Breakers (Academy of Stardom Book 3)

Pen

I wake up to the sound of my phone ringing whilst sandwiched between Dax and Zayn, both of whom groan in their sleep as I try to wiggle out of their arms. The phone stops ringing then immediately starts up again, causing anxiety to swirl in my stomach.

“What fucking time is it?” York groans, sitting up behind Zayn and rubbing a hand over his face. He’s got a crease across his cheek from falling asleep on the zipper of a cushion. Given there’s no windows in the basement, it’s hard to tell what time of day it is. All I know is that we’ve spent hours hanging out, then making love, each of us finally falling asleep from an orgasm coma.

“I’ve no idea,” I reply, gently removing Dax’s arm from around my waist and gingerly standing between the sleeping pair, trying not to wake them. I step over Dax and then onto the floor, immediately searching for my phone, wearing nothing but York’s shirt. Fortunately for me he’s tall and it covers my naked arse as I crouch down and search through the clothes scattered about the room.

“Whose phone is that?” Xeno asks, stepping out of the shower room. He’s got a towel wrapped around his waist and is rubbing another over his head as water drips over his smooth tan skin.

“Mine. Shit. I can’t find it,” I say, panicked by the fact that the second it stops, it immediately starts up again.

Grabbing up his jeans that were discarded by the fridge, Xeno discards his towel and pulls them on. “It’s just past midday,” he says, checking the time on his wristwatch. “Clancy perhaps?”

“Whoever it is, they’re determined to reach me.”

Xeno reads my concern and strides over to the couch. He shakes Dax and Zayn awake. York is already pulling on his clothes. “Get your clothes on, something’s up,” he says, saying out loud what I’m already beginning to feel inside.

Searching through the pile of clothes, I finally find my phone tucked into Dax’s trainer. I swipe up, reading the screen.

“Fuck! Lena.” She’s called five times. When the phone starts ringing again, I immediately answer. I hear her sob and my heart fucking plummets. “Lena, shit. What’s wrong?”

“Pen…” her voice cracks and she cries some more.

“Lena. Talk to me right now!” I put the phone on loudspeaker and frantically pull on my clothes.

“Pen, I don’t know what to do. What do I do?” she cries out.

“Lena, take a deep breath and listen to me. I need you to tell me what’s happening.”

She keeps sobbing, unable to find the words. Glancing up at Xeno, I swallow hard. He’s quietly giving the guys orders, and when I hear footsteps coming down into the basement, I already know it’s Beast. He enters the room, dressed, a gun holstered at his side and a mobile phone pressed to his ear. Grim follows him in, still in her nightwear. I already know it’s bad news when I see the look on her face. I look away, I can’t afford to be weak now.

“She’s… not… breathing, Pen,” Lena says between sobs. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Who’s not breathing?” I ask, my throat tightening, knowing already who she’s talking about.

“It’s Mum, Pen. I think she’s… taken something…” More sobbing follows and I force myself to remain calm as I pull on my shoes even though my stomach is rolling over and I feel like I want to throw up.

“Where is she right now?” I ask, standing, sliding my arms into the sleeves of Zayn’s hoodie that he’s holding up for me. I zip it up quickly, grab my mobile, ready to go. My guys are already heading towards the stairs, knowing instinctively what I need to do.

“She’s on… the… floor. Oh, God, I only went out for a little while. She was fine when I left,” Lena sobs, hysterical now. It’s obvious mum has overdosed, that selfish bitch. I push the anger down, lock it inside. It won’t help Lena. Right now she needs me to keep calm.

“Tell Lena to let Gray in the flat. He’s just outside,” Beast says quickly. He nods, giving short one-word responses as he listens to, whom I’m assuming is Gray, on the other end of the line.

“Lena, we’ve sent someone to help you. His name is Gray. He’s at the front door. Let him in.”

“Who…? What…? How…?” she asks, her voice barely understandable, her confusion obvious.

“He’s a friend. I’ve no time to explain. Stay on the line and let him in the flat. He will help you. We’ll be there in ten minutes. We’re leaving now, okay?”

“Okay,” she manages to reply.

For a moment all I hear are her muffled movements and the low tenor of a man’s voice talking to Lena. Beast flicks off his mobile and motions for us to follow him. “I’ll drive,” he says, before turning to Grim. “You stay here. I’ll ring you when we get there.”

“I’m coming,” she replies.

“There’s no time for you to change. Stay the fuck here, Grim,” Beast orders, brooking no arguments. “Tennyson is on his way over.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” she replies.

“I don’t give a fuck what you want, Grim. We don’t know what we’re walking into and you are not fucking going. He’ll be here in two minutes.”

Beast and Grim exchange looks and it’s at that point that I suddenly realise this might be more than my mum having a relapse and an accidental overdose. Beast knows more than he’s letting on right now. She nods, conceding to him in the moment. As I pass her by, she squeezes my arm in solidarity. She doesn’t say a word. She doesn’t have to. There are no words of comfort in a situation like this.

“Lena, are you still there?” I ask, rushing up the stairs and out into the cold morning air. The gravel of the driveway crunches underfoot.

“Yes.”

“What’s Gray doing?”

“He’s giving mum mouth to mouth… Oh, God… Please… Please… Please…!” Lena screams and I feel her pain cut right through my chest and bury itself in my heart.

“Lena, it’s Xeno. I want you to go into your bedroom and lock the door,” he says as we climb into Beast’s seven-seater Mercedes MPV. “You’re not to come out until we get there.”

“Why?” she questions, her voice cracking.

Swallowing the rising nausea in my throat, I reiterate what he’s said. “Lena, just do it, okay? Go into your bedroom and lock the door. We won’t be long.”

“Please don’t let her die. Please…” she mumbles through the thickening sound of her pain.

“Lena. Are you in your bedroom yet?”

“Yes,” she replies.

“Good. Now lock the door and wait for us.”

“What? Why? What’s going on, Pen?” she asks, her voice trembling with fear as well as sorrow. I can hear her teeth chatter, and I fist my fingers, my nails digging into the palm of my hand.

“We’ll be there soon. Just keep talking, Lena. Let me know you’re okay,” I reply.

Dax grasps my hand, whilst Zayn and York take the seats opposite us and Xeno sits up front with Beast. We don’t talk to each other for the whole journey, all six of us just listen to Lena as her heart breaks and mine goes numb.

It takes Beast six minutes to get to my mum’s flat.

When I enter the flat, I head straight for Lena’s bedroom, passing by the living room where Gray is still giving my mum mouth to mouth resuscitation. Flicking off the call and tucking my mobile into my back pocket, I knock on her door.

“Lena, it’s me. I’m here now. Open up,” I say gently.

“Pen!” she cries, yanking the door open and throwing herself into my arms, knocking us both backwards. She sobs into my hair, her legs giving way beneath her as we both collapse to the floor. I clutch her to me, stroking her hair and rocking her back and forth. Zayn and York stride towards me, and one look from Zayn tells me all I need to know.

“I’m sorry,” he mouths, sorrow filling his eyes as he passes us by, a gun clutched in his hands as he checks the bathroom and my mum’s bedroom.

York grits his jaw, love and sadness in his eyes as he crouches beside us both. “She’s gone,” he says gently, resting his hand on Lena’s back.

“No!” she cries, yanking herself out of my arms and rushing down the hallway to the living room. Dax steps out of the doorway and clutches her by the shoulders.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry,” he says gently.

Lena screams, pounding her fists against his chest, the sound tearing through me. I stagger to my feet, barely able to keep myself upright as York wraps his arm around my waist and Dax hugs a sobbing Lena to his chest.

“Take Lena into the kitchen. Keep her there,” Xeno says to Dax who nods, maneuvering her into the room. He shuts the kitchen door, closing us out.

“The flat’s clear,” Zayn says, stepping out of my mum’s bedroom as he looks at York, a silent conversation passing between them.

“What?” I say, forcing myself to remain upright. “What’s going on?”

“Pen, you don’t need to see this,” Xeno says, blocking my path as I try to step into the living room.

“She’s my mum, Xeno,” I reply firmly. “If Lena has to live the rest of her life remembering what my mum looks like in death, then so will I. She won’t go through that alone.”

Xeno’s eyes flick with sorrow but he nods, stepping aside.

Beast and the man I know now to be Gray are crouching over the prone form of my mum talking quietly. “This isn’t an—” Beast says, his sentence cut short when he notices me. I watch as he lowers my mum’s eyelids, shutting them so I don’t see her blank staring eyes.

I swallow hard, pain swelling in my chest as I look at her. Apart from the discoloration around her lips, she looks peaceful. In death she looks healthier than I ever remember her looking in life, and something about that makes a sob rise up my chest. Pressing a hand over my mouth, I drop to the floor and run my shaking fingers over her cheek. She’s cold.

“I’m sorry, Pen,” Beast says, his voice gruff.

“She wasn’t a good mum. At least not to me,” I reply automatically, my voice void of emotion as I rip my hand back. I know it’s not the right thing to say given the circumstances, but the words just fall from my lips regardless. I hate myself for them; for the bitterness, pain and lack of empathy they hold.

“What did she take?” I ask after a few minutes, dragging my gaze upwards to look over at Beast. He doesn’t answer straight away, instead he glances at Xeno who’s crouching beside me.

“Tell her,” York says, stepping into the room with Zayn. Both look troubled.

“Tell me what?”

“This isn’t an overdose, Pen,” Beast says, looking at me carefully.

“What? How do you know that?”

“Look around you, there’s no drug paraphernalia, no empty bottles of alcohol to wash the pills down with. Nothing here suggests your mum has taken something to get high or even to kill herself.”

I look about the room, taking in how spotless it looks. There isn’t even the usual smell of cigarette smoke or any ashtrays filled with cigarette stubs, let alone what I’ve been used to seeing when I’ve found my mum passed out on numerous occasions over the years. Beast’s right, she hasn’t gone on a bender or tried to kill herself. My stomach churns and I swallow hard.

“Tell me,” I demand.

Beast swipes a hand over his face, then points at the purple-blue tinge around her mouth. “This is from lack of oxygen,” he says, then lowers the material of her turtleneck jumper. “She was strangled, Pen.”

I see the finger shaped bruises around her throat, and I retch, reaching for the wastepaper bin tucked by the end of the sofa. When I’ve finished emptying my stomach, I look back up at Beast, wiping my sleeve across my mouth. “Please don’t tell me that you’re suggesting Lena…”

“No, of course not!” he exclaims, then turns to Gray who hands him a slip of paper. “This wasn’t Lena, Pen. Gray said she returned home only a few minutes before she called you. Your mum has been dead for at least an hour, maybe a while longer. She was murdered whilst Lena was out of the house. It’s why my men didn’t pick anything up. They haven’t been watching over your mum. I’m sorry.”

With shaking fingers, I take the piece of paper from Beast and read the words scrawled in black ink across the surface.

Eenie, meenie, miney, mo…. Who’s next, Penelope?

I look up, my heart thundering in my chest. There’s only one person who knows the terror that line fills me with.

David.

He’s back…

The story continues in Finale