Author note: Hello guys, I'm back, NaNoWriMo is over for another year and I have good news…I finished it! I'm so proud to have reached 50,000 words in such a short time space (though I find myself heavily behind with everything else right now) and couldn't be happier. I was thinking of publishing it on Fiction Press, what do you think, it's called siren song and would you check it out if I did? How about if anyone lets me know they're interested in reading it I'll send you a synopsis and you can see what you think? Anyway, back down to business, sorry this is a little later than I would have liked, and it's maybe not up to much since I'm still getting back into writing outside NaNoWriMo again, not so much action in this chapter but I can tell you that it's coming soon, I've been planning it all out and I like the way it looks so far. So here you are chapter six. Please enjoy.
Chapter six
Sherwood house
Somewhere, buried not too deeply inside each outlaw, a switch was flicked and the office dropped into furious silence as everyone sat there with enraged expressions on their faces and hard eyes; someone had pretended to be us and broken into Baxter's office where they had stolen precious objects, obviously knowing full well that we would get the blame for their actions. Not one of us gave two hoots about Baxter being robed, why should we since we did it ourselves often enough? What wound me up so suddenly and with the force of a fire slowly building inside of me filled me with anger, was that these people, whoever they were, had the pure gall to pretend to be us. That and that the people of the Southside weren't going to be receiving whatever they had stolen because they had gotten to it before we had. Needless to say I wasn't happy and I wasn't about to take that lying down. My jaw was set and I was drumming my black polished nails (painted in spite of Jordans rules) on the wooden table angrily, I watched as the others continued to ponder what we had just seen, they looked about as happy as I felt.
"Who would do such a thing?" Jack asked suddenly with a disgusted tone to her voice. She was the first one to give in and speak, clearly too angry to take much more of this. I knew how she felt, I had was cracking myself, only right now I was turning my furious efforts to plotting, I would think of a way to expose these imposters and hopefully get some more money for the citizens of Locksdale while I was at it. That thought was the only thing that kept the passionate rage I'd become famous for at Locksdale and even more so now, at bay.
"I don't know," John said to Jack before meeting my gaze across the table and filling his voice with determination as he said "but we'll find out who is doing this." I nodded along with his words, my eyes hard as emeralds as I felt my mind tick over everything the news reporter had said. They knew our style well enough to use it themselves so they had to be someone who knew us well, I didn't like the direction that thought took me in because there were so few people we trusted with that kind of information and I didn't want to think that they were capable of betraying us. I had to consider it though, as much as I didn't want to.
I surprised myself by remembering to breathe evenly and count to ten in my head, the way my anger management councillor at Locksdale Upper had told me to do whenever I got really mad. My breath hissed out through my mouth as I focused on planning revenge and not blowing up the way I was prone to doing- see, I am getting better at this- so I found myself calming down relatively quickly. That was important because I really needed a level head to be useful in this situation. I had to come up with a plan and rally my troops, keep morale for being hit by this new injustice.
"What if this is another one of Baxter's plans?" Will asked suddenly, speaking with an edge to his voice as well, my gaze snapped towards him and I felt my stomach drop a little before the heat of the fire started to spread again and I got mad "what if he's doing this to make us look bad again?"
"You think that could be it?" I asked my voice tight, Will nodded sombrely and I turned to George, the same question on my lips, he didn't need me to speak it though.
"I was thinking it might be," George said with a nod, though his expression was contemplative "but at the same time I can't think he'd use that same scheme twice, especially after we exposed him the last time." I nodded stiffly and thought about that, it was definitely a possibility and it wouldn't surprise me if Baxter would do this to us again. Though George could be right, why would he try this plot again if it had already failed once?
"He might think we won't suspect it, that we'd write it off for exactly that reason." John suggested, his chocolate eyes melting a little down, John was probably one of the more calm outlaws despite his love of a good fight and a bit of action.
George shook his head as he continued to consider this "I don't think he works like that, with my father once something has failed him, it's failed him and that's it. He makes no difference weather or not it is a person or a plan, once it's failed him its usefulness has ended." George said, his voice hitting a dark, resentful pitch at the end there, all of us knew why, we all knew how heartless Baxter could be and how many innocents had died for 'failing' him. "I don't know why, I just don't think that he would do the same thing again, he would know we would be suspicious and besides, it seems different this time, even if its been just the one incident it isn't the same as how Baxter tried to turn everyone against us last time."
We nodded along with George's words, hearing the probability there and deciding that he was right; Will frowned and thought through George's words before saying "Yeah, I can understand that, but if it's different this time it could only mean that he's changing his ways to throw us of his scent." Will offered and George shrugged but didn't look convinced, he knew as well as I did that there was a good chance that Will was right and Baxter had changed his technique a little this time, but was still trying to make us outcasts, however I could tell that George still thought that that wasn't it.
"It's hard to tell at the moment, I think," Mark said getting that calculating look in his eye as he tried to figure out this fresh puzzle "let's wait and see what Baxter's reaction to the items and the money being stolen is first, that might tell us if he had a hand in this."
"He's a good actor though," Will insisted from across the table "and how much more is he, or whoever this is, going to do in our name until then? Sure it was only robbing Baxter this time, it's the sort of stuff we do every day, but what happens if they start to do bigger things, the sort of stuff we would never do?"
"Will's got a good point," I agreed feeling the rage rise up inside me again and push the words from my lips, I was determined not to just sit her and do nothing while whoever was behind all this did any more deeds in our name. But then I looked at George and saw the thoughtful look he wore and knew he was thinking something important and I opted to be rational for once "but we cant just assume this is Baxter's doing even if there is a good chance it is, we should rule out all other possibilities first." I said feeling my hard expression waver a little as I thought of what that meant, I really didn't want to do this but I honestly saw no other option. Jack caught the meaning behind my expression.
"Our friends?" Jack asked with a sad look on her face and I nodded my head, we couldn't trust Jess or Joe until we were sure that they weren't selling our secrets, they were the only ones who knew that sort of stuff about us. Jack mirrored my nod before looking down at the desk, she didn't like this but she knew we had no choice.
"I don't think that it's my father," George said a little suddenly, pulling an expression that told me he was deep in though and meeting my gaze with his sapphire blue eyes with such force that I believed him, he knew his father better than anyone and as much as George seemed to struggle with the idea that his father wasn't the villain at this point, he didn't believe he was behind this "he's out of town on business and it seemed pretty sudden when he left, I know it could be a ruse but I really don't think it is, he seemed so pleased when he heard that he was needed there, I didn't like the look her wore, so excited and eager, but I'm almost positive that expression wasn't about this, but rather something bigger and beyond all of this. I'm not sure how much comfort we can take from that though, the thought that my father is too busy with something bigger than this to put his usual effort into catching us. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but I'm sure that things have been getting more lax this past week, almost like my fathers attentions are turned elsewhere." George said with a troubled expression on his face, I agreed with it, like I had said earlier, whatever was going on with Baxter out of town definitely wasn't good and was definitely worth keeping an eye on. "He'll be back in a few days though and I'll be sure to keep my ears open when I go to see him."
The others and I nodded at George's words, "we'll have to keep our eyes peeled from now on," I told the others, my fear for us, my barely capped rage and my discomfort making my tone hard and my posture stiff "I honestly don't think that either Joe or Jess would give away our secrets but we need to be careful, until we know for sure that this isn't Baxter or them we treat them with caution and make sure we're on the look out for similar signs to what happened the last time Baxter tried to make us out casts." the others made noises of agreement and sat back in their chairs, contemplative expressions on their faces and discomfort radiating from them, they didn't like this any more than I did.
"What about the townsfolk?" John asked concern for the town's well-being written across his face "we were supposed to go to Jaxbrough tonight."
"We're still going, we'll take the money parcels we sorted yesterday and distribute them." I said, thinking of the plan for tonight I had drawn up earlier, I was determined not to let this stop us helping those in need and glad of the distraction, but John still looked troubled.
"But Robin, the fund's getting dangerously low, we need to do something to get more money, and fast, and I'm not just talking about a decorating job, I mean serious money." John said a worried expression on his face, I sighed and closed my eyes, big jobs had been a far few between and taking money from unsuspecting Haves was all fine and good but it wasn't going to feed the whole Southside. John was right; we needed to get our hands on some serious money. The others looked as bothered as John and I did; I hated it when things got tight for us because we couldn't give the people as much money as we'd like to because the most important thing was to make sure that everyone who needed it got some. This often meant that the amount we gave out dropped a bit when things got tight, but I supposed that the key thing was that everyone got SOMETHING. Still, I didn't like it when we didn't have much to give.
"What about the Beverly's? We haven't paid them a visit for a while, their security system is pretty lax so I doubt we'd have much trouble getting in there." Mark suggested with a look in my direction, his tried eyes heavy looking and his dark purple circles even more prominent at the prospect of another sleepless nightmare filled night as a consequence of us failing to figure out the prophecy. I knew how he felt.
"Mr. Beverly has upped the security system, Will did a scout the other week and spotted the delivery van bring it in, it's all very high tech and about the same level as the mansion." George said as he pulled the notes from Will's scouting trip across the table to him, I remembered hearing about that and listened as he carried on speaking "I know we've gotten in there before and we get in my fathers all the time but the Beverly's are struggling, Courtney's dad is another big land owner and he's not getting all his rents, besides that I overheard my father talking today before he left, he's taking a pretty large chunk of Beverly's profit's and I don't think that they have much to steal." George said sitting back in his chair at the head of the table.
"Well then," I said as I copied his motion, linked my fingers together and rested my elbows on the table in a very sinister fashion, I raised my eyebrows at George and smiled "we'll just have to visit the big shot and take a cut of our own." I said, refusing to let this thing with the imposters get to me or ruin our operation, I trusted everyone in this room with me right now and I knew they wouldn't let me down, so why should I let it stop us from doing our job? I knew that I could trust Joe and Jess as well, I just had to be cautious until we got to the bottom of this mess and asked them about it Tuesday night when they paid us a visit, I couldn't really corner them about it at college.
My friends' faces lit up around me at the prospective challenge, all of them eager to get away from his recent blow and get to doing what we did best. George grinned at me from down the table and I returned his sly smile and winked at him before turning back to face the others. "Any ideas?" I asked the enthusiastic bunch.
"Plenty," Mark said with a cunning smile "just tell me where we want to be and I'll see what I've got."
I gave Mark an appreciative look before turning back to George and asking "Have you heard anything this week, have any shipments or anything like that come into the mansion that we've missed?" I asked him, thinking it was unlikely that we had missed anything since between George going in there every other day and the rest of us had been staking out the mansion, very little went in or out of there without us knowing about it.
"What about his credit card?" Will asked cunningly his eyes glistening mischievously "I'd love for us to get hold of that, even if it was just for a day until he closed the account."
George grinned at his friend but shook his head "No, there's been no more shipments and I don't think we'd be able to steal his credit card, it would be too easy for him to trace our movements. I would love to see the look on his face though when he got the bill we would rack up and saw all the things we'd given to the poor," George said with a chuckle and a distant look, it was as though he was imagining it. I smiled. "However," George added and I rose my eyebrows at him "I think I've got something better than that."
"Pray tell?" I asked dramatically, George smiled before he answered.
"I've found out the location of my fathers safe," George said, everyone was silent for a moment as they contemplated this, surely Baxter's safe wouldn't be filled your bog standard life time savings total, the money in there would surly be most of the cash he earned from his underhand dealings, hush money and blackmail earnings. I would be willing to bet that it held quite an amount and consequently was not your average dial and combination safe. It would be difficult getting inside it, but hey, I relished the challenge and the distraction it would bring. A cunning smile turned the corners of my lips upwards as my mind got to work.
"How long have you known about it?" Jack asked as she nudged the bowl of sleeping draught closer to a shattered Mark who shook his head at her and immersed himself in our conversation and planning, not wanting to miss anything.
"I've always known about it," George admitted with a shrug, I looked at him, wondering why he had never said anything; naturally Will was the only one who could beat me to asking the question.
"You never said anything," Will stated "how come you're just telling us this now?" Will wasn't suspicious of George, he knew full well that he was one of us, however Will (like me) sometimes came across as demanding and seemed to be accusing someone when really he was only asking a question. Fortunately all of us were used to it and knew better.
"I didn't want to say anything until I knew exactly where it was." George explained "there was no point tempting you with all that money if there was no way of us getting to it."
"You know where it is now though?" I asked and George nodded.
"It's in my father's back office, the extravagant electric fireplace there is hollow and opens up like a door, the safe is behind there." George explained before looking a little guilty and saying "it won't be easy to get into it though; we'll have to go through the proper channels."
"Don't we just need a combination?" John asked but George shook his head.
"Unfortunately no, yes there's a six digit pin code to type in but we also need a key as well. I know my father though; he has a spare hidden away for everything that requires a key, I followed him today as he went to take some money from the safe for his journey, I moved his keys so that he couldn't find them and had to use the spare. He hides the spare key that isn't on his own key chain under the desk in a small hollowed out compartment." George said and I felt my heart swell with pride, I could hardly recognise him as the same boy who I'd known these past five years at Locksdale Upper, he's just as sneaky and mischievous as the rest of us now, not to mention I found George's sly side very attractive, I thought with a playful grin which of course George caught. He raised his eyebrows at me and I shrugged, still grinning. "I don't know the combination however." George admitted.
"It's six digits did you say?" Mark asked and George nodded, I watched as my smartest friend contemplated that, trying to figure out the likely combination.
"What about his birthday?" Jack suggested "isn't that what people usually use for combinations if they have nothing else to use?"
"Yeah, could be, good idea," Will agreed in a slightly creepish and eager manner, George and I grinned and John nudged him playfully in the elbow, all of us knowing full well why he was so quick to agree with Jack. Will had a fairly large crush on Jack, it was obvious to everyone who spent five minutes around them, the only people who didn't know about it were probably the pair themselves, and both denied it whenever we suggested that there were feelings between them. And they both thought that George and I were stupid for taking as long to get together as we had, jeeze, they really needed to look in the mirror. I thought as Will threw John a wide eyed look and blushed a little, I rolled my eyes and George shook his head, the only two who had no reaction to this were Mark and Jack, Mark because he was immersed in thought and Jack because she was blind to Will's feelings for her. Though she was always insightful when it came to other people's emotions, I noted as I fought the urge to roll my eyes again. "I pick my birthday whenever I need a combination." Will said with a pointed look at the rest of us, as though trying to emphasise his innocence and chastise us for thinking anything else.
"Good to know," John said before showing Will a wide toothy grin and pulling a sheet of paper and a pen towards him "when's your birthday again?" he asked still grinning. Will glared at John and the rest of us laughed, Jack only getting half the joke.
"Funny," Will grumbled sarcastically before turning to George, warning him not to crack a joke of his own with his eyes, before asking "when is your dads birthday?"
"May the ninth, nineteen sixty eight." George said innocently though he was still fighting back a snigger.
"Funny, I would have thought it was the sixth of the sixth two thousand and six," Will said and sniggers echoed around the room, mine had double purpose as I was sure that Will had only said that to take the spotlight from himself.
"No, that's my little brother's birthday," George said, his tone deathly serious and his face grave and completely unamused. The laughing stopped abruptly. The other four looked guilty but I only turned to George with my eyebrows raised, he met my sceptical gaze and his expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Really?" John asked with wide eyes as he looked from George to a thoroughly embarrassed Will. George nodded stiffly, his arms folded across his chest and Will looked up apologetically.
"Look, I'm sorry mate, I didn't mean to insult your brother like that, I was just messing around..." Will insisted until George's phoney sombre demeanour cracked and he grinned impishly, biting back laughter.
"I thought as much," I said with my eyebrows still raised and a smile in my voice, I was glad that we were all able to forget the nasty business of the imposters and carry on as we were before. We were stronger than they thought we were and if they thought that this was going to shake us they had another thing coming. "You've never mentioned a brother to me before."
"Sorry Will," George said apologetically as he chuckled and Will's jaw fell open in disbelief "I couldn't resist."
"Owned," John said, extending the word out in an exaggerated fashion as he laughed at Will.
"You have to admit that was pretty funny," Jack laughed as she nudged him "you're so gullible at times."
Will's expression changed abruptly (he had been glaring at John and George both for their comments) and he jumped on this opportunity to flirt, he grinned back at Jack before bumping his arm with hers playfully, "What are you taking about? You believed him as well, you were just as fooled as I was." He said, his eyes fixed intently upon Jack's as he spoke.
"I wasn't," Jack insisted with a laugh as she straightened herself up so she sat taller in her chair "I knew it was a joke all along."
"What?" Will asked, his voice coated in teasing disbelief "not a chance, you were fooled."
I was watching them both and grinning as John made throwing up motions behind their backs and Mark pulled kissy faces, momentarily freed from the spell of figuring something out, so I jumped quite a bit when George poked me. I turned to face his grinning face, even now blown away by how gorgeous he looked just sitting there and once again glad that he was finally mine.
"Remind you of anyone?" He asked with a dazzling grin and a glint in his deep blue eyes, I laughed and shook my head.
"I think that we bickered a bit more than that," I laughed and George nodded cheerfully.
"It was a bit more violent as well, I think," George added.
"No more apples, right?" I asked with a smirk, George laughed loudly.
"You two lovebirds finished?" Will asked impatiently from down the table, I turned to find the rest of them were watching us again, George was unfazed and so was I, I was in love and I knew now that that was nothing to be ashamed of.
"Only if you two are," I said with a grin, Will didn't appreciate that.
"So you don't think that it's his birthday, the combination I mean?" Jack asked trying to change the subject; I briefly pondered her reasons and grinned again, denial.
"It might be," George said with a shrug "it just seems a bit obvious to me, we can still try it though."
Jack nodded and I turned to Mark, noticing he was back to contemplating "you thought of something?" I asked him and Mark nodded.
"2,2,9,8,3,7." Mark recited suddenly with an almost robotic tone to his voice, no one spoke, we all just blinked and looked at Mark in wonder.
"It's true then," John said breaking the stunned silence first "you are a computer." Will snorted (forgiving John for his past comments) and Mark threw them both a dark look.
"How did you come up with that Mark?" I asked intrigued as to his reasoning and not sold on John's computer theory.
"Logic," Mark said with a pointed look in John and Will's direction, I guessed he was really tired since he didn't usually act like this, that or he really wasn't amused by John's comment. He turned back to look at me, his usual intelligent expression back in place as he said "I just thought about the letters they put on key pads sometimes, like on mobiles for texting, since Baxter is a six letter word I thought that he might have used it as his password. It's kind of obvious but at the same time it's not something everyone would think of. 2,2,9,8,3,7 is what you would have to type to spell Baxter in a text or on any other key pad." Mark explained and I nodded along with his words, liking his reasoning, it was as possible as anything else we had come up with so far. The others weren't laughing anymore and Jack was smiling at Mark kindly, I turned to George and saw the impressed look he wore there, everyone else seemed to agree that it was pretty likely.
"That's pretty darn smart Mark," I said my voice encouraging "I think we should start writing these possible combinations down so that we don't forget them." I said, Jack reacted the quickest and pulled at sheet of paper towards her from our messy, paper strewn meeting table and taking a pen from the pen mug nearest her. Jack then started to write down both Baxter's birthday and the numbers Mark had used to spell Baxter's name, I was actually kind of surprised he was able to do that without looking at a keypad or a mobile at all. But then again this was Mark; anything was possible with a brain like his.
Mark shrugged in a nonchalant way, like he didn't think it was that likely "it was just an idea had, it could be that or 7,6,2,3,7,8, Robert." Mark explained, his tone almost bored, I felt a chuckle escape my lips, all rage now completely under control and leashed for the time being.
"You got any other ideas in there Plato?" I asked with a grin, Mark blushed a little in pride before explaining a few of his other ideas, he thought that Baxter might have used another word as a password and suggested that they might be people or things that were important to him. George suggested that we put down his mum's birthday, saying that she was the only person Baxter had ever truly cared about, my heart tugged as I looked at the pained look in my boyfriends eyes, pain for the loss of his mum and the loveless ways of his father. I wanted to comfort George but knew that now wasn't the time, besides, I was sure George wouldn't want me to draw attention to his small show of emotion; no one else had noticed it. Resolving to cheer him up later I listened as George explained that his mothers name had been Teresa and so was a possible combination, wanting nothing more than to reach out and comfort him. Especially when Jack asked if George's name or birthday could be the combination, George had let out a humourless laugh and told her that he doubted that very highly, that his father cared very little for him.
In the end we gathered about six possible combinations, both Baxter and George's mums birthdates and names spelled with numbers, 0,6,0,6,0,6 to humour Will who thought Baxter might be into irony and the pin Baxter used on his home alarm system, the one that George had shut down for us many times over the past month. It wasn't a lot but it was all we had to go on, we would have to act fast if we wanted to make the most of Baxter's absence from the mansion and steal the money then. Once we agreed on the only six pin codes we could think of besides random numbers, which we would try a few of if all else failed, we set about planning the rest of the job. Only George and I would be infiltrating the mansion, it was a quick snatch and grab with a bit of sneaking before and after and having too many of us there would slow us down and make our chances of being caught greater, the sum of money we were after (George had confirmed) would be too much to risk loosing, we would go in alone. John would be waiting in the van so that we could make a speedy get away, Mark was to attempt to lead the unsuspecting security guard away from the guard house by insisting that he needed help with his (cough, Will's dads) car which had 'broken down' further down the road and out of sight, this would mean that George and I could slip inside the gate house and open the gates. If Mark couldn't get the guard to leave his post he would use his now perfected smoke screen to force the man out. Jack and Will would be patrolling the perimeter of the estate, close enough to help if anything got out of hand or if any other outside forces tried to get in while we were still inside, they would either stop them or warn us of a problem. We would be in radio contact at all times via Mark's head pieces, just in case. I had made good of my promise and hadn't complained about using them once since I had gotten back….err, woken up two weeks ago. Once inside George would deactivate the security system and we would sneak to Baxter's back office, there would be few if any squad members inside the mansion since Baxter was away, though they had been known to surprise us from time to time so we couldn't rule out their possible presence. Once in the office George and I would retrieve the spare key for the safe that was hidden behind the fireplace and try the various combinations, if all else failed then we would wing it with the combinations. If successful (and we were really, really hoping we would be) we would let the others know we were on our way out and then leg it back to the van where they would all be waiting and then we'd head off back to the office to count and distribute our spoils.
The plan was good, I liked the plan and was eager to get on with this, however, we all decided that it was best this plan was saved for tomorrow, as we planned the day had hurried along and before we knew what had hit us it was nightfall, we wouldn't have the time to do anything more than give out the money we had tonight. That was a large and important task in its self though, as the Jaxbrough area of the Southside was quite large and quite a costly place to live of late. Tidying away tomorrow's plans, as much as we could on the chaotic meeting table, we readied ourselves, changed into our outlaw 'uniforms' and picked up the money parcels, already divided up amongst us equally and stuffed into rucksacks, and grabbed our bows, more out of habit than actual need.
"Right then, lets go help the poor," Will said excitedly, all of us still loved the rush of adrenalin and excitement we got from going behind Baxters back and handing out money not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling we got from doing good.
"We can't say it like that," Mark commented with a grin "less we forget we're the poor as well."
"Yeah, but we never keep anything for ourselves. It will probably be real easy for Baxter to figure out who we all are once we've given all our money to the rest of the Southside; we'll be the only ones out on the street." Will said good-naturedly and without a single trace of resentment in his voice, he still loved his job.
"Let's hope it doesn't get to that stage," George said with a laugh, I chuckled and turned to lock the door to our actual office, Mark and Will were standing at the bottom of the stairs, not needing to worry about being overheard since it was already dark outside, Jacobs was at home, Adam hadn't come in today and the cameras didn't record sound. John and Jack were waiting in John's van which we were going to take to Jaxbrough and George was standing next to me by the office door upstairs. I turned to face him, his face still completely visible since his hood was down and none of us had put on our masks just yet, even in the low light of the office corridor I was once again struck by how perfect he was, had I honestly been that blind in school that I couldn't see what the other girls saw in him? Well, I suppose I was a little biased now actually, as absolutely gorgeous as George was I had fallen for him when I finally got to see his real personality, I had hated him when I had thought he was vain and shallow and all that. That was a good sign in my opinion even if my glasses were slightly rose tinted at the moment, only slightly.
Acting on impulse I pushed myself up onto my tiptoes and kissed George lightly on the lips, he looked a little dazed since he hadn't been expecting the show of affection, and Will and Mark groaned at the bottom of the stairs. "Come on," I said as I grabbed his hand and towed him down the stairs, he was grinning at me still as we reached the foot of the stairs. Will, Mark and George (now freed from my grip) headed out the door ahead of me, I followed them out and was pulling the door shut when I noticed a coat hanging on one of the pegs outside Jacobs's office, it had been there all day and only now did I realise that it was Adams. The realisation hit me suddenly and caused my brows to furrow as the furious fire licked around my chest again, my grip on the door handle tightened drastically as I remembered Adam's demand from this morning. I had made my decision, there was no way that I was going to go to Adam's house tonight, he was bluffing and had never actually said that he would tell Baxter about George if I didn't show. Come to think of it he'd have a hard time doing that if Baxter was out of town and hadn't given his newest crony a number to reach him by. I wasn't risking George by refusing Adam tonight, I told myself firmly, I was keeping my dignity and self respect intact besides, wouldn't it be wrong to go to Adam's house when I was seeing George? It would feel too much like cheating to me and that was something I would never do, I knew first hand how much that hurt, even if it didn't turn into anything like that (though knowing Adam as I do it would have, shudder) I would still feel like I was betraying George. No, I told myself sternly, this was where I drew the line, it was one thing washing Adam's socks and doing all his office work for him and that alone was degrading, it was another thing entirely to go to his house while I was with George and enter into his domain knowing I was duty bound to do whatever he said. Adam was all talk and no action, there was no way he was capable of actually telling Baxter about George, I was an idiot to let things get even this far. I couldn't shake the worried feeling though as I locked the front door of Sherwood, I couldn't help to worry that maybe Adam was capable of more than I thought he was. I had made my decision though, and I was sticking to it. I lent into George as he suddenly and tenderly wrapped his arms around my waist, sighing into my hair and resting his chin on my shoulder. It felt so nice to be so close to him, even if it was only for a few moments, my thought track had been starting to bother me and the anger building in my chest had vanished, something only George could inspire, of course, he could also cause me to get furious as well, I thought with a smile as I remembered all our past rows.
"Penny for them," George murmured softly as he pulled my back against my chest. I swear to God, I honestly considered telling him everything then, I wanted to tell him about Adam and the blackmail and what Adam wanted of me tonight, I wanted to come clean and tell him everything, but I didn't. I just couldn't tell him, because I was scared (yes, I was scared!), scared of what he would think of me for lying to him and allowing Adam into my room when for the past few weeks George was only sleeping in the next room. I was scared of what he would do when he found out, scared that he would go after Adam, not that the rat didn't deserve it but because I was afraid he would get hurt or into trouble because of it. There was no need to tell him anyway, I assured myself, I was sorting it now wasn't I? I had finally come to my senses and realised that there was absolutely no way that Adam would have the gall to go to Baxter about this, he just didn't have it in him, false blackmail on the other hand was perfectly within Adam's capabilities and to be expected from him. I wasn't going to Adam's and Adam was never getting into mine again so there was nothing to be bothered about. I still wanted to tell him though. Despite all my self assurances I was opening my mouth to come clean and tell him everything when the horn of John's van sounded out.
George and I both jumped about a mile, George however started to laugh and pulled away from me to look at the van, where John was pulling a face like he was whistling and looking all innocent. "Okay, we get it, were coming." George said still laughing as he gently took my hand and smiled lovingly down at me, my answering smile was half hearted. How could I tell him? I'd missed my chance and now I had no desire to tell him, selfish fear taking over me, I only felt guilty as George and I walked to the van where the others waited and set off towards Jaxbrough.
Author note: So, prey tell, what do you think to this? I'd love to hear that and what you reckon to me publishing Siren song on Fiction Press? Much love goes out for reading this and even more for reviewing, they make me smile :) x