Without a smattering of indecision, Oli left the chamber.
‘Shit,’ James muttered.
‘Those who leave alone,’ Anthony whispered, ‘tend not to return.’ The scarred man hoisted his bag over one shoulder. ‘I’ll make sure he comes back in one piece.’
‘I don’t think he’ll welcome your presence.’
‘Well that’s the good thing about being me. He won’t even know I’m there.’
With no further recommendations to offer, James skulked resignedly back into the shadows and watched Anthony leave the chamber in Oli’s wake. With two more souls left to fate and the group of survivors ever more dilapidated, their chances of survival had once again reduced.
Now they were four.
*
Unable to close out the sound of the wind, Danielle was thankful for Abbey’s body heat as she lay awake. Her toes were cold, as was the tip of her nose. She could feel the gentle rise and fall of Abbey’s chest, just as she could see those of James and Sebastian across the room. Oli and Anthony had left a while ago. She had been awake when they departed, but she hadn't been able to hear them.
The flames of the campfire continued to dance to the silent melody of passing breezes, and she found herself hypnotically lost for a moment in the display. It wasn’t until Sebastian coughed himself awake that she snapped out of it.
She watched the big South African pick himself up and move sleepily to the fire, hands forward. Under her breath she cursed. She needed to pee, and for that she needed privacy.
Peeling away from Abbey, she climbed to her feet quietly. Abbey didn’t stir, didn’t move at all.
‘Shouldn’t you be asleep?’ whispered Sebastian.
Something in the man’s eyes told her he was glad she wasn’t. ‘I need the loo. Wish I didn’t, it’s freezing out there.’
‘So stay and get warmed up for a minute.’
‘How come you’re up, anyhow?’ Danielle questioned. ‘Having nightmares?’
‘There’re no such things as nightmares, only bad dreams.’
‘I wish I’d known that growing up. Could’ve saved me a lot of sleepless nights.’
‘You have a beautiful voice, Danielle,’ Sebastian smiled edgily. ‘It’s a shame you didn’t start speaking earlier.’
‘Thanks,’ she murmured uneasily, and took a step towards the entrance. ‘I’m going to see about that loo trip.’
‘I wouldn’t recommend you go out there alone, sweetheart. The storm’s raging.’
Danielle feigned another smile. ‘I’ll be fine. Takes more than a bit a rain to stop a girl when she needs to pee.’
‘Then I’ll escort you. You shouldn’t be wandering around alone tonight.’
‘That’s okay,’ she muttered. ‘I’ll wake Abbey.’
‘No! Erm…what I mean is, there’s no point in waking Abbey when I’m already here, right?’
‘It’s alright, really,’ she persevered. ‘She said to wake her if I needed anything.’
‘Look,’ Sebastian whispered, ‘I don’t even think we need to go outside. There are several other chambers nearby. Besides, I could do with going too.’
‘It’s okay, Sebastian, really,’ she assured him. ‘I think I’ll just –’
‘What’s the matter, you don’t trust me? I thought we were friends.’
She paused, curious. ‘We are…really, we are. I just…’
‘Good, so I’ll take you. And Abbey can rest.’
Unable to protest further, Sebastian shuffled her from the chamber. She turned reluctantly to see James and Abbey sleeping soundly, and for the briefest moment she could’ve sworn she saw, in the twisted shapes of the firelight, the faintest trace of a smile resting across Sebastian’s lips.
*
For too long he had waited for this moment, this opportunity. He was going to be alone with the girl at last, just like they both wanted.
For days he’d put in the groundwork; sitting on the beach with her, outwardly trying to keep up her spirits, while attempting to steer her affections away from the interfering walking advertisement for brain damage. From the word go Eric hadn’t trusted him.
What he had with Danielle was special. The others would never understand. The way she ran haughtily along the beach, the way she flicked her hair; she’d been flirting with him this whole time. His battle with Eric for the girl’s attention had been fought, and he’d won.
Eric was too damaged to understand that he and Danielle wanted to be alone.
Up until the plane went down he’d been handcuffed. He knew Eric had seen him at the airport; he just hadn’t supposed it would matter. The plane was never meant to crash, just as he was never meant to meet the girl, but during the process he had become free from his bonds, free from the prying eyes which invaded his daily routine, free from restrictions to be handed the beautiful Danielle on a silver platter.
As he led her into the antechamber, his confidence increased. Just like back in Durban where young girls were a dime-a-dozen, and to snare one from the streets was not only possible, it was downright easy. Considering the sheer populous of the region, no one ever missed the odd vagrant. With the promise of money and shelter, they rarely said no to him. If mothers and fathers could so readily abandon their children, somebody had to pick up the pieces.
Turning to her, the whites of her eyes intensified. She looked worried. Just like many before her she was anxious she would not be enough for him, that she would fall short of his expectations. He liked that.
‘I think I’ve got it from here, Sebastian,’ she quivered, fiddling with her locket. ‘I’ll see you back at the fire.’
Playing hard to get.
‘You go ahead,’ he said softly. ‘I’ll wait right here, see that you’re safe.’
She took a reluctant step forward and turned. ‘You don’t need to watch me. I’d like a little privacy, please.’
Not eager in response he pushed her further into the antechamber and feigned an exaggerated search. The cave boasted nothing but rivulets of intrusive rainwater and plinking puddles.
‘Maybe I should go get Abbey,’ she murmured.
The tease.
‘I’ll take care of you, Danielle,’ he assured her. ‘Didn’t we agree we should leave Abbey be?’
‘Well, maybe I’m not so desperate now. I think I’ll just head back and sleep it off, go in the morning.’
She turned to leave and the strong arm grappled her from behind.
‘Danielle, I’m beginning to think you don’t trust me.’
‘What, no! Of course I trust you. I just don’t need to go anymore.’
Refusing to relinquish his grasp, Sebastian's face changed shape as he considered his options. ‘You don’t know how long I’ve waited to get you alone, Danielle. And I know you’ve wanted it too. I’ve seen it in your eyes.’
Tearing her arm from his grasp she took a careful step backwards. ‘Sebastian, what are you talking about?’
He could feel the erection pressing against his zip. ‘You’ve done nothing but flirt with me since the crash. You’re so beautiful, so loving…’
‘Sebastian, you’re scaring me. Please let me go back.’
‘You want to be with me,’ he insisted. ‘I know you do. Or perhaps…wait, you’re not one of them, are you? One of the bottom-feeders. I clothe you, I shelter you, and this is how you repay me, with defiance!’
‘Defiance?’ she mumbled. ‘Sebastian, you’re making no sense.’
‘You know what I’m talking about, you little bitch. You flirt with me, you flutter your eyelids, and you think you can toy with me, you filthy little whore!’
He watched as she retreated cautiously, nervy feet tapping out acoustics.
‘Sebastian, I don’t know what you mean by all this. Please stay back or I’ll scream for the others.’
‘You think they’ll hear you?’ he smiled crookedly. ‘Listen to that storm, girl. It’s just you and me now. But I don’t want you to be frightened, you’ve got m
e all wrong. I only want to love you like so many before you. And some of them, they grew to love me too.’
Dismayed to see his words failing, the girl turned and fled, her feet slapping against hollow rock. Sebastian was too fast. He snagged her sweater and flung her to the chamber floor, the puddles doing nothing to cushion her fall.
His erection was raging now, grinding against the brass zipper, aching for release.
Danielle rolled onto her back as he withdrew it, exhibited it.
‘There, you see,’ he said hopefully. ‘Not so bad, huh? I can love you, Danielle, you just need to be a little more open-minded.’
‘Please, Sebastian! Please stop. You have it wrong, I don’t want this.’
‘Sure you do!’
Wrestling the girl’s shorts down to her ankles, he dropped to his knees at the girl’s scrambling feet, her flailing arms.
Then the unexpected happened, filling his stunned eyes with tears. The thick forearm wrapped around his neck and tugged him to his feet. Danielle scrambled backwards in a flood of tears, pulling desperately at her shorts.
‘Like little girls, do we, Sebastian?’
Oh no.
Not again.
He was being dragged away from Danielle. His beloved Danielle.
He knew they wouldn’t understand. He knew their dogmatic views wouldn’t allow them to see past the restrictions of age.
He was spun around unceremoniously, James’s hard face honing into view. ‘Sebastian, when you wake up, you’re going to have some explaining to do.’
The last thing he remembered was the fist hurtling toward his face.
*
Leading the distraught Danielle back into the main chamber, James reassured her with gentle words. Abbey woke as they entered and produced a blanket, draping it around the trembling girl’s shoulders.
‘What’s going on?’ Abbey queried, sitting Danielle down and rubbing her arms.
‘Nothing,’ said James. ‘It’s taken care of.’
‘What? What’s taken care of?’
‘I told you, it’s nothing.’
Abbey held his gaze. Floating above the noise of the storm was the distinct whiff of deceit. Since she fell asleep, the chamber’s inhabitants had halved, and Danielle was a nervous wreck. Logically, “nothing” wasn’t going to cut it.
Taking his arm she led him into the connecting tunnel. ‘Why are you doing this to me, James, why are you keeping everything from me? Where’s Oliver, where’s Anthony and Sebastian? Why is Danielle in some kind of shock, and why for the love of God have you been lying to me about who you are?’
‘About who I am? What are you talking about?’
‘I’m not an idiot, okay. Oli told me you were secretive about your job, you wouldn’t tell me anything about yourself or your family, and I keep catching you looking at me when you think I don’t know. Too much doesn’t add up with you. I’m scared out of my wits here, so please, I’m begging you, let me in.’
She could feel the fresh tears building in her eyes. She watched James turn away and pretend to examine his hands.
‘It’s probably best if you sit down,’ he advised quietly. ‘You're right, it’s time you knew one or two things.’
She paused for a second then took the advice, picking out a dry spot and sitting cautiously.
‘Meeting you at the airport was no coincidence,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ve known you for a while.’
Abbey looked on. ‘You…what do you…what are you talking about?’
He couldn’t meet her eyes. ‘You asked me what I do for a living? Well…you. You’re my job.’
Her stomach grumbled in a lack of comprehension.
‘In London I work as personal security for the top end of the market. I’m hired by celebrities, politicians, the monarchy, those kinds of people. A month ago I was approached by a man. He wanted me to watch your movements, remain in the background but be prepared for anything. This guy, he didn’t want to alarm you so he asked me not to make contact, just follow you, see that you were okay.’
Abbey ran a hand through her hair, the sensation of violation pulsing through her very core.
‘I know all about you,’ he said, pacing. ‘I know your family was murdered when you were ten, I know you grew up in foster care in Surrey, I know you attained a degree in Architecture from Edinburgh University, and I know that you and Edward were married on a beach in Barbados. Your Maiden name is Fuller, which you still use for work purposes, and I know your birth parents were criminals of the violent porn trade.’
Climbing to her feet Abbey reeled dizzily, rejecting James’s steadying hand. ‘What about the mole on my inner thigh!’ she muttered vehemently. ‘You missed that.’
‘I understand your anger, Abbey, I really do. I never meant to bump into you at the airport, that was my error, but I –’
‘Who hired you? Who was it who told you to spy on my private, my private life? Tell me his fucking name!’
James sighed. ‘York,’ he uttered. ‘Nicolas York.’
Again she dizzied, placed a hand against the tunnel wall. Nicolas York was a name she hadn’t heard in almost two decades. ‘You…you must be mistaken. I haven’t seen Nicolas in years, why would he hire somebody to watch me?’
‘He believes you’re in danger. Nineteen years ago your parents were murdered by the Valentine killer. Nicolas thinks he’s back, and killing again. I was hired to make sure you didn’t become a victim second time around.’
‘No…no, that’s impossible. First of all, Nicolas must be sixty now, is he even still active? And secondly, the Valentine killer was caught and tried. He was insane, there’s no way they’d ever let him out.’
‘York is sixty-one, and yes, he’s still working. All I can tell you, Abbey, is that just over a month ago, the killings started again. Bodies have been turning up in South East London without hearts, returned to their residence soon after. York was afraid you would become a target.’
Legs jellying, she sat back down.
‘There’s more,’ he said resignedly. ‘Something I haven’t told you.’
‘More? What else could you possibly know? You just dissected my life in under a minute in the most voyeuristic way imaginable.’
‘In the jungle this morning, we found Teri.’
She glanced up.
‘She was dead, her heart missing. I think Elaine is dead too, and probably Sol as well by now. York was right, I haven’t been the only one watching you. Don’t you see, that’s how I’ve known there’s no one else on the island. There hasn’t been an unknown party stalking the group, it’s one of us. Whoever’s been killing in London was on the plane.’
Resting back against the tunnel wall, Abbey rubbed her eyes and tried to digest James’s words. She wouldn’t cry, not this time. Her parents’ killer was still out there, nineteen years later, watching her like some caged zoo exhibit. Had he been paroled, declared innocent, or had Nicolas York made an horrific error all those years ago? And what of James? Like the killer, he’d been at the airport solely because she’d been at the airport. My god, how much of this was her fault?
She climbed to her feet, unable to quash the sensations rising in her gut. The only reason James was even here was for her, to protect her like some kind of guardian angel.
Pulsating emotions began spreading warmly through her arteries, burning a path into her heart, and right at that moment, she felt closer to James than she ever had to another human being. Slowly she moved to him, slid into his solid embrace like the piece of a jigsaw, hostaged wind ebbing with her emotions, circling them.
‘I’m so sorry, Abbey,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘I never meant for any of this to happen, but I’ve never had an assignment like this before. I’ve watched you go to work, I’ve watched you take your morning coffee in the Starbucks next to your office. I’ve watched you go about your day, your beautiful world blossoming before me. Never in my life have I felt anything akin to the emotions you stirred when I first saw you…�
�
She pulled back, their eyes fusing green and blue in the colourless tunnel.
‘I don’t know if it’s love I’m feeling,’ he whispered. ‘But I don’t know how else to describe it.’
Words insufficient she leaned forward and kissed him delicately on the lips, her eyelids drooping as he pulled her in tighter. Sealed into the safety of his embrace, her inhibitions fluttered away on the cacophony of wind.
54
‘Wakey wakey, big man.’
At first light, James left the cave into a thick morning mist hanging lazily over the island. The rain had stopped and the wind had idled to nothing. Not even a stirring breeze rustled the trees. The storm was over, and in its wake the island had been abandoned in preternatural calm.
Sebastian was where he’d left him: tied to a tree by the lagoon, his head hanging limply forwards. Scooping up a handful of lagoon water, James tipped it over the South African’s head. Woozily he came to, the makings of a black eye gradually forming.
‘Morning,’ greeted James. Sebastian didn’t answer. ‘Storm’s passed,’ he added, looking around. ‘How you feeling?’
‘The…the girl,’ Sebastian murmured gingerly.
‘Yeah, the girl. I’ve got some bad news for you, chief. Danielle is strictly off-limits to you now. I know what you are, I know what you do, and you don’t get to go near her again, understand?’
‘You don’t know anything about me,’ Sebastian countered defiantly.
‘I know enough. Like I knew you’d take the bait if I left you alone with the girl.’
‘The bait?’
‘You think I’d leave Danielle in your care? I’ve seen the way you look at her, Sebastian. I knew something wasn’t right with you, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. But when I heard you were the one Eric saw in handcuffs at the airport, I kind of did the math.’
‘What math?’ he muttered miserably. ‘What do you know about it?’
‘Granted, there are a couple of things I don’t understand. Like how did you manage to get free of the handcuffs, and what did you do with Elaine’s body after you killed her?’
Sebastian smirked. ‘I didn’t kill anybody and you know it. I no more killed those people than you did.’
Hunting Abigail: Fight or Flight? For Abigail, it's both! Page 30
