Summer Girl, Winter Boy

by Elsborg, Barbara

  His brother nodded, worry lines furrowing his brow.

  Once they were in Evan’s room with the door closed, Jai slumped into one of the easy chairs.

  “You’re frightening me,” Evan said. “What have you done? Do you actually have a girlfriend? Is she pregnant? Someone’s wife?”

  “Yes, she’s my girlfriend. No, she’s not pregnant or someone’s wife. I have…something to tell you and it’s not going to be easy for me to say or for you to hear.”

  Evan sat behind his desk.

  “For the last ten years I’ve been blackmailed.”

  His brother’s jaw dropped. “What? Ten years? Oh my god. You need money, is that what this is about? You should never have paid anything. What did you do that made you give in to them?”

  “They didn’t want money, they wanted me.” Say it, say it, say it. “For sex,” he mumbled, his gaze fixed on the carpet.

  Evan frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “I’ve been expected to fuck women…and men I’ve never met before, as well as a married couple I know only too well. I’ve been tied up, beaten, pissed on and I’ve had to…ask for more of the same. I’ve been fucked by guys, sucked their cocks. I’ve done whatever was asked of me.” He looked up at Evan.

  His brother’s face paled even further. “Since you were seventeen years old?”

  Would Evan make the jump without him saying anything?

  “Your agent and his wife?”

  Jai nodded and Evan’s damaged hands clenched on his desk. “Oh god, and it was me who encouraged you into modeling. I thought…shit, Jai. They only gave you work if you did what they wanted?”

  “No. It’s not that. Well, yes, it probably is that but it wasn’t how it started. I agreed to it in the first place to protect someone. Once I’d been sucked in, I was forced to continue to protect myself as well, because if the press got hold of what I was doing, no company would want me advertising their products. It wasn’t something that happened every week. It might be months between them wanting me at one of their parties. They didn’t push me too hard at first but the hook was deep enough that I couldn’t wriggle free.”

  “Why are you telling me now? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  Jai gripped the arms of the chair, his nails sinking into the fabric. “Sometimes I tried, but there was always a reason not to. You were happy, getting married, having kids, having another kid, doing well in your job. Mum and Dad are so proud of you, I—”

  “Hang on. Back up a step. Me? What does this have to do with me?”

  Jai slid his sweaty hands onto his thighs. “Remember a party at Saul’s house? Remember a girl called Tania?”

  The Adam’s apple in Evan’s throat surged up and down and his shoulders dropped. “Yes.”

  “You accidentally killed her.”

  Evan’s eyes widened and he slumped back in his chair. “What are you talking about?”

  “That night, I was lying in a bedroom pulling myself back together after…well, I saw you at the door but pretended I hadn’t. You left and I heard you talking to Tania. She had a really aggravating voice. Then I heard you having sex with her in the room next door. I went downstairs. Minutes after, you came rushing down, pushed me out of the house and asked me not to tell Bella.” Jai took a deep breath. “Saul called me about an hour after we got back and told me she was dead, that you’d accidentally killed her but he was going to fix it. He said I was to wash your clothes but when I went to get them, they were already in the machine.”

  He couldn’t look at Evan now. “Saul told the police she’d left before you arrived to pick me up so I wasn’t to mention your name and neither would he. She was found under a bridge in Surrey Quays where she lived. She was supposed to have fallen and hit her head. She was drunk and drugged up and…she’d been raped.”

  “Jai, look at me.”

  He raised his head.

  “I didn’t kill her. I didn’t even fuck her. I wanted to. She was…she wanted to and I might have done it, but I came in my pants like some horny teenager. That’s why I rushed you out of there. That’s why I put my clothes in the wash.

  “I didn’t rape her. I didn’t hit her on the head. She was drunk but perfectly all right when I left. And I wasn’t in the room next door to you. When I got fed up of waiting, I went upstairs. First room I tried, I saw you in there with a couple of girls. I closed the door again. Part of me wanted to drag you out by the scruff of your neck, and then I thought what you’d have to say about that and I leaned on the wall outside. This doe-eyed girl came past and…” He sighed. “Yeah, she did have a squeaky voice. We ended up in a room on the other side the hallway. She had her hands all over me. I remember thinking, ‘Bloody Jai’s going to have the time of his life being a model.’ I was jealous. I didn’t kill her. That sociopath of an agent lied to you.”

  “Oh Christ.”

  Evan came from behind his desk and pulled Jai up into his arms. “Idiot.”

  “Yeah, I am.” Jai tried to pull away and Evan wouldn’t let him go.

  “I didn’t even know she’d died.”

  “I hid the newspaper.”

  “God, Jai. Ten years? It stops now.”

  Jai managed to squirm free. He paced across the room to the window. “Not as easy as that. They could still go the press about Tania. An anonymous tip-off from someone who was at the party would implicate you. If it gets out what I’ve been doing, it will ruin me and it might ruin you. But I’ve started to fight back.” He glanced at the wall separating him from Summer. “Summer helped me see I needed to do something. But every time I think I can stand against the bastards, they strike another blow. Marta said she’d accuse me of rape or she’d get Krista Mills to say I’d raped her. There are pictures of me, maybe movies, doing…stuff, taking drugs.” He raked his fingers through his hair.

  Evan strode across the room and grabbed hold of his hands. “It stops now. You think I give a fuck about my job if it means you’re forced to take part in their sex games?”

  He felt a rush of love for his brother. “But it’s not just you. Think of Bella, your kids, Mum and Dad.”

  “Jai, no more. Can you dump DeVries as an agent? What does your contract say?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Jesus Christ. Read your contract, or let me read it. We need to see what you have to do to get out of it. In the meantime, call their bluff. I doubt they’ll want to lose all the income you generate for them. Threaten to go public with all of it. I didn’t kill Tania, so who did? Does Saul know? Shit, I need to speak to the police.”

  “It will destroy you,” Jai mumbled.

  “I’ve already told you, I don’t care. I care about you.” Evan dragged Jai’s head down into his shoulder. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

  “I wanted to protect you. You’d done so much for me. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

  “I’m a big boy. You can stop trying to save me now.”

  Jai felt the load lift from his shoulders. The relief that Evan hadn’t had anything to do with Tania’s death made him weak at the knees. Why had he believed Saul?

  Because I was a naïve seventeen-year-old who’d sunk into quicksand.

  “Okay now?” Evan asked.

  Jai straightened and nodded.

  “So…a girlfriend? We wondered if you were gay.”

  Jai flinched.

  “Shit, Jai. Sorry. Not the right thing to say after what you’ve told me. Where did you meet her?”

  “Philadelphia airport. She knows everything. Well, except that you didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  “I’m not too happy that you thought I had.”

  “Saul kept telling me he was sure it was an accident.”

  Evan sucked in his cheeks. “The bastard. I’ll tell Bella tonight.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jai mumbled. “I’ve fucked-up everything.”

  “No you haven’t. Come for lunch on Sunday. Bring Summer and I’ll invite Mum and Dad. And R
ichard.”

  “Okay. Er…does Richard have to come?”

  Evan laughed. “Jai, you’re an idiot but I do love you.”

  The moment he walked into the room, Summer could see the tension had lifted from Jai. As they headed to the station with their cases, he told her everything Evan had said.

  “I feel such a fool.” Jai glanced at her.

  “You were a young kid trying to save a brother who’d saved you. You’re a hero.”

  He laughed. “That’s not going to work.”

  “You’re my hero.”

  “That will.”

  She grinned. “So what now?”

  “I need to get hold of my contract.” He took out his phone. “I’ll call the lawyer that—ah message from Brody… Someone’s been to the house asking about me and you. Shit, are Saul and Marta back already?”

  Summer’s phone vibrated in her purse and she pulled it out. “Hi.”

  “Summer?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is DS Spencer at Deptford Police Station.”

  “Oh, hello.” She switched it onto speaker.

  “I’m sorry to have to tell you there’s been a break-in at your flat.”

  “I told you those guys had—”

  “This is different. We had a call from one of your neighbors. When one of our officers got there, he found the door had been forced open. There’s considerable damage. Walls knocked in, fittings ripped off. You need to check if anything’s missing but you must have a police officer with you.”

  Oh god. “Right.”

  “They’re obviously still looking for the drugs, though the damage suggests a degree of rage and frustration. I suggest you don’t sleep there for the time being, nor should you go anywhere near the building without police escort. I’d like you to come in and look through some photographs and then I’ll get one of my officers to drive you to your flat to see if anything’s missing.”

  “Okay.”

  “There’s no way these men know where you’re staying, is there?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Keep it that way.”

  Summer pushed her phone back in her purse with a deep sigh.

  Jai hugged her. “Let’s take these cases to my place before we go to Deptford.”

  “I don’t have my stuff insured.” She groaned. “I was going to do it when I got back, start up the contents policy again and now it’s too late. Shit.”

  “It might not be too bad. We’ll rescue what we can and take it to mine. The rest of this week, we’re going to look for a place we can share.”

  They chattered about what sort of place they wanted and where they’d like to live as they held hands all the way back to Notting Hill, and Summer’s world grew brighter and brighter. She knew there were still major issues to deal with but she felt as if, together, they could overcome everything.

  * * * * *

  When a guy in a leather jacket stepped out of the passenger side of a white van as they walked down Jai’s street, Summer edged Jai over to get out of the man’s way. In the time it took her to realize it was the same thug who’d been in her flat, two more men were right behind and boxing them in.

  “What—” Jai collapsed with a groan as he was hit on the head and when a scream erupted from Summer’s throat, a hand slammed over her mouth.

  She kicked and struggled but the guy who held her bundled her into the back of the van with his hand still over her mouth. Jai was thrown in next to her, together with the luggage, and the doors were slammed shut. Tape was slapped over her mouth and her hands wrenched behind her back and secured with a cable tie. She scooted forward over rolls of carpet but someone snagged her leg and dragged her back before securing her ankles. The same was done to Jai but he lay unmoving.

  “I’ve got his phone. Get hers,” someone snapped.

  The guy in the leather jacket patted her pockets, then grabbed her purse and upended it.

  “She doesn’t have one.”

  “Of course she fucking has a phone.”

  The tape was ripped from her mouth and she yelped.

  “Where’s your phone?”

  “In my boyfriend’s flat. I didn’t take it to Paris because of the roaming charges.”

  The tape was pressed back in place, the inspection light switched off and the guys got out of the van. They secured the doors, leaving her and Jai in a dark, enclosed space, and a moment later the vehicle started to move.

  The whole thing had taken seconds. Summer sucked in panicky gasps of air through her nose and shuffled over to where she’d seen Jai lying.

  Oh god, don’t let him die. It was all her fault he was mixed up in this. How the hell did they know where he lived? She lay at Jai’s side and nudged his head with hers. He didn’t come ’round. His rapid, raspy nasal breathing alarmed her. She had to get that tape from his mouth.

  Summer moaned with frustration as the movement of the van and the uneven floor conspired to stop her maneuvering. But she finally succeeded in twisting into a sitting position so that her butt pressed against Jai’s shoulder and she could reach his face to tease the tape from his mouth. He didn’t stir and she could no longer hear the noisy breathing but felt his exhales hitting her hands. When she felt over his head, her fingers came away sticky and she whimpered behind her gag. The bastards.

  The objects they were lying on were rolls and off-cuts of carpet and underlay. Nothing that would help her get free. She rolled away from Jai onto her side and tried to drag her arms down over her butt. The bulk of her coat made it difficult and her breathing turned panicky as she compressed her chest. No way could she pull her legs all the way through the loop of her arms, but if she managed to get her hands between her knees, she could rip off the tape.

  Every time she tried to drag her hands farther down, the effort made her heart pound harder and her breathing became more desperate. Crunched up with her hands trapped under her butt, she almost gave up but with one final slither, she succeeded and sat bent over, her arms trapped under her knees, her hands in reach of her face. She pulled in desperation at the tape and once she managed to get it off, sucked air in frantic gulps.

  “Summer,” Jai said with a groan.

  “Oh thank god.” The relief in hearing his voice brought tears to her eyes.

  “What the hell happened? Ah, my head.”

  “The guys…who came looking for the drugs…put us in this van. They knocked you out. Took your phone. I managed to get the tape off our mouths… We need to tell them…we still have the drugs.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if they know who really has them…we’re of no use anymore. In fact…I might be a danger…because I’ve seen their faces.”

  “Fuck. Why are you breathing funny?”

  “Got my hands in front of me. I’m crunched up…I’m going to see if I can get my phone… They tipped my purse out but it’s in a zipped pocket.”

  She bum-shuffled back, getting tossed from side to side in the van, her breathing getting faster, but finally located her purse. She felt like crying when she had the phone in her hand.

  “DS Spencer.”

  Summer let out a sob. “The guys after the drugs have kidnapped me and Jai from outside his place in Notting Hill… We’re in a van with rolls of carpets. White transit… Didn’t get the number. We’re fastened up with cable ties… Don’t know where they’re taking us. We need help… There’s a GPS chip in my phone. You can trace us.”

  Summer heard the policeman shouting instructions before he came back on the line. Never had she been more grateful that her father had bought her the very latest phone before she went to South America.

  “How many men?”

  “Three. The same three that I described. They hit Jai on the head…knocked him out.”

  “When they start talking to you, delay them. We’ll be with you as soon as we can. Hide your phone. Leave it connected to me if you can put it somewhere safe.”

  “Okay.”

  Summer knew the
y could trace the call without her staying connected. If these guys found out she’d spoken to the police, things could go downhill very fast. She pressed the button to end the call and memorized the number.

  “I have to hide the phone.”

  “They’re going to search our cases.”

  She used the light from the phone to look around in the gloom. In a roll of carpet? She scuttled back, pushing off with her heels, and shoved the phone into the end of one of the rolls, though she couldn’t push it in very far.

  “Is there anything we can use to cut ourselves free?” Jai whispered. “Sharp metal? Or could you open the doors? No, on second thought, don’t try that, you’ll fall out.”

  Maybe that was preferable to what else might happen. But after she’d struggled to get to the end of the vehicle, she couldn’t open it.

  Jai groaned and she wriggled to his side and forced her arms back behind her. The relief in being able to breathe more easily was short lived when the thought struck her that shortly, neither of them might be breathing at all.

  She lay with her head next to Jai’s and kissed him. “I’m sorry.”

  “What for?”

  “This.”

  “Hey. There’s an upside.”

  “What?”

  “I’ve stopped thinking about all my other problems.”

  She let out a choked laugh.

  “How the hell did they know where I lived?”

  “I’ve no idea.”

  “Nev and Brody don’t talk to anyone about me. But…Brody’s text said someone was looking for me and you. Shit. I just assumed it was Saul.”

  “It’s academic anyway, now they have us. But I have a plan.”

  “Does it involve motorboats, helicopters and fast bikes?”

  “No, sorry.”

  “I’m not going to like it, am I?”

  “You have to deny knowing anything about the coke. There’s no reason for you to know.”

  “Summer, I—”

  “When we get wherever it is we’re going, and they’ve searched our cases and not found anything, we need to delay as long as we can to give the police a chance to find us. As a last resort, if they get violent, I’ll tell them I left the coke with my friend who lives in Odessa Wharf. I have a spare key for Lindy’s place though obviously I won’t lead them there. They’ll most likely keep you as hostage. It gives the police time to find you.”