by Jane Cousins
Like lightning, Matias’s hand shot out to steady her hold. His hand grazing ever so barely against the tip of her exposed little finger. Flash. The world spun.
The cavernous room was dark, candles flickering off to the side. Quinn was naked, sweat clinging to her skin. Her long hair rippling unchecked down over her body, the candlelight casting red glints through the platinum heavy mass. Breathless, her back arched as a large male hand came to rest against her sternum, over her erratically beating heart. Oh, my, she was looking down into Matias Yanez’s gorgeous face. His toffee eyes glittering with reflected flames. Sweat soaked his dark curls and glistened over the expanse of his bare chest. Goddess, she ached, she wanted more from this man, so much more. Leaning down, her lips covered his…
Quinn gasped, reeling back, breaking the contact.
“What the fuck was that?” Matias’s face was a rigid mask but there was dazed shock in his eyes.
Sweet Lady, he’d seen the image of them having sex together too? How mortifying. How… insane.
Heavens, it was happening, the day she dreaded. No, no, breathe, just breathe. She was upright, not screaming or trying to tear her own hair out. She was in a bar. At a party. The world was back in focus, whatever she… they, had just seen when they touched, well, it was some sort of trick… or mistake.
It wasn’t the start of the end. She refused to let it be. She would not go down without a fight. First things first though, she definitely needed to remove herself from the presence of Matias Yanez.
Releasing a soft, strained laugh, Quinn managed smile. “Static electricity. It gets me every time.” Oh, crap, that was lame. Retreat… don’t run. She swung around, the tail end of her ponytail swinging over her shoulder.
Huh, that was interesting. In the dream… vision, whatever it was, her hair had been its natural colour. Okay, lesson number one she’d learned from this incident; she was never returning to her original platinum blonde state. No power on earth would lead her down the slippery slope to fulfilling that… vision? Well, it wasn’t a memory. She’d never had sex with Matias Yanez. For Heaven’s sake, she’d only just met him for the first time today.
“Thank the Goddess, drinks.” Riya looked up at Quinn’s return. “Sweetie, you okay?”
The entire table echoed concern. Quinn was as white as a sheet as she set down the two ice buckets on to the table.
“Did you touch one of them?”
“Did you see a memory?”
“Are you alright?”
Quinn collapsed gracelessly into her chair. “I didn’t see any memories… I don’t want to talk about it. For Heaven’s sake, someone pour me a drink.”
And that was the problem right there, her gift worked only on memories. But that scene she’d witnessed… felt… experienced, between her and Matias, it had been too real, too detailed. She had been conscious of the sweat drying on her skin and the loud beating of her heart in her chest and… go on, be a grown up, admit how the ache between her legs had throbbed in time with her accelerated heartbeat.
Quinn crossed her legs, conscious that the ache was still present, making her feel uncomfortable, her skin too tight. She needed to snap out of this fugue or whatever it was she was experiencing, conscious that all her friends were looking at her strangely.
“What are we talking about?” Quinn enquired, hot colour now flooding her cheeks.
“The new Chief’s unrequited… or perhaps, not so unrequited love of Berry.” Darcy provided.
Quinn forced a smile, the others at the table were clearly biting back their worried questions concerning her too obviously distressed state. “Spill, I want to hear everything.”
Quinn lifted her glass, hiding a wince at the sight of her visibly trembling fingers, blast, she drank down almost half the contents in one go. She was grateful her back was to the bar, even so, she had to fight the temptation to turn in her seat and look at Matias. Damn, she needed a distraction, any distraction. Thankfully Berry took up the conversational gauntlet.
“Well, it all started Friday week ago with the cats…”
Quinn did her best to look like she was paying attention to her cousin’s story. But a thought kept bouncing around in her head. Growing in speed and momentum. Was this truly it? Was the family curse about to strike again? Was this the first sign that her deepest, darkest fear was about to be realized?
Was she really going insane?
Chapter One
One Year Later…
Blood!
Mama!?!
Papa!?!
Matias came awake with a hoarse yell. Scrambling backwards. Panting hard. Heart racing. The smell of blood coating the back of his throat. Pain searing his head. He’d seen his parents’ bodies only moments ago. Blood staining the decks beneath them. Papa lying there, covering Mama, futilely trying to protect his wife with his last act.
So much blood.
Their eyes open.
Copper? Where was his sister? He had to protect Copper. She’d been right beside him and then she was just… gone.
“It’s alright. Just breathe.”
The rest of the crew? Big Baggo? Estelle? Craig and Tigo? And Kristiah? Nico would never forgive him if anything happened to Kristiah.
“Breathe and listen. Matias… are you listening?”
He sucked in a deep, ragged breath. His eyes finally focusing on his surroundings. He was in a strange, large room. Sprawled on the floor. The shiplap covered walls and wooden floors were painted white. There was little in the way of furniture, a bookcase against the far wall, and next to it two sea trunks. Dead centre in the middle of the room, a king-sized mattress, placed directly onto the floor, covered with the rumpled sweat soaked sheets he’d tossed aside in his mad scramble to be free of them.
“Breathe.”
He flicked his gaze to the small speaker box, sitting next to a pile of folders and books on the other side of the mattress. The voice providing those instructions, talking to him, was very familiar, it was his own… where… what was happening? He’d just been on the Merry Maverick, and now he was here, wherever here was.
Mama? Papa? Had he been dreaming? No, it had been no dream.
“There’s no blood. No pain. Breathe.”
He rubbed his temple, no pain? But… He scrubbed at his face, trying to make sense of everything. What the fuck was going on? Where was he?
“Matias, listen to me! Listen to my voice. I’m going to tell you what is going on but you need to calm down and breathe. Just know you are safe. Nico is safe. I will tell you what is going on. The most important thing to know is that everything I will relate… Papa, Mama, the boat, it all happened a long time ago-”
What? No. He’d just been on the deck. Just been with his parents.
“They’re dead, Matias. The entire crew. But listen… it didn’t just happen, it occurred ten years ago.”
Ten years! What? No, none of this was making any sense.
“You have a brain injury. Every night when you go to sleep, you reset, every morning you wake up back there… back on the Merry Maverick.”
No. No!
“You don’t believe me. I get it, I am you. Go to the bathroom, off to the left, look in the mirror… see for yourself.”
On shaky legs, Matias rose and stumbled across the wooden floor. The sliding door to the bathroom was open. He slapped his hands down onto the polished concrete surface of the long sink and stared into the mirror at… a stranger. A haggard, angry stranger.
It was him, dazedly he lifted a hand up to touch his cheek. He was older, ten years older. He looked hard… and his eyes, danger and the promise of pain loomed in those depths.
Who was this man? Who had he become?
Gripping the sink, Matias straightened, glaring hard at his own reflection. He wanted answers. Had they caught and punished his parents’ killer? What had happened that day on the boat? Where was Copper? Why wasn’t his brother, Nico, here to explain to him what was going on?
He stalked ou
t of the bathroom. His eyes searching the room, looking for answers, for something to tear apart so he could stop feeling this all consuming grief, horror and shock. No wonder the mattress was on the floor and the bar stools lined up in front of the long white kitchen island were bolted to the floor. He wanted to rend, destroy.
A low growl issued from the back of his throat as he rounded the kitchen island and yanked open the refrigerator door. Grabbing a bottle of juice, he gulped down the contents. Hoping to clear away the memory of the taste of blood that haunted him still… ten years later.
“You want answers…”
The speaker next to the bed interrupted his thoughts. He scowled at it, stalking across the floor, fists clenching and unclenching as he stared down at the red blinking light. He… they, should be out there, doing something.
“Yes, Copper is missing. No, the killer has never been caught.”
Matias bit back on the urge to howl as pain tore through him. Ten years? Ten years his sister had been missing. Ten years his parents’ death had been unavenged. Whilst he was here, in this comfortable room, doing nothing-
“You do this every morning. This speaker is sound activated. Think on it… just think. Every morning you wake up screaming. Smelling the blood. Feeling the pain. Desperate. Mindless. Yes, you and Nico searched… the world, you searched the planet for Copper… for answers. But time passed. And Nico’s grief began to fade… but not for you.”
What was he talking about? These foolish nonsensical words. He needed vengeance for his parents… for the crew. And he needed to find Copper.
“Listen! You… me, fuck, we were killing Nico. Every day was the same. The grief, the out of control rage, the disorientation of being out of sync with the world. And it was left to Nico each morning to break the news of Mama and Papa’s death… over and over again. I was killing him. Look in his eyes, Nico is haunted by the endless questions I ask, the out of control rage and the mindless grief… I might as well be stabbing him.”
He was hurting Nico? No… but he needed…
“You need to move… run, and whilst you are running, I’ll tell you what we figured out happened that day on the Merry Maverick and everything that has happened since. To the right, those folding doors… open them and you’ll find all your clothes and some running gear.”
Dressed. Head phones on. Matias followed the… his instructions. Yes, he needed to keep moving, expend all this rage, all this energy before he hurt himself or the last person on earth who was dear to him.
“Okay, now head towards the windows, they open and there’s a ladder leading down to the beach… trust me, you don’t want to bump into anyone until you’ve heard all of what I have to say.”
Matias frowned at the floor to ceiling windows, pulling them open wide. Flinching slightly as the salty sea air assailed his nostrils. The long stretch of pristine white beach outside was unfamiliar… shit, how was he supposed to do this? Live this new half life?
“The very first thing you need to know is that you are a different man now. Given your… our condition, you can’t afford to make small talk with people, laugh, or even smile. Who you used to be, that… boy, he might as well be dead. You may not like hearing about who you are now but that is unimportant… you live this life for Nico. You need to stop hurting him and so I’m warning you now… don’t fuck it up.”
Saint Medard, was this his life now? To follow the instructions of this asshole he had become? To wake up in this strange place and run this beach every morning until his sanity was restored? He ignored the last three rungs and leapt to the ground.
Fuck. Ten years? Ten years of his life lost. No memories. His parents dead. Copper missing.
Sand kicked up behind Matias as he raced across the beach. The rosy light of dawn making the ocean glitter and sparkle. He needed to run faster, harder… his own voice droning in his ears. Telling him all about this new man he had been forced to become, this new life he was forced to endure.
He frowned as a wave broke and raced up the sand, he leapt sideways, cold fear suddenly gripping his gut at the idea of coming into contact with the water. What the…? He, who had spent practically his whole life, well, the one he could remember, on a boat, was suddenly afraid of the water?
Shit, he’d loved the sea. He’d loved his life.
But all of that was gone now.
He wondered what other nasty surprises awaited him… he needed to be strong, vowing to find his sister and punish his parent’s killer. In the meantime, he would endure… for Nico… and for… a hazy recollection bubbled to the surface of his mind. He tried to grab hold of the… memory? Dream? But it was too elusive… a gorgeous woman… naked, moonlit coloured hair set on fire… was she real?
Was any of this real?
Chapter Two
Quinn arched her back and closed her eyes. The warmth of the just risen sun sinking into her bones. There was nothing better than starting off a day on a yoga mat in her back garden performing sun salutations. Or, as she secretly called them, sanity salutations.
Her mind was calm. Her breathing controlled. Her heartbeat constant.
She inhaled deeply, revelling in the soft breeze, laden with smells of the ocean intermingled with the scents from her garden. Clean, earthy smells; grass, basil, mint, lavender. Lovely.
She opened her eyes and appreciated the deep blue of the sky. Drinking in the colourful array of gaudy hibiscus flowers surrounding her, dancing on the gentle breeze. Admiring from her spot, high on the bluff, how the light sparkled and danced over the cresting small waves as they dashed against the shore of Hidden Cove Bay. Racing up to darken the white sandy beach.
Quinn bent forward and stretched, fingers yearning, reaching to touch the sky. Internalising the sounds around her. The cry of the circling seagulls, the distant sounds of the waves breaking, the swish of leaves moving in the breeze.
She was at peace.
She had harmony.
She was sane. Fingers crossed.
It had been a year since the… anomaly. Okay, it was a stupid term, but how else was she going to refer to it? It certainly wasn’t a memory. If she’d had sex with a man like Matias Yanez, she would remember. And it hadn’t been a dream, she’d pinched herself, definitely wide awake.
And it wasn’t some vision of the future. That would just be ridiculous. Her magic didn’t work that way. Besides, her and Matias Yanez? Right, in what world would a gruff, brooding, gorgeous barman, hook up with a woman who led an exceedingly mundane orderly life?
The fleeting… hot… image of her having sex with Matias Yanez had been nothing more than a manifestation of stress. Or the spicy food she’d eaten the night before.
It had been a wake-up call of course. She’d been getting lax. Since the... anomaly, she had initiated stricter guidelines. Watching what she ate. Ensuring she got plenty of sleep. Exercising at least three hours every day. Keeping to her schedule. Being ultra careful about avoiding unnecessary skin contact outside of office hours.
And most important of all, avoiding Matias Yanez and the Five Alarm Bar.
Which had proven to be kind of challenging. Thanks to circumstances involving her cousin Nell’s friend Devon, the Five Alarm Bar had become a very popular venue in Haven Bay during the last six months. But luckily, not amongst the singleton crowd, who remained conscious of the Great-Aunt Alma black ju-ju cloud continuing to hang over the place.
Of course Quinn played it extra careful. She’d extended the off limits boundary to include all shops in a one block radius of the Bar, along with the entire stretch of Haven Bay beach. Easy to avoid. All it took was a little planning on her part, and she was nothing if not an expert planner.
So that was that, problem solved. No chance of her accidentally bumping into Matias Yanez. She had a year under her belt - Matias-free - to prove that her plan worked.
She hadn’t recognised the location in her... anomaly. The cavernous white room. Candlelit. The king-sized mattress on the floor. The place probably d
idn’t even exist, no more than a product of her overstressed mind. But it was just a simple matter, given her excellent planning skills, to avoid all new locations.
Okay, so her life bordered on the boring of late, predictable, with no surprises, but at least she was safe... sane.
And as long as she kept dyeing her hair dark blonde, well, there was absolutely no chance of her recreating that bedroom scene, with her sitting naked on top of Matias Yanez, sweat glistening on her skin. The candlelight firing red glints through her platinum coloured hair.
Nope, there was no reason on this earth for her to go back to her natural hair colour. Okay, so the dark blonde wasn’t as flattering in regards to her skin tone, but big deal, she looked professional and projected the right image. A very important factor in her line of work when you were asking people to open up and spill their deepest, darkest secrets.
Phew. Quinn climbed to her feet. Breathing hard. Because of all the exercise, not because she’d gotten all hot and bothered by thinking about the anomaly... again.
Her wristwatch chimed, perfect. Time for breakfast. She was right on schedule. Exactly how she liked her life. No surprises. No anomalies.
A cup of mint tea, a peach, half a cup of yoghurt and a bowl of muesli later, Quinn tidied the kitchen, made her bed and double checked her schedule. Damn, she’d forgotten that Nell had requested she add two family members to her already overloaded appointment book. And sheer bad luck had meant both reluctant clients had chosen today to schedule some time.
Grrr... no, breathe, count to ten and breathe. This was not a problem but a challenge, an opportunity, to help others. And from all Nell had imparted, these two really needed her expertise, in their own unique way, to help navigate their current emotional crisis. Not that either one would admit to being in trouble, or requiring outside help, or even want to see her.
