Susilo frowned. “Where is Drake Sinclair? Allegations of murder, rape, and kidnapping are serious, indeed, and he should be brought to justice.”
He’s in a million pieces buried around Geneva.
I stiffened. “I have no idea where he is.”
“None?” He studied me far too closely. “Where did he take you when you were kidnapped?”
Louise flicked me a glance. I ignored her and answered honestly. “Geneva.”
“So he’s in Switzerland?”
“No idea.”
“If you know something that you’re not telling me, ma’am—”
“I don’t know anything more.” I stood, breaking contact with Sully and crossing my arms. “You really need to leave.”
Almost on cue, the heart rate monitor spluttered with a flickering pulse. Dr Maldon might have told these policemen that Sully had no reaction to stimuli, but he reacted to me, and my lack of touch sent him into a free-fall.
The doctors leaped into action, ripping aside the mosquito net that’d fallen around the bed to check hastily on their patient.
The police officer never took his gaze off me, almost as if he could taste my dance around the truth and didn’t know how to rip the real story from my lips.
If they took me to Jakarta for questioning.
If they take me away from Sully...
Swallowing back my temper, I allowed my exhaustion to smother me, to etch my eyes and thicken my voice. I wasn’t above using weakness for sympathy. “Look, we’re happy to answer anything you need when Sullivan recovers. Leave your card and we’ll be in touch the moment he wakes...if he wakes.” I dropped my gaze to the floor, embracing every bit the grieving widow. “But please...if he doesn’t, he is not the one you need to hunt.”
Four of the policemen picked up their chairs and left the bedroom while Susilo stayed, his stare too shrewd. “It is not my intention to cause more distress after your ordeal, ma’am. However, I am also not an idiot.” He moved toward me. “Sullivan Sinclair is well-known to law enforcement in America. He has a file the size of encyclopaedia on vigilante behaviour, bribes, and even murder. I’m aware he has never been officially convicted, but where there are rumours, there is truth.”
Running his hands down his decorated blazer, he nodded brusquely. “We shall return...with a search warrant. There are secrets on this island that require deeper investigation. Until then, please do not travel. This is an on-going case, and your freedom has been restricted until we learn the full story.” Turning on his heel, he strode from Sully’s bedroom and out of the villa.
Shit.
Shit!
Sully was innocent in this mess...but he wasn’t in others.
He had purchased goddesses who were hiding on another island. Women who would gladly blab that he’d drugged them with elixir and rented them out to guests.
I doubted the police would be as lenient if they knew he traded in the black market and dabbled in trafficking.
If they find his goddesses...
It wouldn’t matter if he woke up, he’d die an old man in prison.
I need to see Dr Campbell...Cal.
I need to figure out a way to protect him.
He might have committed those crimes but...he’s different now.
He’s changed.
He has to.
“Eleanor.” A tap on my shoulder. “Eleanor.”
My panic broke, dropping me back into my current stress. “Yes?”
“Go back to him, please. His pulse is unsteady.”
Sucking in a breath, I nodded and returned to Sully’s side.
I sat beside the man I loved.
I slipped my hand into his and gave him something to fight for.
All while my mind raced with ways to fight on his behalf.
The old Sullivan had to disappear.
And to do that...I had to rip apart the very dynasty he’d created.
Chapter Twenty-Two
THIS FADING IN AND out bullshit had to stop.
One moment, I was nothing.
The next, I was something.
One second, I was strong and able to sense movement around me, hushed voices, and glowing strings.
The next, I was weak and washed away to some blackened wasteland.
But now I was back.
I was ‘awake’ even if my exterior form still registered no aliveness.
I’d returned from wherever I’d been, and panic filled me as I searched the shadows for my string.
There.
A faint glimmering of gold, undulating like kelp beneath the sea, beckoning me to grab and take hold.
The moment I wrapped a non-existent hand around the rope Eleanor had braided for me, I felt better.
I shoved off the remaining cloak of darkness and remembered.
Shit, I remembered parts I hadn’t before.
I remember...me.
I am Sully Sinclair. I’m thirty-three, and I’m in love with a woman named Eleanor Grace. She’s trustworthy and kind and whenever she touches me, she grants me power to keep fighting.
The strain of recalling even that much threatened to pull me under again.
I refused, chanting my name and the woman I loved like an incantation to stay.
I’m Sully Sinclair, and I love Eleanor Grace.
I’m Sully and Eleanor is mine.
Why she loved me or how we met I couldn’t recall, but I pictured her perfectly—her chocolate hair that fell to her ass. Her smoky grey gaze that never let me hide or lie.
And I remembered that I was happy with her.
She could be trusted.
And for some reason, trust was my most fundamental law.
I paused, straining for more pieces.
I work for...
Nothing.
I am a...labourer? Accountant? Builder?
Shit.
I live in...New York? Hong Kong? Manchester?
Blank emptiness.
Why can’t I remember those things?
Why did I have holes where instinctive facts had fallen free, leaving small pockets that’d stored just a few basic knowings.
My name is Sully, and I love Eleanor.
Jinx.
Why did I call her Jinx?
Why did I ever think she was a curse?
My head throbbed as I tried to push the gathering blackness away and remember.
However, something outside my realm of internal entrapment happened.
Voices.
Eleanor’s wonderful lyrical tone followed by a man I did not recognise. A man I was obscenely jealous of as he was with Eleanor and I was not.
“How are you holding up?” he asked, his voice sympathetic and soft.
“As well as to be expected,” Eleanor replied. “How are you, Dr Campbell? How are Cal and Jess doing?”
“To steal your words...as well as to be expected,” the man answered with a slight chuckle, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Better. Calvin has cabin fever and wishes to resume his duties. He doesn’t accept bullets were inside him, scrambling his organs, only ten days ago. And Jess has chosen the same method of healing as Sinclair. Her vitals are steady, but she’s yet to wake up.”
I flinched.
This man knew me?
Who the fuck were Calvin and Jess?
“I hope Jess wakes soon.” Eleanor sighed.
Her hand squeezed mine.
I tried fucking everything to squeeze her back, but nothing.
“Just like I hope Sully wakes up too,” she murmured.
“You did the right thing by bringing him home, Eleanor.”
She sniffed as if tears had escaped.
Don’t cry.
Fuck, please don’t cry.
“I’m not so sure. He’s no better here than he was there. I’d hoped...” She inhaled hard. “I’d hoped he’d snap out of it the moment he smelled the beach and heard Pika but...”
Pika?
What the hell was a Pika?
“These
things take time.” The man’s presence moved closer.
I snarled in my mental cage.
“At least the police are gone. I don’t know what you said to them, but I’m grateful. They’ve been a pebble in my shoe for days. Getting underfoot while I tried to keep my patients alive.”
“They’re coming back, though,” Eleanor said. “With a search warrant. They suspect we’re keeping things from them.”
“Ah.” The man clucked his tongue. “That is not good news...not for Sinclair at any rate.”
“I need to release the goddesses,” Eleanor said. “Now. Today.”
Goddesses?
What the fuck was she on about? Was I in purgatory after all, and touched an angel instead of a human girl?
“You need to talk to Calvin. He will help arrange it.”
“Will he, though? He’s not exactly been glad of my existence. Why would he help me destroy everything he helped Sully create?”
“Because he knows it’s time too. Enough is enough.”
“He’ll still hate me.”
“Does it matter?” the man said. “Come, I’ll sit with you. I’ll offer moral support while you tell him what needs to happen.”
“Can he come here? I can’t leave Sully.”
“Cal can’t travel, especially over the sand. He’s not strong enough yet. It’s best if you go to him. He’ll help you with the logistics of freeing the goddesses and show you what documentation and evidence to destroy before the police return with their warrants.”
“Why are you helping me keep Sully out of jail?”
Jail?
What the fuck?
Jail?
What the hell had I done to deserve jail?
My willingness to remain awake faltered. No wonder I couldn’t snap out of this limbo. Self-preservation had kicked in if my fate included being locked up like a beast.
“He’s paid enough. And I don’t want you to suffer any more than you already have. You love him, and I’d be an idiot not to see that he’s head over heels for you too. If anyone can change the king of these islands, it’s you.” The man moved closer still.
I growled, wanting to rip him apart for being so close to what I loved.
I couldn’t protect her in my current state.
I had no way of keeping her safe.
Get away from her!
“And the honest to God truth, Eleanor? It made me fucking sick to my stomach for what I caused. Instead of going behind Sinclair’s back, I should’ve served up my warnings directly. Actually, I did tell him—after what he did to Jupiter, Neptune, and Calico—that I’d had enough. That he’d overstepped too many rules. I’d hoped we had enough mutual respect that he’d at least think about what he was doing with those goddesses’ lives. But...anyway, that’s in the past, and I cannot change what I’ve done—just like he cannot change what he’s done before you came along.”
Eleanor sighed softly as if he’d touched her.
Don’t lay one finger on her!
Don’t go near her!
The man continued, “I’m at your service, Goddess Jinx. I will help you free those girls. I will do whatever it takes to give them back their happiness, and I will do it without sending Sinclair to jail because that would mean I’d break your happiness, and that is a price I cannot afford.”
My brain bled with information.
Facts I couldn’t compute. Words that held no meaning.
Goddesses?
Goddess Jinx?
So...she was immortal, after all?
Why else was she named after a deity?
And who the fuck were Jupiter and Neptune? Were we in a different galaxy where such planets were touchable? Unlike on Earth where they were so, so far away?
I choked as the darkness thickened.
I clutched harder to the glowing string. My only light and constant.
“Come, I’ll take you to Calvin. We can begin dismantling Goddess Isles immediately.”
A pause before Eleanor murmured, “I can’t leave him.”
“Of course, you can. He’s in good hands with the three doctors in the other room. They’ll keep watch.”
“No, you don’t understand. Each time I stop touching him, he crashes.”
The man scoffed. “I’m sure you’re reading into things. The long journey will have made him weak, but he’s home now and has a stable environment. Come...the sooner we do this, the safer he will be.”
The longest pause in my sorry excuse of a life.
“Eh...” Eleanor’s fingers feathered around mine. “Sully...I’m not leaving, okay? I’ll only be half an hour or so. I’m not leaving, you hear me? Just...hold on and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
No.
You can’t.
I was weakened from the nonsense they’d spoken.
I was riddled with confusion and exhausted from my lack of memories.
I was afraid.
Fucking terrified of what I was and what I’d done and why this man spoke of me as if I was a demon.
Don’t go!
“I love you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” A soft kiss on my cheek. “I love you so much.”
And then...nothing.
The glowing string vanished.
Darkness plummeted.
Nightmares closed in.
Sharp teeth gnashed in the black.
No!
Eleanor.
I fell backward, free-falling with nothing to hold on to.
No anchor, no grip, nothing to stop me from vanishing.
Eleanor!
I spiralled.
I forgot everything I’d just reclaimed.
I fell in perpetuity, never hitting the bottom, tumbling and tangling.
Fading and dissolving...pain.
Pain spooning out my insides. Pain crushing my skull.
Stop
Come back.
Fuck, please come—
“Sully!”
The string reappeared, glowing silver and crimson instead of just gold.
I grasped it, bleeding and panting, weaker than I had been in a while.
I dangled from her bond.
I didn’t even have the strength to lift my head and focus on their conversation again.
All I could do was sway there like bait on fishing line just waiting to be swallowed by something far more vicious than me.
From far, far away, Eleanor said, “See? I can’t leave him. He gives up if I do. I...I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t hear the man. I no longer had ears that worked, but I felt Eleanor curling into me.
Her heat warmed my icicle-riddled soul.
Her love once again had a flavour.
When I’d fallen for her while taking her in Nirvana, love had tasted sweet and sour. It’d smelled of fresh rain and new beginnings.
Now it tasted of comfort and longing. A scent of commitment and orchids.
I love you.
I’m sorry.
I blanked out.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I HAD A DILEMMA.
I needed to free Sully’s goddesses before the police returned. I had documents to shred and emails to hack into and delete. But...how could I do a damn thing if Sully kept trying to die the minute I couldn’t touch him?
Going to the bathroom had to be done in short bursts. Eating had to be done curled up by his side. Whenever Louise and her team changed his catheter or inserted a new IV with sustenance to keep him alive, I clung extra hard to his hand, just in case he felt the discomfort. In case he confused one touch from another and slipped.
For two days, I’d tried to figure out how to protect Sully from future complications all while doing my best to keep him safe from the current one. I wished Calvin wasn’t injured, and Jess wasn’t in a coma. Why were the only people I knew all in different stages of maladies and utterly useless in a mass freeing exercise?
Come on, Sully...please wake up. This would be easier with your help. Hopefully you understand why I nee
d to do it.
I continued stroking my fingers through Sully’s hair. The bronze-tipped dark strands were longer as was his beard. His cheekbones starker. His lips cracked and dry.
Each day, he looked more unkempt. A little wilder and unreachable.
I should shave him...wash him.
Make him feel better.
With the decision to do something for him, even if I couldn’t do what was immediately pressing, I sat up and looked for Louise. She’d have to run the warm water and bring scissors, razors, and towels. However, the doctors were deep in discussion in the living room, and I didn’t want to disturb them.
Damn.
“You know, Sully...you’ve got me trapped better than you ever did, even when you first bought me.” I bent and kissed the tip of his nose. “Who would’ve thought love was a bigger trap than trafficking.”
His pulse kicked, ripping my gaze to the heart rate monitor.
“Wait...can you hear me?”
What if he could?
My God...
“Do you remember when we first saw each other? You standing on that sandy ledge and me being delivered to you by helicopter? When our eyes met...you felt it, too. I know you did. That first trip into our destiny.”
The monitor remained steady, showing no hint I’d affected him.
I tried again.
Lowering my voice, I shared our story in the hopes that he’d wake, ready to relive it, eager to write more pages and give us a happily ever after ending. “God, I hated you for what you’d done. I was prepared to find any and all ways to either kill you or escape you. But...” I sighed, reliving the smash of connection and the flash of incomparable lightning the moment I’d seen him. “I knew, even then. When you first spoke to me, your voice reached past my ribs and claimed my heart. I told myself it was loathing. I mean...how could I ever fall in love from just a stare? But...I had. I’d found you. I was home.”
A tiny flicker on the monitor.
I rushed with more of our tale. “You might’ve asked traffickers to find me, Sully. You might’ve purchased other women and turned them into your goddesses, but without that criminal habit, we might have never met, and that...that’s inconceivable. How could I ever have thought I was whole without you? How did I ever think I could be happy somewhere that wasn’t by your side?”
Fifth a Fury (Goddess Isles, #5) Page 17