by Julie Fison
Georgia gripped the sides of her seat, every muscle in her body tensed. A madman calling himself Mr Tumnus was in that car. She was pretty sure of it, anyway.
Then something happened to make her certain. As the Ferrari gained on the Mercedes, a face appeared through the back window – a pair of frightened eyes peered at Georgia. It was dark, but she would have recognised those eyes anywhere.
It was Alice.
‘They’ve got Alice!’ Georgia screamed, as the Mercedes shot through a roundabout, leaving the Ferrari on the wrong side of a stream of traffic. ‘They think she’s me! Oh my god. They’ve kidnapped Alice!’
Nik accelerated as he approached the roundabout, right towards the path of an oncoming car. The driver on the roundabout blasted his horn and Nik slammed on the brakes. The car missed them. Just. But Nik didn’t even glance sideways; he was focused on the Mercedes. He revved the engine impatiently as the car went past, then another and another, until finally the roundabout was clear. By then the Mercedes was disappearing into the shadows.
Georgia was getting hysterical. ‘Nik, what are we going to do?’
‘I’ll sort them out,’ Nik replied darkly.
‘How will you do that? What would you know about kidnappers she asked. ‘We need to call the police. They could cut them off. I don’t know. They could do something.’
‘I know enough about kidnappers.’ Nik glanced at her sideways. ‘No police.’
Tears welled up in Georgia’s eyes as she thought about Alice. ‘What are they going to do to her, Nik?’ she whimpered.
The Mercedes appeared ahead and Nik accelerated towards them, his eyes narrow. ‘We don’t even know for sure if it is Alice.’
He was trying to reassure her, but Georgia wasn’t interested in being soothed. ‘It’s Alice! I know my own sister!’ she said sharply. ‘And what’s going to happen when they find out they’ve got the wrong girl? They’ll kill her, Nik. They’ll kill her, then they’ll come after me!’
The hairs on her neck were standing on end; she was struggling to breathe. She felt sick and alone. She had enjoyed the privileges of dating a Russian billionaire, and now she was going to learn about the downside.
‘Georgia, I’m sorry. What else can I say?’ Nik muttered.
Georgia didn’t answer.
By then they were on the outskirts of Noosa – the open road was just ahead. Georgia knew they’d catch the Mercedes there.
Nik’s fingers were fidgeting, ready to push the car to its limits. He was on a mission. ‘We’ll get her back, I promise,’ he said.
She looked at his eyes – they were angry. She knew he wanted to take control of the situation, but his behaviour was bordering on insanity. She was getting really scared.
The speedo edged higher. 180 … 190 … 200. They were gaining fast on the black Mercedes. But what was Nik planning to do?
Nik went faster still. Georgia was pinned back, gripping the edges of the seat and clenching her jaw. She couldn’t bear to look at the speedo again, so she kept her eyes on the black car. They were nearly on it. She could see two people in the front, and clearly make out the girl in the back seat. It was Alice, all right.
Georgia clung to her seat as Nik pulled out into the middle of the road. But just as Nik began to overtake the Mercedes, it swung across the road, clipping the front of the Ferrari.
The impact caused the Mercedes to screech off in one direction and the Ferrari to violently veer across the bitumen in the other. The tyres squealed in Georgia’s ears and the night sky swung in a circle above her as the car went into an uncontrollable spin. The dark bush whirled around her in a blur. The seatbelt bit hard into her neck and Georgia caught a glimpse of a massive spotted gum in front of them.
There was a fierce crash as the Ferrari ploughed into the tree. Her head pitched forward as an air bag exploded into her face, blocking out everything.
It felt like hours, but it was really only a few seconds before the bag deflated enough for Georgia to see what was going on around her. She was disoriented and stunned from the impact, but it came flooding back as she looked sideways at Nik. He was staring back at her, blinking, blood pouring from his mouth.
‘Nik,’ she whimpered. She was shaking.
‘It’s okay,’ Nik whispered. ‘We’re okay.’ He sounded like he hardly believed it.
She was still dazed, unsure of what had happened, how it had happened. Then she heard a blood-curdling scream echo across the valley, bringing her to her senses.
Georgia scrambled free of the deflated airbag, out of the open-top car and onto the road. She looked around for the source of the noise. There was no sign of the black Mercedes, but she could still hear the screaming – it was coming from the bush.
Nik, who had also sprung into action, flew across the road in the direction of the noise, but Georgia hesitated, unsure of what was waiting for them in the darkness. Were they about to rush into a trap?
‘Nik!’ she whispered as loudly as she dared, edging a little closer to the other side of the road. ‘Wait!’
‘Georgia, come here!’ Nik called from somewhere in the bush. ‘It’s Alice.’
She waited a few moments more, frozen with fear, still worried it was a trap. ‘Georgia, quickly!’ Nik called again.
Reluctantly, she crossed the road, sliding down an embank ment on the other side, following a path made by the Mercedes as it skidded off the road. At the bottom of the hill she could see the car – the front crumpled around a boulder. The front doors were open. Whoever had been in there had gone. Nik was at the back door, pulling Alice from the car.
‘It’s all right, Alice. You’ll be all right,’ Georgia could hear Nik saying, but her mind was on the kidnappers. They were somewhere in the bush. Were they getting ready to attack?
Georgia stumbled backwards into the grass, shaking her head, trying to wake herself from the nightmare.
Alice started screaming again. ‘He was going to kill me!’
‘Which way did he go?’ Nik asked Alice.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice cried.
‘What did they say? Did you hear their accents? Where were they from?’
‘I don’t know,’ Alice cried again. She collapsed into Georgia’s lap, burying her face in her hands.
‘Alice, you need to tell me everything,’ Nik said. ‘Did you see a star tattoo?’
Alice looked up, her face streaked with blood and tears.
‘If they had a star tattoo, they were probably Russian mafia,’ Nik said. ‘What can you remember?’
Alice put her head back in her hands and sobbed.
‘Alice, what do you remember?’ Nik was shouting by then.
Georgia glared at Nik. ‘Leave her alone. Haven’t you done enough already?’
Nik looked wounded. He reached out to touch Georgia’s arm, but she pushed it away. ‘We’re going to call the police and let them handle this,’ she said.
‘No!’ Alice cried before Nik even had a chance to protest.
‘They’ll blame me!’
Georgia looked at Alice and stroked her hair. ‘This isn’t your fault. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
Alice shook her head. ‘Don’t call the police. You can’t, Georgia, please! Promise me you won’t!’
‘Okay, okay,’ Georgia said to calm her down.
‘This is all my fault,’ Nik said, looking around at the scene of destruction – Alice crying in Georgia’s lap, the wrecked Mercedes. ‘How can I fix it?’
He was talking to himself more than anyone in particular. Georgia was only half-listening at that stage, because she knew there was nothing Nik could do to correct this one. No amount of money was going to make Georgia feel safe while he was around.
And Alice might never recover.
‘I think it’s time for you to go, Nik,’ Georgia said, still holding Alice.
‘I’m not leaving you here, Georgia,’ he said, bending down beside her. ‘It’s not safe.’
‘Nik
, you’re the one who’s making it dangerous,’ Georgia replied, tears building in her eyes. ‘I know that’s not your fault, but that’s the way it is.’
Nik took her hand. ‘What can I do to change that?’
Georgia shook her head. ‘You can’t. My family doesn’t have security guards and boats with bulletproof glass. We’re just normal people, living in the real world.’
‘I can sort that out for you,’ said Nik. ‘Don’t push me away.’
Georgia sighed. ‘I don’t want you to sort it out. We’ll all be safe when you’re on the other side of the world. You don’t belong here, Nik. I’m sorry. I thought it would work. But I was wrong.’
Nik nodded, looking resigned to what she was telling him.
‘Please go, Nik. And this time, don’t come back.’
Nik took a few steps back, reeling from the finality in her tone. He hesitated only a moment more, then started walking back up to the road. Georgia heard him calling an ambulance as he went.
Georgia stroked her sister’s head as they both sobbed. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t let you wear my sequined dress. I’m sorry I didn’t let you come on the boat, or go in Nik’s car. I’m sorry I’ve been a terrible sister. I’ll make it up to you. I promise.’
Alice quietly whimpered, and Georgia held her until flashing lights and an ambulance siren cut through the night air.
Nik was still waiting on the road as they loaded Alice carefully into the back. He grabbed Georgia’s hand.
‘Goodbye,’ he said, his voice wavering. He pulled her into his arms.
‘I love you,’ Georgia whispered.
Nik held her tighter.
‘I have to go,’ she whispered. Then, pushing him away, she clambered into the back of the ambulance beside her sister.
Then the doors banged shut and an unbearable pain ripped through Georgia’s chest like her heart was breaking in two. Hot tears ran down her face as she imagined Nik on the other side of the ambulance doors, turning away and leaving her – for the last time.
What other choice did they have? She’d put her whole family at risk by dating Nik. Her sister might have been killed tonight. She might have died, too.
Georgia looked down at Alice, still shaking from the ordeal. Tears blurred her vision, but she could see very clearly that she had done the right thing. For Nik and Georgia, this was the end.
It was almost midnight and the club was just starting to get busy. Nik leant back in the members’ booth and tossed down another glass of champagne. It tasted flat but he drank it anyway. In fact, the whole bottle had tasted flat and so had the one before, but he’d ploughed through them, hoping to forget.
‘There’s something wrong with this champagne,’ Nik complained
Tiggy, a guy with thinning hair and an aristocratic chin, laughed. ‘I’d say you’ve had too long in the colonies, my friend.
You’ve killed your tastebuds. There’s nothing wrong with this.’
‘No, indeed – in fact, I think we ought to get another bottle,’ said Seb, heir to a supermarket empire.
Nik ordered another, but when it came, it didn’t taste any better than the last. His friends didn’t seem to notice, but they were pretty wasted by that stage. And anyway, Nik thought wryly, who notices that sort of thing when someone else is paying?
‘I think I’ll head off,’ Nik said to no-one in particular. He was feeling more nervous about crowds than usual.
‘No!’ a girl in a tiny dress crowed, falling into Nik’s lap. She threw her arms around him. ‘You can’t go now. We’ve only just met!’
‘We’ve never met,’ Nik said, lifting the girl off him and onto someone else’s lap. ‘And you’re not my type.’
Nik glanced around the room at the sea of bodies gyrating on the dance floor and hanging around the bar. Actually, he couldn’t see his type anywhere. He looked to the doorway, willing his type to walk through it – tall, slim, long brown hair, blue eyes. And a bruised jaw where she’d been smashed by an airbag.
Nik cringed at the thought of that night. How could he have let it happen? He’d been so certain he could handle things when he found the extortion note. But he didn’t know anything. He should have handed over the money and avoided the disaster completely. What did $500,000 mean to him? Nothing. But he had the feeling that if he gave in early, the bloodsuckers would keep coming back. Again and again and again. And when they got really greedy, he knew Georgia would get hurt. Was she all right now?
He felt helpless, unable to be in Noosa with Georgia. He’d put a team of security guards outside her apartment. It was probably overkill and she wouldn’t thank him for it – but he figured at least she’d be safe. Of course, Georgia’s best insurance was for him to stay as far away as possible.
Nik sighed as a group of gold-digging girls pranced into the club. The only girl he wanted to see was on the other side of the world, safe, at least, in the knowledge she’d made the right decision for her and her family.
The whole club tasted stale. It wasn’t just the champagne leaving a bitter taste in his mouth; it was the people. He used to love to party with them, but things had changed. He had changed.
Nik got to his feet. There was nothing here for him anymore.
He wanted more than anything to get on a plane that would take him back to Georgia. That wasn’t an option, but he realised there was maybe something he could do to start changing his life. First, though, there was someone he needed to see.
‘Enough with the perfume,’ Nik said in Russian, opening a window in the tenth-storey apartment. It was snowing outside, but he needed fresh air.
‘What are you doing opening the window?’ his mother snapped. ‘You’ll let them in.’ She gave the bottle of Chanel No. 5 a defiant last squirt and then waved the scent around the room, before returning the perfume to the mantelpiece. Nik didn’t even need to watch to know what she was doing.
‘Who?’ he asked, making no attempt to close the window and trying to make out the Alps through the fog.
‘You know who!’ she shouted, elbowing Nik out of the way and slamming the window shut.
Nik put his hand on his mother’s shoulder. ‘You’re safe in here, Mama. No-one’s going to get you here.’
‘Did you lock the front door?’ she asked, craning her neck towards it. ‘You didn’t put the chain on. How many times do I need to ask you? Is it so hard to put the chain on?’
‘Mama, sit down,’ he said, guiding her to a chair by the fireplace and taking a seat beside her.
She slumped into the chair like an old lady and then began singing quietly to herself. He never really knew what he was going to find when he came to visit. It completely depended on whether she’d bothered to take her medication or not. Today she was no worse than he’d seen her lately, but certainly no better.
‘Are you going to play with Kat?’ she asked, obviously mixed up about what year it was. Kat and Nik hadn’t played together for at least eleven years. After the kidnapping, Nik hadn’t felt like playing for a long time. By the time he did, his sister had long since grown out of it.
‘Kat’s not here,’ he said. ‘But I did see her in Australia a couple of weeks ago. She’s … just the same.’
‘Australia,’ his mother said. ‘Is that where you’ve been? A new girlfriend or a new ex-girlfriend?’
‘What does that mean?’ he asked.
‘You normally visit when you’ve just split up with a girlfriend,’ his mother said. ‘But sometimes when you have a new girlfriend.’
‘Really?’ Nik said, surprised by how observant she could be. ‘Sometimes I visit after a fight with Papa.’
His mother laughed, returning a little youth to her face. It was so rare to see her laugh that Nik smiled, despite himself.
His mother reached over and put her hand on Nik’s knee. ‘I just want to see you happy, you know, Nikolai.’
She looked out the window. The snow had stopped and he could see the Alps peeking through the clouds.
‘So bea
utiful out there today,’ she said calmly. Then she turned to Nik and took his hand. ‘You deserve to be happy, dorogay moy.
Stop blaming yourself for what happened.’
Nik stared at his mother. She was suddenly so lucid.
‘Stop destroying things,’ she said. ‘You need to start rebuilding – piece by piece. You can do it. Start now. Don’t wait.’
Nik squeezed his mother’s hand to reassure her that he understood what she meant. He knew he destroyed things. All the time. But he had never had a reason to do it differently, until now.
‘Okay, Mama.’
She looked sceptical. ‘Promise me,’ she said, holding his hand tightly.
Nik nodded. ‘I will, Mama. I promise.’
The days after the kidnapping disappeared into a blur of police investigations and interviews for Georgia. With two kidnappers at large, the police wanted to know everything about her relationship with Nik and the events leading up to the crash – the extortion note, and who had been in the Mercedes. They also wanted to wring out every detail of her encounter with the man in the national park and the drama on the jet ski. Suddenly these weren’t just figments of her paranoid psyche, they were relevant. She thought back to the day in the rain when she’d seen the stranger on the track. She willed her brain to deliver a complete picture of him – anything to help the police find Alice’s kidnappers.
‘The man on the track was big, with dark eyes and dark hair,’ Georgia began.
‘Is there anything else you can tell us about him – anything unusual?’ asked the officer – a bald guy with a no-nonsense attitude. Squid was nowhere to be seen. At least Georgia could be thankful for that. ‘Did he have any tattoos, piercings, anything like that?’ the bald guy asked.
She racked her brain. She could clearly remember the man’s black eyes, but was there something else – something that she had taken in subconsciously? She had spent some time researching the Russian mafia – the type of men who might have kidnapped Alice. They were all marked with tattoos of some kind – many of them with stars, just as Nik had said. Did the stalker on the path have one? He might have. And the more she thought about it, the more vivid the picture in her mind became.