I felt my heart pound as I put the brush and pan aside and reached for the knot. My arm flexed and my hand clenched tight with the effort required to budge the piece of wood. Gritty sand crunched as it fell into the join. The door gave way with a pop, revealing a small compartment under the floor.
Oh no. This was where Tish hid her secrets. I was sure of it.
Inside, I found her bright, yellow, daisy-covered diary. Why else would you hide your diary if it didn’t contain your secrets?
Taking the treasure out, I returned the door in place and stashed the book in the back of my sock drawer, for now. I wasn’t opening that book. I had to talk to her first. But I suddenly felt like I wanted to be violently ill. My weary bones sank into the couch, and I let my head drop between my knees for a minute.
My hands gripped my phone hard as I shot off a quick email to work, to let them know I’d be a bit late.
“Letitia,” I hissed as I typed.
“Yeah,” her small voice was alarmingly close and I dove in the opposite direction, rolling off the couch onto my old mattress on the floor.
Growling as I crawled back on the couch, I pinned her with a hard stare. “You set me up, didn’t you?” Her doleful eyes refused to look at me. “What’s in that diary that you didn’t want anyone to read?”
“I want you to read it.”
“No. Tell me what’s in it.”
Her hair swayed as she shook her head. “The truth. Read it, and then give it to Lee. Don’t leave him. Stay with him. He needs you.”
Her form evaporated as my distress escalated. “Gah.”
She’d put me in this position where I had to be the bearer of shitty news, and probably crush the heart of the man I love, all over again. My legs jiggled up and down in distress. My clenched fists bounced on my knees as I tried to cool the swirl of angered panic I was feeling.
Ruby trotted in and curled her body next to me. She was intuitive, this dog. She knew when I needed her, already so in tune with me it was like she was made for me. I unclenched my fists so I could stroke her coarse fur. I couldn’t even be mad that she was on the couch because if she wasn’t, I’d be balled up on the floor crying at the unfairness and injustice of it all. I finally found someone who loved me and whom I adored, and I had to destroy him and make him hate me.
Yay for me.
Ronnie
“You’re playing a very fucking dangerous game?” Flick ground the words into my ear, as she drilled a finger into my shoulder blade. Her sharp nail actually hurt.
My quick temper surged. After a really shitty start to the day, I escaped my desk to have a break, and some privacy under my favourite Morton Bay Fig.
“Get your finger off me, and hello to you, too—” Shock seized my tongue when I turned to catch a glimpse of the woman formally known as Felicity Stevens. “What has happened to you?”
She looked gaunt; the weight had fallen off. There wasn’t a speck of make up on her face, and her hair was in a ponytail. I’d never seen her hair tied back like that. She always said the style was too domestic. And, she was wearing a T-shirt. I didn’t know she even owned one.
She scowled, ignoring my question. “Why were you there?”
Shit! She saw me, too.
“I was checking out the sights of Brisbane. There’s no law against looking at private buildings from the footpath is there?”
“Oh, my God! If you think the law has anything to do with this, then you’re more naive than I thought. Haven’t you done your research? Some librarian you are. Derek is not a man you’d want to mess with. He’s the lawyer that gets the bad guys off because he knows people. He knows how to manipulate the system. He’s untouchable. If you go after him, you’ll pay. Your friends will pay. Your family will pay.” She dragged in a jagged breath, blinking rapidly to clear suddenly glassy eyes. “I warned you to stay away. Don’t you ever fucking listen?” Her voice cracked on the last word as she slumped her body on the bench beside me, eyes fixed morosely on the garden.
“I kicked you out so he couldn’t find you. Now he’s seen you with that guy. He’ll be looking for him, too.”
No. No, no, no, no. “What the hell does he want with me?”
“He wants what he always wants. To control. To manipulate. To taint the light.” My sandwich threatened to come back up as her warning sank in.
“If he’s such a threat, why aren’t the police involved?”
Her face said, are you stupid? “He’s untouchable. He knows people,” she repeated it slowly like I was a dumb arse. “It’s probably too late now. Unless you leave the country. You’re going to have to get to him before he gets you, and I don’t see how that’s going to happen. If there was a way, I’d have done it … I’m sorry. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Me? I was dragged into this mess.”
“What mess are you talking about?”
I watched her fingers as she opened and closed her palms, alternately hiding and exposing their twisted forms. The wait for her answer stretched uncomfortably, making me squirm on the bench.
A pocket of cold encapsulated the seat, spreading goose bumps over my skin. Twisting my neck to the left,