No Strings (Broken Strings)

by Briggs, Jo

  After breakfast and changing into a cream summer dress, she lazed out by the breakfast table typing some email replies on her laptop prior to settling down to finish reading a book she’d started at the very beginning of the holiday before she became distracted by Grey.

  She was disturbed from her reading by the same shrill female voice from the previous evening; she looked up from her book and was glad the breakfast table stood tucked away from view. With the voice, getting louder and nearer curiosity overtook her senses; she wanted to get a proper view of the wicked witch of west for herself.

  Getting up from the table, she moved discreetly to the hammock area where she could stand and observe the gardens of Grey’s villa while being obscured from sight for the most part.

  All Indi could see was a bleach blond willowy woman dressed in a vulgar orange swimsuit sat with her back to her as the woman dipping her legs into the pool. “Grey, come and join me by the water.” The loud English accented woman spoke.

  “Caitlin has nothing of what I’ve been saying sunk in to your head?” The recognisable tones of Grey retorted. “I don’t want to be in the same town as you let alone by the same pool.” His voice dripping in distaste at the mere thought.

  Not even flinching the loud woman continued. “Come now, Grey you know its best we try and get along. I’ve already told you what the doctor said about not getting stressed over the next few months.”

  “The best way to do that would be to stay the hell away from me then. You don’t fool me, Caitlin if you even think for one second I believe it’s even mine.”

  The woman let out a chilling laugh as she got to her feet and turned sideways to step out of view in the direction of where Grey’s voice had come from. “You wound me.” The bleach blonde declared as she casually swept her hand over the prominent bump sticking out of her lower abdomen, which couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than a baby bump.

  A baby...A baby growing inside this woman’s belly. Could it really be Grey’s baby? Thoughts thundered through her mind trying to make sense of what she’d seen. This woman clearly had to be at least five months pregnant. Maybe the baby had simply been a mistake but why had he not told her. Was a future together just a facade that he never planned to see through? That was the only possible reason she could come up with for him not being truthful about something so fundamental to their future. If he’d been serious about making a life with her, he would have known she would find out about this eventually. Perhaps all the father issues were another exaggerated excuse.

  A sense of overwhelming betrayal tormented her senses as the realisation of what she’d just seen swept over her.

  Indi couldn’t stand to be in the villa another second, she’d to get away before there was any chance that Grey would appear. She couldn’t face him now she knew he’d not been honest with her. Blinded by tears, she gathered up her belongings scattered around the villa as quickly as she could manage, placing them messily in her luggage. Her racing mind planning to drive to the airport now rather than tomorrow even if she couldn’t get on an earlier flight. She’d rather sleep at the airport than stay here any longer.

  Grabbing her luggage and keys to her rented car, she slammed the door to the villa and accelerated away from the last three weeks of her life as fast as she could manage.

  Indi arrived at Catania-Fontanarossa airport just after five, only to discover they ran no evening flights that day. She’d no alternative, but to arrange to stay in a hotel on the outskirts of the airport for the night, and just fly out on the original ticket.

  Once she’d had some dinner in her room, she felt it late enough in the evening to turn on her phone and check her messages, without a chance of having Grey try to call her. She expected he would have discovered she’d left by now, and dreaded hearing what he would say. She felt a sense of anger about his deceit of not being fully truthful about the arrival of that woman, but at the same time, she experienced guilt for just up and leaving.

  Perhaps he would have shared a reasonable explanation with her if she’d stayed and confronted him, instead of running off. However, she shouldn’t have had to confront him over this - he should have been upfront with her from the start, without the need for prompting from her.

  Despite the strength of her feelings for him now, she couldn’t help but wonder if they had been emphasised by the idyllic location, and freedom from time constraints. She believed there was no point dwelling on the might have been, as he probably would replace her with someone else soon enough.

  With her phone on, she discovered she’d two messages waiting, The first was from a polite, but slightly abrupt Grey, asking her to call him back when she was on the way back to the villa. The third was a more anxious-sounding Grey, simply asking why she’d left without saying a word, and still asking her to return his call urgently.

  Hearing his voice the first time made her heart ache, and made her regret rushing off so hastily, but the second made her remember the mistrust he’d caused, and she felt more anger towards him again. Her mind and feelings were on an emotional rollercoaster from regret to anger.

  Despite all the reasoning her brain put forth, she missed his presence.

  Deleting the messages, Indi promptly turned off her phone again, wanting to avoid seeing Grey’s name flash up on the screen, if he attempted to contact her for a third time, and not trusting her willpower to hold up against the temptation to answer it if he did.

  With nothing else much to do, but head to bed, she tossed and turned until the early hours before her brain gave into the exhaustion the turmoil of her thoughts had caused.

  Untangling I - Grey

  Grey didn’t get away from Caitlin until early in the evening, under the pretence of going out for dinner with Adam and Hayden, and refusing to let her join them. They drove off together, dropping Grey a sufficient distance away, so he could double back and enter Indi’s villa, unseen by Caitlin. As he turned into her driveway, he was perplexed by the absence of the hire car and then the obvious unlit building that normally had the lounge and kitchen lighting streaming through the shutters to the drive.

  He didn’t expect her to sit in all day waiting for him to show up, but, he’d thought she’d understood he would get away to see her by the evening. Frowning, he pulled out his phone and tried to call her number, but her voicemail was the only greeting he received. He left her a brief message asking to call him back, the irritability of feeling left in limbo by her sudden disappearance creeping into his voice as it recorded his words.

  He contemplated what to do next; he couldn’t very well go back to his villa, as Caitlin only would bombard him with twenty questions over his quick return without Adam and Hayden. He considered getting them to come back and collect him, but that would also require an explanation to them, as to the absence of Indi, and he remained unsure of what he would tell them. He wasn’t even sure of the reason himself, but he’d started to get a sense of disquiet that she’d not simply gone out for the evening.

  He decided to call a taxi, using the local directory enquiries, and take a walk along the harbour front in Siracusa to clear his mind, before meeting up again with Adam and Hayden to head back to Caitlin. He spent the next couple of hours sitting on a bench, looking out over the sea, and watching boats manoeuvre back and forth while his mind ran through the events of the last three weeks, and particularly the last twenty-four hours.

  He recognised that she seemed to be a skittish type of person from the way she reacted quite emotionally to everything, but he honestly hadn’t expected her to leave with no word before her holiday was even over. She’d appeared to be interested in a future together so he couldn’t comprehend this abrupt ending. Obviously, she didn’t feel as close to him as he thought she had.

  Thank goodness he had held back telling her about Caitlin and her pregnancy, after all, seeing that this was how she’d reacted without even having that knowledge if she knew the sordid truth, he would have had a true crisis on his hands.

>   The vibrating of his mobile phone interrupted his deliberations. Without checking the screen, he spoke half-heartedly into the phone’s microphone, “Hello.”

  “Hey big boy, why do you sound down in the dumps?”

  Grey’s jaw tightened. He was seriously not in the mood for David’s jovial ribbing. “David, I hope this is important,” he said brusquely. “Otherwise can we postpone this for another time?”

  “Sure, we can do this another time if you wish, but it’s about your mystery woman’s safety, so you might consider it vital information.”

  Wait, did Richard know something about Indi’s disappearance? “What do you know about her safety?”

  “Your little friend had a Zak Ellis stalker problem before you met her.” David said in a matter of fact manner.

  Zak Ellis was any woman’s worst nightmare if he started to take an interest in her as he didn’t understand the word no. He was a well known to the Police, but he’d always been shrewd enough to avoid leaving behind enough evidence during his crimes, not to be charged. He was a named suspect in Freya’s kidnapping, but again, they couldn’t prove a strong enough connection to Guy James, the man successfully prosecuted for the kidnapping.

  Guy James had known his sister Freya since she was a little girl, but it had not developed into the sinister obsession until he started working for their father. Fusion had just started to take off and had been away gigging, so Grey or his brothers were not aware of what had been going on until it was too late.

  It seemed he had been doing something shady for their father and when he had stopped being useful his employment had been terminated. As vengeance Guy and his crony, Zak had set about planning to kidnap Freya to get their father to pay up. It was only recently that Livvie had unearthed some forgotten bank statements showing immense payments made just the day before Freya’s return. Livvie had used a contact and found out the name on the bank account belonged to none other than Guy James thus proving their father had given into blackmail and got Freya back before the police was alerted. He had always wondered why she had been returned so quickly without any contact from the kidnappers. At the time, the family were just relieved she had been returned and didn’t question it further. But now it just proved even more in his mind that their father was to blame for Freya’s kidnapping and breakdown since. Just another error he planned to use against him.

  “She mentioned that her parents had hired someone to harass her to give them money and that he’d been put away, but never the name of the person.” Grey’s blood boiled at the mere mention of the detestable man’s name, especially knowing he’d touched Indi, as well. “How long did he get?”

  “Just two years.”

  “I knew that scumbag was trouble, I should have dealt with him years ago.” Grey’s fist clenched tightly as it hung down the side of his body. “I want you to set up some discreet security protection for Indi for the time being. I don’t trust either of them not to have people on the outside that will connect Indi to Freya, or to me. I don’t want her to be any more traumatised by that association than she already has been.” He didn’t understand why she had gone without saying anything, but he wanted to know she was safe.

  “Discreet meaning that she isn’t to know about it?”

  “Yes. I need to know she is safe until things are settled.”

  “Ok, I will get onto it.”

  Checking his watch Grey realised he needed to catch up with Adam and Hayden in town soon, so they wound up their conversation.

  He then sent a quick text to his assistant, Sam, who worked far beyond a normal five-day-a-week job, requesting that he try to get him on a flight back to England tomorrow, or the day after.

  Grey managed to regroup with Adam and Hayden in town, so they headed back to his villa together. He detected a note of surprise in Hayden’s voice when he had first called them, saying he was in town, rather than back at Indi’s place.

  Now walking back to the car, he saw them exchanging raised eyebrows; he knew they must have guessed something was up, but he wasn’t ready to talk.

  “Did your evening’s plans change for some reason?” Hayden asked casually, despite being an employee of Grey’s, they were firstly friends.

  “I rather would not discuss it,” Grey said stiffly, an impassive expression plastered on his face as he coached his emotions downwards where he could tighten his control on them.

  “No problem,” Hayden said.

  The car journey took place in silence, except for the odd comment passing between Adam and Hayden, but a brooding Grey didn’t pay any attention to what they said. He remained too solemn to care what was going on around him, intent on preparing his speech to Caitlin.

  As they vacated the car, Grey spoke up, and asked them to give him some privacy with Caitlin for a while. Progressing into the house, Adam and Hayden, adhered to this request, disappearing into their rooms to wait out the storm they realised was brewing.

  Caitlin didn’t bother to look up as the men entered. She was busy painting her toenails with considerable difficulty, her pregnancy bump stopping her from leaning forward adequately, and her attention fully concentrated on getting the stroke of polish perfect.

  “I think it’s time we stopped dancing around each other and laid our cards on the table,” Grey said as he sat down on the sofa opposite her, glaring severely, after pouring a large measure of whisky into a glass tumbler.

  “I didn’t realise we hadn’t been.” Caitlin looked up at him nonchalantly, smiling her usual, fake sweet smile.

  The frustration of the last couple of days raged through him as he banged his clenched fist on the wooden coffee table in front of him, causing the amber liquid within the glass he’d placed upon it to slosh upwards with the force of the blow. “I said no more games, Caitlin.” His voice was thunderous and imposing, causing Caitlin to flinch, he had her full attention at last.

  “Grey, I don’t appreciate you shouting at me, think of our child!” Caitlin said.

  “The child is exactly what I’m thinking about, you know as well as I that there is not a hell’s chance it is mine.”

  “Have you forgotten my visit to your tour bus in Sydney?” She said mockingly.

  “You know as well as I do that you spent ninety nine percent of that visit on the supporting band’s bus snorting whatever the latest powder up your nose. You may well have flaked out on my bed afterwards, but I certainly didn’t make you pregnant that night.”

  “So, you don’t remember our union?” Caitlin goaded, raising a perfectly plucked brow.

  “To be frank, I am perfectly sure I never touched you then or since. And whatever plan you and my father concocted is not going to work on me. In fact, you can tell him from me that the agreement is off. There will be no marriage.” He leant forward to grab his glass from the table, and swigged a large gulp of its contents.

  Caitlin huffed, “You can’t just rescind on our deal.”

  “I can and I am.”

  “I will sue you for alimony.” She blurted, her voice was becoming more indignant with each exchange as she touched her protruding belly.

  “I think you are mixing me up with the wrong Bailey. You would be better off suing the right father or you are going to look mighty stupid in court when the DNA results show your child is actually my half sibling rather than my offspring.”

  The colour drained from her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The enormity of finally saying that aloud made him feel so better.

  Grey took a last swig of the remnants of amber fluid from his glass, and stood from his chair, anger flashing in his eyes as he strode purposefully over to her, his face just inches from hers. “Yeah sure you don’t. I think you will find as of now you are frozen out by your lover. Some romantic pictures of you two together landed on his desk some time ago, so I am sure he won’t be taking your calls anymore if he wants to adhere to my demands.”

  “Damn you what have you done to me.” She cried in anguish, placing
her perfectly manicured hands on his chest to push him backwards, placing a larger gap from his menacing stance looming over her.

  “Nothing more than you deserve,” Grey countered, a satisfied smile on his face as he walked away, slamming the door to his room behind him.

  The next morning, Grey had arisen early, to avoid seeing Caitlin before he left. He sat in the back of the car, with Adam and Hayden in the front, heading to the airport, his mobile attached to his ear as he spoke to Olivia. He started relaying the events of Caitlin’s pathetic pregnancy ruse and telling her that he would be heading to Warwickshire as soon as he landed from Sicily and to get the rest of the family together before they confronted John Bailey once and for all.

  Untangling II - Indi

  Indi had entered the small, but bustling airport with only a little time to spare for check-in before the three-hour flight into Gatwick, she’d felt on tenterhooks that Grey would appear and try to make her talk to him. She’d accepted she probably would have to answer one of his calls or texts eventually, but she wasn’t ready for that today.

  After handing over her luggage at check in, she made her way to her the large departure hall, she scanned the sea of people to see if he might be there and felt a lessening of her anxiety when she could not. Sitting down next to a pillar to obscure any view of her from the main entrance, Indi pulled her tablet computer from her oversized handbag and tried to distract herself with answering some emails until they started to call to board the flight.

  Indi opened one from her other sister, Lexi. She was close enough to Lexi, but it wasn’t the same tenderness as she shared with Aimee.

  Hi Indi,

  Aimee said she was picking you up today. So much has happened while you have been gone. I see you later as I am bringing someone for you all to meet. His name is Jack; he is drop dead gorgeous and tremendously rich. Although I hear, you’re landed a gorgeous man of your own while you were away, but he probably is not as wonderful as my Jack is!