He dropped his gaze.
Kelly was a dead woman.
Michael nodded silently to the Chair.
The betrayal was complete.
Chapter Twenty-six
Something wasn’t right. Finn had been calling all day to find out how the hearing had gone but Kelly hadn’t answered or texted him back. She never did that.
Finn called again from the balcony of the art gallery. It was only marginally quieter than inside, so he still had to stick a finger in his ear to hear Kelly’s voicemail again. He hung up, put his phone away and walked back inside.
It was opening night of an exhibition of one of Ashley’s friends. She was a modern artist but not the kind that makes you despondent about life – her paintings were vibrant and full of colour and energy. Against that backdrop, the party was bursting at the seams with conversation, laughter and gaiety. Finn found Ashley staring at one of the paintings, her head cocked to the left. She wore a simple but devastatingly alluring black dress that attracted the gaze of every man at the party, yet she stood among them oblivious, or perhaps contemptuous, of their attention.
‘I think this is my favourite,’ Ashley said. ‘It actually reminds me of you.’
Finn examined the painting. It was a riot of colour and shapes all emanating from a brilliant white circle at the centre of the canvas. He couldn’t see the connection.
Ashley held his hand. ‘So much complexity and chaos all around. Uncertainty and disorder but all in full colour with an unassailable purity at its core.’ She turned to face him, her dark eyes warm and inviting. ‘I like you, Finley. I like the way I feel around you.’ She whispered into his ear: ‘I’d like to feel more of you all around me.’
Finn shuddered. Every primal instinct screamed at him to leave with Ashley now and let her invade his innermost soul. But his phone burned in his pocket, ablaze with the unanswered calls he had made and the potential catastrophes they represented.
Ashley stepped back and narrowed her eyes. ‘What is it?’
‘I’m really sorry, Ash, but I have to go.’
‘Why? What’s wrong?’
‘It’s Kelly.’
Ashley pursed her lips.
‘She went before the board this morning but she’s not returning my calls. I’m worried that it didn’t go well and she needs my help.’
‘Well, if Kelly needs your help, fuck the rest of us. You better get going.’
Finn’s muscled tensed. ‘Come on, Ash. You and I just spent the whole long weekend together.’
Ashley crossed her arms. ‘And the moment Kelly needs you, I’m left behind.’
It started to close in on him now, the fear, the panic, the uncertainty. ‘That’s not true. Kelly called me about the hearing yesterday and I still spent the day with you.’
‘Then do it again. Stay here with me. Kelly’s a big girl. She can take care of herself.’
Finn wanted to grasp his hair in his hands and rip it out. He wanted to scream. He wanted to collapse. Disappear. Anything but having to make this decision. The thought of hurting Ashley was a physical weight on his heart. But the thought of leaving Kelly when she needed him, especially after he didn’t go to her yesterday, was a death blow.
Ashley took hold of his arm. ‘Finn, what’s happening? You’re scaring me.’
‘Air,’ he gasped. ‘I need air.’
She gripped his elbow and steered him through the crowd.
The laughter was deafening, the colourful paintings grotesque, the atmosphere thick with rejection and disgust. Of him.
They burst onto the street outside the gallery and Finn collapsed on his haunches.
Ashley crouched beside him and placed her hand on his back. ‘Finn, what do you need?’ She spoke softly but urgently.
