Finale: A Dark Gang Romance (Academy of Stardom Book 4)

“The police are at the hospital with Tiffany and her family right now. They’ll be under Interpol’s protection from this moment onwards until we get Clancy back safely and Santiago and David are dealt with,” Hudson explains, sitting down with us. Xeno had texted him whilst we were on the phone with Clancy, and he came straight over to Tales. It’s been thirty minutes since the phone call and every second of it has passed by agonisingly slowly.

“How are her dad and step-mum?” I ask, guilt churning in my gut.

“They’re scared, upset, panicked,” he replies, pulling out his laptop from his bag and laying it on the table in front of him. There’s barely any room, given the table is covered in various handguns and scary looking knives. A war is imminent, if that wasn’t already clear by all the weapons littering the table, then it sure as fuck is from the tension that fills the air.

“And Tiffany?” I ask, dragging my eyes away from the table and back to Hudson.

“Not going to make it,” he says heavily. “It’s just a matter of time.”

I swallow hard, forcing myself not to fucking lose it. I may not have liked Tiffany, but like Clancy, I wouldn’t have wish this on anyone. She had her own demons and chose to trust in the wrong people. Making David pay isn’t just for me and Lena anymore, it’s for Tiffany, Clancy and her family too. I won’t rest until Clancy is safe and my bastard brother is dead.

“And now that there’s been a kidnapping and another murder, are the police going to pull their fucking fingers out of their arses?” Xeno asks, as frustrated as the rest of us.

“As we speak, the team at Interpol is checking all the license plates that were recorded exiting the hospital carpark at the time you were on the phone to David.”

“That won’t turn up anything. David is probably using a stolen car or a stolen number plate,” Beast points out.

“You’re right. Regardless, we should have details within the next hour or so. Once they have a registration plate, they’ll be able to obtain a registered address and that line of investigation can be ruled out.”

“The next hour? Clancy could be dead by then!” I shriek, my whole body trembling.

“He won’t kill her, Pen,” Zayn says, wrapping his arm around me. My fingers curl into the material of his top, knuckles bone white as he tries and fails to soothe me. “He needs some kind of leverage.”

“If we don’t do as he asks. He will kill her, then he’ll find someone else to use as bait. It won’t end until he has what he wants!” I shout, letting go of Zayn’s top and slamming my fist against the table top.

“We are not turning you over to him, Titch. That isn’t going to happen,” York says calmly, though I see how that calm is just a front, that he’s just as fucked up over this as I am. Of the four, he was closest to Clancy. I know he cares about her.

“Then Clancy will die. Just like he said.”

“It’s non-negotiable, Kid. We’ll find another way to get her back.” Dax is stoic. Unmoving on the matter.

“There is another way,” Hudson says, opening up his laptop on the table. He punches in the password and waits for the screen to load up.

“We’re all ears,” Beast says, folding his arms across his chest.  “Spit it out. Coz the clock is ticking.”

Hudson taps on the keyboard some more, frowning in concentration before looking up at Beast. “Over the past couple days I’ve been thinking a lot about what Arden said. From what I understand of the Deana-dhe, whilst manipulative, they do barter in truths.”

“Not being funny but they could’ve just given us Tiffany’s name. It would’ve made shit a lot simpler and it might’ve saved her life,” D-Neath remarks, swallowing a gulp of neat vodka. He winces, his lip swollen and still weeping blood.

“But he wasn’t talking about Tiffany. He was talking about someone else. Tiffany is a piece to this puzzle for sure, but she’s not the person Arden was referring too.”

“Is anyone else fucking lost?” Zayn asks, looking between us all. His fingers linger on the handle of his knife that’s currently resting on the table. I know it comforts him, despite the fact this knife has ended many lives, and every single one of them haunt him.

“Just give me a moment and I’ll explain,” Hudson continues. We all watch him tap away at the keyboard, pulling up information on the laptop screen. “Based on what Arden had insinuated, my men did some digging. Believe me, it wasn’t easy. The trail was covered well, but not well enough. Just as Xeno texted me this afternoon, we finally got a breakthrough.”

“Well, who the fuck was Arden talking about if it wasn’t Tiffany?” Beast asks, getting impatient. “Because I’m not being funny, Clancy’s life is on the motherfucking line right now, and I’m not down with one of our girl’s lives being threatened. She’s a good kid. So hurry the fuck up.”

“This is Mila Garcia,” Hudson says, twisting the laptop around to face us. He clicks a button, and a pixelated image of a face starts to slowly take form. “She was awarded a scholarship at the Academy under the name of Sophie Miller. I don’t know her, but I believe you all do.”

“Sophie is Santiago’s daughter! The fuck?” Zayn exclaims, his mouth popping open in surprise.

“Yes. From the information I’ve been able to uncover, Sophie and her mum appeared to arrive in the UK when she was just six years old, and given the lengths she’s gone to hide her daughter’s true identity, we can assume that she doesn’t want her to be found. Santiago has been married to his wife Maria for thirty-five years, his other children are hers. I suspect Sophie’s mum was someone he had an affair with.”

“Well, if I had the misfortune of falling pregnant by Santiago I wouldn’t want him to have anything to do with my child either,” Grim comments.

“Indeed,” Hudson agrees. “She entered the UK, changed her name and effectively went into hiding. But Sophie’s mum passed away six years ago. Since then Sophie has been looked after by her step-dad and his new wife. Clearly, neither of whom new about Sophie’s heritage.”

“So she ends up coming to the Academy, making friends with Tiffany and wham, Santiago finds his long lost daughter,” York says, a frown creasing his forehead.

“In a nutshell, yes.”

“Okay, so Sophie’s his daughter. Fucking great. Then let’s go get her. We can end this shit now,” Beast exclaims, getting to his feet. “We’ll do an exchange, Sophie for Clancy.”

“What, so we drag Sophie into this, just like that? We might not be friends, but I’m not cool with that,” I say.

“Do you want to get Clancy back or not?” Beast asks.

“Of course I do, but Sophie’s mum kept her hidden for a reason and now we’re just going to offer her up like a nice slab of meat to a starving lion?”

“We’ll use her as bait. If Santiago wants his daughter badly enough, he’ll come get her,” Beast says with a shrug. “How that man chooses to let things play out is up to him. If he gives a shit about his daughter, then he won’t do anything to hurt her.”

“What makes you think Santiago hasn’t already gotten to Sophie?” York points out, folding his arms across his chest. “In fact, what makes you think that she’s an innocent bystander in all of this?”

“York has a point,” Dax agrees, looking at me. “Kid, Sophie has disliked you from the very start. She’s been Tiffany’s side-bitch from the get-go. Maybe she’s been more involved in all of this than any of us realised.”

“Ah fuck,” D-Neath interjects.

“What?” Grim snaps her head around to look at D-Neath, her eyes narrowing.

“Tiffany and Sophie are thick as thieves. Always hanging out together. Tiffany would often meet me at The Pink Albatross to… you know,” he falters, looking guilty as fuck.

“Yeah, we know,” Beast grunts, jerking his chin. “Keep talking, arsewipe.”

“On a couple of occasions she brought along Sophie. At first I thought maybe they wanted…”

“A threesome?” Beast growls and D-Neath nods once. “You fucking prick.”

D-Neath has the decency to look ashamed, but pushes on regardless. “It wasn’t the case. I let Sophie sit in my office whilst Tiffany and I would make ourselves comfortable in one of the booths…”

“For fuck’s sake man! You really are a piece of fucking work, aren’t you?” York grinds out.

“I had no reason to believe either of them were fucking with me,” he counters.

“Because you were too busy fucking one of them, that’s why!” Grim snaps. “How could you be so stupid?”

He doesn’t respond because there really isn’t anything he can say to that. Ruled by his dick, D-Neath has fucked up royally.

“So you think Sophie’s been in on this too?” I ask for clarity’s sake.

“It’s a real possibility. If she was brought over to the UK by her mother at six years old then she would’ve known her father in those first few years, missed him perhaps. If Santiago reached out to her…” Hudson hesitates.

“What?” Xeno asks.

“Fuck!” Hudson swipes a hand over his face. “Why didn’t I see that before?”

“See what?” Dax asks, shifting in his seat.

“They’ve known all along! Damn it.”

Zayn frowns “Who’ve known? What, Hudson?”

“Interpol. This whole thing has been a ruse to get Santiago’s attention on the Academy. They knew he wouldn’t come to the UK just because someone fucked with his drugs. They needed to shine a light on his daughter because she’s the only thing he’d step back into the UK for. This whole elaborate plan that I bought into—”

“That we bought into,” Xeno corrects with a scowl.

“—was designed purely so that Santiago would look in the direction they needed him to.”

“Fuckers could’ve given us a heads up!” York points out.

“What does it matter? Their plan worked,” Beast points out. “He’s here. That’s what you all wanted, right? Plus his psycho sidekick is too. Let’s end this shit right now.”

“It matters, Beast, because people have been hurt,” I point out. “Mum’s dead and Tiffany’s dying. Clancy is in danger right as we speak. If we’d known about Sophie then maybe things could’ve been done differently, maybe that could’ve been prevented.”

“Let’s face it, Pen. All of that’s on your brother. Knowing about Sophie earlier wouldn’t have changed that. He’s fucked in the head and would’ve killed your mum anyway,” Beast points out.

“I agree with you to a certain extent, Beast. But Pen’s right, David has played this all to his advantage. If Interpol had filled us in, we could’ve handled this all very differently. I don’t much like being played a fool.” Hudson sighs, scraping a hand over his face. “But none of that matters now. What matters is Clancy. What matters is ending this, once and for all.”

“Then lets fucking do this shit!” Beast grins, bloodlust in his eyes. “We’ll go grab Sophie and do a little bartering of our own, yeah?”

“Hold up. I’ve got an incoming call,” Dax says, pulling out his phone. He glances at the screen, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “It’s Jefferson Sloane.”

Zayn frowns. “Mad Dick?”

“Yeah, the one and only.” Dax presses the loudspeaker button. “Jefferson, I’ve got you on loudspeaker. What’s up?”

“You asked me to call you if I ever saw that guy again. Well, I’m looking at him right now.”

Dax stands, his chair sliding out behind him. “Where is he?”

“He just walked into a dive bar on East Street, Tower Hamlets. There’s a girl with him.”

“Describe the girl to me.”

“Short, redhead. She doesn’t look too great. I think she might be drunk or something. The younger guy’s practically hauling her across the pavement.”

“Clancy,” I whisper, my stomach flipping over.

Zayn grips my hand tightly in his. “This is good news. She’s still alive. Focus on that,” he mutters under his breath.

“Are they on their own?”

“No, there’s a guy too. He’s an older man, smoking a cigar and wearing a floor length coat.”

Beast pumps his fits, grinning. I know what he’s thinking. That we’ve got them. That this will be over soon, but I’m not so certain.

“What’s the name of the bar, Jefferson?”

“Duffers. It’s known for illegal shit. The police around here swerve the place. Pretty sure Rourke has the local PD in their pockets.”

“I know it,” Grim says. “Owned by Rourke Dempsey, great grandson of the late Billy Dempsey, a very well known, well connected East End gangster back in the forties and fifties. He runs a protection racket.” I’ve no idea who Grim’s talking about, but by the look on her face the Dempsey family aren’t the kind of criminals you want to mess with.

“Is that Grim?” Jefferson asks.

“The one and only, mate,” Beast replies, winking at Grim.

“Alright, Beast?”

“Funnily enough, much better now that you’ve called with this information. You did good. Next time we fight in the cage I’ll let you get some good hits in before I knock you flat out.”

Jefferson laughs before Dax cuts in once again. “Is there any way you can get into the bar? We need eyes on the pair at all times.”

“Not a chance, Fuck Boy has—”

“Fuck Boy?” Grim pulls a face.

“I mean Danny. The stupid fuck burned our bridges with Rourke when he fucked his daughter, Emilia, then her cousin, and her cousin’s best friend. Emilia’s a woman scorned, and Rourke wants his head. So, no, we can’t go in.”

“Okay. So why the fuck are you there tonight?” Dax asks.

“Danny’s got a hard-on for Emilia’s sister, Juliet. He only slept with her sister and the other two to make her jealous. It didn’t work. So he’s being a fucking creepy arse stalker and hoping to catch a glimpse of her tonight. We’re just here for the ride. Anyway, the point is, we can’t go in, but we can hang out where we are for as long as you need.”

“Where are you exactly?” Dax asks.

“Chilling in a friend’s flat in the building opposite. It overlooks the entrance to Duffers. I was just smoking a joint on the balcony, and saw them.”

“Are there any other entrances or exits to the club?” Beast asks.

“Not as far as I remember. One way in, one way out.”

“Good. Stay right where you are. You need to take a piss you get one of the others to cover you. I want to know the second they leave the building. Got it?” Dax orders.

“Yeah, I got it… So, we’re still good with that deal we made, yeah?” Jefferson asks. I throw Dax a look and he winks, reassuring me he hasn’t promised something that he can’t follow through on.

“I’m a man of my word. When you need to cash in that favour, you know where to find me.”

“I do.”

“Good. Now keep an eye out.” Dax hangs up the call and looks between us. “So we know where they are. What’s the plan?”

“I’m going to call Tuillard. We’ve got one opportunity to get this right and we need to make sure Sophie doesn’t leave the Academy,” Xeno says. “Whoever he’s sent to collect her, you bet your arse it won’t be an Uber driver.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Grim agrees, tapping her manicured nails against the table top. “Best go prepared.”

“I agree,” Hudson says, grabbing the Beaumont-Adams revolver nearest to him. The fact I can even identify the majority of the guns on this table is a testament to how well Xeno has trained me. He’s a good teacher, both at the shooting range and at the Academy. Maybe in another life that’s something he could’ve become if he hadn’t got drawn into the Skins.

Xeno makes the call, putting it on loudspeaker. Madame Tuillard answers after a couple of rings. “Good afternoon, Xeno, got what you needed from Duncan?” she asks, without even bothering with the usual pleasantries. Her voice is tight, hurt, but there’s an inner strength that I hear within it. That D-Neath hears. I see the shame in his eyes.

“Pretty much,” he replies. “I need to speak with Sophie.”

“You’re the second person to ask me that today.”

“The second person? Who else have you spoken too?”

“Her father. He called five minutes ago, wanted me to pass on a message to her.”

“And what was that?” Xeno cuts a look at Hudson who swears under his breath.

“What’s going on, Xeno?” she counters. “Should I be concerned?”

“No time to explain. What did he say?”

“There’s been an emergency of some sort. He wants her home for a few days. I think she’s packing up a weekend bag as we speak. He’s sending a car to pick her up. It’ll be here shortly.”

“Can I ask you to do something for me?” Xeno asks.

“I guess that depends on what that something is.”

“I need you to keep Sophie at the Academy until we get there. It’s really important that she doesn’t leave.”

“Xeno, what’s happening?”

“I’ll explain everything to you as soon as we arrive. Just tell Sophie that you want to see her solo dance before she goes home. Take her to the theatre. We’ll be there in twenty minutes tops. Whatever you do, don’t let her leave.”

“Fine. I’ll do it,” Madame Tuillard agrees before hanging-up.

Xeno grabs his car keys off the table. “We need to move,” he says, motioning to Hudson. “I’ll drive.”

“What about Clancy?” I ask as we all get to our feet.

“The only way Clancy is going to survive is if we have something to barter with. Right now, we know Clancy’s alive, and we know where she is,” Xeno says, a grim look on his face. “We need to get to Sophie before Santiago does. That has to happen first.”

“David won’t care about Sophie,” I protest. “He won’t trade her. He’d sooner kill her.”

“David might be a fucking psycho, but he’s not a fool. This is Santiago’s daughter, someone he left Cuba for. We get a hold of Sophie, and we have a chance of getting Clancy out of this alive. I know it doesn’t sit right with you handing Sophie over, but I have no intention of allowing that man to leave this country with his daughter. This ends tonight,” Hudson says, giving me a tight smile. I swallow hard and nod curtly, a deep sense of foreboding swimming in my stomach.

“York, Zayn, you’re with me. Dax, I want you here with Pen,” Xeno says.

“Fuck that. I ain’t sitting here doing jackshit,” Dax grinds out, glaring at Xeno.

“You’re not doing jackshit. You’re watching over our girl. That’s what you do best, Dax. I know you won’t let any harm come to her,” Xeno replies, stepping around him.

Dax slams his palm against Xeno’s chest. “If you’re keeping me here because you’ve bought into that bullshit prediction—”

“I don’t buy into that shit and you know it. Stay the fuck here and protect our girl. Got it?”

“Not being funny, but I’m pretty sure that me and ten ghosts have got shit covered this end,” Beast says. “You go get Sophie with the others and bring her here, and I’ll protect your girl, yeah?” He winks, waggling his eyebrows. Dax’s nostrils flare.

“Fine, I’ll stay.” He cuts Xeno a look then turns on his heel, heading towards the far side of the warehouse.

“Where are you going in a huff?” Beast teases, always making light in the tensest moments.

“I’m gonna go check on the ghosts. Catch them up,” Dax snaps back.

The moment he walks away a look passes between York and Xeno, one that makes my blood run cold. Whether they want to admit it out loud or not, they’re worried and that only fuels my own fear. Gritting my teeth, I focus on the moment and don’t allow my thoughts to linger on something that may never happen.

“I’m coming too. Despite what you all think, I do actually give a fuck,” D-Neath says. “This is on me. I wanna fix it. Besides, the woman I love is there.”

Grim scoffs at that. “Love? You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”

“Regardless, I’m coming too.”

Xeno nods, levelling his gaze at D-Neath. “Fine, but you get in our way or cause any shit, I’ll kill you. Understand?”

“Understood.”

“Then let’s move,” Hudson says, turning on his feet and striding across the warehouse.

Zayn nods, then presses a chaste kiss against my lips before grabbing his knife. I watch as he slides it back into the holder at his hip, then picks up a gun from the table and pulls on his jacket.

“Are you planning on using those?” I ask.

“I’m not taking any chances,” he replies, giving me a tight smile. ‘We don’t know what we might be walking into. There’s no telling how this is going to play out,’ he says before turning on his heel and catching up with Hudson.

York doesn’t say a word. Instead, he grabs a black revolver from the table, tucks it into his back pocket then pulls me in for a hug. Pressing a kiss against the top of my head, he squeezes me tighter then lets me go. Xeno is already halfway across the warehouse when I call out to them. “Please be careful.” My voice cracks, but I force the worry deep inside. This day was always going to come, I can’t fall apart now. I refuse.

Xeno hesitates, then jogs back to me. He reaches up behind his neck and a second later has unclasped a familiar necklace. It’s the one the Breakers gave to me when we were kids. “This is our promise to you, Tiny. We’re getting that happy ever after,” he says, before placing the necklace around my neck and securing it in place.

“Come back to me,” I whisper.

“Oh, we will,” Xeno assures me, then cups my jaw in his hands and slams his lips against my mouth. He kisses me roughly, deeply, and then he’s gone.