Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4)

by Donna Joy Usher

  He reached out and pushed a stray piece of hair out of my eyes. ‘I don’t understand why everybody else underestimates you.’

  ‘It’s because I look like a ditz.’

  He barked out a laugh. ‘Some people don’t think that beauty and brains can reside in the same body.’

  ‘Nah,’ I said thinking about Sal. Nobody would ever think she was stupid. ‘I’m not the sharpest pencil it the pack. Sometimes it takes me a while to get there.’

  He took a sip. ‘You’re unexpected. Mmmm. That’s not what I mean.’ He picked at the corner of the beer bottle label while he thought. When he looked at me again his eyes caught mine up and held them captive. ‘You’re perfect the way you are.’

  A wave of prickling heat flushed over me in a tsunami of emotions. I wanted to reach out for him, I wanted to touch his skin with mine, but I had to remind myself – he thought he was my brother. That would be a bad, bad thing to do.

  So instead, I plucked the bottle from his fingers and said, ‘and you’re not so bad yourself.’ Then I turned back to admire the moon.

  We stood in silence while we passed the bottle back and forth between us. ‘So what are we going to do?’ I finally asked.

  ‘We get hard evidence that supports my theory that he’s here. Then the FBI will send us agents.’

  ‘Do you really have the police commissioner’s full support?’

  He nodded his head. ‘I couldn’t convince my boss that Boris would come here. They think he’s still in Las Vegas or heading back to Russia.’

  ‘And you were coming to the wedding anyway?’

  ‘They gave me that letter so I could at least have some back up.’

  ‘And you chose me.’ I let out a snort of amusement. ‘You could have had The Force’s finest.’ I shook the nearly empty bottle and drank the last bit of beer, letting out a dry laugh as the truth struck me. ‘But I make good bait.’ I wasn’t so stupid as to not think Billy wouldn’t use every tool he had. He only had a few weeks to lure Boris out and then he either had to return to Las Vegas, or stay here and face the consequences. ‘As does Martine.’ Crusty hadn’t gotten that information off the street. Billy had fed it to him.

  ‘Not bait.’ He shook his head and ran his hands through his hair. I could see the frustration etched onto his features. ‘Never bait. You have to believe me.’

  ‘Well what then?’ I crossed my arms and stared up at him.

  ‘I need you…ahh, damn it.’ He turned away from me and took a deep breath. His shoulders shrugged as he said, ‘I need your help. Is that so bad?’

  I took his first words and hugged them to my heart. For a few moments, I was going to let myself believe that those were the words he had meant to say. I was going to pretend that he needed me. That he loved me. That was far worse than anything he had said that night.

  I put a hand on his back, feeling the warmth of his skin through his shirt. ‘No,’ I whispered, ‘that’s not bad at all.’

  4

  Natural Born Hero

  It’s not every morning that you are woken by a midget using your bed as a trampoline.

  ‘Weeeeee,’ Nick hooted. ‘It’s so much bigger than my bed.’

  I put a pillow over my face and rolled onto my side. He ripped the pillow off and then used it to beat me. I pulled the cover up and bent my arms over my head to defend myself.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I screeched.

  He stopped jumping and collapsed onto the end of my bed in a panting heap. ‘Billy told me to wake you.’

  ‘For future reference a cup of coffee would be far more effective than this.’

  ‘Yes, but nowhere near as much fun.’ He shuffled to the side and slid back onto the floor, running from the room on his stumpy legs. ‘She’s awake,’ he yelled.

  ‘The whole apartment building is awake,’ Sal grumbled from the lounge room.

  ‘Hey.’ Billy stuck his head through my still-open door.

  I spied a coffee mug in his hand. ‘Is that for me?’

  He smiled and walked over to my bed, handing me the coffee cup.

  ‘You’re the best.’ I inhaled the steamy goodness of the brew.

  ‘You’ve got to be at the clinic soon and we all need to have a meeting first.’

  The little clock on the bedside table told me I still had forty minutes. ‘Won’t take me long to get ready. Not like I have to do my make-up.’

  He perched on the edge of my bed while I sipped my coffee. ‘You’re not angry with me?’

  ‘Why would I be?’

  ‘For lying to you.’ It was the first time I had seen Billy look totally serious. Normally there was a mischievous smile lingering around the corners of his mouth.

  ‘You didn’t really lie.’ I’d thought about it a lot during the night while sleep had been evading me. ‘You just omitted a few details.’

  ‘Like the fact that we were facing off against Russia’s most infamous mobster by ourselves?’

  ‘Yeah. Little things like that.’

  He traced a finger over the pattern on my bedspread. ‘I was afraid if I told you, you wouldn’t come. And then I would have had to worry about him going after you in Sydney while I was up here with Matt.’

  ‘How did you know he still wouldn’t have gone there first?’

  ‘He may have.’

  I sat up straighter and stared at him. ‘What if he went to the club? What about Bruce and Bianca and the girls.’

  ‘Relax.’ He lay a hand on my arm. ‘He’s not going to risk drawing attention to himself unless he has his target in sight.’

  That made sense. But was Boris sensible?

  ‘And now he knows we are all here.’ He stopped tracing the pattern and looked up at me.

  ‘The vampire.’

  He nodded his head.

  I finished my coffee and Billy reached out to take the cup from me. Throwing back the covers, I climbed out and grabbed my towel and toiletry bag.

  Nick was eating his cereal when I emerged from the room. ‘Sorry Toots,’ he said around a mouthful. ‘You won’t get the pleasure of my company this morning. Rambo and I are going to play golf with the big boys.’

  ‘It’s women only at the clinic.’ Billy finished rinsing my cup and placed it on the drainer to dry.

  ‘I wish I could play golf with the big boys,’ Salindra said. ‘Did you catch a load of that neurosurgeon?’

  ‘Which one?’ I said. I couldn’t believe that both Elaine and Nat were married to neurosurgeons.

  ‘The Greek God.’

  ‘Nat’s husband, Ricardo? He’s South American.’

  She blew out a big puff of air. ‘He can give me an MRI any day.’

  I let out a laugh. There was no way to make neurosurgery sexy but she had given it a good try.

  Fifteen minutes later I had showered and thrown on a loose dress. I pulled my dark hair up into a messy bun and went to investigate the kitchen.

  Billy was frying up bacon and eggs.

  ‘Where did this come from?’ I hadn’t realised the fridge had food in it.

  ‘Picked some things up yesterday after golf.’ He pointed to the table. It had been set up with cutlery and glasses of orange juice. ‘Be ready in a minute,’ he said.

  True to his word, a minute later he deposited a plate piled with bacon and eggs in front of me.

  ‘I’ll just have an egg,’ Sal said.

  I considered claiming that I couldn’t eat that much, but it smelt really good, and hey, the man had seen me eat before. He’d know I was lying.

  Nick reached a hand out towards my plate and I smacked it away. ‘Get your own.’

  Billy placed a single egg in front of Salindra and another plate loaded up like mine in front of Nick. We all ate happily for a while. Well, Nick, Billy and I did. Salindra pushed most of her egg around the plate, probably contemplating its calorie count. You didn’t get an arse like hers by pigging out.

  When we had finished, Sal disappeared to her room, reappearing a few moments lat
er with the case she had been carrying when she had arrived. She placed it on the table in front of Billy and sat back down.

  The case was made of a hard plastic, had a 5 digit lock and the word Pelican written on it. I was guessing it contained weapons.

  Billy adjusted the numbers on the lock and popped open the lid. I was right. Four shiny Glocks lay in the case. Boxes of ammunition filled up the rest of it.

  ‘Now that we know they are here I think we should all take some precautions.’ He handed us each a revolver.

  ‘Wait,’ Nick said. ‘They’re here?’

  ‘Chanel spotted a man watching us, twice.’

  I looked over at Nick. ‘You know. The man who sat down next to us at lunch yesterday. He was there watching us last night.’

  He pulled a face. ‘Sorry Toots. Didn’t see him.’

  ‘How could you miss him?’

  ‘I was busy being charming. That’s hard work.’

  ‘It is for you,’ I said.

  He glowered at me, his lowered eyebrows making his blocky forehead appear even bigger, and then picked up his Glock.

  Sal popped the magazine out of the handle and began to load it with rounds. I followed suit. Truth be told, I was more comfortable without a weapon. History had shown I was an awful shot; more likely to hit a bystander than my target. But I didn’t want to look like a pussy, and Billy was right. We needed to start taking precautions.

  When I had finished, I gave my teeth a quick clean and then grabbed my bag, burying the Glock far enough down that nobody would see it accidentally. Billy and Nick both stood and followed me to the door.

  ‘You’re both coming?’

  ‘Thought we’d drop you off,’ Billy said. ‘Give me a ring when you’re finished.’

  ‘What if you’re at the 19th hole?’

  He laughed and opened the door for me. ‘Golf’s not really my thing. I’d welcome an excuse to leave.’

  I smothered the oh-so-obvious question of, ‘So why are you playing,’ and just shrugged. If they wanted to chauffeur me around, who was I to complain?

  Martine was waiting out the front of her hotel when we pulled up.

  ‘Thought you said it was women only,’ Nick said.

  I slapped him on the arm and said, ‘Martine is a woman.’

  He shuffled over to make room for her and she clambered into the back. The buggy laboured up the hill to Matt and Tara’s hotel. Tara, Elaine, Nat, Dinah, Gloria and Bet were in the process of climbing into three buggies. I recognised Matt, Ricardo and Elaine’s husband, Alistair in the driving seats.

  ‘Is this really necessary Matt?’ I heard Tara’s voice over the chattering of the women.

  ‘Billy thinks it is.’

  Huh. Was I being protected rather than protecting?

  I turned to look at Billy, raising my eyebrows as I said, ‘Really?’

  ‘What?’ He gave me his best butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth look.

  ‘Fine. We’ll talk about this later.’ I crossed my arms across my chest.

  ‘You’re in trouble,’ Nick said in a sing-song voice.

  We pulled back out onto the road at the back of the pack.

  ‘Come on, Billy,’ Nick said, smacking his hand on the back of my seat. ‘Give it some stick man.’

  Billy rocked forwards over the steering wheel, but try as hard as he might we dropped further and further behind the others. ‘I’m giving it all I’ve got,’ he said.

  ‘We need to offload some weight.’ Nick looked around the buggy. ‘Billy,’ he yelled, ‘I’m going to throw Big Bird overboard.’ He shoved at Martine as if trying to force her out the side of the buggy.

  She retaliated, smacking him with her handbag.

  ‘Stop it Nick,’ I said, trying not to laugh. ‘You’ll mess up her hair.’ I knew how long it took Martine to tease her wigs to perfection.

  As if all he heard was the word hair, he reached up and grabbed a fistful of Martine’s. She grabbed at her head, but it was too late. Her wig came free in his hand. He looked at it in horror, let out a shriek, and threw it out the back of the buggy.

  ‘My hair,’ Martine screamed.

  ‘Ughhhhuhuhuh.’ Nick shivered and wiped his hands on his pants. ‘It was like a giant tarantula.’

  Billy performed an illegal U-turn and trundled back to where Martine’s hair lay by the side of the road.

  ‘Looks like road kill,’ Nick observed as I jumped out of the buggy and grabbed it.

  I raced around to her and repositioned it on her head, making soothing noises as I smoothed it into place. When she was satisfied, we continued our snail’s pace trip up the hill. Martine sat with her arms crossed while she maintained a stony silence. Nick kept sneaking glances at her and letting out giggles.

  ‘What kept you?’ Matt asked as we pulled into the Spa’s carpark behind them.

  ‘Kids got into an argument.’ Billy nodded his head at Nick and Martine.

  ‘We should be done by twelve.’ Tara leant over to give Matt a peck on the lips, but he captured her and pulled her into his embrace. His lips sought hers eagerly and she gave up her weak struggle, instead wrapping her arms around him and pressing her body to his.

  Ricardo wolf-whistled and said, ‘Get a room,’ but they ignored him.

  God, I hadn’t been kissed like that since…Las Vegas. I glanced guiltily at Billy. I had to stop thinking about him like that until after Harry told him or I would do something totally inappropriate.

  ‘Well,’ I cleared my throat, ‘see you.’

  ‘Yep.’ He didn’t meet my eyes. ‘Be back around twelve. Ring if you need me.’

  I blushed. Lordy, I needed him right now but that knowledge wasn’t going to go down well, so I turned and strode towards the front door.

  ‘You’re still quiet,’ I said to Martine.

  ‘Trying to come up with a plan to get even with that evil dwarf.’

  ‘Good luck with that,’ I said. ‘He has a talent for mischief that I don’t think we can match.’

  She tapped a manicured finger against her bottom lip. ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’

  Mum was standing by the front door. ‘Thought I’d got the time wrong,’ she said.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ I gave her a quick hug.

  ‘Tess,’ Tara called from behind me. ‘I’m so glad you could make it at such short notice.’

  Mum gave Tara a hug then stepped back and looked at her. ‘You look like you just got thoroughly kissed.’

  Tara’s blush said it all. ‘Lil decided she wasn’t up to it.’ Tara looked over at me. ‘So I rang your Mum.’ She pursed her lips, ‘Sorry, I hope that was okay.’

  The woman was unbelievable. It was her wedding and she was worried that she was upsetting me.

  I let out a laugh. ‘A wise woman once told me, the more the merrier.’

  She linked her arm through mine and Mum’s and said, ‘Exactly.’

  The Spa staff were waiting for us. They took us through to a room where we changed into white cotton robes. Then we followed them through to the group treatment room. Eight massage beds were arranged into two rows. We each took one and our little piece of heaven began.

  It started with the massage and finished with a facial. There I was, lying on my back with honey and grated cucumber gooped on my face when I opened an eye to survey the room. Martine was lying next to me and Mum was on her other side.

  All conversation had died about ten minutes into the treatment and now all you could hear was the occasional sigh.

  I was looking across at the other row of ladies, all of them in the same state I was, when a head appeared, staring through the little glass window in the door.

  Overly large head; angry boring eyes; sharp, pointy teeth.

  I inhaled sharply and some cucumber sucked from my lips into the back of my throat. Boris.

  He disappeared so quickly that for a second I thought I had dreamt it. And then the next moment I was hacking and coughing, bent over the side of
the table while a piece of cucumber worked its way back out of my oesophagus.

  By the time I recovered, Boris would have been long gone. If he had left. If he wasn’t waiting on the other side of the door.

  ‘Need water,’ I rasped at the lady who had been working me over with her magical hands.

  ‘I’ll be right back.’ She turned to go and I put a hand on her arm.

  ‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘I’ll go. Need to go to the toilet as well.’

  I slipped off the table into my robe and wiped the back of my hand across my face. It came away covered in honey and cucumber. Great. Hopefully, if I ran into Boris he’s be so busy laughing that I’d have time to get my gun.

  Which brought me to my current problem. Boris was between me and my handbag.

  I smiled at the woman and walked as normally as I could towards the door. It was difficult to maintain a normal gait when I really wanted to crouch and scuttle.

  I paused at the door, looking back over my shoulder. The others still lay on their backs, their eyes closed and their faces covered in cucumber. They had no idea that a crazy Russian mobster lurked somewhere in the building.

  That was probably for the best.

  Pulling open the door, I looked through, trying to see if anybody was acting in an abnormal manner. A woman walked through the door on the far side of the room towards me. She tilted her head to the side as she looked at me and said, ‘May I help you?’

  I was guessing if Boris was hiding on the other side, there would have been fewer polite questions and more running and screaming.

  ‘All good.’ I shot her a quick smile.

  She smiled in return so I was guessing my face had moved normally.

  I trotted through that room and turned left towards the change rooms, leaving globs of cucumber in a trail behind me.

  What if Boris was hiding in there? There was only one thing to do. I hit the door at a run, bursting through it and diving into a roll. I came to my feet and spun around.

  A couple of women stood by their lockers, their mouths open as they stared at me. Apart from that the room was clear.

  ‘Parkour,’ I said as a lump of cucumber dripped off my nose onto my chin.