Fallen (Beautiful Book 1) (4 page)

‘Excellent. Do you mind?’

‘Knock yourself out.’ She turned away for a moment.

‘Hey, what do you do for a living?’ asked Daryl.

‘She’s a student doctor,’ said Logan.

‘Doctor?’

‘Patterson,’ she said without turning. She wished they’d get on with it.

‘Doctor Patterson, mind if I hit that beautiful ass of yours?’ asked Daryl.

‘You got two thousand pounds?’ She swirled around. ‘Because the only man touching this ass, is the one who’s paying.’

‘Whooo, sassy!’ He snorted up some coke.

Logan and his other mate Owen did the same. Soon they were as high as kites.

‘So are we going to get this show on the road or what?’ asked Owen, as he pulled out his mobile phone.

‘Change of plan,’ said Logan.

‘What do you mean, change of plan?’ asked Daryl.

‘You’re not filming this. This beautiful woman and I will go into the room, shut the door and get on with it.’

‘What the fuck is the matter with you?’ Daryl hissed.

‘This is my fucking penthouse, my money, and I paid for her!’

‘Christ, you’re such a prick sometimes!’ He shouted.

‘Yeah, you got us all worked up for shit,’ said Owen.

‘Things change, my rules.’

‘Fuck you!’ Daryl stood up.

‘Okay, that’s it, get out.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes get the fuck out of my room!’

There were a few more foul words between them. Crystal waited patiently until they were finally shoved out of the room.

‘Why did you do that?’ she asked.

‘You’re different, and I just decided not to share you.’

‘I see. Shall we get this done? I have a shift in an hour and a half.’

He nodded. He held out his arm and led her to the bedroom. Half an hour later, Crystal pulled on her clothes and he handed her a pile of cash.

‘It was fun,’ he said.

She wished she could say the same, but all she wanted was the money. He sat up and watched her.

‘Could you bring me that coke I left on the table?’

‘Seriously? My work here is done.’ She left the room.

‘Shit.’ He laughed, stood up and followed behind her. ‘Can we do it again sometime? I’ll double it?’

‘I’ll think about it?’

‘Could I get your number?’

‘No, I’ll find you at the bar, if I want to.’ She headed for the door and walked out.

‘Bitch!’ He said under his breath, sat down beside the table with the cocaine and snorted a few lines.

He leaned back, in a world of his own. He felt satisfied, on top of the world. Nothing and no one could defeat him. He took a peek at the time. He’d stay another hour, and then head home. He didn’t want to spend the night in the hotel anyway. It had only been booked for sex!

****

‘So are you doing okay?’ Mel asked after they’d found a suitable place to have drinks.

‘I’m doing great, busy as usual.’

‘Yes you always are. Congrats on the big project.’

‘Thank you, we’ve still got to finalise a few things, and then we’re in. It’s surreal.’

‘Well you deserve it. You’ve worked really hard.’

‘Yes, well, I think that’s messing with my brain a bit.’

‘Still having trouble at home?’

‘Gosh Mel, I don’t know. I had to get rid of the last cleaning staff. I thought they were the problem.’

‘Weren’t they?’

‘Well, it stopped for a while, but then I noticed subtle changes again.’

‘Like what?’

‘My toothbrush was on the right again instead of the left. One of my coffee tables had been placed in a totally different place. It felt like some of my cutlery had been rearranged too. I think I’m losing it.’

‘You’re not losing it. You could be tired and not noticing these things, or your new cleaners haven’t realised that when you ask for things not to be moved, you’re serious.’

She laughed at the latter. ‘Yes, well I am a perfectionist.’

‘I think that’s your problem. You’re putting too much pressure on yourself to be perfect. Does it really matter if your toothbrush is on the right hand side?’

‘Yes. It irritates me if it’s not. The thing is, I know where I put it the night before.’

‘Are you certain?’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay. There has to be an explanation to all this weirdness.’

‘I hope so because it’s stressing me out.’

‘Perhaps I can spend a weekend and observe. You might sleep walk. I could just be a second pair of eyes.’

‘That would be great. Very helpful in fact.’

‘Great, how about next weekend? Any good?’

‘Should be okay.’

‘Check your calendar.’

‘Yes okay.’ She laughed and searched for her mobile in her bag. She checked the calendar. ‘It looks free.’

‘Then put me down now! I’m surprised there’s room on your calendar.’

‘Yeah, me too, I was sure I was booked up for the month.’

‘Hmmm.’

‘You see. Losing it.’

‘Get some rest.’

She nodded. ‘Anyway, enough about me, how are you doing?’

‘I’m great. You know me, I have a pretty predictable life.’

‘But you love it. I see how happy you are. Especially teaching those children.’

‘Yes I do love it. I guess I’ll never get to fly in private jets or have fancy holidays. And I’ll probably work until I’m seventy or eighty before I get my pension.’

‘Oh, but you will be happy.’

‘Yes, that’s true. I’d just love to meet someone to share that happiness with.’

‘You will, in time.’

‘It’s easy for you to say. Look at you; you have men eating out of the palm of your hand.’

‘Oh please, it’s not as great as you think. You’re beautiful too, and you’ll find the person who is perfect for you, not a swarm of horny men trying to get lucky.’

‘That’s not Jacob though.’

‘Sometimes I feel as though he’s only with me for my looks.’

‘You don’t believe that.’

‘Sometimes I do.’

‘I don’t think he is.’

‘I still have my doubts, but let’s not talk about me again. Are you looking forward to Christmas?’

‘Yes, it’s the usual, home with my parents and Jamie. Are you spending it with your mum?’

‘Yes, I was thinking of taking her away this year. Just me and her.’

‘That sounds nice.’

‘Somewhere hot, get her away from this lousy weather.’

Mel laughed. They ordered another round of drinks, talked a lot more until Faith looked at the time.

‘Time for you to go?’ asked Mel.

‘I don’t want this to end, but I have meetings all morning tomorrow.’

‘I understand.’ She stood up.

Faith did the same, and they embraced.

‘Good to see you,’ said Faith.

‘Yes, and I’ll see you next weekend.’

‘Yes. We can make it a girly night.’

‘I look forward to it.’

They walked out of the bar and parted ways.

****

He staggered out of the hotel room and to the car park. Logan had no business getting behind the wheel, but he’d done it many times before, and he’d been fine. He slid into the black Audi sports car, and started the engine. He sped off into the night and joined the motor way to his destination. He’d been okay for a moment, his speed high, the car in front of him was moving a little too slow.

‘Get out of the way!’ He muttered and hooted as he passed the car in the middle lane. 

Logan zigzagged between traffic, annoyed that not everyone wanted to do his racing pace. He moved from the first lane and slid slimly between two cars and then zoomed into the fast lane. But he didn’t monitor his pace. The powerful machine overtook him and he underestimated the control he had. The Audi crashed into the barrier that separated the motorway traffic. The car flipped over, rolling a few times, missing a car and finally coming to a halt in the middle of the traffic. There were bright lights, on coming traffic crashed into each other and there were sounds of horns bleating, and smoke scurried into the dark sky. Logan shut out the sounds and lights. And soon all was peaceful.

****

There had been a horrible crash on the motorway in the opposite direction to where Faith was going. She shuddered as she saw the red, blue and yellow lights of the emergency services.

‘That doesn’t look good,’ said her driver.

‘No it doesn’t. I hope everyone survived.’

‘I bet it’s a drunk driver.’

‘Possible, just hope they survived. It looked like a nasty accident.’ She sat back and looked into the night.

Ten minutes later the car parked outside her luxurious home. She thanked the driver and stepped out. For some reason she couldn’t get the crash out of her mind. She could only imagine the families of those involved. She pulled the keys from her handbag and unlocked the door. The moment she was in, she keyed in the alarm code, but it had already been disabled. She panicked. Had she forgotten to put on the alarm before she’d left? She held her stomach a moment, she couldn’t remember.

In the darkness she leaned into the door. There was something about the whole evening that felt heavy. First the man who had rudely asked for sex, then the horrible accident and now she felt the heaviness in the house. She flicked the light.

‘What the fuck?’

It was a dim red colour. She’d never had red bulbs in her life.

‘Fuck.’ Panicked she fiddled for her mobile phone. This wasn’t her imagination. Something was definitely wrong.

Just as she was about to make the call a dark figure with a hoodie approached her.

‘Oh god! Please, somebody help me!’ She tried to go for the door handle, but the figure pulled her away by the hair and she fell to the ground. ‘What do you want, money? I can give you money. Please, don’t hurt me.’

He stepped to his left and picked up a petrol can.

‘Please, no, no…no!’

He started to throw fuel over her. There was a constant rattling as the intruder did so.

‘PLEASEEESSSS!’ She pushed back, Pleeeeasse.’

He threw the empty can to the side, pulled out a match box and lit the stick.

‘Oh god please.’

She saw her life flash before her as her body caught flames. She rolled, screamed as the pain consumed her. The man watched a moment, and then quickly turned around and picked up an extinguisher. She begged for her life, and finally, he extinguished the flames. She whimpered, the pain unbearable.

She couldn’t make out the voice, but she heard a whisper in the background.

‘I need an ambulance,’ said the intruder.

The address was given, and then phone went dead. The intruder picked up a red rose that had been placed on the coffee table and threw it beside her. The figure was out the door as if nothing happened, leaving her in unbearable pain.

Sirens where heard in the distance, but by then she’d passed out with shock.

‘Oh my god!’ The paramedic covered his mouth as he smelt the human flesh.

‘Is she still breathing?’ asked the other.

The woman leaned forward and heard the shallow breaths. ‘Okay let’s get her to the emergency now!’

They worked fast, it was critical to get her to the hospital as soon as possible. There was no time for thought of how or why. Her life, and skin depended on it…

****

‘Okay people let’s do this!’ The senior doctor shouted.

The major crash on the motorway had become a priority.

‘Patterson, I need you over here now!’ shouted the doctor.

She rushed over to the team of medics working on a man. He had a neck support, there was major swelling and bruising on his face, and had begun to seizure due to the cocaine in his blood.

‘Oh shit!’ She turned away and took a breather as soon as she realise the patient.

‘Doctor Patterson?’

She didn’t turn.

‘Doctor Patterson!’

She turned.

‘Is there a problem? Do you know this man?’

‘No, no problem and I don’t know this man.’

‘I need you focused! Let’s manage these seizures.’

She put on her doctor hat and worked quickly. The doctor asked the questions, and she delivered. She had to focus on the task at hand and forget about what had happened earlier that night.

When the seizures had calmed down, for a split second he opened his eyes and saw her.

‘You’re in the hospital, you had an accident.’ She told him.

He wanted to speak, but couldn’t. Everything was happening too fast, he didn’t know whether he was dead or alive, whether the woman speaking to him was real or a dream. He was certain he’d seen her face.