TENDER DECEIT (Mystery Romance): The TENDER Series ~ Book 1 Page 6

  “I… I can’t! I can’t! Oh! I’m going to be sick—” Sarah doubled over, clutching her stomach.

  Miss Ong looked uncertainly at the cable car with Leah and Toran in it, which had already made the U-turn around the carousel and was now gliding slowly towards the exit gap. She looked back at the distressed girl. “Sarah, do you have a fear of heights? Why didn’t you say? It’s really very safe, dear. Look, your friends…” She looked desperately back at Leah and Toran again, but even as she watched, the automatic cabin doors were beginning to slide shut. “Oh, wait—!”

  Too late. The cabin doors shut with a soft hiss and Leah found herself alone with Toran as the cable car began its journey to Sentosa.

  CHAPTER 8

  Leah pressed her face to the window and stared out of the cable car, even though she hardly saw the landscape spread out below her. All her senses were focused on the boy sitting in the car, just a few feet away from her.

  “I guess you’re not afraid of heights.” His voice had changed since the summer—it had deepened, although it still held that faint burr of a Scottish accent. Leah had heard the other girls in class giggling and talking about Toran and his “delicious accent”.

  She shook her head and sneaked a quick look at him. He was sitting in the other corner of the cabin, his green eyes guarded as they watched her.

  “Are you afraid of me?”

  “You?” Her eyes widened. “No! Why would you think that?”

  “You’ve hardly spoken to me since the start of term. Half the time, you won’t even look at me. Are you mad at me, Leah?”

  “No.” She looked away, blushing furiously.

  “I thought we were friends,” he said.

  “W-we are,” Leah stammered. “I mean…” She pressed her lips together and looked down at her hands, twisting in her lap. How could she explain her newfound awareness of him? The crippling shyness which seemed to grip her now every time he looked at her? She searched desperately for a way to change the subject, to move on to a less personal topic. “Um… how long is the journey?”

  “About fifteen minutes.” Toran looked out of the window. They were nearing the harbour now and, beyond, they could see the island of Sentosa sitting in the blue waters of the Singapore Strait.

  “You hardly need me. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed all the girls who want to be ‘friends’ with you.” The words were out before Leah realised she had spoken them and she flushed, horrified at what they revealed. She wasn’t jealous, was she?

  Toran looked at her silently for a moment, then he moved and came over to sit beside her.

  Leah stiffened and said hurriedly, “I… I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”

  He smiled, his eyes twinkling. “I’m glad you did.”

  Leah looked at him, then gave him a hesitant smile in return. “The other girls are going to be really jealous, you know. They all wanted the chance to ride alone in a cable car with a boy.”

  Toran raised an eyebrow. “Any boy?”

  “No, well…” Leah looked away, flustered. “I’m sure they’d all kill for the chance to ride alone with you.”

  “What about you?”

  “What do you mean?” Leah looked back at him.

  His eyes were very green. “Do you wish you were with somebody else?”

  Leah blushed. “No.” She hesitated. “Do you?”

  “No.” It was such a simple word, but it made Leah’s whole heart fill with happiness. Especially when he added softly, “I was hoping it would be you.”

  She thought back to the station on Mount Faber. Had he loitered at the back of the line on purpose to try and get into the same cable car with her? Again, her heart filled with something that fizzed and bubbled, like a can of Coke that had been shaken and was ready to burst.

  She laughed a little. “I didn’t really think I was doing the right things.”

  He smiled. “You mean, you don’t fix your hair and you don’t put all that stuff on your face, like the other girls?”

  “I’m not very good with make-up,” she confessed. “Julia’s been trying to teach me, but I haven’t really got the hang of it yet.”

  “I like you like this,” he murmured, reaching up with one hand. Leah held her breath as she felt his fingers brush her temple, gently pushing back a strand of her hair. He was so close now, she could see the way his lashes lay against his cheek and the faint roughness along his jaw.

  His hand dropped and she felt a stab of disappointment. Then her heart turned over as she felt his warm hand envelope hers.

  “By the way, happy birthday.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “How did you know—?”

  “It was yesterday, wasn’t it?” He smiled. “I remember the date. Last year in class, when we were doing that chapter on surveys, you were one of the people the teacher picked to give your birth date for the example.”

  “You remembered from that?” Leah was touched and flattered.

  “I remember everything about you.”

  Leah’s heart hammered in her chest. She felt Toran shift his weight and lean imperceptibly closer. His eyes, she realised, weren’t just green—they were sea-jade and hazel, gold and teal, olive and emerald—and a million shades in between. She felt him lace his fingers through hers and pull her closer.

  “Leah…”

  A sudden creaking sound made them both jump. They looked up to see that the cable car was gliding into the station on Sentosa Island. Already, the rest of the class were milling around the platform next to the carousel and several of the students were peering at them through the cabin window. There was raucous laughter and grinning and pointing.

  Leah and Toran sprang apart, but it was too late. When the doors opened and they alighted, they were greeted by a cacophony of wolf whistles, laughter, and kissing noises while a grim-faced teacher eyed them suspiciously and asked why they were riding alone. Blushing, Leah explained what had happened to Sarah and, after a moment, the teacher waved them apart to join their respective groups.

  Leah found herself surrounded by the other girls in class, including Julia, her eyes wide with envy, all demanding details of the ride. She glanced over at Toran. He was being given a good-natured teasing by the boys as well. All except for Eric Hu and his gang, who as usual stood apart. However, there was something in the way Eric looked from Toran to her and back again—with a sly smile—that made her nervous.

  Leah found out why the next day when she was called into the principal’s office. She found Toran there as well—and their respective parents. Her father had never seemed so forbidding as he did that day, sitting there, his cold eyes assessing Toran.

  The principal regarded Leah sternly. “I have had reports that the two of you were guilty of acts of fornication on your field trip yesterday. You know such behaviour is against the school rules and is grounds for expulsion.”

  “What?” Leah stared at the principal disbelievingly. “Who said that?”

  “One of your classmates, Eric Hu, says the two of you tricked your way into getting a cable car alone and were kissing and engaging in other sexual acts.”

  “That’s not true!” Leah said hotly. “Eric is lying! We never… I didn’t…”

  “Are you saying that you were not alone in a cable car with Mr James?”

  “No…” Leah’s gaze slid to her father’s stony face, then jerked away. “I mean, yes, we were alone in the car, but that wasn’t our fault. Miss Ong had to stay behind with Sarah because she suddenly felt sick and—”

  “Why didn’t you and Mr James jump out when you saw that they were delayed?”

  “I… I… well, I…” Leah faltered. She had no answer to that. Everything had happened so fast, and besides, she had to admit that a tiny part of her had hoped that the doors would close and she and Toran would be alone together.

  “You know such behaviour is unacceptable at the school. We pride ourselves on a pure, uncorrupted environment and our students are expected to follow c
haste standards of behaviour. I regret to say this, but any student caught breaking these rules can be expelled.”

  The room filled with loud voices as Toran’s parents and Leah’s father sprang up, arguing and protesting. Leah stood trembling, afraid to look at Toran. Then she heard Toran’s quiet voice cut through the din.

  “It was my fault.”

  Everyone stopped talking and looked at him. Toran straightened his shoulders. “Leah didn’t break any rules. I was the one—I got her into the cable car alone and I… I forced myself on her.”

  Leah gasped. “No! Toran, what are you saying?”

  “It’s true.” He avoided her eyes and turned to the principal. “If you speak to Eric, I’m sure he’ll confirm my story. I wanted to—uh—I manipulated it so that we would be in the last cable car together. Leah tried to get out when she saw Miss Ong was delayed, but I grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let her. She was forced to ride alone with me. Then I saw my chance and I tried to kiss her and do… other stuff. She didn’t want to, though. It was just me.”

  He’s protecting me! Leah thought wildly, staring at the boy standing next to her. He’s going to take all the blame so that I don’t get expelled! The thought of Toran leaving school filled her with despair. She cried out, violently contradicting him, but she had never seen such a force of will in Toran’s eyes. No matter how she protested, he stuck unwaveringly to his story.

  In the end, the principal accepted his version of events, but in view of Toran’s past exemplary record, he changed the punishment to a suspension. They were dismissed and Leah was chilled by the way her father eyed Toran and his parents as they walked away. She returned to school the following Monday to find that Toran had been suspended for a week and the penalty points put onto his grades meant that his ranking had plummeted. Leah saw Eric smirking as he looked at the rankings table and she could hardly contain the ball of white, hot anger in her chest.

  What worried her more, though, was the way Toran avoided her when he returned. Something had changed. She tried to catch his eye, to find a chance to talk to him, but he kept his distance. Weeks passed, then months, and the chill between them turned to frost. Leah thought of the things he had said to her in the cable car and she couldn’t believe how everything could have changed so suddenly.

  But as their year in Seventh Grade drew to a close, Leah held on to a slim hope. There were times when she had looked up suddenly to find Toran’s eyes on her from across the classroom. He had immediately looked away, but she knew she hadn’t been mistaken. And when she returned from the summer holidays to find that Toran was in her new class in Eighth Grade, her heart lifted. She was determined they would start again, have another chance…

  ***

  Leah forced her mind back up to the present, pushing the memories away with an effort. She wasn’t some naïve, starry-eyed, thirteen-year-old girl anymore, she told herself sharply, and—she glanced at the man beside her—this wasn’t some boy she had shared secret glances with at school. Toran James was something much more dangerous now. To your safety or your heart? a voice inside her taunted, but Leah ignored it.

  She took a deep breath and followed Toran towards the carousel of revolving cable cars, where people were climbing on board. This must be the midway station between Mount Faber and Sentosa Island, she remembered. She looked at Toran, wondering whether they were going to ride upwards towards Mount Faber or continue out across the harbour towards Sentosa. He didn’t say anything, but held his hand out to help her aboard.

  Leah put her hand into his and her heart gave a little kick as she remembered another life, another time, when she had felt his warm hand envelop hers. But she determinedly kept her mind blank as she settled into her seat and watched the exit gap loom towards them. And then the ground dropped away with a dizzying swoop as the cable car glided out of HarbourFront Tower Two and started its journey.

  They were heading up towards Mount Faber. Leah waited for Toran to speak, determined to leave the ball in his court now, but he sat silent beside her. A quick peek at his profile found him staring broodingly out the cabin window. He had jammed the baseball cap low on his head again and the shades hid his eyes. Against her will, the memory of their last cable car ride together flashed in her mind and Leah couldn’t help making a bitter comparison between Toran’s tenderness then and his remoteness now.

  It’s a good reminder of how different things are now, she told herself firmly. She mustn’t let some nostalgic memories lull her into a false sense of security with this man. Toran James was now a stranger.

  She was bracing herself for the arrival into Mount Faber station and the flood of memories to engulf her, but Leah was pleasantly surprised to find that the station had been completely renovated, with hardly anything remaining of the old building to remind her of that school visit. Following Toran silently, she found herself back in another cable car ten minutes later, ready for the outbound trip back down to HarbourFront and then on to Sentosa Island. This time, however, a table covered with a white linen cloth, a flickering candle, and gleaming silver cutlery was placed in the middle of the cabin between them.

  “They do meals on the cable cars now?” Leah said incredulously.

  “Trust the Singaporeans to always find a way to involve food,” said Toran with a chuckle. It was the first time he had smiled all evening and it changed his face completely, showing Leah a glimmer of the boy she used to know. “Some clever marketing person came up with the concept. Three-course meal up in the air. It was part of the upgrade a few years ago.”

  “Yes, I noticed the cabins had changed.” She looked around the gleaming black and chrome cubicle, covered by a skin of tinted glass. “And I noticed the station’s been renovated too. All those fancy restaurants and arty décor and chandeliers. Very swanky.”

  He shrugged, the smile leaving his face now. “This is really for the tourists. A bit gimmicky. But it suits my purpose—lets us talk in private.”

  Leah realised that he was right as they glided out of the station again. Aside from the few seagulls wheeling in the sky, they were alone, suspended 200 feet up in the air. The lights of Singapore harbour and the city spread out below them, like a jeweller’s window of sparkling gems, with the roads criss-crossing like a glittering tangle of gold chains. In the distance, the setting sun lit the underside of the clouds with a vivid pink glow, while a deep indigo stain spread slowly across the sky.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said, looking out through the glass walls of the cabin. “The view is even more stunning at night.”

  “Your food is getting cold,” he said.

  Leah looked down, surprised to see that during the time it had taken for their car to revolve around the carousel back at the station on Mount Faber, plates of food had been placed before them, as well as a flute of champagne each. She didn’t think that she would be able to eat with the tension of past memories and present unease humming around her, but a mouth-watering aroma wafted up from the plate and she felt her stomach respond. It was a course of honey soy-glazed, seared scallops on crispy wonton skins, accompanied by iced asparagus. She speared a scallop with her fork and popped it into her mouth. The tender flesh melted like butter with a burst of flavour on her tongue.

  “It’s delicious,” she said, smiling shyly at him.

  Toran didn’t respond. He had taken his shades and the cap off at last, the latter leaving his hair slightly ruffled. Leah resisted a sudden urge to reach up and brush the dark strands back from his forehead. He was eating thoughtfully, his eyes on his plate. She had the feeling that he was preparing what he was going to say to her. Finally he raised those brilliant green eyes to hers and Leah felt her heart give a little tug again.

  “I’m sorry if I scared you just now.” He hesitated. “I was hoping to have the chance to explain everything to you first, but… well, things got taken out of my hands.”

  “Explain what?” asked Leah.

  He leaned back. “Have you heard of Bentley Warne?”
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br />   The name rang a faint bell. “Bentley Warne?” Leah furrowed her brow, remembering the information from the newsreel. “The… Australian property billionaire? Wasn’t he the guy you wrote some articles about last year?”

  In the dark of the cabin, she saw Toran’s teeth flash in a wolfish grin. “Yes, I wrote about old Bentley. It was the work of months of careful research and networking with anonymous sources and witnesses. I was writing a column for the Oriental Tribune at the time and I’d already published a series of articles asking questions about Warne’s conduct. But last year, it was going to be a full feature that would have been the scoop of my career. Bentley Warne—one of Singapore’s wealthiest men and pillars of society—found to be guilty of corruption, extortion, bribery…”

  “But?” Leah said.

  Toran’s eyes hardened. “But my editor suddenly got cold feet, my witnesses mysteriously disappeared, and the next thing I knew, Warne was threatening to sue me for libel.” He leaned back and gazed out of the cabin window. “I was fired from the newspaper, of course. No references, no appeal, constant public harassment; even my landlord suddenly decided that he was not renewing my lease. And I was facing possible imprisonment for criminal defamation. Bentley Warne is the master of the cover-up and he has friends in high places.”

  “You went to jail?” said Leah, horrified.

  “No. I have friends in high places too.” He grinned. “And low places.”

  “So what happened?”

  “I let things cool off. Lay low for a while. Moved to a new apartment. Did some freelance work for publications in other countries, wrote for some websites—”

  “But you didn’t forget about it.” It was a statement more than a question.

  He inclined his head. “I knew I was right about Warne. But the man is too powerful, too well connected. I had to find some foolproof way to get him that he couldn’t wriggle out of. Then, last week, a… a contact came to me with information. Something that could deliver Bentley Warne straight into my hands.” He leaned forwards, his green eyes intent. “There had been another cover-up. Only this time, what Warne was trying to cover up was murder.”