Blue Steal

by Marnie St Clair

  Selina trouble empire

  Send.

  That would have to do.

  Her hero sank onto the seat with her still in his arms, and she held his phone out towards him. Confusion passed over his face.

  ‘Your phone was falling out of your pocket,’ she said.

  He still looked a little confused, but took the phone. ‘How’s the ankle?’

  ‘Actually,’ she said, rising to her feet, tentatively putting weight on her ankle. ‘I think it’s okay.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ he asked uncertainly, more-than-slightly nonplussed at the turn of events.

  ‘Just a sprain. Thanks anyway.’ She graced him with a wide smile, and continued on towards the Empire, retaining a slight hobble in case anyone was following.

  She’d done what she could. And now, she’d just have to trust that she could handle Lewis until the cavalry arrived.

  Please, let Jack get the message in time.

  ***

  Jack drew his phone from his pocket. A number he didn’t recognise. Frowning, he read the text, and just about died.

  Grabbing his gun, he headed for the door. ‘Selina’s in trouble,’ he called as he passed Charles’s office.

  Still striding towards the fire exit stairs, Jack hit redial. He didn’t bother with the preliminaries. ‘Did you just come into contact with the most beautiful woman in the world?’

  ‘Who is this?’ the man on the other end asked, suspicious.

  Jack noted that he didn’t deny it. ‘A friend of hers. She’s in trouble. You want her to live, you better tell me exactly what happened.’

  A long pause, during which time Jack felt Charles fall in beside him. Good. He had a feeling he was going to need some help.

  The man at the other end of the phone still wasn’t talking.

  ‘I only want to help her, buddy. She sent me a text from your phone.’

  There was a long slow outbreath. Jack forced himself not to spook the guy. Finally, he spoke. ‘She hurt her ankle. I was helping her, but … turned out the ankle was fine. So she left.’ He sounded somewhere between adoring, confused and put-out.

  Jack managed a grim smile. Typical Selina, accosting a young unsuspecting male, giving him with no choice but to come to her aid, and leaving him grateful for the opportunity. ‘Where were you when this happened?’

  ‘Close to the corner of Spring and Collins.’

  A block from the hotel.

  Selina was in trouble, and she was headed for the Empire.

  ***

  Selina paused, hand on the front doors to the hotel, and looked in. It was dark inside. It had always seemed dark somehow, but now the lights were out forever.

  She pulled the handle, half-expecting the door to be locked, but it swung open, and she was back inside the Empire. Less than two weeks since she’d last been here, and it was now a barren shell. Stripped bare. No people, no Hailey behind reception, no Jenny at her desk, but also no paintings, no furniture, no potted palms.

  She had a fairly good idea of where Lewis would be. She crossed the lobby quietly, losing the hobble now it was no longer necessary. It was quiet, so quiet. All she could her was her heart, pounding. She reached the open doors to the dining room.

  ‘Selina!’ Anna cried.

  Selina’s gaze flew straight to her sister, sitting beside Lewis at their usual table. Selina almost collapsed in relief. Anna looked terrified but as far as she could tell, unharmed.

  Which meant she could still fix this. How was more problematic, because besides Lewis, the omnipresent heavy-set henchmen were also in attendance, at their usual spots at the bar.

  Outmanned and outgunned. She’d just have to hope she could outsmart them.

  ‘Sit down, Anna dear,’ Lewis remonstrated quietly.

  Anna had risen from her seat and taken a few steps towards Selina. Selina nodded a confirmation for her to comply. No point in antagonising Lewis. Anna sunk into her seat again, all traces of mutiny vanquished by fear.

  ‘Selina,’ Lewis said as she sat next to Anna. ‘Welcome.’ He seemed calm, smiling like he was genuinely pleased to see her, but for the strange manic light in his eyes. ‘How kind of you to come; now the family is complete.’

  Scared beyond words, and unable to resist, she reached for Anna’s hand. She saw Lewis taking in the gesture of love and support, and wondered for a moment if it had been a mistake. Would it offend him? Remind him of his dead brother? Remind him of how she’d tricked him into confessing to his murder?

  Unlikely he’d forgotten that.

  Lewis must be out on bail.

  It had always been a risk. He was close to seventy, arrested for a crime committed fifty years ago, and had the means to buy the best lawyers money could buy. No doubt he had played the harmless old man card. And bought off or otherwise taken care of the officers who were supposed to contact her if he was released.

  ‘What do you want, Lewis?’ she asked sharply.

  He looked at her with a smile. ‘Look around, Selina,’ he said, waving his hand around. ‘It’s the end of an era.’

  Because the hotel was being knocked down? Yes, she supposed it was. The Empire was one of the few remaining hotels of its kind in Australia. Something from another time, and it had reached the end of its days.

  What did that have to do with Anna and her? ‘What do you want?’ she repeated.

  ‘What we all want, dear. A fitting end,’ he said, still with that strange smile on his face.

  Meaning what exactly? She didn’t know but the chills travelling up and down her spine let her know that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. She held Anna’s hand tight. Whatever was happening here, they’d face it together.

  ‘I was wrong,’ he mused quietly. ‘You weren’t returned to me to take over the helm at Holloway Industries, because that time is over. The Holloways are over. It’s time to finish it.’

  Did he want them to stand about and watch the demolition together? That couldn’t be it. ‘You’re going to have to be more specific,’ she said, terrified, but pleased to hear her tone was all business.

  ‘It’s not obvious?’

  He was playing with her. She didn’t want to play. She shook her head brusquely.

  ‘We will not just witness the final setting sun, we will embody it.’ He smiled his ghastly, overstretched smile. ‘The last of the Holloways, buried forever among the rubble of the Empire. A fitting end.’

  Anna cried out next to her. She’d been quiet so far, letting Selina take the reins, but she couldn’t help herself at that.

  Lewis was crazy. Totally and utterly crazy.

  ‘You can’t be serious,’ Selina said eventually.

  ‘Mais oui, ma chere,’ he said brightly. ‘It is the only possible end.’

  The only possible end?

  Of course it wasn’t. This day was not going to end with Anna dead. And if she could help it, it wasn’t going to end with her dead either.

  She stood.

  ‘Ah, you are keen to start,’ he said, holding up a hand. ‘Patience, my dear. If you don’t mind, I’d like to finish my tea first.’

  Finish his tea, then kill them all?

  Could she run? Anna wasn’t fast, her movements stiff and awkward, but even so … It was worth a go. ‘Come on, Anna. We’re leaving.’

  Anna got to her feet beside her, and followed Selina as she started walking towards the doors. Lewis didn’t have to stand to stop her. He only had to signal to the men at the bar, who clambered off their barstools and blocked the path to the door.

  ‘Not so fast, dear,’ Lewis said from behind her.

  The men slowly withdrew guns. They didn’t bother pointing them. They didn’t have to. The threat was clear.

  Okay, so she and the goons weren’t friends—they’d never so much as exchanged hellos—but they knew her a bit, they’d seen her multiple times last week. And here she was with her young, special-needs sister. Didn’t that count for something?

  ‘Come on, guys,’ she entreat
ed. ‘Don’t do this. Let us go.’

  They stood like statuary in stony silence.

  ‘It won’t do any good.’ Lewis’s voice reached from behind. Damn if he didn’t sound downright cheery. ‘I pay them too well.’

  They stood as still and unrelenting as tree trunks. It seemed that Lewis was correct. They would stand by and watch her and her sister snuffed out by a psychopath before they’d risk their paycheck.

  ‘I’ve called the police. They’ll be here any minute,’ she bluffed, turning back to Lewis. She didn’t think it would work, but she was running out of options.

  ‘You haven’t called anyone.’ Decisive words. Did that mean he had bugged her phone? ‘In any case, we are ready to begin. By the time they get here, it will be too late.’

  Would Jack get her message? Would he arrive in time?

  Her first priority had to be to get Anna out. ‘It’s me you want, Lewis. Let Anna go. I’ll stay, we can embody anything you like. Just let Anna go.’

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that, dear. That won’t work at all.’ He smiled gently at her, as if offering comfort and reassurance. She hated that smile.

  ‘Look at her,’ she said, indicating Anna beside her. ‘She looks nothing like you and I. She’s not really a Holloway. How can she be, looking like that? She doesn’t have to stay.’

  It was beyond ironic that after all the time and energy she’d spent getting people to recognise that Anna was in no way lesser, she was now fighting for the other side. But if it saved her, she’d do it. She’d do anything.

  ‘You are right, Selina. She doesn’t have the look of the Holloways. Certainly not the eyes. Not like you.’ He smiled at her again. ‘But she is still Andrew’s granddaughter. As you so rightly insisted I acknowledge. Apologies,’ he said, all fake regret and solicitude, ‘but I’m afraid she must stay.’

  Lewis picked up his teacup, lifted it to his mouth, and took a delicate sip. ‘There is another reason she must stay. She has a crucial role to play. I’m surprised you haven’t seen it, Selina.’

  He waited for her to comment, but what could she say? She wasn’t in tune with his psychopathic logic, she had no idea what he was talking about.

  ‘The symmetry is perfect. Don’t you see?’

  No, paint her stupid, but she didn’t see.

  ‘You should experience what it was like for me. You should see your sister die in front of you. It should occur by your hand. It is only fitting.’

  Was he crazy? She would never hurt her sister.

  But then she thought about the circumstances in which she would pull the trigger. The circumstances in which a bullet to the head was the preferable outcome. The kind of pain, suffering it would avoid …

  She was going to be sick.

  ‘I can see I’ve upset you. Don’t fret. You and I won’t outlive her long. Then we will all be together forever.’

  Then she caught the look in his eyes: sparkling, almost joyful. He was enjoying this. He was psychopathic, but he wasn’t crazy. Not really. This wasn’t about Lewis completely losing his mind, and getting caught up in some twisted cosmic rebalancing. This was about revenge, pure and simple.

  He was not taking Anna, and if she could help it, he was not taking her either.

  Eternity with Lewis. No way.

  He finished his tea, stood and signalled to his men to come forward.

  No. No. Her heart was pounding like jungle drums, sweat broke out all over her body.

  She needed to think of something, fast. She shot a look at Anna. There was nothing but total and absolute trust in Anna’s eyes.

  Sorry, Anna.

  She almost said it, but instead, something entirely different came from her mouth. ‘I know where it is.’

  Because it had struck her that she had one point of leverage. She possessed something that Lewis wanted. Something Lewis really, really wanted. And she had it right in her handbag.

  The change in the atmosphere was subtle but pervasive.

  Another hand signal and the goons stopped their forward march.

  Lewis was interested, she could see it in his greedy green eyes. They were fixed on her, trying to assess the validity of her statement.

  For the moment, she was the one in control of the situation. ‘You know, Lewis, you were right in the first place. If there was a deeper reason as to why I came here, it was to find the necklace before the Empire was knocked down.’ She paused for emphasis. ‘And I did.’

  He studied her. ‘You’re lying,’ he said after a moment.

  ‘No, I’m not.’ And she smiled as close as she could manage to the inimitable, mysterious Mona Lisa. ‘I know exactly where the necklace is. Must be that chunk of Andrew I have in me.’

  Lewis was hooked, unable to resist the possibility of having the jewels he’d been searching for most of his life finally in his hands. A fifty year-old mystery solved. She watched as he swallowed involuntarily.

  ‘Let Anna go and I’ll show you.’

  He drew back slightly, masked a little of the avid interest in his eyes. ‘Show me first. If you are not lying, Anna will be released.’

  Pigs would fly. ‘You’ll forgive me, dear, if I don’t trust you,’ she said. ‘Anna first.’

  She could see him weighing it up. His desperation to have the necklace versus his desire to hurt her as much as possible. Right now, she was bargaining on his desire to grasp anything that remained of Andrew being stronger than his desire for revenge. ‘Anna was always just collateral damage,’ she added. ‘You’ll still have me.’

  A pause as he considered it. Selina hoped and prayed she was right, and that Lewis had no real feelings one way or the other for Anna.

  Slowly he nodded his head, and his men shifted almost imperceptibly to the side.

  ‘Selina, no!’ Anna cried out from her side. ‘I’m not leaving you.’

  She turned, put her hands on sister’s shoulders, made sure Anna was taking in every word. ‘Yes, you are. You’re going to walk out those doors, and straight to Parliament Station. Catch a train home. Anywhere, so long as it’s away from here.’ She leaned closer, whispered in her ear. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be seeing you soon. We have a date for a Pink concert, remember?’

  Anna was crying as she drew back. Selina prayed that she would not enter into the teenage rebellion she’d been stuck with this morning. She tried to show Anna what she wanted her to see: that this was all part of Selina’s grand plan, that not only Anna but Selina would come out of this in one piece, that they would really be going to that Pink concert.

  Anna, God bless her, didn’t fight. She had faith that her sister would somehow emerge victorious. That trust … Selina hoped it was justified, because this was far from over.

  She waited while her sister turned and walked lopsidedly from the room, waited until she heard the door swing shut and then she turned back to Lewis. ‘It’s upstairs. In the family suite.’

  She watched reactions play out over his face. Shock, then disbelief. ‘You’re lying.’

  ‘No. That’s where it’s been all this time.’

  ‘It isn’t possible. Andrew didn’t have time to get back up there with the jewellery and then back down again.’

  She shrugged. ‘And yet …’ She hit him with another Mona Lisa smile.

  He was frustrated, irritated, but not willing to let the potential go. Turning from her angrily, he waved his men over, relieved one of his gun. ‘No one leaves this hotel. No matter what, no one leaves.’

  And he waved her ahead of him.

  She breathed out and set off. She’d managed to get Anna out, and now, she’d cut down the number of adversaries from three to one. Admittedly Lewis now had a gun. He’d proven he knew what to do with one, and right now, it was trained on her.

  Her odds were improving, but she couldn’t claim they lay in her favour.

  Chapter 20

  In the end, they ran the whole way, figuring it was better than risking city traffic. The last thing they needed was to find thems
elves jammed in. Jack, in jeans and boots, and Charles, in his more formal business attire, both pounding the pavement at close to twenty kilometres per hour. And if anyone thought the sight was odd, Jack and Charles didn’t hang around long enough to hear them voice their opinion.

  As Jack ran, everything crystallised.

  Selina was in mortal danger, and there was nothing—nothing—he wouldn’t do to save her.

  Lie? Cheat? Steal? Without hesitation.

  Set off a nuclear bomb, as she’d once joked? He wouldn’t put it past him.

  Maybe it was wrong of Selina to steal the necklace, but he’d been in the wrong too. And he’d done worse, much worse, than she had.

  All that talk about not knowing if he could trust her if she took the necklace … What an idiot he’d been. What had he thought: that if the necklace hadn’t been found by the time the hotel was blown to smithereens, he’d somehow magically trust her? Stupid logic. It wasn’t Selina he didn’t trust, it was himself.

  She’d accused him of projecting his own issues, his own fears and weaknesses, on to her, and she’d been right. Scarred by his past, he’d confused Selina’s actions with his and Dani’s. But they were nothing alike. Nothing alike.

  And the truth, which he could now see with crystal clarity, was that there was nothing wrong with Selina’s moral compass. She loved her sister, and everything she did was done for that love. Her courage, her determination, her hard work and sacrifice—it was her way of fighting for her family. Looking for the necklace was her way of fighting for her family. How could he ever fault that love? Her willingness to do anything for those she loved didn’t make her untrustworthy. Quite the opposite. There’s no one he’d rather have in his corner. For the rest of his life.

  She didn’t need his judgement, she needed his support. He should have been there at her side, like he said he wanted to be, helping shoulder her burdens. He should have offered all his substantial resources so she didn’t feel she had no option but to steal.

  Instead he’d set up some stupid ultimatum about the necklace, made it into a choice between him and her sister. A choice he would never win, a choice he didn’t even want to win. And the price might be Selina’s life.