For a long time, I watched her sleep. Then I lifted her, carried her to bed, and held her close for the longest time.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
JADA
The flight to Darwin from Adelaide was three and a half hours, and I spent most of it going over my lines for my upcoming commercial, which I had managed to reschedule for later next week. Max was busy studying and adjusting his sales pitch for the Board of Directors, trying to perfect it. I was actually quite nervous for him myself, and I wasn’t even the one giving the speech.
I just hope he can win them over now that we are engaged. I still can’t believe they wouldn’t give him the deal to build a Brunetti Hotel and Spa Resort in Darwin just because he wasn’t a family man. Honestly, I had never heard of anything so ridiculous.
The plane landed, and the minute I stepped off the plane, the humidity caused my clothes to cling to my body. God, it was so hot. I forgot how sweltering the heat could be up here; Darwin was known for its moist and muggy weather. I couldn’t wait to get into that air-conditioned taxi. No limo here.
“You okay, babe?” Max asked me in the taxi.
‘Yeah, why do you ask?”
“Not sure if you are used to this weather. Some people can’t handle it, and they faint,” he explained.
“Nah, I’m tough. You have no idea how tough I am.”
“Believe me, I know,” Max chuckled. “Now, are you sure you will be fine this afternoon on your own, while I’m at my meeting? There’s not much you can do in the time we have.”
“I’ll be fine. I intend to read, relax and rejuvenate at the hotel and by the time you come back, I will be ready to celebrate,” I told him, confident he would win them over.
“I hope so.” Max looked worried. “There are other bidders today, babe; it’s not just me. But I do have a good feeling about this, and I have got one heck of a sales pitch planned.”
As we entered the hotel room at the five-star Skycity Darwin Hotel, Max’s phone rang. “Yeah, Zane, what’s up, mate?”
Silence.
“No, I haven’t yet, why? Is there something important I need to look at right now?” Max questioned Zane. “The file is in my briefcase. I will have to look at it later; I’ve got that meeting with the Board of Directors in just under an hour.”
More silence.
Max listened carefully to Zane. It must’ve been important because normally their conversations are clipped and short.
“Okay, no worries; I will as soon as I can.” Max hung up the phone and ran a hand through his black hair. He looked stressed.
“What is it, Max? You look concerned about something,” I asked him.
“Yeah, it was weird. Zane said I needed to look over everything in Tate Turner’s police file. I’ve not looked at it yet; I just handed it over to Archie McBride and let him deal with it.”
“But why does Zane want you to look at it?” I queried him, feeling a twinge of panic.
“Zane says there are pictures in there of the victim Turner assaulted, and it was important I look at them.”
Shit!
“Did he explain why, or give you a reason why you have to?”
“Nope, that was the weird part. He didn’t. He just said, ‘You need to look at them, Max’.”
Oh, God! I had to stop Max from looking at those pictures. If he saw them, he would work out that it was me that Turner almost tried to kill. I didn’t want him to find out like that. I had to be the one to tell him. It had to come from me. I’d just try to distract him until his meeting is over. He didn’t need that stress, as well.
“Look, you get ready for your meeting and when you get back, we can go for dinner and then you can take your schlong out of its recovery mode. It hasn’t made an appearance for a while.”
“Oh babe, you just played with my ‘schlong’ this morning. That was only a few short hours ago,” he reminded me, chuckling.
Oh, I remembered quite vividly how I played with it. He sure didn’t have to remind me.
“Off you go then,” I shooed him away. “I’ll be here waiting for you, I promise,” I said in a seductive whisper.
“It’s a deal, Princess. You better make it worth my while.”
“You bet.”
He winked at me as he walked out the door.
I sank to my knees and cried.
Something I hadn’t done in months.
***
Perhaps a bit of shopping will do me some good. I am sure a bit retail therapy is just what I need to cure my bout of anxiety. I don’t know how much longer I can live with this secret anymore. I really need to tell Max about Tate Turner and soon.
After taking a taxi into the city, I wandered around several shops in the area. Nothing much really caught my eye, but there was a wonderful antique shop begging me to enter. I’d never been interested in antiques before, but the gorgeous chaise lounge on display in the window was just beautiful.