The Blackmailed Bride. Kim Lawrence

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      Kate dropped down into the wicker chair and pulled her knees up to her chin; her irritation bubbled to the surface. ‘What on earth possessed you to get involved with the man in the first place…? You’re supposed to be engaged to Chris… Are things all right between you and him, or are you having second thoughts?’

      ‘Don’t start on about me being too young to settle down again, Kate!’ Susie scowled. ‘I’m not like you; I don’t want a career and being engaged doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun,’ she announced with a toss of her blonde head.

      Kate didn’t swallow this hard-nosed attitude for one minute, Susie was wilful but she was a long way from being as callous as she liked to pretend.

      ‘Fun! Couldn’t you have stuck to beach volley-ball?’

      This evoked a watery smile. ‘Well, if you had arrived last week, like you were meant to, I wouldn’t have been so bored…’ Susie stretched one long sun-tanned leg in front of her. The complacent contemplation of the smooth expanse of shapely golden flesh made the sulky line of her lips lift attractively.

      Only Susie, Kate decided, could turn this thing around so that her sister had the ultimate responsibility—Susie really was totally impossible, Kate reflected with rueful affection.

      ‘I had to work, you know that.’

      ‘Work?’ Susie snorted in disgust. ‘It’s all you ever think about. No wonder Seb dumped you.’ She lifted her head, pushing a strand of long blonde hair from her eyes, and grimaced apologetically. ‘Sorry, that was a bitchy thing to say,’ she admitted. ‘But,’ she added swiftly in her own defence, ‘this was the holiday from hell, even before Luis turned out to be a low-life, what with Mum and Dad spending every day traipsing around boring churches and things, wanting me to come along.’ Her horrified expression was an accurate indicator that these pastimes weren’t Susie’s idea of pleasure. ‘I always said a family holiday at our age was asking for trouble…’

      ‘I thought you decided it wouldn’t be so bad when you realised Dad was footing the bill,’ Kate couldn’t resist observing.

      ‘I just thank God they didn’t book that awful place in the mountains you fancied so much. There wasn’t anything to do there but watch the grass grow.’

      ‘There also wasn’t a Luis.’

      ‘Actually, Katie,’ Susie began with an awkward rush, ‘the photos…I think he might have spiked my drink when we were by the pool. I mean, I’m not one hundred per cent positive,’ she added hurriedly, ‘but I know a girl who had her drink spiked…’

      Kate’s horrified gasp went ignored as her sister, oblivious to the fact she’d said anything to send chills through Kate’s blood, continued, ‘Oh, she was all right. Fortunately a gang of us arrived as the stuff was kicking in and the guy in question made a quick exit. She collapsed in the loos and we had an awful job getting her back home,’ she recalled. ‘It’s just B—her symptoms—’ Susie corrected herself with a display of discretion that surprised Kate ‘—I felt a lot like that. I could hardly get back to my own room, I felt so woozy, and I’d only had a glass of white wine…’

      ‘What a total sleaze!’ Kate exclaimed in disgust. ‘We should call the police.’

      ‘Get serious, Kate!’ Susie responded scornfully. ‘I could kick myself. I’m normally really careful about things like that—I never leave my glass on a table, I carry it around with me. Of course, I never accept a drink from a man I don’t know…’

      ‘Of course,’ Kate responded faintly.

      As she had listened to Susie casually outlining the list of precautions which were obviously second nature to her, Kate wondered if she was herself extraordinarily trusting or just plain reckless, because even though she’d heard of such things happening since the advent of the so-called date rape drugs, she had never dreamt of taking any of these measures… But then she had never dated a stranger; her boyfriends such as they were had always been friends of friends or work colleagues.

      ‘What really gets me, is that he didn’t even try and touch me… It was Dad’s money he was interested in all along, not me!’

      ‘Well thank God for that!’

      ‘I just feel such a fool. I was wondering how I was going to let him down lightly; I thought he was potty about me. God, Katie!’ she wailed. ‘What am I going to do…?’

      Placing a comforting arm around the younger girl’s shaking shoulders, Kate hugged her tight. She crossed her fingers. ‘Don’t worry, Suse, it’ll be all right.’ I hope!

      ‘Then you’ll lend me the money to pay him off…?’ Susie lifted her tear stained face eagerly.

      ‘We’re not giving him a penny,’ Kate responded, her tone outraged at the idea of giving into a blackmailer. ‘I’ll get the photos and the negatives.’

      ‘But how?’

      ‘That,’ admitted Kate frankly, ‘I haven’t worked out yet.’

      ‘Listen, Kate, I don’t think this is such a good idea. I mean, Luis isn’t going to hand them over, is he? And once or twice I’ve seen him talking with some shifty-looking types. Actually, I think he could be quite mean himself…’ She gave a shamefaced little grin. ‘I suppose, if I’m honest, that was half the attraction…the danger thing,’ she sniffed. ‘You know what I mean…’ She looked at her elder sister who pushed her specs up the bridge of her nose. ‘I don’t suppose you do. I know you think I’m a selfish little cow but even I might lose an hour or two’s sleep if you got hurt because of me.’

      Kate pulled a tissue from the pocket of her shorts and dabbed her sister’s pink nose. ‘Don’t fret. I’ve no intention of getting hurt, Suse.’

      Kate had waited an hour in the darkness watching the staff bungalow until she was satisfied there was nobody home. The wait had taken its toll, by the time she tentatively tried the door she felt physically sick with nerves and her heart was pounding so loud, its frantic, echoey thud cut out all other sounds. She couldn’t recall ever feeling this scared, not even the first time she’d made her court appearance as a newly qualified barrister.

      She could hardly believe her luck when the door opened at the first try. Relieved she wouldn’t have to put her admittedly hazy knowledge of lock picking—second hand, naturally—to the test, Kate slid the credit card she’d brought for the purpose into the back pocket of her dark jeans and adjusted the dark hood on her head so that it covered all her pale hair.

      Shining her torch around the darkened room, she picked her way stealthily through the discarded garments littering the carpet. Her skin crawled and she stifled a scream as her foot got entangled in a shirt. This whole enterprise was making her feel grubby. After this is over I’ll need a stiff drink and a bath, not necessarily in that order she thought as she carefully balanced the torch on top of the chest of drawers.

      Her hands were shaking so much, it took her two goes to slide the top drawer open. Concentrate, Kate she told herself, taking a deep fortifying breath. It’s my lucky day she decided as her fingers closed around an envelope—the shape of which felt very promising…

      Her newly fortified wits fled gibbering in panic as the room was suddenly flooded with strong light from a powerful flashlight that dwarfed СКАЧАТЬ