I must be watching her too hard because she glances over her shoulder. Her eyes are curious and wary. I take a step forward, unwilling, but somehow wanting to force her to make a decision. I wonder if she’ll acknowledge me, or does she feel as I do—that this is a clean ending.
No matter what my brain tells me, I stand rooted to the spot, my hands deep in my pockets against the cool, damp San Francisco morning. I have everything money could buy and nothing I want. It’s funny thinking back to that conversation she and I had at dinner. She said I didn’t know what it was like to want something and not get it. I do now.
I could tell her. It might change things for us.
I wait for her to make the decision for both of us. I wait for her to turn back. And it hurts like hell, waiting because I let myself believe that when she sees me, she’ll leave the line, come back to me, take my hand and this pain will stop.
Charlotte looks in my direction. Looks right at me. She sees me.
And then she squeezes her eyes shut as though trying not to cry.
She’s not coming back. She’s getting on the plane.
The pain slams into my chest and I have trouble breathing for a second. Then I turn away as fast as I can, before I change my mind and walk rapidly out of the airport. The limousine is waiting for me at the curb. Jackson is waiting to drive me home. Razor mansion will be lit up for the party tonight and filled with overnight guests from New York. I’m hosting a reprise engagement party to apologize to our friends. Marshall will greet me at the door with his usual gravity. Anastasia is radiant now that both Joel and Charlotte are gone. My fiancée is almost a girl I could love one day.
I tell myself it doesn’t have to be a tragedy. My life doesn’t have to be lonely. Charlotte Dawson was just a girl, not my first girl. Maybe not my last if I can’t be faithful to Tash. I’m going to try.
And there were other positives that came out of this. The takeover bid for Tallulah Cement was killed and the bridges and buildings that were built with the product are being examined and overhauled. Razor Industries is thriving with our shares jumping in value when the story broke. Carsten’s body was found.
The negatives.
Joel’s body was never recovered. And I’ll never be the same.
I used to have a purpose in life. My purpose was my brother, Joel. There’s no way back from that failure. My death wish has finally caught up with me, only not with my death. A life lived on the edge, a life of recklessness and extraordinary good fortune....
All I have now is the image of Joel pushing himself off the Golden Gate Bridge.
As it did with my father before me, Daniel Razor’s luck has finally run out.
the end.
About the Author
Nadine Doolittle was born in 1960 in Comox, British Columbia, the third daughter of an RCAF mechanic and his Scottish wife. A graduate of Vancouver’s prestigious Studio 58 Theatre Program, her career detoured from acting to casting for film and television with Toronto’s Alliance Films, and finally to writing for the award-winning weekly newspaper, The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Her debut novel, Iced Under was shortlisted for Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel in 2009 (Crime Fiction). Her second book, The Grey Lady, was published electronically by Toronto’s McArthur and Company in 2011 and has been re-released by the author. The River Bride is her third mystery-suspense in the series.
Nadine has two grown children, two stepdaughters, a cat, and two grandsons. She lives with her partner Tim in a beautiful house on 22 forested acres in West Quebec where she writes full time.
Contact Nadine at: http://www.nadinedoolittle.blogspot.com
Visit my Author Page on Amazon
The author is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada
***
GATINEAU HILLS MYSTERIES
No serial killers. No psychopaths. It’s the one you thought you knew.
THE SETTING is the villages and wilderness places of Québec with all the limitations a rural society enjoys and puts up with. Homicide in this neck of the woods is not solved by high tech law enforcement but by the deductive genius of Detective Sergeant Rompré. The mystery lies not only in “who done it,” but “why done it”. How are lives transformed by the heartbreak, betrayal and loss that are the fruit of violent crime? Is forgiveness and redemption possible? The murder is just the beginning.
THE RIVER BRIDE
Marlee Bremer claims her husband is a sexual deviant. Convicted rapist and murderer, Trey Bremer insists it was only a game. The truth of what really happened to Teresa Musgrave that day begins to unravel when an anonymous note arrives at the Stollerton Record. On the hunt for the big story that could save her career, Alvina Moon is caught up in a disturbing crime and the victim’s beautiful, troubled artist husband.
THE GREY LADY
A driving rainstorm. A remote country home. And one killer. Secrets, lies and hidden hates surface at a gathering of eight to celebrate Malcolm Driver—a successful author, spiritual leader and former member of a commune where a young pregnant girl was drowned.
“As with any good mystery, virtually everyone has something to hide ... tightly written and perfectly paced, we feel we are being swept along by the story like a fallen branch in a fast-flowing river of spring runoff.” —MONTREAL REVIEW OF BOOKS
ICED UNDER
Sara Wolesley abandons her comfortable life in Toronto and with her two daughters in tow, takes possession of a rundown cottage on a frozen lake. But escape isn’t that easy. Sara is broke and close to a breakdown when she discovers the body of a child trapped under the clear ice. Her name is Oralee Pelletier and she has been missing for five months.
2009 Shortlist for Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel (Crime Fiction)
“The plot is well managed with its mixture of mysteries and Sara’s deteriorating family circumstances as a nearly poverty stricken divorcee (...) Given her achievements here, Nadine Doolittle’s name is one to watch for in the future.” —MYSTERIOUS REVIEWS for Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
Digital editions of GATINEAU HILLS MYSTERIES are available through your favorite ebook retailer and in print through Createspace, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Thank you for reading!
Razor Edge: Razor Trilogy Three (Razor Thriller Romance Novella Book 3) Page 7
