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“Yes, I can,” I said, slowly. “And I will.”
The room stilled while all our words floated in the thick air. A stand-off that would have made John F Kennedy proud.
Minty was the one who broke the silence. “Look…” she knelt down next to Hector and appealed to me. “Some shit went down yesterday. Supplies were heading for the island – the largest drop the island’s ever seen. It was going to end up in the land by the school – Ossian had already dug the ground. We couldn’t have all that toxic waste being buried so close to a school, for Heaven’s sake. So, we sank the boat.”
I felt sick at the thought of those diseased corpses and infected needles being buried so close to where the islanders’ children played, but I couldn’t afford to spend energy worrying about that when my priority had to be getting off the island. I dug in my heels. “I still want to go home, now.”
Minty shook her head. “Sinclair is paranoid, as we expected him to be. He thinks everyone’s out to destroy his businesses, so he’s got eyes everywhere. If you try to leave now, Viv, they’ll catch you. And I don’t think even our anger right now will be any match for his cowardly penchant for firing a gun.”
I stared at her. “I don’t think you understand Minty,” I implored. “I need to see someone – a professional. I think I need therapy. I can’t stay locked up in here – I need to go home and recover from this in my own home, with my family around me.”
Minty looked almost offended. “We’re your family too, Viv. We love you and we want to keep you alive. That’s why we’re telling you to stay, at least for now, until the coast has cleared.”
I speared them both with an accusatory glare. “And when will that be, huh? When will he give up? Does Sinclair ever give up?”
Minty and Hector dropped their gazes and I shook my head. “This wasn’t part of the plan,” I muttered. “If it had been, I never would have come back.”
“Please don’t say that. You did it for Rupert. You must have known the risk you were taking, Viv.” Minty looked up again, pleading. “You must have felt, on some level, that Rupert was worth taking that risk for.”
“Yeah,” I said, picking at a seam on the sofa. “Was. Maybe. Things have changed.”
Minty glanced at Hector and he stood and left the room, leaving us alone.
“You’re in shock, Viv. It’s understandable. I cannot imagine what you’re going through, truly. But what you and Rupert have…” I released a snort and she gripped my hand.
“What you have is something that can’t be destroyed; it’s too powerful. It’s indestructible. I couldn’t find the words to say this to you before, but whenever I’m in the presence of you both, it’s like the air moves. I can feel your chemistry humming around you. Don’t get me wrong, when you’re not together, you’re still whole and amazing people, but when you’re together… I don’t know, it’s like you magnify each other.”
I dropped my gaze. “Please don’t Minty. This is so painful to hear.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “But I think you need to hear it, before you throw it all away.”
I jerked my head up. “This isn’t on me, Mint,” I said. “I won’t be throwing anything away. This chemistry you’re talking about, it’s been trampled all over by Ossian’s muddy boots. It’s not the same anymore and it… hurts.” I burst into tears and shielded my eyes.
“Oh God.” Minty wrapped her arms around me as I heaved. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed that onto you. I’m so sorry.”
She let me drench her shoulder until I reluctantly pulled away letting her see my red, swollen eyes. “I still love him,” I whispered between hiccups. I recalled his obsidian eyes, his soft commanding lips and the look he always gave me when I entered a room. It made my thighs warm and my body ache. I shoved it all to one side. “But everything has changed.”
“Are you sure?” Minty asked, softly. “He said those vows for you in the eyes of God.”
I closed my eyes. If I’d believed in God before that day, my faith would have been long gone now.
“It doesn’t mean a thing.”
Rupert
“Update, now.”
Sinclair’s barked words rang around the room which was pointlessly large considering it housed only he and I most of the time. It had become a war room of sorts where I pretended to source new suppliers while he threw orders and demands at right hand men, hopelessly loyal staff members and ignorant followers.
“Have any of them bitten?”
I shook my head. “Not yet, but I’m upping the deal. We’ll manage the entire process from retrieval to transport to distribution – they don’t need to get a finger dirty. I’m offering double the price. Our production schedule’s been pushed back so there’s greater demand right now. People will pay even more for the drug so we can afford the extra cost of supplies.”
Sinclair grunted before standing to pace around the room. He’d been doing that a lot lately and I noticed with each round he took of the room, just how much weight he’d lost. I wasn’t sure when it had begun to fall off him but he was barely a shadow of himself and it couldn’t only have been down to the catastrophic recent events.
“We’re not moving quickly enough,” he said in a gravely voice. “We should have another supplier by now. How much stock do we have left?”
I gritted my teeth. “I don’t know. Ossian has put it all under lock and key.” I silently thanked the universe I’d shipped a month’s supply to Vivian’s sister before all this shit went down, because I couldn’t guarantee I’d get anywhere close to it right now, and my own crops were nowhere near mature enough.
