Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
I WAS TWO miles from home when my phone rang. Okay, which git had set my ringtone to the “Macarena”? I stopped caring as Tia’s name flashed up on the car’s display screen right next to the time. One o’clock in the morning? What was so important it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?
I hit the button on the steering wheel to answer, and the car filled with the sound of sobbing.
“Tia?” I clenched my fingers around the hard leather.
“Ash? Is that you?”
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“I’m lost.” Seconds passed as she gulped in air. “I’m in some woods, and I don’t know where I am.”
“Why are you crying? And what are you doing in the woods at one a.m.?”
“I was with this guy, and he wouldn’t get off me, so I pushed him and he hit me. Then I jumped out of his car and ran.”
Looked like I wasn’t going home after all. “How’s your phone battery?”
“Uh, eighty percent.”
“That’s good. Leave your phone on, and I’ll track you.”
Thank goodness for technology. Tia was in no state to work out her location.
I hung up and made a quick call. If anyone could help with the problem, it was Mack—her first language was techno-speak. Nate had tempted Mackenzie Fox away from the CIA not long after I split from Nick, and as well as speaking fluent computer, she had a handy sideline in wreaking havoc and mayhem. When we first met, she’d lived a little further east in Colonial Beach, but she’d recently bought an apartment in Richmond to cut down on commuting time. Despite that, she spent most evenings hanging out at Riverley with Dan, Carmen, and me. Our new best friend, not least because she could hack into the police database and erase our speeding tickets.
That night, she put me on hold for five minutes as she worked her magic. “Tia’s by the side of the road about a half hour from Lower Foxford. Forty-five minutes from you.”
“Forty-five minutes of my driving or yours?”
“Your driving. An hour for any sane person.”
“Thanks, honey.”
I called Tia straight back. “Right, I’m on my way. I’ll be about three-quarters of an hour. Are you hurt? Cold?”
“A bit cold. I’m only wearing a party dress but I’m not hurt apart from my face and that aches where Theo hit me.” That rush of words was followed by more sniffles.
“Sit tight, sweetie. I’m on my way.”
Worried for Tia and furious on her behalf, I drove far too fast and made it to the area in thirty-five minutes. As I got nearby, Mack guided me to Tia’s precise location. I took a few deep breaths before I got out of the car because being cross wouldn’t help matters. Anger wasn’t an emotion I often felt. Although I saw a lot of nasty things, that was normally in the line of duty and the people involved were strangers. I found it easier to stay detached that way.
Now that I was in a situation involving someone I cared about, my emotions threatened to make an appearance. The strange thing was, I hadn’t yet felt anger over Black’s death when by rights I should have been furious. Every day, grief overrode my sanity, coupled with enough numbness to give me an out-of-body experience. I needed the rage to come—it would be easier to deal with.
Ten feet into the forest, I found Tia sitting on a log, arms wrapped around herself and mascara running down her face. The bottom of her dress hung in tatters, and her eye already looked nasty and purple. Lovely. I squinted in the gloom, taking in the cut on her cheek and her busted lip as I helped her up.
“Where does Luke think you are?”
There was no way he’d have let her stay out at a party this late.
“At Arabella’s. I told him I was staying the night.”
I got a blanket out of the boot and wrapped it around Tia’s shoulders before helping her into the front seat. Once I clipped her seatbelt on, she started shaking, and even when I leaned in and gave her a hug the tremors didn’t stop.
“Don’t worry, we’ll sort this,” I whispered.
“How?”
I knew what Luke’s reaction would be if I took Tia home, and sympathy wasn’t it. I figured I should do my civic duty and save him from an aneurysm.
“If Luke’s not expecting you back, I’ll take you home with me, and we can get your face looked at. What happened?”
“There was this boy I liked. Arabella said he wasn’t a nice person, but I went out with him half a dozen times, and he took me to fun places and bought me things. I thought he cared.”
She gave a sniffle, and I passed her a packet of tissues from the door pocket. Thanks, Bradley.
Tia paused to blow her nose before continuing. “We went to a party tonight, and after a couple of beers, he acted just like all the other guys. He only wanted one thing.”
She squirmed in her seat as she talked, and she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“You didn’t…” I began.
“NO! I refused. That’s when he started to get rough with me.”
“So the guy drove while he was drunk then tried to force himself on you? Nice.”
“I feel so stupid for trusting him. I honestly didn’t think he’d be like that. Maybe it was because he’d been drinking? Or I did something to encourage him?”
“Don’t you dare blame yourself. Alcohol only exacerbates tendencies you already have. It doesn’t change your personality completely. A few drinks wouldn’t have made this guy into a monster if he didn’t already think that way. If you told him to stop, he should have stopped, no questions, no hesitation.”
She fell silent for the rest of the journey. I had no doubt she was playing the evening’s events over in her head, especially when she started to sob quietly. As I reached over and squeezed her hand, I vowed I’d do my best to fix this.
Back at Albany house, I parked in the underground garage and led Tia into the lift. Once the doors opened on the ground floor, I guided her through to the kitchen and helped her onto a stool at the breakfast bar. The lighting was best in there, and I took a better look at her eye.
“Is it bad?” she asked.
Nothing seemed broken, but she’d have one nasty bruise in the morning.
“No lasting damage.”
I fetched an ice pack and got her to hold it on. After a minute or two, her breathing evened out and she looked around the room with her good eye.
“Is this your house?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s really nice. Why on earth were you living in a caravan at Hazelwood Farm if you had this?”
“I needed to get away for a while. Hazelwood Farm made a convenient place to lie low.”
“What, because of your cheating fiancé? He must have really hurt you if you chose to stay in that awful caravan instead of here.”
“The whole fiancé thing wasn’t exactly true, I’m afraid.”
“Then why?”
“It was still man trouble. I used to be married and someone murdered my husband.”
She went quiet for a second. “Luke said that, but he’s been drinking so much lately, I thought he’d made the story up. He thinks you did it.”
“Do you?”
She shook her head, then clambered off her stool and hugged me. I froze for a second before hugging her back, careful not to squeeze too hard.
“It’s not been a great few months,” I said.
“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled in my ear. “I must have made things even worse for you. I was so nasty when we first met. If I’d known what had happened, I’d never have been mean like that.”
“It’s over and done with now. No matter how much we’d like to, we can’t change what happened in the past.” And I didn’t particularly want to discuss it either. “How about we both go to bed? I don’t know about you, but I’m knackered.”
“I’m super tired too. Do you think I could borrow some pyjamas and maybe a toothbrush? I literally have nothing but my phone. Not even my handbag. I managed to leave it in Theo’s car when I jumped out.”
In this place, we had spare everything. Most of my friends treated it like a hotel. “Sure, I’ll show you where my wardrobe is—borrow whatever you want. There are spare toothbrushes in every bathroom. Did you have anything important in your bag?”
“My wallet and some antibiotics I’ve been taking. I had a bad chest last week.” She groaned. “And my house keys. I guess I’ll have to ask Luke to change the locks. He’s gonna be really mad at me, especially when he sees my eye.”
“We’ll worry about that in the morning.”
“Perhaps I could just keep out of his way and not tell him? At least he’s gone back to work now, so he’s less likely to notice if I’m not there. He moped around the house for ages after you left.”
“Did he? He looked as though he wanted to poke my eyes out when I saw him the other day.”
“Oh, that was only after he found out you were still engaged. He said he felt used.”
I didn’t know whether to choke or laugh. “Engaged? Who am I engaged to?”
“Nick, he said. The guy who helped rescue me?”
“Where on earth did he hear that? I’m not and never have been engaged to Nick.”
“I don’t know. I think maybe one of his friends told him? Luke came home that night and said you and Nick were dancing together.”
“Dancing, yes. But that doesn’t automatically mean I’m going to marry the guy.”
“So you’ve never been involved with Nick?”
“We had a thing once, but that was almost a decade ago.” I thought I might as well put that on the table. “We’ve only been friends for years.”
“Oh. Luke got completely the wrong end of the stick, then.”
“Looks that way, doesn’t it? What’s Theo’s surname?” I changed the subject in an effort to avoid getting into a deep analysis of my failed relationships with my ex-boyfriend’s sister.
“Baldwin. Theo Baldwin. Why?”
“And do you know his address?”
I put the kettle on to make coffee. At this time of night, instant would have to do. I’d changed my mind about going to bed.
Tia reeled off an address near where I’d picked her up. “Why do you want to know?” she asked again.
“So I can get your bag back.” And give Theo a piece of my mind, although I wasn’t about to tell Tia that.
“You can’t! He’s almost six feet tall!”
“Trust me, it won’t be a problem. Does he live alone?”
“Yes, his parents bought him the flat. But please don’t go. My bag doesn’t matter, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I promise I won’t get hurt. One thing: if he calls you, pick up.”
I led Tia upstairs, still fretting, and found her a pair of pyjamas and a spare bedroom. I always slept in an old T-shirt and a pair of boxers, usually stolen from Black or Nick, and Mack favoured the kind of frilly stuff people wore in movies, so the pyjamas were Dan’s.
Then I went out in search of Theo. It was just before sunrise when I drew up outside a tidy Victorian converted into two apartments. One up, one down. Theo lived in the bottom one. The lock was so basic a child could have picked it, and it only took me a few seconds to get inside. A pair of muddy boots lay abandoned by the mat in the small, unkempt hallway, and a couple of coats hung on a doorknob. I spotted Tia’s Michael Kors bag dumped on a side table next to a set of car keys and a dying spider plant.
I peered in the top. Her wallet was in there, plus a small bottle containing her pills. Good. I’d pick it up on my way out.
Theo lay snoring on the bed, half covered by the duvet in a room that reeked of stale sweat. The moonlight shining through the gap in the curtains showed Tia was spot on about his height, but he wasn’t in great shape. He’d gone pudgy around the middle.
As I stood there, I felt the way I had many times before. No joy, but a touch of anticipation and the satisfaction that I was about to fix one more problem with this messed up world.
I flipped the light on. “Rise and shine, sweetheart.”
Theo woke, groggily at first, then he suddenly came alive when he realised somebody was standing in his room.
“Who are you? What are you doing in my house?”
I ignored the first question but answered the second. “I’m here to give you a little lesson on how to treat women.”
I picked his phone up off the desk and thumbed through it, but he didn’t like that much.
“Hey! Put that down!” He sprang out of bed and charged at me, arms outstretched. Smooth, Theo, real smooth. I stepped to my left and used my leg to sweep his feet out from underneath him. He landed with a resounding thump, and I grabbed the chair next to me. Before he could get up, I positioned it so the strut between the back legs was over his neck then sat down.
He flailed around, but he was trapped. I waited patiently until he went still then put the phone next to his hand. “You’re going to call Tia and apologise.”
“Get lost,” he spat.
“Not gonna happen. I don’t go for the forceful type. Now, make the call.”
“In your dreams.”
“We’ve been over that. And take as much time as you like. I can guarantee I’m more comfortable than you.”
After fifteen minutes, Theo got a cramp in his leg and finally decided to dial Tia. But his apology was somewhat half-hearted.
Not good enough.
I used my foot to press down a bit harder on his windpipe.
“Once more, with feeling.”
He did better that time, and once he’d dropped the phone, I let him up and took a few steps back, waiting.
As soon as he scrambled to his feet, he came at me again, winding his arm back to get a good punch in. I ducked to the side and, no kidding, he actually ran into the wall.
Did you ever watch those cartoons where Sylvester runs at Tweety, Tweety neatly sidesteps, and Sylvester knocks himself out? Well, there you go. There was a sickening crunch when Theo hit the bricks, then he slowly crumpled to the floor. I waited for the little stars to start twinkling around his head, but nothing. Zilch. Real life was nothing like the movies.
I prodded him with my foot, but he was out cold. His pulse beat steadily, and I only hoped his stupidity had knocked some sense into him. Ten minutes passed, twenty, and I answered a handful of emails and took a phone call from Tokyo while I waited for Theo to rejoin the land of the living. I’d just started playing solitaire when he started to blink.
Once he’d mumbled a few choice phrases and rolled onto his stomach to puke, I made my exit, remembering to grab Tia’s bag on my way out the door. An early morning dog walker gave me a strange look and a wide berth as I hurried along the pavement, probably because I was laughing like a drunk.
But honestly, I needed that.
Laughing was better than crying.