Keeping Thyme (Thyme Trilogy) (2 page)

A smile finally surfaces across Liz’s strong features. “Shit you’re good, Mia. I’ll be onto all of that for you tomorrow. We can do this.” She raises her glass towards me. “Here’s to finishing what Nick Davis started.” The pair of us drunkenly
clang
our glasses together.

I try not to cry after our empowering speeches, but the grief in my heart feels so heavy. I scull the straight vodka and pray that it clouds my emotions for a bit longer. I’ve got to do this for Nick.

The morning’s harsh
sunlight feels like it’s burning a hole straight through my vacant heart. The wild drinking the night before has done little to help me escape the fact that Nick is still dead. As my mind slowly adapts to the waking world again, I realise that no amount of alcohol will change this.

I squint at the bright sunlight upon my window but I can’t move my head yet. My mouth feels like something ghastly has crawled into it and died within the two hours that I have been passed out on my bed. As I move my mouth to swallow I feel the dampness around my cheek from where I have been drooling in my heavy unconsciousness.
What a beast!

I hear the muffled sound of talking out in the kitchen of my apartment. Who is here with Liz? I close my eyes again and focus on the voices. I can faintly hear a man’s voice with Liz …
Nick?

I launch myself from the bed and shake my head to rid the pounding. I knew it! It wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been. Nick is still alive!

I launch out of the bedroom and stagger towards the kitchen. My heart is playing a vicious rhythm in my chest and my head pulses with each beat.

I fall through the kitchen’s entrance and into the strong arms of my brother, Simon. He grips onto me tightly and the weight of grief crashes into my body again like a freight train. My legs give out and I succumb to the urge to cry. I shake and sob as I beg aloud, over and over, for my wish to come true. I just want Nick to come through my front door and tell me it’s all a lie. Simon’s strong embrace only makes me miss Nick more and I cry out, “Why Simon? Why did this have to happen?”

I can’t bring myself to stand and Simon holds me up in his arms.

“I don’t know what to say, sissy. I wish I could take your pain away for you.” He walks me out of the kitchen and towards the couch in the lounge room.

“You can take my pain away, Simon. You can tell me this is all a big mistake and find Nick alive for me. I don’t believe he’s gone. I won’t believe it. I can’t …” I bury my head back into Simon’s chest and wail loudly. My mucus membranes open as liquid leaks from everywhere.

Simon strokes my hair and holds me tight. I just wish there was a way to change this. Why couldn’t the agency stop this from happening? He was my love. I loved him and now he’s gone. They took him from me.

“Mia. You’re going to have to pull yourself together,” Simon gently coaxes. “Liz has been telling me about your next steps. You know what to do now, so do it.”

I look up from his chest and study his expression. I know my twin better than anyone. Why isn’t he mentioning anything about Nick? Is it because he’s still alive? Simon’s mouth curves into a sympathetic smile.

“What about Nick?” I whisper.

I feel Simon’s frame expand around me as he heaves a sigh. “You will have plenty of time to grieve once you finish this operation. I was just telling Liz that I will take you to one of our safe-houses in Seychelles. There are only a few of us in the world who have access to it. You can spend your days crying there. I will be with you. It’s very beautiful.” Simon sells his idea to comfort me.

I can’t help but smile at his effort. “That sounds nice. But I’ll still have trouble believing that Nick is really gone.”

Simon’s frown returns. “It’s hard for me to believe too, sis. It’s hard for anyone to come to terms with death. But it’s real. What further proof do you need other than his dead body? You have to just accept this Mia.”

I can hear frustration building in my brother’s voice. I look down again. Why can’t I accept this and just move on like he says? Will I ever get over this? It feels harder to deal with than my father’s death was. Maybe that was easier to deal with because I was young when my father died. Being older and a similar age to Nick, I can’t imagine my life without him in it. We had our whole future ahead of us. How am I ever going to get over that?

Liz gets up and clears her throat. My reeling is thankfully interrupted. “Mi. I’m going back to HQ to get everything we need to keep going with this.” She stares at me, waiting for my response.

I wipe the back of my hand across my puffy cheek and nod. “You’re right, Liz. Let’s get on with it. The show must go on.” I feel the corner of my lips stretch out, but it’s not a real smile. I don’t know if I’ll ever really smile again.

CHAPTER TWO

When both Simon
and Liz have finally left me alone, my annoying intrigue fails to subside so I make my way across the main foyer to the adjacent apartment. I’ve wanted to see what was in there for so long. I pause for a moment as I twist the handle and hear the latch unlock. Holding the door ajar, I wonder if there could be anyone in there.
Why would it be unlocked?

I glance behind me at the empty foyer and push the door open into the apartment. It’s a stark contrast to my light and airy apartment directly next to it. It’s darkened by the heavy drapes across the windows.

The smell in here is distinct. I know that smell … it smells like Nick. I stand frozen and close my eyes, gently inhaling the subtle aroma of him trapped within the apartment’s air. The door shuts behind me and startles me from the pleasant daydream and my eyes spring open. Within an instant, my memory recalls having the conversation with Nick about some of his clothes still being in here.

The space is not homely or inviting. It’s bare and sterile: a desk in the living area, a room full of flat-screen TVs, a fridge in the kitchen and a single bed in a bedroom is all that lives in the apartment. Whoever came into this space came here to work.

I rush around the dark apartment to try and find the closet. As I search, I notice the apartment has remnants of him everywhere. An empty coffee cup on the desk in the middle of the main room; the paperwork next to it; a chocolate-bar wrapper left on the floor. I visualise Nick doing all the associated actions that came with what now remains.

I finally find the closet I was looking for. As I swing the doors open, the odour instantly fills my nostrils with an intoxicating perfume that floods images of Nick to my mind. I grab at the hanging shirts and push my face into them, taking in as much of the fabric as I can.
Oh Nick, you’re still here!
I rub my face all over the shirts like a feline leaving scent. My heart feels heavy again and the build up of tears puts pressure on the back of my eyes.

Just as I feel myself throttling back into the depths of despair, I manage to pull myself away from Nick’s clothes and slowly close the closet again. This will be my place to come if I need it … this will be my secret. He will always be here this way.

I leave the closet behind and turn my attention to the flat-screen televisions in the other room. Turning on all twelve of them, I study the locations of the cameras. At least half of them show nothing but a black screen. I assume they were originally monitoring
my
apartment. The remainder show Tench’s mansion. I study where they have managed to get bugs in so far. I’ll need to get more in there than this.
What were they thinking?

I use the empty whiteboard next to the screens and start making notes of the rooms that I still need to get bugs into. I need at least fourteen bugs for better coverage; twenty would be ideal, but I’ll have to wait and see what Liz actually brings back. I start plotting possible locations within each room and where I can get them in undetected. The weight of how dangerous this is interrupts my thoughts for a fleeting moment, but I have the best weapons against all of this: my body, and Tench’s desire. I just need to harvest his desires for my gain and I’m on the road to success.

Nick’s death is the perfect remedy to prevent my feelings for Tench continuing to rise. I clutch my hands tight over my mouth …
I didn’t just think that!
How could I?
I suck back the tears and steady myself from hyperventilating with solid, deep breathes. I’m so glad Liz isn’t here to witness this crazy behaviour.

“I am in total control of the situation.” I close my eyes and whisper to myself, thoughts of Nick pushed aside.

I focus back on the listening devices and think of what steps to take next. I need more information on Tench, and the others in Russia. I need to work out what it is that he’s doing first so that we know exactly what we’re up against. I wonder what the agency’s thoughts are so far? I feel like I don’t know nearly enough about all of this. I was just their porn, after all.

“Are you in here, Mia?” Simon’s voice calls out.

I walk towards him and as soon as I see him again it makes me feel at ease.

“Come through. I was just going over new locations to place more listening equipment.”

Simon brings a welcome smile to my face. I never thought that one day I’d work with my brother, taking down bad guys. Our lives had been headed in completely different directions as young adults, so I’m just thankful that Simon accepted my decisions, the good and the bad, and is still a part of it. I always thought that having money would fill the void of love that I missed from not having a loving family around, but no matter how much money I had, I missed my twin in my life. Having Simon work with me on this makes me feel protected.

“This is good, Mi. Do you know if your mobile phone is still in his office?” I look to Simon the second the question leaves his lips.

“You knew about that?”

He smirks back at me. “I know about a lot.”

What else is behind those eyes? I know my brother better than anyone; there is more to this. I continue staring at him until he looks uncomfortable and comes clean.

“What?” He shrugs. “Nick called me in to do a few K and R jobs for the agency.”

“K and R?”

“Kidnap and ransom. Tench’s guys in Russia kidnapped a couple of the top politician’s daughters and threatened to sell them on the black market if they didn’t pay up.”

“You knew this about Tench and you didn’t think to tell me before?”

Simon’s wicked smirk appears again. “I
was
going to tell you, but you came running to me before I even had the chance to, remember? Why do you think I had the boys on standby so quickly? I knew Nick was watching Tench, so I didn’t think you were going to be in any danger. They wouldn’t have let you die.”

“What? Because the agency is really good at keeping people alive,” I sarcastically snap back. “They couldn’t even keep one of their
own
safe during a training exercise! I don’t want anything to do with that place. I’m not doing this for them. I’m doing this for Nick … and Sally, and any other person that has suffered their fate at the hands of Joe Tench.” My eyes narrow in frustration.

In my opinion, I don’t see the agency being very competent at all. I want them for their resources, and that’s it. The rest I can do myself, along with the help of Liz, and my brother if I need him.

What’s the best course of action for my relationship with Tench?
I need him to want me more than he can control. I need to give him control so that he loses it. I need to submit to him to gain my power over him. This is going to a hard situation for Liz to understand, and even harder for my brother to comprehend. But they don’t know the sex industry like I do. They will never understand the power of sex.

I need to talk to Liz about this straight away so that I can go back to Tench and begin the process. Right on cue, I see her wheeling a trolley into the foyer on the screen and I hear the front door click open. I follow Simon out of the room to help Liz with the trolley stacked tall with cardboard boxes.

“The boss let me take whatever I wanted,” she breathes heavily from behind the trolley, “so I did. I just need to call the boss with daily updates and he’ll leave us alone to carry out the mission.” Her head pops around from the stack of boxes. “I don’t know what you said to him, Mia, but he’s not fucking around with your requests.”

Surprise saturates her voice as she speaks. I think back to what I said to the boss. It wasn’t that bad. It was more just a warning that I won’t help if he doesn’t leave me the fuck alone to do this
my
way.

Simon rushes to take the first boxes down and hands them down to Liz and I, and we place them around the bare room. Simon gets to the bottom two rows and struggles to lift one of the boxes.

“Shit.” His voice is strained.

“Ah yeah, that would be the arsenal. I had to hide the gun cases, so I put them into removal boxes too.” She smiles.

The words roll off her tongue so naturally and my brother’s nonchalant response brings a smirk on my downtrodden face. This is totally normal talk for the both of them. On the other hand, I still find it amusing. We now have a vacant apartment in the middle of the city with a shitload of weapons it in. Cool!