She laughed at him. ‘Don’t be afraid. Are you scared to look down?’
‘Terrified,’ he said, holding her hand tightly.
They linked arms and, from a safe distance, looked over the edge to the swirling water thrashing the rocks below.
‘Would you jump if I asked you to?’ she asked.
‘No, because it would mean I had to leave you.’
‘Would you jump if I was dead?’
He drew her close. ‘Don’t say things like that, even as a joke.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Justin saw them embracing like lovers and his face tightened with jealousy but he couldn’t look away. He called her name. Laura drew away from Max and listened.
‘It’s Justin,’ Max said, pointing, and they looked along the narrow pathway to where he stood.
‘We’re going to Tortola tonight. Are you coming?’
Max looked at Laura, who hesitated. ‘I can’t,’ she said, then smiled at Max. ‘You go. It’ll be fun.’
‘I want to be with you,’ Max said.
‘I can’t, I have to... see someone. It’s arranged.’
‘Is it Justin?’ asked Max. ‘You don’t want to come because of him?’
Justin was jumping the rocky surface, getting closer. ‘Yes, yes. We must keep our love secret. Trust me. I don’t want William to hear any rumours about us, not until I’ve told him face to face.’
Justin was beside him. He hooked his arm around Max. ‘You coming?’
‘Er, yes, why not?’
‘Run along, then. Go get your glad rags on. You’ve got about twenty minutes to get that fluff off your chin.’
Max looked at Laura, but she averted her eyes and he had no option but to leave them. He hated the way Justin had spoken to him, as if he was a twelve-year-old.
As soon as Max was out of earshot, Laura punched her brother. ‘You needn’t have done that,’ she said.
‘I did! Sneaking off to places you know I can’t film or record. I’d say you were doing it to make me jealous.’
‘Don’t be silly.’
‘I’m not being silly. We don’t have much time and we have an agenda to keep. Next minute William’s gonna be back, before we’ve done the dirty deed. Or deeds.’
‘I’m on schedule. Haven’t you seen the videos from this afternoon?’
‘Not yet.’
‘I’ve done the deed with Angela Matlock so I’m getting the job done. Are you?’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Justin, pulling Laura towards him. ‘It’s just this Max thing. I don’t want you distracted, and you are.’
‘I’m fond of Max and I don’t see what’s wrong with that. And with him it’s fun. It’s always horrible with everyone else. I notice you seem to enjoy teasing the Matlocks’ son.’
‘So you’ve fallen for him?’
‘I have not. He’s young, he’s naïve, and sometimes it’s nice to get screwed without a hidden agenda,’ she lied.
Justin lifted her hair away from her face and kissed her neck.
‘No, Justin, not here.’ She had never rejected him before.
‘I want you.’
She felt like weeping: lie was beginning to follow lie. ‘I want you too, but please not here. Someone might see.’
Justin nuzzled and kissed her cheek. ‘You’re right. It’s me who’s dumb. It’s just that seeing you screwing everyone else keeps turning me on.’
‘Never bothered you before.’ She was calming down now, more in control. ‘You get into such bad tempers, don’t you?’
‘Maybe because I know we’re about to reach the big climax, and I don’t want anything to distract us. We’re so close, Laura, so close. I just want everyone gone, off the island so we can be together. But we can’t until it’s done.’
He turned away from her, his eyes brimming with tears, and she could barely hear what he was saying. ‘I get scared. I know I couldn’t do it on my own, not without you. I’ve always needed you.’
She linked her arm with his. She could never resist him when he was like this, vulnerable. ‘If anyone’s around I’m not going inside your room with you.’
‘There’s no one,’ he whispered, but he knew there was. He knew the lovesick boy was watching them.
As they were heading for Justin’s bungalow, James looked out of his window. Although he didn’t spot Laura and Justin, he saw Max approaching, pushed open the shutters and shouted to him, ‘Hey, Max, you coming with us?’
Max whipped around, startled. He wanted to follow Laura and Justin. ‘Bit tired. Listen, I’ve got to go.’
Max tried to walk on, but James was still talking to him. ‘You were waterskiing with Justin again today, weren’t you?’
‘Yes, I was. Listen, James, I really have to go.’
‘Where to?’
Max sighed with impatience. ‘For Christ’s sake, James, I’m gonna see my parents.’
James hesitated, then said, ‘Is he coming on to you?’
‘What?’ Max was confused.
‘You heard. Is Justin hitting on you?’ James’s face was flushed.
‘You’re talking like an idiot, James. Why? Has he been coming on to you?’
James shouted, ‘You calling me a poof?’
‘Jesus Christ, James, what’s the matter with you?’
James leaped from his veranda and swung a punch at Max, who staggered and fell. Before he could get to his feet, James kicked him in the groin. ‘Stay away from him, you hear me? Just stay away from Justin.’ He went back into his own room and straight for the cocaine. He didn’t bother to chop a line, but stuck his nose over the vial and snorted till his eyes smarted and ran with tears.
Justin’s attentiveness to James had gone unnoticed by the others, although he had made sure he constantly brushed against the younger boy as he helped him up into the ski-boat from the water, or to put on his sub-aqua gear. At times, he casually laid an arm across James’s shoulders. James was quicker on the uptake than Justin had expected, an easier fish to bait than his father would be. The truth, of course, was that Justin was not at all interested in James.
Justin was sure that James was bisexual and had had more than a few experiences beyond schoolboys’ hot kisses. It would have been fun breaking Matlock’s son in to some sex games, but he doubted the boy would need much encouragement, which took all the enjoyment out of it for himself. What Justin had not contemplated, though, was that James would become obsessed with him, as Oliver Bellingham had. Perhaps he would die like him too.
Max wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve and took his time getting back on his feet. His balls felt like they were on fire. He rubbed his crotch then headed to his own room, grabbed some ice, wrapped it in a napkin and held it over his face. James was obviously as high as a kite.
‘That Justin is a prick,’ he muttered, then flopped back on to the bed. He decided he had to talk to Laura. He didn’t want to go to the nightclub.
James ran to Justin’s bungalow and kicked open the front door, shouting his head off. Hurriedly Laura drew the sheet across her bare breasts, but before Justin could get out of bed, the bedroom door burst open and James barged in. Laura flipped the sheet over her head; she didn’t need this, didn’t need anyone seeing her being intimate with Justin, let alone naked in bed beside him.
‘You lost something?’ Justin said casually, leaning back on the pillows and reaching for his cigarettes. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve run out of the four grams I gave you last night?’
James shifted his weight from one foot to the other then pointed to the bed. ‘I know who’s there. I know you’ve been playing us off against each other and I don’t like it. You’re a piece of shit.’ His face was red with fury.
Justin tossed his lighter on to the bedside table. ‘Get out of here, James, before I lose my temper.’