On the Sly : The Grange Complex Book 2
On the Sly: Chapter 32

Tobias

I was officially going crazy. It’d been twenty-four hours since I last saw Ellie. She vanished from her apartment last night, without a word. Her phone was off and my gut was telling me that something was very, very wrong.

Last night was a haze. I remembered driving around the city for some time, while Lurkin was on the phone to other people. After what seemed hours, he parked the car on a street unknown to me and got out to make another phone call, this time in private. The battery on my phone was dead, so I couldn’t tell Claire what had gone on earlier.

“I need to drive somewhere, and I need to do this alone,” he said when he came back. At first I thought that he was taking the piss, but when he threw me out of the car and drove off, it wasn’t fucking funny.

Lurkin never behaved so irrationally and I knew that he was shitting himself about the shipment. He’d just lost two million pounds, and I had a feeling that most of this money didn’t even belong to him.

It was just after eleven when I got back in the complex. Ellie’s car wasn’t parked in her usual spot, and that instantly concerned me.

“She must have gone to Glasgow to see her father,” Claire said, looking like she wasn’t bothered. For fuck’s sake, she wasn’t grasping the gravity of the situation. Ellie was missing. Lurkin hadn’t come back to the Grange either, so something must have gone on between the two of them. Ellie wasn’t impulsive, and she knew that I would worry. I didn’t get why she hadn’t left me a message or a note to say where she was. She was reckless, but not foolish.

“I don’t know, Claire. I don’t fucking like this. She took off in the middle of the night without a reason,” I said, checking my phone again. I didn’t sleep at all that night, listening and hoping that she’d gone out socially rather than being in danger.

“I don’t know what to say, Tobias,” Claire said, glancing at the clock. It was midday, early afternoon, and so far we had footage from CCTV that showed Ellie driving away half an hour after Claire left.

“Something must have happened to her,” I insisted, slamming my fists on the table. I had to fucking replace her. I was terrified at the prospect that she was with Lurkin.

“Tobias, we can’t leave the case right now. Lurkin is with Hodges. We should pursue this to see if we can get them together. This is our chance. This case will finally be closed.” Claire practically begged.

I lowered my head, trying to organise my thoughts about what the best course of action would be. Claire was right. I had no idea if Lurkin would crumble under pressure, once he realised that his most recent shipment really was boosted. Hodges had mentioned Russians, and that could mean only one thing—he and Lurkin must be absolutely shitting themselves. If the Russian Mafia had a presence in Edinburgh and they had gotten involved, then this whole operation just got international. No one liked messing with Mafia, especially in the UK.

I was going crazy stuck inside this flat, waiting, hoping that Ellie was all right. I couldn’t imagine losing someone this special to me—not again. I fucking loved her, and I had to stop lying to myself, my foolish pride resisting my feelings for her.

Claire reported everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours and now, because of her need to follow the rules, we were stuck in the apartment.

“This is absurd. I can’t sit waiting around like this,” I finally said, standing up.

Claire shifted on the sofa and closed the laptop. “What do you want to do?”

“We need to drive to Glasgow, speak to her father.”

“Maybe we should call him first?”

“No, I need to see him face-to-face. Something must have happened. She hasn’t worked at the club in weeks, and that guy Nathan said he didn’t see her last night. I’m so fucking worried, Claire.”

“Maybe she was angry with you over this incident in the car park and she decided that enough was enough, Tobias,” Claire suggested, and I laughed. She didn’t fucking get it. Ellie wouldn’t just take off. She might have been pissed off, but she wasn’t stupid.

“No, Claire, she must have found out something; otherwise, she would have waited for us,” I said. “I’m going and it’s up to you if you want to join me.”

“We have clear orders, Tobias.”

Fuck, she didn’t need to remind me. A surveillance team was on it, looking for her, tracking her phone, but so far we had nothing.

“I don’t give a fuck about my job. You can stay if you want to, but I’m going to look for her.”

Claire was quiet. I knew that I was putting her in an uncomfortable position. She always followed the rules and I didn’t expect her to understand my urgency. I grabbed my jacket and headed out. My head was banging and I was completely stressed, worrying about my Angel. Claire caught up with me in the car park when I was just about to drive off.

“We’re in this together,” she muttered, as she slid into the passenger seat next to me.

“This might cost you the promotion.”

“I don’t care. I’m worried about her too,” she said, folding her arms over her chest. “For fuck’s sake, Tobias, just admit that you’re in love with her. I know that the first few years have been hard, but this is different. She means a lot to you.”

I pulled a breath into my lungs, not looking at her. Silence stretched for a minute or so. Ellie was perfect for me and I didn’t understand why I hadn’t told her about my feelings earlier. I didn’t want to believe that her life was in danger.

“Yes, I love her,” I admitted. “Are you going to shut up now?”

I noticed that she was trying to hide a smile. Claire was a decent human being. It wasn’t her fault that I was an asshole.

“We will replace her. Get your head in the right space. You can’t stress over it,” she told me.

I hoped she was right, because my agitation grew as we got closer to Glasgow. Dark, terrifying thoughts were floating in my head. I was wondering if it was my fault that she was in danger. I should have protected her better. We were stuck in traffic as we got into the city, but half an hour later we arrived outside the building where her father worked. Claire wasn’t too happy when I nearly hit the security guard downstairs. The fucker didn’t want to let me in, so I shut him up with the badge.

“We shouldn’t be exposing ourselves like that, Tobias,” Claire reminded me.

“This was necessary,” I said, as the lift took us up to the twelfth floor.

“What are we going to tell her father? We need to discuss this now,” Claire continued. “He works with Hodges. You can’t just barge into his office and lay in the whole truth, jeopardising months and months of work.”

I cursed loudly, knowing that she was right. “What are you suggesting then?”

“Let me talk. I’ll make the call on how much to reveal if this gets awkward.”

“Either way, I know that he won’t believe us. I was here with Ellie a week ago when she went to talk to him,” I said. “I was downstairs in the car. Their conversation didn’t go too well then.”

Claire didn’t say anything, but I knew that she was thinking about what I said. Jonathan Grant was a tough motherfucker and he was a barrister who would hide behind the law. He wouldn’t take any bullshit from us. We had to give him something.

We both stepped out of the lift, heading towards reception. It was an old fashioned setup with a wide desk, wooden floors and chesterfield sofas.

“Can I help you?” asked the receptionist, smiling.

“We need to see Jonathan Grant,” Claire said.

“Mr. Grant is having a meeting and I—”

She was interrupted by a door opening from the room to our right. Terror filled my stomach and blood rushed to my ears when I noticed the man that stood at the entrance.

Time stopped. I was staring at the piece of shit who was responsible for my wife’s death. The man that I had been hunting since I arrived in Edinburgh.

Johnny fucking Hodges.

“Cath, is everything okay?” he asked the receptionist, looking directly at me. I was rooted to the spot, as fury rippled through me. I was ready to beat the shit out of him, in front of everyone. This was the moment I had been waiting for since I learned that he was responsible for my misery.

“Tobias, come on, let’s go.” Claire nudged me, and I looked at her like someone had just stabbed me. For a moment we both stared at each other, like there was no one around. It was like time fucking stopped. In that brief moment I was imagining that I had a knife in my hands, and I was cutting him to pieces, enjoying each time the knife sliced into his skin. Even that kind of death sounded too good. He needed to suffer like my wife had.

“Mr. Grant?” Claire said, stepping in front of me. It took me a second to realise that Ellie’s father stood behind Hodges, eyeing me with interest.

“Yes,” he replied, darting his eyes at Claire.

“We need to speak with you urgently. Tobias?” she said, kicking me in my calf.

“Yes, yes, we do, the sooner the better,” I stuttered, forcing myself to stay calm. Jonathan Grant nodded to Claire and told us to come in. Hodges stepped away and then left. Never in my life had I been so torn between what I should do. I wanted to drag him back to the room and make him talk. When Claire shut the door and I finally snapped back to reality, my heart hammered in my chest. I was a wreck, but I told myself that this was about Ellie, not me.

“What can I do for you, Miss…”

“My name is Stanley,” I introduced myself, stepping in front of Claire. “We are looking for your daughter, Mr. Grant. Have you see her today?”

I couldn’t read anything from Grant’s expression, but Claire sighed deeply. Yeah, yeah. We agreed that she would talk, but I couldn’t fucking take this anymore. I needed to know where Ellie was.

Grant lifted his left eyebrow, but didn’t reply straight away. Looking into his face, I could see features that reminded me of Ellie, although her eyes were much more striking.

“I’m sorry, but I think you need to explain who you are first. You barged in here without an appointment, asking me about my daughter?”

“She has been missing since yesterday,” I growled, knowing that this was going to be difficult unless I told him everything. I hated that Claire was right, again.

“Missing? I don’t think so, Mr. Stanley. As far as I know she stays in Edinburgh.”

“All right, let’s get this straight. I know that you don’t give a flying fuck about her, but she disappeared from her apartment yesterday evening. We can’t trace her phone. I need to know if she has been here at all.”

“Tobias!” Claire said, raising her voice.

“You obviously know more than I, Mr. Stanley. I haven’t seen my daughter since we spoke about a week ago and I don’t believe that I’m particularly interested in what kind of trouble she got herself into this time,” he said dismissively

I wanted to fuck him up, but I restrained myself. This guy was a piece of shit. He was protecting Hodges and didn’t give a fuck about his own daughter.

“She’s in danger, Mr. Grant.”

“Please, calm down, Mr. Stanley, and please start from the beginning. I would be happy to tell you what I know, but you need to tell me first—what is this about?”

Claire laughed, took something from her jacket and slammed it on the table.

“Detective Claire Reynolds,” Grant read. “I’m still confused, Ms. Reynolds. Why would law enforcement need to speak to my daughter?”

I had enough of this bullshit and this guy wasn’t planning to play ball.

“For fuck’s sake! We have been working undercover for the past three months, trying to build—”

I went on and on, telling him about our investigation. I told him about meeting Ellie at the party, about her work as a reporter, and Adrian Lurkin. I made sure that I never mentioned Hodges. He might have still been in the building and I didn’t want to push my luck. Jonathan Grant appeared to finally become interested in what I had to say. At some point he stood up and started walking around his office. Then, I was done, and I was ready to explode. Claire didn’t look happy and Grant was still silent.

“Mr. Grant, have you seen your daughter at all?”

“No, Mr. Stanley. I haven’t seen her since the day she was here,” Grant said softly. I exhaled sharply, feeling like rocks dropped down into my stomach. If Ellie wasn’t with her father, then she was probably with Lurkin. His phone was off too and that wasn’t good. He must have found out what she had been working on. “But I can help you replace her.”

“What do you mean?” Claire asked.

Grant smiled and sat back in his chair.

“My daughter and I had our differences, but I wouldn’t let her leave without knowing if she was all right,” he explained. “There is a tracker on her car. I believe that if we replace the car, we should be able to replace her too.”

Ellie

I heard the squeaking noise somewhere near me, and my stomach dropped. I blinked rapidly, dragging sharp breaths into my lungs, trying to deal with the situation I found myself in. A sharp, stabbing pain shot through me, consuming me and making me lose my senses. My whole face throbbed in a regular beat with my pulse. I lifted my hand, tracing my fingers over the wounds on my cheeks, over the crusty dried blood. My eyes were bruised and swollen. My left one was closed completely. I couldn’t imagine the horror show my refection would be in the mirror. As I began to shift, some of the barely closed wounds opened up. I had been locked up in here since Adrian found out that I wasn’t interested in him romantically.

I thought back to the moment when I stood in Andrew’s apartment, frozen, paralysed with fear and the realisation that I had made a mistake by going there.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Ellie?” he said, dropping the paperwork in his hands on the floor. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Adrian was still wearing the same clothes from when I left him in the car park. Gleaming sweat covered his forehead. I assumed that he was the one responsible for the mess in the apartment.

I wasn’t planning to stay there and try to explain myself. No, that sounded like a very bad idea, so instead I turned around and ran for the door. I didn’t get very far. Adrian caught me by the threshold, tackling me by my legs and throwing me straight down. I hit the floor hard, bruising my knee and smashing my forehead on the tiles. I had nowhere to run. I thought my life was over.

He dragged me back into the apartment and slammed the door behind him. There was an expression of utter madness on his face. His eyes were wild and unrecognisable.

“Fucking answer me! Have you followed me here?” he shouted.

“I used to date Andrew Hamilton,” I mumbled.

“You used to fuck Andrew Hamilton?” he roared, grabbing me by my hair and yanking upwards, pulling my body taut so that I couldn’t escape. My mind raced, trying to think of what I had to say in order to sound believable. “Tell me, what else do you know?”

“I don’t know anything. I wanted to check out this place; I thought that he would be—”

I didn’t finish my sentence, because he punched me right in my gut and I lost my breath for several seconds.

“Don’t lie to me, bitch. It’s the middle of the night. You came here for a reason.”

The squawking and squealing sound near my head pulled me back to the present moment. Last night, I thought that I was going to die. Adrian wasn’t satisfied with my answers. He kept punching me until I collapsed, leaving a fistful of my hair in his hand. Once I was curled up on the floor he began kicking me, slapping me, and then he tried repeatedly to suffocate me until I almost passed out, each time demanding answers, until I was forced to reveal to him that my surname wasn’t Frasier, that it was Grant.

I didn’t know why he didn’t leave me to die in that apartment. Surely that would have been easier. He enjoyed inflicting pain, kicking me, slapping me, screaming names at me whilst smothering my face, trying to crush my spirit. I wanted to live, and I couldn’t take another ounce of pain, so I told him everything. I revealed that he had been watched since he moved in, that he was going to rot in prison forever.

He went crazy then, and I thought it couldn’t have gotten any worse. I thought that he would end my life. He didn’t. He carried on slapping and kicking me, until I was vomiting blood. Sometime later I must have passed out, because when I stirred back to reality, we were on the move in his car. He was on the phone talking to someone.

It was a long drive, and I was bleeding. The pain was unbearable. I was certain that he’d broken a couple of my ribs, because every time I took a breath it was pure agony. My heartbeat pounded in my ears and I could no longer feel my legs. Then we stopped and I heard him getting out of the car. I tried to fight when he yanked me out and dragged me away, but he just laughed. The last thing I remembered was him locking the door to this container I lay in. Then the darkness took me, giving me some peace.

Now I was awake. I had no idea how much time had passed, but at least I was alive. I took in a deep breath and flinched with every move. Every breath was painful. I couldn’t move freely, but I didn’t want to stay here. I cried out when I attempted to lift myself up. Several attempts and many tears later, I was sitting up panting short, hard breaths.

Then I heard the clang of metal at the door. Someone was outside, coming for me. After a long moment, the light blinded me and I heard that voice.

“Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty. It’s time for me to play with your sweet pussy.”

It was Adrian and he came to finish what he started.