Now You See Me (30 page)
Authors: Emma Haughton
Time to go back to the hotel. I want to shower and change and get down to the restaurant before it's too crowded. Maybe tomorrow I'll go and see the islands, I tell myself as I grope in my purse for a tip. Make the most of the few days I have left. Stop playing along with whatever game Eric's cooked up this time â and clearly lost interest in.
I pick my book up from the table and stuff it into my bag. Take a couple of steps towards the bar and call “
Au revoir
” to the waiter, raising my hand in a wave. He looks up, a white tea towel in one hand, glass in the other, and nods goodbye. The other man glances at me briefly as I pull the strap of my handbag up onto my shoulder and turn away.
And freeze.
I stand there, scarcely breathing.
Why can't I move?
Something isn't right. I feel my jaw clench and my skin tingle as my mind tries to make sense of what I just saw.
Slowly, heart thumping wildly, I turn back round. The man at the bar is facing away again, but even from behind I can see his blond hair is darker now, his body strong and lean.
The waiter is watching me, noticing my confusion.
“
Mademoiselle?
”
The man looks up at the waiter, then twists round to follow his gaze. I take in the hint of stubble across his cheeks and chin, the puzzled expression as he sees me staring back at him. I feel faint with shock. I want to look away, but can't tear my eyes from his, from their perfect fathomless blue, the colour of the sea in the bay.
“
Vous avez oublié quelque chose, mademoiselle?
” the waiter asks. “You have forgotten something?”
A surge of disappointment knocks the air right out of me, and it's all I can do to shake my head.
No, I want to say, I haven't forgotten anything. Nothing at all.
But Danny has.
He drops his gaze from mine and turns away. For a moment I think I'm going to pass out from the pain, just fall to the floor with its force.
He doesn't recognize me.
He doesn't know who I am.
I'm about to turn and disappear, to run across the beach as fast as I can when I think of Eric.
He set this up, I understand. To repay his debt. To make amends.
I hesitate, knowing I have a choice. To leave Danny to his own life, to the one he has chosen. Or to force him back into mine.
My mind reels with indecision. I'm standing on a ledge, peering into dark water. I'm dizzy and confused and I want to be anywhere but here.
This shouldn't be something I get to decide.
Then I think of Mum â how we never got a second chance, how I'll have to spend the rest of my life wondering what might have been. I think of her, holding my hand as we jumped over the surf, and I take one last, long deep breathâ¦and dive in.
“Danny.”
His back tenses. The hand raising his glass pauses in mid-air, drops back down. He lifts his head and slowly turns towards me. I see his stunned expression as this time he looks right into my eyes.
“
Tu la connais?
” The waiter asks him. Does he know me?
I feel like I'm sinking as I wait, tears beginning to blur my vision, for his answer. But he doesn't move, doesn't speak. Just stares at me blankly, watching me drown.
Get out of here, insists a voice in my head. Get as far away from this place as you can and never, ever look back.
I drag the air back into my lungs. Will my body to turn and my legs to walk away. Suppress the sob rising in my throat as I stumble and almost drop my bag.
“
Hannah?
”
His voice. Deep and strange and utterly familiar. Like a day hasn't passed since he rode off on that bike, leaving a rip in my life I thought would never mend.
My feet stop. I swing round. See the dazed expression on his face, the uncertain way he's standing there, like someone staggering from a blow.
“
Hannah?
Is that really you?
”
The tears break free, running down my cheeks as I turn back towards my brother. I see the shake in his hand as he grips the top of the bar, as if he might fall. See him wavering, just for a moment, before taking the plunge.
And that smile, that glorious smile, breaking across his face like a wave as he sweeps towards me, and folds me into his arms.
I'd like to thank my agent, Jo Williamson, everyone at Usborne, especially Sarah, Rebecca, Amy, Anna, Elisabetta, Becky and Peter, and everyone else who worked on the book.
Book consultant Shelley Instone, for her generosity and excellent critiquing, and for giving me a decisive kick up the backside when I needed it.
My beta readers, particularly the lovely Wendy Storer, and everyone at Arvon, Writewords, Book Frisbees and YA Think for their invaluable advice and support.
Chris Murray, for helping me keep domestic chaos at bay during the writing of this, and Marie Adams, for doing much the same with my head.
And of course, the ever-patient James and my four quite patient offspring: Josh, Flan, Chip and Hetty. Oh, and Stanley and Mrs Perkins. Woof.
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When it happens I'm so lost in my thoughts I barely notice. A wrench on the steering wheel and we spin into a U-turn, heading back down the road the way we came. I peer into my side mirror. Just behind I see a large black car doing the same manoeuvre.
My blood goes cold. Oh god⦠Oh shit⦠It's true. They're really after us.
We race down the carriageway. I watch the needle of the speedometer steadily climbingâ¦sixtyâ¦seventyâ¦eightyâ¦before suddenly we swerve off onto a side road, speeding along a narrow lane through the forest, pine trees whizzing by perilously close. A sharp left and we're bouncing along a mud track. Things tumble around the car, and I have to hang on to the handle up above my door just to keep my balance.
“Hold on!”
All at once we're in amongst the trees. The suspension groans as we hit a small rock and the car swerves to avoid a stump, coming to a halt in a mass of moss and ferns.
“Stay here!” he barks, leaning down and sliding his hand under his seat. Fiddling with something, like it's stuck. A faint ripping sound, and his hand emerges holding a large brown envelope with duct tape hanging from each side.
What the� No time to even finish the thought before he rips it open. My breath freezes in my throat as I get a glimpse of cold grey metal.
A gun.
He's got a gun.
I yelp in shock. But before I can say anything, do anything, think anything, he's out the car and heading through the trees.
I sit there, whimpering, my breath jagged with fear and dread. I sit there and it's like time stands still. No time at all and all the time in the world passes before I hear the shot.
And the silence that follows it.
EMMA HAUGHTON worked as a freelance journalist, writing features for a wide variety of newspapers and glossy magazines, before becoming an author. A mother of four, she now lives and writes fiction in Dorset.
Now You See Meâ¦
is her first novel.
First published in the UK in 2014 by Usborne Publishing Ltd., Usborne House, 83-85 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8RT, England.
www.usborne.com
Copyright © Emma Haughton 2014
The right of Emma Haughton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Cover photography © istock/Thinkstock
The name Usborne and the devices
are Trade Marks of Usborne Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or used in any way except as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or loaned or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.