Double Take
Authors: Kendall Talbot
KENDALL TALBOT
DOUBLE
TAKE
Kendall Talbot is an award-winning author, thrillseeker and hopeless romantic. She's travelled extensively, some 36 countries and counting, and she's addicted to experiences that make her screamâ¦white-water rafting, scuba diving with sharks and hang-gliding are just a few. Her stories reflect her sense of adventure and her love affair with her very own hero.
Kendall collects junky jewellery and expensive perfume, her favourite night out is with great friends and a fabulous bottle of wine or two, and she rarely watches TV. She lives in Brisbane with her hubby, her two grown sons and her fluffy little dog, Josie McLuvin.
Her debut novel
Lost in Kakadu
received a clutch of award nominations and most notably won the exclusive title of Romantic Book of the Year 2014.
Treasured Secrets
, an action packed treasure hunt laced with delicious romance is out now and
Treasured Lies
is due for release in late 2015.
Drop into Kendall Talbot's website:
www.kendalltalbot.com.au
, follow her tweets on @kendallbooks or check out her crazy life on facebook:
www.facebook.com/KendallTalbotBooks
Treasured Secrets
Lost in Kakadu
To my wonderful husband Dean,
for making my dreams come true.
Part One
Brisbane, October 1992
Chapter 1
J
ack Rich glanced down at his watch: 4:32 beamed up at him like a fateful countdown. A shiver ran up his spine, as much from apprehension as from the bite in the air. He was alone in the boatshed, and except for the creepy array of hooks, tools and ropes that dangled off one wall like a treasure trove for sadists, the room was practically empty. Spears of late afternoon sunlight beamed through the cracks in the weatherboards, illuminating the dust particles that floated in the afternoon breeze. If he'd organised this meeting for any later they'd all be sitting in the dark. He made a note in his pocketbook to bring one of his camping lanterns next time.
Thoughts of Rachel crept into his mind. It'd taken him several days to muster the courage to call her, and, although it'd been eighteen years since they last spoke, he'd recognised her voice instantly. He closed his eyes, breathed in the musty air and tried to imagine how much she would've changedâthey'd been not much more than kids back then. He still remembered Rachel as the shy teenage girl with the troubled home life who hung off every word he spoke. It made him cringe at how badly he'd wanted her back then. But that was a lifetime ago. His only hope was that she still remembered the promise she'd made to him when they last met.
Jack heard a car outside and quickly ran his hand over the dollar signs he'd doodled on the dusty table. He stood, hitched up his loose jeans and wiped his sweaty palms down his thighs as he waited to see who it was.
The ancient door emitted an eerie creaking noise as a tall, raven-haired woman stepped over the threshold. She commanded attention in an emerald green dress that moulded to her hourglass figure and he obliged by openly drinking in her appearance. The soft mounds of her breasts bulged from the plunging neckline and a lock of hair, long, dark and silky, fell snugly over her shoulder and nudged the valley of those luscious curves.
Jack swallowed loudly. “Hello, Rachel.”
She strode towards him with a bold confidence that made him step back. Since he'd called her a week earlier he'd been visualising how their reunion would play out. But even if he'd had a whole year to imagine ways she'd greet him, he would never have guessed being pinned to the wall with her forearm across his chest as one of them.
It was several heartbeats before his mind kicked into gear. “What theâ”
“Shut up,” she snapped. With the swiftness of a viper, her hand shot down the front of his jeans.
Jack recoiled and tried to escape, but she quite literally had him by the balls. “What the hell?”
“I said shut up.” She squeezed tighter. The freshness of her peppermint breath did little to sweeten the evil in her eyes.
As a hot rush burned his neck, sweat dribbled from his armpits. He didn't know whether to laugh or yell at her.
Rachel's eyes drilled into him. “If you cross me,” she hissed in an acid voice, “I'll cut your balls off with a rusty can.”
“I wouldn'tâ”
“Do you understand?” she cut in.
Jack nodded, wincing in her vice-like grip, wondering what the hell had happened to her. The girl he remembered wouldn't have even raised her voice, let alone done this.
“Good.” Rachel's hand slipped out of his jeans and she stepped back. “I'm glad we had this chat.” She raised her hand and Jack braced for a slap. But instead she gently cupped his cheek. “Soâ¦what's this all about?”
Rachel turned and strode towards the table. Her long, dark hair swayed from side to side as her shiny black high heels clicked across the wooden floor.
Jack's pulse throbbed in his neck as he readjusted his jeans. He rolled his shoulders, unfurled his clenched fists then cleared his throat. “You'll have to wait and see. I'll tell you when everyone's here.”
The throbbing beat of an approaching motorbike was welcome relief. Jack turned his back on Rachel and hoped the fire he knew was colouring his cheeks would disappear before the next person arrived.
Moments later Jack's brother burst through the door, reeking of bad body odour and stale smoke. Jimmy's stubble was shabby and his dark hair was a curly, matted mess at the base of his neck. Jack held out his hand to greet the sibling he hadn't seen in two years. At least not without bulletproof glass sandwiched between them. Jimmy roughly grasped his hand and pulled him into a hug. This greeting was exactly as he'd imagined it. Jimmy hadn't changed much.
“Hey, Jack, good to see ya, man.”
“You too.”
Jimmy released him from the embrace, and when his eyes shifted over Jack's shoulder he produced a long, slow whistle.
Jack thumped his brother in the arm. “You remember Rachel?”
“Hello Jimmy.” Rachel's deep voice had a hint of an English accent and Jack looked at her, curious about where it had come from. She pushed a lock of hair back to reveal a brilliant diamond dangling from her earlobe. It was probably worth more than Jack's beat-up ute outside.
Jimmy frowned. “Rachel?
Our
Rachel? Oh my God, look at you.” Jimmy strode towards her with outstretched arms. But when Rachel stood up and held out her hand, Jimmy quickly recovered, ran one of his hands through his hair and shook hers with the other.
“My God, it is you. Look at you. Boy, have you grown up.”
“So have you. A lot happens in twenty years.”
Jimmy nodded. “You're not wrong. So what are you doing with yourself now?”
She shrugged. “This and that. You?”
Rachel had told Jack on the phone the other day that she was too busy to work. Her life was a world apart from Jack's. Jimmy tugged at a chair, spun it around and then straddled it. “I'm looking for work again. Somethin'll turn up.”
Jack pulled a chair opposite Jimmy and then Rachel sat down too.
“I wasn't sure if you'd come.” Jack nodded at his brother.
“Wouldn't miss it for the world. You know I'm always there for you, bro.” Jimmy's eyes roamed around the shed and Jack wondered if he remembered playing under here as a kid, but he didn't say anything. Jimmy would've only been seven or eight at the time. He only knew that because their dad was still alive then.
“You going to tell us what this's all about?” Jimmy's tongue picked at something in his teeth.
“I'll wait until everyone is here.”
“Righty-ho. So who else's coming, boss?”
Jack seethed at his brother calling him âboss' but he was determined to remain calm. “You'll see when they get here.” The nickname had come about soon after their dad threw himself in front of a train. Probably because Jack was forced to be the man about the house. Though how anyone could expect a nine-year-old to cope, especially given their mother's condition, was beyond him. But he did cope. In fact he coped so well that his mum kept right on with her drug habit as if nothing had happened.
“So Rachel, are you still married to that banker dude? What's his name again?” Jimmy scratched at his chin stubble as he spoke.
Rachel rolled her eyes between Jack and Jimmy. A look of disdain appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye. “Walter is an investment banker. How did you know about him?”
“Jack told me.”
Jack shrugged. “I saw it in the paper.” She lived a grand life of parties and charity balls and Jack occasionally spied her in the social pages.
Jimmy turned to Jack. “How's Candy?”
An image of Jack's very ill wife flashed across his mind. “Candice isn't good.” He waited for a reaction but Jimmy carried on staring at his fingernails as if they were much more important. “You should visit us sometime.”
“I know. It's justâ¦I got nothin' to talk about.”
Jack studied his brother; the crow's feet in the corners of his eyes had developed into deep rows, his thick facial hair was speckled with silver and his cheeks were pale and sunken. Although Jimmy was two years younger than Jack, he looked much older. Jail had done that.
“You don't have to say anything. Candice would be happy just to see you.”
“Yeah, I hear ya. Maybe after this.”
“She may not last much longer.” It crushed his heart to utter those words aloud, but Jimmy needed to hear it. They all did. Rachel, Jimmy and the other three. If they turned up. They all needed to understand that this was his last hope for Candice. He'd tried every which way he knew to save enough money, but time was running out for his wife. Pulling the old gang together was a long shot. He just hoped they remembered that they owed him.
“She'll get better. You'll make sure of it.”
“Only if this goes to plan.” Candice's operation, the one that cost nearly seventy-five thousand dollars, was the only thing that would save her. And the way she was deteriorating, getting weaker every day, struggling sometimes just to get out of bed, Jack couldn't sit back and wait for her turn on the hospital waiting list any longer.
“It will, Jack. You always did things right. I wouldn't be here otherwise.”