Chapter Twenty-Two

‘Move over Bruce Lee.’ Joining him at the bar, once police procedure was complete, Nathaniel gave Adam a congratulatory slap on the back. ‘Where the hell did you learn to do that?’

‘Darren, my hero and my nemesis.’ Adam shrugged, reminding Nathaniel of his not-so-friendly martial arts spars with his brother. ‘He was quite fond of breaking my arm.’

Nathaniel nodded, furrowing his brow. ‘Not great hero material really, was he?’ He smiled sadly in Adam’s direction as he parked himself on a bar stool.

‘Nope.’ Adam shrugged again, preferring not to think about him.

‘Well, whatever, you were pretty impressive, mate. I have no idea how you avoided serious injury. You’ve obviously got someone on your side.’

‘Yeah.’ Adam smiled ruefully. ‘Unfortunately, not the person I’d like to have.’ Even as he said it, Adam was mentally apologising to Emily. He had no doubt that without her timely intervention, he would have been in A&E nursing stitches, or worse. He wasn’t about to claim to have his very own guardian angel looking out for him to Nate, though, who would naturally assume he’d been hitting the hard stuff.

‘You never cease to amaze me, you know, Adam,’ Nathaniel looked him over approvingly, ‘taking him on like that. I’m not sure I would have had the bottle. Well done, mate.’

Adam just shrugged again. Despite the coppers looking at him with respect, rather than like something that crawled out from under a stone, Sherry thanking him and apologising for her husband kicking the crap out of him, he didn’t feel like much of a hero. Where the women he loved were concerned, he was obviously a complete let-down.

‘Me either,’ the landlord commented, with a touch less hostility than he usually did. He was still cleaning his glass, Adam noted. Probably the same glass: his ‘reserved-to-eyeball-him-menacingly-over’ glass.

Adam went back to studying his hands on the bar in front of him, debating what to do next. Text Sienna? Nathaniel had offered to ring her and report back to him. He’d even offered to go and see her, data protection preventing him giving out her address. Adam really couldn’t blame him for that. He had no doubt David Meadows would go for Nathaniel if her useless boyfriend turned up where he wasn’t wanted, which might hurt Nate’s business. He never was her boyfriend, though, was he, in Meadows’ eyes? Probably not in Sienna’s eyes either.

God, he could use a drink. Adam ran a hand over his neck and then snatched his gaze up sharp, half-expecting to see a certain someone hovering, as a brandy glass slid towards him.

‘I owe you one,’ the landlord said, his expression a mixture of puzzlement and appreciation. ‘I suspect James will probably want to buy you one, too.’

‘Oh, right.’ Adam looked from the extremely large brandy to the landlord, surprised. ‘Cheers,’ he said, picking up the glass and swirling the contents around. He could almost feel it sliding down his throat, hitting the spot, numbing the pain, at least for a while. And therein was the problem. How many would he drink then? Enough to render him incapable of being anything but what everyone expected him to be, including Nicole and Phil? He’d seen the look when he’d opted for a soft drink: disbelief. And what about Sienna? Would she seriously have contemplated a future with someone who would buckle every time there was an emotional crisis? Someone so needy, he couldn’t function without her? She obviously had contemplated it. She wasn’t here, was she?

Still at his side, Nathaniel coughed, loudly. ‘You going to drink that?’ he asked, his wary tone back.

Adam tugged in a breath. ‘No,’ he said, planting the glass firmly back down and getting to his feet. ‘I have Lily-Grace to consider, don’t I? Thanks.’ He offered the landlord a smile. ‘I appreciate the gesture, but I’m on the wagon.’

Please God, let me stay on it, he thought, heading for the door. Alone on his boat without the woman he loved all over again and no bottle to keep him company, that was going to be a hard place to be.

Adam felt something brush his arm, soft, like a passing bird’s wings. Reluctant to open his eyes, elusive sleep having claimed him despite it being only early evening; vaguely aware he was still on the seating area, he ignored it, preferring to hold onto his dreams. The dreams were sketchy, foggy, mostly of Sienna, her smile content, her mesmerising green eyes filled with a mother’s love as she cradled a baby. Lily-Grace? Adam couldn’t see clearly. And then he sensed danger. He couldn’t see where or what the threat was, but it was there somewhere swirling around her.

Adam called her name, but no sound came from his mouth. He could hear his heartbeat, loud and fast; feel her heartbeat, a steady thrum next to his own. He wanted to go to her, fold her into his arms, keep her safe, but, try as he might, the distance grew wider, the fog grew denser, and he couldn’t quite reach her.

‘Sienna!’ he called her again, heard himself call this time, the name drawn out and slurred, but he hadn’t been drinking, and yet the fog in his mind kept getting thicker and thicker. ‘Sienna!’ he shouted, swatting away the bird that flapped at his face, pulling away from the feather-light fingers that touched him, tugged him, urged him … Adam, wake up!

‘Jesus!’ Jolted to consciousness, Adam sat bolt upright, sweat pooling at the base of his neck and tickling its way down his torso. She was here. Her aura was strong, all around him, he could smell her perfume. ‘Emily?’ He blinked against the semi-dark and then he felt it, saw it clearly, etched into her features, ice-cold fear.

Stumbling to his feet, Adam reached for his phone. No messages. He hadn’t expected any. He hadn’t rung her. Why hadn’t he damn well rung her? Selecting Sienna’s number, he let it ring, only to reach her voicemail. What the hell good was that?

‘Sienna,’ he said, ‘it’s Adam. I need you to call me. I …’ What? What did he say that didn’t make his concern seem only for himself? ‘Sienna, whatever’s happened, whatever you’ve decided, please call me. I just need to know you’re safe, that’s all.’ He left it there, not knowing what else to say. She might think he was mad. He might well be mad, but this feeling in his gut, in his soul, it was too strong to ignore.

Stopping only to scramble into his trainers, he crashed out of the boat, leaping the handrail, tripping as he did. ‘Fuck,’ he uttered, dragging himself up from the sodden grass and racing on.

The river was high, heaving, swollen. Adam caught the name whispered on the wind above the rush of the water, Sienna, she said over. It was soft, melodic; urgent. Trying to still his panic, quiet his heartbeat, now a rat-a-tat-tat in his chest, Adam hammered on the chandlery door. ‘Nate! Nathaniel!’ He hammered again, pushing his weight against it. He needed him to answer. He needed that address. Now!

‘Sienna, she’s in trouble,’ he said breathlessly as Nathaniel yanked the door open.

‘What?’ Nathaniel whirled around as Adam pushed past him. ‘What do you mean, in trouble? In trouble how?’

‘I don’t know.’ Adam banged into his office, careering around Nathaniel’s desk, pulling out drawers, attempting to find the information himself. ‘Nate, I need her address.’

‘I can’t give it to you, Adam. I’ve told you. How do you know she’s in trouble? Have you spoken to her?’

Adam pulled in a breath, breathed out hard, and banged a drawer shut. ‘No.’

‘So how do you know?’ Nathaniel watched his frustrated progress through filing cabinets. ‘Have you been drinking?’ he asked inevitably.

‘No!’ Adam opened another drawer and ferreted uselessly through it.

‘Right.’ Nathaniel sounded unconvinced. ‘So, enlighten me,’ he said as Adam searched fruitlessly through paperwork on top of the cabinet. ‘How do you know she’s in trouble, if you haven’t spoken to her?’

‘I don’t bloody well know how I know!’ Adam turned to face him. ‘I just do! Nate, please …’ Adam’s shoulders sank. Something had happened. Or was going to happen, he could feel it. How was he supposed to explain that? ‘I don’t know how, Nate, I just do. She’s in trouble. I have to go to her. Please help me.’

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes, studying Adam for a long, hard minute, then, ‘Come on,’ he said, turning for his chair to grab his jacket. ‘The address is in my phone.’

‘What time is it?’ Adam asked again as they drove.

‘Two minutes past the last time you asked, Adam.’ Nathaniel glanced worriedly sideways at him. ‘It’s nine-forty seven p.m., precisely.’ He nodded at the clock on the dash. ‘I can’t see Meadows being very thrilled to find you hammering on his front door at this time of night.’

‘I can’t either,’ Adam conceded. He’d no doubt tell him to get out of Sienna’s life and stay out, and Adam would, if that’s what Sienna wanted, but only after he’d established she was all right. If she was, well he’d definitely look like an idiot, but he’d rather that than ignore the gut-wrenching certainty that she wasn’t.

Dammit. Why hadn’t she returned his call, if only to tell him she’d thought about it and considered him a tosser? At least then he’d know she wasn’t incapable of returning the call. With that idea knotting his stomach, Adam selected Sienna’s number and tried her again, sighing heavily as her voicemail picked up.

‘So, are you going to tell me what this is all about?’ Nathaniel asked, as Adam keyed in a text. Please let me know you’re OK. One word.

‘I wish I knew,’ Adam said, growing more anxious by the second. ‘Can’t you go any faster?’

‘Not if you want to get there in one piece, no. It’s raining, Adam. The roads are wet.’ Nathaniel glanced sideways at him, for about the tenth time. ‘So, you haven’t had any contact with Sienna, her dad, or Lauren, you say?’

‘No.’ Adam shook his head, adamant, and willed the car on.

Nathaniel glanced at him again. ‘You’re just acting on intuition then?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Right.’ Nathaniel nodded. Adam heard the audible sigh that went with it. ‘And this intuition hit you when exactly?’ he asked, the insinuation implicit, how many drinks had he had exactly that had him rambling like a madman?

Nathaniel probably thought the booze had addled his brain. Maybe it had. Adam couldn’t get his head around any of this himself. The psychiatrists would have a ball, including David Meadows. He couldn’t deny it any longer, though. Emily was here for a reason. Something terrible was going to happen. He knew it. He prayed to God it hadn’t already.

Adam ran a hand over his neck and tried not to think about worst-case scenarios. ‘I have dreams,’ he said, no idea how else to explain.

Nathaniel twizzled his neck to look at him. ‘What? Premonitions, you mean?’

‘Not exactly, no. More feelings. Watch the road, Nate.’

Nathaniel turned his attention back to the windscreen. ‘So,’ he said, over another loud sigh, ‘I’m driving around in the pouring rain at ten o’clock at night because the man’s finally discovered he has feelings.’

‘Strong feelings,’ Adam tried, aware of Nathaniel’s distinctly unimpressed vibes.

Nathaniel shook his head. ‘I have no idea what’s going on here, Adam, but if this turns out to be you manufacturing a way to see Sienna when, for whatever reason, she doesn’t want to see you, this will be the absolute last favour you get from me.’

‘It isn’t,’ Adam assured him, his apprehension increasing as the satnav announced they’d reached their destination.

‘What the hell do you want?’ David Meadows greeted him not-over-enthusiastically after Adam had almost banged the front door down.

‘Sienna,’ Adam said shortly, no inclination for explanation. ‘Is she here?’

‘You really are the limit, aren’t you?’ David Meadows folded his arms over his broad chest and regarded Adam with a mixture of incredulity and ill-repressed anger.

‘Mr Meadows, I—’

‘You sleep with my daughter, string her along, for kicks, presumably, as good as tell her there’s no future in it, and then you come looking to … What, Adam? Try your luck again, is that it? Sweet-talk her into bed because you’ve run out of other women whose lives you can ruin?’

‘No!’ Adam refuted angrily, breathed in, and tried to temper his tone. An argument on the doorstep would get him nowhere, and he needed to be wherever Sienna was. The sense of urgency he felt now was practically choking him. ‘I didn’t tell her there was no future, I just …’ He struggled for an explanation.

‘She’s pregnant, you bloody idiot!’ David Meadows boomed. ‘How scared do you think that makes my daughter?’

‘What?’ Adam’s heart jolted violently in his chest.

‘Pregnant, Adam. With child. Your child!’ Meadows spelt it out as Adam shook his head and then stared at the man, utterly stupefied.

‘I’m working on the assumption you didn’t know before you announced you’d rather wait before having children. Frankly, if I’d suspected you had known, Mr Shaw, you’d have been nursing far more than broken ribs. Now, I imagine even someone as completely self-obsessed as you are will be able to glean you’ve caused enough trouble. I think you should leave, don’t you?’

A baby? Adam tried to get his head around it. She was having … No, not possible. Unless … Sherry? His mind flicked back to the pregnancy test. Had she interfered with … Meant him to father a … ‘Wait!’ he said as Meadows made to close the door. ‘Are you sure? I mean, is she sure?’

Meadows yanked the door back open, now looking very close to hospitalising him. ‘Be careful, Adam. If you value your life, be very careful indeed.’

‘No, not about me,’ Adam said quickly. ‘My being the … I mean, is she sure she’s …? Jesus.’ Winded, Adam swallowed back his confused emotions. Overriding his bewilderment, his absolute bafflement as to why she didn’t tell him was a deep-seated terror. Sienna was in danger. Every second spent talking here, was a second wasted. ‘I need to see her,’ he said, eyeing Meadows levelly.

‘She’s not here.’ Meadows re-folded his arms.

‘Mr Meadows,’ Adam dragged a hand over his neck, frustrated, ‘I have to see her.’

Meadows looked him over, unmoved. ‘Why?’ he said flatly.

‘Because …’ Adam searched frantically for a way to make the man see the urgency of why.

‘I want to know what your intentions are, Mr Shaw, before I—’

‘Oh, for fu— I don’t have time for any more psychoanalysis crap!’ Adam grated impatiently. ‘I need to see her! Now!’

Meadows pulled in a breath, his flared nostrils a good indicator of how close he was to carrying out his threats. ‘She’s out,’ he said tightly, and stepped back into the hall.

Adam took a step forward, blocking him from closing the door. ‘Where?’ he asked, mustering up as much civility as he could and making sure to hold the man’s gaze. ‘I just need to talk to her, Mr Meadows,’ he went on, hearing in his head the ominous tick of a clock as he did. Emily desperately urging him to ‘Hurry’. If he was insane, one thing Adam knew for certain was that he’d rather be mad, than that anything had happened to Sienna.

David Meadows regarded him through narrowed eyes. ‘At her former boyfriend’s house, I believe.’

‘Her former …’ Oh God, no. Adam felt a distinct shift in the ground this time.

‘He’s rung her incessantly,’ Meadows went on making his point, and clearly clueless, ‘which I suppose at least means he’s interested in her welfare.’

‘Her ex? Interested in her welfare?’ Adam raked a hand furiously through his hair. ‘Dammit, David, he tried to …’ Adam hesitated, realising the shock factor of what he was about to say might hit this man harder than any news he’d had himself today.

David paled, visibly. ‘Tried to what, Adam?’ he asked, his expression telling Adam he was getting the gist anyway.

‘It’s not her welfare he’s interested in, David, trust me.’ Adam made sure he did get the gist. ‘I have to go to her,’ he reiterated. ‘I have to go now.’

David stared at him for a brief second, and then nodded decisively, plucked up his keys from the hall cupboard and strode through the door. ‘I’ll show you the way,’ he said, slamming the door behind him and heading for Nathaniel’s car.