by S Cinders
I shrugged, “I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”
Mandy nodded shakily, “I know. I can’t say that we will ever be close again, there is too much water under the bridge.”
A sob escaped my throat, “I understand.”
She sighed and looked me straight in the face, “But I do forgive you.”
CHAPTER 22 – Shay
We fell into a certain pattern at the Villa, I was able to spend time with Mandy and her daughter and slowly she began to thaw towards me. It was never the close relationship that we had once shared, but I could tell that she didn’t hate me and that meant the world to me.
Will was often gone in the daytime and then when he returned we would make passionate love all night. I loved him more than the air I breathed. I would often tell him so and every time he didn’t return the statement a little bit of me died inside.
Julio split his time between working with Will and entertaining us. Elliot was often working remotely in an office that Julio had provided so there was plenty of time to spend with Mandy, Gina and when he wasn’t out with Will, Marco.
The relationship between Marco and Gina had also started to change. I saw a softer note in her eyes when she spoke to him and I know that she caught him staring more than once. He was thoughtful bringing her a drink or offering to prop her feet up.
Mandy and Gina talked babies and pregnancy while I listened in with rapt attention. It had been several weeks since they had come and I had a secret of my own.
I wasn’t sure how Will would take knowing that we were going to be parents. A part of me wondered what the right thing to do would be.
I finally decided that I didn’t want to be chosen for our baby. When all of this was said and done, if he didn’t want me I wasn’t going to tell him until the baby came. I would never keep him out of his child’s life. But I wasn’t about to hang onto something that wasn’t there.
Life was soft and gentle at the villa. Occasionally I could see guards with their black suits and handguns, but this was the only reminder that we weren’t living an idealistic life but were in fact hiding.
Maybe that was why I never even considered the possibility of the villa being breached. It was a night when Will was working late and when I first heard movement in the room I mumbled something to him about locking the door.
When he didn’t respond I turned over and saw three men with guns pointed at my head. I am not stupid enough to think that if I left with them I would be okay. But this villa was stocked full of some of the most important people in the world to me. If I raised the alarm they would all be in danger.
“Get up, Bitch, we are leaving.”
I slowly pushed the covers back, but apparently wasn’t fast enough for the masked man because he grabbed me by the hair and threw me to the floor.
“It’s been a long time coming, the boss is going to be really happy when I bring you back.”
Something was tied around my eyes and a gag was shoved into my mouth. The next thing I knew blackness surrounded me. I didn’t have time to worry about if they had already gotten to Will. I wasn’t able to sound any kind of alarm. I was nothing.
I COULD HEAR RUNNING water in the background as I struggled to find consciousness. It wasn’t until a huge bucket of ice cold water was thrown on my body that I snapped awake. My head was pounding, and my hands and feet were tied to a chair.
I appeared to be in a warehouse of some kind. Looking at the writing on the boxes I would say we were still in Italy. There in front of me looking far too sexy was my old pal, Emma.
She smirked, “Good to see you, Shay.”
I tried to respond, but I was still gagged.
“You are one slippery bitch, you know that?” she continued on. “How you managed to find protection with Will Jennings I won’t ever understand. But even the great Jennings isn’t any match for Redmont.”
A tall man with pock-like scars on his handsome face appeared, “This is her?”
Emma nodded.
He stalked up to me and yanked the gag off scraping my cheek.
I gasped as the pain sliced through me.
“Where is it, bitch?”
I blinked in confusion, “Where is what?”
He backhanded me so fast that I didn’t see it coming. But the sound of his hand striking my flesh will always be fresh in my mind.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I tried to focus as the world kept spinning.
Redmont turned to Emma, “You said she had it!”
Emma looked nervous for the first time, “She does. She is lying!”
“Have what?” I cried out.
“The location of our money. That bastard Andrew stole seven million dollars and I want it back.”
“Seven million dollars?” I gasped.
He shoved his face into mine and I could smell his rancid breath, “Don’t play dumb bitch, where is the money?”
“I don’t know,” I winced as his hand came back striking me on the other side. The room was spinning, and I felt like I was going to throw up.
“Liar!” Emma shrieked, “He said you took it!”
I tried to find her, but my vision was blurry, “I never once took money from Andrew. He gave me coke a few times but made sure I paid for it with favors. Where would I have put it? I don’t have a dime to my name.”
Redmont raged at Emma, “You bitch, you said she had the money.”
Emma whimpered, “She does, can’t you see she’s lying?”
He grabbed my hair and pulled it back, I had tears streaming down my face, but I didn’t say anything.
“I could kill you,” his smile was so evil that it shook me to the core.
“Do what you have to do,” my words were slow and steady, “I don’t have your fucking money. Emma knows that she is just trying to punish me because she’s a bitch.”
Redmont rounded on Emma who started backing away.
She pleaded with him, “Baby, you know that I love you!”
In seconds he had a gun up to her throat, “Did you honestly think I ever gave a shit about you? Where is the money doll-face? She doesn’t have it, so you must.”
Emma started to cry and continued to claim that she didn’t know. But we all knew that she did. And the saddest part was that I was going to die because Emma couldn’t go down on her own. I don’t know what she had been expecting, but this wasn’t how I wanted it all to end.
Redmont jabbed the gun under her chin, “Last chance, doll face, where is the money?”
I heard the click of the gun being cocked and she blurted out, “It’s in an offshore bank account. Don’t hurt me, baby, please. I was saving it for us. So, we could get away from all...”
He pulled the trigger and her head exploded.
I closed my eyes, but the sight kept playing over and over in my mind. There was blood everywhere and I knew I was next.
I thought about our unborn child and all of the things that I hadn’t said to Will. I thought about the stupid choices that I had made in this life that had led me to this moment. I thought about seeing my Papaw and Nonna again because surely, I wasn’t long for this world.
Redmont turned to me and smiled. The expression so sinister that I felt ice racing through my veins.
“You know what comes next, right?”
I nodded.
Tears were falling, those were involuntary, and I couldn’t do anything about them. But I wouldn’t beg this man. He was what he was, and I had made my bed. It was time to face whatever consequences from my selfish life before.
“No pleas?” He asked in surprise and he walked over toward me.
I tried not to notice that he was covered in Emma’s blood.
I shook my head, “Just make it fast.”
He nodded a glint of respect in his eyes as he raised the gun and pointed it directly between my eyes. I closed them and waited for the gunshot.
‘BAM’
I waited for the impact of the bullet that never came and w
hen Redmont slumped to the floor in front of me, I knew it was over.
CHAPTER 23 – Will
I hated being away from Shay at the Villa, but the truth was that if we were ever to have a future together I was going to need to get out of the family business. Julio understood where I was coming from and promised to take good care of her while I went about tying up loose ends.
In between all of this, the threat of Redmont was still weighing on us. I knew that he would be coming after her. That crazy son of a bitch just didn’t know when to stop. Most people would have thrown in the towel long ago, so I knew there had to be more involved.
That was when I uncovered the offshore accounts in Shay’s name. There were millions of dollars stashed away and I knew that my girl had nothing to do with it. It suddenly made sense as to why Redmont couldn’t let things go.
Millions of dollars are nothing to sneeze at even in today’s day and age with billionaires running Wallstreet. The difference was that Redmont wouldn’t want to have it known that some nobody conned him out of seven million. He wanted to teach her and anyone who ever tried to fuck with him again a lesson.
It’s too bad I got the funds first and had Marco relocate them back to the authorities. It was my first coming clean step. I would never be in a position to walk back into the United States as a model citizen. But when you hand the Feds seven million they tend to be a bit more lenient on past misgivings.
I was actually whistling when I made my way up the stairs back at the Villa. I finally felt like I was in a place to tell Shay how I really felt about her. How I had always felt about her. Shay was my reason for breathing and I was tired of pretending otherwise.
I had lived years thinking that I didn’t have a heart. What I hadn’t realized was that Shay took it with her all those years ago and now that she’s back in my life I can never let her go.
Gina was already interested in getting out and Marco wanted out to make things work with Gina. It only made sense that this would be our last case.
The moment I opened the door to our suite I felt her presence missing from the room.
“Fuck!” I screamed, and half a dozen armed me raced into the room. “She’s gone! Get an ABP on the vehicle, they have to be on the surveillance somewhere.”
The next thing I knew I was stomping into the command room. My ears were ringing, and I was having a hard time focusing on the monitors as tapes were searched. Finally, we saw something, a license plate.
Julio had an ATL out and was about to locate the vehicle that had traveled all the way to the coast and was parked outside of a warehouse at the docks. We loaded the helicopters and were off. Julio figured by the time we arrived she couldn’t have been there more than forty-five minutes.
A lot can happen in forty-five minutes. My entire world could be completely destroyed in less time. Julio called the local authorities that the family had a connection with. We were pulling out all the stops, ever favor owed to us we were cashing in on.
“She will be alright, Cousin,” Julio said it like a promise.
I prayed that he was right.
The chopper was barely landed when I stumbled out the door, falling to the ground. I got up and ignoring the winds from the blade, I forced my way over to where some of the local men had gathered. I could tell that they were getting ready to go in.
No one asked who I was, they just seemed to know, or perhaps they knew Julio’s operation. He was the kingpin in this country.
“We’ve got a tap in the situation, they are on the second floor,” someone in black announced. And we set off after him, quietly as possible, guns raised and ready to go.
The first few men we encountered Julio’s guys took out with tranquil darts. I could see this was his way of appeasing the Carabinieri, a military force with police like duty. If this had been a personal mission those men would be dead.
We heard voices, a few higher ones that sounded like women and a lower one that must have been Redmont. When I heard the first gunshot and blood-curdling scream I felt my heart freeze in my chest. I literally stumbled and almost fell.
My stomach lurched, and my vision clouded.
“Keep it together,” Julio clamped a strong arm on my shoulder.
I nodded, but clearly, this was the most not together I had ever been in my life. All the training, all of the deadly calm nerve flew out the window. The woman I loved was being held by a madman.
Half of the men took the back entrance and the other half came with me into the side. There were boxes that we hid behind as the muffled voices became clearer. And then I heard her speak, she was scared but it was her. Shay was alright.
“You know what comes next, right?”
That stupid son of a bitch was taunting her. I was finally able to get a visual. He had the gun held between her eyes. I didn’t know what she said to cause him to smile, but I knew then it was now or never.
I shot aiming at his forehead, he never saw it coming. Blood spattered over Shay and Redmont slumped to the floor.
I was to her in seconds finally seeing her face, how battered and bruised she was.
“Baby, we are going to get you out of here,” my hands shook, and Julio pushed me away working on the restraints himself.
There was a shout from a policeman indicating another body had been found, it was a woman he said. I didn’t care.
When Shay was free she launched herself into my arms and I blurted out what I should have said to her so long ago.
“I love you, Shay. I fucking love you so much! I almost lost you and like a fucking idiot, I hadn’t told you. Baby, I love you so much!”
Shay shook in my arms, “I love you, Will. I love you so much.”
The paramedics arrived, and they insisted on taking Shay to the hospital. I wasn’t leaving her, so I climbed into the back with the medics and first responders. We traveled to the hospital and then I waited for what seemed like an eternity before they finally allowed me back with her.
They had given Shay something to put her to sleep. The doctor was kind and spent a lot of time reassuring me that she would be okay.
“You were very lucky,” he patted me on the back. “And the baby is fine.”
I froze, “What?”
“You are a good man, Mr. Jennings, your wife and child will be fine.”
Wife and child.
Wife and child.
I sat down next to Shay taking her lifeless hand into my own. A baby, we were going to have a baby. I don’t know how long I sat there holding her small hand.
I remember Julio coming in and assuring me that she really would be okay. Gina and Marco came as well, his arm around her in a protective manner that led me to believe everything would be okay with them.
We were having a baby. Shay and I were going to be a family. No matter how many times I repeated it to myself I could hardly believe it. At some point, I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew there was a soft hand running their fingers through my hair.
I awakened with a start to see the woman I loved smiling back at me. Her bruises looked terrible and I felt the flare of anger at Redmont. If he wasn’t dead I would have killed him all over again.
“Are you okay?”
I looked up, “Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that?”
She smiled wide and then winced when it pulled on her split lip, “I must look pretty amazing.”
“Beautiful,” I kissed her hand, “You are the most beautiful woman in the world. I love you.”
Her eyes glittered, “I love you too.”
I held her hand against my cheek, “I’m getting out Shay. We are going to find a way to be together, to be a family.”
Her hand went to her stomach, eyes growing wide, “You know?”
CHAPTER 24 – Shay
At the computer putting the finishing touches on a manuscript...
A lot has happened since our stay at the Villa. As I began to recuperate Will was busy selling his mansion and finding us a new forever
home. It was obvious that going back to the United States wouldn’t be in his best interest.
Will wasn’t precisely on the Feds list, but they weren’t exchanging Christmas cards either.
Mandy, Elliot, and their adorable little girl had gone back home. But not before a tearful goodbye between the two of us.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to forgive you,” Mandy whispered as she hugged me tightly.
“I’m sorry that I hurt you and your family,” I replied, squeezing her every bit as tight.
We had time to talk more about things that had happened. For the most part it was water under the bridge. She was right that we would never be close like we once were. But I knew from that moment she no longer hated me, and it set me free.
Marco and Gina were very chummy and it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when they announced they were officially together. Gina was getting closer to her third semester and Marco wanted to take her home before the baby came.
Another tearful goodbye came and went.
“Please don’t be a stranger,” I wiped my tears and smiled.
Gina was just as weepy as I was, we blamed it on the pregnancies and not the fact that I wasn’t sure when I would see them again.
When all was said and done we thanked Julio profusely and flew to our new home. A small island near New Guinea, it was completely different than life in the city. The crystal-clear water and gorgeous beaches combined with the tranquil lifestyle was just what we needed.
Will told me he loved me often, but he showed me his love in everything he did. I had thought I was hopelessly in love with the man before, but now I knew he was my reason for living.
I often thanked him for saving me. Will would usually brush it away not wanting to think about those days. But that wasn’t precisely what I meant.
Will saved me. I was lost before he his men took me off the streets that day. A moment away from breaking down and using again. It had been a long and difficult journey, but I was no longer that woman. And I know it’s because of Will’s love and faith in me that gave me the push I needed to do this for myself.
