Chapter 14 #2
He held his beer up in a silent ‘cheers’. ‘Not an alcoholic, sorry to disappoint you, but thanks so much for your concern, it is appreciated.’ He crossed his legs. ‘I am actually on holiday – well, partly. I arrived early and was only meant to start working tomorrow, but I got impatient.’
‘I see.’ I looked around me. ‘And this?’ I asked tapping my foot on the deck.
‘I bought it for myself last year. Was sailing around the islands first before coming here. My employer can’t afford to put me up in an expensive villa, not like Sharaz Venter. I assume that’s who’s funding your little trip.’
I smiled at him. ‘Confidential and discreet.’
‘Right, of course.’ He took another slow swig of his beer.
I watched him the way a hunter watched their prey.
Sizing him up. Assessing his weaknesses.
And he was watching me just as intently, as if he was conducting his own silent assessment.
We were locked in a stare-off now. A silent duel, and neither of us was going to be the one to put down their weapon first.
‘It’s a bit of a predicament we find ourselves in, isn’t it?’ Cam finally spoke, breaking the silent deadlock.
I shrugged. ‘Only if you get in my way and fuck up my investigation.’
He picked at the corner of his beer label.
‘Likewise.’ He looked up at me, something moving through his eyes.
The look elicited a very familiar feeling deep inside me.
A feeling that I’d worked long and hard to park in the past. It crawled up my spine and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention.
‘Your surveillance equipment is working, by the way, I checked it for you on the way out,’ he said, tapping his fingers on the table between us. ‘Nice stuff. Expensive. You must be doing well.’
‘Lots of cheaters.’ I eyed him suspiciously. ‘That’s uncharacteristically kind of you to check on my equipment. Why would you do that?’
‘Call it professional courtesy.’
‘Or maybe you just wanted to make sure it’s working so I get what I came for and you get rid of me quickly.’
He looked around and gestured. ‘Well, it is a small island. Not much room for both of us.’
‘Or you could just undock this little midlife crisis of yours and go sailing off from whence you came.’
He laughed. ‘I think I’m a bit young for a midlife crisis.’
‘Well, whatever it is, I think it would be wise for you to undo that knot over there,’ I pointed at the rope keeping him tethered to the dock, ‘and sail off into the distance.’
‘I’m not going anywhere, Lizzy. Not until I’ve got what I came for.’
I stood up and looked down at him. ‘That makes two of us.’
Cam stood up too. ‘I had a feeling you were going to say that.’
We glared at each other for another long moment before I turned on my heel and started walking away. But just before stepping off the boat, I stopped. ‘Stay out of my fucking way, Cam. Or else.’
‘Or else what? Next time you really are going to compress my carotid artery until I pass out?’
‘Yes.’ I spun back around to face him.
He smiled, a slow, lazy smile that looked like it held a secret. I didn’t like secrets. And Cam had been always been full of them; that was the reason things had ended between us before they’d even begun.
‘I don’t think you’ll do that, Lizzy,’ he said.
And that was it. The words that turned this previously civil interaction into anything but that. I closed in on him. ‘If I were you, I would believe me.’
‘See, I don’t think so,’ Cam said in a calm yet cutting tone. ‘You’ve got too much of a moral compass for that. You only choke out the bad guys, and we’re on the same team here.’
‘Cam, you are the bad guy!’
His face twisted in anger. ‘I’m not the bad guy.’
‘You’re a cheat.’
His fists clenched at his sides, and he shook his head. ‘I’ve told you, I did not cheat.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
He threw his hands in the air. ‘And here we are. Again.’
‘We’ll always be here,’ I snapped, stepping even closer to him, my fists just itching to smack him in the jaw.
For another moment, he stared at me, and it felt as if his eyes were boring holes into my skin. But then he broke eye contact, his shoulders slumped and he let out a long sigh.
‘It’s such a pity,’ he said softly. ‘I’d always hoped we could move on from there someday.’
‘You and I will never move on from there,’ I spat the words out angrily before turning and jumping off the boat. I didn’t look back or stop; instead I picked up my pace and jogged away as fast as I could. The entire time, I could feel his eyes still burning into me.
And then she was gone. Boots thud-thud-thudding against the wooden dock as she went. Typical. Lizzy didn’t walk, she thudded.
She jumped off the dock and her footsteps were immediately muffled by the soft sand.
I watched her as she jogged away; fuck, I watched her.
She wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before.
Then and now. She was built like the ultimate athlete, all broad and muscular.
There was nothing delicate about her . .
. well, physically anyway. Because that one night with her, I’d been allowed to see her other side, the side she fought so damn hard to hide from the world.
But that night, she’d granted me a glimpse behind the facade, and if I thought I’d been in love with her before, there were no words to describe how I’d felt afterwards.
It was as if she was giving me this rare and precious gift, a chance to see past the tough exterior and down to the real her.
I rubbed my hand down the side of my face and stared out over the moonlit sea.
I hoped the soothing water might help calm the way my heart was hammering inside my ears.
It didn’t. Nothing ever managed to do that when she was around.
And certainly not now, because the second I’d seen her here – alive, beautiful, pissed off as hell – I knew my heart was going to be a lost cause.