TENDER TREACHERY (Mystery Romance): The TENDER Series ~ Book 2

by H. Y. Hanna

  She followed the fence along, pulling Angela behind her, looking for the tell-tale frame of the back gate cut into the fence. Just a few metres more…

  There! Leah broke into an involuntary smile as she saw the gate. She rushed up to it and groped for the latch. She was just about to pull it open when she heard the voice behind her.

  “I don’t like liars, Miss Fisher. Especially those who think I’m too stupid to see through their lies.”

  Leah spun around and found herself facing the Matronae and several members of Sanctum Bona Dea.

  CHAPTER 24

  The wind had been rising and the clouds gathering thick and fast as Toran and Julia left the marina. By the time they were ploughing through the choppy waters surrounding Pulau Ubin, the rain had started falling heavily. Visibility on the water was dropping rapidly as Toran steered the speedboat towards the abandoned jetty.

  His heart sank as he saw no sign of Leah. Tonight, there was no sunset visible on the horizon to guide him, but Toran knew that it was just after sundown—she should have been here. He narrowed his eyes against the rain and scanned the mangrove forest, hoping for a glimpse of purple again or some other sign of the two girls heading this way. He could see nothing through the trees, although he had to admit that it was hard to see anything in the relentless rain.

  “Where is she?” shouted Julia, balancing in the rocking boat and squinting towards the shore. Water ran in rivulets over the hood of her rain jacket and down her shoulders.

  “I don’t know—she should be here,” said Toran, frowning. “Based on the satellite images of the island and Leah’s movements last night, I would guess that the retreat is that way.” He nodded towards the section of mangrove swamp extending to the left of the jetty. “So she should be coming from that direction.”

  “Can you call her?” asked Julia. “She’s got your old phone, right?”

  Toran took a new phone out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “No reception. I thought that might happen, with this typhoon hitting. Assuming that she still has the phone with her, of course. She might have had to ditch it or hide it and can’t get access to it easily again.”

  He didn’t voice his real fear—that Leah had been discovered and captured on her return to the retreat last night and was now being held prisoner, questioned, tortured…

  Toran pushed the images violently away and concentrated on docking the boat. The fenders bumped against the side of the jetty and, again, he wondered if the rickety old structure would hold, especially now in the typhoon. Already it was creaking and groaning as it swayed under the pull of the waves surging around it. The water level had risen, with the boards of the jetty just barely clear of the sea.

  Toran secured the boat with a clove hitch and climbed onto the jetty, reaching a hand down to help Julia. The two of them staggered their way along the wooden boards, until they reached the end of the jetty embedded among the mangroves, and jumped onto solid land.

  Toran pulled out his phone and glanced at it again, then shoved it back into his pocket. “I’m not waiting any more for Leah,” he said, shaking the rain out of his eyes. “And I’m not wasting time trying to contact her. I’m going to the retreat.”

  Julia said nothing, but fell into step behind him as he started making his way through the undergrowth. Toran felt a reluctant tug of respect for her again. He had expected her to live up to her spoilt Asian princess image, but so far, she had made no complaints about the rough trip across the water, simply helping him quietly and efficiently as he managed the boat. Now, she followed him gamely as they fought their way through the tangled undergrowth, ducking her head against the wind and rain. There was more depth to Leah’s best friend than he had realised.

  “What do we do when we get there?” Julia panted as she climbed over a tree stump.

  “We’ll work it out.”

  Leah stood defiantly, trying not to show her fear, as she was surrounded by members of Sanctum Bona Dea. She glanced at Angela from the corner of her eye. The other girl was leaning slightly against the compound fence, blinking in the rain and looking very confused. For a moment, Leah contemplated yanking the gate open and running out by herself. But she knew that she couldn’t bring herself to abandon Angela. And besides—she looked beyond the Matronae and saw a woman standing there, holding two big black Dobermans straining on their leashes—she didn’t think she’d get very far.

  “I have enjoyed having you at the retreat,” said the Matronae. “Things have definitely been more… interesting since you’ve been around. But I’m afraid that you’re outliving your entertainment value now.”

  She nodded at Crystal who came up to Leah and searched her. The blonde woman pulled the mobile phone from Leah’s waistband and held it up for the Matronae to see.

  The leader of Sanctum Bona Dea compressed her lips. “So, your deceit is even greater than we thought.”

  Leah took a step forwards. “I don’t—”

  “SILENCE!” the Matronae snarled. She raised her voice and threw up her hands. “The goddess punishes those who disobey her!”

  “The goddess punishes! The goddess punishes!” chanted the other women.

  “Yes, I think some ‘compulsory solitary meditation’ will be good for you,” said the Matronae with a slow smile. “A chance for you to contemplate your transgressions.” She turned to the other women. “Return to your beds now while I show these members the error of their ways.”

  The other women turned quickly to go, obviously glad to get out of the rain. Leah looked in vain for Fay, hoping for some help, but she couldn’t see the girl. Soon they were alone except for the Matronae and Crystal.

  The Matronae nodded towards Angela. “Take her back to the waiting ward. Make sure she’s prepped for the procedure tomorrow.”

  “No, wait!” cried Leah. “You can’t do it. Angela’s got polycystic ovaries—the harvesting procedure could kill her!”

  The Matronae raised her eyebrows. “You’re being a bit dramatic, aren’t you, Miss Fisher? Patients with polycystic ovaries are simply at higher risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. It doesn’t mean that they will definitely develop adverse symptoms or that they can’t have their eggs harvested.”

  “It does if you care about their health,” said Leah evenly. “Especially if they’re not doing it for fertility treatment, but simply to supply your filthy black market egg trade!”

  “Egg trade?” Angela’s voice broke in. She was standing straighter now and her eyes looked clearer. She looked from Leah to the Matronae and something flickered in her face.

  The Matronae gave a cold, cruel smile. “Well, in that case, Miss Fisher, since you’re so concerned about Angela’s health, I’ll let her join you instead. It seems to me that she may have seen and heard too much of our conversation anyway and I don’t like to leave loose ends.”

  “What are you going to do to us?” demanded Leah.

  The Matronae waved airily. “As I said, I don’t like leaving loose ends. Especially loose ends that might speak to the authorities. I’ve spent too long building up this operation. At Sanctum Bona Dea, we have a special method for dealing with girls who might get too ‘talkative’.”

  “You won’t get away with this,” said Leah. “There are too many unexplained deaths connected to this place. People will start getting suspicious. I have friends back in Singapore who will be looking for me.”

  The Matronae laughed. “My dear, deaths happen around water all the time. People expect it. And especially in the middle of a typhoon…” She waved a hand in the direction of the beach. “After you.”

  Again, Leah considered bolting, but even as she shifted her weight, she saw the flash of something in the Matronae’s hands. The blue-black gleam of a gun.

  The taller woman waved it nonchalantly. “I would really prefer that you didn’t force me to use this, Miss Fisher.”

  Leah swallowed and slowly turned towards the sea front. She started walking and she felt Angela fall into step b
eside her. When they reached the beach, the Matronae waved them onto the long pier that jutted out into the middle of the water. Leah walked slowly down the length of the pier, with Angela, Crystal, and the Matronae following, until they reached the hut at the end.

  Leah remembered seeing this structure the previous night, half submerged in the water. It had looked so dilapidated, she’d wondered if it was going to collapse and sink into the sea. Now that she was closer, she realised that the hut wasn’t quite as decrepit as she had thought. It was resting on sturdy stilts, although these were so short that the hut was lower than the pier and basically sat in the water. For some strange reason, it seemed as if it had been purposefully built to be half submerged. In fact, with the typhoon rain and the rising tide, the water level had risen considerably so that most of the hut was now underwater.

  Leah was starting to get a very bad feeling about this.

  The roof of the hut was almost level with the pier. Crystal reached down and unlocked a hatch set into the lower section of the roof. She pulled it open to show a large rectangular gap into the darkness. Before Leah could react, Crystal gave Angela a shove. With a cry, the Singaporean girl fell through the opening and Leah heard a splash below.

  “What are you doing?” she cried, whipping around to face Crystal.

  Leah raised her hands defensively in front of her and backed away from the blonde woman. She looked wildly around, wondering if there was any way she could push past the two women and run back along the pier to the beach.

  “I wouldn’t do that, Miss Fisher,” said the Matronae in amusement. “Your chances of surviving in there are already going to be slim, but they’ll be a lot slimmer if you go in there with a bullet in your gut.” She raised the muzzle of the gun and pointed it at Leah.

  The wind howled around them, whipping Leah’s hair, and the rain pelted her face. She felt despair twist in her stomach. From inside the submerged hut, she could hear gasps of distress as Angela splashed around.

  The Matronae waved the gun again impatiently. “Get in.”

  Reluctantly, Leah moved towards the open hatch. She grasped the edges and pulled herself up, sitting on the edge and dangling her legs into the opening. Then she pushed off and jumped into the darkness.

  SPLASH!

  She had been prepared for it, but still, the rush of cold water over her head was a shock. Leah rose back to the surface and tossed her hair out of her face, gasping as she flung her arms out to orientate herself. She realised that she could stand—the water only came up to her chest—and she exhaled in relief. At least it wasn’t that deep. The roof of the hut came down low, though, and the whole feeling was intensely claustrophobic.

  A thud made her look up. Crystal had shut the hatch. The interior of the hut was plunged into even deeper darkness. Leah lunged towards the direction of the hatch, cursing as the drag on her sarong skirt made wading through the water harder. But even as she reached the wall beside the hatch and stretched up to feel for its edges, she heard the ominous sound of a lock clicking into place.

  “Let us out!” Leah yelled. “You can’t leave us in here!”

  She heard laughter from outside.

  “Don’t you just love the wild power of typhoons?” asked the Matronae. “I’ve provided you with a front row seat. I think you have… oh, another ten minutes or so before it reaches high tide. I hope you enjoy the wait. And now, I must get out of this rain. I think we’re going to make ourselves cosy back at the retreat and batten down the hatches until this typhoon passes!”

  The laughter faded away. They were gone.

  Leah smacked her hand against the wall in frustration, then yelped at the pain. Nursing her hand against her chest, she turned around and peered into the darkness. Slowly, her eyes were adjusting to the gloom and she was able to make out some dim shapes. She saw something move in the corner.

  “Angela? Are you all right?”

  “Y-yes,” the other girl’s answer came faintly. “I… I think so. It’s Leah, isn’t it? What are you doing here?” She sounded bewildered.

  Leah explained everything that had happened. There was a horrified silence when she finished her story.

  Finally, Angela said in a low voice filled with shame, “I… I can’t believe I let them completely brainwash me like that. I came out here to investigate them because I suspected that they were involved in something—and I got completely sucked in! God, I can’t believe what an idiot I’ve been.”

  “You’re not really,” consoled Leah. “From what I’ve seen, many of the women here are intelligent and competent… but I guess everyone is vulnerable sometimes. I think Sanctum Bona Dea is very good at preying on women during those weaker times. And I don’t think the girls who volunteer for Ovum Messis really understand what’s going on—they must keep you drugged up so that you all remain confused and docile.”

  Angela shook her head. “Yes, but when I think about all the background I had and the research I did and, besides, I always hated this sort of new age mumbo-jumbo and then there’s the…”

  Leah heard Angela talking, but she wasn’t listening anymore. She had suddenly noticed something. The water was now lapping at her chin. When had it risen so high? Wasn’t it just up to her chest a moment ago?

  “Angela,” she said urgently, interrupting the other girl’s tirade.

  “Yes?”

  “Is there anything around you? Like a table or cupboard or anything like that? A surface that you can climb on?”

  The hut was silent except for the sound of splashing water as the other girl searched her end of the hut. Leah did the same on her own side.

  “Nothing.” There was a new note of fear in Angela’s voice.

  “Me too,” said Leah.

  “The water’s much higher now,” whispered Angela.

  “I know,” said Leah. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. She had to rise up on tiptoes now and tilt her chin up slightly so that the water didn’t lap into her mouth. A few salty drops splashed in and she licked them away.

  “I heard the Matronae mention high tide,” said Angela. “Do you think the hut will be completely submerged?”

  Leah could feel panic nibbling at the edges of her mind, threatening to take over. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “Can you swim?”

  “Yes,” said Angela. “But it won’t make much difference, you know. If the water level rises to the top of the hut, we’ll be completely underwater with nowhere to come up for air. We’ll drown.”

  CHAPTER 25

  The panic wasn’t just nibbling now. It was taking huge chunks of her mind and swallowing them whole. Leah forced herself to breathe slowly, trying to marshal her skittering thoughts. The water might not reach the top of the hut, she reminded herself desperately. As long as they had a few centimetres of air left, they could still breathe. They just had to make sure they kept afloat and rose with the water level. She was already standing on tiptoes—any minute now she would have to start treading water to keep her head above water level.

  Leah realised suddenly that Angela hadn’t said anything for a long time. The only sound she could hear from the other side of the hut was rapid breathing and a frantic splashing of water.

  “Angela? Are you there?”

  “U-uh… Y-y-yes, I-I’m here.”

  The other girl’s teeth were chattering so loud that Leah could hear them even above the shrieking of the wind outside. She started swimming through the water towards the sound of Angela’s voice, reaching out and searching with her hands until she found her. She was dismayed to feel the other girl shivering uncontrollably.

  “Hey… hey, Angela, are you okay? You’re shaking like crazy.”

  “C-c-cold,” muttered the other girl.

  Leah frowned. Surely the water wasn’t cold enough for hypothermia? This was the tropics after all… But she noticed that her own body was also starting to feel a bit stiff and sluggish. And she wondered if the drugs in Angela’s system were affecting her normal
ability to thermoregulate. With the adrenaline rush from their escape wearing off now, shock was setting in.

  The words from the little boy she had met by the infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands came back to Leah…

  “It’s the hypothermia that gets you… your fingers getting numb and stiffening up, and you can’t coordinate your arms and legs, and you get exhausted… you end up with ‘swimming failure’ and that’s why you drown… there’s ‘warm water hypothermia’ too… water is always at a lower temperature compared to your body, so if you stay in it long enough, it’ll still keep sucking heat right out of your body…”

  Leah heard a gasp and then spluttering beside her as Angela went under for a second and came back up again, coughing water. She put a hand on the other girl’s arm and tried to steady her. Leah looked desperately around, straining her eyes in the darkness. She wished there was some kind of raised surface that she could push Angela onto. If she could get as much of the other girl’s body out of the water as possible, it would help to slow down the lowering of her core body temperature.

  Leah reached up and groped around. The roof of the hut was low and she could easily feel the rough wood surface with her fingertips. She touched something jutting across the space just above her head and realised that it was a thick, wooden beam, obviously bracing the roof in place.

  “Listen, Angela,” said Leah urgently. “There’s a beam just above our heads, running across. Can you find it?”

  She heard splashing next to her and the sound of movement.

  “Y-y-yes.”

  “Okay, can you grab it and hoist yourself up on it? You’ll have to lie on it, flat on your stomach, because the roof is too low, but at least you’ll get most of your body out of the water for now.”

  “I-I-I c-can tr-tr-try.”

  There was a lot of splashing and panting next to her as Leah heard Angela attempt to pull herself out of the water and onto the beam. It shouldn’t have been too difficult in normal circumstances, but with the numbed muscles and loss of coordination that came with hypothermia, even the simplest movements were a struggle. Leah wondered if she should try to help by pushing Angela, but she knew that she needed to conserve her own strength. As it was, she could already feel the beginnings of fatigue. Panic and fear were more draining than she had realised.