Deception (18 page)

“You ready now?”

“Yep.”

I transported the two of us to Aiden.

Chapter 16

When we got to Lucas’s house, he was already in bed, and Aiden was standing with his back against the wall and his arms crossed over his bare chest.

I turned around and found the reason for Aiden’s hostility. A very modest Georgia was sitting on the bed beside her brother. She was wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a light-pink long-sleeved top—with no boobs on display.

She looked me up and down, and I was sure she was going to say something about what I was wearing—or lack thereof. After an uncomfortable few seconds, she averted her eyes to Chelsea. “What are you doing here?”

Aiden put his hands on my hips and gently pulled me back against him.

“She comes with me,” I said in a flat tone. “Besides, she was with Lucas when this all happened.”

Georgia scowled at Chelsea. “And you didn’t think of telling any of us what happened to him?”

“No. I was a little preoccupied myself,” she replied, then thought what a bitch she was and wondered how Georgia and Lucas could ever share the same DNA.

“I wouldn’t say anything more,” Aiden warned Georgia.

She stared at Aiden, obviously having a conversation only the two of them could hear. Her eyes suddenly lost their hatred as they widened in a mixture of surprise and—if I didn’t know better—pity. “The main thing is, he’s here now,” she said, turning her attention back to her brother.

Not knowing what else to do, Chelsea sat down on the two-seater sofa near the end of the bed. His room was rather large for an apartment, with enough room for a king-sized bed, a two-seater couch, and then some. It all looked neat and tidy, which surprised me. I thought for sure Lucas wouldn’t have been the type to pick up after himself. But then again, maybe he had a housekeeper who did it for him.

After a more-than-uncomfortable five-minute-long silence, Nathan walked through Lucas’s bedroom door. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s still out of it,” Georgia said to her father.

“And how are you?” he asked Chelsea.

Chelsea was shocked he would care enough to think about asking how she was doing while his son lay in bed, unconscious. After that wore off, she answered. “I’m good, thanks.”

He stared at her for a moment, probably checking for himself that she really was okay, before he nodded and turned back to his son. I guess that part of being a doctor never died. He would probably always want to make sure people really were okay.

“How much longer do you think it will be before he wakes up?” I asked, trying to ease the tension in the room that was always there whenever Georgia was present.

“It’s hard to say,” Nathan said, looking down at his son. “It all depends on how much sedative was injected into him. But I’d say he should probably be waking up within the hour.”

“Is it okay if we stay?” Chelsea asked hopefully.

“What about the boat?”
I asked Aiden.

“That’s fine,” Nathan answered Chelsea.

“We better take it back to the pier. Did you want to stay here while I go?”

“Not a chance. I’m not leaving you out in the middle of the ocean after what happened to Chels and Lucas. Besides, I wouldn’t mind getting some clothes on.”
Before Aiden had a chance to tell me I was crazy and that he was a big boy who could look after himself, I stepped away from him, towards Chelsea. “Sorry, Chels, there’s something we need to do first, and don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re coming with us.”

She didn’t argue. She knew exactly why I wanted her to come with us, and she could hardly blame me for wanting to keep an eye on her. “Okay.” She stood up and walked over to us.

“We’ll be back soon,” Aiden told Nathan.

I transported the three of us back to the boat. It was still afloat, so I took that as a good sign.

“Wow,” Chelsea said as her mouth dropped open in surprise. “Where the hell are we?”

“On a boat, Chels,” Aiden teased as he climbed up the ladder to the wheel.

“No shit, Captain Obvious. I meant, what country?”

“We’re in Thailand,” I explained as I sat down on the deck. “This was my birthday present to Aiden.”

“Ooh,” Chelsea teased.

“Oh, God, Chelsea. It wasn’t like that,” I said, trying to get her thoughts to come out of the gutter, where they seemed to have a permanent residency. “Lucas and you were supposed to be coming here after you guys finished up at the hospital.”

Her face dropped. “Oh.” She sat down beside me and stared absently out at the picturesque coastline.

“We can always come back some other time. You know, once I get rid of my father,” I joked, but we both knew that it was the truth.

“Your father did that to me, didn’t he?” she asked. She didn’t have any memories of the hellish fire that had consumed her mind, but she did know someone had done something to her and Lucas and somehow she’d come out of it first. I wasn’t about to tell her that what had happened to Lucas was nowhere near as bad as what had happened to her.

***

When the pier was finally in sight, I stood up, then bent down to pick up the towels. As soon as my hand touched Aiden’s towel, my mind was thrown into another place. I instantly recognised what was going on. I was having a vision—a vision of myself. I was curled up in a fetal position, hugging a tearstained pillow on a bed that I did not recognise.

I quickly scanned the room for Aiden, but he wasn’t there. I had no idea what had happened to put me in this state.

“Here.” Chelsea walked into the room holding out a glass for me. “Have some water.”

“I don’t want any,” I cried into my pillow.

Chelsea put the glass down on the bedside table and sat on the bed next to me. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

Oh, God, has something happened to Aiden?
I wondered.

“I can’t… I can’t believe he could do this to me. I thought he loved me,” I wailed.

Loved? I’m not… I couldn’t finish my thought. I couldn’t possibly be talking about Aiden. Could I?

Chelsea pulled a tissue from its box and handed it to me.

The next thing I knew, I was back on the boat. Chelsea had her hand on my shoulder and was shaking it hard. “What the hell’s wrong with you? You were, like, completely spaced out.”

I shook my head. “I was just thinking. That’s all,” I said, raising my eyes to where Aiden sat at the wheel. No way could I tell her about what I’d seen in my vision. She would probably put two and two together and ask questions about whether I had any visions before she was kidnapped, and I really didn’t want to open that box.

Aiden looked down at me and smiled. I must have gotten my vision all wrong. There was no way I could have been crying about Aiden, because he could never do anything to make me feel like that. He was the best thing I had in my life, and I trusted him with every ounce of my being.

Maybe I was crying in my vision about something my father had done. I decided I would talk about it with Aiden when we were alone. And I would also ask him if he had any idea why I hadn’t had any visions since the last time I had been in Thailand.

“I’ve got to go downstairs to get our stuff. Do you want to come with me?”

Chelsea looked out at the coastline. “Nah. I think I’ll stay out here.”

“Suit yourself.”

Once below the deck, I went into the bedroom and slipped on a beach dress. Then I shoved the towels back in the bag, slung it over my shoulder, and left the room. Not bothering with the food in the fridge, I went back up to the deck.

Chelsea was sitting on a seat, soaking up the sun’s warm rays, which she hadn’t seen much of since coming to stay with us in England.

I dropped my bag on the deck and sat down beside her. “Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“I know I should have asked you about this before, but with everything else that’s been going on, I kind of forgot to. And I know there’s no excuse, and I should’ve asked you sooner, but—”

“Stop.” Chelsea held up her hand. “You’re kind of sounding like me with all that rambling.”

I smiled. “Now you know what I have to go through.”

“Hah, hah. Very funny,” she said with a fake sombre expression on her face. She missed us having our old bantering conversations we were known for.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Everything.” I looked out to the beach, unable to bring myself to watch her face as I said what I needed to. “I’m sorry for getting you involved with everything. I’m sorry for what happened to your mum, and I’m sorry for what happened to you back at the hospital.” I couldn’t apologise for the one thing I was most sorry about. I was sorry for what had happened to Ben.

“Jade,” she paused, waiting for me to look at her. “I thought I told you none of this is your fault. You can’t help that your father is some sick, twisted freak. And I don’t blame
you
for any of it.”

I forced a smile. “Thanks.”

“Now, none of what you just said was a question.”

“Huh?”

“You were rambling something about you should have asked me this before?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, remembering what I’d actually meant to ask her. “After what happened to your mum, I don’t think I ever asked you if staying with us wherever we end up being for the night was okay with you?”

She tilted her head to the side. “It’s not like I’ve got any place else to go,” she said with a smile. “I’m kidding,” she added, wrapping her arm around my shoulder when I pretended to be shocked. “You’re like a sister to me. You always have been, and you always will.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

I left Chelsea on the deck and went up to see Aiden. “How’s it going?” I asked, walking up behind him and putting my hands on his shoulders.

He glanced back at me. “I see you’re a lot happier after your little talk.”

I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my head against his shoulder.

“I’ve told you before, you need to stop blaming yourself for other people’s actions,” he said.

“I know, I know,” I said, trying to brush off the subject. “How much longer till we get back?”

“It’s not that much farther. Maybe another two or three minutes, at most.” He took my hand. “Come around here.”

I sat down on his lap, facing towards the front, and laid my head back against his chest.

“This place has a certain feel to it,” Aiden said, looking towards the shoreline. “It’s like when you’re here, you can forget about all your troubles, like they belong to another person in some other parallel world.”

“Mmm. I know what you mean.”

“We’ve definitely got to come back here again when everything’s over.” He leaned down and kissed the top of my head.

“I’d like that.”

Chapter 17

After we had dropped the keys off at the charter service, we headed back to Lucas’s place.

“I told you. Get away from him,” Georgia shouted quietly at Kai.

“Aww, come on. He would so do it to me if the situation was reversed,” Kai said.

“What’s going on?” Aiden, Chelsea, and I asked in unison.

Kai held out a Nikko pen. “I’m just trying to have a little fun.”

Aiden snickered as Georgia scowled. “And that’s your idea of fun? Drawing all over my brother while he’s unconscious?”

Kai laughed. “Don’t think your dear brother won’t appreciate a good joke.”

“Personally, with the kind of relationship you have with your brother, I thought you would be grabbing the pen off Kai to have first dibs to ink his skin,” I said to Georgia.

“That’s so not funny.”

“What’s not funny?” Lucas slurred. He let out a moan as he tried to lift his head off the pillow, but realised he was moving too quickly and put his head back down. “What the hell happened?”

Georgia was the first to answer. “All we know is you were at the hospital with Chelsea and—”

“Chelsea?” he moaned, trying to sit up again and failing.

“I’m right here,” Chelsea said, rushing towards him.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he gazed into her eyes.

“Hold up,” Georgia said, noticing the way they were both looking at each other. “What the hell’s going on here?”

“Georgia,” Aiden said. “I don’t think now’s the time to ask that.”

“Like hell it isn’t,” she replied. “You may be happy to sit by and watch Kai draw all over your best mate while he’s unconscious, but now you think I’m being too much?”

“You know, I’m right here,” Lucas said.

“And so am I,” Chelsea said softly. She was embarrassed as hell, and I was oh-so-glad I hadn’t told her we could hear her thoughts, because she probably would’ve died of embarrassment knowing we
knew
how she was beginning to feel towards Lucas.

Aiden shook his head in dismay. “You know, it was only five minutes ago you were telling me your brother had a thing for my girlfriend, and now you’re saying he and Chelsea have a thing going on?”

“And so what if your brother and Chelsea may have a thing going on?” I asked, jumping to my BFF’s defence. I was so sick of the way Georgia thought it was her God-given right to walk over anyone she deemed unworthy of her friendship. It was one thing to have a go at me, but she was stepping over the line when she did it to Chelsea. I pushed off Aiden, preparing to get up in Georgia’s face. “Are you saying Chelsea isn’t good enough for him?”

Aiden caught me by my arm before I got too close to Georgia and pulled me back against him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held on tight. “Or are you just pissed that you can no longer use your brother to try and drive a wedge between Jade and me?”

I was almost certain Aiden had hit the nail on the head with that one.

Lucas rolled his head back as far as he could. “Oh, my God, would you guys just shut the hell up?”

Kai stood with his back against the wall, snickering. “This is priceless.”

Lucas managed to get his head off the pillow to look at Kai. “I’m glad you think so.” He then added silently to us all,
“And just think about how much you’re upsetting Chelsea.”

“See, there you go again,”
Georgia said.
“Why are you even thinking about how she is feeling?”