WOW the response to the first chapter was AMAZING – thank-you so much.
I know the feeling when you start to read a wonderful fic and you just hope that it gets continued and completed.
Very special thanks to the following reviewers, the people who alerted my story and those who read Chapter 1 (you truly made my day and made me type faster)
Meganwaldron
mwlouy11
unknown
Nikayla
abz1
aisling9
XxSKY81xX
beebee483
flossybaben
ChipNuts
vanillasundae20
Izzy09
Love the Braxtons xx
Machecea95
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"Trust me, you are the last person I would like to be seeing right now," she answered.
"Feeling's mutual Buckton, you got some explaining to do? What the fuck is this?" Heath's voice rose in anger.
Personal feelings aside, this woman's death was tearing his brother apart.
"I need help Heath, and for some stupid reason, I think you're the only one who can help me."
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If seeing his brother's girlfriend alive didn't shock him enough, Charlie asking him for help sure as hell did.
"You need my help? Right sure thing Buckton, what can I help you with? Come on let me make you a cuppa and you tell me what I can do for you. Let's forget any obvious questions I might have, aye?"
A small smirk almost danced across her lips but she was quick in trying to hide it.
She reached forward to hand him the beer but when he refused to move, she placed in on the table.
"How much longer until Casey comes home?"
"Dunno, but Brax will be here soon, looking forward to the reunion?"
"He's on the late shift tonight. It's not an issue."
Heath was about to ask how she knew that but then it clicked.
"You were in the club this morning?"
"Last night actually, I had to do my homework, couldn't exactly barge in here whenever."
"What was with the chair?"
"Should I have written a note instead? I needed to do something to let him know to watch out for himself."
"Well he caught on pretty quick but it looks like he's not the only one who needs to be careful though?"
"You know about Perovic?"
"Yeah we found out this afternoon, and then Watson confirmed when she told Brax to stay out of it."
Charlie didn't speak.
Heath took the lapse in conversation to look at her, really look at her.
Charlie was a naturally slim woman however there was an unnatural narrowness to her body now that just ghosted on the edge of unhealthy.
Heath noticed the dark, dark bags resting underneath her eyes. She was tired and when he looked closer he saw how swollen her eyes appeared, either from lack of sleep or crying he didn't know.
It was clear that Charlie Buckton was in a bad way, almost as bad as Brax.
"What's goin' on Buckton?"
Charlie exhaled loudly, running a hand through her long hair.
"He's not safe, Ruby isn't safe. It's not just Perovic either. I need you to look out for them."
Heath waited for more.
"I didn't know what was going on until the morning of my last shift. Ruby and the boys had just left when Joyce and a DA came to the house. They had a bunch of letters, copies of emails, photos even a few conversation transcripts, most of it was threats against me, Ruby, Leah, VJ, even you and your brothers."
"Who are my brothers?"
"What?"
"Say his name?"
Charlie just looked at Heath, not really following the conversation.
"You won't say his name?"
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Brax! Say it," he demanded gruffly.
The conversation paused while she battled with her demons.
"There were threats," she started slowly, "against Ruby, Leah, VJ, you, Casey... and Brax," her voice hitched at his name.
"And you," he included.
"And me, their plan was to have me put into protective custody until they found Perovic. They said it was the only way to guarantee everyone's safety. If it kept them safe, I didn't think I had a choice."
"Why though?"
"They wouldn't tell me everything, said it was a conflict of interest due to my relationship. But basically there is a major investigation into Hayley O'Connor which led them to all of us."
"Fuck! She was a dog, Buckton. She had nothing on you, and everyone knew it. I mean, everyone who knew about you and Brax knew it."
She ignored his comment but was surprised at his words nonetheless.
"I was in protective custody for 12 hours before we noticed we were being followed. The only people who knew I was in protective custody were Joyce and a liaison officer Hayden Lewis. I questioned one of my protective details and coincidentally, Lewis' wife worked for Harmon and Shield Lawyers, the exact same firm Hayley O'Connor worked at."
"I don't get it, why'd they work so hard on getting rid of you. It's been four months, nothing's happened since you were," Heath cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"I know, but now Perovic is out."
"This can't still be about Hammer or his clubhouse."
"I don't know, probably."
"So Perovic has been busy, hey? We'll be ready for him. Should've seen Brax this morning! Scary shit."
Charlie closed her eyes, "Don't let him do anything stupid."
"Are you kidding, he has no choice. Even I know that. If you want him to stay out of it, you tell him. You're the only one he would listen to."
"He can't know I'm alive?"
"Why the fuck not? This isn't a game Buckton!" Heath yelled.
"You don't think I know that." She yelled right back.
It took all of Heath's strength not to yell back at her.
"What do you need Buckton?"
"I don't think Perovic knows I'm still alive. If he did, he wouldn't have organised a tail to scope out what was going on, he would have put out a hit. That's why I got out of the protective detail."
"Yeah yeah, and if you suddenly appear now it would look suspicious, I get it. I don't like it, Buckton, but I get it."
"Just keep a watch on what's going, it's not just Perovic's gang you need to be careful of though, if O'Connor is involved you need to watch for her or-
"Yep, yep, everyone's the enemy, got it. I do have to say though, you doing this, going against your boss, going rebel on your detail -"
"I didn't go rebel on the-"
" And asking me for help," he ignored her interruption. "It's very unlike you," he stated.
"We'll maybe some things need to be finished outside the confines of what is right or wrong."
"That's more like it, knew you'd see it our way at some point. We might just be friends yet, Buckton?"
"Oh joy."
Heath laughed half heartedly.
" I should go. Uh, thanks Heath." She said as she began to walk towards the back door.
"Buckton?"
She turned and looked at him.
"You be careful," his voice was calm not wanting to show just how much he actually meant the words.
"Yeah, you too," she left quickly not wanting to be seen but also not wanting to him to see the tears of relief that started to well in her eyes.
Heath finally reached for his beer.
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Brax walked in the front door less than an hour later.
He had taken no more that 3 steps into the house before he spoke.
"Someone been here?"
"Nup, why?" Heath kept his eyes trained on the TV, not daring to look at his brother.
He could hear Brax exhale loudly behind him.
"Nothing, I just thought... nothing. Don't worry about it. You had a rough night darlin', you got a few beers there." Brax said to his brother, looking at the bottles that littered the table.
"If only you knew mate, if only you knew," Heath said to himself.
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"Brax here?"
"Yeah man, is there something I could help you with?" Liam asked the man at the bar.
Liam hadn't seen him around before, or not that he could remember.
He was wearing a dark beanie and had one eyebrow pierced. He wore dark denim jeans with a long grey hoodie. There weren't any tattoos visible. Liam couldn't decide if he was friend or foe.
"Nah, just looking for Brax."
"Name?"
"Tommy."
"Righto, I'll be back."
"Someone here for you mate?"
Brax looked up from the order he was currently processing.
"Tommy?"
The effect was instantaneous and Liam knew – foe.
Brax was out of his chair and walked into the bar.
"Brax, what's been happening?" Tommy called as soon as he saw the oldest Braxton, not phased that Brax almost doubled him in size.
"What do you want?" Brax asked leaning over the bar, his biceps tensing at the action.
"Straight to the point aren't ya?"
"Look, you can tell me what you want or you can get the hell out of here."
"Fine, I came to make a booking."
"For when?"
"Tonight, for 6."
"Got some celebrating to do, do we?" Brax asked, hoping that the message was clear. "I can't help you out though, we're full up tonight."
"Oh too bad, don't worry we can reschedule." Tommy said smirking, he turned and walked out.
Brax stayed where he was until he was sure he was gone.
"If he ever comes in here when I'm not here, you call me or you call Heath."
"Yeah, ok sure, is everything ok?"
"Don't worry about it, just make sure you do it."
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Charlie's motel was dirty. She chose it because it was far enough to be away from Summer Bay but close enough to get there fast if there were any trouble.
She slept on the floor, not wanting to risk touching the bed.
She was woken to a commotion loud enough to be outside her room.
It wasn't yelling but pretty damn close to it.
Police instincts kicked in and she moved to the door to make sure it was locked, it was. There was a small window at the top of the door and the raised herself on her tip toes before peering out slowly.
The shock of seeing Jake Perovic was too much. They weren't outside her room but down the hallway. He was arguing with another man she couldn't identify, he was wearing a beanie.
She wasn't the only one who had found a hideout outside the realm of Summer Bay.
This wasn't good.
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Brax had called Heath to let him know about Tommy's visit. He was surprised when Heath has said he was heading in to Angelo's. After the mornings events, he wasn't about to leave Brax alone or Braxton stupidity would have kicked in.
The loud music of his phone started to ring but it wasn't until Brax brought it to his attention that he noticed.
"Hello."
"He's here." Charlie's voice sounded panicked on the phone but what was worse was talking to Charlie while sitting a metre from Brax.
"Oh yeah, not too much," Heath replied, avoiding his brother's eyes, "I'm just at Angelo's, what's going on?"
"Brax's there?"
"Yeah?"
"Heath, Jake Perovic is here!"
"Yeah thought that might be the case, mate," Heath turned around to face the back of the restaurant.
"Hey, I'm just gonna bring up some stock, you watch this?" Brax asked oblivious.
Heath waved him off and waited for him to leave.
"How did you know?"
"Brax was paid a visit this morning by one of his boys, Tommy, this morning. It was a bit strange he suddenly grew a pair. How do you know."
"He's at my motel Heath."
"He's what? You gotta get out of there." Charlie could hear the worry in Heath's voice. The reality of the situation hit her then, if Heath was worried about her, it really wasn't good.
"You think I don't know that."
"Where are they?"
"I don't know, in their room I guess. I saw him and another guy."
"Ok, just wait there and I'll work something out. I'll come to get you."
"That sounds like a brilliant and well thought out plan." Charlie commented sarcastically.
"Hey, I don't normally make the plans, Brax does. I just enforce them." He hung up.
It was a low blow, reminding her of how the Braxton boys had previously worked.
This could end very badly if he fucked it up. Not only could Perovic see him, they could see Charlie and if that happened, they would no doubt use that against Brax.
"A little help would be nice." Brax told Heath as he walked in carrying two large boxes.
"Yeah whatever, what else you want?"
"There's two more boxes on the table down there."
Heath went down to get the boxes Brax asked for while thinking how the fuck was he supposed to get her out of there.
Heath's phone began to ring again the second he left the restaurant.
Brax picked it up and looked at it.
Private Number
It could be important.
"Hello."
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Charlie heard the beeping on the phone.
He hung up on her.
What an idiot!
How was he supposed to know where to go her.
She sat for a moment thinking it would let Heath cool down. She knew that she had pissed him off with her comment.
She dialled the number again and waited.
She didn't have to wait long.
On the second ring it was answered.
"Hello."
Charlie's breath caught in her throat.
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You know what to do if you want more
Thank-you for reading , I hope you enjoyed chapter 2.
BTW...Did anyone else get a bit emotional when watching poor Brax this week?
xoxo