The Hunted

by Linda Coles

  Can’t wait to see you again after so long. You’ve not changed a bit—still looking great.

  What bull, she thought, but replied in a similar fashion. Me neither, and you’re as dark and handsome as you were back then. Until then, toodle pip.

  Aaron closed the app down on his phone and smiled to himself. The sound of Stephanie moving around upstairs brought him back to reality and he slipped his phone back into his jeans pocket and headed upstairs, where she was just slipping into her nightdress. He sidled up to her and gently kissed her neck, whispering breathlessly into her ear.

  “Why don’t you leave that off, and I’ll join you shortly?” He pecked her neck again.

  Dropping her head back with pleasure, she smiled knowingly and he left her to grab a quick shower.

  Not ten minutes later, Aaron was back, a fluffy towel tied around his waist, his broad chest tanned and muscular from working out three times per week. He liked good-looking things and he added himself into that folder. He took the time and effort to look his best, for himself and those he cared for. And Stephanie appreciated his effort, and he hers.

  But it wasn’t the beautiful Stephanie Galbraith that filled his head that night as they moved together: it was someone else, someone else with long brown hair. And her name was Frankie Green.

  On the other side of town, Frankie certainly wasn’t thinking of Aaron, well, at least not in the same way he was of her. Her desires were somewhat different, more deadly as she percolated the plan in her head. She had chewed through several small packets of cashew nuts, and a glass of red wine had since turned into three. Nibbling helped her think, get the pieces of the puzzle right. She’d been lucky so far, but she wasn’t going to become complacent: that’s where errors occurred and she’d no desire for time inside sharing a cell with a serial killer. Aaron would be easy to get on his own, she was sure—he’d made that pretty damn clear—and that would work in her favour. Finding him through Fiona Gable had been a stroke of luck, and as she nibbled and sipped, she wondered idly if either of them had known Sebastian Stevens too. It wasn’t such a farfetched thought: like-minded people, those who shared the same interests, particularly something so expensive, could well have crossed paths at some point. The thought amused her as she tossed the last of the nuts into her mouth and took the little empty plastic wrappers out to the kitchen.

  Chapter Seventy

  “Coffee, babe?”

  He always made sure when he was about to leave on a work trip that he paid a little extra attention to her, like he had last night, and Stephanie appreciated the thought. And had enjoyed it. She had hated spending the evenings alone in particular, but Aaron had been a pilot for as long as she could remember and they’d easily slotted into a routine. Like today. The whole family was at the breakfast bar, the boys with pancakes and maple syrup made by their father and Stephanie about to be served coffee. She smelled bacon cooking as she sat on a vacant stool.

  “Perfect. Love some. And that bacon smells good too.” She leaned over and kissed both boys on their cheeks, though at age seven they found pancakes far more interesting than their mother’s love. Neither of them stopped chewing, though they at least smiled through full mouths. Mornings when they were all together as a family was Stephanie’s idea of bliss, and when Aaron left in a couple of hours, the house would feel quite different until he came back towards the end of the week. He poured her coffee and set it down in front of her. He had used the ‘I love Mummy’ mug, her favourite. Life was indeed good.

  “What have you got planned this week while I’m gone? Anything exciting?”

  Stirring a little cream in her coffee, one of life’s luxuries and one of her few vices, she smiled at her husband affectionately. “You really do have a memory like a sieve, don’t you? The builders are here most of this week, doing the new en suite, remember?”

  Aaron was busy putting eggs and bacon onto a plate for each of them and still not really focusing on what she was saying. The hot bacon fat stung his fingers as he picked pieces out of the pan without the aid of tongs.

  “Hmm? Okay,” he said absentmindedly, picking up the plates up and taking them to the breakfast bar for them both. “Sounds like fun. You finally chose something you like?”

  Stephanie rolled her eyes at the two boys, who both giggled, knowing full well what their mother was thinking. It was a bad habit, she knew, but they always found it amusing, so she indulged them every once and a while. Aaron very often missed the whole story because he wasn’t fully listening. How could he forget the builders were due in? His memory had more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

  “Yes, I did, it’s all sorted and by the time you get back from LA, it should all be finished and looking pretty cool. Then we’ll be able to have a soak in the tub together when they’ve finished the main bathroom next.” She leaned forward and pecked him lightly on the neck, just like he had done to her the night before. “What time are you leaving?” she asked, changing the topic and licking her lips at the same time. The builders were due around eight, but the boys had to get to school. “What I mean is, are you able to drop the boys off this morning or not? Just thought you might if you can, so I can be here when they start.”

  “Absolutely I can take them. I’m not due to leave until around ten, so plenty of time,” he said, chewing on a piece of buttered toast. There was a blot of egg on his chin. She leaned over and dabbed at it with her napkin.

  “Great, though you know what builders are like. They’ll probably turn up at nine thirty and want a cup of tea before they start, then it’ll be lunchtime before you know it. That’s why I want to be around while they’re here, keep them moving so it’s done before you get back.”

  Aaron smiled at his orderly wife. She could be so bossy at times, just the way he liked her, and even before her morning shower, hair all mussed up, sat drinking coffee and eating breakfast in the kitchen together, she was drop-dead gorgeous.

  “I expect you will. They’ll be wondering what they’ve let themselves in for after a couple of days of you being Sergeant Major Galbraith,” he said with a mock salute, making the boys giggle.

  She looked at the clock on the cooker. “Eat up, boys. You need to leave in ten if you’re going to be at school on time. And that goes for you too, Mr. Driver,” she said, and saluted Aaron back.

  Within a couple of minutes, everyone’s empty plate was abandoned in place, stools were vacated, and young fingers pushed toothpaste-y brushes around their mouths before the three of them left for the car in one giant noisy rabble. The door slammed behind them and peace descended on the house. Climbing the stairs, she could just hear them outside as car doors banged and excited voices rose and fell. Stephanie grinned at just how lucky she was.

  Chapter Seventy-One

  Aaron always missed his family while he was away, but it came with the territory and he loved his work. While the actual flight to LA wasn’t that long or arduous, there were strict rules that stated how much rest time a pilot was to have before flying back again, and the time differences played havoc with a pilot’s body. Better to be safe than sorry, but this trip always meant several days away at one time to comply. He’d been working for the same airline for some time and that loyalty gave him certain perks, so he could pretty much pick the routes and days he wanted to work and let the others fight it out for the less popular ones. One of his perks was his own loyal team, and one woman was particularly loyal to him. They’d been working together for the past five years and while they didn’t see each other outside of work, they made the most of their time together when they were away. While Valerie would undoubtedly have liked more, Aaron was a married man, as he gently reminded her from time to time.

  The door opened to the cockpit and Valerie popped her head inside.

  “Coffee, gentlemen?” she enquired, smiling a little more directly at Aaron than at his co-pilot.

  “Please. Any sandwiches going?”

  “I’ll see what I can find. Was lunch not enough for you to
day, then?” Valerie winked at him behind his co-pilot’s back, their quick lunch encounter still wonderfully fresh in her mind.

  “Got to keep my energy up,” was all he said, and Valerie knew exactly what he was referring to—their upcoming time together later. She couldn’t wait. While they could only see each other at work, she was beginning to get a bit down about it, and wanted more. The thought of him going back to his wife and young family after they’d shared their time together was getting to her, but she knew it would always be the same way. They’d talked about it briefly a couple of months ago when she’d become tearful at the prospect, but he’d told her straight out he would never leave Stephanie and the boys. He hoped she understood.

  And right at the beginning of their relationship, that had been fine. She just wanted to have fun too and they did, together, but as time went by, she’d developed deeper feelings for him. He, unfortunately, didn’t feel the same. So, she took what she could and enjoyed the time they did have and suffered the hurt at the end of each trip. Checking her wristwatch, she reminded herself that she could have him all to herself in five more hours and headed back to the galley in search of sandwiches and coffee.

  “What you two up to tonight, then, Val? Room service or a night out?” Amber knew all about Valerie’s part-time love life, and she also knew it was starting to bother her, though wondered why she didn’t do something about it—like dump him. She was a popular and beautiful woman and deserved a full-time partner of her own, not just the sneaky bits on offer from a married man with sex on his mind.

  Deep down, Valerie knew it herself. “Well, I’m voting for room service, that’s for sure! I’m in need of some alone time and I plan on making the most of the next few days, though he mentioned going out to Venice Beach. How about you?”

  “Venice Beach sounds like fun. You should go, get wild with the locals a little, though I prefer Santa Monica myself, or better yet, Malibu. But no, no real plans, and I’m not in a rush to pick up any more strangers for a while, so I expect I’ll go off with the others bar hopping by night and beauty sleeping by day.” Amber still had the mental scars, and several actual ones, from when she’d picked up a gentleman on a flight and taken him back to her hotel room for a quick hook-up. What she hadn’t banked on was his needs and his peculiar, downright scary, tastes. It had certainly made her think twice about casual liaisons, which was a good thing, and had slowed her down. While she’d never reported the incident, it had taught her a lesson.

  “Sounds like fun,” Valerie said, putting sandwiches on a plate for the men. “If I ever see that mean, animal of a man again, I’ll put something in his coffee for you. Just you give me the nod and consider it done.” She, too, remembered him well, had felt his eyes burning into her backside as she’d worked first class with Amber when he had been on board. She had also seen the news about him afterwards with the hunting auction video debacle.

  “If I see him first, he’ll be getting more than something in his coffee from me,” Amber said, her lip curling. “More like a swift kick where it hurts then a baseball bat round his head. Probably get me sacked though,” she said almost mournfully, and both women laughed. It would never happen.

  “Let’s hope someone else does him in first, then. Otherwise the pair of us could be in trouble,” Valerie finished, giggling. She set the coffees and sandwiches on a tray.

  “I’ll get the door for you,” said Amber, and the two friends headed out towards the cockpit.

  Chapter Seventy-Two

  That night, Stephanie put the boys to bed as usual, then made herself comfortable on the sofa, a glass of white wine dangling between the fingers of her right hand, the remote idly flicking through channels in her left, in search of something to prick her interest. She wasn’t one for much television, preferring the comfort of a good book, but she wasn’t in the mood for that. She wanted something mundane that would wash right over her, take no effort to think about. Taking a long sip, she stopped at a news channel. There was a picture of a good-looking blond man on the screen, and he seemed familiar to her. Turning the volume up, she tried to work out what had happened and where she thought she knew him from. The reporter was broadcasting live from outside a tall building somewhere. Stephanie managed to deduce that Mr. Handsome had been found dead, and it seemed he was the second victim, the first having been killed in the same grotesque way, throat slit and photos of the corpse posted online for all to see.

  The reporter went on to say the blond man had recently been the target of public outrage after bidding on two white rhinos to hunt in a Zimbabwe reserve. A man well known in many circles, particularly in business, he had had his share of fans as well as enemies, and police were continuing their investigations into his death. The name of the victim moved on ticker tape across the bottom of the screen: Sebastian Stevens. Stephanie sat up straighter as she remembered where she knew him from, although they’d both been about fifteen years younger when she’d come across him and she’d never learned his name. Feeling herself lose colour, she downed the remainder of her wine in one go and turned the TV off, sitting back into the sofa and closing her eyes to regain her composure. Her head started to pulse and she rubbed her temples to push a headache away.

  “So he’s dead then. And good riddance. I hope it hurt.”

  Aaron had never asked about the little scars on the backs of her legs, now faded and about a centimetre long, and she’d first explained them away as nicks from getting stuck in brambles when she was young. The topic had not been mentioned since; there was no need. What the animal had really done to her that night she had no idea, though she remembered getting painfully drunk with him back in his room and awakening with a throbbing headache which she’d assumed was from a hangover. It was only when she’d got back to her own flat the next morning that she realised he must have spiked her drink. She’d surely have felt those little cuts had it only been booze in her stomach.

  That was the first and only time she ever saw him, but now his stupid face and blond locks were stuck in her head, the question of what exactly had happened to her that night fresh in her mind once again. She had not bothered to report the incident; she had been too embarrassed. Yes, she’d gone there for sex, and they had had fun together, but when she’d passed out… Well, she’d just been mortified. She had had no idea what he’d done to her, and still didn’t.

  And now he was dead.

  Stephanie took her empty wine glass into the kitchen, poured milk into a pan, and made herself a soothing mug of hot chocolate to take upstairs to bed. While she wished Aaron was lay beside her, she was also glad he wasn’t there to see her reaction, not that he could do anything about it. But it was a comforting arm she needed right now, and there wasn’t one available. He’d only ever been a pilot, and she’d known what she was taking on when they first got together. But that didn’t mean she liked it.

  With the last mouthful of chocolate gone, she slithered down under the duvet and fell into a fitful sleep, dreaming of Aaron and Sebastian as they floated randomly through her head, combining in one unsettling dream.

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  The morning broke with bright sunshine streaming in through the front bedroom windows, waking her early, the light fiercely bright with no curtains to shield it away. She opened her eyes slowly and lay there on her stomach. The clock read 5.45 am and Stephanie groaned. Her head felt heavy as she lifted it off the pillow to turn over onto her back. The sun made an odd pattern as it shone through the patterned holes on the lightshade. Little flower shadows danced all around the top half of the wall and she watched them, her head empty. A noise in the hallway brought her back into the moment, as she realised one of the boys must be up and about. She grabbed her robe off the end of the bed, and fastening the sash loosely around her waist, she headed out to see why he was up so early.

  “Hi Mum,” said a little voice as Josh came out of the toilet, drying his hands on his PJ bottoms instead of the hand towel by the basin. She could never figure out
why he did that, and had given up asking, hoping he’d stop it before he grew much older.

  “You’re an early bird,” she said, tousling his hair. “Want some tea and toast?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Then grab your robe—it’s still a bit chilly yet—and I’ll see you downstairs. Is Jasper awake too?”

  “Nah, don’t think so,” he said, and sauntered back to his room to get his robe. Stephanie made her way downstairs, smiling at the way he had about himself. The two boys were alike to look at, but in personality and behaviour they couldn’t have been more different. Jasper would lie bed until noon if he thought he could get away with it, while Joshua had always been an early riser, though not as early as today normally.

  She smiled as he padded into the kitchen and climbed up onto a stool, his hair messy and his thin legs hanging like pipe cleaners inside his tartan patterned PJ bottoms. He’d fill them out one day.

  “Are the builders coming back today, Mum?”

  “I hope so. They should be here every day this week to get it finished before your dad gets back. Why do you ask?”

  “Just wondered. Will they be taking the wall down today, do you think? I’d like to watch.”

  “I expect so, but you’ll be at school, so I doubt you’ll see it. You want me to take a couple of photos of it for you instead?”