Sweat trickled down her back.
No. She couldn’t do it.
With a gasp, she spun the wheel, causing Kim to stumble and crash into the side of the boat. Her breath hitched as she decelerated, praying he wouldn’t fall overboard.
Kim righted himself and stepped closer to her. “You OK?”
Panic gripped her. What was she thinking? She could have hurt Kim. She shook her head and accelerated again, heading for the shore.
Kim’s eyes widened. “Aly, look, dolphins!” He pointed across her, breaking her focus, and then his words sank in. She spotted the small pod of dolphins swimming only about fifty metres away.
Some of her fear receded as joy shoved it out of the way and she slowed the boat, turning the wheel towards them, but keeping a safe distance. As a child she’d always begged her parents to let her swim with the dolphins. Sometimes she’d been allowed to jump in with them and she’d realised how big they were. She’d felt insignificant. The dolphins had often ignored her, but once they had swum around her and played, as curious about her as she was about them. They’d turned on their sides to look at her and the sun had glistened off their wet skin. It had been one of the best days of her life.
Kim stepped closer, placing one hand on the steering wheel to adjust the course and his chest pressed reassuringly against her back. “Feeling better?” he murmured, his warm breath tickling her ear.
She nodded. It was difficult to fear with Kim so close to her, his body protecting her, and with the calming presence of the dolphins nearby.
Kim reached around and put the boat into neutral so they floated next to the pod. “They’re so sleek.”
Alyse’s attention was no longer on the dolphins. Every nerve in her body focused on the fact Kim was hugging her from behind. She closed her eyes. She wanted this. The affection, the security, even the lust simmering low in her belly.
But was she ready?
His hand rested only centimetres from hers. Her fingers twitched and then moved almost of their own accord and covered his hand.
He stiffened and then brought his other hand to rest lightly on her hip. Her nerves sizzled in anticipation.
The gentle rock of the boat soothed her and the dolphins circled around them as if checking them out. Kim rested his head on Alyse’s shoulder. “This is nice.”
She hummed in agreement. This was what being at peace was like. She was safe, content, warm.
They stood together until the dolphins swam away. Elation bubbled through Alyse, making her feel light. She spun around and flung her arms around Kim. “Thank you!”
It wasn’t until Kim’s arms slid around her waist that she realised what she’d done. She was pressed against Kim’s body, his arms around her. What must he think? She shifted back and while Kim’s arms loosened, they didn’t completely let go.
Tilting her head, she stared into his eyes. “Sorry, I—”
“Aly, you never need to apologise for hugging me.” He paused. “I like having you in my arms.”
She enjoyed being there. His gaze dropped to her lips, and she licked them. Did he want to kiss her? She wanted his lips on hers. Ever so slowly, keeping her eyes on his, she raised to her toes. The desire in his eyes was clear. Her lips hovered over his for a second before she pressed them against him. The kiss was short, sweet and filled her heart with warmth. She shifted back. No, it wasn’t enough.
This time when their lips met Kim pulled her closer. He tasted like coffee and below that, he was all Kim. She wanted more, so much more, but caution stuck its unwanted head into her thoughts. She pulled back, her heart racing. What did she say now? “I…”
He brushed back the hair that had fallen across her face and her words disappeared at his gentle touch. She swallowed. “Kim, I don’t know what to do about you.”
He tilted his head. “Do you need to do anything?”
“Yes. I’m a mess and I don’t like not knowing what this is.” She gestured between them. “It scares me.”
“I understand, Aly. You’ve a lot to work through, but I want to be by your side, supporting you, for as long as you want me.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “If it’s just as friends, that’s fine. If you want to be friends with benefits,”—his lips quirked—“I’m good with that too.”
Could he be more perfect? Worry niggled at her. Mark had said the right things at the beginning too. She hated she had to even consider it. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” He brushed a soft kiss against her lips. “Where to now?”
The change in subject reminded her they were still on a boat in the harbour. Goosebumps leapt to her skin, and she rubbed her arms. “Back to the ramp.” She’d done enough for one day.
“OK. I’ll get my friend to meet us there.”
Alyse slowly accelerated, directing the boat back to the shore.
Could her relationship with Kim be so simple? Would he really let her call all the shots and decide how far and how fast it progressed?
Was that fair to him?
Chapter 17
Not long after midday, Alyse and Kim returned home. Police still moved in and out of Mark’s shed and around Alyse’s house. Her muscles tightened. How were the Malay women today? She would call Zamira later and find out. The thought of those poor women, trapped in the shed for so long… Her throat closed over. Had Mark abused them as well? She almost didn’t want to know. She parked in the shed and Adam walked over. “How’d you go?”
She pushed her thoughts of the women aside. “Achieved everything I wanted to.” She had a new bed in the back of her van, ready to replace Mark’s. “Any news here?”
Adam nodded. “Bosch wants to talk to you.” He gestured for her to go inside and then spoke into his radio.
Dread filled her. She entered the kitchen, Kim by her side. He put the kettle on as she hugged herself. What had happened?
Bosch walked in, her expression sympathetic and Humphries followed her.
Alyse’s skin prickled. “What is it?”
“Were you aware there are surveillance cameras in the house?” she asked.
It took a second for her words to register and then Alyse’s head spun. She swayed and Kim steadied her. “No. Where?”
“You’d better come and look.”
Her gut was ice as she followed Bosch into the master bedroom. She wanted to be sick. “Where is it?”
Humphries showed her the alarm clock on the bedside table. “There’s a camera in there, and one in the light in the bathroom. We’ve found almost a dozen more around the house.”
Alyse clenched her hands. The alarm clock had been there for years. Mark had been watching her while she slept. “How long does the footage get saved?” Maybe it had caught him assaulting her. It would be something else to add to his long list of crimes.
“Depends on the model,” Humphries replied. “Bosch requested a warrant for the footage. It’s probably uploaded to the cloud.”
“He’ll have a link on his computer.” She strode down the hallway, her stomach a swirling sea of nausea, and turned on the laptop. She scanned the desktop and then clicked on Mark’s internet history.
Humphries peered over her shoulder. “That one.”
She clicked on the link and it logged her into the website. A dozen cameras showed every corner of her house including her bedroom and the processing shed. She was always being watched. No wonder he’d always known when she lied. She pushed down the surge of anger and fear. “How do we save this?”
“Start by changing the login and password,” Humphries said and showed her how. “If he has the app on his phone it won’t work anymore.”
He could have been watching her all of this time. Could have seen Kim with her. Could have seen her go into his office and get the information off his computer… She scanned the camera footage but there wasn’t one in the office or the hallway. He didn’t need to monitor himself.
“Alyse, can we exa
mine your phone and laptop?” Humphries asked. “There’s software which is nearly undetectable but can monitor everything you do on the device and where you are.”
She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and thrust it at him. “Take it off. I’ll get my laptop.” She pushed past Bosch and Kim and ran into her bedroom. God, she wanted to scream. Mark had been tracking her every move. She hadn’t thought of checking her devices. Hadn’t known such software existed. Inside her room she rested her hands on the bed, and bent over, breathing fast.
She hated Mark, hated every molecule of his being. Would she ever be free of him? Had he saved the footage, waiting to blackmail her with it? Would she wake one day to find naked videos of herself all over the internet?
She focused on her breathing, taking long, slow breaths to calm herself. She wouldn’t let him win. This was another nail in his coffin. When he was caught, he would go away for a very long time. She had to believe it.
“How are you holding up?”
She spun around at Kim’s voice. Tears pricked her eyes. She brushed them away. She wouldn’t shed tears over Mark any longer. “I trusted him. I gave my life to him and this is what he did with it.” How could someone be so cruel?
Kim stepped inside the room, out of the doorway but kept his distance. Good. She couldn’t deal with a man crowding her.
“Want me to give you some space? I can take the laptop to Humphries.”
She gestured to the computer. “Please.”
Kim gave her a small smile, collected the laptop and left.
She huffed. What did she do about him? From a man who never listened to her, to one who did whatever she asked. The differences were all too confusing, but she should focus on those differences, such as Kim knowing her favourite flower. She closed her eyes. It would be so easy to lean on Kim, to let him take over, to take care of her.
But she couldn’t.
Not if she ever wanted to respect herself again. She would break that habit, have faith in her own ability. He was simply a friend who supported her. It couldn’t be more than that, not now, not yet. She shouldn’t have kissed him.
She glanced up and spotted the smoke detector, the only place to hide the camera. Humphries was probably watching her. Alyse stood on her bed to examine the device. A black dot she’d mistaken for dirt was the lens. Bastard. She’d been so pleased when Mark had insisted on installing smoke detectors throughout the house and sheds, had seen it as proof he could change, that he’d turned over a new leaf, that he cared. The first time she’d asked, he’d refused because it would cost too much.
She should have known there’d been something in it for him. Did the damn things even work? She wanted to rip it from the ceiling and throw it on the ground. She clenched her hands. It was all evidence, additional ways to put Mark away.
She picked up a beeswax candle and rubbed it between her fingers. The sweet scent calmed her as did the waxy texture. She’d survived Mark. She wouldn’t let this, or anything else the police discovered, break her.
She was strong.
***
Kim held his anger in check until he left Alyse’s bedroom. He gritted his teeth. It would be a pleasure to see Mark right now. He had a few choice things to say to him.
Kim shook his head. Alyse had gone white as a sheet which was an impressive feat considering her skin was pale already. The horror on her face made him want to punch something.
He jammed his hand into his pocket.
When Kim handed Humphries the laptop, Humphries asked, “How is she?”
“Angry,” he said. “Did you find anything on the phone?”
Humphries nodded. “It’s pretty sophisticated, much better than your standard software.”
“Mark has a lot of money.”
Humphries pursed his lips and one of his technicians entered the office. “We’re done in the rest of the house.”
“Can Alyse clear out the master bedroom?” Kim asked. Maybe it would make her feel better.
Humphries raised an eyebrow at his technician.
“We’ve got everything we can. Aside from the two cameras, there’s nothing but clothes and Mark’s personal things.”
“I’ll double-check with the detectives,” Humphries said.
Kim entered the kitchen and sat at the table. He didn’t like the idea of Alyse being on her own, but she needed space.
To distract himself, he flicked through his phone, uninterested in social media or any of the usual websites he visited. The things he’d purchased today were still in a bag on the table. Perhaps he should do some drawing.
He sighed. What he should do was focus on his graphic design business. It had always been easy to do it in his spare time and not have to worry whether he made any money. But seeing how Alyse had kept her apiary running despite all the shit Mark threw her way made him realise if he wanted his business to be a success, he had to put the work in. It wouldn’t just magically succeed. And if he wanted flexibility in his work so he could help Alyse with her bees, then he really should focus on his graphic design.
He opened the notes app and typed. He needed to increase his portfolio of work and brainstorm where to find potential customers. Plenty of marketplace websites advertised jobs. Some didn’t pay well but he could bid for a bunch of jobs, build his portfolio.
He’d talk to his father about cutting back his hours and training someone else to do the business side of things. His father had been adamant when he’d started the restaurant he wanted as little to do with administration as possible. None of Kim’s younger sisters would be interested. Eden and Sarah were still at university and Leanne had a job in Perth. The other staff seemed happy in their roles, but he’d ask them if they wanted a change. Sometimes people hid what they wanted.
Just like he was hiding how he felt from Alyse. She’d kissed him.
It had taken all of his control to let her set the pace, choose how far to go. But he’d been dreaming about kissing her since high school and hadn’t been disappointed.
Alyse’s warning about being a mess was easy to ignore because he loved her anyway. But if he wasn’t careful, his heart would be broken. He might be her rebound guy.
He had to be happy to have her back in his life again.
Kim opened the drawing pad and started doodling. What kind of logo would Beatrice’s Beekeeping Supplies have? He played around with a few ideas, enjoying the flow of the idea to the page. He already had a couple of rough designs when Alyse entered the kitchen.
“What are you up to?”
“Just messing around.” Nerves dancing in his stomach, he showed her the logos.
She grinned. “These are great! Do you think you could modernise the apiary logo for me?”
Pleasure swept through him. “Sure. What do you want?”
She grabbed a jar of her honey from the pantry. “A new font and something a little less cartoony, but that still has the feel of the original.”
He examined the existing logo and then sketched his idea while Alyse put the kettle on. By the time she’d made a cup of tea he had a rough example. “Something like this?”
She studied it and his nerves jiggled again. Then she smiled. “It’s perfect.”
Relief filled him. “Great. I’ll refine it and find some fonts for you to approve.”
Humphries walked into the kitchen. “We’ve finished with the master bedroom,” he said. “You can clean it out.”
Alyse’s grin was wicked and lit up her whole being. “Let me get the bin bags.”
***
Alyse stood at the doorway to the master bedroom. It was unrecognisable as the warm and loving place it had been when her parents had been alive. Now it was messy and masculine and smelled like Mark, dark, dangerous and a bit off. When she was finished, she’d burn some beeswax candles to remove the stench. She strode over to the window and opened it. The cold air blew in, but it revitalised her. She was getting rid of Mark.
“Where do we start?” Kim asked.
She handed Kim a bin bag. “His clothes.”
“Are you throwing them out?”
It was so very tempting, but she wouldn’t be the bad guy here. Even in hiding, Mark would find some way to twist her actions and make her seem unstable. “I’ll call Craig to pick them up.” Or maybe not. She’d forgotten about the business accounts. “I’ll be back in a second.”
She found Bosch in the office and handed her the list of transactions.
“What’s this?” Bosch asked.
“A list of transactions both Mark and his brother Craig made on my business account. Craig shouldn’t have had access to it.”
Bosch scanned the list. “Thanks. Have you spoken to Craig about this?”
“Not yet. I was going to call him to pick up Mark’s clothes.”
“Hold off on that until I tell you,” Bosch said.
Alyse nodded. If Craig was involved, she wanted him caught as well.
“Alyse, I need to talk to you about some of the documents in here,” Bosch said.
Nerves sprang to her skin. “I told you Mark had me sign some contracts after my parents died.”
Bosch nodded. “Why don’t you take a seat?”
Alyse left the office, exhaustion dragging her feet. Bosch had taken her through everything she’d signed. The contract Mark had shown her was the worst of it, but there were a couple of smaller ones for companies which apparently existed only on paper. It would be her word against Mark’s about how involved she’d been. Bosch said they might be able to get data off the tracking software Mark had put on her phone which would prove she’d made no contact with the companies.
It was a lot to hope for.
Kim sat on her bed, doodling in his notepad. He put it aside and rose as she walked in. “Everything OK?”
She shrugged. “As good as it can be.” She really needed something to cheer her up. “Ready to get rid of Mark?”
He grinned. “Absolutely.”
His smile lifted her spirits and she walked into the master bedroom and flung open the wardrobe doors, grabbing a bunch of clothes on coat hangers and throwing them onto the bed. Already it was an improvement. She slid the clothes off the hangers and shoved them into black plastic bin bags. Every time she added an item, a little part of her felt lighter, freer.
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