‘It wasn’t crappy.’ I frowned down at the carpet.
‘Yes, it was. The only redeeming feature was that I got to stare at Jennifer Garner for ninety minutes.’ He stood up and stretched. ‘Right, I’m off to bed.’
I looked at the clock. It was only nine but I was totally beat. The adventure of the night before had taken everything out of me.
‘Do you think….’ I began.
He gave me a look that stopped me from finishing the sentence.
‘Night,’ I mumbled instead. I couldn’t help it. I was doing a good job of hiding it but I was still terrified Billy may have been permanently hurt.
I cleaned my teeth and pulled on my nightie, then crawled back onto the couch. I wondered briefly if it made me a bad person for not caring about what had happened to the others, but then gave that up. I was too tired to start second-guessing myself. I only had enough energy to be worried about Billy.
***
It was the most delicious dream. Billy’s hands stroked my face and his lips brushed across my forehead. Then he lifted me in his arms and carried me up the stairs to our bedroom. I nestled in against his chest, enjoying the feel of him cradling me.
He deposited me on the bed and the cool air rushing in where his body had been, brought me fully awake.
‘Billy?’
‘Shhhh.’
I felt the bed move and then he was sitting beside me.
‘Ohhhh.’ I couldn’t help it, I started to cry. ‘You’re okay.’ I sat up and ran frantic hands over him, needing to know for sure that he was safe.
‘I’m okay? Chanel, I came because I couldn’t stand not knowing if you were okay.’
‘I’m fine.’ The tremors in my voice betrayed me.
He ran his hands over my cheeks, wiping away my tears. ‘Oh, Baby.’
‘No, I am,’ I said. ‘I was just so worried. Nick said that you would be okay. But the last thing I saw was you collapsing,’ I hiccupped around a sob, ‘and I wanted to go back, but Nick wouldn’t let me.’
‘Yes, well, Nick was right.’ His voice told me he wasn’t very happy with Nick.
‘Where is he?’ I looked around.
‘Where he should have been all along. On the couch.’
I let out a giggle. ‘I’m sure he was happy about that.’
‘I can hear you,’ Nick called from downstairs.
I lowered my voice to a whisper. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’
‘When I realised that was you in the club last night.’ He shook his head. ‘I thought my heart was going to stop.’ He groaned and put his hands on either side of his head. ‘It was like some sort of exquisite torture. Being there with you, but not. And when Carlos,’ his voice shook with venom, ‘was touching you like that?’
He shook his head as he reached out and picked up my hands. ‘It took all my willpower not to take him out then and there.’
‘It’s okay,’ I soothed.
‘No,’ his voice was anguished, ‘it’s not. More than anything I want to keep you safe. And I put you in danger.’
‘Ummmm.’ I shrugged my shoulders. ‘I’m pretty sure that was me putting me in danger.’
‘I shouldn’t have taken the job.’ His hands moved to my collar bones.
‘Billy?’ I shivered as his fingertips grazed over my skin.
‘Mmmmm?’ He bent and trailed kisses in the wake of his fingers.
‘About the job?’
He broke away from my neck and looked up at me. ‘Not going to talk about it Chanel.’
‘But.’ I gasped as his teeth grazed my neck.
‘No buts.’ He shook his head. ‘I will keep you safe.’ His hands gripped my arms as he pulled me to him. ‘I need to know that you are safe.’
‘But, I can help.’
‘You don’t get it, do you?’ He pulled back again. ‘Before, me walking away from this would have kept you safe. Now, I need to see this through. I need to get Carlos off the streets.’
I shivered. ‘He’s angry?’
‘Worse. He’s intrigued.’ He spat the next words out. ‘He wants you for himself.’
My mouth formed a silent ‘O’. I so did not see that one coming.
Billy let out a groan as he put his hands on either side of my head. Then he pulled me in and kissed me with a desperation borne of fear.
All thought, all reason left me. He’d kissed me before in passion, but he had never kissed me like this. It sucked out my soul and melded it to his.
We collapsed back onto the bed. Two people with an untamed fury, desperately seeking something they could only find in each other.
***
‘Good morning,’ I sang as I bounced into the kitchen.
Nick lifted the pillow off of his face and squinted at me through one open eye. ‘What’s good about it?’
‘The sky is blue. The birds are singing.’ I knew for sure about the first one but had no idea about the birds. I surmised though, that if it were a blue sky, the birds would be singing.
He put the pillow back over his head. ‘Your dog snores.’
‘Did he keep you awake?’
‘Keep me awake?’ He lifted the pillow back off his face and sat up. ‘Who could sleep?’ He hopped up and stalked towards the bathroom. ‘Oh Billy. Ooooh, Billy,’ he shrilled. ‘Yes, right there. That’s it. Oh faster, harder. Don’t stop.’ He slammed the door behind him.
‘That’s not my voice,’ I yelled after him.
I put the kettle on to boil and snapped on Cocoa’s lead. I had time for a quick walk around the block before I got ready for work.
Nick was out of the bathroom when I returned. He sat on the couch with a coffee cradled in his hands. A grunt was all I got as I hung up Cocoa’s lead.
Cocoa sat in the kitchen while he ate his morning treat. When he had finished, he jumped onto the couch next to Nick, turned around a few times and lay down with his nose hanging off the edge.
Nick looked down at where Cocoa’s body wedged up against his and moved further along the couch. I shook my head as I poured water into my mug.
‘Toast?’ I looked over at Nick.
‘Nah. I’m thinking about going back to bed.’ He looked up at the bedroom.
‘Be my guest,’ I said. ‘I’ll just grab my uniform.’
He followed me up, muttering about how he would be staying on top of the sheets. I ignored him. My mood was too good to be destroyed by one cranky dwarf.
My good mood stayed with me all the way to work, through the blow-by-blow debrief of Bob’s latest date, and right up to when we returned to write up the pickpocket we had caught at the train station.
‘That arrived for you.’ Daniel pointed at my desk.
A single red rose, surrounded by clear cellophane and decorated with a red ribbon lay on my desk.
‘Did you and Billy have a fight?’ he asked.
‘What?’ I looked over my shoulder at him. ‘Of course not.’ I would have thought my dreamy smile would have been enough to dissuade that idea.
I picked up the rose and pulled the envelope off it. I ran my nail under the flap and lifted it up. The little card slid out easily.
My mood drained away leaving me lifeless. I stared at the card, fear gurgling in to replace my lost emotions.
Bob plucked the card out of my fingers. ‘A rose for a rose, C.’ He looked at me. ‘Who’s C?’
I shook my head. ‘I have no idea. Perhaps they sent it to the wrong person?’
Daniel picked up the envelope. ‘Probationary Constable Chanel Abigail Smith. I doubt there are two of them around.’ He laughed at his joke as he put the envelope back down.
I think I managed to get one side of my mouth to go up in my attempt to paste on a smile. Carlos had done his homework, and he wanted me to know.
I reached under my table and dropped the rose into the bin. I was going to have to be careful. To look over my shoulder at all times.
My movements were mechanical as I made myself a coffee, possible only because I
had done it a thousand times and didn’t need to think about it.
What about Nick? Was he in danger too? And Martine?
I mulled that over while I sipped my coffee. No, no-one could have taken the make, model and registration on her car. They had all been unconscious at the time.
So it was only Nick and me we had to worry about.
Billy hadn’t mentioned anything about Nick, but I couldn’t risk that. He had been pretty preoccupied with my safety.
They knew where I worked, but at the moment I was going to assume they didn’t know where I lived. I sighed. It was going to be a long way home.
***
I stopped at the vending machine in the train station, using its reflection to check behind me. A man, dark jeans, navy blue sweater, stopped when I did. He perused the magazines in the little newsagency on the platform.
I was pretty sure it wasn’t the magazines he was interested in. He’d been on my tail since I had left work.
I walked over to the screen with the train times and stared up at it. Then, I pulled out my phone, dialled Nick, and looked at my watch.
‘You’ve called the Helpline for Damsels in Distress,’ he said.
‘Ha ha, very funny. I’ve got a tail.’
‘Excellent.’ I could imagine him rubbing his hands with glee. ‘Let the games begin.’
‘Is everything in place?’
‘Martine is waiting for you in the women’s toilets. Head in there when the next train approaches.’
I hung up and looked up at the train times again then back at my watch. I took up a position near the toilets, slumped against a pole. My tail had finished with the magazines and was deciding which candy bar to buy.
I rolled my head from side to side and shrugged my shoulders up and down. I hoped I looked bored.
The wind from an oncoming train whistled down the tunnel. I looked at my watch again and headed for the ladies’ toilets. I was going to have to be quick.
Martine was waiting for me.
I kicked of my work shoes, wiggled out of my trousers and shoved on the skirt and high heels she held for me. I could hear the train pulling into the station.
A woman coming out of the cubicle gave me a startled look as I ripped my hair out of its bun and tousled it up. I threw the jacket on over my work shirt, hoping I looked different enough from a minute ago to be unrecognisable.
Martine gave me a clutch bag which I tucked under my arm as I hurried back out of the toilet.
I hopped onto the train a few seconds before the doors wheezed shut. The man still stood by the newsagency watching the toilet door.
Martine emerged from the toilets as the train jolted into action. She walked past the man, but he didn’t notice her either.
That was a relief. Even with her day makeup on, Martine was impressive. It was hard not to notice a six-foot woman with large feet and an Adam’s apple.
The train entered the tunnel and I sagged down into a seat. I only had a few minutes before we burst back out into the growing gloom of the evening and the next stop.
I hailed a cab and was back at the apartment within twenty minutes of hopping on the train. Nick and Martine were waiting for me.
‘Welcome home.’ Nick pulled the door open. ‘What took you so long?’
‘Oh look who developed a sense of humour.’ I opened my arms to receive Cocoa’s flying welcome.
Martine looked up from where she was digging through my fridge. ‘Where’s the white wine?’
‘Oh.’ I walked over and peered into the cavernous depths of my fridge. Except for the six pack of beer Nick had bought, it was pretty much empty. I pulled a face. ‘Billy was on supply detail. I kind of forgot about that.’
‘Lucky I ordered pizza on the way here,’ she said. ‘I’ll just pop up and grab a bottle.’
‘What time do you start tonight?’
‘I go on stage at ten.’ She darted out the door and was back a few minutes later with a cold bottle of wine. ‘You going to come down?’
‘I’d love to,’ I said, ‘but I’m buggered. I didn’t get much sleep last night.’
‘Oh yes,’ she screwed off the lid, poured a glass of wine and handed it to me. ‘Nick filled me in on your midnight visitor. How romantic.’
My dreamy smile floated back onto my face as I took the glass of wine from her. ‘It was.’
‘Gag-worthy is what it was,’ Nick called out. ‘Oh Billy, I love you so much,’ he said in the high-pitched voice he reserved for impersonations of me. He picked up a cushion, hugged it to himself and kissed it noisily.
‘Ignore him,’ Martine said.
‘I’m trying to, but he’s a really noisy kisser.’
We took our wines over to the couches to relax. Nick had turned his attention to the television, channel surfing while he drank his beer.
‘You are coming to the club tomorrow night, aren’t you?’
The tone in Martine’s voice indicated that something important was happening tomorrow night. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. ‘Ummmm, yes,’ I said.
‘Oh good.’ She clapped her hands together. ‘You are going to love Sally Sparkles.’
I wasn’t so sure about that. ‘So, how’s the new account going?’
‘Oh.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m so sick of hearing Martyn go on about it. Talk about boring. But Christina Wong is a nappy mogul and it’s going to bring in a lot of money over the next few years.’
‘There’s a Mud Run,’ Nick said. ‘I want to go in the Mud Run.’ He bounced up and down on the couch as he pointed at the television.
I looked at the television. ‘You can’t,’ I said. ‘It’s the Miss Muddy. It’s for women only.’
His eyes grew huge as he looked at me. ‘Just women? So women, covered in mud? Women covered in mud with no other men there?’
I nodded at him. ‘That about sums it up.’
‘Oh Chanel.’ He held his hands up in a prayer position. ‘Please say we can go.’
‘I’m not sure which part of ‘Women Only’ you aren’t getting.’
He slumped back onto the couch and stuck out his bottom lip. ‘You never let me have any fun.’
I decided not to remind him that only two nights ago we’d run rampage through a club and knocked out six grown men. I mean the elephant tranquilliser had been his idea.
‘So,’ I turned back to Martine, ‘you were telling me about Martyn’s new account.’
‘It’s all boring snoring, but he did tell me one fascinating thing.’
‘What’s that.’ I took a sip of my wine.
‘Well, apparently Christina has these new nappies. They’re not out on the market yet. But she told Martyn that the humectant beads in the nappy crutch are capable of absorbing one hundred times their weight in liquid.’
‘A humy whaty?’
‘Humectant. It’s a substance that draws moisture in.’
‘Right.’ I nodded while I put it into context. ‘One hundred times?’
‘I know. I wonder if they swell up to one hundred times their size?’
We were silent for a second while we thought about that.
‘Surely that would be uncomfortable for the baby,’ I said. ‘I mean it would get all tight and lumpy. So what’s the advantage of these humectanty things?’
‘They’re saying it will halve the number of nappies needed.’
‘Oh wow. That’s a game changer. I mean from what I hear, the nappy bill really adds up.’
‘Yes, and Christina is going to price them only about twenty percent higher than the other nappies.’
There was a knock on the door.
‘Pizza.’ Nick leapt off the couch and raced to open it. He took the two boxes and brought them back over to the coffee table. ‘Yummy.’
I jumped up to grab the plates and paper towels while Martine refreshed our glasses.
‘What’s with this one?’ Nick bent over one of the pizzas poking at the ingredients with his finger. ‘They forgot t
o put any meat on it.’
Martine let out a laugh. ‘That’s the Vegetarian one.’
Nick glared at her. ‘You wasted an order on a Vegetarian pizza?’
‘Meat is not the only good pizza topping,’ she said. ‘And anyway, meat causes cellulite.’
‘Newsflash.’ He picked up the other box and moved down to the far end of the couch with it. ‘I’m a man. I don’t care about cellulite.’ He turned so his back was to us and bent over the box.
I looked at the Vegetarian pizza and then over at the Meat Lover’s. It smelt divine.
‘Nick,’ I said. ‘Can I have a piece of that one?’
‘You don’t want to get cellulite,’ he said.
‘Billy thinks my legs are perfect the way they are.’
‘Do you mind?’ he said. ‘I’m trying to enjoy my meal.’
‘Come on. Just give me the smallest piece.’ I reached a hand towards the box and he growled and smacked my fingers.
‘Oh fine.’ I slunk back to my place next to Martine. ‘Guess you and I are sharing this one.’
Martine smiled and moved the box towards me.
‘This is a man’s pizza,’ Nick said to Cocoa. ‘Not a girly one.’
Cocoa’s big brown eyes, which were tracking every move Nick’s hand made between the box and his mouth, said that he agreed. He let out a little ruff of encouragement.
‘Oh, okay,’ Nick said. ‘You can have some of the topping.’ He pulled off what looked like a piece of salami coated in cheese and dropped it onto the floor.
I considered racing Cocoa for it but I knew I didn’t stand a chance. I let out a sigh and picked up a piece of Vegetarian.
‘So,’ I said to Martine, ‘tell me more about these nappies.’
***
‘Does my hair look okay?’ Martine squished at her head with both hands.
‘It looks perfect, as per usual,’ I said.
‘What about my makeup?’
Billy Page 15
