Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4) (15 page)

He laughed. ‘He’s playing you like a finely-tuned violin.’ The look on his face changed and he leaned toward me. ‘
I’d
like to play you like a….’

‘Stop.’ I put my hand up in front of his face. ‘I thought we’d had this conversation.’

‘Did I ever tell you about my short-term memory loss?’

I snorted and took another sip of my drink. Billy was still on the phone. The look on his face said it was a good conversation. It had better
not
be Sal.

‘So,’ he changed the subject, ‘what’s the deal between you and him?’ He nodded towards Billy.

I frowned. ‘I told you. He’s my brother.’

‘Yeah.’ He pulled a face at me. ‘I’m not buying it. Sisters don’t track their brothers the way you do.’

‘What do you mean?’ I tried to be nonchalant as I pulled my straw out of my drink and mashed it back down into the mint a few times.

‘You know where he is, always.’

‘It’s good to know where your partners are when you’re on a job.’

‘Really? Where’s Nick? What’s he doing right now?’

‘He’s behind me.’ I turned to watch Nick jump up and down as he grabbed at the chips on the top rack of the shelving. ‘You think he’d just get another flavour.’

‘That one won’t accept defeat. We all have
that
in common.’

I tilted my head to the side and peered at him.

He smiled and said, ‘Yeah, I know you’re not just a bombshell. Which brings me back to my point.’ He nodded in Billy’s direction.

‘Harry would kill me if I let anything happen to his only son.’

‘Harry. Your father?’

I nodded.

‘Your use of the word Harry leads me to believe that you don’t know him that well.’

‘Maybe I was brought up in one of those families that call their parents by their first names.’

‘And yet you call your mother, Mum.’

He had me there. Damn him.

He sat back in his chair and stared toward the ceiling. ‘And there was the way you said – how exactly did you put it? “It turns out that we have the same father”.’ He said it in a high-pitched girly voice.

‘I don’t talk like that.’ Man, he had a steel-trap mind.

‘This all leads me to believe that you only found out about Harry recently.’

I stared at him. What was he? A mind reader?

‘Which means….’ He paused and tapped his bottom lip with his finger. ‘Ahhhhh.’ He sat back up and pointed at me. ‘
You
didn’t know he was your brother when you met him, did you?’ His face lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning. ‘You’ve got a crush on him.’

Billy hung up the phone and started walking back towards us.

‘Shhhhhh.’ I flapped my hands urgently at Alex. ‘He’s coming.’

‘One date.’

‘What?’ I hissed.

‘Same deal as the one you made for Martine. I’ll be quiet if you go on one date with me.’

‘That was one
drink
.’

He crossed his arms and said, ‘Okay. A drink. At my time and choosing.’

I wanted to reach across the table and punch him as hard as I could, but Billy was almost there and that sort of behaviour would raise a lot of questions. So instead I said, ‘Fine.’

Billy pulled his seat out and sat down. ‘What’s fine?’

‘The weather,’ Alex lied smoothly. ‘It’s so beautiful this time of year.’

Nick appeared on my other side. ‘I got salt and vinegar, sour crème and sweet chilli, soy chicken, and barbeque.’ He dumped four packets of crisps onto the table.

‘You spent the whole twenty?’

‘If you didn’t want me to spend all of it, you shouldn’t have given it to me.’

Billy let out a snort and ripped open the packet of salt and vinegar chips. ‘So Alex, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?’

‘Just thought I’d let you know I’ve brought in more backup.’

Billy finished chewing, swallowed and said, ‘That won’t be necessary. I just got off the phone from the Bureau.’

‘And?’ Nick and I both leant forwards.

‘And
they’re
sending us backup.’

‘Oh yeah.’ Nick held his hand up and high-fived Billy over the table.

I could feel a relieved smile on my face. We weren’t there yet, but at least we had convinced them to come and help us.

‘Yes,’ Alex said, ‘but they won’t be here till, what – tomorrow evening at the earliest. We need backup now. It’s going to look weird at the rehearsal dinner if the four of you aren’t drinking. Between that and you all taking turns to check the perimeter, people might get suspicious. My guys can cover for you.’

Billy nodded slowly. ‘You’re right.’ It sounded like it had been painful saying those words. ‘The FBI will start filtering onto the island tomorrow evening. We can’t alert Boris to their presence.’

I nodded. The last thing we wanted was to scare him off. ‘So they’ll be here by the wedding?’

He swung his chair back so that he was balancing on the rear two legs. ‘Yep. We’ll have some with us tomorrow night.’ For the hen’s and buck’s parties.

‘I can’t believe Sal hasn’t found anything.’ Nick picked up the sweet chilli chips and opened them. ‘You would think a group of Russians would be memorable.’

‘Is it possible he is here alone?’ I asked.

Billy stopped his swinging, thumping the front legs of his chair back down onto the ground. He reached out and picked up a chip, holding it in the air to look at it. ‘By himself?’ He turned the chip from side-to-side as he examined it.

‘Well, Sal’s looking for Russians. What if there aren’t Russians. What if there is
a
Russian.’

‘It would make sense as to why we haven’t been able to find them,’ Nick said. ‘We’ve been looking for the wrong thing.’

‘One man alone could remain hidden,’ Billy said. ‘He could live off canned goods so he didn’t have to go to the shops.’

‘And he wouldn’t have to worry about his partners giving him away through indiscretions.’ I’d watched enough movies to know how these groups normally fell apart.

‘Where would one man alone hide?’ Billy asked his chip.

‘The Marina,’ Alex said. ‘He’d be hiding at the Marina.’

***

‘But I was enjoying myself.’ Martine turned one last time and waved at Albert over her shoulder.

He blew her a kiss in response and called, ‘Till tomorrow.’

‘We’re going to be late,’ I said to her.

She let out a huff and smoothed down her wig. ‘Where have Nick and Alex gone?’

‘The Marina.’ It had taken us a good ten minutes of wrangling but we had finally agreed that as Billy and I were both part of the bridal party, Nick and Alex would be the best ones to go.

‘I hear it’s pretty this time of night.’ Her head was obviously still caught up with romantic notions.

‘Yep. They wanted to go look at the lights.’ That part was true. Sal had been over that Marina at all times of the day, but she had never been there at night. We were hoping they might see something she hadn’t.

Apart from getting a search warrant for all the boats in the Marina (and I wasn’t even sure that was possible), we were going to have to tick the boats off one-by-one without alerting Boris what we were up to.

Sal had spent some time chatting up the man in charge of the berth bookings. He’d indicated that seventy percent of the berths rotated through new boats within a few days to a couple of weeks. The other thirty percent stayed for longer. She had found out which boats were permanents and crossed them off her list.

Nick and Alex had gone to look at the boats that had been there for a couple of weeks. Sal hadn’t seen anything untoward – but she had been looking for a group of men. Not one man alone.

A chill ran down my spine. One man alone. Brooding and planning. But exactly what was he planning? And to
whom
was he planning to do it?

We were silent on the drive back to the hotel. Martine’s head was still in the clouds but I was sure Billy and I were thinking about the same thing. Boris. Well at least I was thinking about him most of the time. I did spend a minute admiring Billy’s profile in the gathering darkness. But apart from that, I was one hundred percent committed to the case.

Music tinkled on the night air as we climbed out of the buggy. We hurried into the hotel and down the hall to the restaurant. Sal waved at us as we entered the room, and then sauntered to Billy, linking her arm through his and leaning in to graze his cheek with her lips. I was sure the way she pushed her breasts against his arm was purely accidental.

‘Deep breaths,’ Martine said, taking my hand and leading me away from them. She had come out of her love coma just in time to stop me grabbing onto Salindra’s hair and wrenching her away from Billy. It was a good thing. Apart from the scene it would create, I was betting she could bitch slap with the best of them.

‘Chanel.’ Nat raised her arm and beckoned me over to where she was sitting with Elaine. ‘You look amazing.’ She pulled me down onto a spare seat next to her. ‘Where did you get that dress?’

‘Tall Poppies,’ Martine said, taking the next seat.

I glanced over at Billy in time to see Sal giggle at something he had said. I knew the act was necessary, but did she have to be so convincing?

‘I love that shop.’ Elaine took a sip from her champagne flute.

Of course that took me to the question I had been trying to avoid – was Sal still acting? Or had Billy and her relationship progressed to something more than work colleagues?

‘I’m going back there tomorrow,’ Martine said. ‘Do you want to come?’

There had been a lot of running together, and Sal looked amazing in her running gear. And then there was the way they were gazing at each other. Could you fake that level of intensity?

‘Oh yes.’ Elaine clapped her hands together. ‘We can get something for the hen’s party.’

They looked right together. Two glowing, beautiful specimens of Homo Sapiens. Misery set up camp in my gut.

‘Chanel?’ Martine nudged me. ‘What do you think?’

‘Champagne.’ I turned to look at her.

‘No silly.’ She let out a laugh. ‘We’re all going shopping tomorrow.’

‘Oh right. Will Tara come?’

‘Tara’s not so hot on the whole shopping thing.’ Nat picked up a spare flute, filled it from a bottle in an ice bucket and handed it to me. ‘But she’ll come for the company.’

I nodded my head as I took the glass from her. After that afternoon it was even more imperative that I stuck with Tara when she was out of the hotel. Things were going to be easier though with Alex’s back-up in place. ‘We’ve got the practice ceremony in the afternoon haven’t we?’

Elaine nodded. ‘So we can go after breakfast.’

Tara’s Mum, Bet, pulled a seat out and perched on the edge of it. ‘Mind if I join you?’

Nat leant over and kissed her. ‘You look wonderful.’

Bet pulled a face. ‘I’m feeling a little frazzled.’

‘Wedding dramas?’ Elaine emptied the last of the champagne into Bet’s glass and then tipped the bottle upside down into the ice bucket.

Bet nodded, took a slurp and let out a sigh. ‘Aunt Esme turned up this morning.’

‘Urrrr,’ Nat said, ‘I didn’t think you invited her.’

Bet sniffed. ‘I didn’t. After the way she treated Tara with the whole Tash and Jake thing, there was no
way
I was inviting her.’

Jake. The name sounded familiar. I managed to wrench my mind away from Sal and Billy to concentrate on it. Of course. Jake had been Tara’s ex-husband, but I had no idea who Tash was.

‘It’s most weird, I tell you.’ The voice was old and cranky and, if the way Bet sank further into her chair was any indication, I was guessing it belonged to Aunt Esme. ‘All these people I’ve never even heard of.’

‘Well Aunt Esme, I do have a few friends you’ve never met.’ Polite frustration filled Tara’s voice.

‘I should go and save her,’ Bet said, ‘but I’ve put up with the old bat all day.’

I saw Tara’s Dad, Bert, duck behind a pole as Tara and Aunt Esme headed his way.

Aunt Esme let out a snort. ‘It’s not right I tell you.’

‘Oh look,’ Tara said, ‘there’s Dad.’

Bet looked over her shoulder at her husband and gave him a cheeky grin. He rolled his eyes and stepped out from behind the pole.

‘Well,’ Bet said looking back at us. ‘That should keep her busy for a while. He’s been hiding from her all day.’ She looked at me and said, ‘Speaking of hiding, where’s your funny, little friend?’

‘He had a wardrobe drama.’ I looked at my watch. ‘But he’ll be here soon.’

Bet tutted. ‘Must be hard getting clothes to fit him.’

‘Oh no.’ I smiled broadly. ‘He shops in the kid’s section of Target. They have a range for obese children.’

‘I didn’t know that,’ Bet said.

I nodded and took a sip of my drink. ‘Yep, means he can get the width he needs with the short leg length.’

Martine let out a giggle. ‘Although some of the prints he has to wear are questionable.’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I thought the cartoon, zoo-themed shirt was adorable.’

Elaine’s husband, Alistair appeared by her side and replaced the finished bottle of bubbly with a new one. ‘Hey gorgeous,’ she murmured.

He leant down and kissed her, their lips lingering on each other’s in a way that promised things to come. He pulled away and touched his nose to hers before saying, ‘I rang Mum.’

‘Oh, how are they?’ She placed her hand on his arm and stared up into his eyes.

‘Misbehaving as usual.’ His lips quirked up. ‘Leo pushed Lydia into the fish pond. Again.’

Elaine’s face broke into a radiant smile as she shook her head. ‘He’s
so
naughty
. What are we going to do with him?’

Alistair laughed and said, ‘I suggest two weeks locked in his room without rations.’

‘And who,’ she replied, ‘is going to whip your butt at Mario Brothers?’

I turned to Nat and said, ‘Their children?’

She nodded as she pushed waves of honey-blonde hair back behind her shoulder. ‘The twins turn three next month.’

‘What about you and Ricardo?’ I looked over to where her God-like husband stood at the bar. As I watched, Alistair re-joined him.

‘We’re waiting for him to finish his latest fellowship at the end of the year.’ Nat shook her head. ‘I mean how many letters does one person need after their name?’