Sweet Seduction Serenade

by Nicola Claire

  "Mama!" Katie chastised behind me. "Did you have to say that?"

  "Oh dear," I heard Mrs Anscombe murmur behind me, as someone's cellphone rang incongruously in the room and I simply kept running blindly down the hallway, unsure where I was going, but just following my feet as they led me to the only other room I knew. Nick's bedroom. Which was a mistake.

  I was panting for breath, panicked and definitely going to expel my coffee, so I pulled the guitar over my head and tossed it unceremoniously on the bed and then barricaded myself in the bathroom. Staring at that bed, where Nick and I had re-visited our one night so long ago, would only make me cry. And cowgirls don't darn well cry.

  But they can make themselves sick it seems, because the coffee came back up. Thankfully I made it to the toilet bowl, making my stomach feel a little better - but not by much.

  Darn it all to hell, what an utter clusterfuck.

  I expected there to be a knock on the door. I knew Nick would follow me. Offer a smug smile maybe, clearly reading how darn in love with him I was after only one night eight years ago. Or maybe he'd just try to soothe me, be understanding in an indirect way. Pretend it didn't happen, but act like a gentleman and try to calm me down. Either was not acceptable to me. Both would have the same effect. I'd know he knew. And there was nowhere in this bathroom for me to hide.

  I may not have wanted either of those outcomes, but in actuality I expected them. What I did not expect was no Nick. He didn't follow me and neither did anyone else. For ten whole minutes. That's a long time to digest the past half hour and what an utter tool I'd been. I played it over and over in my head meticulously, not missing a moment of embarrassment or mortification out. The more I thought about it, the more panicked and emotional I became.

  I needed Cary - even Garth Brooks wouldn’t reach me right now - I needed my best friend.

  But I didn't have my cellphone on me and I wasn't leaving that bathroom ever again. So I curled up on the floor, near the toilet in case my stomach decided there was something else in there it didn't much like and numbly stared at the tiles around the bath.

  It was Gen who came for me. Somehow unlocking the door to the bathroom - which was alarming in a distant kind of way - and ducking inside. She shut it quietly behind her and knelt down on the floor at my side. Her hand came out and brushed some of my hair off my face in a caring manner, then rested comfortably on my shoulder. We sat like that for a few more minutes, neither of us saying a word, and then finally Gen began talking.

  "My first introduction to Dominic's family was Katie. She turned up at his house, all movie-star glamorous and made me feel like I couldn't ever belong. Not intentionally, that's not Katie, she just was. It was me that came to that conclusion. Of course the broken nose and bruised face didn't help, or that I was dressed in Dominic's over sized sexless T-Shirt at the time. And that I thought she was his ex-wife."

  At those last statements my eyes opened and found an amused and self-deprecating smile on her face.

  "I proceeded to further mortify myself by trying to escape out the front door of Dom's house, after I'd been extremely rude and not taken her offered hand to shake. The next time I embarrassed myself..."

  I sat up at those words, finding it highly amusing and a little unbelievable that Gen Cain - sweet, sassy Gen Cain - had embarrassed herself twice in front of Katie Anscombe.

  "...was at Katie's house where I was staying the night, only a day after that initial meeting. Dominic had snuck into my bed in the early hours and well... you know... when we woke up things kind of got out of hand and then Katie walked in on us, thinking I was alone."

  "Ohmigod," I said, feeling her pain.

  "Yes, Dominic was mortified that his little sister had seen his bare arse, right when he was about to... you know." She smiled winningly, then winked. "And don't even get me started about when I met his parents for the first time. I kind of got talking about monkeys and elephants and acrobats because of a song Dominic had heard me singing at the top of my lungs whilst cleaning my shop. I was so sure they thought I was an escaped mental patient, but the very next day Liz invited me to lunch and proceeded to tell me how perfect I was for Dominic and how happy she was I'd walked into his life."

  I blinked at her. Did she really think the same would apply to me? Because I was nothing like adorable, run-away mouthed Genevieve Cain. I was a cowgirl who frequently behaved cowgirl-in-the-rodeo-ring naughty and had a crazy-assed family of dumbasses who wanted me dead - or at the very least gone. We were so far apart on the spectrum of adorable it wasn't funny.

  She stared at me expecting her words to miraculously make me want to get up and face the lounge room again, leave behind the relative sanctuary of the bathroom and confront the knowing faces on the people in that room. To confront Nick and see in those ice-blue eyes that he knew me, that he'd seen the real me in that song.

  "Anyway," Gen said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I thought you'd find that amusing." She bit her bottom lip for a moment. "Liz is making pancakes," she announced suddenly, the cheer back in her voice. "Dominic and Nick have had to go out, something about an ASI job gone bad. Jacob's headed out to check on something too, no doubt feeling like a fish out of water with all the girls, so it's just us chickies. You, me, Liz and Katie. We can have a feast and talk girlie things, it'll be grand."

  "Nick's gone out?" I asked, the only words of hers that actually made it through the fog of mortification in my mind. He left, without checking on me. Without saying good-bye. What did that mean?

  "Um, yeah. They do that all the time. Dominic not as much as the others, but he helps out after hours when he can and the rest of them will simply get a call and stand up from the dinner table, not saying a word, then disappear. You get used to it."

  You do?

  "So, come on, cowgirl. Lets go have some grub." She stood up and held her hand out to me, a look of happy peace and warm acceptance on her face. And because this was Gen Cain, a girl who had always been kind to me even when I was the butt of poor jokes in school, I took it. But I did brush my teeth and splash my face again with water before I followed her out of the room.

  We found Katie and her mother in the kitchen. Katie setting the table and Liz at the stove flipping pancakes up in the air. The smell of bacon and maple syrup wafted through the room and made my stomach growl loudly. Katie's head came up from her task and she smiled. She really was movie-star glamorous.

  "Darling, you must be famished. We interrupted your morning and you haven't had a thing to eat."

  "Oh, you never know," Gen said quietly so only Katie and I could hear, "she may have managed a nibble or two of Nick before we barged in."

  Katie laughed uproariously as I threw Gen a pointed look to shut her up. How could she say that with Nick's mother in the room? And even though Liz hadn't heard the conversation, she did hear the laughter.

  "What's so funny, girls?" she asked over her shoulder.

  "Just commenting on Nick's taste..." Gen paused, offered me a wink, then continued, "...in pastimes, Liz. That Ducati is clearly compensating for something."

  Katie had to hold a hand over her mouth to keep from exploding with laughter as her mother turned around to look a straight faced Gen in the eyes. I think my jaw had hit the floor of the kitchen. Did Gen just say that to her future mother-in-law? She was clearly spending way too much time in Kelly's company.

  "Now, now, Genevieve," Liz chastised fondly. "Every boy needs a release now and then."

  And that did it. Katie collapsed against the table gasping for breath while laughing her heart out, quickly joined by Gen who had doubled over and had both hands resting on her knees in order to breathe around the cackles coming from her mouth. I struggled to contain my own mirth, but the horror at Gen's nerve kept me in line. Just.

  "Now what's so funny?" Liz demanded, flinging her spatula around like a pointer. "Honestly, Evangeline, get these two together and they're constantly in fits of laughter. I do hope you're more of a sensible girl."
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br />   "I'm sorry, Mrs Anscombe. But I may let you down there," I felt obliged to say. Cowgirls weren't known for being sensible. Rough and hard working, salt of the earth, but a whole lot of fun more like it. Sensible, yeah, that wasn't quite me I was sure.

  "Don't sell yourself short, Evangeline," she said warmly. "The fact you returned to care for your father in his final days says a lot in my book."

  I smiled a small smile back at her. What could I say? It was pretty darn sensible of me - well at least responsible. Now that Aunty Jessie and her boys had started to cause a scene, maybe it wasn't sensible at all. Which made me wonder how Dad was and whether I should just phone Jessie and find out if he was OK.

  "Thanks, Mrs Anscombe," I said softly.

  "Please, call me Liz. You're practically family," she stated firmly and then turned back to the stove to flip some more patties.

  "Or at least Mama will endeavour to make you family now, darling," Katie offered.

  "There's no escape now, Eva," Gen chimed in using a mock ominous tone. "Once the Anscombe machine is set in motion, all hope is lost." She was smiling while she said that, but her words were very close to what Nick had said earlier.

  I had absolutely no idea if I wanted to escape. There was certainly some part of me that was entertaining the idea that Nick could be mine. But there was that other part, the one that had been running for the past eight years, that had just this morning baulked at showing too much of my soul and heart, that wanted nothing more than to flee.

  I took a deep breath in and gave both girls a Tennessee smile, then excused myself to go find my cellphone and check up on a few people in my world.

  I'd start with Cary and get him to find me, because in all this craziness I needed my friend. Then I'd check in on the band, to make sure they were all OK. Then maybe I'd find the courage to contact Derek and at the very least arrange to talk face to face and clear the air.

  I was feeling pretty buoyed by those plans of attack, a little of the old me falling back into place. If I could keep myself busy with tasks and avoid any heart to heart conversations with Nick's family, then I might be able to put this morning all behind me. It was a slip in my façade, a moment of weakness. I could recover from it. If Cary was here and the band was all right and Derek got sorted, then things could go back to my original plan. Find Dad, see out his end of days and then get the hell out of Dodge.

  That was the plan wasn't it?

  Confusion over that last thought is why I got the shock of my life when I switched my cellphone on and found a message from my Aunt. I shouldn't have been surprised. Somehow she'd know that I hadn't left for Nashville yet and therefore would feel the need to repeat her threat via the phone. Or maybe she wanted to tell me that Dad had already changed his will and I was wasting my time staying in Auckland. I wouldn't put it past her to make up a story about Dad already forgetting about me either, which I was pretty darn sure would not be the case. Dad and I had come a long way recently. Aunty Jessie, though, wouldn't care much about that.

  But the message wasn't either of those. It was a real shocker. Making me clutch the phone desperately, crumple to the floor in an undignified heap and let out a little yelp of horror. And realise, that no matter what I tried to tell myself, that song I'd sung earlier was the truth. I'd lost my heart to Nicholas Anscombe, a one night stand from my past.

  And that I'd never fully gotten over it, because the pain and utter fear I felt now was devastating. And you just don't feel that if you haven't completely given your heart to a man.

  Chapter 17

  So Tell Me, Which One Of Them Will Be You Tonight?

  Gen and Katie must have heard my pain and fear filled yelp, because they came tearing into the lounge where I had been listening to the message on my cellphone.

  "What is it? What's wrong?" Gen demanded, concern written all over her face.

  I was still clutching the phone in my hand, but no longer had it to my ear. I couldn't answer her though, I just blinked up at her worried face and dumbly stared. She reached forward gently and took hold of the phone and placed it to her ear, then pulled it away to hit a few buttons - probably to make the message repeat, I hadn't deleted it - then returned the phone back to her ear. I watched as the message must have played for her, because at first she was angry, then quickly shocked and then utterly scared.

  "Ohmigod," she mumbled. "It can't be right."

  "What, darling," Katie asked exasperatedly. "Please tell." She reached for the phone, but Gen snatched it away from her grasp - desperately.

  Katie stilled. Then in a tone of voice I hadn't heard her use before, which made her seem suddenly older and wiser than her years, she said, "Which one? Dom or Nick?"

  Gen swallowed thickly, her eyes darting to me - a brief glimpse of... pity? - then back to her future sister-in-law.

  "It's Eva's Aunt, she says they've got Nick and they've put a bullet in his leg as a warning. If Eva doesn't go to the airport right now and board a plane to Nashville, they'll put another in his head."

  Katie stared at Gen for a good two seconds - it felt like eternity - then calmly pulled her own cellphone from her pocket and thumbed through her contacts until she found the one she wanted. The phone went to her ear, her eyes holding Gen's, but not looking anywhere near mine.

  "Eric," she said abruptly into the phone. "Status on my brothers please."

  There was a long pause, then Katie succinctly relayed Aunty Jessie's message from my phone to the ASI control man. Another pause, then Katie ended the call with, "We'll be waiting for your instructions." She didn't hesitate, but dialled another number and held the phone to her ear again. Her eyes back on Gen, I think to ground her, but the fact she didn't look at me made me feel a little sick. On top of the heap of worry already stewing there.

  "Papa, you need to come back to Nick's house immediately. Code red." She disconnected the phone before he could drill her for further information. Then she took a deep breath in and said, "We say nothing to Mama until my father arrives. Then we tell them both together."

  "What did Eric say?" I asked quickly.

  It took Katie a torturous second before she turned those brilliant blue eyes on me. The pain in my heart felt like it was being gutted with a knife as she slowly rounded to look in my face.

  "They lost contact with him half an hour ago on an unrelated job to yours."

  The way she called my troubles a "job", firmly put in perspective where I stood. I was a job to ASI, clearly a distraction from his past to Nick, but they'd taken on my worries purely out of a sense of rightness, and it had come to bite them in the ass. Because of me.

  "He and Dominic were separated," Katie added, looking at Gen with a small smile on her lips which didn't quite reach her eyes. "Dom's looking for Nick, with the others, now."

  I sat numbly where I was, on the floor, as Katie went to her mother - no doubt to distract her from entering the lounge and seeing Gen's and my faces - proving just how stoic the woman could be. From the frivolous, "darling" calling, movie-star glamorous girl of just before, to a bona fide member of the ASI team. She'd known exactly what to do and hadn't hesitated. And then she'd gone and faced her mother, unable to speak a word until her father arrived, and done her duty as a protective daughter with head held high.

  If I didn't have so much weighing me down right now I would have been struck dumb with respect for her, but as it was, my body was simply shutting down on its own. Fear and heartache and guilt and rage and worry and disbelief and wretched, wretched desolation washing through me in waves. I was breathing heavily, hunched over on myself, my head about to explode. And then Gen placed her arms around my body and held on tight as though she needed that comfort not me.

  We clung to each other, barely registering Mr Anscombe's voice in the kitchen, or the front door opening and Adam walking in, dressed all in black, ASI paraphernalia around his waist, attached to his belt.

  "You OK?" he said gruffly down at Gen and me. I wasn't sure who he was talking to, but
Gen answered for both of us.

  "Jacob's just arrived, help Katie out in the kitchen."

  "Got it. I'll be back in a tick." His hand came down briefly on my shoulder, a small squeeze and then he was gone.

  I expected to hear crying, a scream of horror, mixed with a few shouted swear words from Nick's Dad. But there was just low voices and hurried conversation. Adam's voice clipped as he answered questions as they were rapid-fired at him from Jacob and Elizabeth both. Then for some strange reason they all came back into the lounge, finding Gen and me in a huddle, hugging on the floor.

  "Get up, girls," Mr Anscombe said gently. "Take a seat on the couch, it's going to be a long wait until we hear something else."

  I hadn't cried, I'd been too stunned, but I still somehow managed a sniff as Gen and I stumbled to our feet and, still wrapped up in each other, staggered to the couch. I noticed as we shifted position to our new huddle spot, that Gen was crying though. Silent tears streaming down her cheeks, but not uttering a single sound. I didn't look at anyone else, I couldn't face what their faces would show. I knew there'd be worry and heartache, but it was the accusation that made me hide in Gen's arms. The fact that Nick was - by the sounds of it anyway - hurt and could possibly be killed, because of me.

  I mentally prepared myself to pack my bags and get on the next plane, but the numbness that had invaded my bones made me do nothing to effect that plan. I just hoped that ASI was booking my flight, because taking a risk with Nick's life to keep me in NZ near my Dad seemed wrong. I couldn't accept Nick's life in exchange for a few more days trying to see my Dad.

  When at least an hour had passed, Gen and I silent, the rest of the room uttering a few whispered words back and forth, and Adam constantly on the phone in the corner, I'd just about had enough. Thankfully my wait was over, as the front door opened and Ben Tamati walked in. I noticed the strain in his features immediately. The anger edging the corner of his eyes and mouth. He took a swift look around the room, nodded to Adam and Mr Anscombe and then settled his eyes on mine.