The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (182 page)

I shrugged and wiped my nose with the back of my hand.

“Will you tell me what’s going on?” she urged.

So I told her.

“Bloody hell, Lay. You’re life’s as bad as mine.” She laughed bitterly as Mason walked through the front door.

“Willow?” he narrowed his eyes as his fists clenched beside him. “Please don’t tell me Hunt did that?”

I shook my head at him, “No, he wouldn’t hurt me. Not physically anyway.”

Then again I didn’t think Sara would but she was just angry and hurting and I didn’t blame her one bit.

“You want me to talk to her?” Ava asked softly and I shook my head.

“She needs help. She needs . . . God, I don’t fucking know what she needs, but she won’t let me help her. That’s for sure.”

Mason settled in the chair opposite me as Ava filled him in on what had happened. “She needs to talk to someone or she’ll go crazy” Mason said.

I stared at him “She’s already gone bloody crazy.”

“Come on, now Mason’s home to watch the twins, I’ll run you to A & E.” Ava informed in her no argument tone and I rolled my eyes but followed.

“Get the spare bed made up Mason,” Ava said as we walked across the room, “Lay’s staying with us for a while.”

I heard him huff and Ava’s shoulders lifted as she chuckled. “He hate’s mundane things, such as putting a sheet on a bed. Way too complicated.”

“I heard that” He growled behind her. She turned and winked at him and he growled some more.

Why couldn’t I have a relationship like theirs? Their love for one another had seen them through hell and back many times, but here they were, growling softly at each other, bickering playfully and just so damn in love.

I wanted that.

In fact, I bloody
needed
that.

Chapter 38

Lucas

CLOSING MY EYES as I stepped out of the elevator, I sucked in a huge breath and told myself I could face her.

The guilt that had ate at me last night after I had fucked her and dumped her, just left her there alone in that bloody corridor, had actually given me nightmares.

I didn’t understand what was happening to me. My mind was going, or had gone, completely goo goo.

My body wasn’t my own, I was shaking constantly, but I knew that was down to the booze I was consuming. Vast amounts of it were pouring down my neck every night, just for the motive of escaping Red’s face that was permanently engraved on my retinas.

My dick definitely didn’t belong to me anymore; Red possessed it, totally and thoroughly. It refused to get hard unless Red’s face was in my head, or her soft moans were heard filtering through my ears, or her smell was filling my nostrils, the subtle strawberry creamy shit she plastered on at night filling my senses imaginarily.

I had gone round to her flat last night to apologise for my shitty behaviour. It had taken some courage, in fact it had taken all my bloody courage, but she hadn’t answered the door and I wasn’t sure if I had been relieved at that or furious.

I knew she had been in there, all the windows had been flooded with light and I had seen a shadow through the curtains but after knocking, banging and shouting for thirty minutes, I had given up.

I slowly made my way up the corridor towards my office, not returning Thelma’s, the floor receptionists, smile and gulped when I saw Red sat at her desk, head down as she wrote something on a little notebook.

“Red” I said, my heart constricting and damn near choking me when her scent drifted up at me.

“Good morning, Mr Hunt” She replied but didn’t look up, just kept her head buried in her book.

Okay, she was mad. Refusing to look at me and still on professional name terms made my heart clench further but I knew I deserved her animosity.

I was a bastard.

Simple.

“I . . . I wanted to apologise, Red. For last night, I, well, I . . .”

She shook her head but still refused to lift her face and I was getting slightly pissed off. I was trying my best to apologise and she was being rude.

“It’s not a problem, Mr Hunt.” She answered as she lifted from her seat and walked into my office.

She seemed stiff, her legs virtually shuffling instead of striding and she still kept her bloody face to the floor.

What the hell was wrong with her?

I followed her in and watched her as she started up the coffee, her back to me all the time and I was now curious, anger left behind. Something was wrong with her, seriously, and I took a step closer to her.

Her shoulders hunched tensely as she heard me move behind her. She bent stiffly to retrieve my cup from the cupboard and I closed my eyes and clenched my fists as the soft roundness of her arse pointed at me and the material of her dress glided up her thighs a little.

I heard her hiss through her teeth as she came upright and I narrowed my eyes on her.

“Red?” I asked as I moved to the side of her and grabbed the tops of her arms, turning her to look at me.

Holy hell!

“What the fuck. . . .”

She shook me off and turned back to the machine but I grabbed her arm again. “Who the hell did this?”

“I’m fine.” She barked out and I grit my teeth at her evasiveness.

“Will you bloody talk to me?”

She twisted round then, her angry glare fixed on me. “Why should I? You have made it pretty clear you don’t want anything to do with me. Just leave it, Lucas. I’m fine.”

“Like hell you are, Red. Look at the state of you, your face is a mess and you can’t even bend down without being in obvious pain. I want to know who hurt you.”

Her eyebrows rose high. “You think this is pain Lucas?” She shook her head in anger, “I’ll tell you what pain and hurt is. Pain is being fucked angrily against a wall then just left there to be made to feel like a whore. Being made to feel like a slag is worse than any physical pain, Lucas. You
made me feel like a fucking whore, so don’t you dare try and make out you’re my fucking knight in shining armour.
You
hurt me worse than this ever could.” She bellowed at me as she swept a hand over her body to emphasize her injuries.

“No, no, no Red, oh God, I . . . No, you are
not
a whore, I never . . . I wouldn’t ever. . . .”

Shit, I was making a right fucking mess of everything.

She gave me a pained look then slammed my coffee down on my desk, its contents swilling all over my desk. “Don’t bother, Lucas. I get it. You needed a fuck, I was there. Simple. I would prefer it if we could forget about it. We work together, we just need to get past it and establish a professional relationship. You love your job; I need the money so it’s best if we could just get on.”

I nodded, there was nothing I could say now that would stop the hurt, but I still wanted to know who the hell had beaten her so bad. She now couldn’t see through her right eye. The bridge of her nose was stitched, bruises covered her beautiful face and it was obvious she had injuries elsewhere if her stiff movements were anything to go by.

“By the way, we have another lunch appointment with Mason and I have synced your diary. Mr Travis made a complete hash of everything in your absence, but I’ve managed to rectify most things. Just let me know if you come across anything that doesn’t seem right, Mr Hunt and I’ll sort it out. The exec meeting that should have been held a few weeks ago has been rescheduled for tomorrow and the France trip is hopefully going ahead next Monday . . . hopefully.”

I snorted.

Third time lucky.

Red swallowed heavily and I knew my jibe had brought her guilt forward; after all, both previous trips had been cancelled because of her. Well, actually because of Diablo, but I knew Red blamed herself.

“Okay, that’s fine. Anything else?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so but I’ll let you know if I remember anything else.”

I nodded simply and sighed. She actually lifted her gaze to me then and I saw her desolation and agony through her one good eye.

I wanted to reach out to her, grab her and pull her soft little body against mine and filter all my love for her through every single pore on my body and into her.

She looked utterly broken and I knew I was guilty for a lot of that, but I just couldn’t get the image of her sobbing over Diablo’s body out of my head.

It was still too damn painful and until I accepted that, I couldn’t . . . I wouldn’t be with her so I just lowered my gaze to the floor whilst she walked past me and started her daily work routine.

I was hurting myself at causing her so much pain but I just couldn’t find a way through it. It was slowly burning me up inside; my hatred, anger, hurt and pain was slowly consuming me and it was so damn difficult to breathe at times.

All I could see was Red drop to her knees in front of the man that had tortured her and stalked her. A man so crazy, he had fucked her so roughly he had torn her up inside, but she had still dropped to her fucking knees before him and fucking grieved like a distraught widow for him.

Taking a large breath, I plonked my arse in my chair and got to work, pulling up the previous three weeks work notes to see how much of a hash the temp had made.

Fuck me. Brilliant.

He hadn’t just made a hash; he had turned everything on its bloody head.

Well at least it would take my attention from Red for the rest of the day.

* * *

The drive to La Roche was outright torture. I was battling with the urge to shake information out of her, pull the car over and pull her onto my stiff cock or just plain growl at her for her nonchalant behaviour.

She smiled tightly and shook her head as I tried to help her from the car. “God damn it Red, just let me help you” I growled at her.

She sighed then gave me a genuine smile and took my hand.

My heart stuttered as her tiny hand slid into mine and I curled my fingers around hers. The simple touch brought my body to life and I smiled back at her.

“Mr Fox.” She told the maître d,’ who showed us to Mason’s table.

“I always seem to be waiting for you two” Mason growled with mock seriousness.

“Stop whinging you miserable bastard.” She retorted and he narrowed his eyes playfully.

“You wanna watch who you’re talking to Willow, remember who’s cooking tonight? Soup for you now.”

What the hell?

“If you’re cooking, then I think I’d rather have soup.” She grinned.

He chucked out a bark of laughter then I frowned when he stiffened considerably as he spotted something behind me.

He completely morphed into something sinister; his eyes glazed with a white haze, his jaw clenched to the extreme that his teeth cracked and his chest heaved with his intense breaths.

Red looked behind me as I did.

A black haired man was stood staring at Mason, his eyes just as dark and venomous.

“Shit” Red hissed as she flung herself from her chair and scurried round the table to Mason’s side.

“Mason. Calm down. Think of what Ava will do if you hurt him.”

The man must have had a death wish because he strode over to us. Mason snarled, literally snarled like an animal, low and fierce and I knew something was gonna go down.

“Mason” the guy smirked.

“Kade, fuck off” Red spat at him and I just sat and watched it all unfold.

“Look, sweetheart. No offence or anything but this is between Mason and me.”

Red barked a laugh at him. “I’ll let go of him then shall I?”

He shrugged and Mason slowly lifted from his chair and I noticed how white his knuckles were, as if he was preparing them for battle.

All the air seemed to disappear around us; like Mason was absorbing it all in his wrath and an iciness settled over us. My bones felt like they were going to shatter with the sensation.

“What do you want Kade?”

“Just enquiring after you both, Mason. How is Ava?”

Red rolled her eyes and grabbed hold of Mason as he took a step towards Kade. “Ava is thoroughly enjoying life without you. As was I, until you reared your ugly fucking face. She’s still screaming in ecstasy at everything I give her. And you know Ava, Kade; she takes pretty much anything I give her and gives it all back even better.” Mason smirked as Kade now growled low.

“Yeah, she gave it fucking good all right.”

“Oh fuck!” Red whined.

She flew backwards on her arse as Mason launched himself at Kade, her head flew backwards and she knocked it against a table leg.

Her eyes blinked rapidly at the pain that exploded through her head and I rushed over to her.

“You okay?” I asked over the din in the room as the two men pounded each other.

Security, managers and staff attempted to pull the men apart but as I risked a glance at Mason, he was gonna get sent down for murder the way he was pounding into Kade.

“You need to get Mase off him Lucas, he’ll kill him.”

I glanced at a murderous Mason then at Red, trying to establish who needed my attention most.

I gave Red a little nod. “Wait here.”

She nodded as I made my way over to the battle. “Mason, come on. I think he’s bleeding enough” I urged as I pulled on Mason’s arms.

He was in a world of his own, completely zoned out and I was starting to panic when Kade looked unconscious.

“MASON!” I bellowed in his ear.

He flinched, blinked then looked up at me before returning to look at Kade.

He finished his pounding with a final punch, then stood, brushed himself off and smiled at the restaurant owner.

“I’ll get Sam to fetch him.” he told him as he pulled out his phone.

I shook my head in bewilderment at how everybody just stood and let Mason walk casually back over to his table, whilst a broken and beaten Kade lay on the floor groaning.

My heart stammered to a stop as I saw Red. She was slumped on the floor, unconscious and barely breathing.

“Fuck!” I hissed as I dashed over to her limp body.

“Call an ambulance” I shouted out as Mason dropped beside me and rolled her over into the recovery position.

“Shit” he murmured.

“You did this to her you fucking twat.” I pushed at him, knocking him on his arse; my anger at him giving me strength to push him over.

His wide eyes darkened but he didn’t retaliate, just pulled himself up and stood back whilst I pulled her onto my lap.