It was all so clear, he couldn’t understand what he’d been doing, stumbling around in the fog, wrestling phantoms all this time. He’d fix it, he’d fix everything, once she was safe and sound again.
They hit the city, Collins Street, in all likelihood treading the same ground Selina had not much more than half an hour ago.
Selina.
Don’t think, he urged himself. Just run.
They were almost there when they ran past a girl. A girl with some sort of physical disability which hunched her posture and made her movements jerky. A girl with tears flowing freely down her face. A girl with gorgeous brunette waves and a gold cross at her neck.
Her image remained in Jack’s head.
He stopped, turned, jogged back to her. ‘Anna,’ he said to her back.
She turned, and Jack saw that she was petrified.
‘My name is Jack. I’m a friend of Selina’s,’ he said, hand up in the classic ‘I come in peace’ gesture.
She still looked scared.
He wanted to be comforting, to tell her he was in love with her sister and everything was going to be alright, but he just didn’t have the time right now. ‘We’re on our way to the Empire. We don’t have much time. I know your psycho uncle Lewis has Selina. What else can you tell us?’
Maybe it was the reference to the psycho uncle, but Anna suddenly decided Jack was trustworthy. ‘Lewis wants to kill her. He wanted to kill me too but Selina made him let me go.’
Of course she did.
‘There’s two other men, too.’
‘Armed?’ he questioned.
She nodded. ‘They took out their guns. And Lewis … he was saying something about the hotel being blown up. With them in it.’
He nodded, trying to decide what to do. They couldn’t leave Anna. Selina would never forgive him if something happened to her. ‘Charles …’ he appealed. Charles could stay with Anna, keep her safe.
Charles gave a brief nod, and Jack ran on alone, grim but determined.
She’d done it all her life, and it wasn’t Anna’s fault, but Selina was not sacrificing herself for her sister. Not like this.
***
The electricity had been cut, which meant four flights to climb. But if she thought her luck might be in and Lewis might suffer a heart attack on the way up—well, he was barely puffing. He was fitter than she would have given him credit for. Or maybe it was a pre-death adrenaline rush.
‘There will be consequences if you are lying,’ Lewis noted from just behind her, as they hit the third floor. ‘As I’m sure you are aware.’
Consequences? Lewis was already going to kill her. What more did he think he could threaten her with? Anna. Nonna. Jack. She could die knowing he planned to hurt them. Kill them. ‘I’m not lying. I know where Andrew hid it.’
Not that she trusted that Lewis wouldn’t kill everyone anyway, whether she showed him the jewellery or not. He had any number of ways to ensure his goons did his bidding, even if he were dead.
To prevent it, she couldn’t die. She couldn’t protect anyone if she were dead.
She should be grateful for the walk, because it allowed her some time to try to come up with a strategy to come out of this in one piece. She had one major advantage: she had the necklace. In that moment when she revealed the necklace’s hiding place, Lewis was going to be vulnerable. He would understand what had happened, he would expect to see it where it had lain hidden for fifty years, he would be surprised it was no longer there. Distracted and surprised. She would use that to her advantage, find a way to wrest the gun from him.
Dealing with Lewis wouldn’t be the end of it though. She’d heard his instructions to his men, loud and clear. No one leaves, no matter what. Eventually, the beefcakes would come looking for them, even if only to check they were both lying dead on the ground, ready to be detonated into heaven. And even if they didn’t … How long would they wait there in the lobby? If she couldn’t get past them, she was as good as dead anyway.
First things first.
They reached the top floor, stood in front of the door to the Holloway family suite. Lewis removed a set of keys from his pocket and tossed them at her feet. ‘If you’d be so kind.’
Like she had a choice. She crouched to retrieve the keys and opened the door. She couldn’t see the gun pointed at her back but she could feel it. Lewis was certainly showing no signs of lapses in concentration yet.
Inside, she turned and looked at him. ‘I show you the necklace, and it ends, here and now.’
His head tilted slightly. ‘Produce the necklace and nothing further will happen to your sister.’
‘The bedroom,’ she said simply, and saw a look of stark disbelief pass over Lewis’s face. He was torn between wanting to believe she was going to produce the sapphires and failure to comprehend how they’d been in this apartment, in his bedroom no less, all along.
Lewis followed her in, gun still primed, a moment later. ‘It was in here, the whole time?’
Yes, it was. Lewis was struggling to believe that could possibly be so. But Lewis didn’t see things that weren’t important to him. And, as she’d learned from Keith, sport was one of those things.
Crouching beside Andrew’s bed, she took the cricket bat from where it rested in the large equipment bag. The bat Andrew had taken with him downstairs, but left lying somewhere while he’d taken the ring upstairs to Maria. The bat that had been nowhere near him, or Lewis, or Jo the security guard when everything unravelled. The bat, which had been assumed irrelevant to the case and returned upstairs again. She turned, bat in her hand, to find Lewis looking nervous, his eyes on the potential weapon. ‘Stay where you are.’
Lewis should know better than anyone that this bat could be used as a weapon. He’d used its twin to take care of the security guard who’d sprung him and Andrew arguing about the jewels that night.
Effective when required. But that’s not why she’d grabbed it. ‘Here’s your answer, Lewis. Andrew hid the necklace inside a cavity he carved in the handle of this bat. When you saw Andrew creeping out with it in the middle of the night, you assumed it was a weapon. It wasn’t. It was a storage container. He knew he’d have to hide the necklace, hide his plans, from you.’
***
The cricket bat. The handle of the cricket bat. His woman was one smart cookie.
Jack stood behind the door to Andrew and Lewis’s bedroom, balanced on tenterhooks. He was ready, ready to take action, but Lewis was blocking his view of Selina. He couldn’t risk a shot.
Anna’s information had proved invaluable. Knowing there were two hired guns, he’d gone in carefully. They’d separated; one positioned to guard the front doors and one at the back entrance, but they seemed to be looking inwards rather than outward, more focused on stopping anyone getting out than stopping anyone getting in. It hadn’t been difficult to find the right moment to enter unseen.
Thankfully both of them were a lot bigger on brawn than they were on brain, and an almost childish tactic of diverting attention by throwing something into the opposite direction of where he was hiding, followed by a gun to the back, and they were both in cuffs.
Charles would have called the police by now, and they would pick up those jokers in due course. Threatened, both had willingly given up Selina and Lewis’s location. The Holloway suite.
Come on, Selina.
He needed an angle to work with, and he needed Selina to create it.
***
Lewis’s eyes were fixed on the bat, his gun dipping lower as the ramifications of Selina’s information hit home, and her time to act, if she was ever going to have one, was rapidly approaching.
‘Show me,’ was all he said.
He couldn’t unscrew the handle and keep his gun on her and he wasn’t stupid enough not to know it. But his guard was down. His guard was definitely down.
She unscrewed the handle slowly, edging slowly and carefully towards Lewis. He didn’t notice—his gaze was fixed on her hands, on the treasure
he’d waited fifty years to see.
When the end was loose, she discarded it on the floor next to her. She held the bat aloft carefully, as if there were some precious elixir inside, not a drop of which she could spill.
Lewis was transfixed, eyes glued to the top of the bat, breath held, waiting to see the necklace revealed. She considered swinging the bat at him, or possibly throwing it at him, but despite his absorption in what she was doing, that damn gun was still fixed right on her torso.
Not yet. Not time yet. Instead, she tipped the bat, ever so slowly, on its head. Watched Lewis’s face as he waited for the necklace to drop at her feet.
It didn’t.
‘I’ve taken it already.’
He was beyond furious. To have it so close, to have the anticipation build like that, then be denied. He was close to snapping point. Right where she needed him.
She didn’t give him time to react. While she’d been tipping the cricket bat upside down with one hand, she’d been reaching into her bag with the other, and while it would have been nice to have a gun of her own to pull, what she had was the necklace.
She waited just long enough to make sure Lewis had registered its presence, then threw it at him. ‘Catch!’
***
The next few seconds were a mad, chaotic scramble. Jack could do nothing more than observe. Just as Selina intended, Lewis dropped the gun involuntarily as he attempted to catch the necklace. Selina dove and scrambled for it, but Lewis quickly realised his error, and he too dropped to reach for it again, moving with considerable dexterity for a man of his age.
Jack emerged slowly from behind the door, gun raised, heart pounding, praying for some opportunity to act before it was too late. They were tussling, entwined on the floor in front of him, and he didn’t have a shot. He couldn’t do anything but pray the gun didn’t go off before he had his chance.
And then Lewis wrenched away, necklace clutched to his chest, gun pointing at Selina. There was still no clear shot. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
‘Goodbye, my dear. See you in hea—’
Lewis stopped, suddenly, and stood, staring at something in the air. At the same time, Selina let out a breath, it sounded almost painful, and her head swivelled to look behind her.
Jack had his shot but Lewis wasn’t aiming at Selina anymore. His gun had dropped to his side. He lurched forward, almost staggering, and let out a cry. ‘Wait,’ he wailed. ‘Wait for me. We’re coming.’
Selina was crawling away on her hands and knees, sobbing. Lewis swung back to her, gun raised again. Jack took the shot. Bullet to the chest, as he’d been taught but never before put into action.
Lewis fell, necklace still clutched to his chest. Blood spread in a fan from beneath, gushing from the wound through his chest. Selina crawled over, still sobbing, and leaned over him, expression on her face one of angst.
Lewis’s eyes were on her. ‘Andrew,’ he whispered.
And then … an undeniable slumping.
‘He’s dead.’ She was sobbing for real now, chest heaving, tears streaking down her face. ‘They’re gone,’ she said. ‘They’re gone.’
Jack put his gun on the desk. Sitting next to her on the floor, he pulled her gently into his arms, held her close while she quietened and calmed. Was she really so upset by his death? After everything he’d done? ‘Lewis was always going to die today,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ she agreed, shakily.
‘At least he didn’t take anyone with him.’
She gave him a strange look at that, and then just shook her head and looked at Lewis again.
Gooseflesh broke out across his arms. ‘Selina?’ he prodded.
‘He saved me,’ she said. She turned to face him, eyes enormous. ‘And now he’s gone.’
‘Who?’ Jack asked, but he knew. He knew.
Her hand came up to rest on his jaw. She offered him a small, shaky smile. ‘And you saved me. You came.’ She started. ‘Anna!’ she exclaimed, and struggled in his arms as if to rise and run out onto the street in search of her sister.
He didn’t let her go. ‘She’s with Charles. She’s safe.’
She stopped struggling at that, but she was still tense, on the verge of bolting. ‘Jack, you don’t understand. Lewis’s men … They’re downstairs. They would have heard the gun. They’ll be on their way up.’
‘Taken care of. Police should be down there by now.’
Finally, he felt her relax. She turned to him, brought a hand up to cup his jaw again. ‘You came,’ she repeated.
‘Of course I did.’
That added a small smile to her lips. ‘I’m sorry I took the necklace.’ She leaned in, rested her forehead against his. ‘I was trying to return it to you and the Petrovskys, before all this happened.’
‘I know,’ he said gently.
‘You forgive me?’
‘Well, I was planning to sulk a little longer …’ He touched her lips with his. ‘There’s nothing to forgive, bella. I almost lost you today, and there’s nothing like near-death to put everything in perspective. It was stupid to think I couldn’t trust you. There’s no one in the world I trust more. I want you, just you, now and forever.’
‘Good. Because I wasn’t planning on letting you stay away,’ she laughed quietly. ‘I love you too much.’
His heart swelled. Well, that deserved a kiss. He leaned down, dropped one on her lips. Then another. And another. Then paused, took her face in his hands, and smiled. ‘I love you more. You’re not alone anymore. I’m here, each and every day. If you need money for Anna … Let me give it to you. I know you’re going to want to pay it back. That’s fine. Any terms you want.’
‘I’ll take your money.’
He tilted his head to the side, waiting. That capitulation had happened way too fast.
‘I’ll take your money, double it, and take a hefty cut of the profits.’
That was more like it. He kissed her lips.
‘You were right,’ she said. ‘I have to start believing in myself. So I’m taking on my own clients. Starting small. Keith Turnbull’s my first. You can be my second. If you want.’
‘Oh, I want.’
‘I’m warning you, I’m expensive.’
He dropped another kiss on her lips. ‘Sugar, you’re worth every penny.’
He squeezed her a little tighter, then stood and pulled her to her feet. ‘Let’s get out of here before this whole place blows.’
Chapter 21
Selina sat at a round table for two in the hotel bar, glasses of red wine set out like pawns on a chess board, waiting for Jack to show up and their first anniversary weekend to start. The bar was sleek; all chrome and glass and low, wide lines, aimed squarely at the business traveller. And these days, that was her.
The new Empire didn’t bear much resemblance to its previous incarnation. No more burgundy and mustard. No more peeling paint, dank carpet and oak panelling. Perhaps a part of her was sad that the old Empire Hotel was no more, but it was a small part. Like Lewis had said, the Holloway era was over.
There he was. Her fiancé. Dirty blond and dangerous. Hers.
She smiled at him across the room, and he smiled back. After a year, he was still enough to send her heart pounding double-time.
And what a difference a year could make. Like it or not, and at first she definitely hadn’t liked it, she’d inherited the Holloway fortune. Lewis had changed his will when he planned on giving her the company, and he hadn’t changed it again before he died. No doubt because he believed she’d be dead anyway.
She hadn’t wanted to know about it at first. After all, she’d spent her whole life being defined by not being a Holloway and feeling like she should have been, she wasn’t going to spend the remainder as a Holloway who didn’t want to be one.
It hadn’t taken her long to get over it. Maybe she allowed herself to be more of a dreamer than she used to be, but she was still a pragmatist at heart. If she inherited a large amount of money, it fell to her to use it as she saw fit.
Who else would it go to anyway?
So the first thing she’d done was to buy the equipment required for Anna’s operation. The Children’s Hospital had operated on Anna, and other sufferers of dystonia since then. It wasn’t a cure by any means, but it had made a difference. She’d donated a sizable chunk of her new fortune to further research and support for sufferers of dystonia.
Nonna was still nonna. Another third of Lewis’s money she’d donated to an Alzheimer’s research and support centre. The last third she’d given to a climate change environmental action group. After all, if it wasn’t for Jenny and the Inaugural Conference on Antipodean Entomology and Climate Change, Selina might not be sitting here right now. Besides, those locust plagues she’d learned about …
Well, if it was hers to distribute, she would distribute it as she saw fit.
And it’s not like she needed it. Her business was growing rapidly. She’d already completed her high school equivalent, and was halfway through an accelerated financial management degree.
Jack was a full partner at de Crespigny now, and loving every second of it. It’d been a big year at de Crespigny. She and Jack weren’t the only ones who’d had close calls. And judging by what Jack had told her yesterday, she had a feeling there was more to come …
But tonight wasn’t about death: it was about life. And all up, life was wonderful. She picked up her glass, clinked it lightly against his. ‘Happy anniversary.’
He eyed the wine with exaggerated suspicion. ‘Is it safe?’
What a comedian. She rolled her eyes. ‘I thought we had an agreement not to mention that again.’
He picked up his glass and clinked it against hers. ‘Happy anniversary, bella. In the stars or in ourselves—if this is destiny, I’m a fan.’
He’d better be.
She started to outline a new strategy she was in the early stages of developing for making Keith Turnbull and his like even richer. Usually, Jack was interested in hearing about her work, but tonight … ‘Please,’ she said sarcastically when she realised he was miles away. ‘Don’t let me bore you.’
‘Sorry,’ he replied, all cat who swallowed the canary. ‘I was daydreaming about all the lascivious things you might be planning on doing to me.’ He eyed his glass again. ‘Once I’m incapacitated and all.’
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