Simon opened the door after the first knock, clearly expecting social services to return his daughter. His face went straight to his trusted gun when he saw us.

"Simon!" Jaxson said.

"The Bro and the Bitch!" Simon spat in response but, for some reason, stepped aside to let us in, then gestured to his two bodyguards that the situation was under control for now. The burly men left, but I was sure they wouldn't venture very far.

Jaxson clenched his teeth so hard that I thought his ears would pop off, but he didn't want anyone on Simon's team to figure out how incapacitated he was. He made it to the living room with barely a hint of limp, then leant casually against the doorframe.

I was shaking like a leaf. Simon, among other things, trafficked illegal weapons. I wasn't stupid enough not to understand that this place housed a myriad of weapons and that both Simon and the guards were armed, while we weren't. I prayed that the two Terminators we encountered on the way in were the only other breathing living beings in the vicinity. Then I quickly sent a follow-up prayer up to heaven, begging the Almighty that there weren't any dead beings and especially no soon-to-be-dead beings in the house, either, present company included. I took a breath, wondering what was wrong with me. I was sure God had muted me by now.

I managed to keep my lunch down but felt tears rise instead. I took a deep breath, then I looked at Jax and straightened my spine. I knew Jaxson needed a moment before his voice would be able to keep the pain he was in from creeping into his voice so I decided to start the conversation.

"Mr Bowers, I've come to tell you that I won't be taking any further actions on your daughter's behalf. I'll be honest, I was not amused by those messages you sent me, and I'm not entirely convinced I'm doing the right thing, but Jax here has made me see that involving the authorities is massively exaggerating things."

"What are you doing here, Jaxson?" Simon totally ignored me.

"Thought it was time to reconnect. You are my brother after all. Oh, congrats on the new position!"

"When you went missing, Dad looked for you everywhere. For years. Even paid some guy. You were that important to his piece of mind." This last sentence dripped with sarcasm. "He's not even in the ground and you turn up. So, what do you want?"

"Been to see Carla. She ain't doing so well."

"She's alright."

"No, she's not, Simon. She needs help."

"She's an adult. Should have known what she was getting into. Not my problem."

"Heard you were close to her."

"Wouldn't have anybody mess with her. Can't stop her from messing with herself now, can I?" Simon sounded bored.

Jax shot me a look. 'Told you he's a cruel bastard,' was written all over his face.

"True, but the state she's in? Bloody embarrassing. Felt like giving her a slap around the earhole, to be honest. Pupils so big, could have served dinner on them. All dolled up, though, like a slut. Didn't Dad sort her out?"

"We don't believe in physical punishment," Simon purred in response, glancing at me.

"It's not always wrong, though!" I quickly chimed in, trying to encourage him to talk freely and dig his own grave. "Children need a firm hand and learn that actions have consequences."

Simon whirled around to face me, a furious expression on his face. "What's your game, eh? It was you who phoned social services."

"Mr Bowers, Amy had injuries that I had reason to believe had been inflicted by you, considering there seems to be no mother in the picture. I had to take action to protect myself. I could lose my job if I was found to have known about a domestic problem concerning a pupil in my charge and to have done nothing about it, you know that. Personally, I don't care how you raise your daughter, although I do find some of your measures a bit extreme."

"So why have they taken her then?"

"What are you talking about? Who has taken her?" I hoped that my acting skills would be worth an Oscar.

"Social bloody services!" he spat. "But I'm sure you already know that."

"They did what? On what grounds?" Jaxson sounded outraged. Definitely worth an Oscar.

"Look, brother!" Simon's emphasis on the last word did not bode well. "Just get the hell out of my house! I've got no time for your crap. And take the lying bitch with you!"

"Simon, let's..."

"Remember what happened last time! Still got the scar, have you? The blood all over your room... People thought Dad had killed you!" He smirked.

Jax lifted his top. Below the scar that I knew he had there was now another one, equally long and scary, but thankfully old.

"Yeah, I bled like a stuck pig, fucker." Then he grinned. "Amazing move, that was, though. Never saw it coming."

Simon looked at his brother as if he lost his mind.

"You grabbed the bag you had packed and shot out of the house like a rocket. Never saw you again after that. Wasn't actually sure you would make it. Dad and I decided you had most likely snuffed it when we couldn't make you turn up again. Sadly, we seem to have been mistaken."

"Yeah, I was an idiot back in the day. Save-the-world complex and all that rubbish. Things change." He paused, ignoring Simon's hostile comment. "Dad ever say what happened to Mum?"

The sudden change in topic threw Simon. "You mean, did he have her killed? Yeah, you win that round, champ. Woman had wanted to take us away from him. So he took her away from us. Good riddance, I say!"

"Yeah." Jaxson nodded. I felt that this was getting too much to handle for him, emotionally and physically, but there was nothing I could do.

There was a pause.

Then Jaxson lifted his head and looked his brother square in the eyes.

"You beat your own daughter, motherfucker! Do you molest her, too?"

I winced. This was not going according to plan. Before I had the chance to come up with a cunning diversion, Simon grabbed his weapon. "I discipline her!" he shouted. "She's mine, goddamn it! I can do what I want with her. And she shouldn't prance around the house naked if she doesn't want attention!" Spittle flew from his mouth. "But she likes it!" he shouted. Then he fired.

Jaxson threw himself towards his brother. The wall he had just pushed off from exploded.

I screamed.

The heavy door to the living room rattled. Voices shouted. Who had locked the door? Simon or Jaxson? I did not know.

Jaxson had catapulted himself into his brother's arms, grabbing hold of the gun at the same time and with a twist to his brother's wrist that looked like a Houdini move had claimed possession of the item.

"Out of the window, Tess! Run!" he panted, not sparing me a look as his brother kicked his leg, connecting with Jaxson's injured limb. Jax yelped but pushed harder, until Simon dropped, Jax landing on top of him.

I stood there, paralysed. I knew Simon's bodyguards would start kicking in the door in a matter of seconds, feared that Jaxson would not be leaving this house upright anymore and that they would get me, too. But I just couldn't move. At least, the door seemed to be hiding reinforced steel in its core, if the combined but futile efforts of the two gorillas on the outside to get inside were anything to go by.

"You won't be taking Dad's place in Peinelt's organisation, you moron. You don't have what it takes, and he knows it, too. I'm sure he'd rather let me see to everyday operations than a mental motherfucker like you who can't control his urges!" Jaxson taunted his brother despite the fact that he was barely able to catch his breath.

"Ah, there you go. The real reason you're here, fucker! You don't want a slice of the cake. You want the whole cake. After twenty years of absence! You think Peinelt will let you negotiate with the Mike9s, our most valuable partner? They don't even know you. They wouldn't trust you. No, bro, Peinelt has already given it to me. I've already set the next heroin transport into motion. And Joe and Jeff are on their way to retrieve Amy."

I prayed that the last bit of news meant that, other than us, it was only the two burly guys we met earlier in the house.

Simon sucked in a deep breath when Jaxson's fist connected with his chin, but he carried on, "Much like you, your lovely little lady friend here and the guy who took Amy won't be greeting the sunshine tomorrow, either, anymore."

Simon had flipped Jaxson over and was choking him now. Jax's eyes were bulging, but he still held onto the gun. A heavy boot kicked against the door.

In desperation, I grabbed a sturdy-looking statue from the windowsill and swung it as hard as I could against Simon's head. It connected with the most sickening sound I had ever heard. My lunch threatened to make a reappearance, but I swallowed it back furiously, while Simon lurched to the side.

More boots connected with the door now and a shot was fired, at the lock, no doubt. We were running out of time. So was Simon, judging by the blood pooling underneath his head. I looked away quickly.

I grabbed Jaxson's hand and pulled as hard as I could. Jaxson pushed with his other arm and our combined effort lifted him off the floor. His leg would not hold his weight, though, and he went down again.

"Go! You got what we came for. Go to Alex's contact in the police department. Go! Now!"

The doorframe started to splinter. Did they forget to reinforce the frame? I could not imagine that, and, to my relief, it didn't look as if the door was going to give anytime soon.

Simon's bodyguards didn't know that their protégé was already out cold and on the floor, but they seemed to suspect that their master wasn't winning the round because they kicked up the effort to break into the room, with more shots fired that never made it through to our side, supporting my theory that the door was practically unbreachable.

Jaxson gave me a feeble push. "Go! Otherwise this will all have been for nothing!"

I knew that he was right.

"I love you!" I mouthed, then climbed onto the windowsill and disappeared out of the window.