‘Might find him.’ It wasn’t just how pathetic they were being. Before, being near Billy had hurt. Now, not being near him hurt.
It didn’t take me long to find him. He sat in the nearest bar, a partly drunk beer in front of him while he twirled another bar coaster.
‘You okay?’ I took a seat next to him.
He started and his eyes refocused from whatever far-away place he had been looking at, to me. ‘Are you okay?’ he said. ‘You got all quiet and I didn’t know what to do about it.’
Oh boy.
I reached out and took his hand – I mean sisters were allowed to do that right? He didn’t seem to mind. His wrapped all the way around my much smaller one, but it felt perfect. The last of my tension melted away, leaving me feeling a million pounds lighter.
‘I am now,’ I said. We stayed like that for a minute more before I let go of him. ‘Might have one of them as well.’ I nodded my head at his beer.
I waited till my beer had arrived before I said, ‘So what happens when we land?’
‘We go to our accommodation. Salindra and Nick will meet us at a bar near there.’
‘And then game on?’
‘Game on.’ He nodded his head and clinked his bottle of beer against mine.
***
‘This is huge,’ I said to Billy as I pushed open the door to our accommodation.
‘We’ll all be staying here, so we needed something with four bedrooms. Only one bathroom unfortunately.’ He shook his head as if he couldn’t understand why someone would design a four bedroom apartment with only one bathroom. I was wondering the same thing.
The glass wall on the far side of the lounge looked out over a deck to the ocean. A couple of small islands dotted the vista.
I tore my eyes away from the view and poked my head into the nearest room. It was a bedroom. A queen-sized bed with an aqua cover looked out through floor-to-ceiling glass. The azure of the ocean glowed in the distance.
‘I’m in this one,’ I yelled, dumping my bag on the bed.
Billy appeared in the door a few second later. ‘Mine’s identical,’ he said, looking around.
‘What about the others?’
‘Well one of them,’ he smirked, ‘has to sleep in the room with the bunk bed.
‘You snooze you lose,’ I said. ‘Do we need to leave straight away?’
‘Yep.’
I sighed. It would have been nice to sit on the deck for a while. ‘I’ll just get changed.’
‘Why? You look beautiful.’
I felt a blush start up my cheeks as I unzipped the top of my bag. He obviously meant that as a brotherly compliment. ‘It’s a little warmer here.’ Then I noticed that he had already changed into a t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. I shook my head and pulled a dress out of my bag,
When I emerged he was standing by the front door with a satchel in one hand. He led me around the side of the apartment to a small carpark full of golf buggies. He checked a key in his hand and then strolled to one of the closer buggies.
‘Your chariot awaits.’ He held his arm out towards it.
‘So, no cars?’
‘No cars,’ he said. ‘We could catch the shuttle bus if you prefer. There should be one along shortly.’
‘Golf buggy is good,’ I said, climbing into the front passenger side.
‘And look,’ he said, ‘there’s even a drink holder.’
‘Yes, but what’s its top speed?’
‘How fast can you walk?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe five kilometres an hour.’
‘It can go faster than that.’ He stuck it in reverse and we zipped back out of the car park. ‘Just.’
My phone rang as we were trundling towards the waterfront. It was Martine. I had left last night without saying goodbye to her, so I was guessing she wasn’t happy with me. For a few seconds I considered not picking up, but then I decided it was best to get it over and done with.
‘Hey Martine.’ I tensed, waiting for her to launch into an hysterical tirade about how she had thought I was dead.
‘He’s coming,’ she whispered.
‘What? Who’s coming?’
‘Boris.’
‘Are you okay?’ How had she found out about that?
‘I spoke to Crusty.’
‘Oh, how’s Boo Boo?’ I missed that big, shaggy orangutan. I could have really done with his companionable silence over the last couple of months.
‘He’s good. But that’s not the point.’ She was barely audible over the noise in the background.
‘Martine, I can hardly hear you.’
‘I’m in a queue at the airport.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘Through security. I’ll ring you back.’
She cut out a second later.
Huh. What was she up to?
Our buggy zoomed down the hill towards the waterfront and a line of restaurants and shops. A marina sat to the left of them.
‘We’re meeting them there.’ Billy pointed to an Italian restaurant overlooking the water.
I followed him in and took a seat at a table on a small wooden deck. The rest of the tables were empty. My stomach growled at the smells coming from the kitchen.
Billy broke my contemplation of the menu. ‘This will be them.’ He pointed to a boat with ‘Whitsunday Water Police’ written on the side. It was heading towards a dock.
A few minutes later the boat pulled in next to the landing and two people carrying small suitcases jumped to the shore. The taller one also held what appeared to be a briefcase. The boat immediately backed up and headed back out to sea.
I turned to look at Billy. ‘You’re kidding, right?’
His grin told me he wasn’t.
Salindra and Nick strode towards the restaurant. Well Salindra, with her long, lean legs strode. Her blonde hair flowed out behind her in the breeze and her black dress fitted her I’m-an-Olympic-athlete physique as if it had been sprayed on.
Nick scampered along beside her on his short, bowed legs. His overly large head made him look more like a caricature than a real person. Salindra was well over a foot taller than him.
‘You get the swimwear model,’ I pointed at Salindra, ‘and I get the circus freak.’
We stood up as they rounded the corner to the restaurant and came through the front door.
‘Well you worked quite well with the last circus freaks.’
‘They were clowns, not midgets,’ I hissed.
Salindra gave Billy an appraising look up and down, a slow smile breaking out on her stunning face at what she was seeing.
‘Oi Toots,’ Nick said from across the room. ‘I am not a midget.’
Toots? ‘Oh please,’ I said, ‘you’re what? Four foot six? I know a little person when I see one.’
He marched up so that he was well within my comfort zone, put his hands on his hips and craned his head back to look me in the eyes.
‘I’ll have you know, I’m five foot.’
‘When you borrow your Mummy’s high heels.’
‘I wouldn’t be a police officer if I wasn’t.’
‘Pfhhhhh.’
‘It’s not like you’re a sky scraper.’
‘At least I can see out windows without needing a box.’ I didn’t know what was getting into me. I was normally a nice, polite girl.
His face went bright red as he shoved me in the stomach. ‘Take that back.’
I spread my legs to steady myself and poked back with my finger. ‘Just because you’re a dwarf, doesn’t mean you can get away with violence.’
‘Shall we stop them before they get to the hair tugging?’ Salindra’s voice was as smooth as her silky-looking skin.
‘I’m kind of enjoying the show.’ Billy sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
Nick moved even closer as if trying to intimidate me. ‘Yeah, well, at least I didn’t use my boobs to get me onto the force.’
I gasped. ‘You leave my boobs out of it. I can’t help it if
I’m well endowed.’
‘I can’t leave them out of it; they’re casting a shadow over me.’
‘Ha,’ I said triumphantly. ‘That’s because you’re a little person.’
‘Right,’ Billy said, pulling Nick back from me. ‘Now that you two have gotten that out of your system, perhaps we should get down to business.
Nick’s top lip pulled back from his teeth.
‘Down boy.’ I met him stare-for-stare.
He let out a low growl and then pulled out a chair across the table from where I had been sitting.
I poked my tongue out at him and sat back down.
‘And she’s really a cop?’ Salindra positioned the briefcase so it was between her and the leg of the table.
I thought about opening up a can of whoop arse on her as well, but it was probably best to stay on the good side of the gorgeous woman who would be pretending to be Billy’s girlfriend.
‘One of the best.’ Billy’s voice had that unmistakeable tone that told me he was still trying not to laugh. He reached down to the satchel that was sitting at his feet and pulled out four manila folders. We each got one of them. ‘Before we start this,’ he said, ‘is anybody hungry?’
‘Famished,’ Salindra said.
‘I could eat the crutch out of a low flying duck,’ Nick said.
I smiled at him. ‘It would have to be flying really low.’
He glared at me for a second before flipping open the menu.
The waitress glanced in our direction and picked up a pencil and notepad. ‘What can I get you all,’ she said.
‘Lasagne,’ Billy and I both said at the same time.
He laughed, but I blushed. The last time we had both eaten lasagne we’d followed it up with me tying him to his bedhead.
‘I’ll have the garden salad.’ Salindra closed her menu and handed it back to the waitress.
‘I’ll start with a serve of garlic bread,’ Nick said, ‘and then I’ll have the veal parmigiana.’ He slammed the menu shut and looked across the table at me. ‘And I won’t be sharing my garlic bread with you, so don’t you go staring at it with your big doe eyes. You though,’ he turned a smile on for Salindra, ‘can share my garlic bread any day.’
Euuuwwww. How did he manage to make garlic bread sound so disgusting?
Once the waitress had gone, Billy began. ‘For the sake of the other guests, Salindra you and I will be boyfriend and girlfriend. I’ve added some details about our relationship in the back of the folder.’
She nodded her head and flipped straight to the back, a small smile appearing on her face as she read through the notes. ‘Paris,’ she said and I had to stop myself from ripping the piece of paper out of her hands. What about Paris?
She read some more and then pulled a face.
‘What?’ Billy asked.
‘It’s a bit clichéd isn’t it?’
Nick leaned sideways till he could read the piece of paper. ‘So romantic, the chicks will dig it.’ He read some more. ‘Oh, and the part on the top of the Eiffel Tower, totally inspired dude.’ He held his arms up in front of him as if he were hugging an imaginary person, closed his eyes and made a kissing sound as he pursed his lips.
Salindra looked at me and rolled her eyes. ‘See what I mean?’
‘Yep. Awful.’ I wouldn’t have minded kissing Billy on the top of the Eiffel Tower no matter how clichéd it was.
‘Do you mind if I re-write this?’
‘Knock your socks off.’ Billy had a small smile on his face as he flicked open his folder.
I looked down at my own folder. The top page was a photo of Boris. The next was one of him with Vladimir and Dmitrij.
‘They escaped?’ I waved a finger at the photos.
‘Just Boris.’
I let out a sigh of relief. Dmitrij gave me the willies.
The next photo was of Boris with several men I hadn’t seen in Las Vegas.
‘These are the ones we think will be with him.’ He pointed to each one as he said their names. ‘Demyan, Egor, Kostya and Taras.’
‘Poseidon’s son,’ Salindra said.
‘Pardon?’ Billy looked across at her.
‘Taras. He was Poseidon’s son.’
Oh great. She was clever too.
‘Why these guys?’ Nick stabbed his stumpy finger at the photo.
‘They have a vendetta against Matt as well.’
‘How’s that?’ I was pretty sure they hadn’t been in Las Vegas.
‘They were in Morocco when he helped bring down the trafficking ring there.’
The next few pages were general information on the bridal party and then the last page was an agenda. I glanced across the table at Nick’s but when he saw me, he covered the end with one hand as if I were trying to cheat in a school exam. I sighed and looked back at my own.
Thursday 9.30am – Meet bride and other bridesmaids for dress fitting.
Thursday 11am – Lunch with bride’s mother.
Thursday 7pm – Dinner with bridal party.
Geez Louise. I really hoped I liked the bride. The week was going to be torture otherwise.
‘Dinner with the parents tonight,’ Billy said. His agenda looked similar to mine, but the words golf and groom replaced dress fitting and bride.
‘Our parents,’ I clarified.
He nodded.
‘Whoa.’ Nick waved a hand between us. ‘You two are related.’
I said, ‘Kind of,’ at the same time that Billy said, ‘Yes.’
‘Well which is it Toots?’ Nick asked.
‘Well Nicky,’ I replied, smiling as his face turned red (I just knew he would hate being called any sort of kiddy name), ‘we have the same father.’
The waitress arriving with our food saved me from his acrid reply. He made a big deal of moving his garlic bread out of my reach and then offering it to Billy and Salindra.
Salindra declined, apparently her garden salad was enough to satisfy her famished state. Billy took a big bite out of his piece, and then spent the next minute raving on about how it was the best garlic bread he’d ever had. I ignored him.
‘So what’s our job?’ Salindra asked as she chased a cherry tomato around with her fork.
‘Boris knows what we look like,’ he said. ‘He’ll be expecting us. He won’t be expecting you two.’
I snorted. They certainly wouldn’t be expecting Nick.
As if he knew what I was thinking, Nick stopped chewing his veal long enough to throw me a dirty look. I smiled sweetly and popped some more lasagne into my mouth.
‘I will be protecting Matt. Chanel, you and Nick will be with Tara. But at the very least, one of us will be with them at all times when they are not in the hotel.’
I wasn’t miffed that he didn’t think I was up to the job by myself, ‘cause quite frankly, where Boris was involved, I knew I wasn’t.
‘Sal you will be the good tourist, travelling the island, hanging out at the hot spots.’
Sal?
‘So my job is to find their hide-out.’ She sat back into her chair and stared up at the roof while she tapped a long, delicate finger on her chin. ‘If they know what you two look like, why are you sticking close to the bride and groom?’
It was a very good question. Damn it.
‘As a deterrent. Hopefully they won’t make a move on Matt if they know we are with him.’
‘So basically, Boris knows that you know that he will be coming for Matt.’ Nick stabbed his fork at Billy and then picked up an enormous chunk of veal and stuffed it into his mouth. He proceeded to chewed noisily. ‘You are hoping,’ a small piece of meat flew out of his mouth and landed by my plate, ‘that he will only make a move if he can get Matt alone.’
‘And that won’t be happening.’ Billy had a determined look in his eye.
‘But you don’t want to scare him off. You want to find him and capture him.’
‘Exactly.’
‘So they didn’t mind adding us to their bridal party?’ I asked. Mos
t brides would freak out at something like that.
‘Oh, I was already the best man,’ Billy said. ‘Tara’s sister is pregnant, again.’ He chuckled. ‘Anyway she was quite happy to bow out. Something about swollen ankles and high heels.’
After we had finished eating we headed back out to the golf buggy and up the hill to our accommodation.
‘There are two bedrooms left.’ Billy waved a hand in the direction of the spare rooms. ‘You two sort it out.’
I kicked off my shoes and padded over to my room, putting my handbag on my bed. It was time to have that shower, and maybe a nap, before going out with Mum and Harry. I grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom.
‘You have got to be kidding,’ Nick said. He was standing in the doorway to the room next to mine and I knew what he was looking at.
‘Last in last served,’ Billy said.
‘I have to sleep in a freakin’ bunk bed?’
‘Someone had to,’ Salindra said.
‘You’re the best fit for that room.’ I probably shouldn’t have said it.
His face went red and his eyes bulged from his head. ‘That’s sizest,’ he said. ‘I’m going to put in an official report about your sizest attitude.’
‘I don’t have a sizest attitude.’ That was ridiculous. I didn’t have any attitude. And besides, I’d only said what we’d all been thinking.
‘You’ve been bullying me since you set eyes on me. You can’t be friends with short people.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’ I put my hands on my hips. ‘One of my best friends is an orangutan and he’s about the same height as you.’
I’d thought he’d been angry before. ‘Are you saying I’m an animal?’
I saw Billy put his knuckle into his mouth and bite it. ‘Of course not. I’m merely pointing out that I’m not sizest.’
‘Well if you’re not sizest you won’t mind if I have your bed.’ He darted past me towards my room.
I grabbed his arm and yanked him back. ‘My room,’ I said, as I struggled with him.
‘Mine, now.’ He grunted and threw his body weight towards the door.
My grip slipped and, holding onto its ends, I threw my towel out, hooking it over his head like a lasso. He growled and yanked at it with both hands, trying to uncover his eyes. It gave me the time I needed to manoeuvre back past him to my room.
Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4) Page 4
