Summer Girl, Winter Boy

by Elsborg, Barbara

  “For me. I need to end this myself. So wait, okay?”

  “All right. You and Summer still coming for lunch on Sunday?”

  “Summer’s in the hospital.”

  Evan gasped. “Why? What’s happened?”

  “It’s a long story but basically someone tried to use her as mule to get drugs from Colombia to London. She went to the police and the guys who’d expected her to be supplying them with cocaine kidnapped us and stabbed her.”

  Silence at the other end of the phone. He seemed to be making a habit of rendering guys speechless.

  “She’s going to be fine and the thugs are in custody.”

  “Bloody hell, Jai. Well, if she’s okay to come, I don’t think we’re going to be short of conversation. Give her my best wishes. Which hospital?”

  “Lewisham.”

  “Be careful.”

  “I will.”

  Now he had one more call to make plus a trip to Maplins in Kingston on Thames.

  “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you,” Saul said. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”

  “My girlfriend was attacked. Stabbed. I’ve been at the hospital with her.”

  “Oh my god. Is it something you can mention on This Morning? They want you next Friday with your butt-of-the-year trophy.”

  Yes, she’s going to be fine, Saul. Thank you for asking. Jai bit back his annoyance.

  “I need to see you,” Jai said. “Are you at home or the office?”

  “At home.” He laughed. “Marta says come commando.”

  “Should take me about an hour and half.”

  He ended the call, set his sat nav for the electronics store in Kingston and set off.

  * * * * *

  Marta opened the door with a broad smile. She tugged on Jai’s arm to pull him into the house.

  “You’ll be pleased to hear I’ve forgiven you,” she said and closed the door behind him.

  “For what?”

  “Taking that woman to the awards ceremony.”

  Bitch.

  Marta gave him one of her I-want-to-fuck looks. “Let me take your jacket.”

  “I’ll keep it on, thanks.” The recording device was in his pocket. He’d checked that it worked before he climbed out of the car.

  “Saul’s in here.”

  Jai followed her through to the lounge. Saul put his paper down and glared at him.

  “Sit,” he snapped.

  Jai chose the chair so Marta couldn’t sit next to him but she perched on the arm and leaned into him. The smell of her perfume made him feel sick.

  “I don’t know what’s got into you lately, but it stops now,” Saul said. “I want you focused on your work.”

  And presumably on fucking your wife and anyone else you tell me to. Jai had thought through dozens of ways to say this as he’d driven over and none seemed any better than another.

  “I know you killed Tania Savage,” he said.

  Marta let out a squeak of dismay as she moved away from him and Saul’s jaw tightened.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Saul barked.

  Marta slunk from Jai’s side to sit with her husband.

  “You know who killed her,” Saul said. “It was your brother. I’m aware it was an accident but the scandal would have ended his career and damaged mine. One of my models dying at my party? Not good.”

  You uncaring bastard. Jai felt swamped with grief and guilt that he’d let this go on so long.

  “What did you do?” Jai asked.

  “I dealt with the situation. I told you.”

  “How?”

  “I took her to a place where I knew she’d be found. Well away from here.”

  At least Jai had an admission of conspiring to divert the cause of justice.

  “How did she get the bang on the head?”

  Saul raised his eyebrows. “Oh, you have been busy. She fell in the struggle with your brother. Cracked her head on the bedside table. I found traces of blood and washed them off.”

  Jai had watched enough TV to know that traces of blood might well remain.

  “The police think she banged her head on a rock.”

  “There was a convenient one where I left her. I smeared it with her blood.”

  Please let this be recording.

  “The thing is,” Jai said. “Evan told me she was alive when he left here. He didn’t have sex with her.”

  “Well, of course he’d say that.”

  Jai leaned forward. “Tell me who you’d believe, Saul. Your brother, who’s had your back since the day you were born, or a guy who’s forced you to suck him off for ten fucking years?”

  He looked from Saul to Marta, whose puffy lips were pressed together in a tight line, her face pale under her makeup.

  Jai took a deep breath. “This is what I think happened that night. You wanted Tania in bed with the pair of you but Marta didn’t like that idea. She’s into guys, not women, and she only lets you have guys that she wants herself, so finding you with Tania wasn’t in the script. Marta either hit her over the head with something, or she shoved her off you and Tania hit her head and died.”

  “I didn’t hit her,” Marta snapped.

  But did I get the rest right? He was only guessing.“Then it was an accident.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “We didn’t touch her.” Saul put his hand on his wife’s knee and squeezed.

  “You made a mistake,” Jai said and fear flickered over Marta’s face. “And just in case you have any ideas about shutting me up permanently, my brother knows I’ve come to see you and he’s expecting me to phone him shortly. If I don’t, he’ll call the police.”

  He didn’t really think Saul would resort to violence, but better safe than sorry. Saul pushed to his feet and took the few steps until he loomed in front of him. Jai stood up.

  “You jumped-up little whore. That’s all you are. A drugged-up, pathetic excuse for a man. You’d be nothing if not for me. I plucked you out of obscurity and made you rich. I saved your brother from being deselected by his party. The pair of you owe me.” Spittle flew from his lips.

  “I don’t want you as my agent. Tomorrow you’ll receive notice I’m terminating my contract.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Nor am I going to let you or any of your so-called friends fuck me. Nor will I fuck your wife while you watch. I never want to see either of you ever again.”

  “You think you have any say in this? You’ll do exactly what I want you to do. And if I tell you to get on your knees and beg me to stick my cock in your mouth, you fucking well will. And you’ll do it with a smile on your face as if I had the tastiest fucking dick you’d ever sucked.”

  “No more.” Jai hoped he looked steely calm because it felt as if every organ in his body was vibrating at high speed.

  “You want me to go to the papers and tell them what you’ve done, what pills you’ve taken?”

  “And do you want me to go to the papers and tell them what you did to a seventeen-year-old boy? That first time you had me, it was rape. You know I didn’t want it.”

  “You just needed to be persuaded. You were happy enough to let me fuck you ever since.”

  “You raped me.”

  “Get over it.”

  “You raped me.”

  “I raped you! So fucking what?”

  Did he have enough? Could he get more?

  “I’ve never forced anyone to have sex with me,” Jai said carefully. “Have I, Marta?”

  “No,” she muttered.

  “This is the end,” Jai said. “Regardless of whether Tania’s death was an accident or not, you were responsible. She was a seventeen-year-old kid. The same age as me, and you plied her with drink and drugs and dumped her like a piece of trash.”

  “We didn’t force the drugs on you,” Marta said. “You were happy to take them. You’re still happy to take them.”

  Jai shook his head. “I’m going to the police to tell
them everything I know.” He stepped behind the couch, out of Saul’s reach.

  “You’ll destroy your brother,” Saul said.

  “He knows.”

  Jai walked out of the room, almost anticipating he’d be attacked, maybe stabbed like Summer, but he reached the front door before he felt anyone behind him. He turned to face Marta.

  “He did it,” she whispered. “He killed her. It was an accident. He pushed her off the bed when he saw me in the doorway, pretended she’d come on to him. She caught her head on the bedside table. He didn’t mean to do it. Don’t go, Jai. Let us make it up to you. What do you want? What can we do?”

  His hand settled on his pocket. “I don’t want anything else from you.”

  As he drove away, he couldn’t believe it had been that simple. Did he believe Marta? Not really. Maybe she thought she could clamber over Saul into the lifeboat and stick her heel in her husband to push him down. He switched off the recording machine then entered Surrey Quays Police Station into the sat nav before he called his brother.

  “Hi, Jai.”

  “I’m driving away from Saul and Marta’s place.”

  Evan gave a sigh of relief.

  “I have Marta on tape claiming that Saul killed Tania by accident. Doesn’t mean it’s true but I think there’s enough to make the police reopen the case. I’m driving to Surrey Quays Police Station now.”

  “I’ll meet you there. And Jai? I know how hard that must have been. I’m proud of you.”

  Jai smiled.

  * * * * *

  Summer wanted Jai. She’d given her statement to the police, contacted work and told them she’d have to have an extra week off because she’d been stabbed. She’d persuaded her mother to go and buy her some clothes so she could leave when she wanted to—amazingly enough the clothes were quite nice—eaten a revolting lunch to keep the nurses happy—food she wouldn’t have fed to a cat if she’d had one. She’d gushed over some lovely flowers she thought were from Jai until she’d seen Pin’s name on the card, gushed over more flowers she was certain had to be from Jai and found they were from his brother. Now she wanted to go home. With Jai.

  Her dad had expressed his strong disapproval of her going anywhere but the drips and drains were gone. All she needed to do was rest, and she’d rest a lot easier at Jai’s. She’d tried to call him but his mobile was off.

  By visiting time, when he still hadn’t come or contacted her, unhappiness had turned to worry. How hard was it to text her?

  By the time he actually arrived, she was so stressed, she burst into tears.

  Jai rushed to her side and put his arms around her. “Hey, what is it?”

  “I thought you’d been buried in an avalanche or eaten poisonous fungi or that some drug dealer, out for revenge, had carved you up and was going to post you to me bit by bit. I wondered which bit I’d get first.”

  “Oh god.” He shook as he laughed. When he pulled back and looked at her, he frowned. “Why are you dressed?”

  “I want you to take me home. Your home.”

  “The doctors are letting you go?”

  “I just need to rest. I don’t want to do that here.”

  “Okay.”

  “Can we stop for pizza?”

  “I’ll call in an order and it will be there when we get back.”

  “I’m starving.” Actually she wasn’t but she figured it would make her sound healthier.

  On the way back to Notting Hill, Jai told her what he’d been doing. “I think the police at Surrey Quays wonder what’s hit them. A visit from the best male butt and a senior politician.”

  “Is Evan okay?”

  “So-so. He spoke to the Prime Minister, who refused to accept his resignation. He shouldn’t have to resign. He hadn’t done anything but that might not make a difference. If the press finds out, they’ll be on him like hyenas. But the PM says to wait and see what happens. My tape is enough to get the police to reopen the case and re-interview everyone who was there that night. I feel…”

  “Bad?”

  He glanced at her. “Yeah. I feel terrible. Maybe Saul would have just let me go and said nothing. I’ve probably wrecked my brother’s political career. At the moment, Fixx still wants me but I’m not sure I want them. If the papers get hold of the details of Saul and Marta’s abuse, they definitely won’t, but the police seemed to think that might not come out unless I wanted to bring a charge of rape against Saul.”

  “He raped you?” she gasped.

  Jai winced. “The first time, yeah. I sort of gave in after that. But if I push on that charge, it would be like taking the lid off one of those trick cans where a snake flies out and hits you in the face. I’d rather keep the lid on. As for the sex parties and stuff, well, what people get up to in the privacy of their own homes is up to them. I cooperated for ten years. That’s not going to look good.”

  “Unless you bring charges.”

  “Better if I don’t.”

  She put her hand on his knee and squeezed.

  “That comes awfully close to interfering with the driver,” he said.

  “I won’t squeeze again.”

  He laughed.

  “So it might be all over, bar the trial if there even is one?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Justice at last for Tania Savage. Poor kid. Did she have any siblings?”

  “Two younger sisters. Her parents still live in Surrey Quays. One sister’s a teacher and the other’s studying to be a physio.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Ah.” Jai sighed. “I put money through their letterbox every now and again and kept an eye on the family. Made sure they were okay. The police asked me about it because the family had told them someone kept leaving them money, so I had to admit to doing it. I thought it made me look guilty. Maybe they’re wondering if I killed her.”

  “You’re a big softie.”

  “Not the words any man really wants to hear.”

  She laughed.

  * * * * *

  Jai caught Summer yawning before she’d finished one slice of pizza. He passed what remained to the resident gannets and carried her upstairs despite her protests.

  “You’ll drop me.”

  “Never.”

  When he came out of the bathroom, he crawled into bed at her side and leaned up on his elbow, staring at her.

  “You’re naked,” he said.

  “So are you.”

  “You sure you want me in here with you? I’m worried about hurting you. I could sleep downstairs.”

  “Maybe you could sleep outside the bedroom door in case of trouble.”

  She had him until the moment she sniggered.

  “Oh ha ha, very funny.”

  She moved closer, landed a soft kiss on his mouth then sucked on his lower lip.

  Jai lurched back. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t lie there looking all sweet and innocent and sexy and tempting. You need to sleep. You should still be in the hospital.”

  She slid her hand onto his chest, twisted his nipple in her fingers, spread her palm over his pec, and his heart and dick began to sing the same tune. When her fingers drifted lower, he let out a long groan. “We can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Did the doctor say it was okay?”

  “When I asked if it was all right if my boyfriend and I fucked our brains out?”

  “Summer!”

  “No excessive exertion. I never use excessive exertion. You’re fine though. You can exert as much as you like.”

  It was okay that she was joking but he was frightened of hurting her. I want to tell her I love her.

  Was this the right moment? Every time he’d wanted to say it, hadn’t been the right moment. When they were in that fucking van and maybe going to die? When she lay in the hospital bed? He definitely didn’t want to say it when they were in bed together on the point of fucking or while they were entwined or after, but the words were gr
owing and growing inside him and if he didn’t let them out soon, he felt he’d explode.

  “What’s wrong?” Her hand reached his hip and she rubbed the line of the bone with her thumb.

  He took a deep breath. “There’s something I need to say to you.”

  “What?” She looked worried.

  “I wanted the perfect moment. I should have told you when we were in Paris but it never seemed to be quite right. I’ve eventually realized I don’t need to look for a perfect moment because every moment with you is perfect.”

  “Almost every moment.”

  He chuckled. “Almost. I love you.”

  Her face lit in a brilliant smile.

  “I am lovely,” she whispered.

  He laughed. “Yeah, you are.” He ran his fingers down her cheek. “You’re my light, my warmth, the summer in my life, the sun in my world. You helped me see possibilities when everything seemed black and hopeless. You brought my heart back to life. You showed me there was still fun to be had when I thought I’d lost it forever. You believed in me and you made me believe I can do anything. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

  “Oh Jai. That was so sweet. And you don’t think I’m lucky? I’m in bed with butt of the year. My life couldn’t be any better unless you got cock of the year.”

  “I’m trying to be serious,” he said but it was impossible not to smile. “I love you, but you scared the crap out of me when I found out you’d been stabbed. I’d like to staple you to my side except I don’t think I’d get away with it. Maybe I could lead you around on a halter. You’d have to dye your hair pink again and wear leather.”

  “I’ve already told you, I’m not being your little pony.”

  Her fingers crept over his cock and the breath caught in his throat.

  “Promise to let me die first,” he whispered. “I can’t live without you.”

  “God, Jai.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “I love you so much.”

  “Collar and leash?”

  “Not that much.”

  His eyes closed as her fingers tightened around his cock.

  I love her. She’s all I need.

  That appeared to be his last coherent thought. Summer slid down the bed and wrapped her mouth around him and he was on fire, burning white-hot like phosphorous. He threaded his fingers in her hair and groaned as most of his cock impossibly disappeared into her mouth. When he opened his eyes, she pulled back and grinned at him.