His Saviour ✔️

A Cold One

Payton's POV

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"So how has the nanny job going? Is your boss hot? What's it like living there? Omg is it like in the movies where the boss sleeps with the nanny?!"

Definitely needing a hospital appointment for this one.

"What?! Lola, no! He's just like any other boss! The house is.. far bigger than expected but it's nice. The kids are amazing. I love spending time with them." I smile thinking about Liam and Skylar.

It had only been 8 hours since I'd seen them and I already wanted the weekend to be over. I wondered how they were getting on at their mother's.

The meer thought of that woman angered me. If anything had to happen to either of those children, I would kill her.

"Wow, you're gonna break that glass girl. What's got your panties in a twist?" I'm snapped from my thoughts as Lola takes the glass of wine from my hands. "Its nothing." I sigh and rub my head.

"Its obviously something. What's going on?" Lola sits criss crossed on the couch and faces me.

"When the kids left to go with their mother, I don't know... something just seemed off. Skylar became distracted. She asked me not to make her go... she was almost crying." I frown recalling the moment.

"And Liam, he didn't attempt to do anything. It was like his body was functioned to force himself into that car. No emotion on his face whatsoever. I mean, how does that look to you? Or am I reading too much into this?"

Lola sighs and puts her glass on the table. "Have you mentioned this to Chase?" I look down at my hands and shake my head.

How do I even begin to explain those thoughts to a father about his children?

"Lola, it'll come off like I'm trying to press into business I have no right to be in." I shake off the thought of even attempting to talk to Chase.

"And what if you are right? Those kids could be fearing for their lives right now and you don't think their father, whom you work for may I add, should know about it?"

She was right. She knew it and I knew it.

"Let's say I call Chase right now. 'Oh hi Chase, sorry for the inconvenient call but I just want to let you know I have a reason to believe the kids aren't safe with their mother. Here is no proof at all!'"

I groan and throw myself back on the couch. "I have no evidence other than the words and actions Skylar shows. And even that might not be enough. Kids play up all the time." I mumble in frustration.

"But is your gut telling you it's kids playing up?" The question alone was enough to silence me.

"I need to get a better understanding of this before I go running my mouth off, Lola. There's no way he's going to believe me. We're technically still strangers!" I exclaim.

"You're a stranger who seems to know when a kid is in danger a lot quicker than their father does." There was a short silence before Lola spoke up again.

"How long are they away for?" She asks. "Just until Monday morning. I'm going back to Chase's house on Sunday night so I'm there for the kids returning." I look at her.

"Monitor their behaviour for the first 3 days of their return. Anything you feel is different or even if they tell you something, note it down. There must be some way you can figure this out."

I didn't know how... but in someway, that's exactly what I was going to do.

Chase's POV

It was the Saturday night. And I was currently in my home office. Staring at sheets of paper scattered over my desk.

"How the fuck does someone get into this much debt?"

I'm a finance manger. My job is to ensure those who owe major money to higher markets and companies are able to pay their way on time.

And my current case has came up to be 25 thousand dollars!

"Hi, this is Chase Johnson from Steels Enterprise's, I'm looking to speak with a Mr Brian Knowles?"

There was a short pause and an echo of a woman's voice yelling before I got a response. "May I ask the reason for this call?"

"Without any authorisation from the client themselves to have a third party speak on their behalf, I'm unable to proceed this conversation with you, ma'am." From the sigh heard through the phone, I know the woman wasn't happy with my answer.

"This is Brian speaking. Can I ask who's calling?" By the nervousness in his voice, I could tell he knew what was coming.

"My name is Chase Johnson. I'm calling from Steels Enterprise's. It's to my knowledge and understanding you have a bill unpaid running from April 6th of last year to now. Which has came to $25,067 dollars." When the total was said, curse words were mumbled through the phone.

"And is their a deadline for that?" His words were short, assuming he didn't want his wife to hear. "We can offer you a few ways to deal with paying. There's a one-all payment of the full amount or you can request installments. This would be your asked price which you would pay direct each month to the company."

I explained a bit more I'm detail before I was able to get an agreement of paying. After setting the installment process on the clients account, I wished him farewell and ended the call.

Two seconds later, my phone buzzed.

It was a picture of a pint glass, filled to the brim with golden liquid, top off with a perfect foam hat. And I couldn't help the squiggly black writing I had made out to be my name on the side of the glass.

It was captioned "There's one with your name on it."

Fuck it. The kids aren't back until Monday and I'm assuming Payton won't be here until then.

I grabbed my coat, switched off my laptop and headed downstairs out the door. I sent a quick 'I'm on my way' message to Ryan and hailed a taxi.

A cold one would surely go down nicely.