“Thank you, Klaus.”
“For what, sweetheart?”
“For coming here. For being you.”
Beneath my hand, I felt the stubble on his chin scrape on my skin as he shook his head. “Tonight, I didn’t do so well. I’m sorry.”
I opened my mouth to deny that, but he continued. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m…” I took stock. “Stomach ache.
Everywhere
ache. Confused.” I slowed down my listing. “Terrified. Sad that this happened at all.” Even if she was at fault, Melissa had died. Leon, I didn’t know him. He’d died but anger at what he’d set in motion was all I felt right then. “Angry and lost too.”
He offered a humorless, cut-off laugh then kissed my nape. “Yeah. I understand. We’ll just do what we can to make things right. I can’t bring anyone back from the dead, though. Wish I could.”
He rarely admitted fault. We had an almost Master/slave arrangement when at home. I liked it that way. Without Klaus my world was shakier, and lacking. I loved his dominance, his assurance. I loved placing my life in his hands, and knowing how much he cared about me.
“Jodie, there are decisions we need to make tonight that I cannot decide for you. I can’t and wouldn’t do this anymore than I would command you to have our child without consulting you. This is just me and you.”
“Okay.”
“First off. This big idea of mine of pretending you weren’t here, it won’t work if you can be connected to this party in any way. Did you phone anyone who is here? Were you on CCTV together with Melissa down at the jetty? Some of those shops might have it though the jetty itself doesn’t.”
I thought a minute while picking at the thread on my blouse. “No. We separated. I caught up to her at the car she’d parked on a side street. No to all those. This was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
“We should clean her car too then. But, good, we still have three options. The first—run away and leave Australia.”
What? “Leave our home? Here? The island? Our whole
country
? All because someone else involved us in their crazy party? No. Fuck no.”
He shifted behind me then went on, “Second choice is for me to admit everything to the cops. I don’t know how much jail time that would involve, but it would be some. Steph too, she’d have to take her chances.”
“You in jail? That really makes me even sadder.” I cleared my throat, feeling that heaviness in the center of my forehead that came from building tears. But, we were thinking this through. “How long would that be?”
“I don’t—”
“Do a search on your phone? There must be cases like this? The police can’t tell you’ve been here, can they, if you do that?”
“No. I doubt it. Only in a Hollywood movie. Wait. I’ll see what I can find.” He pulled out his phone and started tapping.
The smell of the sea was stronger up here once the night fell into the later, deeper evening close to midnight. Maybe because any traffic pollution lessened, or because it was cooler, or maybe the wind changed? Whichever, it was beautiful. I loved the sea. It was why I lived here on Magnetic Island. From this height, in daylight, you would be able to see the big crescent sweep of Horseshoe Bay. Klaus loved the sea too. Thinking of him in jail for a couple of years… This was all so ridiculous that now and again, I almost felt reality jump, like my brain had to re-engage to catch up.
From his movement, he’d tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Well? Find anything?”
“I can’t be certain. We need a lawyer, really. But, I’d say, possibly fifteen years jail.”
I gulped. “Fifteen?”
“With good behavior, I’d get that reduced. I’m guessing here, but five to ten?”
“Holy fuck. No way! No way. Uh-uh.”
“I agree.”
“What’s the third option? We’re doing that aren’t we?” I strained to listen and could hear the vacuum starting up somewhere in the house. “I’m amazed you got Steph to agree to this so easily. She’s as allergic to housework as me. More so. I only had a thing about doing yours. You poor baby.” He growled at that so I hurried on. “Her room at college merited a bomb disposal crew.”
“Yes. That’s part of why I think I might be able to work the third possibility.”
“It’s not this?” I half turned so the side of my face was on his shirt and inhaled. “Mmm. You smell good.”
“No, not this. This is not going to fool the cops. All this cleaning will only make them suspicious. And if they interrogate her, we’re screwed. I don’t trust her to lie well enough. I don’t trust her, full stop.”
“No?” I tilted my neck to look up at him. “She was my friend, back then, at uni.”
“That, you call a friend?” Now the anger showed in his voice. “She held you down so a man could strip you and god knows what else they did. Do you believe she has told us everything? I don’t.”
“No,” I whispered.
“He might not have physically raped you, but I’d call that sexual assault.”
I slumped, staring at the timber slats on the floor under the chair next to us. “I know. I couldn’t understand that either. Even if she was under the influence of whatever drug he had, she never warned me he was giving me anything. I—” I looked up again, swallowed. “I don’t trust her either.”
“Right then, moving onward. Option three, the real option three, is this. Think hard before you answer. I’m not involving you in anything illegal just because I lost my temper.”
“But you didn’t
just
lose your temper. You thought I was dead. You don’t need to explain that to me. The man was a prick and deserved it. And I don’t care if people would judge me badly for saying that.”
Klaus studied me. Those eyes of his were so intent, so dark, like when he was hurting me with a cane or needles, or a flogger, and he needed to watch closely to make sure he didn’t cross the line and go too far. I didn’t remember my safeword sometimes. Once only, he’d forgotten, but that was long ago, now we both knew better.
“You get to safeword this one if you want.”
I blinked. Had he read my mind? “Tell me. But, Klaus…” I searched for and found his hand, gripped it tightly until he fastened his hand on mine even tighter. Good man, he knew I’d needed that. “I trust
you
. I doubt I’ll say no.”
“Just listen. Then think. The last option. If we can’t trust her. We need to silence her.”
I waited. I knew he didn’t mean murder. He searched my eyes.
“No comment? Good girl. You know I don’t intend to kill her. I could never do that. If it came to that, to truly harming her, I’d take option one or two.” Klaus squeezed my hand for a second. “I mean to take her to our house. To put her in the room. To keep her there, indefinitely. Until, we can trust her enough to let her go.”
Flaws. I could see there were flaws. My heart thudded so fast it hurt my chest. “How can we ever trust her that much? This is kidnapping.”
“Yes, it is.”
“So how could we ever trust her enough? She’d have twice as much damaging information. Murder, as well as kidnapping. I…” My mouth stayed open. He’d said to think.
“I don’t know the answer to that, but I see no choice. She seems impressionable, guidable.” His focus flicked toward the glass doors.
“You think she’s submissive enough for you to do that? I mean I know you’re dominant Klaus. Hell, do I know that. But this? It’s not BDSM.”
“No. Submission is a consensual thing. Dominance though, has possibilities. I can do things; see who she is deep down. Though I find it hard to imagine ever trusting her. But I’d rather try this, than be jailed for something I barely see as my fault, or to leave my life, my country, or you.” He brushed his fingers through my hair, cradled my face.
“Oh, Klaus.” I sniffled back more of those dumbass tears.
“Jodie, this has ripped a huge hole in our lives. We cannot be the same after this. I can’t tell if this is me rising to the occasion, or descending into Hell. If I could take back what was done tonight, to you, I’d sacrifice myself to whatever fucking god I could find, but I can’t.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but I want to make a better wrong—one where we can live and laugh and love again.”
I drew in a breath so deep, then put my free hand to my mouth, and held that breath for a while. Time to jump off this cliff. Though really, I’d been on my way down all night. I hoped we figured out how to fly very soon.
I let my hand fall away. “Yes. My answer is yes.”
“Good. Now, rest. You’ve been through a lot. Rest, beautiful.”
Rest? “Hell is going to turn into a ski resort first.”
“
Shhh
. Don’t be a bad girl. Rest.”
I grunted in amusement at the hint of his normal dommy self.
Of all the things he’d said and done, oddly, that gave me hope.
“Just remember this for me, please? That I never wanted to be the bad guy.”
“Man.” I rolled my eyes, even if he couldn’t see. “You never were and never ever will be. You’re my hero.”
“Rest.”
“I am!”
“
Shh
.”
It grew cooler but with Klaus cuddling me, I would have stayed until my ass went completely numb. Besides, the island in autumn was balmy, even at night. Half an hour or so later, all the sounds of cleaning had stopped and we heard Steph in the corridor, approaching the room behind us.
“It’s time.” He stood and helped me rise to my feet.
“How are you going to do this?” I murmured.
“Jodie, just stay back and keep out of my way. You’ll see.”
Pity surged in me—pity for Steph. I knew just how fast Klaus could move. How strong he was. She wouldn’t have a chance. “Don’t be too hard on her, will you?”
“What?” A puzzled expression appeared. “I will be as hard on her as necessary. You are something special, Jodie. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky.”
“Meh.” I shrugged. Strangely, I also feared for him. When did anything ever go off without mistakes? Maybe after tonight, nothing would scare me again? If only. I dug my nails into my palm. He’d be okay.
Soon, we’d have a prisoner in our basement. Damn.
I was going to make an effort to become Stephanie’s friend again. It was for the best—forgive, forget. I could do that. What she’d done, yeah, forgivable, probably, with time. Klaus could be the big meanie.
If one of us didn’t befriend her, she was going to fall apart.
After Klaus said we needed to clean Melissa’s car, we girls trooped down the stairs to the closed-in garage where Melissa had parked her silver Mazda sedan. Trying not to think of what we planned to do with her, when Steph was finished, occupied me. I pretended to be fascinated by the BMW next to this one, and wandered around it. Klaus arrived a minute or two later with the rope and handcuffs.
Eyebrow raised skeptically, Steph swung the vacuum cleaner and wiggled the hose end toward the cuffs. “Hmm?”
“You need to decide how you want us to leave you,” he said casually. “Tied up so you can do a convincing attempt at getting free by yourself, or not.”
“Ahh.” She seemed convinced and switched on the machine.
The Mercedes, the BMW, and the jet ski in this huge garage, were just more evidence that Leon had succeeded in life. What a waste. Being rich had drawbacks, like wanting to blitz your brain on drugs when you partied. And not giving a damn about who you dragged down with you.
Again, we let Steph wield the vacuum then she wiped down the door handles and dashboard. There was nothing else I could recall touching.
“Done.” She climbed out of the car backward, and set down the vacuum.
Kidnap time. Yah, I’d named it. You didn’t do this every day. Seemed like it needed naming.
Out the corner of my eye, I saw Klaus moving in—medium strides, but he was three yards away at most.
Don’t stare. Don’t
.
From the startled look on Steph’s face, I must have seemed about to explode. I wasn’t staring at him, I realized, but I was sure as hell staring at her. My eyes felt like they were bugging out.
Slow motion? No. Hell no. He reached her, wrapped a hand around her arm, spun her, stepped in and hooked her ankle, and went down with her to the concrete. She hit with a slight thud as the whole side of her body contacted then was face down. The
oof
sound made me sure she’d lost the air in her lungs and was winded. He leaned on her with his knee.
Though she kicked once, with her heels, all that followed was a firm “Stay,” from him, a double click as the handcuffs engaged, some muffled screams as he wrapped a knotted scarf over her mouth……damn. Then the rope went round her ankles while he half-sat on her butt.
As I moved in, slow, and ready to flurry backward if she somehow got loose, Klaus was finishing off with some turns of the rope around her wrists below the handcuffs.
I stopped, openmouthed, a little stunned.
One hogtied woman blinked and squeaked back at me. Her attempted wriggle and scream when Klaus stood was met by a hard slap on her ass and a growled, “No fucking around. Shut up.”
She did. The scarf wouldn’t be that good a gag but Klaus was intimidating.
“You okay?” he asked, putting his hands on my shoulders.
Was I? I gulped, nodded. “Are we leaving now?”
“I’ll carry her to the front door and back our car up closer. Don’t touch anything unless it’s with the rag she was using to wipe the car.” He picked it up off the ground. “Here.”
I took it. My hand fell to my side as I looked at Steph. Her chest rose and fell, rapid and deep, and every so often a small moan broke from her gagged lips. Her brown eyes were dark.
Scared. Who wouldn’t be? What must she think we meant to do to her?
I squatted, feeling a strange need to reassure her. “You’re coming home with us. We’re not going to kill you or anything. But you need to behave.”
A tiny spot of blood stood out on her white cotton dress. There were two simple loose pockets at the front. The shape of a small pair of scissors showed in one of the pockets.
“Crap.” I reached in and fished them out with a finger in one of the handles.
“I didn’t see those.” Klaus took them from me. The dryness of his words said he wasn’t amused. I wasn’t either. “Didn’t trust us?”
From the angry twist of her face, he’d got it in one.
Yes, I’d been right to wonder if something might go wrong. How dangerous was this going to be?