“That’s none of your damn business.” His expression is fierce, his chest puffy and threatened. His hostility tells me he is neither of those things.
Wait. Please tell me this isn’t her scumbag ex. The fucker who crapped all over her? I look past him, seeing stacks of boxes in the hallway, pictures off the walls, garbage bags piled high. “Are you Dean?”
Hands up, he reverses his steps. “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t want any trouble.” He’s changed his tune. Must be the sudden angry twitching of my body.
“Where’s Raya?” I ask, dangerous and low, fighting to keep my hands by my sides to stop them from smashing his face in.
“She’s gone.”
I react on impulse, reaching forward and fisting his shirt in my hands, yanking him out of Raya’s house. “So what are you doing here?”
“I needed to know where she’s going.”
What? To try and win her back? Oh no. Patience completely gone, I lose the plot, shoving him away and swinging at him. My fist connects clean with his face, and he crashes to the ground on a pathetic wail, clenching his nose.
“Daddy!” Georgia’s shout is better at clearing the fog than being dunked in ice water. I swing around and find her running toward me, Jesse and Sam chasing after her.
“Raya’s already gone.” I swoop Georgia up and carry her back to the car, at the same time digging through my pocket for my phone. Raya’s voicemail clicks straight in. Those chains around my heart tighten further. “Raya, it’s Drew. I’m at your place. Wherever you are, please turn back. Please don’t go.”
“He loves you!” Georgia shouts.
“Shhhhh!” Jesus, wherever she is, she’ll probably be sprinting there now. “I need to talk to you. Explain. The woman at my place this morning is Georgia’s mother. There’s never been anything between us, I swear.”
“They’re just friends!” Georgia backs me up, God love her. Friends? Hardly, but it fills me with happiness in my turmoil that my girl believes that.
“You have to believe me, Raya. Please, just call me.” I hang up, lifting Georgia over the side of the car into the backseat as I call my last hope. Andrea answers within two rings. “I need the name and number for Raya Rivers’s solicitor. Now.”
“I’ll text it to you.”
I jump in and frame Georgia’s face with my palms. “I wish you hadn’t seen that.”
“Why did you hit him, Dad?”
“Because he was mean to Raya. It made Daddy mad.”
She gasps, disgusted, and jumps to her feet on the back seat. “You can’t be mean to Raya! My daddy loves her!”
“Georgia!” I pull her back down, my phone chiming. A quick tap on the message gives me the name and number Of Raya’s solicitor. I dial, and as soon as he picks up, I launch into a pile of bullshit. I tell him who I am—no lie. I tell him the buyer is threatening to pull out of the sale—big lie. I tell him that I need to speak to Raya urgently, but I can’t seem to get through to her—definitely no lie.
“Well, you’re not likely to, Mr Davies. Her flight leaves for Singapore at two.”
“Two?” My lungs shrink to nothing as my eyes rest on the glowing display of Sam’s dashboard. It’s already past noon.
I end the call, feeling numb. I’m too late. I’ve shat all over my one chance, ruined myself in the process, a sadist in the worst form.
“What?” Sam asks, waiting for some direction, his hands flexing on the wheel.
“She’s already gone.” I mumble, staring at the clock, another minute gone, the proverbial ticking time bomb. The countdown to my complete ruin. “The flight leaves at two.”
“We can make it.” Jesse goes straight to his phone. “Which airport?”
“Don’t know.”
“Airline?”
“Don’t know.”
“Flight number?”
I sigh, my head taking refuge in my hands. “Don’t know.”
Within the time it takes Sam to zip out of the parking space, Jesse is declaring our destination. “Heathrow, Terminal Five. I’ll have the gate number in a sec.”
I lean forward in my seat, grateful for their determination to help me fix my fuckup, but knowing we’re chasing our tails. “We’re in central London. If the traffic is kind, we might make it to Heathrow by one-thirty. She’ll have boarded and there’s no way I’m getting through security.”
I startle when Jesse suddenly reaches back and grabs my T-shirt, yanking me forward until I’m virtually on his lap. “Do you think I’d be where I am now if I’d let such trivial issues get in my way?”
Sam bursts into laughter. “Nothing about your issues was trivial, you twat.”
“What’s a twat?” Georgia pipes up from behind me.
Sam gives me a sorry glance.
“Nothing, pidge.” I glare back at him.
Jesse sighs, releasing me from his viselike hold. “Like three fucking men and a little lady.”
“What’s—”
“Nothing,” we all sing, and Sam puts his foot down, throwing me back in my seat.
Chapter 13
Trivial issue.
The team of airport staff beyond the barriers that are currently between us and the security checking area are definitely not a trivial issue. Any hope I had fades to nothing. “There’s not a chance in hell we’re getting through there.” I look down at my phone, a race against the clock. And I’m losing. She’ll be on the plane by now.
“You just need to be creative.” Sam produces two passports, a pair of boarding passes held in the pages.
I balk at him, horrified. “Where the hell did you get them?”
“I borrowed them.” He shrugs like he hasn’t just committed a crime, at the same time ruining the travel plans of two poor unsuspecting people. “Don’t worry; I’ll give them back.”
“Sam, you can’t do that.” What kind of impression will I be giving Georgia? So far today, she’s watched me beat a man, been involved in a high-speed chase across London, heard all kinds of inappropriate words, and now she’s part of a theft. I’m going to Hell.
“Bollocks.” Jesse swipes the passports out of Sam’s hand and thrusts them into my chest. “If it makes you feel better, I won’t use these for me and Sam.” He holds up two more passports.
“Oh my God,” I breathe, quietly trying to reason. It’s for a good cause, I tell myself. And we’ll return them as soon as I’ve found Raya. Raya. My focus realigns in a moment. I take the documents and hold the barcodes to the barrier in turn, letting me and Georgia through. “I need you to act normal,” I tell her, taking her hand and heading for the security area. Jesus, I can’t believe I’m pulling her in on my crimes. “Actually, maybe you should stay with Uncle Jesse and Uncle Sam.”
“No!” She stops where she is and stamps her little foot. “I want to come find Raya.”
“Okay,” I whisper, sweeping the area nervously. “Just don’t shout.”