‘Want a painkiller?’ Tara asked.
Billy moved his shoulders back and forth. ‘Nah. It’s not so bad.’ He disappeared back into his room and returned wearing a shirt.
I tried not to be disappointed. I mean he had got that wound protecting me, I had no right to be taking advantage of the situation by perving at him. But disappointed I was nevertheless. He wasn’t going to be able to play volleyball now, which meant I had missed a whole afternoon of perving. I deserved to be compensated for my loss in some small way.
‘I’ll get it,’ Nick said, heading for the front door.
I started out of my daydream about Billy’s abdominal muscles and my hands. I hadn’t even heard the knock on the front door.
‘Sergeant Thomas,’ Nick said. ‘Come in.’ He pulled open the door and a bronzed God with scruffy, blond hair strolled into the room.
‘Nick my man,’ he said. ‘How’s it hanging?’
‘Great Alex. You?’
‘Caught some sick waves this morning. Things have been going downhill since then.’ He looked over at us and his eyes settled on me. ‘Until now.’ He strode towards me and held out his hand. ‘Well, hello there.’
I could feel a blush start up on my cheeks. ‘Constable Smith,’ I said, shaking his hand. I know, I know, I left out the probationary part. So sue me. Can’t a girl talk herself up occasionally?
‘Does Constable Smith have a first name?’ He had a dimple in the middle of his chin when he smiled.
‘It’s Chanel.’ It must have been the pain making Billy sound so pissed off.
Alex looked between Billy and me and then turned back to me. ‘Are you and he connected in some way? Tell me now or forever hold your peace.’ He barked out a laugh.
I opened my mouth but the word brother refused to appear at its cue. ‘It turns out, we have the same father.’ I even had to force those words out between my teeth.
‘FBI agent, Billy Milano.’ Billy held out his hand and Alex shook it.
‘Got an FBI agent for a brother.’ Alex looked me up and down. ‘Oh well. No guts no glory.’
I headed into the kitchen to hide my increasing blush. ‘Anyone want coffee or tea?’
I made the drinks while Alex asked questions about what had happened to the buggy. When he had finished, he flipped his notebook shut and tucked it into his pocket. ‘And you think it was Boris Tolokonsky who placed the bomb?
‘Him or one of his buddies.’
Alex leant back and tapped a finger onto his lips while he thought. ‘You won’t think about cancelling the ceremony?’ he finally said to Matt and Tara.
Matt looked over at Tara as if giving her permission to call the shots. ‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘I’d rather lure him into the open now than live the rest of my life wondering when he was going to act.’
‘Right.’ Alex nodded his head. ‘You need more backup.’ He looked over at Billy.
‘The Bureau will send agents.’
‘They’ll take a day or so to get here.’
‘That’s true.’ Billy nodded his head in agreement. ‘But we don’t want to spook Boris. I need him to think he has a chance of success.’
‘Or he’ll back off and strike later. Yeah I get it.’ He looked over at me and smiled broadly. ‘Want a date for the wedding?’
‘Oh that’s so nice,’ I said, ‘but Nick’s my Plus One.’
Nick let out a chuckle and rubbed his hands together. ‘Crash and burn,’ he said to Alex.
‘It’s only Round One, buddy. I’ve got at least thirty-six hours to sway her with my good looks and charm.
‘Twenty-four,’ Billy said from between clenched teeth. His back must have really been hurting.
‘I’ll stay until your men show up, and then you can decide if you still need me.’ He took a card out of his pocket and handed it to Billy. ‘Flick me a copy of the agenda.’
Billy nodded his head once and said, ‘But you stay in the background.’
‘Sure.’ Alex stood up. ‘Later, Beautiful,’ he said to me. ‘Got to get myself some new digs.’
‘Insufferable arrogance,’ Billy muttered as Alex closed the door.
Matt laughed and clapped him on the back. ‘Oops. Sorry,’ he said when Billy let out a hiss of pain.
Billy gave him a dirty look and pulled out his phone. ‘Going to call this in,’ he said, opening up the door to the balcony.’
The front door opened again and Salindra entered. ‘Alex’s here. What’d I miss?’
‘The golf buggy went boom.’ Nick’s hands mimicked an explosion going off.
‘Oh bugger.’ She crossed and took a seat at the table. ‘I miss all the fun. Where’s Billy?’
‘Outside,’ I said. ‘Want a cup of tea?’
‘No, but I would kill for a coffee.’
Tara crossed the room to Matt and he pulled her onto his lap. ‘Sorry.’ He kissed her forehead.
‘Not your fault.’ She let out a sigh. ‘I knew what you were like when I fell in love with you. And even now,’ she gave him a weak smile, ‘I wouldn’t change anything.’ She lay back, curling against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
Billy slid open the door from the balcony and re-entered. ‘Find anything?’
Sal took her coffee from me and shook her head. ‘Nothing yet, but it’s taking time at the hotels.’
‘We don’t have time.’ Billy’s frustration was clashing with his pain. I wasn’t sure which was making him more pissed off.
‘You want me to flash my badge?’
Billy breathed out loudly through his nose and shook his head. ‘What about the Marina?’
She took a sip of the coffee and let out a groan before nodding her head. ‘About half of the boats are regulars. The rest come and go staying from as little as a day to a few months.’
‘Any of them look suspicious?’
She shook her head. ‘I only managed to get a look at the permanent-mooring register. One of them is registered to…,’ she pulled a small note pad out of her pocket and flicked through the pages, ‘Aleksey Tolmachyor.’
I smiled at her attempt at a Russian accent.
‘But his yacht, The Babushka, has been there for years and apparently Aleksey is a local. He lives in Airlie Beach and comes over on weekends.’
‘Any chance of your getting a look at the temporary-mooring bookings?’ Matt asked.
Sal flashed him a smile. ‘Working on it. And tomorrow I’ll go hang out at some more hotels.’
‘We’d better get to lunch,’ Billy said. ‘People will already be worried.’
‘And then volleyball.’ I tried to sound upbeat about that. I failed.
Tara looked at me and let out a laugh. ‘You don’t have to play,’ she said. ‘It’s just a chance to let our men show off in front of us.’
‘Like a Western Society mating ritual?’ I asked.
‘Exactly.’ Tara nodded her head. ‘And our part of the ritual is to work on our tan. So bring your bikini.’
‘Well,’ I said, heading for my bedroom, ‘that I can do.’
***
The whole mating ritual had been going splendidly until Salindra had decided she was going to play volleyball. Now the rest of the women sat, sipping their cocktails, while she jumped around the court in her bikini.
Thankfully, not the bikini from the other day. No, this one had a full brief. But it still left nothing to the imagination, and hid only a teeny bit of her magnificent body. Add to that the fact that she could have played volleyball for Australia, and that Billy was cheering her on, and disgruntled was the little brother of my mood.
‘You’ve been working out,’ Mum perched on a stool beside me.
‘Huh?’ I turned from my contemplation of the rise of Salindra’s breasts to face her.
She smacked the back of her hand on my stomach. ‘Your abs. I can see them.’
I shrugged. I’d spent the first two weeks after I’d come back from Las Vegas in a sugar coma, then I’d started going to the gy
m instead. It had helped take my mind off…
‘Go Sal,’ Billy yelled. ‘Spike it.’ He was sitting at a table on the far side of the court with Harry and Ricardo.
Mum tilted her head to the side and stared at me. ‘And you got a new bikini. Red looks good with your new hair colour. Very dramatic.’
‘I like a lady in red.’
I swung around to the new voice. Alex, wearing only a pair of board shorts and a straw hat, stood behind me. I looked up the long, lean expanse of him to his face. Surfing obviously gave him a good work-out. He had a towel thrown over a shoulder and a cocktail in the other hand, but all I could see were his biceps. ‘May I join you ladies?’
‘Alex.’ Nick yelled out from the volleyball court and waved a hand at him.
Tara smiled and introduced him to the others and then he pulled up another seat and squeezed in between Mum and me.
Billy glared at him from the other side of the court. I didn’t need to be a genius to know what he was thinking. He had told Alex to keep his distance but he had come to flirt with me anyway. I smothered my smile.
‘So,’ Mum said, looking him up and down, ‘what fantasy did you step out of?’
She timed it perfectly. He had just taken a sip of his drink and now some of it spurted back out of his mouth.
‘Hello handsome.’ Martine leant across Mum to squeeze his knee. She smiled and then repositioned herself so that her short sundress showed off her shapely legs.
He looked over at Martine and then threw me a pleading look, but he was exactly what Martine liked in her men and she hadn’t had any fun for a while. I smirked and tossed him to the dogs.
‘Another drink?’ I said to Martine.
‘Me too,’ Mum said.
Elaine and Nat put their hands up and I left Alex there with Mum peppering him with questions and Martine fluttering her long lashes.
I was ordering their drinks when Billy joined me. He sat on a stool, adjusting his position till his back was comfortable.
‘Does it hurt much?’ I still felt guilty that he had been injured protecting me.
‘Nah.’ He shrugged his good shoulder. ‘I’ve had worse.’
‘Really?’ There was a lot I didn’t know about him.
‘When I was in Afghanistan I got shot up pretty badly.’ He paused for a minute as his eyes focused on another place, another time. ‘I’d be dead if it wasn’t for Matt.’
‘What was he doing there?’
‘What he does best. Reporting.’
‘So what happened?’
He sighed. ‘We were ambushed. I was out the front. Never saw it coming. One minute we were patrolling and the next we were fighting for our lives.’ He pulled up his shirt and pointed at some silvery spots down his right side. ‘I copped six rounds. One went through my lung. Matt risked himself to drag me to safety.’
Holy shit. ‘So he really saved your life.’
‘What did you think he did?’
‘I don’t know.’ I let out a little laugh. ‘Kept your spirits up by telling you funny stories?’
‘I did that as well.’ I hadn’t realised that Matt had joined us while we were talking. ‘Told him funny stories the whole way back in the helicopter.’
‘You’re a hero,’ I said to Matt. Awe tinged my voice.
He laughed. ‘Nah. I just did what needed to be done. Come on Billy. Can you manage to play with one arm?’
Billy swung his good arm and said, ‘Only if you don’t have me diving all over the court with your lousy digs.’
I stayed where I was for a while after they left, thinking about what Matt had said. The world would be a much better place if people just did what needed to be done. There would be fewer Roger’s, fewer Boris’s, and a hell of a lot less heart-ache.
Matt was a natural-born hero but now it was our turn to protect him. So, even though I was scared shitless, even though the thought of Boris made me want to hide under my bed and cry like a baby, I was going to do what I could to stop him.
‘Cause some heroes are born, but others are made, and it was time for me to step up and do what needed to be done.
5
The Vampire Strikes Back
Billy knocked on my door and a few seconds later opened it and stuck his head into the room. ‘I didn’t know your Mum could sing?’
I rubbed my eyes with my fists and refocused on him. ‘Really?’ He hadn’t been there when Mum had shared her story. ‘That’s how she and Harry met.’
‘Huh.’ He walked to the far side of the bed and sat down.
‘Why?’
‘Matt just rang. He and Tara are heading to the reception room at ten to listen to your Mum.’ I must have had a confused look on my face because he let out a laugh and said, ‘The lead singer in the band they booked for the reception just rang in with laryngitis. They’ve asked her to audition for the job.’
‘Well, she’ll be doing it then. She’s awesome.’ I felt a surge of pride for Mum. She might drive me mad most of the time, but she had also sacrificed a lot for me. I was far enough from my initial anger to see that.
‘We going now?’ I threw back the covers and hopped out of bed. After yesterday Matt had agreed to let us extend the protection detail to cover them whenever they weren’t in their room, not just the hotel.
Before Billy could answer, his phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the screen and said, ‘Finally.’
I grabbed my toiletry bag and headed for the bathroom. We’d cancelled the boat trip to Whitehaven on the grounds it was too risky. If the same thing that had happened to our buggy happened to the boat, it would be a disaster. It had meant, however, that instead of the early morning rendezvous at the Marina we’d been able to have a sleep in.
Nick was still nowhere to be seen, and Sal’s door was open but she was gone. No doubt she was already at the gym doing squats.
I banged on Nick’s door as I went past, but decided not to give him the same wake-up call he’d given me yesterday. I wasn’t sure if he was sleeping on the top or bottom bunk, but either way I was sure to crack my head.
Placing my toiletry bag on the toilet seat, I turned on the shower and waited for the water to warm up. I would have preferred a longer shower than the quick one I was planning, but any second now Nick was going to start banging on that door saying something about his back door and prairie dogs, and I just didn’t need the visual that early in the morning.
I washed quickly and then climbed out, towelling myself off and wrapping the towel around myself, and that was when I saw it.
Somebody’s mouth was lying in a glass on the vanity top.
There was no soft tissue, just teeth and bone and what looked like metal, as if someone had ripped the jaw out of a cyborg and plonked it into our bathroom. And of course the question of, ‘Who would do something like that?’ was met with only one answer.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Boris had been in our apartment. He had ripped somebody to bits and put a mouth in our bathroom. What would we find next? The rest of the head?
I let out a shriek and fled, gabbling and pointing down the hall as Billy looked up from the table.
‘What is it?’ He crossed the room in mere seconds and gripped my shoulders.
‘There’s a mouth in there. Somebody’s jaw. It’s hideous. Horrible.’ I couldn’t stop talking.
‘Calm down Chanel.’
‘In a glass of water. Urghhhhhh.’ I shuddered and let Billy pull me into his arms.
‘Oh for goodness’ sake.’ Nick’s door flung open and he marched down the hall to the bathroom.
‘Don’t touch it,’ I screeched.
‘Anybody would think you’d never seen a denture before?’
‘A what?’
He disappeared into the bathroom and returned a moment later holding up the offending item. ‘Didn’t your Grandparents have false teeth?’ He flipped it into his mouth.
I shook my head. ‘I never knew my grandparents.’ After Mum’s
story I was pretty happy about that. ‘But…it has metal on it.’
He shrugged. ‘I break them if they don’t.’
My brain was trying but my mouth wouldn’t stop. ‘Why do you need them?’
He looked at the floor and scuffed at the tiles with a toe. ‘Genetic disorder. I only got baby teeth.’ When he looked back up, Mr Grumpy was back in residence. ‘Now if you’ve finished, I’ve really got to take a dump.’ He slammed the bathroom door shut behind him.
Billy’s arms around my shoulders were shaking. I looked up at him to find him laughing. ‘Oh cripes, Chanel.’ He took one arm away to wipe at his eyes. ‘Nobody makes me laugh the way you do.’
I wasn’t sure whether or not to take offence at that. I guess it depended on whether he was laughing with me or at me. But that wasn’t really what was occupying the majority of my brain. Billy was pressed up against me and I was wearing a tiny little towel. I could feel his thigh pressed up against mine and his one remaining arm still cradling my back. The shaking of that arm as he laughed was sending interesting sensations through my skin to my brain.
The energy around us changed, the air almost crackling as my sex drive rammed home with enough force to stop a charging elephant. The urge to take him to the ground and have my way with him was almost overwhelming.
His laughing stopped and, as if identifying his current danger he dropped his arm and moved away from me. I looked up into his eyes, terrified of what I would find there.
As my eyes met his, his nostrils flared and his pupils widened. His breathing quickened to match mine. His lips parted slightly as if inviting mine to dance, and I nearly took him up on the subconscious invitation. Only one thing stopped me.
He thought I was his sister.
Damn Harry to hell and back for not already telling him. I didn’t want him to feel sick and depraved like I had. I didn’t want him to suffer like that, feeling dirty and questioning his moralities.
So I dropped my eyes and stepped away from him, breaking all contact. Then I walked past him to my bedroom. I’d have to go back for my toiletry bag once the fog in the bathroom had cleared.
Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4) Page 10