no more than a step before the main door flew open and two guys came inside wearing balaclavas and carrying rifles. Aden put up his hands. The taller guy shot him.

Aden expected to fall over, but he didn’t. The bullets had hit his side and his arm. Before he
did
fall, he flung himself at the two men and knocked them over, one colliding with the other. He guessed he’d surprised them because they’d probably expected him to drop or run. He managed to jab his fingers into the eyes of one gunman and press hard enough to make him scream before the other gunman hauled Aden off. Aden struggled to get out of the door. If he could get into the corridor he thought it might distract them from searching the room.

One of the gunmen hauled the guy Aden had fucked from his hiding place and the pair of them were dragged into the corridor. Aden pulled the guy behind him as more shots were fired. There was an intense pain in Aden’s stomach and this time he fell, taking the man with him down as well.

“Keep still.” Aden whispered the words to the guy beneath him and to himself as well. If the gunmen thought they were dead, they had a chance.

Except it was too late for Aden.

Brody sat, Des by his side, waiting for news on Aden. Des had offered him food, coffee, water, and Brody had refused everything. He wasn’t sure he could ever eat or drink again. This was all his fault. Matt was—
fuck it—
had been dangerous and Brody had failed to understand just how dangerous. His
failure and Aden had paid the price.

Des patted Brody’s knee. “Stop blaming yourself.”

Brody huffed. “It’s not just Aden. Matt’s wife and kids…” He felt as though he carried the guilt for everything. If all those years ago, he’d pushed Matt’s hand away, told someone, none of this would have happened.

“Yes it would,” Des said.

“You have no idea what I’m thinking.”

“Yeah, I do. You were thinking if you’d never let Matt touch you, none of this would have happened. But he would have found a way. You were his obsession.”

“Brody?”

He looked up to see Henrik at the entrance to the waiting room.

“How is he?” Henrik asked.

“I don’t know.”

Henrik sat on Brody’s other side. “How are you?”

“Not good.”

“Now someone’s with you, I’m going to go and get you a drink and something to eat.” Des pushed to his feet and headed down the corridor.

“How’s Odin?” Brody asked.

“Still fine. Yeah, I keep wondering if things are going to go back the way they were. Maybe I should just accept miracles happen. Rita does.”

Brody’s head shot up.

Henrik shrugged. “Leah is well. No problem with her lungs.”

“Oh Christ.”

“Rita called to tell me when she couldn’t get in touch with you. I made her swear not to tell anyone about Aden, though how she’ll explain it to Leah’s doctor…”

“What’s happening?” Brody whispered. “How can he cure animals and a very sick kid? If the press get hold of this, they won’t leave him alone. I thought—”

“What?”

“There was something weird from the moment I met him. I hit him hard with my car. He flew over the top. There was blood on the road. His leg was bent under him but he got up and managed to walk away.”

“Sometimes people are just lucky.”

“Like when he flung himself off the barn roof to catch my nephew? They both walked away without a scratch. Matt tried to drown Brody. He thought he had. What if he really did drown him?”

Henrik stared at him. “He can’t have.”

Brody lowered his voice. “What if he couldn’t kill him because he’s already dead?”

Henrik pulled Brody into his arms. “You’re confused and overwrought. If he’s already dead, what is he doing in the operating theatre?”

Brody groaned into Henrik’s shoulder. That was true. He wasn’t thinking straight.

When a doctor came into the waiting room, Brody sprang to his feet, his fists clenched.

“You’re here for Aden North?”

Brody nodded.

“He’s out of theatre. I don’t want you to get your hopes up. He survived the surgery which was a miracle in itself, but it’s still touch and go.”

“Can I see him?” Brody asked.

“I’ll show you where to go.”

Brody turned to Henrik. “Will you wait for Des? Tell him where I am?”

“Yep.”

Brody squeezed Henrik’s hand. “Thank you for coming.”

“I hope he makes it.”

When Brody reached Aden’s bed, he bit his lip. Aden looked so still and pale. He was on a ventilator, a machine breathing for him, tubes and wires connected to his body. Brody sat at the side of the bed and put his hand over Aden’s. He’d been told he could stay as long as he wanted, provided he didn’t get in the way. Brody wasn’t going to move until Aden opened his eyes, until he knew Aden was going to be all right, and until he was sure he wasn’t going to disappear.

He clung to Aden’s hand and talked quietly to him, telling him about all the places he wanted them to visit, the things he wanted them to do. Brody drew a picture of a future together and the more he talked, the more he wanted it, but he just couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it.