Temptation Island (57 page)

Xander took a swing. JB dodged it, in a heartbeat grabbing Xander’s lapels and pulling him up close. The men’s faces were inches from each other.

‘You were a kid with an imagination,’ JB said. ‘
That’s all
. And I bet it’s suited you. I bet it’s helped alleviate your conscience. Cacatra gave you a fortune. Reuben gave you a fortune.
I
gave you a fortune. And it was easier to reconcile yourself by imagining the man who’d opened the door was a killer, bad through and through. Sound about right?’

Xander was shaking. ‘I know the facts—’

‘The facts? Fine, let’s talk facts. You’re asking me to help conceal a homicide.’

‘I’m asking you to help me save my marriage.’

JB released him. ‘Your marriage is a sham,’ he said.

‘Don’t you dare tell me what’s real and what isn’t. You wouldn’t know the difference.’

‘I know you’re trying to conceal a murder. And if what you accuse me of is true, it makes you just as bad as I am.’

‘Destroy the evidence against Bibi Reiner,’ Xander commanded. ‘And I walk away.’

‘Or what?’

‘I’ve got enough to sink you for good.’

‘Enough to sink me?’ JB looked round at the library’s grand interior: the boat, robust and solid and incontestable. ‘I’d like to see you try.’

Maximo Diaz rolled over. His stomach was cramping. He felt himself whirling down, down, into a deep black pool. He tried to move but couldn’t. His body felt heavy, his mind delirious. He thought he could hear voices, women’s voices close by, winging into corners like bats.

‘Lori,’
he spluttered through dry, cracked lips. The air was thick and pitch-dark.

Where was he? His feet were cold. He was freezing all over. His chest hurt.

Maximo reached out, imagined she was there and stroked her face.

With a final grimace, outstretched fingers tensing once and then relaxing, his entire body became still.

‘You’re wrong.’ Rebecca was adamant, leaping to contest Stevie as soon as her story was done. ‘JB is guilty of many things but he would never let another person die.’

‘You’re saying I should doubt my husband over a man who’s ruined this girl’s life and countless others?’ Stevie could scarcely entertain it. ‘You must be joking.’

‘Rebecca’s right,’ Lori agreed. ‘He isn’t capable of that.’

‘How can you defend him?’ Stevie cried. ‘What’s wrong with you both?’

‘I’m the last to defend him,’ said Lori. ‘His plans for me were …’ It defied articulation. ‘But he’s not a murderer.’

‘You hardly know him!’ Stevie blasted. She couldn’t doubt Xander and she didn’t. Frustration at their shortsightedness made her launch a petty shot. ‘But then I suppose he lobotomised you just like he does every other woman who has the misfortune to cross his path.’

Lori fired back. ‘If I don’t know JB, then you know him even less.’

‘What’s the matter with you?’ Stevie wanted to shake her. ‘He tracked you down as a
surrogate
, Lori! He’s been leading a double life you knew absolutely nothing about. He was prepared to pay you millions for a … for what should be a priceless thing!’ The injustice became personal. ‘Money for a baby! How can you even begin to—?’

‘He’s not the man you think he is,’ Lori answered. ‘I can’t hate him.’

‘Then you’re a damn fool.’

Rebecca spoke. ‘Let’s not argue. You said so yourself—’

‘No, come on, let’s.’ Stevie gestured to Aurora, sitting in a red-eyed daze, unable to take in the accounts she had heard. ‘There’s a teenage girl here who’s been to hell and back, and all you two can do is reaffirm why JB Moreau’s got away with so much for so long. You’re standing up for him! You’re standing up for the man responsible!’

‘We’re not standing up for him,’ said Rebecca. ‘He should never have got involved. But the way JB sees it is different. Parental love, at least in the biological sense, means little to him. Why should it? My vote is he’d have been better off with strangers from the start. I’m not excusing him, God knows he’s no saint—’

Stevie laughed harshly. ‘Good one.’

‘But he didn’t let his parents die,’ Lori interjected. ‘Xander’s mistaken.’

‘How in hell would you know?’ Stevie countered.

‘I just do.’

‘You
just do
? Come on, Lori, here was me thinking you were intelligent.’

‘Shut up.’ Aurora’s voice was small. No one heard because they were too busy bitching.

‘I’ve heard him talk about that day,’ maintained Lori. ‘It was real.’

Stevie grimaced. ‘Nothing that man has ever told you has been real—you can rest assured of that. If for one second you’re imagining a happy ever after, let me tell you now it’ll be the biggest mistake you ever made. It’s not a fucking fairytale, Lori.’

‘You’re jealous,’ Lori flared.

Stevie burst out laughing. ‘Please! I’ve heard a lot of strange things recently but that has to take the cake.’

‘Shut up.’
No one noticed the knife appear from Aurora’s dress, the glinting blade.

‘You’re jealous because JB’s never looked twice at you and you wish he would. Because you’ve got all this passion against him; I can see it in your face. I bet you’ve thought about being with him. Every woman has—what makes you immune? I’ve been with him and it sickens you.’

Stevie was shaking. ‘You’re right. Why? Because men like JB Moreau hurt and cheat and lie. They do terrible things and back out of the consequences. They leave you with nothing. Lori, I don’t want to fight with you. I want you to listen. I want you to believe me. Men like him—’

‘SHUT UP!’

Aurora brandished the knife. Her eyes were stormy.

The cabin plunged into silence.

‘Give it to me, Aurora.’ Rebecca held her hand out. ‘Nice and easy. Give it to me.’

‘Never.’ The knife wavered. ‘I’ve wasted enough time. I’ve wasted nineteen years.’

‘If you use this,’ Stevie pleaded, ‘they’ve won.’

‘They’ve won anyhow.’ A tear coursed down her cheek. ‘And I’ve lost. I’ve lost so much I’ve got nothing else to lose.’

‘You’ll throw away the rest of your life. Don’t let them take any more of you.’

Lori spoke. ‘She’s right.’

A hollow sound escaped Aurora’s mouth, between a sob and a moan. ‘You know what? I’m not sure life’s all it’s cracked up to be.’

‘This isn’t the way,’ soothed Stevie. ‘I promise you, it’s not.’

Rebecca reached out. ‘Give me the knife and I’ll bring Reuben to you. OK, Aurora? I’ll bring him. Before the night is through, you’ll get your answers.’

Reuben hated this song. They’d hired a rock band, a chart-storming four-piece with stupid hair and jeans so tight they could barely stand with their legs apart.

He scouted the room for security. Surely Aurora Nash had been tracked down by now. If he could just get her out of the way before the midnight address, he’d be laughing.

He checked the time. Half past eleven. The end was in sight.

For the beauty of a boat was there were only so many places a person could hide.

62

Chill seeped into Aurora’s bones, the stinging slap of water audible as it lapped the flanks of the boat. Black air hung like an inky curtain. It was cold on the main deck. Empty.

‘Wait here,’ Rebecca told her, pocketing the knife with care. ‘Don’t move. I’ll be back.’

Lori checked on Maximo Diaz before returning upstairs. In the dark she could make out his prostrate form, one arm flung over the side of the bed. There was a strange smell.

Quietly, Lori closed the door.

Only a couple of years existed between she and Aurora, close enough so Lori knew that such a discovery, at so tender an age, would have shattered her world. How many other kids had JB put in the same position? How many lives had been torn apart? Up till now she had considered only the aborted prospect of her own involvement. Was that better, or worse?

She closed her eyes against his deception. She had to do what she came for.

She had to face him.

One truth in exchange for another.

Stevie ran into Xander on her way back to the saloon.

‘Where have you been?’ he demanded. ‘I’ve been looking for you all over.’

‘Later.’ She refocused on the task. ‘Any luck with Moreau?’

Xander shook his head. JB’s words clung to him like weeds, throttling, shaming. ‘No,’ he said. ‘We’re on our own.’

‘Fine.’ Stevie led the way. ‘Just how I like it.’

Dirk Michaels checked the microphone. Tonight’s guests were gathered, four hundred eager faces flushed with drink and anticipation as they waited for him to take to the stage.

‘You know what you’re going to say?’ his wife had asked him earlier as she’d quaffed her twentieth drink. He’d swatted her away like the irritating fly she was. If a man of Dirk’s stature couldn’t speak off the cuff about the life and times of an old friend, who could?

He hoped Reuben wouldn’t mind him using the occasion for a further purpose, once the accolades were done. Unleashing the truth about their beloved Linus’s death: how Bibi Reiner was a cold-blooded murderess, and award-winning Stevie Speller her accomplice.

Retribution on his friend’s behalf was going to taste sweet.

Reuben slapped him on the back. ‘All set?’ he asked jovially.

It was what Linus would have wanted.

‘I have to speak with you. It’s urgent.’

Reuben was pissed off. JB’s wife had been casting about for days with a face like a slapped ass. Her attention now was the last thing he needed.

‘So is this.’ He returned his attention to Dirk and readied himself for a litany of praise.

‘I think you should listen,’ said Rebecca.

‘I think you should beat it.’

‘Reuben—’

‘What?’

‘It’s Aurora Nash. She knows.’

The yacht was stationary. Ocean stretched for miles and miles, its distance immeasurable. Water and sky, all there was. Aurora wrapped her arms around herself.

‘Ms Nash?’

She was surprised to see a guy with a radio in his top pocket and a wire coming out of his ear. The man had been searching for over an hour and was relieved to finally locate her.

‘Would you come with me?’

‘I’m meeting someone,’ she replied.

‘Not any more, you’re not.’

‘Excuse me?’

The man took her arm. She tried to shrug him off but his grip was strong.

‘Don’t fight, Ms Nash. We wouldn’t want to keep Mr van der Meyde waiting.’

Xander grasped his wife’s hand. ‘Steve, don’t. He could be bluffing.’

‘He isn’t.’ Stevie eyed her nemesis. Dirk was preening
beneath the stage lights. As far as she was concerned, one trace, one
suggestion
of Bibi Reiner and she was going up there. She’d hoped to resolve it privately, save the devastation, but if Dirk wanted to play nasty then she had no choice but to follow. She would reveal everything about what Cacatra was hiding.

After what she’d witnessed tonight, every person present was going to want to hear it.

Rebecca checked both flanks in case Aurora had ducked down one side. She hadn’t.

‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘I left her right here …’

Reuben had his hand on the doorframe, his shoulders stooped like a man at the end of a long race. His knuckles seeped white.

He lifted his head and narrowed his eyes.

‘How did she find out?’

Rebecca met his eye. ‘She needs the truth, Reuben. She needs to know who her parents are. You owe her that. I told her I’d bring you to her.’

‘What the hell for, you stupid dumb bitch?’ Spittle flew from his grimace.

She was shocked. ‘Because I had to—’

‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ He rounded on her, eyes rolling maniacally. ‘I should have guessed it was someone on the inside, but
you
? Fuck!’ His face was puce, his nostrils flared. ‘Jesus H, woman—you’ve got some balls.’

‘You’re wrong. I don’t know what you mean. I never told Aurora a thing.’

‘Oh yeah?’ Reuben advanced closer, hemming her in, forcing her on to the bow’s metal railings. ‘How else did she hack into my account, then? Tell me that. How else did
she pen me that twisted little note that’s had me shitting fear the past twenty-four hours?’

Rebecca had held Lori Garcia responsible for the note. She hadn’t known then that the others knew—but, of course, they did. Aurora Nash did. It had been Aurora all along.

Roughly, Reuben grabbed her hair. ‘Cat got your tongue?’ he snarled, yanking it loose. She struggled fruitlessly against his bulk. He was holding her jaw so tight it made speech impossible. Lashing free, she spat in his face.

Reuben was momentarily stunned. He blinked, wiping the residue. ‘Silly girl,’ he taunted. ‘Silly, silly girl.’

‘It’s not what you think,’ Rebecca managed. ‘It wasn’t—’

He slapped her. The force flung her back over the bow of the ship. Rebecca’s thoughts darted to Aurora’s knife, still concealed in her dress. Terrified, she reached for it.

Reuben chuckled dementedly as the blade rose between them, glinting in the moonlight.

‘What’re you gonna do with that?’ he jeered, swiping for the weapon and instead snatching her wrist, twisting the point back towards her, closer, closer.

Rebecca pushed against him with all her might. The knife entered smoothly and cleanly.

At first, it was painless, blood dripping to the wooden deck like the petals of a crimson flower.

Enrique Marquez caught a flash of dark hair and the ripple of a woman’s dress. Delirious, he’d been hunting for Lori all over. Round every corner, in every glimpse, he thought he saw her, only to be mistaken. Finally, here she was. He had found her.

But what was she doing on-deck with Reuben van der
Meyde? It was almost midnight. Wasn’t the guy meant to be down in the saloon? Enrique pressed closer against the threshold, straining to see through the shadows. It looked as if they were arguing, but with Lori’s body concealed behind van der Meyde’s bulk, it was difficult to see clearly.

Enrique didn’t move for fear of being seen. For one shocking moment he thought they might be making out, before Lori emitted a scream that pierced the night and with it his heart.

There wasn’t time to think about it. He pulled open the door and started to run.