WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (82 page)

CHRISTA

FIVE DAYS LATER

H
olding
Sarah’s hand, I walked up to my front door.  “Brian was lucky,” I said to
my cousin, Brad, on the phone.  “I heard he’s out of hospital.”

“You could say that.  The bullet went through his arm,
didn’t it?”

“Yes.  A flesh wound, but it must have really
hurt.”  I unlocked the door and signalled Sarah to enter the house.

She bit her lip and looked up at me.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.”  I struggled to banish the
horrid memories from my own head, let alone hers.  “Nicola’s inside with
Dave.”  I squeezed her hand.  “Let’s go in and say hello.”

She found a smile and entered the hall.

Seeing the way my daughter handled everything made me a very
proud mum.

As I walked over the threshold, I shuddered but tried to
hide it.  It had been days since the attack, but despite my nerves, I was
more than delighted to escape my parents’ spare room and return home. All the
cameras had been removed, the men were locked in a cell somewhere far away, and
we’d come through this horror without losing any of the people we cared
for.  “Can I phone you back later?” I asked Brad.  “Or better still,
pop round for a drink, if you like.”

“Ummm... I’ll think about it.  I’m kinda driving
someone somewhere.”

“Then you shouldn’t be on the phone.”

“It’s hands free.”

“Okay.  Speak soon.”

“See ya.”

I dropped my phone into my handbag and made my way into the
kitchen.  Nicola was chatting to Dave, whose arms were tightly wrapped
around her waist. 
Ooh, things have stepped up.

Nicola spotted us, her eyes crinkled and sparkled.  She
looked lovely in a navy, belted jumpsuit.  She wore just enough makeup to
accentuate her eyes, and her hair flowed loose around her shoulders with a
single plait across her fringe.  “Hey there, stranger.”  Sarah ran
over and cuddled her.  Nicola grabbed her chin and teasingly
squeezed.  “Ooh... I missed you.”  She glanced across to me and
mouthed, ‘you too.  A lot.’

Smiling, I set my handbag on a worktop and wandered over to
fill the kettle.  “What you up to?”

“Well.”  Nicola winked at Sarah.  “Figured
celebrating your mum’s birthday was way overdue.  Wanna help me decorate
this cake?”  She lowered her voice and said with a giggle, “Dave’s not
really any good at this stuff.”

I grinned at him.  “Makes two of us.”

He smiled.  “How you doing?”

“Better.  Thanks.  Pleased to be home.”  I
set the kettle to boil.

“Oh no, you don’t.”  Nicola grabbed a bottle of bubbly,
poured a glass and handed it to me.

I frowned.  “Can you afford this?”

A smirk played on her lips.  “It’s just cheap
fizz.  Probably tastes of vinegar and soap, but we can pretend, right?”

I nodded and sipped it. 
Hmmm... probably tastes
better on the second glass.

Sarah went to the sink to wash her hands.

“Good girl,” Nicola said.

The doorbell rang.  I turned and flinched.

Dave walked past me and touched my shoulder. 
“Relax.  I’ll get it.”  He left the room.

Nicola shook icing sugar into a bowl.  “I invited a few
people.”

“Who?” 

“You’ll see.”  She dropped a few nobs of butter in and
let Sarah mix it. 

“Come here,” I said, and pulled Nicola into a hug. 
“God, I’ve missed you.  How you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been on a spin cycle in a washing machine.”

“Get your tooth fixed?”

“Nah.  I’d need an implant.  It’s a back one so no
one will see it’s missing.  Oh, God, I’m just happy to be alive and at
home again.”

“Me too,” I whispered into her hair.  “And it is, you
know,
your
home too, for as long as you want.  I meant every word.”

Footsteps tapped into the kitchen.

“Look who I found,” Dave said.

I released Nicola and gaped, speechless.  My cousin
Brad entered the kitchen saying hello, followed by... oh, God, it was
Brian. 

“Did you invite him?” I whispered to Nicola.

“Yes.”

Wha-t?

I drew level with her.  “But I thought you wanted to
rip his head off.”

“For dumping you?  Yeah, I did.  But that was
before.”

“Before what?”

“I was wrong.  You should talk to him.”

Brian was silent at first.  We exchanged smiles in an
awkward, don’t-hold-eye-contact way. 

“You still like him, right?” Nicola whispered.

“No.” 
Of course I did. 
But too much had
bludgeoned cracks into my romantic thoughts.  I’d gotten over him once, I
could do it again.

As I stepped away from Nicola, he unzipped his coat and
waggled his mobile phone at me.  “Anytime now,” he said, as I realised he
meant the paternity results. 

A cough bust out of my throat. 
Oh, crikey.

“Nicola invited me, and Brad drove.   I hope
that’s okay.”

I nodded and gulped.  “Y-yeah.  Of
course.”   I’d expected him to message me, not turn up.  What
the heck was Nicola thinking?

“Thought you’d want us to be together when we get
the-”  He mouthed the word ‘results.’

Of course.
  I coughed and glanced away. 
“Absolutely.”  Oh, crikey.  Mixed emotions surged through me.  I
wanted him here, yet didn’t. 
Why is life so freakin’ complicated?

“You okay?” Brad asked, rubbing my back.

I prodded him.  “You could have told me you were coming
round here.” 

He laughed.  “Couldn’t resist the surprise. 
Nicola invited me.”  He glanced her way, winked and smiled. 

Yes.  He definitely had a thing for her.  I
frowned, hoping Dave hadn’t seen.

“And she asked me to pick Brian up.  He’s not meant to
drive yet.”

“Of course.”  I noticed Brian staring at me from the
corner of his eye as he removed his coat and straightened his black
t-shirt.  The bandage over his bullet wound covered a large part of his
bicep.  I wondered if it was still sore.  “It seems she sent out a
whole load of invites,” I mumbled.  The last time I saw Brian was in the
hospital five days ago when we’d agreed to do a DNA test.  Sarah roughly
knew what it was for when we swabbed the inside of her cheek, but I’d tried to
deflect it.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Brian could be her
dad, didn’t want to get her hopes up in case it came back as ‘no match’. 

“Thanks for clearing my house up this morning,” I said to
Brad.  “I really appreciate it.”

“Anything for my favourite cousin.”

I moved away from him and sunk back into thought. 
Brian’s knowing many influential people certainly came in handy this
week.  However he managed it, the lab put a rush job on the test and
agreed to email him the results rather than make us wait another day for them
to arrive by post.

We didn’t really talk about anything in depth when I visited
him at hospital, on account of Sarah being with me.  And I had no idea how
to act around him.  I’d be eternally grateful for Brian taking a bullet
for me, but... but he’d broken up with me by text, and got it on with Claire
the evening she decided she wanted me dead.  I didn’t know how I
felt.  Hurt and disappointment were somewhere in the mix.  Beneath
this still flickered a longing for him.

I took a deep breath and played with a strand of hair. 
Like he’d said to Claire, we were like siblings.  Yes, that’s how I had to
deal with this.  Treat him like a brother; close, but platonic. 
 He’d been confused because he wanted to be a bigger part of Sarah’s life,
and saw me as the gatekeeper.  Determined, for Sarah’s sake, to reform
some civility, and regardless of the emotional judge and jury in my head, I met
his eyes and forced myself to smile.  “How’s your arm?”

He flexed it.  “On the mend.  Thanks.  How
have you been?”

“Pretty good, you know... considering.”

His lips pressed into a line of understanding. 
“Yeah.  Just wish I could have...”

I half-smiled and glanced away, struggling to hold eye
contact.

Nicola handed glasses of bubbly out, then raised hers. 
“Okay guys.  So let’s make a toast to John, a fresh start, to coming home,
and to hopefully...”  She grinned at me.

I stiffened and mouthed, ‘Don’t say it.’  Jeez, don’t
mention the test.

She pointed her glass at me and jutted her chin up. 
“And I was about to say, happy belated birthday, Christa.”

My shoulders relaxed. 
She’s a tease.
  I
laughed.

“What’s funny, mum?”

“Nothing.  I’m just happy to be home.”

“Here, here,” Brad said, clinking his glass to Brian’s and
Dave’s.

I raised mine, then took a big gulp of tart bubbles.  I
walked forward and shoulder-bumped Nicola.  “Any other little surprises in
store?”

Her smile vanished and a frown creased her face.  “The
guy who set the website up is still out there,” she whispered.

“I know, I know.  The cops will catch him.”

“So I figured...”

I nodded.  “You did the right thing.  I have to
admit I feel safer with people around.”  I beckoned her over to the sink.

She leaned into me.  “Do you know something new?”

“The police said Dale and Claire, whose real name is Rachel,
aren’t talking, and the other men are swearing blind they don’t know who this
guy is, but the cops know they’re covering up for him.”

“So he’s the money man and brains, rather than the muscle
man, right?”

“Yes.  I was gonna tell you yesterday but-“

“I know.  Bad phone reception.  They’ll want to
keep him sweet for when they get out.”

“The police found the website through Sarah’s laptop, as you
know, and said there were about sixty houses being filmed and nearly a thousand
subscribers from all over the world.”

“That freakin’ many?”

“Yes.  Those people must be mortified to learn they were
being filmed.”

“So they’ve shut the site down?”

I nodded.

“Good.”  Nicola shuddered and hugged herself. 
“I’d feel so much safer if they found this guy.”

I remembered Nicola telling me several days ago, that she
had a fan, a fan who managed to stop the men killing her during the first
attack.  When we were tied up in the bedroom, I did not get the impression
that any of those men had a crush on her.  “Do you think this guy is the
one who has a thing for you?  You know, your fan?”

She bit her lip, tears brimmed her eyes.  “Can we talk
about something else? I just... I.”

I nodded.  I understood.  “Sure.”

I turned around, dipped my finger into the icing bowl and
licked it.

“Mum,” Sarah said, playfully slapping my hand.  “You
have to wait.”

“But it’s delicious.”  I sucked my finger clean and
noticed Brian smirking at me.

Dave kissed Nicola, walked over to Brian, and fell into
conversation.

Nicola sprinkled some cocoa powder into the icing. 
“Can’t beat a triple chocolate cake, right?”

Sarah smiled and continued stirring the wooden spoon around
the bowl.

“You’ve got some birthday cards to open, Christa,” Nicola
said.

“Oh, really?”

“Over there.”  She pointed to a stack of envelopes atop
magazines near the microwave. 

I reached over and opened a couple.

“You know,” she whispered, while topping up my glass. 
“You really should talk to Brian.”

“I have.”

“No.  I mean
really
talk.”

I put the cards down and shook my head.  My heart
punched at the thought.  “I thought you hated him.”

“Like I said, that was
before
.”

I didn’t know what to say to him, but knew we had to erase
the awkwardness.

The doorbell rang and I sighed, hoping I was saved from
Nicola.

“I’ll get it,” Brad said.

No such luck.

Nicola nodded toward Brian then whispered in my ear.  “He
can’t keep his eyes off you.”

“Shush, will ya?”  I gritted my teeth, felt heat rush
to my cheeks.

“Look, I spoke to him in the hospital and we got a few
things straightened out,” Nicola said, her soft breath tickling my ear. 
“That thing with Claire... well, just think about it.  He’d had your dead
husband strapped to his car, rumours flying around town, and when he saw the
website...”  She pulled away and pursed her lips.

“Yeah, so...
it
still happened.  He wasn’t over
her.  I was just a moment of confusion.”

“You weren’t.”

“You’ve changed your tune.”  A few days ago, she hated
him.

“Hear me out, will you?  I’m just saying, the poor guy
wouldn’t have known which way was left, right, up or down after that lot. 
Jeez!  Even I’d have tried it on with Claire after going through
that.  But you have to know, it really was just a fumble, they didn’t have
sex.”

“But the text message.”

“I tried to tell you before when the bloody phone cut
off.”  She squeezed my shoulder.  “I was wrong.  Claire stole
his mobile.  The police found it in the glove compartment of her
car. 
Claire
sent you that ‘rewind’ text, not Brian.”

I frowned.  “Really?  He didn’t mention anything
in the hospital.”

“He didn’t know.  Not until later.  Don’t you
see?  Brian didn’t break up with you at all.  He still wants
you.  But
he
thinks
you’ve
gone off him after the way he
acted with Claire in Sarah’s room.  It sickened him to tell her he loved
her, but he only said it to save you.”

My skin tingled.  I knew he’d said those things because
she had a gun on me, but despite the text, he’d also acknowledged they’d been
together that evening.  “Ummm... Are you sure about this?” 
Jeez. 
What other lies and poison have seeped into my brain? 

Nicola’s mouth widened to a white-toothed smile.  She
was right, no gap visible.  “Hell yes.”

I glanced away.  Perhaps things had gone too far for us
to go back, or mend anything now.