by Alice Raine
Taking a quiet moment to observe him, I ran my gaze over his features; he was sitting in an armchair, staring at the empty fireplace, with a tumbler of amber liquid in his hand, and a sheath of papers splayed on the coffee table in front of him. His posture looked relaxed, but I could see from the dip of his eyebrows that he was troubled, and that made me reluctant to approach him.
Staying by the door, I cleared my throat to catch his attention. ‘Hey. You’re back.’ My words broke him from his trance and caused him to turn his head towards me. His big, brown eyes lazily trailed up and down me, before his lips twitched with a smile.
‘I like you wearing my clothes, but I think I need to buy you a dressing-gown that fits,’ he commented. He was right, his dressing-gown was waaay too big for me, heaping on the floor by my feet and hanging over my hands, and I couldn’t help but giggle self-consciously.
‘Did I wake you? I tried to be quiet.’
Shaking my head, I maintained my position by the door. ‘No. I woke up because the bed was empty.’ And that was totally true; I now disliked sleeping on my own.
‘What’s up?’ I asked tentatively, hoping he’d share his burdens, just as I’d shared mine with him.
Jack placed his drink on the side table and opened up his arms. ‘Come here, sweetheart.’ There was no hesitation on my part. I went to him keenly, pausing to peel off the dressing-gown so I was just in the T-shirt I wore in bed, and then climbing into his lap.
I seemed to fit against him perfectly, like our bodies were made for each other. Jack wrapped me in his arms, pulling me closer, ever vigilant not to squeeze too hard. But it was never too much. In fact, it was never enough. I wanted more of him every time I was with him, like only constant contact would be enough.
‘I’m sorry about earlier. I hope I didn’t alarm you.’
He had alarmed me. I’d been skittish and fidgety all evening with my parents until they’d gone to bed and I’d forced myself to try and sleep too. I’d lain awake for hours, though, until I’d rolled over and buried my head in his pillow, which had eventually calmed me enough to fall asleep. But he was back now.
‘Where did you go?’
There was a second or two of silence, and after expelling a long breath, he cleared his throat. ‘We found him.’
I ran his words through my sleepy mind several times, and I got a sickening sensation in my gut as my skin chilled and my throat began to close up.
Greg. He had to be talking about Greg. I knew Flynn had been working to find Greg, but I hadn’t actually expected them to have any success. Even though I was almost one hundred per cent sure who he was referring to I found myself asking anyway.
‘Who?’ God, if my voice got any squeakier I’d be giving chipmunks a run for their money.
Jack spent a few moments stroking down my hair until my erratic breathing had eased and then placed a gentle kiss on the top of my head. ‘Greg. We found him.’
Greg. Fucking Greg. The man I had been trying to get away from for the past three years. For several moments, my mind couldn’t comprehend it. I wanted to escape thoughts of him, not be reminded ever, ever again, and I found myself pushing away from Jack’s lap and stumbling across the rug to the middle of the room.
‘That’s the police’s job. You promised you’d leave it...why...why would you do that?’ I could hardly comprehend what he was saying.
I felt simultaneously chilled to the bone and overheated with panic. Somewhere in the fogginess of my brain I knew I was slipping towards an anxiety attack, but I couldn’t steer myself away.
I wasn’t aware that I had fallen into full on panic mode until I felt warm hands grip my shoulders. ‘Breathe, it’s OK, Caitlin. Breathe.’
I tried to, I really did. My lungs were too tight, and my throat too sore to pull any air in. My cheeks felt wet and my vision was blurry, and the room around me seemed to swim in the lamplight. Squeezing my eyes shut to avoid the disorientating sensation – not to mention the images of Greg that were flooding my mind – I tried to curl my body into a protective ball as a loud, gurgling wheeze tore its way up my throat.
‘Wh...what if he’d hurt you?’ I wheezed, panic flooding my entire system. The hands on my shoulders began to grip me with force, and I was aware that I was being pulled upright.
‘Caitlin. Look at me. I’m fine. We’re OK.’ A hand caressed my cheek, familiar in its warmth and size and I felt a small amount of my fear slide away as Jack’s strength seeped into me. ‘It’s Jack. I’m here, and I’ll keep you safe. Look at me, right now.’ I found myself forcing my stinging eyelids open and trying to focus on his blurry image.
‘There’s my girl,’ he murmured, and he carefully wiped below my eyes to clear the flood of tears that must have fallen from my eyes.
Blimey. That anxiety attack had flared from zero to nuclear level in the blink of an eye. Pulling in a much needed breath I heard just how affected my breathing was and licked my dry lips.
Jack urged me forwards into the safety of his chest, and even though I was still winded, I stepped forwards and buried my face in the warmth of his body. My fingers snaked around his waist, gripping handfuls of his shirt like it was the only thing keeping me grounded.
One of his hands slid to the back of my head, cradling it with infinite care. ‘I’m so sorry I upset you, sweetheart. That was never my intention, I swear. But I promised you no more secrets, so I had to tell you where I’d been.’
‘I just panicked. I kept thinking about how he’d hurt Allie, and then I imagined you getting injured...’ I murmured, my voice thick and low.
‘I had to know you were safe. The police were trying to trace him, but Flynn and I carried on our search too.’ Jack gave a small shrug as if there had been no other option for him, and then bent forwards to scoop me into his arms and carry us both across to the sofa.
Lowering himself down, he settled me on his lap and gazed into my eyes, his face soft as he watched me. I was no doubt puffy, snotty, and red, but Jack didn’t seem to notice or care.
‘You are too important to me, Caitlin. I won’t ever let anything happen to you. I knew there was a risk he was looking for you. He’ll never be able to attack you again, sweetheart.’
‘Where is he?’
‘He’s in police custody. He’s going to jail tonight to await trial, but he’ll be going to prison for a very long time.’
‘What for? The attack on Allie and I?’
Jack’s face crumpled into a sad frown. ‘I’m not sure you want to know the details, Caitlin.’
I absolutely did. I hated that man more than I’d thought humanly possible, and there was no way I wanted Jack keeping the details from me. The resolute expression on my face had Jack sighing heavily before he flicked a hand towards the papers on the coffee table. ‘Multiple accusations of sexual assault,’ he muttered quietly.
Multiple? It wasn’t just me? Swallowing loudly, I shifted myself on his lap so I could reach the table and gave the papers a more thorough look over. There were pictures of several women on the top sheet.
As my eyes lingered on the papers I felt a sickening chill wrap itself around me as my eyes moved from girl to girl. ‘Oh my God. They...they all look like me.’
Scrabbling from his lap, I grabbed the top papers and gazed at image after image of girls who all had similar looks to mine. ‘They have my eyes...and all have long, brown hair...’ There had to be twenty or so girls here.
Flicking a glance at Jack, I saw him give a grim nod as his nostrils flared, but an even more horrifying thought occurred to me and my hands began to tremble so hard that I dropped the papers and gripped them in my lap instead.
‘Oh my God...It’s my fault.’ I jumped up, my hands digging painfully into the hair at my temples. ‘All these girls. If I’d just let him have me...all those years ago then he wouldn’t have attacked these other girls!’ Suddenly, my legs gave way and I fell to my knees on the rug as fresh tears sprung to my eyes.
Jack was on the floor in the
blink of an eye, wrapping himself around me and pulling me into his arms. ‘No, sweetheart, it’s not your fault. At least eight of the attacks happened before you even met him.’
Before me? I needed to know he was telling me the truth, so I struggled to swivel in his tight embrace and saw the solemn look in Jack’s eyes. ‘He’s always had a thing for brunettes with green eyes.’
God. After the way he’d treated me I’d always known that Greg wasn’t quite right in the head, but I’d never suspected he was this deranged. ‘But we dated, we were together a year...’
Nodding, Jack pulled me to him again. ‘Yes. The detective I spoke to said you were one of the exceptions. There was one other girl he was with for a while, but most of his victims didn’t know him.’
Oh my God. This was so much worse than I’d ever imagined.
‘Come on, it’s late. Let’s go to bed. We can talk more about it tomorrow if you want.’
I didn’t feel particularly tired any more, but I could see from the dark circles under Jack’s eyes that he needed to rest even if I didn’t.
Jack placed a kiss on my temple. ‘You’re safe, sweetheart. You can sleep soundly. You don’t have to look over your shoulder any more. You’re free to live your life without fear.’ I could barely digest his words. I’d lived carefully and quietly for so long, and I’d assumed I would always have to live that way, but now I was free. Free from the memories of my past.
From Greg.
It felt like a twenty tonne weight had been lifted from my shoulders. He’d been caught. Three years I’d been living in fear. Three long years, and now I was free. It was an odd feeling, and one I suspected would take a while to get used to. A huffed breath left my lungs and I suddenly had to stifle a yawn as overwhelming exhaustion crept up on me. Perhaps I would sleep well after all.
Fifty-nine
Allie
Using the key Cait had given me, I let myself into Jack’s house and immediately started to search. ‘Cait?!’ My voice was shrill as I ran through his house. Where was she? ‘Caitlin?’
Finally I heard a noise down the corridor that led to the garden and saw Cait appearing from the patio with a towel around her body, her hair damp. Of course. Typical! The pool was the one place I hadn’t checked.
‘Jeez, Allie, you sound like you’ve inhaled a canister of helium, what the heck is the matter?’
She had a point. My voice had gone seriously high-pitched as I’d grown impatient in my search for her.
‘Why are you here so early?’ Since Greg’s reappearance we’d taken to spending most of our free time together as a safety measure. If Cait wasn’t in Sean’s spare room then I’d head over here after breakfast. Admittedly, I was fairly early today.
Dashing up to her, I immediately dragged her into my arms, pushing aside the remaining twinge of pain in my stiches. ‘Sean just called, he said he spoke to Jack and that Greg was caught last night. Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘It all happened in the middle of the night. Jack didn’t get back until after three this morning. I was going to tell you over coffee.’
‘So it really happened? He’s finally in prison?’ I asked in a hoarse whisper.
‘Yep. Well, he’s in jail while he awaits trial, but Jack said there was so much evidence against him that it’s basically a done deal. Greg won’t be getting out anytime soon. If ever.’
Cait seemed incredibly calm. Almost too calm. ‘You don’t have to run from him any more. How are you feeling?’
Cait used the towel to dry her hair and nodded slowly, pulling a T-shirt and pair of shorts over her quickly drying swimsuit. ‘I had a bit of a cry last night. But today I feel...’ she shrugged, seemingly lost for words. ‘Free. I guess.’
Free. My best friend was free. I immediately burst into tears, clutching Cait again as great, big sobs wracked my chest.
‘Woah...hey, it’s OK. We’re OK, Allie.’
I sniffed hard to sort myself out. ‘Yes. We are. God, this is amazing news, Cait, I’m so relieved for you.’
Nodding, Cait let out a long, low breath as if releasing the last three years of pent-up anxiety. ‘Yep. Now, let’s make a deal. We put this behind us and don’t mention his name again, OK?’
There were questions I wanted to ask, but I could see Cait needed to put the subject to rest, so I matched her smile and nodded.
‘Deal. So where’s Jack?’
‘He’s at work. He wanted to stay, but I forced him out the door. I wanted some quiet time to think it over. He’s coming home early, though.’
‘You done with your workout?’
Cait nodded and gave a shrug. ‘Yeah, I was just swimming off the last of my edginess. I feel a lot better now.’
‘Coffee?’ I offered.
‘God yes. I’ll dig some croissants out of the freezer as a celebratory breakfast too.’
Linking my arm through hers, we made our way toward the kitchen. ‘You won’t be able to stop Jack wanting to go public about you any more, you know that? I bet he’ll be whipping you up the aisle before you know it.’
‘Ha! The aisle? Yeah, right,’ Cait chuckled, but I could see the interest in her gaze. ‘I should be happy he’s so keen to tell the world we’re together, but after so long of living under the radar it just feels strange.’
Giving her a narrow-eyed stare, I drew in a breath. ‘You still want to be with him, don’t you?’
‘Of course I do, Allie. I love him,’ she confessed. I was sure Cait loved Jack as much as I loved Sean–an all-consuming, stomach-flipping love, and with greater depth than I could even comprehend.
‘Then making him wait is crazy, Cait. Most women would pay to be seen in public with Jack Felton,’ I declared. ‘After being forced to hide my relationship with Sean I can tell you that being out in the open is so much better. The press don’t even bother with me any more.’
‘Clearly you’re still a supporter of “Team Jack”, then,’ Cait commented with a smirk and I grinned back. ‘But you’re right,’ she nodded, and clearly deciding there was no time like the present, Cait retrieved her mobile from the table, and dialled Jack’s number, putting it on speakerphone for my benefit.
‘I’ll leave a message on his answerphone.’ After two rings, we heard the click of the call being connected and Jack’s voice came over the line.
‘Hey, sweetheart, what’s up?’
I felt a bit weird being included in the call, but seeing Cait supressing her grin as she jigged back and forth on her toes in excitement made me smile with her.
‘Hi. Nothing in particular.’ Cait swallowed loudly. ‘I...I was phoning to see if you were free to take me out to dinner tonight?’
There was a long pause, and I’m pretty sure both Cait and I held our breath as we waited for a response. There was quite a long pause. Maybe Jack needed a second to regain his composure, or possibly he had fainted and was currently picking himself up from the floor, I wasn’t sure.
‘Of course...out? As in a restaurant, in public?’ I could tell from Jack’s tone that he was smiling.
‘Yes, out, at a restaurant. I think it’s time to go public.’ After a brief pause she giggled. ‘And I won’t wear a hat, I promise.’
Sixty
Cait
‘Maybe you could ask Jack to send those lovely folks from Rodeo Drive over again to help you with an outfit for tonight?’ Allie asked keenly.
Shaking my head, I gave Allie a rueful look. I already disliked that Jack had spent so much on my outfits that day – they’d added up to nearly three months’ of my pay cheques.
That day had been great fun but I couldn’t do it again. ‘Nah. He still hasn’t seen the black dress, and my parents got me two lovely new dresses for my birthday so I’m sure we can pick one out of those.’
‘Oh! That black dress was gorgeous!’ Allie chipped in, her hands clapping in excitement. ‘And it’ll look perfect with those heels you got!’
Fingering the ends of my hair, I grimaced. ‘I’ll book into th
e hairdresser’s though, I desperately need a cut.’
At five minutes past six, five minutes after Jack’s shoot had been scheduled to finish and halfway through re-straightening my hair, my phone rang. I felt my stomach flip-flop in excitement when I saw Jack’s number on the screen.
‘Hi.’ There was a definite tremor in my voice, and I desperately hoped he hadn’t heard it.
‘Hi, yourself,’ Jack replied smoothly. With Jack sounding that appealing, maybe we didn’t need to go out tonight after all–staying in sounded just as good to me, if not better.
Clearing my wanton thoughts, I focused my attention on the call, knowing that tonight was really important to Jack.
‘Sorry I haven’t called until now, the shoot was hellish.’ There was a pause. ‘We didn’t arrange a time for our meal ...assuming you still want to go?’ He sounded tentative.
‘We can leave it if you’ve had a bad day?’ I tried to keep my tone light, but was incredibly aware that my whole body was tingling with nervous apprehension.
‘You’re kidding, aren’t you? I’ve been looking forward to it all day!!’ Jack exclaimed.
‘Shall we say seven thirty, then?’ I suggested, which would give me time to finish getting ready. ‘Where shall I meet you?’
Down the phone, I heard Jack laugh softly. ‘This is a date, Caitlin, we’ll go together.’
‘Oh...I’m at Allie’s at the moment, we spent the afternoon going through some wedding brochures. I can get a cab to your place.’
‘Our place,’ he corrected, making my chest feel incredibly tight. Our place. I quite liked the sound of that.
‘But don’t get a cab, I’ll pick you up from Sean’s front door, make it like a real date,’ he murmured. I hadn’t considered that as an option, which, now that I thought about it, was completely stupid. Of course he’d want to pick me up at the door.
‘I better go. I need to get home to freshen up.’ He paused briefly, as if choosing his next words with ultimate care. ‘Remember, we’re just going to dinner, you have no reason to be nervous, Caitlin.’