Jealous Storm by Jack Stroke (book recommendations .txt) 📕

scoffed. “What? No one is gonna hit you, mate. I think it’s about time you went home.” He led Amber back to the table, leaving Ellis standing there like a fool.

“My hero.”

“Yeah, like you couldn’t have broken his hand in five places.”

They sat at the same time as the food arrived. The meals looked great, yet Amber wasn’t hungry. Somehow Ellis had managed to crawl his way behind her defences once more.

Ben. She hadn’t thought of that.

61

Way down below the land looked so neat. Ordered into patterns by farming, sliced up by the occasional roads, themselves little more than thin black lines. And every so often a house or a town or a small city.

Ben felt Shake before he saw him, hovering too close, gazing out Ben’s window.

“Everything looks so small down there, doesn’t it? What’s that thing they say astronauts get? You know, from being up so high?”

Ben shrugged.

“Didn’t you go to school? What did they teach you?”

“Not that.”

“The Overview Effect.”

Not really much point asking Ben if Shake already knew the answer. Ben didn’t bother to point that out.

“When you get out into space, they say that the perspective makes you re-evaluate your entire existence. The whole of the earth appears fragile and small. You realise in the greater scheme of things your problems are tiny and inconsequential.”

Ben didn’t respond.

“Maybe you need to be higher for that.”

A car made its way along a liquorice road. Smaller than a matchbox car from this height. Shake returned to his seat.

“You’re okay, Benny?” No response. “Talk to me. Are you okay?”

“That’s two questions. You only get three.”

“Haha. Funny. Besides, it was only one.”

“You asked it twice.”

“You want to talk about it, you know where I am.”

Ben tried to hold his tongue. He didn’t really want to ask questions for fear of what the answers might be. Assuming Shake did answer.

“Arms dealer or human trafficker?”

“Both. Neither. Does it matter?”

“Was any of it real?”

“How do you know it wasn’t all real?”

“Amber said —”

“This should be good.”

“— to be careful. That you like playing games.”

“Me?”

“You and Mother.”

“That sounds like Amber.”

“So, was it real?”

“Of course. Every mission is a test. Every test is a mission.”

“Yeah, but —“

“Walk me through it.”

“What?”

“The big conspiracy theory. How would it work?”

“I don’t know.” Ben pushed through feeling like he was about two inches tall. “Maybe it was a setup.”

“A lot of trouble to go to. The Teslas. This private jet. How many people were at that party?”

“Maybe not the whole party. Maybe…”

“Is this what you’ve been doing this entire time? Searching for cracks? Going over every little detail? Why would we do that?”

“Some sort of test.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Benny boy, you’re welcome to believe whatever you want. Looking for cracks isn’t a real good use of your time though, unless you want to go nuts. But real, fake. Does it matter in the end?”

“Yes, it does.”

“Not if the question is whether you would go through with it or not.”

The low drone of the engine filled the quiet.

“But what if I want to know if she really died?”

“More questions. You’re focusing on the wrong things again. It’s not really about her, is it? It’s about you and what you are willing to do. Remind me again, what is it we do at Diamond Logistics?”

“Yeah, but —”

“That’s the one and only thing you need to remember.”

“You’re an absolute pain to talk to, you know that?”

“Good. Get used to it.”

They didn’t converse again for the remainder of the flight.

62

Amber wandered into the owner’s cottage early the next morning. Joan was in the kitchen listening to talkback.

“Hi, Joan.”

“Hello.”

“I hear Ben is getting home today?”

“That’s what he said.” Joan wouldn’t look at her.

“Everything all right, Joan? I thought we were all good. I’m going to freeze to death with how cold you’re being.”

The older woman stopped what she was doing and turned. “For such a nice girl you can be terribly cruel, Amber.”

“What did I do?”

“Dinner last night. Megan said you spent the entire time pointing out what a loser Ellis is. How he has never done anything with his life.”

“No, I was just trying to be friendly. Make conversation.”

“Megan makes poor decisions, I get that. But she doesn’t need her face rubbed in it.”

“I swear, Joan, that’s not what I was doing. Or not what I was trying to do.”

“Well, she’s not happy.”

“That might be true, but I really don’t think it’s my fault this time. Listen, can you let me know as soon as Ben gets here? Like the very moment? I need to talk to him.”

“You too? That’s exactly what Ellis said.”

Uh oh. Amber’s stomach did a flip.

“Please stop pacing. I’m not sure the floor can take it.”

They were in cabin six, she and Vaughan. He was sitting on the bed.

“You don’t understand.”

“Wow, you’re gonna have to get that on a T-shirt or something. It’s like your catchphrase. At least to me.”

Amber breathed, ignoring the inner voice imploring her to stay quiet. “There are things in my past. Things I did fifteen, twenty years ago that weren’t great.”

“We all do things fifteen, twenty years ago that weren’t great.”

“What, you did things you regret when you were twelve?”

Vaughan smiled softly, patient as ever with her. “We have all done things we regret.”

“Not like this. Not that Ben would understand.”

“Sure about that? He’s a smart guy. Even if he is determined to follow in his godmother’s footsteps.”

Amber tried to sit. It wasn’t easy, but she managed. “I know he’s smart.”

“Then trust him.”

She was going to say ‘you don’t understand’ but caught herself. Vaughan put a hand on her knee, gently stopping it jittering up and down. It was coming. He had to ask. He would want to know. What she had done. What could make her so nervous. What could turn Ben against her.

Except he didn’t ask.

“How do you do that?”

“What?”

“Know when to press and when to just leave it.”

“There’s not a lot of point pressing you to tell me anything, Amber. You tell me what you want