The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone (188 page)

* * *

“What the hell is going on with you?” I asked Mason as soon as he took the chair opposite me in the café where we’d arranged to meet the next day.

He closed his eyes and scrubbed his face with his hands as he groaned, from my question or a hangover I wasn’t sure, but it was both a groan of frustration and resignation and I reached across the table for his hand.

He didn’t answer me but he took my hand in his and squeezed tightly. “How are you, Lay, after last night events?”

I shrugged but glared at him, “Don’t even try and avoid this, Mase. You need to talk to me. You do realise how much you’re hurting Ava, don’t you?”

He sighed again but nodded. “Yeah, I know” he answered quietly and I frowned at him.

“Then what are you doing it for?”

His expression was full of pain and anguish and my heart went out to him when I realised he was really struggling,

“This life, Lay. What the hell am I doing? It’s all going . . . pear-shaped. Everything I do gets turned and twisted. I put my wife and children in danger every day. I put Ava in danger that day with Kenny because of my life. And you . . . you took the repercussions of my
business.
”

I nodded in understanding but squeezed his hand. “And what will you do if you give it all up?”

He shrugged and looked confused for a moment and I lifted my eyebrows at him. “Mase, Ava knew what you did before she married you. If it was a problem for her, then she wouldn’t have married you, hell, the woman holds her own and if I know Ava, she relishes the life. The twins? Mason, how many children go missing nowadays? They could be playing out and then suddenly disappear. Katie and Georgie are in no more danger than any other child in this shit faced world.”

He regarded me for a moment as my words sank in but then the darkness covered it again, “But, what happened to you Lay, wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for me.”

I scoffed loudly at that. “No, Mase. What happened to me wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Kenny. And besides, look what could have happened to me with Diablo if it wasn’t for you. There’s good and bad everywhere, Mase, everywhere, no matter what your job or your life entails.”

“What the hell?” he suddenly exclaimed and I frowned at him. “How come a little girl can make everything seem better?”

I smirked at him “I’m not that little, Mase.”

“No you’re not, Little Willow. You have the biggest heart around, and now you need to face up to things and fix it once and for all. You’ve found your soul mate, fucking fight for him” he commanded.

“If only it were that easy, Mase. She has his child, how the hell do I compete with that?”

He stared at me for a moment before a scowl morphed his face. “You remember years ago when Rebecca told me her child was mine?”

I nodded and looked at him in confusion. How the hell did that help?

“Well, even when I believed her, it never stopped me loving Ava, not one fucking bit. Why do you think because Lucas has a kid with this woman that he’s gonna love you less?”

Oh. Well . . .

“I dunno really, but it was the way they were on that sofa. The way she looked at him and the way he looked at her . . .”

“Lay, babe, he had just discovered the woman had kept his son a secret for two years. She fucked off, left him then turns up two years later with a child in tow. How the fuck would you feel? I can imagine confusion, shock, doubt and insanity are just a few. How do you know what Lucas was thinking? You can’t read his mind Lay, you have to hear it from him.”

He was right, I knew he was but it still didn’t stop the insecurity and hurt flowing through me at the way Lucas had reacted.

He was down on one knee, asking me to marry him for god’s sake, then he just stopped and forgot about me, and I had never felt more like a fool than I had then.

I can still see everybody’s eyes on me as I walked through that room, my humiliation and hurt burning a hole straight through me as they all stared.

“I dunno, Mase,” I told him eventually. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen but I do know you need to get home to Ava and apologise your fucking arse off.”

He grinned mischievously at me “Don’t worry little Willow, what I have in store for Ava; I’ll have her fucking begging and screaming my name.”

I rolled my eyes and flapped him away “Go, before you spill even more details . . .”

He laughed loudly before he threw a twenty pound note on the table, kissed my cheek and disappeared.

* * *

I saw him pull up outside my flat as I sat in the window with my chocolate.

He saw me too as he climbed out and his face lifted to me whilst his eyes asked me to open the door and talk to him.

He had texted me and rang several times over the last twenty four hours but I hadn’t been ready to face him, so I had ignored him, thus bringing him to my door as his next attempt to talk to me.

I nodded to him and climbed off the window and went to open him the door before settling myself back down.

He emerged in the room five minutes later, his dominance and slight anger at me filling the pockets of air in the room; the sheer size of his body also sucking up all the remaining oxygen.

He didn’t say a word, just sat in the chair beside me and we both glanced at each other, both of us wary and upset.

“You gonna tell me why you ran, then refused to answer my calls?” he asked eventually. His ire was evident in his tone and I lifted my brows at him in astonishment.

He sucked in a large breath in an attempt to control his anger but it was still written all over his face.

“Maybe, because you had other things to deal with before me” I told him quite sarcastically and I chastised myself silently at my own tone.

He narrowed his eyes on me, the irritation in them boring through me and into my bones.

“You always come before anything else, Red, you know that.”

I laughed bitterly then. “Is that so Lucas? Like I came before Alana when you were down on one knee and just shut me down, leaving me feeling, as well as looking like a fucking fool.”

He scoffed as he shot out of his chair. “Is that was this is about, cos’ I made
you
look like a fool when I was confronted with a son I didn’t even know I had?” he spat angrily.

“Oh no, do not twist my words, Lucas. I didn’t say that and you know it. The way you looked at Alana, when you were down on one knee, well it told me and every other fucker in that room, that she was back and you no longer wanted me. I no longer even existed in your mind. That’s why, Lucas, and don’t fucking deny it. I saw it on your bloody face!”

He stomped across to me and brought his face within an inch of mine. “I will fucking deny it, Red, cos’ whatever you think you and everybody else saw, was not what was actually going through my mind at that moment.”

I stood and pushed past him, not liking where this conversation was going but he grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. “Come on then, Red. Tell me exactly what you saw on my face cos’ I bet it was nothing like what I saw on yours when Diablo died. And Ry, oh, we mustn’t forget how much you loved him, Red” he hissed nastily and my palm connected harshly with his cheek.

“Don’t you dare drag my feelings for Ry into this. Ry is dead and buried Lucas, whether I loved him or not, he is not what matters now, Alana is.”

“And Troy?” he asked with a glare and I frowned in confusion.

“Troy—my son. Is that the real reason for this, Red? Now I have a son it changes how you feel about me?”

Unbelievable.

I stared at him in shock. “My God, Lucas. Do you even know me at all?”

He looked thoroughly chastened then and he turned, groaning loudly as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

“This is all a fucking mess” he grumbled and I thoroughly agreed with him.

He kept his back to me but carried on talking. “Alana had an affair with my best friend, for eight months whilst she was with me,” he divulged and I swallowed at his evident pain in their betrayal. “And whatever you might think Red, that kinda crushed any feelings I ever had for her, there and then but . . . but she is obviously the Mother of my child, a child I knew nothing about until last night, and I can’t just push that connection away.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.

“When she . . . when she just stepped out yesterday, my eyes weren’t on Alana, they were on my son, so whatever you think you saw, it definitely wasn’t any emotion for her, it was for Troy, cos’ I knew as soon as I saw him that he was my son.”

I remained silent, letting him tell his story; he needed for me to listen, so I did.

He turned to look at me now and his eyes held so much hurt, that I found myself fighting against my instincts to just wrap him in my arms and comfort him, absorb all the damage and sorrow from him.

“Yes, I won’t deny I was in love with Alana, and I was gonna ask her to marry me until I found her in the bath, naked with my best mate since school, fucking like animals whilst the water slopped all over my bathroom floor.” He took a large inhalation and held me with his eyes, their intensity demanding every part of me.

“And yes, their betrayal hit me hard and I had a meltdown for a few months but only cos’ of the hurt at what they were doing, not because I loved her to the ends of the earth, not like the way I love you, Red. My love for you, it consumes me, every single fucking fragment of me. You’re inside me, your breath is my breath, your soul is joined with mine and your heart, it’s mine Red, every fucking sliver and beat of it. Mine.”

I nodded as I walked slowly towards him and he took my hands as I came to stand before him.

But then I surprised him as I dropped to one knee.

His eyes widened and I could see the pump of his heart hammering against the tight material of his shirt.

“And every breath I take, you breathe; every time my soul shudders, yours does; and every time my heart beats, yours beats along with it because you are inside me also, you own me, Lucas Hunt. You own my breath, my soul and my heart and without you they would all shut down and watch me die, and I’d rather die than lose you. I love you so much and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want you to marry me, Lucas. I want you to be with me until the day I die and then I want you to share the afterlife with me.”

He dropped to his own knees before me and cupped my face. “You are on, Layla Summers, I’ll always be yours and you’ll always be mine, Red. Always, baby.”

I snivelled like a hormonal teenager as tears rolled down my face and nodded at the man before me.

My man, the man that I knew would love me until the day I left this world and then I knew he would be right behind me, his control and dominance refusing to see us ever separated.

“By the way, baby. Your delightful arse is gonna so connect with my palm tonight. I think we better start counting your misdemeanours. Number one, being so damn beautiful. Number two. . . .”

We never reached number three.

Epilogue

Lucas

OH GOD, THIS was so fucking hard. “I can’t do this.”

“Yes you can, stop being so bloody childish, Lucas.” My Mom scolded and I took a deep breath.

“But, she’s dying in there, Mom. I can’t watch her die.”

“For goodness sake Lucas, man the hell up.”

My brows lifted at my Mother’s words. She had never been one to curse, so I knew I was in trouble when she spat the ‘Hell’ word at me.

“Get in there and be by your wife’s side, Lucas Hunt, before I really lose my temper with you.”

I nodded frantically, knowing this woman would keep her word and thrash the life out of me in the hospital corridor.

Logan smirked at me and I narrowed my eyes on him. “Wait until Sara drags you in here.”

Logan lifted a brow and me and snorted. “Aint no chance, bro. Yeah, I love Sara to bits but . . . nah, no fucking way.”

Logan and Sara had developed a relationship after my thirtieth birthday, two years ago, and they were joined at the hip so I knew Logan’s words were just meant to torment me. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he was stood exactly where I was.

“In. Now!” My Mother barked at me and I jumped at her ferociousness.

I nodded at her again as I pulled in a deep breath and opened the door to hell.

* * *

Layla

“Jesus, fucking, Christ!” I screamed as Lucas held my hand and I squeezed tight. His whimpers at the pain had me scowling at him. “What the hell, Lucas. You wanna swap?”

He shook his head eagerly as his eyes showed his fear of me. “No, baby. You’re doing an excellent job.”

I scowled at him “Not like I have a fucking choice, is it? You did this you arsehole. We are never having sex ever again.”

His face contorted painfully and I could read the despair on his face at my words. “Now, Red. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves . . .”

“You twat . . .” I shouted as another contraction tore through me, its tightness crippling me and ripping through me.

“Push, baby, push . . .” Lucas whispered against my head softly and I whimpered against him as I bore down and pushed. I would shove the little blighter out if it was the last thing I did.

“Red, God. Oh, baby, she’s here. You did it, Red, God; I love you, baby, I love you . . .” Lucas cried as our daughter’s lungs pierced the room.

Thank fuck!

“Well, hello Willow” Lucas cooed as the nurse handed our baby to him.

His face was pure rapture and I knew if I never saw the sunshine again I could picture this moment and be filled with a brightness that was utterly blinding.

He looked over at me, his wet eyes telling me how much he loved me. “She’s so beautiful, Red. Just like her Mom.”

I smiled wide and happily as he passed her to me and I cradled her gently.

“Hey, baby”

Her small plump lips rolled and parted and the nurse helped me to get her settled on my breast.

She was a gannet, just like her father, devouring every bloody thing I had in me and Lucas smirked. “I’m gonna have to fight her for them.”

The nurse laughed loudly as Sara smacked his arm. “Congratulations, you two. She’s beautiful” She declared.