Lingerie Wars (The Invertary books) (37 page)

Brandon yanked her into the crowd and away from the tent.

CHAPTER TWENTY

There were women pawing at him. There were women whispering promises in his ears. There were women taking photos of their friends as they draped themselves over him. They thought this was part of the show. The catwalk was suddenly full of people strutting their stuff as they pretended to be models. It was all good-natured fun and Lake didn't mind it one bit. Although he did wish he'd had time to pull on his jeans.

At the back of the crowd, beside the marquee entrance, Lake spotted Kirsty's mum. She was jumping up and down, waving frantically. Lake smiled at her, then stilled. Her face was grey. She seemed distressed. She mouthed a word—
help
. He scanned the room for Kirsty. She was nowhere in sight.
Help
, her mother mouthed again. Tears glistened on her cheeks.

Lake pushed through the group around him. The more people he urged out of his way, the more there seemed to be. Behind him, Betty and the other models were now on the runway dancing along with the audience. With a deep breath, he jumped off the stage and into the crowd.

There were excited squeals as the women thought he was joining them. Camera flashes went off around him. The laughter was deafening. Lake pushed through the people, tripping over abandoned handbags and blankets. At last he reached the door and Kirsty's mother.

"What is it? Where's Kirsty?"

"He took her," she said. She was trembling.

"Who?"

Instead of answering, she sobbed. For the first time since his youth, he had to work at staying calm. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to roar. He wanted to remove everything that stood between himself and Kirsty.

Behind him the women of Knit Or Die came screeching to a halt.

"What on earth is going on?" Shona demanded.

Kirsty's mother didn't know whom to answer first. Lake put his hand on her arm. She turned to him.

"Who took Kirsty?" he said.

"Brandon."

Everything within him stopped dead. The women gasped. Heather wrapped an arm around Kirsty's mother.

"Where?" Lake said.

It was hard to get the word out, his jaw was clenched so tightly.

"I don't know," Kirsty's mum said. "He dragged her up the high street. She told me to get you."

He nodded and turned towards the door. Kirsty's mum put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"I saw a knife," she said as she started to shake.

"Oh my goodness," Jean wailed.

Betty appeared, charging through the crowd in her red nightie.

"What the hairy hell is going on?" she demanded.

"We need to get to him before he hurts Kirsty," Margaret said.

The rest of the women nodded solemnly—even Betty, who didn't have a clue what was going on.

"You lot stay here," Lake ordered. "I'll handle this."

"In your birthday suit?" Betty said.

Lake ignored her. He stared the women down.

"I'm serious. Don't interfere. You could make matters worse."

They stared back at him, clearly ignoring everything he said. There was no time to deal them. He had to get to Kirsty.

Margaret Campbell sobbed beside him as her friends cooed words of comfort.

"It's okay," Lake told her. "He won't hurt her. I won't let him."

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Lake pushed the marquee flap back. He couldn't see Kirsty, there were too many people. But he knew where she would be. He should have looked into that necklace when Brandon first showed an interest in it. He knew there was something else going on. He knew it in his gut. And now this? He hadn't even told Kirsty how dangerous the guy was. Fury coursed through him. It was his fault and he knew exactly how to fix it.

Behind him someone shouted, "Come on, girls. Let's get Kirsty!"

Without a second's hesitation, Lake ran out into the night.

Brandon pushed Kirsty through the bustling market and up the high street to her home. He was moving so fast that she found it difficult to keep up on the high-heeled boots she wore. She stumbled over the uneven road. Brandon tightened his grip on the inside of her upper arm as he yanked her forward. All the while, his right hand held a knife to her side.

"Kirsty," someone called out to her. "Great show. I voted for you."

She tried to smile, but it was too difficult.

"Don't stop to talk to anyone. You don't want to endanger them, do you?"

Kirsty hated him for that comment alone. Even after years of knowing Brandon, intimately, she realised that she'd never known him at all. This man, this vile man, was so far removed from the man she thought she'd loved that it made her nauseous.

"You're despicable," she told him.

He smiled thinly.

They marched around the stalls and people chatting in the street. Underfoot, the now icy snow crunched in the areas where it hadn't been totally compacted by the many feet. Bizarrely, Kirsty found herself wondering if anyone had thought to salt the street the following morning, otherwise the pavements would be covered in a deadly layer of ice. She knew, in some part of her brain, that her inane thoughts had more to do with the shock of the situation than the reality.

"Why are you doing this?" she said.

"Why do you care?" He seemed amused.

"Don't you think you owe me an explanation?" She tried to pull away from him, but he held her tighter. "You left me broken and penniless."

His smirk turned her stomach.

"I didn't leave you without resources. Women like you can always find what you want in someone's bed."

He ran his gaze over her body and she shuddered. The thought that she'd let this man touch her was too much to bear.

"Was anything real?" she said. "Any of it?"

"You mean us?"

"I mean everything."

He actually laughed.

"We had fun, if that's what you mean, and I probably would have gone through with the wedding. Back then you were surprisingly useful and conveniently gullible. It was entertaining."

"You used me." She meant their relationship and her feelings for him, but he misunderstood.

"You were the best damn mule in the business. You could walk a fortune in blood diamonds through airport security, and no one blinked an eye. They were all too enamoured by your tits and legs."

He ran a hand over her hip to cup her backside. Kirsty shuddered as she pulled away from him.

"Now, now, Kirsty," he said with a smile. "You can't fool me. Remember, I know exactly what you like."

To Kirsty's shame, she couldn't think of anything to say in reply. Panic was taking over her brain. Panic from the repulsion she felt at his touch.

"I nearly pissed myself laughing that time we were flying out of Kenya and you tried to give away the necklace to a woman who admired it." He acted as though they were old friends wandering down memory lane. All the while his fingers were digging into her backside and his knife pressed the skin over her kidney. "It was our thing, remember? We'd travel and I'd buy you some worthless piece of jewellery for you to wear on the trip. You were so pleased at the gesture and so damn bubble-headed that you never even noticed when I swapped them out for a similar piece once we got home."

He laughed hard at that.

"Poor, dumb, Kirsty," he said sadly. "I miss having you around to do my dirty work."

Kirsty struggled to steady her breathing. She started to feel lightheaded and her fingers tingled. The initial shock of the night had worn off and anxiety was setting in. Only this time, there were no strong hands on her shoulders to make it stop. In fact, there was no Lake at all.

As they approached her shop, the Donaldson twins waved from their stall and cast curious glances at Brandon. The carol singers were still in full swing in front of her window. They sang of
Good Will To All Men,
which was weirdly out of place in her mind.

"Are you okay?" one of the twins asked, while looking nervously at Brandon.

He pushed his knife deeper into her side, making her wince, but effectively reminding her not to involve anyone.

"Fine," Kirsty said as her heart raced out of control.

"Where is it?" Brandon said in her ear. "Upstairs in the flat, or in the shop?"

"Shop," Kirsty said.

They walked to the front door. Kirsty pulled her keys out from the pocket in her dress. She fumbled as Brandon held her arm tightly. Tight enough for there to be bruises. If she made it out alive.

"Hurry up," he snapped.

Kirsty dropped the keys. Brandon cursed loud enough for the carol singer standing closest to hear. She scowled at him. Kirsty picked the keys from the icy ground with fingers that were tingling so badly she could hardly feel the metal in her hand.
Breathe. Just breathe
, she told herself.
Slow. Shallow. Breathe.
Brandon poked the blade into her and she whimpered. Her throat began to close up.

"Give me the damn keys," Brandon ordered.

"I don't think so," said the steely voice she knew so well.

Relief made tears fall—Lake was here. Brandon's head snapped around.

"What the hell are you supposed to be?" Brandon sneered as the singers grew silent.

When Kirsty saw Lake, her eyes went wide. Her hero had ridden in wearing only his underpants. Her relief at seeing him was almost overwhelming.

"I see underpants, but I don't see a cape," Brandon told Lake. "You want to back off, Superman? This is none of your business."

"He doesn't need to be superhuman to kick your scrawny wee bum," Betty called out as she ran up beside Lake.

She bent over double and gasped for breath. A second later Kirsty noticed a line form behind Lake. She felt some of the tension ease from her throat. The women of Invertary had come out in force and they looked meaner than a pack of rabid dogs.

"They're your backup?" Brandon scoffed. "What do you think they'll do? Talk me to death?"

The women growled and took a step forward. Lake held his hand up to stop them, and they all stopped dead.

"Release Kirsty now," Lake ordered.

"Or what?" Brandon laughed. "You'll get your granny there to sit on me?"

"I'll granny you, you rude wee smell." Betty rolled up her sleeves on her robe.

"Let go of Kirsty now," Lake said easily. "These women are itching to get their hands on you. I'm pretty sure that they've been planning your death since you walked out on Kirsty. Trust me, they're creative. You don't want this going their way."

Brandon flashed his knife and some of the women gasped. He yanked Kirsty closer. She winced at the pain of his grip. Lake never took his eyes off of Brandon, but Kirsty knew he was aware of everything she felt. She could see it in the way his jaw clenched each time she felt pain.

"I'm the one with the power here," Brandon said.

Kirsty groaned as Brandon twisted the knife in her side.

"Breathe slowly, babe," Lake told her. "This will be over soon."

Brandon laughed hard.

"You're with that?" he said as he gestured to Lake. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

Kirsty ignored him and concentrated on breathing, which was a whole lot easier now that Lake was there.

"Get out of the way, Lake," Shona shouted. "We'll sort him out."

"I've been practising for this," Jean said.

"You're dead meat, son," Betty said.

Brandon smirked at the women before talking to Lake.

"Back off or Kirsty gets another scar."

Lake growled deep in his throat.

"You harm her," Lake said, "and I will kill you slowly."

"Get lost, Superman," Brandon told him. "And take the witches with you."

The carol singers were beginning to inch away. Lake's face was a mask. There was no emotion showing at all. His arms hung loosely at his side and his feet were slightly apart. Kirsty recognised it as a fight stance he'd shown her one night. Brandon wrapped his arm around her neck and crushed her to him.

"Kirsty," Lake said evenly. "How about you use what you learnt in class?"

Kirsty's lower lip trembled. She couldn't. She looked at Lake. His eyes said he knew she could.

"You can do it, Kirsty," shouted Jean.

"Three," Lake said. "Two."

Kirsty took a deep and very shaky breath.

"Who the hell are you, anyway?" Brandon mocked. "Do I look like I'm a toddler? Counting down isn't going to make me back off."

"One," Lake said. It was almost a growl.

Kirsty elbowed Brandon in the side and he grunted. She stamped on his foot, swung her other elbow towards his head and felt it glance off his cheek and then she thumped him between the legs. Brandon groaned and his grip loosened. Kirsty tore herself away from him. There was a sharp pain in her side. She yelped and stumbled onto the ground. She scrambled away from Brandon. Lake's focus wasn't on her. He clenched his fists and lowered his head. He was ferocious.