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He threw the picnic basket to the sand. ‘You want to quibble about money when your life is in danger?’
She hated the way her pulse leapt at his wide-legged stance and flashing eyes.
He wheeled away. ‘If you think I’m going to keep taking this crap from you, Tash, you’re sorely mistaken.’
He wheeled back and she leapt to her feet. ‘What are you going to do about it,’ she shot at him, slamming her hands to her hips. ‘Throw me in a police cell?’
‘The NSW Police Force is doing everything it can to keep you safe! Would it seriously hurt you to show some gratitude?’
‘If it were any other officer here then there’d be no problem on that head. Get another officer down here today and I’ll show all the gratitude you want!’
His face twisted and his voice rose. ‘It’s school holidays. Summer. There isn’t another damn person available unless I call Peters in from her holiday with her kids. Is that what you want?’
She almost said yes, but in all conscience couldn’t.
He slashed a hand through the air. ‘Rick has timed this perfectly!’
It was as if he’d hurtled her back eight years—back to the confusion, the pain and the rage. The helplessness. The realisation of what she’d done. The realisation of what he’d done. ‘Rick is innocent you block-headed idiot!’ she screamed as loud as she could.
His eyes blazed like blue fire. ‘You’re the idiot—the blind idiot—where Rick is concerned.’
Every muscle bunched and tensed until she shook with it, frustration a murderous black bile in her blood. She not only knew how to disable, but how to make a person scream with pain while she did it. And she wanted to make Mitch howl. Her hands clenched and her temples pounded with such force she thought her head would explode.
She clenched a fist...raised it...
And then her father’s image rose up in her mind and she went cold all over. She took a step back, her hand falling to her side, her chest rising and falling and burning. ‘I have never loathed anyone in all my life with the intensity I hate you, Officer Mitchell King.’
He paled.
‘I do not want to be here with you.’ She’d almost struck him! ‘What are my other options?’
‘There’s a safe house in Hornsby. You’d need to remain inside at all times, hidden.’ He swung away, raked a hand back through his hair. ‘I remembered how active you were—how much you hated being cooped up—and figured you’d prefer being out here.’
She swore and sat, rested her head in her hands for a bit. They couldn’t go on like this. She’d almost hit him! The thought of being cooped up in a hot sweaty suburb didn’t appeal one bit, though, either.
What on earth had happened to polite distance?
She lifted her head. She dragged in a breath. ‘What kind of sandwiches did you make?’
‘Ham and tomato.’
Her favourite. She reached into the basket and took one. ‘Thank you.’ But it came out stilted.
He sat then too, but he kept the basket between them. Wise. Very wise.
‘I’m sorry.’
She didn’t want an apology. She wanted him gone. You can’t have that. Get over it.
‘If I have this wrong and you’d prefer the safe house just say the word.’
She considered it. Seriously considered it. She stared at the beach, the surf, the sky. Eventually she shook her head. ‘This,’ she gestured to the beach, ‘is better.’
A heavy silence descended.
Would you like to clear the air?
She set down her sandwich. Would it help?
Her chest cramped as she looked at him. ‘Do you know I never trusted another man after what you did?’
He bowed as if buffeted by a sudden breeze. ‘Tash.’
Her name groaned out of him and she didn’t answer the incredulity in his voice. She couldn’t.
He raked both hands back through his hair. ‘Jesus, Tash, you were just a kid!’
She stiffened at that. ‘What? You don’t think a seventeen-year-old can truly love?’ She’d loved him with her whole heart. She’d never felt as intensely, as passionately, as deeply about any man. Not before. Not since.
She never wanted to feel that way again. When she thought he’d returned her feelings she’d been on top of the world. When she’d found out he’d used her to gain information that had led to Rick’s arrest...
Betrayed didn’t begin to describe it. No amount of jubilation, not the highest of highs, was worth that kind of devastation.
He turned to her, his face grey. ‘I’m sorry, truly sorry. I thought...I thought you’d get over it. I thought you’d treat it as a light flirtation. It wasn’t until afterwards I realised how much I’d hurt you.’
‘Light flirtation?’ She stared at him in disbelief. ‘Mitch, seventeen-year-old girls don’t treat anything as light except, perhaps, parental rules.’
Which was why she’d sneaked out to meet Mitch that night. It was why she’d taken him to Cheryl’s party. A party that had been raided as soon as Mitch’s suspicions that cannabis was present were confirmed. Until that night she’d kept her ‘romance’ with Mitch a secret from everyone. Because he’d asked her to. Because it was the one bright thing she could hold onto when everything else around her was shabby and tacky. She hadn’t wanted to let reality intrude.
In hindsight, what he’d been doing had become obvious, only she’d been too besotted at the time to see it, too distracted by the presents he’d brought her—chocolates, books and knick-knacks that she’d treasured. She’d been too awed by the attention he’d paid her, too thrilled by the desire in his eyes. Too consumed by the physical mayhem he’d created in her.
She’d been altogether too stupid, too gullible and too naïve. But she’d learned her lesson—trust no one.
‘I was twenty-two and I thought I knew everything.’ He gave a laugh that scraped her nerve-endings raw.
Twenty-two? He’d seemed like a god to her back then. She’d forgotten how young he’d been too.
‘But I got a lot of things wrong, Tash.’
She wouldn’t argue with that, but something in his tone had her swinging to him. ‘Like?’ The question was out before she knew it.
He stared down at his hands and then out at the water. He didn’t wear sunglasses to shade his eyes and she could see the lines fanning out from their corners. He must be what—thirty, now? He was too young for so many lines.
And just like that her heart started to burn for him.
She stiffened and took another bite of her sandwich. She wasn’t forgiving him.
‘When I first started in the police force I was hungry to save the world.’ His lips twisted. ‘You can translate that into hungry for promotion if you like.’
‘Which is why nailing Rick on drug charges was such a coup for you.’
He nodded.
Hungry to save the world? She scowled at the water. He hadn’t saved. He’d only destroyed. The sad thing was, he didn’t know just how much he’d destroyed. And even now she couldn’t tell him. Wouldn’t tell him.
‘So you must be pleased with yourself these days.’ She rested back on one hand as if she didn’t have a care in the world. As if they were talking about nothing more innocuous than the weather. ‘Moving up through the ranks as you have with such commendable speed.’
‘You’d think so.’
She frowned and moistened her lips.
‘But I got you wrong, Tash. I misjudged what I’d need to do, what I’d need to sacrifice, to rise up through the ranks and make a difference. I don’t know if you remember this, but the day Rick was found guilty and was sentenced you turned to me with such a look in your eyes.’
The look had been heartbreak. Her eyes burned. ‘It didn’t stop you then and it hasn’t stopped you now.’ And she’d best not forget that.
He was quiet for a long moment. ‘Some things are worth fighting for. I happen to think the law and justice are two of those things.’
‘And if someone gets hurt in the crossfire?’
‘In the interests of the greater good then...’ He hesitated. ‘I won’t pretend that I don’t regret it.’
The innate ruthlessness chilled her.
A seagull landed nearby. It squawked at them, obviously hoping they’d throw some scraps. She went to toss it her crust but Mitch’s hand on her arm stopped her. She froze beneath his touch.
‘It’s cruel to feed them. Their digestive systems aren’t designed to eat bread...or chips,’ he added, referring to the tourist habit of tossing gulls hot salted chips.
She nodded and he removed his hand and she found she could breathe again, although her heart pounded harder than the occasion demanded. ‘Why on earth did you want to be a policeman anyway?’
His face darkened. He stared out to sea. ‘I haven’t told anyone this before. But if anyone deserves to know it’s you.’
He turned and she may as well have not been wearing sunglasses at all. Her breath became trapped by the lump in her throat. The lump stretched into a painful burn that made her eyes sting. And all she could remember was the way his hands had cupped her face eight years ago and how utterly she’d given her heart to him.
‘No,’ she croaked.
He frowned. ‘No?’
Clear the air? She gave a harsh laugh that made his nostrils flare. Clearing the air wasn’t helping at all. This wasn’t clearing anything, only clouding it.
‘No,’ she repeated, clearing her throat so the word emerged stronger. ‘I don’t want to know anything more about you, Officer King. You can keep your secrets to yourself.’
With that she rose, shook out her towel and strode off towards the cabin. She entered it only to find him two paces behind. She whirled on him. ‘Are you going to dog my every footstep?’
He stepped around her, seized a bottle of water from the fridge and grabbed the backpack from the table. ‘Help yourself to whatever you want, Ms Buckley.’ He waved a hand around the kitchen. ‘I’ll be down on the beach if you need anything.’
The ‘Ms Buckley’ stung, but she had no one to blame but herself.
She hitched up her chin. ‘Thank you.’ Her voice came out cold, polite and distant. If she’d had any energy to spare she’d have applauded her poise.
Without another word, he left.
She clenched her eyes shut. Letting her guard down around Mitch would be fatal. He might come across all caring and solicitous, but he didn’t trust her any more now than he had back then. That backpack being a case in point. He’d been very careful to take it with him. She’d bet her life it contained her cell phone. And his. Along with the car keys. He wasn’t giving her a chance to get her hands on any of them.
‘Regret? Yeah, right,’ she muttered. Mitch would say anything and do anything to get what he wanted. All in the line of duty, of course.
Well, one thing was for certain. He wasn’t getting her.
* * *
Tash had a shower.
She fully explored the inside of the cabin. It was well-stocked. She had to give Mitch credit for that. She didn’t find her cell phone. Not that she expected to.
She lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Despite all the sun and surf earlier, a nap eluded her. Her mind circled with questions and fears instead. What kind of trouble was Rick in? Was he safe? Who was behind the violence against those women? Did someone really want to hurt her? If so, why?
She leapt off the bed to browse the bookcase. She selected a book at random. Fifteen minutes later she threw it down with a growl. The one thing she didn’t need to read was a graphic police procedural.
Not that she was scared. Not out here.
Not with Mitch so close.
The thought whispered through her. She shook it away.
She made tea and drank it without tasting a single drop.
Finally she pulled on her tennis shoes, grabbed an apple and headed back down to the beach. Activity—that was what she needed. She wasn’t used to lazing around with nothing to do.
The minute Mitch saw her he snapped his cell phone shut with a curt, ‘I’ve got to go.’ He shoved it into the backpack.
He didn’t tell her who he’d been talking to.
She didn’t ask.
‘If it’s legal,’ she drawled, channelling icy politeness that bordered on incivility, ‘I was planning to go for a walk...just along the shoreline.’ She wanted to add ‘Alone’ but figured that’d be overkill.
‘Sure.’ He lay back on the sand and adjusted his cap over his eyes. ‘Beyond those rocks there—’ he waved to the left ‘—is a broad rock shelf. The rock pools are pretty at low tide.’
Right. Was it low tide now? ‘Thanks.’ Again—icy and uncivil. It had to be better than shouting at him, though, surely? With a shake of her head, she turned and stalked off.
For the next hour Tash lost herself in the strange wonder of the rock pools. She discovered brightly coloured anemones, tiny starfish, small crabs and little silver fish. She found brightly coloured pebbles, and bright green clumps of seaweed. She found fully contained worlds that seemed to be in perfect harmony.
She grimaced as a hermit crab pounced and devoured a tiny fish. It was a beautiful world, but a savage one too.
Still, with the sounds of the waves breaking on the reef, the cries of the seagulls and the tang of salt on the air mixing with the scents of the eucalypts and casuarinas onshore, it worked to ease some of the tension from her muscles.
Until the image of Mitch’s shuttered face rose up in her mind.
Had she really cut him off so pitilessly and walked away when he’d been about to reveal something that obviously meant a lot to him, some secret he’d never shared before? She slammed her hands to her hips. She glanced first one way then another before crouching back down.
‘What a cow!’ she murmured, scratching her hands back through her hair and knocking off her hat. She snatched it back up, settled it more firmly on her head. She was better off not knowing his secrets and he’d be better off not sharing them with her.
She thumped down to sit on hard rock. How were they going to get through three more days of this? Her mouth went dry. For heaven’s sake she’d nearly hit him. They couldn’t go on like this.
She forced steel to her legs and pushed back to her feet, startling the tiny fish in the rock pool. They flashed silver as they scattered to hide in the weed and overhangs. For heaven’s sake, it was eight years ago. Get over it!
She passed a hand over her eyes. She hadn’t spent the last eight years nursing her wound. But...seeing him when she’d least expected to had brought it all rushing back—the pain, the disillusion, the anger. Nothing good had come from any of it. All she’d been able to do was lash out in an effort to protect herself. Very adult of you, Tash.
She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. She stayed like that, motionless, for several long moments. Swallowing, she turned and headed back the way she’d come.
Mitch still lay on his back with his cap over his eyes. She set her shoulders and went to nudge him with a foot and then thought the better of it. ‘Are you asleep?’ she murmured instead. She said it quietly so he could ignore her if he wanted.
‘Nope.’
But he didn’t sit up.
She sat, but not too close. ‘I have a proposition for you.’
He still didn’t sit up. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all. She refused to get passive aggressive. She refused to get up and stalk off. ‘The police want to question Rick, right?’
He hadn’t been moving before, but he stilled completely at her words. She stared at him and pursed her lips. Act like an adult. ‘I’d rather have this conversation face to face.’
* * *
Very slowly Mitch pushed up into a sitting position. What was she up to now? He settled his cap back onto his head. ‘You know we do.’
‘But you don’t have enough evidence to arrest him, do you? All of your so-called evidence is merely circumstantial.’
‘What are you getting at, Tash?’ He reached across and removed her sunglasses, dropping them to her lap. He wanted to see her eyes. He wanted to know if she was lying to him, if she was planning something stupid. Not that she was the easy-to-read girl she’d once been, but he’d become adept at reading people. You had to in this job.
Her face, however, gave nothing away. She merely blinked a couple of times while her eyes adjusted to the light.
‘If you think for one moment I’ll believe you mean to grass Rick up or set him up, then you can think again.’
She leaned back and stared down her nose at him. ‘I might consider you a treacherous snake in the grass but I never thought of you as stupid. Of course I’m not going to grass Rick up.’
She said it all so matter-of-factly and without rancour that it surprised a laugh out of him.
‘I know Rick isn’t responsible for these crimes you’re fingering him for.’
All of his mirth fled. She was so blind where Bradford was concerned.
‘Let me ring him. Let me speak to him.’
He stiffened. Every muscle screamed no. If he said no outright, though, she’d get up and walk away. He didn’t want her to walk away. He was tired of that cold shoulder of hers.
His lips twisted. So much for professionalism.
Her hazel eyes with their bright points of gold surveyed him steadily. He bit back a curse. ‘Why would I let you do that? Why would I give you the opportunity to warn him we’re on his tail?’
She leaned towards him and the shape of her lips held him momentarily spellbound. ‘Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?’
‘I know Bradford.’
‘You always had it in for him—why?’
‘He was a drug runner!’
‘You had it in for him well before that. For what? Shoplifting a couple of chocolate bars and a bit of petty vandalism? For heaven’s sake, Mitch, those things were a rite of passage where we grew up. You know that as well as I do. I’m guilty of exactly the same things!’
He clenched his teeth so hard he could feel the pulse at the base of his jaw start to thump. Eventually he managed to unclench them. ‘He was the ringleader who led kids like you and Cheryl O’Hara astray.’
‘Cheryl?’ She closed her eyes. When she opened them again her eyes had turned dark and murky. ‘You’re wrong. You don’t know how wrong.’
Her certainty made something inside him snap. ‘I know he hit you all right!’ The words burst from him like bullets—hard, sharp and lethal. His hands clenched. His gut clenched. Bradford had hit her and the knowledge still made him want to tear the guy apart with his bare hands. How could she still defend him after all this time? ‘I know that mongrel beat you up!’
Her back stiffened. ‘He most certainly did not!’
Her hauteur gave him pause, but not for long. He stabbed a finger at her. ‘The first time I saw you after my basic training, you had a bruise on your cheek. A couple of months later, you had a black eye.’ One incident could be shrugged off as an accident. But two? Not a chance.
Tash folded her arms.
‘You had a black eye and Rick had two black eyes, a broken nose and a cut lip.’
She lifted her chin.
‘I asked your father about it. He told me Rick had hit you and that he’d, um...taken Rick to task for it.’
‘And you believed him?’
He sensed the scorn deep inside her. It burned brighter and fiercer until her eyes almost turned green. ‘Of course I believed him!’
The scorn flared with greater intent. ‘Of course you did.’
She went to rise, but he caught hold of her wrist, keeping her in place. ‘Are you telling me Rick didn’t hit you?’
With surprising agility she twisted out of his grip and it suddenly occurred to him that she only remained where she was because she chose to. ‘Of course he never hit me!’
‘Then who...?’
She raised an eyebrow, not even trying to hide her derision. ‘You’re the detective, you work it out!’
Mitch watched her stalk back up to the cabin. When she was out of earshot, he let loose with a whole litany of curses. What on earth had possessed him to bring her here? What had made him think it a good idea? Why had he thought this would work?
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