Adam closed his eyes. ‘Yes.’ He nodded wearily.
‘Who is she?’ Sienna felt as if she were judging him now, cross-questioning him, but then, she did have a right to know. Didn’t she?
Adam swallowed. ‘The woman you saw on the boat.’
In which case, he could hardly deny he’d had sex with her. Sienna swallowed in turn, the conversation she’d overheard between the two springing to mind, reminding her that people often played games in the bedroom. Had Adam, with this woman?
‘The same woman whose cottage you were staying in?’ she managed, though the words almost got wedged in her windpipe.
‘Yes,’ he admitted, shamefaced, and glanced down. ‘I’m sorry. I … didn’t think.’
Sienna nodded, and dropped her gaze to her hands. She hadn’t given him much room to think, had she? And she hadn’t objected to his taking her there.
‘Do you believe me?’ Adam asked quietly.
Sienna hesitated. There was another question she had to ask. She didn’t want to, but her former bully of a boyfriend in mind, who clearly couldn’t read the signals, she simply had to. ‘Is it possible the lines might have got blurred, Adam?’
Adam’s head snapped up ‘What?’ He stared at her, incredulous.
Sienna took a breath. ‘That maybe rough sex got a little too rough?’ she clarified quickly, and then dearly wished she hadn’t.
Adam’s expression went from stunned, through bewildered, to utterly crushed. She might as well have taken a knife to his heart.
‘I thought you were going to ring me,’ Nathaniel said, walking over to him as Adam paid off the taxi driver.
‘It’s okay, Nate, I’ve got legs.’ Adam smiled, half-heartedly. ‘Got a voice, too, but it looks like no one’s hearing me.’ He glanced over to Sienna’s cottage as he walked to his boat.
‘She came to see you, then?’ Nathaniel obviously got the gist.
‘Yep,’ Adam said, climbing aboard with a little more care than he normally did. ‘I wish she hadn’t. Wish this bloody thing was up and running.’ He looked towards his engine compartment despairingly.
‘And then what would you do? Sail off half a mile upstream and moor up in the middle of nowhere?’
Adam was grateful Nate hadn’t actually reminded him he wasn’t supposed to leave the area. ‘Sounds like a plan.’ He shrugged.
Alone definitely sounded like a plan. He’d stopped at the off-licence on the way, and wondered if the two blokes in there, regulars from the pub, were going to trip him up on the way out. The grapevine had obviously been working overtime. Seemed he was headline news and at the top of everyone’s hit list, the men anyway. The women? Adam didn’t even consider going there.
‘Give her a chance, Adam. It’s a lot for anyone to get their head around, you’ve got to admit.’
‘What?’ Adam eyed him questioningly as he unlocked his door. ‘That I assault women and I’m such a shit, I don’t even admit it?’ He let it hang, watching Nathaniel carefully as he did. ‘Yes, I suppose it is.’ He smiled cynically, as Nathaniel’s cheeks flushed a telltale red.
‘Cheers, Nate.’ Adam headed down his steps, the bottles in his carrier clinking as he went.
‘Oh, come on, Adam,’ Nathaniel said despairingly. ‘You’re not going to start boozing again, are you? What good will that do?’
‘It’ll take the edge off,’ Adam assured him.
‘Until you wake up,’ Nathaniel reminded him.
Adam turned around. Nathaniel was a good friend, even if he also apparently thought he’d ‘blurred the lines’. ‘Nate, I’m okay,’ he assured him. ‘I’m going to have a drink, several possibly, but I’m not going to go OTT. I just want to be on my own for a while; think things through, that’s all.’
Nathaniel didn’t look convinced. ‘Heard that one before, haven’t I? Are you on tablets?’
Adam ran his hand through his hair, which was a bad idea. Lifting his arm was painful. His chest still felt as if it was being slowly crushed by a truck. ‘Nate, I’m fine. Bugger off and stop mothering me, will you?’
‘Just don’t overdo it.’ Nathaniel couldn’t help himself.
‘I’ve only got four, Nate. You really do need to find another case to get on, you know?’ A less hopeless case, he added mentally. ‘Look, I’ll see you later. I’ll be fine, I promise.’
Nathaniel sighed heavily and turned away, then turned back. ‘Do you remember that day on the locks at Tewksbury when we skipped school to go boat spotting,’ he asked Adam, his eyes narrowed nostalgically, ‘and that Sheerline 950 came through?’
Adam thought about it. ‘Aft cockpit, four cylinder diesel engine with bow thruster and stern thruster?’ Adam nodded. ‘Yep, I remember it well.’
‘You should do. You fell in trying to get a better look at the engine,’ Nathaniel reminded him.
‘Yeah, you didn’t help much.’ Adam’s mouth twitched briefly up at the corners.
‘What? I threw you a lifebelt!’ Nathaniel said defensively.
‘It hit me on the head, Nate.’
‘Didn’t knock any sense into you, did it?’ Nathaniel smiled wryly and paused. ‘Don’t give up on your dream, Adam. You have to have something to hold onto. Everyone does.’ He looked him over, smiled sadly, and turned to head back to the chandlery.
Adam watched his friend walking off, shaking his head as he went. Nate had always been there, right by his side, Adam the one getting into trouble, Nate fishing him out, or trying to. There was nothing much he could do to help him out of this hole, though, was there? He couldn’t blame him for not believing him, Adam supposed. Pity he hadn’t heard the conversation he’d had with Sherry the day before her caring husband had kicked the crap out of him. Adam doubted a woman who he’d supposedly attacked would have been asking him to reconsider their arrangement. She’d even texted him: When you decide you still want sex with a real woman, you’ll know where to find me. There were other texts, too. All confirming they’d had a sexual relationship. Adam was glad he’d remembered those texts, because up until then, he’d been wondering whether he had blurred the bloody lines.
Glancing despondently towards Sienna’s cottage once more, Adam sighed and closed his doors. He doubted Nathaniel would have gone for the whisky he’d also bought being for medicinal purposes, but as far as Adam was concerned, medicinal was exactly what it was. He needed anaesthetising. Drinking himself into a deep, dreamless sleep seemed a much preferable option to lying wide awake tonight, seeing things that didn’t exist, thoughts going around in his head, until he was halfway out of his mind.
Chapter Thirteen
A week he’d been holed up, a whole week, only emerging when the police turned up to take him in for more questioning. And here they were again, in a patrol car of course, advertising they were here, why they were here.
‘He looks so pale,’ Sienna said, watching from the window as Adam came out of his boat, looking neither left nor right as he walked across to where the two officers were waiting.
‘Nice of them to send him an escort,’ Lauren observed, pausing in her soup making efforts to come and have a nose alongside her. ‘It’s obviously something important. Or else they’re making sure he doesn’t do a runner.’
Sienna ignored her. Lauren seemed to reinforce her low opinion of Adam even more now she thought Sienna had seen the light. She hadn’t seen anything, apart from the fact that she’d opened her mouth and put her foot squarely in it that day at the hospital. Adam had looked close to tears. He wouldn’t meet her eyes, not even when she’d said goodbye. ‘See you around,’ he’d said as she’d left, leaving Sienna in no doubt he didn’t want to see her any time soon.
She’d texted him, even slipped a note under his door, nothing too pushy, just a casual enquiry: Was he okay? Did he need anything? He hadn’t responded. She needed to explain why she’d asked the question she had, a stupid question borne of her own insecurities, but it wouldn’t take away the fact that she’d doubted him, would it?
&
nbsp; ‘He’s all crumpled. He’s usually always clean-shaven and showered,’ she said worriedly, noting Adam’s creased T-shirt and jeans and his unshaven chin. The unshaven look suited him, made him look even sexier, if that were possible, but it wasn’t him. She wished she could find the courage to just go out there and speak to him, whatever his reaction. He probably wouldn’t appreciate it though, not with the police waiting for him.
Lauren didn’t miss her chance. ‘Yes, well, he probably had to shower a lot, didn’t he, given his various activities.’
‘Lauren …’ Sienna sighed despondently.
‘Just saying.’ Lauren went back to her soup. ‘He did do a lot of odd jobs, after all, didn’t he?’
‘Please don’t, Lauren,’ Sienna asked her, yet again. She was seriously tempted to hit her with the serving ladle, if she could have found the energy.
Lauren gave her a look, clearly not getting how hurtful her remarks were. She wouldn’t, Sienna supposed. They were mostly true, after all.
‘Come on,’ Lauren said, dishing up the soup. ‘You haven’t been eating enough to keep a mouse alive. You look as pale as Lothario does. Eat up. And I mean all of it, Sienna, not just a spoonful.’
Sienna tried, but she just wasn’t hungry. Every time she thought about food she felt dreadfully sick. She wished she could just go over to Adam’s boat, curl up in his arms and stay holed up with him forever. But Adam didn’t want her. He couldn’t have made it any plainer, could he? Sienna couldn’t really blame him.
Her soup barely touched, she was halfway through the washing-up when she noticed them again, the horrible brats belonging to the equally horrible boat owner who’d made the awful comment about Adam deserving all he got. And there they went again, removing Adam’s lifebelts from his boat, about to throw them in the river just for the spiteful fun of it.
God, they really were loathsome. Sienna stormed to her front door. If she had children, she’d make damn sure to bring them up to respect other people’s property. Their idiot father had even seen them doing it and not said a word.
‘Oi!’ she shouted from the quayside. ‘Put those back, you little brats.’ They weren’t that little actually, but Sienna had had enough. Five times she’d fished the lifebelts out now. They even had the nerve to do it while Adam was on board, curtains drawn, bothering no one. Couldn’t they just leave him alone?
‘And who’s gonna make us?’ the bigger of the two boys drawled, obviously aware that Nathaniel was off at a boat show and therefore not about to intercede.
‘Me!’ Sienna stepped forwards, probably not looking much of a threat, but she meant business.
‘Yeah, right, you and whose army?’ the kid sneered and proceeded to lob one of the lifebelts out as far as he could.
‘You little … shit!’ Sienna seethed, stomping across to him, then stopping short to try to stop his brother from hurling the other lifebelt out, only to land heavily on her backside as the boy yanked it from her grip and threw it anyway.
‘You’re vile,’ Sienna said tearfully, scrambling to her feet and noticing she’d drawn an audience as she did. Well, she would, wouldn’t she? They just couldn’t resist an opportunity to gossip about other people’s misfortunes, could they?
And there, gloating as per usual, was the father who’d spawned the horrible brats. ‘Tyler, Dylan, inside,’ he called, nodding the sniggering teenagers towards his own boat.
‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’ Sienna asked, astonished.
‘Why?’ The man shrugged.
‘Because it’s someone else’s property!’ Sienna pointed out, as if he didn’t know it was – and whose it was.
The man shrugged again. ‘Tough,’ he said.
What? Sienna couldn’t believe her ears. Was he really just going to let them do this and not say a word? Obviously he was. He just stared at her, hands in pockets, a couldn’t-care-less look on his face. ‘Those kids of yours ought to be locked up!’ she fumed, her cheeks burning with anger.
‘No, luv, it’s him who ought to be locked up,’ the man said, pointing at Adam’s boat.
That did it. Sienna’s tears sprang forth, damn her treacherous eyes. She looked at him bewildered, at other neighbours gawping from doorsteps and decks, revelling in the gossip and doing absolutely nothing about it. If it was one of their properties, one of their flashy yachts, they’d move fast enough to make sure these kids didn’t run riot. ‘You’re all the same,’ she shouted. ‘All of you! You just can’t resist kicking a dog when it’s down, can you?’
Dragging her arm across her eyes, Sienna tugged in a breath and set determinedly forth for Adam’s boat. No offers of help, naturally, she struggled to get the little dinghy off the top of it on her own, just about managing it by the time Lauren appeared from the cottage, an alarmed look on her face and a towel on her head. ‘Sienna, what on earth’s going on?’
‘Ask them.’ Sienna nodded angrily over her shoulder as she dragged the dinghy to the water.
‘But … where are you going?’
‘To fetch Adam’s lifebelts. It’s the least I can do since he dived into the ice cold water to save my dog’s life!’ Sienna yelled the latter, in hopes the nosy neighbours might get the message.
She was straining over the edge of the dinghy trying to reach one of the lifebelts caught up in another boat’s mooring ropes with a paddle when she heard him. ‘Sienna!’ Adam shouted from the bank. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
‘Trying to reach your lifebelts,’ Sienna shouted back. ‘They fell off.’
‘Sienna, leave them! That water’s bloody deep. Come back in.’
‘I’ve almost got it.’ Sienna strained a little bit further. If she could just reach the rope with her hand, she could pull herself in, grab the lifebelt and … ‘Shoot!’
Her first sensation was that it was blood-freezingly cold. Blinking against the swirling green murkiness, she couldn’t get her bearings, but she sensed she was going down. Instinctively she kicked, flailing her arms, trying to push herself upwards, but her trainers felt like concrete blocks and her limbs seemed so very heavy. Where was the sky? She tried to glimpse a patch of light through the darkness but she couldn’t see anything.
Trying not to panic, not to think about how long she could hold her breath, she pushed up with all her might, only to meet hard surface above her. Oh God. Oh God. It was a boat. She was under the immovable hull of it. Blinking wildly, Sienna palmed the bottom of the boat, trying to feel her way. It was so long. She was going the length of it. She needed to get to the side. But not the inside! It would crush her against the bank like a fly. Shit! She was going to die under it. She needed to breathe. She had to find a way out! Terror gripping her, she thrashed about wildly, fighting for a gap in the lid of her tomb. There was none. Feeling her strength slip from her body, the air ebb from her lungs, Sienna stopped flailing. She was going to die. She blinked slowly against the darkness, noting a soft, white light floating towards her. An angel, she thought blearily, feeling a strange calm envelop her. She’d come to take her. She was very beautiful.
She felt his fingertips first, and then his mouth was on hers. He pinched her nose and breathed deep into her mouth. Adam. Sienna felt her heart beat. She wanted to cry, but you couldn’t cry under water. Could you? His arm was around her. He was holding her tight, feeling his way out of her watery grave with his other hand, kicking out, strong, sure kicks. Carrying her like a limp little fish to the surface.
Many hands tugged at her. Someone grabbed her hair. Adam heaved her up from behind and, gasping for life-giving air, Sienna found herself being dragged onto the bank, turned over, feet and legs and people milling around her.
‘Is she all right?’ someone said.
‘Give her some room,’ the father of the teenagers said, leaning over her, his expression no longer couldn’t-care-less. You should tell your children, Sienna thought woozily.
And then Adam was there, looming over her, kneeling beside her to brush her wet hair from he
r face. He searched her eyes, his face white and tight. His beautiful eyelashes were wet, again, little droplets of water dripping from them to mingle with the tears on her cheeks.
‘Okay?’ he asked.
Sienna nodded and spluttered.
His jaw tensed. ‘Don’t ever do that to me again, Sienna,’ he said hoarsely. His gaze was stern. His eyes … they were blazing, his pupils so large there was no chocolate-brown there at all.
‘He was furious,’ Sienna said, still shuddering from the inside out, as Lauren tucked the duvet up under her chin.
‘He wasn’t furious, Sienna,’ Lauren assured her, adamantly. ‘The man was terrified. You almost drowned! For the sake of a lifebelt? Honestly, Sienna …’
‘He said not to ever make him jump in again. Twice he’s had to go in because of me. He could have drowned.’
‘“Don’t ever do that to me again”, I think you’ll find he said, Sienna; as in please don’t give him a double coronary.’ Lauren reached for the soup she’d re-heated, determined that Sienna should get something hot inside her. ‘Come on swallow a little bit for me. It’ll warm you up.’
The spoon was barely at Sienna’s lips, before another sweeping wave of nausea washed over her. ‘I can’t, Lauren, honestly. I feel terribly sick.’
Lauren frowned and parked the bowl on the bedside table. ‘You’ve been feeling sick a lot lately, haven’t you?’ she asked, her head cocked curiously to one side.
Sienna slumped down in her bed, heartily wishing she could crawl under the duvet and stay there.
‘Is there something you want to share, Sienna?’ Lauren asked, clearly guessing there was something that Sienna would rather not share.
She wasn’t even sure herself. She had no idea how. No idea what she was going to do; absolutely none, when the only person she’d wanted to confide in didn’t want her. When he might even end up in prison. Oh God, she didn’t want Adam to go to prison! He was an outdoor person. A free spirit. It would kill him.
‘Sienna?’ Lauren pressed her, her tone growing more concerned.
The Rest of My Life Page 18
