Starstruck (32 page)

Pulling her close to his chest, her head over his heart, he
rubbed her arm gently and kissed her brow.

“This is nice,” she said.

“Mmm…” he murmured into her hair.

“I think that’s our cue,” Rick whispered loudly to Caitlin.
“Join me outside under the stars, milady?” He jumped up and grasped her hand,
dragging her with him.

“Ugh! Why do you Americans think we all speak like Brits? No
one in this country calls a woman ‘milady’ for Christ’s sake!” She slammed the
cabin door on her way out.

“Is this the last bottle?” Jesse tapped the last two drops
of wine into his near-empty glass.

“I might be able to scrounge up one more.” Sam stood and
slid her arms into her coat. “I’ll duck next door to check.”

He yanked her sleeve and pulled her back into his arms.
Curving his hands over the line of her jaw, he kissed her gently. “I love you.”

“And I love you,” she breathed.

Those words boomeranged back to him—by her—filled his heart
to the brim, mending his old scars.

* * * * *

Sam reluctantly pulled away and left Jesse in search of
wine. Rick and Caitlin jumped a short mile when she swung the door open. They
looked like two kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar—or watching
porn.

Sam went on her way, pretending to ignore their panicked
expressions, but grinned from ear to ear as she climbed aboard Daniel’s boat.

“Just getting some more supplies,” she called over her
shoulder. “Be right back, kids.”

Rick waited until she was inside the cabin before speaking,
but his whisper still wafted through the open door. “Do you think she saw us?”

“How old are you? She’s my cousin, not my mum,” Caitie
replied.

“Should I be worried about your mom then?”

“Yes, Ricky. You should be petrified,” she muttered.

Inside the warm cabin of the
Arteest
, Sam searched
the cupboards in the kitchen. They’d managed to wipe out the small stock of
wine she’d brought with her, but Daniel always kept the boat well-stocked with
nonperishables. Sure enough, there was a case of red in the back of the last
cupboard.

She squatted to pull out the canned goods that sat in front
and a cold shiver traveled up her spine, chilling her to the bone. One of her
grandmother’s favorite sayings sprang to mind.

Someone just stepped over my grave.

Something wasn’t right…at all. Her thigh muscles clenched as
she prepared to stand, but a hand seized her shoulder and pulled her back. A
cloth smothered her mouth, forcing her to breathe through her nose. She fought
to rip it away, to struggle against the body her back rested against, but her
limbs quickly grew too heavy to lift.

The interior of the cabin blurred and swayed in her vision.

* * * * *

Sarah sat in a small black canoe in the water, hidden by the
side of the large houseboat.

It hadn’t been difficult to track them. Earlier that day
she’d spoken with a grumpy old man at the pier, but he’d refused to give out
any information regarding the customers who leased his boats. Thankfully she’d
been sitting in her rental, checking the rearview mirror to make sure her dark
glasses and scarf were still firmly in place, when her cell phone had beeped
with another text message. She’d typed the new address into the car’s GPS and
driven the few miles up the road to a bridge that spanned the lake, hoping this
would be the last leg of her trip.

After entering the sleepy lakeside town, she happened to
bypass Ricky on the main street—walking with a dark-haired woman. She’d
followed them.

She was unsure how long she’d been sitting in the canoe
she’d stolen off the grassy bank, but her ears pricked when a guitar gently
strummed. She enjoyed the music until a chorus of voices began to sing the
first song of many. She became more infuriated with each bout of laughter
cutting through the night air.

Was she being careful enough? She had covered her tracks
with meticulous care, but even the most thoughtful plan had its weak spots.
Now, confined in the small craft, she was vulnerable, like a sitting duck. It
would only take someone poking their head over the side and she’d be caught—no
matter how dark her clothes. As far as she could tell, all the occupants were
still on the opposite boat.

She sat back to silently revise her plan should she have the
opportunity to execute it tonight when the distinct thud of bare feet hopped
onto the boat she clung to. Then a voice, one she recognized.

She waited for following footsteps but none came. The cabin
door closed with a soft click.

Her internal mentor, her only true friend, spoke into her
ear.
Do you remember lesson number five?

She jumped at his voice. He’d been gone so long she feared
he’d abandoned her. “I haven’t forgotten anything you’ve taught me. Number five
is patience, is it not?”

Yes…and you’ve waited long enough.

Steeling her nerves, she stood tall enough to peer over the
deck. Ricky was attached to the same woman he was with earlier in town. Their
lips were locked as they stood on the deck of the adjoining boat.

After tying the canoe to the rail and making sure the coast
was clear, she quietly climbed the small metal ladder and boarded the
Arteest
.
She entered the cabin and ducked into the open bathroom. Samantha Raven was
tinkering in the kitchen, opening and closing cupboard doors, mumbling about
where to find wine.

This was her chance. She had to be quick. Her physical
skills, or lack thereof, were up against a woman who had substantial martial
arts training. Sarah could
not
lose this fight. Her best option was a
surprise attack.

Like a cat stalking a sparrow, she crept across the floor, a
white cloth in one hand and a knife in the other. She didn’t allow time for a
struggle. She was swift and precise and the chloroform worked its quick magic.

The bitch never knew what hit her.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jesse dimmed the lights after lighting the candles he’d
found in the kitchen drawer, praising the soft ambience they emitted. He wanted
the atmosphere to be romantic.

He lounged back on the couch and his attention was drawn to
the dual stack of CDs by the stereo. He browsed through them, stopping when he
came across an interesting title. Bernard Fanning’s
Tea and Sympathy.
Heflipped it over to read the back cover, and then stopped short when he
found a song titled
Songbird
—the one Sam had sung in his living room
.
After setting the CD in the player, he immediately liked the first track. That
rarely happened. He disagreed with a lot of today’s music. Sometimes it made
him feel his age. The industry was pumping out pop and dance hits with no
substance or longevity and he hated it.

Longevity.
The word jolted him back to Sam…his life,
his future. There was no doubt in his mind. He had to be with her. It was just
a question of how they would proceed from here. And there was also the
fertility problem to face. He so desperately wanted kids—with her—but if he had
to resort to less conventional methods, then that’s what he was prepared to do.
He’d give anything as long as they stuck together.

What could be taking her so long?

He left the cabin, finding Rick and Caitlin smooching on the
back deck, so caught up in each other neither acknowledged him when he opened
the door.

“Ahem.” He grinned when they surfaced for air and blushed in
unison. “Seen my woman, have ya?”

“Try next door.” Rick tipped his head toward their sister
ship, rubbing Caitlin’s back as she snuggled closer into his chest.

Jesse jumped boats and swung the cabin door open with a huge
smile planted on his face. Their trip had gone better than he could ever have
hoped now that Sam had agreed to return home with him. He couldn’t wait to tell
his parents. They’d be thrilled. And little Gianni Jr. hadn’t stopped asking
about Sam since the night he’d met her at the restaurant.

“Sam?” Jesse called into the empty kitchen.

A cupboard door hung open in the galley and he closed it
absentmindedly as he passed. He checked the master suite, but his blonde,
green-eyed goddess was nowhere to be found. Trying the other rooms, he came up
empty.

He finally knocked on the bathroom door. “Sam?”

He turned the handle and it opened freely, but again, no
Sam. She could be nowhere else except for the top deck.

His heartbeat doubled as he ventured back outside and
climbed the ladder to the upper level. Something was wrong. The fear in his gut
intensified, and with every rung of chromed steel against his bare feet tension
built tighter in his thighs and fists. He clutched the last rail and peered
onto the top level. Deserted.

Full-blown panic hit his lungs like a steam train. He gasped
for air. His arms trembled and his legs turned to jelly. In his scrambling rush
to descend, his foot slipped and his little toe caught the metal rail, twisting
at an awkward right angle. He roared with the snap of tiny bone.

The next scream exploded from his chest when he crashed to
the wooden deck below. Rick yelled something but it was lost amid Jesse’s pain
and fear. He stumbled to his feet and hobbled as fast as he could to the
controls inside the cabin. He blasted the spotlights, frantically searching the
water and nearby bush at the edge of the lake.

Rick appeared at his side, panting heavily. “What the fuck
is goin’ on? You scream bloody murder, Caitlin starts ramblin’ about Lucy’s
diamond or some shit and then passes the fuck out cold. And where the hell is
Sam? Have you gone and lost her again already?”

Jesse slapped Rick hard across the back of the head. “You
think this is funny? Sam’s gone AWOL and unless she suddenly changed her mind,
jumped overboard and swam to shore, she could be seriously hurt or…”

He didn’t want to finish his sentence.

They scanned the water’s surface while Jesse tried to get a
signal on his phone. He couldn’t even get a single bar from their current
location. He used the two-way radio to call the Coast Guard, reading out the
coordinates displayed on the GPS before slamming the handset back into the
cradle.

“We’ll find her, man.” Rick clapped him gently on the back.
“I’m gonna check on Caitlin. I’ll be right back, okay?”

Jesse shook his head to try to clear some of his
frustration. “Wait, what were you sayin’ ’bout her fainting? What happened? Is
she all right?”

“I don’t know. You screamed…twice…and then she suddenly
collapsed in my arms. If I wasn’t already holdin’ her she woulda hit the deck.
She mumbled something before she passed out, but all I really caught was the
name Lucy and diamond. Do you know who that is?”

“No.”

“I laid her down on the sofa in the other cabin. I’ll just
check on her real quick.”

After almost half an hour since the alarm bells first rang
inside Jesse’s head, they were still no closer to finding Sam.

* * * * *

Pure adrenaline coursed through Sarah’s veins, making the
dead weight surprisingly light to carry on and off the boat, into the car she’d
parked at the small jetty downstream, and then into the vacant old house near
the edge of the bush land and ocean. She’d stumbled upon the house purely by
accident when she’d gotten lost earlier during the day, taking a left when she
should have turned right. As it turned out, she couldn’t have schemed better if
she’d tried. Everything fell into place just as if it was meant to be. Even the
small black canoe she’d found upside down on the bank.

It was all destiny…hers.

While Samantha Raven lay unconscious, Sarah callously jabbed
a thin needle through the taut skin just above her hip bone. Her hostage would
be out of it for a while. She had enough for four more hits should she need to
keep the troublemaker longer than planned.

She was nothing if not thorough—always thinking ahead.

Buying the drugs in Sydney after she’d left the airport had
been easy. She’d stopped at the first train station she came across, just
outside the city. It had only taken twenty minutes out of her day and the
dealer had been so high he would never remember her.

Samantha Raven would die very soon. That was a certainty.
But not before Sarah finished having fun. She didn’t want to rush. She wanted
to savor every moment.

Soon, my love. Soon. Everyone will see how we’re meant to
be.

* * * * *

Sam groaned, the shrieking pain inside her head like the
constant pounding of a jackhammer. Fine grit coated her cheek, scratching,
irritating her skin. Her throat was parched, hurt when she tried to swallow.
Her stomach cramped.

Tiny pinpricks exploded and pulsed in her stiff shoulder. A
coarse pressure abraded and dug into the tender skin of her wrists. And her
hands…no feeling. An eerie tingling existed where they once belonged.

Pulsing pain racked her body and she clenched her jaw,
trying to curl into a fetal position, but her legs barely moved an inch. She
was a magnet being held to a steel floor. She tried to disconnect herself, but
the force kept pulling against her. It was just too strong.

Doped again? Dammit, what is it with the drugs?

Bags of cement weighed down her eyelids. They fluttered
heavily as she struggled to open them.

Samantha May! Open your eyes, dear girl. Just for a
minute, I promise. You need to look at me.

She opened her mouth, but only a dry wheeze came out. Her
second attempt was a rasped whisper. “Nana?”

Come on, Samantha. Open up. You can do it. Caitie’s
trying to find you. Sam, I’m not allowed to do this on my own. You need to wake
up.

Sam forced every ounce of energy into the muscles of her
eyelids and pushed them open to the barest slits. A blurry window hung sideways
along the far wall. The bright moonbeam illuminating the wood floor burned her
eyes. “There you are, Nan. What are you doing here?”

Look out the window, Samantha. What do you see? What’s
that light there? Come on, girlie, I need you to think what you see.

The authority in her grandmother’s voice made her obey no
matter how much her body hurt. She studied the dark window as best she could.
Light?

A sharp beam flashed past the window and then it was gone,
along with her grandmother.
A torch? Is that what that is? Where the hell am
I?

She tried to focus. Muddled thoughts bounced around within
her head. The light flashed past the window again. Her ears popped and she
became aware of the rhythm of the tide.
The ocean?

The stabbing tingle of pins and needles ratcheted to a
piercing in her hands and legs. She flexed her fingers and the only proof she
had of their movement was the brush against her back. They were too numb,
disconnected from her brain.

The beam of light passed the open window once more and the
howling wind accelerated, blowing her hair from her cheek and cooling her
clammy skin. She inhaled the cool breeze deep into her lungs. Salt coated her
tongue and with it, awareness of what had generated the bright light.

A lighthouse!

She forced her head off the wooden floor but it dropped back
down with a thud, her neck unable to hold the weight. The slight, pitiful
movement gave her vertigo. The room swam around her like an acid-washed
whirlpool. Bile rose in her throat. Her stomach burned. The haze rapidly
returned. Her mind snapped, releasing its hold on the few remaining threads of
sanity before submitting to the power of the drug, pulling her back into a
space inside her head, null and void of pain.

There was only strange peace.

* * * * *

“Caitlin?”

“I’m sorry, Jesse, but please be quiet…just for a sec.”

“Caitlin, Sam—”

“Shhh…” Frustration creased her brow, her eyes squeezing
shut even tighter as she sat on the floor in the candlelight.

He inhaled a deep breath and bent over, hands braced on his
knees, doing his best not to hyperventilate. The possible scenarios going
through his mind were too frightening to fathom.

Why the fuck is she meditating when Sam’s missing, for
Christ’s sake?

His patience had long disappeared and his heart was
breaking. Everything couldn’t be a coincidence. Too many terrible things had
happened for him to believe that. The energy suddenly deflated from the muscles
in his legs and he collapsed on the sofa.

Oh, God! What if this was his fault? Could he have somehow
led them straight to her?

Becky?
Could she really do something so…so terrible?

His head was heavy in his hands, his thoughts threatening to
tear him apart. He couldn’t let his mind go there. Not yet. He had to find Sam.

“Jesse! She’s alive!” Caitlin’s eyes popped opened and she
jumped off the floor. Clutching his shoulders, she dug her fingers into his
muscles and shook him like a human maraca. “The lighthouse! She’s somewhere
close by it, Jesse. She can see the light through the window as it passes so
she must be near the ocean. It can’t be far.”

Releasing her grasp, she paced the floor, nibbling her
thumbnail. Jesse remained silent, instinct telling him not to interrupt even
though every fiber of his being wanted to scream and rant like a child. Sam had
wanted silence and no physical contact when she experienced that vision in his
bedroom. He thought it wise to pay Caitlin the same courtesy, especially if she
could help him find Sam.

Caitlin stopped directly in front of him and grasped both
his hands, staring him square in the eyes. “I can
feel
her. She’s
drugged to the hilt again and it’s the same threat as before. She’s pretty out
of it, but she’s
alive
, Jesse!”

“H-how bad is it? Will she make it? Can we get to her in
time?”

“It’s…it’s like a radio signal but I’ve got bad reception.
She keeps fading away from me. I only get a small glimpse and then she’s gone
again, and what I can see is all fuzzy. It must be from whatever drug she’s
been given. We have to hurry. We have to get to the lighthouse, now!”

His feet remained frozen to the floor, his eyes unable to
withhold the tears any longer. The dam burst and he couldn’t stop the flood no
matter how hard he tried. The strong, confident man he always imagined he was
crumbled, his heart shattering piece by piece. Caitlin held her arms open and
he fell into them and sobbed against her shoulder.

“I can’t lose her, Caitie. Not again. Not ever again. I
don’t want to live another day without her.”

She rubbed his back while he wiped the tears from his cheeks
with the sleeve of his jacket.

“We can do this, Jess. C’mon. I’m not losing her either.”

Rick poked his head through the open doorway of the cabin.
“Hey, I checked with the Coast Guard. They said it will take awhile to reach us
but the fuzz is already on the way.”

* * * * *

“How far do you think it is?” Jesse pressed as Rick steered
the large boat upstream.

“We need to go to where we picnicked earlier today so keep a
lookout for the water level markers. We’ll have to take the dinghy in and then
go by foot. Going back for the cars will take too long. This will be quicker.
We’ll follow the beach and find the lighthouse. The beam casts a long way so
she could be anywhere. I just hope my signal gets clearer when we’re closer. I
hope I’ll know which way to go.” Caitlin sighed and rolled her shoulders.

“We’ll find her, Caitie.” He gave his solemn oath. “We have
to.”

The houseboat reached the small signs signifying shallow
water ahead and Rick killed the engine while Jesse cast the anchor. Rick
extinguished the spotlight but left the smaller outdoor lights on. The night
had turned almost black. Dark clouds covered the moon above. The smell of rain
filled the air and the closer they got to the ocean, the harder the wind blew.