Untitled Episode
Once they arrived back at the resort, Presley was taken into a reserved room where food and drinks were prepared for her and her family.
Algernon and Sloane were the last to arrive and Presley was dumbfounded by her best friend’s appearance. Bruised eyes, swollen lips and hair in disarray, her friend who was usually so well put together, was a mess.
Sloane raced to her and hugged her tight. “I missed you.”
“Did you because you look like you’ve been very well distracted.” Presley was only half–teasing.
“I think I love him,” Sloane whispered in her ear. “I’ve never felt like this before. He sees me, Presley. He sees my heart and we connect so deeply. I can’t help but feel all of this was some divine plan to bring me into his life or him into mine. All I know is it’s meant to be. I think I love him.”
Presley squeezed her friend in her arms, “then love him. It’s okay to love him. He’s a good man. He’s a nice man. If he makes you happy, then I’m happy.”
“Are you okay?” Sloane leaned back to look at her. “What are you wearing?” She tugged at the coveralls.
“Believe it or not, under this is pajamas. All I want is to eat, have a shower and sleep. I really want to sleep.”
“You don’t want to climb Kong first?”
“Honestly?” Presley looked her friend in the eyes, “no. I don’t. I mean, I want him to hold me, and I want him to be with me but I’m too tired to think of s*x. He hasn’t even kissed me properly yet and I’m too tired to be
upset about it.”
“He hasn’t kissed you?”
“Things were crazy, Sloane. We needed to capture Liborio and then there was a little girl on the boat who got cut and we raced here. Also, he really did some damage to Liborio’s face. His nose is broken, his jaw seemed dislocated and if he doesn’t have a concussion, I’d be amazed.”
“He beat him up.”
“Jumped on him with a steel door.” Presley saw Sloane’s surprise. “I think the door weighed like five hundred pounds. I don’t even know how Liborio was conscious to be truthful.”
“Sloane,” Algernon interrupted, “my darling, why don’t you come sit and let Presley get some food into her. According to the men on the ship, she hasn’t eaten anything but a couple of biscuits since she was taken. Come,” he held his hand out to Sloane and when she hesitated he smiled, “I will not let anything happen to your friend ever again. She is your sister. She is under my protection now and the protection of my friends. She is safe. Come. Sit and let her get some nourishment. She has an ape to satisfy later. She needs to eat.”
It was all sweet up until his last statement and then Presley grimaced as Sloane flitted to his side like a
trained pixie.
“Ew,” she looked at Halima who was hovering. “Did he just say I need to eat so I can have s*x?”
“I think he did. The man has no filter. They are a perfect match in that regard.”
“What is going on with you and Anderson,” she looked at the man talking seriously to Cruz who was getting a plate of food from a buffet for her, and she took a seat while Halima sat next to her.
III
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< Untitled Episode
“He wants me. I didn’t grow up with my mother telling me her entire life she’d never let me marry a loser to be strapped down with a man who we have seen leave a bar once with three women.”
“Does he know we saw him back then?”
“Nope. We were getting there as he was leaving. He didn’t see us, but we saw him. I’m not hopping on dirty
dick.”
“Fair.”
“What’s with you?” Halima asked curiously. “Did the freak touch you? Try to rape you?”
Leave it to Halima to be blunt.
“No, he didn’t. He told me his intention was to seduce me over the time I was pregnant with his child, either IVF or s*x, and then he knew once the baby came, I’d never want to leave it, so I’d stay with him.”
“He’s not wrong.” Halima shrugged as she reached for bread on the table, “he’s crazier than a barrel of monkeys,” she grinned, “see what I did there.” She nodded her head in Cruz’s direction.
“Yes.” Poor Cruz was never going to be living down the name.
“However, despite being insane, Liborio wasn’t wrong. You might not have fallen in love with him but there is no way on earth you wouldn’t have loved your child. You wouldn’t have been able to leave him or her behind.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“Is this why you’re being weird with Cruz?”
“I’m not being weird.”
“You are. He tried to hold your hand in the SUV and instead you put your head on my shoulder and held my hand. When he offered to get your food, you tried to tell him no and it was only when Sloane stopped you to talk did you stop arguing with him. He wants to take care of you and you’re acting like he’s the enemy.”
“It’s not true. I’m thrilled he’s with me and I’m happy to be back with him. I’m scared is all.”
“Of what?”
“Losing him. Losing me.” She admitted quietly. “He and I moved from zero to a hundred. It’s too fast and I know it, but I feel like her.” She let her eyes dart in the direction of where Sloane was seated on Algernon’s lap, curled in his arms like a kitten, while the man fed her tiny bits of food off his plate.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re all judging her. We’re all judging him. He’s not what we expected for her. She is definitely not herself with him, but then maybe this is who she really is, and she feels empowered to be herself with him. All I know is she’s feeling the weight of us judging her because I feel it too.”
“You think we’re judging you,”
“Yes. Everyone is. I didn’t realize it until Liborio kept throwing in my face how much Cruz abused me as a child and how quick I was to forgive him.” She saw Halima’s tiny shrug despite her friend trying to hide it.” See. That, right there. You think it’s too fast.”
“Fine. I do. Your father does. Your mother does. Sloane did until she drank the water here. Even Anderson can’t figure out why the two of you are rushing to get married when only a week ago you hated each other. It makes no sense to me. I get it. He’s been your crush since you were little, but he hurt you, Presley. Multiple
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44 Points >
times he hurt you and you just fell into his arms like he deserves it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t follow your heart Presley but maybe use some common sense. He’s pushing you fast and railroading you and you’re such a soft–hearted loving person. I don’t get it because I’m not like you. I’m analytical and rational and I look at things differently than you but on the outside looking in, you’re moving at the speed of light for a man who broke your heart too many times to count. The fact you’re second guessing,”
“Whoa,” she cut Halima off. “I’m not second–guessing. I’m scared. I didn’t trust him. All of this is my fault because I didn’t trust him to figure it out. I’m holding back because I know he has the right to be upset with
me and I’m scared he’ll leave me.”
“What?”
“This is all my fault. He begged me not to agree to the demands Liborio made and I did because i didn’t trust Cruz to find a way. All of these people, everyone, was in harms way because I went along with the plots of a madman instead of trusting the man I love to figure it out.”
“Is that what you think?” Halima asked seriously. “Presley, this was not your fault. If anyone is to blame it’s Liborio Bartoli. He has been psychotically plotting all of this for years.”
“But I went along with it. I said I’d do it. Cruz and I were going to get married, and I didn’t trust him. This is all my fault.” A hitch in her voice betrayed how close to tears she was.”
“Hey,” she felt Cruz’s hand on her shoulder, unaware he’d come up behind her. He set her plate of food down and turned her in the seat. “Look at me, Ladybird. Look at me.”
She blinked at him through watery eyes.
“I love you.” He touched her cheek. “I have loved you a long time. You didn’t do anything wrong. If anyone messed up on how this played out, on how Liborio was able to convince you, it was me. I messed up. I’m a hothead, baby. I come on strong and fast and I say and do s**t I probably wouldn’t if I stopped and thought about the crap spewing from my lips. I didn’t instill the belief in you that I could manage this. I didn’t make you feel you could trust me to fix this. In hindsight, if I’d stopped, thought, considered things, without blowing up, we could have produced a plan of our own. You agreed to do what he said because I didn’t make you believe I could fix it. Hell, even your father thought it couldn’t be fixed because I wavered. I have money. I have power. I have connections. I’m not my father’s son for no reason, sweetheart. I didn’t make you feel safe and as a result you felt the need to keep me safe. This is on me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is. I will do better. Today Belkin told me I’d be a shitty bratva leader because I can’t make rational decisions when I’m stressed, and do you know what? He’s wrong. I can. I do it every day in the boardroom. I can deal with billion dollar deals without blinking an eye. I’ve done it multiple times playing rugby. A high stakes game where there is everything on the line, well, I was team captain for a reason. I can think on my feet. The problem is, where you are concerned, I lose reason and it’s not your fault. It’s mine. Do you know,” he touched her cheek, “one of the guys I play rugby in my fun league with has triad connections? He called me this morning to offer his help because through Anderson it got back to him. He asked me why I wasn’t his first thought when Bartoli came at us. Another one of my business associates, a man I consider a friend in India, he’s a ruthless son of a b***h and he sent me a text this afternoon to tell me if I needed help, to let him know and expressed his displeasure I collaborated with Russians instead of him. I have connections but in the moment I was panicking and not using my brain. Now instead of owing favors to friends, I owe Algernon and Belkin. I’m in debt to the f*****g Russians, babe.” He gave a laugh as he wiped her tears. “There was so
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< Untitled Episode
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much I could have done to stop this, and I didn’t make you trust me. I was so scared of losing you, I wasn’t thinking clearly and in letting my terror overtake my brain, I forgot to think like the rational businessman l am. I won’t ever make this mistake again. I’ve already started your protection detail. I have a plan in place for you and for our future family. Nobody is taking you from me again. Okay?”
She twisted her lips, “you have friends who are part of a Chinese Triad?”
“This is your question?” he laughed at her as she pouted. “Ladybird, I love you. I don’t want you thinking you’re at fault here. None of this is your fault. All of the fault lies on the shoulders of a man who wanted to possess another human being in a sick obsession.” He kissed her forehead. “Now, eat some food and then we’ll get you to bed so you can get the sleep you’ve been missing out on while you played hide and seek with a crazy man.”
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