Irrevocable (Fated series (can be read as a standalone) Book 3) Read online

  ‘Approx thirty-five minutes, John,’ he replied.

  ‘Approx?’ I questioned, raising my eyebrow at him.

  ‘Thirty-five minutes, John,’ he replied. He resisted calling me out on my bullshit and just let it ride. Brent had known me long enough to know when I had a problem in my life, the rest of it needed to be precise, to the minutest detail.

  ‘Do we have everything we need; all the evidence is compiled and ready to be used?’ I knew it was and so did he, but God help me I needed this conversation, I needed it to remind me of what and who I was. This was me, not the relaxed guy I had fallen into being the last few days. I had control, total control, I knew that the flickering tic had already calmed and would be gone in the space of a few more minutes.

  ‘Right, suits back on, our holiday is over. I want us in place and ready when the police get on board.’ I watched as Rik began to open his mouth in question, Brent silenced him with a look and he shut it just as quickly.

  As they began to move around the room I allowed my mind to wander back to the woman who had just pushed me away. The more I ran it through my mind the more it just didn’t ring true. When I had held her in my arms and kissed her, I felt as her body had come apart and moulded into mine. I had heard her whispered gasps and felt her pulse quicken beneath my lips. It wasn’t pretence, her body couldn’t act out those reactions. Something was off, but for now I had to let it go and get on with the job I was paid for.

  We made our way to the suspects’ cabin. I looked around the growing group of men we were now part of. There were thirteen of us to take on the three men currently in their locked cabin. The corridor was packed and what a sight we must have made. There was an Italian police officer at either end of the thoroughfare turning people away as they arrived, but judging by the looks on their faces as they took us all in, I think they would have walked away all by themselves. Four of us looked like FBI suits, four had on the uniform of the ship’s security department and the others all wore the very flamboyant uniform of the Carabinieri. I think any person with a brain could sense that shit was about to go down.

  I was eager to prove them right.

  Making sure only one man could be seen from the cabin’s spy hole, we all automatically took our places flat against the wall without making a sound.

  He rapped firmly on the heavy wooden door.

  ‘Cabin service,’ he spoke to the closed access.

  I scrunched my eyes tight, let my chin dip down to my chest and stopped breathing as I strained to listen over my whirring fucking head. My whole body was on edge waiting in anticipation for the onset of getting the paid scum out of Jasmin and her family’s lives.

  Jasmin. Once again, I forced my memories down.

  I opened my eyes wide as the door began to make the subtle noises of being opened.

  ‘Anything you need, sir?’ he subserviently questioned.

  ‘No…’

  Whatever the guy on the other side of the door was going to finish the sentence with, was despatched into thin air as he was barrelled out of the way. The door thudded hard against the inside wall of the cabin. Leaning forward I watched with satisfaction as the door was forcibly pushed all the way open and uniformed and civilian dressed men burst through and into the cabin. I waited outside with the others who were in command and listened to the dull thuds of human flesh connecting and shouts caught up in between the four walls. The sounds gradually quietened down and I entered the almost claustrophobic space.

  Much to my disgust the three suspects were already face down on the ground, with their hands above their heads. My normally restrained fists yearned to contact with any of them, all of them would have been infinitely better. Every part of me was tense and I was aware that as I walked towards their prone figures I was cracking my knuckles trying to relieve the pressure.

  ‘Good job, guys. We appear to have successfully completed our job, Brent.’ I spoke the words, but without the normal pleasure behind them as I turned on my heel and began to move out of the crowded cabin, shaking hands with the head of the ship’s security on the way. My hands were large and I had a habit of making sure I always had the stronger hold, I nodded my head to him and stepped back out of the open doorway.

  ‘You supercilious bastard!’ A shout came from in the cabin and I froze, knowing that out of all the men here, it was directed straight at me. I turned immediately and strode back into the cabin, almost pushing Brent over, as he was walking so closely behind me.

  I could see the arsehole that had shouted to me as his head was turned towards the doorway and a small twist was grazing the corner of his mouth. I knew I was about to snap, I was hanging on to my control by a thread. The fact it was the fucker that had wound me up on deck when he had seen my naked wife, just added wood to the burning pit of anger inside of me.

  ‘That’s it! Yeah, you… thinking you’ve got everything all figured out. Mark my words… we’re ahead of you.’

  Not prepared to listen to anymore crap that spewed out of his mouth my fist smacked fast and hard into the side of his smug face, the sound of the side of his head bouncing off the carpet was like fucking music to my ears and I allowed myself to hit out again and again.

  ‘John!’ I heard the shout from Brent and felt him grip my shoulder in solidarity.

  Blood started to trickle out of the arsehole’s nostril, it brought me to my senses and I stood up, watching in satisfaction as he lay his head back down and squeezed his eyes together in pain, then his consciousness left him.

  I stood tall once again, adjusted my suit and pulled my shirt sleeves back down to the right place. Pulling a clean white handkerchief out of my pocket I quickly wiped my stained knuckles, dropped the soiled fabric onto his back and made my way once again out of the door and into the corridor. I leant against the opposite wall and crossed my arms over my chest. I wasn’t pleased with my reaction. My control and professionalism was my mask, my go-to space in my head, but not any longer. As I stood contemplating my actions I realised I would kill for her, without a fucking second thought.

  What the hell had she done to me?

  I watched with a sense of satisfaction as the Carabinieri marched and nearly carried the bastard I had let rip on, off the ship. It was a job well done, I reminded myself. I rubbed my left hand fleetingly over the knuckles on my right hand, luckily my job occasionally required me to use my hands and not just my head. As I had let rip into the tosser’s face it was Brent’s voice that had pulled me off. It was all too easy taking out my hurt and anger on the stupid fuckers who thought they could pull one over on us.

  My thoughts once again went back to Jasmin.

  It wasn’t over, she just didn’t get to dismiss me like that.

  We needed to talk. I wasn’t good at talking, especially when it demanded taking into consideration other people’s feelings, but it needed to happen and as soon as possible. I would deal with the paperwork and shit in Genoa, close the job down and meet the ship in Rome. I hadn’t taken time off in a while, well, in forever. Hunter had Bella and Nathan covered in the U.S. I deserved some time off and who better to take it with than my wife?

  I smiled and nodded at my plan.

  Walking silently, we followed the Carabinieri out into the bright sunshine and I smiled with a sense of contentment as they placed the three guys into vehicles. I watched Brent offer the departing cars a sarcastic wave as the blacked-out vehicles pulled away. I shook my head at him and gave him a small smile, knowing I could be a stuffed suit. I appreciated his ability to make me laugh and relax.

  A car pulled up next to where we now stood on terra firma. The team began to load up our cases and equipment and just as Brent picked up my guitar case I felt Jasmin. I mean felt her, like I hadn’t ever felt anyone.

  She was scared.

  I ran the tosser’s words through my head, trying to understand what it was he was saying.

  ‘Brent. do you think you can you handle this if I stay here?’

  ‘John, you know
I can, get back to her, sort out whatever it is that needs sorting before the next person your fist takes a liking to ends up in a coffin and not a prison hospital bed.’

  I slapped him on the shoulder, grabbing his forearm I shook his and then the rest of the team’s hands, thanking them for their hard work and a job well done. Then I started to make my way back on board. I heard Brent shouting behind me to some of the stewards, he wanted them to take my stuff back on board.

  Once I was back inside the boat, I was even more convinced she needed me. Crazy as it seemed in my normally logical head, she needed me.

  She fucking needed me! I was terrified and elated in equal measure.

  I started to run things through my mind over and over, feeling my brow crease as I systematically ran the facts through my head. I began to run towards our cabin.

  I could feel her; with every step that took me closer, the sensations felt stronger. I hadn’t been wrong.

  My synapses started firing just the way I liked them. I thought back to the bathroom. She was protecting herself I could see that now, she was scared I’d hurt her, I hadn’t been under a misconception. Happiness started to bubble up inside me. I hadn’t been wrong, we did have a connection. It was a revelation, a real goddamn eye opener. Maybe I stood a chance of real happiness.

  I started running our last conversation around my head as I finally made it to the bank of lifts that would take me back up to her. I could still hear the slam of the door as I left, walking away from her down the corridor and then it hit, it fucking hit like I’d been punched by a heavy-weight boxer, the fucking cabin steward. His uniform when he had passed me in the corridor was buttoned up incorrectly, like he was in a rush. Before he had been so meticulous.

  Why the fuck was he in a rush?

  I knew exactly why, the fucking bastard, I would kill him with my bare hands. I checked my watch, I’d been gone far too long.

  What the fuck had he done to her?

  ‘Fucking H Christ! JASMIN!’ I roared as the lift doors opened and I belted down the corridor towards our cabin.

  Almost on instinct my hand released the railing and as the cold calculating bastard bent himself down to me, aiming to place the shoelace to the bare skin around my neck, I began to hit out for all I was worth. The relief I felt was palpable. The idea of being completely frozen to the spot in terror seemed so much worse than fighting back, trying to make sure any part of my unwilling body made contact with his. So that he was reminded time and time again that I was not giving my consent, I was refusing what he wanted.

  I felt I was doing something. I knew I wouldn’t be able to carry on for very long. My heightened level of adrenalin would run out and given that I had already had a rise in blood pressure at his entrance, I knew all these things would drain my physical strength far quicker than I would like. But for now, I continued to punch, kick and knee at any part of his body that came near enough, mostly I didn’t connect with him, but I had to keep trying.

  ‘I love a woman who fights me, Jasmin.’ He let go of the shoelace with one hand and to my relief I saw it fall limp, only now hanging from one of his fists. His free hand went down to grab his hard cock beneath the hideous polyester uniform slacks he was wearing.

  ‘My dog’s got a bigger cock than that and she’s female.’ I heard my wavering voice trying to sound brave.

  That annoyed the hell out of him and it gave me a very small sense of triumph when I realised I could affect him in some way. I was happy to realise I had taken just a tiny piece of control back from the disgusting creature in front of my eyes. I was even happy when with his free hand, he back handed me hard across my cheek.

  Anything to stop him coming at me with that bloody shoelace.

  My head moved with force from the blow to the side, my cheek bone and eye socket glanced against the side of the balcony rail. I knew the blow had split my skin as I felt the warmth flood into my eye. My vision began to blur the moment the blood seeped under my eyelid. Automatically my hand came up to meet with the pain and then just as instinctively it left, to show myself what I already knew, blood on my fingertips.

  I watched in horror from the one eye that could still see properly, as the bastard in front of me wrapped the lace around his fist again with cold, calculating precision, dragging the moment out as soon as he noticed my gaze was transfixed upon his movements.

  Somewhere inside my fear-filled head, I dreamt I heard a loud thud against the main door and then shouting outside, just as the shoelace came back to my neck and I swallowed a painful gulp. My fingers leapt up to my throat as I tried in vain to get my fingernails underneath the taut leather. I just needed to separate it slightly from its increasing bite on my tender flesh. Two of my nails scraped up the skin on my neck as somehow I forced them between me and the garrotte. To my horror, I began to feel my nails tear under the pressure until they ripped. My hand had no hold now and more importantly I no longer had any jurisdiction over my own fortune. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as I took in every single detail, in my terror. I had read somewhere that people drowning saw their lives flash slowly before their eyes, but I saw no pretty pictures of happy memories. All I saw was my blood streaked eye, and the bastard above me in his absolute element.

  He had a dirty unwashed smell that escaped in wafts from under his clothes.

  There were dry flakes of skin around his oily nose.

  He made a clicking noise in the back of his throat when he was excited.

  I couldn’t understand why my body was doing this to me. If I survived this, I wanted to remember nothing about this evil twisted bastard, not absorb every minute bloody detail.

  My heart was pounding as the lace finally tightened its abhorrent grip around my neck and I began to see that my fate was inevitable.

  I couldn’t scream, not out loud anyway. Inside my head, I was deafeningly loud.

  I could no longer fight.

  I closed my eyes in my defiance, refusing to let him into my head.

  In the distance, I heard an inhuman roar and quickly realised that unexpectedly the despicable weight I had felt lowering itself down onto me, was suddenly gone.

  Opening my eyes, the world went back to real time. I sucked in a huge breath on instinct as I saw the shoelace had been removed from my neck and was now dangling in between my attacker’s fingers on one of his flailing hands, as he fought to balance in the precarious position of teetering over the balcony railing. John had suddenly arrived through the open door and seemed to have spun my assailant around, forcing him backwards. I took in the sight of John with one hand gripping hold of the front of the cabin steward’s jacket and the other completely over his face, digging his nails into the disgusting waxy skin that just seconds before had been leering at me. The pathetic blows that my assailant managed to land on him in his struggle to remain alive had no effect what-so-ever. John was too strong and held him silently, just where he wanted him.

  Because the cabin steward had been forced backwards over the balcony railings, I quickly grasped that the noise I could hear was no longer me but him, he was screaming in terror. But it seemed to be John who was waging the biggest war. On the outside, he looked every bit the consummate professional, his whole body was tense under his extremely well-fitting navy suit. The expensive fabric was pulled taut over his bulging muscles as he fought within himself. But his eyes gave him away, to me at least. His beautiful blue-green eyes showed the storm that was going on inside his head.

  One hand pushed down onto the bastard’s face as John showed him how much he wanted to just push him to his death below, and his other hand held on to his uniform jacket with a vice like grip. As the sick arsehole screamed to live, I lost interest in whether he lived or died. My interest was taken by the sight of the man I loved, who had come to my rescue. I could see the inner turmoil he was facing as he fought within himself.

  Should he play God, or not? I could see the question going around inside his head.

  He had said noth
ing to me, all his concentration was spent keeping the bastard see-sawing as he fought with his inner demons.

  ‘Let him go. He’s not worth it, John.’ I heard the calming voice of Brent as he arrived in the open doorway. ‘Think of the paperwork, the asswipe isn’t worth the fucking ink.’ I could see he had been running to get here, but his voice was giving off a sense of calm.

  Brent’s head swung around towards me. I saw him take in my distress and dishevelled clothing. I also saw the moment he realised I hadn’t been raped.

  ‘Why the fuck should I, Brent?’ John answered, as he forced the bastard further backwards.

  I heard a shrill, almost inaudible, smothered scream break free from under John’s hand. I watched as in his panic my assailant tried to grab hold of the smooth metal railing, but his sweaty hands slipped quickly away.

  The lighting changed inside our cabin, I became aware that the rest of the team had arrived in our cabin when I saw their outlines through the polished glass.

  ‘Because, John…Your wife needs you and this time you’re in the right place to help her.’

  So, he had been married before.

  At last, something within him registered, his head turned towards me and the blank expression he had been wearing on his face gradually subsided as he took me in, cowering to the side of him. Not removing his eyes from me he released the hand off the guy’s face and swung him towards Brent all in one movement.

  ‘Take him away from my sight, NOW!’

  Brent caught him easily and steered him towards the rest of the team who had stood motionless waiting. They manhandled the prone figure to the door and away. I noticed for the first time that the cold calculating bastard who was going to get his rocks off using my worst nightmare, had wet himself. Somewhere deep down inside me, I found that extremely satisfying.

  ‘Get Jasmin a doctor, please, Brent.’

  As the others filed away John bent down to me, gently lifted me up into his arms and carried me back into our cabin. Close to his chest and safe, I could feel the strong pounding beat of his heart. The deep breaths he took through flared nostrils showed me he was willing his anger away. After placing me down on the bed and silently staring at me, he softly ran his fingers over my face and down my neck as he took in my injuries. Delayed shock hit me as under the brush of his fingertips, my jawbone began to quiver and the whole of my body began to shake, just like I was freezing cold.