‘It’s probably best if you sit down,’ he advised quietly. ‘You're right, it’s time you knew one or two things.’
She paused for a second then took the advice, picking out a dry spot and sitting cautiously.
‘Meeting you at the airport was no coincidence,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ve known you for a while.’
Abbey looked on. ‘You…what do you…what are you talking about?’
He couldn’t meet her eyes. ‘You asked me what I do for a living? Well…you. You’re my job.’
Her stomach grumbled in a lack of comprehension.
‘In London I work as personal security for the top end of the market. I’m hired by celebrities, politicians, the monarchy, those kinds of people. A month ago I was approached by a man. He wanted me to watch your movements, remain in the background but be prepared for anything. This guy, he didn’t want to alarm you so he asked me not to make contact, just follow you, see that you were okay.’
Abbey ran a hand through her hair, the sensation of violation pulsing through her very core.
‘I know all about you,’ he said, pacing. ‘I know your family was murdered when you were ten, I know you grew up in foster care in Surrey, I know you attained a degree in Architecture from Edinburgh University, and I know that you and Edward were married on a beach in Barbados. Your Maiden name is Fuller, which you still use for work purposes, and I know your birth parents were criminals of the violent porn trade.’
Climbing to her feet Abbey reeled dizzily, rejecting James’s steadying hand. ‘What about the mole on my inner thigh!’ she muttered vehemently. ‘You missed that.’
‘I understand your anger, Abbey, I really do. I never meant to bump into you at the airport, that was my error, but I –’
‘Who hired you? Who was it who told you to spy on my private, my private life? Tell me his fucking name!’
James sighed. ‘York,’ he uttered. ‘Nicolas York.’
Again she dizzied, placed a hand against the tunnel wall. Nicolas York was a name she hadn’t heard in almost two decades. ‘You…you must be mistaken. I haven’t seen Nicolas in years, why would he hire somebody to watch me?’
‘He believes you’re in danger. Nineteen years ago your parents were murdered by the Valentine killer. Nicolas thinks he’s back, and killing again. I was hired to make sure you didn’t become a victim second time around.’
‘No…no, that’s impossible. First of all, Nicolas must be sixty now, is he even still active? And secondly, the Valentine killer was caught and tried. He was insane, there’s no way they’d ever let him out.’
‘York is sixty-one, and yes, he’s still working. All I can tell you, Abbey, is that just over a month ago, the killings started again. Bodies have been turning up in South East London without hearts, returned to their residence soon after. York was afraid you would become a target.’
Legs jellying, she sat back down.
‘There’s more,’ he said resignedly. ‘Something I haven’t told you.’
‘More? What else could you possibly know? You just dissected my life in under a minute in the most voyeuristic way imaginable.’
‘In the jungle this morning, we found Teri.’
She glanced up.
‘She was dead, her heart missing. I think Elaine is dead too, and probably Sol as well by now. York was right, I haven’t been the only one watching you. Don’t you see, that’s how I’ve known there’s no one else on the island. There hasn’t been an unknown party stalking the group, it’s one of us. Whoever’s been killing in London was on the plane.’
Resting back against the tunnel wall, Abbey rubbed her eyes and tried to digest James’s words. She wouldn’t cry, not this time. Her parents’ killer was still out there, nineteen years later, watching her like some caged zoo exhibit. Had he been paroled, declared innocent, or had Nicolas York made an horrific error all those years ago? And what of James? Like the killer, he’d been at the airport solely because she’d been at the airport. My god, how much of this was her fault?
She climbed to her feet, unable to quash the sensations rising in her gut. The only reason James was even here was for her, to protect her like some kind of guardian angel.
Pulsating emotions began spreading warmly through her arteries, burning a path into her heart, and right at that moment, she felt closer to James than she ever had to another human being. Slowly she moved to him, slid into his solid embrace like the piece of a jigsaw, hostaged wind ebbing with her emotions, circling them.
‘I’m so sorry, Abbey,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘I never meant for any of this to happen, but I’ve never had an assignment like this before. I’ve watched you go to work, I’ve watched you take your morning coffee in the Starbucks next to your office. I’ve watched you go about your day, your beautiful world blossoming before me. Never in my life have I felt anything akin to the emotions you stirred when I first saw you…’
She pulled back, their eyes fusing green and blue in the colourless tunnel.
‘I don’t know if it’s love I’m feeling,’ he whispered. ‘But I don’t know how else to describe it.’
Words insufficient she leaned forward and kissed him delicately on the lips, her eyelids drooping as he pulled her in tighter. Sealed into the safety of his embrace, her inhibitions fluttered away on the cacophony of wind.
54
‘Wakey wakey, big man.’
At first light, James left the cave into a thick morning mist hanging lazily over the island. The rain had stopped and the wind had idled to nothing. Not even a stirring breeze rustled the trees. The
