Chapter 23

My phone rang abouttwenty minutes after Levi called the tech guys. "Talk to me," I demanded Cathy, our IT chief.

"No other cars, nothing out of the ordinary on her banks. Same with him, no other cars. He did hire a car in Glasgow, though."

"What? But they were in his car? Where is it?"

"Coming back into Glasgow now. I'm sending the tracking to Levi's handheld now."

"Brilliant! Cathy, I need more, they must have taken him somewhere."

Levi was already on his feet with my car keys in his hand. "Let's go and pay him a visit."

We trackedhim all the way to a hotel not far from the venue and kept out of sight until he disappeared up to his room. We gave him a few seconds and then approached. I pressed myself against the wall on one side of the door and Levi knocked. The door swung open, and Trevor was standing there looking grim.

My anger got the better of me and from my unseen position, I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pushed him back into his room, slamming him against the wall, Levi closing the door behind us.

"Where the fuck is Lennox?"

He held his arms up in surrender. "I don't know!"

Pressing my forearm against his chest almost at his throat I growled in his face. "I know that you were with her, I know that you were the one that got him into the car with her. WHERE IS HE?"

"I don't know! She said there had been a change of plan. I was supposed to go with her, she was only meant to talk to him."

"Are you fucking insane?!"

"I didn't think she'd do this."

I pressed even harder on his upper chest and throat. "I should have fucking known that you were in on it. Tell me where she's taken him."

Trevor was pulled at my arm, trying to get me off him, trying to get air into his lungs. "You're choking me!" He gasped.

"Boss," Levi said calmly behind me.

"She told me that she just wanted to talk to him."

"If she hurts a single hair on his head…" I let my voice trail off, leaving my threat unspoken.

"She won't."

Levi chimed in this time. "With all respect, mate, I'm not sure you're really in the best position to make that kind of decision about all this. You have literally aided and abetted a kidnapping. What about any of that makes you think this woman is of sound mind?"

"She thinks she's in love with him. He has been sending her all these fucking letters while she was a teenager. She needs to talk to him, she needs to understand that it wasn't like that for him, and that she's living in a fantasy." Trevor bit at him.

"She's not the fucking only one," I snarled at him. "You thought this would get her in your good graces and that she would just come running back to you? It's not fucking happening; I'm going to make sure she goes to prison for a very long time."

I was finding it harder and harder to keep my temper with him. He had to know something. I was about to start into him again when my phone rang.

"What?" I barked without looking at the screen.

"She has property. She was left a lakeside cottage by a great-uncle when she was a child."

"Where?" I barked again.

"Already sent it to Levi," Jake answered.

"Keep on it in case there is anything else that might have been missed." I didn't wait for his answer, and I shoved my phone back in my pocket.

"Know anything about a cottage at Loch Lomond?"

Trevor's face gave away the fact that he had no idea what I was talking about before he even opened his mouth.

"Is she armed?" Levi asked over my shoulder, and again his expressions told us all we needed before he uttered a single word.

"Fuck," Levi muttered.

I pulled my arm from Trevor's body. "I promise you this now, if anything happens to him because you helped her... I will come after you too. What does she have?"

"A gun." He sagged against the wall in defeat.

My heart dropped like a stone into my boots, and I glanced over at Levi. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

Just over an hour later,with the help of the coordinates supplied by Cathy, we arrived on the road leading to an isolated, yet pretty, little cottage on the edges of Loch Lomond. We drove just a short distance past the house, pulled the car into a ditch and jogged back to the cottage using the cover of darkness and our on foot approach to our advantage.

Adopting the same method we had at the hotel, Levi hugged one side of the doorway and I took the other. Just as we were about to make our move a shot rang out in the darkness.

Levi used surprise to his advantage and kicked in the old wooden door in one move.

Natasha was standing over Lennox with the gun still in her hand. Levi managed to disarm her without much incident as she stood there with her mouth open, staring at Lennox, who was slumped in the chair, blood pouring out over his t-shirt.

Knowing Levi would take care of Natasha, I rushed to Lennox's side, kneeling beside him as all my training and ingrained skills took over. I lifted his t-shirt, looking to see where it was that she had got him. Just high enough on one side to have possibly damaged his intestines, or even his diaphragm.

"Tom?" came a pained muttering from Lennox.

"Shh, I'm here, we're going to get you to hospital." I smiled grimly at him as Levi restrained Natasha in a similar way to what she had done with Lennox. He emptied the bullets from the gun and put them out of her reach.

Once he was sure that any danger she presented had been taken care of, he came to my side and started to untie Lennox while I got some bandages from the first aid kit we had with us. We worked quickly and silently, freeing him from his binds, getting him more comfortable on the floor, and applying basic first aid.

Levi got on his phone. "Ambulance please. Hello. Yes, my name is Levi Marshall, I'm on scene with a gunshot victim... No, it's not me, it's the gentleman that I am in the personal protection detail of… Yes ma'am… Would the what3words location be the best? Uh huh… We are at composts.bookshop.excellent…. Yes ma'am. Brilliant, how long? Thank you. Yes, please, police also. Thank you."

Levi looked at me as I pressed down hard on the still bleeding wound on Lennox's torso. "Ambulance and police are on the way."

I looked over my shoulder to where Natasha was sobbing quietly, her gaze remaining fixed on her favourite singer's unconscious form. She glanced over at me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean to, oh God. Oh God! He's going to die, isn't he?"

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Lennox, "Don't listen to her, you're staying right here with me," I whispered over him as I swapped the blood-soaked dressing for a new one. "You're doing great Lennox, you're going to be just fine."

I wished that I believed my own words. I was worried; he was still haemorrhaging and getting paler by the second. I was terrified that I was going to lose him before I got the chance to tell him what I really felt about him. What I should have been telling him all along—I was crazy about him and I wanted to see where all this could go. If he made it, I promised myself I would tell him exactly that, the first chance I got.