DeadlySuspicious.epub (5 page)

Denby watched in sick fascination as her father had slapped Sirius on the back, shook his hand and nodded as if pleased. Sirius had smiled and waved as the older man had gotten into the Jacobson car. It didn’t take a genius to work out the man she had fallen so quickly and massively in love with was in tight with her father. Denby staggered under the realization. It was like someone had slammed a sledgehammer into her stomach. Her legs shook to the point of the buckling and every fiber of her tightened up with a sudden, stabbing pain. Sirius knew her father.
Her
man knew
her
tormenter. There could be no coincidence in that. There were none of those when it came to the Jacobson Committee. She had been literally screwed over by order from her father. Denby clutched at a nearby wall and took a couple of deep breaths. Her first instinct had been to go over and confront them but she made herself stand still. Other than screaming out her pain and anger, she knew that would mean nothing to these two. She was a woman and therefore of no consequence to them. They were on the Committee. They could do what they liked. The only way to inflict any damage on them was to play them at their own game. Pain begot pain. The remedy was to turn the pain around.

Denby waited until her father had left. She could almost see the trail of slime behind him. She shuddered in disgust and tried to pull herself together. The key to any retaliation was to act normal and with class. Her heart was beating madly as she walked up to Sirius. He was a gorgeous, sexy and traitorous.
I should’ve known. I was stupid to fall in love with him so quickly. Why would
someone like him want someone like me?
But Denby had and the why and wherefores were not important. She had to deal with it and get on with her life. She walked up to him, heart beating wildly.

“Hi, spunky,” she greeted him as she always did. It was hard to believe, looking into his eyes, that he was one of them. A Committee member. What exactly had been their plan for her? Married, barefoot and pregnant to make sure she kept very quiet and didn’t make Jacobson look bad? That her father had totally abandoned his real name indicated the level of megalomania that had taken him over.

“There’s my girl.” Sirius pulled her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. “I’ve been dying to see you.”

Denby couldn’t help it. Need and instinct made her body press in close to his.
I’ll miss those
kisses
. They were like oxygen to her. She placed her hands on his chest and looked into his eyes and wished she had never found out about his connection to her father
. I’ll miss him
. “I’ve been thinking.”
That you’re a rat
bastard.
Yes, she would miss him but the facts remained the same. He was a liar.

“Yeah?” He smiled down at her. To anyone looking on they would have seen a man in love.

“Well, it probably seems too soon but what if we get married?” Denby watched for his reaction.

Sirius looked surprised. “Married?”

“Yeah, unless you don’t want to.”
How far will he go to please my father?

In answer to this, Sirius picked her up in his arms and swung her around. “I would’ve married you at the bus station.”

I bet you would’ve, you lying swine
. “Really?”

“Yeah, because I love you.” He let go of her, stepping back and dropping on to one knee. “Marry me, Denby.”

Her breath caught in her throat. This was the dream of every little girl growing up. A man on his knee, begging for her hand in marriage. Part of her wanted this to be for real, to have this man who she loved to really want her for herself alone and not as part of some plan. She felt the tears in her eyes for she knew it would never happen now and it depressed the hell out of her.
Why couldn’t you
just have loved me?

“Denby?” He smiled up at her. “Are you okay?”

I’ll never be okay again
. She wiped her eyes and stiffened her spine. “Yes, I will.”
And you’ll
regret this day
. Before she could say anything else he was up off his knees, kissing her and telling her how beautiful she was. As much as Denby wanted to believe it, she knew it was a lie. She nodded and smiled, pretending all was right in their world, as her heart closed to him.

“Beautiful, Denby.”

With his lips on hers, she accepted them as the farewell kiss for never again would she allow him to touch her.

* * * * *

Denby let him plan the wedding. She pretended to buy a dress and that everything was good and fine and she couldn’t want to be Mrs. Tate. When she didn’t turn up at the church at the allotted time and all the guests were waiting, Sirius came looking for her. She was at the bus station, packed and ready to go.

“Why?”

“Because.” Denby wanted to cry and scream at the unfairness of it all but she wasn’t about give him that.

“What’s wrong?’ Sirius looked alarmed and confused. He reached out his hands to hold hers.

Denby stepped away from him. “Wrong? You are.” She had barely touched him since the proposal, citing she wanted to be old fashioned and wait. It was more that she knew if he made love to her, Denby’s resolve would weaken and she couldn’t allow that to happen. She didn’t want to become trapped in a loveless marriage like her mother.

“Me?”

“Yes. You’re a bastard.” She stood her ground and watched his response. There was hurt in his eyes. Denby doubted it was genuine. Fake emotion 101 was probably taught to all the Committee members in order to seduce the recalcitrant.

Sirius ran an agitated hand through his hair. “What’s going on?”

“I saw
you
with
him
. You were talking and laughing with that asshole Jacobson and don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. He’s my father and you’re one of them.”

Once more he reached out for her. “Denby, let me explain.”

She lifted her hands up and away from him. “Fuck off.”

“Okay, yes, I know your father and yes I was asked to meet you.”

“Meet me and make me fall in love with you.” Denby now knew what it felt like to be used like a hooker. She had been screwed over and in many ways it had been her own fault. At least a working girl did it for money. She hadn’t been that sensible. She had wanted to believe in love.

Stupid, stupid, stupid
.

“You love me.”

Yeah, she did and he knew it and had been made vulnerable by it. But not anymore. The truth was out and Denby could move on wiser and harder because of the lesson learned. “Any love I felt for you died when I saw you with him and I knew I was being used.”

“Liar,” he shot out at her. “It doesn’t matter how or why we met. I know you don’t love without passion and reason. You believe in forever and would never give any part of yourself without knowing it was right. We both know that only too well. I know you, Denby.”

“No, you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have treated me like this. You had to know my father and I didn’t get on at all when you took the job.” If you loved someone you tried to make their way easier, not harder.

“Yes but—”

“But what?” Deny interrupted. “You did it anyway because you’re his protégé and you get brownie points for screwing his daughter?”

“It was never like that.”

The sad look in his eyes almost made her feel sorry for him. Almost. “Really? How was it then?”

“Okay, initially, when the suggestion was made to me, I didn’t see any reason not to meet you. It was to be a simple meeting and chat but then I fell in—”

Denby held her hands up as if to stop the flow of his words. “I know, you fell in love with me.”

She felt sick. It was all too clichéd and awful.
Too damn awful
.

“Yes. I did.”

“Oh bollocks!” She shot back at him. “It’s over now. You can tell the truth!”

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck. “Denby—”

“That man had been beaten and whipped. He’s a monster and yet you—” Her voice cracked as the words and the memories choked her.

He reached out for her. “Please—”

“Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it.”

“I know you love me.”

She leaned in and poked him in the chest. “I loved the man I thought I knew.”

He caught his hand in hers. “I’m still him.”

“No you’re not. You didn’t tell me the truth. If you loved me you would have. What was supposed to happen once we were married? Was I to be presented to my father as your obedient wife?” She yanked her hand away.

“No, of course not. Please let me explain.”

She shook her head. “There’s no need. You’re one of them. You’re all like rabid animals tearing down women and their rights. I want nothing to do with you.”

“You can’t let it end like this.”

“Yeah, I can.” She picked up her duffel bag. It was well past the time to hit the road. Where she was going, she didn’t know. All she knew was she wanted away from him. “You ended it with your lies.”

“I never lied,” he told her, his voice tight with emotion.

“But you never told the truth either.”

“I love you, Denby.”

She snorted. “Too bad, so sad for you.”

“They’ve gone.”

Denby was at the clinic in the outcast part of town where innocent people, mainly single women, were condemned to live by the Committee. It was an area in the Brisbane inner city suburbs between Fortitude Valley and Bowen Hills. It was called the OC by the people who survived there.

And it was that. Survival. The area was kicked in, covered in graffiti and falling apart. Good, desperate people lived among evil, desperate people. Once it had been fashionable and trendy. Now it was just ugly, dark and alone. Denby had walked the streets of the OC feeling both sad and amazed to see what life had become and yet people still endured despite what had been thrust upon them. Places might decay but the spirits of strong people never did.

“The heat was on so they skedaddled. Word is they headed to the rainforest up north to Cairns.”

Denby looked at the clinic. It looked nothing like a place of healing with its peeling paint and broken panes of glass hastily boarded up. How had these women worked in these graffiti coated conditions without losing their minds?

“They’re generous, smart women. We miss them.”

Denby didn’t doubt that. She had heard good things about them. They were strong, independent and not scared to fight the system. She had wanted to join and help them but they had gone before she could. “When did they go?”
Maybe I could catch up with them
. It wasn’t like she had anything else planned.

“A couple of days ago.”

Two days was a good head start on what she guessed was at least a twenty hour car trip up north to Cairns. If they stopped along the way she could catch them. If they drove straight through? It would be difficult to find them if they didn’t want to be found.

“They had two men and a baby with them.”

“Huh,” Denby murmured to herself. That she hadn’t foreseen. Were the two men for protection?

And the baby? She doubted they would have driven straight through with a child. That at least gave Denby hope. If she followed the Bruce Highway, which was the most obvious road to take, and drove day and night, she had a good chance of catching up with them. But would these women have gone such a direct route? One part of Denby thought they might because they weren’t the type who would be frightened and hide but another wondered how tired they were and whether they needed a break.

She thanked the informant and handed over a couple of dollars. She had hardly any money on her but Denby was appreciative of their help. Her problem now was to find — correction, steal —a car. She had become adept at that. It was a skill she picked up doing deliveries for an ex-convict butcher.
It’s all about picking the right car, girlie. The least likely is the one you want.
“Good old Mick,” she murmured to herself as she thought about the upcoming theft. The sound of a foot kicking a bottle and the clinking sound it made brought her back to the present. Two men in dark gray suits walked to up to her. She didn’t need to be told who they were. They reeked of the Committee.

“Your father wants to talk to you.”

“You must be mistaken. I have no father.” He was the last person she wanted to see.

“Miss Jacobson—”

She wanted to gag. Never would she allow that tag to be applied to her. “My surname is Dumaresq.” She specifically took her mother’s surname for this reason. And her father was born an Armstrong. He evolved into the sinister Jacobson by choice. Denby wondered what the original Jacob had been like. She assumed he was dead for she had never met him. Was he as bitter as his son?

“Your father—”

“He can get stuffed.”

They paid no attention to this. “We have orders to bring you in.”

Denby put her hands on her hips and glared at them. “You can try it but I wouldn’t recommend it.” She had no weapons other than attitude, steel capped boots and the legacy of a couple of dozen kick boxing lessons she had picked up working at a diner near a mining camp. The cook, a seemingly frail old lady of sixty who dyed her hair bright, daffodil yellow, had taught her.
You don’t
have to look tough to be tough, dearie.
Denby had learnt a lot from Old Daisy.

“We don’t want to hurt you,” one gray suited Committee member told her.

She tilted her ahead and looked at them. “Aw, that’s nice. I don’t want to hurt you either.”

“Miss Jacobson—”

“Wankers,” Denby murmured to herself, turning away from them. There was no point dealing with his minions. They had no minds of their own and she didn’t have the time or the inclination to share space with them any longer. As for being ‘Miss Jacobson’?
Not now, not ever.

One grabbed her arm and swung her back around. “Listen, you little bitch, we have our orders and you’ll come with us or else.”

“Or else what? Gonna stomp your feet because a woman won’t obey you?”

“You need to be taught a lesson.” The man grabbed her in a headlock and pulled her against him.