Illicit Affairs by Holly Dixon

Thirty-Eight

The sun hadlong set as they drove for the better part of an hour, darkness engulfing the country roads they took and sheets of rain distorting the view from the windshield as the wipers struggled to keep up.

Ava’s nails had been chewed down to the quicks, her anxiety pulsing through her veins like steam as her stomach remained knotted since her apartment. However, it wasn’t fearful thoughts consuming her mind; it was anger. It was the burning resentment she felt for the man who sat in the driver’s seat, his blatant lack of respect as they sat in silence without any explanation of where they were going or why. She wanted to go through every memory spent with him and take a flamethrower to them. Peter’s betrayal was the worst kind of all. He was her silent assassin, an inside job where he had earned her respect only to shatter it by threatening not only her but her best friend too.

Ava’s icebergs burned a hole into the back of his curly red mop as she glanced down at the mobile she had obtained. Taking nervous glances between it and Peter, she swiped her thumb across the screen and blessed relief rushed through her, grateful that the older generation was not as tech-savvy to have adequate safeguarding—ironic considering the woman worked in a bank!

In the darkness of the cabin, Ava panicked, realising her face was illuminated in white, and concealed the phone in the nick of time as Peter looked up at her in the rear-view mirror and finally broke breath.

“For what it’s worth, I truly am sorry for all of this,” he sighed but frowned as the blonde scoffed and shook her head. “I hope you understand that I had no choice, ol’ girl.”

Ava had been fed enough bullshit by the men in her life to last her a lifetime.

“Two things,” she clipped out, sitting upright to meet his gaze in the mirror. “One, I am not your ‘ol’ girl’, and two, we always have a choice. Whether we make the right one or not is down to us.”

“That’s easy for you to say with your cosy apartment down on Mayfair and your bloody membership at the country club—all thanks to Daddy’s deep pockets!” he barked, tightening his grip on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned pale.

“You know I work damn hard to earn my place in this world!” Ava seethed through her teeth, her face a picture of offence as the muscles corded tightly in her neck. She took a deep breath and sat back in her seat. “We may have walked different paths to reach the same point in our lives but I am a firm believer that it is not the environment in which we grow but the people in our lives that shape us into who we become. And right now, you have kidnapped someone that helped me become the woman I am today, the one person that I cherish more than any worthless piece of material or asset. And I can promise you…” Ava leaned forward with her hands balled in fury as her eyes sliced into the back of his skull. “If any harm comes to my Samantha…no amount of money will ever be able to fix the carnage I will unleash on your life. I swear to you if you hurt her, I will destroy you, Peter.”

Although she could not see his face, she heard how her lethal promise had affected him in the way of him gulping down his nerves. She bit back her smile knowing that if Sam had heard her, she would have likely cracked a Liam Neeson joke at this point. However, even Sam knew that there was one thing that mattered to Ava above all the rest and that was family.

He would learn the hard way to never come between two sisters, not joined by blood but by spirit.

Eventually, the car pulled up onto a set of docks east of London. Shipping containers were stacked high above them like badly packed Tetris blocks, cranes towering over them like giant watchmen. Seagulls squawked, circling around Ava’s head like vultures as she stepped out of the car and peered up at the warehouse sat upon the sea bank, the water stormy against two white beams from the headlights.

“Move,” Peter ordered, carrying the money and leading Ava by gunpoint towards the two sliding doors left ajar in the warehouse.

Inside, aisle after aisle was stacked the height of the large building with pallets and containers. Ava struggled to orientate herself with where they were, her only clues coming from the salty air that was tainted by the odd sting of alcohol and the seagulls’ song that echoed around the corrugated building.

She felt like a lamb being led to slaughter as they walked down one of the aisles, her eyes desperately trying to pick some information from the storage boxes until they turned a corner and her legs seized as though the cement they walked on had spread up into her limbs.

Between several stacked pallets, Sam sat on the ground in front of a forklift, her hands bound in rope and a dirty rag gagging her. The moment she noticed Ava, her eyes lit up with hope as muffled squeals left her lips.

“Sam!” Ava sprinted towards her, skidding to a stop as she peered down and saw the state of her friend. The whites of her eyes were red, her pale cheeks glistening from fresh tears, and dried brown blood sat crustily upon her temple. “What did he do to you?!” she shrilled, dropping to her knees in front of Sam and pulling down the gag from between her teeth.

“You!” Sam seethed, tugging against her restraints as she looked to the side of Ava, her finger pointed at Peter. “You ginger-headed cunt! I shoulda maxed out that fucking credit card when I had the cha—”

“Oh, shut your fat gob,” he blustered, suddenly appearing behind Ava with the revolver clicking harshly by her ear. “Envelope. Hand it over.”

“Take it then.” Ava held out the envelope and waited until he bent forward to retrieve it before spitting up into his face with a spiteful scowl on her face.

“Hah! Classic, Archer!” guffawed Sam. Ava would have cracked a smug smile if not for the cool steel colliding with the side of her head and knocking her face-first to the ground. “You fucking dick! I’m gonna rip yerballs to yergullet, you twisted sick son of a—”

“Can someone please gag that loud-mouthed Scotswoman already!”

Everyone stopped and turned to the latest arrival to the shitshow. Mrs. Charlotte Forbes emerged out of the darkness like an emerald dressed in dollar bills.

With her cheek pressed to the ground, Ava gawked up at the woman who had shown her only kindness that day and squinted at her in bewilderment as she sauntered towards Peter, her arms wrapping around his neck before her coral lips met his.

“What is going on?” Ava looked at Sam as she sat up.

“Nae clue, hen.” Sam shrugged and pointed to Charlotte. “Her twatty driver knobbed me on the side of the head and the next thing I knew I was in this shithole!”

“You are lucky that that was all that Henry did, dear,” Charlotte remarked as she pushed Peter’s auburn curls away from his eyes which were staring at her like a brainwashed and lovesick zombie.

“Oh, wait! I had it here a second ago…” Sam stated, gathering everyone’s attention as she awkwardly searched her jacket pockets with her wrists still bound. “Aye, here it is!” She pulled out nothing from her pocket apart from her middle finger primed and flipping off Charlotte, much to the Forbes woman’s non-amusement.

Ava’s mind was reeling as she tried to piece together the puzzle. It was no secret that Charlotte reeked of the title gold digger, but what didn’t make sense was why she was having relations with Peter if it was money that she was after. Women like her utilised the men in their life, usually for power and money, so why did she need her defence attorney?

That was when it hit her like a bag of gold to the head.

“You’re using him,” Ava gasped, staring up at two sets of squinting eyes.

“I beg your pardon,” Charlotte said with her nose turned up.

“That explains why you were trying to seduce Nate that day in the meeting room. You needed someone high up with enough clearance to release Oliver’s inheritance from his escrow account!” However, then it dawned on her that Charlotte had seduced Nate prior to Oliver’s death which meant… “Oliver didn’t kill himself, did he, Charlotte?”

Peter’s attention snapped to Charlotte, his thick brows creased together as Ava’s theory began to make sense.

“I have no idea what you are talking about but for you to accuse me of such things is indeed an offence! It is bad enough that they detained poor Freya for it!” Charlotte hissed before composing herself and turning to Peter, her paw cupping his cheek as she scratched the underside of his beard. “I thought I knew what love was with my Holden, but I realise now that I was just a young pretty thing for him to admire, just another collectable on his shelf. Peter is the love of my life and we are going to have our happily ever after, isn’t that right, my love?”

Peter squinted at Charlotte for a moment as if weighing up both stories but eventually his shoulders relaxed as he nodded and turned his cheek into her touch, causing Ava’s stomach to plummet.

“You can’t possibly believe her, Peter!” Ava bleated.

“Guy’s a fud, thinking with his dick like every other yin ootthere.”

“Why would you do this?” Ava croaked, her eyes pleading with Peter to see sense.

“Why?!” he barked incredulously as his arm looped around Charlotte’s waist. “Why would I choose a woman that wants more than just a quick fuck to fill the lonely, sad, and pathetic void in her life? Come on, Ava.”

His words struck Ava like a knife straight to the gut as her eyes dropped to the ground. Trust a man to play on a woman’s insecurities. That was when an idea came to mind as her chin tilted up defiantly and she decided to play with his ego.

“So, you’re just going to run away into the sunset together and avoid the law. That’s your master plan?”

Ava knew it would warrant a rant from Peter, but truthfully, she wasn’t listening, especially as the corrupted pair professed their undying love for one another. Sitting in front of Sam, she discreetly passed the mobile phone back to her, praying that her Hail Mary would save them both.

“My love, I do have to confess one thing…” Charlotte sighed, her lips pouting as she stared down at Ava. “Seeing her,your prior lover…it does irk me.”

“Darling, she means nothing to me. She is nothing but collateral damage with a pretty face.”

Ava felt her throat tighten, her eyes sting with the threat of tears, but she balled her fists refusing to let this disgusting couple get the better of her.

“Regardless, her existence bothers me.” Charlotte moved to stand behind Peter, her chin resting upon his shoulder as she whispered in his ear, “Get rid of her.”

“What?” Peter and Sam gasped in unison.

“Prove your loyalty and love to me—kill her.”

“You said no one would get hurt…” Peter challenged over his shoulder.

“Yes, but a woman with a pretty face and a sharp mind is a dangerous thing. I don’t want her ruining everything for us…” She planted her lips at the spot behind his ear, the spot that Ava knew he adored to be kissed. “You love me, do you not?”

“Of course I do!”

“Then…” She raised his hand that held the gun and pointed it towards Ava’s paling face.

“Peter…” Ava’s eyes were full of regret and fear, her head shaking as her lips trembled to make words. “D-don’t do this…p-please.”

“Aye, listen to her, man! You’re nawseeing sense! This is Ava!” Sam roared, tugging at her rope as she pulled at Ava’s shoulders to desperately try to draw her into safety.

“I’m…I’m sorry…ol’ girl,” he croaked, the gun rattling as it pointed to the spot between her brows.

Ava stared down the dark tunnel leading her to death, waiting for the images of her life flashing before her eyes, but no such thing happened. She couldn’t fight nor flee, a caged bird that was frozen in a state of blind panic. Her brain had stalled and all she could think about in that moment wasn’t that she was going to die, it was that she was meant to meet Nate tonight and now would never get a chance to say goodbye.

It was odd that when faced with death, how your brain went from blind denial of your fatal reality to accepting your fate in a matter of seconds.

Ava didn’t close her eyes, bravely staring up into the eyes of her killer and wanting him to be haunted by the colour blue for the rest of his undeserving days. “Do it,” she sneered with a dry mouth. “Do it, you goddamn foul ma—”

Bang!

Sam’s screams tore through the air above the gunshot that reverberated around the warehouse. Her wrists were raw as she fought against the rope, trying and failing to catch Ava as her friend went tumbling down to her side like a dead tree and lay in a pool of crimson.