Sweet Seduction Serenade (27 page)

Four torturous, long hours. Throughout it all I tried to be the daughter they had raised. The daughter they needed me to be. The sister Nick would have been proud of. The sister Dominic relied on to keep the rest of the family together, while he hunted for our brother with all of Nick's ASI men.

Adam had stayed with us for the first hour, then Ben returned to relieve him once Eva had boarded her plane. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. Eva was sunshine in a bottle, a breath of fresh air and I knew Nick would be devastated when he came home and found the beautiful, effervescent cowgirl gone. But first things first. We had to bring Nick home safe and sound, then we'd worry about Eva.

I watched Ben pace in the corner of the room for the most part. He was restless, like a caged animal. He wanted to be out on the hunt for the Russell boys and their matriarch. But Adam was the tracker on the ASI team, Ben was the shadow you never knew was there. We didn't know where the Russells were, so shadowing them was moot. Nick needed Adam right now, so Ben drew the short straw.

Every other ASI personnel was called in. No matter what their current assignment, they dropped everything to find Nick. Perhaps there'd be fallout afterwards, but none of them cared right now. Gen's brother Jason breezed through Nick's house at one point to converse with Ben quietly in the corner. All directions were coming from Eric in the ASI control room and we considered shifting there to be close to the communications, but neither Papa nor Mama wanted to leave Nick's house. I couldn't blame them. ASI was his passion, but the Nick we knew, the private Nick, was here.

In the décor he had selected and I had designed for him. In the immaculately presented front and back lawn. Even in the fragrance of the place. Nick's aftershave hung on the air mixed with a new scent; peaches and cream, which I knew must have been Eva's. The combination of both seemed as old as time, as though his signature smell was always meant to be entwined with hers.

I watched Jason give an update about something to Ben and wondered why he hadn't just phoned like the rest. Ben was getting a constant stream of messages and phone calls, none of the other ASI guys had stepped foot in Nick's house. But Jason did. And a part of me - stupidly - thought maybe it was to check on me. But he didn't even look my way. Not once. Not a single time in the entire five minutes he was there.

It was Ben's eyes that came to mine while they talked, a strange expression briefly on his face. I tipped my head sideways trying to decipher it, but I couldn't. Ben could hide in shadows and also hide behind a mask of impassivity when he chose. The expression disappeared the moment he saw me watching them, the mask slipping into place. He nodded once to Jason and then Jason left. He didn't even say a word to my parents or his sister. He just slipped out the door, determination written all over his face.

They were all good men working for Nick. Ex-military like Jason and a couple of the others. Ex-policemen. Certified private investigators. Techno-geniuses like Eric. A mixed bag, but they all had one thing in common. They were the best at what they did. Nick had head-hunted a few, some came from all over the country to work for the famous - or infamous - Anscombe Securities and Investigations. I tried to calm myself with that knowledge. They
would
find Nick and bring him home.

Even Detectives Harvey Stone and Ryan Pierce made appearances from time to time. Once before Eva left and again since then to give us an update on the Police's side of the investigation. Eventually the Russells would be found, New Zealand was only so big. But what would be left of Nick, and Eva's father? I was almost as worried about the poor sick man as I was about my brother. Surely all of this was not good for his failing health.

I made tea and coffee. I whipped up fresh scones for everyone to pretend to eat. I answered
Nick's private home phone, fielding any interest from the press - who'd unfortunately caught wind of
the situation, something about a Russell boy, Tyler I think, bragging about it down at a pub - the neighbours curious about the comings and goings of Police vehicles and the like, and extended family who'd heard the news through various media. I kept a cheerful demeanour while I dealt with it all, but inside I was crumbling. Much longer and I'd be like Gen; a sniffling, blubbering mess on the couch.

She tried to put a brave face on, but Gen cries at the drop of a hat. It was to be expected that she'd sob when Eva was forced to leave and then spend the rest of the past four hours trying to hide how upset she was from my folks. I gave her a hand squeeze whenever I felt strong enough to bolster her up, then as soon as her tears got to me I'd scurry away to do something else.

At three o'clock word came in that they'd found him. Eva was already airborne and thousands of miles away. The first words, apparently, that Nick said to Adam as he approached him in the abandoned building in South Auckland was, "How's Eva? Is she OK?" He had blood soaking his right upper leg, a pool of it beneath his thigh. He was weak and battered and bruised and nearly passing out from hypovolemia, but his first thoughts were for his cowgirl. It was then Mama and Papa shared a look that said it all.

They knew. And I knew. And I was guessing all of his men by now knew, that Nick Anscombe had finally given away his heart.

And we'd let her escape, so we had a chance of bringing him home. This was not going to go well at all. But Adam deflected his queries with vague answers and by the time he made it to hospital, he was unconscious. That left us two hours of surgery and then a further two hours of recovery, before he was conscious enough to demand where his angel was.

Things went down hill from there. He threatened to fire his entire staff. To ostracise his family from his life. And then he demanded a cellphone and his credit card, because he was booking a ticket to Nashville that night.

It was Papa who talked him out of it. I think it broke Mama's heart as much as it broke mine to watch.

"Son," Papa said in that soothing tone he used on us when thunderstorms made all three Anscombe kids climb into their bed at night. "If you chase after her intent on bringing her back, you need to take some good news with you. Otherwise she won't listen, she'll stay away to protect you. You either catch these arseholes for her, or at the very least you secure her Dad. Then you find her and you make her know she is yours."

Mama blinked up at him with a look I'd seen before whilst growing up. Pure, unadulterated adoration. Like he was the very air she breathed, her life depended on this man. My mother has a very strong will of her own, but she'd given her heart to a man who knew what he wanted when he saw it, then simply set out to take it, claim it and make her his completely. I was thinking his sons were just like him.

And I desperately wanted the man I gave my heart to, to be like my Papa too.

We left Nick when he fell asleep exhausted with promises to be back early the next day.

When I arrived at the hospital at eight in the morning, the moment visiting hours began, he'd already self-discharged. The nurses there shaking their heads in dismay, but with little smiles playing on their lips.

He'd said to them that he needed to see a cowgirl about a song and demanded to be let loose so he could chase her down. I think they were picturing bulldogging or some such rodeo event.

I panicked the entire way to ASI headquarters, not being able to get him on the phone. But I needn't have worried. He'd listened to Papa and was doing exactly what he'd advised. Hunting down the Russells and trying to find Eva's Dad. With the dedication to a task that all Anscombe men have, Nick approached the hunt for Eva's family with single minded focus.

All I could do was sit back and wait and watch and pray it all worked out. I tried to phone Eva, but her phone had been disconnected. Without her father, we had no way of getting in touch. No one had Cary's number or even her ex-boyfriend Derek's. And both men had left - Cary with Eva, Derek
the very next day after that. Eric was working on it, but with the hunt taking up most of ASI's time, he wasn't making much headway. He would though, Eric's the best.

Ten days after Eva left for Nashville, Tennessee, they found him. And only just in the knick of time.

Eva's Dad was definitely dying and the hour glass was almost out of sand.

It had been a long hard couple of weeks. I'd tried, I really had, but no matter what I did I couldn't seem to fit back into Nashville life. I thought I'd created my perfect world when I moved here and set up house eight years ago. I was surrounded by like-minded people. Country music on every radio in every store. Cars at intersections blasting out some Kenny Chesney or Carrie Underwood, or the next best, latest cowboy or cowgirl song. I was in heaven and so far from Eden Terrace that it was almost as though it had never existed at all.

And then there were the cowboys. So many to pick from. Like a kid in a candy store, I was living the dream. And being a little exotic myself; not a native to Nashville or any of the other Country music states, I was a novelty that soon became popular. It was a heady time, and after eight years of full immersion in Nashville and its Country music world, you'd think I would be elated to be back here.

But I'm not.

It doesn't make any sense. The Auckland I know is everything I grew up hating. Yet, for the life of me, I can't seem to think of much that I truly disliked about the place after this last trip back home. Sure Levi and his loser brothers haven't changed an iota. And Aunty Jessie is just as low rent as she had always been. No changes there. But Dad had begun to warm to me, to show a softer side that he'd hidden whilst I was growing up. Or at least had denied me through those younger years.

Mum might have been pretty much the same, but even my memories had been muddled when I revisited the Reserve and discovered that maybe, just
maybe
, my parents had done the best they could for me with what they had themselves. And of course there's Nick. Being back in Nashville didn't mean I'd simply forgotten him. If anything the daydreams and images in my mind were more real now than ever.

I was desperate to know if he was OK, but as a form of protection, I guess, by not contacting him he remained alive and safe and well in my mind. At least that hope was better than facing the possible alternate reality.

So, I was back at square one again, trying to outrun emotions I didn't want to face, hide in amongst soothing and familiar Country songs and people, yet none of it was doing what I wanted it to do.
Make me forget
.

When I first came here, Nashville did provide a distraction, a diversion from my past. I'd still dreamt of Nick, but I'd managed - eventually - to move on. This time I wasn't so sure, but I was determined to give it time to work. I would not give up on Nashville and the possibility of escaping my past - and present - in the Country scene.

Of course, I was making things more difficult for myself and I couldn't figure out exactly why. And even as I sat here strumming my guitar, in Cary and my little white house in West End, nothing made sense anymore. Not even the soothing sound of a Country tune could sort out the mess that had become my mind.

If I could change anything at all over the past four months, it would be... darn it! I wasn't even sure what to change. Would I
not
go home to tend to my dying Dad and then find out that maybe he did care for me and always would? Would I
not
fight Levi and his brothers when they came to prove a point - stand up to the bullies? Would I
not
form a temporary band and play one gig at Sweet Seduction just for the darn hell of it? Would I
not
have  re-visited that one night stand eight years ago with Nick?

I honestly can't say I would have done a thing differently. And
that
is what didn't make any sense at all. If we can't learn from our mistakes, then what did that make us?

"Was that Derek I saw leaving?" Cary suddenly said as he came into the lounge - breaking into my melancholy musings. He threw his backpack on the floor just inside the door and then himself into an armchair.

I didn't stop softly strumming my old guitar. It was a cheap and ancient Fender, sounded a little hollow, but it filled the gap until I had the energy to get another Martin. The tune was melancholy to match my mood, I knew it, but I still didn't stop strumming it when my best friend walked in the room.

"Yeah, he's got to go to work," I said numbly, staring at the ground.

"He seemed chipper," Cary offered, a little uncertainly I think.

"Yeah, he is," I said, not elaborating further. I'd just told Derek that maybe we could take it slowly and see where it would lead, giving our relationship a chance again. I couldn't say the words aloud to Cary though, it would make my treachery that much more real.

Not that there was any treachery to be had. I was here in Nashville. Nick was back in Auckland and hopefully safe and well and getting on with his life.

"I see," said Cary thoughtfully, causing me to lift my head and frown at him instead of the floor.

He didn't meet my eyes, just kept his face turned away and his hand rubbing his jaw to hide his expression from me. I returned my head to contemplating the floor again and continued to strum.