Out of Sight Out of Mind (Choc Lit)

by Wareham, Evonne

  The book Jay had been reading was still face down on the floor in the other room. She picked it up, smoothing down the spine. Should she take it with her, or leave it here? Would it be a useful reminder never to trust a glib stranger? Or would it turn her stomach every time she looked at it? She put it on the table, until she could decide.

  The cushions on the sofa were still dented from where he’d been lying. She straightened them and plumped them up, smoothing the fabric with hands that were not quite steady. The mouse from the fairground was squinting at her from his place on the window seat. She picked him up to hug him to her chest, resting her face in soft fur.

  Tears were rising in her throat again. She sucked them back.

  She put the mouse down on the table. She’d take him back to London. Donated to a charity shop, he had a chance of making a child happy.

  Uncomfortable shivers of recollection were replaying in her mind, like scenes from an old film. She saw herself sitting across the table from Jay, eating food that he’d cooked for her. She’d promised him that night that she’d have no regrets, whoever he turned out to be. She bit her lip. Implicit in that declaration there’d been a second promise – that she’d stand by him, whoever he turned out to be. But that was then, before you knew that the whole thing was a scam.

  With an effort she put the image out of her head, along with the picture of Jay standing by the door, before he’d walked out into the rain. Of the outstretched hand that she’d pointedly ignored. What purpose would have been served to take it?

  You know, for a con man, he didn’t have much to say in his own defence.

  ‘Whose side are you on?’ She was talking to herself again! With a grunt of irritation she gathered up a pile of magazines and slung them into the basket by the hearth that held kindling.

  Maybe she wouldn’t let this place go. She could rent it out. There were so many young people who needed a home, priced out by second homers, like her.

  She sat down on the sofa. Jay had wanted her to stay here. She frowned. He’d been insistent on it. Almost as if he wanted her promise not to return to London.

  What’s in London that he doesn’t want you to find?

  Was there some other part of his elaborate scheme that she hadn’t discovered yet?

  Elaborate scheme. She picked up a cushion and hugged it to her middle. The whole thing had been completely over the top. All that, just to test her and maybe recruit her? Come on – would they really want you that badly?

  There was more to this.

  The conviction went through her with sickening realisation. For a moment she felt faint, then her sight and her thoughts cleared. She’d been too wrapped up in her own emotions to see it. Jay had given in, and got out, far too easily. Almost as if he wanted to avoid any more questions. And fogged with betrayal, she’d let him go. Oh no.

  She threw the cushion on the floor and surged to her feet. The keys to the car were in her pocket. She tossed her coat over her shoulders, to protect her from the rain, and made a run for it.

  She stopped the car at the junction of the track and the road, peering through the deluge. Which way?

  On a gamble she turned right. Nothing but high hedges and sheets of rain. He had a head start on her, of at least half an hour. Would he have already reached a phone? Hitched a ride?

  When she spotted the phone box, beside the road, her hands clenched on the wheel. Heart in her mouth, she half-rammed the car into the hedge and scrambled out, not quite sure why.

  The broken glass and the shattered handset, dangling lifeless from the wall, made her heart lurch. The rain had already plastered her hair to her skull and seeped in at the neck of her jacket, but she barely noticed. She flung herself into the driving seat. What would Jay have done when he found the vandalised phone?

  Should she go on? Or go back?

  She chose on.

  The road was narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to pass, the hedges on either side towering and impenetrable. She couldn’t even see into the fields beyond. She ploughed forward, uncertain of her choice, head shifting from side to side as she hunted for a place to turn.

  She drove past him.

  He was standing on a narrow strip of verge that bordered the lane, almost one with the rain, sheltering in the inadequate lee of an elder bush. Barely thinking, she threw the car into reverse, blocking him, so he couldn’t get away from her. She reached across the seat to open the passenger door.

  ‘Get in!’

  ‘I don’t—’

  She leaned out of the car and yanked at the first thing she got a hold on. His feet slipped on the wet grass and she felt the impact as he collided with the side of the car. She kept on yanking, with a death grip on the sleeve of his coat.

  ‘All right. I’ll come quietly.’ She didn’t let him go until he’d squelched into the seat beside her and she’d leaned across him to shut and lock the door. ‘Madison, I don’t know what this is about—’

  ‘You lied to me.’

  ‘We’ve been through all that – if you followed me to—’

  ‘No.’ She waved the words away. ‘All that, back at the cottage. That was the lie.’ Don’t cry now.

  She put up a hand to the nape of his neck, and pulled him towards her. As she slammed her mouth against his, she opened her mind. Power erupted between them, like a fountain of emerald sparks. She let him go. He was shaking. Or maybe it was her.

  ‘You lied.’ She was surprised how even her voice sounded.

  ‘I let you assume—’

  ‘It’s the same thing, Jay.’ She twisted to look at him. He really was soaked. Dark, drenched patches stained the waterproof jacket and his hair was a mat of soggy rat’s tails. She started the car, backing halfway into the hedge to turn it. ‘Put your belt on.’

  ‘Um – this is kidnapping.’

  ‘In the country, in a downpour, no one can hear you scream,’ she informed him tartly. ‘You’re coming back to the cottage. And when I’ve dried you out, you’re going to tell me everything.’

  ‘Or?’

  ‘Or I turn this car around again and we head straight to London, to the lab, and whoever has been helping you to set me up. Maybe they’ll tell me what this is all about.’

  She didn’t have to look at him to know he’d given in.

  She waited downstairs while he changed, drying her own hair with a towel. And keeping her ears open for sounds of escape, wondering what to do if he tried to run.

  She didn’t have to decide, but she had begun to glance uneasily at the clock. The fresh logs she’d tossed on the fire were burning steadily by the time he came in and sat down beside it. He was watching her warily.

  ‘Right, this time I want the truth.’ She planted herself in the chair opposite to him. ‘Did you stage this charade to test me for yourself, or for my employers?’

  His eyes widened at the second part of the question. Madison felt a warm trickle of relief to her bones. That spectre had still been lingering in her mind. At least the lab isn’t involved. Your job is safe. It may be the only thing that is.

  ‘It wasn’t a test – at least – look, Madison. I know you have no reason to trust me, but could you do it anyway? Let me leave. Stay here. Don’t tell anyone where you are.’ His face was haggard. She couldn’t read his eyes. ‘By the end of the week it will all be over.’

  ‘What will?’ She stiffened in alarm. ‘This isn’t a terrorist thing, is it? Oh God!’

  She was fumbling in her pocket for her phone. Jay was out of the chair and on his knees in front of her, hand over her wrist, before she depressed the first nine.

  Her skin burned where he touched.

  Then her mind shuddered as his thoughts leapt into hers. She tried to recoil, until she realised that he wasn’t invading her. He was pulling her into him.

 
‘Not terrorism.’

  All her senses told her it was true.

  ‘What then?’

  He was reaching still, trying to surround her with soothing waves of reassurance. The distraction wasn’t strong enough. He wasn’t strong enough. With a mental push, she parried the connection, but his fingers were still tingling on her wrist. He’d touched her, which gave her the right to touch him. She skewered his chest with her finger. ‘You set me up. Made me look a fool. This whole thing was a great big experiment. So what the hell was it for?’

  Suddenly she was mad, good and mad. Spits of power spilled out of her and into him. She could feel them landing, searing. Feel the sudden exhaustion in him that stopped him blocking them. He was just taking the hurt, letting it burn where it touched.

  The fight went out of her.

  ‘Jay.’ She put her hand to his face, ran her fingers along his cheekbone. ‘Please tell me. Whatever it is, it has to be better if I know.’

  He was still kneeling in front of her. He let her go and flopped backwards, on to the floor. ‘You’re not going to let this rest, are you?’

  ‘Damn right, I’m not.’

  ‘Not even if knowing can put you in danger?’

  ‘I’m already in danger.’ She didn’t know where that certainty had come from. ‘That’s why you want me to stay here, out of sight.’ She felt curiously calm. Somewhere inside her a little bubble of hope was forming. How crazy is that? She nudged him gently, with her foot. ‘If I know what it is I have to be afraid of, maybe I’ll understand the need to hide. So tell me.’

  ‘I don’t think I can.’ He got wearily to his feet, took her hands and guided her towards the sofa, pulling her down with him. ‘My head is still falling apart. You’ve seen it.’ He gave her a dog-eared smile. ‘I feel like shit, and I don’t have the energy left to talk. You’ll have to come in and take it.’ He closed his eyes. ‘Please.’ The plea was low and quiet. It did something to the pit of her stomach.

  ‘I … okay.’ She put her hand to his forehead, easing his head back against the sofa, stroking his hair, until she felt him relax. It took a few moments. He was wired and so was she. She pushed into his thoughts, and met residual resistance. ‘Let go.’

  ‘Madison.’ She had to lean close to hear him. ‘What’s in there … is bad. I’m sorry, so, so sorry. I didn’t know I was going to love you.’

  Her mouth had just enough time to form a gasp of astonishment, her heart to give an incredible bound. Then the last barrier of his defences went down, and she fell, like silk, into his mind.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Madison was sitting on the toilet, with the top down. She wrapped her arms around herself, to stop herself from shaking. It didn’t work. Her teeth were chattering. She gritted them as hard as she could.

  She knew it all now. And it had to be real. She’d been right inside Jay to get it. No one could hide that well, not even the real Jayston Creed. There was no way that what she’d seen was anything but the truth. Nothing hidden.

  He was Jayston Creed.

  He was sleeping now, downstairs. She’d pushed the right buttons to close him down for a few hours, before she pulled out. He could use the rest, and she needed time alone, to sort out what she’d seen. Felt.

  She’d already known some of it. It had been headline news all over the world. For the press, all their Christmases had come at once. They’d torn the heart out of the story, like scavenging coyotes. It had everything. Sinister, reclusive scientist; innocent, suffering victim; beautiful, tragic heroine. Add in the scary mind games, experts running out of control, the whiff of spooks in the background. It was made to run and run.

  Madison got up, slipping the bath robe that was hanging on the back of the door around her shoulders, in an effort to get warm. Jay’s scent enveloped her. She screwed up her face, snuffling back tears. She had to focus.

  The story wasn’t complex. Three years ago Jayston Creed and his wife, Gina, had set up the ultimate experiment. Two minds, working in tandem, to control a third. A daring, last-ditch intervention to reclaim a friend, victim of a massively debilitating head injury. It had been a phenomenal risk, and a catastrophic failure. The patient had died. Gina had survived two weeks, to die in hospital, her mind, it was whispered, shattered beyond repair. She’d been three months pregnant. The baby wasn’t Creed’s. Jay’s trial for murder opened and closed on the same day. The prosecution offered no evidence. While the press screamed about deals, and cover-ups, Jayston Creed had walked away, presumably into the arms of the security services.

  And disappeared.

  That was the public story. Now she knew the real one.

  Jay lay back, with his hands behind his head, letting his thoughts organise themselves. All the moves were coming back to him. He’d faked sleep, let Madison believe she’d put him out. He reckoned she needed the space. He was feeling a whole lot better. Just having her crisp, clear thought patterns, sorting through the lumber in his head, had grounded him. No longer alone.

  He bit his lip. She had it all now, every last miserable detail. And if she was the rational woman he took her for, she’d run like hell. He hadn’t concealed anything. He hadn’t been in a position to, and anyway he owed her. He’d given her all the what’s and the why’s. All the things he’d never told any of his other interrogators.

  There’d been plenty of people asking questions – first the hospital authorities, then the police, and finally the suits from MI take-a-number-from-one-to-ten had arrived, to prod through the debris of three lives. His own colleagues had been the most difficult to handle. They’d all been desperate to find out how he’d managed to screw things up so royally. Initially sympathetic, and willing to close ranks around him, they’d grown increasingly hostile as the press backlash began to wash up at their doors. He’d alienated them all with his refusal to speak, until he had very few supporters left.

  He’d told no one what had really gone wrong in that London hospital room. Until today. Someone else already knew though, which was why all this had begun.

  He pulled himself off the couch, and padded to the kitchen to fire up the coffee machine.

  Madison jumped a foot in the air when the bathroom door swung open.

  ‘You ready to talk now?’

  She gaped at him. ‘You’re not asleep.’

  ‘Uh … no.’

  Why did you think he would be? You’re looking at a master. At the master.

  ‘I made coffee,’ he offered.

  ‘Is that meant as a bribe or an apology?’

  ‘Whatever fits.’

  ‘I could have been naked in here.’ She got up, shedding the robe, and stalked past him.

  ‘I’ve seen you naked.’

  Her glare, back over her shoulder, told him that now was a good time to shut up.

  He took the hint.

  He’d made coffee and toast, she discovered, when she got to the kitchen. A whole pile of it, neatly buttered and keeping warm under the grill. Her throat felt stiff and the back of her eyes stung.

  She swung round. ‘Before we go any further, I want to ask something.’ She saw him brace. ‘What you said, before you went under—’

  ‘Yes?’ he asked cautiously.

  ‘What did you mean?’

  ‘What do you think I meant?’ he hedged.

  ‘You said you loved me.’

  ‘Er … Is that a problem?’

  ‘No, you bloody fool!’ She stepped towards him. His arms closed around her.

  ‘Could you …?’

  ‘I don’t know … I feel …’ The flash of disappointment in his eyes, quickly masked, made an ache in her heart. But she couldn’t give him anything but honesty. ‘I care about you, Jay. If we make it through this, ask me again.’

  His head jerked up. ‘No. You’re not getting�
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  She warded off his words with her hand. ‘What happens if we run away from this? We keep running, always looking over our shoulders.’ She shook her head. ‘The only way out is to go through with the plan you made. I’m going to help you, Jay, whether you want me to or not.’

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Emotional trauma had the odd effect of making her hungry, Madison discovered. She munched her way through most of the toast. Jay pushed a piece around his plate, trying to persuade her to change her mind. Tension vibrated off him.

  ‘I saw Gina die.’ His face was set, pale. ‘I realise now that all I felt for her was infatuation. She set out to seduce me and I fell for it. But even with what she did to me, it hurt to watch her at the end.’

  ‘Then it’s up to you to keep me alive.’ Madison licked butter off her fingers. And me, you. ‘Gina was working for this mysterious company, right from the beginning?’

  ‘The Organisation. It’s a collection of hundreds, maybe thousands, of companies, some real, some shell – a multi-global. A hydra, with heads all over the world. Into anything and everything that will turn a dollar – preferably a million or two of them. Or a pound, or a euro, or a yen – they’re not fussy. No morals, scruples or conscience. They wanted the mind experiment. Gina must have been recruited a long time before she met me. They collect talent, and she had it. I was looking for a female assistant – a match of Yin and Yang – you were on the shortlist. I saw Gina first. She made a play for me. I was flattered, just plain stupid – mesmerised. I gave her the job, and a wedding ring. We worked together for two years before she chose her moment.’

  ‘In the middle of the three-way experiment.’ The devastation she’d glimpsed in Jay’s mind came back to Madison, like an echo. ‘Gina tried to take over the experiment – take you over.’

  ‘She came damn close to succeeding. I didn’t see it coming. Our marriage—’ He raised his shoulders, let them fall. ‘We were arguing a little. Going through a rough patch, I thought. But we were still working together. There was no problem with that. You know how it is. That morning everything was fine. Gina was excited, a little scared, energised.’