Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
How is this happening?
I considered many escape routes in the instant I realized he would not leave.
He was right—the music was too loud. No one would hear me.
And my phone was sitting on top of the dresser by the door.
My voice wavered as I asked, “Can we go downstairs and have a good time at the wedding? I’m sure dinner will be served soon, and Colin will notice I’m not at the table.”
“First, we’ll have a good time up here.” He said it with such menacing finality that I knew if I tried to walk past him, he’d grab me.
My breath hitched.
If I jumped over the bed, he’d reach me before I made it to the other side. He was directly in the way of both the bathroom and the exit. I was left with only one option, and it had to be done swiftly and without hesitation.
In one fluid movement, I grabbed my hair curler from the top of the armchair, pulled open the balcony door, slid through the opening, shut it, and shoved my curling iron through both handles.
My heart would surely explode. It battered against my chest, and I looked on as Blake rattled the doors, but they didn’t open. My trusted hair curler had never been a more useful appliance.
When it was clear to both of us that he was stuck inside, he slammed his fist against the wood of the door.
It coincided with the sound of thunder, and I jumped back.
He must have seen the terrified look on my face.
His smile was exactly as it had been downstairs when he first met me.
After a moment, he put his hands in his pockets and walked away and out of the room.
I turned around, the dark of the night and the storm a scary rival to what I’d experienced.
But I didn’t dare take my curling iron out yet.
A small roof over the balcony had provided enough cover for me not to get rained on, but the wind whipped up again, and I leaned against the door to protect myself from the elements as much as possible.
I was trembling, both from the cold and from the shock of the situation. Pretty soon my jaw hurt from my trying to keep my teeth from chattering. I gave in and let my body do its thing while huddling down and shivering uncontrollably.
Time passed, and I couldn’t tell you how long. Nothing would have persuaded me that Blake wasn’t still right outside the bedroom waiting to pounce on me. I waited and waited.
What was I waiting for?
I was sure I’d pass out from the extreme cold the rain had brought with it. I kept thinking of Colin, of his warmth when he hugged me, the heat produced between us when our bodies came together, of his warm breath against my skin when he kissed me all over.
I was brought back from something. From somewhere. It was as if I was seeing the light of the bedroom come back on slowly, though it had always been on. I started hearing the rain again—and then the loud banging against the door. A wave of panic washed over me.
Not again!
But it wasn’t Blake.
It was Colin—kneeling on the floor inside, his fist pounding on the door and the glass. It was difficult, and almost impossible, but I reached up and pulled the curling iron out. The curler fell as the door swung open.
Before I realized what was happening, Colin had me in his arms, carrying me inside and setting me on the armchair.
“What happened? Why were you out there?” he asked, almost breathless.
Colin moved swiftly and purposefully, pulling my dress over my head, unhooking my bra. He wrapped a fleece blanket around me and knelt in front of me to remove my heels.
“So cold,” I managed to say. Our eyes locked. He took off his suit jacket, then his shirt.
“Come here,” he said. He helped me stand, his arms firm but gentle, and carefully walked me toward the bed.
He opened the fleece blanket enough to allow himself to get underneath, and he sat me in front of him on the bed, my bare back against his front.
His warmth seeped into me as he hugged me and held the blanket in place.
After a minute, I was confident I could speak without shaking. “Blake. He followed me upstairs and wouldn’t leave the room. I was sure he’d… he’d…” I couldn’t make myself say the words.
“I will fucking kill him.” He said it with such cold, deadly steadiness that I did not doubt him. “Let him try to hurt you ever again.”
As much as I normally disagreed with violence, and as surprising as it was to hear Colin speak in that manner, I suddenly felt safe.
It didn’t matter that Blake was probably downstairs enjoying the wedding reception and trying to seduce some other unwitting woman.
At least it didn’t matter that very second. Because I knew I was safe.
“Colin, I’m so sorry,” I said, finally warm enough to tear up. And tear up I did. In fact, they started streaming down my face with wild abandon.
“It’s not your fault that he’s such a fucking coward. When we’re sure you’re not hypothermic, I’m going down there to make sure he never enjoys another woman’s company again… wanted or unwanted.”
“No, I’m not apologizing for that. Of course, it’s not my fault. I’m sorry that I wasn’t honest about my suspicions.”
“Hmph. I regret not telling you certain things sooner, as well,” he said, though his tone didn’t sound so apologetic. His muscles against my back were hard, and he was still.
“What are you going to do to him?” I asked, wondering if that’s where his mind was.
“Find out why he’s here,” he said. “He and Landon used to play baseball together, but there was a scandal with a married woman and accusations of jewel theft that were never proven. Landon had tried to distance himself from Blake after that. I never liked him, much less after finding out about the robbery.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as I remembered Grant’s latest call. “Grant said he overheard Maggie arguing with Landon twice now. Once at a restaurant, and the last time was this past Friday, when she thought Grant had gone home. He said it was loud and seemed like they were lovers.”
“Maggie… with Landon?” He seemed to mull it over. “A most unlikely pairing, but I can see her being charmed by him. He has that effect on women. But why didn’t you say something earlier?”
“Well, Grant said that during their first argument that Landon accused Maggie of not being truthful about something. You yourself said that Kirkman can’t be the one who’s giving out company info since it kept happening after he was gone.
It has to be Maggie. And Landon must be afraid that Maggie is keeping something from him. ”
“That’s what I was afraid of. What her father was afraid of,” he said.
We were both quiet for the longest time. The next thing he said was, “You’ve given me a lot to think about. But how are you feeling?”
“Warm,” I said as I focused on the heat emanating from his body into mine. “But tired.”
Also humiliated and exceedingly confused because the man who’d just rescued me was the one who’d lied to me and tricked me into dating him.
His hands moved up and down my arms with a pressure akin to a hug. “I was so scared when I found you like that…”
Without warning, Colin stopped speaking and slid out from underneath the blanket. He tossed me my pajamas and put his shirt on. I wished I had a sense of what was going on in his head. I’d had the strangest moment of almost forgetting everything bad that had happened, and it seemed like he had too.
“Are you leaving?” I asked, suddenly feeling like a little girl asking her parents to sleep with her through the night.
He paused, hesitated, and said, “I have to make sure Blake is gone. I’ll lock the door. Here’s your phone.” He grabbed my phone, which was by the door on the dresser, and tossed it to me. “Call me if you need anything. I’ll be here in a second if you need me. I won’t be long, anyway.”
Need? I need you now! I wanted to shout at him.
But I didn’t.
“Don’t worry. You’re safe,” he said.
He locked the door and closed it behind him, as promised.
I lay there reflecting on the night’s events, but it was too much for me.
I didn’t want to keep seeing Blake’s smug smile while he had me cornered like his weak prey.
I didn’t want to think of Maggie or Landon and the scheme they had going on.
But I mostly didn’t want to think about Colin…
Colin, who’d saved me tonight from the freezing cold and warmed me up and later left me when the slightest hint of vulnerability came around.
Just as I was having these thoughts, Colin came in through the door, the key in his hand. I sat straight up, anxious to learn what had happened.
“He’s gone. Try to get some rest,” he said as he took off his clothes. Again.
I wanted details. He’d been gone for half an hour. Anything could’ve happened in thirty minutes.
Then I reconsidered. It was obvious from Colin’s silence that despite his help this evening, we were not on good terms.
I lay back down and settled in for the evening. After a minute, Colin slid in next to me. There was a flicker of guilt that he was missing his brother’s wedding reception to babysit me, but I didn’t voice that either.
We didn’t say anything else to each other that evening.
I told myself his distance meant regret.
That whatever had passed between us (if any of it was real) was something he’d already contained and filed away.
Colin seemed like the type of guy who knew exactly how to shut a door once it no longer served him.
Despite all the noise of the wedding reception downstairs and my circling thoughts, I eventually fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning to a knock on the door. I looked beside me and saw that Colin was gone.
I opened it warily to see a stern-faced Malia.
“Good morning, Miss Donovan,” she said, and I opened the door all the way for her to come in.
“Good morning, Malia. Have you seen Colin today?”
“He left the house early this morning. He said you might want to leave as well? Should I arrange for the helicopter to take you back to the city?”
I tried to hide my disappointment that Colin had left without saying goodbye. We hadn’t really come to a good point of closure, but he must have been too upset at my initial ulterior motives.
And what about his initial ulterior motives? I wasn’t the only one who’d been suspicious!
I sighed. “Yes, I’ll go home.”
A thought came to me. “Wait! Is there somewhere the helicopter can land near the Golden Cliffs Retirement Community?”
Malia pulled out her phone, tapped away at it, and said, “Yes, it can be done. 10 o’clock is your departure time. Can I bring you something for breakfast? Colin said you wouldn’t want to go down for the family brunch.”
Oof. I was uninvited to the family brunch. That stung. But it was true—I didn’t want to face them all, especially Landon, who’d obviously been the one who’d invited Blake to the wedding.
“Yes, I’d love fruit, yogurt, and a bagel with cream cheese, if it’s not too much trouble.”
She tapped away at her phone again, looked up at me when she was finished, and said, “No trouble at all. It was nice to meet you, Miss Donovan.” She was backing out the door when something else occurred to me.
“Malia, can I ask you something? Is Margaret Flame coming to the brunch?”
“Yes, as Landon’s guest. She’s also a close friend of the family.” She seemed to wait for me to do something with that information.
“Colin might like to know if Maggie comes here often,” I said, hoping the house manager might divulge some more information.
If not to me, at least to Colin. Whatever happened from here on out was none of my business.
I was clearly being invited to leave, and with that, I understood I’d never step foot on Brightwater Island again for the rest of my life.
Whatever the fallout would be at work, I decided in that instant it would have nothing to do with me. I would do my job and go home. In fact, I’d start looking for other jobs so that I’d avoid the inevitable run-ins with Colin.
“Only the week she spent here with Landon last month,” she said after eyeing me carefully and walked out. My mouth dropped open as I stared at the closed door.
Maggie had been here the week she vanished!?
I’d just vowed to avoid the Slade-Gordon-Flame situation, and yet here I was sitting on this piece of information. I had to tell Colin. Maggie’s excuse for having been gone was 100% a lie. She’d been right here the whole time.
As a guest, I presumed. I didn’t think that Malia would be an accomplice to kidnapping Maggie.
Something else struck me. Malia gave me that bit of news in a very off-hand way. I was willing to bet that Colin had always known where she’d been that week.
More lies. More secrets.
I shook my head and packed my bag while I waited for my breakfast.
The brunch was to begin at eleven o’clock, so I snuck down at quarter to ten to wait outside by the field.
Hearing my name from the sunroom, however, made me scrunch my face. I felt like I’d been caught doing something naughty, but I walked into the sunroom with my head held high. Mrs. Gordon was sitting in the same position as she’d been the day I’d arrived.
“Oh, Kate, that was you. I’m sorry you were unwell last night. I hope you’re alright now?”
“Yes, and I wanted to say thank you all for your hospitality. Please tell your family goodbye for me, and I’m sorry I can’t stay for the brunch.”
“I was quite surprised that Colin had to leave you so early, but he’s so devoted to his work. Always has been. Even as a child, he was very different from Stephen and Landon.”
I tried not to make judgments on that, but the fact that she was making comparisons of her sons, some of whom she’d sent to boarding school for most of their childhood, had my stomach turning.
“He is a very hard worker,” I agreed.
“Very loyal, too. He’s always the one who helps me. I don’t know if he’s told you, but I have suffered throughout my adult life from various bouts of severe depression. Colin used to write me such lovely letters from school when I was in treatment.”
I blinked a few times, unsure why she was sharing such intimate details with me, but suddenly her distance from her children made a different kind of sense. “I’m sorry to hear you’ve suffered with depression.”
She waved her hand. “It’s something I live with. An old friend by now. I wanted you to understand that when Colin is in, he’s all in.”
I couldn’t fathom the complicated Gordons, and now I’d never get the chance to. I smiled at her and simply said, “I have to get going. Thanks again.”
Her smile was rather emotionless, and I wondered about the demons she regularly fought.
I walked out of there, praying the helicopter would take me far, far away from the wreckage of Colin Slade.