Man of Mystery: A BBW Romantic Suspense (12 page)

The road is clear for the most part throughout my drive along the M25, as well as the M20. Similarly, luck was on my side in that today’s excursion came one day after my regular once a week trip to the petrol pump, meaning I didn’t need to make a stop on the way for fuel.

By the time I see the signs for the Channel Tunnel, what was previously a warm, clear day, is turning cloudy and ominous. A sign of things to come, perhaps?

The wind is picking up. The trees lining the motorway cheer me on with their swaying branches. The sun has disappeared behind a big, grey cloud.

I wonder what Maggie must be doing now. I’ll have to make things up to her later, whenever she’s calmed down.

And Liam… I’ve had nothing better to do for the past hour or so than to think about everything that’s happened so far. From worry, to anger, back to worry again, my emotions have run the entire spectrum today. He may have let me down, but some little part of me still wants to believe that things can work out. Otherwise, why am I here? I’m doing this for him, right?

I pull into the exit towards the tunnel, and only now realize that I have no plan whatsoever. I’m about to reach my destination, and I have not the faintest clue what I’m going to do there!

It’s not very busy. meaning there are only about four cars ahead of me at the entrance. I guess I’m going to have to get a ticket on the spot. Do they do those? Fuck.

“Hello, welcome to Eurotunnel. How may I help you?” the bored-looking man inside the booth says.

“Can I get a ticket for the nine-fifteen train, please?” I ask, while nervously fumbling with my wallet.
Shit. How much does a ticket like this cost?

“Just a moment, I will have a look… Yes, there is still space on the nine-fifteen, but you don’t have much time, meaning you’ll have to go straight through to the check-in. Single?” He looks down at me impatiently while I rummage around in my purse looking for some form of payment.

“Hmm?”

“Single or return?”

“Uhh… Single.”

“That’ll be seventy-three pounds, please.”

I don’t have that kind of money on me. Damn. OK, credit card it is then.

“Here.” I check the dashboard clock. There really isn’t much time.

Soon after, he hands me the receipt, as well as the funny sash type thing I’m supposed to hang up on my rear view mirror. I put my car in first and crawl ahead. That’s when I notice an innocuous black sedan parked up ahead in the security check area. That’s Liam’s car, isn’t it? The license plate number is the same. I only notice because it ends on ‘1234.’

I’m just about to drive up next to it to find Liam, when I see a blond-haired man dressed all in black, waving to one of the policemen standing by the barriers blocking our way. That’s not Liam! He turns to walk back towards the car, and I recognize him immediately.

He looks just like the detective who killed himself at the airport, just with slightly longer hair. Either it’s his ghost or his doppelganger. Either way, I’m certain he’s Nexus. What’s he doing with Liam’s car, though?

Then the pieces fall into place. Any doubts I may have had before are wiped away. This is how they’re going to pin it on Liam: they’ve planted the bomb in his car, and creepy blond man will drive the car onto the train, pretending to be him.

Seeing as Liam isn’t here yet, and boarding is starting within the next five minutes, there’s no way he’ll get here in time to stop the attack. Instead, he’ll arrive just to take the blame. I can’t let that happen!

The scary blond man gets into Liam’s sedan and switches it on. Behind me, someone blows their horn loud enough to make me jump.
Shit, I’m blocking the way and attracting attention to myself.
At this rate, I’ll be spotted and ruin my element of surprise.

I pull away and straight into the other security check lane, as far away from Liam’s car as I can manage. It turns out that the Nexus guy wouldn’t have noticed me anyway, because the policeman he had just exchanged words with waves him through the barrier without even checking his car.

Meanwhile, I’m greeted by another cop who knocks on my window.

“Open your trunk, please? Routine inspection.”

Oh Jesus, you’ve got to be joking!
I force a smile and hit the lever next to my foot. The policeman walks around my vehicle, inspecting it from underneath using one of those mirrors on a stick, before looking inside the back for a moment. I breathe a sigh of relief when he closes the trunk shortly after. Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch up with the guy in Liam’s car and see what he’s up to now.

“Passport, please,” he says when he makes it back to my window.

A cold sweat erupts all over my body. Passport.
Fuck
. I hadn’t thought of this.

With shaking fingers, I grab my purse from the passenger seat and pretend to look for it in there.
Think! What do I do now?
They’re not going to let me through without it, and meanwhile, the Nexus guy is going to blow up the train, and I can’t do anything about it!

After wasting a few seconds with my handbag, I open the glove box and rummage around in the papers in there, while shooting the cop an apologetic smile. At least, I hope it looks apologetic and not guilty as sin.

“Brixton, help me out for a second,” someone shouts.

I look up to find another cop waving at the one waiting for my passport. He excuses himself and steps towards the other barrier, giving me the chance I needed. I wait until he’s far enough away, and put my car in first, slam my foot down and race ahead.

“Oi!” the cop shouts, while turning back in my direction. He sprints ahead just as I pull away.

My engine screams, tires squeal as I try to avoid as much of the barrier as I can by aiming for the little gap towards the right. Metal from my car and the barrier come together in a horrible crash, but my car wins, sort of, and I make it through.

In the rear view mirrors, I can see the cops collecting together, shouting into their walkie-talkies as two of them get into a car parked beside the security check area to follow me. My heart is hammering in my throat, and my hands still shaking, but I don’t slow down even through the winding road heading for the waiting area.

The signs are already instructing people with my ticket to proceed to check-in, so that’s what I do. I ignore the slow speed limit and speed past slower cars exiting the parking lot. I can’t see the black sedan anywhere, but I have to assume he’s already nearing the check-in himself.

Behind me I hear sirens, but I don’t dare look back. I skid through the little roundabout, narrowly avoiding a row of traffic cones as I race ahead, following the signs towards the tunnel. Then the road opens up into at least six lanes.

I ignore the man in the high-visibility vest who is trying to guide me into a line of waiting cars; instead, I overtake all of them and head straight for the large ramp that curves around towards the train station. One line of cars is already moving, so I follow them towards what I assume must be our platform.

Frightened drivers screech to a halt all around while I zig-zag around them. Car horns go off left and right, but I don’t let them put me off.

I’m going to be in so much trouble for this! Hopefully, they’ll believe me when I tell them about the Nexus attack.

Finally, I can see the station, where car after car is already boarding the train. Just as I make it there, narrowly avoiding other vehicles waiting to get on, I see a black car vanish inside the loading area up ahead. There he is! The bastard.

The cops are on my tail and closing the distance between us fast. Their sirens are getting louder and louder.

I grip the steering tighter, determined not to fail at the last hurdle. Someone needs to stop this train, by any means necessary, or all those people are going to die. I don’t see any sign of Liam, and that asshole driving Liam’s car has already gotten on unchecked.

There is no other choice, nobody to act but me. I guess this is what they call ‘the point of no return.’ The pressure to act is immense, I can’t and won’t fight it.

Checking the rear view mirror one final time, I see the flashing blue lights of the police car right behind me. I put my right foot flat down and jump ahead towards the train, aim for the ramp, sort of.
Fuck it.
I close my eyes and freeze as the car lifts off slightly on the way in, then hits straight into the back wall of the train. A sharp pain shoots through my forehead, and all the world goes black.

I had done my best to reach the tunnel on time, but the road works had slowed my progress significantly. By the time I arrived, there was some commotion going on at the entrance. Police were scrambling to chase someone who had broken through the barrier.

I drove inside unchecked with my siren still on and proceeded straight through towards the train terminal. Then, an ambulance raced past me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever was going on had something to do with Tess. Ever since her message, I hadn’t been able to reach her. She should have stayed away, but I didn’t get the chance to convince her. I doubt I would have been able to anyway.

A sick feeling made its way into the pit of my stomach; something horrible has happened to Tess, and it’s all my fault. I put my foot down and chased the ambulance down.

We turned into the first platform, and there it was: the tail end of her old Nissan was sticking out through the open doors of the train.
Shit.
The cops had cordoned off the area with warning tape already, and the ambulance screeched to a halt just ahead of me.

Of course, I’d expected the worst, so seeing the two paramedics carry her out of the train on an uncovered stretcher rather than in a body bag was somewhat of a relief. I flashed my ID and insisted they let me into the back of the van with her while they administered first aid.

So that’s where I am now, watching over her while she’s passed out. Her golden hair is fanned out over the stretcher, giving the effect of a halo. She looks peaceful, except for the purple bruise on her forehead and cut on her bottom lip.

It hurts to see her like this, and I can’t do anything to help her.

“How is she?” I ask the lanky brown-haired paramedic, who doesn’t look a day over twenty-one.

“Her vitals are good; pupils are responsive. Just got bumped on the head is all. We’ll know more when she wakes up.”

I nod at him and exit the back of the van. As much as I want to just sit there with her, I have a mission to complete here. Obviously, she was trying to prevent the attack just as I was meant to, and in a moment of desperation, decided that she couldn’t stop the train any other way than to plow right into it.

If she wasn’t lying on a stretcher in the back of that ambulance right now, the situation would be almost funny.

I scan the surrounding areas for anything suspicious. For anyone or anything that looks out of place.

Up ahead by the perimeter set up by the local police, a group of bystanders has collected. Tourists and businesspeople who were hoping to reach France within the next half hour. Obviously, they’re not going anywhere for a while now, not until their vehicles can be unloaded and booked onto another train.

Except, one of them
is
going somewhere. A guy in black with short-ish light-blond hair is briskly walking away from the commotion. I speed up to a jog, getting closer to him as he continues to walk without even looking back once. I’m forced to slow down when I try to cross the crowd of onlookers, at which point he does finally turn around.

Our eyes meet, he notices me just as I recognize his face. He’s almost a perfect match for the dead Nexus guy lying in the morgue back at HQ. His twin? He sprints away and jumps down onto the track ahead of the train. I follow him at full speed.

With every step, I think of Tess lying in that ambulance. She must have seen him and recognized him as well and done her best to stop whatever he was up to. Now it’s up to me to finish the job. I run as fast as my feet will carry me, spurred on by the thought that I owe it to her to catch this motherfucker.

He’s not an easy target. Clearly well trained, extremely fit and quick on his feet, he jumps up onto the next platform and resumes running at full speed. I summon all I’ve got left in me and make it up onto the platform just behind him, channeling all my energy into my legs. The gap between us closes, I can almost hear him pant ahead of me.

The man tries to change direction to evade me, but I jump ahead with my arms stretched out and tackle him onto the hard concrete ground. The impact hurts, despite landing mostly on him. We roll over each other a few times, partially as an effort to disorient him, as well as to avoid serious injury to my knees and shoulders hitting the ground.

“Gotcha!” I shout, while grabbing his throat and keeping him pinned on his back below me.

“You didn’t get shit,” he spits.

I loosen my fingers around his neck, while wrestling both his arms together, keeping them pinned to the ground underneath my hand which has my whole body weight resting right on top. I find my handcuffs on my belt and restrain him before he gets the chance to wriggle free.