"Declan, please. This is important." Begging my little brother to do something that will help me isn't something I'm used to doing. Unfortunately, it has to be done. "Just give me the name of the law firm on the top right-hand side of the NDA that was given to you by Luca's assistant."
I've been asking Declan the same thing for the past ten minutes. It's the closest thing Allison and I have come to in order to find the name of the law firm Luca's lawyers work for. If it wasn't for Declan's outburst weeks ago, we would have hit a brick wall by now.
"Kaylee, I would but I want to know what's in it for me."
I look up at the ceiling with my free hand on my hip. "Declan, I will find you wherever you are and hit you one if you don't tell me the goddamn name of the law firm!"
"Sure you will," he taunts.
"Allison, give me those car keys. I'm going to beat up my brother."
I hold my hand out for the car keys which Allison gladly hands to me. I shake them a couple of times to let Declan know I'm serious.
"Alright. Fine. Don't get your knickers in a twist."
I grin.
I knew pretending to leave and go after him would work. It always has and it always will because he knows I will hit him the first chance I get. I've done it before when we were younger – on more than one occasion – and I will only happily do it again.
"It is . . . Cromwell, Lawson and Kirkland." He says on a sigh. "Happy now?"
"Very," I answer. "Thank you."
I hang up and sit back down next to Allison.
"Well?" She asks.
"Cromwell, Lawson and Kirkland," I inform.
She types the name into a new search box and scans the search results looking for the right website to open. "Do you know which company his dad works for?"
"I think it's that company."
She nods and her eyes scan the web page she's looking at. It takes her a minute to look for some contact information, settling on phoning them herself rather than me. She puts her phone on speaker and waits for the call to be answered.
"I don't think they'll answer at that time over there, darling." My gran comments when there's no sudden answer, coming into the room and sitting down opposite us.
"Someone will be in if this is a big case," Allison tells her.
The phone rings a couple more times before it's finally answered.
"Cromwell, Lawson and Kirkland, how may I direct your call?" An American female receptionist finally answers.
"Hi, I was wondering if you could direct me to Mr. Nick Madden." Allison requests in her poshest tone of voice.
"If Mr. Madden hasn't gone home yet for the day as his assistant has, I'll certainly pass you over to him. One moment, please." The receptionist tells her.
The calls goes on hold and Allison nods in approval.
"So professional," she comments.
"Of course it is. It's a lawyer's office you're phoning," I remind.
She silently mocks my words before the call is answered by a male.
"This is Nick Madden, how may I help you?" Nick's strong voice instantly asks.
Allison's eyes widen and she passes the phone to me.
"Nick, it's Kaylee." I quickly say.
"Kaylee, why are you calling me? Shouldn't it be Luca you-"
"Please, don't go there. I tried talking to him but he just lost it with me. I'm only trying to help and when I asked for his lawyer's information-"
"He blanked your suggestion of trying to help," he finishes. "He's been doing that with everyone since Monday."
"Allison and I have found something that will help him in the case but he doesn't want to hear about it," I explain.
"Kaylee, he won't admit that he's needing every bit of help he can get. I've been in a long meeting with his lawyers since we returned from court and even they said they'll take anything that comes their way to help them."
"I don't want to go over his head with this but I just know that it'll help."
"I've actually got his lawyers packing up in my office. If I give you my email, can you quickly email whatever it is you've got and I'll give it to them before they go?"
"I will," I agree.
Nick tells me his work email address which Allison writes in the recipient box in a new email. She attaches the file we've listened to and sends it.
"Did you get it?" I ask.
"Give me a second to open my emails . . . let me see . . . yes, I got it." He confirms.
"Good," I breathe with relief. "I know it may come as a shock when you hear it considering who the person is that's speaking in it but it's something."
"I'm sure Luca's lawyers won't be shocked over it," Nick assures.
"Even when they hear that it's Nadia leaving me a threatening message on my old phone I haven't used in years?"
Silence.
I look at Allison then my gran who has started knitting away, paying no attention to what we're saying or doing. I look back at Allison who grimaces and looks back down at the laptop.
"Nadia . . . she did that?" He asks, uncertainty in his voice. It may be shock but I can't quite tell. "Are you sure it's her voice?"
I shake my head and get to my feet. "Nick, I've had to work with her recently. I would know her nasty tone of voice anywhere."
The line goes silent again and I can faintly hear Nadia's voice in the voicemail as Nick plays it, validating what I'm saying.
"My God, it is." He gasps. "Kaylee, thank you for this. You have given us something we really need right now. Thank you."
"Not a problem. I'm happy to help."
"If you come across anything else, you have my email to send it to me. Other than that, I'll see you on Sunday night when you return."
The call ends and I give Allison her phone back.
"Umpire, if you look at the scoreboard, you shall see that that's another point for the Madden team." Allison jokes.
I grin. "Hopefully putting round one out of sight and out of mind."
She smiles while shutting the laptop down then places it on the coffee table. "Now what?"
"I think we should look through some more photos then go back home." I reach for some photos and look through them. "Give us a laugh after all that stress."
"Oh, yes!" She squeals, grabbing a bunch of photos. "Let's laugh at how young and stupid we were before we found our brains."
"I still can't believe the colour of our hairs in that last photo." Allison laughs.
"Our hair colours are the least of the worries. It's the look on my mum's face in the background of the picture where Declan is sitting with a bright pink streak in his hair."
Our laughter is loud and I slow my driving down because I can't stop laughing. I'm laughing so much that I have tears in my eyes and a pain in my side. I've not laughed this much in a long long time and it feels great to do so.
Even my gran laughed at the photo because she never knew about that incident. When we told her what happened, she laughed even more. She laughed even harder when we showed her the picture of my dad with the corners of his moustache died bright orange as he slept on the couch.
Luckily for both him and Declan, it was only coloured hairspray. But neither of them knew that at the time which is what made the matter even funnier.
"Those were great times," I finish, wiping away the strayed tears at my eyes.
"Yeah," she agrees. "I miss those days."
I come to a stop at the traffic lights at Cotton Street as they turn red, keeping my foot on the footbrake because I know it won't take long for them to change back to green. I glance in the mirror at Jones who is sitting a couple of feet behind us like he has been for the whole drive back to London.
"Jones still behind us?" Allison yawns, resting her head on her hand against the passenger window.
"As usual, yes."
The traffic lights turn to green and I start moving off.
"He could be a little more- Kaylee!"
I slam the brakes on at Allison's scream and wait for the impact of the speeding car to my left to come. My hands are gripping the steering wheel tightly and my eyes slam shut, bracing myself for the immediate collision.
Bang.
The impact of the collision to the left side has the car moving to the right and all I can hear is Allison's high pitch screams before something bright has me opening my eyes. My eyes widen and I try my hardest to get the car into reverse to move but I'm not quick enough.
"Kaylee move the car. Kaylee move out the way. Kaylee!"
Bang.
Another car comes hurtling towards us from the right, catching the back end of our car and causing us to turn the other way and come to a stop in the middle of the junction.
If it's possible, Allison's screams louder than they were before. I have a ringing in my ears and pains are going through every part of my body but it's the pain in my chest that hurts the most. I can faintly hear the sound of cars reversing back then wheels spinning on the spot before the cars zoom away. There's a faint sound of concerned voices but I let my head fall back against the headrest and screw up my eyes.
"Loud . . ." I begin but don't say anything else.
"Miss. Fletcher."
The driver's door opens with a struggle and I faintly look at who opened it.
Jones.
"Try not to move. Everything will be alright. Help is on the way." He looks down each of the roads and presses his phone firmly to his ear. "They've driven off but the dash cams have caught everything."
"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." Allison panics.
I lean my head forward and look over at Allison as she fumbles around with trying to get her seatbelt off.
"Miss. Nash, try and remain still." Jones instructs before going back to the conversation he was having on his phone. "I'll contact Myles to come and follow us to the nearest hospital . . . I would say it's a complete write-off . . . Miss. Nash is screaming but Miss. Fletcher is . . . Miss. Fletcher, talk to me. Are you okay?"
I look at him and finally let go of the steering wheel I've had a vice grip on since this whole time.
"I'm . . ." I wince in pain and slump back in the seat. ". . . pain."
"Where are you in pain?"
"Every . . . everywhere."
"Alright. Miss. Nash, please take deep breaths. You're panicking. Deep breathes in and out. Everything will be fine."
Allison does as she's told.
"No, I don't see anything serious but the police and ambulances shouldn't be too far away . . . Tell Mr. Madden there was nothing I could've done. They were in front of me and the other cars came out of nowhere."
I groan in pain and spot my phone screen lighting up with Luca's picture and name. I make an attempt to reach for it but fail in doing so. ". . . Luca . . ."
"Yes, her phone is going off . . . I'll try and get it."
Jones carefully reaches across me to get my phone, mindful to not touch me considering how much pain I'm in, and answers it for me.
"Jones, put her on!" Luca's voice demands.
Jones puts the call on speaker and holds the phone for me to speak to Luca.
"Kaylee, please talk to me." Luca pleads. "I'm sorry for what I said. Please talk to me."
"Luca," I say, tears filling my eyes. "Luca . . . I'm sorry."
"No, Kaylee, there's nothing for you to be sorry about. Everything will be fine. Both you and Allison will be fine. I promise you."
I cough and hold my ribs as I do so. "I feel . . . I feel like . . ."
"What? Jones, what's happening?" Luca panics.
"Miss. Fletcher."
Jones discards the phones onto the dashboard and helps me turn my head to the side as I throw up out the car as best as I can. He gently helps me sits back and picks both phones back up.
"She was just sick," he informs Luca.
"God, I need to be there. I should be there!" Luca shouts.
"That's the police and ambulances here," Jones announces. "They'll take care of everything. Everything will be fine now."
I close my eyes and nod.