Chapter Chapter Four
“I love it” I smile as he looks at me with shock.
“Really?” He laughs.
“It needs work…Sure, but it’s nothing a little TLC can’t fix” I smile.
“I would help right now, but I have to open up the café” He sighs as he looks genuinely annoyed he couldn’t help me.
“It’s fine…Have you got a tool box though? So I can get those windows open” I ask.
“Yes, at the bottom of the stairs there’s a little cupboard, anything you need you should be able to find in there” He smiles as he walks out but not before turning and chucking me a set of keys.
“There’s a door down here to the right, it’s the back entrance so you can get in and out anytime with the key” He smiles as he heads off.
“Thank you” I smile as he waves and goes into the café as I turn back to the flat.
I made my way to my suitcase and took out a hair-tie as I put up my hair so it was out of my way so I could get on with sorting out the flat.
“Oh boy…” I breathed before going downstairs for the tool box.
Over the years I had learnt how to do odd jobs as families had me do everything for them, so I knew a little of everything.
Finding a claw hammer I was able to pull the nails from the boards on the windows as I forced them off and found extremely dirty windows as I made my way carefully down the ladder.
“A step in the right direction I suppose” I sighed going back inside and trying to open the window, but it was stiff, I gave it a push and it flew open as I nearly fell as I gripped the edge with a squeal, my heart beating erratically.
I laughed nervously as I moved backwards, happy that there was a breeze coming in now.
“Where the hell do I start?” I sigh looking around the room.
I took photos of the flat that was now in daylight as I wanted to do a before and after to show Carla, I hoped she would be proud when I was done.
There was second hand furniture in the flat, but most of it would need replacing, it was all knackered, the bed creaked and looked like it would give me some sort of disease if I touched it.
I guess the money Carla and her father gave me would be put to good use.
I went online and found a cheap bed for sale as I ordered it for delivery today with a new mattress, at least I would have somewhere to sleep.
I went down and grabbed some of the cleaning supplies from the cupboard downstairs as I made my way from room to room. Cobwebs were removed, along with the spiders inside them, they made me shiver, I hated them… Dust was hoovered and dusted, sides were cleaned and polished.
I began to feel a little faint after a few hours of work, realizing I hadn’t eaten yet, but I had so much to do.
Daniel: So, how’s the flat?
Lucy: Well, here’s how it was before *Photo* and here is it now *Photo* what do you think?
Daniel: Woah! Good work girl, you must be knackered though…You’ve eaten lunch right?
Lucy: Haven’t eaten at all yet… Oops
Daniel: Oops…No Lucy, get your ass down in that café and we’ll meet you in there, Craig is buying food for us all. Then we can help you upstairs
Lucy: You don’t need to do that
Daniel: Downstairs now or we’ll come and get you
Lucy: You wouldn’t…
“Lucy! There are some gentlemen who are asking for you!” Vance shouts up the stairs as I rush to the door.
“I’ll be down in a minute!” I call out.
I quickly wipe down my trousers as they were covered in dust as I locked the flat up and went downstairs as I saw the boys smirking at a table in the café.
“See, there she is” Daniel smirks at me.
“How’s everything going up there?” Vance asks as I walk past him.
“Great” I smile as I show him and image on my phone.
“My god…How have you done that so quick?!”
“A little elbow grease and a lot of work” I laugh as I stumble a little, a pair of hands catch me as I look at the owner of the hands.
“Be careful gorgeous” Craig says as he looks at me with concern.
“Have you eaten today?” Vance asks frowning as he watches me carefully.
“No, Henson wouldn’t let me” I sighed, Vance grumbles under his breath angrily as we head to the table with the boys.
“You’re eating, right now” Daniel orders as I laugh and nod.
“Can we get anything for you boys?” Vance asks.
The boys gave off their orders as I ordered a BLT.
“On the house for you Lucy” Vance smiled as he walked off.
“Thanks Vance” I smile as I yawn suddenly.
“So I see you’ve done well upstairs, the cobweb in your hair is a real good look Lucy” Craig smirks as he chuckles.
“Shit” I untie my hair and wipe the cobwebs from my hair with a groan.
I hear the ding of the café bell as a delivery driver comes in with a huge box.
“Shit! My bed!” I groan as I get up, but stumble once more as Craig steadies me again.
“Excuse me, I’ve got a delivery for the flat upstairs…The door out back wasn’t being answered” The driver says.
“Sorry! My fault!” I call out as he smiles at me.
“If you pass me your keys I can take it up for you if you like” David smiles.
“That would be amazing…Thank you” I smile and hand him the key as he signs for the delivery for me, taking the bed and mattress up for me.
Vance brings over our food as I moan in delight as I eat.
“Calm down there Lucy” Daniel laughs.
“I haven’t eaten in like, two days, shut it”
“You what?!” Craig slams his hand down.
“Woah there, big boy, I’m used to it” I shrug as the boys look like I’m crazy.
“What do you mean you’re used to it?” Daniel asks.
“Henson only ever fed me if he felt I earnt it, I just never earnt it enough for him” I shrug as I continue to eat my BLT.
“And that man is looking after kids…” Daniel murmurs as I see the anger in his eyes.
“Had worse” I shrug.
Craig is giving Daniel a look and it’s like they are talking via some psychic link as I raise a brow when Daniel gives him a slight nod. Weird…
“Where the hell is David?” Daniel murmurs.
We had all finished our food by now as we were still waiting for him to come down.
I grabbed David’s plate, Craig paid for all our food, including mine, he insisted to Vance and he accepted with a nod of appreciation. We took the plate upstairs with us.
As we got upstairs I could hear clunking of metal and swearing as we went in.
“David?” I called out as we went towards the noise, he was sat looking at instructions, trying to make the bed.
“I was trying to help I didn’t think it would take this long” he groans.
“Will you come eat, seriously, thank you, I can handle this” I laugh.
He nods and grabs his plate as he stuff the food in his mouth hungrily as I take a look at the instructions before Craig and Daniel snatch them from me and take over.
“Fine, you guys do that, I’ll sort the kitchen” I huff, rolling my eyes as I go to the kitchen.
My phone begins to ring with a video call from my best friend as I answer with a smile.
“Carla!” I grin as she smiles at me.
“Hey, bestie! How goes it babe?” She smiles.
“Want a tour?” I grin as she nods, I slowly turn my phone as I show her the entrance, moving back to the kitchen and then into the lounge where David stood still munching on his food.
“WHO IS THAT?!” She calls out as David looks at me in shock at the shouting.
“That’s David…” I smirks.
“He’s hot…Did you forget to tell me you had a boyfriend?!” Carla calls out as David starts laughing.
“Not my boyfriend Carla” I roll my eyes.
“Stop rolling your eyes!” Both David and Carla say as I laugh at the pair of them.
“Is Lucy rolling her eyes again?” Craig comes into the room with a pleased looking Daniel behind him as Carla catches a glimpse of them too.
“Lucy! You’ve been keeping secrets from me girl!” Carla cries out as she ogles the guys behind me.
“Who’s the cutie?” Daniel smiles and waves to her as she blushes and waves back.
“Carla, this is Daniel, Craig and David” I point the camera to each one as they wave at her.
She looks at me in shock.
“Since when do you have other friends…Especially extremely hot GUY friends…” She murmurs.
“Long story…” I smirk.
“You better get to explaining then” She smirks back.
“I will when they aren’t here listening to my every word” I laugh.
“You’re happy…I can see it in your eyes…You’re actually happy Lucy…” Carla looks at me with a curious smile.
“I am…For once” I smile.
“Yay! I’m so happy for you Lucy…I just wish I was with you! But I promise, when we’re all sorted I will come back and visit as often as possible!” She squeals.
“Me too, I’m going to save up and get a ticket over there and have a holiday for the first ever time” I smile.
“YAY! I can’t wait babe! Now go spend time with those hunks of men, be safe!” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively as the boys chuckle.
“Not going to happen Carla!” I laugh.
“Never say never. Now, go, have fun and I love you! Bye babe” She says as we hang up…God I missed that girl…
“She’s hot…” Daniel smirks.
“She’s moving to another country…You haven’t got a chance” I smirk.
“Shame” he huffs.
“Your sofa is broken…” David huffs randomly.
“Most of the stuff here is…Did you guys manage to get the bed up?” I ask Craig and Daniel.
“Yeah of course we did” Craig smirks cockily.
“So, did you find the girl your uncle is looking for?” I ask as I continue cleaning the kitchen.
“No uncle is losing all hope of ever finding her. He thinks she might have died” David sighs.
“Have you got a photo? Maybe I’ve seen her” I said.
“Oh yeah…Sure, hold on” Daniel says as he brings out his phone and passes it to me.
The photo was taken of a framed photograph, it wasn’t the clearest picture I’d seen but it was clear enough for me to notice exactly who the photo was of. That was me, my parents and Lucien…
“Who are they?” I ask trying not to show I knew who it was…I had to find out what was going on.
“That is our uncle…Those were his best friends, they died in a fire, they were murdered. THAT is the girl we are looking for she’d be around your age actually…” Daniel says as I stare at it.
“They were murdered?” I hadn’t known that about my parents death.
“Yeah…Arson…Uncle managed to get the girl out though, got her safe, but then he lost track of her, he promised to find her, he never gave up, he just can’t find her” David continues.
“How long has he been looking for her?” I ask…Don’t cry Serena…Don’t cry…
“Eight years…” Craig sighs.
“He’s been looking for her for eight years” I gulp, trying to stop the tears falling. He had been looking for me, he had.
“Yeah, but the people he gave her to originally has been messing him around, they hid her, deleted every file on her. It’s been difficult tracking her” David says.
“What do you know of her?” I ask.
“She’s been jumped from town to town, we don’t know why, but her tracks are being covered by someone, we think a woman called Elise is doing it, we don’t know why. She has a locket, has a photo of her family in it. That was the only thing she had left. It has an etching of a wolf pack under the moon on the front with names on the back” Craig says.
“What’s her name?” I look to Daniel.
“Serena, Serena Baldo” he answered. When he said my name I blubbed a little as they looked at me with concern filled faces.
“Lucy?” David cocks his head.
“Do you know where she is? We need to get her back, she’s in danger Lucy, if you know anything we need to know” Craig says as he touches my hand, tingles shoot up my spine as he gazes into my eyes.
“I…I…I might know where she is…” I say as they look at me in shock.
“Where?” David steps forward.
“I need a little time, I’ll help you, but I need time to sort it first” I answer. I needed time to wrap my head around all this.
“You need to hurry Lucy, it’s really important” Craig puts his hand on my face as something in his eyes changes.
“I will” I nod
“Mate…” He says under his breath as I hear Daniel gasp.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing…Sorry, I was just thinking how crazy this was…Like aww mate this is crazy” Craig stammers as he lets me go and I raise a brow.
“Aww mate…Sure Craig…” I roll my eyes. Something was up…
“We need to go” Craig says as the boys nod.
“Please, if you know her, please get her to us.” Daniel smiles.
“I’ll find her, I will” I nod as they smile and say goodbye as I shut the door behind them I slide to the ground.
“Shit” I groan.
Could it really be that Lucien had been looking for me all this time?
What did Elise have to do with this and why was she hiding me from them?
I was so confused. Lucien was family though, I could trust him, right?
I decided to take my mind off of the flat and everything to do with Lucien for a moment and relax a little before shit hit the fan. I decided to go help Vance and the others for a while as I got changed into a clean set of clothes.
I helped tidy up downstairs in the café as Pauline took orders and taught me a few things, I was really enjoying myself. I loved working in here, it reminded me of working in the shop with mum.
Were they really murdered? If so, by who? I remember when we were being followed as Lucien rushed to the car, was it them?
What would anyone have against my parents? They were loved by everyone.
“Time to close up Lucy” Vance smiles as I nod and lock the door before giving the floor a mop over.
“You did really well, you learn quick” Pauline smiles.
“Can’t wait to see your cooking skills” Tony smiles.
“Thanks, I love it here, it’s so refreshing”
“Great, now Tony prepared you some dinner, take it up and relax. We’ll see you tomorrow morning, 9am” Vance smiles.
“Thank you” I nod as I wave before heading back upstairs with the plate of hot food in my hand, it smelt delicious, mmmm bacon, eggs, and chips. This was amazing!