Don't Let Me Forget

by Belinda Williams

  Edie moved closer, sending a waft of fruity feminine fragrance his way. ‘I’m sure she’s safe, Andrew.’

  ‘I’d like to know it for a fact.’

  ‘You can’t always be in control.’

  Andrew shot her a dark glare. ‘That’s what you think.’

  She stared at him for a long moment. ‘Men like you are the most fun, do you know that?’ she said, eventually.

  When he didn’t take the bait, she leaned in and whispered in his ear. ‘You think you want to be in control until you find a woman grinding on top of you and then all you can do is hang on and be taken for a ride.’

  Andrew shifted away and attempted to hide his shock. He wanted to move his weight in his seat too, to settle the growing erection in his pants, but didn’t dare to in case Edie noticed. He knew Edie was known for her brazenness, and her conquests, but she’d never been so forward with him in Juliet’s presence.

  ‘What are you saying, Edie?’ He sounded a lot cooler than he felt.

  ‘You’re just like the rest of them, Andrew.’

  ‘And you’re playing with me Edie Thomas, because you’re still angry with me.’

  ‘For too many reasons to count ...’

  He didn’t hide his sneer. ‘If you recall, you’re not exactly my favourite person either.’

  ‘Yet somehow we’d be good together.’

  ‘You’re deluded and I’m not in the market for a relationship.’

  ‘That’s good because I don’t do relationships. I fuck. Don’t confuse the two.’

  Andrew swallowed, the pressure in his trousers growing uncomfortable. She was enjoying this, he knew that, but it didn’t stop him from being turned on. ‘I’m not confused. If I was to do anything with you, it would be the latter, believe me.’

  ‘What? Don’t you like to say it out loud?’ Fuck, she mouthed as other guests started to walk past him to find their seats.

  Damn it. His cock was throbbing and he wasn’t so much turned on as he was angry. If they’d been alone, he would have scooped her small frame up in one easy movement, splayed her on the table and taken her right there to relieve some of his frustration.

  As if she knew exactly what he was thinking, Edie grinned at him like a cat would regard their prey. ‘Did you know anger can be a powerful aphrodisiac?’

  She stood slowly. Through the sheer fabric of her dress he felt her breasts brush his arm, and her crotch graze his elbow as she rose.

  Only when she was at a nearby table talking to other guests did he release a pent up breath.

  ***

  To Jet’s relief, she saw Dan was on the phone when she entered the office the next morning. She kept her eyes down as she walked to her desk. She didn’t look up while she turned on her computer and started checking her emails.

  After a few minutes, she heard Dan put the phone down. The silence that followed was heavy but Jet kept focused on the screen.

  Eventually Dan cleared his throat. ‘See, here’s the thing. If I don’t mention it, I’m one of those clueless guys who never notices a woman’s appearance. So, ah, nice hair.’

  Jet still didn’t look up. ‘Thanks. I think. You don’t sound convinced.’

  ‘Ah, jeez. See? Now I’ve mentioned it, it becomes awkward.’

  ‘Because you don’t like it?’ She wasn’t sure why she was playing with him, but for some reason it felt good to tease him.

  He cleared his throat again. ‘It’s ... ah, nice.’

  Jet finally looked up, biting down hard on her lip to hide her smile. ‘Nice?’

  Dan waved a hand toward her. ‘Yeah. You know, if you wanted something different.’

  She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. ‘Different? What are you saying?’

  Dan shrugged, the easy motion coming across stiffer than usual. ‘Different is nice for a change, I guess?’

  Jet burst out laughing and Dan appeared both relieved and confused. She shook her head at him. ‘I’m sorry, but you should have seen your face. It’s OK, Dan, I know it’s really different.’

  Dan let out a long breath. ‘That’s good because you gave me a shock when you walked in here. I thought you were someone else.’

  Jet felt all her good humour evaporate. But not Juliet Temple? she wanted to ask. Instead she said, ‘Like I said, it’s OK. The hairdresser kind of overdid things,’ she lied. ‘I told her I wanted a change. Maybe some highlights and to go a bit shorter and she went way overboard.’

  ‘You’re not upset?’ Dan asked carefully, obviously scared to put his foot in it again.

  It was Jet’s turn to shrug. ‘Like I said, it’s OK. It’s hair. It will grow.’

  Dan swallowed. ‘And the colour?’

  ‘Don’t they say blondes have more fun?’

  Dan’s response was to push away from his desk and walk over to the kitchenette.

  Jet felt sorry for him. She didn’t particularly like it either. She hadn’t had hair this short since she was seven or eight and it was going to take some getting used to. She’d told the hairdresser to make it as short as it could go while still being able to pull it up in a ponytail. Her usually chest length hair now finished just below her chin. The ‘highlights’ were a light blonde that overpowered her own natural honey brown colour and didn’t really suit her skin tone. Afterwards, Jet hadn’t recognised herself in the mirror.

  ‘You don’t like it,’ Jet stated to Dan’s back as he made his morning coffee.

  She waited for him to turn around and noted he took a while to do so.

  His blue eyes were thoughtful when they met hers. ‘It’s not that I don’t like it. You just don’t look like yourself,’ he admitted.

  Jet almost said ‘good’ but caught herself. ‘You’ll get used to it,’ she told him, and turned away with a satisfied smile.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jet deliberately stayed back late in the office, claiming she had to check emails for her old business. Dan shrugged and told her not to work too hard. He didn’t attempt to stay and chat, which was his usual method of finishing the day. Jet suspected it had something to do with her new haircut making him feel uneasy.

  It only took her twenty minutes to run through work emails. It was disconcerting how well her business ran without her. Jayde was doing an admirable job of managing everything in Jet’s—Juliet’s—absence.

  Jet sighed. Juliet. Jet. Sometimes it actually felt like she didn’t know who she was anymore. Particularly with her new haircut. It had been her suggestion to use the name ‘Jet’ when the Police Commissioner had told her it would be safer to use a different identity in the Hunter Valley. Back in the UK when she was growing up, all her closest friends had called her ‘Jet’. Her aunt wouldn’t hear of it. Aunt Elizabeth felt Juliet was a beautiful name and refused to even acknowledge her by anything else.

  Jet smiled to herself, remembering how her friends who had called by the house or on the telephone had asked for ‘Jet’. Elizabeth would frown and say she didn’t know anybody by that name. Her friends soon figured out they had to address her as Juliet when in her aunt’s presence.

  Jet’s smile faded. She still missed her aunt terribly. More than her parents, if she was being honest. She’d lost her parents so long ago—when she was barely five—that the memory of them was more of a distant ache than anything sharp and painful. With her aunt, it had been different. She was the polar opposite of Jet’s radiant mother. Stern, serious and matronly, Jet sometimes wondered if either her mother or aunt had been adopted. Elizabeth was a spinster and seemed perfectly happy with this fact until Jet was left orphaned after the fatal car accident that had killed her parents during a trip to Europe. It was their annual long weekend away without Jet to celebrate their anniversary. That year it was a getaway to the Swiss Alps. Snow had unexpectedly come early and before they could get chains for the rental car, they’d hit black ice and veered off the road into a tree.

  Aunt Elizabeth had explained quietly that Jet would be living with her from now on
. No fuss, no tears, just her quiet assurance everything would be alright.

  And it had been, even despite Jet’s attempts to rebel during her teenage years. Elizabeth handled all of Jet’s ‘moments’, as she liked to call them, stoically and sensibly, and it was Elizabeth’s enduring steadfastness that had won Jet’s heart in the end.

  What her aunt lacked in emotion or displays of affection she made up for in her absolute loyalty to her niece. When Jet called her soaked and sobbing one night when she was fifteen and her friends had abandoned her in the middle of London, drunk and lost, Elizabeth had driven the two hours to come and collect her without a word.

  When they’d arrived home near dawn, Elizabeth had ushered her into the shower. A steaming cup of tea had been waiting when Jet was finally brave enough to come out. Elizabeth had moved silently around the kitchen while Jet had sipped her tea, feeling guilty and miserable, and suffering the worst hangover she’d ever had to date.

  When Jet had broken the silence, she’d asked, ‘Aren’t you angry?’

  Elizabeth hadn’t answered for the longest time and when she eventually turned around, Jet was shocked to see tears pooling in her eyes. ‘Not angry, Juliet. Scared.’

  ‘Scared?’ Jet had repeated.

  ‘Yes, you silly child. I don’t want to lose you too, but your mistakes are your own to make. It’s no good me trying to live your life for you.’

  After that night, Jet had settled down. Applied herself to her school work and found a new group of friends who weren’t the kind to leave a ‘friend’ alone in a strange place.

  And Elizabeth had always been there for Jet—until she wasn’t.

  The only thing Jet was grateful for was the cancer had been quick. By the time they discovered the reason for her aunt’s lack of energy, bloating and persistent stomach troubles, the cancer was stage four.

  She was gone within six months, and Jet left the country the day after the funeral.

  For whatever reason, when Jet arrived in Australia she became Juliet. Perhaps because Jet was reserved for her closest friends. Or more likely it was because she missed her aunt terribly.

  Elizabeth was the last of the family she had left. Juliet’s parents had married late and both sets of grandparents were gone by the time she was five. Her father didn’t have any siblings, so that had only left Elizabeth.

  When Juliet had met Andrew, her old nickname wasn’t something she’d cared to mention. It wasn’t refined enough for the circles he travelled in anyway. By then, it was a name from another time and another life.

  Jet straightened in her seat and attempted to shake the ghosts of the past away. Now she was Jet again. She honestly didn’t know how she felt about that or why she had jumped to suggest the name to Commissioner Gordon. Maybe it was a vain attempt to hold on to a piece of herself during all this recent madness, even if that piece of herself was from a different time.

  Jet sighed and hit the bookmark on her web browser for the Sydney Morning Herald website. She missed Edie and knew that images of her closest friend would be splashed all over the papers this morning. Jet had been too tired to switch on the television coverage of the TV Logies last night, but she was curious about what Edie had worn. She always looked stunning, of course.

  Jet thought this without a hint of envy. It was one of the big reasons her and Edie were such good friends. Edie never had any trouble attracting the opposite sex, but she seemed to be in short supply of close girlfriends—mainly because most women found it intimidating to be around someone as naturally beautiful and self-assured as Edie Thomas.

  Edie had once joked that Juliet didn’t have a self-conscious bone in her body and it was true, Jet supposed. Jet was aware the opposite sex often found her attractive, but it was a fact she generally chose ignore. Life was too short to worry too much about what you looked like. Her parents and aunt were proof of that.

  Not only that, Edie and Juliet were completely different. Edie had that bombshell quality about her, whereas Juliet’s attractiveness held a quieter appeal. And as far as Juliet was concerned, she was quite happy for Edie to take all the limelight in the circles Juliet had been forced to move in while being married to Andrew.

  ‘Oh wow,’ Jet said as she opened some images of the dresses from the Logies.

  Edie’s glittering Givenchy gown was classic yet exuded her seductress appeal she did so well.

  Jet frowned when the next image popped up onto the screen. Andrew. Edie was with Andrew.

  Jet clicked through more images of the pair of them in disbelief. Slowly, like a balloon deflating, her surprise—and, she hated to admit it, distrust—became a sense of tiredness.

  Others wouldn’t have noticed it, but that glint in Edie’s eye meant Andrew wouldn’t have had a good night. Edie’s anger was a slow burning thing, something that could last for days.

  Fortunately Jet had never been in direct contact with Edie’s temper; however, she’d witnessed the way Edie had brought down a couple of women who Edie had once counted as friends. Those ‘friends’ had sold Edie out to the media, saying mean things just to get attention and headlines. Edie was smart and strong enough to use the media to her advantage, and in the end, those women were the ones who came off looking second best. Jet admired Edie’s strength and knew that unless her friend was crossed, Edie was generally a pussycat.

  Still, poor Andrew.

  Jet thought she had no sympathy left for her ex-husband, but she spared him a fleeting thought. Jet knew Edie considered Andrew’s transgressions to be many. To start with, he’d cheated on Jet during their short marriage. While Edie wasn’t the type for long-term relationships, she knew Jet’s view on marriage did not extend to having an open relationship and therefore Edie was outraged on Jet’s behalf. Jet also suspected Edie was angry at Andrew for not protecting Jet better the night of the party. Although how he could have protected Jet from a sinister drugging remained to be seen. Lastly, Jet suspected Edie was angry about Jet’s recent disappearance and Andrew was an obvious outlet for her anger.

  Jet wished she could pick up the phone and reassure her friend that everything was alright. Until then, Jet was sure Andrew would be made to suffer.

  With a grimace, Jet could admit to herself it wasn’t the end of the world.

  ‘Jet, have you got a moment?’

  Jet put a hand to her chest, using the other hand to quickly close the web browser. She had forgotten Marty was still here. It was such a big space and his office was at the far side, but it still wasn’t big enough to hide what was on her screen.

  ‘Sure.’ Jet got up and made her way over to him, following him inside his office.

  When he came around the other side of the desk, Marty’s light blue eyes met hers before she could sit down. ‘Your ex-husband is looking for you.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jet lowered herself carefully into the chair opposite without saying anything.

  Marty sat down and crossed his arms as though measuring Jet’s response. ‘You don’t seem surprised.’

  Jet swallowed. ‘He hasn’t found me. Has he?’

  ‘No. Do you want him to?’

  Jet blinked a few times before registering the meaning of his words. ‘No. Of course not. If you’re referring to the pictures on my computer, I wasn’t looking at Andrew.’ Well, not at first. ‘My friend Edie was in them.’

  ‘Edie Thomas, the actress?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Are you close friends?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Marty frowned. Since she’d been here, Jet had barely seen him frown. It was as if he didn’t like to.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. Jet hated to be the one to make this amicable man unhappy.

  ‘Just wouldn’t have picked it, that’s all. You and Edie.’

  ‘Oh, right. Yeah, me either if you must know. The friendship kind of snuck up on me.’

  ‘In what way?’

  He was so quick to redirect the conversation, so smooth, this time it was Jet w
ho frowned. His questioning felt like déjà vu. Then when the possibility entered her mind, Jet couldn’t ignore it.

  ‘You haven’t always been a winemaker, have you?’ she asked quietly.

  Marty sat back in his seat and exhaled a deep breath. Jet noticed a hint of respect in his eyes. ‘No, I haven’t. Why do you ask?’

  ‘You remind me of them.’

  ‘Them?’

  ‘The detectives who questioned me.’

  ‘That’s because I was one.’

  Smooth, certain, but now he sounded weary.

  ‘How long ago?’ she asked.

  A barely noticeable shrug of a shoulder. ‘It was a long time ago. Another life.’

  Jet sucked in a breath. Another life. She knew about that too well.

  ‘Jet, you need to tell me if he gets in contact with you.’

  ‘I’ll tell you,’ she promised. ‘There’s no love lost, believe me. The only reason he’s trying to find me is because he likes to be in control.’

  ‘I’ve heard. And Edie?’

  ‘No, she hasn’t been in contact. She wouldn’t know how to find me.’ Not like Andrew, she almost said, but didn’t. Andrew was so wealthy and so well connected, Jet didn’t doubt he could find her. Which was probably why they were having this conversation now.

  ‘But you miss Edie?’

  Jet sighed, suddenly feeling very lonely. ‘Yes, she’s a good friend.’

  ‘I know this isn’t easy on you. When I have more that I can tell you, I will.’

  Jet nodded, and then after a brief hesitation, spoke the words she’d been wanting to confide in someone about for days. ‘I keep seeing her.’

  Marty didn’t miss a beat. ‘The girl who died?’

  ‘Yes. I only saw her face for a moment before I passed out.’ Jet wasn’t sure why she was telling Marty this. Even if he had been a member of the police force years ago, wasn’t she endangering him by telling him the details? Except the only people she’d been able to talk to about the ordeal so far were the detectives investigating the girl’s death. Jet held back a shudder. ‘She was so young.’