The Kiera Hudson Prequels 2 (4 page)

He looked at me over the table, a flicker of firelight in his blue eyes. “Yes,” he said.

“
Why?” I asked.

“
Because you’re my
friend
, remember?” he said right back. “Besides, everything else that guy said was nonsense. He was making the whole thing up.”

I lifted my glass and drained it. Looking at Tom, I said, “Did you really tell him you thought I was pretty?”

“
I was just trying to describe you. Besides, I’ve told you before I think you’re pretty,” he said, shifting in his seat as if uncomfortable.

“
Have you?” I asked.

“
Loads of times,” he nodded.

“
I don’t remember,” I pushed.

“
I’m sure I have,” he said, taking up his glass and drinking the last of the wine. “What about when you thought Morris Cook was staring at you in that garage? I said he was probably looking at you because you were pretty. See, that was one time I said it.”

“
I’m sure I would’ve remembered,” I said.

“
Why would you, things were different back then,” Tom tried to explain.

“
Different?” I frowned. “Different, how?”

“
We had only just met,” Tom said.

“
More reason for me to remember,” I told him, not letting him off the hook. “I’m sure I would remember a complete stranger telling me I was pretty.”

“
But we weren’t like complete strangers, we were friends already…”

“
We’re friends now, but you said things have changed,” I reminded him. “So what has changed?”

Tom took a deep breath as if steadying his nerves. Then, looking me straight in the eyes, he said, “What I mean is… look… when we first met… over the last few weeks my feelings…”

Before Tom had had a chance to finish what he was struggling to say, the woman at the table with the man suddenly shot to her feet.

“
You bastard!” she hissed. Raising her hand, she slapped the man across the face. It sounded like a gunshot.

“
Ouch!” Tom grimaced, glancing back over his shoulder. “I bet that hurt.”

The man sprang from his chair, nearly knocking the table and everything on it over. He gripped the woman’s wrist.

“
Let go,” the woman screeched, her bright red lips rolling back in anger. Her lipstick was the same colour as her dress. Strands of her long blond hair covered her face as she tried to wrestle free of him.

I made to get up out of my chair. Tom placed his hand over mine.

“
We’re on a break here, remember?” he whispered. “We’re not meant to be getting involved.”

“
But…” I started.

“
But Phillips warned us to keep apart,” Tom said. “We don’t need to go getting ourselves involved in drunken domestic disputes.”

With my eyes still on the couple on the other side of the bar, I slowly sat down again.

“
You promised me you were going to finish with
her
,” the woman spat. “You told me it was me you loved, not her.”

I glanced at Tom. I wanted to say I told you so, but now wasn’t the time.

“
Sit down,” the man hissed. “Everyone is watching us.”

“
Good!” the woman yelled, yanking her arm free of her husband’s grip. “I want them to see what a lying cheat I’m married to. If you don’t tell Lorraine to piss off, then I will.”

“
Please, just sit down, Melinda,” the man said. He glanced over at me and Tom, then back at his sobbing wife. He eased her back down into the chair. Part of me hoped she’d hit him again.

“
Do you want a divorce…?” she cried.

“
No,” he tried to reason with her.

“
Good, because I would never give you one,” the woman snapped.

“
Poor cow,” Tom said under his breath, turning away, now that the fight had calmed down.

Then, in a flood of tears, Melinda pushed her chair back from the table and stood up again. Sobbing, she ran across the bar and up the stairs. The man shot Tom and me another quick glance, then left the bar in pursuit of his wife.

I looked at Tom and him at me.

“
What were you trying to say before that row started?” I asked him.

“
It doesn’t matter,” he sighed.

Tom

Had the row between the man and his wife saved me from a world of embarrassment? I had just been about to tell Kiera that perhaps my feelings for her had changed – become confused somehow. It had been on the tip of my tongue to tell her that I thought I liked her more than just a friend. But the sudden argument between the woman named Melinda and her cheating husband had broken the moment. Cast away the spell the wine, good food and the warming fire had created.

“
What were you trying to say before that row started?” Kiera asked me, her eyes never leaving mine. Kiera’s bright hazel eyes seemed to see right through me. As if she could
see
into my soul somehow. Sometimes it made me feel uncomfortable, as if she was reading me like she read a crime scene. Sometimes to be looked at by her was nice. But now it just made me feel uncomfortable. I looked away at the dancing flames in the nearby fireplace.

“
It doesn’t matter,” I sighed.

“
Tell me what you’re thinking,” she said, her voice soft.

I couldn’t tell her. It would probably spoil our friendship, and I really didn’t want to do that. So looking away from the fire and back at her, I smiled and said, “So where do you think you’ll be posted to when we leave training school?”

Kiera shrugged as if half expecting me to ask her something else. “I don’t know.”

“
I don’t mind where I get sent, as long as it’s not the Ragged Cove,” I said with a shudder.

“
Where’s that?” Kiera asked.

“
On the furthest tip of the coast,” I said. “Apparently, the town is miles away from anywhere.”

“
You make it sound like some kind of ghost town,” Kiera half smiled. But I could see by the way her eyes sparkled in her pale pretty face that I had caught her interest and imagination.

“
It might as well be,” I said, dropping my voice to a whisper.

“
What do you mean?” she asked, leaning in close across the table. I caught the faintest hint of the shampoo she had used on her thick, black hair and the soap she had used on her soft skin. It was more intoxicating than the wine. I felt a sudden urge to tell her how crazily happy she made me feel, but instead, I leant back in my chair and said, “I’ve heard that most of the new recruits sent to the Ragged Cove don’t stay long.”

“
What, they quit the force?” Kiera asked, her eyes shining so bright.

“
Some say they just disappear,” I whispered. “Never to be seen again.”

“
Have these disappearances been investigated?” Kiera asked, her practical self as always.

I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure the waitress wasn’t standing close by. Then, looking back at Kiera, I said, “Some say there has been a cover-up.”

“
A cover-up?” Kiera breathed. “By whom?”

“
The senior management team. The top brass at force headquarters,” I continued to whisper.

“
And who told you all this?” Kiera asked.

“
Constable John Miles,” I told her.

“
Sparky, you mean?” she asked.

“
I know his nickname is
Sparky
because he isn’t the brightest officer on the course,” I explained. “But I’ve heard other officers talking about the Ragged Cove too. The rumours are all the same.”

“
Well, if I’m to be honest it’s just the kind of place I’d like to get sent to,” Kiera said, sitting back in her seat.

“
Now, how did I know you were going to say that?” I smiled.

“
The whole place sounds like one big mystery waiting to be solved,” she said.

“
It sounds like a whole lot of trouble to me,” I told her.

“
We might both get sent to this town called the Ragged Cove,” Kiera smiled at me.

“
I don’t think that will happen,” I said, not even wanting to hope for such a thing for one moment. Any future disappointment would be crushing.

“
Why not?” Kiera asked with a shrug. “You and I would have the mystery of the Ragged Cove solved in no time.”

“
Phillips can’t seem to bear the thought of me and you texting each other,” I reminded her. “You don’t think he is going to send us to the same posting once we leave training school, do you?”

“
If the rumours are true about the Ragged Cove, then what two better officers to send?” Kiera said, with a half-smile.

“
And that’s the very reason they won’t send us,” I said, staring back at her.

“
And what’s that?” Kiera asked.

“
If what Sparky and the other recruits say is true, our senior officers don’t want the mystery of the Ragged Cove solved, they just want to cover it up.”

Kiera sat and looked at me as if deep in thought. I looked at how the firelight made her raven black hair shimmer almost blue, and how her red lips looked so very kissable.

I suddenly pushed my chair back from the table and stood up before I let the wine make me say something stupid – something I would later regret. “I think I might just go to bed.”

“
Really?” Kiera said, sounding a little surprised.

“
I’m dead beat,” I lied.

“
Me, too, I guess,” she said, standing up.

Together we left the bar and went to our separate rooms.

Kiera

I woke with a start the following morning. Someone was knocking on my door. Clawing hair from my face where it lay matted and tangled, I groaned and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I padded to the door in my pyjamas. It was barely light outside, and I guessed it must be before 7 a.m. What was the point in taking a break from things if you couldn’t even have a lay-in?

“
Who is it?” I asked, the side of my face to the door as the knocking came again.

“
It’s me, Tom.”

Trying to straighten my hair, I opened the door a fraction and peered through the gap at him.

“
What’s the time?” I croaked, eyes still half shut. He looked wide awake.

“
Six-thirty,” he beamed, bright-eyed.

“
You’re kidding me,” I sighed, just wanting to climb back into bed. My head still felt a little fuzzy from the wine I had drunk the night before.

“
I thought we could go for an early morning walk. Build up an appetite for breakfast,” he said.

“
Why?” I mumbled, struggling to become fully awake. I didn’t share Tom’s enthusiasm for taking a brisk early morning walk in the freezing cold.

“
I thought we could walk down onto the beach and watch the sun come up,” he said, taking a flask from his back. “And share this lovely hot flask of tea.”

“
Where did you get that?” I asked.