Chapter Eight
T here were two options here. Throw something or walk away. Alli was veering very strongly toward the throwing option. In fact, she was already eyeing a bronze paperweight as Luke tried to calm her down.
“It’s all out of my hands,” he was saying.
“Like it’s in mine?” she snapped back.
“Alli, please.”
“Please what? This place is a cut-rate, disgusting excuse for a retreat. There are no amenities, the bathrooms look like Churchill himself has showered in them, and there’s no excuse for a bed that small outside of a child’s nursery.”
Luke sighed and rubbed his temples. “Listen, Alli—”
“I’m neither your friend nor your equal. I am a client and you will address me as Ms. Williams.”
“Ms. Williams,” Luke said, looking like he’d rather be anywhere than right here in his office. “Look at things sensibly.”
“And now you’re implying that I’m not sensible. Excellent customer service as well.”
He took a deep breath and Alli could see that she was getting to him. Perhaps this was all she’d needed to do, get him angry, be angry herself. The irony of that was not lost on her.
“Ms. Williams,” he tried again. “I’m sure there are many reasons that you’re here—”
“Not particularly valid ones,” she interrupted. She did not like this man. Obviously, she was currently arguing with him. But there was more than that. There was an undercurrent to him that she just plain disliked.
“I’ll admit that this is not quite the luxury retreat that we have envisaged for the future. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t thrive under our guidance.”
“If you do not stop speaking like a tourist brochure, I’m actually going to vomit on your desk.”
He breathed in deeply again. “Ms. Williams.”
“You’re using my name like you’re going to wear it out. There’s no reason for me to be here, there’s no reason you should be keeping me prisoner, and I demand my personal effects back.” His head cocked slightly as though he’d just thought of something and Alli internally cursed herself. She’d been on a winning streak there, what had she said wrong?
“Ms. Williams, you did not make your own reservation.”
She shrugged, no point in denying that.
“So whilst there may be no reason for you being here that you can see…” He coughed. “No reason that you and I can see, there may be an underlying reason that you’re not considering?”
She said nothing, squinting at him, thinking about Darren and trying not to think about him all at the same time.
“Perhaps the right move under these circumstances should be to contact whoever made your reservation and communicate through them,” he said, licking at dry lips. “Being sure to remind them that there are no refunds.”
Her eyes narrowed further, thinking about this. Fine, alright, Darren thought he had a good reason for sending her here. On the other hand, he’d also thought this might be fun. He’d obviously had visions of beach yoga and steamy saunas, not cold cabbage and stale single beds.
“There is a telephone in the entrance hall,” Luke said now, as though sweetening the deal.
Okay, this she could work with. She lifted her chin slightly as though she were thinking about things, then shook her head. “Won’t work. ”
“Why on earth not?” he asked in surprise.
“Because it’s not nineteen-fifty-four and I don’t have anyone’s number memorized,” she said. “Give me my phone and I’ll phone him.”
He studied her. “I’ll take you to your phone and you can make one phone call,” he said finally. “On the condition that if you’re staying here, you then put the phone back into my custody and this conversation is over, you go back to the program.”
She sucked on her teeth, then nodded. She knew enough to recognize a final offer. “Deal.”
“Very well,” he said with a sigh, standing up and coming around the desk. “Follow me.”
She followed him out into the corridor and then through into a dim back room. A large, locked chest was sitting in a corner. He bent over it and put in a code. Alli glimpsed the first three numbers before he moved. Alright, three out of four. She could brute force the rest and get her phone back whenever she wanted. Not a bad result.
She schooled herself to look angry as he pulled out a bag marked with her name and took out her phone, handing it to her.
“A little privacy?”
He scowled, re-locked the chest, and stood up. “I’ll be right outside that door.”
“Please yourself.”
She waited until he was gone before she scrolled to Darren’s name.
“Alli, I’d have thought you were busy settling in. Wait, you are at the program, aren’t you? Not on a plane to Tahiti or anything?”
“I’d rather be on a plane to Birmingham than here,” she hissed. “This place is a nightmare. There’s dust everywhere, the building is practically falling down around my ears, and I’m not at all sure that anyone’s qualified to do anything.”
There was a stunned silence on the end of the phone. At least Alli interpreted it as a stunned silence .
“I can’t stay here, obviously,” she added.
“Oh, Al.”
There was a pause, and she was already thinking that if she left now she could be in her own bed before eleven, plenty of time to get some sleep before an early morning run to the office to check on her clients. Her stomach twisted sourly.
“Al, you’re there for a reason. You’ve no idea how hard it was for me to negotiate this for you. In the end, it doesn’t really matter if it’s paradise or paradise lost, does it? It’s only for a couple of weeks.”
“What are you saying?” she felt cold inside.
“You have to stay there if you want to keep your job. I can’t put it more simply than that, Al.”
She hung up without saying another word, cradling her phone in her hand and scrolling desperately through her contacts.
But the truth was, there wasn’t a single other person that she could call.
Yes, there were plenty of clients, and her hairdresser and manicurist, her doctor, and a handful of service workers. But no one else. No one who would care that she was trapped in Miss Haversham’s house from Great Expectations. No one who would rescue her from death by cabbage smell and damp sheets.
“So, done in here, are we?” Luke said, sticking his head around the door. The rest of his body followed and he held out his hand for the phone. “I’ll take that.”
Alli handed it over because there was no reason not to. For the first time all day, she really, truly understood that she had to stay here.
Or leave her job.
“Take a right out of the door and follow the corridor around,” Luke said. “You’ll hear the others.”
Silently, she nodded, going out of the room like she was sleepwalking.
This couldn’t be happening.
She always managed to get what she wanted. How could things be different now? But she honestly couldn’t see any other choices. Nothing at all. She stayed or she lost her job, end of story.
Not only that, she had to stay and complete this stupid program. She couldn’t make a mess of things or… she’d lose her job.
She wandered slowly down the corridor. Two weeks. Could she handle two weeks of this? She shuddered. It all reminded her far too much of boarding school. Those first few days when all of seven years old she’d walked around lost and shy and alone.
Of course, she’d found her voice pretty damn soon. And once she had, there’d been no shutting her up. But she still remembered those first days.
“Hello there, are you Alli?”
She groaned as the tall, sad man greeted her. Charles. She’d always had a good head for names. “What of it?”
He stopped. “Just, well, er, they’re all waiting for you is all.”
She blew out a breath and shook her head. “You know, I’m not supposed to be here,” she said. It made her feel better to say it out loud.
Charles sniffed. “Me neither. I’m not sure anyone is, to be honest.”
Alli wasn’t particularly interested in why he was or wasn’t there. He looked sad and harmless enough, but then she supposed that there’d be a lot less serial killings if all serial killers actually looked like serial killers. “Got a plan to break out?” she asked hopefully.
“Going to do my two weeks and walk out the front door.”
“Oh.” Fantastic. Two weeks stuck with boring people. That made this all so much better.
She turned around and laid her forehead against the cool paint of the wall. She felt trapped, like she had no choices, and it wasn’t a good feeling.
“Are you alright?” Charles asked. “Do you want me to get someone?”
Deep breath. She was no quitter. Alright, she might get angry sometimes. Okay, she might not always be polite. But she was not a quitter. If this was what she had to do, she supposed she’d just have to do it. Lie her way through and be charming until they let her out and she could go back to work.
“I’m fine, thank you,” she said politely, straightening up. “Now, how about you show me where I’m supposed to be?”
A look of relief crossed Charles’s face. He wasn’t the type of man that liked a fuss, she could see that. “Yeah, um, it’s just right down here.”
She followed him down the corridor until he stopped in front of a set of double doors.
“Do you need a minute?” he asked nicely.
Alli shook her head. If she was going to do this, she might as well get on with it. He opened the door and she stepped inside.
It took a moment to place the first face that she saw. But when she did, a slow smile spread across her face.