She still found it hard to believe Jai had conned her so successfully.
She was so pissed off with him. More than pissed off—angry and humiliated. He had a chance to deny what that bitch had claimed and he hadn’t.
But if he groveled, maybe she’d have him back, because there had to be a reason he’d been with that woman for so long. Maybe he was into kinky stuff but hadn’t gotten around to telling her. She could do kinky. Not very kinky but a bit. So if he came around and told her he wanted her and not kink woman, would that be okay?
Except he wasn’t going to grovel and her heart sank into her ultrasensitive stomach.
She might as well accept it was over.
A fast ride through the five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. No point wishing Jai hadn’t been part of a threesome for the last ten years. He was obviously still part of it.
She leaned over the toilet and threw up.
Jai thought about sitting in his car all night and waiting for her to emerge but what if she wasn’t even in there?
Eventually he gave in and drove back to Notting Hill, carefully following the speed limit. The last thing he needed was to be stopped by the police when he had possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of uncut coke in his trunk. He’d come back tomorrow.
* * * * *
When Summer woke on Monday morning, she wished she was asleep again. Her mouth felt as though she’d been eating sand crapped on by llamas, some sadistic bastard was pounding nails into her skull, and her stomach…oh god, I’ll never eat again. When she rolled over, she turned her face into Jai’s sweater and yet again rushed through the five stages of grief, or rather four of them, because she tripped on depression and started over.
Should she have waited and let him explain? But what the hell was there to explain? She didn’t think she minded him being bisexual, though the jury was still out on that one, because it meant sharing him and she didn’t know if she could, but she did mind that he hadn’t told her. He had a complicated life. Too complicated for her.
A hot shower helped lessen her hangover and it was with reluctance that she eventually stepped out and dried herself. She needed her bags back from Jai so she had to phone him, speak to him, not get upset with him or by him. Which is going to be tricky. She dressed in old jeans and a tatty sweater that was coming unraveled at the hem. Rather like her.
Summer lay back on her bed and checked her messages. Jai’s all said more or less the same thing. Please let me explain to you. She wondered what explanation there could be that would make any difference. But there might be one. There was a text from Vargus Shipping. They were going to deliver her box between ten and twelve this morning. She checked the time. Ten thirty.
A wobble of unease skittered down her spine. Was someone waiting for her box to be delivered? She wished she’d gone to the police yesterday as she’d planned. Maybe they’d have sent someone to stay here with her. Set up a sting. She could call them now, but then she’d have to tell them where she’d left the drugs and even though Jai had hurt her, she didn’t want him drawn any further into this.
When the intercom buzzed just before eleven, Summer pressed the button to check what the guy looked like but the camera wasn’t working. Shit.
“Hold on a moment, please,” she said into the microphone, and once she’d slipped on her penguin slippers, she propped open the door and darted out of her flat to look through the window of the landing onto the road. The sight of a large vehicle with Vargus Shipping on the side reassured her.
Back in her flat, she pressed the release for the entrance and waited by the door.
The lift pinged and a moment later, the doors opened and a heavyset guy walked out carrying the box.
“Hi,” Summer said. “Wow, you’re strong. I couldn’t even push that after I’d packed it.”
He laughed. “Where do you want it?”
“Just inside is fine. I can empty it from there.”
He put the box inside the door and pulled an electronic signing machine from his pocket.
“If you could put your name in the box.” He handed her a stylus.
Summer scribbled her signature and handed everything back. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
She closed the door and sighed when she looked at the box. She’d empty it and then call Jai. First she’d have a cup of coffee. And maybe a slice of toast. Her decision never to eat again had been premature.
The toast was about to go into her mouth when the buzzer sounded. She shouldn’t have hoped for Jai, but she did even though he had no idea where she lived.
Summer put her finger on the button. “Hello?”
“It’s Vargus Shipping again. I forgot to get you to sign the customs form.”
“Okay, come on up.” She pressed the release, propped open the door with the rubber stop and went to get her toast.
As she headed back to the door, three men she’d never seen before stepped into her flat, men in their late twenties or thirties, with hard faces and lots of muscles. One of them wore a green beanie.
Oh god, I have seen him before. Fear grabbed hold of every part of her body, pulling her in all directions and stopping her from moving. Before she could muster a scream, they’d closed the door and the guy wearing a leather jacket moved behind her. He took the toast from her hand and started to eat it.
“What…?” she managed. But she knew.
The biggest man, who had short gray hair, stepped toward her. Summer frantically tried to figure out the best thing to do. Scream, kick, cooperate, faint. As if she had a choice. She could do nothing but stand there, and the “stand” part was looking as shaky as her legs.
“You’ve been a bit of a disappointment,” Big Guy said.
The man in the green beanie took a knife out of his pocket and cut the tape on the box.
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Bewilderment might serve her best.
“What does it look like we’re doing?” said the one eating her toast.
“But you just delivered the box. I thought you wanted a form signed.”
Toast Guy slid a hand onto her hip and she jerked forward, only to be caught by Big Guy. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her against him.
“We’re just collecting something that’s ours and then we’ll leave. Stay quiet, princess, and we won’t hurt you, though you deserve more than a slap for leaving your case behind in Bogota.”
Denial was pointless. In a moment, they weren’t going to find what they were looking for. The man in the beanie tossed the contents of the box out onto the carpet. When a piece of equipment belonging to her company dropped with a bang, she groaned.
Her stuff was piling up and the box grew emptier.
Eventually the guy stood upright. “There’s nothing in here.”
“There has to be,” the man holding her said.
“Everything’s there that I packed,” she said.
“Shut the fuck up,” said the one in the leather jacket. He stepped over to her pile of belongings and kicked his way through it. “Where are the bags of coffee?”
“What coffee?” she blurted.
The one holding her slid his hand to her throat. “What have you done with them?”
“The box only arrived a few minutes ago. It was sealed up. I hadn’t even looked in it.”
The hold on her neck tightened.
“Check the apartment,” the guy holding her said.
Summer winced when she heard the sounds of things falling, being thrown and breaking in first her bedroom, then the living room. Had she done the right thing pretending she knew nothing about the coffee? Probably not but she couldn’t let these guys go after Jai.
The two came back shaking their heads.
“Fuck.” The man pinned her against the wall by the throat. “I hope for your sake we don’t have to pay you another visit. If you’re holding out on us, you won’t live long enough to be sorry.”
<
br /> He let her go and Summer gulped air. “Next time, call first.”
She was trying to sound brave and plucky but suspected the shake in her voice gave her away.
The guy in the leather jacket pushed his hand up her sweater. “You won’t live long enough to be sorry, but you will live long enough to be fucked.”
He laughed, then the three of them were gone and Summer slipped down to the floor. Oh my god.
She staggered to her feet, pulled the stop away from the door and slammed it. It didn’t make her feel any safer. She stared at the box. On the bent-back lid was a small plastic rectangle that held the customs declaration. She’d filled it out in Bogota and a copy had been fastened to the box. She’d written “ten bags of coffee beans”. If they’d seen that…
Where had they gone? To check with Vargus? How easily could they find out that she’d been there to take something out of the box?
I have to get out of here.
When she entered her bedroom, she gasped. Every drawer had been emptied, their contents scattered. Her books had been knocked off the shelves, her framed photographs stamped on, the glass broken. The sheets had been pulled off her bed, the mattress shifted to the side. The kitchen and living area were worse, though at least she hadn’t had much food for them to spread around. But the couch had been disemboweled and its guts tossed everywhere.
She didn’t have time to be distressed. She scooped the contents of her purse back where they belonged, desperate to get out of there before they came back because they would come back. She shoved boots onto her feet, slipped on her coat and hat, grabbed her purse and left her apartment. On the way down the stairs, she had a sudden thought they might be waiting for her to do just what she was doing—running to where she’d left the drugs.
A glance through a window showed lots of cars parked on the street but she couldn’t see if the men were in any of the vehicles. Both exits from the building would bring her out onto the same street. Maybe she’d be better to go straight to the police. There was a station in Greenwich, but what if she was being watched?
Before she stepped outside onto the pavement, she called Jai.
“Summer,” he said in a quiet voice. “Oh thank god, I—”
“I need you to bring my bags to Deptford, please.”
“I thought you lived in Greenwich?”
“I do, but I’m on my way to the police station in Deptford,” she whispered.
“What’s wrong?”
As she turned onto Trafalgar Road, she glanced back but couldn’t see any of the men behind her.
“Talk to me,” he said. “Has something happened?”
She hadn’t intended to tell him, but fear opened her mouth. “The box I shipped arrived this morning and shortly after, so did three guys looking for the coffee.”
“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. Are you all right? Where are they now? Where are you?”
“They…they wrecked my flat, but they left. I think they might have gone to the shippers. They’ll come back. I need to take the…coffee to the police and ask for help.”
She hurried up the road, wondering if she was better on foot or using public transport. Would it make any difference? If they wanted her, they could take her. When a bus pulled up just ahead, she hopped on and pressed her Oyster card onto the reader.
“Where are you?” Jai asked.
“In Greenwich. Near the university.”
“Go to the mainline station, wait inside and I’ll pull up in front. Stay on the line. I’m only a couple of miles away.”
Then something occurred to her. “Hang on. Do you have the coffee with you?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you near here with it in your car?”
“I found out where you lived. I was bringing your bags back. I hoped you’d talk to me. I don’t want to lose you, Summer. I really don’t. I want to tell you everything. You might still hate me, but I need you to know the truth.”
“I don’t hate you.”
He gave a short laugh. “Well, you will. And stay on the line. I need to know you’re safe.”
Her heart clenched. She sat on the pavement side of the bus. If she’d been in charge of those guys, she’d have told at least one of them to watch her flat and follow her if she left. She knew they weren’t on the bus, but maybe they were following behind. Then again, if they weren’t smart enough to check the declaration of contents, maybe she was all right for now.
“You okay?” Jai asked.
“Yes.”
“Any sign of pursuit?”
“No.”
She got out at the mainline station and nipped into the building, lurking around the corner to see if anyone followed. No one did. Her heart rate slowly returned to normal.
“I’m inside the station,” she said. And safe.
“I’ve just pulled up outside.”
Maybe she wasn’t safe at all.
Chapter Seventeen
Jai had to force himself not to drag her into his arms when she got in the car. The last few miles to get here had seemed to take a lifetime. He kept imagining her getting snatched by stone-cold bastards after their investment, thinking if he lost her, he’d lost his reason to keep living.
That was when he realized he really did love her. It wasn’t just a result of hot sex. He loved her.
Except it was the last thing he needed to say to her right now.
She clipped on her seat belt and gave him a shaky smile. “I don’t think I was followed but maybe you should drive around in circles for a time just in case, Mr. Bond.”
“Would you like to go for a bona fide coffee before we go to the police?”
“We’re not going to the police. I am. There’s no point you getting involved. It would be really bad for your image.”
He wanted to laugh. He pulled back onto the road and turned left to go into Greenwich.
“So… coffee?” he asked.
She sighed. “Okay. If we’re being followed, that should put them off. Maybe drive up to Blackheath?”
He followed the one-way system through Greenwich and emerged on the other side, driving back the way he suspected she’d walked. She sat with her hands clasped tightly on her lap and he wanted to stroke her fingers, tell her he wouldn’t let anything happen to her but, aware of what he shortly intended to reveal, the thought was better left unspoken.
“Turn next right,” she said. “It will take you up the side of Greenwich Park all the way to Blackheath.”
Jai drove carefully up Maze Hill, across the park and on to the village of Blackheath. He spotted someone leaving a parking spot and waited to take it.
“Anywhere in particular?” he asked as he locked the car.
“No.”
She had her hands stuffed into her pockets, otherwise he might have risked reaching for her. He led her to Boulangerie Jade and they sat at a table away from the window and the counter.
“Would you like something to eat?” he asked.
“I don’t think I can eat,” she muttered.
Jai ordered two coffees and they sat in silence until they arrived. Then he took a deep breath. “I don’t know exactly what Marta said to you, but what I’m going to tell you is something I’ve never revealed to anyone—ever.” He kept his voice low but there was only one other couple in the café and they sat well away from them.
“I already told you I’m not very bright. I was never going to make it as a lawyer or a doctor or an accountant; the sort of jobs that would make my father proud of me. But one day, I was walking through Covent Garden and this couple stopped me. The man said he ran a modeling agency. He gave me his card and said to give him a ring.”
He took a drink of his coffee and wrapped his hands around the cup.
“My mum said it was probably a scam, that everyone would gush about how I’d definitely make it but first I needed to fork out hundreds of pounds for a portfolio and more money on clothes and makeup and Christ knew what else. I suspected she was right, but I hated my l
ife so much, I still called the company. Saul was at pains to tell me he wanted no money at all. That he’d pay for everything. He just wanted me to sign with him before someone else spotted my potential. To persuade me, he offered me a pre-contract shoot with five other guys posing in swimwear on the pier at Brighton. I was paid five hundred pounds for a few hours’ work. I signed with his agency that afternoon. I only learned later that I’d been paid five times as much as the others.
“I was such a fucking arrogant twat. My twin was studying like crazy for A levels and I thought, ‘I’m going to fail anyway, why bother when I can get paid for hanging around in cool gear?’ My parents disapproved, particularly my father. Richard was jealous and Evan sort of supportive, though he kept telling me to study so I had something to fall back on when I didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Summer shuffled out of her coat and hung it over the back of her seat. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him.
“Then Saul had a party. It was for everyone he had on his books. He wanted me to stay the night but Evan was coming to collect me and take me back to his flat because I had a dentist’s appointment the next morning.”
He could feel anxiety welling inside him. When he brought his cup to his mouth, his fingers shook.
“I was drunk. And high. Someone had brought coke and I’d snorted a few lines. I’d never tried it before. I’d never seen anyone take it before except in the movies. I remember the burn as I sniffed it up each nostril. The effect was instant, as if I’d had the world in soft focus my entire life and suddenly everything was clear, colors brighter, conversations deeper. I felt…clever, yet it was one of the most stupid things I’d ever done.” He gave a short laugh. “Have you tried it?”
She shook her head. “I was afraid if I did, I’d want to do it again.”
“I wasn’t that sensible. When Evan arrived, I was in bed with two women. He opened the bedroom door. I don’t know if he knew I’d seen him. I pretended not to. The party was more or less over.” He swallowed hard. “I heard Evan talking to a model I’d met earlier. I recognized Tania’s voice. A squeaky Essex girl. She was flirting with him and he was…flirting back. Everything went quiet and then I heard them having sex. The women left and I lay there listening.”
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