Read Durability (The LockDown Series Book 3) for Free Online Page A

poppet. Yes, she was just like you, same chubby little cheeks, and cheeky smile. Same giggles and glittery eyes. You take care of her, she’s going to need you in life, will need your support and strength when the darkness returns. Me being here will bring it all back princess, I’m sure of it, but you keep smiling, show her how the light can return and I know she’ll be okay. Do not let her join us in heaven too soon. You must keep her strong.”
    God this life is so hard, so hard to keep myself grounded when all I want to do is have my daughter’s forgiveness before I end my self-hatred and join Penny.
    “I won’t be in your life as of tomorrow princess, but know, I love you to the moon and stars and from the heavens I will protect you and your mother. I know I've done wrong by her, that I shouldn’t even be here now, but I will make sure nobody ever hurts you ever again. I know she will never forgive me, and when you grow up and learn all about the hurt I’ve caused, you will look at my memory with disgust, but I am not that man anymore baby girl. I would never hurt you. I’m sorry I hurt your mummy but I was scared to see her, I panicked.”
    She giggles at me, not having a clue what I am saying and I grasp onto her innocence and tiny little body with everything I have, everything good I can give. “That’s right bubba; you keep on smiling and breaking all those hearts. Just know if any guy ever hurts you a quarter as bad as I did my girl, I will possess his fucking body and kill him from the inside out, slowly and painfully.”
    She finishes her food and then I change her nappy with a clean one I have brought from the shops on the way here. I sit on the chair in my old lounge, her petite body snuggled into mine. Her eyes flitter closed effortlessly, her tiredness overtaking her. “Goodnight. I love you,” I tell her, kissing her wispy hair and allowing myself to sleep for the last time before my heart seizes to beat.
    “I’ll see you soon Pen, we’ll be together forever and eternity,” I say to myself as I let sleep overcome me.
     



Leighton
     
    “His old home, are you fucking kidding me? He’s taken my daughter to the place he raped his own fucking kid. We’re leaving now Ant!” I scream as we track the car to the old London home.
    “Get the fucking keys now, Leigh,” he replies standing from his chair alongside me, the both of them crashing against the opposite desk.
    “CALL THEM!” I shout at him again as I run my house to the front driveway where my car is parked. We both jump in and I speed from the driveway without even fastening my seat belt.
    I hear Antonio’s ramblings in the background as he tells my men of the whereabouts of my daughter. I am scared for when I get there, scared to see what she is like, what he has done to her. It makes me sick to my stomach and red with rage. I wasn’t able to protect my own fucking daughter.
    “Leigh, put your belt on,” Ant commands me and I turn my face harshly to his.
    “Fuck off.” I reply bitterly, pressing my foot harder to the pedal, the speedometer accelerating over a hundred and thirty miles per hour.
    “You crash, that airbag isn’t deploying and you fucking die. Now put the fucking belt on now,” he bites out harshly and I am quick to obey as his voice penetrates me and kicks my common sense into gear.
    “So, what’s the plan?” he asks me and I scoff back sarcastically.
    “Oh I don’t know, have a cup of tea and ask politely for my daughter back. Sounds nice and civil doesn’t it.” I laugh manically and it makes me shiver at the malevolence I can harvest. Nobody other than my boys have seen what I am capable of. Abigail has only seen a slither of the temper I possess, but has never seen how creative I can actually get.
    “Leighton, be serious,” he demands, and I look at him and smile evilly his way, returned by a similar look. He knows what I have planned; he agrees and is probably plotting his own course of