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It’s been four days. Today is Friday, the fifth day in a row that James and I are scheduled to spend together. I dash to the door of my hotel room, pulling my towel tighter when there’s a knock, earlier than usual. I peek through the spyhole, expecting my laundry and getting James. Oh!
I grab my phone, set the camera to record and leave it on the side, hidden behind the tissues, then run back to the door. I pull it open, rubbing my hair with a towel as though I just got out of the shower.
“Oh! Hi.”
“Good morning.” He swallows hard, his eyes following a drop of water as it disappears under my towel, where my ring is (thankfully) concealed.
“I...was hoping we could have breakfast together before...” He trails away. And swallows again. “Eva...”
He steps inside and closes the door behind him, and I’ve never wanted to run more. “You...look...” His throat is working compulsively. His breathing heavier.
“It’s a towel.” I try to laugh and squeak instead. His eyes snag mine, and he steps in closer and slowly raises one finger. He sweeps it lightly down my arm, through the smattering of water droplets. He inhales sharply, and I’m praying this will be over fast.
I can do this. I can do this.
“Eva...you must know...” He moves closer. And I watch, frozen, as he leans in. “I...”
I can’t do this! I’m going to throw up. I jerk my head back and put my palm flat on his chest as I push him away. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” I shake my head, dropping my eyes and lowering my chin.
“I can wait,” he says softly. I nod. You’ll be waiting forever. “I’d better go downstairs.”
As soon as he’s gone, I watch the footage and send it to Davey with a note.
––––––––
Please, God, let that be enough?
***
When we’ve been driving for a few minutes, James asks me, “Do you like your job, Eva?”
“Sure.” I shrug. “I’m never stuck for a party to attend.”
He smiles and asks, “Have you always been in events.”
“Um...no. Not always. What do you do?” I ask, forcing myself back to here and now. This conversation, and not the one I keep replaying in my head with Will.
“I’m a private investigator.” I frown.
“You mean...like Sherlock?” He laughs, a proper, head-thrown-back laugh.
“Kind of. But not criminal investigations, usually.”
“So...what kind of investigations?”
“Civilian stuff. Tracking people down, extramarital affairs, fraud, that kind of thing.” I nod, my eyes on my boots. “Why does that upset you?” he asks, his voice soft.
“It doesn’t.”
“Was your husband unfaithful, Eva?” I look away, out the window. “I’ll take that as a yes.” I draw a deep breath, my shoulders rising and falling in shuddering movements. He only did it because he thought I was being unfaithful. “Not all men are...”
“Pigs, who think with their cocks?” I bite. “Sorry.”
“You have had a bad experience, haven’t you? I’m sorry...Look, I think it would be really helpful for you to talk it all through with someone impartial. Cathartic even.”
“Someone like you, you mean?”
“If you’d like to.”
“No, thanks.”
“Can I ask why not?”
“I told you. I’m not much of a talker.”
“Shall I tell you what I think?” He continues without waiting for a response. “I think you’re scared of your own feelings. I think you’re tired of being strong now. I think you’d like someone to hold you for a while, and make you feel better.”
“Do you?”
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“There’s nothing that will make me feel better. I just need to get on with it and accept that.”
“I disagree. Let me show you. Please.” I glance at him out of the corner of my eye.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“We’ll take things at your own pace, Eva, but please, let me try.”
––––––––
James is charming, polite and attentive. I can see how it works. For someone who was even half-interested, or unimportant and irrelevant to their spouse. I can see why someone might fall for it.
I find myself smiling along and joining in his light teasing, almost without realising it. It’s actually nice to be someone else for the day. Someone whose life isn’t a chaotic hellhole. Someone who isn’t quite such an arsehole as I am.
So, when he asks, “What’s his name. Your ex-husband?” I answer him.
“Will. Will Hunter.”
“Not Adams?”
“No. That’s my maiden name.”
“Ahh. And what does he do?”
“He owns a hotel.” His face fills with sympathy, and his mouth pulls to the side.
“I can almost see how it happened. A drunk guest. A hotel full of bedrooms. Probably more than once.” I look away fast, and he lowers his voice. “He’s a fool. He had you, and he lost you.”
“He won’t ever lose me. I lost him. There’s a huge difference.” He gasps.
“You...you can’t mean...? You don’t still...love him?”
“I’ll always love him. I meant it when I said ‘till death do us part. Even if he didn’t.”
“Oh...Eva.”
“Don’t. I know what an idiot I am. If I could have a lobotomy, I would. But like I said, there’s nothing that can make me feel better. I just have to crack on and...”
“You’ll have love again.”
“I don’t want to love anyone else.” My voice is barely audible. Everything I said to James was true. Sid was right. I’m a terrible liar. But this is too close to the bone. I clear my throat and change the subject. “So, have we seen enough venues to choose? Did one stand out for you?”
“There is one more I’d like to see. I’ve heard about it but never been.” I glance at my phone when it buzzes. The thumbs up emoji from Davey. That’s it! It’s done. He has what he needed. Thank! God! I can stop. I can stop pretending.
“Sure, okay.”
––––––––
“Tell me something,” James says after a few minutes, chewing his lips and throwing furtive glances my way. “How does a woman fall in love with a man like that?”
“A man like what?”
“A liar. A cheat. A womaniser.” Will is none of those things. Not anymore.
“It wasn’t a choice.”
“So...? You’re telling me it was like a bolt from the blue, and you got struck by Cupid’s arrow?”
“Something like that.” I laugh a little. “I tried so hard not to love him. Not to fall for him. But it was like I had no control. He was in my head. In my heart.”
“In your bed,” he spits, and I look at him sharply.
“Yes. In my bed too.”
“I thought you had more class than that.”
“You don’t know me, James. And you don’t know my...Will. He’ll always be the love of my life. With or without him in it.”
“Even though he fucked some other woman and got her pregnant?”
“I...didn’t say...”
“Oh, it was obvious! I worked it out as soon as you told me his name. Her husband hired me when he suspected she was screwing around. I know exactly who Will Hunter is.”
“He’s still screwing her. Did you know that?” I flinch, and he looks over at me, shrinking away from his words. “He fucks her bow-legged every single night, while you sit at home feeling sorry for yourself. And I can prove it.”
“No,” I whisper.
“Yes,” he hisses. “So, any silly little ideas you had of a happy reunion won’t ever happen, Eva. What you need is a little revenge sex. In his hotel.” As he says it, I realise where we’re going next, and exactly which venue he wants to see.
“I’ll be gentle, baby. Or not. You choose.”
“No.”
“You’ll see. I’ll prove it to you. And then you’ll probably fuck me in front of him.”
––––––––
Escape is looming on the horizon, framed by the windshield and just visible through the rows of beech trees. My stomach is churning. When the car pulls to a stop, I’m frozen. Unable to run. Unable to move. “I’ll prove it to you. In his office, right now. We’ll make him watch it too. And then we’ll make him watch as I bend his pregnant wife over his desk,” he snarls.
––––––––
When I enter the foyer a few minutes later, James holding onto my arm, Will is at the coffee bar, talking to Stefan. Stefan’s mouth drops wide open, and Will spins around. His eyes sweep over me, head to foot, and then back up to our baby, before they land on James. I see the light of recognition. Will knows who he is?
Will starts moving towards us, and James jerks his head, indicating the corridor that leads to Will’s office. So, he has been here before? He must have been to know where it is.
James marches me right into Will’s office and rounds his desk to his computer. He pulls out a thumb drive as Will stands beside me. I’m acutely aware of Will, in this small space. I can feel him, but we’re both looking at James. “Now. Watch. And then tell me you still love him. This was two nights ago.” He flicks a glare at Will and swings the screen around.
The date is in the top right-hand corner, confirming that this is footage from just two nights ago, exactly as he said. And then Will enters the shot, coming out of the gym showers, wiping his face with a towel, another wrapped around his waist.
He looks around like he heard something, maybe someone call his name, and he smiles. Before he pins a woman to the wall, his hand creeping between her legs. “No! No, turn it off,” I plead. James only smiles and sits down to enjoy the show, his hands laced behind his head.
“Oooh, good technique, Will. How fast did she come?”
I watch, frozen in horror with my stomach in knots. He moves over to a bench and sits her astride him, on his lap, and kisses her neck as he positions her. She leans back, her hands on his thighs, her mouth hanging open in pleasure as he bucks into her. “Please stop,” I beg.
“Just a few more minutes, Eva. It’s nearly over. This time was just a quickie.”
My eyes are glued to him, the Will on the screen, before I finally see it—what I’m looking for—and break down so completely the video is paused. I can imagine the triumphant look on this conman’s face. I hear him stand and he walks over to me. James speaks softly, close to my ear. “Now tell me again, Eva, how much you love him. This man. The man who will fuck any woman who appears willing.”
“Eva,” Will’s voice is tight and thick. “Sweetheart, I know how this looks. I know...but you have to believe me, baby. That’s not me. I swear to God, I have never slept with another woman since meeting you.”
I take a shuddering breath and raise my eyes to Will’s, so wide, so filled with pain and torment. I take a shaky step towards him. His face screws up, like he’s expecting me to hit him. I lean in to his ear and whisper, “I know.” He gasps, his wild eyes searching mine. I place my shaky hand over his racing heart, my fingers flexing and caressing. “I know.” Will gets it too. He inhales sharply, his lip trembling like he doesn’t dare believe it.
“Baby.” He hauls me to him. I can feel his relief.
“I’m so sorry, Will. I’m so...” He seals his mouth on mine, his hands in my hair, until James yells.
“Do you have that little self-respect, Eva!” Will’s eyes stay on mine, his hand on the back of my head.
“Tell him how you know, baby.”
I lean in and kiss his lips lightly. And my fingers move to the top button of his shirt. Will’s eyebrow lifts, and a slow smile materialises as I open each button in turn. “Or show him.” He smirks.
“What the fu—”
“You missed a detail. A very important detail. A permanent feature.” I kiss the turquoise ink on Will’s skin, before I step aside and let James see the smoking gun. “The real Will Hunter? He has my name tattooed across his heart. Has had it there for a while. So, this guy? Who’s just gotten out of a shower? Two nights ago? He doesn’t. So how does he have Will’s face?”
“The same way the tape I saw had your face, I suspect.” I gasp, and Will looks unbelievably guilty. “I’m so sorry, baby. I should have told you. I—”
James’s anguished cry fills the air, and I flinch at the sheer volume. He lunges, but Will steps in front of me and blocks him.
“I’m gonna kill you,” James snarls. “And then I’m gonna fuck her good. For the first time ever, she’s gonna know what it’s like to have a real man inside her. I know she wants me. She told that guy Sid she would do me.”
“Because we knew you were listening,” I gasp. I need Will to know it wasn’t true. “We knew you bugged the office and the house, and I wanted you to show your hand. I was sick of pretending. Sick of playing your stupid little game. I wanted to get back to my husband, and our family.”
Will’s shoulders rise with his breath. “Sounds like a rape threat to me.”
“It’s not rape if she wants it.”
“She doesn’t. And she’d rip your balls off if you come anywhere near her,” I snarl.
“Well...I think you’d change your mind. I could make you come so hard, Eva.” A growl is ripped from Will’s throat as he lunges and swings, sending James flying across the room before crashing into the back wall with a thud-thud, as he falls to the floor.
“You will never touch my wife,” Will growls as he stalks over and hauls James to his feet by his shirt.
“Like you fucked my wife, you mean?”
“I didn’t rape her. There’s a difference. She wanted me.” I flinch again at his words and try not to take them personally. Or picture it. Fuck my stupid brain! “I did the job Jacob Stone paid me to do. I got between his friend and his wife, so that he could move in on her. He was in love with her. Not me.”
“I don’t believe you,” James spits.
“No? Ask him. Ask him for the file. Ask him why he paid me a five hundred grand bonus called Penny.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t he? I suppose he wouldn’t buy another house in Cambridge either? The house he gave Penny a key to? I suppose he wouldn’t have moved her in there, pregnant with my daughter? I suppose he wouldn’t have drawn up adoption papers for my baby, before she was even born? There’s a problem though. I can prove it all. So, think again. And know that he would. And he did.” Will releases his fistfuls of James’s shirt and blinks, before he walks slowly back over to my side, like he’s just realising I’m still here. He stops, a step away, asking permission. I move forward, closing the gap, and wrap my arms around him as he envelops me. And I finally feel safe. And grounded. Home.
“Is that true?” James’s voice invades my bubble, and I hate him a little bit more.
“Every word,” Will says, breathing deeply and stroking my hair. “I don’t have to prove it, but I could. All of it. With a money trail.” He takes a half pace back, one hand on my waist. He hooks a finger around my chain and tugs gently, until my ring is freed from my top and lying across my heart. He closes his eyes and sighs before he continues speaking to James. “But here’s the fun part. You can ask him yourself.”
He slides his phone from his pocket. “You get that?” he asks whoever is on the other end. And seconds later, the door flies open and Sid drags a man I half recognise into the room, his arms pinned behind his back.
“You’d better have a good fucking explanation, Jacob!” James roars. Sid releases him, shoving him forward. His eyes flick to mine and back to his target.
Jacob, whoever he is, looks like a broken man, his head bent, his eyes downcast. There’s no fight left in him.
“What do you care? You didn’t want her,” he accuses.
“She was my wife! You were supposed to be my friend!”
“Your friend?” he sneers. “No. I was just waiting for you to fuck up enough that she’d realise I was better for her than you ever were. But she never did. Even when I...broke her heart.
“I’ll never forgive myself. I broke her heart when I introduced her to him.” His scathing glare slices to Will, his lip curled back over his teeth. “And she still didn’t want my arms to comfort her...” He’s close to sobbing. I could almost feel sorry for him. Almost. But not quite.
“That’s why you did all of this.” He waves an outraged hand in our direction, and Will holds me tighter. “It was revenge for you. Not me. It wasn’t for me at all.”
“I needed access to your studio. Your video editing skills. Nothing else. I knew what you could do after you showed me the fake you made for that mob guy.” We all jump and look at the door when it’s almost ripped from its hinges. And Davey enters the room. Behind Dan. Will shifts his weight slightly.
Davey’s eyes meet mine, just for a second. A reassurance. Dan’s gaze is boring into the guy gaping at him. He stops, arm’s length from James. “You? You made that video?” His voice is low and dangerous. It makes the hairs on my arms stand up. He holds up one finger. “Before you speak. You lie to me. Just once. And you will live the rest of your miserable life in a pit of pain. Answer my questions, and I’ll go easier on you. Now, you were saying?”
James swallows hard. He nods, almost imperceptibly. “I’m sorry? What was that?” Dan demands.
“Yes.” James’s reply is whispered and shaky. “I made it.”
Dan leans closer, nose to nose, and growls, “Why?”
“I...I was asked to...”
“Do I look like a guy with time to kill? Who! Who asked you to make it!”
“Y...yo...your father.”
Dan recoils, actually stumbles. His face flies to Davey’s. Davey only lifts an eyebrow. That’s Davey for: I told you so.
“My father? My father asked you to make a deep-fake sex tape? Why?”
“He...said...that it was for your own good. To keep you in the business. It was supposed to keep you and your brother separated. And to...end...the enemy’s daughter.”
Dan’s eyes slice to mine, and I look away. “You...were never...? Eva? You weren’t...?” I force my gaze back to his.
“No. I was never.”
“My brother didn’t sleep with my wife,” Dan whispers, as though it’s a fucking revelation. “Gary...”
And I get it too. It was about Gary. Just like Will said it was. Dan really thought his brother had betrayed him. I’m not sure I was even relevant. I could have been anybody. Anybody...except I’m also my father’s daughter. The man who infiltrated their inner sanctum. I was supposed to die.
It was revenge on a dead man, and it was supposed to keep one brother at war with the other. It half worked too.
“Eva...” Dan swallows hard and takes a step towards me. Will, Davey and Sid all move closer to him and Dan freezes, stock-still. “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I’m...I should have known.” He watches my face for a reaction, but I don’t have one. I already knew I did nothing to deserve what happened.
Dan turns back to James when he shuffles a step to the side, his eyes moving slowly over his body like he’s choosing where to hurt him. Which bones to break first.
“You know the deal, De Luca. You got the information you needed. Now, you tell me what I want to know.”
Dan reels off an address in London, his eyes never leaving James’s. Davey picks up his phone and repeats the same information, before stowing the device back in his pocket.
“Sit down, Blue. You’ve had a hell of a week.” Davey’s hand goes to my belly, smoothing over my bump, and I hear Dan clear his throat. I refuse to look at him.
“A week?” I laugh, and Will pulls out a chair for me. “I think it’s been a bit longer than that.”
“Do you want anything, baby? A drink? Or food?” he asks as I sit.
I shake my head. “Just you.” Will kisses my hair and moves in close, his arm around my shoulders, my head resting on his waist as he stands beside me.