His Bahamas Affair (The Albury Affairs)

by Christina OW

  She shook her head, even more confused. “Why would I need, want or love you when I’m married to Reno.” Loraine felt her heart jar in her chest. She took a few more steps away from him. “Before…the first time he attacked me…that’s what he meant? The princess always falls in love with her knight after he saves her, that’s what you were expecting, wasn’t it?”

  Jeb moved toward her, his arms open in invitation. “At first, I loved you like you were my own child. You were such a vibrant and happy little girl, before they stole that from you. And then you grew up into this beautiful young lady and that love changed.” He caressed her cheek with his fingers and she quickly slapped his hand away. “When your father made me your personal bodyguard, it felt like destiny. Fate was bringing us together.”

  He went to touch her again and she slapped his hands away. Once she’d loved his hugs because they were a strong substitute to her father’s. Now knowing the sentiments behind them, what he was thinking while he held her…it made her skin crawl!

  “I was fifteen years old Jeb! You are old enough to be my father!”

  His face creased in anger as he lowered his arms, his hands fisted to his side. “Love and marriage between older men and younger women happened all the time.”

  Oh God, he was just as crazy as Pierre. “I was a girl, Jeb, not a woman. I trusted you like I would a father. I trusted you with my thoughts, my hopes and my fears. I listened. I even let you talk me into going to Paris—” No, no, no! “That’s why you pushed me to go, urged me to drive my parents crazy enough to let me? You planned it from the very beginning.” She punched at his chest as she screamed. “You set that psycho on me! How could you?”

  He grabbed her arms and held her still against his chest. “I wanted you to love me that’s why? Can’t you see I did all that so you could notice me as a man not a father figure?”

  “Well congratulations, I don’t see you as a father figure anymore. I’ll never love you Jeb, especially after this. I’ll make sure you pay for all the torment you caused!” Her words were filled with the rage she felt as she spat each word out.

  He looked wounded, shaking his head. “You don’t mean that. I love you and you love me. If you just give yourself time to really think about all the moments we shared…that love you feel for me as if I’m your father? I’m sure if you think about it now, you’ll realize it was nothing like that at all but true love between a man and a woman!” Then he lowered his head, pressing his lips against hers.

  She fought him, but he only kissed her harder, bruising her lips until she tasted blood. His arms tightened around her so tight, she felt crushed. She needed to get out of it, away from him. She pulled back her knee and lifted it with all her might making contact with his crotch. He screamed, literally throwing her across the room. She slammed against the wall, and crumbled to the floor, pain shooting through her back. Her mouth fell open but not a sound came out, the pain strangled her throat shut.

  Jeb hobbled to her, dropping to the ground next to her. “Shit Loraine, I didn’t mean to throw you. You took me by surprise. Are you hurt?”

  He sounded concerned, but she was in too much pain to turn and look at his face. She was sure something was broken as volt after volt of intense pain struck her lower abdomen and back.

  “Get the hell away from her!”

  Reno! She cheered, pushing herself to turn to where his voice came from. He was leaning heavily on the couch that she and Jeb had vacated a while ago. His temple was coated with blood as it dripped on to his naked shoulder. He was hurt, but alive!

  Jeb pushed himself up to his feet and Loraine was filled with apprehension. She needed to tell Reno about Jeb, about his involvement with Pierre. But there was too much pain to speak.

  “I knew it! I told you, you couldn’t protect her!” Jeb bellowed.

  Reno struggled to stand up straight. “Oh yeah? From what I heard there wouldn’t be a need to protect her from Pierre if it wasn’t for you.”

  “I love her!”

  “You’re obsessed with her! Obsession is not love!” Reno yelled back.

  “She was mine first.”

  Reno shook his head. “I knew something was off with you the moment I laid eyes on you.”

  Loraine couldn’t take listening to Jeb a moment longer. She wanted him gone, out of her life for good! Despite the pain, she managed to push herself up to her feet and stumble toward Reno.

  “I was never yours Jeb and I never will be.” She breathed through the pain.

  When she reached Reno, she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her ear over the left side of his chest. She needed to hear that loud thudding of his heartbeat, just to make sure he was truly alive.

  Reno hugged her with one arm for a moment, the other still holding onto the couch for support. “Get out of here, Lori. Go to Tyler.”

  She held on tighter. “I’m not leaving you Reno.”

  “We don’t know how long this man has been in the house, or if this was just another ploy to get you to fall for him. Please go check on our son.”

  Loraine knew he was right, but God she couldn’t let go of him. She was so scared of losing him she didn’t want to risk it. But he didn’t give her a choice. He disentangled her from him and pushed her out of the room.

  She took one look at the standoff between the two and knew she needed to get help. Reno was too weak to fight Jeb. Catching the longing look Jeb gave her, she ran out of the room and up the steps, falling at the top when another jolt of pain hit her. Bent over, she caught the stream of blood down her thigh. Where was it coming from? She looked at her shorts and saw the patch of blood at the crotch. What?

  “Mommy, you’re bleeding!” Tyler cried.

  Loraine looked up and saw her son skid on the floor on his knees, coming to a stop right before her. “Tyler, baby—”

  Baby.

  “Oh no, no please no!”

  She was losing her baby. That was the only explanation. She was having a miscarriage. The baby she didn’t even know she was carrying was dying and she couldn’t do anything about it.

  “Mommy!” He hugged her head to his chest as she cried. “I used your phone like you showed me. I called Uncle Z. He’s coming to help daddy save us.”

  She had a crush and a scream that sounded like Reno from downstairs and knew Jeb was going to kill him. This was supposed to be a happy day, her wedding day and instead it turned into the worst day of her life.

  “Daddy!” Tyler yelled, releasing her. Loraine reached for him but he dodged her, running down the stairs. “I’m going to help daddy.”

  She couldn’t lose him too! “Tyler, no. Tyler!” she screamed but it was no use. He was already out of her sight. She heard the main door open and yelling, voices that sounded much like Ruiz and Allan. Relieved she fell to the ground, her arms wrapped around her belly, around her dying baby. Help had arrived but too late.

  She closed her eyes, willing the night to end.

  * * * *

  Reno sat by Loraine’s bedside, watching her as she slept. This wasn’t how he’d planned waking up the morning after his honeymoon. In a hospital room where his wife’s battered body lay connected to machines and tubes. The last thing he expected that morning were the words, ‘I’m sorry but your wife lost the baby’. He felt as if his heart had been ripped out of his chest by those words. He’d been breathless, collapsing onto the bed he’d fought the doctor and Ruiz just moments before, to go to Loraine. Once he was able to breathe, once he’d had control of his emotions and staunched his tears, he’d gotten off the bed in search of his wife. He’d wanted to go alone, to think of what he would say to her but Allan had insisted on accompanying him. He’d expected some words of wisdom from his brother-in-law, seeing as how he knew the pain of losing a child, but Allan just walked with him in silent support. It wasn’t much but it was what Reno needed—knowing that Allan would return the favor, ready step in and bare the burden if Reno couldn’t. But they arrived at the room to find her asleep, h
er mother sprawled next to her with her arms protectively around her while her father watched with tormented eyes. He knew what the old man felt. Guilt—he felt guilty for having brought Jeb into Loraine’s life and failing to protect her a second time.

  He hadn’t even known she was pregnant, but did she?

  Knowing Loraine, if she did know she had planned a big way to announce it. Like baking a cake shaped as a baby bottle with the due date written on it. She was eccentric that way. Now he was left with the burden of telling her they’d lost a child. How was he to do that? How was he to tell her they’d been robbed of a baby? A little brother or sister for Tyler?

  If she would have stayed where he told her—no, he couldn’t think like that. That mad man was holding his son hostage.

  When he’d come downstairs and seen Tyler crying with a knife held to his neck, he thought the shock would kill him. He’d done exactly what Pierre had told him. He’d walked into the dark storage room where he’d been knocked out. He woke up in a pool of blood. At first he’d thought it was his own, so he didn’t pay any attention to it. Instead he went out to look for Loraine and Tyler, praying that somehow they were safe, no thanks to him. That’s when he’d heard the argument between Jeb and Loraine. If he’d walked in then instead of waiting to hear more, he could have prevented the blow Loraine’s body took when Jeb threw her against the wall. If he had walked in then, he could have saved their baby.

  He leaned against the bed his forehead pressed against the back of Loraine’s hand clasped in his as he cried. How could it hurt so much, losing a child he didn’t even know existed? He’d have to have loved it for the loss to feel like his heart was been ripped out of his chest over and over again which just seem impossible. He just found out about it.

  “Reno, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

  Reno sat up at Loraine’s groggy voice. Her violet eyes were open, staring at him with confusion. He kissed her hand, then her forehead and finally her lips. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

  “Why were you crying and what happened to your head?” She pointed to the bandage that covered his left temple. “Why is your arm in a sling?”

  His stomach dropped. She didn’t remember and he wasn’t looking forward to reminding her, anything but that. Maybe if he was the one to tell her, maybe he could leave their dead baby out.

  He scooted his chair closer, placing his elbows on her bed as he held her hand to his cheek. “Lori, how much of last night do you remember?”

  Her brows furrowed, “Last night…” She shifted her gaze to the hand he held, the one that bore her ring and her eyes widened a little. “Wedding, yesterday was our wedding. We spent last night at the house—”

  Reno saw the moment her memory came back to her on her face. There was fear, pain and worry as tears flooded her eyes.

  “Tyler, is he okay?” she cried, struggling to sit up.

  Reno moved to sit next to her on the bed, pushing her back to lie down. “Tyler is okay. A little shook up, but okay. He’s at the resort with Riana and the girls. Ruiz, Allan and your parents are here. They are waiting outside.”

  She nodded, tears running down her temples. She lay there staring up at him, her face void of emotion except for the tears that fell. Reno wasn’t sure what to do or say, so he just stared back.

  “Georgia is dead,” she stated with a deadpan voice.

  Reno nodded. He already knew that. It was her pool of blood he had been laying in. He’d been told her body had been there for a few hours, naked with her throat slit from ear to ear. She’d been killed in one of the guestrooms apparently after having sex with Pierre. He didn’t say that to Loraine though, she didn’t need to know that.

  “I know.”

  “He said he did it for me.”

  Reno squeezed her hand. “It’s not your fault Lori. He was an obsessed sociopath.”

  She went on as if she didn’t hear him. “He said she wanted to kidnap Tyler. Jeb promised to help her but for some reason she took Pierre’s help instead, gave him sex in exchange for his help. Did you know he—”

  Reno placed his fingers over her lips. “That’s enough Lori. None of this was your fault.”

  She pushed his hand away. “But it is. Jeb’s obsession led to Pierre’s obsession. I put you in danger, I put Tyler in danger,” she choked. “Tyler could have died you could have died. Our baby is dead because of me.”

  Reno closed his eyes, shutting out her pain. It broke his heart seeing her hurt over their dead baby.

  “How—” he cleared his throat and began again. “How long did you know about the baby?”

  She chuckled, but it was sad, pained. “I found out I was pregnant the same moment I lost it. Our first child together bled right out of me and I couldn’t do anything to save it. How could I not know I was pregnant?”

  Reno pulled his sling wincing at the pain from his adjusted shoulder then lowered himself next to her and gathered her in his arms, laying her head on his chest. “Loraine, you were just a few weeks along. Some women don’t notice they are pregnant until months later.”

  She sniffed, burrowing into his side. “I’m not some woman. I’m Loraine Larson Albury, mother, wife, daughter and best friend to the most extraordinary people in the world. I should have known. Riana knew and I was further along than her when she found out she was pregnant.”

  Reno wasn’t so sure about that, but it wasn’t the time to negate her. He kissed her temple. “Riana has a weak constitution. Of course it will be obvious if she’s become a host to another life form. If one of those zombie movies were to become a reality, she would be first of us to go.”

  She shook against him and he wasn’t sure if she was laughing or crying. He hoped she was laughing.

  “Funny, I’ll be sure to tell your sister that.” She sighed loudly, the hand he held tightening around his. “What happened to Jeb?”

  That had played out like a scene from a movie. Ruiz and Allan came crashing into the room with a few of Allan’s bodyguards when Reno was on the floor fighting off Jeb but tiring out quickly with a dislocated shoulder as Jeb tried to drive a piece of broken glass through his throat. When Jeb noticed them, he’d picked up his gun, raised it only to drop next to Reno with a bullet in his head. Reno didn’t see who shot him but he was glad for it all the same.

  “He got shot. He’s dead, never to bother us again.”

  She was silent after that and Reno thought she’d fallen asleep until she whispered, “I’d made peace with it.”

  “With what?”

  “Dying. I’d made peace with dying, as long as Pierre left you and Tyler alone. I was ready to do what he wanted. I knew he would kill me after and I was okay with it.”

  Reno stiffened, turning so that he was above her. He grabbed her chin, holding her head steady so that she wouldn’t break eye contact. “Don’t ever think it would be okay with me to live without you. I wouldn’t survive without you, Lori, neither would Tyler. I love you Lori and I wished you’d said you would fight to be with us, not give up.”

  She blinked, tears flooding her eyes. “Just because I said I made peace with it, doesn’t mean I was going to die without a fight. It’s not in my nature to give up something I love without at least trying, Reno, and I did.”

  He pressed his forehead against hers with a grateful sigh. “I thank God that you did. I should have put up more of a fight, but seeing that knife against Tyler’s neck…”

  Loraine wrapped her arms around his neck. “If you had, Pierre would have killed him, then you and I wouldn’t have put up a fight when all I have to fight for lay dead at my feet.”

  He rolled on his back, taking her with him. “Your parents want us to move to the States. Your dad said if you say no, I should start the plans of building a cottage for them next to our house. I love your mom and respect your dad but I don’t want them as neighbors.”

  Loraine chuckled. “Are you sure? You could go sailing with my dad. Do some fishing and deep sea diving?” />
  “Not funny. I’m cool with seeing them once a week, spending the holidays with them but nothing more. I can’t risk one of them dropping by for a cup of sugar and catch us buck naked doing the nasty on the kitchen counter. Anyway, the general manager at the resort is due for a promotion and I want my family close together. They are quite handy during an emergency.”

  “Yeah, my psycho stalkers issue was a great test run.”

  As much as she meant it as a joke, Reno knew differently. It hurt her as it should since it was a fresh wound. He just hoped the day would come when it didn’t anymore.

  “What about Ruiz, has he agreed to the great Exodus?”

  “Well, Melody is going back with Allan and Riana in a few weeks— they decided to prolong their holiday.” She snorted, telling him she didn’t believe the holiday excuse, but he chose to ignore it. “Since he has a huge crush on her, he’ll probably follow her. Matthew and Amy are staying too. He’ll be working, overseeing the merge and redistribution of the Red Roses shares. Your parents are staying as well. I think your mom wants to find herself and your dad is about ready to do anything to make things work. They already moved into the house, yippee!”

  Loraine punched his chest playfully. “My grandparents are going to love that. The kitchen—has it—”

  “It’s being ripped apart as we speak, so is the living room,” The guestroom, too but he wasn’t going to mention that. “Your mom said something about bad juju and the spaces needing more color and bullet proof glass. Did you know white isn’t a color ‘cause I didn’t?”

  “We are going to be okay, aren’t we?” she whispered.

  Reno kissed the top of her head. “Yes we are.”

  “And we are going to have more children—I can have more children?”

  Reno rubbed her back soothingly at the panic in her voice. “Yes, we’ll have more children, after we mourn the one we lost. We’ll take a few months and try again, but I don’t want you fretting if it doesn’t happen immediately.”

  “A year. Let’s wait a year. Tyler needs to feel more secure in our lives before we have more children, okay?” She turned her head to look up at him.