by Susan Lewis
Christian swore under his breath and Penny felt the anger ripple through him.
‘Christian, please,’ she whimpered, ‘just let me go.’
His face twisted with scorn. ‘To him? Never,’ he spat.
‘But why? What’s all this about? I don’t understand.’
Christian laughed. ‘She doesn’t understand, David;’ he shouted. ‘Do you want to tell her, or shall I?’
‘Don’t be a fool, Christian,’ David answered. ‘It’s all in the past. You’ve ruined my life; isn’t that enough?’
‘She comes with me,’ Christian told him. ‘Tell him,’ he hissed at Penny. ‘Tell him you want to come with me.’
‘I can’t do that, Christian,’ she said, wincing at the pain shooting through her twisted arm. ‘I don’t want to come with you. I don’t love you, not the way I love him.’ She knew the instant the words had left her lips that it had been the wrong thing to say, but there was no way of taking them back now.
‘She says she loves you, David!’ Christian jeered. ‘So what do you say? Do you love her?’
‘I’m not playing that game,’ David responded. ‘She knows nothing about any of this, so for God’s sake, man, let her go.’
‘Gabriella know you’re here?’ Christian shouted.
‘She will by now.’
Christian grinned. ‘She’s going to finish you for this, David.’
David was silent.
‘Me and Gabriella together. We’re going to finish you, David.’
Penny gasped as he tightened his grip on her arm.
‘You do what you have to do,’ David told him. ‘Just let Penny go.’
‘And how do you suppose I’m going to get out of here without her?’
‘You won’t get out of here, Christian,’ David answered.
‘Is that so? Well, you just watch me.’
As he turned Penny towards the boat she almost screamed as his grip tightened and a searing pain shot through her arm. ‘Christian, please, don’t do this,’ she begged.
‘What choice do I have?’ he responded mildly. ‘Now, just get into—’ He swung round as a single gunshot exploded into the night. Penny seized her chance and started forward.
‘Get down!’ David yelled.
Another shot rang out and Penny hit the floor.
Christian lunged towards her and aimed the gun at her head. ‘Get up,’ he said.
Penny forced herself back to her feet, trembling with shock and blinded by tears of frustration.
‘It’s over, Christian,’ David shouted. ‘Haven’t you realized that yet? Didn’t Gabriella tell you?’
‘It’ll never be over,’ Mureau responded. ‘Not between you and me.’
‘Then make it between you and me and let her go!’
‘You want her back when you know I’ve screwed her?’ Christian laughed. ‘She’s used goods, David. And I’ll tell you this, she’s not like Gabriella. No way is she like your wife, David. Have you seen this body?’ he sneered, making Penny shriek as he wrenched her arm further up her back. ‘It was all I could do to get myself a hard-on.’
Even through the pain and the terror Penny could feel herself crumbling with shame at his words.
Everything had gone quiet at the other end of the pier and as endless minutes ticked by and no one moved, the dread that they had abandoned her overwhelmed her. ‘Why are you doing this?’ she sobbed. ‘Please, tell me, Christian, what happened between you two.’
Before Christian could answer, another voice called out from the end of the pier. ‘Mureau! We got two DEA officers out here and a whole army of Filipinos. You ain’t going to get away with this, son, so come on in now before someone’s blood gets spilled.’
‘It’ll be hers if any of you come a step closer,’ Mureau warned. Then, to Penny: ‘In the boat. Go! Now!’
Penny turned, then gave a startled gasp as a figure rose up from the water. Christian’s response was like lightning. He shot the figure at point-blank range, then, grabbing Penny, he shoved her towards the boat. ‘Jump!’ he hissed.
‘Stay right where you are.’
Penny spun round. A wet-suited man, with lake water pooling at his feet, was holding a gun to Christian’s head. Christian’s foot lashed out. Penny fell back, hitting her head on a pulley. The man fired. At the same instant Christian elbowed him in the gut. Dazed, Penny tried to pull herself up. Blood was flooding her eyes. Christian’s foot smashed into her chest. She jerked back, crashed to the floor, then rolled senselessly into the viscid depths of the lake.
David was racing along the pier. Seeing her go in, he dived right in after her. The scum and slime blinded him. He thrashed about in the darkness, trying to find her. Resurfacing, he took air, then went back down. Gunshots exploded in his ears. He couldn’t find her. Mureau was firing into the water. God-damnit, he couldn’t find her! He twisted and turned, flailing out with his arms, kicking with his legs. His body jerked, once, twice, as more shots boomed into the water. Then everything went silent.
Foreman and Lucci stood staring down at the air bubbles in the lake. Any second now Villers would come up – with the girl. A minute went by, then another. Foreman was the first to tear off his jacket as the two DEA agents dived into the water after them.
Chapter 23
A HOST OF faces swam before her eyes, melting, undulating in a liquid softness, fading into nothingness, then returning in a blurred, echoing infinity. There was a droning in her ears. She could hear her name, a distant reverberation, moving further and further away, then sharply beside her. Still the droning. She could see David. She wanted to touch him, but he’d gone. She tried to say his name but her tongue was too heavy, her lips wouldn’t part. Sammy was there. Then a strange woman with dark, probing eyes that seemed to vibrate with the droning. David was there again. Then she saw her mother. Her eyes filled with tears. Her mother was smiling. Then everything was black.
A car was waiting on the runway as the light aircraft circled the island, then began its descent against the blazing orange hues of sunrise. Beneath them the South China Sea quivered like fire.
The passengers disembarked and were driven speedily, though carefully, through a forest of palms and multi-specied cacti. Everything was still as they passed – no ripple amongst the lily pads on the pond, no stirring of the slender reeds, no sound from the casitas buried in the tropical splendour of the island. The tang of salt mingled with the delicate essence of flowers to perfume the air.
On reaching the casita, the car stopped to let its passengers out. No one spoke. The gentle sigh of the sea carried on the first whispering breeze of the day. As the door of the casita opened, David carried Penny through and laid her gently down on the bed. The nurse closed the door behind them.
More than two hours passed before the nurse came out again. Before getting into the car she turned to look at the casita. It was made up of two large triangular-shaped rooms with gently sloping red-tiled roofs placed together as though engaged in a cheek-to-cheek embrace and fondly observed by the caressing fronds of palm leaves and the lofty majesty of a glorious morning sky. Then opening the car door, she got inside and headed back to the airstrip.
For some time now Penny had felt herself rising through the misty, glutinous bands of sleep. It seemed like an endless journey, but as each one began finally to dissolve, receding soundlessly and effortlessly into obscurity, her eyes began to flicker. She turned her head, moaning softly as daylight penetrated the darkness. She blinked her eyes open, then closed them again, allowing her senses to gather from the deadening solace of sleep, waiting for the lucidity that would remind her of who and where she was.
For a long time nothing happened. She was fully awake, but her eyes remained closed as she recalled the visions of her sleep. David and Sammy. A stranger and her mother. And the terrible, monotonous droning. The droning had stopped; there was no sound at all now. A small frown appeared between her eyes as she remembered the jail. Then her eyes flew open as she recalled the scene on the pier. Da
vid and Christian. Something had happened between David and Christian.
As she looked around the room her eyes grew wide. There was a faint throbbing in her head, but otherwise she was sure she had the strength to move. She sat up, supported by vast, downy pillows at the head of a bed that was so big you could get lost in it. The room was triangular and luxurious. The two sloping walls were dominated by windows, through which she could see a smooth, wooden terrace, a small garden of tropical shrubs, then . . . she shifted herself higher . . . a pure white beach being lapped by a sun-spangled aquamarine sea.
She frowned as she thought that maybe she was dead and gone to heaven. Where was she? And how had she got here?
Peeling back the sheets she walked over to where the windows met in a point. In front of them were two dark wood day beds, both with mattresses the colour of the sand on the beach. She turned to look back at the room, gazing incredulously around her at the dark bamboo headboard of the bed, the highly polished wood of the floors, the ornate marble desk and the clay bowls filled with vivid flowers. Walking back across the room she slid open the double doors beside the bed and stepped into another triangular illusion that might have been designed for an Egyptian queen or a Moorish princess. The bath was set in a creamy marble block, facing the window, looking out on to the enticing blue of the sea. At the other end of the room the vanity units were set in the same delicate shades of marble, with an enormous mirror bordered in discreet, opaque lights. Pushing open a slatted wooden door beside it she found the toilet, and in a marble-tiled cubicle the other side was the shower. In the middle of the room was a neat round table, on which a white orchid preened in the dreamy glow of a single spot.
She turned back to the mirror and looked at herself. How, she wondered, had she come by what she was wearing? It was a white, man’s shirt, crumpled because she’d slept in it, but meticulously clean. So too were her hair and her face. She peered a little closer and saw the bruise on her forehead. She touched it, winced, then gave a confused smile as her stomach growled with hunger.
She walked back across the bedroom and let herself out on to the wooden deck. The warm, scented air assailed her. Small details of the dreadful episode on the pier were beginning to come back to her. She wondered how long ago it had happened, or if, maybe, she had dreamt it. So desperate was her longing for David that maybe she had imagined it all. Then a sudden fear descended on her. Had Christian managed to get her into the boat? Was it he who had brought her here? Was this to be their retreat, hiding from justice, isolated from the world?
Her eyes alighted upon a hammock swinging gently in the breeze. She walked down the steps towards it, then continued along a short sandy path through the tangle of exotic shrubs and flowers to the beach. There she found two sun beds, sheltered by a parasol from the blazing sun. Their fabric was the same translucent white as the sand, the wooden frames were made from the same polished wood as the interior of the casita. Much further along the beach she saw two more sun beds and a parasol, more palms bowing towards the sea, and on the near horizon, across the dazzling sapphire waves, a small island rose gently out of the blue.
This truly was a paradise. But how had she come to be here? A tight band formed around her head as she tried to make herself think. It was as though fear had become a constant in her life now and fear, she knew, was born out of ignorance. But why was she here? Who had brought her? And why did she seem so alone?
Walking back, she looked down at her toes, watching them sink into the powdery crystals of sand. As she approached the steps to the veranda she lifted her head to look at the casita. The sun was glinting on the windows, dazzling her. She thought she could see someone standing there.
She stopped and put her head curiously to one side. Then her heart suddenly caught.
‘Hi,’ he said.
She started to speak, but her lips only trembled as her eyes watered and she wondered whether she should really trust what they were seeing. He looked so impossibly handsome with his tousled blond curls and deep, searching blue eyes laughing quietly, teasingly, down at her. Her heart was so full she could barely breathe. She felt shy, ridiculously tongue-tied and foolish.
‘Out for a stroll?’ he said, the laughter simmering wickedly in his voice.
Penny turned her head to one side, her lips pursed in a smile. ‘David, I . . .’ Her voice trembled and as she lifted her head to look at him her eyes were imbued with the power of her feelings.
He came down the steps; then, folding her in his arms, he said, ‘I love you too.’
‘Oh God,’ she spluttered, laughing through the tears as her mind and her heart started to swim in the crazy flood of incredulity. The feel of him – the sheer strength of him and the intoxicating scent of his hair and skin – was flowing through her.
‘That was what you were going to say, wasn’t it?’ he asked.
‘No,’ she laughed.
‘It wasn’t?’ he said, sounding surprised and disappointed. ‘Well, it sure looked like it was.’
There was nothing she could do to stop the tears. It wasn’t that she had forgotten his humour, it was simply that she’d been so afraid she might never hear it again.
‘So,’ he said, tilting her face up to his and stroking his thumb along her jaw, ‘what were you going to say?’
As she gazed up at him she could feel the force of her love stealing the words from her lips. ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered. ‘But you’re right I – I do . . .’
‘Love me?’
‘Yes,’ she nodded, swallowing hard.
‘Well, that’s a relief,’ he murmured, dropping his forehead on to hers, ‘’cos we’re sure as hell in the wrong place if you don’t.’
Laughing again, she raised her head to look at him. ‘Where are we?’ she asked.
‘Well,’ he said, looking skyward as though to think about it for a moment, ‘we’re at the Amanpulo, which, I guess you could say, is one of the world’s most exclusive hotels.’
She turned to look out towards the first magical rays of the sunset. ‘Are we still in the Philippines?’ she asked.
‘Yep.’
She shook her head disbelievingly. ‘How did we get here?’
‘By plane.’
She frowned. ‘Then how come I don’t remember it?’
‘Well, I guess because you weren’t conscious and because the nurse who flew out with us gave you something that kept you under a while longer than you might otherwise have been.’ He brought her face back to his and gazed anxiously into her eyes. ‘How do you feel?’ he said. ‘You were in that lake a pretty long time, you know.’
Penny frowned. ‘I was in the lake?’
Rolling his eyes, he said, ‘Just great. There am I risking my life to save her and she doesn’t remember a single thing about it.’ Lowering his head, he brushed his nose against hers. ‘Do you remember anything that happened last night?’ he said.
‘Bits,’ she answered. ‘I think, well, I guess I still can’t get over the shock of you being there. I mean, well, it all feels a bit unreal now, but—Oh my God!’ she suddenly gasped. ‘Sammy! What’s happened . . .’
‘It’s OK. She’s fine.’
She started to speak, then let her breath go in a laugh. If David said Sammy was fine, then she was fine. ‘I can’t take all this in,’ she told him. ‘So much has happened and so far none of it makes any sense.’
‘No, I don’t suppose it does,’ he said. ‘But it will, once we’ve talked.’
‘You and Christian,’ she said, moving her eyes between his. ‘What is it . . .?’
‘Shh,’ he said, putting a finger over her lips. ‘How about we get you something to eat first? You must be ravenous by now.’
Yes, she was, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to wait. ‘Just tell me this,’ she said. ‘Is it all over? Is he in jail?’
‘Yeah, he’s in jail,’ he answered. ‘They’re flying him back to the States tomorrow.’ As for whether or not it was all over that was something David st
ill couldn’t be sure of; in fact, he was very much afraid it wasn’t, but he didn’t want to tell her that now. ‘Come on,’ he said, taking her hand and walking her back up the steps to the veranda.
Before going inside they stopped to gaze out at the spectacular beauty of the setting sun. As it turned the sky from azure to red and spread its burning splendour over the sea he lifted his hand to the nape of her neck and began gently to massage it. Penny’s eyes closed as she leaned against him and desire began its slow burn deep inside her. His fingers moved into her hair, then down over her shoulder and around to her face. As his thumb touched her lips he felt a telling tremor pass through her and turning her in his arms he looked deep into her eyes.
Neither of them spoke as they gazed at each other in the fading light. His mouth came slowly to hers, touching it softly, pressing her lips open and caressing them gently with his own. Then his hands moved over her back and as he pulled her to him, allowing her to feel the swelling evidence of his need, he pushed his tongue into her mouth. She could feel herself merging with his potency, felt his strength sweeping through her, filling her, spilling into her heart, plunging deep into her soul.
As he raised his head she looked up into his eyes and felt herself turn weak. ‘This is still so hard to believe,’ she whispered shakily.
‘Then how about we make it real?’ he said, bringing her mouth back to his. As his tongue found hers again his arms tightened around her, crushing her to him.
She could feel the masculine beauty of his body beneath her hands, the firmness of his muscles, the tautness of his skin, the coarse hair on his arms, the commanding pressure of his mouth. The incredible scent of him stole into her senses and the taste of him inflamed her; her whole being was alive with his touch.
He led her into the casita, then drawing her to him again he pressed himself so hard against her she moaned aloud at the exquisiteness of the urgency and pain.
It wasn’t easy for her to tell him she loved him, but once she’d found the words she repeated them over and over, kissing him frantically, tearing at his shirt, ripping open his jeans and gasping at the consuming need that engulfed her as her fingers encircled him.
