All A Prank
Presley followed Estrella up the stairs and was surprised to find she really was on a ship. It wasn’t a yacht or a fancy rich person’s boat but an actual ship.
“What kind of boat is this?”
“Fishing trawler,” Estrella shrugged, “a big one.”
She looked around the deck and noted a lot of men working and she made a face. “Why am I dressed up for
dinner?”
“You’re going to the captain’s quarters. Everyone else will eat in the main dining hall.” Estrella’s features took on a smug countenance, “you should wave.”
“To whom?” Presley frowned as she looked in the direction Estrella was staring. “s**t. Is that Odin?” she wanted to immediately run over to the man who was tied up to a post on the deck, but Estrella pulled her arm. “What on earth is he tied up for?”
“As an example of what happens when you cross the boss.” Estrella shrugged.
She shot a worried glance at Odin who didn’t even appear to be conscious. “He’s going to burn in the sun.”
“Let him. I hope he catches fire. He’s not a nice man.”
The irony of the statement from Estrella who appeared to hero worship Liborio Bartoli was not lost on Presley. Presley couldn’t help but immediately begin thinking of ways to help her brother. She knew she was a hundred kinds of fool for wanting to help him and she told herself it was because Marsha would be devastated if Odin died, and she did love Marsha like an auntie. As angry as she was at Odin, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. She’d been conditioned to do so, after all, from years of him telling her his miserable existence was her fault. Deep down, years of therapy and rationality told her it the silly thing in her chest which made her who she was, felt badly for him.
wasn’t but her heart,
་ ་ ་ ད ཀ ས ་ མ ་ ་ ་ ་ ་ ་
Tearing her gaze from her brother’s form she followed Estrella down another set of stairs on the other side of the ship and waited while the woman knocked once on the door.
A man in a white suit opened the door and Presley was ushered into the room. She looked around in surprise. Presley was surprised by the uniform on the man. Was this the captain? She studied him curiously as he brushed past her angrily and then ordered Estrella to follow him out.
“Wow. This room is so much nicer than mine.” She muttered under her breath as she looked at the large space, which was big enough to house a double bed, a chest of drawers, a sofa, television and even a small table which was currently set for two
“It’s what happens when you’re the boss,” Liborio said coming out of the ensuite bathroom and locking his cufflinks into place. “You get the better room. Sit.”
She wanted to argue but decided it wasn’t worth the effort and plunked down in the seat he motioned her to
take.
“You look nice in your dress. Smell better too.”
“Thanks.” She kept her face neutral.
All A Prank-
“Did you pass your brother on the way down?”
“You knew I would.”
He will never disrespect you again.”
“You seem to be quite concerned over who respects and disrespects me. You should know, for ninety percent of my life, I don’t give him a second thought. What he does doesn’t impact me for the most part.” “Turning a blind eye to his abuse is not good, Presley. Surely you want him to suffer for the pain he’s put you through.”
“Suffer?” she looked at him in disbelief. “It is not in me to make another human being suffer. Good grief, Cruz and I talked today about the fact as a kid, I held a mass funeral for fireflies I accidentally murdered in a glass jar. The only way I ever exact vengeance against anyone is by killing them off in a story. I don’t need to actually kill something or someone to feel better about myself.”
“I believe if you were given the opportunity to kill someone, you could do it.”
“I believe every person on the planet could do it if they needed to. If it was a fight to the death the inherent desire to remain alive would allow someone to battle to the death but I also,” she held his gaze angrily, strongly believe the part of us which keeps us human, keeps us from arbitrarily going around willy–nilly murdering people for no good reason.”
“That almost sounded insulting.”
“I’m not the one torturing people for fun and games.”
“You think I do these things for the fun of it?”
“I think you’re warped. I couldn’t have written a better villain in my story if I’d tried.”
“I am not the villain.”
“You aren’t my hero.”
He gave a loud sigh as he draped a napkin over his lap. “We need to go over the rules for the next several months.”
“Go ahead.” She sat sullenly staring out the tiny porthole window next to the table and noting nothing but the sea in any direction she looked. Even if she wanted to try to swim to shore, she didn’t see land in any direction. How long was she unconscious she was so far from any visible land? Her thoughts flipped back to Cruz laying on the floor of the shop and her heart ached. She prayed he was okay.
“There will be no pranks in which you try to defile yourself.”
Her thoughts tuned into what Liborio was saying. “Fine.”
“There will be no attempts to run away or cause me to waste resources to hunt you down. I’ve instructed the ship’s captain to ensure we are not at any point within swimming distance of any shoreline.”
“Fine.”
“You will comply with the physical requested of the physicians.”
“Yes sir.” She muttered not even looking back at him.
He gave an exasperated click of his tongue. “I will not tolerate your insolence.”
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“Yes your majesty.”
“Why are you being like this?”
“Am I supposed to be grateful?”
“Presley, I stopped you from making the biggest mistake of your life in marrying the oversized bozo.” The words spewed from his lips and were punctuated with his closed fist smacking the top of the table. “He would have destroyed you with his selfish manipulations.”
Her head slowly turned so she could meet his gaze with incredulity. “Are you kidding me right now?”
“I am serious.”
“You think, you genuinely believe, this,” she waved around the room, “is a f*****g rescue?”
“Yes. If I have to be the villain in the story to keep you safe from Cruz Hawley and Odin Brookmore and the rest of their insane entourage then I will do so. I have very wide shoulders, Presley. I did this to protect you.” “No!” she argued in disbelief. “You did this because you want to control me. You’re more manipulative than
either of them ever was.”
“You don’t see it yet, but you will.”
“I love him. I hate you. I want to marry him. I don’t want to have your babies. You are forcing me to do this. Do you understand this at all? You are the most selfish, horrible human being I have ever met. You think because you have money and power people should simply bow down to your demands and wants. Let me make myself really clear, Liborio, I’m not grateful to you. I don’t look at this as some wondrous opportunity. I hate you. I hate how you’re making me do this against my will and before you start telling me I’m making a choice and it’s not against my will, making me choose between doing this and watching my family die, is very much forcing me. Whether you have me artificially inseminated or you rape me in your bed, the result is the same. It is forced.” She picked up the fork and held it over her plate, “now, can I eat so I can go back to my room and get the f**k away from you? The least amount of actual involvement I have with you is preferred.”
“You really don’t know the truth, do you?”
“What?”
“Cruz is only angry at Odin right now because Odin was telling the truth, and he didn’t want you to find out.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s a game, Presley. It’s a prank. From the minute the three of them descended at your family brunch weeks ago, the plan has been the same. Make you fall in love with Cruz and then crush you. It has all been a game. The only reason Cruz Hawley was at brunch was to try to seduce you in a sick and twisted game. Things went off the rails when you outsmarted him with the book cover but everything, every single thing he is doing is revenge for embarrassing him at dinner with the woman he was hoping to date into a contract.”
with
She swallowed the lump in her throat, “it might have been, but I believe Cruz loves me. I believe the things he’s said to me. What started out as a way to get back at me, as a means to make me pay for mes his business, turned into something real, important, and valuable.”
“Except you forget I’ve been listening in to Odin’s conversations for months. The minute you threw wine on him in a public setting, Cruz made you public enemy number one and he went gunning for you.”
“I know. He told me he was coming for me. He was blunt. He was at brunch and told me he was going to
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All A Prank
make me pay.”
“No, he didn’t. He told you how you were going to repay him by going on dates. He didn’t tell you he wanted vengeance. He didn’t tell you how he straight out told your brother and Anderson how he was going to use the crush he knew you had on him as a kid, make you fall in love with him and then when you actually think he is going to marry you and give you the happily ever after you crave, he’s going to rip it all away. He’s more like his father than you give him credit for.”
“I don’t believe you.” She refused to even consider what Liborio was saying as factual.
“Because you’re stuck in the romanticized version of the world.”
“Fine. Say all of this is your way of rescuing me from Cruz. Why do I need to have your children?”
I
He gave a loud sigh and then rubbed his forehead, “because I need to do something permanent to make you
stay.”
“What?”
“As you said earlier, you are all,” he made a face at her, “soft inside. You won’t leave your children behind. One you might be able to. You might be able to convince yourself to leave one, but you won’t leave two. If you have my children, I can keep you safe from the people who want to truly harm you.”
“Cruz isn’t intending to harm me. He loves me.”
“He doesn’t love you, Presley. He wants to hurt you. Look at what he did to Ramona. She was ill, no doubt about it, but she was thriving in her life before she met him. She was doing well. She finished school. She enjoyed a career and a life and friends. He destroyed her. He turned her into a raving lunatic with his treatment of her. He won’t be satisfied until you are the same as Ramona. He wants you to be so destroyed your parents have to make every decision for you. If you don’t believe me, I have the audio recording of him the morning after you ruined his date specifically saying to Odin,” he held her gaze unwaveringly, “I’m going to make your little b***h of a sister wish she’d never come for me and taken things this far. She wants to ruin my reputation well then, I’m going to destroy her life.”
“He was angry,” she argued. “People say things when they’re angry.”
“And when they systemically plot, plan and execute their nefarious schemes, what is this called?” He tapped his chin, “oh, right, it’s called revenge. He’s with you for revenge.”
“Why do you care so much?”
“I told you before. I had a sister. You remind me of her in ways. I wish, back then, there had been someone, anyone, able to help us, to step in and protect us from the monsters who purported to love us. Your family doesn’t love you, Presley. A family who lets you get abused for the entirety of your life isn’t ever going to protect you. Even your own father told you as much when he said you should simply do what I want you to do at breakfast. He is out for himself, not you. In this family,” he motioned to the people walking around overhead, “I do everything it takes to keep my family safe even if it hurts your feelings.”
“You’re manipulating me.”
“I’m telling you the truth. Cruz Hawley doesn’t love you, Presley. This was all his revenge. He’s not going to stop until you are at his ankles begging him. I’m going to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life.”
