Nathaniel narrowed his eyes, studying Adam for a long, hard minute, then, ‘Come on,’ he said, turning for his chair to grab his jacket. ‘The address is in my phone.’
‘What time is it?’ Adam asked again as they drove.
‘Two minutes past the last time you asked, Adam.’ Nathaniel glanced worriedly sideways at him. ‘It’s nine-forty seven p.m., precisely.’ He nodded at the clock on the dash. ‘I can’t see Meadows being very thrilled to find you hammering on his front door at this time of night.’
‘I can’t either,’ Adam conceded. He’d no doubt tell him to get out of Sienna’s life and stay out, and Adam would, if that’s what Sienna wanted, but only after he’d established she was all right. If she was, well he’d definitely look like an idiot, but he’d rather that than ignore the gut-wrenching certainty that she wasn’t.
Dammit. Why hadn’t she returned his call, if only to tell him she’d thought about it and considered him a tosser? At least then he’d know she wasn’t incapable of returning the call. With that idea knotting his stomach, Adam selected Sienna’s number and tried her again, sighing heavily as her voicemail picked up.
‘So, are you going to tell me what this is all about?’ Nathaniel asked, as Adam keyed in a text. Please let me know you’re OK. One word.
‘I wish I knew,’ Adam said, growing more anxious by the second. ‘Can’t you go any faster?’
‘Not if you want to get there in one piece, no. It’s raining, Adam. The roads are wet.’ Nathaniel glanced sideways at him, for about the tenth time. ‘So, you haven’t had any contact with Sienna, her dad, or Lauren, you say?’
‘No.’ Adam shook his head, adamant, and willed the car on.
Nathaniel glanced at him again. ‘You’re just acting on intuition then?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Right.’ Nathaniel nodded. Adam heard the audible sigh that went with it. ‘And this intuition hit you when exactly?’ he asked, the insinuation implicit, how many drinks had he had exactly that had him rambling like a madman?
Nathaniel probably thought the booze had addled his brain. Maybe it had. Adam couldn’t get his head around any of this himself. The psychiatrists would have a ball, including David Meadows. He couldn’t deny it any longer, though. Emily was here for a reason. Something terrible was going to happen. He knew it. He prayed to God it hadn’t already.
Adam ran a hand over his neck and tried not to think about worst-case scenarios. ‘I have dreams,’ he said, no idea how else to explain.
Nathaniel twizzled his neck to look at him. ‘What? Premonitions, you mean?’
‘Not exactly, no. More feelings. Watch the road, Nate.’
Nathaniel turned his attention back to the windscreen. ‘So,’ he said, over another loud sigh, ‘I’m driving around in the pouring rain at ten o’clock at night because the man’s finally discovered he has feelings.’
‘Strong feelings,’ Adam tried, aware of Nathaniel’s distinctly unimpressed vibes.
Nathaniel shook his head. ‘I have no idea what’s going on here, Adam, but if this turns out to be you manufacturing a way to see Sienna when, for whatever reason, she doesn’t want to see you, this will be the absolute last favour you get from me.’
‘It isn’t,’ Adam assured him, his apprehension increasing as the satnav announced they’d reached their destination.
‘What the hell do you want?’ David Meadows greeted him not-over-enthusiastically after Adam had almost banged the front door down.
‘Sienna,’ Adam said shortly, no inclination for explanation. ‘Is she here?’
‘You really are the limit, aren’t you?’ David Meadows folded his arms over his broad chest and regarded Adam with a mixture of incredulity and ill-repressed anger.
‘Mr Meadows, I—’
‘You sleep with my daughter, string her along, for kicks, presumably, as good as tell her there’s no future in it, and then you come looking to … What, Adam? Try your luck again, is that it? Sweet-talk her into bed because you’ve run out of other women whose lives you can ruin?’
‘No!’ Adam refuted angrily, breathed in, and tried to temper his tone. An argument on the doorstep would get him nowhere, and he needed to be wherever Sienna was. The sense of urgency he felt now was practically choking him. ‘I didn’t tell her there was no future, I just …’ He struggled for an explanation.
‘She’s pregnant, you bloody idiot!’ David Meadows boomed. ‘How scared do you think that makes my daughter?’
‘What?’ Adam’s heart jolted violently in his chest.
‘Pregnant, Adam. With child. Your child!’ Meadows spelt it out as Adam shook his head and then stared at the man, utterly stupefied.
‘I’m working on the assumption you didn’t know before you announced you’d rather wait before having children. Frankly, if I’d suspected you had known, Mr Shaw, you’d have been nursing far more than broken ribs. Now, I imagine even someone as completely self-obsessed as you are will be able to glean you’ve caused enough trouble. I think you should leave, don’t you?’
A baby? Adam tried to get his head around it. She was having … No, not possible. Unless … Sherry? His mind flicked back to the pregnancy test. Had she interfered with … Meant him to father a … ‘Wait!’ he said as Meadows made to close the door. ‘Are you sure? I mean, is she sure?’
Meadows yanked the door back open, now looking very close to hospitalising him. ‘Be careful, Adam. If you value your life, be very careful indeed.’
‘No, not about me,’ Adam said quickly. ‘My being the … I mean, is she sure she’s …? Jesus.’ Winded, Adam swallowed back his confused emotions. Overriding his bewilderment, his absolute bafflement as to why she didn’t tell him was a deep-seated terror. Sienna was in danger. Every second spent talking here, was a second wasted. ‘I need to see her,’ he said, eyeing Meadows levelly.
‘She’s not here.’ Meadows re-folded his arms.
‘Mr Meadows,’ Adam dragged a hand over his neck, frustrated, ‘I have to see her.’
Meadows looked him over, unmoved. ‘Why?’ he said flatly.
‘Because …’ Adam searched frantically for a way to make the man see the urgency of why.
‘I want to know what your intentions are, Mr Shaw, before I—’
‘Oh, for fu— I don’t have time for any more psychoanalysis crap!’ Adam grated impatiently. ‘I need to see her! Now!’
Meadows pulled in a breath, his flared nostrils a good indicator of how close he was to carrying out his threats. ‘She’s out,’ he said tightly, and stepped back into the hall.
Adam took a step forward, blocking him from closing the door. ‘Where?’ he asked, mustering up as much civility as he could and making sure to hold the man’s gaze. ‘I just need to talk to her, Mr Meadows,’ he went on, hearing in his head the ominous tick of a clock as he did. Emily desperately urging him to ‘Hurry’. If he was insane, one thing Adam knew for certain was that he’d rather be mad, than that anything had happened to Sienna.
David Meadows regarded him through narrowed eyes. ‘At her former boyfriend’s house, I believe.’
‘Her former …’ Oh God, no. Adam felt a distinct shift in the ground this time.
‘He’s rung her incessantly,’ Meadows went on making his point, and clearly clueless, ‘which I suppose at least means he’s interested in her welfare.’
‘Her ex? Interested in her welfare?’ Adam raked a hand furiously through his hair. ‘Dammit, David, he tried to …’ Adam hesitated, realising the shock factor of what he was about to say might hit this man harder than any news he’d had himself today.
David paled, visibly. ‘Tried to what, Adam?’ he asked, his expression telling Adam he was getting the gist anyway.
‘It’s not her welfare he’s interested in, David, trust me.’ Adam made sure he did get the gist. ‘I have to go to her,’ he reiterated. ‘I have to go now.’
David stared at him for a brief second, and then nodded decisively, plucked up his
keys from the hall cupboard and strode through the door. ‘I’ll show you the way,’ he said, slamming the door behind him and heading for Nathaniel’s car.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Adam fumbled his phone from his pocket as it pinged an incoming text. Reading it, his heart plummeted. No, was all it said. One word. ‘We have to get there, Nate,’ he said quietly, his jaw clenching, every muscle in his body tensing.
‘Next on the left,’ David said, leaning forward in the back seat. ‘Number thirty-four, about fifty yards up on the … Christ Almighty!’ David’s eyes shot to the windscreen. ‘What the hell is he doing?’
‘The bastard’s dead.’ Adam reached for his door as Nathaniel slammed his foot on the brake, skidding his car up behind the Ford hatchback they’d just witnessed Sienna being forcibly pushed into the back seat of.
Adam was out of his door almost before Nathaniel had stopped, sprinting after the shit who’d twisted her wrists and manhandled her into the seat, too late. Too fucking late! Reaching the car as it pulled off at speed, Adam tried to catch hold of the backdoor handle, hoping against hope the guy hadn’t dropped the locks. Hopeless, he knew it. Running alongside, he touched palms with Sienna through the glass, and then slowed as the car gathered speed.
She was terrified. Adam didn’t stop to draw breath.
Turning around, he raced back, bypassing Meadows and Nathaniel, who were trying to have some sort of dialogue with the tearful woman on the doorstep. ‘I don’t know what’s gotten into him,’ the woman was saying. ‘They had some sort of argument and …’
Adam stopped listening, every instinct inside him screaming; Emily screaming loud in his head Go! He threw himself behind the wheel of Nathaniel’s car, ramming the gearstick into first and pulling off.
‘Adam! Wait!’ Nathaniel shouted at him. ‘You’ll need eyes!’ he said, diving around the front of the car and almost getting killed for his efforts. Adam slowed, but didn’t stop as Nathaniel threw himself onto the passenger seat. He accelerated again, wrenching the gearstick through second and third into fourth.
‘Left,’ Nathaniel instructed him as he reached a T-junction.
Adam nodded and took the corner almost on two wheels. The car was way off, assuming it was the car. Tail lights were no indication this was the car they were looking for, but here at least the roads were relatively quiet. With luck, no other vehicle had passed after the bastard had taken the junction. Luck? Jesus. Adam pulled in a breath, used his wrist to wipe the sweat from his forehead – and prayed. ‘Help me, Emily,’ he said, out loud.
Nathaniel turned to look at him, briefly. He didn’t comment. Adam was grateful. ‘He’s taking a right.’ He nodded forward instead.
Adam saw the car ahead make the turn and cursed. He was heading for the dual carriageway, where, unless Adam was superglued to his tail, he’d be bound to lose him. And if he was, the piece of scum would be sure to try to shake him off.
‘Fuck!’ He banged his hand on the wheel and forced his foot down. Losing him wasn’t an option. Losing Sienna … ‘I’m here,’ Emily whispered. She was. Adam knew she was. Why was she? Help me, he prayed again, silently.
The guy took a chance entering the dual carriageway. Adam tried to dodge after him, and got blasted by a car shaving past as he did. Not time for niceties, he nosed right out, yanking the wheel hard left as he did.
‘Nice manoeuvre,’ Nathaniel commented, gripping the dash with one hand and giving two fingers to the tooting horn-blower behind.
‘Where is he?’ Adam kept his eyes fixed forwards.
‘Four ahead, outside lane,’ Nathaniel supplied.
A cursory glance in the mirror, and Adam pulled out, getting another long blast from behind as he did. That bastard, who wouldn’t be physically capable of arguing with another woman when he caught up with him, obviously knew he was being followed now. Adam’s choices were two: keep after him, in which case the erratic driving might put Sienna’s life at risk; or back off, allowing the guy to reach his destination, where Sienna would definitely be at risk. No way. Adam kept going, giving the Sunday driver in front several blasts of his own horn as he did.
‘Dammit, he’s moving over,’ Adam cursed again, as the guy cut back into the inside lane, and then cursed furiously, as he deftly took a slip road off.
‘Shit!’ Adam hit the brakes, slowing from seventy to almost a stop, to a cacophony of car horns behind him. Heedless, he cut up the car on the inside without compunction, careering into the turn and only just making it.
‘Oh, Jesus … No!’ Adam banged the steering wheel again, hard, seeing no car ahead of them at the roundabout. ‘Where is the bastard?’
His heart thudding, panic twisting his gut, Adam barely gauged the gap in the traffic before heading onto the roundabout. Twice he went round it. ‘Which way?’ he asked Nathaniel desperately, uselessly, causing chaos as he drove and not caring.
‘I don’t know! Take the …’ Nathaniel started, and then stopped as Adam slammed both hands against the wheel, shouting, ‘Emily, where are you? I need you!’ Adam ran a hand over his eyes, heading back for the first exit off as Nathaniel stared hard at him.
‘Show me, Emily,’ Adam begged her. ‘Please help.’ Pulling onto the exit, he hit the brakes again and wrenched the gearstick into reverse. ‘There,’ he said, nodding to his right then craning his neck over his shoulder to steer the car fast backwards onto the roundabout.
‘What? Where?’ Nathaniel sounded as desperate and panic-struck as Adam felt.
‘There,’ Adam repeated. Hearing the wail of the sirens behind him, seeing the blue lights flashing, he kept going, towards the mini aurora borealis he could see swirling bright in the night sky. Emily, it had to be. ‘That’s where they are.’
He took the second road off, taking it at speed, the squad car close on his tail. That was good, if only he could keep ahead of them, by some miracle, he might just catch up. In which case, the police would be needed, if for nothing else, to stop Adam going up on a charge of manslaughter. He would kill him. For what he’d already done, the entire police force would be hard-pushed to keep him off him.
‘Be careful, Adam.’ Nathaniel twisted his neck to judge the distance of the squad car behind them. ‘You’ll be no good to her dead.’
Adam didn’t answer, but kept his eyes on the road in front of him. His pulse racing, he took a bend, sucked in a sharp breath, and stepped hard on the brake, skidding to a screeching halt yards from the car in front. Wheels spinning, flames licking like hungry tongues at the fuel spilling from it, the car had turned over.
Adam’s heart stopped beating. ‘Jesus, no!’ he shouted, banging his door open, galvanising himself into action, as the shrill wail of the siren died behind them.
‘Adam, don’t!’ Nathaniel moved fast, out of his door on the passenger side. ‘Adam! It’s going to go up!’ he yelled after him.
The front end was buckled, concertinaed into the middle. The tailgate …
Adam squeezed his fingers into the inch gap. Gouging the skin from the back of his hand, ignoring the police behind him shouting, ‘Get back!’, he forced his hand in, leaned down on his arm, pushed his whole bodyweight down on it … ‘Move! You fucking …’
Pushing with all his might, the tailgate finally gave. ‘Sienna?’ Her name came out a croak. Adam swallowed hard, dropped to his knees and crawled inside. She was there, blood on her cheek, trickling from her mouth, in her beautiful gold-flecked hair. Her eyes … Adam groped through the twisted seats for her hand. ‘Sienna?’ He saw a flicker of life there.
She was alive! Choking back the fumes that seared the back of his throat, Adam wriggled further in. The gap was too small. Couldn’t move the seats. No time. Squeezing further in, his arm outstretched as far is it would go, his fingertips brushed the door handle. He pushed harder, cursing his restricting clothing, he pushed further in, caught the handle and yanked it back, and then he was up, praying to God, to Emily, begging – please don’t let this happen. Take me, not
her, he scrambled back out, around to the back passenger door, and yanked it hard.
It wouldn’t give. Adam tugged harder, slammed his hand on the chassis, glanced to the Heavens, and pulled with all his might. It creaked. It moved, barely six inches. Adam fed his arm in, then his shoulder. No time, he thought desperately, and then closed his eyes with relief as Nate and one of the policemen grabbed hold of the door, combining strength enough to drag it open.
Adam dropped down, crawled bodily into the space, checked as best he could no part of her body was trapped, and then, hands under her shoulders, he dragged her towards him.
‘Adam!’ He heard Nathaniel urgently behind him. ‘Move!’
Adam tugged. Something snagged. Her top: caught on jagged metal. With shaking hands Adam reached down, flailed about, sliced through his wrist, grabbed hold of the cloth and tore at it; tore desperately at it, a flame licking at the bare flesh of his forearm, driving him on. ‘Give, you bloody …!’ He heard it tear, shuffled backwards, eased his hand back under the woman he would die with, here now, rather than leave, and pulled her free.
Lifting her into his arms, his knees almost buckling as he stood, his feet stumbling, Adam heard the whoosh and roar behind him. Instinctively he dropped down, covering her body with his own. ‘If you take her, you take us both,’ he choked, his face a breath away from hers.
Not yet. He heard above the popping and cracking and squeal of the fire engines.
Sienna tasted his salty tears on her lips, felt his hand on hers, his thumb gently tracing the back of her hand. Adam. She knew he’d come. Knew when she finally managed to text him her short, No, that he’d come. She didn’t know how he knew, how … anything, but she knew.
Easing her grainy eyelids open, she gulped against the acrid dryness in her throat and tried to speak. ‘Adam.’ She squeezed his hand, and Adam was on his feet in a flash.
‘Sienna?’ he said, brushing her hair gently from her face. His arm was bandaged, she noticed immediately, his voice was hoarse. He smelled of smoke. She’d felt him. Her angel had come, her mum, her presence soothing, not frightening, she’d come to take her this time, Sienna felt sure. And then she’d felt him, felt Adam’s presence and then, nothing.
The Rest of My Life Page 30
