Sweet Seduction Serenade (26 page)

We clung to each other, barely registering Mr Anscombe's voice in the kitchen, or the front door opening and Adam walking in, dressed all in black, ASI paraphernalia around his waist, attached to his belt.

"You OK?" he said gruffly down at Gen and me. I wasn't sure who he was talking to, but Gen answered for both of us.

"Jacob's just arrived, help Katie out in the kitchen."

"Got it. I'll be back in a tick." His hand came down briefly on my shoulder, a small squeeze and then he was gone.

I expected to hear crying, a scream of horror, mixed with a few shouted swear words from Nick's Dad. But there was just low voices and hurried conversation. Adam's voice clipped as he answered questions as they were rapid-fired at him from Jacob and Elizabeth both. Then for some strange reason they all came back into the lounge, finding Gen and me in a huddle, hugging on the floor.

"Get up, girls," Mr Anscombe said gently. "Take a seat on the couch, it's going to be a long wait until we hear something else."

I hadn't cried, I'd been too stunned, but I still somehow managed a sniff as Gen and I stumbled to our feet and, still wrapped up in each other, staggered to the couch. I noticed as we shifted position to our new huddle spot, that Gen was crying though. Silent tears streaming down her cheeks, but not uttering a single sound. I didn't look at anyone else, I couldn't face what their faces would show. I knew there'd be worry and heartache, but it was the accusation that made me hide in Gen's arms. The fact that Nick was - by the sounds of it anyway - hurt and could possibly be killed, because of me.

I mentally prepared myself to pack my bags and get on the next plane, but the numbness that had invaded my bones made me do nothing to effect that plan. I just hoped that ASI was booking my flight, because taking a risk with Nick's life to keep me in NZ near my Dad seemed wrong. I couldn't accept Nick's life in exchange for a few more days
trying
to see my Dad.

When at least an hour had passed, Gen and I silent, the rest of the room uttering a few whispered words back and forth, and Adam constantly on the phone in the corner, I'd just about had enough. Thankfully my wait was over, as the front door opened and Ben Tamati walked in. I noticed the strain in his features immediately. The anger edging the corner of his eyes and mouth. He took a swift look around the room, nodded to Adam and Mr Anscombe and then settled his eyes on mine.

"Eva, we've tried everything we can. I'm sorry, but we've got no choice. You're booked on the next flight out at one pm."

I nodded slowly, completely in agreement with his words, as the entire room erupted.

"That's ridiculous!" Mr Anscombe shouted, coming to his feet. "There has to be another way."

"We've been searching everywhere the Russell boys have contacts and found nothing. They've simply vanished and so has Nick," Ben said steadily, unfazed by Jacob Anscombe's incredulous rage.

"You can't force Eva to go back," Katie said, just as irate as her father. I couldn't understand why they'd be arguing, it made complete sense to me and this was their son/brother, there shouldn't have been a question in their minds other than how quickly can she leave here?

"There's more," Ben said through a clenched jaw. "Blood at the scene Nick was checking out matches his type."

Everyone went silent, even Mr Anscombe and Katie. There'd be no more battle cries from my corner of the ring.

"I'll just go grab my bag," I said standing, all eyes in the room swinging to me.

"Eva," Mr Anscombe said, but I held up a hand to forestall him.

"There's no other way and I won't accept any harm coming to Nick because of me."

I started walking from the room, thumbing through my contacts on my phone to find Cary. I was putting the phone to my ear as I entered Nick's room, at exactly the same time Pierce and Stone walked into the house. Both sets of eyes met mine down the hallway, then Cary answered and I stepped into the bedroom out of sight.

"Hey, sweetie. What's up?" came his cheery voice down the line.

"Meet me at the airport in the next hour, we're heading home."

A pause, then, "What, Eva?"

"The Russell boys have got Nick and will kill him if I don't leave the country today." I thought a summary of the situation was best, I'd fill him in on the rest once we were on the plane.

"This is getting ridiculous," Cary muttered down the phone. "Is it really necessary that you leave?"

"Yes," I said, not wanting to argue this with him right now, I had a bag to grab and a plane to catch. "Will you tell Derek?" I asked, not wanting to face him myself. "But only at the last moment, so he can't catch the same flight as us." I felt like a tool asking that.

"Sure, sweetie. I'll leave him a message at reception, he'll clear it later when he gets back in. I think he went in search of you at your Dad's. That should give us enough time to skip the country without him being any the wiser."

God, it sounded like a darn movie again.

"Okey dokey." I attempted some Tennessee sunshine in my voice, but I think I wasn't fooling my best friend. "I'll see you shortly."

"All right, sweetie. This will sort itself out in the end, you'll see," he said cheerily again. He wasn't fooling me either.

The next half hour was a whirl. I didn't have time to see the expressions of sadness and worry and fear and incredulity on the Anscombes' faces. I phoned Gus and told him what was happening, letting him know the Breedlove would be at Nick's for him to pick up once things had been sorted out. I sent a text message to Jessie, rewriting it a dozen times, but finally settling on "
You win. I fly out at one.
" I told Ben I didn't need to go via Dad's to pick anything else up, I had my passport and the important stuff with me. Maybe the cowboy hats and boots I left behind would allow him to remember me in his last days, when Jessie finally let him go home.

I said a stilted good-bye to Mr and Mrs Anscombe, the former wrapping me up in a tight hug, tears streaming down her beautiful face. Katie hiccoughed as she gave me a kiss on the cheek, Gen outright bawled. I said nothing more than my strained good-bye, I couldn’t even say sorry. And that made me feel like a darn fool.

Ben and Adam had a brief intense conversation about who would take me to my flight. Ben won, so Adam said his farewells at the kerb. I kept my face down, staring at the ground. My expression cut-off from any emotion I was feeling. If I allowed myself to feel, I'd cry. And we all know that cowgirls don't cry.

Ben was silent on the way to the airport. Silent as he carried my small overnight bag into the terminal. Silent as Cary found us and wrapped me up in his familiar and much welcomed embrace. I almost let the tears fall then, but I promised myself they could once I was on the plane. The cowgirls worldwide would understand if I just held it together until then.

Just as Cary and I were about to go through to the boarding area, ticket holders only from the gate onwards, Ben stopped me with a hand to my upper arm.

"Cowgirl," he said in his deep, gravelly voice. I turned and forced myself to meet his eyes, he'd organised my ticket and ASI had paid for it after all. "We'll sort this. First get Nick safe and fixed up. Then we'll deal with your Aunt, make sure your Dad is OK. Yeah?"

I let a long breath out, my body though didn't release any of the tension it had been holding on to.

"I don't know what to say," I said, embarrassed my voice was cracking.

"Nothin' to say. Nick won't stop until your Dad is safe and your cousins are spittin' teeth out of their mouths. ASI don't take kindly to this kind of behaviour and now it's personal."

I wondered what it had been before. For me it had always been personal. My Dad, my loser Aunt and her dumbass boys. And Nick. It didn't get more personal than that. I guessed Ben was telling me it was personal to
all
of the ASI men now. Their boss had been compromised, harmed, they would seek revenge. Jessie, Levi and the boys were my family, but right then I had never felt like I belonged with them less.

"I hope you nail their asses," I said and spun on my booted heels, sweeping past a patiently waiting Cary towards our plane.

Cary caught up to me at the passenger waiting area, just as I was handing over my ticket to the attendant to board. He silently followed suit, trailing behind me as I walked down the tunnel to the plane itself. ASI had booked me on an Air New Zealand flight, luckily Cary had managed to get a ticket too and checked in with me, charming the female attendant into giving us consecutive seats. He could always turn on the charm when needed. That's why I needed him, because right now I was anything but charm personified.

In a daze I took my seat, by the window so I could watch my hometown disappear beneath the wings of the plane as we left. Knowing I should be paying more attention to Cary, but utterly unable to right then, I placed my earphones in my ear, switched on my MP3 player and fired up Garth. If there was ever a moment that Garth Brooks was needed, now was it. Leaving behind a dying father I would no doubt never see alive ever again. And for the second time in my twenty-eight years, leaving behind my heart.

It was fitting, I thought, as the plane began its slow taxi onto the runway, that I
was
leaving, because the fear I'd felt was familiar and the sight of Auckland getting smaller and smaller as we lifted off into the air was familiar too. And when all else is a jumbled mess of pain-filled thoughts and emotions, we always turn to the familiar. I'd escaped my trailer trash family eight years ago. I'd thought - briefly and incorrectly - that I was old enough to face them again and not be torn to shreds. But now that was proven impossible, I was running away again.

From them. From what I felt for Nick. From a life that I'd briefly considered I could live. I knew what waited for me in Nashville. My band - who for the first time since I'd formed them, didn't feel like they were truly mine at all - my small two bedroom white clapboard house on Belcourt Ave, near Vanderbilt where Cary worked. We shared the rent and kept each other company, but right in that second I felt like I didn't belong there either, that the house we'd called home for the past eight years wasn't. That Nashville with all those gorgeous cowboys and all that beautiful, heartbreaking and soul lifting Country music, wasn't home too.

I felt lost and although my best friend sat beside me, I felt more alone than I had in my entire growing years. Growing years where my cousins tormented me and mother barely tolerated me and my father ignored my existence. Where I had never fitted in, not once.

And all of a sudden I felt like maybe I didn't fit in, in Nashville.

There'd be gigs to organise, so I could pay the rent, but first I'd have to use the last of my savings to replace the Martin. I did have a spare guitar to strum on, but for performance standard it wouldn't really cut it, still I might be able to take my time before rushing out and purchasing the first Martin I could find. Maybe I'd even test out a few Breedloves, do a comparison. At least that would be something to keep my mind off other things.

I'd also have to have a few practice sessions with the band, get a feel for their style again. Because they really were so different from Gus and the guys back home. And when had I started calling Auckland home?

Then, no doubt, in the next few days Derek would come calling. Maybe the best thing for everyone would be to go back to how it was. Derek would get what he wanted, I could pretend that nothing had happened in the past week or so, and life could simply return to how it was. Numb and false and a band-aid sticking over the gaping hole in my chest, neither fixing it nor truly hiding it, if anyone bothered to look too closely. So, I wouldn't let them, I'd keep my distance, like I'd kept my distance from everyone but Cary since I arrived.

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was something. No, actually, it was all I had to give. Because if I thought my heart was missing before, I now knew that was utter darn crap. Because right now I could feel it, and it was tearing me apart from the inside out. It wasn't missing, because I'd found it again one night in Sweet Seduction playing
Thunder Rolls
to a practice crowd. It wasn't missing, because Nick had given it back and in the process made me feel whole for the brief time I had again with him.

And now, as Cary and I winged our way further and further from Auckland, I realised that my heart was torn in two. I left a piece of it with Nick Anscombe - praying he'd be fine once I was gone, knowing I could never go back for fear of what Aunty Jessie and the Russell boys would do - and he'd left a piece of my heart with me. To remind me of what I was running from. To prevent me from ever making this mistake again.

And as Garth Brooks'
Which One Of Them
began playing in my ears, I knew I'd never forget him. How could I? When I'd freely given him that piece of my heart and would never give a slither of it to anyone else again.

The words of the chorus rang out in my head, "
So tell me, which one of them will be you tonight? Which one of them will hold me in your arms so tight?
" and the past eight years of pretending I was still with Nick when in another's arms came flooding back in...

...and I finally let myself cry.