On the Sly : The Grange Complex Book 2
On the Sly: Chapter 31

Tobias

I gave the bastard five seconds to stop touching my Angel and then I opened the passenger door, wrapped my arms around hers, and pulled her away from him. I spotted them in the car a minute ago, when I was walking towards the car park, hoping to drive around the city for a bit. For a moment I stood in front of their car, paralysed from head to toe. Anger began rolling through me in violent waves, my vision blurring with fury. I tried to stay away, watching them, but it was torture. I didn’t want him to touch her, and he was doing more than that.

I had been trying to get through to Lurkin in the past hour, to let him know that his secret shipment had been boosted by the police. He didn’t tell me that he had another truck coming from Spain, so I decided to turn this around in my favour. I called the base, filling them in with all the details. I needed an excuse to see if Lurkin was going to react, and if he was just about to lose his cool tonight. This whole thing was supposed to look like a random check-up, one that Lurkin didn’t expect at all. I was fuming that Ellie went out with him, and I was pissed off with Claire that she let her go before running this by me.

“I’m sorry, Adrian, I didn’t mean to intrude, but we have to talk. This is urgent,” I said, more abruptly than I should have. He scrambled out of the car and stormed towards me. Ellie was giggling, still in the same position. Fuck, what was wrong with her? Was she drunk?

“I was in the middle of something. Are you out of your fucking mind?” he shouted. He looked livid; I could see the anger slipping through his normally cool facade. I remembered that expression from that day when he was strangling the topless hostess at the party. I needed to choose my next few words wisely, because I didn’t want to fight with him, especially not in front of Ellie.

“I tried to call, several times, and when I saw your car I thought—”

He didn’t even let me fucking finish; he was on me, slamming his chest into mine and grabbing me by the collar. At that point I already released Ellie so she didn’t get hurt, but I wasn’t fucking prepared for this sudden outburst of violence. He pushed me onto the back fender of the car, crushing my back against the solid metal body of the vehicle. I hissed with an unexpected sudden dose of pain.

“I don’t answer to you, arsehole. You interrupted my fucking date,” he roared, banging my head against the car. It took me several seconds to gather my strength and push him away, slamming my fists into his jaw. It looked like that was unavoidable, but it felt damn good.

“It’s about the fucking shipment; someone highjacked your stock. Fuck your date, Lurkin!”

That finally got his full attention and he looked at me, staggered. Then he spit blood on the pavement, breathing like he was going through an asthma attack. Hell, my head was banging and Ellie was looking terrified with her jaw wide open. I was so glad that she was all right, that he didn’t hurt her.

“What’s going on? Why are you guys fighting?” she asked.

Adrian dragged his hand through his hair, looking at me like he was ready to throw another punch. He was either high or drunk, and he drove his car in this state while the fucker was with Ellie. I wanted to strangle him.

“It’s all good, Ellie. Don’t worry about it. We just need a minute alone, if you don’t mind,” I told her, ready to drag her back to her apartment, but I had to keep myself in line. He pushed me to the side, glancing at her.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Mack?”

“The truck from Spain. They were doing some spot checks on M5. They arrested one of the boys. I’m sorry about—”

“Fuck!” Lurkin shouted, searching through his pockets, probably looking for his phone. “This transport was important. Someone must have known about this.”

“You didn’t mention another shipment this week.”

“I didn’t think that I had to tell you about every single thing that is going on with my business, Mack,” he growled, holding his bleeding nose. He needed a black eye in addition for his arrogance. “Ellie, I have to go. Something came up. I promise that I’ll make it up to you next time.”

I clenched my fists, as she was staring at both of us, looking uncertain. This was going to be the last time he touched her. I needed to make sure of that, because this operation was going to end tonight.

“Is everything all right?” she asked, picking her bag up and approaching both of us. I bet she was tipsy, letting him manipulate her into this. Fuck, I wanted to spank her arse until she couldn’t sit down for a week.

“It’s just something that I have to take care of at work,” Lurkin said. “We will catch up next time. Now I really need to go.”

Ellie looked at me like she wanted to say something more, but I shook my head, telling her to keep her nose out of this for now. She nodded, and Lurkin asked me to get into his car. Clearly he wasn’t happy that I had found out about the shipment. We drove in silence for a good while until Lurkin cleared his throat.

“Listen, I was out of line back there,” I said, remembering how good it felt smashing my fists into his jaw.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad that you didn’t wait around. There was two million pounds worth of coke in there.”

“Who else knew about this?”

“Just a few people. I kept it low because I wanted to take care of it myself. This is going to hit me pretty hard, you know that, don’t you?”

“I bet. I was waiting for you in the office. Raj mentioned the shipment and then Marvin showed up telling him about the truck being stopped by the police.”

I was making this shit up as I went along. No one knew that the truck got pulled, but at this point I didn’t care. Lurkin needed to know that he couldn’t fuck with me. It had to come to this because he was claiming Ellie, and I couldn’t just stand there and wait until he’d hurt her.

Lurkin asked me to put the phone on speaker and then asked me to replace a contact listed as Johnny. He picked up after the second ring.

“Yes, Jason?” asked the voice on the other side of the phone.

“We have a problem. Police hijacked the truck with its contents. Someone must have talked. We lost everything,” Adrian said. He was normally cool and collected, but I had never seen him so fucked off. I wondered if he had forgotten that I was sitting next to him.

“How much?”

“Two million.”

“Christ, Jason, I counted on that money. The Russians will be furious,” Hodges said. I heard the panic in his voice. This new development was starting to get interesting.

“I just got the message; I don’t know how this happened. I’m heading over to my source to see if I can replace out more,” Lurkin said.

“Find whoever has been talking. If we’ve got a rat, get rid of the problem. We can’t afford any prying into our business affairs. I also told you not to call me on this number.”

“I had no fucking choice, mate. This was an emergency. We need to meet.”

“Fine, whatever, I’ll let you know. I can’t believe that you messed this shit up,” Hodges snarled and then hung up.

Lurkin cursed loudly, gripping the steering wheel tighter. I fucking knew that he would eventually have to get in touch with him. Now finally I had heard it myself, but this was just the beginning. Before this was over Lurkin was going to lead me to Johnny Hodges.

Ellie

“Tobias just dragged Adrian out of the car while we were making out in the car park,” I said, storming into McCune’s apartment several minutes later. I felt like shit. First I was woozy from the cocktails I had drunk earlier on. Then Tobias nearly gave me a heart attack when he punched Adrian outside, spiking my adrenaline. Now it was wearing off and my head was pounding.

“He did what?” Claire asked, dropping her jaw, putting her laptop aside. I started telling her about what happened outside on the car park. It was obvious that Tobias was jealous. He couldn’t deal with the fact that I had gone out with Adrian after promising that I would reconsider seeing him again. This wasn’t good, and he shouldn’t have punched him. Claire did not look happy when I finished telling her what had happened. She was on her mobile, pacing around the room.

“Listen, Ellie, I need to leave, see if I can speak to the base about this. Tobias shouldn’t have done that. He’s crossed the line this time.”

“What? I don’t think you should do that. They were talking about some missing shipment. Adrian looked furious.”

“Shipment? I thought that nothing was arriving this week?”

“I don’t know, Claire. They were talking about it until they left. I don’t know anything else.”

Claire shook her head, looking on edge. I’d promised myself that nothing would be more important than this story, but now I began to think that I hadn’t gotten my priorities in order. Tobias was risking his life because he was determined to catch my ex.

“Look, Tobias seemed to know what he was doing. Maybe we should wait for him here until he comes back?” I said.

“You’re sweet, Ellie, but we both know that this investigation has turned into a damn circus. I want this whole thing to be over as much as he does. I’m married Ellie. I’ve a husband that I haven’t seen for two months. He hates the fact that he has to wait for my phone call and that I have been unreachable for so long. We are close to resolving this case, but we’re missing some very important pieces that connect Lurkin to Hodges.”

“I saw the transfer letter earlier on. Once this whole thing is over, Tobias wants out. He seems convinced it’s the right thing for him.”

I didn’t want to share with her that I read his private correspondence, but the whole stress of the situation was heightening my emotions, making me very sad. I thought I loved him and maybe that could be enough, but love was worthless, after all, and that childish dream was over. There was no point thinking about a future with Tobias, hell, any future with any man. He had ruined me.

“Ellie, I’m going to tell you something that I thought I would never say again. Tobias loves you. He loved Charlotte, his wife, but that was five years ago. Every time he’s with you, he’s changes, seems in high spirit. Trust me it’s because of you.”

I wanted to laugh. She couldn’t be serious. Tobias asked to be transferred out to Belfast, and that was the end of the story. Claire had no idea what she was talking about. He couldn’t have any feelings for me.

“I don’t believe it was love, Claire. It was just sex, very hot and kinky sex, that’s all.”

“Whatever. I thought you wouldn’t want to believe me. You forget, I have known him for years. He’s crazy about you and you’re blind if you can’t see it,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I have to go. I’ll see you later.”

I told her that I would lock up the apartment for her. After I went back to my own place, I slumped on the sofa emotionally exhausted. I started wondering what was wrong with me. My life had been spinning out of control for so long I was dizzy with it all. I couldn’t seem to see a straight path to my future anymore. I was in a mess. I’d made awful choices and had reaped the consequences because I got involved with the wrong guy. On top of that I had fallen in love with a man who didn’t want me, which hurt more than I could say.

One thing was clear—Claire and Tobias needed to link Lurkin to my ex. I knew that I could get them what they wanted. A couple of months ago I was going through some papers in my father’s office and discovered that Andrew owned a bachelor pad so he had somewhere to take his women. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t think about this before.

The apartment was in his father’s name, but the deed was in his. Claire needed something for the court to prove that Johnny Hodges was the same person as Andrew Hamilton. This was it. This was what they were looking for. I finally got my ‘eureka’ moment.

I’d gotten to know Andrew quite well over the past year and I knew that he kept that apartment secret for a reason. There was probably something incriminating there that could help Tobias and Claire with their investigation. I knew that they had enough evidence to send Adrian straight to prison, but that would have been too easy. Tobias had a personal vendetta against Andrew and he didn’t want to fail to arrest him because of lack of evidence after everything that happened to his wife.

I felt sick when I thought about it. Andrew had fooled not only me but also my father, and now he was fooling another woman. I needed to replace something, anything that could bring him down and expose his crimes.

I made a quick coffee, hoping this would wake me up a little and allow me to think more clearly. It was the strongest espresso that I ever drank, but after an hour I felt more like myself. Drinking on an empty stomach wasn’t such a good idea after all. I put on my old jeans and jumper. Half an hour later, I was walking towards the car park, thinking about my conflicted emotions and everything that had happened over the last two months.

Claire’s words were burning in my head. I felt sad that Tobias was so shut down, that he was only interested in sex. Claire may have known him a long time, but she was wrong about Tobias this time. Tobias didn’t love me; he was just doing his job. I was probably being incredibly foolish, but I wanted to do this for him. Once he had all the evidence he needed, he’d have his closure and he could leave. It was better to rip the plaster off in one go, the sooner he went, the sooner I could start to heal.

The drive to Glasgow didn’t take long. There was barely any traffic on the road and it took me another twenty minutes to arrive at my destination. The building was old, Victorian with these huge windows. I got out of the car and looked around for a little bit. I needed a key; there was an intercom. I didn’t want to risk buzzing some random apartment. I knew people in a posh place like this would be more vigilant.

After waiting in the car for another hour, I saw someone walking towards the entrance. I leapt out of the car and hurried to the door, pretending I was searching in my bag for a key. As I approached the door, the man was almost behind me, and I sighed and tutted my annoyance. The man chuckled and unlocked the door himself; I took that opportunity to sneak inside. The guy even held the door for me.

Pumped with excitement, I started searching for apartment twenty-eight. Andrew had fiercely guarded this place for years. His ex-wife had no idea that he owned it.

When I reached the bottom end of the corridor, where his apartment was, I noticed that the door wasn’t quite shut properly. The latch hadn’t been engaged. My heart skipped a beat. Someone was already inside and hadn’t shut the door completely, or maybe Andrew’s apartment was being burgled. I had two possibilities: I could either walk away or get in there and replace out. Neither of these options was appealing. The only person that knew about this place was Andrew, and this was my chance. I had to get inside and confront him. I knew that he wouldn’t hurt me. He was a coward and I was valuable to him. He needed my father’s protection.

I took a few deep breaths feeling brave. I stood outside for a minute listening in, but whoever was inside was very quiet. My heart exploded when I thought about how stupid this whole thing was. I was intentionally putting myself in danger, but this way I could give Tobias and Claire the missing piece that they both needed to end this whole thing forever.

I made a split second decision and I sneaked inside. All the lights were on, but the apartment seemed empty. The whole place had been ransacked. It was a scene of utter destruction. Cutlery was scattered, plates lay smashed on the floor; most of the furniture had been moved or turned upside down. It appeared to me that someone was looking for something specific in here.

“Ellie, is that you?”

I turned around abruptly, recognising the voice. I thought that I had scored some luck, but then the man came out of the shadows. I realised that it wasn’t Andrew, but Adrian, and he knew about the apartment too.