31 Days of Autumn (15 page)

Dan

I leaned back in my chair, tossed my napkin onto
my empty plate, and put my arm around Ellie. She pursed her lips for a kiss and
I immediately obliged with a contented sigh. The last couple of days at work
I’d found hard. I needed to put it all behind me now and focus on my family,
all four of them. I’d never really wanted a girl, but my God, I’d fallen just
as much in love with her as I had the boys. If anything, I felt even more
protective towards her. I’d be able to teach the boys to stand up for
themselves, how to box and fight, away from Ellie’s disapproving watchful eye
of course, but Eva? She was going to need her brothers and myself to watch out
for her. Now that this project was in beta mode, Marv could monitor the results
from San Francisco and I could sit back and just handle the normal day-to-day
affairs of running my company for a while.

I looked around the table, at all of the
animated faces as they talked and laughed. For a guy who spent the best part of
three years alone, I was one lucky son of a bitch. I had most of my closest
friends and family around this one table. Many of them I’d never have met if it
hadn’t been for a winter booking request from a stunning blonde who never gave
up on me. I didn’t feel deserving of her. I’d never met anyone who was as kind
or generous-hearted as she was. To watch her with my children was an amazing
thing. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for any of us, but she wasn’t afraid
to lay down the law when necessary, not least with me. Being friends with fiery
Brooke for so long had rubbed off on her. I blanked out the chatter and turned
to look at Ellie as she tried to get Jonas to eat more of his spaghetti
carbonara. My heart raced a little every time I looked at her and I silently
cursed as I felt my cock stirring in my trousers. Going without sex with her
for this long was torture.

‘Pervert,’ whispered Brooke in my ear as she
reached over my shoulder to take my empty plate.

‘What?’ I tore my gaze off Ellie to look up at
her.

‘I can see exactly what you’re thinking, it’s
written all over your face, even without the bit of tablecloth you’ve draped
over your lap rising like Aladdin’s magic carpet.’

‘Ali Baba’s carpet, Aladdin had the lamp.
Anyway, keep your voice down, I don’t need Oliver asking any more embarrassing
questions today,’ I retorted, making her giggle.

‘Just keep your hands to yourself until she’s
healed. I can’t take seeing my friend in that hospital ever again,’ she warned,
her face suddenly turning serious.

‘You and me both, Brooke, you and me both,’ I
sighed, turning back to look at Ellie. Going without sex was going to be hard,
for both of us, as hard it seemed as for my damn parents, whose sex life I
never wanted to hear about again. But Ellie’s welfare was more important. I
couldn’t take nearly losing her again. First the loch, then the tumble down the
stairs, now this. I was Samson and she was my Delilah, except instead of
cutting off my hair to remove my strength, she did it every time she was in
pain. It crippled me.

‘What’s wrong? You look so serious.’

I blinked, startled as her soft voice caressed
my ears, and found her staring back at me. ‘Nothing, baby, just thinking how
lucky I am. Kiss me,’ I demanded, clasping the back of her head and gently
pulling her closer. I smiled when I heard that little whimper of pleasure she
always let out when I kissed her. The day she no longer did that, I’d be an
extremely worried man.

‘Daddy’s sucking Mummy’s face again. He does it
a lot,’ announced Oliver in a loud voice. Ellie and I broke apart, me
mortified, her giggling again.

‘Sucking face? Where on earth did you hear that
awful expression?’ I demanded, tossing a glare Brooke’s way. She held up her
hands and shook her head.

‘Don’t look at me.’

‘Uncle Lucas said sucking face with a pretty
girl is nice,’ Oliver nodded, reaching up to take his bowl of dessert from
Magda, who was laughing as well.

‘Uncle Lucas and I will be having words about
his choice of vocabulary,’ I muttered. ‘But he’s not wrong,
kissing
a
pretty girl is very nice. You’ll find out when you’re older.’

‘How much older?’ he asked, digging his spoon
into his apple strudel and ice cream.

‘Much, much, much older,’ Ellie smiled. ‘Not
for a long time.’

‘Why?’ he moaned, looking up with a face covered
in ice cream. I laughed and ruffled his hair.

‘Because little boys don’t kiss girls, only big
ones do.’

‘I am a big boy,’ he nodded.

‘You do call him a big boy every day, Dan,’
Jenny laughed, cleaning his face. ‘Can’t have it both ways. Have you seen a
pretty girl you’d like to kiss, Oliver?’

‘Yes, my Mummy,’ he announced, pursing his lips
as he looked over at Ellie.

‘Well, I have to say that regardless of your
appalling language today, son, you do have excellent taste,’ I grinned as I
looked at her. She smiled and blew a kiss to Oliver, who giggled before tucking
back into his pudding. He had an appetite just like me, but even the thought of
him having my sexual appetite one day was seriously disturbing. Ellie was
right, no matter how much I treated him like a big boy, he was still a baby and
I didn’t want him to grow up too fast.

‘Thanks, Magda,’ I smiled, relieved to be given
a big portion of dessert at last. ‘You’re a star.’

‘I am. I think I might enter myself on Britain's
Got Talent, I twerk
real
good,’ she smiled, making me laugh as she gave
us an impression.

‘Who jerks real good?’ called Edward. ‘Handy to
know if I trade John in for a younger model.’

‘You’re stuck with me now,’ John responded with
a scowl.

‘Handy,’ giggled Ellie. ‘Nicely punned, Edward.’

‘Seriously? What are you lot on today, I give
up,’ I laughed. I tried to cover Oliver’s ears as everyone started coming up
with sexual play on words and felt the tension in my shoulders leave. Even
James and Andy were laughing, which was a rarity given they usually had their
serious faces on.

‘Thank you,’ Ellie whispered, kissing my cheek.

‘For what?’ I asked.

‘Cheering up and being sociable. You weren’t
yourself yesterday and I know you prefer the peace and quiet, but it’s
important to me that we socialise with our friends and family. You never know
when it might be the last time you see them.’

‘I’m sorry about yesterday, I had a lot on my
mind, but I promise things are going to get easier when we get home,’ I said
sincerely, meaning every word. Everyone went quiet and looked upstairs when we
heard a cry over the baby monitor.

‘Finally, she’s awake,’ Mother clapped. ‘I’ve
been dying to see her.’

‘I’ll go and get her,’ I said firmly, when all
of the women made a move at once. They all looked at me surprised. ‘I am a
modern man, you know, you all do enough.’

I bounded up the stairs, three at a time. Truth
be told, I just couldn’t wait to see her again either, to have a few moments to
stare at her without getting ribbed for going soft. With the exception of Ellie,
she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen and we seemed to have bonded so
fast.  I turned off the baby monitor and just watched her for a while as she
lay on her back, letting out the odd cry. She was so tiny, so much smaller than
the boys had been. I always had my heart in my mouth when I saw anyone other
than Ellie holding her, in case they dropped her. When she started crying
properly, I scooped her up into my arms and kissed her tiny forehead, and she
stopped almost immediately. She scrunched up her nose and yawned and I put one
hand on her bottom to support her against my chest.

‘Hello, princess,’ I whispered. ‘Are you ready
to come and meet everyone again?’ She smacked her lips and tried to open her
eyes. ‘I’d better put some earmuffs on you before we go down, as they’re having
some conversations that I don’t want you to hear, ever. And if a boy tries to
suck your face before you’re a day over thirty, he’s going to have to answer to
me. Do I make myself clear, young lady?’

‘Thirty, really?’ came Ellie’s amused voice
behind me. ‘Even I think that’s a little harsh.’

‘I thought I was on my own,’ I muttered, mildly
embarrassed as I turned around to face her.

‘You’ll never be on your own again, not with a
wife and three children. Your days as a hermit are well and truly over,’ she
replied, walking over to us and kissing the back of Eva’s head. I put my free
arm around her and pulled her close.

‘And I wouldn’t want it any other way. You
saved me, Ellie, from myself and from a miserable existence. It’s hard to
remember how lonely I used to be now.’

‘And you save me, all of the time,’ she
replied, looking up at me with love in her eyes.

‘I always will,’ I confirmed, kissing her
again, grateful for no interruptions this time.

Sunday 20
^th
October

Dan

‘Stand still, Ollie,’ I warned as I tried to fit his
lifejacket. He was bouncing all over the place, like Tigger, he was that
excited to be home.

‘Go fast, Daddy,’ he yelled as I lifted him into
one of the speed boats. With so many of us living on the island now, we had
two, as well as the old outboard.

‘I’m sorry, Ollie, I can’t, not with Eva with
us. We don’t want to scare her, do we?’

‘Daddy,’ he pouted, giving me his best wide-eyed
pleading look that was so hard to resist. I looked over at Ellie. She was a lot
more relaxed on the water, but speeding fast wasn’t something she enjoyed.

‘Go with him and Andy and have some fun,’ she
nodded. ‘Chris, Jenny, and I can head over with Jonas and Eva and get settled
in.’

‘Are you sure?’ I asked, trying to contain my
grin. She knew how much I loved zipping across the water.

‘Boys and their toys, you have it all to come,
Eva,’ she smiled, looking down at our daughter and shaking her head. I kissed
her and hopped into the boat, Andy following, Ollie clapping his hands with
excitement. ‘Be careful,’ she warned.

‘You too. No trying to lift cases or babies on
your own please,’ I warned. She looked tired, the travelling had taken it out
of her.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll load Chris up like Vin
Diesel in
The Pacifier
, Jonas on his back, Eva on his front, with a
couple of bottles in his gun holsters,’ she grinned. I laughed and Chris shook
his head as he put on Jonas’s lifejacket for him. Poor Chris always got the
short end of the straw. I started the engine as Andy cast off and they all
waved us off as we pulled away from the jetty.

‘Ready?’ I shouted over to Ollie. He nodded,
then squealed with laughter as I opened the throttle and the boat shot forwards,
skimming over the small waves being churned up by the strong wind. It had
turned colder, but we were all wrapped up well. I sucked in a lungful of the
fresh cool air, it was exhilarating. I felt like I’d been walking around with
shackles on for the last nine months, what with Ellie’s pregnancy, then the trauma
and birth, then this damn project and prototype launch. Five minutes of being
back home, out here on the water, and I felt more free than I’d felt in months.

‘Faster, Daddy,’ Ollie yelled. I looked over at
him, at his cheeky grin, his dark hair being buffeted in the wind and his
cheeks with a rosy glow, and smiled proudly. He really was my boy. I did as he
asked as we completed our first circuit of the island and waved to Ellie, who
was supervising the luggage being loaded onto the other boat. I laughed as I
saw her shake her head with a smile on her face.

‘What do you say to us doing a circuit of the
loch then calling in to see Uncle Pete at The Stag for a bottle of Coke?’ I
called. He nodded vigorously and screamed with joy as I opened up fully and we
roared across the water. I heard Andy radioing in to Chris to let him know our
change of plans. I’d probably get it in the neck from Ellie for bringing him
back hyper from the adrenaline of the ride, as well as the sugar rush, but it
was worth it to see his happy face. I needed to make it up to him for the other
day.

‘You seem more relaxed, Sir,’ observed Andy, as
we both drank a pint of non-alcoholic beer while Ollie sipped his Coke through
a straw, swinging his legs from his chair.

‘I am, being here has that effect on me, but I
feel safer, too.’

‘Safer? Has something happened?’

‘I didn’t say anything as I didn’t want to
worry Ellie, but I’m sure someone’s been watching me.’

‘You’re just telling me this now, Sir?’ Andy
shot, giving me a disapproving glare. ‘I’ve not seen anything out of the
ordinary and James never mentioned anything.’

‘I can’t explain it, just a feeling that
something isn’t right.’

‘I need more than that to take action, Sir.
Have you seen something that’s played on your mind, that might have developed
into something more than it is?’

‘I was walking through reception on my way to
my office, and saw someone out of the corner of my eye whose face seemed
familiar, but it was partially shielded by his hat. I turned around to get a
look at him properly, but he had his back to me and was walking out. Then, when
I went to get Ellie some flowers yesterday, after upsetting her with the whole
Oliver situation, I spotted a guy with a baseball cap pulled low on his face.
When he realised I’d seen him, he turned and quickly walked away.’

‘I’ll get the footage of the security cameras
off the server when we get back and go through them. Is there anyone with a
grudge against you that I can check out?’

‘I don’t know,’ I laughed. ‘I’m sure I’ve
pissed off lots of people in my business, eating up competitors, having to make
some of their staff redundant. I’ve had to fire employees who were taken on for
specific skills and projects, or who weren’t up to the mark. And I also think
that Ellie’s ex is probably pissed off that she settled down with me. He fucked
up his life royally when he lost his job, then her, but as far as I know, he’s
living abroad. Besides, it was years ago, I can’t see why he’d suddenly stalk
me now. It would make more sense if he was following Ellie, trying to win her
back.’

‘Jealous exes often target the new partner,’
Andy stated with a frown. ‘I’m really not impressed that I’m only hearing about
this now, Sir. How am I expected to do my job when you hide key information
from me?’

‘I wasn’t deliberately hiding information, I
wasn’t even sure that this was anything until I spotted that guy yesterday. He
could have just been someone in a hurry and I’m making something out of it.’

‘But something about it feels off?’

‘Yes,’ I confirmed after considering his
statement. ‘It’s just a sense I have that something isn’t right. I know I’ve
been stressed with Ellie’s near miss, Eva arriving, and the launch of this
prototype. Maybe now that I’m home and things are going to settle back into
normality, my overactive imagination will settle down.’

‘I never discount a feeling, Sir. It’s saved my
life a number of times. You have your own version of facial recognition
software, don’t you?’

‘I do,’ I nodded.

‘Is it running at Davenport head office?’

‘No, I’ve never seen a need to.’

‘I’d suggest implementing it immediately, also
in your American lab and anywhere else you’re developing software. This could
be a competitor trying to get a hold of the new project. Your firewalls are so
secure, access would pretty much have to be made by someone on the inside,
wouldn’t it?’

‘I guess it would,’ I confirmed, knocking back
the remains of my drink. I wondered why that hadn’t occurred to me before, then
realised my mind had been on my family. I’d been seriously distracted for the
last nine months. ‘I’ll get it sorted as soon as we get home. Ready, Ollie?’ I
asked. He nodded and let out a large burp, which had Andy and I laugh. I
shouldn’t have let him have two cokes, Ellie was really strict about not
letting him have too much sugar. ‘It’s a good thing your mother’s not here, she
wouldn’t be amused. Right, let’s get back.’

Damien
Daniels

Following them from the airport up here in
Scotland had been easy. It wasn’t as if there were small streets for them to
dodge down and lose me, like in London. They turned right out of the airport,
following the signpost to Loch Airdrie. I’d already studied the map of the area
countless times and knew that unless you did a massive detour to the nearest
town and then climbed back up the mountain to approach the loch from the other
side, there was no other way to get there, so it wasn’t going to raise any suspicion
that a car was following them. I had a moment of panic when I turned a bend as
we cut through some dense forest to see they were no longer in sight. I put my
foot down, turned another corner to find a long straight stretch of road ahead,
and they still weren’t to be seen.

‘Fuck,’ I yelled, bashing the steering wheel
with my hand in frustration. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!’

I soon realised that there was no way that
they’d have had time to speed out of sight, so it meant that they’d turned off
somewhere. I turned the hire car around and went slowly, looking left and right
until I spotted a small track on my right. I pulled up and decided to
investigate it on foot. It was too risky to drive down, not knowing if I’d
suddenly find myself sitting on their drive. I’d be recognised instantly and
what excuse would I have for being there? Given the way we parted, I was sure I
wouldn’t get a warm welcome.

Instead of walking along the track, in case
someone drove along it either way and spotted me, I ventured just into the
forest, a few trees back from the track, cursing as I ripped my trousers and
gashed my leg on some brambles. I wasn’t dressed for fucking hiking in the
wilds. If this was where they lived, I was going to have to go and get some
proper walking boots and waterproof rugged trousers and a jacket, as well as
some thermals. It was bloody cold and windy up here, Christ knows what it would
be like when it was snowing. It was a good fifteen minute walk before I spotted
the clearing and a couple of Range Rovers parked up on the edge of the loch.
There was a jetty stretching out into the choppy water. My stinging knee was
soon forgotten when I spotted the large house on the island opposite.

‘Nowhere left to hide,’ I whispered with a
gleeful smile on my face. I had them. All I had to do now was watch them, study
them, note down any routines I could. As soon as I could afford to assemble my
team, they could confirm when would be best to snatch the kid. It wasn’t like I
was an expert in bloody kidnap and ransom. While the house had a glass front,
it was too far away to make out anyone inside it. I was going to need to get a
set of high-powered binoculars and a decent zoom lens camera if my observations
were going to be of any help. Once I could afford my team, I didn’t want to
fuck around. I wanted to take action, to get this over and done with, so the
more information I could give them, the better.

I headed back to my car, cutting through the
trees again to avoid detection. No way was I sleeping in a bloody tent. I wouldn’t
have wanted to do it in summer, let alone bloody autumn, or possibly winter.
Staying at the hotel was too risky given it was one of his. He might visit for
work, or they might go there for a family meal. That meant that the pub was off
limits, too. I needed to check out the B&Bs or see if there were any
holiday lets up here. That would be my best bet. Somewhere I could come and go
without anyone asking questions, somewhere warm to sleep at night, where I
could cook a hot meal and have internet access to work. During daylight hours,
I’d need to be on watch, which meant finding a spot far enough away from the
jetty that I wouldn’t be spotted, but close enough for my binoculars and camera
to give me what I needed. I’d need to get a camouflage tent so I could stay in
the dry when I was on shift. 

I racked my brains to think whether I had any
former clients up in this area. I couldn’t afford not to do any work while I
was here, I’d need to keep the cash rolling in. I nodded with a smirk as I
remembered that the Ospreys, owners of one of the largest smoked salmon
companies in Scotland, lived in Edinburgh. That was only a short flight away.
If I could visit and tempt them to work with me, that would be one fat payout,
between heading back to London to continue working for the clients I’d already
amassed there. I finally reached the car, turned on the engine, and cranked up
the heat, holding my numb fingers over the vents until they came back to life.
Why the fuck would anyone choose to live up here? In the middle of bloody
nowhere, where the weather was shite? What was wrong with London? Easy access
to great bars and restaurants, not to mention hookers. Staying up here was
going to be a fucking nightmare. I opened the glove box and pulled out my
notepad and pen.