Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (25 page)

“You didn’t hear her,
she was scared,
he was hurting her
.
” Gavin
protested as he began to pace
around the voluminous
kitchen
pausing to
look at his phone.

“What is it Gavin?” Kiera asked .

“Her phone isn’t connecting.
” Ga
vin explained trying
again,
then
raking his fingers through his hair.

“You should go
,
” Kiera began,
Gavin’s look of relief telling
her that was what he
needed to hear right now.

“Dude, you can’t go off
half-cocked
just wait
,
” Novak
interrupted, throwing a glare at Kiera.

“I can’t wait, I have to be doing something even if it’s finding Quinn
and beating the shit out of him
.
”

Novak sig
hed
.
“We’ve already covered all the reasons
why you can’t do that
.
”

“Move out of the way
,
” Gavin ignored
him.

“I’m obviously not going to talk you out of this am I?” Defeated, Novak
gave in and stepped aside “Ok go, drive carefully bro, you’re no good to
her dead
.
”

Gavin smiled appreciatively at his friend
.
“I’ll call you
.
”

“Ok. I’ll get everyone out of here
,
” Novak heard Gavin shout his thanks seconds before the Supra roared to
life.

Gavin’s head was spinning as he screeched to a halt at the end of the ro
ad. Which way to go? Had she decided to talk to him at the
beach after all? Did she wait until he had taken her home? Gavin decided,
knowing Angel that she had told him on the way home. Perhaps they were arguing
in his car outside her house? He turned his
car in
that direction and slowed as he approached her driveway, it was empty and the
house was in darkness. Grabbing the steering wheel and pulling it into a full
left lock, he turned the car around and headed to Quinn’s house, growling in
frustration when
he saw that the white monstrosity of
Quinn’s car wasn’t there. He made several further sweeps of the two homes in
the vain hope that the couple would turn up at one of them and that Angel would
be home and safe. On his final pass of Angel’s house, Gavin h
ad finally managed to form a plan of action after noticing
he had wasted an hour going back and forth.

It took a lot longer to reach the beac
h than he had anticipated with l
orries, caravans
and minibuses blocking his path, the three litre turbo under the bonnet
positively straining at the leash to be let loose on the open road. The traffic
finally cleared and Gavin planted his foot down hard on the accelerator.

Gavin’s heart
plummeted when he saw that the
car park they had used earlier that day was empty. He jumped out of the car,
pressing the remote locking button as he ran to the beach and hurdled the
railings landing heavily on the pebbles and scanning the seafront. Knowin
g he couldn’t physically search the whole of the coast
alone he decided to head as far up the beach as he had walked with Angel that
afternoon and set off at a stumbling sprint, the pebbles hampering his progress
wherever possible.

It was dark by the time
he had completed his
search. Puffed and with the blood rushing through his ears, he dropped to his
knees, bruising them on the offending pebbles and reached into the left pocket
of his jeans for his phone. It wasn’t there. Frantically his right hand shot i
nto the pocket on that side, still no phone. Nothing!
Heaving himself to his feet and climbing over the railings, he stumbled to the
car, approaching from the front; he saw the glow of his phone through the
windscreen and grappled the keys from his pocket,
dropping them before he managed to press the button to unlock the car.

“Don’t hang up
,
” he whispered
.
“Don’t hang up, please don’t hang up
.
” The central locking buzzed and he
wrenched the door open, too late, that call was dropped. Re-dialling, he waited
anxiously for the phone the other end to start
ringing then the click as it was answered.

“Angel?” he almost yelled
.
“Angel, its
Gavin is that you?”

“Gavin?” Angel spoke through her sobs
.
“Please help
.
”

“Where are you?” he asked gently.

“I...I er... I don’
t know
,
” she blurted sobbing louder.

“Angel love, calm down, I’m coming for you ok?” the crying subsided
.
“Are you in a phone box?” The
occasional bleeps on the line giving him the hint.

“
Yes
.
”

“Ok, that’s good. Stay there. There should be an address on th
e wall behind the phone, read it to me
.
”

Angel heard him scrabbling in his car and the glove box opening, she
relayed the address as he wrote it down ready to enter into his phones GPS
.

“I’m not too far away; I’ll be there before you know it. Is it safe fo
r you to stay in the phone box?”

“I think so, what if Quinn comes back? I ran away from him but I don’t
know where he is now
.
”

“Stay out of sight, I’m on my way
.
”

Angels heart leapt in her chest as she heard his car door close and the
familiar sound of his
Supra jumping to life at the
turn of the key, she was somewhat comforted that Gavin had forgotten to end the
call, she could hear him shouting at people to get out of his way in an effort
to make his journey to her as quick as possible.

Gavin realised he’
d have to use the GPS device
on his phone to pin point Angel’s precise location.

“Angel? Are you still there?” he asked.

“Yes
,
” she breathed,
he hadn’t forgotten to hang up and he’d left the line open deliberately.

“I’m
sorry. I’m
going to have to hang up
,
” he told her
.
“I’ll be there very soon, I just need
the GPS for this last bit
.
”

“Hurry
,
” she pleaded
shortly before he hung up.

Angel sank down to the floor of the phone box, making herself as small as
possible in the corner. Now that she could no longer
hea
r Gavin she felt horribly alone
. She glanced at her watch then at her reflection in the glass. God she
looked terrible. She tried to straighten the tangled mess of her hair but as
her hands were shaking uncontrollably
,
she only succeeded in making it w
orse. The
darkness outside pressed in on the phone box and the rain continued to pour,
Angel started to shiver.

She was concentrating so hard on the second hand of her watch that when
light flooded the phone box she panicked and scrunched down closer to th
e floor in an effort to hide. The pay phone rang and she
stretched an arm up, knocking the receiver off its cradle, relief flooding
through her at the sound of his voice.

“I’m here
,
” was all he
said before once again hanging up.

Angel heard the car door
open and close then
the door to the phone box op
e
ned and he was
on his knees in front of her.

“Hey
,
” he greeted
her, holding out his hand. He felt bile rise in his throat as she lifted her
head to look at him and he saw her bruised face. “Come on
,
let’s ge
t you
in the car
.
”

She took his hand and let him help her to her feet
,
holding her ripped t-shirt together
with her other hand. Once on her feet she used her free hand to push the hair
from her eyes.

Gavin shrugged out of his jacket and placed it around he
r shoulders noticing that she tensed when he stepped in
closer
.
“I’m not going
to hurt you
.
”

“I know
,
” she began to
cry, great racking sobs of relief, she was safe now and the shock began to set
in.

All Gavin wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and hold
her but he knew if he tried she would shy away from him
again. He decided for the time being, he needed to be strictly hands off. Once
they were both seated in the car and Angel was securely strapped in, Gavin
turned the heater on then leaned over towards
her,
making her flinch again.

“What are you doing?” she asked, edging as close to the passenger door as
she could within the confines of her seat belt.

“Turning on the heated seat, you look frozen
,
” he told her.

“Oh” she replied, feeling silly for over rea
cting
and hating herself for not trusting him.

Gavin set the GPS to “
h
ome
,
” then spun the car in the direction he
had come from as directed. They drove in silence, Angel not wanting to talk and
Gavin fuming, silently planning what he would do to Quinn.

When they reached the main road, Gavin pressed the accelerator to the
floor. With the interior of the car illuminated by the passing lamp posts,
Angel shifted slightly, seeing Gavin in profile. He didn’t look in her
direction at all but she noticed his fro
wn and his
beautiful full lips were pulled into a straight line. She knew him well enough
to know that he was plotting revenge on Quinn.

“Gavin
,
” she cleared
her throat, watching as his scowl changed to a warm smile when he looked at her
.
“I’m beginning to
steam
.
”

He glanced down at her legs and saw the wisps of steam
rising from her drying jeans, “t
he switch is
just by your right calf, can you reach it?” he asked, she nodded.

“How much further is it?”

“Only about another half hour
.
”

They didn’t speak again
until they pulled into
Angel’s drive way and Gavin saw that her parents Jaguar was missing and the
house was still in darkness.

“Where are your parents?” he asked switching the engine off.

“They have a do at the golf club, they won’t be home tonight
,
” she
answered.