EDEN (Eden series Book 2) (6 page)

‘Do I have a time limit?’ I ask.

‘Nope.’

‘OK.’ I start gathering the money, carefully, in bricks. Afterwards, without looking at him, but knowing he is watching me, I slide the bricks together. Six bricks. I double them so their height will be slightly higher than my palm and fingers spread to their fullest. I push them together and notice a note lying on the floor. I look up at Jake, standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

I arch an eyebrow. ‘Do you mind?’

Wordlessly he bends, picks it up, and holds it out to me. I take it and, putting it on top of my pile of bricks, lift them all by pressing them together on either side of the tower with my spread palms. The whole thing comes up in between my palms.

I look up at him, fifty thousand pounds richer.

He grabs my hand—the bricks fall down on the bed in a heap—and pulls my naked body to his. ‘Do you know what I am thinking?’ he mutters.

My heart somersaults. I take his lower lip between my teeth and pull it experimentally as far away from his face as I can while my hands start undoing the top button of his shirt. He drags his lips in a trail of fire along my throat and my chin and catches my mouth with his. His tongue delves in, seeking mine, like a grounded child whose friend has come to knock on the door to ask if he can come out to play.

‘Someone should bottle you,’ he says softly, much, much later.

NINE

Jake

T
he sound of a bird chirping wakes me up. Shit. That’s no fucking bird in my bedroom. Immediately I tense. It can only be bad news. I feel Lily moving in the pitch dark. Her bedside lamp comes on. She blinks and squints blearily against the glare of the light. I lay a hand on her shoulder.

‘Go back to sleep,’ I say softly, and quickly go out of the room holding my phone. The light clock flashes 3.50 a.m.!

‘What is it, Dom?’ My voice is not sleepy. It is a bark, at once urgent, worried and irritated. I run down the stairs.

‘They’ve only gone and torched Eden, haven’t they?’ He sounds like he has been drinking.

My stomach lurches. My first thought: ‘Where’s Shane?’

‘He’s all right,’ my brother says instantly.

I feel almost sick with relief.

Without drawing breath Dom carries on ranting, ‘It was the Pilkingtons that did it. I fucking know it was that big bastard. No one else would dare.’

I get into the living room and start walking toward the window. ‘Calm down, Dom.’

‘Calm down? Calm down?’ he bellows. ‘I’m gonna kill him. I’ll fucking kill the ugly vermin. These motherfuckers need to know who they’re messin’ with. I say I get some of our boys to Red Ice and turn it into a nice bonfire tomorrow night.’

This is not good. Dom is in one of his volcanic rages. I can picture him, his lean, wiry body crashing about whatever room he is in, his neck popping with purple veins, his mind an unthinking red mist. I need to calm him down. The situation is bad enough without another bonfire. Outside it is beautifully still.

‘Take it easy, Dom.’

‘Are you kidding me? That lowlife scum is trying to muscle in on our patch and you’re asking me to take it easy? He’ll be dead meat before I call this feud between the Edens and the Pilkingtons over,’ he screams into my ear.

‘Shut up. Your head is fucked,’ I snarl furiously.

That gets through to him. He goes silent.

I take a deep breath. ‘Let me think. We need to remain calm and focused,’ I say seriously.

‘And then what?’ he spits, still boiling, but disaster has been averted for now.

My temples begin to throb. This silly generational feud. Will I never be free of it? Still, I’m in no mood to argue.

‘And then
I
decide. I’m the head of this family and don’t you forget it.’

Dom subsides like a soufflé that has seen daylight too early. ‘OK, I hear you. I’m sorry. What do you want me to do, Jake?’

‘Take your boys and go down there and see what the gossip is and report back to me in the morning.’ 

‘All right, I’m gonna do what you ask, but this needs to be sorted quickly. I’m not gonna let that cocky cunt walk all over us—’

I terminate the call and fling my mobile across to the couch. Shit, fucking shit. The last thing I need is for Dominic to go crashing into this delicate truce between the Pilkingtons and the Edens. Nobody can even remember anymore why our two families are feuding, but we are. We stay out of each other’s way. Why on earth would the Pilkingtons decide to reignite the feud now? There is no sense to it. Neither of us wants an all-out war. I call Shane.

He answers on the first ring. ‘Dom called you?’ He sounds stressed.

‘Yeah. Where are you now?’

‘At the club.’

‘Is the fire out?’

‘Yeah, looks like it.’

‘How bad is it?’

‘They firebombed the front and the back. There was hardly anything to burn in the front and the sprinklers contained the fire but the kitchen looks bad.’

‘Do you need me to come there?’

‘Nah. I got it under control. The police are here now.’

‘Right. I’ll see you in the morning.’

I flick on a light switch, go to the bar, and reach for a bottle of Scotch. I pick it up to down it and see Lily is standing at the door. I take a swallow, my fingers gripping the cold glass.

‘You want a drink, Lil?’

Before she can answer I pour a second shot into another tumbler. I walk up to her, pass her the drink and raise my glass against hers. I swallow in one but she doesn’t even pretend to drink.

‘What’s going on, Jake?’

‘Someone set fire to Eden.’

‘What?’ Her eyes widen with shock. ‘Why?’

I shrug. ‘Could be just kids.’

‘Do you have to go there now?’

‘No, Shane is there.’

‘Do you need me to do anything?’

I shake my head and kiss her on the top of her head. ‘Go back to bed. I’ve got some calls to make. I’ll be in shortly.’

‘OK.’ She turns around and starts walking toward the bedroom.

‘Oh, Lil, would you like to go on a trip tomorrow?’

She turns around slowly. ‘By myself?’

‘Of course not. With me, obviously.’

She beams at me. ‘Of course I would.’

I feel that dizzy rush to my head. It is unbelievable how crazy I am about her. She is waiting for me to explain. Tell her where or why. But I don’t and she walks away from me. Smiling, but confused.

Lily

I don’t close the door to the living room and go back to bed. Instead I stand at the top of the stairs and listen, but there are no more sounds to be heard other than Jake going into the dining room and shutting the door behind him. I go back to the bedroom and lie on the bed.

So the Pilkingtons have firebombed Eden. I frown. The information in the file Mills gave me clearly stated that both crime families maintain distant but cordial relations, and have their areas clearly drawn up. If it was the Pilkingtons, there is no doubt that this is a declaration of war. But why? There is no benefit to either family to engage in all-out turf war.

Hours later, when a small sliver of light seeps under the curtain, Jake comes back to bed. I pretend to be asleep. He stands over me watching me sleep. I keep my breathing even and deep. Eventually, he goes over to his side of the bed. I can hear him peeling off his clothes before the mattress gives way to his weight.

I make a small sound, as if I have just woken up, and turning around mumble incoherently. He is sitting with his back to me, but his head is turned down to look at me. I blink up at him. In the blue light of dawn his back is an intriguing play of shadows and gleaming muscles, but his eyes are densely black.

All I want to do is grab his silky hair and drag his mouth onto mine. This is exactly the moment of vulnerability that I have been waiting for. It must be exploited. I reach out a hand, and a frisson of electricity goes through me when our skins touch.

‘It’s not just random kids, is it?’

‘Probably not,’ he admits very softly.

‘You know who it is, don’t you?’

His voice is guarded. ‘Maybe.’

‘Why did they do it?’

He sighs. ‘I don’t know yet, but I intend to find out.’

‘Why are we going away tomorrow?’

‘Because I need to think.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Ibiza.’

I could have pushed more, but suddenly I am filled with an odd and surprising sensation. Not to take or break. But the acute regret that I am unable to savor him, as I would a fine wine. If only I was his real girlfriend. If only he could really trust me. If only I could help him instead of finding a way to trap him.

The thoughts are burdensome. Willfully breaking what I have believed in for so long. But mostly because they betray the promises I have made to Luke. And I am faithful if nothing else. My loyalty must be to Luke at all times.

He lies down beside me. For a while there is only the sound of our breathing.

‘I’m here for you,’ I whisper. And the odd thing is I mean it.

He turns his head to look at me. Our gazes meet and hold. The look in his eyes is so intoxicating I can’t look away.

‘Thank you,’ he says, and his voice is strangely breathless.

TEN

Lily

J
ake’s house in Ibiza is a triumph of cubist modernist architecture. Set into the clifftop it is held up by an impressive framework of poured concrete, steel columns and beams. A concealed garage opens remotely.

‘Wow,’ I exclaim.

‘That’s what I said when I saw the artist impression of the design.’

At the entrance, a suspended steel framed cube hovers in mid-air while the frameless pivot door welcomes us into a stunningly minimalist entrance hall. It opens out to a space into which natural light pours through floating roofs. Sliding doors and the extensive use of glass make the threshold between the open plan interior and exterior convincingly invisible.

Jake slides open the glass doors and we are standing outside facing a swimming pool. Beyond it is the blue-green sea. It is so beautiful my breath catches. Now I know why he wanted to come here to think. This place is so modern and yet so wild and natural. It’s taken me some time but I am slowly starting to understand him a little better. He is a sensuous man who needs wildness, nature. They are almost a part of him. That is why he rides horses bareback.

For a while we are both silent, drinking in the salty sea breeze. Then he looks down at me, tousled, but somehow refreshed already.

‘Come, I’ll show you the rest of the house.’

Natural light floods even the deepest parts of the house and there is always that sense of space that comes from vast expanses of glass. There are two receptions, three bedrooms all facing the sea, a kitchen, a dining room, and a cellar. We don’t go down into it.

He opens the freezer and takes out a bag. ‘I’m going for a swim in the sea,’ he says. ‘Wanna come?’

‘How will you get to the sea? We are so high up.’

‘I’ll show you,’ he says, and takes me to the bottom of the garden where there are steep steps that go down to a small private beach inaccessible by any other means.

‘What’s in the bag?’ I ask, as I carefully follow his lead.

‘Breadcrumbs for the fish.’

‘We’re going to feed the fish?’

‘Yup.’

He leads the way and at the end of our descent we are standing on a strip of yellow sand that is totally enclosed by rocky cliffs and sea.

He pulls me toward his body and puts a finger under my chin. ‘I’m going for a long swim. Can you amuse yourself until I come back?’

‘Why can’t I come?’

He frowns, instantly worried. ‘It will be too far out for you.’

‘OK, I’ll swim for a bit, and then I’ll lie on the beach and wait for you.’

He bends his head and lightly brushes his lips against mine. ‘Don’t go anywhere.’