Opening her car door, Kara Brenley stepped out onto the deserted street in Melbourne Docklands. Despite the warmth of the late summer evening, she shivered. She hadn’t stopped feeling cold or shaking since she’d arrived home and discovered the ‘present’ left for her on her front doorstep. Now, the darkness and the rustling of the wind through the trees sounded eerie and she couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched.
Pulling her cardigan tighter around her, she looked around and, praying no one had followed her here, ran across the road to the building where Austin Chase had recently bought an apartment. The complex was the latest in a string of luxury buildings which had been erected in the Melbourne Docklands. Clearly, he’d been paid well for guarding the Hollywood actress, Annabelle Rogers.
Annabelle, his now girlfriend.
Kara’s foot slipped on the step in front of her and she put her hand on the door to stop herself from falling head-first through the glass doors at the front of the building. Wouldn’t that be the icing and cherry on top of this terrifying day, being cut to pieces?
Looking up at the names next to buzzers on the wall, she scanned the list until she found him.
Chase, A. Apartment 96.
Before she lost her nerve and talked herself into turning around and getting back in the car, she pressed the buzzer.
In the silence that followed, she wondered how she’d ended up here, a forty minute drive from where she lived, without once contemplating the idea Austin might be out for the evening. He could be working. He could be out with his friends.
She checked her watch. Nine pm. There was a good chance he wasn’t here. Fear settled heavily in the pit of her stomach.
“Please be home,” she whispered.
“Who is it?”
His answer was gruff and unwelcoming, and yet she’d never been so relieved to hear anyone’s voice in her life.
“Austin, it’s me. It’s Kara. Please can I come up?”
The door buzzed open without another word, and she let herself in, locating the elevator that would take her to the ninth floor.
Austin met her outside his apartment, the sight of him distracting her from the horrific images that had been running on a loop through her head for the past hour and a half. He’d clearly just finished a work-out. His longish dirty-blond hair was dark with sweat and she could smell deodorant and man. The only item of clothing he seemed to be wearing was a pair of low-slung shorts that revealed his eight-pack and the tribal tats that covered one side of his body and both arms.
“You didn’t come here just to stare at me now, did you?”
She forced her gaze upwards, where eyes the colour of turquoise locked with hers for a moment, shocking her heart the way they always did.
It had probably been a mistake to come here, no matter how scared she was. What right had she to ask him for help? They weren’t friends. Her tongue had always been too sharp with him and her walls too high to allow the friendship seeds he’s scattered to grow. And they’d never been lovers – never would be lovers – not now that she’d chased him into the arms of another woman.
Yet she couldn’t go home.
The thought of returning to her house and cleaning up what had been left for her there…She needed the safety that the man in front of her could provide. Even if she didn’t feel as if she deserved his protection.
“No, I didn’t come here for that. I…I need your help.”
Kara wasn’t sure whether it was the lack of her words, her wavering voice, or the look on her face that wiped the cocky grin off Austin’s face.
“What’s wrong?” He strode towards her. “Tell me what’s happened, Kara.”
His voice was demanding while laced with urgency. She wanted to reach out and hold onto him, to reassure him. And to reassure herself. It would be so easy to take strength from him, to let him hold her up and keep her anchored in the present. The ease of which she could lean on him, depend on him and fall into him had always frightened her.
“Kara?”
“My cat…Gingernut, he’s dead.”
She watched confusion replace the concerned expression on his face. “I’m sorry?”
She didn’t know if he was offering her his condolences or telling her he didn’t understand. Her hands and body started to tremble as the images of her beautiful pet cat splattered across her porch leapt out at her from behind the closed door she’d tried to slam them behind.
“He was murdered.”
The trembling and shaking was worse now, and she was having trouble standing.
“Perhaps you better come inside and sit down. Then you can tell me about it.”
She whispered her gratitude as he opened the door and allowed her to walk in first.
It was the first time she’d ever been to his apartment and in his space, and even though she knew she was supposed to look for somewhere to sit, she found herself looking around.
The apartment was square shaped, and two hallways on either side led to rooms. Walking down the two steps that led to the square open living area in front of her, her gaze was riveted to the view behind the thick glass wall which looked out over the city. They were only nine stories up, but the view was stunning. The floor-to-ceiling blinds were open, allowing the light of the docklands in through the windows. Outside, the evening had felt eerie, but in Austin’s apartment the darkness and quiet was soothing and…intimate.
She turned around in time to catch him studying her, no doubt trying to understand what had brought her here when she’d done everything she could to avoid spending time alone with him before.
“It’s nice, your new home,” she said, breaking the silence.
“You never saw my old one.”
“Does that mean I can’t compliment your new one?”
It was so easy to lapse into defensiveness with him. Her armour with this man had protected her so far.
Well, it had prevented him from getting too close. Unfortunately, it hadn’t prevented her heart from breaking when her tactics for holding him at bay had worked and he’d fallen in love with someone else.
“Of course not. It means the other place was a dump.”
“You’re moving up in the world.”
“It would appear so,” he agreed. “Take a seat. I’ll get you something to drink.”
The apartment was sparsely furnished, a testament to the fact he hadn’t been living there long. Not that she imagined Austin Chase was one to accumulate clutter or anything that might slow him down. A picture of Austin with his sister, Claire, and his mother hung on the wall. It was the only personal touch in the open plan living area, she noted as she made her way over to the soft and comfortable looking grey couch.
When Austin returned from the bar in the corner of the room, he handed her a glass of amber liquid that smelt like bourbon.
“I thought you might need something harder than wine.”
She accepted it with a nod. “Thank you.”
He disappeared down one of the hallways alongside the open space, and when he came back he was holding a dark grey blanket.
“You’re cold,” he said as he unfolded it and draped it around her.
She’d forgotten for a moment that she was and she felt immeasurable gratitude in that moment that he hadn’t.
He took a seat in the recliner opposite the couch. The silent way he studied her told her he was waiting for her to speak – to explain things to him.
“I should have called before I came here over here. I know I’ve probably surprised you by just turning up out of the blue. Honestly, I just didn’t know who else to come to.”
Or who else could make me feel as safe as you do.
“You know you can come to me for anything. You’re Claire’s best friend. I’d never turn you away.”
Undoubtedly, his words had been said to reassure her, but instead it just hurt. That’s all she was to him now – Claire’s best friend.
“Thank you,” she forced out.
“Tell me what happened to…your cat.”
“I’m sure you can’t understand why I’m here because of that, but…” she searched his confused face. “Perhaps I should start at the beginning.”
“Perhaps you’d better.”
She sipped her bourbon and then rolled the glass between her hands, gathering her courage. When he heard what she had to say, he’d be angry with her. But she thought she’d been doing the right thing at the time by ignoring the situation and not giving whoever wanted to scare her power over her.
“I’ve been receiving letters and strange phone calls on and off for about two months now.”
He sat forward in his seat, his gaze intense. “Explain.”
“Someone has been calling me and hanging up, and I keep getting this feeling, like someone is watching me. I put it down to paranoia and told myself it was crazy to be afraid, but…”
His jaw was clenched tight as she met and held his gaze. “Tell me about the letters, Kara.”
“At first they were mild, telling me that I was a bitch and a…a slut. Then they became more aggressive, saying they’d teach me what real pain was. The last one before today, though, it mentioned my death.”
“They killed your cat?”
She nodded, tears welling behind her eyes. “When I got home tonight there was blood splattered all over the porch. I could see the body of Gingernut just lying there, split open.” She sniffed and tried to hold the tears back. “And there was another letter on the step.”
Her stomach roiled and she shuddered at the violence of that threat.
“What did it say?”
She wasn’t sure she could even get the words out.
“Kara.”
Austin was mad, furious. She could see that, even if he was still sitting there, and even if his voice was controlled. Her silence was testing his patience.
“Tell me what it said, Kara.”
“It said…” She shuddered. “The next pretty…‘pussy’ butchered will be mine.”
She watched Austin stand up, his rage at the situation now boiling over into something resembling restlessness.
He paced back and forth. “Do you get how serious this is?”
“I do now.”
“We need to call the police and report what happened.”
“I already have.”
He stopped and looked at her. “What did they say?”
“They’re going to look into it.”
“They’re going to look into it,” he repeated, shaking his head and looking disgusted. The pacing started back up. “That was all they said?”
“And they suggested I find someone to stay with tonight. I just came straight here. I’m sorry to turn up like this but there’s no one else I could go to. Claire’s over the other side of the world, Tori is out of town for the week and Danni is staying the night at her boyfriend’s. I need…Please can I stay with you tonight?”