Bend But Never Break

by Cheryl Phipps

  His fingers traced a line down from her neck to her breasts, which he squeezed painfully. She recoiled but his eyes gleamed with delight. ‘You may think a scar and hanging out with ex-cons makes you tougher, but I bet underneath this skirt, it’s just the same old you. Tell me, do blondes really have more fun? Perhaps we could find out for old times’ sake?’

  Talia’s heart was racing now. What did he mean about ex-cons? Did he have Kirk, as well? She had to try to talk Randall out of whatever he had in mind - not that talking had ever helped in the past.

  ‘Look, Randall, we both know you don’t really want me. This is just a game to you. You thought I was dead. The day you beat me up, I promised not to go to the police and even after what happened, I kept my word. Let me go and I’ll leave the island right now.’

  ‘We both know that’s not true.’ Randall’s voice was deceptively calm. ‘You’ve shared a lot more than information with a certain detective, I hear, and I’m afraid leaving isn’t possible at this time. But perhaps if you do a little something for me, we can work something out.’

  ‘I’m not sleeping with you, Randall. I’d rather die.’ She held her head high, waiting for some sort of retaliation. Instead, he dropped a folder onto the desk.

  ‘What’s this?’

  ‘This is your ticket out of here.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Sign these papers and I’ll let you go. You’ll never hear from me again.’

  ‘Famous last words. I believe I’ve heard them before.’

  ‘If you hadn’t snooped into my affairs, there would have been no problems. Now this is the price. Take it or leave it, but make no mistake - if you don’t sign, you will wish you’d stayed dead.’

  ‘Let me think about it.’ She saw his face darken. ‘Look, Randall, I haven’t even read the bloody thing. How can I sign it when I have no idea what it’s all about? Give me one day - a measly twenty-four hours.’

  ‘You’ve got a couple of hours at the most.’ He grabbed her chin. ‘I’m a busy man so let me warn you, Talia, don’t push this any further. I can make you very sorry, as you already know.’

  Talia gulped, knowing what he was capable of. ‘Randall . . . is she here?’

  ‘Finally. Did you think I didn’t realise what you were after? My daughter’s safe, and will remain so if her mother does the right thing.’

  ‘I want to take her with me.’

  ‘Let’s see what happens when you sign these papers.’

  He nodded to the huge thug who untied her hands. Then they both left, locking the door behind them. Her hands burned as the blood flowed back into them, and they shook as she picked up the sheaf of papers and laid them out to read.

  Most of it was to do with a trust that Randall was executor for. Then she saw the names written at the top. They flashed at her as if written in neon: Samuel and Maria McLeod. Her parents’ names. When had that happened and how? Of course, after their deaths it was conceivable she may have signed anything, since she’d been heavily sedated for the first couple of weeks. In hindsight, Randall had had a hand in that, too, when he was playing the knight in shining armour.

  She flicked through the pages and her heart began to race again. She’d always known her parents had been quite wealthy but amounts had never been discussed. Although generous, they’d never lived extravagant lives. The document said they had many investments and upon their deaths everything would go to her and Ricky but that his share would be locked up in the trust until he turned twenty. However, Ricky could never claim anything since he’d died at the same time. This must mean that it was all hers, and that the lawyer must have been in on all of this with Randall. Otherwise, she would have known.

  The next lot of papers were a new will: hers. If she signed it and subsequently died, her husband would be entitled to everything. So that was why she was still alive; for now. He must have found out she’d changed her will and left everything to Chloe. Randall must have been planning for this from the very day he met her. If not before…

  ***

  Nick felt his mobile phone vibrate in his pocket. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Nick, it’s Emma. We just heard the cops had a call from someone in the village claiming to know you. He insists you’d want to talk to him. Somebody called Kirk? He gave them a message for you - ‘get her out now’- does that make any sense.’

  ‘Shit! They must know Talia’s somehow connected with us.’

  ‘I can’t imagine how they could have figured that out unless someone noticed the two of you swanning around in town the other day,’ Emma said furiously.

  ‘Okay, I get your point, but sarcasm is not going to help. If they know she’s here, then we’re all in jeopardy. Emma, Jack’s on his way to you. As soon as he gets back, alert the rest of the team. I don’t know how this is going to go now, but you can bet it’ll explode in our faces before the end of the day. I’ll get Talia out of here and leave word where to find us.’

  ‘I don’t like to say I told you so.’

  ‘Well, resist the urge for now, will you?’

  Nick hung up and raced down the hall. He didn’t knock, but when he burst in, the room was empty. Damn her! She knew she shouldn’t go off on her own. He raced down to the beach but she was nowhere to be found. Then he saw her sandals. They lay where she’d left them after her swim. They were lost and about to be ruined by the next big wave, just like their owner. She wasn’t as fragile as when he first met her, but if she’d been taken, could she survive a second ordeal?

  He ran up the driveway and scouted along the road. The sight of her bag lying on the kerb was like a kick in the gut. He bent to pick it up and took note of the shoe prints in the gravel. There had been a struggle, and now there was no doubt what had happened.

  Back at the cottage, he rang Kirk on the special number he’d memorised. The phone rang and rang. Not a good sign. The voicemail finally kicked in, but instead of the usual ‘Leave a message’, it uttered the words Nick hadn’t wanted to hear. The two of them had arranged this emergency code after he’d left Talia at Kirk’s home, broken and bloodied. He rang Emma back.

  ‘I have to go in. It looks like they have Talia.’

  ‘You don’t know that for certain.’

  ‘I do. Trust me on this. Give me some time to find out if she’s okay, and in the meantime, prepare the team.’

  ‘No, Nick, please wait, at least until I can get you some backup.’

  ‘There’s no time for that. Be safe.’ Nick put the phone in his pocket, his decision made. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he couldn’t leave Talia with that animal. Randall was capable of torture, and she didn’t deserve another bout of it.

  His first mission was to remove anything from the cottage that could tell them who they were and how many of them lived here. Emma and Jack had the cars so that was no problem; he just needed to find a place to hide their identification, weapons and equipment.

  No sooner had he achieved this when he heard people creeping around outside. He put a pair of binoculars around his neck to distract them and waited in the kitchen. Three men barged through the doorway, knocking the door partially off its hinges.

  ‘You’d better not make a move if you don’t want a hole in your chest.’ The man pointed a gun at him and motioned with it for him to move up against the wall. He spread-eagled him, then frisked him for weapons.

  ‘He’s clean, Marco.’ He motioned to the one in charge.

  ‘You seem to have been expecting us. What’s this for?’ He pointed to the binoculars.

  ‘I’m a bird watcher.’

  ‘Is that so? Well I think we may have a little birdie of yours next door you should come and see before she becomes extinct.’

  ‘You better not have harmed her.’ Nick took a step forward but the first man blocked his path.

  ‘Are you going to be a problem?’

  ‘Let’s see how things work out between us before I make any promises.’

  Marco punched him in the face. �
�Don’t be a smart ass.’ He pulled a length of rope out of his trouser pocket and, handing his gun to the other man, he tied Nick’s hands together. ‘Now follow Dave and behave yourself.’

  Nick’s lip was split and a trickle of blood dribbled down his chin but he thought it prudent to leave it at that, despite the pain and the desire to inflict some of his own. There was no point in antagonising them any more than necessary, especially with the unknown factor of Talia’s condition, and he wouldn’t be any help to her if he didn’t get inside the grounds. Being captured was a calculated risk, but he hadn’t seen any other way of doing it.

  They took him down the path that led to the beach and along to the gates. The one called Dave pushed him towards them, while Marco went to a security camera fixed high on the fence. He made a gesture and within a few seconds the gates opened. The guns they carried carelessly were used to nudge him along the path, through a garden that in any other setting would have been breathtaking. Through an open doorway he walked, taking note of his surroundings in case he needed to come back this way in a hurry.

  The whole place was painted white inside and out, and it felt sterile. Just right for the activities he was expecting to happen here over the next few days. Doors on the left and right were closed, so he had no idea where any of them led. The quiet made their footsteps sound loud. They stopped at a door and Marco opened it, shoving him inside so hard that he landed face down on the floor.

  CHAPTER NINE

  At some stage during the late afternoon, Marco had entered the room and given Talia a pathetic looking sandwich, and some water. A mattress had also been thrown in the corner for her by the man she’d seen on the beach. There had been no conversation from either of them, only looks full of hatred from Marco while the other guy looked at her as though she was a piece of meat.

  She was too scared to lie down, and sleep was not an option, with all the thoughts and unanswered questions rolling around in her head. Her head had begun to pound, and her eyes felt gritty from reading all the legal jargon and wondering if Chloe was here or not.

  She got up and stretched. Her clothes were crumpled. She would have loved to have a shower, but more urgently, she needed the bathroom. Tentatively, she banged on the door. No one came for a very long time and she was getting desperate when Marco unlocked the door.

  ‘I need the bathroom and I need it now or I won’t be responsible for the consequences.’ Something in her tone had the desired effect and he ushered her down the hall to a door.

  ‘Try anything funny and it will be the last thing you do.’

  Talia was beyond listening as she slammed the door behind her. The bathroom had a sink in it so, when she had finished up, she washed herself the best she could.

  ‘Time’s up. Get your ass out here,’ Marco yelled through the door.

  She yanked it open and walked past him back to her prison. ‘Keep your hair on.’ She pulled her fingers through her own, trying to restore some sense of order to the curly mess it had become.

  They had only just returned to the room when Randall showed up.

  ‘Did you have a chance to read that lot?’ He pointed at the papers.

  ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this.’ Talia said in disgust.

  ‘Really? After all that’s happened, I would have thought you might understand I always get my way. And as a grand gesture, I’ve left you your little house. Not that you deserve anything. In fact, you owe me. Don’t ever forget that.’

  ‘I owe you nothing. That was my parents’ house, their money, and nothing to do with you. What did you do to deserve any of it?’ She knew she shouldn’t provoke him but there was no doubt in her mind that, whatever he promised, she was as good as dead as soon as she signed the papers.

  ‘I married you, didn’t I? I looked after your snot-nosed brother and I helped your parents with some lucrative investments.’

  ‘I don’t believe it. Dad was doing very well before you showed up and he wouldn’t have wanted any part in your shady deals.’

  ‘I made him do better, even if he had no idea what he was involved in. Now sign the bloody papers.’

  ‘No! You can’t do anything worse to me than you already have.’

  ‘Really? I think you’ll change your mind when you see what Marco has for you.’

  ‘Whatever it is, you can be sure it won’t interest me.’

  ‘We’ll see about that. Marco, if you wouldn’t mind showing our guest the video on your phone.’

  Talia had no idea what he was up to, but she knew she wouldn’t like it. She backed away as Marco pushed the phone into her face. He pressed play on the screen and Talia had to brace herself against the wall so as not to fall to her knees.

  Her darling baby was riding a tricycle in large circles. Smiling and waving at the camera, she called out in her sweet voice, ‘Mamma, are you watching me? Are you in the camera? Mamma, can you see me?’

  The screen went blank. Talia wanted to scream at Marco to give the phone back when he walked away from her. She hadn’t seen Chloe is so long. Her arms continually ached for her child, and now her heart was breaking anew.

  ‘Here’s my dilemma, I want those papers signed and if you do this one last thing, I will allow you to walk away with a house and the kid. If you don’t, you’ll never see Chloe again.’

  He spoke as if he was referring to a piece of furniture, not their child. He disgusted her, and if she had a gun, she would kill him. But she didn’t have a gun. All she had was her wits and they’d clearly been absent for a few days. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be in this mess.

  ‘Is Chloe here or not?’

  ‘She is.’

  ‘Can I see her?’

  ‘Let’s make a deal first, then we can talk about it.’

  Just as Talia picked up the pen, a thud against the door made her jump. The door swung open and a man was flung inside to land on the floor. His hands were tied behind his back. He rolled to face them.

  ‘Nick!’

  Randall pushed her back into the chair triumphantly. ‘So you finally admit you two know each other. I knew it was more than coincidence that you arrived just as I was about to conduct my biggest business deal ever. Is this your new lover? I guess you do like older men, after all.’

  Another chair was dragged into the centre of the room and Nick was pushed into it.

  ‘Don’t say anything, Talia.’ He was rewarded with a punch to his stomach from Marco.

  ‘You shut your mouth until I tell you otherwise.’

  Nick looked up, gasping. A large bruise down his left cheek marred his handsome features and he glared at Marco as he struggled to retaliate.

  ‘Now, Marco, tell me what these two are up to.’

  ‘Well, boss, it looks like they’ve been playing house next door. We found no weapons or ID, just a pair of binoculars and some men’s clothes in the washing machine. My guess is he’s been keeping tabs on us. The big question is for how long. A couple of the boys checked the house out and it’s pretty clean. She’s got a suitcase that has been recently packed so my guess is she was getting ready to leave. I think it’s fair to assume that they were shacking up together.’

  ‘Now isn’t that interesting. Not that we weren’t aware of it. Want to tell me all the details, my friend?’ Randall asked Nick.

  ‘I have no interest in telling you a damn thing.’

  ‘Now that’s no way to talk. Here I am being perfectly nice, and you want to be rude. Fair enough. Perhaps Talia might like to help me instead.’ Randall bent and put an arm around her shoulders.

  ‘You leave her out of this.’

  ‘Why would I do that? This little lady and I go back a long way.’ His hand caressed her cheek, moving up to the scar.

  Talia watched Nick’s face change from concern to disbelief and then anger.

  His eyes met hers. ‘Be strong.’

  Talia couldn’t face him and she turned away, embarrassed and ashamed that her past was catching up with her. Because of her, he would s
uffer, and she couldn’t bear the thought.

  ‘So I guess if I got a bit rough with her, you wouldn’t feel like coming to her rescue, now, would you?’ His hands tightened across her throat and she gasped for breath.

  It felt so surreal, and with the decreasing amount of oxygen, her mind began to wander. Ah, well, what did it matter if she died? She’d failed to save Chloe, therefore she didn’t deserve to live.

  Randall held her neck like a dog with a bone, pushing her head towards Nick as if daring him to take her from him. ‘I don’t suppose Talia has told you that we were very much in love not so long ago. Unfortunately, she has a suspicious mind, and that’s what killed the relationship, really. She tried to divorce me before the ink was dry on our marriage certificate.’

  ‘So what do you get out of this? She can’t hurt your business anymore. She just wants her child back. Why can’t you just let her go?’ Nick tried to reason with him.

  ‘Hurt my business? Because of this bitch I was in the crap so deep . . . Anyway that’s not the point. I’ve told her she can go if she signs over everything to me, as Chloe’s guardian. I don’t need the money anymore, it’s just pay back. You understand don’t you?’

  ‘I think we all understand that you’ll kill her as soon as she does sign.’

  ‘I might not.’

  Talia snorted and he tightened his grip. She felt her eyes bulging; the room began to get smaller. She saw Nick trying to get to her, but Marco held him down.

  ‘You think you’re one smart cop, but I’ve got news for you. All this time I knew exactly where you were. You thought you had me at last, but why did you imagine this time would be different? How close have you been before, and how many times did I get away? I bet you’ve lost a bit of sleep over that.’

  He laughed that ugly sadistic laugh she hated, his hands loosening inadvertently so that she managed take in some air.

  ‘I was just biding my time. I knew that one day you’d slip up, and I’d be there to see you go down,’ Nick said fervently.

  Randall’s face turned purple with anger. ‘Cut the crap. You’ve stuffed it up again and you know it.’