Promise of Hunters Ridge

by Sarah Barrie

  ‘Oh—thanks.’

  ‘We’ll see you tomorrow,’ Ally said before hesitantly climbing back in the car. ‘Just say the word if anything changes and you need me to come back. I’ll bring Chloe with me.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Mia said again, then stood by the lifts until they drove away.

  When she found the intensive care unit, a nurse smiled from behind the desk. ‘May I help you?’

  ‘I’m looking for Dexter Patuwai.’

  ‘Are you family?’

  ‘No. Just a friend.’

  The nurse checked her computer and smiled again, this time apologetically. ‘I’m sorry, only immediate family are allowed in.’

  Shit, she should have thought of that. ‘Could you tell me how he is?’

  ‘I’m sorry, I can’t release any details.’

  ‘That’s all right. Is Bear—is his father with him? If I could just see him for a moment?’

  The nurse nodded. ‘I’ll go and check for you.’ ‘Thank you.’

  She probably should have just gone home with Cam and Ally. But she needed some time to herself. As soon as she’d seen Dex.

  The nurse reappeared. ‘He’s sleeping in the chair next to Dexter. Is it urgent? The poor man’s been beside himself.’

  ‘No. No, of course not, could you just let him know Mia Morgan dropped by?’

  ‘I’ll leave him a message.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Mia headed back to the lifts in defeat. It was silly to feel so upset that the nurse wouldn’t let her in when it was just standard procedure. And at least she knew Dex was alive.

  She found her way out of the hospital and was grateful to see taxis waiting. She got into one, realised she wasn’t even sure she was allowed back in her house, but gave the driver the address anyway.

  There were no police when they arrived so she climbed out and paid the driver. Alone on the street, she stared at her house. Remembered. The numbness she’d been trapped in started to wear off. She’d wanted to be by herself, but now she felt utterly empty.

  Her front door was taped up. Ben must have broken it charging through. Ben. Her stomach tightened and twisted to the point of nausea. She walked down the street, around the corner, down the laneway that led to her garage. With every step, the rock of churning concrete inside her rose, made breathing difficult. She got in through the back door and went upstairs, leaning on the table to concentrate on the breathing that now seemed impossible, focusing the way she’d told Ally to do so many times. She counted her breaths, fought back the dizziness, slowed it down, talked herself into getting through it. When it got just that little bit easier, when she finally started to believe she would breathe again, she sank to the lounge.

  Her gaze moved to the floor, to the place Davis Walker had lain. The rug he’d fallen on was gone. She supposed they must have taken it for evidence. She got to her feet, headed upstairs, reliving the horror that had gone on with every step. She stopped at the top. The door to the spare room was wide open. Blood. She wasn’t sure why she’d assumed they’d clean it up. The congealed pool had dried around the edges and discoloured. The smell turned her stomach.

  Had Dex been conscious? Had he tried to call her for help? She shuddered violently and leaned on the door to steady herself. She couldn’t stay in this house with this blood. She went to find a mop and bucket.

  As water thrummed into the bucket from the laundry tap, she squirted in some disinfectant, creating foam and scenting the air with lemon. She’d get through this. If she didn’t think about it, if she didn’t feel it and, she thought, as she lugged the bucket back upstairs, god, if she could just not smell it.

  Dex was alive. She was home. The shaking, the nausea, the burning behind her eyes and the pounding in her head were all just natural reactions to what had happened. She dropped the mop into the mess, swallowed hard as her insides rolled and her mind mocked her with images of Dex, lying here, dying, while she tried so desperately to help Davis. She mopped and rinsed, mopped and rinsed. Changed the water, mopped and rinsed again. She had to stay strong. This wasn’t over. Rob was still out there. Rob was still coming. She took some quick breaths, forced back the tears. Mopped some more.

  The doorbell rang. She ignored it. It seemed the mess was getting worse, not better. She gritted her teeth against a wave of unsteadiness and ignored the tremor of her hands on the mop handle.

  The doorbell again. What if it was Bear?

  She stepped out onto the balcony just far enough to look over, and locked eyes with Ben, standing back from the door, staring up. She wondered why he was here, thanked whatever power was listening that she hadn’t given in to the urge to break down.

  ‘Mia. Let me in.’

  Just hearing the rawness in his voice was enough to tip her over the edge. He didn’t look much better than Indy. What was going on? It didn’t matter. He needed to leave. Whatever it was, she couldn’t handle anything else. Not one more thing. Not him. Not now.

  Without a word she turned and went back inside, swiping at the tears that had been beyond her since this started. Sheer force of will managed to keep the flood back.

  The dried blood wasn’t coming off. She was going to have to scrub it. She swept the mop over it again anyway, and out of the corner of her eye caught Ben climb over the balcony railing.

  ‘I didn’t invite you in.’ Every word was like trying to move that lump of concrete in her gut through her throat.

  ‘There are people who will take care of this. I’ve already called them.’

  A harsh laugh broke free. ‘Of course you have. Ben Bowden. Cop extraordinaire.’ Her voice wasn’t steady so she bit down on her lip, gripped the handle tightly. She continued mopping.

  ‘Mia, leave this.’ He touched her shoulder with one hand, reached for the mop with the other.

  She braced herself, snarled, ‘Don’t. Touch. Me.’

  ‘Okay.’ He took a careful step back. ‘But would you come downstairs and talk to me?’

  ‘I’ve done enough talking to you.’ Her eyes blurred. ‘I want you to go.’

  ‘I’m not leaving you like this. I’ve seen people in severe shock who looked less like hell.’

  She focused on his dishevelled appearance as a distraction from the feelings threatening to swamp her. ‘You think you look any better? What happened?’

  His jaw clenched hard enough that she saw the muscles through his skin. ‘I can’t talk about that yet.’

  His refusal to share hurt. And brought home how shallow their relationship really had been. ‘Then what are you here for? A thank you? Well, first-class job, detective. You solved the case. Congratulations.’

  He stared at his feet, a flat look of resignation on his face as he nodded slowly. ‘Dex has woken up,’ he told her quietly. ‘He’s going to be okay.’

  Her legs almost gave in with relief. She took a deep, unsteady breath as part of the lump in her stomach dissipated and closed her eyes. Then she felt the hesitant touch of fingers on her cheek.

  ‘You need to cry.’

  ‘What?’ When her voice cracked she threw the mop at him. ‘Go to hell!’ She turned on her heel. Bastard! She would not cry. It was a battle she was losing; she had to get away.

  She only made it down one flight of stairs.

  ‘Stop.’ A gentle yet firm hand on her arm halted her. ‘You’re holding yourself too tight. You need to release some of it.’

  ‘Get off!’ She lashed out viciously. Free, she moved quickly to her bag and her car keys.

  He got in her way. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Hospital.’ Hopefully this time she could at least see Bear.

  ‘Not in this state. You’ve had a hell of an ordeal and you’ve got to be coming up on thirty-six hours without sleep. I’ll take you, or I’ll leave, if you promise you won’t get behind the wheel like this. You’ll kill yourself.’

  ‘So I kill myself! What do you care?’

  He blanched as though she’d struck him, then his eyes hardened. ‘You know I care
! I care to the point where I don’t think things thr—’

  ‘You care about your job!’ she snapped before he could finish. ‘It’s always about your job!’ She strode to the door, pulled it open. ‘Don’t pretend to—’

  The door slammed shut and she was against the wall, his mouth crushing hers.

  Her heart kicked in her chest as lightning speared through her system. His heat, his scent, his strength overwhelmed her.

  ‘I care about you,’ he said against her lips. ‘It’s always about you.’ Then he dived in again. Her body gave one long shudder, then fell into him. Sensations, emotions, desires crashed over her in a giant wave. And overwhelmed her. Tears streamed down her face as her mind screamed at her not to let this happen, but it was barely heard, drowned out by irresistible sensations.

  A warm current of electricity shimmered its way through her. She began to liquefy under the caresses, and then the shimmer became a thread of panic that began to weave through her muddled mind.

  ‘Get off!’ She pushed hard and he stepped back.

  For a moment he looked as shocked as she felt. He ran a hand over his head, eyes desolate. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘You locked me up! You charged me with murder! You can’t just kiss me and make it better!’

  ‘I had to! I thought I had it under control. Only I didn’t.’ He pressed the heel of his palm to his forehead. ‘I didn’t handle it properly. And I can’t go back. I can’t change what’s happened.’

  She heard the roughness in his tone and wondered at it. ‘And you can’t talk about it?’ When he just stared at her she shook her head. ‘Fine. I can’t do this anyway.’

  ‘Mia, you can’t go anywhere like this.’

  ‘In case you’ve forgotten, I’m no longer under arrest. I can do whatever I damn well want!’ She ducked around him and headed towards the garage, only to be pulled up short by a steel band wrapping itself around her middle. When she tried to tear herself away she was lifted off her feet, her legs pedalling in the air as he snatched her keys with his other hand.

  Fury swept through her. She turned, and beyond reason, she attacked. ‘I hate you!’

  ‘I know.’

  She only stopped lashing out when she realised he wasn’t fighting back. In disgust at him, at herself, she dropped her bag where she stood and headed upstairs without looking back. She went into her room, closed the door, curled up on the bed, and cried herself into an exhausted sleep.

  CHAPTER

  26

  Ben stared at the computer screen without reading the email. He wondered how Mia was this morning. He’d needed to see her, to hold on to her, to somehow make the events of the day bearable. But he should never have turned up in that state. His behaviour had been appalling. He’d told her she needed to let herself release her emotions, but he hadn’t allowed himself the same privilege.

  He shouldn’t have shut her out. He’d reasoned she’d been through enough, and he couldn’t expect her to deal with him breaking down too. As a result, he’d only made everything worse.

  Had he done the right thing, leaving her keys? He was pretty sure she would have slept through the rest of the day and possibly all night; she’d been past the point of exhaustion. He hadn’t managed more than a couple of hours courtesy of a bottle of Jack Daniels.

  Russ. Hell. He should have handled that differently. Pulled him aside. Arrested him at home. Or in the office, but without the crowd. Something. Anything. But the idea that Russ could have hurt Mia had seen his reason dissolve. He’d let his emotions take over from his common sense. He should have predicted—no, he couldn’t have predicted that. But he could have been more professional, less impulsive. And now Russ was dead. He’d never forgive Russ for what he did. Could he ever forgive himself for what he did about it?

  Indy walked in, dropping a bakery bag on his desk. ‘You back already? How many hours have you pulled in the last few days?’

  She sounded chirpy—too chirpy. A quick glance at her face told him she wasn’t feeling a lot better than he was, but he appreciated the effort. ‘A lot. I wanted to finish up some paperwork this morning.’

  ‘How’s Mia?’

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Oh, give me a break.’

  ‘You think I’m lying?’

  ‘I think the woman breaks a fingernail and you’re on her doorstep. Yesterday was possibly the most traumatic day of each of your lives and you didn’t go check on her?’

  ‘Okay, fine.’ He sighed and sat back in his seat. ‘Yes, I went to check on her. She was a mess. But you know how hard this has been on her.’

  ‘I know how hard it’s been on you.’

  ‘It’s my case.’

  ‘Russ was your friend. My friend. I cried buckets yesterday, even though I’m not sure I ever even knew him. How are you supposed to just shut that off?’

  ‘When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.’ With a deep breath he planted his hands on his desk and pushed to his feet. ‘I’m going to try to interview Boland again today. See what else he hasn’t been telling us.’

  ‘I thought you’d already be in there.’

  ‘Frank’s not keen on the idea.’

  ‘I can’t imagine why. You pulled your weapon. You could have lost your badge.’

  ‘Yeah, well, there’s been some big meeting about that already. So far I haven’t heard anything.’

  Indy grimaced. ‘They can’t afford to lose you, they know that.’

  ‘Frank’s red-faced about the Mia thing. I don’t think he wants me talking too much about it. I’ve told him Stuart’s off my team. He’s working on reassigning him elsewhere.’

  ‘He’s sucking up and covering his arse.’

  ‘Yep. What are you up to?’

  ‘Waiting for that meeting we were going to have yesterday.’

  He tried to get his head back on the case. ‘Another dead girl, right?’

  ‘Apparently the message came through on Mia’s mobile while it was here.’

  ‘They found her?’

  ‘Straightaway. She had the number one on her.’

  ‘We need to get back out there. But first I need to convince Frank to let me talk to Boland.’

  ‘You can speak to him,’ the inspector said from the doorway. ‘Because he’s not talking to anyone else.’

  Ben nodded and got to his feet. ‘I’ll do that. Then I’m going back to Hunters Ridge. Ready, Indy?’

  ‘Detective—Ben,’ Frank said as Ben stepped past him. ‘I know you’re angry. But we’ve all got a job to do.’

  ‘You sided with Perkins. With Perkins.’ He didn’t think anything else was necessary so he walked away.

  * * *

  The first thing Mia noticed when she opened her eyes was the time. She’d slept so much longer than she normally would. The next was that the door was open. Ben must have opened it, checked on her. Anger rose inside her. She should have thrown him out. He had no right.

  She got up and walked into the hall. A glance to the left showed her the blood was gone. Ben must have taken care of that, too. Why? Did he feel guilty for charging her? What other reason could there be? He couldn’t feel about her the way she’d hoped he did and still have believed, even for a moment, that she could have done those things.

  But he’d looked like death warmed up. And he’d kissed her as though his life depended on it. The man had never made sense. Something had happened that had reduced Indy to tears and torn him up, but he wouldn’t tell her what. Even though he professed to care about her.

  Downstairs, her keys were on the table. Images from the night before taunted her. Whatever was going on with Ben, he’d deliberately pushed her to lose it, and she damn well had. She hated that. Hated that he had the power to do that. Hadn’t she promised herself long ago that no one would ever have that sort of control over her emotions again? She’d kept that promise, until Ben Bowden.

  God—she pressed her forehead against the cool wall—it would hurt less to crawl into a ho
le and die.

  Instead, she stood under the shower, then made herself reasonably presentable and went to the hospital and back to the intensive care ward. Bear was wandering out as she entered.

  ‘Mia!’ She was engulfed in a Bear-style crushing hug. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘You’re worried about me? I’m so sorry, Bear.’ She might not have been able to cry at first, but now everything seemed to be triggering her tears.

  ‘Honey, this is not your fault!’ He pulled her onto a chair. ‘This is not even close to being your fault. I’m sorry I didn’t call you back last night. I should have. There was just so much going on and then it was so late. I hope you didn’t think I was deliberately barring you.’

  ‘No, of course not.’ She held on to him until she was strong enough to let go. She wiped her eyes. ‘I came in, saw Davis. I didn’t know Dex was there.’

  ‘He’s going to be fine. Come in and say hi, he’ll be happy to see you.’

  ‘I don’t think I’m allowed.’

  ‘You’re allowed. His condition’s been downgraded. I was just going to get him something to read. I know he’ll much prefer to see you. Through here.’

  Dex looked too pale and tired, but he smiled when he saw her. ‘Hi, Mia.’

  ‘Dex.’ More tears escaped as she leant down to kiss him. ‘You scared me.’

  ‘I’m just glad you weren’t there. I should have suspected something wasn’t right.’

  She listened, watching him, as he recounted the events. She was devastated he’d been caught up in her nightmare; this gorgeous young man with his whole life ahead of him had nearly been killed to protect a secret. How much longer was this going to go on?

  As she left the hospital a little while later, that question played through her mind. She’d hated Rob for a long time, but it didn’t compare to how she felt now. He’d tried repeatedly to ruin—end—their lives. Perhaps he hadn’t succeeded but the scars were there, in all of them. Grief, hate, anger twined themselves around the scars he’d given her and got a grip; grew stronger. And with them grew her resolve. The tears receded. She needed to go home. She needed to be ready.