Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4) (12 page)

Holy shit. ‘So he
really
saved your life.’

‘What did you think he did?’

‘I don’t know.’ I let out a little laugh. ‘Kept your spirits up by telling you funny stories?’

‘I did that as well.’ I hadn’t realised that Matt had joined us while we were talking. ‘Told him funny stories the whole way back in the helicopter.’

‘You’re a hero,’ I said to Matt. Awe tinged my voice.

He laughed. ‘Nah. I just did what needed to be done. Come on Billy. Can you manage to play with one arm?’

Billy swung his good arm and said, ‘Only if you don’t have me diving all over the court with your lousy digs.’

I stayed where I was for a while after they left, thinking about what Matt had said. The world would be a much better place if people just did what needed to be done. There would be fewer Roger’s, fewer Boris’s, and a hell of a lot less heart-ache.

Matt was a natural-born hero but now it was
our
turn to protect
him
. So, even though I was scared shitless, even though the thought of Boris made me want to hide under my bed and cry like a baby, I was going to do what I could to stop him.

‘Cause some heroes are born, but others are made, and it was time for me to step up and do what needed to be done.

Billy knocked on my door and a few seconds later opened it and stuck his head into the room. ‘I didn’t know your Mum could sing?’

I rubbed my eyes with my fists and refocused on him. ‘Really?’ He hadn’t been there when Mum had shared her story. ‘That’s how she and Harry met.’

‘Huh.’ He walked to the far side of the bed and sat down.

‘Why?’

‘Matt just rang. He and Tara are heading to the reception room at ten to listen to your Mum.’ I must have had a confused look on my face because he let out a laugh and said, ‘The lead singer in the band they booked for the reception just rang in with laryngitis. They’ve asked her to audition for the job.’

‘Well, she’ll be doing it then. She’s awesome.’ I felt a surge of pride for Mum. She might drive me mad most of the time, but she had also sacrificed a lot for me. I was far enough from my initial anger to see that.

‘We going now?’ I threw back the covers and hopped out of bed. After yesterday Matt had agreed to let us extend the protection detail to cover them whenever they weren’t in their room, not just the hotel.

Before Billy could answer, his phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the screen and said, ‘Finally.’

I grabbed my toiletry bag and headed for the bathroom. We’d cancelled the boat trip to Whitehaven on the grounds it was too risky. If the same thing that had happened to our buggy happened to the boat, it would be a disaster. It had meant, however, that instead of the early morning rendezvous at the Marina we’d been able to have a sleep in.

Nick was still nowhere to be seen, and Sal’s door was open but she was gone. No doubt she was already at the gym doing squats.

I banged on Nick’s door as I went past, but decided not to give him the same wake-up call he’d given me yesterday. I wasn’t sure if he was sleeping on the top or bottom bunk, but either way I was sure to crack my head.

Placing my toiletry bag on the toilet seat, I turned on the shower and waited for the water to warm up. I would have preferred a longer shower than the quick one I was planning, but any second now Nick was going to start banging on that door saying something about his back door and prairie dogs, and I just didn’t need the visual that early in the morning.

I washed quickly and then climbed out, towelling myself off and wrapping the towel around myself, and that was when I saw it.

Somebody’s mouth was lying in a glass on the vanity top.

There was no soft tissue, just teeth and bone and what looked like metal, as if someone had ripped the jaw out of a cyborg and plonked it into our bathroom. And of course the question of, ‘Who would do something like that?’ was met with only one answer.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Boris had been in our apartment. He had ripped somebody to bits and put a mouth in our bathroom. What would we find next? The rest of the head?

I let out a shriek and fled, gabbling and pointing down the hall as Billy looked up from the table.

‘What is it?’ He crossed the room in mere seconds and gripped my shoulders.

‘There’s a
mouth
in there. Somebody’s jaw. It’s hideous. Horrible.’ I couldn’t stop talking.

‘Calm down Chanel.’

‘In a glass of water. Urghhhhhh.’ I shuddered and let Billy pull me into his arms.

‘Oh for goodness’ sake.’ Nick’s door flung open and he marched down the hall to the bathroom.

‘Don’t touch it,’ I screeched.

‘Anybody would think you’d never seen a denture before?’

‘A what?’

He disappeared into the bathroom and returned a moment later holding up the offending item. ‘Didn’t your Grandparents have false teeth?’ He flipped it into his mouth.

I shook my head. ‘I never knew my grandparents.’ After Mum’s story I was pretty happy about that. ‘But…it has metal on it.’

He shrugged. ‘I break them if they don’t.’

My brain was trying but my mouth wouldn’t stop. ‘Why do you need them?’

He looked at the floor and scuffed at the tiles with a toe. ‘Genetic disorder. I only got baby teeth.’ When he looked back up, Mr Grumpy was back in residence. ‘Now if you’ve finished, I’ve
really
got to take a dump.’ He slammed the bathroom door shut behind him.

Billy’s arms around my shoulders were shaking. I looked up at him to find him laughing. ‘Oh cripes, Chanel.’ He took one arm away to wipe at his eyes. ‘Nobody makes me laugh the way you do.’

I wasn’t sure whether or not to take offence at that. I guess it depended on whether he was laughing with me or
at
me. But that wasn’t really what was occupying the majority of my brain. Billy was pressed up against me and I was wearing a tiny little towel. I could feel his thigh pressed up against mine and his one remaining arm still cradling my back. The shaking of that arm as he laughed was sending interesting sensations through my skin to my brain.

The energy around us changed, the air almost crackling as my sex drive rammed home with enough force to stop a charging elephant. The urge to take him to the ground and have my way with him was almost overwhelming.

His laughing stopped and, as if identifying his current danger he dropped his arm and moved away from me. I looked up into his eyes, terrified of what I would find there.

As my eyes met his, his nostrils flared and his pupils widened. His breathing quickened to match mine. His lips parted slightly as if inviting mine to dance, and I nearly took him up on the subconscious invitation. Only one thing stopped me.

He thought I was his sister.

Damn Harry to hell and back for not already telling him. I didn’t want him to feel sick and depraved like I had. I didn’t want him to suffer like that, feeling dirty and questioning his moralities.

So I dropped my eyes and stepped away from him, breaking all contact. Then I walked past him to my bedroom. I’d have to go back for my toiletry bag once the fog in the bathroom had cleared.

When I came back out fully dressed, Billy was staring glumly at the kitchen table. One hand tapped to a beat only he could hear.

‘What’s up?’ I sat down across from him.

‘My boss phoned back.’

Relief flooded over me. ‘How long till they get here?’

He shook his head. ‘We need hard evidence.’

I could feel my eyebrows shoot to the top of my forehead. ‘The buggy bomb wasn’t enough?’

‘Could have been anyone. He’s not prepared to pull people off the search he’s got going over there. He reckons he’s got evidence to pinpoint Boris in Las Vegas yesterday.’

‘But he’s
here
. I
saw
him.’

His look said that
he
believed me.

I let out a whoosh of air and slumped back into my seat. ‘So we’re still alone on this.’

‘We’ve got Sal and Nick.’

‘And Alex,’ I reminded him with a grin.

The door to the bathroom opened and Nick emerged. He disappeared into his bedroom and reappeared a few minutes later.

‘Ready for action,’ he said to Billy. ‘Where are we off to?’

‘Tara and Matt’s hotel.’

He was obviously ignoring me. I shrugged. Not much I could do about that. Perhaps tonight he would keep
all
of his body parts in his bedroom with him.

The three of us traipsed out to our new golf cart. The Golf Club had taken the news of the last one’s demise remarkably well. It could have been because the manager was gay and Billy had told him. He probably could have told him we had just burnt down the clubhouse and the man would have just gazed at Billy and smiled. I know I would have.

I let Nick have the front. It was easier than having golf balls pegged at my head which, after that morning, I was sure was on the cards. I crawled onto the back seat, keeping my handbag with my revolver close. A quick survey of the bag attached to the back of the front seat told me I had made the right decision. It was brimming with golf balls.

‘Let it rip, Billy.’ Nick jumped up and down in his seat.

Billy backed it out of the car park and turned onto the main road. He planted his foot and the cart slowly increased its speed.

Nick sagged back into his seat. ‘Oh man. We got another dud.’

‘We might need to steal Matt and Tara’s,’ Billy said.

‘Can we do that?’ I was pretty sure they were going to notice if their buggy halved its top speed.

‘Nah,’ Billy said. ‘Wishful thinking.’

We pulled up at the hotel a few minutes later. Nick and I went to check out the restaurant while Billy went up to get Matt and Tara. Mum and Harry were already in there, sipping coffee while they waited.

‘Darling.’ Mum threw her arms around me and then air kissed Nick. She’d been doing a lot of air kissing since we’d gotten back from Las Vegas.

‘Hey Chicken.’ Harry pulled me into a hug and I relaxed against him.

A couple of minutes later Matt and Tara appeared with Billy. Matt muttered, ‘Closer to home,’ and the look Billy shot him made me wonder what the first part of the sentence had been.

Mum jumped up and there was more air kissing before she moved over to a microphone that had been set up in the corner.

‘What are you wearing to the rehearsal dinner tonight?’ Tara took my hand and smiled at me.

‘I didn’t bring anything special.’ Well not anything really good. ‘What should I wear?’

Her smile took on a mischievous edge. ‘Something sexy.’

‘I guess that’s not going to happen.’

‘Remember where we got your shoes from?’

I let out a little laugh. ‘How could I forget?’

‘Well, right next door to that is a little boutique, Tall Poppies. You should go there this afternoon and have a look.’

I glanced over at Billy. He was adjusting the height of the microphone for Mum. ‘Maybe I will,’ I said.

She squeezed my hand and then went to sit beside Matt.

I wrenched my mind away from sexy dresses and Billy and back to what I was meant to be doing. Protecting Matt and Tara. ‘I’ll be outside,’ I said, waiting for Billy to nod his head before I opened the door to the pool area.

I heard Nick follow me outside but I ignored him. I didn’t feel like getting into a verbal sniping contest.

A couple sat at the edge of the shade as close to the pool as possible. They held hands across the table and gazed into each other’s eyes.
Honey Mooners.

A lone woman – overweight, mid-fifties, who should reconsider her swimwear choice, lay on the far side of the pool. As I watched, she sat up, stared at the sun and then shifted the angle of her sun lounge to better track its rays. Apart from the sunbaker and the honeymooners the area was empty.

Mum’s voice broke out from within the restaurant; her melodious tones making even the honeymooners turn to find its source. The woman on the sun lounge’s leathery, brown face relaxed into a smile and one hand started to tap in time to the music.

I walked to the edge of the pool and stared out to sea. No boats within view.

I turned and stared up at the hotel. Nobody rappelling down the side of the building. Excellent. It looked like it was all clear.

I was about to head inside when I heard one of the pool gates click. A man was coming in the northern gate.

My whole body tensed as I turned towards him. Dark hair, freakishly-white skin, light eyes. I recognised him.

He saw me and paused and then backed back out of the gate as I stalked towards him.

We needed hard evidence, hey? Well, I was about to get it.

‘Stop,’ I called as he turned and hurried away. I broke into a trot.

‘Chanel,’ I heard Nick call after me. ‘Wait up.’

I raced to the gate and pulled it open. The man was nowhere to be seen but there was only one way he could go – down the windy path towards the golf course.

I bolted down the path, glad I had chosen my sensible shoes that morning, and
not
the ones I was meant to be wearing in. That would have made hurdling the low hedge at the end of the path that much harder.

I caught a flash of black and white as I cleared the hedge and took off across the grass of the course. The man glanced over his shoulder, saw me, and broke into a sprint.

I hadn’t spent the last two months running on the treadmill at the gym for nothing. I was going to take this guy down if it was the last thing I did.

‘Chaneeelllll.’ Nick’s voice echoed behind me. I dismissed him from my mind and concentrated on my quarry.

He kept his lead for about half a minute but then slowly I started to gain on him. His insistence on shooting me wide-eyed looks over his shoulder only served to slow him down.

Twenty metres. I could hear him gasping in time with his staggering run.

Ten metres. I could taste victory.

Five metres. I sprinted the last couple of steps and launched myself through the air, crash tackling him around the waist and riding him to the ground.

‘Aghhhhhhhhhhh.’ He let out a shriek worthy of a sixteen-year-old girl being assaulted.

‘Who sent you?’ I bent his arm up behind his back and his shriek intensified. ‘Where’s Boris?’ I increased my pressure and his shriek turned to a sob.

‘Crazy bitch,’ he spat out. ‘Get off me.’

‘Not till you tell me.’ No
way
was I letting him get away before Billy could get here.

‘I don’t know
what
you’re talking about.’

‘Hah. Any criminal would say that.’

And then something dawned on me. He didn’t have an accent. Either he had had excellent tuition in Australian accents, or he
was
Australian.

Uh oh.

I released his arm and clambered off his back, letting him roll over. It was probably a good thing my weapon was at the restaurant in my bag.

‘You’re not Russian?’

‘What on earth made you think that?’

‘You’re very white.’

‘What? So all Russians are white?’ He sat up and examined the palms of his hands. There was no blood that I could see.

‘It’s a cold climate. Anyway,’ I said, ‘you obviously don’t like the sun. You’re freaky white. That’s pretty suspicious seeing that you came to a tropical island for holidays.’ I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at him. I’d like to see him get out of
that
astute observation.

‘I’m an albino.’