Tess's Tale (The Chanel Series Book 3) (12 page)

I tried to maintain my smile as I nodded my head, but inside I was kicking myself. I doubted another opportunity like that was going to present itself.

Boy, I hate it when I’m right.

***

‘How’s Jim?’ Liss reached over her kitchen table and took the file from me. We were doing our nails before the evening’s show.

‘Better. I guess.’ It was hard to tell what good was. He was awake more often now and seemed more alert, but his speech and movement had not improved at all.

‘When do you think he’ll come home?’

I knew what she was really asking. When were Harry and I going to get the hell out of there? My passport had turned up the day before and was sitting in her top kitchen drawer.

‘The doctor said probably next week.’ I filed a rough edge off one of my nails. ‘But then he’s going to need full-time care.’

Liss picked up a bottle of fire-engine red polish and shook it vigorously. ‘Who’s going to look after him?’

‘Rosella. And we’ll have to hire a nurse and some therapists.’

Just talking about it made me feel claustrophobic. So many reasons to stay, and none to go. Well none that Harry knew of. I put a hand on my stomach. A tiny bump bulged under my fingers.

Liss nodded her head at my hand and said, ‘When are you going to tell him?’

‘It never seems to be the right time.’

‘There may never
be
a right time.’ She put the polish back on the table and held her hands out to inspect her work. When she was sure they were perfect she turned serious eyes to me. ‘Tess. You need to leave, soon.’

‘They haven’t identified the bodies yet.’ I repeated Harry’s words.

‘It’s been three weeks. You don’t think they will have worked out something happened to their boys by now?’

I stared harder at my fingernails but I could feel worry creasing my brow. ‘Italy’s a long way away.’

She stared at me, her eyes wide and her mouth making a silent O. Then she shook her head. ‘Christ Tess. It’s only a day away by plane.’

She was right.

She was
so
right.

Hot, prickly panic swept over me and all of a sudden I thought I might faint. I pushed back from the table and put my head between my legs. Liss’s hand rubbed my back as I took deep breaths.

They were coming. They were coming for me. It wouldn’t take much to get Mickey and Riley to talk if the going got tough. Then it would be too late to flee.

‘What should I do?’ My voice came out in a wail.

‘You have to leave.’

‘Without Harry?’

‘If need be.’

Go without Harry?
The thought had never occurred to me. I would risk death to stay with him. My love for him trumped everything.

I looked back down at my stomach. If I died, so would my unborn child.

I put my shaking hands back on the bulge. A little heart beat in there. A little being that depended on me for safety. In my head it was a little girl. A little me.

I wanted to stay with Harry with all my might but fear for my unborn child was growing. Her needs were becoming more important than my own.

Hormones are a powerful thing.

I stared up at Liss through the window of my tears and considered her words. If I went, I couldn’t come back. I couldn’t tell anyone where I was. The risk was more than it was worth.

The pain that set up in my heart had my head back in between my legs. A deep, tearing ache. Life before Harry had sucked. Life after Harry would be a miserable wasteland.

‘I’ll talk to him,’ I said. ‘I’ll tell him. He’ll come with me. He will.’ But my words sounded hollow.

‘Soon,’ Liss urged.

‘Yes, soon.’

I would tell him that night, and by tomorrow we would be on a plane. I just had to hope the Sicilians didn’t find us before then.

***

‘Dad’s coming home tomorrow.’ They were Harry’s first words to me when I got home from work that night.

I put my plans to tell him about Junior on hold. It would be much better to tell him once Jim was settled and he could see that he was cared for properly. What sort of wife would expect him to leave before then?

‘That’s great.’ I really was happy about it, and not just because it was one less thing holding us here. Rosella had brightened considerably over the last few days as Jim’s speech got clearer and his need to sleep diminished. She was going to be delighted to have him home again.

But my sleep was disturbed by dreams of faceless men seizing me and Harry. We knelt in front of them, our newborn babe in my arms. Her plaintive cry as thin as a reed as I watched them kill Harry. They turned the gun on me and the sharp echo of its bark woke me with a start. Sweat streamed down my body and soaked the sheets beneath me.

In the end I hopped up and made a pot of peppermint tea. I sat in the courtyard, enjoying the cool air and waiting for the day to begin. Gradually the night melted away as the sun crept over the horizon, its light banishing the remnants of the nightmare from my soul.

I was on my third cup of tea by the time Harry found me.

‘I missed you.’ He pulled me into his arms, wrapping them tight around me.

I rested my head against his chest, inhaling his scent. He felt so good and so right. Could I live without this in my life?

‘Dad’s getting picked up by ambulance at nine.’ He kissed me on the top of my head and I turned my face up to him. He gave me what I wanted, bending to take my mouth with his.

Desperate for reassurance, I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him passionately. Imprinting him on my heart and soul.

He had to come with me, he
had
to. But I knew, after that dream, that if he didn’t, I would go alone.

***

The penthouse at the Pink Flamingo was a buzz of activity. The ambulance had brought Jim and moved him to his bed. Now a physiotherapist and occupational therapist were working out a therapy program. The plan was to fill his large office with the equipment necessary for his rehabilitation.

Harry was on the phone ordering what was needed.

I sat uselessly, staring out over Las Vegas. I should have been listening to the therapists, but in my heart and mind I was already gone. I wouldn’t be here to see Jim get better. I would be setting up a new life, a new identity, and having a child.

The therapists finished and organised to come back the next day to help set up the equipment. I walked them out and returned to Jim’s bedside.

His dark brown eyes bored into me. Could he tell what I was planning? That I wanted to rip his son away from him when he needed him the most? Guilt washed over me as I sat beside him and took his hand.

He would never know his grandchild. Never know
of
his grandchild. Was that fair? Was there another way? Perhaps if I told them, about the child, about my fears, they could come up with another plan. Some other way to keep us all safe.

And if there wasn’t, what then?

The bell rang as Rosella bustled in with Jim’s lunch. All he could manage at the moment was soup, and even then he had to be spoon fed.

Harry was still on the phone so I left Rosella to her feeding and went to open the door. A group of Jim’s ‘business associates’ stood there. Lou was one of them.

‘Heard JJ was home.’ Sam the Suit held a bright bunch of flowers. They looked ludicrous in his hand.

‘Come through.’ I took them to the lounge and then went back to Jim’s office. Harry hung up the phone and turned to face me. ‘Got the walker.’

‘Excellent.’ Personally, I thought it was a bit pre-emptive to buy a walker for Jim, but Harry thought it was important. If Jim knew we all thought he would walk again, then he would.

I felt another jab of guilt.

‘Some of Jim’s friends are here. I put them in the lounge.’

‘Sam?’

‘And Lou and a few others.’ I recognised their faces from our wedding reception but couldn’t put names to them.

He nodded his head and rubbed his hands together. ‘Didn’t know if they would come.’

‘Why wouldn’t they visit Jim?’

‘I called them. Asked them over.’

Huh.
‘What for?’

‘Want to talk about some plans I have for the casino. The Bellagio finally received their permit for that landscaping they had already started.’

I stared at him. What was he talking about?

‘Remember where we stayed the night of our wedding?’

I blushed. Things Harry had done to my body for the very first time had swept all memory of the earthworks out the front of the hotel from my mind. I nodded.

‘I’m thinking we need to update our gardens.’

His use of the word ‘our’ struck me as odd and suddenly, I was bone tired. ‘I might head home.’

He kissed me on the cheek but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn’t thinking about me. He was thinking about the meeting. I was torn between wanting to know what it was really about, and not wanting anything to do with it.

‘Take the car.’ He straightened his tie and styled his hair with his fingers. ‘I’ll get someone to drop me home.’

I nodded, picked up my handbag and went back to Jim’s bedroom. Rosella was still feeding him lunch. He had a frustrated look on his face and soup dribbling down his chin. I understood that frustration. It was awful being trapped in a situation you didn’t want to be in.

When I got home I went straight up to bed. I’d read that pregnancy made you tired. I wasn’t sure if it was that or the dreams, but I was exhausted. And guilty.

Who would have thought it would be so hard to leave? My initial dislike for Jim had been replaced with grudging affection. I suspect it was to do with the fact he had been sick. It’s hard to care for someone without developing some sort of bond.

I climbed onto the bed, groaning with the relief of lying down. Even with that, I wasn’t sure I would sleep, but it quickly took me.

The front door bell woke me. I blinked at the bedside clock – a wooden contraption that Jim had chosen for us. I’d been asleep for three hours.

The doorbell rang again.

Harry!

The house keys were on the car keys. He was locked out.

I raced downstairs and threw open the front door but it wasn’t Harry standing on the other side. It was Lou the Brain.

‘Where is he?’ He pushed past me through the door before I could shut it.

‘Harry?’ I know it sounded like a stupid question – I mean who else could he have been talking about? – but as far as I knew, Lou had
been
with Harry.

‘Your husband.’

The vehemence in the words stunned me. ‘As far as I know he’s still with Jim.’

My plan to get rid of Lou had been to stay next to the front door, but I could hear him clattering around in the kitchen. Sighing, I closed the door and trotted down the hall to see what he was up to.

When I rounded the corner to the kitchen, Lou was holding a half-finished bottle of red wine with one hand and a wine glass with the other. As I watched, he yanked the cork out of the bottle with his teeth.

Wine splashed out of the bottle, into the glass and all over my benchtop. He slammed the bottle down and picked up the glass, more wine splashed out over the lip to the floor. It was obvious by his actions that he had already had a few drinks.

The wise thing would have been to leave. But I wasn’t feeling wise, I was feeling angry.

‘What do you want?’

‘That’s a very good question.’ He held the glass up to the light and examined its contents. ‘Big H likes only the best I see.’ He took a sip and then peered over the top at me. ‘In his wine and his women.’

‘I think you should leave.’

‘I’m not going anywhere.’ He staggered a little as he headed for the lounge. ‘Not till I got what I came for.’

‘Which is?’ Did I really want to know? I wasn’t so sure.

‘My rightful place. It should have been
me
taking over from JJ. I was his right-hand man.’ He slurped some more wine and I watched in dismay as some of it sloshed onto the lounge. ‘Not your precious Harry.’

‘I really have no idea what you’re talking about.’ What had that meeting been about? Obviously not what Harry had told me.

Lou stood up and lurched towards me. Panic flitted through me but I held my ground. I was tired of flinching every time the man moved.

He leaned in so close I could see the red wine stains on his teeth. ‘Maybe I should take something of his. See how he likes it.’

All thoughts of standing my ground flew out the window. ‘What are you talking about?’ I backed towards the kitchen. There was a knife block only twelve feet away.

He grabbed my arm, his fingers digging into skin and muscle.

‘Let go.’ I’d like to say my voice stayed calm but it came out in a panicked shriek. I could smell the alcohol on his breath and the look in his eyes had changed from angry to calculating.

‘Oh yes, I think I’d enjoy that.’ He pulled me to him, groping my breast with his free hand as he tried to kiss me.

For a millisecond I froze. All my childhood memories locking me into place. Lou had quite often beaten and raped my Mom, why wouldn’t he move onto me? But then I thought of Harry and my knee slammed upwards into Lou’s groin.

He let out a roar of pain, but rather than let me go, his grip tightened. His face turned red and his eyes bulged as he growled, ‘You’ll pay for that, bitch.’ His right hand slammed into the side of my face, the stinging blow taking my breath away.

I stumbled backwards and his grip on my arm loosened. Yanking it free, I turned, sprinting for the knife block.

‘Oh no you don’t!’ He moved fast for a drunk, grabbing me as I reached for the meat carver. ‘You going to cut me girl?’ Letting out a loud laugh, he threw me bodily away from the kitchen bench. He pulled the blade clean of the wooden block and held it up. ‘You don’t have the guts.’ He turned the knife from side-to-side inspecting the edge. ‘Now me? I’m a cutter. It’s my preferred method.’

He stalked towards me and I turned and ran. I should have headed for the front door, but he was hot on my trail and the thought of him plunging that knife into my back as I opened the door stopped me. Instead, I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.