Treacherous (17 page)

I tried to approach
the kitchen door as silently as I could, but it didn’t matter. The
sounds of their love- making drowned out the sounds of my
footsteps. The sliding door was open an inch so I peered through.
What I saw through the gap I knew I couldn’t un-see. It was Charli,
in the grip of Levi, having sex on the kitchen bench. I almost
turned away when I noticed Charli’s face. She had the expression of
detachment. I had seen it before on the faces of rape victims. She
was trying to shut herself off from the experience, shut off her
emotions so she wouldn’t be able to feel pain or pleasure. I smiled
on the inside for her bravery, all the while aching to run in there
and yank Levi off her. I knew I should wait until he pulled himself
away from her, but I didn’t listen to my training. I burst into the
room.

Charli

I was glad my fake climax worked. It
distracted Frankie long enough for him not to notice Nathan
standing outside the kitchen door. But not long enough. Before I
knew it, Nathan was rushing in, gun raised and poised at Frankie’s
head.

“
Shit.” Frankie cursed
and quickly slid out of me and grabbed his trousers. “This is
perfect.” I shivered. The way he said ‘perfect’ wasn’t in an
annoyed way. It was more as if he had been waiting for Nathan to
show up.

“
Nathan,” I gasped
seeing his raised gun. “What are you doing?”

“
Get dressed and get
out of here, Charli,” Nathan said, not taking his eyes off
Frankie.

“
But—”

“
No, but’s, Charli.
Move!” Nathan’s sudden change of tone made me flinch, but I didn’t
move.

“
Nathan, put your gun
down. Everything’s okay here.” I stepped between the boys. Frankie
began laughing hysterically. I turned to glare at him.
“Frankie?”

“
I
told you, bitch. My name is Levi, not
Frankie
,” he
spat his name as if it were poison and continued talking. “Didn’t
you hear the girl, Nathan? Put your gun back in your pants and we
can finish this the right way.”

“
Not likely. I’d
prefer to finish this my way. The way I’ve been
trained.”

My eyes widened. “Trained? Nathan, who
are you?”

“
Oh
my God, hasn’t he told you?” When I didn’t answer back, Frankie
laughed again. “Oh this is great! The perfect twist to the story.
‘The heroine gets betrayed by
both
her love
interests.’ But I’d much prefer the ending to be more like this.”
as quick as a flash, a movement neither Nathan nor I saw coming,
Frankie reached behind his back and pulled out a knife. With the
flick of his wrist, with metal gleaming under the lights, Frankie
threw the large kitchen knife forward. It flew through the air and
imbedded itself in Nathan’s abdomen.

“
That is for killing
my father,” Frankie growled.

I screamed as Nathan fired his gun,
striking Frankie in the head. They both went down simultaneously. I
was left standing in the middle of two wounded men, splattered in
blood and brain matter. But before I could react or do anything, I
began to feel warm. It was really, really warm all of a sudden, and
then the warmth gave way to numbness, and then cold. That was the
last thing I remembered.

Chapter
Thirty-Two

Nathan

He was dead.

I did it. Charli was safe.

Almost.

I should’ve seen it,
but I missed it, the flinch. I missed it the last time too, and
suffered the consequences. I knew I wasn’t going to get my gun back
after this.

It all happened so
fast. I guess I was too damn distracted by her. But I couldn’t take
my eyes off her confused face. She was so confused. I didn’t blame
her. All this time, everyone had been lying to her and when the
truth was finally unveiled, she still didn’t believe it. I knew
then she wasn’t going to recover quickly. She would need
counselling, and more. Levi’s hand had moved behind his back so
fast I barely had time to react, to fire my gun. The blade was in
my stomach before I could even breathe. I fired my gun, but the
pain was too much. It was so overwhelming that I didn’t see Charli
in front of me moving, everything had turned blurry. I thought I
had only hit him, but God, I was so wrong.

As I stood in the middle of the
kitchen, the pain overwhelming my body, blood soaking through my
shirt. There was so much blood... I heard sirens. They were close,
too close. I fell to my knees and barely registered the feeling of
arms around me as I blacked out.

* * * *

“
Nathan. Nathan, stay
with us.”

There were voices.
Many voices around me, and arms. Hands strapped things on me, and
lifted me. I cried out in pain as they lifted my body up on the
gurney. Had they pulled the knife out? I didn’t want to move to
look. Only one thing was on my mind.

“
Charli!”

“
She’s alright. She
was shot, but she’ll be fine. Stay calm, Nathan. You’ve been
stabbed. We’ll be at the hospital soon.”

I was vaguely aware of my surroundings.
I was in an ambulance. My mind went to my car.

“
Mark. Did you find…
he fell…” I managed. The pain wasn’t as bad now. They must have
given me something. My body only felt numb.

“
Your colleagues are
handling it. Don’t worry.”

I lay back on the
gurney and closed my eyes, and I prayed to God that the paramedics
were telling the truth.

Chapter
Thirty-Three

Two Days
later

Charli

I blinked and immediately shut my eyes
tight again. Everything was bright and smelt clinical and a little
rusty. Bleach and blood. My eyes sprang apart again as the
realisation hit me like a derailed freight train.

I was in the
hospital.

I had been shot—by
Nathan.

Nathan had killed Frankie.

Frankie.

Frankie’s real name wasn’t Frankie.

He called himself Levi.

Everyone was lying to me.

Mia wasn’t talking to me. Where was
she?

Nathan is a cop. He
has been lying to me, as well.

My parents had been
lying, too. Parents. Dad.

Dad was dead.

“
She’s
awake.”

Voices. I could hear voices. I opened
my eyes again and a blurry face was staring down at me.

“
Mm.”

“
Hey, honey.” I knew
that voice.

“
Mum?”

“
Yes. You’re okay.
You’re in the hospital.”

“
Where’s Nathan?
Frankie?”

“
Sweetheart… Don’t
worry about them for now. You need to rest.” My vision corrected
itself, and I stared up at my mother’s face.

“
You lied to me.” I
bet she wasn’t expecting that.

She wasn’t. Her face showed shock, and
also hurt.

“
Honey… Charlotte.
You’ve been through a lot.”

“
No! Stop lying to me!
Everyone’s been lying to me!”

“
Relax, Charlotte.
Okay, well… the truth is… the man you called Frankie was not who he
said he was.”

“
Frankie? No.” He
couldn’t be. She was saying the same thing Nathan had said. “Are
you working with Nathan?” The question slipped out before I could
stop it.

My mother sighed. “No. Your father and
I hired Nathan to watch over you.”

“
I don’t need
watching.”

“
Yes, you did. You see
our family was in danger. Your father… did a lot of horrible
things.”

“
Tell me. Is dad
okay?” She looked down and fiddled with her wedding
ring.

“
No honey. He’s not.
He’s dead.”

“
Oh My God! Mum…” I
reached out for her and she met me half way, linking her fingers
with mine. Tears cascaded down both our cheeks.

“
What…” I swallowed
hard. “What happened? What did he do?”

“
Sweetheart, you
should rest. That’s a story for another time. I’ll go and tell the
Doctor you’re awake. I’ll be back soon.”

“
Okay.” When she got
up and left the room, my own private room, I realised, someone else
was waiting to come in.

“
Rochelle?”

“
Hey, babe. I was so
worried and scared when your Mum called me. She told me you’d been
in an accident and that you were shot. I came as soon as I
could.”

“
Thanks. Yeah, it was
scary.”

“
Well, we’re glad
you’re alive, and safe. You’ll have to come for a slumber party
when you’re well.” She smiled.

“
I’d love that.” I
smiled at my one true genuine friend. She was the one person who
hadn’t lied to me.

“
Listen, babe. I’m
sorry about your Dad. I’ll come with you to the funeral, if you’d
like.”

I swallowed and bit
back tears. “Thanks. It’s all happened so fast. I don’t even know
what happened.”

“
I think the police
are still working it out, you know how they are.”

“
Yeah.” My mind
wandered off to thoughts of Nathan.

“
And speaking of…
where’s your hunky police officer friend? Your Mum told me he’s
somehow involved.”

“
Yeah. I don’t know
where he is. I’m hoping he’s somewhere in here. I… I hope he’s
okay.”

“
Yeah. He was hot.
When this is all over, you know what you should do?”

“
Yeah,
what?”

“
Hit that.”

“
Hey!” I smacked
Rochelle on the arm, and we both burst into a fit of giggles. “For
your information, I have already ‘hit that.’”

“
I know. I meant
again. After all, he did rescue you.”

I smiled.

“
You’re
right.”

A little while later,
I woke up to more voices. Rochelle was gone now, and my Mum was
talking to someone out in the corridor. I could hear her with
another female and a male voice outside my room, and the
conversation wasn’t pleasant.

“
Mrs Jayne, why don’t
you come with us so we can discuss the findings of the autopsy?”
Autopsy? It must be the Medical Examiner.

“
No, I can’t leave my
daughter. She’s all I have left. I didn’t pay you so you could keep
me waiting. I asked that you give me the information before you
told the police. Now will you please tell me what happened to my
husband?”

Someone sighed. “Very
well. Your husband was shot twice at close range by a
nine-millimetre handgun. Once in the chest, and another in the
head, which was the kill shot. Mrs Jayne, if the authorities find
out I gave you this information first…”

“
Don’t worry, Alex. I
won’t tell a soul. Is there anything else?”

“
Yes. He was also
stabbed several times in the abdomen after he was dead. Looks to me
like someone really hated your husband.”

“
Yes, but my husband
dealt with criminals on a daily basis. In our profession, it’s not
hard to make enemies. Thank you for telling me.”

There was silence and then the sound of
footsteps and the door to my room opened. Good thing my curtain was
closed so my mother couldn’t see that I had been listening.

Chapter
Thirty-Four

One week
later

Charli

It felt good to be home, in my own bed.
Everything was over. I finally had room to breathe, but I couldn’t.
Why was it I still felt claustrophobic and lonely? I felt even more
damaged now than before. As I stared out my bedroom window,
watching the birds flit from branch to branch, I heard voices
coming from downstairs. My mother had invited someone inside. I
hoped they weren’t here for me; I didn’t want to see anyone. I
can’t see anyone.

“
Mrs Jayne, good
morning.”

“
Officers, how can I
help you?”

“
We’ve come with news
about your husband’s murder.”

My heart fluttered in my chest. I don’t
know if I want to hear this. I threw my blankets off and slid my
feet into my slippers. I opened my door as silently as possible and
lowered myself to the floor. I crawled out into the hall and leaned
against the wall near the top of the stairs so I could hear what
was going on.

“
Come in, gentlemen.”
I didn’t dare peek, but I heard the officer’s thank my mother as
she let them in. She offered them tea and showed them to the
sitting room. Thankfully, the sitting room was off to the side of
the foyer so I could still hear the conversation.

“
Now since our
suspects in this case are deceased, there’s no need for a trial as
I’m sure you understand. Mrs Jayne, were you aware of the large sum
of money your husband transferred over to our suspect? Fifty
thousand, to be exact.”

“
I was not aware, no.
You do know I can’t testify against my husband, don’t you? Now,
since there is no trial, there is no need to interrogate me about
this. I thought you were coming over here to tell me about my
husband’s murder?”