No Strings (Broken Strings) (12 page)

Getting
up from the table, she moved discreetly to the hammock area where she could
stand and observe the gardens of Grey’s villa while being obscured from sight
for the most part.

All
Indi could see was a bleach blond willowy woman dressed in a vulgar orange
swimsuit sat with her back to her as the woman dipping her legs into the pool. 
“Grey, come and join me by the water.” The loud English accented woman spoke. 

“Caitlin
has nothing of what I’ve been saying sunk in to your head?” The recognisable
tones of Grey retorted.  “I don’t want to be in the same town as you let alone
by the same pool.”  His voice dripping in distaste at the mere thought.

Not
even flinching the loud woman continued.  “Come now, Grey you know its best we
try and get along.  I’ve already told you what the doctor said about not
getting stressed over the next few months.”

“The
best way to do that would be to stay the hell away from me then. You don’t fool
me, Caitlin if you even think for one second I believe it’s even mine.”

The
woman let out a chilling laugh as she got to her feet and turned sideways to
step out of view in the direction of where Grey’s voice had come from.  “You
wound me.” The bleach blonde declared as she casually swept her hand over the
prominent bump sticking out of her lower abdomen, which couldn’t be mistaken
for anything other than a baby bump.

A baby...
A baby growing inside this woman’s belly.
Could it
really be Grey’s baby?
Thoughts thundered through her mind trying to make
sense of what she’d seen. This woman clearly had to be at least five months
pregnant. Maybe the baby had simply been a mistake but why had he not told her.
 Was a future together just a facade that he never planned to see through?  That
was the only possible reason she could come up with for him not being truthful
about something so fundamental to their future.  If he’d been serious about
making a life with her, he would have known she would find out about this
eventually. Perhaps all the father
issues
were another exaggerated excuse.

A
sense of overwhelming betrayal tormented her senses as the realisation of what
she’d just seen swept over her. 

Indi
couldn’t stand to be in the villa another second, she’d to get away before
there was any chance that Grey would appear.  She couldn’t face him now she
knew he’d not been honest with her. Blinded by tears, she gathered up her
belongings scattered around the villa as quickly as she could
manage
, placing them
messily in her luggage.  Her racing mind planning to drive to the airport now
rather than tomorrow even if she couldn’t get on an earlier flight.  She’d rather
sleep at the airport than stay here any longer.

Grabbing her luggage and keys to her rented car, she
slammed the door to the villa and accelerated away from the last three weeks of
her life as fast as she could
manage
.

Indi arrived at Catania-Fontanarossa airport just after
five, only to discover they ran no evening flights that day. She’d no alternative,
but to arrange to stay in a hotel on the outskirts of the airport for the
night, and just fly out on the original ticket. 

Once she’d had some dinner in her room, she felt it late
enough in the evening to turn on her phone and check her messages, without a
chance of having Grey try to call her. She expected he would have discovered
she’d left by now, and dreaded hearing what he would say. She felt a sense of
anger about his deceit of not being fully truthful about the arrival of that
woman, but at the same time, she experienced guilt for just up and leaving.

Perhaps he would have shared a reasonable explanation with
her if she’d stayed and confronted him, instead of running off. However, she
shouldn’t have had to confront him over this - he should have been upfront with
her from the start, without the need for prompting from her.

Despite the strength of her feelings for him now, she
couldn’t help but wonder if they had been emphasised by the idyllic location,
and freedom from time constraints. She believed there was no point dwelling on
the might have been, as he probably would replace her with someone else soon
enough.

With her phone on, she discovered she’d two messages
waiting, The first was from a polite, but slightly abrupt Grey, asking her to
call him back when she was on the way back to the villa. The third was a more
anxious-sounding Grey, simply asking why she’d left without saying a word, and
still asking her to return his call urgently.

Hearing his voice the first time made her heart ache, and
made her regret rushing off so hastily, but the second made her remember the
mistrust he’d caused, and she felt more anger towards him again. Her mind and
feelings were on an emotional rollercoaster from regret to anger.

Despite all the reasoning her brain put forth, she missed
his presence.  

Deleting the messages, Indi promptly turned off her phone
again, wanting to avoid seeing Grey’s name flash up on the screen, if he
attempted to contact her for a third time, and not trusting her willpower to
hold up against the temptation to answer it if he did.

With nothing else much to do, but head to bed, she tossed
and turned until the early hours before her brain gave into the exhaustion the
turmoil of her thoughts had caused.

Grey didn’t get away from Caitlin until early in the
evening, under the pretence of going out for dinner with Adam and Hayden, and
refusing to let her join them. They drove off together, dropping Grey a
sufficient distance away, so he could double back and enter Indi’s villa,
unseen by Caitlin. As he turned into her driveway, he was perplexed by the
absence of the hire car and then the obvious unlit building that normally had
the lounge and kitchen lighting streaming through the shutters to the drive. 

He didn’t expect her to sit in all day waiting for him to
show up, but, he’d thought she’d understood he would get away to see her by the
evening. Frowning, he pulled out his phone and tried to call her number, but
her voicemail was the only greeting he received. He left her a brief message
asking to call him back, the irritability of feeling left in limbo by her
sudden disappearance creeping into his voice as it recorded his words.

He contemplated what to do next; he couldn’t very well go
back to his villa, as Caitlin only would bombard him with twenty questions over
his quick return without Adam and Hayden. He considered getting them to come
back and collect him, but that would also require an explanation to them, as to
the absence of Indi, and he remained unsure of what he would tell them. He
wasn’t even sure of the reason himself, but he’d started to get a sense of
disquiet that she’d not simply gone out for the evening. 

He decided to call a taxi, using the local directory
enquiries, and take a walk along the harbour front in Siracusa to clear his
mind, before meeting up again with Adam and Hayden to head back to Caitlin. He
spent the next couple of hours sitting on a bench, looking out over the sea,
and watching boats manoeuvre back and forth while his mind ran through the
events of the last three weeks, and particularly the last twenty-four hours.

He recognised that she seemed to be a skittish type of
person from the way she reacted quite emotionally to everything, but he
honestly hadn’t expected her to leave with no word before her holiday was even
over. She’d appeared to be interested in a future together so he couldn’t
comprehend this abrupt ending. Obviously, she didn’t feel as close to him as he
thought she had.

Thank goodness he had held back telling her about Caitlin
and her pregnancy, after all, seeing that this was how she’d reacted without
even having that knowledge if she knew the sordid truth, he would have had a
true crisis on his hands.

The vibrating of his mobile phone interrupted his
deliberations. Without checking the screen, he spoke half-heartedly into the
phone’s microphone, “Hello.”

“Hey big boy, why do you sound down in the dumps?”

Grey’s jaw tightened. He was seriously not in the mood for David’s
jovial ribbing. “David, I hope this is important,” he said brusquely.
“Otherwise can we postpone this for another time?”

“Sure, we can do this another time if you wish, but it’s
about your mystery woman’s safety, so you might consider it vital information.”

Wait, did Richard know something about Indi’s disappearance?
“What do you know about her safety?”

“Your little friend had a Zak Ellis stalker problem before
you met her.” David said in a matter
of fact manner.

Zak Ellis was any woman’s worst nightmare if he started to
take an interest in her as he didn’t understand the word no. He was a well
known to the Police, but he’d always been shrewd enough to avoid leaving behind
enough evidence during his crimes, not to be charged. He was a named suspect in
Freya’s kidnapping, but again, they couldn’t prove a strong enough connection
to Guy James, the man successfully prosecuted for the kidnapping.

Guy James had known his sister Freya since she was a little
girl, but it had not developed into the sinister obsession until he started
working for their father. Fusion had just started to take off and had been away
gigging, so Grey or his brothers were not aware of what had been going on until
it was too late. 

It seemed he had been doing something shady for their father
and when he had stopped being useful his employment had been terminated. As
vengeance Guy and his crony, Zak had set about planning to kidnap Freya to get
their father to pay up.  It was only recently that Livvie had unearthed some
forgotten bank statements showing immense payments made just the day before
Freya’s return. Livvie had used a contact and found out the name on the bank
account belonged to none other than Guy James thus proving their father had
given into blackmail and got Freya back before the police was alerted. He had
always wondered why she had been returned so quickly without any contact from
the kidnappers. At the time, the family were just relieved she had been
returned and didn’t question it further. But now it just proved even more in
his mind that their father was to blame for Freya’s kidnapping and breakdown
since.   Just another error he planned to use against him.

“She mentioned that her parents had hired someone to harass
her to give them money and that he’d been put away, but never the name of the
person.” Grey’s blood boiled at the mere mention of the detestable man’s name,
especially knowing he’d touched Indi, as well. “How long did he get?”

“Just two years.” 

“I knew that scumbag was trouble, I should have dealt with
him years ago.” Grey’s fist clenched tightly as it hung down the side of his
body. “I want you to set up some discreet security protection for Indi for the time
being. I don’t trust either of them not to have people on the outside that will
connect Indi to Freya, or to me. I don’t want her to be any more traumatised by
that association than she already has been.”  He didn’t understand why she had
gone without saying anything, but he wanted to know she was safe. 

“Discreet meaning that she isn’t to know about it?”

“Yes. I need to know she is safe until
things
are
settled.”

“Ok, I will get onto it.”

Checking his watch Grey realised he needed to catch up with
Adam and Hayden in town soon, so they wound up their conversation.

He then sent a quick text to
his assistant, Sam, who worked far beyond a normal five-day-a-week job,
requesting that he try to get him on a flight back to England tomorrow, or the
day after.

Grey managed to regroup with Adam and
Hayden in town, so they headed back to his villa together. He detected a note
of surprise in Hayden’s voice when he had first called them, saying he was in
town, rather than back at Indi’s place.

Now walking back to the car, he saw them exchanging raised
eyebrows; he knew they must have guessed something was up, but he wasn’t ready
to talk.

“Did your evening’s plans change for some reason?” Hayden
asked casually, despite being an employee of Grey’s, they were firstly friends.

“I rather would not discuss it,” Grey said stiffly, an
impassive expression plastered on his face as he coached his emotions downwards
where he could tighten his control on them.

“No problem,” Hayden said.

The car journey took place in silence, except for the odd
comment passing between Adam and Hayden, but a brooding Grey didn’t pay any
attention to what they said. He remained too solemn to care what was going on
around him, intent on preparing his speech to Caitlin.

As they vacated the car, Grey spoke up, and asked them to
give him some privacy with Caitlin for a while. Progressing into the house,
Adam and Hayden, adhered to this request, disappearing into their rooms to wait
out the storm they realised was brewing.

Caitlin didn’t bother to look up as the men entered. She was
busy painting her toenails with considerable difficulty, her pregnancy bump
stopping her from leaning forward adequately, and her attention fully
concentrated on getting the stroke of polish perfect.

“I think it’s time we stopped dancing around each other and
laid our cards on the table,” Grey said as he sat down on the sofa opposite
her, glaring severely, after pouring a large measure of whisky into a glass
tumbler.

“I didn’t realise we hadn’t been.” Caitlin looked up at him
nonchalantly, smiling her usual, fake sweet smile.