Treacherous (12 page)

“
How was that? Did I
give you some juicy material for your essay?” I asked.

He grinned as he headed towards the
bathroom. “More than enough. In fact, I need a shower.”

I grinned. “Good. So,
I’ll see you at six?”

“
Yeah. See you
then.”

As I was leaving, I couldn’t help but
feel blank and empty. I realised my feelings for him were false. I
knew now where my heart lay. But this heart had been
treacherous.

I headed back to my
apartment to shower and grab the books for my next class, all the
while feeling like I was functioning on autopilot. As I sat in the
lecture
hall, I couldn’t help
but scan the crowd for the one familiar face I was longing to see.
Where was he? Was he avoiding me? Why hadn’t he called? Actually, I
was glad he hadn’t called. I wouldn’t know what to say to him if I
saw or spoke to him now. I had just slept with another man after
only sleeping with Nathan last night. Did that make me a slut? I
decided if he wanted to see me again, he would contact me. Right
now, I needed the time to myself to figure everything
out.

Nathan

I pulled up outside
the building where Stephen Jayne worked and hesitated. I needed to
centre myself before walking in there. I really needed to bring him
in for formal questioning but something about this situation made
me impatient. I realised then I was too close to this case. I was
in too deep, but there was no going back now. I stepped out of my
car and headed into the secretary, I ran over the questions I would
be asking him in my mind. I needed to be firm with him. He was
harbouring secrets about my suspect. Secrets I had every intention
of unveiling. Mr Jayne’s secretary, a petite red headed woman in
her forties, pressed the intercom to tell Stephen he had a
guest.

“
Mr Jayne, Constable
Nathan Wright is here to see you.” The woman, Nancy, eyed me warily
as she set down the phone. I guess she could suspect why I was
here. After a few awkward seconds of staring between Nancy and me,
Stephen still hadn’t opened the door.

“
Shit.” He was up to
something. Hiding evidence, I suspected. I barged through the door,
much to Nancy’s dismay.

“
Constable Wright, you
can’t go in there.”

She was trying to
stop me. Was she in on this, as well? I would deal with her later.
If she knew something, anything, I would find out.

“
Stephen…” I caught
Stephen rummaging through the filing cabinet and his desk drawers.
There was paper strewn over every surface.

“
Nathan, so good to
see you. What brings you here?” He said with a fake smile. So, he
was acting dumb. Two could play at that game.

“
Don’t play dumb with
me, Stephen. You know why I’m here.”

“
I have a bit of an
idea. Tell me.” He sat down on his chair and swung it back to face
me. “Is it about you and my daughter?”

How dare he bring Charli into this!
“Charli has nothing to do with this. Leave her out of it.”

“
Ah, you’re defensive.
You care for her.”

“
Yes. It’s no lie. I
do care for her, which is why I’m here. I care for her welfare and
safety.” I turned to shut the door behind me and sat down opposite
Stephen. Another staring match commenced. I got right down to
business.

“
It has come to my
attention that you are harbouring secret evidence. Evidence, which
could incriminate Levi Chandon.”

“
Now why would I want
to incriminate my client, Constable Wright?”

“
Because he threatened
the life of your daughter. He blackmailed you.”

He hesitated but stayed calm. “You have
no proof.”

“
That is where you’re
wrong.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I
unlocked it and pulled up the voice recorder.

“
Listen, I’m not
talking until I have my lawyer present. If you want to pursue this,
you’ll have to formally arrest me. But you can’t do that without a
warrant, and you can’t get a warrant without evidence against me.”
Stephen leaned back in his chair, smug. Well, I was about to wipe
that freaking smug smile right off his face. I picked up my phone
and hit play, winking at him.

“
He won’t get away
with this, Susan. I have something that will put him right back in
jail and away from our daughter.”

“
Like what, Stephen?
Be careful. You’re playing with fire.”

“
Since Levi has become
my client, I have had access to his full background. It says here
in his medical records, from the age of nine, Levi has been
admitted to the hospital more than thirty times due to being abused
and bashed by his father. Now his father, Jack Chandon, was a mean
drunk and used to embezzle money from the family’s auto business
into overseas accounts, posing as an investor. It seems Levi
inherited his father’s talents.”

When I pressed stop on the recording,
Stephen’s face was beetroot red and shiny from sweat.

“
Levi wants money,
doesn’t he?” I asked, waiting.

Stephen then broke down and cried into
his hands. “I only want to protect my family, Nathan. You
understand that, don’t you? My girls are all I’ve got.”

“
I understand. I’m not
incriminating you or arresting you. I need you to work with me. I
need to bring Levi in before he can touch your money or
Charli.”

Stephen turned the chair towards the
window and stared down at his shoes.

“
Stephen?”

“
It’s too late for
that.”

“
What do you mean,
Stephen? What are you not telling me?”

“
I already paid
him.”

I didn’t need to say another word to
him. I was out of there before he could utter another word.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Charli

I decided I needed
girl time, but when I tried to get in touch with Mia, there was no
answer. The operator said her phone had been disconnected. What the
hell was going on? Ever since starting here, I thought Mia was a
good friend. We had grown close. Maybe I was wrong. She wasn’t
acting like a good friend by abandoning me. I called Rochelle, and
she answered on the second ring.

“
Hey,
Sexy.”

“
Hey, Hottie.” These
were our familiar terms of endearment. We had begun using them from
the age of thirteen when we started high school
together.

“
What’s up, girl?
Still hung over from your rockin’ party?”

“
No. Not anymore. Hey,
what are you up to right now?”

“
Right this second?
Drying my hair. Why?”

“
Good. Then you can
come shopping with me.”

“
Ooh, yay! I’m always
up for a girly shopping spree. Want me to pick you up?”

“
Sure.”

“
Okay. See you in half
an hour.”

“
Okay.
Bye.”

* * * *

After shopping for an
hour, we sat down at a coffee shop and rested our feet.

“
So, spill. Who were
those hunky boys at your party? I saw them both looking at
you.”

“
You did?” I blushed
and decided it was time to spill. “It’s complicated. The blonde
one, that’s Nathan. He’s…” I couldn’t help but smile when talking
about him. And Rochelle picked up on it.

“
Ooh. You’ve kissed
him haven’t you?”

“
Uh… yeah.”

“
Oh My God! You
haven’t just kissed him, have you?”

I blushed a deeper
shade of red, and tried to hide it with my hair and my coffee
cup.

“
Oh My God. How was
he?”

“
Rochelle!” I shoved
her and laughed. “He was great. He’s so wonderful. But that’s not
what’s complicated about this.”

“
Oh, then what is
it?”

I sighed. “There’s another guy.”

“
Oh, that dark and
mysterious fella at your party?”

“
That would be the
one.”

“
What about
him?”

“
Um…” Again, I blushed
a deep shade of rouge.

“
Oh My God! You little
slut!”

“
Gee, thanks!” I
kicked her under the table, but I wasn’t offended. I knew she meant
it as a weird term of endearment. “See what I mean? You can now
tell why I’m so screwed up.”

“
Uh, huh. So, what are
you going to do?”

“
I don’t know. That’s
the thing. I was hoping for your opinion.”

“
Well, how do you feel
about each of them? I personally would go for Mr McHottie
lifeguard.”

“
Lifeguard? You mean
Nathan?”

“
Mmhmm.” She added a
head nod and a wink. Rochelle was sassy at the best of times, and
that was what I loved about her.

“
He’s not a
lifeguard.”

“
Well, he should be
with those muscles and that complexion. He belongs on Bondi
Beach.”

“
Ugh! I don’t know
what to do, Rochelle. I like them both, but… I think I like Nathan
more. The problem is I think I’m dating Frankie.”

“
Uh oh. Girl, you
can’t have both. You need to choose.”

“
I know. I know. But…
I can’t.”

“
Choose, before I do
it for you. You can’t sleep with both men and lead them on. You’re
not only betraying them but yourself, as well.”

“
I know. The problem
is, Nathan hasn’t called me since. I haven’t seen him. He hasn’t
been on campus.”

“
What did he say to
you the last time you saw him?”

“
He said he had to go
to work.”

“
For four days? It’s
Wednesday and you last spoke to him on Sunday, right?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Well, that’s too
long. He’s avoiding you.”

“
No, he was so nice to
me. It was perfect before he left.”

“
Well, then something
else is going on. Maybe try calling him.”

“
Okay. I will. As soon
as I get back to campus.”

* * * *

After Rochelle dropped me back at the
university, I had every intention of calling Nathan, but Frankie
got to me first.

“
Hey,” I said,
answering as I stepped through the door.

“
Hey. Where are you
and what are you doing right now?” After having sex on Sunday, our
dinner date on Monday had gone great, and we finished it off back
at my apartment with more sex.

“
I just got home from
shopping. I bought some sexy underwear,” I hinted. I thought I’d
let him know. I loved teasing him.

“
Great. Well, save
that for tonight. I’m stealing you away.”

“
Stealing me away,
where?”

“
I was going to take
you this weekend, but something’s come up and I can’t wait. It has
to be today.”

“
Oh. Where are we
going? I have classes tomorrow.”

“
I’m sure you’ll catch
up. I’ll help you study.”

“
Oh, okay. Sure,” I
said, a little hesitant knowing his version of studying wasn’t a
study of books.

“
Great. You don’t need
to pack much. Just a bikini, the sexy lingerie you were telling me
about, and a jumper. It gets cool where we’re going.”

“
Okay. Will do.” Now I
was curious.

“
Great. I’ll pick you
up in an hour.”

Half way through
packing, I received a call. I dug my phone out of my jeans pocket
and picked up without looking at the caller ID.

“
Yeah?”

“
Charlotte, honey.
Where are you?”

“
In my apartment.
Why?”

“
Something’s happened
with your father, he…”

“
Mum, is he okay?” I
switched ears so I could hold the phone better and stood up
straight.

“
Physically, yeah. He
was questioned by the police this morning.”

“
Why? He’s a criminal
lawyer. Isn’t that part of the job description?”

“
Yeah, but somehow the
authorities know about new evidence your father has been trying to
conceal.”

“
New
evidence?”

“
Yeah. Anyway, I don’t
want you to be alarmed. I just thought you should know. You know,
in case the police come to question you.”

“
But I don’t know
anything.”

“
Exactly. And this is
why I am not telling you. To keep you safe, keep you
innocent.”

I didn’t know what to
say. Why had my father gotten himself into this time? I knew
representing criminals was a dirty and dangerous business, and my
father often played with fire… I had a feeling this was about what
I had overheard at my party. Something Frankie knew
about.

“
Charlotte? Are you
there?”

“
Yes. Sorry, Mum. I
have to go. I’m going out of town for a few days.”

“
What? Where? And with
whom?”