Redemption

by Jennifer Bene

  “You guys slept so late!” Amanda said, sounding way too excited.

  “I’m sorry, I—”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Waving her hands, Amanda grinned. “We’re going into Nice today! Cécile said she can’t let you leave without going shopping down there, and I’m so glad because I wanted to make sure I went before we had to head back home too.”

  “That’s right,” Cécile added, smiling over her cup of tea. “The weather is lovely today as well, so we’ll get to spend some time by the beach. It really is beautiful.”

  “Yes!” Emilie cheered, running over to hug her mom and press a kiss to her cheek.

  Chuckling, Jean-Luc pointed at the dishes on the table. “You two better hurry and eat. Anaelle is upstairs changing, and I believe she threatened to drag you both out of bed so that you didn’t take up any more of her time.”

  Nodding, Lianna started adding a few things to her plate, but she didn’t have an appetite. Normally, this was when David would be standing over her shoulder, adding things for her to eat while he watched — but he wasn’t beside her, which was the problem.

  “Are you okay, sweetheart?” Cécile asked, her brows pulled together in concern.

  “I’m fine,” she answered, plastering on a smile. “I think I’m still half asleep! As soon as I drink some coffee, I’ll feel human again.”

  “All right.” The woman smiled at her, but Lianna could tell she didn’t believe her at all. This must be what that whole mom intuition thing looked like. Growing up, her friends used to say that their moms could always see through them no matter what, but Lianna had never experienced it.

  “You guys are killing me,” Amanda said with a groan. “Would you eat already so we can go? It’s almost ten o’clock already!”

  “Okay, okay!” Laughing a little, Lianna sat down and poured some coffee, focusing on that while she picked at the fruit and croissant.

  Anaelle saved her from having to eat in front of everyone when she came down the stairs about five minutes later, shouting that she was going to leave whether everyone was ready or not. Chuckling, Jean-Luc watched her over his coffee cup and tilted his head toward the door. “You can take the plate with you.”

  “Thanks.” She stood, adding more food to the plate that she didn’t plan on eating. “I just need to run upstairs real quick. I’ll be right back. I promise!”

  “You better hurry!” Amanda said as Lianna downed the last of her coffee and picked up the full plate, rushing upstairs to their room.

  Taking a deep breath outside the door, she tried to brace herself for whatever mood David might be in, but when she opened the door... the room was empty. Confused, she checked the bathroom just in case, but all the lights were off. Rolling her eyes, she left the plate on the bed for him and grabbed her purse. Once she checked that her phone was charged, she skimmed through her wallet to make sure she had everything she’d need for a day of shopping. Then headed back downstairs to spend a day with her family.

  “Finally!” Anaelle groaned, waving everyone toward the door where one of the guards held it open.

  Once they were all piled into the SUV, Amanda turned around from one of the captain’s chairs to look at her and Emilie in the backseat. “You know what the best part of going on a girls-only shopping trip with Cécile is?”

  “Is it the champagne?” Cécile asked from the front seat, lifting up two bottles to the cheers of everyone in the car. Lianna joined in, even though she didn’t exactly feel up to partying with them in Nice today. If she’d just been able to talk to David before she left, she would have felt a little better, even if it had just led to another argument. Having him avoid her completely was like a punch to the stomach. It left a hollow feeling behind, and it was hard to focus on anything else.

  “Here you go!” Anaelle said, passing back a plastic flute of champagne, followed quickly by another for Emilie. They all raised them, cheering to a great day, and Lianna tried to believe that it would be.

  Everyone was talking about what they wanted to do while in the city, and she just kept agreeing to it all. When a lull came in the conversation, she leaned forward and tapped Amanda on the shoulder. “Hey, did you see David at breakfast this morning?”

  “No, why? Is everything okay?” she asked, looking concerned, but Lianna smiled and waved it off.

  “Never mind, I was just curious when he got up this morning since I slept so late.” Looking out the window, she hoped Amanda would drop it, and she felt lucky when the conversation quickly switched back to stores the girls wanted to stop in.

  Her mind wasn’t on shopping, or champagne, or the Côte d’Azur, though. Instead, she couldn’t stop replaying their argument from the night before. Could he really think she was so shallow that she’d choose the Faure family because they had money? Did he think she gave a fuck about having some massive estate in Provence? Sure, it was a beautiful place, and she’d like to come back someday, but it wasn’t about the property or the furnishings or the large house. It was her family that she didn’t want to lose.

  Unfortunately, it seemed that her family was the thing that David couldn’t accept, no matter how hard he tried.

  He’d said he would always choose her, that he didn’t care about anything else as long as they were together... but the first time that promise got put to the test, he’d snapped it in two, grinding it into dust with harsh words before setting the remnants on fire by calling her ‘princess’ again.

  Emptying the glass of champagne, she held the glass between Amanda and Anaelle’s seats. “Any chance I can get a refill?”

  “Of course!” Amanda took the glass as Anaelle let out a cheer, and soon enough she had a full glass again.

  If this was how David wanted to handle their time in France, then she’d let him be miserable. Let him suffer, as Emilie had said.

  She’d enjoy herself and spend the day getting to know her family even better. By the time she got home that evening, she was sure he’d have cooled off, and sobered up enough, to actually have a productive conversation with her.

  Thirteen

  David

  By the time the plane finally started to descend for New York, David felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin. He’d asked the pilots to let him out of the cuffs a few times, he’d even threatened to piss on their floor, but they’d told him to shut up every time. He had managed to get himself upright and into a seat, not that it was comfortable with his hands cuffed behind his back, but at least he wasn’t face down on the floor anymore.

  Lianna had been alone with the Faures for hours, and they could have told her anything, which meant the first thing he had to do once he got out of the damn cuffs was call her and do everything he could to convince her that Jean-Luc had finally revealed the asshole side of himself and that she needed to leave. He’d probably practiced a thousand ways to phrase it in the silence of the plane, and he still felt like he was gambling.

  If he hadn’t fucked up so badly, Jean-Luc would have never had the opportunity to throw him out of the house, and Lianna wouldn’t have a reason to believe the shit the bastard was probably saying about him.

  Glancing out the window, he watched the runway coming closer and rolled his shoulders, easing the ache that seemed like a permanent fixture in them now. Touchdown was smooth, but it still took a while before the plane finally came to a stop.

  Eventually, one of the pilots came into the back, lifting a taser in his hands. “This is for if you decide to be an asshole. I’m going to make it very simple for you — you’ve got two choices right now. Let me take your cuffs off and get off my plane to do whatever the fuck you want to do or fight me and I’ll taze you and tell the customs guy that you got violent. You’ll get up close and personal with the cops and probably land yourself on the no-fly list. Got it?”

  “Yeah,” David replied through clenched teeth, but the pilot just raised an eyebrow, so he added, “I want the fuck off the plane.”

  “All right then.” Digging in
his pocket, the pilot produced a key and David leaned forward to give him access to the cuffs. As soon as the first one was off, he pulled his arms in front, groaning at how stiff his shoulders were. The pilot chuckled as he took off the other cuff. “Guess I shouldn’t have been too worried. Doubt you could land a punch right now anyway.”

  “Right.” Sighing, David rubbed his wrists. “Can I have my phone now?”

  “I don’t have your phone,” the man answered, whistling toward the other pilot, who stepped out a moment later.

  “Okay. Can I use yours?” he asked, adding, “Please,” when the man chuckled again.

  “Not a fucking chance,” the first pilot replied as the other one held out his passport, which had a fifty-dollar bill sticking out of it. “Get off my plane.”

  Forcing a slow breath, David stood up and waited for them to open the door before he went to the exit. He half-expected them to kick him out the door, but they ignored him as soon as he stepped out of the plane. Since he didn’t have anything with him, the customs guy didn’t have much to talk to him about, and although he refused to let him use his phone, the asshole was nice enough to tell him how the fuck to get to the normal part of the airport.

  Just after six AM, he was surprised by how busy the airport already was, but the large number of people in baggage claim didn’t seem to be working in his favor. He was exhausted, sore, and he was pretty confident that he looked like shit since no one would talk to him. The fifty bucks was probably meant to give him a cab ride somewhere, but he didn’t care about that. He wanted a goddamn phone, but even after he started offering it, every person he tried to stop told him ‘no’ before he even got the question out.

  Finally, he saw a guy in a suit looking at something on an iPhone, and he approached him slowly, holding up the fifty-dollar bill. “Hey man, sorry to bother you, but I lost my phone on vacation, and I just need to borrow one to call a ride. You can have the fifty if you’ll just let me use your phone.”

  “Looks like it was a rough vacation,” he mumbled, but it wasn’t a straight-up no, so David tried to laugh it off.

  “Yeah, that will be the last time I decide to backpack through Eastern Europe.” Shrugging, he held out the fifty again, and the man looked him up and down, holding on tight to his phone.

  “I guess it’s sort of pointless to ask, but if I let you use it, are you going to run off with my phone as soon as I hand it to you? Because, you need my code to change the one on here, so it’d be useless to you as soon as it locks.”

  “I’m not going to steal your phone,” David said, offering his passport as well as the fifty. “Look, you can hold onto this too. I just need to call a ride and call my girlfriend, so she knows I’m alive.”

  “Okay, fine. Just don’t walk off, okay?” The guy handed over his phone, taking the passport and the cash at the same time.

  “Thank you. Really.” Moving a few steps to the side, he called Lianna’s phone first, trying to calm his breathing before she answered. Unfortunately, it went to voicemail after a few rings, which meant he’d have to explain what he could for now. As soon as the beep came across the line, he lowered his voice and hoped no one was eavesdropping. “Lianna, first, I was an absolute asshole. I’m sorry I said all that shit... but I need you to leave there. Jean-Luc had his goons drag me out of our room last night. They fucking tazed me, handcuffed me, and put me on a goddamn plane to New York. I just landed and all I’ve got is my passport. I’m using some guy’s phone to call you right now, but I will call you again as soon as I get to Harry’s. I know I’ve fucked up a hundred times with you, but please believe me. You need to get out of there. I love you.”

  Hanging up, he tried to ignore the acid etching the back of his throat as he quickly dialed Harry’s number. It was early, but the old man had always been an early riser, which was confirmed when his gruff voice came over the line.

  “Hello?”

  “Harry, it’s David, I need you to come get me.”

  “Uh, where are you? I thought you were in France with—”

  “I’m at JFK airport, a lot of shit went down, and I need you to come pick me up. I’m using someone’s phone right now, and I don’t know how much longer he’s going to let me talk to you on it, okay?” He knew he was being an asshole, but Harry was used to it by now.

  “Shit, David... I knew you shouldn’t have gone.” Harry sighed, and he groaned, waving at the guy whose phone he was using when he caught his eye.

  “Well, you can bust my balls all you want on the drive home, old man.” Scanning the walls, David told him where he’d be waiting, finishing the call with a quick, “Just hurry. Please. I have to give this guy his phone back.”

  “Please?” Harry chuckled. “Hell, it must have been a rough trip. I’ll be there as soon as I can, boy.”

  “Thanks.” Ending the call, he returned the phone to the guy with a nod and took his passport back. “Thanks for letting me use your phone.”

  “No problem. Hope everything works out.”

  David nodded at the man and headed toward the bathroom to try and clean himself up.

  It took over an hour for Harry’s truck to appear, and by then David was rapidly swinging between blinding rage at Jean-Luc, and a bottomless panic that he’d lost Lianna forever — neither of which were particularly helpful.

  As he climbed into Harry’s truck, the old man let out a low whistle. “Someone try to bash your skull in?” he asked, and David shrugged. He’d seen the bruise near his hairline when he’d stopped by the bathroom, but there was nothing he could do about it.

  “No idea. Can I use your phone?”

  “Sure.” Harry waved a hand at it as he maneuvered the truck back into the flow of traffic. “Code is four, four, four, four.”

  “Seriously? Do you know anything about security?” Taking it out of the dash mount, David unlocked it and dialed Lianna’s number again as Harry chuckled to himself. “What?”

  “You think anyone wants the info on my phone?” Harry shook his head a little. “I’m not exactly a prime target, and that thing is a few years old. If they want to steal it that bad, they can have it.”

  “Fine,” David muttered, blocking out Harry’s voice as the phone rang, and rang, until her voicemail picked up again. Dammit. “Lianna, Harry just picked me up at JFK, and I’m calling from his phone. When you get this, just call me back on this number, and please get out of that house. Come home. I just— Fuck. I need to know you’re safe. I love you.”

  Hanging up, he fought the urge to throw Harry’s phone against the windshield. It took a few deep breaths, but the wave of rage slowly passed again, and he managed to put it back on the dash mount without destroying anything. When Harry glanced at him, but didn’t say anything, David sighed.

  “Go on and get it over with.”

  “Well, before I decide how much of an idiot you’ve been, why don’t you tell me what happened?” Harry said, pointing at all the traffic. “We’ve got time.”

  The last thing David wanted to do was revisit the trip, but he did his best to give a slightly sanitized version of his argument with Lianna and the conversation with Jean-Luc. Harry didn’t need to know all the details, and he’d made it clear several times that he didn’t want to know everything that went on between him and Lianna.

  If David were honest with himself, he was glad the old man didn’t know all of it. There was no way Harry would have ever been able to look at him the same way again, and he definitely wouldn’t be picking him up at the airport.

  By the time he’d explained waking up on the airplane and the shit that went down when he landed, he felt even more tired than before.

  “I’m not sure what you expected to happen, David. I tried to warn you, but you just went ahead and marched right into the lion’s den.” Shaking his head, Harry blew out a breath. “You can’t fix what you’ve already screwed up, so... what are you gonna do next?”

  “I’m going to get her back.”

  Harry chuckled. “Ye
ah? And what are you gonna do if she doesn’t want to come home?”

  Groaning, he leaned back against the seat, running through his minimal options. He could always try to kidnap her again... from a heavily guarded compound in another country... but that idea was stupid for more reasons than just that. Rubbing at his forehead, he flinched when he pressed on the spot where he was fairly confident someone pistol-whipped him. “Honestly, Harry... I don’t have the first fucking idea.”

  “Maybe you’re capable of learning after all, boy,” Harry said, reaching over to slap him on the shoulder, squeezing for a second before he returned his hands to the wheel. “We’ll do this one step at a time. Get you back to our place, cleaned up, and then we can have a real talk over some food.”

  Fourteen

  Lianna

  When they finally got back to the house, Lianna had almost forgotten about the drama from the night before. The day had been even better than she could have imagined, and she was still laughing at Emilie’s impression of the strange man they’d encountered inside one of the stores as they walked inside.

  “Oh my God, I think he almost died when you answered him in French, Lianna!” Anaelle said, fighting to talk through her own laughter as they piled their bags inside the foyer. She’d been grinning and laughing for so long her jaw hurt, and she rubbed at it as Cécile wiped her eyes.

  “He deserved it for insulting Amanda and me like that,” Lianna replied, shaking out her hands as she heard Rémi call to his wife from the front parlor.

  “I didn’t even catch the full insult, but his face was worth taking a million insults.” Amanda threw an arm around her, giving her a side-hug as they both headed toward the guys. “You’re the best, Lianna.”