The Blackmailed Bride. Kim Lawrence

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 her own feeble beam. Before she even had a chance to turn around, a pair of strong arms snaked around her, pinning one arm to her chest as, arched backwards by the tight embrace, her feet were lifted off the ground.

      Her rudimentary Spanish could not cope with the staccato burst of furious-sounding words which hissed like bullets in her ear. With Susie’s warnings about this blackmailer and his shady friends ringing in her ears, she began to struggle wildly. With her free arm she flailed backwards, trying to inflict as much damage as possible, enough at least to make her captor loosen his grip. A chair and several sundry items, including her glasses, were casualties of her frenzied efforts to free herself.

      Only this captor wasn’t letting her go, not even when she brought her trainer-shod heel—stilettos would have produced much more satisfactory results—down viciously onto his instep, the way they’d taught her in self-defence class. She took small comfort from the fact it must have hurt like hell because he cursed—at least it sounded like a curse.

      Kate wasn’t a short woman and, though slim, she wasn’t delicate—she kept herself fit, she ran and enjoyed playing sports—but it soon became clear to her that she was vastly outclassed. It was obvious that restraining her was not overly exerting her captor, who wasn’t even breathing heavily. A pragmatist, she quickly accepted she couldn’t fight her way out of this situation—that left talking her way out, and she was good at that…

      ‘Please…let me go!’ she panted, forcing her body to go limp.

      ‘English?’

      The startled exclamation across the room was the first indication to her that she wasn’t only outclassed but outnumbered too.

      ‘You’re English?’ The low, cultured voice close to her ear had only the faintest husky tinge of an attractive accent.

      This must be one of the waiter’s sinister friends, she reasoned, recalling Susie’s comments on Luis’s charming broken English—unless that too had been part of his scam.

      ‘Of course I’m English!’ she exclaimed at her most haughty.

      ‘A woman…?’ The voice from across the room exclaimed.

      ‘I had noticed,’ her captor replied drily before switching to rapid Spanish.

      Probably issuing instructions about where to dispose of my body, Kate thought, as she struggled in vain to catch the gist of what was being said. Her mind was working furiously. How long will it be before anyone misses me…? Not until morning at the earliest, she realised with dismay.

      She’d excused herself early from dinner with her parents, pleading a headache, and if Susie had carried on drinking wine at the rate she had been when Kate had left she would now either be dead to the world or dancing the night away in the nearest night-club.

      ‘I’m going to put you down now. Do not try to escape.’

      Kate nodded her head compliantly whilst privately vowing to do just the opposite should the opportunity arise.

      Released from the iron grip and with her feet back on the ground, Kate’s knees displayed the consistency of cotton wool. Fortunately