Fighting to Be Free (Fighting to Be Free 1)

I let go and pulled back, straightening up. His hand went to his throat as he gasped for breath. I straightened my shirt and nodded back to the warehouse. "I'm now heading into work. You tell Tony that I'll have his payment so he should stop sending ass**les to watch me." I span on my heel, not waiting for an answer as I strutted into the warehouse like I owned the place, nodding at the couple of people that were hanging around.

My whole body was tight with stress. I pulled out my cell phone and walked into the bathrooms at the back, dialling Ellie's number. I just needed to speak to her to make sure she was okay; I knew it was irrational, she would be fine, but I needed to hear her voice.

"Hey, stud," she chirped as she answered. "Missing me already?"

I smiled and closed my eyes, letting my head rest on the wall. "Yeah actually. Stay at mine again tonight?" I asked hopefully. We usually had set days that she would stay at my place, mostly it was only the weekends but lately it had started to be a Wednesday night, too. Apparently Wednesdays was when he mother would have her bridge night, and from what I understood, Mark's mother was into bridge too. Unfortunately, today was Thursday.

She sighed. "I can't. Stacy's staying over tonight and we're trying out hair styles for the dance tomorrow. I thought I already told you that," she replied, sounding a little confused.

I sighed and nodded, she had told me, that didn't stop me wanting her to stay though. "Yeah, sorry I forgot. Never mind then. Listen, make sure you're careful and stuff. Don't go anywhere shady and you stay with other people. Okay?" I asked.

She laughed, probably at my embarrassing overprotectiveness. "What brought that on?"

The scumbag that just insinuated he was going to hurt you because of me. "I had a bad dream last night. I just remembered it in the car so I wanted to ask you to be careful and stuff. Nothing in particular. You're important to me, so I wouldn't want you hurt or anything." I tried to make light of the situation so that it seemed like more of a precaution, rather than me actually being worried it might happen to her.

"Aww, you had a dream about me?" she teased.

I laughed at the suggestion in her voice. "Yeah, I dream about you a lot. Especially when you don't stay with me. I imagine I'm going to have a hot little dream about you tonight too."

She laughed and through the phone I heard a bell sound in the background. "Aw crap, I gotta go to class. Speak to you later. Have a good day at work," she said quickly.

Damn it, work! I'd forgotten to call Callum and tell him I wouldn't be in this morning. I called Callum telling him I had a dentist appointment this morning and that I'd forgotten about it until now.

I promised to try and make it in this afternoon; hopefully Brett wouldn't need me for that long today. As long as I got the car in full working order ready for the next auction it didn't really matter I guess, I but I didn't like messing my employer around.

When I rapped on Brett's office door, it was opened immediately by Ed. I smiled and walked in without waiting to be asked; Brett smiled up at me happily. I think he was very happy to have me back on the team after so long.

"Morning," I grunted.

"Perfect timing, Kid. Let's head out then," he replied, nodding back at the door as he stood up and pushed his gun into the holster that hung off of one shoulder. His jacket slid into place ever the top so it was out of sight. Brett never left his office without a gun. I had a feeling that was because a lot of people would like to see him and dead and take over his turf. There were a lot of rival organisations that had tried to kill him over the years, a couple of near misses that were avoided because of quick thinking from both him and his employees.

"So where we going?" I asked as we both climbed into his Bentley. Ed got into the driver's seat. He was Brett's right hand man, messenger, driver, and secretary - he did a little of everything. Usually he accompanied Brett to meetings. He wasn't exactly in charge and he didn’t have the boys respect, but he could get things done because people knew he was Brett's voice most of the time.

"I'm meeting with Carlos and Brady about them taking over more of the block for me. A couple of my suppliers have been letting me down lately. I had to….. let one of them go, because he was skimming on my profits," he replied. I tried not to react at the 'let one go' comment - in other words that meant he'd killed one of his drug sellers. "So yeah, I want Carlos and Brady to expand their territories so cover more pushers in the area. Carlos's brother is into cars, you know that. I want him to see you and pass the information onto his brother that you're back. So far I've only managed to set up two boosts for the month. People have found someone else to fill their requests. There's another guy that people are claiming is the new you." He shrugged, looking a little bored by it all.

"The new me?" I asked, frowning.

He nodded. "Yep, they call him Dodger, original name I know," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes distastefully. "He's only twenty-one. Apparently he can boost pretty well. He's very in demand at the moment. He took advantage of the situation and got popular when you got sent down," Brett explained.

"Why didn't you recruit him then if he's that good?" I asked curiously. Brett always snapped up fresh talent, and he was obviously lacking in the car stealing area when I got sent to juvie.

He smiled and patted my knee, rolling his eyes. "What did I need him for? I wanted to wait for you to get out. Kid Cole is worth waiting for," he winked at me and I couldn't help but laugh proudly.