The Goodbye Girl (30 page)
Nick picked
up her hand. “I’ll be taking a photo back with me this time.”
“I might allow that. Unless there’s some other movie star in the magazines you’d prefer me to cut out and frame instead?”
“You’re the only star I want.”
“For that, I might give you two kisses when we get home.”
“We can get a head start.” He turned to face her. “Give me one now.”
“I’m on a hunt,” she said
severely.
“So am I.”
He leaned closer.
“I think we’re hunting different things.”
“Your point?”
Fully intending to kiss him, Bree leaned towards him. “My point is - holy
crap
! Look at that!”
Nick
spun forward.
Heart pounding, Bree raised the cam
corder to her eye. “Look up, Nick! To the right!”
High in the sky two lights moved fast, dipping down, one
shooting off to the left before wheeling back to fly beside the other light. They dived low suddenly, crossing the road to disappear behind bushes further out.
Bree slid off the
bonnet and retrieved the torch from her backpack before swinging the backpack onto her shoulders.
A big hand landed on her shoulder. “Where are you going?”
“To those bushes to see if the lights landed.” Excitement thrummed through her, the familiar anticipation filling her. “Come on!”
“You have no
idea what’s on the other side.” Disapproval evident in every line of his body, not to mention a definite edge to his alertness, Nick blocked her way.
“This is what we’re here for, Nick. This is
it
.”
“Bree-”
“Look, you saw the lights.” Impatiently, she bounced on her toes. “You
saw
them.”
“I saw something,” he began cautiously.
“Oh, come on, Nick!” Bree looked around him to the bushes. “You came on a hunt with me, you’re my partner in this. Come
on
.”
Nick swore beneath his breath before reaching in to grab his backpack, retrieving a much larger torch from it
and sliding something into his pocket before swinging the backpack onto his shoulders.
Bree took off, only to have Nick haul her to a stop by simply grabbing her arm. “What now? What what
what
?”
“If we’re doing this dumb thing you’re staying right beside me.”
“We have to hurry!”
“Bree.” There was a
sharpness she’d not heard before in his tone. “You either stay beside me or I’m dragging you back to the van and taking you home.”
Every second wasted arguing was a second lost on getting a possible close-up of the UFOs.
“Fine. Fine. But come
on
.”
Nick kept pace with Bree every step of the way, insisting on going ahead of her through the bushes though she kept right on his heels.
The lights had disappeared behind bushes a fair distance away, and they had to go over a wire fence to get into the
field before it.
Normally Bree would be watching out for everything herself, but Nick was a
silent and efficient partner. He pushed the wire fence down a lot further than she could so that she could get over it, and he never let her get more than a foot or two from him at any time. Not once did he let her get ahead of him.
She’d be taking that up later with him, but right now there was too much at stake.
How awesome it would be to get a close-up of the lights! Granted, it was dark on the other side of the bushes, no sign of lights, but you never knew. You just never
knew
what could be there!
Nick took the lead once they got to the bushes, pushing her behind him with a hard glint in his eyes when she started to protest. It
was just easier to give in to him, so she let him go first.
The man moved with stealth. She would have moved with hast, getting a goodly number of scratches while at it and probably f
allen over at least once in her impatience. Nick held branches back, moving with cautious and deliberate efficiency.
He was actually a r
eally good hunt partner. Definitely made her feel a lot safer.
As they neared the edge
of the bushes, he made her turn her torch off, as he did, and he knelt down, pulling her with him. Placing his mouth to her ear, he ordered quietly, “You stay right here.”
“What? Nick-”
“I’ll be back. You stay put until then.” Without waiting for her to argue, he vanished into the darkness.
How could the man simply disappear? Annoyed, Bree peered in the direction he’d gone but there wasn’t a sound, not even a teeny rustle to indicate that he was anywhere nearby. If she didn’t know better, she could almost believe she was alone.
Several drops of rain plopped down but for now it was holding off. Just a little longer, that’s all she asked, just a wee bit longer.
Impatiently, she peered around. If soldier boy didn’t hurry, she was heading through the last of the bushes to spot the UFOs. She bit her lip. What if Nick had stumbled upon them, what if they’d gotten him? Oh shit, she might have caused Nick to become the next alien abductee!
Shooting upright, fully intending to run through those bushes to save Nick come hell or high water - friendly aliens or dangerous, she didn’t care, no one was messing with her soldier boy - Bree took one step forward.
Something grabbed her from behind, one arm around her waist, a big hand closing over her mouth to smother her scream before it could escape. She was hauled back against a tall, strong body, the combin
ing aroma of soap and Nick’s unique clean, masculine scent making her sag in relief.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He removed his hand from h
er mouth.
“I thought you’d been taken.”
He kept his arm around her waist as he moved up beside her. “I’m hard to take.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t
know
.”
“When I tell you to stay put, you stay put.”
“Okay.” Not even listening to him, she gripped the torch. “What’s there? Did you see anything?”
“There’s nothing there.”
“Nothing?” Disappointment seeped through her. “Really?”
He flicked on his torch. “Come on, I’ll show you.” Taking her hand, he led her through the last of the bushes.
They came out on the edge of a creek. Across the creek was a clear field. It was dark, no spaceships, no lights, no eerie tall, thin figures. A thumping sounded, but when Bree swung her torch that way it was to see a kangaroo, the eyes shining in the torchlight before it hopped off into the bushes.
No animal, mammal, reptile or bird would be in the area if an
extraterrestrial had been present.
Disappointed, she lowered the torch. “Bugger.”
Nick gave her hand a small squeeze. “On the bright side, you did capture footage of lights.”
“Yeah.” Heartened, she
smiled. “Yeah, we did, didn’t we?”
“We did.”
“You can’t deny it now.” When he just looked steadily at her, she added, “You saw the UFOs.”
“I saw lights in the sky.”
“When no planes were scheduled to pass over.”
“Apparently.”
Bree slipped the backpack from her shoulders to the ground, giving her shoulders a roll. “You saw how the lights moved. No aircraft that we know of can move like that.”
“None that we know of,” he agreed calmly. “But we don’t know what designs the military and other
organisations are trialling.”
“Oh, come
on
! Nick, really? You’re going in
that
direction?”
“I’m saying I saw lights I can’t explain. Whether they were alien, I have no
idea.”
“But you don’t believe they are.”
“I believe what I see.’
“Just because there are no grey men running around pointing lasers at us doesn’t mean they’re not there.
There is a lot of reported evidence of alien abductions, you know.”
“You don’t say.”
“Tiny pieces of metal have been found in abductees’ bodies.”
“One of my mates had some metal. Shrapnel.”
“Nick!”
“Honey, let’s just agree to disagree, okay?”
Exasperated, she flung out her arms. “Fine. Cripes, you are hard-headed.”
Laughing, he moved forward, reaching for her. “Let’s go home.”
Evading his hands, she stepped back. “Oh, don’t think I’m that easy to appease, Nick. You have to grovel a lot, a bloody lot, to get back in my good books.”
“I can grovel. I’m good at grovelling.”
Feeling good about the recording she’d gotten of the lights, and not really surprised at his disbelief still, Bree grinned. “You can start -
ahhhh!
” The heavens let loose, rain pounding down. Startled, she stumbled back.
“Bree! Watch out!” Nick lunged at her.
Too late. The side of the creek crumbled, her sneakers sliding in the mud, throwing Bree off-balance. She went backwards.
Nick grabbed her wrist, but the rest of the muddy section gave way and he toppled down the slope after her, both
of them landing in the water.
The water closed over her head, the shock of the cold a slap in the face. Surfacing, Bree gasped at the frigid water soaking her
clothes, the cold rain pounding down.
Holy crap
! It was bloody freezing!
Not concerned for herself, she turned frantically in the water. “Nick! Nick, where are you?
Nick
!” Could he even hear her above the rain?
She couldn’t see properly, her torch at the bottom of the creek somewhere, his torch lying on its side at the top of the embankment. It was angled off to the side, casting only a glimmer her way.
“I’m here.” Nick’s voice, muted by the rain, came from behind her, and then he was beside her, one hand on her shoulder as he yelled above the din of the rain, “Are you okay?”
Relieved, she nodded. Then her teeth started chattering. “It’s c-cold.”
“Yeah. Can you swim?”
She could only nod.
“Let’s go.”
He swam beside her, keeping close. First out of the water, he grabbed her arm, helping her out. The top of the embankment wasn’t far but the slippery grass and mud didn’t help, not when combined with the rain that kept its steady pounding down.
A the top they grabbed their backpacks, swinging them over their shoulders, then Nick grabbed Bree’s hand in his, the torch in the other, and led them back through the bushes.
It seemed a million miles away to where they parked the car, and by the time they tumbled in through the sliding door and closed it behind
them, Bree could see that Nick’s lips were almost blue.
Obviously she didn’t look much better, because he
took one look at her face and swore. Without a word he slid his hand into the front of her soaked jeans and pulled out the car keys.
Nick drove while Bree sat in the passenger seat shaking with cold. The heater was blasting warm air at them both, but it wasn’t making much difference.
Both were silent, mainly because Bree couldn’t get a word out much through her chattering teeth, and Nick, well, Nick just drove with his jaw clenched, possibly, she thought, to stop him doing the same. Possibly.
The mobile rang not far from the turn off to her home. Flicking it on, she managed to chatter out a “Y-yes?”
“The moon is high,” Jackie said.
“Oh, f-for G-God’s sake, J-Jackie, n-not n-n-now!”
“The moon is high.”
“We f-fell in a c-creek!”
“The moon is high.”
The one time Bree needed Jackie to
not
be paranoid and the woman wasn’t taking the very blatant hint.
Nick cut his eyes to Bree.
“T-the f-f-friggin’ sun is l-l-low,” she managed, feeling incredibly stupid when he simply shook his head slightly and looked back at the road.
“
Did you get recordings of the lights?’ Jackie asked.
“D-did you h-he-hear what I said?”
Surely she could hear the way Bree was speaking?
“Hazards of the hunt. Did you see the lights?”
“We c-c-could have d-d-drowned!”
“Focus, Bree. The lights. Did you see the-”
Bree turned the mobile off.
Nick didn’t say a word, just cut her another look.
Cripes, Jackie was one-eyed when it came to UFOs, but geez, where was even a teeny, tiny shred of concern?
The mobile rang again as Nick turned into the driveway.
Bree flicked it on. “W-what?”
“It’s
Mick. Everything all right?”
At last! Someone cared! “Y-yes. W-we’re f-fine but-”
“Excellent, excellent. Now, did you see the lights?”
Bree watched the house come into view. Safe, warm, her little haven.
“Bree,” Mick said insistently. “This is important.”
Obviously more important than she and Nick falling into a freakin’ creek on a stormy night.
Nick pulled the van to a halt as close to the veranda as he could before turning off the engine. Shaking a little himself from the cold, he looked at Bree. “We need to get inside, get out of these clothes and get warm.”
“Bree, wait! Bef
ore you do-” Mick began almost desperately.
Nick’s gaze didn’t shift from Bree’s face. “
Mick, Bree is a fraction off hypothermia. This will wait until tomorrow.”
“But it’s im-”
“Not as important as my girl.” Nick turned the mobile off, his expression not changing one bit. “Let’s go.”
“N-no argument f-f-from me.”
Slamming the doors behind them, they ran to the veranda and up the steps, both of them yanking off their shoes and heavy, water-soaked jackets, leaving them lying on the veranda.
Inside, Nick pointed down the hallway. “Hot shower right now.”
“B-but y-your lips are b-blue,” she chattered.
“I’m fine. I’ll go after you.” He gave her a little push. “That’s an order.”
~*~
God, the hot water pounding down on him felt good. ‘Good’ being an understatement. It heated his chilled flesh and brought
the blood back to the surface.
It didn’t ease his anger at Bree’s friends, though. Not interested in the possibility that she could have drowned, that it was very clear, even over the mobile phone, that she could hardly speak through her chattering teeth.
Man, he’d wanted to reach through that phone and pound some sense into their heads. If they’d been in his squad he’d have had them digging latrines and taking night patrols until they thought that was their whole lot in the Army.
Turning off the water, Nick stepped out, grabbed the towel and started drying himself. Steam filled the bathroom, though the ventilation fan was doing a good job dispensing it. Give it a couple more minutes and he’d be able to see himself in the mirror. Maybe.
Scrubbing himself briskly with the soft towel, Nick’s jaw tightened. God, when he’d seen her fall backwards over the embankment, grabbed her hand even though he knew it was futile as soon as his own boots started slipping, his heart had jumped into his throat. Then the creek had swallowed them both. When he’d first surfaced, his heart had pounded in gut-wrenching fear that she’d hit her head, she’d disappeared under the water, she was swept away and hurt and he could do nothing.