Tonight was the night. He had monitored her for two weeks now. He knew now, where she lived, what her work schedule was and where the little girl went for daycare. Once, one week ago, he was pretty sure she had seen him. He was not worried that she would go to the police.
The first time he had almost gotten her, she had reported him. The policemen had told her she was paranoid and that she should go home and relax. So she had relocated on her own.
The second time he had almost gotten her, she hadn't even tried to go to the police, she had packed her things and her daughter and disappeared again.
She was still here, so she probably hadn't been sure, if she had really seen him and she probably didn't want to leave if she wasn't sure, because the little girl was three years old by now. The girl had gotten used to her surroundings, she had friends. It would be harder this time to just leave everything behind.
She probably had thought, she was really getting a little paranoid and had just seen someone that resembled him.
He understood a little now how you could start to imagine things once you got the idea in your head that someone followed you. He had started to see them one day after he had thought she maybe had seen him. Every time he followed her, every time he stood in front of her house, every time he sat in his car in front of the little girl's daycare centre or her work, one of them appeared and stared at him. A tall thin guy with dark curls and a dark coat, a woman with short blonde hair, an unobtrusive, short guy and sometimes a tall guy in a suit carrying an umbrella.
They didn't look away, when he looked at them. They kept staring. It seemed like they wanted him to know they were there to observe him.
But he had told himself, that that couldn't mean anything. Who should they be? Why should they care if he was following her or not? Nobody had ever cared, he had always been allowed to do what he wanted with her. Only she, herself, had dared to run from him and to keep the girl from him, but that was over now, he would go and get them tonight.
He left the hotel, went to his car and drove to her neighbourhood. He parked the car a few blocks from her house. He locked the car and started to walk. He didn't have a weapon with him. He wouldn't need one to force her to do what he wanted, she didn't have a weapon, he was stronger then her, she wouldn't have a chance.
Suddenly he felt an arm around his neck, he was bent over and before he could think about anything he was in a stone-hard grip from behind and couldn't move any arm, leg or anything. He was unable to turn around to look who it was behind him. If he had just taken his weapon with him! But he would not have had any chance to reach for it anyway, and now he felt, how the person behind him held him with just one arm - without making it possible for him to move any more than before - and started to pad all his pockets for a weapon. He didn't find any weapon and closed his grip with the second arm again.
Out of the dark two additional figures appeared. He recognised the tall man with the curls, beside him the blonde woman. He wore his black coat. She wore a dark leather jacket, that didn't seem in anyway remarkably wide, which was why he was severely surprised when she completely incidentally, like she had just coincidentally right now gotten too warm, took off her jacket and he saw her wearing a holster with at least three handguns. Over her shoulder hung something that looked like a small rifle. He had no idea, how she had had all that under her jacket without it being visible from outside in anyway.
"Good evening, Jayden!" the man said. The woman just stood there and looked at him.
"What do you want?" Jayden managed to gasped, still having difficulties to breathe with the grip from behind still around him.
"We want you to leave Georgia and Nicky alone! As simple as that!" the man answered.
"That is not going to happen! She had no right to leave me! And she can't keep my daughter from me!"
He felt how the grip around his neck got tighter.
"You beat her up on a regular basis, she left you when you started to hit your baby-girl, because her crying was going on your nerves! To leave you was the smartest thing she has ever done!" the man said.
"I love her, and I love my daughter. I want them with me!" Jayden said.
"Like many men with tiny brains and even tinier penises you are confusing love with ownership", the woman answered.
"That is none of your business!" Jayden managed to say despite the grip on his neck.
"Oh, it became my business when my daughter came home crying because her best friend had told her a secret and that secret was, that her mother had started to prepare her that they might have to move again soon, because her violent ex-boyfriend seemed to have reappeared. My daughter isn't loosing her best friend, because of a creep like you. Are we clear on that?" the man with the dark curls said.
"You are not telling me, what to do!"
"I just am, aren't I? Here is what is going to happen: You are going home to Birmingham and you will never, ever go near Georgia and Nicky again! Other ways very unpleasant things will happen" the man with curls continued.
The woman had taken one of the handguns out of her holster and seemed to check, if it was fully loaded.
At the same time he felt the grip around his neck tighten again. He managed to turn his head as far to see that it was the short, unobtrusive guy who had him in his grip.
"Where is the umbrella-guy?" he asked.
"The umbrella-guy just filled in, when we couldn't come" the man with the curls said. "He isn't here tonight. But he takes his duties as a godfather very seriously, you know. So he is the reason why we always got an automatic text when you got anywhere near Georgia and Nicky and once you've returned to Birmingham, we are going to continue to get automatic texts when you start to come near London again. I can assure you, that it will stay that way for a few decades."
"Are we clear on that?" the woman asked, test-aiming one of her guns at him. When Jayden didn't answer immediately a knee of the short guy behind him landed in his guts. He cried out and the short guy let him fall down on the pavement. He had difficulties to breathe.
The short guy grabbed his collar and pulled him up. "Are we clear?! On that?!" he asked.
"Yes... Yes..." Jayden managed to gasp.
"To make one of our daughters cry is one of the safest ways to get yourself into trouble, keep that in mind, asshole!" The short guy landed another knee in his stomach.
"We've got his answer. Let him go, John!" the tall man said. "My mother wants to go home."
The short man let him fall on the pavement again. The three turned around and started to walk away from him. When he saw him walking beside the other two, Jayden realised, just how short the short guy was. How could that man manage to grab him, that he was unable to move and after that beat him until he couldn't breathe anymore? It felt like his tiny penis had gotten even tinier.
"Sherlock, you remember that I got a shift for tomorrow afternoon on short notice. You have to go to the music group with the girls tomorrow" the short guy said walking away.
"Oh, please, no! Their music teacher is hitting on me all the time! Mary, you don't work on Wednesday afternoons! Why don't you go?"
"As I already told you, I have been invited to talk to the headmaster of Rose's school, because she took one of your specimens from the fridge and brought it with her to school to impress one of the boys in third grade," the woman said. "They don't like to get phone calls from parents because their son brought home a human eye, you know! You can have that talk, if you want to! Feel free to choose!"
"I'll take the music group!" the man with the curls said, before they disappeared around the corner and Jayden couldn't hear them anymore.
Additional notes:
I had questions on some details on early childhood education in Britain (that's what one of the comments refers to). I updated the story accordingly.