8. Next day
Nick spent the night with his Dad in Clay's room, as Belle occupied the guest room - not being the most comfortable of bedding with its unfamiliarity he woke early and headed downstairs. He walked into Jeremy's study to see Belle sitting in an armchair, cradling a cold cup of tea overlooking the back lawn through the window.
"You're awake already." He said taking the seat opposite her.
She nodded sleepily looking over at him. "Couldn't sleep."
"Have you been in here all night?" He asked.
"Just since about four." She said looking at her watch. "Jeremy came in earlier – he's outside." She nodded in the direction of the gardens, where Nick could just make out Jeremy practicing his archery in the early morning light. "Do you want one?" She asked raising her cup.
"It's okay, I'll get it. Tea - right? Milk one sugar?" He asked getting up, another sleepy nod as he got up and took the cup from her hand.
Resting his hands on the worktop waiting for the kettle to boil, Nick let out a long sigh dropping his head against his chest.
"I've missed you Belle." He admitted hearing her soft feet padding along, announcing her entrance.
She looked guiltily down at her hands as she picked at the hem of her pyjama top. They were silent for a while, both listening to the sound of the boiling kettle. "I've missed you too." She said just loud enough for him to hear. He slowly turned around to look at her in the face, to detect some lie or mockery.
"I just don't want to get hurt again Nick – it's different this time. Things are more complicated." She explained as she walked around the island in the middle of the room. "I just don't want to mess things up here – with us, and for what all this could be for Matthew's future." She waved her hand around in the air for emphasis.
"It's okay, I know you're in a bad place right now – well, I suppose we both are." He paused, rubbing his hands through his hair. "I mean, fuck – I'm a Dad!" He shook his head pouring water into two mugs.
"I see you've worked things out?" Jeremy introduced his presence, leaving the question hanging in the air.
Nick blushed in case Jeremy had heard any of their conversation. "Coffee?" He asked meekly.
"No, but you can get dressed and packed up. I'll wake Clay and Antonio. You leave for Wisconsin at eleven."
Naturally Elena wasn't best pleased at having to stay home with the babies as Clay was sent on the rescue mission. Luckily for Jeremy though, he got to stay at Stonehaven with her and listen to the constant bitching about it.
*********
The plane touched down in Middleton Airport, Wisconsin. After an hour and a half's drive in Belle's Ford Focus - Much to Belle's amusement watching Clay squirm in the back seat – she stopped at a general store in the nearby town to her house.
"I need to get some food in." She explained parking up outside. "I don't know if you guys want to go and have a walk round, the towns not that big. By the time I've finished, you'd have seen everything that it has to offer."
"We'll stay." Clay said getting out of the car, and pulling his jacket closer around him as he looked up at the large neon sign naming the store as 'Dillon's'. A startled Belle led the way into the store and grabbed a shopping cart on her way.
"Alright Ms. Smart, that'd be Seventy-two Fifty." Said Dillon the store owner, as he gave the three strangers the once over in his forest green apron.
"These are some friends of mine from out of town." Belle explained to his look of curiosity. Dillon nodded, now being filled in. "They're helping me with some work." She added hastily before he came up with his own conclusions – a single mother having three handsome men staying at her house could quite easily raise a few eyebrows if nothing more in a small community. Not least of all because his wife was lurking around the corner and made it her business to know everybody else's as the town gossiper. Grabbing the last of the bags, the small group headed out the door and back to the car.
After another ten minutes drive up a private wooded lane Belle pulled up outside a modest two story house.
As the four of them got out of the car, Clay glanced over at Antonio and sniffed. Nick furrowed his brow as Antonio held Belle back from going through the font door.
"Have you been expecting any guests up here today?" He asked taking the paper bag from her hand and placing it gently on the floor, eyes darting to and fro.
Belle shook her head. "There's no reason for anyone to come up here – my studio is on the other side of town. Why can you smell someone?" She asked, eyes widening.
"Circle around Clay. Nick, take the inside." Antonio ordered. "And Belle; get in the car, lock the doors and start the engine. If I tell you to go – you go. Understood?" He asked sternly.
Her face had whitened and all she could manage was a weak nod of the head.
Ten minutes later Clay came back around from the garden, hailing Antonio over who was guarding the car. He said it was all clear out the back, as Antonio signalled for Belle it was safe to get out of the car; Nick opened the front door a second later.
"I think whoever was up here today was looking for something." He said.
"Or someone." Clay stated casting a look over at Belle.
The three of them lead the way into the house, Clay at the front with Belle behind Nick, lightly holding his hand as Antonio brought up the rear.
"Oh my god…" Belle gasped looking around at her living room. All the furniture had been displaced, if not tipped over completely. Possessions strewn across the floor like litter. "Can you tell how long ago they were here?" She asked looking over at Clay.
"No more than a day or so inside. But the scent trails outside are a little fresher." He explained looking through some of the debris. "I would assume they came back to see if you had returned to the house."
Antonio gave her a reassuring squeeze of her shoulder. "Come on, let's get some food going. Belle, if you've got any maps of your land I'd like to take a look at them. How many acres did you say it was again?" He asked stepping over to look out the French window to the woodland out back.
"About a hundred and fifty give or take. The maps are in my study – I'll dig them out for you." She said almost in a daze as she stepped around the sofa. Nick and Clay retrieved the bags of food from the car as Antonio followed Belle out a side door from the living room to an extension of the house where Belle's study resided, thankfully behind a sturdy locked door, and had been left untouched.
It was a medium sized room, two computers sat on their very own desks planted at either side of the room before a large window, an office chair stuck in the middle of the two desks – Allowing Belle room to swivel around and work on the two computers at once – which she was now sitting on, searching through some drawers. Along a row of shelves rested about five top of the range Camera's, the majority of them being of the professional SLR variety, a few flash guns and a couple of light boxes were also displayed. Against the wall rested numerous tripods next to a small bookcase lined with photography books, and other art mediums.
"What's through there?" Antonio asked pointing at a door beside a pulled back blackout curtain.
"Oh that's my Darkroom; I have little use for it these days." She explained. "Your welcome to have a look, but it stinks of chemicals I'm afraid… Matthew can't get within five feet of it." She smirked.
Antonio paused, before he opened the door, subconsciously holding his breath. The room was pitched into darkness and he turned on the red safelight to look around at some of the discarded photographs still pegged to the line over the development trays.
"Ah! There they are." Belle muttered in her study - forcing Antonio back into the adjoining room. Not that he minded - the chemicals having a high concentrate of ammonia in them had left the smell imbedded in the walls and was too much to handle with his heightened senses after a prolonged amount of time.
The older Sorrentino's attention was caught on a picture hanging on the wall beside the door leading to the living room. It was a self portrait of Belle holding the camera at arms reach, grinning broadly as she wrapped her arm around a younger mans shoulders.
"Jesus…" He whispered catching Belle's attention. "He looks so much like him." Antonio couldn't help but reach out and stroke his fingers down the picture of Matthew.
"I'm sure this cant be easy for you either Antonio," Belle apologised biting her lip guiltily as she stood at his side. "I can't tell you how sorry I am for keeping this all from you."
"Did Nick tell you what happened when he was born?" He asked.
She nodded. "I know you couldn't have been that old – and you ran away with the mother. But then you took him away when he was a couple of months old." She recited, to which Antonio nodded in agreement.
"I can understand why you did what you did - You put your son before all else... and in truth, I admire that… To be honest, I've never gotten over what I'm sure I put Nicky's mom through." He paused briefly, glancing at her to gage her reaction as he took a breath before continuing. "You meant too much to Nick for Clay to hurt you that summer, you know. After you found out about us, Nick got into a fight with Clay over what he almost did – even though that is our standard procedure."
"Nick purposefully got into a fight with Clay?" Belle asked not missing a beat.
Antonio nodded, and continued. "Albeit suffering some minor broken bones, Nick went straight to Jeremy and begged him to leave you alone. Jer accepted on the condition that Nick would have no further contact with you from that day on."
*******
From that summer, what Belle could remember, she and Nick spent nearly all hours of the day together - it was not however, without Clay nearby ordering Nick around, who obediently followed without question. The rule of their friendship was; Clay said jump – Nick asked how high.
She stewed on the information she had just received, biting down on the inside of her cheek thinking. "But if Nick was forbidden to see me… why did Clay pass on my message when I was at College?"
Antonio smiled knowingly. "I think that may have been Clayton's idea of an apology."
"So, Jeremy didn't know that we met up, did he?" She asked, curiosity getting the better of her, it was a big deal for Clay to go against his alpha's orders. Antonio shook his head averting eye contact. "But you did - and yet you still didn't say anything… Why?"
Antonio crossed his arms with a shrug. "I know what it feels like to leave behind the one person you truly care about." He explained. "I didn't want him to go through the same thing I did." He shrugged off his sincerity leaving Belle to stand in the room by herself as he grabbed the maps from her desk on the way out.