by Bowes, K T
Hana shook her head. “Ninja!” she scoffed. “It must be embarrassing to admit a girl defeated you twice.”
“So, you’d never seen those particular three men before?”
“The ones in the car? No.” Hana chewed the side of her thumb. “But there were lots of men in the house. I only saw two or three.”
“We’ll have a go at them again. They must know more than they’re saying.” Odering shook his head. “Was it about money, Hana?”
“Money?”
Odering snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, Hana. Your husband is a rich man. Did it never occur to you that you might become a very lucrative hostage?”
She shook her head as the thought sank in and mixed with the confusion in her heart. Her green eyes shuttered with the realisation she’d been a pawn yet again in the sick game of ruthless men. Dominic Dressler’s words returned to her with sudden clarity and she repeated them for the detective. “He said, ‘There’s too much riding on this.’ You think it was over money?” Her face paled. “They were taking me to Port Waikato and then planned to kill me and dump my body in the estuary.”
A vein pulsed in Odering’s forehead as he observed Hana’s expression of abject shock. “Of course it was about money, Hana. What else is there?”
Logan walked back into the room and shook his head at Odering. “Nothing. The house is secure.”
Hana put her head down, covering her eyes with her hands. “He says they wanted money. I have a dollar value.” The sobs began as fake hiccoughs but dissolved into genuine misery.
Chapter 63
The Way of Lies
“I’m so sorry, sir.” The blonde cop ran her hand through her hair and shifted on her feet in agitation. She watched Odering’s retreating back and raised her eyebrows as he punched the wall of the corridor in anger. “I don’t know what’s got into him.”
“I do,” Logan stated. “And next time it will be my fist.”
“I’ll organise a ride home.” She chewed her lower lip in anxiety. “I’m so sorry. You’re welcome to make a complaint.”
Logan snorted. “I can’t be arsed. And we don’t need a ride.”
Bodie rose from the seating area outside the main reception and poked Leslie in the ribs. She sat up like Medusa and her wobbly buttocks let loose an unpleasant fart. Bodie shuddered and helped Hana stay upright. She shuffled like an old woman and Logan’s impatience got the better of him. He swept her off her feet and carried her through the front doors. She sniffed into his shirt and wondered when the fake tears became so real. As though he heard the mental question, Logan kissed her temple. “You’re just tired,” he breathed into her hair. “You did good, babe.”
Hana remembered nothing of the journey back to the school in Bodie’s flash car. Logan undressed her and put her to bed, kissing her forehead. “I need to go downstairs and smooth things over with your son.”
“No, don’t leave me!” Hana snatched at his shirt and dragged him closer. “I need to know what happened. If you walk away, I’ll follow you downstairs.”
“Hana.” Logan sank onto the bed next to her and stroked her hair back from her forehead. “It’s over, babe.”
“But Flick went to our house.” She lowered her voice. “I thought the cameras might pick him up and the boys would go after him.”
Logan shook his head. “He didn’t get to our house, Hana.” He sneered. “You think I’d let him set foot on the mountain?”
“How did you find me, Logan?” Her green eyes stared at her husband’s face, seeing the irritation in his expression. “Did you know this would happen?”
“Not exactly.” Logan shook his head. “A few days ago, Che phoned me and asked for a meeting. He monitors immigration for his own reasons and knew Dressler arrived back. He had him watched and as soon as he started moving south, alerted me. I sent Caleb away straight after the meeting. I didn’t want him around us, but should’ve guessed he’d align with his rotten father once I did that. It’s possible his older brothers sent him to watch us as part of their bigger plan to kidnap you. You rescuing him and moving him into the house proved a bonus.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Hana pushed herself back against the pillows and knitted her brow. “A warning might have helped. I’d have locked the front door for a start.”
Logan scoffed. “Really? You’d never believe me. All you see is the good in people and one day it’ll get you killed. You’d invite Flick round for dinner like an old friend just to prove me wrong. Get real, Hana.”
She tightened her jaw and kept silent, betrayal and sadness cloaking her heart like a shroud. Logan shook his head. “Despite a new identity and a job, Flick still couldn’t make it work, Hana. He screwed up so bad in England there was no place left for him to hide. You were his next meal ticket.”
“He didn’t say that.” Hana dragged her fingers through her fringe and seized a handful of hair, closing her eyes against the animosity emanating from her husband. “He never mentioned money.”
Logan stood and put distance between them. At the door he turned and his grey eyes sparkled in the lamp light. “You never learn, do you Hana?” he said, the words cutting deep into her soul.
Hana swallowed and pushed the covers back. “I want to see my children,” she said, her tone hostile.
“Tomorrow,” Logan said, his voice cold. “Amy’s put them to bed at Culver’s Cottage.”
“You can’t keep me away from my kids.” Determination fostered belligerence and Hana fought back, her painful feet smarting against the rug at her bedside.
Logan lifted his index finger and pointed it in her direction, his jaw working through his cheek. “For once, Hana!” he snapped. “Just do as you’re bloody told and accept someone else knows better than you.”
She opened her mouth to speak but he left the room, closing the door behind him. Hana climbed back under the cool sheets and turned her face into the pillow, physical and emotional pain attacking her in equal measure.
Chapter 64
The Curse of the Rescuer
“You said we’d get the children.” Hana hobbled behind Logan as he walked to the edge of the ridge and looked down over the cool, green sea. “I need to see my babies, not take a walk on Raglan beach.” She frowned at the black sand metres below, the surf licking the rich iron ore with a white tongue.
“I want to talk.” Logan’s tone sounded rigid, his hunched shoulders silhouetted by the watery sun.
Hana snorted. “You never want to talk; you issue orders and expect everyone to follow. That’s not talking.”
“Whatever!” He strode away and sat on a ledge, dangling his legs over a terrifying precipice. The area of grass formed a circle of land like a table, jutting out over the sea on three sides. After a short delay, Hana stumbled after him and sat with a distance between them. The plaster over her heel rubbed into a painful watershed and she removed her flip-flop and yanked it free. Air hit the raw skin like a blast of pain and she regretted the decision, struggling to flatten it out and reattach it.
“You let him get too close to you.” Logan chewed on the blade of dry grass and observed her through cool, grey eyes. “How did you think it would end?” He gritted his teeth and his jaw worked through his stubbly skin.
Hana stared at him, her mouth open and disbelief on her face. “You’re kidding me!” It emerged as a shout and Logan started in surprise.
“Well, you did. You’re a rescuer. Everyone’s salvageable in your eyes and some people just aren’t.”
Hana swallowed the accusation and stood, latent anger tightening her throat. “I did not let him get too close to me, Logan. You did. This is down to your pig-headedness and let’s make no mistake about that.”
“How is it my fault?” Logan sneered and Hana balled her fists, struggling not to wipe the ugly expression from his face with a well-aimed slap. She backed away from him, feeling the emotional chasm grow wider than the physical distance.
“You started this; all of it.” The
realisation helped her mind clear and she saw the path to ruin spread out behind her, leaving its muddy footprints throughout the delicate carpet of her marriage. “Not only did your ex-fiancé breathe down my neck for the first year of our relationship, you took the man who attacked me back to the home you then expected me to occupy. You turned a blind eye when he showed me attention. Not satisfied with all that, you moved Sylvia into the hotel; into our bedroom!”
Logan gaped. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Like hell it wasn’t!” Hana shook her head and backed away further. “You’re not truly sorry for any of it. And now you sit here and accuse me of bringing it all down on my own head.”
Logan scrambled to his feet. “I have no control over who works with me! Caroline got a job at the same school as us; what did you want me to do?”
“Exactly what I did,” Hana spat. “Get her fired.”
Logan shook his head. “No, she got caught with that sports teacher, what was his name? I fired him the next year, remember?”
“No! I told Angus about her affair and he made sure the trustees knew. I got her fired, Logan. Me. You just acted like a rabbit in the headlights and expected me to believe your promise that she wasn’t carrying your child. You did nothing, the same as you did nothing when Sylvia turned up with her fake hair and lies, pretending Ryan was your son. You pushed me out like I meant nothing to you.”
“I never touched either of them.” Logan’s expression looked haughty, his sense of injustice filling him with false confidence. “I did nothing wrong.”
“I. Didn’t. Know. That.” Hana spoke through gritted teeth and it hurt her jaw. Fury blossomed in her chest like a spreading sickness, clouding her judgement as she backed away from Logan and towards the edge of the cliff. “How dare you say I let him get too close to me!” The words ached in her throat. “You let him get too close to me. He was there when you weren’t!” Hana let out a sob mid-sentence and the sound increased her sense of humiliation in the face of Logan’s blindness. “You don’t see it and you’re not even sorry!”
She took another step backwards and heard small stones tumble behind her. Alarm crossed Logan’s face and he held his arms out, palms facing her. “It sounds bad when you list it like that.” He swallowed and took a step towards her. “You’re right. I should have got Caroline fired or quit myself. I should’ve done that for you. I should’ve put you above Flick and thought about how you felt having him around and I didn’t notice when he started falling for you. I headed it off too late by sending him overseas. And the Sylvia thing.” Logan let his hands fall to his sides. “There’s nothing in my life I regret more than letting her walk in and disrupt our marriage on a lie.”
“You shouldn’t have let her do that even if Ryan did turn out to be your son. Anyone else would’ve done DNA tests and kept her at arm’s length, but you don’t see your own faults, do you? You let another woman take control of our lives! I meant nothing to you against the promise of a shiny new son.” Hana rested a hand over her empty stomach. “I spent Mac’s pregnancy miserable and alone while you played happy families with another woman. I sent Sylvia away, Logan. Me!” She jabbed her own chest with rage in her eyes.
“Hana, come away from the edge.”
She bridled at the authority in his voice which didn’t sit right against the fear in his eyes. Anger flashed but the warm salt water on her cheeks surprised her and she swatted the tears away with her fists. “You ask me to trust you,” she said, her chest hitching. “Trust me, trust me, Hana. You say it all the time.” Her voice cracked. “But you’re the hardest man in the world to trust. I can’t trust you. How do I end up in the wrong over this? A crazy guy flew all the way from England to kidnap me, saying he could give me a better life than the one I had. What does that tell you about how my life looks from the outside, Logan? Like an endless list of excuses and apologies and me walking through the consequences of your actions.” Hana gave an ugly sniff and sighed. “No wonder he thought he could do better.” She wagged her finger at Logan. “But apparently it was all about money. I’m a meal ticket for unscrupulous men. Now, you’re blaming me. I’ll never forgive you for saying that.”
“Hana!”
Rocks skittered from beneath her as she took one step too many backwards. The earth tilted on its axis, the ground crumbled and Hana flailed with nothing to grab hold of. Time stilled and she regretted having no final chance to say goodbye to her family or plead her miserable case with God.
The earth caved and Hana pitched forward, smashing her face into the ledge as gravity claimed her body. The taste of blood and a terrifying weightlessness occupied her brain, along with a sense of dismay at the ironic closing of her life’s journey. So many had tried to kill her and yet she’d done it herself by accident. Her hands stopped scrabbling for purchase on the crumbling ledge and she stilled, giving in to a peace which traversed mortal understanding.
A vice around her left wrist sent searing pain as far as her shoulder and the fragment of glass in her vein moved under the pressure. But her downward momentum ceased and she hung in midair like a rag doll as mud and dust passed her, taking grass and moss with it.
“I’ve got you,” Logan gasped. “Trust me, Hana. Trust me.”
Hana tilted her head back and saw the corded muscle and tendons sticking out from his neck. Sweat beaded on his forehead and she heard the toes of his cowboy boots scrabbling against the surface as he dug in to bear her weight. The view she’d admired with such abandon spread out beneath her like an open grave and she felt paralysed; by life, by loss, by experience and by love.
With grunts of effort and straining biceps, Logan hauled her upwards. Her left cheek grazed the jutting rocks as he pulled her over them, never letting go of her wrist. When her knees hit the craggy edge, Logan wrapped his arms around her waist and hauled her backwards until they lay on the grass nose to nose. Still Logan pulled, adjusting his body until she slumped on top of him. His breath heaved and he panted with exertion and the aftermath of terror. His grey eyes looked opaque, adrenaline spreading his pupils in an inky circle to occupy most of the area between his dark lashes.
Logan swore and then he cried, regret washing from him like a river. “I’m sorry,” he said over and over. “I’m so sorry.”
Chapter 65
The Key
“Anahera.” Hana’s quiet words made the woman jump and she turned in position, her blank face dropping into an expression of guilt. The fingers of her left hand plucked at a loose thread in her sweater.
“I’m so sorry,” she gushed, swallowing and glancing towards the door. Her brown eyes raked Hana’s face and she raised a finger to point at the cuts and bruises. “Did I do that?”
“No.” Hana glanced around the pretty day room in the secure unit and selected a seat. She kept herself far enough away to escape, but not so far as to appear rude. “I’ve had an eventful few days.”
A male nurse winked at Hana as he settled in a chair across the room. The files on his knee served as a legitimate reason for his presence, but his acknowledgement betrayed otherwise. She shifted in her chair, ready to run if necessary. “I need to speak with you about Wiri.”
“My son.” Anahera’s voice cracked with emotion and she gave Hana her full attention. “Will you keep him for me?”
“But what about Nev?” Hana asked. “He’s Wiri’s father and when we find him, he needs to step up.”
Anahera looked confused. “Nev’s missing?”
“Yes.” Hana nodded. “He drove off the night you visited and nobody’s seen him since.”
Anahera closed her eyes and filled her lungs with air. She puffed herself up and Hana tensed, feeling the nurse watching from across the room. She estimated he’d need five good strides to reach her if Anahera snapped. Papers shuffled as he laid the files on a nearby coffee table.
“Coward!” Anahera spat and balled her fists. She opened her eyes and fixed a steadfast gaze on Hana. “Keep my son. Please. If you can’t do it for
me, then do it for Wiremu.”
Hana exhaled. “Logan and I talked. We need to concentrate on our own family from now on.” The hard conversation resounded in her ears and she hated the closing of the Du Rose portcullis, knowing the agony of those left outside. “It’s for the best.”
“Not for him! Not for Wiri!” Anahera stood, agitated and upset. Hana winced and the male nurse appeared by her side as if by magic.
“Hey,” he soothed. “Let’s get you back to your room.”
“No, no.” Anahera calmed, seeing her window of opportunity closing. “I’m calm, I’m calm.” She thudded into her chair and wrung her hands, accepting the presence of the man in her peripheral vision. “I’ll explain.”
Hana glanced at the nurse and swallowed, her expression imploring him to stand next to her as a buffer. When he nodded, she pushed her bum back in the seat and forced herself to relax. “Okay,” she said. “Explain.”
Anahera’s tale slipped from her lips like silk and left Hana reeling. With each spoken word, the Māori woman’s tense demeanour changed and peace crept in, replacing the anxiety and guilt. The male nurse cringed as her story gave him a different problem and he whispered in low tones to another attendant, who checked on him a few moments into the confession.
“I didn’t know he cheated on me with my sister.”
Hana’s eyes widened in shock and she glanced at the nurse. He shook his head and gave a reassuring smile.
“Nev grew distant and I suspected something but never seemed able to catch him out. I tried so hard to be a good wife but I don’t believe he ever loved me. He blamed me for not giving him another son and I felt relieved when I fell pregnant so long after Asher.” She swallowed. “It wasn’t a good pregnancy and I spent most of it sick. A kuia from our community visited one day, concerned about my sister, Pania and her behaviour. She lived opposite and saw local men visiting; her suggestion caused me shame and I did nothing. The old lady died a few weeks later and I helped her daughter to clean house after the tangihanga.” Anahera’s voice wobbled. “That’s when I saw my husband enter my sister’s house without knocking. The way he checked the street and seemed so uneasy made me understand what the old lady tried to say. She wanted me to know my husband was cheating with my own sister. Pania couldn’t help with the cleaning because of work. When I saw Nev, I just knew. He was her work.”