Betrayal Bend Read online

  BETRAYAL BEND

  A LIARS ISLAND SUSPENSE

  ANDREA M. LONG

  Contents

  Liars Island

  MAP OF LIARS ISLAND

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Underneath

  About Andrea

  Andrea's Other Books

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception of the use of small quotations in book reviews.

  Copyright ©2020 By Andrea M. Long

  Cover by Cormar Covers

  Formatting by Tammy Clarke

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Andrea M. Long holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  Liars Island

  Sometimes a good life is not enough…

  Shay Adler and her husband, Cam, run the Brew Love Coffee Company on Liars Island. A gorgeous couple with sunshine smiles and a perfect marriage.

  But behind Shay’s smile lies unrest. She loves the husband she met in high school, but sometimes she feels trapped. Trapped by the island, trapped by her marriage and providing stability to her younger sister, and trapped by the whole ‘good’ ethos that underpins their company.

  The tourists provide a distraction. They come, stay a short while, and leave again, and that leaves Shay with opportunities. Ones where she doesn’t have to be such a good girl.

  But on Liars Island you can trust no one... so Shay’s betrayal might not stay secret for long.

  MAP OF LIARS ISLAND

  One

  Shay

  “You two are just adorable,” Lucinda declared, her head tipped to one side. She waved her re-usable coffee cup in front of us. “Well, I’d better hurry on to Elite, this figure won’t keep itself.” She lowered her voice and leaned in closer, “but the coffee there is gross, nothing like the nectar you guys serve.”

  “Thanks, Lucinda, enjoy your day,” I gave her a smile and a small wave.

  “These Liars Island women are something else,” my husband Cameron said as he removed the arm he had around my waist. “She goes to the gym and seems blindingly oblivious to the fact she just purchased a blueberry muffin. I mean, she bought that, right? I’m not hallucinating.”

  “Cam, if I had a dollar for every Liars woman, or man for that matter, who came in here and glossed over parts of their life like they never happened, I’d be drenched in diamonds.”

  He grinned, “Would that just be the diamonds and nothing else?”

  I bumped him with my hip. “Get round the back and get some more of those muffins made. Seems a lot of the Liars women like your goods, Cameron Adler.”

  He shook his ass as he walked away. I admired it before turning back to the counter to await our next customer.

  Cam and I owned Brew Love Coffee Company. He’d purchased it from his trust fund money a year ago, and we’d never looked back. We adored life here on the island where we lived in a two-story house with my younger sister, Becca. The island was heaven and our coffee shop, our own little slice. Serving the other residents of the island and the visitors who came in, offering them decadence while making them feel they were benefitting planet earth.

  My husband was all about the organic and clean living. So islanders would come drink our coffee and eat our baked goods and feel they were doing their part for sustainability.

  It was laughable, really.

  I looked out over the counter while I had this rare, quiet moment, taking in the bright white walls, made all the starker by the light coming in from floor-to-ceiling windows. The tables were made of reclaimed wood: from long dining tables where large groups could gather, to more intimate circular tables for two in corners where large green houseplants like palms kept you a little more private. There were a couple of couches along the back wall, with coffee tables in front of them. Skandi style cushions and blankets decorated the couches. This was where the young moms of the island gathered after dropping their kids off at pre-school, or with the nanny.

  We didn’t play music here. Instead, we let the natural chatter of the island permeate the air, along with the aroma of coffee and the hint of sugar and spice.

  My life was perfect. Perfect husband, perfect home, perfect business. Even my teenage sister had posed me no real problems under my care.

  I realized I was gripping the counter so tightly my fingers had turned white.

  Because I was not perfect. Far from it.

  But just like everyone else on this island, I would pretend I was.

  When Cameron came back out armed with more muffins, I took my tray and cleaning products out to clear the tables. All organic of course. No polluting chemicals here. As I blended in with the furnishings, the customers carried on their conversations as if I didn’t exist. Sometimes I liked to pretend I blackmailed them, extorted money from them in exchange for keeping their secrets. I learned many things here in Brew Love where the secrets and lies percolated along with the coffee.

  Valerie Martinez walked through the door. The small Latina made up for in sass what she lacked in height. She strolled over to the counter, mouthing a ‘hello’ at me before giving Cam her order. Given we were right next door to the Liars Island Police Department, we kept the officers regularly caffeinated.

  The tables cleaned and tidied, I stacked the dishwasher in the kitchen and then came back out front. The ferry terminal would have just brought its morning visitors, and Brew Love was based on the main street. We’d soon be inundated with thirsty travelers stopping off and asking for directions or information about the island.

  A fire lit my belly as it did every time the ferry brought new visitors. Because it might just bring me a lover.

  Cameron and I had met at high school; had fallen in love by the lockers. He with his shaggy blond hair and surfer dude looks. Me with my long, blonde hair and bubbly nature. Cam said he fell in love with me at first sight, seeing my baby-blue eyes first, followed by my ‘great boobs’. He said my positive attitude sealed the deal for him. We married at eighteen and lived in a small apartment in Seattle for a few years. But once Cam came into his trust fund at twenty-one, we took the lease on a newly vacant building on Liars Island and Brew Love was born. In just eighteen months, we’d turned it into a successful business with a decent turnover.

  His trust fund had also meant we could move out of Seattle and into our beautiful home on Betrayal Bend. Coming from the life I had, I felt guilty that I wasn’t satisfied with my lot. But it was just… I was twenty-two and my life seemed mapped out. I was already a mother figure to Becca, despite her only being six years younger than me. Cam had us on year two now of a five-year-plan where we’d build up the business, employ more staff, and then I would be able to take time out to have our children. And I wanted that, I did. I loved my husband beyond words, desired to carry his babies, to give our children the stable background me and Becca had not enjoyed. But at the same time paradise felt like a prison. Would I become just another Liars Island mom? Forced to spend time with a group of women who told untruths about their lives more than they consulted cosmetic surgeons?

  “Here we go, Shay, saddle up ready to ride the love. The bre
w love,” Cam said, patting me on the butt. He said the same thing every day as people started to pass the coffee house and outside chatter blew in through the windows along with the island breeze. It was lame, but it was such a Cam thing to say and I loved it. He took nothing for granted, even though he’d always known his trust fund would be there and he’d never have to struggle in life. He was as laid back as a cat in sunshine and without knowing it, he was the calm to my storm. Because although I was mainly a sunshine girl, clouds came in at times and I needed Cam to help me chase them away.

  But sometimes even he wasn’t enough.

  My eyes looked over the customers as they headed in. Cam and I worked in harmony, with the finesse of a couple who were well practiced in moving around a busy counter and for whom personal space wasn’t an issue. If Cam needed to put his hands on my hips to move me to the side a little, I took comfort from those bear-like hands that also knew how to be gentle on my body in the bedroom. We served, we smiled, we answered the questions until the rush settled back to a steady, but intermittent stream of customers.

  I stuck my fingernails into my thigh, dug in and dragged. It wouldn’t mark my skin, but the small amount of pain might settle the itch I could feel beginning in my brain.

  I. Need. More.

  I didn’t want tender lovemaking from my committed husband. I wanted a relative stranger to bind my wrists and fuck me until I was sore. What had only ever been a fantasy was becoming an obsession within me. Vanilla was for our cupcakes and a coffee flavoring, not what I wanted in my bedroom all the time.

  But more wasn’t coming today.

  Today would just be another perfect day in the life of Shay Adler, resident of Liars Island.

  “Becca, you home?” I shouted from the hall.

  “Yeah, doing homework,” drifted back down the stairs.

  Cameron was off to Elite Crossfit to work off some more of his ever-present energy, whereas I had to head on straight home each evening to make sure Becca was okay.

  We had a housekeeper who arrived after we’d set off to work and who left before I came home. She was lovely, but I think we both preferred it that way. She’d left a meal all prepped for that evening, a hearty lasagna and a big bowl of salad. For a moment, as I stood in the vast kitchen, with its gleaming white cabinets and pristine gray marble countertops, I pictured myself hurling the large rectangular dish. The tomato sauce would splatter across the white units, the cheese topping dripping down and off like shot out brains. The perfection would no longer be so. It would be messy, and dirty, and much more me.

  But like a Stepford wife, I washed my hands, switched on the oven and placed the lasagna inside to reheat, before taking the salad from the fridge and taking it over to the already set dining table.

  Tonight, when everyone’s bellies had been satisfied, and a moment of peace prevailed, I would go put on my sneakers and my gym clothes and I’d hit the streets. I’d pound the sidewalk until the itch abated, until I was spent, exhausted, and my brain gave in for the night.

  Or so I’d thought.

  Two

  Shay

  The evening came, and with a kiss to my husband’s cheek, I closed the door behind me and ran down the sidewalk. I picked up the pace, welcoming the feeling of pushing myself as I left the residential area behind me and ran, passing all the school buildings and on until I reached White Lie Lake. I found water calming and so I lapped the lake, changing my gait as I reached the artificial beach and let running on the sand give my thighs a workout that burned.

  My run was starting to do its thing, to tire me. My mind fixed on my next steps and on pushing through mental and physical barriers. Back on firm ground, I settled my pace slower as I ran past the Lakeside cabin rentals. They looked so inviting. At times I imagined having one to myself, settling down inside with a hot chocolate and a thick woolen throw while gazing out over the lake. No one else to think about. Just for a few days. A break from routine.

  I stopped to admire the rustic cabins. I should look them up on Google and see what the interiors really looked like, whether they were the same as in my imagination. But then if they weren’t it would spoil my daydreams, so perhaps I’d not.

  The sweat had started to cool on my body. It was time to run back home. I’d retrace my steps and run on the beach again. I’d just reached the cabin on the corner when a man walked out of the rental. All I saw as I passed him was a tall frame, a blur of dark clothing, dark brown hair and a slight beard maybe. It was enough for my brain to register an interest, but not enough for me to get a decent appraising look without gawping. I carried on my run, raising a hand in his direction, a general friendly ‘hi’, before I left his view.

  All the way home I made up the rest of what he looked like in my imagination and imagined that beard chafing my skin in intimate places.

  “Pleasant run?” Cameron said, coming to greet me in the hallway as I stepped through the door.

  I nodded, “Yes. I’m a sweaty mess. Going to hit the shower. Everything okay here?”

  “Yeah, Becca said she was going up to her room to do homework. I passed her room half an hour ago, and it seems the homework set in class must be to talk to her best friend.”

  I laughed. “As long as her grades stay okay, I’m not worried.”

  “I know I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but she was talking about being in love with Jake Corbin.”

  “Oh, a high school crush. We must warn her. I don’t recommend those,” I teased.

  He grabbed me and pulled me toward him.

  “I’m sweaty,” I protested.

  “Then I may as well make you sweatier before you hit the shower. Though if you prefer, I can dirty you back up after?”

  He picked me up and walked me up the stairs to our bedroom. On the other side of the house from my sister’s, we could make love without worrying Becca was going to shout or make retching sounds. Still, it made me keep quieter than I’d like. Another restriction on my life. I yearned to be free.

  Cameron stripped out of his clothes, discarding them to the floor, and climbed into our bed. I followed suit, wrapping my naked torso around him, our legs tangling as we reveled in our closeness. God, I loved him. The man kept me grounded, had been there for me when life went dark. There weren’t many young men who’d say they were happy to take on a parental role to a teenager, but Cam had stepped up. Becca adored him. He was the older brother she’d never had, but he would morph into a father figure if it was required.

  I searched out his lips with my own, thanking him with my mouth.

  “I love you,” I whispered when our lips parted.

  Cameron’s hands came between my thighs, parting me, ready. I was on birth control, so there was no barrier between us as he pushed inside me. It was intimate, it was comfort, it was love. We both came undone and as my eyes closed while I remained wrapped in his arms, for once I forgot the shower. Instead, I stayed wrapped in the scents of Cameron and Shay, and let sleep keep me peaceful.

  When I woke, the place at the side of me in bed was already empty and I could hear the shower running. I’d had a great night’s sleep, and the thought of waking up with shower sex made my top lip quirk. I padded into the en suite and opened the shower stall door.

  “What are you doing?” Cam asked as the shower water rinsed the soap off his skin. He smelled of pine and cedarwood and brought me back to daydreams of rental cabins.

  “I thought I’d come to join you,” I said, followed by what I hoped was a lascivious looking wink.

  His head shook, “No can do, babe. Can’t be late for the Fresh Baron’s delivery.”

  He shook off the last of the soap from his hair and stepped out of the shower, kissing me as he passed, his mouth wet and warm. I stepped in and he closed the stall behind me.

  I didn’t stay in there long. Washing off yesterday and today’s rejection, I focused on the brand-new day and the glimmer of possibilities.

  “You want anything for school, Becca?” I checked with the
girl sitting on the end of her bed with her phone in her hand.

  Her attention stayed on her phone screen while she replied. “No, I’m good. Still have money on my lunch card.”

  “Want to go shopping this weekend and do lunch somewhere?”

  “Maybe. Depends what the others are doing.”

  “Okay, let me know.”

  She stared up at me. “Maybe we could do something Thursday night? You know… it’s the anniversary.”

  Fuck, I’d forgotten. Or maybe I’d pushed it to the bottom of my mind. It was one thing to acknowledge our mother’s birthday, but I’d never been happy acknowledging the day she’d died of an overdose. It just brought back life pre-Liars; sad and hard times I would rather forget. But I couldn’t, because my baby sister didn’t handle things the same way I did.

  “Yeah, lets. Why don’t you have a think about how you’d like to do that?”

  “Can it be just me and you? Nothing against Cam, but he tries to make me feel better and sometimes I want to be sad. Want to mourn still, you know?”

  “I get it. Of course, it can be just us two. Right, I’m off to the coffee house. Call me if you need anything. Love you.”

  “Love you too.” She smiled at me and I shut the door and then I started to open it again.

  “Make sure you lock the door and put the alarm on,” she parroted at me before I’d opened my mouth or fully opened the door.